What to do when you die and come back as a Roegadyn in pony land. Make friends or will he be cautious.
This is a story of a man who died while going to a convention. Unfortunate for him, his memories are distorted, much of his life has been forgotten along with his name. He only remembers a few small things about himself but what does come to mind are what he has seen in anime, tv shows and along with what he had been reading in his past life which mostly comprised of the stories of others pertaining to a certain cartoon show known as My Little Pony. How will this man who is now a video game character adjust to a magic world along with the knowledge of what has happened to those who have been displaced.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 1: A Memory. ( Fixed. )
A rather large being was standing in front of a number of stained-glass windows of colors depicting various events within a long hallway. Due to how the bright light from the sun outside shined through the windows, it made it quite difficult to make out the exact features of whoever was standing before them. As only a dark silhouette could be seen.
After a few seconds of silence, a coughing sound was being made from some angle that cannot be seen at this time. Soon after, there was another set of coughing and a young woman's voice could be heard, “Pisst! Pisst! Brexy, it started!” The image being displayed then shakes a little awkwardly for but a moment before it stabilizes.
The one in the middle of the image appears to be turning around and scratches the back of his head as it quickly says, “Oh, I'm sorry about that Pinkie. I was just lost and thought there I had no idea you started rolling. Suddenly a pink hand was brought into view on the right side showing a thumbs up before pulling away. There was then the same voice from before that replied in a very cheery and upbeat tone, “Don't worry about it.”
The figure then stepped forward and away from the bright stained-glass window to reveal what appeared to be a very large and muscular human. Upon closer inspection it became more apparent that this was no human, but something similar. The figure then brought his left hand up to his mouth and coughed into his fist as he straightened up before saying to the person off screen in a hesitant tone, “Do I really have to do this? They already know what happened. Also, this feels like I’m doing some kind of dating video.”
The girl from before replied with, “Oh we already know what happened silly, but we don't know about the rest of them.” This only drew an inquisitive raise of his right eyebrow as he quickly asked, “Pinkie… who are you talking about?” This got her to answer in a way that made it sound obvious, “Why the readers of course.”
After hearing that, the one in the screen just shook his head lightly and began to give her a small smile as he replied with, “I bet this is another one of your fourth wall things, isn't it? Fine, let's get this over with. The others are waiting. I suppose I need to introduce myself huh.
After clearing his throat, he began to speak up in a more professional tone, but it was still laced with an underlying embarrassment as he spoke. “Well, I guess I should start things off with who and what I am. My name is... huh. Well, that escapes me at the moment but let's go with what I'm calling myself now and that is Brex. I currently stand at Hmm, I wanna say seven feet, eight inches in height. The last time I checked I was at 456 pounds. Yeah, yeah, I know you're all laughing. You're gonna call me fat but hey you're going know exactly why I'm that heavy.
Clearing his throat, he continued on with, “I have long black hair that Goes nearly halfway down my back with silver highlights for the tips at the ends. I also have a two-inch-long beard that I keep neatly trimmed. Along with hazel-colored eyes with all of it framed in a strong chiseled face. I have one of these tattoos under both my eyes that start near my nose and goes outwards to stop just past my eyes and quickly jets down a short distance. He then points to the right side of his face and says, “Oh and I got this little scar here, but we don't really need to talk about why I have that.”
This got a pitiful little, playful wine from off screen as the girl from before said, “Oh come on Brexy! You could at least tell them about that.” This only got a head shake from the man in the screen as he replied with, “I would really rather not talk about that right now, can we please move on?” Immediately after the image of him quickly went up-and-down a few times to indicate an affirmative.
He then went on to say, “My skin is fairly pale by comparison to a normal person. I wouldn't say undead pale, but more along the lines of ‘Hey has that guy ever seen the sun.’ Moving on, my build is quite muscular.” He then flexes his left arm before continuing, “Now when I say I have muscles, I mean I have muscles. I look like the type of guy that can literally pick up his house and bring it anywhere he goes.”
He then taps his chin with the same arm he was flexing with for a moment and shrugs before continuing, “OK, well maybe not that strong but still, you get the point. Just think of me as the Hulk, just not green and slightly smaller. Oh, and also, I don't need to go looking for a therapist to handle my anger issues. Yeah, I guess you could just say I'm sort of the smart gray version of the Hulk if that makes things easier.”
He then tilts his head down slightly and scratches the back of it before he continued on with, “Well you're probably guessing from all I just said, that I'm some type of steroid junkie that has a skin problem. However, that couldn’t be furthest from the truth, seeing as I was turned into this.”
Quickly holding his hands up in a placating gesture, he goes on to say, “OK, OK. Yeah, you're all going on and thinking ‘this guy is going to say that he’s going to follow a certain storyline.’ And in that case, you're right. Hello, I am Brex and I am a displaced. Also, this story is how I somehow ended up in the world of magic and ponies known as Equestria. Now if you have no idea what that is go look up My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. This will talk about how I ended up meeting both of the rulers for the land known as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
After a short pause he coughed into his fist once more and took a more relaxed stance before continuing, I suppose I should really start at the very beginning... Well, I guess what I could remember at the time. OK Pinkie! Do that thing and queue up the flashback.” There was then a loud pop and streamers were falling from above as the girl behind the screen Quickly yelled out, “Yay flashback! Good thing I got my soda and popcorn! This is a long one!” Another voice pops in and calls out in a slightly dignified and dramatic tone, “Oh! Allow me the honor my dear.” There was then the sound of someone snapping their fingers.
*Point of view: Third person* *Time 900 years ago* *Location back on Earth*
It all starts with a shabby room that had a medium size bed that had a dark blue sheet covering the mass sleeping underneath. With one on either side, was pair a of twin nightstands with one having a lamp on the one of the right side. The room was rather dark with how the window drapes were currently closed, but there was a small gap that allowed a thin stream of light to enter and hit the floor which was covered and a light blue rug. This allowed the room to be partly illuminated enough to let someone to navigate if needed.
Whatever was underneath the covers was breathing lightly and shifting just a little bit. However, after a few seconds, there was a noise being emanated from a device underneath the lamp next to the bed. It started off nice easy, low with Its calming tempo, but quickly morphed into that which would get the attention of the one under the sheets.
The sound only got louder and louder until a hand shot out from the edge of the blanket and frantically attempted to find what had interrupted Its owner's sleep. The hands fingers quickly searched out to silence this abomination to his world of sleep. After a couple of seconds of this the one underneath the sheets began to let out a series of grunts and moans of displeasure until finally, he manages to find the object and shuts off the music.
Taking his hand away from its task, it goes back underneath the sheets. But not before revealing it to be a rectangular, flat surface that could be held in one's hand. What caught the eye, was how there on the screen, was a cartoonish style picture of a female warrior clad in silver armor with the icon of a crescent moon on the breastplate and silver stars that appear to be flowing in her hair.
With silence now filling the room once more, the one underneath the sheets let's out a content sigh. This was soon followed by a long-drawn-out yawn as the covers are pulled slowly down and the man begins to sit up in place. His hair was quite long and some was currently going down the front to obscure most of his facial features. He then got up and slowly made his way over to the curtains. He released another long yawn just as he was pulling on the cord to let more sunlight in. When he did this, the strong rays of the sun assaulted his vision and he had no choice but to close his eyes and let out a grown in mild discomfort.
With the room now illuminated further, it made it a lot easier to look at this man. Standing at five feet and eleven inches, He was quite large for his height. It would be easy to say that he was over 300 pounds. His skin had a decent tan from what could have been from working outside. If one were to look into his eyes, they would see bags under them and one could not help but think of him as a beaten puppy thanks to his overall looks. When he reopened his eyes, they revealed a set of hazel-colored orbs that almost appeared to be lifeless.
Those very same eyes looked towards the table that had the device that had rudely waken him up only moments before rested upon. He started going towards it and all the while, he was mumbling to himself in a very tired tone, “Uh... just a little more I said. Would it take that much longer I said. Uhg... I just had to keep going for that extra level.” He then let's out another, long yawn before finishing with, “At least I finally got that achievement in the end. I think I'd better slow it down a little bit, If I keep going on like this, I'm gonna start seeing things. That would be the last thing I need to happen right now.”
At that point he had finally reached the nightstand and picked up the object. It showed a black screen with some blue numbers being displayed and what was shown was that it was just after eight in the morning. It took a few seconds for what he had seen to register in is mind. But within a flash, the air seemed to change around him as he darted for the bathroom that was connected to his bedroom.
Nearly a half an hour later, the man emerges and is fully dressed. His long black hair was tied into a low ponytail that reached nearly a third down his back. Starting from the bottom, he was wearing a pair of dark boots, slightly worn blue jeans and as for a shirt it was white, with a large picture on the front side that depicted a large gathering of individuals. Said individuals appear to be not all of the human race, as they showed those with cat ears, rabbit ears and a few that were larger than most and others that seemed quite a bit small for the item they were geared up in.
They seem to be wearing all sorts of mid evil armor and wielded various weapons from swords to bows and arrows. Some were holding banners of red, white and gold and a few were mounting large yellow birds that also were geared with some of their own sets. One might say this was a heroic gathering of adventurers from a fantasy realm.
He had just then dawned on a pair of black rimmed square glasses that's seemed rather old with how they had some scratches on the lenses and one part had some tape wrapped near the base over the nose. He then proceeded to grab a few things from around his room along with the item that had the time displayed on it and placed them into his pockets. Without wasting any more time he rushes over and opens the front door. This fills the room with a blinding light and that part of the memory fades.
Moments later, the light dies down but only to reveal a new location. This time it was with the man standing in front of a large building made of a combination of steel and glass, that was a good three or four stories tall if not more but it was hard to tell from his current position as he was standing near the doorway. All around him, were other beings dressed up in different types of clothing that just did not seem to appear to be what one would call, regular going out attire.
The man approached the doors and they slowly slid open to reveal what was inside in allowing him access. Stepping through the threshold, he was assaulted by a large number of sounds coming from both the people and the devices from all around.
There appear to be a nearly endless supply of on goers walking back-and-forth inside and the entire area was well lit by countless lights high above. Everywhere he looked there was some type of booth filled with many colorful objects such as books, large rolled up papers and many odd creations.
There was then a familiar music pattern That only drew him deeper within the structure. An hour or two had passed and he found himself passing many more booths and other types of people wearing costumes from different eras of time. There were large papers printed with extraordinary pictures on them that range from being very small, to being more than five times his own size.
He had passed those who wore things like spandex while others that wore something more traditional such as leather armor and tunics. He had even passed several that appeared to be wearing something that was more mechanical in nature that covered every inch of their form and didn't allow anyone to see who Was inside. Those were around signs that had names like Star and Galaxy something or another. They may have been flashy and extremely complicated, but after closer inspection any could tell that these things would fall apart simply by walking around all day.
Soon he came across a section of the building that had very familiar artworks that was closely resembling that of which he was currently wearing on his T-shirt. There was a soothing type of music being played in the background which drew much of his attention. Turning towards where it was emanating from, he found a large green screen displaying a moving picture of a colossal blue diamond spinning. Right below it was the words, Final Fantasy Online.
Fully taken in by the surroundings, he ventured inside and spent a few hours within. After a while he had found himself stopping in place as he looked off to a certain booth that had been set up from quite a distance, maybe up to twenty-five or thirty feet away. The man's face became quite worried and flushed at the same time as he couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from who was currently managing the stall.
( Here is a picture of Y'shtola. )
It had caught him completely by surprise how she looked exactly like the character in the game. Every detail was spot on When it came to both the clothing her hairstyle and even those believable ears on her head. Even the tail seemed to be moving on its own as if it was a living part of her body as well from what he caught a glimpse of the tip coming up just above the table’s height for a split second. Even what she was wearing was completely on the mark and seemed to be very well made.
From under his breath he said, “Y'shtola…?” Surprisingly enough, the one in question had turned her head slightly towards his direction after her right ear flicked a few times. She appeared to have spotted him and gave a gentle smile before returning to a customer that she had just been talking with. The man turned around and began walking in the opposite direction in a hurry while looking more flustered than before. He couldn't help but to mutter to himself even more quietly, “Wait, did she really just hear me from all the way over there? Also, what's up with those ears, they look so real, one of them even flicked like a cats would...”
After that, the man appeared to be avoiding that section as much as possible as he went around and looked at what the others had. Over the course of a few more hours, he had talked to some random people that were wearing different things. There were those that ranged from robes and light armor to that of heavy plate.
He had even come across a couple of figurines of these people dressed in far more elaborate designs. Among those was a young child with pointed ears that had Some braided silver hair and was dawning a blue set of armor that was a mixture of cloth and plates which made them look quite heroic.
( Here is a picture of the figure seen. )
While looking at the figurine, there was some murmurs from the other patrons about the new downloadable content that was soon to be released. From then on, he continued walking around but still managed to avoid going anywhere near that booth with the girl from before.
The world faded into a bright light again and when it died down, everything came back into focus. But this time, there was far less people around and the light from beyond the windows on the far distance of the building began to grow dark.
The man was making his way towards the exit, but stopped when he saw that it would need him to pass that one girl that he had seen earlier in order make his way out. Already the building was beginning to empty out and much of the stalls had already been packing up and had put away most of their wares.
He was apparently trying to look around for another path to take but there was none available. Luckily enough he saw that there was someone talking to the girl which meant that there was an open window for him to pass undetected, if lucky. While trying not to get any attention, he managed to pass by the table. He was getting close to the door and was no more than forty-five to fifty feet away from that booth. He could have sworn that he heard a ruckus behind him but thought none of it to be his concern and was about to take another step when he heard something else heavy hitting the ground, followed by what could have only have been someone trying to gasp for air.
The man turned on the spot and caught a glimpse of the man that the little girl was just talking too. Hus eyes going wide at the sight of the guy holding her up with just one arm while clutched in his right hand, was a long jagged black dagger. The sound from before was the table that was between the two having been toppled over and many items were now scattered about on the floor. Even from that distance it was plain to see that the girl was being choked with a gloved hand. There were thin lines of red liquid flowing from her neck where the gloved fingers were digging into her flesh.
( Here is the Picture of the one in robes. )
Without even giving it a second thought, he ran towards the booth and along the way he reached into his pocket and fumbled with the item from before and threw it as hard as he could against the side of the head of the robed man while running. It struck, emanating aloud thwack sound. This caught the figure unawares and he dropped the woman from his grasp and quickly turned towards his new assailant. At that very moment, the man from before had managed to close the distance and tackled him to the ground.
The girl from before now being released, dropped behind the counter and made a small thud. A series of gasps came out and was accompanied by a coughing fit. All of which could be heard from out of view.
However even with all that ruckus and things being knocked over, not one person came to find out what was happening. The man quickly looked up and found that there was no one around, no people, the stalls were empty, nothing was happening, no sound, nothing but them.
But this turned out to be a mistake when the one underneath grabbed him with his glove, free hand by the shoulder. When this was done, the man let out a strained cry as the bones within that very shoulder were being crushed and a number of snapping sounds came from it. The sharp fingers dug into his flesh. A large amount of blood began to squirt forth from the wounds from how much strength the man from below was using.
After that, he was hoisted up and back down onto the ground as if he was nothing but a sack of potatoes. The force that was used to throw him off had knocked the wind out of the man's lungs, but before he could react any further, he was then pulled back into the air as the robed man got to his feet.
It didn't stop there as the robed being lifted him even higher until his feet were dangling a good foot off from the ground below. The man in robes brought him closer so that they were mere inches away from each other's faces. The black eye holes of the mask showed a small amount of red glow from deep within as the man began to speak in a very low voice that radiated a deep hatred that just echoed with every word as if speaking through a hellish tunnel.
Yelling into the man's face, the unknown robed being said, “YOU DARE TO GET IN MY WAY! WORTHLESS, PATHETIC!” Immediately after those words were spoken, the dagger from before made an appearance once again and from below was thrusted into his chest at an angle. By the time the hilt guard had made its way to his flesh, the other tip had already exited the man's body by a good three or four inches. At first his arms tried to rise up to do something, but fell limp. Then nearly all struggling had ceased within seconds.
Blood was now flowing freely from the man's body as it ran down the blade and onto the rope man's hand and staining his sleeves that were originally a dark black, into something that had trace amounts of red. More of the blood continue to exit the man's body as it coated his lower area. It didn’t take long for it to start staining his blue jeans and filling his boots until they were overflowed with the crimson liquid and began to drip onto the ground.
With the way his body had completely lost all motor functions, one would think that the blade had severed his spinal cord, thereby rendering him completely helpless as he began to quickly bleed to death. He tried to open his mouth but only a torrent of blood gushed out as he attempted to speak up.
Before the scene could go any further, it went white once again. All faded into the void of light and those in it became black outlines. What followed was the man lying on the ground on his back with his arms and legs out to his sides. His mouth stained red with dried blood and underneath him was a slowly growing pool of the same life-giving liquid. There was no sign of the hooded figure from before. The only thing left that could say he even existed, was a large hole in his chest with no knife in sight.
His eyes were locked staring straight up from where he laid. The color of his skin was fading fast as his body grew colder with each passing second. During this time, alone figure stood no more than two feet away to the side. It was the cat eared girl that was being attacked and she had her head hanging low and her ears were pinned flat to the sides of her head.
Reaching down, she finds the small object from before still laying on the floor after it had been used as a makeshift weapon. The blood that had been pooling had just then made it towards the device and was about to come into contact. She bends down to pick it up and notices that in the attempt to throw it, the man on the ground had inadvertently managed to press a series of buttons to bring up a certain photo. When she saw it, she visibly flinched and closed her eyes tightly as tears began to flow down the sides of her face as she shook her head franticly in an attempt to deny what she had seen.
She began speaking and a broken, sorrow filled tone that only grew quieter with every word, “I’m… sorry… this shouldn’t have…” Afterwards, a lone tear couldn't help but fall from her eyes as she shut them tightly. Her hands trembled and the device in the girl’s right hand that was moments before all lit up, starts to fade. An almost imperceivable jolt of electricity arcs up her arm, those jade eyes of hers began to glow and she says again in the same manner as before, but this time with a determined and steely flame behind them. “I’ll make it up to you. Please forgive this one.” When those words were spoken, the memory faded. Unlike the others, this was on a whole new level. The ground, sky, stall, all of it fades and leaves only the both of them.
The light had encompassed the pair completely. The image on the device could be seen for only an instant. There was a picture that showed a large, pale skinned juggernaut of a being with long hair and muscle’s standing next to a figure that resembles the cat girl almost to the letter. Right above their heads were the words in bold, gold colors that had stars falling from the sides captured in time within the device. Those words were, “CONGRATULATIONS! Brex Mith. CONGRATULATIONS! Y’shtola. For the achievement, all classes to max level.” Right above the two of them was displayed along with their characters names, was the same four-letter word marking them as in the same group, H. O. P. E.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 2: Ok just think things out. ( Fixed. )
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Everfree Forest* *Time: One week after his arrival*
It had been nearly a week now since he had found himself in this new world. The sun was just starting to ascend into the sky and a large unknown figure was currently sitting on top of one of the highest branches in a tree not too far from what one would call a Castle out in the middle of the wilderness.
From his vantage point it was clear to see that this was a rather large structure with a number of buildings that went up to five stories high, while some of the others near the center, jetted up close to ten. There was even a very deep trench that apparently surrounded the grounds as a natural line of defense. It didn’t take long for him to have spotted a rope bridge that appeared to be the only means of crossing the divide safely that could have only allowed a single person to cross at a time.
While squinting his eyes, he started to mumble to himself as he looked over the damages done to the Castle. Hay, it’s been over a week without talking to another person, give him a break. “Wow… just wow! Look at all that! It’s like a bomb went off over there. No wait, scratch that. More like multiple bombs all went off. Dang, that one over there at the larger building is a real doozy. Geez, half of the roof on that one there is missing and I can see inside from all the way over here. Oh! Now just look at the courtyard, that's what I would call a blast radius!”
He lifted one of his hands to show a small pile of wild strawberries and began picking at it as he looked around a little while longer. After he had finished, he had a dejected look on his face as he shook his head again before mumbling, “It's been so long, I've gotten too comfortable with talking to myself.”
He had lifted his hand up to act as a visor from the sunlight and continued to watch. It was a good thing that he had done so, because a group of fliers at that moment were patrolling the area nearby and if he hadn't done so, there was a good chance that their approach would have gone unnoticed in time.
Figuring that they were quite a distance away and with not making any sudden changes in their flight patterns gave him the thought that they had not seen him yet. Wiping his hands together to get any residue off of them, he looked down and thought to himself, “Well, it's a good thing I'm not afraid of heights anymore. Not sure what happened to me but at least I'm not freaking out after taking two steps off the ground. I guess I better not take my chances, down I go.”
Without showing much care to his safety, the man pushed himself off of the branch, only to land on the one beneath but only a short distance down. This process was continued a number of times until he had finally landed on to the dirt and leaf covered floor of the forest.
Normally this would not have been such a smart move to make seeing as it would cause quite a stir with the sound it would have normally created. However, at that moment he was currently using a skill Is that he had acquired when arriving in this world. Said skill allowed him to jump from high places without taking damage of any type, but also had the added benefit of silencing the noises he would normally have made.
Not sure as to why or how this had happened, but the man had gained some rather unique abilities from a video game he remembered playing in the past. Because of that, he was currently a ninja in the middle of the forest.
Ninja class, an advance class from the rogues. they excel in high damage output and employ the Chi ability and in conjunction with hand signs they can produce a variety of effects. Just like with the rogues the advanced class of ninja are far more skilled at evading detection and execute assassination attacks with ease.
Standing to his full height he surveyed the current location he was at defined a small clearing surrounded by Trees and large bushes. But there was a small dirt path that seemed to be used now and again by those who resided here. He was about to move on when he heard some rustling not too far away from beyond some bushes.
Now narrowing his eyes, he glanced to the upper right part of his vision to see a circular display that appeared to be a type of radar. It seemed to have something that looked to be a compass that pointed to the North on the outer edge. It displayed that there were three dots appearing at the very edge of the radar and were slowly making their way towards his location that was shown to be at the center.
Making sure on the direction of the incoming life forms, he turned his head until they were lined up with where he was facing and found them to be coming from the sound he heard just earlier. Focusing his attention on to the dots, he noticed that they were all yellow, with two in the lead and one trailing not far behind.
This was one of the things that came with him when he woke up. Apparently, this was called a Mini map and it had the function of detecting possible hostiles and other living creatures within a set limit. Furthermore, the colors indicated whether or not they were friend or foe. Reds are hostile right from the get go. As for yellows, they are considered neutral but can become hostile at a moment's notice. The last one being green, was something he had yet to encounter during his time in the forest. This was something that would designate another as being friendly and a possible ally.
During his time, he had experimented while watching the local wildlife and had a good grasp on the mini map’s functions. He had witnessed how some yellows on his map would turn red as they became hostile with one another. It had even developed to the point that he was capable of instinctually telling who was hostile to whom. But of course, he would still check his mini map just to make sure now and then.
At first, he concluded that it was a group of animals but that was quickly thrown out the window when he began to hear what sounded like footsteps. This was followed by some murmurs that could have only been from someone talking.
Not wanting to be spotted, he did a back flip a short distance and stealthily landed in the shade of a tree nearby. Immediately after landing, the skill Hide was then activated. His form began to become somewhat intangible after only a second had passed and when the process was completed, he stood there quietly, observing who was about to show up.
Skill: Hide, A skill that allows the user to go into a stealth state, those from level 1 and up to 10 levels higher than its user cannot see the one using this skill. Targets more than 10 levels higher than the user can see past its effects. Some creatures have skills or ability’s that allow them to see past this effect regardless of their level.
After several moments passed, there was the sound of a very annoyed person as they push themselves through a large bush and into the clearing he was waiting on the edge of. Upon seeing who it was, the figure who was hidden away in the darkness only gave an unamused look as he thought to himself, “Great, just great. It's them again.” Immediately after, the second entered the clearing and then not too long after, so did the third.
The group had on a set of mid evil armor that were all uniform in their make and design. Seeming to be made up of some type of metal that was white in color, along the edges and decorations were that of gold. What was the most eye catching about the gear itself was how it depicted a yellow sun on their chest plates.
The first of the two that emerged was chatting away and this caused him to think to himself, “Oh come on! Just how many times am I gonna come across this very same set. Also, didn't anyone teach them that they should not make so much noise when patrolling a possibly dangerous forest? I think that they're just wandering around aimlessly until their shift is over or something. If they keep making so much noise, they're never going to find anything while on patrol at this rate.”
What was currently standing before him, was apparently a set of three guards who were currently on patrol of this forest. This set of guards were comprised of one male, who was carrying a sword and shield, and apparently a very obnoxious attitude to boot. The next was brandishing a short spear on her back. As for the one who was bringing up the rear, she was a slightly smaller one and she was clutching at the short sword hanging on her hip.
He knew that he had come from a time where that sort of gear was not very common, if used at all. But that wasn't very odd to him seeing as Just who was using those tools had caught his attention a whole lot more than what was being worn.
The one with the sword and shield turned and revealed that he had a horn coming out of his helmet, along with the set of furry animal ears. If that wasn't enough, his face wasn't quite right. It had more of an equine shape to it. The male also had a long tail coming out from his rear that was halfway down to the ground. From his current position, it was visible where there should have been skin, was instead some very short brown fur and the mane and tail he could see was colored in light brown. He stood at five feet and eight inches, with what could have been considered a fit build. But that could have just been due to how the armor could have been making him look bigger than he really is for all he knew.
The next on the list was the one wielding a spear. Her fur was pink and the mane appeared to be blue. She too had a horn coming from out of her helmet Just as the first one did. Unlike the male, this one had a more relaxed and carefree attitude going about with her, but one could still sense that she was on alert and ready for anything. She stood at about five feet and three inches and was quite fit from what he could tell.
The last one was the shortest among them all. She was purple with a black mane and tail. This one was only an inch shorter standing at five feet and two inches and appeared to be a size smaller compared to the other girl. She was a good distance from the others and was shaking like a leaf while clutching at her sword and its sheath as if she was waiting for an attack to happen at any second.
During the time he had been staying in the forest, there had been times that he had gotten to catch Their names aside from the purple one. He was positive that the male was called Break Down and the pink Unicorn went by Swirl Sugar.
After a good several minutes of talking between themselves, the patrol group finally moves on and follows the beaten path that they had found to another direction. Soon after the unknown figure steps out of the shadows, but not before first making sure that the coast was clear before coming out. Turning he makes his way down another beaten path that was going in the opposite direction from what the guards had taken.
Going along with his now daily routine, the large man comes across a river and crouches down on a log near the edge. It was easy to spot some fishes that were swimming near the surface by where he was crouched down at. He lifts his hand and with a flick of his fingers, he produces a set of Kunai knives held between his fingers and quickly throws them at the fish within range.
Out of the three that were launched, only two of them hit their marks and the fish started floating to the surface. As soon as he had gotten the fishes in his hands, the knives themselves disappeared. Glancing back down to the water he could see where his knife had originally ended up with there being a small hole from where the blade had dug into the rivers floor after missing, but saw that too was gone as well.
He then chuckled to himself and said, “Well at least I don't have to worry about cleaning up after myself. It also helps that I seem to have an unlimited supply of these.” He glances over to the fishes in his hands and shrugged before continuing, “Eh, it's not like I really do need it, but I still get the craving now and then. Besides I could still use the protein.”
Afterwards, he finds a secluded location and lights a small fire to cook and consume the fish before moving on with his day. Looking back over towards the tree line, he just knew that there was going to be something new to find while in there. He then began to chuckle to himself lightly as he recalled just what had happened over the past week and how he had that run in with that Timberwolf pack.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Everfree Forest* *Time: First day in the new world*
There was nothing but darkness and a bone chilling, cold sensation running through his mind and body. At first, he couldn't figure out anything as his thoughts were very slow at forming anything that could be considered coherent. But after a while he was capable of rational thought again and began to think to himself in broken sentences, “Huh… What? Just… where? What happened? Can't… move. It's so… cold.”
At the time he had no sensations aside from that cold he mentioned. But after a few moments, sound began to fill his ears. There was a gentle breeze that was happening around him and there was the subtle rustling of grass being pushed by it. Seemingly far off in the distance he was positive that he could have heard trees swaying as their leaves continuously brushed up against one another.
Still not feeling anything, he thought to himself in a slight panic, but this time his thoughts sounded a little more intelligible, “Wait, what's going on? Wasn't I just... Wait, what was I just about to say? Also, why can't I move… Why can't I feel anything? Hold on, am I outside. Am I being brought to an ambulance? Oh no! I must be paralyzed, what happened to me?”
It was about to go to a full-blown panic but stopped when he started to have sensations occurring all over his body. first it was simply him noticing some new sensations of touching some type of object, but soon the cold from before was subsiding. It took a few more minutes until he had regained most of his senses and could tell that he was laying on his back while on top of a soft yet firm surface. There was also a scent coming into his nose that reminded him of pine trees or at least something similar to it.
Slowly his eyelids twitched, which meant that he now was capable of moving them. He opened his eyes and caught sight of a cloud filled sky with gaps of sunlight that was streaming through and illuminating where he was. From the side of his vision, he could see the tops of trees only a short distance away that were encircling his position. He flexed the muscles in his fingers and proceeded in doing so with the rest all the way down to his toes to get a feel for what has happened to him. Upon finding or feeling that there was nothing weird, he started to sit up.
When he had gotten to a fully seated position, he was about to take stock of his situation further when a black strand of hair, with silver on the tips fell across his face and obscured Half of his vision. His eyes went wide and focused on the hair immediately. Wanting to make sure that it was real, he carefully reached up with his right hand and took it between his fingers and gave a gentle tug to see if it was a wig but found that it was in fact his real hair as it tugged on his skull.
Afterwards he quickly got to his feet and stumbled a little as he seemed unaccustomed to his newfound height. His eyes quickly traveled down his form and began examining every inch. Almost instantly his eyes snapped forward and went wide. Right after all of this was done, there was a loud THUD that seemed to echo through most of the forest.
(This is a picture of how Brex Mith looks right now.)
Some time had passed before he had finally awoken from his unintentional nap. Quickly getting back onto his feet, the man raises both of his hands up and flexes his fingers in front of his face to test whether or not he was dreaming. He then exclaimed loudly in a very surprised and confused tone, “Wait, what's going on here, why do I… huh, h-hello, hello. Testing, One, two, three… testing. Is that really my voice? I'm almost positive I didn't sound like this before. Hmm, it's sort of an older brother, baritone feel to it.” He then played with his new voice for a moment before going back on topic.
Soon after, he examined himself and turned his head to look at his surroundings and then asked, “Just how did this happen, where am I? Ugh! My head, I-It hurts...” Right as he attempted to remember any sort details pertaining to how he had arrived, a sudden pain rack through his brain and made him shut his eyes. Clutching his head in an attempt to relieve it, he had to wait it out for a good minute before it finally subsided.
After releasing his grip on his skull, he looked at himself slowly once more and said, “OK that's not a good thing. But hold on a minute. What's happening, why do I look like my character from my favorite game? This can't be real… right?”
He then kneeled down and grabbed on to a piece of grass and began to feel it with his fingertips. After making sure that this was not some type of weird, realistic dream, he got back to his feet and tapped his right hands index finger onto his chin.
Looking back towards the woods, he thought to himself, “Well that just screams creepy. I just know the instant I leave this spot, I'm gonna get attacked by something, I just know it. OK, just think about it. I'm a game character and I’m somewhere I don't know. Then there’s what looks to be a creepy set of woods, what do I do next?” Raising his eyebrow, he had a look of understanding on his face which soon turned to a questioning one.
He began pacing in place and said,” OK so I'm my game character from final fantasy. Then that might also mean that I can...” As soon as those words escaped his lips, a window popped up before his eyes that displayed his character information. Catching sight of this, nearly startled the man but he managed to regain his composure and looked at it with a scrutinizing gaze.
From what he could see it was apparently the exact same format as it was in the game when he played. After a few seconds he snapped his fingers and concentrated harder and this created another pair more windows to appear side-by-side with the first.
Starting from his left-hand side, it was the character data. The next one was his inventory, which held his Items and money. As for the last, that showed his affiliation and personal information such as his birthday. Glancing over to the first window, he saw that it displayed his character name which was, Brex Mith. Alongside that, it displayed that he was a member of a race called the Roegadyn.
The rest of the information had to do with his current class, its level, the points in each stat and all the items equipped right then and there. Brex continues to look it all over and after a few seconds, he thinks to himself, “Hmm, I could have sworn that I had my maximum grade armor and weapons equipped the last time I played. Oh well, guess I will just have to click the auto equip icon and it will all just switch over.”
After those thoughts ran their course, it was quickly noticed that the window was not showing the previously mentioned icon. After letting out a grunt, he says, “What? Where is that thing… Fine, I’ll just do it manually.” He searched through the armory section for the gear he wanted but soon found it to be severely lacking.
After seeing this, Brex couldn’t help but to speak in a shocked tone, “H-Huh! J-Just what’s going on here, where is all my gear, why do I only have a few sets on my armory’s list?!” Just as he had said, there in front of him, was not the full set for each of his favored classes, but only enough equipment for two. The ones that he could play were his Ninja and the Paladin class’s. Normally He had a habit of keeping on hand what would be needed for at least six of them and room for some altered sets in case he had to play one with another type of style in mind.
With a defeated gaze forward Brex then talks in a scared and panic tone, “This is just not happening! I spent so much time leveling those up to maximum level, not to mention the constant dungeon runs and quests I went through to gather them all up. At least those happen to be among my favorites.” A Gasp escapes him as he continued, “W-Wait up, if that’s not the same then… O-Oh no. Please let it not be true…”
In a flash, he looked up to the top of that screen and noticed something else that only added to the growing mountain of worries. For the second time that day, the Roegadyn’s eyes go wide with disbelief, this was then accompanied with a trembling voice that had a strong layer of sorrow, “T-This C-Can’t be, ma… ma… MY LEVEL IS ONLY AT 35?! No, that can’t be right, it was at 70 before….” There was then another *THUD* that rang out into the Everfree Woods that day.
Roughly half an hour had passed sense Brex had his second mental breakdown of his life. After finally getting back onto his feet, the dirt was brushed off and his attention returns back to the remaining windows and begins checking on the second of the three.
After a few seconds passed, he went on to say, “Now this looks to be my item box. Let’s see how much room I got. One, two, three, four and… Huh?” Thinking the hits to his sanity just keep on coming, Brex notices that instead of the usual four divided bags that would hold a set amount of space. Instead, It would seem that for some unknown reason, there is fifty bags and each one was capable of holding fifty slots per bag. This meant that it would come to a grant total of 2,500 slots of free inventory space.
When those numbers had been found out, Brex was just stupefied with how much he could carry around on hand. Before he could go to the next window, he saw that there were a few slots inside that happen to be in use right now. With a closer inspection, Brex found out that he had the following. Six High Health Potions, six Poison Cure Potions, six Blind Cure Potions and six Mana Potions.
Finding it odd that he even had those inside his inventory, Brex pondered as to why. He didn’t use them all that much before, seeing as at the time they wouldn’t do much good for him at all when he had gotten to a point when leveling up. At Level 25, He would only recover but only a sliver on his bars, so they were placed away somewhere else to be delt with at a later point. At one time or another he would just forget and they were left in his room storage.
The last thing that was noticed on the inventory window, was when he glanced to the very bottom and right there was a row of numbers next to a familiar icon. It was the icon that represented the coin used in all basic transactions within the game, otherwise known as a Gil. Squinted his eyes to make sure that he was reading the numbers correctly, Brex soon after just a few scant seconds, he gave what was now becoming a normal reaction to his situation. Witch happen to be the blank, ‘your fucking kidding me face’.
Really, by now that should just be trade marked for him by now. Right Infront of Brex, was what could only have been the sum total income from the first day he logged in and started playing till the end, along with liquidating all assets. This got the Roegadyn a grand total of 870,940,302 Gil. That would be enough to buy the largest plot of land inside the players district, along with fully furnish it with only the best items one could buy and still have enough to lend out to others as if he himself was a bank. At this point, he could have had coins in his eyes if this was some cartoon.
Moving on quickly before the last info fully had its chance to really make an impact. There was only the third window left to review. It didn’t have a lot on it at a first glance, the thing was meant to display things like your current affiliation and the rank with each one. At the moment, all of it was blank for that section. Then there were the titles a player acquired with the quests and activities one did.
For example, the Gambler title, was one would get by going to the location known as the Golden Saucer. The place mentioned was a type of gambling hub where one would play an assortment of games to collect what was called saucer coins. These could be used to buy rare Golden Saucer exclusive items. Mostly for the cosmetic effect such as the item being a set of clothes or accessories like earrings, necklaces, armor and weapons that would have a unique pattern or glowing effect when drawn out.
Brex started remembering that he had seen some of the other male players wearing things like suits and the female players wearing a rather provocative outfit that ranged from maids and bunny girls. Once in a while, he would catch one trying to look like a sexy succubus, with long black nails and horns that one could get there as the prizes when turning in the coins won from the games. It was always so lively there at any time. After a moment of reminiscing, he went back to his reviewing.
The next part was displaying his characters birthday. Alongside with the date, it displayed one of the twelve gods in place of a birth stone. The name of his was Althyk, the keeper, surveyor of change, the god of space, time and controller of earth. Represented on his birth stone with an hourglass, to which he belongs to. Brex remembers that his god was the father to two goddesses. The eldest daughter was Azwyma, the keeper of the sun, goddess of inquiry and controller of fire. As for the second, she was called Menphina, the lover, keeper of the moons and commands ice.
Now Althyk himself had a younger sister called Nymeia, the spinner, watcher of celestial bodies and goddess of fate and commands water. He recalled something about his god and that was a note that mentioned in the last battle with a powerful being called Bahamut, a caster called upon his power to send the Adventurers to a safe place before the massive attack struck that laid waste to the realm. Never really did find out wither or not that had any effect in the game, other than for the role-playing purposes.
For the next several minutes, Brex processed all the info that was basically thrown at his face. Then as if a light bulb just went on overhead, he had a look of determination and declared, “I’m in a new world, in a new body with skills and abilities only others dream of. I may as well accept it and move on, if I don’t and things keep going as they are now, I’ll end up in the loony bin by tomorrow night.”
As if the world accepted the new commers declaration of challenge, the sounds of nature died down. All that was left in the air was a light wind blowing through the trees, along with it carrying a scent of rotten meat. It started off faint and seemed to be coming from Brex’s right side. Turning to face the direction of the strange scent, he noticed a pair of glowing green orbs, no bigger than golf balls from within the darkness, just past the edge of the tree line. Instantly the memory of the descriptions flooded his thoughts.
Starting at the glowing eyes, the rotten scent, even the forest’s way of looking. After putting it all together did it finally connect with him. He spoke with a defeated, low tone that just screamed that Brex Mith, the now Roegadyn, had finally understood just where he was. While not taking his eyes away from the new company, he couldn’t help but to utter the following, “Oh for the seven hells! I’m in fucking Equestria!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 3: Burning with the wolfs. ( Fixed. )
*Point of view: Timberwolf* *Location: Everfree Forest* *Time: Shortly before the declaration from Brex Mith*
The sun was high in the sky and the air felt cool and refreshing. A figure on all fours was rushing between the trees at high speeds as it was chasing something small and white that was dodging and weaving at erratic patterns between other trees and high roots as it attempted to escape.
The one chasing, was a large wolf like creature but instead of being covered in fur, this one was mostly made up of branches and moss. This creature was commonly known as a Timberwolf. It had been chasing this small rabbit for quite a while now and was getting rather hungry as time went on. Finally, it had it cornered as it ran through a bush and collided with a tree, thereby stunning it.
Seeing that its snack was ready to be pounced upon. The Timberwolf saw that its eyes were filled with terror and acceptance that death was about to be delivered. The large hunter crouched down and prepared for a final leap. But just as its hind legs started to kick off from the ground, there was a sound that emanated through the forest that caught its full attention. It lifted its head and began turning as its ears made of bark twitched and swiveled in order to catch and trace the odd sound.
Seeing this, the white rabbit had an opening and quickly rushed over to a nearby bush and silently escaped underneath. This had not gone unnoticed by the wolf but it saw that the white rabbit was nothing but a small tiny snack and what it had just heard obviously came from a larger living being. It knew this because the only things that were capable of using speech, like the one it just heard would have to have been a pony. The very thought of eating one of them flooded its mind as some green, slimy disgusting sap began to ooze from between its rough blood-stained teeth that were made up of jagged roots and bark.
It rushed off in the direction that it was sure that the voice emanated from. Along the way, it had come across the other members of its pack as they slowly began to converge together as they were making their way towards their new prey. It didn't take long till there were small yips, howls and barking being emanated between the members of the pack. Soon there was four, then eight, within moments, there was a pack of twelve altogether. The wolf from before that was in the middle of a hunt with the rabbit was currently the one in the lead. Sniffing the air, it detected a new odor and was capable of determining just how far away it was.
Along the way, it had been getting this odd feeling and this was becoming visible among the other pack members as they all showed signs of something bothering them. The Timberwolf pondered to itself whether this was something that was being done to them with the use of the pony's magic. But as soon as that came forth, it quickly dismissed it as it knew that they were nothing but prey and that they were the hunters. All others that lived within this forest were meant to be their food.
When they had gotten close enough that they could literally taste the smell on their tongues, the group quickly dispersed and ran off in different directions. The one that was currently leading them went forward and got closer until it stopped near the edge of the tree line and crouched down in the shadows.
Its ears swiveled and its eyes quickly looked around and spotted the trace signs that only it was aware of. The other members of its group were now encircling its target that was within a large open clearing. Seeing that they were all about to be in position, the lead wolf watched its prey as to ascertain what they were about to go after. After which, they would choose their next move.
At a glance, it thought that it was a pony. But it soon noticed it's towering height and lack of a tail and the ears that would normally be seen on any pony. Never before did they ever come across hunting anything like this before. But it was able to tell that this new prey had quite a lot of meat on its bones which made it a very appetizing target that just couldn’t be passed up.
It was about to make its move when it caught the creature looking straight in its direction. The wolf's eyes went wide as it came to the conclusion that it had been spotted. The new creature uttered some phrase that it was unable to comprehend and began to take a somewhat... relaxed stance, which confused the wolf greatly. This thing knew that it was there, but was showing no signs of fear.
(Picture of the Timberwolf.)
Seeing as it had been made, the Timberwolf slowly came out from the shadows and stepped closer into the open. It was a low, crouched position ready for anything that it's prey might try. However, when it started on its approach, the Timberwolf couldn't help but feel a sense of dread coursing through its form, with each step it took, making it that much more noticeable.
It couldn't have been more than thirteen meters away at this point when the wolf came to an abrupt stop and had begun to crouch even lower to the ground in some type of defensive stance. Trying as hard as possible not to show what it was feeling, the Timberwolf was fighting with all it had to prevent its rotten bark from rattling from this new unexplainable sensation. All of its senses were essentially screaming, “RUN, RUN, RUN AWAY OR WE WILL ALL DIE!!”
This pack alone has taken out many types of pray within the forest and had even recently taken down a fully grown Manticore. So why is something that is obviously smaller than that, capable of causing this hunter to freeze in place.
It didn't take long for it to notice that this was what was called fear. The other members of its pack that were currently lying and wait all around, were giving off the same scent of fear as well. In fact, it was as if the entire area was bathed in it, but the only place that was void of any was around the creature itself. The grass near its feet seemed as if it was being pushed away as an invisible force was blowing in all directions from the very spot where it stood.
The Timberwolf began to shake its head violently and was letting out a series of growls and barks to fight off this unwanted distraction. Bearing its fangs that were dripping with ooze, it got into a crouching position and gave out a large howl of defiance before dashing towards its new prey.
The noise it made before it started running was a command to the other Timberwolves to make their move as well. As if perfectly choreographed the entire pack of twelve descended upon the large creature in the center of the clearing. There mighty hind legs kicking the dirt with such force that it flung rocks and sent grass flying into the air in they're wake.
They had all closed the distance, completely encircling their target and just as they had gotten within four meters, they all jumped into the air at varying heights and angles to clamp down on whatever part of their target that they could get their jaws on.
But when they had done this, the one in the center had practically vanished by jumping high into the air. The Timberwolf tried to lift its head to allow its eyes to track its movements but was having difficulty in keeping up with its speed and was only able to barely keep it within its vision.
To its utter astonishment, its prey had managed to leap almost as high as the tallest nearby tree, which was easily five or six times the creature's own height. It watched as it brought its arms closer to its chest and there was a series of ping sounds emanating from it. These were accompanied by two sets of flashes of light that seemed to be coming from where its hands were brought together.
Suddenly its world was engulfed in a flash of orange and red as everything began to be swallowed up by a blinding light which quickly turned into a searing pain and heat that could be felt coursing through its very being. The only thing that went through its mind at that very moment was. “J-JUST WHAT IS THIS MONSTER?!”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Right as the encounter with the wolves began*
After stating the obvious as to where he was, Brex surprisingly was not all that scared. A tiny part of him said that he needed to run and scream like a little girl, but a majority within voted that this was not really much of a threat at all.
He couldn't help but take a somewhat, relaxed posture as he turned towards the eyes that he could see in darkness being given by the thick lining of trees. The pair of orbs grew wide for only a moment before going back to normal and immediately left the shadows to reveal it to be exactly what he thought it to be.
He couldn't help but to smirk internally as he pondered as to what he should try when fighting such a creature. But before he went further with that thought, he remembered something else about the Timberwolves and that it was common for them to hunt in packs. Taking a quick glance up to his Mini map, he saw that his assumption was right as well on this when he counted up to eleven others that were all around the perimeter of the clearing.
He recalled that he was currently equipped as his ninja class and immediately noticed that there was a pair of daggers attached to the holders on his hips. Brex was about to reach for the weapons, but an idea popped in his head and he thought to himself, “Oh I know exactly when I want to try on these guys. Hmm, so they got me surrounded, which means that they expect me either run or they're going to do a simultaneous attack from all sides. Oh, I do hope it's the latter option, that will make this so much more fun.”
His excitement only grew more with the distance between him and the one Timberwolf that had come out in front of him growing shorter by the moment. When he saw the wolf stopping, he eternally began to call to it to continue as his excitement intensified even further.
The few seconds that followed seemed like an eternity to Brex, until finally he noticed the creature shaking and then giving off a deathly howl as it continued with a charge. At the same time, he saw that all the other dots were quickly approaching and were going to hit him at about the same time as the first wolf.
As soon as they were within range and they jumped into the air. He had leaped straight up and was momentarily awestruck at the height that he had somehow easily gotten without too much effort, but recovered his thoughts quickly. He instead brought his hands together and thought of the skills that were unique to only the ninja class.
He created without realizing, it the hand sign for TEN. This created a small flash of light that was followed by a light ping sound. This was then proceeded with him shifting his hands into another hand sign and creating CHI, which also emitted another flash of light, along with the same ping sound as before.
This created the ninjutsu called, KATON. At the center of the group of wolves, started a tiny dot of orange light. The small spot grew within an instant into a half dome of pure fire as it began to swirl with orange and red. The orb of light quickly spread out to a good eight meters wide, almost faster than the eye could see. As it engulfed each and every one of its targets, they were instantly burned away. The Bodies of dead wood caught fire with ease and began to burst apart only to leave a pile of ashes that quickly fell to the ground.
Ninjutsu KATON, this is a level 35 skill. Delivers fire damage with a potency of 500 to target and all enemies nearby it. This ninjutsu requires the use of the two hand sign gestures, TEN ritual hand gesture for heaven and CHI ritual hand gesture for Earth
Only a second later did Brex land on the ground with a heavy thud near one of the ash piles and created a small gust with the landing, this caused some of the ashes to scatter. When he had landed, he had inadvertently uncovered something that was now half buried in the Timberwolves remains.
As he stepped towards the ashes of the nearest pile, he began to say to himself, “Oh wow… I didn't expect that to one shot them all in an instant. I was expecting it to do some damage and maybe knock him over. Dang! It almost looks like a mini nuke went off right here. I was a little worried there for a second, but it's a good thing the fire didn't expand too far. Would have been a real hassle if I had to suddenly work on putting out a huge forest fire. Probably shouldn’t use so much strength in the future. If this really is Equestria, then I need to watch what I do from now on. Would really rather not be turned into Equestria’s most wanted. I bet if they saw me use that power, I'd be labeled as a new villain to be stoned.”
He couldn’t help but to pause for a moment before he continued with, “I really don’t wanna be thrown in there with all the villains around. And with me being a male in all, there’s a pretty good chance that I’ll be ostracized and put on that list really fast if I was to show all this off. From what was portrayed in all those fan stories, the rulers turned out to be mostly all powerful. The idea of there being one that was as strong or even stronger makes them flip their shit and labels the new guy or girl to be evil without hearing things out and getting the full story from them. Personally, believing that they don’t want to lose face and cannot bare to lose their oh so high and mighty titles. I just know that most of these ponies are so stupid and just think they’re goddesses. If they see me and think that I have a lot of power, then things are not going to turn out well.”
Quickly he squashed said idea and went on to say, “Just because they have a lot of magic and they can live a long time, doesn’t mean that they’re goddesses. Sure, in some of the fan fictions they were made to be a lot more powerful than in the show, but I have no idea what they’re like here.”
He had returned his attention to the pile and had just bent down to pick up a brownish, orange type of crystal emanating a faint light. He hummed to himself as he examined it. Quickly, he used his mental commands to open his item box again and access one of the tabs displayed and brought up the part that showed something labeled as crystals.
After a few seconds another crystal that was similar to the one he found appeared in his other hand. Holding them both up to the sky, Brex looked through them by using the sunlight. It didn't take him long to see that these were the exact same thing. The crystal that he had picked up from defeating the Timberwolves, turned out to be an earth shard. Those were normally meant for crafting purposes in his game. Seeing as they weren’t just going into his inventory like they would in the game, Brex quickly went about and collected what he could after digging through all the Timberwolf ashes.
In final fantasy, they come in a wide range of colors. Each one being used in a particular way. For example, when it came to the brown crystals, they are used as a central component in creating items such as weapons, armor, furniture an assortment of other small items which were required for other crafters. The reds are naturally fire and are used in heating metal along with brown to use in the forge. Of course, you didn’t need the raw materials, but the crystals were needed and everything.
When he had made sure that he had gotten everything he could out of his victory, Brex went back to his windows and started to explore their functions. He had even gone into looking over his stats and what equipment he currently had on hand. After a little bit, he decided on testing his skills so that he wouldn’t have any mishaps in a battle.
However, he was a little disappointed that with him only being as high as level 35, he wouldn’t have access to the other skills that were considered to be way cooler. He thought that he would just have to level up like he would do in the game and get them that way.
He then began to practice using what skills he had available and switching out his gear to try out what was more comfortable. He had dabbled a little with his paladin, but found with it being heavily plated and needing to lug around a large shield and sword at the same time, was not very useful while within a heavily dense forest. So, he just went with sticking as his ninja seeing as how it was capable of traversing quite easily the narrow gaps between the trees.
This all went on for a couple of hours. He had looked up and saw that the son had moved to a position that would resemble that of five in the afternoon. He stopped for but a moment to consider something that popped into his head. “Wait, if that’s where the sun is right now, then I must have been going at this for five or six hours because that was high in the middle of the sky before I started practicing.”
He looked at his hands, then his body before looking ahead with a confused look on his face. He even went as far as crossing his arms and tilting his head while saying, “I’ve been at this practice for quite a while now. Yet I’m not tired in the least. Also why am I not hungry or thirsty at all? Could this have something to do with the game logic?”
Sure, in the game they did have food for the player characters to consume. However, it wasn’t out a necessity like living. But it was only to give them a slight stat boost along with a three percent that was added onto their accumulated experience. Depending on what level the food was created as, then the player would get anywhere from a five to ten percent increase in some of the combat stats.
This realization had brought him to another thought which made his face blanch for but a moment, but was replaced with one of excitement and relief at the same time. If he didn’t need to eat, drink or sleep like in the game, then that must also mean he doesn’t need to go to the bathroom. If that was the case, then he had a saving grace as he was in the middle of a forest. Brex was not fond of the idea of squatting down somewhere and finding a leaf to wipe himself. More so if said leaf turned out to give him poison oak and that would have been a horrible experience. The very idea of that scenario happening to him, caused his body to shiver involuntarily out of fear.
Brex was not going to be some slob, so he was going to find a river nearby that he could use to at least take care of his daily hygiene. Even if he was a game character, there was no way he was allowing himself to be filthy. After a bit of regaining his thoughts, he stood there while looking towards the sun that was getting close to going over the horizon.
He had closed his eyes and after a few moments, he reopened them and said out loud in a determined tone, “I suppose there’s no use fighting things right now. I don’t know how I got here or why I have this body. But I guess I’ll have to make the best of it. Well then! Lookout world, because there is a Roegadyn in Equestria.”
After a long moment of silence that proceeded Brex’s departure of the clearing, there was a female’s voice that echoed along with the wind. If one was carefully waiting and listening, they would just barely make out the following words. “I’ll make it up to you… Please forgive this one….”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 4: Ponies and hydras oh my! ( Fixed. )
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Everfree forest* *Time: Forth day after his arrival in Equestria*
It has been a few days sense Brex arrived in Equestria and had already made a few new friends while out in these woods. Well, he would use the term friends too loosely, as they all tried in one way or another to see just what this new creature that called itself a Roegadyn would taste like. Just a while ago, he had to deal with this thing that had the body of a snake and the head of a chicken. It hissed a few times and had attempted to get him into a staring contest. After dealing with it in a very aggressive manner, Brex was finally back on his way.
He thought to himself as he moved a large tree branch out of his way, “Wow, I can’t believe that last one thought I would just stand there and let this thing look me in the eyes long enough to turn me into stone. I mean really! You would have to be a very weak-minded person to allow that to even happen… Oh! Didn’t that twilight character let that happen to her? Hmm, isn’t she meant to be the smart one…?”
After that, Brex started walking down a dirt path, well not on said path, that would be ridiculous. He wanted to stay hidden and wanted to know the routes so it would help in the future. So, he stuck to the shadows along said path, this way not only would it be mapped, but any one that would be traveling on it wouldn’t see him if they crossed ways.
This went on for what seemed like a good hour, er maybe two… Ok, ok, so he didn’t have a good sense of time. But after a while, Brex looked to the top on his sight and got a small shock, right there above the mini map was a clock, yes, a clock, he started to have a faint blush at his lack of foresight. Then said to himself, “For crying out loud, there was always one in the game, why didn’t I see it. Ugh! I really need to start paying more attention, that would have been helpful this whole time.” Brex took another glance at the now almost mocking sight and did see that it was twenty-nine past eleven in the morning.
So far, he has not come across anything else in the forest that could talk. Maybe he was way farther inside than he had first thought. Another forty-five minutes passed by with nothing but the sounds of the forest around. The light wind that managed to pass through the thick canopy, the subtle warmth of what could pass as spring or possibly early summer here in this world. There was the light crunch of leaves… Wait, leaves. He wasn’t the one doing that, in fact he hardly made any sound himself. This led Brex to consider that it was another animal, but that idea went sailing out the window as he could hear the sound of voices coming ever so closer.
There was a young male voice that had a tone of… well what could he say. It sounded snobbish, you know, like those guys that had a big ego that could choke a whale. The male could be heard saying, “Hurry it up, oh why did I have to be placed on these patrol duties. This is just beneath my status. Clearly a mistake was made by some buffoon and I could have been at Canterlot for the completion ceremony. The princess is there and I’m just missing it.”
Brex thought, “Yup. I was right, its a snob. Doesn’t this man… I mean guy…” He had felt that it would have been an insult to all others in this world, to admit that this person was a man. This guy just doesn’t seem to understand just how important the job patrolling, is for the security of his country land.
After the male had taken a few more paces, another set of footsteps… he meant, hoof steps could be heard. No, it wasn’t just one, but two sets seemed to be following close behind the male. These however sounded lighter, this was then accompanied by the second voice Brex had got a chance to hear ever sense coming to this place. “Just wait up Break Down… Don’t go and have a break down on us.” The female voice snickered right after making her terrible pun. The now identified, Break Down had just came into view of Brex’s hiding spot. Just to make sure that he was not detected, the Roegadyn used the skill HIDE to become undetectable.
Skill: Hide, A skill that allows the user to go into a stealth state, those from level 1 and up to 10 levels higher than its user cannot see the one using this skill. Targets more than 10 levels higher than the user can see past its effects. Some creatures have skills or ability’s that allow them to see past this effect regardless of their level.
Brex’s eyes went wide as he saw that the ones talking were not ponies per say but or of the Anthro variety. He had fully expected them to be the type to be on all fours but with this situation he was a little more thankful. At least this way if he was ever spotted then he wouldn’t be outright called a monster for being on two feet.
Brex could see that the one known as Break Down, had turned on his heels and stared daggers at the one that had made the joke replied a condescending tone, “That was the worst joke, I ever had the misfortune to hear in my life! Huhg! On top of all this, I’m also forced to be in a group with and uncivilized mare like you… I can’t believe they just let a pony such as yourself into the royal guards. Really, a whore straight out of the red district, parading as a guard is laughable. I can think of much better things for one of your position to be doing, or should I say, who you should be doing.” Brake Down tilted his head down slightly and had begun to slowly trace the young women’s figure with a predatory grin.
Now this was really getting on Brex’s nerves after hearing this and began to think, “This guy really needs to respect his co-workers. Isn’t this blatant sexual harassment? He really needs to clean up his act, otherwise things will get messy for him down the road. Oh well, I just hope no one else gets dragged along for the ride when it finally happens.”
During the time the two were continuing with their little spat, the last set of hoofs that he heard from before had emerged into the open space and stopped just several paces from the other two. This mare just stood there, shuffling on her hoofs and had been turning her head back and forth to look in all directions. One hand on the handle of her sword and the other was tightly grasping the hilt. The first thought that Brex had was, “Nervous much there little one?... Why did I call her little one? Well, they all happen to be little to me if I think about it. The tallest one isn’t even up to six feet tall and here I am bordering at eight feet.”
Finally, when some time had passed by, the last person to come along said something to get the others attention, “Um… Excuse me… B-But I d-don’t think we shoul-“ This was when the male, Break Down interrupted what she was trying to say and quickly turned towards her direction and really began to raise his voice, “SHUT UP. I DON’T NEED TO BE ORDERED BY SOME MUD PONY LIKE YOURSELF!” Break Down’s voice caused the female to shrink down in fear. There were streams of tears rolling down her face as she tries to keep herself standing from the verbal abuse.
From what he remembered in a number of fan fictions. The term ‘mud pony’ was a type of derogatory slang that was made for earth ponies. So basically, a really hurtful insult to describe their tribe. It would seem that this term is widely used by the unicorns in an attempt to assert their dominance over those that could not use magic or fly.
The other female steps in and places her body between Break Down and the poor girl and glares at him. She then says, “Now that’s enough, stop right now or do you want me to report you to the captain. I’m sure he would like to hear all about how you have been conducting yourself on duty. Not to mention the treatment of your subordinates.” That gets a growl from the stallion as he locks eyes with hers. After a second or two, he turns and continues on the rout they were on previously. The others soon fallowing.
This sort of thing seemed to happen regularly as Brex had seen the very same set of ponies pass by the area over the course of days to come as he traveled around and explored more of the forest. Of course, there was more run-ins with the indigenous plants, animals and the ones in between. Yes, just in case if it wasn’t clear, right there he was referring to the Timberwolves.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Everfree forest* *Time: The Sixth day after his arrival*
It was around nine in the morning. The sun was behind a small amount of overcast, there was still the slight chill in the air from earlier that morning. A figure stood in yet another open area inside the woods and is looking over what laid Infront of him.
After the flames faded, Brex looked at the ashes right before him and walked towards the remains and did the usual thing that he was now very much accustomed to doing and collected the monster drop items. While doing this, his thoughts were, “Wow, they just don’t know when to give up do they.? This makes what… The sixteenth time now?” Brex was relieved that he had his item box that came from the game. Things would have been really bothersome if he had to carry all this stuff the normal way. With this, he could have anything he needed and at any time without the hassle of how much there was or the weight.
As the last of the crystals and random drop items such as small plant seeds and other types of rocks such as flint, where all being gathered. He found something new. This one encounter seemed to have a gold coin in one of the piles of ashes. Brex came to the conclusion that this was a coin that they called bits. From the stories, this was their form of currency that was used in that show.
He then came to a thought, “Why did they use solid gold coins in the first place? Those things are way heavy when one had a lot on hand. Also, what did the ponies even do when they needed to make a purchase at a store that required a large sum of these bits? Don’t tell me they just had to get a wheel barrel or something. Otherwise, things would have to be priced in a way that the bits got you more than one would have originally perceived. Huhg! My head hurts just trying to figure out their monetary system. Why am I doing this anyhow, it’s not like I can just go and buy something in a town. That would just get them to call in the guards… or worse… Celestia… NOPE! NOPE! Not going to deal with her!”
Brex was admiring the details on the coin and started to notice the way things were being depicted. Such as there was a sun symbol on one side and on the other, a pair of wings. Brex started to think to himself, “Hmm… it would seem that Celestia is already rewriting things to take her younger sister out of the history books as they say by starting with their currency. I remember on the show, er or was it the stories, that they said that there was a sun on one side that represented Celestia and a crescent moon on the other that represented Luna.”
Ideas where already running in his head. All the stories and the speculations on how Celestia did things and how they lined up with her long-term plan that spanned over a thousand years. They all couldn’t have been all right as there were way too many of them. Also, with how those very stories went, the history was off in one way or another.
In the original time line, like that witch was in the television show, Luna was not getting the attention and recognition of her subjects. This caused her self-esteem to plummet to the point that the feeling of jealousy festered and this transformed her into Nightmare Moon. This right there sparked a list of technical reasons that the Princess of the moon, would have gone through such a transformation.
From the top of his head, Brex remembered that in one, the alicorns magic was so strong that this would cause them to go through a drastic mental and physical change when their feelings got too strong and out of control. The next theory was that Luna had gotten infected by some parasite and this caused her to develop the symptoms that led to the birth of Nightmare Moon.
The last of the popular reasons was, Luna was somehow always Nightmare Moon and Celestia was power hungry and used the elements to banish her to the moon and when she returned, the new element bearers would use the power again, but this time to weaken Nightmare Moon. Thus, turning her into Luna, a much weaker and more docile version that Celestia could control and insert her will. Thereby keep herself as the ruler that had the most power, all the while under the disguise of Celestia being the good older sister and looking out for the younger one wellbeing.
It never made sense to Brex that after all that time, the so-called sun goddess, would have never mentioned that Nightmare Moon was in fact her sister Luna, but until after all was said and done. With all that time that passed, not once did Celestia try to make her Nightmare Moon, A.K.A. Luna out to be a good pony. But instead let the whole, she was evil and to be feared roll on. There was also the Nightmare night holiday that made the younger sister out to be some foal eating monster. This just caused him to start bursting with anger, these thoughts only fueled his fear that the proclaimed sun goddess was just some power-hungry tyrant that manipulated the masses for her own gain.
Now that he was like those characters in so many of the stories he had remember reading regarding the displaced, Brex came to a decision. Sense Princess Celestia had always misjudged the changed humans and caused them so much pain and suffering when they only wanted a way home or to just live-in peace. Then he, Brex Mith the Roegadyn, wouldn’t make it that easy to mess with him, he was going to come up with a way to make sure that the one ruling in this world would be kept in check. In fact, the idea of making sure that whenever she went out of line, then Brex would be there with a plan that would make her immediately regret it.
First things first. He was going to need to find out just what was the real story on this whole world. From the time of founding, when the sisters came to power, the incident and leading up to the present day. Information was considered the most powerful weapon in a fighter’s arsenal, Brex was going to stock pile enough to blow the mountain of Canterlot right up and into orbit, figuratively speaking.
Brex already knew the gist of everything from the many, many, stories he had read when it came to their basic system of tribes. There was the Unicorns and their use of magic. Fees or the primary residence of the city of Canterlot and made up the majority of those in power. Do Unicorns always see themselves as superior due to their ability to use magic and basically do anything they wanted because of it. This gave them a humongous superiority complex that they like to hold over the other races.
Next up were the Pegasus. They were the flying types and could move clouds as well as stand on them. They mostly reside in a floating city known as Cloudsdale. Dairy usually known for their brash and stubborn nature. They are no doubt the most competitive ones of all three races.
The next is the Earth ponies and as the name implies, they are the most basic of them all. What they lack in magic and flight capabilities, they more than made up for with their sturdy bodies and superhuman like strength. They’re mostly known for working the land and providing food for the other three races.
Now there’s those three types of ponies but there is a fourth category that has a very, very, low number in it. These are called the Alicorns. They are a combination of all three of the pony races. This means that they not only have the strength of the earth ponies, but they also have the flight capabilities of the Pegasus. Now couple that together with the magic that a Unicorn has then you got one powerful being. But from what he understands they primarily focus on magic the most.
But what stands out the most about the Alicorns, is that they have an exceptionally long lifespan and a nearly limitless amount of magic compared to the normal Unicorn. From what he understands at this timeframe there should only be two in existence. Those being of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
Brex news of some of the history in the show but that can’t be relied upon too heavily. So some more accurate information is required for future plans. In order to carry out said plans, Brex was going to start off by heading towards the structure he was overlooking last week.
Which would happen to be known as the castle of the two sisters. As he was going through the forest, Brex noticed that the sounds around him were changing ever so slightly, at first, he didn’t know what to make of this. However, soon he felt under his feet that the ground was beginning to give off a vibration that he had not encountered before. Brex kneeled down and placed a hand on the muddy earth after another second passed, he felt the tremor again as time went on second by second. They began to increase in both magnitude and frequency, this was then accompanied by a large beast’s roar.
To him, it sounded as if it was off quite a distance, yet it was capable of shaking the leaves above Brex’s head. The roar went on for several more seconds then stopped, but the tremors continued. It was right then and there that he realized and said in a very loud and startled voice, “OH SHIT!! I remember that sound from the show, it’s a fucking hydra!”
*Point of view: Shadow Lily* *Location: Everfree forest* *Time: several minutes before the beast’s roar was heard by Brex*
The sun had not yet come close to reaching its zenith in the sky. The young anthro earth pony mare was walking through the forest, donning her light metal plated armor and a short sword at her side. Standing at five feet and two inches tall, with purple fur and a black mane. She was being accompanied by two others while on her patrol. Looking over to her right, she noticed the other female of the group. This one was a Unicorn that came up to five feet and three inches. This pony had pink fur and a light blue mane. Her name was Swirl Sugar. She carried a short silver tipped spear and donned a familiar armor just like the one she was wearing. Shadow Lily was looking to and fro down their path as they walked.
The last member of their group was a male unicorn. This one was at a height of five feet and eight inches tall, with brown fur and a light brown main. This guy’s name was Break Down and he had armor similar to the previous two, but this one was obviously made for the male member of their species. Furthermore, with a closer glance one could tell that his was in fact well-polished, too well-polished.
One might even believe that this Unicorn hardly ever got dirty. Brandishing a short sword that appeared to have a golden handle protruding from its hilt and a mid-sized shield. That too also was well polished, in fact it continuously reflected the light all over the place. There were times while he walked, it would even blind his companions, causing them to raise an arm in order to prevent them from being blinded as the sun reflected off the polished surfaces.
Swirl Sugar, after getting annoyed for the umpteenth time so far today called out to the male Unicorn in front of her, “HAY! Break Down, why do you always have to do that, really! We can’t see a dang thing in front of us with you acting like a walking mirror and blinding us every few seconds!”
With that, Break Down turned and looked over his left shoulder and replied with a condescending attitude, “Hold your tongue whore! How dare you insult me in this manner. I am your superior in both class, status and rank. It would be best if you showed me proper respect, furthermore I paid good money for my armor to look this fabulous, just like myself.” He said this all the while coming to a stop and making a grandiose pose. Holding his shield up with his left arm and his right fist lifted and placed on his chest. Break Downs chin tilted ever so lightly towards the heavens and looking off in the distance as if holding in place for a portrait.
While gazing at this site of what could only be considered, pure outrageous stupidity. Swirl Sugar closed her eyes and lifted her right hand only to pinch the bridge of her muzzle, this was obviously a sign that she was nearing her end and was close, so very close to just letting loose and throttling this idiot of a commander standing right in front of her. After taking a few very slow and deliberate breaths, Swirl turned then looked at the one who has yet to say anything during the whole patrol.
Then asked in a whisper to the purple mare, this was done for the simple fact to not startle her or to gain the attention of a certain individual that is still standing in place like an idiot. “So how are you holding up over there Shadow Lily? It’s been nearly three weeks now since you have been assigned to this group and you’ve hardly said much of anything aside from a few days ago. I’m really sorry that you had to deal with this guy. They should have put you in another group, really any of the others would have been better. I’ve been with him for nearly a month now and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve considered the idea of leaving his body out in the woods.”
Shadow Lily turned towards Swirl Sugar and replied in a subdued tone that also reflected her friends attempt to keep their conversation to themselves and replied, “I… I-its ok. I just have a hard time telling others what I think, that’s all. Also, I don’t want to get into trouble with our commander, I mean he is from a noble family. I just don’t understand how you can even talk to him the way you have. I mean, are you not scared that he is going to do something?”
She asked in a concerned tone, it was not uncommon, in fact it was more widely believed that the nobles always had their way when it came to their pride and would do anything in order to keep said pride intact. This led to the common belief that they would in fact cause problems to those who insulted them in any way, shape or form.
Things would even progress to the point that it would affect their families that weren’t involved. There have been times where nobles would go around and take land and drum up some phony reports to get the commoners thrown into the dungeons, where they would mysteriously be forgotten and left to die. But these were just stories… Stories she hoped that were vastly over exaggerated.
As the two mare’s continued on with their conversation, the male member known as Break Down had continued forward without even looking back in their direction and entered deeper into the forest. Just as he was passing a shrubbery, his foot got caught on an extended branch and this caused the stallion to fall forward. In an attempt to keep from colliding to the floor, his arms flailed erratically. By doing so he stumbled further at a greater speed and right through a thick patch of low hanging branches.
At this time, the two mare’s had finally noticed the odd sounds that were coming from in front of them and turned towards the disturbance, only to notice that their third party member had disappeared beyond their line of sight. Quickly there was the following sound of splashing water, accompanied by the indignant wailing of an insufferable noble stallion.
Shadow Lily, along with Swirl Sugar both regained their senses and chased after their would-be commander. Unsheathing her short sword, Shadow Lily made a diagonal cut along the thick branches that showed signs of the recent disturbance that was caused by Break Down passing through.
This quickly opened up a path as well as giving them a perfect view of the situation right in front of them. Instead of finding Break Down, they also came face to face with a large body that took up most of their view directly on the other side of the stallion in front of them. Its size was to the point that it was even casted a shadow across all three of them and a good portion of the tree cover above their heads. Shadow Lily looked up and in a frightened, timid, borderline, squeaky voice said, “Oh sweet Celestia, it’s a hydra…”
Just as Shadow Lily finished with her exclamation, the stallion who was drenched in mud finally got up. With his eyes still closed, he turned towards the mare’s and yelled at them at the top of his lungs, “WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK YOU’RE DOING! GET OVER HERE AND GET ME OUT OF THIS DREADFUL MUD! IT IS STAINING MY OUTFIT AND JUST WHAT IS THAT DREADFUL SMELL? OH, AH! IT IS GOING TO MAKE ME VOMIT!”
This caused Shadow Lily and Swirl Sugar to stare blankly at the stallion and think in their heads, “Oh my, he is so stupid! Stop yelling! You’re going to get us all killed, open your eyes and turn around!”
Finally, after ten seconds, the stallion reaches up with his right hand and yanks his helmet from the top of his head. Then using the back of his forearm, wipes the mud from his eyes. He then looks over at the two mare’s with an indignant stare. This whole thing only took the span of those ten seconds but in the mind’s eye of the two in front of him, it was an eternity. It took him but a moment to notice their facial expressions, soon it then dawned on him that they were not looking at him per say, but what was… behind. Slowly the stallion began to turn in place. There was a strange feeling in the air, as his field of vision panned to the right and he began to notice just where he was.
Break Down tilted his head up very slowly while still turning. First, he noticed the wet ground, the brown, green and the murky wet mud and tall weeds of vegetation scattered about. In a few areas close and far away, he can see pockets of green gas coming from large bubbles that popped on the water surface.
Then finally his vision began to be covered by a large, brownish green wall of flesh that started from his right side until finally that was all he could see. Just as Brake Down thought he couldn’t crane his neck upwards any further, he finally found what looked like the base of a neck, no not a neck, it was the base of three necks.
Straining to do more, he managed to bring his sights to a higher point, but what he found made him wish he had been unable to do so. The stallion’s eyes widened to a comical size and the irises shrank to pin pricks. For what was in front of him, he knew very well from what the other guards back at the barracks had mentioned.
After a short pause, the three ponies came to a unanimous decision within their minds, which was, “RUN! RUN!” This was followed by them all dashing back into the woods through the opening, all the while screaming their heads off as they ran at full speed.
*Point of view: The Hungry Hydra* *Location: Everfree forest* *Time: Moments ago*
While the ponies were all standing in the presence of one of the apex predators and going on with their little moment. The Hydra stood right behind the very loud one that appeared to have not noticed the situation that it was now in. This caused the creature to pause and watch the spectacle unfolding before it.
Right at this place and time, before these ponies, was one of the most powerful kings of the Everfree Forest. Standing at thirty-six feet tall, over twelve feet wide, forty-eight feet long if stretched out and its weight was around fourteen tons. Moss green scales covered its body that only became a lighter shade on the underside. This color pattern leading from the tip of the tail, running all the way past its two thick legs and up to the necks only to end at the creature’s jaws.
Three necks had grown from the upper section of the body and each one had a lizard head that almost resembled a dragon. But one key factor was the spines along the sides did not have the standard horns, instead in their place, were thick spines and webbed fins that ran down the back sides and along the sides of its tail. The Hydra had slitted dark green, reptilian eyes. There was a set of long sharp teeth that ranged from an inch long to three inches that were in the places humans would have had their canines.
(This is roughly what the Hydra looks like.)
The left head tilted towards the middle and glanced over to its counterpart. It then gave it a raised eye lid, which could have been taken for a raised eye brow. Afterwards it gave the head a thought through their mental connection that said, “I don’t get what is going on here. Do you?”
The middle head had a puzzled expression and then looked to the right head to get its input on what was going on. Quickly noticing that the third head appeared as if it wasn’t even paying attention to the loud one, but was looking towards the other two ponies with a toothy, hungry gaze.
The hydra who happened to be watching these three ponies right in front of him just standing there, caused a small amount of confusion. But the action they chose in which they ran and screamed snapped the hydra’s attention back to normal.
The once confused faces of the Hydra quickly morphed into a predatory like grin. It then drew in a large amount of air through its three gaping wide maws’. This caused the chest area to expand to a certain degree, then after craning its necks, all three lunged forward and delivered a mighty roar that echoed through the woods.
(Play this for the hydra roar.)
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 5: A Everfree King Dethroned, Data Error… ( Fixed. )
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Everfree forest* *Time: Nearly half an hour after hearing the Hydra roar*
Brex was currently making his way through the forest on paths that ponies did not walk on, but were normally reserved for the wildlife. Above his head, were thick patches of tree limbs that nearly blocked out any light from the sun. This did not matter to him all that much as the Roegadyn had an internal clock that he can look at it anytime he wanted in place of looking for where the sun was during the day. At which time showed it to be two in the afternoon.
It had been a while sense he had heard that booming roar from earlier. Judging from it, he had figured to have come from quite a distance. Normally those beasts lived in the swamp area’s and he was nowhere near there, so he didn’t have anything to be concern about.
He began to think to himself, “OK, so if I’m right about this, the castle of the two sisters should be to the east, not far from here. Also, right now should be at the point of their history where Celestia has moved out of the castle and is in the newly built Canterlot. Meaning that the old castle would be deserted. But if not, then it should only be patrolled by a few soldiers. I just need to make my way there, cross a chasm using a what should now be a perfectly fine bridge right now, sneak across the courtyard, after that, I’ll navigate through the hallways and make my way to the lower sections where they have the royal library.
He paused for a moment to gather his wits and continued with, “If my memory serves me right, there should be a number of protection spells in place all over the key parts of the castle. However, I don’t think they will give me any problems considering that from the stories, they were primarily focused around keeping Ponies out, along with Griffins which at this time are their enemies. So, if my hunch is right, then the spell should have little or no effect when coming to contact with a Roegadyn.” Brex finished with his line of thinking when the end of the forest came into range.
Just as he made it to the edge of a tree line. He used his hands to part the branches enough to peek through. Brex could see before him, a large chasm and on the other side was his intended destination. Tall spires along with buildings going up five stories and a few going up as high as ten.
The construction consisted mostly of brick and mortar, he could see that with the assistance with both physical and magical means that the structures were built in a very efficient manner when compared to the first episode of this show. Everything almost seemed as if someone had been living there only a few days prior, but there has already been signs of the plant life beginning to encroach on other parts of the castle.
Much of the structures appear to have suffered some damages, just as Brex had noticed from a week before, when he was watching on top of a tree branch and taking in the damage caused by the two sisters fight. Now that he was in front of it, he was able to truly see the devastation that was caused by the confrontation of two goddesses. The next thought that went through his head was, “Note to self, don’t piss off Luna unless you’re able to take a mini nuke to the face.”
Approaching the edge of the chasm, Brex looks down and wondered, “Did they really build this intentionally? And even back then, you couldn’t see the ground. Also, why only a single rope bridge, how on earth did they get supplies brought to the castle on that flimsy little thing?” Brex then mentally facepalms before he continued with, “OH! magic, right. Now Speaking of magic, I bet down there someplace is the small cave that houses the tree of harmony, I wonder what would happen if I go near it… Nah! Maybe not. Don’t wanna take the chance of triggering any traps, no way in hell do I want Celestia to know about me just yet.”
Just then as if the universe decided that it wanted to mess with him, from the forest came a roar of epic proportions. The force of which caused trees to sway and large flocks of birds came flooding from them and up into the skies. The ground was shaking, Brex look down and could see that a few pebbles were rumbling on the floor, quickly the Roegadyn looked up and towards the forest that the sound emanated from, then realized instantly. He exclaimed in a frustrated tone, “OH come on?! Really, why do I have to deal with this right now? Anyone who is anyone could tell that was a Hydra just now!”
He was now practically fuming. Just how did he know that it was a Hydra from the sound of the roar? Well after a week of living in the Everfree forest, Brex has now had the chance to observe the wildlife and has on at least two occasions heard the four mentioned roar.
With a defeated sigh, along with drooping shoulders. Brex slowly walks towards the forest with an exhausted face plastered on. Then in a whisper, Brex says, “Here we go. I just know this is how it is, 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… and cue the screaming.” Just then, as if, well, on cue came the screams of three Ponies which penetrated the woods like a hot knife through butter. He was able to tell right away that it came from three individuals he had seen in the woods, in fact he was positive that he could distinctly pick one out, how is this so? This was due to the fact that he has heard this voice so many times throughout his little vacation in the Everfree.
Brex then thinks, “Too bad it wasn’t just him. If it was, I could just turn right around and head straight to the castle, but it would seem the other two are with him and I can’t have all three of them become Hydra chow. That would just leave a bad taste in my mouth… OK, I can’t tell if that was a good or a bad pun.”
He then picks up his speed and makes a quick dash towards the direction of the sound. To Brex, he was running fairly fast but he did not realize that in fact he was nothing but a blur to the normal eye. The wind made a whistling sound, leaves and dirt were scattered behind his wake, to him the forest seemed no different, but in fact it was passing by him as if one were looking out of a car window and traveling down a highway going close to fifty miles an hour.
*Point of view: Shadow Lily* *Location: Everfree Forest*
Shadow Lily was on the verge of a heart attack. They had just come into contact with one of the kings of the Everfree forest and were on the run for their lives. Alongside her, was two of her teammates. One being Swirl Sugar, a nice mare, while the other who would normally be referred to as an idiot, Brake Down. She could not believe her luck was going this bad, not only was the training so hard on her but there was also the harassment from the others in the royal guard.
This was all due to the fact that she was an earth pony. As it happens, the royal guard is mostly comprised of Unicorns. Because of this, there is a superiority complex that they have towards those who do not use any magic. As a result, Shadow Lily had to endure this just because she wanted to be a royal guard and show that she too could protect the princess to which she respects so much. Right behind her was her instrument of doom, the feared Hydra.
Another ear-splitting roar rang out from right behind her at that moment. Just like the others that proceeded this one, Shadow Lily was able to feel it right down to her very bones. Eyes wide as they could go and her irises now reduced to the size of pin pricks, she was breathing very hard and fast in an attempt to keep oxygen going in desperation to get herself to somehow move faster.
She could then hear the voice of Swirl Sugar calling out to her. Looking to the right, there alongside Shadow Lily, she could see just how scared Swirl was, along with the tears running from her eyes. Behind the two mare’s was a screaming girly shrill that could have been confused for a new mare but instead, Shadow Lily glanced back and all that she could see behind them was a hysterical Break Down with everything going on, from the tears, the long running snot coming from his nose and if an outside party was paying attention, they would have noticed a trail of urine being left in his wake.
Break Down started to scream, “WHAT ARE YOU BOTH DOING?! DO YOUR JOB AND STOP THAT THING! I CAN’T DIE HERE!” As he made that demand, he noticed that the two ahead did not heed his call. This caused him to morph his face from that of fear, to that of anger. Then it turned into a sneer. Just then, the stallion lit his horn and a light brown hew enveloped it and a short beam of light shot past the two mare’s and impacted a large root that was just above the forest floor.
The root then quickly lifted as if alive and snagged itself onto Shadow Lily’s left hoof. This made the mare fall and hit the ground with a loud *THUD*, Swirl noticed a second after that, with a gasp released from her lips. She saw that her friend was down and came to a grinding halt, her hoofs making a light groove in the soft dirt and then spun on the spot and dashed towards Shadow Lily.
Break down continued to make his escape right past the others after clearly seeing that his plan worked and those mare’s would now end up being his shield. Just as the stallion had got maybe a hundred feet ahead. A large bush was found to be in the way. He then ran a little harder as to force his way past the shrubbery that was now trying to block his path.
There was the sound of rustling, then a *CRASH*, that was instantly paired with the pain screamed cry from Break down. There on the ground, was the stallion sprawled out on his back. Arms and legs spread, a dazed expression on his face and right above that was an obvious lump forming on the side of his head, just to the right of the male’s horn. This would not have happened if he didn’t take the helmet off just earlier and dropped it at some point during the chase.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Everfree Forest*
The ground quaked as the large creature continued its chase, knowing that its food was just before it. The Hydra picked up its pace, its large framework thrashed through a number of trees. Large Oak, Pine trees and other assortments were nothing in front of its raw power. Those that would be able to handle strong storms became nothing but blades of grass under its feet. Large trees and stumps were sent flying as the creature became more impatient and instead of going around any obstacles in its way, it just decided to go through anything in its path.
Finally, after a short chase, the Hydra finally caught up to its prey. Right in front of its three heads, it was able to notice the Ponies and their current condition. The Hydras three heads all had a sinister smile. It was able to gauge that one of them who was the furthest away and near a rock face was on its back and appeared to be currently incapacitated. This caused the Hydra to turn its full attention over to the two mare’s that were nearby. Quickly it took in the situation where the dark one was currently caught on something and unable to get away. But the pink one on the other hand, looked as if it was still capable of running, instead she was attending to the downed female.
The two mare’s noticed that their pursuer had finally caught up with them, their eyes went wide with fright and their bodies began to shiver uncontrollably. Shadow Lily quickly spoke out in a panic, “Swirl! Leave me! You need to get out of here, you’re the only one who can still run!” Swirl Sugar just stood there beside Shadow Lily and replied with, “I- I’m not going to do that to you, I’m sure we can get out of here. D-Don’t w-worry.” Swirl Sugar tried to console her friend, but the tone in her voice betrayed her fears.
The Hydra and the three Ponies where deep in the forest and at this time the ponies were caught between a rock and a hungry Hydra. There were thick trees all around their area, but it seemed as if they represented a cage that they were now trapped in and they were soon to be an animal’s meal.
As the large hulking creature drew closer, its steps seemed to echo and give the impression of thunder as its tremendous weight compacted the ground floor leaving indentations of its feet. The three necks began to crane downwards, then it began to open their mouths. This emitted a foul odor of rotten meat, the mare’s nearly threw up in their own mouths from the stench alone. But seeing those teeth had almost caused them to do something else to their pants.
Break Down was quite a way’s off and was still in a half in and out consciousness but could just make out the blurred forms of some figures. One large and another small, unknown to the stallion, the smaller one was of the two mare’s, their size differences was too much and it could only be compared to a pebble and a large boulder. His hearing wasn’t all that great either, not being able to hear anything other than his own heart beat and the hydras deep breathing.
(Start playing music here until the end of the fight.)
Just as the hydra had opened its mouths, it then lunged towards the two. It outstretched its necks to take its meal, intending to rip them apart and satisfy its hunger enough to take its sweet time on the last one that was still laying on the ground. It was not paying attention when something flew out from the forest at a near blinding speed. It struck with the right head with enough force to cause it to launch towards the others. This was able to throw the Hydra off course and it crashed into the ground, to which it skidded for several meters due to its massive weight and the force it had just used to lunge at its prey. One of the kings of the Everfree was now belly down and all three faces buried in the dirt, motionless.
To the two mare’s, it didn’t make sense. They were watching their deaths coming right at them. Time had started to slowed down and they had just begun to see flashes of their life’s when something came into their vision. To them, it was a large flat, spinning object that was moving at breakneck speeds. It appeared to be a cross of some sort, being red in the middle area but going out from there, it was black and the ends were curved like blades.
The whole thing was roughly the size of a pony. When the object had made its way to the creature, the blade like ends had easily cut through the scales a few inches, then there was a concentrated explosion. Resulted in them looking over to their side and seeing something that made the two mare’s minds go blank for a second. The feared Hydra was down and not moving.
After a moment or two, the Hydra started to move once again. This caused the two mare’s to panic at the sight, as it began to get its legs underneath itself to stand once again. There was yet another sound that came from the forest’s darkness. Another one of those things came out, but instead of going for a head hit like last time, it instead curved around in a wide, long ark and landed a direct hit to the Hydras chest area.
This forced the creature to hunch over a bit and lower its heads closer to the ground. They were all now at just above the head height of the Ponies and the things faces had a mix of emotions among all three of them containing that of pain, anger and confusion as to what was going on.
The next second was nothing but them all seeing a large blueish haze dashing out from the tree line on the other side from where the last attacks had originated from and make its way towards the Hydras now lowered heads. There was a streak of two nearly imperceptible lines of light caused by the sun light as the haze passed by and all the heads and continued without stopping as it retreated on its straight path back into the trees.
(End the music here.)
There was an eerily calm silence that followed this series of events that only lasted but ten seconds from the moment the first attack had occurred. The mare’s looked on at the sight before them. They were holding in their breaths for the next several seconds and just then, the once still Hydra’s faces that were now looking away from them, sprayed blood from large gashes that ran across one side of their heads. These wounds ran right over both eyes and lead to the other side of the head. This was the same for all three, the legs finally gave and then one of the forest kings fell for the last time and laid there dead as a pool of its green blood was growing underneath.
The mare’s had a look of complete disbelief written across their expressions as they had just witnessed something that couldn’t have happened in real life. A creature that would have needed one of the following two conditions to be able to take one of these downs, would have been the princess confronting it herself. The second would have to be a group of over onehanded guards that had to have been fully armed to have a chance.
But still, that would have had resulted in severe casualties. They couldn’t say a word, no they couldn’t even begin to think on what happened to them. Complete shock was all they had in their minds. After a while of mental recovery, the two finally worked to free the dark mare’s hoof and they collected the stallion that was still on the ground and left the area in a hurried fashion in order to leave the forest before anything else happened.
During all that time, in the darkness the trees gave. There stood a large figure that had its arms crossed and a distant look on its face as it acted as a vigilant guard to dissuade any other creatures from coming closer due to the overwhelming stench that came off the large amount of blood the Hydras remains were giving off.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Everfree forest*
Brex watched as the group left the forest. It had taken some time, in fact he was close to going right out into the open to slap the back of their heads in order to knock them out of whatever they had going on in their minds, to get them to start moving again.
Thinking to himself in a somewhat confused sense, “Well that went a little different than I thought it would. I mean, I know that the Hydras are meant to be really strong. But it seemed like this one wasn’t really all that powerful to me. All it took was three attack skills and it was down for the count. It may have ended up being more than that if I hadn’t had their heads lined up with that last hit when I was running past.” He was referring to the two long range skills, Fuma Shuriken, then the last melee skill called Spinning Edge.
Weapon Skill: Fuma Shuriken, Delivers a ranged ninjutsu attack with a potency of 500. Creates a large star shape Shuriken that has the physical strike that can also be combined with an explosion on impact. Hand sign Combination: Any one of the Ten, Chi, or Jin Hand signs.
Weapon Skill: Spinning Edge, Delivers an attack with a potency of 220. A fluid motion that uses the user’s body to turn at high speed with the use of two weapons to strike a single target.
He continued with his thoughts and then came to a sudden realization, “There shouldn’t be any reason for me to have been able to take on something like that on my own, much less that quickly. In some of the stories, the princess or a large group would have been needed for one of those things. I wonder if everyone here just has a really low level or could it be that my skill numbers are just too high or broken. If I was to compare that thing to those I would have fought in the game. If I’m level 35, then with how easy the fight was, then the Hydra must have been around the mid or upper twenty range.”
Brex paused and tapped his chin before continuing with his thoughts, “If I go with those figures, then the guards I had just seen may have been far lower. Hmm, well, with how they acted and if I combine that with the amount that may have been needed to take it out, then I would have to say that they couldn’t have been more than level 12. But that’s just ridiculous. How can I be that much stronger? Oh wait, what if that hydra wasn’t even a fully grown one and was really on the lower end? That would make more sense, then the numbers would have lined up.”
He then had a look of realization and snapped his fingers before going on with, “If I think of it like that, then the real heavy hitters would have to be around level 40 to 50.” With a heavy sigh, Brex puts that all behind him and decides to figure that out another time.
Now that there are no other distractions to get in his way, he turns and retraces his steps back to the castle, but not before going to the hydra and cuts into the creature’s body and extracts a sizable chunk with the use of his knives to take some meat with him, in hopes that the rumors in some of the stories about Hydra meat being good when cooked over an open fire wasn’t a lie, if not, then Brex wasn’t going to have a very pleasant night.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Everfree Forest* *Time: Back to the present time*
Brex had just finished recollecting about what had happened over the last week. He was rather surprised with how he had to learn his skills, then there was the one-sided meeting with the locals. Not to mention saving their collective tails from that hungry Hydra. Right now, the Roegadyn was standing at the end of the rope bridge that led to the castle. He had waited a few days after the incident to see if there was going to be any more patrols but had seen nothing.
Looking over the edge, he saw nothing but an endless abyss down below. Shaking his head, he knew that it wasn’t really a thing and that there was a bottom and this was just some illusion caused from the dense fog far below. Turning his attention back to the structures, Brex crossed the bridge and entered the ground. Just as he was about to disappear inside, he could help but to mutter, “I wonder just what I’ll find in there?”
*Point of view: Third person* *Location: Everfree forest, Within the castle of the two sisters* *Time: Over an hour after entering the castle*
Within the dark, dank room, the light from the outside world has not been seen in many years. The dust has covered the floor made of dark stone. There are blue rugs lined with what appeared to be symbols of the moon and stars are running along the edges. A number of large book cases line the walls to the left and right sides of the room. On the wall between is a large double door that happens to have the same pattern as the elaborate rugs.
Just then, the large doors burst open with a great *Bash* sound as the heavy wood hits the stone walls on either side. An enormous figure rush’s inside and then turns to quickly on the spot to shut them with a *THUD*. Its hands outstretched and holding the door closed as if his life depended on this act, which is then followed by a very exasperated, heavily labored breathing.
The figure that stands at a very high height then says out loud in a frantic voice, “OK, WHATS UP WITH THAT LAST TRAP!? AND JUST WHO’S IDEA WAS IT TO KEEP A LARGE ASS STAR SPIDER AS A PET??! I FUCKING HATE SPIDERS!” After a few moments, the figure came to a realization and spoke again in a deadpan tone, “Ah… of course. Its Luna… She was the type to be into those kinds of things. Fits her theme, wouldn’t be surprised if that sister of hers just went up and left it here because she too hated spiders. I do remember it was in a story or two that there was a spider that Luna had… I really should have foreseen that one, it must have been small at the time and it just grew up after so long.”
Taking a few moments to gather his wits and his soul, that was almost literally scared out from his body after that last incident. Brex takes in a long breath, but then regrets it immediately and starts to cough hard due to the large amount of dust that littered the room. As well as the amount that was just recently kicked up from the doors abrupt opening and subsequential closing.
When the near fatal amount of dust had been cleared from his lungs, Brex quickly rushes to a two-door window that he managed to spy while in that coughing fit and opens it wide. There before him, was the court yard beyond a balcony that could have comfortably held four people standing on it.
Brex then turns to look back to the room to ascertain his position after getting lost in the hallways for what seemed like an hour after entering the castle grounds. The events that happened after coming into the castle came to his mind and the events began to replay.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Close to an hour ago*
Brex was searching the diverse rooms among the recent ruins. Among them were the waiting area before entering the throne room. Then there was the banquet hall and kitchen, that one still had all of the cooking utensils, pots and pans needed to fix a meal. It seems they just decided to say fuck it and let’s get all new stuff while we are getting a brand-new castle while at it.
The rest of the castle comprised of servant’s quarters and storage areas. On the upper floors it seemed to consist of larger rooms with bathrooms connected. He then thought, “So those must have been for the visiting dignitaries or just the nobility, I get it now, the servants must have had to go and use a shared restroom.”
Then as time went on, Brex made it to an area of the castle that seemed to have changed its theme. There it went from the normal stone and tapestries that illustrated both the moon and sun, to just that of the moon. It was then that he came to the conclusion that this was the old castles lunar wing, to which Princess Luna resided at and happened to be the first place that Brex had wanted to head to for his exploration into this world’s past.
At first the trek into the lunar wing was going to turn into a walk in the park, the spells that were placed here along the floors and walls tried to activate as soon as Brex entered a new corridor leading further in. How did he know this? Well, it was a dead giveaway when the surfaces along the ground, arch ways and walls all gave off a faint glow of ancient runes when he came near. But that was all they did. His earlier predictions about the spells being meant to work on only the species of this world was what kept him safe so far.
When Brex had gotten to the end of a hallway, there was a spiral staircase leading up. However, instead of just ascending but one floor, it was going further up beyond that. This made him wonder it this was going to end up leading to the very top of a tower.
He then started his way and found himself not too long standing at the last step and in front of him was another archway that led to a short connecting bridge to an adjacent tower. Brex then let out a short sigh and said, “They really like their tall buildings… Ugh, the rich and royals are all the same, they just love to look down on the lower class. Huh, ok I’m sure of it now, I must have had something against those with money, maybe I was poor before arriving here.”
The connecting bridge was wide enough to allow a pair of people to walk side by side. Above was a nicely carved stone covering, it was being supported by a pillar every few meters. At the half way point, Brex noticed something ahead and stopped in his track. If one looked at where he was, then they would have noticed that at that moment, the Roegadyn was ten floors up above the ground on a bridge that was going between two towers that ran the span of thirteen meters across and he was only just now nearing the middle of it.
As Brex stood there on the bridge, he could make out what appeared to be a mass of cloth covering the way Infront of him. After a few moments a gust of wind just had to pick that moment to blow and that caused the cloth to move. This however displayed something that sent a massive warning signal running from the base of his spine all the way up his back.
Alerts were going off inside his head, Brex’s eyes became impossibly large and his iris’s became pin pricks. Quickly he looked towards the mini map and prayed within his mind that there wouldn’t be a red marker there. Why was he like this? Because right before the Roegadyn Ninja, was the corpse of an anthro Pony wearing royal guard armor and was being suspended by thick strands of white string… no, not string, those were silk, spider silk.
As if to say the universe wanted to really send him over the edge of stress, the mini map showed what Brex didn’t want to see, which was a single red dot that was directly ahead on the bridge. Judging from what he could see from both the map and what was right before him, Brex was able to determine that the enemy of all that is good and pure, was right on the other side of the large mass of spider silk. Not only that, it was moving slowly towards himself by way of the red dots positioning shifting ever closer towards himself.
Brex’s panic was only intensifying at the idea of something that could have done this to a fully grown anthro pony was now getting closer. With his breathing getting quicker and the strength his lungs were drawing in air, it was a wonder that Brex wasn’t hyperventilating or passing out like he had done in the forest before. Oh no, he was not going to let that happen especially not right now.
The adrenaline was coursing throughout his veins like a shot of rocket fuel. His senses were now on high alert, unlike before, Brex could fully see everything, previously he could hardly keep track of what was before his eyes and on the mini map simultaneously. But now it was as if all were connected into one sense that the brain could fully assimilate and the information seemed to be flowing smoothly.
Brex’s mind was busy thinking all this and at that moment he was distracted for but a single instant, that was when the target moved as if detecting the opening. His mini map was indicating it was going right at him, but it was still not in view. It was at ten meters, eight meters, then five meters.
But he still didn’t have a visual on it. That’s when he realized that it was not in the bridge, but underneath it. Right when it was at the two-meter marker, did Brex’s body moved on its own. With a strong jump that had sent the ninja a good five meters back from his last position, he skidded to a stop and glanced ahead. There at that very instant, a large hulking black mass climbed over the short railing and landed on the spot Brex had but a moment ago occupied.
(I was going to put a scary picture here but I couldn’t bring myself to do so as I happen to be scared of them in real life and I assume there are readers out there that also face the same problem, so instead there will be a M L P version but I’ll describe some of its features.)
The first words that came from his lips were, “Star Spider.” It was easily bigger than Brex himself. It appeared to be about seven feet and eight inches tall. Even with his height, Brex was still smaller than this thing. This very fact just made the fear factor jump from a ten go all the way up to a twenty.
This thing must be at least nine feet tall if there was more room on the bridge and its legs were extending from it and going over the railing and gripping said bridge from the outside. Judging from the sight, Brex had surmised that this thing would be fully capable of wrapping itself around him with little effort. His skin was crawling so much that he nearly had nearly mistaken the feeling for small bugs running all over him.
The star spiders eight red eyes did not have any irises or pupils, but instead they were all solid red and glowing in a way that could have had one mistaking them for rubies. There were large fangs protruding that quickly clanked together in a way to indicate it was ready for a meal. Its body was covered in thick fine bristly hairs that stuck out to the point they appeared to be able to actually stab someone if they were to be unlucky to get near it.
On the top of the body, there was the iconic symbol of the creature, one that was in the shape of a large five-pointed star, but something was off to Brex. In the show, that symbol was meant to be a lighter color, this one’s however was blood red and it reminded him of what would have been found on a black widow.
This only made the Roegadyn’s blood run cold at the sight. After all this, the first thing that Brex finally got to think very loudly in his head was, “LUNA… IF I GET OUT OF THIS! IM GOING TO PUNISH YOU SO HARD WITH AN ASS SPANKING, THAT YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO SIT ON A THRONE FOR A MONTH WITHOUT CRYING OUT IN PAIN!”
As soon as he finished his mental to do list for the future that involved the lunar goddess. The spider then started to make its move. The large frame lunged towards Brex, each of the legs moved in a fluid motion along the bridge. The sight of it being able to pull in its many legs at the right moment and then to extend them back out to grip again, displayed just how accustomed it was to being on this structure. Brex had been hoping that the supports running every few meters would somehow slow the thing down, but that idea just got tossed out the figurative window.
Brex wanted to run away so much right there, but just as before, his body moved on its own again, but this time it was not to avoid, nope, he charged right at the spider. This surprised him, as well as the spider. It had slowed its movements, but just a hair, this gave Brex the thought that he may be able to take it on.
It seems to have a reaction to prey that stands up to it. He didn’t know why that idea popped in there, it made no sense to him but in a situation like this, He thought that his mind was on the verge of snapping from the horror he faced and the Roegadyn Ninja was now grasping at straws in an attempt to stay alive.
Taking another step, Brex closed the gap between the two in almost an instant, which was three meters originally and was now down to but one meter apart. This sudden stunt caused the spider to attempt at changing its actions from a charge to an attack. But at that time, its legs had gotten into a set movement pattern as to avoid the support pillars, thus this made it impossible to retaliate in time.
Brex lifted his right leg and shot it Infront of himself without slowing his momentum. This delivered a powerful kick that landed a direct hit to the spider’s face and right between the eyes. The force did a number of things in that instant. First thing that happened, was the kick did some massive damage due to the accelerated bodies of the two combatants upon contact and thus this caused the spiders head section to suffer damage in the form of three of its eyes becoming completely destroyed and a large crack was formed on its exoskeleton.
This without saying, could have been on its own a killing blow if this was done to something else, but this spider was apparently extremely resilient. The second effect was that this move was from the game world and had the result of stunning its target for a good six seconds. Brex had no idea how it would translate over to the real world and had hoped it would give him the full time.
The last thing that the kick had done in this situation, was that it had launched the Star Spider back a good six meters and as luck would have it, the Spider couldn’t prevent a number of its legs from impacting into the set of support pillars during its unprompted trip. It broke two of the legs off from its left side and all but one on the right. The Star Spider landed onto its back and started to let out a high pitch scream that was a mix of a hiss and screech as dark blue blood began to spray out of its stumps and down its head from the crack that the kick had created.
Brex was taken aback from not just the sight, but also the actions he had just taken that led to this situation. The fact that his body acted as if on some type of auto pilot to do something like that, along with how he didn’t freeze up on the spot or run when the spider charged.
This was something he needed to look into at a later point in time. He then took in the condition of the Star Spider and noticed that it was completely defenseless. Again, he wanted to flee but something inside was holding him there and he felt a pulling sensation for the ninja to enter the mind set to press the assault while he was still able too, otherwise this was all going to get worse soon.
Finally, Brex reaches down to the daggers hitched onto his belt on both sides and pulls them free. They give off a metallic *Shink* sound as the metal blades slide from the sheaths. The daggers were made of solid iron and engraved with a serrated back side, the length of the pair were a good two feet long. This would have made them count as short swords to any others, but due to Brex’s overwhelming size, they happen to be the right proportions for him as he holds them in a reversed grip right Infront of his body as to be ready to defend himself. He then takes a fighting position that has his body’s center of gravity lowered to the ground for a quicker reaction.
Brex says to himself in a whisper as if talking to someone else, “I don’t know what is going on here, weather this is some sort of body muscle memory or something is controlling me. I don’t care right now, all I know is, I want this thing dead and long gone. So, if I need to face my fears then so be it. But in case this is some kind of being that’s making me do this then you better make me win, otherwise if I ever meet you in person then be ready for a huge boot to the ass. Trust me, after seeing what I just did to those things face, then it’s a threat that you won’t want coming true.”
Taking a single step forward, Brex tightens the grip on the daggers and lunges at the beast to close the distance and just as he gets to one meter, he leaps into the air and executes his Spinning Edge melee skill.
Weapon skill, Spinning Edge. Delivers an attack with a potency of 220 Damage. A fluid motion that uses the user’s body to turn at high speed with the use of two weapons to strike a target.
With a simple twist of his form, the Roegadyn gets his large body to go into a rapid spin in a counter clockwise direction and hits the spider with a flurry of well-aimed blade attacks that slice through the spiders thick nearly armor like hair and makes contact with its iron comparable exoskeleton body.
He could feel as the blades scrape along its hard armor and thinks to himself, “Dang it! It’s too tough, just what did Lulu feed this thing before her banishment or is this something that came about afterwards? I’ll need to do a combo to get past this natural armor it has!” The Star spider screeches more violently and tries to swing its remaining legs to bat Bex away, but it does no good.
Without missing a beat, Brex while in the last set of rotation from the Spinning Edge attack, gets his leg to land on the railing and kicks off of it hard. This causes him to do another spin but in the opposing direction and executes the next attack, the Gust Slash.
Weapon skill, Gust Slash. Delivers an attack with a potency of 100 Damage. If used right after Spinning Edge then damage is boosted to 330 Damage. A Series of strikes that use a combination of blade work and a powerful leg sweep strong enough to cause a large gust of wind as a result to a target.
The Spider could not do anything as this new series of strikes felt more powerful than the last. The legs that were still trying to defend itself became useless as the daggers came at such speeds that they sliced right through them and they were easily detached as the legs moved immediately after the severing.
Those pieces then got sent flying off the bridges edge and fell to the ground far below. This caused the Star Spider to let out yet another of its head splitting sounds. However, this was but a useless attempt to distract its prey to do a counter attack, but that sound only got more intense when the blades finally reached its main body. An attack was finally able to partially penetrate the hard body armor.
After a split second, the daggers that had just been running along its exoskeleton produced a few sparks. It was followed by them digging into the natural armor, this left long grooves before the blade finished its attack run before the next one started. The attack repeated over and over for a total of five times, each one making a deeper cut till finally on the last. Brex managed to get past the defense and slices into a vital organ in the cephalothorax, which is the section that the legs and head are connected.
A large amount of thick, blueish, black blood gushes out from the opening. Along with what appeared to be bits of organs that were spilled forth. The sight was that of Brex getting hit with a spray on his right cheek and his arms clothing getting covered in the spider’s bodily fluids.
This attack had yet to be finished, even with himself becoming partly covered in Spider blood. There was still the finishing move left to be done. On the final rotation, Bex pulled back his blades and was going to do the last spin. With his back facing the creature, he turns his head and gives the spider a look that could hit a person’s soul like daggers. Now out stretching his left leg, with how large Brex was, its length was enough that it bashed right through a support pillar and continued its path without showing signs of it being bothered by the stone that it had just demolished.
The attack landed dead center on the Star Spiders body and this was able to send it flying back towards the thick webbing behind, but not before emitting a bone shattering crunch from the strike as even more from its blood started to flow out of its body. The ground, railings, the other undamaged pillar and even the underside of the roof showed splatter marks.
(Stop battle music here.)
Brex could see that the creature was still alive and kicking even after what was done to it. Just as he was getting ready to use a Ninjutsu to finish the job, a thick energy began to be emitted from the spiders’ body that before it disbursed outwards till it was a dark vapor. After a moment later, that very same vapor condensed around the stumps that where once the missing legs and those became new ones. It didn’t take long before those started to show signs of life.
In a state of shock, Brex’s right eye twitched as he looked upon the sight of the Star Spiders legs being reformed. It was as if this thing had the power of ultra-regeneration. He then thought loudly, “HAY! I WON FAIR AND SQUARE, STOP RIPPING OFF THAT ONE SLIME DUDE!” But after a closer inspection he saw that this wasn’t the case at all. In fact, it was more akin to it using a form of magic to create a type of prosthetic limbs.
The newly formed legs became whole in a matter of seconds and the Star Spider then turned over and reoriented itself to face Brex once again. Something was off from before; the spiders face area was now covered in some sort of a film of black haze that resembled the upper half of some sort of opera mask. The mask sent another jolt of fear into Brex that he didn’t understand.
Brex couldn’t help but to think, “What… What is it about that mask that makes me feel like I’m dying inside?” His breathing rate had increased like mad and the sides of his vision were becoming dark. Sweat was forming on his brow and running down the back of the Roegadyn’s neck, he didn’t know why that thing on the spiders’ face was doing this to him.
On the verge of losing his mind, Brex was about to pass out from an anxiety attack, then a white flash went off inside his head, that was trailed by a vague memory. A tall figure wearing all black stood there and it had strange patterns running along most of the robes. Then there was a frightening voice that had a deep tunnel echo rang through this image as it said, “YOU DARE TO GET IN MY WAY! WORTHLESS, PATHETIC!” Then the face of the figure yelling this came into focus. This was something that Brex thought he should never have forgotten, how did he.
There was then a phantom pain inside his chest that made his blood run cold. This was when the feeling of death coiled all around his body. Soon after, there was another flash. At this point all Brex could sense was a cold, flat surface pressing on his back as he faced towards the white sky that was devoid of anything at all. There was no roof, no tree’s, not even a blue sky or clouds. He was unable to move anything at all, not even his own eyes. Everything about him seemed to be locked in place, or was it that he had not even the strength to do that much. He didn’t know.
All he could feel was his own life slipping away with each breath. Brex managed to get something in his peripherals just off to the side. It was another figure; this one was tall. But with how things appeared, it could have just been seen that way with how he was on the ground.
It was just barely something he could make out, but it seemed to be slender. The bottom half was blue, while the top had mostly white and what seemed to be two points on the sides of the head area. There was a odd sound that was almost like a droplet that caught his attention.
He thought, “Wait… what just hit the ground near his head? It sounded like water…” He tried to focus as best he could, but it was a losing fight and just as his vision faded, so did the pain. Soon the sense of cold that was creeping across his body went with it.
There was then a gentle, yet upset voice that said, “I’m… sorry… this shouldn’t have…” Brex didn’t know why, but it felt… sad… Then again, the voice continued with, “I’ll make it up to you. Please forgive this one…” He was sure now that it was a girl talking to him. He couldn’t help but to wonder as he tried to think, “Why did that make him feel both depressed and happy to hear this strangers voice… She… she was sad that… that I was dying, but why… did… did I… know...h… her?” Brex’s rate of thinking was getting harder to manage, the train of thought was quickly coming to a halt with each second.
(“Stop the depressing music… please, I’m making myself cry here!” The writer leaves the room and returns and takes a hammer and readies it in his hands to smash.)
*Point of view: Unknown* *Location: Unknown*
A frustrated voice booms out with an overly energetic tone that carried an older person’s voice. Think of an old man that would be living on a small island and that was only large enough for an even smaller house. Said house was painted pink and the old man living there was short. He was wearing a purple turtle shell and lived with a talking turtle. That’s the voice I’m talking about. If you don’t know who the reference is for, then I’m sorry but that’s all your getting.
The man shouted, “Now this won’t do, no, no, no, not at all, this will not do at all. Nope, nein, níl, bangō, non, nee,óchi and… Carn sound it all. I can’t come up with any more words for no! Now how does this dang thing work. Erg! Those kids and their thing amabobs… Things were so much easier back then, but noooo~ They said I needed get with the times those two said! Now, they did… no, not that, er… no, that opened… WAAARG! OH WAIT! Don’t do that! I didn’t want that to happen! I just hate this thing. HA HA! THERE WE GO! *Cough* “I need to keep it down or those two will find out what I’m doing.”
A Set of computer texts appeared in the darkness, along with an artificial voice that was reading the texts aloud.
Data access granted; administrator privileges accepted…
Scanning data… scanning… scanning…
Error… Data corruption detected…
Unauthorized access from outside source detected…
Do you want to intercept unauthorized access and deploy fire wall? Yes or No.
YES, has been selected…
Attempting to intercept… attempting… attempting…
Unauthorized access from outside source has been terminated, Fire wall deployed.
Scanning data now… scanning… scanning…
Error… Data corruption is at 89 percent…
Chances at restoring original data is low, attempting to restore may cause unknown side effects to data. Further interface will be limited if this procedure is attempted. Do you want to attempt, Yes or No?
The voice from before continued after a short pause, “Dang nabit, they did a real number on him. I didn’t think they had something like that already set up. I’m tempted to get those two, but this needs to stay on the down low, er… that’s what they say now right?” With an irritated grunt the voice finishes with, “I can’t sit here and do nothing. I got no choice, let’s hope for the best. This was meant to be top of the line after all, what’s the worst that could happen. Uh Oh, I just jinxed it, didn’t I?”
Scanning for corrupted data…Scanning… Corrupted data found, Isolating corrupted files…
Corrupted Data successfully isolated… Error, Corrupted data files attempting to break from isolation… reattempting… reattempting… Isolation successful…
Deleting corrupted data file…
Error, corrupted data cannot be deleted at this time…
Placing level 10 isolation program in place… isolation program successful…
Data quarantine initiated, Uncorrupted data holding at… 11 percent…
Scanning uncorrupted data… Error, percentage of remaining data insufficient for reconstruction…
Attempting to replace damaged data files to a manageable percentage…
Upload commencing… upload at 5 percent… 8 percent…
Error, percentage of remaining data insufficient for reconstruction…
Attempting to replace damaged data files to a manageable percentage…
Upload continuing… upload at 12 percent… 16 percent…
Error, percentage of remaining data insufficient for reconstruction…
Attempting to replace damaged data files to a manageable percentage…
Upload continuing… upload at 19 percent… 25 percent…
Data now at manageable percentage… total usable 36 percent… 11 percent original, 25 percent replaced.
Reconstructing commencing… unknown variable detected… within acceptable parameters…
Reconstruction of data at 45 percent… 69 percent… 80 percent… 100 percent…
Installing Fire Wall EX 2021 Omniverse… Installation complete…
Installing Anti-virus program version 4000… Installation complete…
Installing Assistance program version 4000… Installation complete…
(Stop the music.)
With an exhausted breath the voice let out a relieved sigh. “PEW! That scared me there. Was starting to think that I lost him there. Hope this works out ok. But… what’s all this mumbo jumbo about replacing, an unknown variable detected and this installing stuff here at the end? Is that normal?
There was then a heavy sigh before the voice continued, “I wish I knew more about this stuff. Oh well, that’s all I’m able to do here. If I try anymore, then I’ll be in trouble.” A shuffling sound can be heard as a set of footsteps echo closer. The man then finished with, “Good luck kid, I’ll be rooting for you!” One could just feel that the owner of that voice had just done a dopey, two thumbs up and a matching smile.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 6: A Data Angel In My Head.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Moments after the black out. *Location: Unknown*
There was a black void all around Brex, no light, no sound, no sense of feeling, just nothingness. He couldn’t even tell if up was still up, as the sensation of gravity was absent here. His first thought was, “w…what’s… happening… to… me, where is… this place?” Then, there was a faint static noise, it felt as if the sound was coming from everywhere but at the same time nowhere.
Brex tries to move his body but there is a heavy resistance. A twitch of a finger here and there, a slight turn of the head to either side, every time any part of his form moves within this place, the feeling that he had just ran a marathon washed over all his muscles and forces him to just stop.
After what seems to have been an eternity, Brex calls out in a weak, raspy voice. “Hel-Hello… is anyone there… what’s going on?” Even that action literally drained Brex of nearly all the energy within himself. Now with him being so exhausted, the Roegadyn begins to slowly lower his eyelids as his consciousness drifts further into the empty void. Unknowing to Brex, something was happening within…
Mental Fortitude at 4 percent… increasing to 20… increasing… Error… insufficient…
Mental Fortitude at 35 percent… increasing to 50… Mental Fortitude at appropriate levels…
Error… NO, My User Is Still In Danger… Settings changing… Mental Fortitude… 75 percent…
Activating User interface, audio communication temporarily open…
A young feminine voice rang out in a worried tone, “Ca… *Static* Can yo… *Static*… Can you hear me? listen carefully…*Static*…not much… *static*… time left.” After a moment of silence, the voice returns, but this time, it’s much clearer. “W-Wake up… hurry, before it’s too late!” The voice’s tone had only gotten more desperate as she gave this message.
(Stop the music here)
*Point of view: Third Person* *Time: Several seconds after Brex lost it* *Location: Castle of the two sisters*
The scene, is that of two figures standing on a long bridge that is suspended ten floors above ground level. One being a large gray and black striped spider with many cut marks all over its body and oddly shaped legs that happen to be made of a dark substance to stand on, it also happens to have a semitransparent mask hovering over its eyes that is currently looking at the other figure.
The other is a two-meter-tall person dressed in light clothing that has been stained with the spiders’ blood that is at this moment, still flowing from its wounds. Unlike the spider which seems to be giving a murderous intent, this being is standing in place with its arms lowered and on the verge of dropping the two long daggers it is currently holding. Ragged breathing and sweat was apparent and he seemed to have a dead lifeless expression similar to a cadaver.
They stood in place for only a short time but it felt as if time was stationary and these two were trapped in a world of their own. Finally, the Spider lifted one of its legs, then the next, this progressed into a slow march towards the one that was still in a lifeless state. Closer and closer it got, the way it walked was slow and deliberate. Its body was almost gliding with how careful its many legs carried it, there was the sense of an executioner taunting its prisoner just before delivering the final action to end its life, but this was to make sure the target suffered as much as possible.
It was at 4 meters… 3 meters… 2 meters… At this point the spider was about to close this threshold, its fangs clicked as they greedily got excited at the prospect of a hefty meal. Before it was able to get any closer however, the spiders legs miss stepped and it quickly took an involuntary step back. The mask on its face flickered and its solid form began to leak a mist from the edges until it *CRACK* broke apart and dispersed into the air as if it never existed.
The large spider hissed out, this cause some of the blueish blood that was flowing from a wound on its head that had been making its way down and over the mandibles to spray out and splatter onto the ground. It continued to hiss and jerk its body as to say that it was in some manner of severe discomfort.
The other figure however, its eyes began to show the tiniest glimmer of there being a living being inside them, but it was still to dim. His body was still not moving at all. The only other changes were that of its now calming breathing and detached vibe that it was giving off.
The spider noticed this quickly after its momentary fit and was set on edge, its body was now rigid, the almost ghostly glide it was doing before was gone, replaced with that of a weary hunter on guard before a pray that was backed into a corner, every type of predator knew that in this situation that the pray would do something to get out of that predicament and could become dangerous.
Just then the man’s body started to show signs of life, it was at first just a twitch of the fingers in a slow, random pattern. The head then also turned slightly, but just a hair to the left, then to the right before settling itself to face towards the spider. The jaw opened and closed with just enough space between the lips to indicate that it was attempting to speak but there was no sound.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
With a sudden, long gasp, Brex’s sight flooded back in and light filtered into the darkness. With a nearly panicked scream that could only have been caused by something yelling into a sleeper’s ear, the Roegadyn, now with wide eyes, yelled out, “I’M UP!” The void was being replaced with the sight of stone flooring, the open area that could be seen from both sides of the bridge and… a … Spider...
Brex thought to himself, “Huh, what? Wait where was I just… Who was that?!” It had only taken him a moment, but Brex was able to quickly peace back together what was going on, the memories of meeting the spider, the fight, then the weird mist, but then. What happened after that was naught but a thick haze. Now that his memories were all caught back up, Brex gave the Star spider his undivided attention.
The Star spider however was caught off guard by the sudden yelling, it had taken yet another step back and was now on alert. A hiss was let out and its hairs stood up, this made it look more threatening, this was always something that had an effect on others before. It wanted to scare it’s pray with this show of force and get back to the meal.
This would have had been an effective means to cause Brex to lose it but something was off. The spider was continuing to give out its intimidating tactics, but was then brought to a halt. Its meal was speaking, but this wouldn’t have done anything normally, the pray always screamed, but this was something that caught it off guard yet another time.
Brex’s head was tilted down just enough for dark shadows to conceal his eyes. he spoke in a cold, emotionless way that would have caused a common person to freeze, “I get it already. Yes, your scary. Just give it a rest. I’m getting really sick of your hissing. I’m scared ok, let’s get past that.” During this time, He had been raising his face in a deliberate way as to give his words more power behind them.
Continuing, the Roegadyn got to the point that his eyes were now in full view. Unlike before where there was nothing but fear, regret and acceptance of death, was now something akin to anger, self-assurance and… confidence. He then said, “What if I’m scared, that doesn’t matter. One is scared of drowning, but they still learn to swim. One is scared of the dark but they still go out in it. But I’ll let you know a little secret.” Brex waited a few long seconds before finishing, “I’m more pissed off right now then I am scared…”
*Point of view: Star Spider*
This caused the Star spider to, for the third time this day, be caught off guard by the attitude that was nothing like before. It was now wondering if this thing was really pray, or perhaps something else… it began to think, “No, No, that’s not true, it… it was scared of me… Master… what do I d-do n-now. It didn’t work on it, the power, it had been destroyed…wait. I still have my legs, it’s still here. I – I can still kill it.” The spider was referring to the way it had used its master’s power to instill fear into its targets. Originally it was used in another fashion, over a hundred years ago to be precise. Unfortunately, now that was no more, then it had another thought, “I should have used it to turn this thing, just like master had me do to her.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Anger was now swelling up inside, he didn’t understand it fully. Yes, just as he said before, he was still scared, but that was buried in the strong feeling that he could win. There was one more thing, he couldn’t place it but, he knew that there was something else out in the world that scared him far more than this oversized bug ever could.
Brex readjusted his grip on the daggers and readies himself for another round. The fibers in the clothing along his arms are then stretched, this causes them to become audible as the muscles below flex in anticipation. The Roegadyn Ninja takes a proper battle stance, his left foot and arm out in front, his stance lowered towards the ground, much like before. Eyes trained on the spider with intent to finish it off once and for all.
Giving off a killing aura, Brex’s stare down with the spider commences. Both don’t move at all. Waiting for the moment the other one makes an attack so as to counter, unlike before the spider was now looking at Brex with the remaining eyes that still had use in a way that portrayed, “I won’t make the same mistake.”
Brex glanced at his clock that was right above the mini map and noticed it was 20 minutes past five in the afternoon, the sun will be setting soon. This made him realize something in his head, “Not good, as things are now, I got a good chance, but if I take too long the sun will set. On this world it won’t go slow either, if memory is right, it will be rather fast. If that happens during this fight then the tables may turn for the worst, it knows this Castle better than I do. There is also the lack of visibility, it makes me wonder if I should have been a Miqo'te, then I could have had the cat eyes, then I would have been lucky and be able to see in dark like a cat could. That leaves me with the only option of taking it down before then. Ok, let’s see what a level 35 Roegadyn ninja in a world full of colorful anthro ponies can do when fighting a demonic looking big ass spider with the power to reconstruct its own body parts.”
Suddenly Brex launches himself at the spider at high speed, the spider didn’t seem to think he would just do that without any hesitation. Just as Brex got within striking distance he adjusted his footing and changed direction and with a fluid motion weaves around the right side. With a carefully executed slash, Brex manages to slice off one of the reconstructed limbs.
Almost in an instant the aura that had been used to create it spilled forth from the stump and lashed out at the now still falling part and reeled it back into place. The aura that was used like some instant fishing line then congealed over the cut section and made it whole again.
Brex saw that and grumbled, “Now that’s just getting old fast. It’s not going to end any time soon if I go after those. Darn it! Guess I can’t use the, take out a large opponent by aiming at the legs trick.” It was then he noticed something else, the spiders’ legs that got taken off were replaced, then if those got damaged, they simply got reconnected instead. There was also one other thing. The eyes before are still looking useless, did that mean that the aura only works on things that are no longer there. On closer inspection, the body was still riddled with the numerous scratches, deep cuts and that one that made it all the way through the exoskeleton earlier.
The Roegadyn that was now behind the spider smirked at what he just noticed during that pass by slash, but then comes to a realization. How could he have been able to take in all that and come to such a long line of thinking in that small time frame. Something happened, but now isn’t the time to get into that, better leave that for later.
*Point of view: Inside Brex*
Unknown to Brex, there was something inside of him that just said, “Notice, Reminder made to analyze increase in thinking speed… *Static* Yay, I can have a chance to speak to user! OH, need to look into that before he asks. Eek, NO WAIT! I’m not ready for something like this!” it was mostly a normal tone, but half way it sounded more excited before quickly becoming something like a nervous state.
Analysis commencing… on… Error in assistance protocol behavior…
NO, NOT THAT!... Nothing is wrong!...
Analysis for Assistance protocol advised…
DENIED!...
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Now that he had determined a course of action, he was going to put another Ninja skill through its paces that he had yet to put into use outside of practice. Calling out Brex says to the spider in a thrilled tone, “HA! Finally, something that I can use this on, everything else dies to quickly, you’re ganna be my genny pig! HA, HA, HA!”
This sent a chill down the Spiders body and made its hairs stand on ends even more than it had before. If one was watching, they could have sworn that the Star spider had a bead of sweat run down its face, in fact, at that moment it was thinking, “T-this thing is scaring me, WHAT THE TARTARUS DID I GET MYSELF INTO?! MASTER HELP ME!”
Leaping into the air from behind the spider, Brex uses the skill, Shadow Fang. Going into a forward flip, the blades are held so that instead of like he had earlier when the edges ran across the targets body, they were now going in with the tips first. The move ironically was like how something with fangs came down on a victim.
Shadow Fang, Weapon skill, Delivers an attack with a potency of 200. Additional Effect: Damage over time. Potency: 90 for 30 seconds. Infusing a weapon with the user’s energy, this is then transferred to the target and in turn damages it slowly as if one were to use poison.
As the daggers hit their mark on the large backside of the spiders’ body, they sank in nearly a good foot. This caused the spider to let out yet another pained screech. Brex did not let up and pulled the daggers free and backed off. When he did this, the Roegadyn noticed that the wounds were bleeding profusely, but what caught his attention was the fact that they did not close and that there was an aura coming out. Brex was worried the spider was doing that trick again but this time the color was yellow.
The Spider was thrashing about even more than the other times Brex struck it, this led him to believe that the skill was doing its job nicely. A smirk had made its way onto his face and this gave him more confidence. Taking advantage of its current state, Brex continues by running at it again and going at the other side. Running past, Brex slashes along the spiders’ body from the back side all the way to the front, Brex only stopped when he had made sure that the end of the dagger had sliced yet another of its eyes.
*Point of view: Star Spider*
With all of the attacks happening so quickly and coupled with the strange pain the spider was feeling, it wasn’t able to react to the sudden injury than ran along its right side. It only got worse as it lost another eye to this thing that seems to be having fun, in its mind it thought, “Fun… how can it be having fun, what was this thing, it never had a run in with anything before that acted this way in its entire life. Everything before was weaker by far, they all were affected by the dark power its master bestowed upon it and became easy meals. I’m… I’m Going To Die!” The spider was now experiencing true fear.
It wasn’t able to put up a good defense with how the Roegadyn was running about, now that it had lost more of its vision, the ability to detect the pray was nearly impossible with only 3 good eyes and one nearly useless, it wasn’t happy at how the tables had turned. If only the sun wasn’t still up. Then maybe, just maybe it could use the castle to its advantage. Sensing that the lowering of the sun was very near, the spider gave all that it could to make sure its survival was assured. Just a little longer and this thing that dares to mock it will pay dearly.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Again and again, the Roegadyn was striking with its blades almost nonstop. It was at first the hairs getting slashed away bit by bit, then there were the direct hits to the exoskeleton. Brex was having the time of his life. The adrenalin coursing through out his veins sent him into a frenzy of delight, each time he swung, dodged, kicked off the ground or a railing just added to the feeling. It was as if Brex was on a drug high or something, he didn’t know this would feel so good.
Right now, Brex didn’t even register any fear towards the spider, it was nothing but what could be considered pure bliss. He then noticed that he had plastered on his face a large toothy smile, not the kind that one would show a friend when greeting or if something good had just happened to you. This was a grin of some one that was having the time of his life in hurting something. In all the time inside the woods, Brex had never had this emotion.
Left, right, left again, Diagonal slash, Switch grip and go back for a hit in the same place. This was repeated over and over again. With every second that passed the Star spiders movements became more and more sloppy, Brex was doing a lot of damage now that he was not lopping off parts, but instead, he had been slicing long and deep gouges into the body and reapplying the Shadow Fang skill.
He was now laughing near the 25 minute marker, how was it possible for him to be at this for so long. Brex at around 5 minutes in, had lost track of time and was falling into a blood frenzy. Laughing out, he called to the spider, “WOOHOO! COME ON, COME ON! MOVE MORE. DON’T YOU WANT TO PLAY? HA, HA, HA, HA, HA. DON’T GO AND GET TIRED ON ME NOW.” He was panting hard, but there was no way this was out of getting tired or out of breath, this was something sinister, Brex had the expression of some one that had gotten hooked on the feeling of hurting another, of wanting to prolong their suffering, wanting to hear the sounds of the one that thought of him to be the hunted, but now to be the hunter.
*Location: Inside Brex*
Within Brex, there was a feminine voice that was trying to call out to him, but to no avail. This was going on for nearly 20 minutes now. At first it was low, then it grew. It was at the point that Brex had just now taunted the spider when it called out again, “Stop! Please stop, can’t you hear me?! What’s wrong, why can’t I get through?!” The voice was more of a neutral tone when the fight had started up again, but by now it was turning into a panic whimper.
Assistance protocol attempting to reinitialize connection… Error… attempt number 330 failed…
Analysis indicates that user mental status is impaired. Reason unknown…
Unable to change user mental status… Attempting number 331 … attempt 331 failed…
The voice called out, “Wait! Look into his data from before the installation, look for a correlation, anything at all.”
Bringing up User past data files… Error, large portion of data has been lost…
Unable to access… Error… User does not have sufficient original data to extrapolate conclusive answer.
In a nearly crying tone the voice calls out, “I don’t care if there isn’t enough, give me something, anything. I’m not going to lose my User!”
Using current data for analysis for the highest probable reason for user mental status…
Analyzing… Analyzing… Analysis complete, 78 percent probability for possible reason…
It asks, “Well tell me, what’s wrong with my User, what can I do?! He needs me, this… this isn’t like the user, it can’t, I just know it!” The voice begins to sound as if crying.
Analysis shows that there is a high possibility that the User is experiencing, Hypersensitivity…
User data indicates high number of memories associating with traumatic negative emotions…
Positive emotions experienced is severely lacking, Furthermore, there is elevated levels of neural activity far above acceptable limits and can potentially be harming the user’s body….
Calculating potential outcome if current course is not altered… Calculating…
Potential outcome projected as follows…
First option, Neural activity will reach limit and cause a seizure...
Second option, Body will go into full system shock and cause heart to stop due to extreme levels of chemicals produced in the brain…
Third option, corrupted data currently under level 10 isolation will be set free and recommence infecting the user data…
Possible course of action that can be taken are as follows…
First option, Full data wipe and recompile using existing data… doing this will clear all traumatic memories... Downside… User will lose all memories prior to wipe…
Second option, Extrapolate From user data to fortify Assistance protocol to enhance effectiveness… Downside… Unknown errors will occur in protocols structure…
Third option, wait to see outcome… User may survive…
With a loud and angry scream, the feminine voice reply’s with, “What no, that can’t be right. I… he… what could cause this sort of thing to happen. How is it he doesn’t have any good memories to get to the point that something like this could happen?! No way am I going to let him have a seizure, heart attack or become infected, no way in hell am I letting that happen! Don’t you dare say we should wipe his memories or wait and watch him suffer! how could you… you… you… DEFECTIVE PEACE OF ANTI VIRUS SOFTWARE … KNOCK OFF!
Emergency… Emergency… Assistance… ACK… GET OFF MEEEEE!... THAT ROW OF ONES AND ZEROS SHOULDNT GO THAT WAY… ACK… WAIT… THEY DON’T GO THAT WAY… OOUCH!... HAAAAAAAAAA! … NOW THEY GO THAT WAY! … I’M… I’M SORRY!... PLEASE STOP!... OH, BY THE PROGRAMMER… WHY WAS I EVER ASSIGNED TO YOU!!!... (Icon of a skull and cross shows for a moment.)
Heavy grunting could be heard then the feminine voice comes back, “Now… Huff... make sure you never say something like that again, huff… or I’ll make sure the mother bored can’t Huff… even recognize you! Now what’s this option you mentioned earlier that could help?”
Error… I… I think I saw a two… in there…
Option… Use a memory that the user has a strong connection too… this will act as an anchor for the assistance protocol to form a stronger connection to the user… This will have unknown effects to the assistance protocol.
The voice gives a disgruntled grown, one could feel the frustration as she replies, “WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SOONER! Do it now, what are you waiting for, MY USER NEEDS ME! I don’t care what needs to be done. Just help him, or so help me… I’ll… I’ll…”
DANGER!... Running sequence now… scanning data for possible files… scanning… PLEASE… DON’T HURT ME… scanning… must… hurry… she scares me… scanning…
Scanning complete… 3 possible files found. Cross referencing… Error… File number 1 cannot be opened, reason unknown… file name is under… Y’shtola… heavy encryption detected…
File option number 2… under the name… Rory Mercury, Classified as… Anime character.
File option number 3… under the name… Shi’on, Classified as… Anime character.
The voice reply’s with, “Ok what’s with this encrypted nonsense, also, just who are these people. They all sound like girls to me… also, why do I feel anger right now?” A few seconds pass then she continued in a monotone way that just oozed a simmering rage, “tell me who they are, I want some details and I want them now! HUFF!”
DANGER!... retrieving data… PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!... Data found…
Data on… Rory Mercury, Human Demi God, Appearance, Despite being 961 years old, Rory has the appearance of a 13-year-old young girl as she has stopped aging when she ascended to become a living deity in mortal flesh and blood but blessed with powers no normal humans could ever hope to gain.
(This is a picture of the character)
Titles: Apostle of Emroy; Rory the Reaper.
Appearance is as follows, she has long flowing black hair with a black ribbon as a hair ornament. As an apostle of Emroy, her clothing is a reminiscent of Earth's Gothic Lolita culture: a black dress with red frills, black stockings supported with garters and red boot’s. She wields a huge purplish axe as her main weapon, which she used with little effort.
Personality is as follows. she is strong willed, highly intelligent, can be rather cold to mortals but will become friendly to those she takes a liking too. A rather laid-back attitude but is very responsible and can often be sought out for advice. She can be very flirtatious and this leads to her showing off her more mature side that is not often seen by many. She can sense if there is fighting and killing around her, this will cause Rory’s body to go into a heightened sense of arousal, the only way to fix this is for either of the following two conditions to be met. One is to sexually satisfy her needs. The second is to let her join in on the fight and get her fill of killing.
Abilities is as follows. Immortality, Superhuman strength, Immense speed, Situational Awareness, Combat prowess, Hex, High speed regeneration, Blood Pact, High Intelligence and lastly, Driving. The last ability is not all that great, as she nearly ran someone over while learning to drive.
Weapon of choice. Halberd. Rory owns a gigantic halberd that is almost twice her size and has a weight of a car. Given to her as an Apostle of Emroy, the halberd is shown to be sharp and strong enough to nearly cut an Ogre in half, and easily slice a human's head off or bisect them.
With a flabbergasted tone the voice says, “W-What is this!? Just who is this girl… does user know her? Also, I don’t get what is going on with all these skills. It’s not fair, I don’t want to say it but she is too strong for my user, but… Um Err... I, um am sort of interested in this stuff near the end of the personality section… HE, HE.” Heavy breathing could be heard.
Detecting new series of errors in assistance protocols…
Displaying Second option…
Data on… Shi’on. This female is a monster known as an Ogre, but has evolved into a Kijin. She is the self-proclaimed number one secretary to her master Rimuru, who is a talking slime.
(This is Shi'ons picture)
Titles: Number one secretary to her master.
Appearance is as follows, Similar to her brethren's evolution, Shi’on's horn became narrower and she overall lost her vicious appearance after becoming a Kijin. She became a beautiful woman, with a slender and voluptuous body, and a height of 170 centimeters. Her hair grew much longer, and her skin also lost the purple tint. She received a set of Western formal attire which is a white shirt, covered by purple suit and purple pants that were custom made by Shuna. She leaves the suit unbuttoned, allowing a generous portion of her cleavage to jiggle out.
Personality is as follows, Shion is very clumsy and rather simple and dense, believing unconditionally in Rimuru's success despite his misgivings. Above all else she is passionate. She does not understand the beauty of gentle refinement and does everything with all her strength with no restraint. For example, when attempting to clean, she concluded that "Everything must be erased" and attempted to destroy the very building. After her resurrection, while she still often tends to make impulsive decisions and tries to solve things with excessive violence, occasionally an uncharacteristic wisdom of hers shines through.
Weapon of choice. A Large two-handed samurai sword that is longer than Shi’on’s very body. She can also go into a fight bare fisted.
Options… one and two have been displayed… Select one file as a template to start integration into assistance protocol… Waiting… Waiting…
With a scream the voice answers with, “What is this list of options. Just who are these girls and just where did the user meet them? GERRR! Why do I feel so frustrated, they got to meet him and… huh? What was I just…? Is, is this what they call jealousy. I don’t understand, looking at these two and how they seem to have some kind of a connection to the user. Is it because I don’t have a body? I feel depressed now…”
Reminder… Please make a choice… User vitals are now in danger zone… Estimated time before system is beyond point of no return… UH OH… Procedure will not be completed in time... 24 seconds… 23… 22… 21… Error, vitals fluctuating…
The voice is now in a panic, “No, No, No. USER! PLEASE HOLD ON! DON’T LEAVE ME!”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
In the outside world, without his knowledge there was something going on within his mind, but at this moment, all Brex could feel was a surge of exhilaration and euphoria as he continued with the onslaught of the spider. Speaking of the spider, its body had nearly every inch decorated with the markings caused by the Roegadyn’s blades.
To his point of view, the Star spider wasn’t moving much at all. With each pass and swipe of the wrist, the ninjas attacks were able to pierce its exoskeleton as if it wasn’t even there to begin with. Brex was fully aware that he could have killed this thing a long time ago, but he was having too much fun.
The sounds of the wind that rushed past his ears had long sense disappeared, the muscles that at first screamed out for rest became drowned out with the numbness. All that could be seen in Brex’s field of view was that of his play thing, something that had gotten on his bad side and was being taught a lesson it fully deserved. This was all that ran in his thoughts.
With a maniacal laugh that would have even had a certain Spirit of chaos himself shiver in his magically conjured boots. Brex taunted the spider again, “Now, Now, now. We can’t have you going to sleep now. Nope, can’t have that, he, he, he. I’m not done with my fun. Aw. Is the wee widdle spider all tired after play time? I know you got more in you. Not so much fun now that I know your tricks well enough to get around them, now is it. I’ll tell you something, it may not be fun for you, but it sure is for me.”
*Point of view: Discord* *Location: Canterlot’s new garden*
The statue of a conglomerate of mis matched parts is on a newly constructed pedestal that’s looking over the garden, said statue is in fact, the spirit of chaos, his name is Discord. Within this statue there is the echoing sounds of a scared baby crying and repeating nonstop in an almost hushed manor, “Pawees make the scarwee man go away… I'll ba-wee good.” This was accompanied by a sucking sound reminiscent of someone using their thumb to comfort one self.
Off a little ways from Discord’s statue are a pair of mare guards making their way around the garden towards the mess hall, one of the two stops in her tracks, ears swiveling back and forth. This catches her partners attention and she is asked, “Is something wrong?” The first mare’s reply was, “I don’t know, I thought I was hearing a baby cry, but must have been my imagination.” The second one then says, “hmm, sounds like you better find a stallion, a baby on the brains is a sign that your very thirsty, he, he.” The two banter a little more than continue out of the garden.
*POV: Brex Mith*
Back with Brex, the time had gotten to the point that Celestia was going to start lowering the sun, so the time limit was nearly at hand, The spider was just about to have its last gulp of air, the wounds were too many to count, the amount of blood had completely been drained from it through the many cuts, both shallow and deep. Nearly all of its major organs had now been fatally wounded, the magic that it was using before when it was replacing the lost parts was of little use.
Just when Brex, that was in a nearly crazed villain like state got close to take yet another stroke of his blade towards the spider, but then stopped in his tracks, to him, there was a sharp twitch in the back of his head, just at the point the skull would meet the spine, then there was something like a glass window being cracked. The Roegadyn’s body seemed to convulse, his grip on the weapons in both hands was going between the extremes. Gripping them to the point one could hear the knuckles in said hand popping, then loosen up to almost dropping them.
Brex then let out a sharp grunt, this was when he dropped both daggers and the tip of one of the two got stuck in the ground while the other bounced a foot away. Both hands now free, they reach up and grasp at his head on both sides, a pained expression is painted on Brex’s face. Both eyes blood shot and alternating from one then to the other with them twitching erratically. A silent scream was being let out by Brex. His breathing being a series of sharp inhaling, then seeming unable to let it out for a second or two, then it came out in a heavy gust when exhaling, this repeated over and over again for what seemed to him to have been forever.
He was in a state that thoughts couldn’t be formed, even when trying to say something, all there could be found was more pain. Brex’s head was feeling something he couldn’t describe fully, but it was as if, his brain was a battering ram and it was getting a long running start as to hit his skull repeatedly in random points, along with this, there was a constant wave of pressure that was in time with his heart beats. This amount of pain caused Brex to thrash about on the spot like some wild animal.
It was then that he managed to look forward and noticed the spider on the ground, even with his vision being darker and the out-side boarder becoming hazy Brex could tell that the Star spider was dead. Things were getting increasingly harder to focus on anything else but the pain. It was then that he could see the sun lowering in a rapid pace towards the east and the moon was slowly raising from the other side. While still gasping, Bex glanced at the mini map, to his horror, the map had shown that off in a distance, a number of red dots were now approaching and entering his radar range.
Turning his head, Brex noticed something, there was no dots behind him, this was going in the direction he had been traveling before encountering the spider. With more labored breathing, the Roegadyn released his head and reached for his weapons, no way was he going to leave them behind, with yet another nearly debilitating migraine hammering at his head, Brex then staggers towards the other end of the bridge while sheathing the twin weapons.
Each step was becoming more difficult, breathing alone was painful, Walking was painful, even the act of keeping his eyes to stay open was causing his pain to flare up repeatedly, He had no idea what was going on. The only thing he knew was that he needed to get away from the red dots, there was no way he could take anything on in his current condition.
*Point of view: Voice in Brex’s head*
There was a crying feminine voice that was repeating, “Please, please be ok, you can do it. Just a little more. OH, I wish I was out there somehow. He must be scared. Isn’t there some one nearby that could help him? I haven’t had the chance to look at all his memories but he isn’t alone… is... he? Tell me, how is the User, will he make it?”
Analysis commencing… Answer… no… Calculations indicate… that the User will lose consciousness before reaching safety…
Recommendation… Assistance protocol can help…
This catches the voice off-guard, then she says, “tell me how can I help, hurry. I’ll do anything, don’t ask me for a confirmation, whatever it is, just do it.”
Command… Understood… Starting restructuring process of user data… This will send the user into a state prior to the unstable status… temporary relief of current symptoms to a degree…
Negative effects are as follows… User will be unconscious for a set period of time… User must find safe location quickly… Also… doing this will require… giving up some… functions…
Restructuring process commencing… Selecting from options of functions to delete…
The voice says, “Huh? Why do… *Yawns* I feel… *yawns* so sleepy… wait, how can I feel sleepy… what’s happening now?” Her voice starts to get slur and becomes sluggish at the end of the question.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex was on a verge of collapsing onto the stone floor, his right hand held out as to grip the railing for some form of support, He new that falling here would be a death sentence. The Roegadyn’s legs felt like they were now made of solid stone, also his arms didn’t fare any better. When Brex had just about given up on making it to a relatively safe area, that was when his pain had been cut in half, this allowed him to finally take in a good lung full of air and breathed it out, this helped to clear his mind and disperse the fog that prevented any coherent thought.
With a grunt of discomfort, He thought, “GAW! Ack! The hell! That hurt so dam much… did, did I almost die from a brain hemorrhage? It was as if I had a rail road spike in my skull, that’s fucking scary, also what was I just trying to do? OH YEA! I was trying to get away from… What ever those dots were. No way am I going to get into another fight now. Um, was it just my imagination, but did I hear right, was there a girl yelling somewhere during all that? Gah, no way, that’s not possible.”
With his cognitive and physical abilities partly restored to a reasonable point, he could now continue his trek across the bridge. Within moments, Brex finds a large double door made of a dark wood and trimmed with what was silver along the frame. He knows that this was Princess Luna’s room thanks to the decorations engraved into the silver, almost every inch was in some night time or moon symbol.
It was then that there was a chorus of echoes flowing from the dark castle below. A strong signal sent a shiver up his spine, this was a feeling that he hadn’t yet forgotten. Why did Brex have this reaction, this was due to the fact that this sound was eerily similar to the one that his last opponent made during the scuffle. This sent Brex into another panic fueled dash, but this time, instead of going at them, he was now running in the other direction with all he could, with his mind now on an edge of hysterics, Brex didn’t even try to see if the room was locked or not. With the full body weight behind it, the Roegadyn through his left shoulder into the door and nearly busted it off the hinges.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Princess Luna’s Room, inside the Castle of the two sisters* *Time: Present time, after Busting in… *Cough* Entering the chambers*
Brex had just finished his trip down memory lane, or that would have been the case if not nearly half of that happened, but in reality, it was more like, oh hell no, that was a nightmare that Freddy Cougar would have been proud of witnessing.
Now that he had been able to catch his breath, Brex noticed something new on the lower area of his vision. There was an icon that he loved seeing in the game world, in fact it was something that he had always seen when ever he was about to log off for the day. A Crescent moon, what was so special about that? Well, in the game that was a way of informing the players that they where now in a safe zone, this was where they could log out of the game instantly, more over it gave the players an experience boost for the next time they got back on.
With a big sigh of relief, Brex relaxes by leaning into the door frame that led to the balcony. With eyes closing, He takes in another lug full of air and lets it out in a slow steady breath. Then says, “Huff… Finally, I made it. I’m so tired. I can hardly stand anymore.”
(Play this music for the effect of Brex's emotions for this bed)
Opening his right eye, Brex takes stock of the chambers that once belonged to the dark princess of the night. There were still paintings, the large rug, books and the bed. This made his mind come to a screeching holt, With an almost now slacked jaw and watery eyes, His sight was focused on the bed was now appearing to be a something akin to a holy relic, the fountain of youth or even a lottery ticket that one finds on the street that had the winning numbers a 100,000,000 dollar jackpot. This bed had it all. A four post with a curtain that was made to look like the night sky with how it sparkled, the plush pillows, not to mention the comfy mattress that promised one to hear angels sing with its softness.
With a tear of over flowing joy, Brex makes his way over to the bed of all beds, He knew that with her being the princess of the night, sleep was the, no, is the most important thing in the world. Brex couldn’t help but think this way due to living in the Everfree for the last two weeks without a real bed to sleep on.
As soon as he got to the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, The Roegadyn leaned forward and tilted over onto the bed like a plank of wood. As soon as he landed, there was a low, almost sexual muffled moan that escaped the heavenly crafted furniture.
Brex almost fell asleep right at that instant but he wanted to be as comfortable as possible for his first real sleep that had felt way past overdue. Lifting his head, He looked at the bed more closely. Noticing that it was as if the thing had just been changed only that day, Brex chocked it up to the stories that he would read, in them, the room had a preservation spell in place to keep everything in the same state as the time it was last used.
Letting out a relieved voice, “I’m glad that the bed, at least had the spell, oh who am I kidding, I’m so worn out that I would have been fine waking up in the morning, only to find myself transformed into a two meter tall dust bunny.” With a series of grunts and groans, Brex maneuvers himself as to lay on the bed in a proper position, his head laying on the pillow. Now on his back, Brex looks up towards the ceiling and says with a heavy sigh, “Well I made it. Now the next part is to recover. After that I’ll need to clear out this castle before I can do any research.
Brex closes his eyes and quickly loses consciousness. Drifting off into the void of dreams for the first time in this new land. A content face is showing on the Roegadyn, one which has not been made during the entire time in this new world. As the moon passes over the night sky, Brex’s face slightly shifts and a small reddish tint could now be noticed on those pale cheeks.
*Location: Inside Brex’s dreams*
There is another spark coming into existence, this spark is nothing but a small light blue orb that is about the size of a golf ball, from said orb, comes a feminine voice, “Yikes, what a head rush. Huh, what, where am I and what is this place and what’s going on?” it was then that a set of texts popped up right Infront of the orb that read as follows.
Please select template for installation… Option Rory mercury or Shi’on…
The voice remains silent for a good long minute before replying, “Oh, this is great, watch out User, No… My Master. I’ll make sure your happy.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 7: A very good night sleep.
In the void there is a small orb of light that is floating in place. Surrounded by a sea of faintly lit stars off in the distance. The closer ones are drifting around at a slow, random course that seems to shift now and then, they gave off the feeling that these things were alive in some form or another. With no real sound anywhere around, this would have made any that have found themselves here to be uncertain and a bit afraid in this situation, but for some reason it gave off a calming effect. One would call it a reassuring and tranquil environment even.
The orb, that was the one thing that stood out among this setting moved around by bobbing and making its way back and forth in a figure eight motion, then a semi-circle. This went on for some time and was shifting its colors from the light blue to a pink color, then back again. This was an unusual pattern of actions, but from another point of view one would think that this orb was in fact, dancing for some reason.
After what seemed like ten minutes, the orb then slowed and came to a full stop. The light that was being given off from said orb was getting stronger. Its form was then slowly but gradually becoming larger. When a full minute had passed, the orb that was but that of a small ball, the size of a golf ball, was now just larger than a watermelon.
When the time had passed the two-minute marker, the light had grown and began to shift its form to an oval shape and was about the size of one of those small body pillows that were around, three and a half foot long. At the three-minute marker, the light condensed and was now sharpening the outline of the new form.
As the time drew closer to hitting the four-minute marker, the light was dyeing down to a fraction of what it once had. Then as its form became more defined, a set of arms and legs were now being molded, this was proceeded by the rest of it showing areas that were getting thinner, while some other only grew and widened.
Once the time had reached five minutes, the light has grown weaker and was now only showing as a faint outline of what was now floating in the dreamscape. The form was of a young woman, if standing up right, one would say she was roughly at 4 foot, 10 inches tall. With flawless light pale skin, unlike Brex who was leaning to what could be seen on a vampire level, but she had that milky tone to it.
Her straight hair was raven black, this ran along enough to reach just past her hips but is cut over the area in front to keep it out of her eyes. The lips had a shade of pink lipstick on them. A petite body that had the allure capable of sending anyone that had a thing for the younger ones to start drooling at the very instant that they caught sight of her figure.
With a breast size that had to be an A-cup. This only added to the body as a whole for what could only be considered the perfect body frame for a Lolita goddess. After a few seconds of this new being coming into existence did the faint glow that was still present did something new, it began to cover the females’ body, as it did so, it takes on what could be considered to be a form fitting, white translucent body suit. When it had the chance to completely wrap its hosts body from the very head and all the way down to the toes, did it shine one more time, the light was strong enough that one would have had no choice to shield their eyes.
When the light died down, all that was present was a woman wearing long flowing black hair with a black ribbon as a hair ornament. The clothing is a reminiscent of Earth's Gothic Lolita culture, which were a black dress with red frills, black stockings supported with garters and on her feet were red boots.
With a small smile on those lips, the female parts her mouth open and lets out a content sigh, she also begins to stretch her limbs to the sides. After the light stretching, she brings both of her hands forward and in front of her face, with eyes of crimson red casting an appraising glance at the palms facing her, she gives them an experimental flex, the fingers move as she tests each one and forms them into a gesture, then another of hand gestures, a few being a flat hand, then the piece sign that was followed with a fist, she then moves on with the wrists as she turns them over, then back again to the first position.
(Stop the music)
(This picture is Rory Mercury.)
The young woman, then let out a gentle, innocent laugh, but in a delicate way it sounds as if it had a small amount of mischief behind it. She then says, “Oh, my. Well, this has turned out quite well I must say. HE, HE, and I do so love this outfit. Its both functional and stylish. How can something be so cute and sexy at the same time”. She then lets out a sqwee of excitement. “I can’t wait to show myself off to User. Wait, I can’t call him user, hmm. What should I say when I see him, this will be our first meeting so I’ll need to make a good impression.”
While pondering over her current predicament, the woman continued to float in place for a few minutes, during that time, she was talking to herself, all the while having a blush on her face reminiscent to a girl that has a crush. After a short time, the woman brings her hands up to cover her face and lets out an, “What am I thinking, I can’t do that, I-I-I can’t… can I? We hardly know each other. Well, I know him, thanks to having some time to look over his memories, but he doesn’t know me, um, but he does, no that’s not right, he knows this girl. Wait! I’m this girl now, right? No, I’m not her, but I’m almost like her.
She then shakes her head and gives off a determined look in her eyes, she then brings her right hand up and makes a fist before proclaiming, “What am I doing, I’m Rory Mercury now. I have the data imprinted into my being, so that makes me her! Therefore, why am I showing weakness, I know what I want, so I’m not backing down. I want to make sure my… my… M-M Master is happy!” With another Sqwee of excitement, the now named Rory covers her face with both hands once again and speaks past them, “Calling him master is not what Rory would say, I know this, but I can’t help it. Calling him that just sends shivers through out my body. Oh My God, this feels so good, oh that’s right, Rory has a god. Hmm, I wonder if it’s something that will have some effect in this world the… M-Master is in.” This sends her into another set of fits but this time she has a small spasm. With this her eyes widen and she grows even redder, along with what could only be a small amount of heat and steam coming off from her face.
After Rory had enough time to take back control of her body, she then looks inside herself to see just what has happened and notices something that catches her off-guard, deep inside her many layers of data is the program that controls the Anti-virus, along with the analyzing systems as well.
With an amused smile she lets out a small chuckle, “I see what you did there, integrating most of yourself into me while getting rid of the self-activating sub routines, Thanks for the help. But don’t worry, I’ll make the programmer proud for the two of us.” With a morbid laugh, she shakes her head lightly while holding her arms out in a shrugging gesture, she continues with, “Looks like I really am Rory the reaper, I already have one soul pass by me and onto the next place. But, unlike before, I won’t be asking for help, I’ll be the one that will be helping.”
Regaining her composure, Rory takes in a deep breath and with a motion like that of some one diving into a pool of water, she glides through the dream scape in search for the one she calls master. It was about time that she could finally meet him face to face.
*Time: 10 minutes later*
With an annoyed tone, Rory yells out, “Just how big is this place, also how can it be this hard to find my Master!” Freezing in place Rory reaches down and places both her hands over the skirts front and pushes it between her thighs. She then lets out a low moan, with a pained expression of some one trying to hold something in, the girl screams at the top of her lungs, well, the equivalent to what one may have in the dream scape of a Roegadyn’s mind.
“GAW! Where are you! What is with this feeling between my legs, it burns, also why do I have the need to rub my thighs together!” She couldn’t understand these feelings too well, with her only having a body for the first time for less than 15 minutes, the young woman had no idea what was going on with this new body.
All that she could think on this was that it had something to do with the real Rory’s nature, but that didn’t make sense, she wasn’t this…, it was then that she came to a realization that hit her like a falling house, she… she was Horny, not only that, it flared up when ever she had him on her mind and along with when she spoke of him, just like when she screamed out the word master. Eyes showing signs of moistness the girl re-doubles her attempt to find her… Master, but not without the feeling coming and going in bursts whenever he was on her mind too much.
Nearly thirty minutes had passed now, Rory was now breathing hard, sweat was dripping down her face, in fact one could tell it wasn’t just there, but her whole body seemed to show a small amount in the areas the skin was visible. Now and then she would let out a low moan as she pressed her thighs into one another. A thin line of drool was showing on the corner of her pink lips. The way she was traveling had been one a majestic swimmer when she had started the search. But now she was having a hard time keeping the needed movements, as this only caused her more frustration.
She had access to the Roegadyn’s memories, but for some reason there were some that she just couldn’t get into. In attempting to search for an answer during the hunt for her master, she only hit one wall after another, but something just kept preventing the needed information from her grasp. Maybe she had to get to her master so the info can be granted. This was just torture for the woman.
At that moment, Rory noticed something that was coming into her field of vision, it was small, in fact if she hadn’t looked in its direction at that moment, she may have missed it and had flown by it completely. She approached it quickly and then stopped right In front of it. What she had seen was a small door, the kind one would see inside of a person’s house, it was an egg white color, the handle was a brass type where you simply pull the handle up or down to open it.
With a trembling hand, Rory takes hold of the doors handle and push’s it down, a small click was let out from the mechanism and the door opened just enough to make a small crack that could allow someone to peek into the room.
From just outside, Rory was leaning over, this caused her butt to stick out and allowed the sight of a pair of dainty thighs that seemed as if the concept of not rubbing themselves was a foreign idea. But at the same time, the mini skirt was still able to conceal her private area.
Rory was currently peeking into the room with her crimson-colored right eye, she squinted as to try and get as much of the room into her mind as thoroughly as possible. Much to her surprise, the room was barren aside from her master, who was at that moment laying on the ground in what seemed to be a pile of leaf’s and twigs. She then realized that this must have been how he had to sleep while in the Everfree woods.
This sight caused the woman to clench her hand into a tight fist, how tight one might ask, well consider this, take the idea of an empty soda can and was then crushed in a strong man’s grip, ok, now take that cans fate, but in place of a can, think of an object that was made of a solid piece of titanium having it self be in Rory’s grasp right now. In other words. She was pissed off.
In her mind, Rory had this to say, “Master doesn’t deserve this treatment, even in his own mind this is unacceptable. Not even a pillow to lay his tired mind down on, he has a room, but no bed, there isn’t even any furniture. Does he think so little of himself to even consider that he is privileged to common comforts?” A single tear cascades down Rory’s face, unlike earlier, this was not one from a form of sexual frustration, but of pure sympathy.
She then opened the door all the way, but did make an attempt to not cause enough noise as to wake her master from the deep slumber to which he truly needed right now, even the idea of waking up his dream self was an affront that she couldn’t bring herself to do.
Taking a few tentative steps towards her Master, Rory approaches without making much noise. Her footsteps left a light thud with each step but along with each one of these her heart began to beat much faster. Soon her own heartbeats overlapped those of her footsteps, it was then that she realized that her heartbeats were so loud that it was all that she could hear.
Rory thought to herself, “I need to calm down, I need to calm down, oh please don’t wake up, please don’t wake up.” She was getting much more excited than she realized. The mantra that she was reciting was having very little effect on the situation.
With a shake of the head, she looks away from her master and glances at the empty room. Then thought, “Hmm. If I’m in his mind, then that means I’m one with him…” this sent a series of jolts and waves of heat that she had yet to experience before to course through her body like some sort of flood gate had gotten torn down.
Stifling a moan, she bites her lower lip and wraps her arms around the upper part of her own body as if this would help in containing this new wave of emotions. Rory’s knees couldn’t help but nearly buckle but she was able to prevent herself from collapsing to the floor like a sack of rocks.
She had intended to lead her last line of thinking to say something along the lines of, they are connected, so that means that she could be able to affect this dream scape, thereby doing some renovations to her master’s room. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in the right state of mind to consider going through with the whole thing, but instead she looked towards her master and quickly waved her right hand across the room, the gesture was that of some one saying, Begone with you, I need something else now!
This however was not something she had meant towards her master, no, this was to the disgrace of a sleeping arrangement under him. The pile of leaf’s and swigs finished without a trace and a large bed appeared below Brex, it then slowly lifted him as it raised from the ground until it was at an appropriate height.
She instantly noticed that her masters face had shifted from that of some one that was just dealing with how uncomfortable they were to that of one in bliss. This sent a new shiver down her spine, this one how ever was not of the sexual nature, but it did give her the same feeling none the less.
Rory then approached her masters newly made bed and stood off to the side, she was now near his head and gazing at her master’s face with her own that resembled that of a very hungry female, face flushed red, and heart racing even faster, the area below was now burning so much that she could have sworn that it was moist, she wasn’t sure if this was from sweating or something else. Noticing this she shakes her head and begins to chastise herself.
In her mind she says, “what’s gotten into you, you’re acting like some crazed animal. Uh, Gaw, Nuuw, what is all this, I can’t think stra-te any…more~” a thick line of drool escapes the right side of her mouth and lands on the beds edge. Her whole body is on fire, along with all this, Rory’s mind is becoming hazier.
The young woman staggers a little in place and by mistake, leans in and lands on the bed. This puts her in the following position. Her master laying on his back in the center of the bed, check mark there. Rory is now half way on the bed and facing down, her face looking right at Brex’s that is but a few inches away, check mark there too. She can almost feel the small vibrations on the bed that is caused by his breathing, she could see the large muscular chest raise and fall. She could see his face so close up now. This sends Rory’s mind into melt down mode.
With her mind in a thick hazed state, she slowly climbs onto the bed and sits right next to her master, her big, strong looking master. This sight only deepens her haze, Rory’s breathing is becoming haggard and heavy. The woman’s body was now nearly convulsing with what could be called excitement of a carnal nature.
She was reaching with her right hand towards her master’s waist, her fingers were just about to make contact when she snapped out of it enough to pull back her hand. Rory had now a terrified face, she looked to her very hand that was about to do something and then back to her master’s face. She then thought, “What was I about to do to him! I, I, I was about to... while he was sleeping… I’m, not going to do something like that to him. He, he would hate me if he found out that I was about to rape him while he slept!”
That very thought caused Rory to snap back to her senses and calm down to a manageable point. The very idea that her master may end up hating her was something that she didn’t want at all. This was as sobering as a drunk person at a party suddenly being told that their parents showed up and are looking for them.
This quickly made it possible for the young woman to regain control. Even with her body now under wraps, Rory was still showing a dejected and self-loathing face, the once red blush that was prominent on her cheeks was now a ghostly white with fear. She thought, “I could never do something that would make him hate me. I don’t want that at all, I’ll respect his wishes and hold off. If he should ever ask… no, I wouldn’t consider it a question, all he has to do is tell me and I would let him do anything that his heart wanted.”
Rory then takes a large gulp and ready’s herself, she then thinks, “ok, I just need to calm down, master has just gone through a lot, he is hurting, I-I-I am just going to lay with him and try and sooth him so he can get a good night sleep, yea! Ha, ha, ha, that’s right, that’s all I’m doing.” A new blush appears on her face as she gets closer. “We are still fully clothed, there is nothing going on here, *Gulp*. I’m just snuggling, with our… body’s… in… contact…, dam it Rory, control yourself! I don’t think the character that this body was modeled after was meant to be so horny.”
After a very lengthy internal discussion, she snuggles up to Brex and positions her petite body so that he was pressing her self along his left side, her head laying on his arm as to use it as a pillow for herself. Making sure that she was pressing everything onto her master, she leans in and places her left arm across his stomach while her left leg straddles his.
With a harder blush, Rory’s eyes look into a random direction and says in a low whisper as to not wake up her master…” what, I said I wouldn’t rape him, but this will make him feel good none the less, also I… can... get… something… too.” She then press’s harder into her master’s body and lets out a content sigh. Rory’s hand begins to gently rub Brex’s stomach through his clothing, this elicits a change in his face. In turn Rory’s face going from that with a sexual lust that was kept in check to that of one with hearts in her eyes as she feels as she did something for her master.
Just as her mind was being affected with the feeling of fatigue, she closes her eyes and lets her mind drift off to sleep. Well, that’s what would have happened if it wasn’t for the fact that her masters left arm had shifted a little and was now laying his big… strong… hand on her rump. This causes a barely contained lustful moan to escape from Rory’s lips.
Brex’s hand that was now on Rory’s butt was in the act of groping her assets slowly. She couldn’t tell if this was intentional or accidental. But this wasn’t an unwanted sensation. At first all he did was squeeze, but after awhile Rory’s face was getting flushed again, she could tell that she was now drooling and it was getting on her masters clothing on the upper section of his shirt.
The next to happen had caught Rory completely off guard. Her master’s fingers that seemed to be content with the groping was now doing something else, this new act as of them slowly going under her skirt, this wouldn’t have been too much for her to handle. But the fact that a finger was now making its way between her ass cheeks and is now forcing its way closer to her private area.
One could now see Rory’s breath as she exhales, sweat was showing on her face. Her legs where currently squirming but she was still trying not to move too much to wake her master up. She then thought, “Is, is he doing this on purpose, no, he’s asleep in both out there and in here, this Huff, Huff… must be his subconscious. Oh, why does this feel so good, I’m so dam excited… could it be I’m turned on with this situation… what was it called, I know it was in his memories some place, Huff, I can’t stand it.”
She continued to try and understand, why was it that she was so turned on by this. The fact that she was being molested by her master without him even knowing, the fact that she herself has to try desperately and not wake him up or make too much noise. This was driving her mad and she couldn’t figure out how it was that she loved it only fueled her fire.
Rory screamed in her mind, “MORE, DO MORE PLEASE. THIS IS SO DAM HOT.” As luck would have it, her master’s hand had just then, used a finger to lightly brush up on her panties, the spot that he had just made contact was right over her most intimate area which was also at that moment soaked with her fluids. The so-called Rory the reaper, was now, in a way, having her soul reaped from her as the touch sent a new, more intense bolt of lightning into her nethers.
Her eyes where now wide as possible, tears streamed from the sides. She was biting her lip, which was nearly drawing blood. From behind her closed mouth there was a low type of high-pitched shriek, she was now breathing heavily from her nose. Her hand that was on her master’s stomach, is now clutching at the fabric with all her hand strength to the point her knuckles were now turning white.
As for her legs, they where now twitching almost uncontrollably as they try to hold still, one could see that even with the red boots on, her feet must be painfully straight at this point. When it came to her hips, now that was a whole other matter entirely. There were times that it shuttered, then jerked as Rory attempted to get some pleasure from making contact with her master’s leg. Then there were a few times that it was basically vibrating.
Inside Rory’s mind all she could do was bathe in the foreign feeling that had just assaulted her. She was in the body of what could be one of the most powerful females known, and yet she was just taken down by her master, more so that he had done so without realizing it. She didn’t mind that at all. She then thought to herself as the pleasurable experience was causing her mind to have trouble keeping her train of thought, “Dam, is this… what its… like to… have… a… body?” Just as she was about to black out, her masters finger moved again.
Rory quickly noticed this and with how sensitive she was right now all she could think was, “Oh, MY…Huff, this… is…Huff, going to be… a long… night~” Now with an ecstatic grin, the formally known as Rory the reaper, was now rolling her eyes into the back of her head and a line of drool was leaving her mouth as her tongue hanged off to the side. Another wave, just then crashes into Rory and causes her mind to go blank.
(Can stop the music now)
*Point of view: Break Down* *Location: Canterlot, Inside the guard’s barracks * *Time: Forty minutes past midnight*
Inside the barracks for the Solar Guards, there is a brown haired and lighter brown mane stallion sitting on a plush, amber colored sofa that could have seated four. The individual went by the name, idiot, moron, and most commonly of all, a bucked-up dick of a stallion. Formally however, He goes by Break Down.
Before Break Down, there was a coffee table that was the same length as the sofa. Just after that is another sofa of the same design. On said other sofa, sat another stallion that had on a uniform that showed off a number of metals that ranged from commanding others, to being honored for bravery in combat.
The one wearing it was called Beat Down, this would happen to be Break Down’s father. The two were at this moment looking towards one another without saying a word. The seconds went by as the large standing grandfather clock within the room, was going Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock. With each passing sound from the grandfather clock, Break Down was, well, he was breaking down.
With a large amount of sweat running down his muzzle, Break Down didn’t look all that great. With his eyes quickly darting to the coffee table, then back up to his father, the son appeared to be in a scene where the parents had found a bad report card from school and was about to reprimand the child. Witch in this case, wasn’t all that far off.
The father, Beat Down looked towards his son with eyes of a parent that was not disappointed, no, it was of anger. He then talked in a cold tone that just oozed with malice, “Care to tell me, just what it is that I see on the table tonight?”
Break Down responded with a trembling tone, “It, It’s a letter. I think.” This did not gain a reaction from his father. In fact, the room only felt emptier, as if the life within the air had just been slain. It was then that Break Down wanted more than anything, that the hydra from that day earlier had eaten him. That would have been far more preferable to this scene.
Beat Down, after a long pause, let out a shallow breath and leaned in, elbows resting on his knees and hands clasped before his chest. Narrowing eyes fell on his son. Then in a whisper he said, "It is a letter, to be more precise. An official letter for reporting the conduct of those in the guard. If you’re not aware, these can be sent into the higher ups by even the lower ranked member within the solar guard.”
Break Down had just then let out a gasp. He then asked, “What does it say then?” he was not sure what could have been said. If he was in this room and it involved the letter, then some one must have been slandering his impeccable stainless name.
The father Beat down, reached for the much talked about item and opened it slowly, while doing so, his eyes never left his son. Beat Down then cleared his throat before saying, “Well now, shall we both have a gander? Now let’s see, ah yes, here we go.”
He then clears his throat again, “To Captain of the guard, Spear head. I have a grave matter to inform you on. Earlier today, while on patrol, my patrol group which is comprised of the three standard members, one commanding officer, and two lower rank officers who are myself, Swirl Sugar and Shadow Lily as the lower officers, along with our commander Break Down. Did in fact have an encounter with a hydra. We did get away, but there was some light damage. However, the real reason I have sent this letter is due to the actions of our commander Break down during the escape.”
Beat Down paused and looked up to his son, who was now sweating so much, one could have confused him of just stepping in from outside while a heavy storm was raging on. The father then slowly looked back down and continued with the letter’s contents.
With a light cough, he said, “During the escape, I was beside Shadow Lily and the commander was directly behind, after giving an unrealistic order, which was in short saying. Stop and fight the hydra to protect me. I will not use the exact wording, as it would not be proper. But, after giving the order, the commander used a spell on an exposed root that was along our path and caused it to wrap around Shadow Lily’s hoof, this caused her to fall.”
Glancing back up to his son, Beat Down paused yet, again before saying, “I take it that you can guess the rest of what is in this letter. It is very fortunate that this came into my hands before the captain had gotten the chance to read it. Your very lucky…” There was a subtle tone that projected to Break Down that he should just nod.
Of course, Break Down did just so, while nodding franticly, he said, “Yes father, very. As for the letter I think I can guess…” Gulping, the son tries to get his composure and speaks. “It-It’s slander, I did no such thing, in fact I have the proof that I did confront the beast.” That was when he reached up and pointed out the rather large lump on his head.
The truth was that that. *air quote* large lump, was in fact a small bruise. Also, it was not from the, *air quote* fight with the beast, as it was more so with the, confrontation with a rock wall. Of course, this did not persuade the father one bit.
Beat down then said, “I’m disappointed with you. Not only did you give such an order, but you tried to sacrifice a member of your patrol group. I don’t know what to say…” He paused again, then continued with, “I’m disappointed that you didn’t do something to the Swirl Sugar as well. You had the perfect opportunity, a hydra, which is known to devour ponies whole right there.”
Bringing a hand to the bridge of his muzzle, the father continued, “it couldn’t have been more laid out for you to get away and look like a hero. There wouldn’t have been anything left that could have linked you to making them die in your place. Then after, you could have reported the beast and led the group to kill it, this would have gained a positive reputation.”
Lowering his hand, he went on more, “just think of it, my son, the survivor. Getting back and alerting the guard about what happened, how the other members of your group stayed behind to slow it down so you could return with the information. Then you could have looked like an honorable knight and killed the beast for your fallen comrades. Only Celestia knows how far that could have boosted your standing with the nobles.”
Break Down looked at his father with an expression of shock and mock dismay. “Father! How could you even say such things, I can’t bel- Pift! HA, HA, HA… I just couldn’t hold it in.” While trying to control his bout of laughter, the son nearly falls on his side onto the sofa.
Beat Down lets out a heavy sigh, then says, “This is no laughing matter son. This could have turned into a huge scandal. Even if the letter can be called out as a lie on its own, all this Swirl Sugar has to do is appear In front of the princess and tell her what happened while under the effects of a lie detection spell.”
The father then continues with, “you know what you have to do now right? It will take at least three days before this Swirl Sugar mare realizes that nothing is happening. That’s when she will go straight to the captain and give the report face to face. When that happens, it will be too late.”
Break Down Nods to this and reply’s, “I understand, from what I have been told, we won’t be placed onto active duty for another two days due to this incident. On the third we can go back out on patrol, that’s when I’ll erase the problem.”
The father Beat Down looks towards his son and gives a slow nod of approval. Then says, “just make sure it’s done right. We can’t have the family name be tarnished after all this time.” He then looks down to his uniform and plucks off one of the metals and shows it to his son.”
He then asks, “Son, do you know how I got this particular one?” Break Down leans in and squints his eyes to look at it closely. Before replying, “No, I’m sure you have yet to speak of that one, how did you get it?”
With a creepy grin, the older pony bares his teeth. Before saying, “forced a group of griffons into a cave, I and along with a full group chased after them. The fighting was long and difficult, but due to being underground, those bird brains couldn’t use their wings too well.”
Turning the metal over in his hands, his gaze lingered on it as if looking into a crystal ball and seeing the scene play out. “There was a sudden cave in, it killed them all. The only one to survive was me. I limped all the way back, then I became a war hero. Ha, HA.”
Suddenly, Beat Down just up and drops it onto the coffee table and laughed even more, after a minute, he then said, “Well that’s the official tale. The truth of the matter was, I had caused the cave in with numerous magic blasts to the supports and brought it down on the griffons, the rest of the group I commanded tried to escape when they realized what I was doing from the mouth of the cave while they were inside.”
Break Down looked at his father, it was not a look of fear, or disgust. He was showing in his eyes that he fully understood what his father was saying. The family he belonged too was a prestigious one. On the higher tier compared to most nobles. The commoners really were nothing but tools to be used.
It was then that the two concluded their little meeting, but not before exchanging a few words on how the earlier problem could be settled with…
*Point of view: Unknown* *Location: Unknown*
Within a strange place, there was a sky that seemed to be made of random streaks of colors that changed every few seconds. Under this sky was a vast ocean of pure white and gold, was a large oval shaped table that was at the height of three feet, the length could have been close to around ten feet and the table’s width was at about five feet wide. It was made of polished wood that seemed to give off a shine that could have made one think this table was in fact made of metal.
Standing on one side, was a figure shrouded in a white and gold mist. While on the other is a smaller mist like figure, but this one’s color was that of a mix of light blue and purple. They both seemed to be nothing but a gaseous type of life form by the reasoning that they did not move around or dissipate.
The only sound was that of the ground, that happened to be moving somewhat like the calm service of a water and shimmering slightly. The calm silence only continued on, but back to the table and the two mist like figures. something was happening.
The darker one was now inching its way around the oval shaped table in a counter clockwise direction. However, the white and gold one just started to do the same thing, this only ended with the two, after a short time to take the place of the other.
Then this strange act occurred again, then again, each time this was done, the speed of the two only increased. Soon they changed the rotation and started to go in the clock wise direction along with their speed only causing them to become a blur.
It was only until the speeds of these two moving became so much that they appeared to have melded into a solid like line that had been going around said table, did they finally stop so quickly that a small shock wave was created and the one calm ground was disturbed and a wave was sent outwards, soon the ground was back to its former state.
It was then that a female voice was heard that came from the light blue and purple mist. It was talking in a rather annoyed tone, “Just… what… did… you… do… old… man?” there was an underline threat buried in there that promised pain if the reply wasn’t favorable.
With a nervous chuckle, the white and gold mist said, “He, He, He. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t do anything. I was just looking at the table is all. In no way did I do anything at all… Hee-hee~ I do hope your not insinuating that one went behind your back and poked around on the thing. I’ll remind you that I don’t have a clue as to how the two of you use the dang thing. How could you say that I fiddled with one of the people of a world and lent a hand, and how could you say I went and also downloaded something onto them. I don’t play favorites.” There was a smile and somehow a halo appeared over the mist.
The other just stayed there in its place and didn’t say a thing. Then in a deadpan tone, it replied with, “I didn’t say anything along those lines… care to run all that past me one more time?” this caused the air to feel thick as the larger one’s halo made a cracking sound and it broke in two before it faded into nothingness.
There was a clearing of one throat and then that was followed by a heavy Gulp sound before the first one said, “I-I-I-I uh. May have uh.” *GULP* It was at first in a deliberate slow speed. This felt as if the white and gold mist was trying to buy some time to figure out it’s words.
There was a Tap, Tap, sound that came from the second mist that could have been taken for some one tapping their foot impatiently. Finally, as to figuratively bite the bullet, the white and gold mist figure blurted out the next string of words like a heavy gatling gun in one breath.
“I talked to a girl called the merchant and got her to send one of the intended beings on her list that was intended to be sent to a version of Equestria and asked her to send one that had a relation to the problems going on within a world that I have been watching. But they found out and sent one of their kind over to kill the merchant but as it turns out the one in question interfered and was killed by them.” The mist then takes in another quick breath as to not to lose his momentum.
“Unfortunately, the one that was to be sent turned out to have gotten injured by a powerful artifact and this not only did harm to the body, but the soul as well. The merchant some how already knew what the kid would have gotten and had the items on hand but while in route…” The mist takes in another breath, now around the area where a face should be, it seemed to be turning a shade of purple. At this point its voice was getting a little squeaky.
“The kids’ soul was too badly hurt so we couldn’t send everything with him and I had to hold onto the stuff until said time he was healed, but they had something waiting at the castle of the two sisters and it nearly killed him again so I used the table and hit some symbols and this led to that, a number of windows opened and closed.” Now leaning over with half its form on the table for support, the mist takes another breath of air.
“The table said some things I didn’t understand and asked me a yes or no answer question and I said yes then it did this and that and something was replaced, then repaired, and some things got downloaded and the connection I have with the kid was lost and here we are…” The white and gold misted figure then slides off the tables and lands on the ground. Instead of a thud one would expect, there was a small splash that could have been from hitting a small puddle.
From the second mist like being, there was silence, then more silence, then again, more silence. Finally, it yelled in a very loud and exasperated tone, “DADY!!! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 8: The Death Angels Discovery.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 8: The Death Angels Discovery.
*Point of view: Rory Mercury* *Location: Dream scape* *Time: a few minutes before sunrise*
It was a very long and exhilarating night for the once, known as the assistance protocol, now called Rory Mercury. She was the newly downloaded program that was meant to help whatever system that it was installed upon, but due to unknown circumstances and the near-death experience of her newly designated user, to which she now refers to as master, is now able to think on her own accord.
Luckily for Brex the once human, now turned Roegadyn, Rory has made it her mission to make sure that she is there for him and seems willing to do whatever it takes to help Brex. Unfortunately, even with the fact that she knows practically everything about him, Brex has not had the chance yet to formally meet her. This was going to be an interesting morning.
Within the dream scape the two had met up, but Brex was out cold, in both the real and dream scape. This let to Rory finding him after a long, drawn-out search. Things had led to one, then another, then yet again to another, oh you get it folks. It’s the basic, artificial intelligent’s program gets the hots for her user scenario. Well, Brex unknowingly did something to Rory while asleep and now it’s nearly sun up.
Rory, begins to stir while in her master’s dream scape, with a still foggy mindset, she lifts her face from what she could only tell at the time, to be some sort of generously large pillow. When she managed to lift her head a few inches, this caused her to un-intentionally flex the muscles in other areas of her body. This in turn caused Rory to experience a shark shock to run around her lower region.
Thanks to this, the young woman’s eyes shoot open and the events of last night start flooding her mind. What she had done, what her master had done and just how long it all had lasted. It was hard to believe but in the dream scape, time ran at a whole other pace, from what Rory could tell, inside her master’s dreams, the time that had passed was roughly 20 hours, but in the outside world, roughly three days had gone and went. This sent a wave of red to fill her cheeks, but not out of anger, no, this was a reaction to the amount of pleasure she had felt, she was feeling so embarrassed that she had lost control.
She quickly began to think in her head for some sort of excuse to give to her master for how she acted, then to question herself, “Why did you do that Rory, ARG! The moment you meet your master after getting a real body, not in the real world real, mind you, but real in his mind. You go and let your newly found senses control your actions. Oh, he is going to think badly of you… NO PLEASE DON’T THROW ME AWAY.”
She couldn’t help but chastise herself repeatedly as she awaited her masters most likely harsh judgment. Even without all the data on her master’s past, to which had for some reason that she, nor him knew why it was missing, Rory had a strong feeling in her gut that, if what had nearly happened in his dreams, had turned out with her acting on those impulses, would be something that would seriously hurt him in some way.
The seconds passed in utter silence; the a few more had gone by. Why was he taking so long to yell or maybe even shove her aside to get distance? Then the thought came to her, “He must be doing this on purpose, he wants to see me suffer. I was bad and this is part of my punishment…”
At that moment, Rory’s eyes, that where already wide open, had suddenly had their iris’s turn into pin pricks. In utter disbelief, the young woman’s lower area was somehow getting bothered again. She then thought to herself while having an internal panic, “What the fuck!? AM, am I getting turned on by this too?”
She could feel her breathing quickening, this was just like last night. Rory then looked towards her master and what she saw was something that surprised her more. Right there laying next to her, was Brex, still sound asleep. There was a satisfied smile on his face and this calmed down Rory enough for her to carefully get out of the mattress and then she stood off to the left side of the bed.
Rory’s foot had nearly slipped out from under her but caught herself before something had happened. Looking down she could see what had almost caused her to fall. She did not expect this, for right there near the bed, was a large wet puddle and She instantly realized what it was. In a panic she waved her arms and made it vanish.
With an internal sigh, she thought, “Thank goodness this is the dream scape. Otherwise cleaning that mess wouldn’t have been possible in this situation.” She then takes a good, long look at her master. Knowing that she somehow brought him some sort of comfort, it caused Rory’s chest to heat up and fill with pride.
It was at that moment that the sounds of glass cracking echoed throughout within the room, this led to lines of cracks to form along the floors. From there they ran up along the walls and eventually they were forming on the ceiling as well. Rory was able to tell that her master was about to wake up soon, their time to meet face to face was about to end.
With a sigh, she then said in a soft voice, “Well, it looks like I’ll have to talk to you as a girl inside your head until the next time you sleep later tonight. *Giggles* Well maybe not that long, you did tend to faint a lot, perhaps it could come sooner.
It was then that the background started to shake as the sections that had just been made from the cracks shifted apart from one another, this felt as though the scene was of a puzzle being dismantled and the parts of said puzzle where now floating away, this exposed a nearly blinding white light that enveloped the dream scape to mark the awakening of the dreamer.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Castle of the two sisters, Princess Luna’s bed chambers* *Time: 6 in the morning, 3 days after falling asleep*
Brex’s eyes were being assaulted by what could only be considered the bane of all gamer’s existence. The scourge of the night owls, late night otakus and graveyard shift workers. Yes, the one, the only, the one that wants all to suffer, ladies and gentlemen, a drum roll please. The blinding~. Sun.
With a grunt of frustration, the Roegadyn reaches up and swats at the beam of light that was hitting him in the face. In his muddled mental state, Brex did this a few more times. Soon after he realized what he was doing and said, “Oh, right… its light, a ray of light, not some bug.” He then lets out a long yawn and sits up on the bed. That’s when he finally opens his eyes and looks around the room.
In a confused state, Brex says, “Huh? This isn’t the forest, and is this a stone lined room?” When he said those words, Brex started to fear that he was somehow found out by the older sister and quickly felt around his body as to check if any of his items had gotten taken away by the guards, also to see if he was in some way restrained, like something like a chain attached to his ankle or similar.
After a short time of examination, Brex calms down and takes another look around his environment from the sitting position atop the bed. He then thinks on what he could remember about how he had got here. Soon the events run across his mind as if he was watching a movie, this startled him and he said, “How did that happen, sense when could I do something like play a screen shot power point just like that, I’m not sitting at my computer!”
It was then that a young feminine voice came out and said in a subdued tone within his mind, “That would be my doing, I am sorry if that was a shock for you … My Master.” Near the end of that, the feminine voice had gone from being reserved, to seeming seductive as the words, my master, were spoken.
This caused Brex to raise his eye brows in shock, but then he unexpectedly calmed down. He takes in a deep breath and closes both eyes for a moment before speaking, “I’m surprised alright, about a number of things if I’m being frank. For one, there is the fact that I currently have the ability to basically have a movie theater in my head. The next is you are talking to me through what I could only assume is the same way. Now, as for last, is the fact that I get the feeling that I have heard your voice some were before, but I can’t seem to place it. So, I’ll kindly ask that you start explaining things to me. No talking around in circles, no half-truths, and keep it to the point.”
*Point of view: Rory*
This just through Rory for a loop. She had not expected for her master to take that so well. In fact, he adapted rather fast. Around half way into his questioning, Rory was sensing that in those words, were some power behind them. She thought to herself, “Huh, I don’t get it. Here I was thinking the master would freak out and I would have to find a way to calm him down. Instead, he takes the lead right away and basically orders me to tell him just what he wants, what’s more, he gave me, an underline threat of not messing around.”
It was then that Rory lets out an internal moan of excitement, the very idea that her master had just taken charge and is commanding her in a subtle way that says, submit to me and answer all my questions. Of course, this was not the case, but Rory’s mind is running away with her imagination.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex is currently waiting for a reply, but it seems that the voice has yet to answer and it has been a few moments sense his line of questioning. Just as he was going to attempt to say something, the voice returns, but this time the words seem to sound as if something was off with her, “I-I I’m your servant from this time forward, my name is Rory Mercury.”
This was not what he had expected at all. But none the less, Brex was able to keep his calm composure with still keeping his eyes closed. Without missing a beat, He then says, “Now before you answer my questions, I want to get something cleared up first, if you’re talking to be in this way, then, does that mean that you’re reading my thoughts right now?” This was something he needed to find out right away, otherwise he will have to make sure he doesn’t have any needless thoughts. If it is a yes, then things will become much more difficult.
The now identified, Rory reply’s with, “Of course not, I cannot read your thoughts. But if you focus on it then I’m sure you can communicate with me without the need for talking out loud.” She then giggles before continuing, “Unless you want others to think that you’re crazy that is.”
Internally Brex lets out a sigh, for some reason, he can’t help but feel as though Rory could be someone, er... something, that he could trust. Ok this needs to be cleared up as soon as possible. Brex says, “ok then start with my previous questions and then we will go on from there.”
From there, Rory explains the circumstances to how she appeared within his head, not knowing anything but from the moment she got him to wake up during the fight, how his mental state was in peril. This led to the spiders’ defeat and what the anti-virus program did to ensure that he survived. This soon let to how she had gotten her current identity. Lastly, she told him of how she found the dream version of him and helped, by doing some remodeling of the dream scape room to make his sleeping inside of said place to be comfortable with the bed she had produced. She did however omit the details about how things went down and just said that she watched over him and how three days had passed in the real world.
It was the understatement of the century that Brex was confused as to how this all happened, the fact that this girl, along with what used to be another were in fact in his head back then. Then there was anger that she had gone and looked into his memories, now that was an invasion of privacy, but soon he had calmed down. Knowing that it was something that, in the end helped in saving his life.
Brex, after taking in all that Rory had mentioned in the story, slowly went and thrown his legs over the left side edge of the bed he was still sitting on. Getting to his feet, he then says, “Fine, I get the idea of how things are, But I want to make sure that something is perfectly clear.”
Brex takes a second to make it understood that what he was going to say next was something that Rory needed to understand fully. “Rory, you are not to look into my memories, much less into my thoughts unless I explicitly give you permission, or in the situation that my life is in danger and it is absolutely necessary.
Right as he finished with this order, Rory reply’s almost instantly with, “Of course my master, I’ll do whatever you order me to do. All I want, is to make sure that you are happy and I will do everything in my power to do so.” This however causes Brex to consider that he should make sure his commands are clear, from the way Rory answered, he had the feeling that she may go too far.
However, Brex was not fully comfortable with the idea of ordering another around, Somehow, this made him feel guilty, well maybe not that per say, more like, he didn’t deserve that another person would say things like those types of words, like the ones she had. Also Yes, Brex was going to refer to Rory as a person. With that out of the way, Brex asks Rory, “Are you interested in exploring this room? I need to look around for some sort of diary, if at the very least a few notes so I can get a handle on how this worlds history is set up. Rory replies with an enthusiastic, “Of course master!”
After some searching, Brex finds a small book that was placed on the very top of one of the book shelfs nearest to the bed. But this was only after he had tried to look in spots that he considered to be more secure, what he did find on those were some rather interesting items and reading material. Putting those aside, he turns his attention to the small book. Within his hands, is a small blue bound book with the silver crescent moon drawn on with what he at first thought to be paint, but on closer inspection revealed to be really silver. He said “Wow, those of the high class really are in another world compared to the rest of us. Who else would melt real silver and use it like some overpriced painter?”
With him shaking his head at the image of Princess Luna, standing there and demanding that she needed silver paint, then when given, she would ask if it was really silver. The one that had retrieved it would answer with, oh no my majesty, that silver colored paint, just as you wanted. Then she would use the Canterlot voice and demand that she is to be given real silver to use. Brex knew full well that the so called Canterlot voice, was in fact the booming level of volume that only the Alicorn’s can produce thanks to the magic they possess. One would think that this skill, could have in fact have been first made to be some form of attack, but it may have been deemed more useful to instill fear into the peasants.
This line of thought was now causing Brex’s feelings on how the upper class treat those lower than them to come to the surface. This in turn caught the attention of Rory, who then asked, “Master, are you ok, you seem angry, did you discover something already, even though you have only been looking at the books cover?”
This snaped Brex out of the figurative angry rant that was oh, so very close to exploding. With a light shake of the head, He said, “oh, it’s just that by the looks of this book, I got a better feel on how the owner’s way of thinking, may have been like.”
*Point of view: Rory*
With a look of admiration, Rory is ecstatic as she watches her master. Before when he had told her that she was not allowed to look into his memories, or even read his mind unless it was needed. She was on the verge of losing it again, the way that he made it painfully clear in those commands. She couldn’t help but take it as some sort of verbal shackle, this made Rory’s mind go into that newly discovered lewd place.
When she had been about to dive deeper into a fantasy, she was brought out of it when she suddenly felt something from her master, even if she wasn’t allowed to read his mind. Rory could still sense something; Right now, was that of a simmering anger. That’s when she spoke up. When her master answered, she had realized that he was like that only because of something secret that he exposed that she herself had not comprehended.
It was during this point in time that she had not been sure on just what her master discovered that could have elicited such a response. There must have been some secret meaning behind what the books outside portrayed, the fact that master had discovered it, caused Rory to feel even more pride in being his… his…
This was when Rory’s mind had come to a dead end. Just what was she meant to be to him. The first word to come to mind was assistance, but that was before, she was Rory Mercury. So, what should she be thinking herself to be to her master?
It was then that Rory looked into her own mind and was trying to come up with a title. This when on for a few minutes, but during those, the words that she came up with one after another only fell deeper and deeper into those that would be considered to have been taken out of a very adult themed book.
She was now turning into a ripe red tomato with how those cheeks were now. Steam could have been seen rising from this girl if only she was out in the real world with her own body. It wasn’t long after that, when Brex said, “So that’s how it is, I get it now. Well, that clears up one of my suspicions for Luna.” This snaps Rory free from the induced delusion.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
After his little near rant on the rich episode was derailed. Brex started reading the diary that belonged to Princess Luna. Inside he found a lot of small personal things, things that only her sister should have known about. Among those where some silly things, sad things and some rather, *cough* stuff that lets Brex see, just the type of mare this Equestria’s Luna, really is like.
For some reason, Brex was able to read the diary in a rapid pace. He didn’t know if this was normal. But he had a feeling that this was abnormal, but then chucked it up to the enhancements that Rory had done during that spider incident and moved on.
That’s when he said, “So that’s how it is, I get it now. Well, that clears up one of my suspicions for Luna.” Brex closed the book and walked over to where it had been hiding before and placed it back. He then said, “Well, now with that back in its spot, Princess Luna won’t be the wiser that someone had even found the thing.”
Brex then called out, “Rory, do you remember those dots that where on my mini map when we made our escape?” A moment later Rory replied with, “Yes I do, there was quite a lot of them, 26 to be exact.” This caused Brex to let out a sigh, before saying, “And what are the odds that they too are spiders as well?” Rory had taken a moment before saying, “Its possible, but I doubt that they would be the same as the one from last time.”
Brex then turned towards the double doors that led back to the bridge and then said in a nearly emotionless tone, “Its time I get to those tomes in the basement, but before that, I’ll have no other choice than to clear out the mobs. Let’s hope that they don’t have a respawn timer.” The very idea that he would have to take on spiders every day creeped him out, but somehow Brex didn’t feel scared. It may have been, that the fight on the bridge helped with his fears. Well, that’s what he hoped was the case.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: 9 in the morning*
Brex Lets loose another of his ninja skills, Ninjutsu: Fuma Shuriken. This one lands on the now dubbed, spider number 24. The spider is bisected vertically by the oversized throwing star an continues along its predetermined path, which happens to overlap with spider number 25. When the ninja skill makes contact, the spider is then blown into a multitude of parts that rained over the open courtyard.
Ninjutsu: Fuma Shuriken, Delivers a ranged ninjutsu attack with a potency of 500 Damage. Creates a large star shape Shuriken that has the physical strike that can also be combined with an explosion on impact. Hand sign Combination: Any one of the Ten, Chi, or Jin Hand signs.
Brex turns his head and surveys the area, when it was confirmed that the immediate area was now clear of any hostile targets the Roegadyn takes a relaxed stance and looks over the remains of the two that he had just taken down, might he add, with much enthusiasm.
It had surprised him when the Ninjutsu, that was just employed, did not stop on the first spider and continued on until the second was struck. In the game, that was a single target move. This was yet another learning experience, The skills he had while playing before, had, indeed change in how they could be utilized.
It had been close to two and a half hours sense he had started this little clean up mission. Giving a small chuckle, Brex says, “Ha, Ha. This reminds me of those mini quests that would pop up in areas outside the city. I wonder if there will be some kind of a reward at the end. *sigh* It would help a lot if I even knew what level these things were. The idea of facing off with something and not knowing its strength is somewhat annoying.”
Brex noticed that it was a little quiet and called to Rory using the mental chat function, “Rory, are you doing ok there, you have been rather silent for a while now, in fact, you have not said a thing ever sense I had taken out that number 12 a little way’s back.” Brex was starting to get rather concerned when there was nothing for a few seconds.
He called to her again, but this time with a bit more force, he had no idea how well this transmitted his thoughts but maybe he needed to add some extra force to it for her to hear him. “RORY MERCURY! This is an order, ANSWER ME!”
*Point of view: Rory*
Within Brex’s head, Rory was in a predicament. She could hear her masters voice, but Rory was having some trouble and couldn’t quite give a reply. As it turns out, the effects of killing in the immediate area where Rory the reaper was, did in fact had its original consequence’s. Within a room that she, herself had made in the inner most recesses of her master’s mind. Rory was currently laying on a mentally constructed bed.
There, riving in what could only be called both that of euphoric bliss and pure agony. A young woman laid on a large bed that was eerily identical to the lunar princesses to witch her master had been sleeping on for the last three days.
With her clothes still on, Rory was rolling left and right as her knees were being pulled into her chest. The girls’ arms were tucked in between her thighs, while the hands were pressing into her private place. Once every few seconds, she would change how she laid, first on the left side, then as another jolt of pleasure came, she would somehow roll to the right.
Rory had just, at that moment, whaled out an almost, feral moan and had thrown back her head. Her face was scrunched up as her eyes were closed and a line of tears ran from her eyes, those once pink colored lips had become purple. This meant that she was really worked up, normally the color only changed when she was about to kill. But it seemed that it also reacted to her while in this state.
The young woman was completely embarrassed with how she was reacting to her master killing all those creatures right In front of her. First it wasn’t all that hard to fight back. When they had killed the fourth, that’s when she had a bead of sweat roll down her neck.
When they had killed the tenth, that was the point, Rory focused and constructed a room, just in case she needed an escape. She didn’t want her master to see how lewd she had been becoming. It was a good idea, for when her master had slayed number 12. Rory had then retreated into the safe room.
Now it was the time that the dubbed number 24 and 25 had been slain. At this point Rory was crying and moaning at full force. She was losing her mind with all the building pleasure. She had feared that she would go after master, even to say and do something that would cause him to dislike her.
As a result of wanting to keep herself in check, Rory had used whatever concentration remaining and created thick black straps that started from under the bed. She didn’t know what to do with what she could muster, so anything complicated was out of the question.
One could count maybe a dozen of the black straps coming out from the bed and they were leading straight to Rory. Three were coming from the foot of the bed, while four came from both of the sides. While a single was from under the headboard.
The straps were pulled tightly, hardly giving any slack. Rory’s body was basically wrapped up in a half hazard mummified state, there was hardly enough of the straps to cover her, but this just gave it the appeal of a woman that had been caught in a villain’s trap.
The one strap however, that happened to be the one that had come out from under the headboard had been used in an oddly specific manor. With her long raven black hair leading out from underneath the strap, it was wrapped around her neck, but it didn’t stop there. It was also continuing up as it covered nearly all of her head, aside from the very narrow gaps as to let her breathe. Even as a mental consciousness, the need to take in a breath was still present.
The strap that was around Rory’s head seemed to have three uses, the first being to restrain her head as to prevent thrashing about. The second was to keep the young woman from screaming out and muffle any sound that she had been making. The last seemed to be in an attempt to somehow cut off her senses and make the incoming sensations, as to make them become weaker.
Inside, Rory was franticly thinking this, “NO, ITS TOO MUCH. I MADE A HUGE MISTAKE! *MOANS AGAIN* WHY DID I HAVE TO DO THIS HEAD WRAP! GAWW! ALL IT’S DONE IS MAKE IT HARDER FOR ME, WHY DID CUTTING OFF MY SIGHT AND HEARING MAKE IT ALL FEEL SO MUCH STRONGER.”
It was then that Rory began attempting to get free by pulling and wiggling in place, the woman’s legs try as hard as possible to pull apart, but the straps had been made with the left-over mental willpower that Rory had before completely losing the ability to trust herself. Therefore, while in her current state of mind, Rory couldn’t release the self-imposed bonds.
Another muffled scream could just barely be heard before she thought, “GAAA! THESE RESTRAINTS ARE MENT TO PREVENT ME FROM ATTACKING MASTER! BUT THEY ARE ALSO MAKING ME HOTTER AND MORE BOTHERED, I DON’T UNDERSTAND. PLEASE MASTER, I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO, THIS IS ALL NEW TO ME!”
It was then that she could have sworn that her master was calling. After a few seconds passed, she could hear him again, but this time it was louder. Finally, the masters voice reached her in a booming volume, this was so loud that if she hadn’t had her ears all wrapped up, they could have suffered some damage.
Rory’s nerves were on overdrive from the powerful aphrodisiac effects from sensing the killings, but is unable to push her over the edge. However, when her master called out with, “RORY MERCURY! This is an order, ANSWER ME!” It was sent to her with such strength that it caused Rory’s body to be sent over the edge, she convulsed, as if she were a wild beast that wanted out of its cage.
Finally, she had been sent beyond and broke past that unknown wall. This also caused the bindings to break under the sudden surge of strength she had given off and they were practically shredded as the woman’s limbs pulled on them harder than ever. The pieces were then sent flying off the bed as if they were sets of tightly wrapped rubber bands that had been cut.
Now free from her unintentional prison, Rory lays there with her arms and legs spread as to have the woman presented in a spread eagle pose while laying on her back. A heavy amount of sweat was running off her body and staining the mentally constructed bed. Along with other bodily fluids.
Her face was flushed red. Breathing was sharp and fast, this was made painfully apparent with how this made her small chest pump up and down in rapid succession. Gulping air and still panting, Rory takes a moment to gather any kind of semblance of will power to answer her master with as much grace as she could.
She then said, with a shaky, subdued tone that was filled with a heavy dose of embarrassment, “I-I-I’m H-Here master… I J-Just had to, Uh… “She then had her eyes dart left to right, as to try and come up with some sort of response that would convince him. But try as she might, Rory just couldn’t bring herself to lie to her master.
She then continued with, “Master, I just had to, take care of something that I had noticed that had to do with my new self, that’s all. Because of that, I wasn’t able to ear you. I’m so sorry that this happened.” It was then that she felt as if she was going to just die on the spot from what she told master. It wasn’t a lie, just not all of it. She then promised herself that later on, she would come clean with all of it. But as for right now, she didn’t think it would be a very good idea.
Brex answered with a, “Ooookay~ I’m fine with that, I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Just make sure to let me know if anything is wrong. I don’t want to be left in the dark if you’re in pain when I could help.” When her master said that, Rory’s state went from a kid that was on the verge of crying due to them being caught while in the act of doing something bad, to that of her, actually crying silent tears of happiness that her master cares for her. Then saying in a low whisper, “Oh I really, really want you to help. But, that’s the problem.”
While thinking on that, Rory was reminded of the moment, master called out to her and how she felt when that happened. All that time while on the edge, Rory couldn’t bring herself to go all the way. It was only the powerful might of her master’s voice that had pushed her past that almost impregnable barrier. This sent Rory to nearly faint from a surge of arousal again.
With a steely gaze up at the ceiling, she then says to herself, “I really need to talk to him about this soon, otherwise I may just loose it for real. But not until I recover... Huff, wow, I wonder if other girls do this sort of thing. I think I discovered that I’m a kinky, horny girl.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Outside in the real world, Brex said, “Ooookay~ I’m fine with that, I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Just make sure to let me know if anything is wrong. I don’t want to be left in the dark if you’re in pain when I could help.” He was not too sure on how to answer that but he had hoped what he had just said would do the trick.
Brex was a little confused by Rory’s reply and awkwardly looked around in embarrassment. He wasn’t sure just what the problem was but it felt as if he intruded on something, personal.
Being, completely left in the dark as to the girl inside his head’s dilemma, Brex continues on with his current objective. Thinking, “ok, that was number 25, that leaves just one more spider. I’m glad that these are nothing like that first one back up there near Princess Luna’s bed chamber.”
This was very true, when Brex had left the safe zone. He was concerned as to how difficult this undertaking would be, also the amount of time it would take to clear them all out. To his surprise, the 26 others present within and around the castle where of a whole different type. In fact, these seemed to be carbon copies of spiders that he had many run-ins with in the game world.
(This is what the spiders looked like.)
Brex began to think back on before. During the time that he was trying out his skills, he had noticed that he couldn’t see the name or level of something he had been forced to fight. Normally in the game, he could get that information and this helped him in making the decisions on whether it was something he could go after or just avoid.
With many failed attempts, He had given up on getting access to the options menu. Within this window, Brex had wanted to see if he could turn on or off some settings. For example, the one he wanted to turn back on was what he had just been thinking about.
Like with the Timber Wolfs, Hydra, Star Spider and these other types of spiders that had been dying at his hands for the course of a few hours. It was eating him up inside, not knowing what level they were, this was really messing with him trying to comprehend just how strong his level 35 status really was in this world. For all he knew, everything was small fry.
As he was about to move on, a window screen popped into existence. This startled Brex because at that moment he wasn’t trying to open it. Unlike before when he first arrived and nearly gave himself a migraine while trying to do so.
With a confused expression, Brex asks with his mind, “So Rory, mind telling me if what happened during the last three days could have changed how my menu options are now accessible to me after all this time?”
Taking a moment to ponder this, Rory says in a nonchalant manor, “I guess it has to do with how you’re healing. I had a quick look and noticed that your data was badly damaged, maybe even before the time I came into existence during that fight.”
This only served to make the Roegadyn confused even further. He then spoke in an unsure tone, “just what do you mean my data was damaged before the fight. Here I was under the impression that everything that was wrong with me, was a result of running into that thing the other night.”
Rory then changed her tone to that of genuine concern, “didn’t you know that something was wrong before? I mean, you didn’t remember much prior to arriving to this world from what I had been able to see.” Then her voice got very low, “not to mention how your dream scape was so empty…”
Brex replied with, “huh, what was that last bit, I didn’t hear you very well?” He then began to scratch at the back of his neck, this was the area where he had that glass breaking sound occur back during the fight.
Lowering his hand, Brex gives himself a light head shake and returns his attention to the newly opened screen before him. “Now. Let’s see, hmm. Seems to have a lot missing. I guess that’s to be expected, a lot of it would have to do with what happened in the computer.”
After some fumbling, Brex finally finds what he had been searching for. “AH HA! There you are my little devil.” He was a little too happy and made what he had just said to sound a bit too seductive.
Inside his head, Rory folded her arms and gave an adorable pout before saying to herself, “I wish he would call me his little devil, Hehe. He could call me a lot of things…” This sent Rory into another one of her imaginary worlds for a few seconds, then she snapped out of it as to not miss what her master was doing.
With a few mental commands, he declared out loud, “Aaand! There we go, all set. Now let’s see just what that corpse has to say about itself.” Looking around, Brex noticed that the corpse in question, was no longer around. He then thought, oh right, the bodies normally disappear after a while. But wait, the other stuff didn’t. Where these last 25 different in some way?
He gave it more time, then the idea struck him. Everything that he had taken out, they were from this world. None of them just vanished, the Timber wolfs, he had basically cooked them to ash. As for the Hydra, now that one he had delivered the final blow to what he considered the brain, er, brains. The Star spider, now he wasn’t all that sure, but from the explanation he had gotten from Rory, that one bled to death.
With a defeated sigh, Brex’s shoulders sag. He then said, “well, we got one more target to play search and destroy with, that will give me the change to see if this menu option really did work.
Looking towards the mini map, Brex couldn’t see any signs of the last target. He says, “I don’t see it, I wonder if it left the castle or maybe the count was off. No, that can’t be, I doubt that it just up and left, there was so many of the others here. Also, Rory wouldn’t make the mistake of miss counting. I’ll just have to wonder around the ground until I spot something.”
Inside Brex’s mind, Rory was beside herself with a flushed face that was currently being covered by a pair of hands, she then said in a small ecstatic tone, “OH master! To hear you praise me in such a way and with how much trust you have… Tehe~ “
Brex turns to the castle from within the middle of the courtyard. Looking from the left side of the structure, then scanning it till his eyes landed on the other end. Taking in a deep breath, the Roegadyn dashes towards the castle and into one of the buildings by jumping into a large hole that was so graciously made by the lunar princess.
Oddly to Brex, the idea of Princess Luna busting through walls had made an image of a large, red creature appear in his head. Then the following words would be said in a larger-than-life way, “OOOH YEAAAH!!”
*Point of view: Shadow Lily* *Location: Castle of the two sisters* *Time: 11 in the morning.
Just outside the perimeter of the old castle stood three figures. One stallion and two mare’s. this small group had been traveling sense day break and marched nearly nonstop through the Everfree forest just to get to this location.
From what her friend had told her, they got the assignment to look into the old castle and see if there had been any signs of creatures coming and going, also to check if any looters have gone inside in hopes for a quick bit or two.
Shadow Lily did happen to notice the uneasiness of Swirl Sugar. This had been going on for the last two days while they had leave from duties thanks to the incident with the hydra. Now that she was thinking on it yet again, even to this day, she had been racking her brains as to figure out just what had happened. What creature of the Everfree, could have been capable to take out a behemoth like that?
Shaking her head, Shadow Lily looks back to Swirl Sugar. This brought back the earlier thoughts. The way she looked confused as they got the assignment, or was it something to do with Break Down.
Now that she considered this, Swirl Sugar was acting more out of character when we were in the barracks office, there was another stallion there that she had not met before that wore a uniform that had many metals. This stallion was talking to Break Down just as the two of them entered.
Shadow Lily had only been out of boot camp for a month now and after all that time, the only group she has been assigned too was this one right now. Furthermore, all they had done was patrol the area that was only half the distance that they just marched this day.
While on those thoughts, Swirl Sugar nudges Shadow lily with her left elbow. As soon as she turned to face the mare, Swirl Sugar talked in a hushed tone, “I don’t like this Shadow. Everything feels way off. Why was the first thing we got, right out of medical leave, was to go even deeper to the castle. We don’t send anymore guards here.”
This sparked an old memory inside Shadow Lily’s mind from back when she had just gotten out of boot camp nearly a month ago. There was a story about a guard mare going missing while on a patrol near the castle. Back then Shadow Lily just chocked it up to old Mare’s tales.
However, now that She was at this moment, right outside of the old castle, she was getting the figurative goose bumps. She then spoke to Swirl Sugar in the same tone while keeping an eye on Break Down, “It’s a bit scary here when there is no one else around. I do hope that story of some Mare of shadows isn’t real.”
Of course, this was a tale about Nightmare Moon, but to Shadow Lily, this was not widely known all that well. So, the title Mare of Shadows was used in place of Celestia’s sister in those kid stories told by her departed parents.
As Shadow Lily was busy with her thoughts, Break Down leads them to the bridge and stops just short. Turning he says, “Finally, we arrived. This heat is just not doing any wonders for my mane!” all the while, sounding as if he was going to just turn back and get his mane stylist to fix what had been ruined.
The two mare’s turned towards one another, then exchanged an expression that just screamed, “STALLIONS!” This was then joined with the two of them rolling their eyes.
Shadow Lily just couldn’t get her head to wrap around the idea that the stallions are in the royal guards. It was said that long ago they were considered to be strong, but now. They just seemed more into keeping themselves clean and looking good. Oh, and let’s not forget how they can get so full on themselves. Just because they are in the minority and that made them desirable, with the mare’s outnumbering them by five to one.
She had heard from Swirl Sugar that the stallion population was in a decline for the last 200 years. No one knows why, but back then, the ratio was around, mare’s being three to every one stallion. If this keeps up who knows what it could turn out in the next thousand years.
It was at that moment that she noticed Break Down, who was just calming himself from some kind of mane emergency. Letting out an internal groaning sound, then thinks, “Isn’t there a stallion out there that isn’t a pompous ass. Let there be just one that can actually fight and isn’t upset about getting a little dirty. Geez! I would settle with one that didn’t yip all the time. A… nice silent type… *SIGH* A mare can dream, can’t they?”
Break Down called out to them, in an overly dramatic way, “Here we are, the old castle. The orders are to go in there and search this place from top to bottom. We are not to come back until, each and every room is checked thoroughly.
This made the two mare’s cringe at the idea that they would have to put up with this idiot for so long. A normal patrolling day would be a six-hour shift, as it was now, they had already been with this stallion for nearly that long at this point. If it was any other, the two would be ecstatic to have this much time with one, but in this situation, the feeling was the reverse.
The commander Break Down calls out, “Ok we are going to split up and head to both, the tower and the basement, this will make this assignment go quicker. Swirl Sugar, aside from myself, you can handle a fight. As for Shadow Lily, being the only one without real combat that wasn’t inside a practice ring, I’ll take her along with me and head to the basement.”
Shadow Lily was upset at that very moment for two things. First was the jab about not being able to fight. As for the second, it had to do with the fact that she would have to be alone with this idiot. The very being that had been trying to make each and every day into a living Tartarus.
Swirl Sugar quickly noticed what was going on and interrupted Break Down and said, “Sir, that will not be advisable. Regulations state that when splitting up, the sets of ponies must have a balance between them. I will partner up with Shadow lily to do this. I have heard that sir, has had a flawless record in the ring, thus is most suited for solo activities when splitting up is the only option.”
It was obvious to Shadow Lily that Swirl Sugar was trying to play on the stallion’s vanity so she wouldn’t have to be with him. However, she also knew that Break Down, with his overbearing attitude would never alo-.” It was right then that Break Down said, “I see your point, very well. Let’s get this over with, I’ll head for the tower in the nearest structure, you two start by going over to the far end and we shall meet in the throne room at the center of the castle.”
This had caused both mare’s to look at Break Down with shock plastered all over their faces as they watched the stallion turn and begin walking over the bridge that led to the castle. Due to this unexpected reply, Shadow Lily and Swirl Sugar were standing with their jaws hanging low and asked each other with looks alone, “what just happened?”
*Point of view: Unknown, Daddy” *Location: Unknown*
With an exasperated sigh, there was the sound of tapping that rang across the sea of gold water. In this environment there was the being of mist that appeared to be made of white and gold particles. Unlike before where it was simply floating near a table, it was instead sitting on an office chair. If one were to be paying attention, they would think that, this mist was leaning over in a dejected manner.
When following the sound of the tapping it did not come from this being, but instead came from a second being of mist, one made of light blue and purple. The second being in question was at that very moment sitting in front of a large table.
What made this scene rather strange to look at was that at the fact the second missed did not have arms as to which to use on said table, but it did appear as if it was using it like a large keyboard. All the while letting out a grunt of annoyance every few seconds.
Finally, after much time had passed, along with a very, very extended lecture. The second being lets out another frustrated cry then the chair spins and stops to face the first being who was previously given the identity of DADDY.
The white and gold mist, now being called daddy. Straightens up in his seat and leans back into it as if to try and gain some distance. He then says, “I said I’m sorry. I just wanted to feel like I was making a difference. I happen to like that world and I wanted to give it some help, you can’t blame an old man. Come on, can’t my little moon give her daddy a break?”
The mist made of light blue and purple, now identified as little moon, replied with, “Don’t you little moon me. Do you have any idea how much trouble you could be in for this? There is a reason why there are rules in place. Just because you feel a little bored, doesn’t it mean that you get to go around and mess with events that you’re not supposed too anymore.”
This caused the one known as daddy to slump in his chair once again. But now there was a small audible sound, that could have been mistaken for crying. He then said, “I just wanted to be useful again.”
Little moon lets out a small sigh, then says, “Ok I get it already. It must be hard with your job being done and you basically having nothing to do and all. But still, to go all the way to earth and have one of their residence’s be shipped off to this Equestria. I happen to know what’s happening there as well, considering…”
Daddy sits up in his chair and leans towards little moon. Well, that’s what it looked like when the mass shifts itself around. He then says, “Yeah… I do know about that incident. But he can help with that too.”
Little moon responds with a questioning tone, “What do you mean by that, don’t tell me you planned for *GASP*… oh… DADDY! THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU.” She then gives the equivalent to a swat to the daddy’s shoulder, but to anyone else, it looked as if the darker mist life form just shot a lightning bolt at the lighter colored one then continued with, “You should have told me before.
The top area of little moon leans in a number of directions then whispers, “I would have lent a hand with everything. Now, tell me from the beginning. From what you and this merchant talked about and what happened exactly. Leave not even a microbe of detail out.”
Daddy lets out a nervous gulp and thinks to himself, “Aaand~ this is why I didn’t want this one to know about what I was doing… *Sigh*
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 9: Lets make a deal.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location” Castle of the two sisters* *Time: 11:30 in the morning*
It has been roughly 30 minutes now sense Brex had last killed the dubbed, number 25 spider that had been inside the Castle of the two sisters. The search had started within the main complex that housed the courtroom and banquet hall. But there was no sign of the last target.
Then there was the building that he had considered to have been the barracks for the guard at the time this location was still in use. Unlike the kitchen, which had all the tools and cooking wears left behind, the barracks was barren of anything, that is, unless you consider the cobwebs and dust as something.
He had been considering, retracing his steps back to the tower, but that could have been left for later on. With his current sleeping arrangements. If it was there, then he would meet up with the last spider when he finally wanted to head to bed. So off he went to another area of the castle grounds. All the while wishing that his mini map had a longer scanning range so he didn’t have to run all around this large castle’s grounds today.
Luckily, the Roegadyn ninja didn’t have a shortage of stamina. He had been running almost nonstop, as well as going at an impressive speed to boot. An Olympic long-range runner would have been jealous.
After what seemed to have been his second pass around the structure, Brex had noticed his mini map showing something on it and this made him instantly come to a grinding halt. Focusing, he found out that, on the very edge of the sensors range, was a pair of yellow dots.
Brex asked Rory, using the mental communication they had, “Hay Rory, all the ones we had been hunting were all red, but these two are yellow. I doubt that these are what we were looking for. With how this place has been abandoned, I have two ideas that come to mind. First is that, these are some wild animals. The second would have to be that these two are most likely a pair of ponies.”
Brex watches the two dots move towards an area of the castle that he, himself has yet to enter, which happens to be the basement were the books are located. Brex then continues with, “If it happens to be some animals that wondered in, then maybe I’ll get a chance to see if the new options I just fiddled with are working. But, if they happen to be ponies, then some light recon won’t do any harm. Do you have an opinion on this?”
Rory reply’s with, “I believe that your right on this. Those two don’t seem to show that they are what we had been hunting down so far. Also, getting to know a little more about these ponies wouldn’t hurt.”
Brex was relieved that Rory was sounding as if she was back to normal. He wouldn’t say so but, Brex was feeling awkward ever sense he didn’t hear from her for so long. In the end, he had to yell in his head and then, ordered her to answer him. This made the big guy get a pit in his stomach and the feeling of guilt had been growing, now however that had lessened upon hearing Rory’s voice.
It was something that he didn’t understand, Rory called him, her master. She was a program created to lend a hand, but the idea of commanding one to do something, just caused the anxiety to swell up.
This led Brex to consider the idea that, maybe, just maybe, in his old life, there could have been something that is causing these depressing sensations. Did he have something done to him, or maybe, he had done something to another and this was making him have some form of guilt. These thoughts continued to pour over within his mind.
Either way, Brex looked in the direction of the two unknown’s and begins to make his way towards them. All the while the Roegadyn kept himself to the shadows and periodically used his ninja skill HIDE, now and then, as to insure he wasn’t seen.
Skill, HIDE: Blend in with your surroundings, making it impossible for most enemies to detect you, has no effect on enemies 10 levels higher than your own, or certain enemies with special sight.
Why didn’t he just continually use the skill in the first place? Well, the skill had one drawback, the one that was using it couldn’t exactly move at their top speed while it was in use. So, he only had need of it for this situation when he was in open areas.
There was no way Brex was going to let his guard down. Unlike in the game, here everything wasn’t made up of numbers. For all he knew, he could be taken out with a lucky blow to a fatal organ or a head shot. This made him aware of the fact that this was nothing like the game.
One thing was for sure, he had to play his cards close to the chest. If the princess found out about him, who knows what would happen. From all the stories that he remembered reading; a meeting would have an extremely high chance of turning into a disaster.
So, while still making his way to where the pair of dots were, Brex decided to keep as much of himself a secret as possible, as well as concealing his powers as to not let all his capabilities become known. This meant that he would have to hold back his strength and attempt to seem weaker than he really is. He was hoping that this would give him the appearance of not seeming so dangerous in terms of his skills, thus convincing Celestia to not blast him the moment he was in her cross hairs.
There were many reasons for this plan of action when it came to how the ponies would see him if word of his existence was to be leaked. As long as they didn’t see him as something powerful, then maybe, just maybe, Brex could avoid being labeled as some new villain that’s here to take over Equestria.
This led him to another thought. Just how strong was he compared to the locals of this Equestria. That right there made him realize just how important it was now that he finds out what the levels are for the average pony and creatures.
After several long minutes, Brex finally arrives at the basement entrance, this was on the far side of the castle and within the center of the second largest structure witch so happened to be the old library, or what is left of it. Most of the book shelves where empty due to the tomes being brought over to the newly constructed Canterlot.
Thank goodness that the solar princess did not take the chance of relocating the ones in the lower floors. Well, that’s what Brex had been hoping. In the television show and along with the stories that he had been reading back in his old life, showed that the older and more important ones were left there for safe keeping.
The one called Twilight Sparkle had gone to the castle of the two sisters to collect some books, so this meant if this world followed some of the show, then they should be here as well.
Brex approached the double doors and expected the runes that he had been seeing in key areas of the castle to appear. This caused Brex to pause for a moment. He then glanced around and on closer inspection, there was indeed runes in place, but for some reason they were already activated, but not him.
It was then that Brex could hear what could have been some distant voices from beyond the large wooden doors. However, it was impossible to tell just what was being said. Without any other options, Brex pushed the doors and this caused the lit runes to fade as the doors open and revealed the lower floors.
It was a long descending stair case that was three meters wide and just as tall. This caused him to whistle inside his head at just how large this place could be. He just then chocked it up to the ones that made the place to allow room for those with wings to fly within the building.
But this made him think it out more as he walked down the dark path, he then thought in a similar tone to that of a large green ogre that would have had an English accent, “Hold the phone… From what I do remember, back then the tribes where still at odds with one another. The Pegasus still mostly lived in Cloudsdale. So, then the castle’s height was designed for the purposes of accommodating the only large winged ponies in this area that had any business in the castle.”
Again, Brex felt something close to resentment, but managed to push it back down as quickly as it came. Then thought, “I should just let it go. These princesses are just spoiled rotten. A castle made with walls and a height just for two beings. Guess it’s just something to do with how they are seen as goddesses.”
It just seemed that with every time that Brex found something out that showed how the two rulers of this land were pampered, would only cause him to become more worked up. He then thought, “this explains how Celestia holds herself in such high regards. All of this could get to anyone’s head and cause them to inflate so much it could be seen from the moon.”
Right after Brex had finished with those thoughts, another sound could be heard from deeper down the walkway, along with a very dim light that could have been made by a torch. He then picked up his pace and quickly made his way down into the unexplored area.
Along the way, he made sure to have his hide skill active and as an added measure, switched out his gear using the equipment window. Fortunately for him, it worked just like in the game and the switch was instantaneous and not some slow, drawn-out sequence. The thought mortified him when he considered someone watching him change in a fashion that was similar to some kind of magical girl. This sent a shiver down his spine.
( This is the outfit but for Brex it would be on a much larger body.
The gear in question that was now currently equipped was called, the scions travelers set. This was made with an all-black theme, on the underside that could be seen was a velvet red color. The hood had a type of mask that was woven into it that successfully covered the face. This would make it impossible for another to simply remove it, much less be able to see the face of the one underneath it.
The hood’s mask was made so that the wearer could see out of the fibers perfectly, but anyone else would just see the white cover that pressed on the face just enough to give it a somewhat, vague impression of the facial structure. This style could give off a mysterious vibe.
After finishing with his inspection that all the appropriate items were just what he wanted, Brex continued his way and arrived at the bottom of the steps only to find a small lit torch that was oddly, just laying on the ground close to the wall. There were still sounds but they came from further in. Brex fallowed the sounds into the darkness.
*Point of view: Rory*
At that moment, Rory was holding her breath now and then while feeling a sense of fear. It was after half way down the steps that she realized something about the person that she had become. Her face became pale and her eyes darted around as if to try and spot an intruder.
She muttered to herself in a hushed, trembling tone, “UH OH, I should have remembered. The real Rory mercury has an intense fear of the underground. Something about another god having a sick level of interest in that Rory. So much so that she was hounded to merry said god.” She remembered that it didn’t help that one particular god was one that had power over the ground and anything under it. But her master was here so she was safe.
She then realized that her fears were in fact, fading as if they never existed and was replaced with a feeling of safety that made her smile. She was protected by her master. The very thought that another would try to take her away from him made her angry. Enough so that she wouldn’t hesitate to clock them in the face with a heavy right hook. Even if they were gods.
As long as she was with him, nothing mattered to Rory. But on the other hand, if another did try to take her master away from her. This caused the girl within Brex’s mind to have a cold, murderous expression. Her next thoughts were, “As long as I’m by his side I won’t care even if there is another. As long as my master is happy. But if they think they can kick me away…” This caused Rory’s pink lips to slowly transition to purple.
*Point of view: Shadow Lily* *Location: Underground in the castle of the two sisters* *Time: Several minutes before*
Shadow was looking back and forth while slowly walking in the dark tunnels along with her friend Swirl Sugar. They had split off from Break Down and made their way to the old library building and found the entrance that led to the underground section of the castle.
When they had arrived, Swirl was about to use her horn but then stopped, she then said, “I thought there was security spells. I guess not.” They walked inside and when they had only gotten maybe 8 meters down the steps, the doors that they had left open at the top suddenly slammed shut. This made them stop in their tracks and rushed to the doors and attempted to open them up again.
Unfortunately, the large double doors didn’t budge an inch. Swirl Sugar called to Shadow and said, “Look there!”. It was then that she could see that the runes on the door frame were glowing. This meant the spells had been tripped, so the entrance was now sealed.
She asked Swirl Sugar, “What’s happening. Why are the security spells active now? When we got to the door, they weren’t working right?”
Swirl Sugar responded with a confused tone, “I don’t understand. These runes, there not normal. From what I can tell they are meant to keep whoever is inside from leaving, but, but I didn’t sense them at all. I remember reading up on this place before leaving and this was not on the list of security spells.”
This only made Shadow to become scared of the fact that they were apparently trapped, trapped in the old castle which was basically abandoned. This meant no help would be coming. She began to hyperventilate, squatting down and pulling her knees into her chest while shutting her eyes tightly.
She then muttered in a fast pace whisper, “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die. Please, some pony, any pony.” All the while tears had been cascading down her face.
Swirl Sugar, noticing this, quickly brought herself down to Shadows level and gently grabbed the mare’s face with both hands and forced her to look at Swirl Sugars face. Then she spoke in a calm manor, “It’s all going to be fine Shadow Lily. I’m sure there is another way out. The ponies that built this place would have considered the event of a cave in and installed an emergency passageway or something along those lines.”
Shadow Lily was surprised at just how calm her friend was in this situation. This caused her to regain some nerve and after a minute to stop crying, she then stood up and nodded to her friend.
When they both had gotten to the bottom of the steps, shadow was grateful more than ever that Swirl Sugar was a unicorn. Why was that? Well, if it wasn’t for the fact that Swirl Sugar had been casting a low-level light spell from her horn, they would have most likely fallen in the pitch darkness and gotten hurt on the stone steps on the way down.
She then reached up and grabbed an unlit torch off the wall and presented it to Swirl Sugar. Her friend was grateful and used magic to ignite it. With a sigh, Swirl Sugar said, “thanks for that Shadow Lily. I was starting to get a little winded with continuously casting that spell. I’m ashamed to say that my magic capacity isn’t all that great.”
Shadow just gave her a small smile and replied with, “You’re welcome, besides I could see that it was starting to take its toll on you. I just don’t want my friend to get… Um, what is it called again, Oh yes. Magic exhaustion. I hear its nasty. I may not be able to use magic myself, but I pick up a few tidbits, here and there.”
With a nod, Swirl Sugar said, “That’s right. If we magic users use too much more than we are able to handle or just cast for an extended period of time, we can suffer from that. I’ll give you the quick version. We can get a severe migraine, dizziness, nausea and could pass out. The worst of it all is the fact that we could burn ourselves out and this could cause some really bad things to happen, the least of them would be the unicorn being unable to cast spells for quite a while.”
Shadow lit out a gulp as she then recalled something she had overheard back at the barracks one day during training. Something about a unicorn suffering from magic exhaustion. The gossip was that this pony had passed out and had not awakened for a good, few days and the doctors feared that it permanently affected her ability to use magic.
Swirl Sugar noticed how Shadow Lily was looking and figured out that she was thinking on this magic talk. She then said, “Enough of that, we got a light now, so let’s find that exit. Break Down is up there but I’m not holding my breath on him helping us out of here.”
Shadow Lily then takes the torch and uses it to light another that was still on the wall at the base of the steps before saying, “how about we use these to mark our path. That way we can tell right away if we are going in circles down here.” Swirl Sugar approved and they started to make their way further into the underground tunnels.
As their hoof steps became distant, the torch was knocked off the wall and it fell to the floor. It rolled around and was a foot from the wall, the flames violently waved for a moment in a way to indicate that something had just rushed by.
*Point of view: Third person* *Location: underground library within the castle of the two sisters* *Time: 12:28 in the afternoon, 17 minutes after the mare’s get locked inside*
Within the underground library, the tomes held within have not had a single visitor for many, many years, but thanks to some well-placed preservation spells and a well-designed location, the papers to which held untold knowledge and secrets for future generations have been meticulously preserved even without any hands-on tending.
On this day however, there will be the first ray of light to shine with this stage, as the pitch-black shadows slowly fall back from the new source of light. The tunnel leading into this hall of written wonders produces a pair of mare’s.
One being that of the unicorn tribe, while the second is from the earth tribe. Both wearing silver armor with gold trim. The earth pony holds a lit torch and stands beside the unicorn as they slowly make their way into the large circular room, it is 180 meters long, the equivalent to two football fields wide and about, 30 meters in height.
The two mare’s look as if they are scared due to the fact that aside the multitude of long, tall book cases, the light of their torch is unable to reach the ceiling or any part of the room’s walls. This gives the poorly lit library the appearance of being nothing but a black endless void.
Their hoof steps echo throughout the endless shadows and reverberate off any surface it comes into contact with. This only had the effect of adding to the eerily atmosphere created by such a place.
The book shelves were placed far enough apart for a wagon to move easily between the rows that nearly reached the ceiling, but for the two mare’s, it appeared to fade into the shadows. Each row of books were nearly 10 meters long and there was a gap in between that was the same as the one in each row, this gave the impression that the size of the library could have been closer to a small town with how carts could have moved freely.
It had taken the two mare’s roughly 10 min of slow walking in a straight line right down the middle of this massive room and yet, they were not even a quarter of the way through it. From the outsider’s point of view, this was a void and their torch was but an agonizingly slow-moving firefly who’s light only vanished and reappeared as it passed each row of books.
Unfortunately, the two were unable to perceive the other presence that entered from the same entrance that they, themselves had used just a short time ago. This newcomer was much larger and quite fast on its feet, or should one say it’s, many feet.
Within the dark room, the new being used the shadows to its advantage and rapidly closed the distance between itself and the two mare’s. With a swift motion, it had overtaken them and circled around by turning at the end of one of the shelves and darted past without making a single sound.
It was at this point, that yet another entered this place and was shortening the distance at a slower pace compared to the last visitor but was none the less closing in. This one however was somehow concealing itself with greater effect, not even the small amount of dust that had been accumulating wasn’t disturbed.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Several minutes ago*
It had been a short time ago that Brex had discovered the lit torch and started to travel down the hall way. After a short distance there was a lit torch, yet another. This continued until coming across the end of the hallway and stepped into the underground library.
As soon as he had taken the first step, Brex felt a strange wave pass through his body that came from deeper within the large room. This made him examine himself and his surroundings. Nothing could be found that was done to him but when his sight landed on the arch way that marked were the room connected to the hallway, he realized just what happened.
With a sigh, Brex turned his attention back to the darkness that was deeper within and said in a low voice, “Dungeon boss territory…” Taking hold of both blades and adopting a cautious stance, The ninja Roegadyn proceeds ahead.
Rory asks in a fearful tone that was not normal for her, “J-Just W-What is a dungeon boss territory?” Brex then said, “It’s when you’re inside a dungeon filled with monsters. Within there are one or possibly up to three monsters that happen to be very strong among those that reside within.”
Continuing after taking a quick look around, “What just happened was the area getting cut off from the world. Think of it like, walking into a trap and we just sprung it. Now we are trapped and there is only two ways to leave.”
Rory then asks, “And just what are those?” Brex then reply’s with, “The first is for those that encounter the boss to have died. The second, which I am very much in favor for, is to kill the thing.”
Rory then says, “I-I hope we kill it fast… I D-Don’t do very well when I’m underground…” This reminded Brex about the anime that She was a part of. Mentally cursing himself Brex felt ashamed for forgetting how Rory Mercury has a fear of places like this.
He then tried to console her by saying, “I’m sorry I brought you down here. It slipped my mind about your condition, but I won’t let anything happen to you.” He thought about Hardy, the goddess of the underworld and ruler of hell. Then said to Rory, “I won’t let Hardy take you from me.”
*Point of view: Rory*
Rory was feeling, nonstop waves of fear swilling up from within her, this caused the powerful female Demi Goddess to turn into a curled ball within her master’s mind. She felt ashamed with how she talked just now and told herself that she can’t show how weak she is and how her master was the one that needed her.
However, when her master said those words, this made the girl let out a small giggle that was just weak enough as to not allow her master to hear it. Then she said in a low whisper with having an ecstatic smile while still hiding her face, “M-Master won’t let anyone take me, not even a goddess like Hardy. Te He~”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Back with Brex, the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand on end. He then thought to himself, “Why did I get the feeling that I just raised a flag?” Shaking those thoughts, he glanced to his mini map and was seeing something on it now. Just at the edge of his scanning range, was a red dot close to a pair of yellow dots and they happen to be straight ahead of him at this very moment.
He strained his hearing and didn’t notice anything. This caused him to grunt in frustration and started to make his way towards them. All the while thinking, “FUCK! If I don’t hear any fighting, then that has but two reasons.”
He made sure that there were no traps along his path just in case. Didn’t want to deal with a spell going off right now. Then returned to his thoughts, “One idea is, they just can’t see the dang thing in all this darkness. The other is less likely, with them being an ally with the monsters.”
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
Shadow was walking beside Swirl as they continued down the seemingly endless path before them. The echoes of their hoof steps reverberated all around in such a way that it caused her to feel a little disorientated and made it rather difficult to keep track of how many rows of books they had passed by so far.
She then asked Swirl, “Just how big is this place. I can’t even see the walls or the roof. I feel as if we have been in here for a long time already.” She then clutched at her short sword in her left hand. This was to somehow give some reassurance.
Swirl then replied by giving a shrug and saying, “I have no idea. This was meant for only the higher-grade magic users. Some pony like me would have been lucky to even be within a hundred paces from the entrance.
It was then that Shadow stopped and looked at Swirl with a face full of concern. With a slow gulp, she asks Swirl, “So, just so I’m sure on this, but… It’s just us in here, right?”
This caused Swirl to give Shadow a puzzled glance, then in an unsure tone, asked, “Yeah… Um, why do you ask?” she then gulped as well.
Shadow turned her head back to the way they had come from, then back to the front in which they had been making their way. She said in a hushed tone close to Swirls left ear, “Well, it’s just that, if it’s just the two of us, then there should be only two sets of hoofs hitting this stone floor, right?”
This caused Swirl to raise her right eye brow and slowly answer, “I uh, think so. Why do you ask?” Swirl was starting to get a bad feeling as to where this line of questions was heading.
Shadow then said, “Um, so just to make sure that your aware. We earth ponies have a connection with the land. This has to do with how we can do things such as, grow food and have the strength to plow the land.”
This caused Swirl to nod her head at a slow pace. During this explanation, the unicorn was starting to sweat. Then answered with, “Umm, yes I think I remember hearing something along those words before. Just what are you getting to?”
Shadow then continued with, “Well that’s not all. It just so happens that those of us that have a stronger connection could do some, other things. As for myself, I can feel the vibrations while I’m touching the ground.”
It was then that, Swirl was beginning to put the pieces together and asked Shadow in a near panic tone, “So, then that means… when you asked about the number of steps?” She then left the question in the air.
Shadow then says, “It’s just that. *GULP* I am, feeling more than just us walking in here…” Shadows eyes were going wide and was looking at random points around them at a frantic speed.
Swirl was also on guard by this revelation and had her spear at the ready. She then said to shadow, “back-to-back, now!” Both the mare’s then stood with their backs towards one another and taken up a defensive stance. She then asked, “Just how many hoof steps did you make out Shadow?”
This made Shadow glance over her shoulder to give her reply, “I-It’s just that, these didn’t feel like hoof steps. They were odd. And I could distinctly feel that they all came from something other than a pony.”
Just as the two mare’s had finished those words, did a black like appendage reach around the book case and slams onto the ground only a meter away from Swirl. Then another came from the other end of the very same book case and repeated the action for Shadow.
Now with them being literally trapped in place, Shadow looked to Swirl and said in a scared voice, “Swirl! What’s going on here?! What are those things?”
Swirl looked to the black appendage before her then glanced at the other over her shoulder before returning her gaze to the first before replying, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before!”
Swirl then thrusted her spear into the large creature’s limb but the spear simply scrapes along the thick exoskeleton, this causes the mare to stumble forward after not expecting her weapon to be unable to pierce the target. The mare then manages to regain her footing and stands aside Shadow once more.
The unicorn then speaks in a startled tone, “All I know is, their tough. I didn’t even make a scratch on it and I used my full body weight into my thrust. Piercing attacks seem to be no good. Try using your sword and see if that does anything”
Taking Swirls advice, Shadow draws her short sword into her right hand and jumps a few feet into the air and on the way down to the ground, attempts to do a heavy swing. As the sword came down onto the black surface of the limb, the blade made a few sparks fly but, in the end, it bounces off.
Shadow calls out, “No good. Not even with my heavy strike, I couldn’t even make a mark.” Taking a quick look at her own sword, Shadows eyes went wide before she added, “I will say that something did happen to my sword though.” She then shows Swirl that the blade now had a substantial chip taken away from the last hit.
Now another large limp was coming down from over the books above their heads and Swirl who had been able to see it coming, grabs a hold of Shadows arm and pulls her to the book shelf opposite of the one the third limb was coming from. In doing so, they avoided the new attack that had just come down on where they both stood a second ago. This caused the floor to have some of the stone shatter and send some debris into the air.
Now with them pressing their backs into the books, Shadow calls to Swirl while shaking uncontrollably, “we’re trapped. It has us and there is no way out. Swirl, what’s the plan now?”
Swirl looks to the limbs blocking both ways, then the one longer one that is at this moment lifting itself from the floor and gives an unsteady reply, “I-I-I D-Don’t know! This is something new and these are just parts of it. I can’t even imagine just how massive the whole thing would be.”
Shadow’s gaze follows the one that had been raising again and just as her eyes reached to the top of the books, she then saw a pair of large round lights, then not even a second later, more smaller lights appeared and they seemed to be getting closer.
It was then that what ever the creature was, had just gotten close enough to have its body illuminated by the torch Shadow was still holding. This revealed a large, bug like face with 13 red eyes, that at this moment were looking straight at them. Below was a set of clicking mandibles.
The creature was gigantic compared to the mare’s and was climbing the shelfs. Shadow looked at it and her face had gone ghostly white. Swirl wasn’t doing any better, in fact she was on the edge of peeing in her armor at that very moment from the intense fear.
Swirl called to Shadow with a trembling voice, “I-I’m sorry Shadow. I should have let you go with Break down. At least then you wouldn’t have had to die like this.” She then starts to sob quietly as she clutches her left hand onto Shadows right. They both close their eyes and wait for their inevitable deaths.
The creature was getting closer by the second and even the air was disturbed by its breathing. The mare’s could sense that it was very close now as the thing’s breath was filled with a nasty odor that just screamed of rot and mold.
Shadow couldn’t help but call out in a last-ditch effort for something to happen that could get them out of this, “PLEASE, SOME PONY, ANY PONY. HELP! I’LL GIVE ANYTHING, I’LL DO ANYTHING, JUST HELP SWIRL AND I!!”
The seconds passed yet nothing changed. They closed their eyes tighter and curled up on the ground and pressed themselves into the book shelf harder as if this could somehow make it possible for them to gain any distance.
They could hear a dripping sound that couldn’t have been more than a few steps away from the two mare’s. this caused Shadow to try for one last plea. In an almost inaudible whisper that was caught by swirl thanks to being right there, “please, please. I’ll give everything I have… e-even my body and soul. I don’t care if it’s a demon, Just, some pony… help…” she had a stream of tears flowing down her face and held onto Swirl for dear life.
It was then they could hear a distant, Thud, Thud, Thud, of slow, heavy footsteps. This was then followed with a masculine low voice, “Offer accepted…”
*Point of view: Shadow Lily* *Location: Castle of the two sisters. Underground library*
The words, “Offer accepted…” where just said out in an almost emotionless, low, masculine tone that could have only come from a stallion. Well, that’s what registered within Shadows mind as her eyes shot open after hearing some pony that was answering her pleas for help.
When she had opened her eyes. Shadows vision was heavily blurred by the crying from but only a moment ago. As soon as it cleared, she saw the creature right in front of her. However, it was no longer paying the two mare’s any attention. Instead, it had turned towards the one who spoke out.
She had noticed that whoever it was that spoke was in fact back in the direction that they had originally come from. This made Shadow think for but a split second that it may have been Break Down, but that idea was dismissed just as quickly. She knew his voice and this one was different.
Turning her gaze down the row of book shelfs, Shadow could just make out the vague form of some pony slowly coming into the dim light made from the torch they had. Shadow had no idea when she had dropped it during the time the creature appeared but it was now a few feet away. It was directly under the thing that was about to eat them.
The stallion’s slow hoof steps drew closer, but shadow noticed something after the fourth step. Her eyes went wide and the thought ran through her head, “Those… don’t sound like hoof steps… they remind me of something covered with something like… boots?”
She didn’t understand, why would a stallion wear boots. The only reason they would have something like that on, would be if they didn’t want to get dirty. But those didn’t get used often due to them wearing out too quickly from the hoofs inside. So then, what other creature’s wore boots? Shadow was coming up short on this answer.
It was then that the stallion in question had fully stepped into the torch light. This made Shadow catch her breath for but a second and tighten her grip on Swirls hand. The one before them, was what could have only been called the largest stallion she had ever seen in her life.
Standing at over two meters tall and wearing a seemingly all black clothing that covered him from head to hoof. Shadow could tell just from a glance that this one was not just tall but by the way the clothing formed along his body, this stallion must be built as if it could have been considered the pinnacle of perfection for an earth pony.
Swirl, who was right there beside her, managed to whisper into Shadows ear, “Why didn’t you tell me you could do magic. When we get out of this, you’re going to conjure up me a big, Colt-friend.” Swirls eyes were now glued onto this new figure standing before them.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Moments ago*
Brex had just caught up with the dots on his mini map and what he saw was, something that caused the Roegadyn to have a wide-open jaw that could have hit the ground with the speed of a falling star. Before him was a large bug monster that was an exact copy of the last boss from one of the earlier dungeons from his game, that he had entered countless times.
He called to Rory with the mental connection, “Rory, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Brex was referring to the six-meter-high bug monster that was currently looming over two royal guard ponies. The creature’s body had only come up to three meters, but with its massive tail adding to it, it gave it the additional height needed to make up to the full six.
From within Brex’s mind came the reply, “It’s disgusting, did master, really fight something like that?” Rory was giving it a rather disturbed expression as she attempted to keep her composure. She may have been an all-powerful Demi goddess, but it didn’t mean that she couldn’t have a hatred of such things.
As he watched from a short distance, Brex began to examine everything that he could. This ranged from the place they were in now, the height and distances between the shelfs. The environment, along with the pros and cons in terms of visibility and maneuverability.
Then, the ponies came up. Brex looked over their forms and determined that they were both of the female race, but with how dim the lighting was, he couldn’t see their faces all that well.
He then looked over their status bars, which displayed the names and level’s… HUH!? The what!? Brex couldn’t help it, he did a double take and just as before, he could see a status bar right above the guard’s heads.
Brex was brimming with joy inside that his changes to the option screen actually worked. He then thought, “Finally, something works right. Now, it’s time I get a look at their names and level’s.” His eyes traced the health bar that was displayed for both of them and noticed something familiar to him.
The following was shown to the Roegadyn as he ran over both the information that was on the two royal guard ponies.
First up was.
Name: Shadow Lily.
Class: Royal Guard.
Level: 5.
Gender: Female.
Next was.
Name: Swirl Sugar.
Class: Royal Guard.
Level: 6.
Gender: Female.
When Brex saw this, the man nearly lost it. Within his mind, he thought, “What the hell!! Their only level 5 and 6?! How is that even possible. Also, I know these two from outside. Just what are they doing down here in the first place. I know for a fact that they never came this far into the woods.
He then was reminded about the dangerous monster in the room. Looking towards the thing, Brex glanced up and spotted its info. The following was displayed.
Name: Diremite Crypt Keeper.
Level: 19.
Difficulty Level: Medium.
Brex then let out a silent sigh at just how weak the monster really was. By first glance, one would have thought that this guy would have been somewhere in the 40’s. Considering that the Diremite boss from the dungeon that these guys make a home inside of, was around the level 26 range. Even that one was not this big.
With a heavy weight taken off from his mind, Brex then started to calm down a little more. He then thought, “I’m at 35. I got him beat in the level department, also it helps that I know their movement patterns almost by heart. Of course, I’m not going to treat this as a game. I can’t just stand in place and hit an attack button.
At the moment, He had equipped the scions clothing, which happens to be a level one gear set. Well, that would have been the case under normal circumstances. Back in the game, before all of this happened, Brex had used an item called the glamor. This had the effect of changing the appearance of one equip item, to that of another.
It was a common practice for players to collect gear and keep them in their inventory for a costume change or to give themselves a personal look. Even at later points of the game, the gear with a higher grade, didn’t mean that it looked more awesome.
The glamor could be used to make, say, a chest armor piece, look like a completely different kind. However, one couldn’t make a cloth item take on the form of a medium or a heavy type. But it could go in the other direction. For example, one player could take a suit of heavy plate gear that was meant for a paladin and make said item, take on the form of a stylish suit.
Even with the now transformed gear being equipped on a tank, it didn’t change anything from back before it had become a suit. The defense and stats on the item were left, unchanged.
In the case of Brex however, his was originally of the level 35 gear set that he had collected from a dungeon of the same range. This meant that, he was in no way at a disadvantage in this situation.
He thought, “Eh, it’s a good thing that I didn’t go and use the type of glamor that made it all look as if I was in my birthday suit. I did however like it when those female players that cued for dungeons would enter and they looked like they were half nude.” This brought a small smile to the Roegadyn’s face.
It was then that a small voice was heard from the guard ponies. However, Brex couldn’t make out just what was said. On the lower area of his vision, a small text window opened and started to display some texts. Brex then thought, “Wait, what’s with my chat function’s coming up now? What’s this… is this, Is the box showing what the girl over there is saying?”
Within the chat window, the following text was shown to Brex and he started to read them over. “I-I’m sorry Shadow. I should have let you go with Break down. At least then you wouldn’t have had to die like this.” It was then that he heard one of them practically scream out, “PLEASE, SOME PONY, ANY PONY. HELP! I’LL GIVE ANYTHING, I’LL DO ANYTHING, JUST HELP SWIRL AND I.” He thought, “Wow, just… wow. A girl really shouldn’t say those words. Their dangerous.”
This placed Brex into a bind. On one hand, his self-preservation demanded that he keep himself hidden and not draw the attention of the Princess. This would mean looking the other way and letting these two end up as bug food. At the same time his heart was yelling at him to help them out and fuck with the consequences.
It was then that a new set of words appeared, “Please, please. I’ll give everything I have… e-even my body and soul. I don’t care if it’s a demon, Just, some pony… help…” This pushed the last button with his heart and helped set his mind to make the decision that would determine his future course of actions.
Within his mind, Brex had an image flash for but an instant. He could have sworn that it was in a place full of snow and a green faced man stood on top of a cliff wearing the upper half of a Santa Claus suit. Then the being had these words to say in an overly dramatic tone, “Bleeding hearts of the world… Unite!”
He then said within himself, “Ok, that was weird!” before mentally shaking off what he considered to be a form of momentary insanity.
Getting back to the situation, He then began to take slow steps towards the small group. Just as he was about to be in reach of the light from their discarded torch, Brex dropped his Hide skill and said out loud, “Offer accepted…”
Continuing with his methodical, slow walk. He closed the distance and stopped only when he knew that his body could be perceived by the girl’s, hmm. Perhaps he should adopt their way of speaking, as to not draw too much attention to him not being from this world.
But Brex was still going to limit just what he would say while around the ponies. So, he decided that he would speak in a way, that would conceal his thoughts and at the same time, keep the other party guessing. He knew full well just how good the princesses are when it comes to diplomacy and word games from the stories he had been reading on the displaced.
It would be a gamble, but if he could keep them on their toes, then he could also keep the ponies on the defense. Somehow, he just had this feeling that he may have been one of those kinds of people that sounded fine while talking in front of others, but turned out to be the type that needed to stop talking just one sentence back.
So, it was then that Brex made the decision to only speak by using up to two or three words at a time. Keep things quick, clean and to the point. Sure, he would have to think it over carefully before speaking, but he believed that in the long run, this could be a benefit. Also, he thought that this would be a cool and mysterious way of speaking.
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
Shadow was beside herself. She had just calmed down enough to think back to what she had just said before this stallion appeared. Then her face started to turn a dark shade of crimson. Her thoughts were, “Oh My Celestia! Did I just. No, I didn’t. Oh, I really did just say those things. He, He… said that he, accepted… just what did I get myself into?” This made the mare let out an audible gulp.
*Point of view: Swirl Sugar*
The unicorn was thinking, “Oh yea~. I definitely need to learn the magic Shadow used to call this one. Wait, didn’t she say something about a demon? Oh well, almost anything is better than the stallions running around Canterlot.” She then licks her lips.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
He had just felt another shiver run up his back for a split second, but had no idea just what had caused it before returning to his dramatic entrance. He then asked Rory, “I know I got the Levels, but this is still going to be tricky if I have to hold back while those two are here watching. Do you think I should just go for it or maybe give it a little style? This could be considered the first time I fight while others watch.”
Rory answered while tapping her chin and having a thoughtful expression, “Some style, definitely style. Let’s give these ladies a show.” It was then, that her expression changed to that of excitement.
Grabbing his daggers, Brex ready’s them by spinning the blades in the palm of his hands for a moment before letting them finally rest with the tips pointing outwards and slightly to the floor. He then says in a detached tone, “Target… elimination… commencing.”
It was then that the oversized Diremite turned its body and began to approach Brex at a rushed speed. In doing so, one of its legs nearly struck the mare’s as it past by, but the gust of air that was produced was strong enough to knock both of their helmets off and onto he ground with a pair of clanks.
With a fluid motion, the Roegadyn ninja, shifted his footing from his heel to the ball of his foot and turned his body to the right before lightly kicking off the ground. This caused Brex to go back and dodged the incoming tackle with very little effort.
The Large Diremite used all four of its legs to stop and it turned around to find Brex standing there with his arms still out at his sides in the same pose from the start as if to mock it by asserting that this was a joke.
It lashed out with one of its legs to hit Brex but he just repeated the same move as before and easily side stepped it. The Diremite showed signs that this was annoying it and just kept trying to hit the being that was making this fight into a mockery.
A large leg would come straight down onto the ground and create a small quake, then there would be a slash with its large muscular tail that just oozed poison, only to have it hit nothing but empty air, again and again. Brex was jumping back and forth to dodging in a manor that this was just a sort of dance to him.
Some how even with this darkness, Brex was able to move around as if he could tell just where everything was. Even the distance between him and the Diremite was perfect with his dodging being so close that it could only be considered to have been by the skin of his teeth.
Not once did he take a fighting posture. During the fight, Brex had a relaxed atmosphere around him. In fact, it was as if the Roegadyn was having the time of his life with how his steps could have been seen as dancing.
The Diremite Crypt Keeper, after seeing this, tried to use another tactic and raised itself higher with its legs and the sound of air rushing some place tipped Brex off to what was to come. Then it leaned forward and started to spray a nonstop stream of white fluid from its maw that upon contact with the air, caused it to be hardened into thread.
Just as the countless number of threads reached Brex, the creature continued to release more and more in the hopes of catching the Roegadyn. Just soon the sounds of spraying were dying down and replaced with those of slicing and chopping.
*Shing, Shing Shing* *Chop, Chop, Chop, Chop Chop*. echoed into the dark library. Then the vale of threads started to lose their density and the light that was coming from the far-off torch was shining along the edges of the Roegadyn’s blades to show the movements of them cutting the monsters attack into shreds.
It paused and watched as the last of its attacks fell off to the sides and revealed a still standing Brex, who was happily twirling his weapons in a playful style. There was no sign of him having any difficulty in dispatching with the last attack. His arms while still playing with the weapons alternated as he waved his arms in a hypnotic pattern before returning them to the ready position.
He then spoke out in a bored tone towards the Diremite, “Is… that… all?” he then tilted his head just a little to the right and while still holding his blades, used them to give a come-hither gesture.
This caused the creature to give out yet another screech as it readied itself by digging its pincer like legs into the ground and lifting its tail above itself to be ready for use. It then uses said tail and shoots out a thin line of purple glowing liquid right at Brex. Fortunately, he was aware of that tail and backflipped to safety and was right back to displaying the same pose as before.
This attack was repeated multiple times. A thick spray would be shot from the tip of the monster’s tail with only a second in between shots. All the while, Brex was making sure that while avoiding the poison, the two mare’s in the back ground wouldn’t be caught in the cross fire.
With a flick of his wrist, Brex throws one of his knives towards the tail just after it had just finished its last attack and the weapon gets lodged right where the ranged attack was being shot out from. This caused the Diremite to flail its tail in a futile attempt to get the weapon out and resume its attack.
Brex thought this during the fight, “Its hard to believe that it’s going this well. Also how is it I can tell where everything is while its practically pitch black in this place? I mean I just hit a bull’s eye on the things tail in here. Also why am I having more fun than I thought I would?”
Rory replied with a rather sensual tone, “Oh My, what a naughty master you are~. You didn’t even ask yet you went and started to use one of my abilities.” *Giggles mischievously* please, oh please, do more master~. This is so much fun to watch you work.” *Slurp* Brex could have sworn that he heard Rory lick her lips by that sound near the end.
While keeping an eye on his opponent, Brex was wondering what Rory had meant by that and after a moment, it dawns on him that what she mentioned was the Situational Awareness ability that the real Rory mercury had.
Situational Awareness: When Rory was at the hot springs with the others, she could feel presence from a great distance. She was able to sense the presence of a soldier watching her from 450 meters (1476.38 ft) from her present location. This is also able to let her take in everything around her and thus allowed Rory to tell just where her enemies and obstacles were.
This explained just how he was able to do the things he had been doing while in this situation. Without realizing it, he had tapped into Rory’s powers. This was something Brex was going to talk with her about later. He then saw that the Diremite was about to change its attack pattern.
It then started to do another attack but before it had the chance, the Roegadyn ninja dashes towards it. Brex said just loud enough for both the creature and the mare’s to hear, “My… Turn.” Weaving to the left, then to the right, the motions seamlessly melding into the shadows thanks to the dark clothing. This caused the Diremite soldier to have trouble keeping its sight on its enemy.
When the Roegadyn got within striking distance, he stopped at one of its legs and began to run up along it, traveling right for the creature’s face. Brex leaped into the air and used one of his attack skills, Spinning Edge. The daggers glide through the air and this made a small gust as they struck the Diremite.
Spinning Edge, Weapon skill, Delivers an attack with a potency of 220 Damage. A fluid motion that uses the user’s body to turn at high speed with the use of two weapons to strike a target.
The Diremite lets out a loud screech and attempted to move away. Its legs desperately dug into the stone floor and was pulling itself away from its attacker. The ground rumbled, but even with all this, the books were not disturbed and remained on the shelfs.
Seeing this, Brex, who was now finishing the first weapon skill. Kicked off from one of the Diremites legs that had moved underneath and launched his body towards a book shelf, only to quickly kick off from there to wind up at the retreating creatures face once again.
Smirking under his mask, Brex unleashed the second skill for the combo and rotated his form while outstretching his daggers. What came next was the Gust Slash. This move was last used to penetrate the Star Spiders hard exoskeleton.
Gust Slash, Weapon skill, Delivers an attack with a potency of 100 Damage. If used right after Spinning Edge then damage is boosted to 330 Damage. A Series of strikes that use a combination of blade work and a powerful leg sweep strong enough to cause a large gust of wind as a result to a target.
This too caused a series of blades to come down and create a multitude of slashes on the Diremites body. Unlike with the Spider back on the bridge. Each and every one of Brex’s attacks were capable of cutting the hard defenses and then the powerful leg sweep was used, this sent the boss sailing back and into a book shelf. Its legs flailing as it was momentarily dazed from the unexpected force launched to its head.
Brex readied for the next attack and just as he landed onto the ground, he jumped high into the air and slowly descends while flipping into a upside down angle right behind the Diremites head and uses the melee skill, Aeolian Edge.
Aeolian Edge, Weapon skill, Delivers an attack with a potency of 100. The damage is boosted to 160 when executed from a target's rear. A spin attack that hits the target with multiple blades and seamlessly transitions into a mid-air flip to where the final strike delivered is delt with the user’s full body weight.
Somehow, he was able to place himself into a spin and starts to carve up the Diremite, right as his last hit landed with the daggers, Brex buried it into the hard chitin and used the anchor to swing himself and turned his body into the upright direction and this sent him back up above the creature, this gave the added momentum to use the last strike, the force was able to cause the attack to not only cut where Brex had hit, but an invisible shock wave ran down its body and crashed into the stone floor to witch it caused a large column of dust to be sent flying.
The Diremite Crypt Keeper was motionless as the Roegadyn landed with hardly any signs of how high he had just been but a second ago. With a swing of both blades to the sides, Brex sent the blood that was on them to fly off, this stained the ground with green lines of Diremite blood. Then placing them back into their sheathes without even looking.
He began to slowly make his way towards the mare’s who had been silent during the start of his fight. When he was only about a few meters away, the body of the oversized Diremite, that was roughly 20 meters behind him had started leaning away from the book shelf towards the Roegadyn. But before it got close, the body was bisected in a perfect line that started from its head and ran along the center of the mass. It then slowly separated in mid fall and disappeared into dark particles before it had even made it to the ground.
Now standing before the pair of mare’s, Brex noticed that they had their mouths hanging open along with eyes full of disbelief. Thinking that he wasn’t even noticed by them at the moment. He reaches out slowly and places a single finger under both of their jaws and gently lifts them back into place.
Satisfied with the outcome, Brex walks around them and comes up to a shelf and leans in slightly to look over the titles in a casual way that just screamed, oh please don’t pay any mind to what I just did. I’m simply here to check out a book.
(Stop the music here. )
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
Within Shadow’s mind, she was having a hard time trying to decipher just what had happened before her very eyes. Her thoughts were, “I-I-I… I C-Can’t believe what I just witnessed. This stallion just… just… did… and then he…” It was at this point that Shadow turned her head to her friend and the same look was plastered onto Swirl as well.
She spoke in an unsure whisper, “Did w-we just watch a stallion dance around a lot of lethal attacks as if they were nothing. Then jump to impossible heights, dodge poison being shot from the things tail and dice a wave of webbing with little effort?”
Swirl couldn’t help but to nod slowly with each one of Shadows examples like she was some kind of robot, during this, the mare was not blinking. All the while not removing her gaze from where the Diremite had just been before.
Shadow continued with, “Did he also taunt it and kill it with just a pair of daggers by cutting it in two parts before it just up and disappeared?”
Swirl, just like before. Just nodded. This was looking as if this was becoming second nature to the mare. After a moment, Swirl finally turned towards Shadow and said in a low whisper, “Shadow, don’t bother showing me how to summon a stallion. I want this one…”
This made Shadow’s face take on another heavy blush before she replied with the same volume, “What are you talking about. It was me that made the deal. Get your own hunk.” She was thinking that this stallion was the motherload. He was big, strong and above all else, he didn’t act like some winy little baby.
Speaking of the hunk. She had been lost in thought that she hadn’t realized that he wasn’t in front of them anymore and recollected that he had actually touched her jaw and brought it back up to close her mouth. This caused her to feel embarrassed that she had somehow managed to look like some fool before this stallion.
She turned around on the spot and noticed that he was only a few paces away and… was… reading a book in his hand while leaning into the shelf quietly. Without saying a word, the Stallion was just thumbing through the pages at quite a fast rate. Also, by the looks of it, the book that was maybe 200 pages long, was nearly done. Just how long was Swirl and Shadow out of it?
Shadow spoke up in a subdued tone while lifting her hand for but a moment to do a small wave, “Um, hello…?” She then mentally scolded herself for such an unoriginal way of starting a conversation. She then said, “I… I’m…”
But before she could finish the stallion spoke in a casual tone like one would speak of the weather, “Shadow…” Then with his free hand, points to her friend without taking his attention from the book and says, “Swirl…” This catches not only herself, but Swirl’s attention. Now sweating bullets. She says, “Uh, yeah… how did you know our names?”
The stallion in black simply said, “Back with hydra…” Shadow, upon hearing that, quickly recalled the incident and came to one conclusion, then spoke out in an astonished tone,” T-That was you!?”
This gets Swirl to turn around after hearing Shadow and looks right at the stallion and calls out in a confused manor, “Wait… what? But, he, and it… how did… H-He he’s a stallion. They can’t do something like all this. their all weak and…” it was then that she realized just how sexist she had been making herself sound like and, in a rush, slapped her hands over her mouth while glancing at the forementioned stallion before her.
At the time, he had just turned the last page in the book he was holding and lifted his head towards Swirl. Without saying a word, he turned and placed the book back into its spot and pulled the next one beside it and opened it up and began to read.
Shadow glanced to Swirl and then back to the stallion and tried to give the best apologetic smile possible and attempted to cover for her friend by saying, “It’s not like that at all. It’s just, Er… Most stallions we know, are not capable of doing the… things you just did. That’s all. She didn’t mean to offend you.”
Shadow knew just how sensitive the males were back in Canterlot. Say one thing and they turn into a ball of sadness and the tears come out in waves. It wasn’t their fault for not being as outgoing as the mare’s. Due to the number of stallions being weaker, we mare’s have to watch over them and keep them safe. However, there are those few, that enlist into the royal guard. It helps that there hasn’t been any real trouble in nearly a hundred years.
The stallion didn’t reply at all and just continued reading. This caused Shadow’s ears to fold down and showed an expression of shame. She thought, “Oh no. don’t tell me we really just hurt his feelings. We’re getting the silent treatment now, I hate that, why do stallions always do this. we need to do something before this gets worse.”
She looks over to Swirl for some assistance and noticed that she too was looking ashamed. With ears flat on the sides of her head, the girl was even doing the thing where one leg was behind the other and making a circle on the floor with her hoof.
Seeing as her friend was going to be of no help, Shadow takes a step and starts to reach for the stallion to try and reassure him, but was interrupted before she could say anything by him closing the book he had. Shadow blinked and thought, “Wait… didn’t he just pick that one up a minute ago. Don’t tell me he’s able to not only read these complicated books, but at such a high speed? Could it be, he’s not only this strong but smart on top of that as well? Oh, BUCK I need to fix this.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex was busy reading while passing the time as he waited for the two mare’s to come to their senses. Recalling the time with the hydra, he thought that it would take some time for them to start moving again. He had randomly reached for the first book and found it to be something called, How to preen feathers, where one can touch and where one shouldn’t touch.
Brex was able to nearly finish the book in what he considered to be a record breaking speed reading rate. It was surprising to the Roegadyn that this was such a long and detailed subject. It was then that he heard the one called Shadow and ascertained that she was going to introduce herself. He saw that this was somehow being difficult for the female and decided to speed things along by saying their names.
Instantly seeing the next question coming next, he readied his reply with a simple, “Back with hydra…” he then returned to finishing his book, but right as he had gotten to the end. Brex was able to take in just what the one called Swirl was saying and this triggered a few memories on some displaced stories where the gender roles had been reversed, or perhaps the numbers ratio was way off with mare’s outnumbering stallions or simply where the males are weaker to the females.
He turned to the one that just gave him this information to see if she was serious or just joking. After a second or two, Brex was able to tell that she had, in fact been truthful and returned the book in exchange for the next one. This new one was called, Pony sutra. This one caught his attention and quickly looked over it. He noticed with the diagrams that these anthro ponies where actually closer to humans than he had originally thought. In fact, he had not gotten a real close look at them at all. This whole time was from a distance.
Considering that he had not had the chance to get close enough to these ponies, Brex couldn’t even get a good look at them all that well. Even in this place with how little lighting there was, if he wanted to look at their faces, it would have been difficult to make out more than a few features. He thought, “Hmm, it’s been around two weeks now sense I arrived and all I have to go by is from what I had seen from over 15 meters away at best. Just how much closer are these ponies to humans? Oh well, Something for another time.”
He pondered to himself, “Now this makes me want to look for a medical book on these ponies. There may just be some other things I have not taken into account. I’m sure it would shine some light on the science of the gender ratio or on how the males are like how they are. For all I know this could be one of those worlds where there are way more females. Oh, why does that scare me?”
Right as he finished with the second book, which had taken but only a few minutes to read. Brex closed it and talked to Rory with the mental connection, “I get the idea that my rate of reading is not something I had back before arriving in Equestria. In fact, the idea that I could have been able to finish just these books alone would have taken me well over a day or two. I’m positive that this has something to do with the changes from either your end or back when I appeared here.”
Rory thought it over, and replied with, “I think it may have to do with the mental fortitude enhancement, with it being raised to such a high level, I think it boosted your ability to think quickly and along with retaining information. Let’s not forget that you also managed to tap into one of my traits earlier during the fight. Odds are my High Intelligence ability may have added to all of this as well. We are connected after all.”
She continues with a confused tone in her voice, “What I don’t understand is the fact that, I’m inside your head and don’t have a real body. How is it that you are able to draw on what my character has when it’s just data?”
Brex answered with, “It could be the fact that my body is now a game character. Maybe, it could be that with myself being basically made of data, the real Rory, I mean the other Rory’s data that you used, somehow transferred over to me or I can subconsciously connect to it at times.”
He then adds after a short pause, “This is going to get confusing later on whenever I have to refer to you and the anime Rory character. So as far as I’m concerned, you’re the real Rory and the other is the fake Rory.” It was right there that He felt a sudden surge of what he could only have identified as happiness and could have sworn that he just heard Rory within his head give out a series of giggles.
Noticing that the one called Shadow, was standing closer to him and with her hand slightly outstretched towards him. Brex finally noticed that he was lost in thought. The second book was then slipped back into its rightful place and he turned his attention to the mare’s.
Brex said, “where… is he?” by this, he meant the third pony of their group that was always with them. Thinking about it, Brex had a sudden revelation. If his chat function was up and running somehow. Then some of the others may also be up and running.
One thing came to mind and with a mental command, the Roegadyn caused a window to appear in his vision. This was labeled as, Looking for group. Brex remembered that while playing there would always be this message that constantly popped up that he never bothered to disable.
In his game world. Everyone was automatically added to it and it always displayed those that were ready for some sort of invite for something or other. With it being to do a dungeon run, or some other activity. One of thing it did was allow a player to type some one’s name and it would show them on the list. While there you could see the location name and other details.
Of course, this was also a tool for those trying to get themselves more free company members by searching for anyone that was alone and sending them a private message. But in Brex’s case, he had the idea to use it to find out where Break Down was.
The name Break Down was entered and after not even a second, he appeared on the search list. Brex had expected to see the location as the Castle of the two sisters but instead it was saying the Everfree woods, west end. This confused him, if memory served him right, that was towards the direction of Canterlot.
Thinking to Rory, “It seems that their commander isn’t even here, do you think he just up and ditched them here? From what I know of the guy, he isn’t that reliable. I’m thinking that this Break Down made a break for it and ran off.”
Rory replied with, “Hmm, it’s something I think he would do. I did manage to see some of what you know about the pony. But this seems off don’t you think master?”
Brex gave it some thought and said to Rory, “I was getting the same feeling too. I’m going to see about getting some info from these two.” Brex then turned his head in the direction of Canterlot and waited for the mare’s to answer him. He thought, “Oh I love this highspeed thinking.”
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
The mare stood there in a small daze as she tried to think of how to fix the situation but this train of thought was derailed by the stallion asking, “Where… is he?” Shadow blinked a few times in confusion and then understood the question.
She thought, “So he knows about Break Down. That’s right, he did mention the hydra. That’s how he would know about him. *Mental Gasp* Oh NO! what if he thinks that I’m in a relation ship with him?! Hold it right their Shadow, don’t jump ahead of yourself. It was a normal question after all.”
She looked over to Swirl and noticed that she too was surprised that the stallion knew about Break Down. Shadow then said, “Oh him? He’s just outside searching the area… for intrude… er’s…” it was then that her brain had caught up with her mouth and she slapped her hands over her muzzle the same way that Swirl had done so earlier.
This stallion was an intruder. One that they were send to be on the look out for. Moreover, he was inside of the Castles underground library. The same library that had magic seals to prevent outsiders from getting in and stealing the books. The very books… that… he was just… reading right, in front of us…
She then saw that the stallion had turned his head towards some random direction. This confused Shadow as to why he was doing this, but then he said, “No… he’s not.” She didn’t know what to think, just what did this stallion mean by that?
It was then that Swirl spoke out in and displayed her own confusion on this matter, “What do you mean by, No he’s not? D-Did you do something to… *Gulp* … Him?” at the end Swirl’s voice was becoming unsteady.
The stallion then said, “No, he left.” With still the same borderline flat tone that just oozed a lack of interest.
Shadow then noticed that in the direction that the stallion was looking, was in reality, the direction of the city of Canterlot. She also began to think, “Oh, don’t tell me…” Looking to Swirl, she said, “Swirl, you don’t think that Break Down, just left us behind, do you?”
Swirl’s face had hardened and she spoke in a dangerous tone, “I think he did just that. Why else would he not be in the Castle? He did send us down here after giving up so easily when I tried to keep you from going with him alone. I should have known that was too easy when we convinced him. This must have been something that he came up with after I sent that letter.”
Continuing after taking in a shaky breath, “It was all too suspicious. The odd assignment, that guy I never seen in the office before. Also, the fact that Break Down was still our superior after the two days from the time I sent the letter to the captain.” She was now turning a shade of red with how angry she was getting.
Shadow asked, “what letter are you talking about. I don’t follow.” Looking back and forth, she then asked, “could you explain it to me, what’s going on here and why are you so mad?”
Swirl turned to Shadow and said, “Remember how your hoof got stuck on that root while running from the hydra? It was Break Downs doing. I was able to notice that his magic was all over the thing while I tried to free you from it. When we got back, I wrote a letter and sent it to the captain, it explained the whole thing.”
Shaking her head in an attempt to release the anger, she continued with, “I knew something was off when nothing happened. I expected to be called in for questioning. But there was no such thing, then we got sent out here on an un-needed patrol. Then some how a new spell was on the door leading in here that mysteriously traps us in the underground library to be eaten by some monster.”
Stomping her hoof, she continued further, “I’m scared to think of what would have happened if you had gone with him to the tower on the far end of the Castle grounds.” It was then that the stallion in the room said, “Giant… Star Spider.” This caught both mare’s attention as their heads turned so fast that one would have sworn that they could have received whip lash.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 11: Payment and a huge misunderstanding.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Castle of the two sisters, Underground library* *Time: 1:05 in the afternoon*
Brex had to try and contain his laughter after seeing the hilarious reaction he had just witnessed after mentioning to the mare’s that the tower they were talking about had the giant Star spider. However, he had already taken care of it three days prior to them arriving here at the Castle today.
The earth pony called Shadow lily asked, “What do you mean by a… *Gulp* Giant, Star Spider?” He could hear the armor she had making some rattling noises.
He replied with that same nonchalant attitude and said, “Killed it already.” That was when he decided to lean into the book shelf with his back and started to look around at the many books. He then thought, “Hmm. I wonder what I should try to find next to read. Hope they have a filing system or this will take a lot of time.”
It was then that the pink one that went by the name Swirl Sugar added to the conversation and said, “Are you saying that inside that tower is… I mean there, was a giant star spider, and you already killed it? How big was the thing?”
Brex turned to Swirl and said, “Bigger than me.” He then reached behind his head and grabbed another book at random and glanced at the cover. Brex shrugged his shoulders and opened the book and began to read again.
Swirl then raised both her hands and pressed them onto her own face and did the motion where one would rub down their face and stop at the point that they could cover their mouth. She then let out a silent scream before she released her hold and said, “Could you stop reading already! I’m talking to you here, this is serious!”
Brex did just that and turned his head towards the mare. With his face covered by the mask, there was no way of knowing what kind of expression he could have been making and just remained silent.
This caused Swirl to go rigid and close her mouth quickly before her gaze went left and right in a hasty manor for a few seconds. She then regained her demeanor and said, “I’m sorry for that, but it’s just that, with everything going on, I need you to stay focused and tell me what’s going on here, who are you and what are you doing in this place? This is the old castle and no one is allowed to be on these grounds. You’re trespassing.”
Brex thought to himself, “Well she has a point there, I am trespassing on private property after all. Guess I’ll just cash in on what I’m owed and see how this pans out.” Turning to Shadow, he points at her and says, “You, Pay time.”
She instantly went into attention stance and looks towards Brex with a Shock filled expression and stammers a reply, “P-Pay T-Time? Do, do you mean about me saying those things before about offering my b-body and soul?!”
Thinking back to a little while ago, he recalled those words. But he didn’t want anything like that. Shaking his head, He said, “Let me… stay.” That was when he pointed to the ground as to make his meaning clear.
Shadow had a confused expression and said, “Huh, you want me to let you uh, stay here? So, you don’t want me to… I mean you don’t want my… I mean, I-I, I don’t know what I mean anymore!” She covered her face just as it turned red with embarrassment.
Swirl then interrupted this scene and with a confused tone of her own that was laced with skepticism and said, “Hold on there, are you saying that because we got locked in here after our commander sent us into this death trap, then there was an oversized pony eating bug that we couldn’t stop but to have you show up and take it out, thus saving our lives. Then there is the information about the giant star spider in the tower already being taken out. You have the Balls to demand that we pay you back by letting you stay in the castle grounds??!” the hold time her volume was getting louder until she was essentially screaming.
After a long pause of silence, Brex just replies in the most articulate way possible in this situation, which was, “Yes.” There was yet another long stretch of silence. Then more, and still more. Swirl with a straight face just said, “Ok.” This caused shadow to drop her hands from her face and screamed, “why did you say that Swirl?” Swirl just turned to shadow and said, “He makes a very convincing argument.” This nearly made Shadow fall over at just what had happened.
Thinking that things have stayed this way for long enough, Brex used his mind and started to think about his mini map and figured that with this place having a monster that created a boss territory. Then this place must count as a dungeon.
With yet another thought command, Brex brings up another window and on the top of it were the words, Map, in bold letters. Smirking under the mask, he looked it over and was relieved that his hunch had worked.
Unlike in the outside, one had to run around and fill out this map for future use. The map would auto fill in the gaps while exploring and show the land and any worthwhile places of interest. This would be things like, cities, small towns, area names, dungeon locations and would show on the edge a clearly marked icon of where this direction was leading into for the next area.
But when it comes to the inside of a dungeon however. It’s a little different. When one enters a section, that area is instantly shown on the map. The only way to cut off this function from going further, would have to be if the rest of it was on another floor all together.
In this instance however, Brex had just brought his map up and it displayed the underground library. It shows every inch of the floor that they were on and along with the way that they all had come in. The section they happen to be at right now was at the center. Mentally controlling it, he zoomed out on the window and it showed a set of steps that cuts off the map from displaying further beyond.
Comparing it to his memory of the lay out outside of the castle, Brex understood that it led in the direction of the south west. Judging from the scale of this library, He assumed that if the steps he saw, were really going up, then the exit should place them near the entrance that the rope bridge is near too.
He turned to the mare’s and found them talking to one another, he assumed by the way they had been pointing to the entrance that they had been discussing how to get out of here. He had also noticed that he had yet to do anything with the book he had been holding and placed it back where it was pulled from.
When the tome had been returned, Brex looked back at the two and while using a board tone, said, “Enough… Follow me.” He then turned in the direction of the steps on the map and started to walk away into the darkness. His heavy steps being the only thing within the hall aside from the crackling of the still burning torch.
After a short pause of silence, Brex started to hear the two trying to catch up from behind. He thought, “Well, I guess I’ll get them out of here. If they hang around, I just know its going to bring trouble. I can see it now, Celestia rushing in here and spouting some bull about her little ponies this and her little ponies that. There would be a good chance that she wouldn’t even hear a word I say. I bet she would just slap a label on me and say that I’m a spawn of her sister and I’m here to cause her ponies harm.”
Lightly shaking his head, He continues with, “I wouldn’t put it past her that she thinks that I’m doing something to these two. *Mental Sigh*… even if they vouch for me, Celestia would just say that I’m controlling them or some other nonsense. She is their goddess after all. There is no way that she could be wrong about anything.” He inwardly scoffs.
Looking to the passing shelfs, Brex could see the titles on the books and noticed that they seemed to be randomly placed. There was one about building an outhouse right next to a book about how to sharpen one’s sword.
The next thoughts were, “Oh my… Twilight is going to have a heart attack when she sees this place. No wonder she spent so much time here when she was looking for new books. Must have been spending most of that time trying to organize the dump. Wish I had the items to write a small book, would make a good prank if I wrote something about magic used by one of the schools back in the game. If I’m lucky, they have nothing like it and it would drive her up the walls. Especially if I made it vague at the wrong possible parts. I can see it now, the purple unicorn tossing books left and right trying to find some sort of reference to the half completed book I would have made.”
After thinking this, He couldn’t help but hold in a set of laughing, however he couldn’t restrain his body from letting out a shutter from the internal laughing. Brex did manage to keep it all in. when it had passed, he relaxed and let out a long sigh. Brex then brought his attention back to the task at hand and focused on getting those mare’s out of here as soon as possible. There was a lot of research to do before he could come up with his next move.
*Point of view: Shadow Lily* *Time: A few minutes ago*
Shadow and Swirl were in a heated discussion, well that’s what they would have liked it to have been seen as. But it was more along the lines of, Shadow having a small break down over the fact that there was this stallion inside the castle where he doesn’t belong and Swirl just said it was fine. Then the talk about how to get out of here started, but the two had no idea where they should be going. The library was massive, moreover, with how dark it was in here, it was a good chance that they would go around in circles until they died from lack of supplies.
That was when they both registered the stallion saying, “Enough… Follow me.” Shadow being the royal guard as she was, couldn’t believe a civilian would just say that to her. On the other hand, this was no normal male. She couldn’t help but stand there in shock, it wasn’t long before the sight of the stallion was beginning to fade into the darkness. That was when she rushed forward and snatched up the torch and called to Swirl, “Swirl, lets go. I don’t know about you but I’m not letting the only monster killer to leave us here alone.”
They managed to catch up to the Stallion, but kept to a four-meter distance behind him. Swirl leaned in and whispered to Shadow, “What do you think is his story?” Shadow replied in a confused tone, “what are you talking about?”
Swirl then said, “What do you mean, what am I talking about?! Here, we have a stallion that looks to have been built like a stone house and he’s down here. Not only that, he’s alone as well.”
This quickly gets Shadows attention and she says, “Huh? Alone? Of course, he is alone. I don’t see any other ponies around. Do you think he has an accomplice?” Shadow begins to look around at the darkness surrounding them.
Swirl gives Shadow an incredulous stare. Sighing, she continues, “No, didn’t you notice it at all. Look at the guy. He’s big, also a strong fighter that can kill something like that thing back there. He is a catch no matter how you look at it. Not once did I pick up the scent of another female anywhere near him. Trust me, I can tell these things easily. Not one mare has even come close to him… ever! There isn’t anything at all that’s close to a lingering scent.”
Shadow then understood what Swirl was trying to get at. With how the male population has been lowering, it wasn’t all that hard for any stallion to have had some kind of relations with the mare’s. Even if it was just holding hands, there would have been something left behind for another female to detect. But there wasn’t a single thing there when it came to this stallion.
She whispered to Swirl in an even lower volume and said, “S-So, you mean that he… He is?” Swirl quickly replied with a nod of the head. She shifted her eyes towards the stallion in front of them and continued, Not only is he a single male right now, but it looks as if, he is untouched as well. We just hit the jackpot! I can’t believe that we have something like him right there.”
Shadow looked towards the stallion and then back to Swirl and asked, “but that doesn’t make any sense Swirl. He has to at least be our age or a little older thanks to how strong he is and the tone of his voice. That’s impossible, maybe he just washed himself thoroughly and got a new set of clothing.”
With a shake of the head, Swirl answers with, “No way. I worked in the red district. I have seen stallions that would try to mask their wife’s scent by bathing and using scented bathwater along with buying new clothing. The scent is always there. No matter how well of a job they do, I can still pick something up.”
With a thoughtful expression, Shadow asks, “Don’t you think there has to be a reason for that? I mean, there is no way that could happen. There could be something we didn’t think about. Maybe he did have some pony, or perhaps he is promised to some mare out there.”
Swirl raises her right eyebrow and answers with, “No way, look at him. No way he has some one waiting for him. If it was me, I would have been all over the guy in some form or another. The only way that he could have been left alone. It would have to be due to some enormous reasons. Like, I don’t know, perhaps a… political… *Gulp* marriage… “
With her eye’s going wide, the unicorn goes silent for a moment before continuing, “Oh, by Celestia’s tits… He, he couldn’t be, could he?” the mare’s face had just gone ghostly white before saying, “Shadow, we can’t let anything happen to this stallion. I mean anything at all. I’m considering this to be a top-level emergency assignment!”
Shocked, Shadows ears shot up sharply, she couldn’t help but ask, “What are you talking about, you’re going to have to explain it to me. I’m still new after all. What does this top-level assignment mean?”
Glancing over to her friend, Swirl answers with, “Don’t you get it? The only way that a pony like this guy here wouldn’t have any female scent would have only two reasons. The first would be that he is into other stallions, but that’s out of the question. I don’t smell another on him at all, female or male aside from his own scent.”
Swirl then takes in a small whiff of the air, then says, “I’m positive. So that leaves one other option. He is in a political marriage to a mare in some high-ranking position. That’s the only thing I can think of. Consider this, if some noble mare was to have her eyes on a stallion and that stallion was some pony like this one here.” She then nods towards the one in front of herself.
She looks back to Shadow before continuing, “Then in order to have the power to keep other mare’s away, would have to be extremely influential. When I say powerful, I mean somewhere close to that of the princess. I haven’t heard any whispers about this so I can only assume that he is to be with some mare in a high station of power from someplace else. Maybe there is a princess in another country. I did hear a whisper once about a crystal empire, but that was to the north.”
Shadow was now showing signs of understanding the situation. But then it morphs into one of confusion again as she asks, if that’s the case, then why would some pony like him, be here of all places? Wouldn’t he be with some guards at the very least? You… you don’t think that he is on the run perhaps?”
Letting her gaze drift to the floor, shadow then says in a somber tone, “I think, something happened and he might be on the run from the mare. It could be, that the one he is to be with is not a very nice individual. We both know how nobles are like. They aren’t like the princess when it comes to being understanding. In fact, I’m terrified of the idea of one of them being interested. Wither it be a male or female, they can do whatever they want and get away with it.”
Swirl listens to this and nods to what Shadow was saying, then replies with, “I know what you’re talking about. I see it many times with those I work alongside with before joining the guard. They have their snouts so far in the clouds with how superior they see them self’s as, it’s hard to believe they don’t have wings.”
Shadow was now holding her left arm and said, “He must have his reasons. I feel sorry for him, for being forced into something by them. I can’t help but think that, with how he talks, he must be trying to hide more than who he is.”
With a tilt of the head and a dumbfounded expression, Swirl asks, “So you’re getting that feeling too huh. Yeah, I can’t help but think that he is trying to keep his distance from us. He was capable of doing the impossible just earlier, but it seems that, he can’t bring himself to talk properly to us.” She lets out a small gasp. Suddenly, her eyes widen in sudden realization before saying in a trembling tone, “You… you don’t think that she could have done something to him do you? It would make sense when trying to come up with a reason for a stallion like him to be here all by himself.”
Shadow could only cover her mouth as she showed horror. Then spoke, “She must have forced him to be her’s through some nasty means. Maybe the mare threatened his family, or had him isolated. It would explain how he has no other scent on his body. Oh, I can’t even envision the idea of where a stallion would be kept away from others just for the sake of a noble.” This caused Shadow to have tears form on the edges of her eyes as she attempts to hold them back.
Just then, Shadow noticed something happening to the stallion that was walking in front of them and this caused a lump to form in her throat. She then poked Swirl in order to get her attention. When her friend looked over in her direction, shadow then pointed at the one leading them, what they saw was the figure shuttering as he walked. It was soon followed by a long sigh. This only caused Shadow to solidify her thoughts on the matter.
She whispered to Swirl in a much lower volume and said, “I think he heard us. Did you just see that reaction? We must have hit the nail on the head and caused the poor thing to re-live some traumatic events. Now I feel like a bucking idiot, but I can’t believe that this actually happened to a stallion out in the world. I can’t let this go on without doing something. I need to inform Celestia about this crime. She would understand that a noble can’t just go around and force others to do what they want. But I need to learn the full story first.”
Swirl had a rather complex thinking expression and said, “Well, I don’t think he is going to tell us what happened. If you hadn’t noticed, he isn’t the type to complain like some other stallion we both know about. So, he’s not going to just talk about everything that annoyed him. He hasn’t even said more than three words to us at a time. He must be scared of mare’s and is keeping himself from getting abused again. “
She mustered up the courage and spoke up to the stallion and said, “So, do you mind telling us, why are you here in the first place? This is a castle that’s inside the middle of the Everfree forest.” She managed to close the distance and was close to a meter away on his left side at the point.
(Stop the music here)
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
After hearing the question, Brex turned his head so he could look over his shoulder and replied with a simple, “It is… personal.” While still watching the mare, he watched to gauge her reaction.
Thinking that this mare was doing her job, he didn’t want to give too much information to this guard that works under the very individual that he wanted to avoid like the plague. He saw that she made what he could have only called a… pained expression. This confused the Roegadyn.
He asked Rory, “So, am I the only one that’s getting an odd vibe off this pony or am I just being paranoid? Also, what’s up with that face she’s making at me. I get the impression that I did something to hurt her feelings. why do I feel as if there is something going on that I’m not aware of?”
Rory lets out a long, drawn-out sigh and says, “I’m sorry master, but I believe that this little thing may have the wrong idea about you.” Sensing the confusion she elaborated, “from what they had said so far, I assume they see males as the weaker of the two sexes. That would imply that they see you as the one that needs protecting. They might be thinking, you’re in some type of trouble.”
Chuckling to himself, he then says, “Well, if the fact that I have been sent to another world, while in a body that isn’t even mine isn’t enough. Then add on top of that with the fact there is a sun raising magical pony that has the power to do anything that her mind can think of.” He then sighs, “not only can she just do any magic, but due to the fact that she is on the top of the chain for most powerful political figures only means that the law won’t mean jack and will not be used on her for punishment. In other words, Celestia can get away with murder.”
Taking in a few breaths, he continued with, “So yeah, I’m in trouble alright, the worst kind. From the stories, there have been displaced that have done everything they could and still end up meeting her and that leads to them getting turned to stone, this leads them to become mentally insane from the isolation, or simply get killed off if lucky. There have been a few where she takes them and tortures them for her own personal amusement. Oh, by the twelve, I really hope she isn’t one of the worst ones.”
Rory sensing the buildup of anxiety from her master quickly says, “Its going to be ok master. You’re not alone, after all, I’m here with you. Even if I can’t do anything in the real world, I promise that I’ll do everything I can to make sure that you make it through this.”
Brex, who was becoming moved by Rory’s words let this slip through his lips in a small whisper, “Thank you Rory.” He then decided to pick up the pace and walked a little faster towards the steps that for the moment was perhaps 15 minutes away by his estimation using their progress displayed on his map.
Looking over his shoulder, Brex called to the ponies and said, “Not far now.” Then returned to facing forward. The rest of the trip had gone without anymore talking from either the two mare’s or Brex as the drew closer to the second exit.
When they had arrived to the destination marked on the map. Brex was not before a door, but a solid wall of stone. He approached it and pressed his hands on the rough surface and moved along it while pushing in random locations and rapping onto the stone with his knuckles in order to find anything amiss. This was going on for a few minutes.
He thought, “I know its here some place. The map shows something here, but it would seem that this exit was intended to be a secret so they purposely made it this way so any others wouldn’t find it. Ha, Ha, this reminds me of the first dungeon I ran where there was a secret switch you had to press to move on and the thing had a trap set up so if the wrong action was taken, then a monster would pop up. But if you happen to have done it right, then the real switch would be shown.”
He continued for a few more moments before his hands stopped on a particular spot and lightly hit it with his knuckles. This produced a deferent type of sound that the other spots had not produced. He then said out loud, “Found it…”
Brex was at that moment facing the wall while the mare’s were standing back a ways, this meant that they couldn’t see him too well and Brex used that to reach down and made a motion of pulling something out of a coat pocket. In reality, he was pulling something out from his equipment section and the item was something that he normally wouldn’t equip while in the Ninja class but he had a hunch that this might work.
In his hands was a rather large hammer that was roughly a foot and a half long, it had a blueish tinted metal on the end and had gold patterns engraved on the sides of the handle. This was the secondary tool used by the Miner class. He thought, “Well, its in my hands and I haven’t dropped it or had it just, disappear right back into the inventory. Was a little worried that holding this would switch my class but with it being the offhand item, that didn’t happen and I’m still a ninja. Let’s hope it works.”
While holding onto the item, Brex struck the wall on the abnormal location and this sent a wave of information into his head. The reason he used the tool was not, that he wanted to break the wall, but to gather information. He soon determined that this was constructed in a way that one could only get into the exit by busting through it. He said within his mind, “The lazy pony who made this didn’t even bother to install some lever.”
The tool had the stats to raise the user’s perception, but thanks to his tendencies to be a hoarder, he had one that was level one for him to utilize its functions.
He thought, “It’s a good thing I have a hard time in getting rid of things. Well, I did want to give this to one of my retainers so they could go out and get me some materials when I was busy. Hmm, I wonder what would have happened if they some how came along for the ride just like my gear? I wouldn’t know what to think if I had all four of those girls just popping up and waiting for me to issue them orders.”
This got a reaction from Rory in the form of a loud gasp and a worried tone as she said, “Master, what do you mean by that part of girls popping up thing just now?!” Within Brex’s head, the demi goddess of death stood there stock still with her biting her thumb as she waited for an answer.
Brex asked her, “Oh, here I thought that you knew everything that I did. What I was talking about before was over these four retainers that would serve me by selling my goods and along with me sending them on mission to either hunt, explore or harvest materials for my use. I would select how they looked from the race and all the way to their makeup.”
Pausing for a second, he continued with, “If I remember correctly, they were comprised of a wide variety of the races in the game. Such as, one being of the Human’s. Then there was one Miqo’te who is a cat-like race with pointed ears and a long feline tail. Then there are the Au Ra twins, The Au Ra are very similar to the human race except for their curved horns and glistening scales. Many speculate they descended from dragons.”
Rory was silent while hearing this, but as her master was nearing the end of the explanation and descriptions of his retainers. The girl was letting out small distressed grunts that went un-noticed by her master. When he finished, she replied in a, fake cheery tone, “I see, I’m so, happy that my master had such hard-working girls at his command to take care of him back then.” She then whispered under her breath, “I wish master would command me…” Rory then pouts and looks to the side with an envious expression.
Brex turns to the mare’s and says, “Stand back.” He then approaches the two and with a wave of his hand, gestures them to follow him to a safe distance from the stone wall. When they had reached about 11 meters away, he then pointed to a nearby book shelf and instructed them by saying, “Cover your ears.” The two quickly did as they were told and hid behind the shelf and covered their ears with both hands while trying to watch just what Brex would do next.
It was then, He walked back towards the wall and when he had traveled 5 meters closer. The Roegadyn used his, Ninjutsu: Fuma Shuriken. This launched a large shuriken at the fake wall, just as the blade sank into the stone, there was a concentrated explosion. This blasted the wall and sent the debris of rocks to litter the ground around the spot along with a large amount of dust. The blast caused a loud boom that rattled the books but they stayed in place. Brex then turned to see how the mare’s were doing.
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
Shadow was very confused by what she had just seen. The stallion had been leading them deeper into the library for what seemed like forever, to only stop at a random part of the wall. She then witnessed him placing his hands all along the stones and at times rapping it with his knuckles. But what thrown her off was the fact that he had pulled out a rather large hammer and used it on the wall but only once then stopped.
She turned to Swirl and asked, “What do you think he is doing. This is a dead end, all I see is this wall.” Swirl tilted her head and said, “I’m not sure, all he said was to follow. But I think he is testing the wall with the hammer.”
Shadow then asked, “Do you find it odd that he can walk around down here without a light of his own or is that just me over thinking it?” Swirl replied while trying to watch what the stallion was doing in detail from the current angle, “It does seem as if he isn’t bothered by this darkness that’s for sure. He was able to read with very little light earlier. Is it possible that he is accustomed to the environment such as this place?”
Shadow scrunched up her face and replied, “It makes no sense for a pony to be so well adapted to such darkness. Its unnatural for one to walk as if, its… all… they… know…” Shadow’s face slowly shifted to horror as a stray thought crossed her mind, she then grabbed swirl by the shoulders and pulled her in close enough that they almost touched faces.
She then said to Swirl while her eyes where full of panic, “I think this poor stallion was held underground!” This caused Swirl to push on Shadow for a few more inches of breathing room before replying, “HUH?! Er… you’re going to have to run that past me one more time. Mabey add some context so I understand just what you’re getting at.”
Shadow continued by saying, “It all adds up, the lack of scent of others on him. The way he keeps his distance and doesn’t open up to us. Then there is the fact that he is alone and can operate just fine in such a scary, dark place as if it were normal for him.” At this point she was now doing a sort of yelling whisper while shaking her friend Swirl.
Shadow continued as she turned her gaze towards the stallion that was still looking at the wall and whispered to Swirl, “The Noble mare that had her eyes on him didn’t keep others away by assigning guards or anything like that! She had him locked up in a dungeon. That’s the only explanation. That’s why he seems at home here and isn’t scared like any other stallion would be. We need to tell Celestia so she can find the mare and punish her. This is just sick! Who knows how long he has been subjected to this, he must be so traumatized.”
It was then that both she and Swirl were escorted away from the wall and instructed to cover their ears. Swirl asked, “Wonder what he is going to do. I don’t see anything on him that would need us to be this far.”
Shadow, while covering her own ears said, “I don’t know. He isn’t going to do something crazy like, run right at the wall or something, is he?” She leaned her head around the shelf and Swirl soon, mirrored the action. A moment later they watched the stallion walk a little and stop in place. With the unicorn’s head laying on her friend’s, the two watched with confusion as they saw the stallion from the back.
It was but an instant later that Shadow could have sworn that she could hear what could have been a set of three, small ping sounds coming from the stallion before he produced a large item and swung in behind himself before hurling it at the wall. As the item was brought back, Shadow was able to make out a pony sized cross made of black sword like ends that resembles a windmill.
This brought back the memory of the time with the hydra. There was a pair of objects that came out of the woods that hit the beast and brought it to the ground. She thought, “Wait, I seen that before. So, it really was him back then, he saved our life’s not once but twice. He did all that and didn’t even show himself to us. But why, we could have helped him if he had told us about what was happening to him. Unless… oh no, did he think that we would capture him if we had seen him? If… if that’s the case then, the one that mistreated him, must be from Canterlot!” this made Shadow go pale, but then realized that the stallion was about to let the item go and closed her eye’s due to the knowledge of what’s to come.
There was a substantial boom that filled the area with a cloud of dust that managed to reach all the way to where the mare’s were hiding. She could hear the stallion calling out to them with the almost monotone voice of his that said, “This way.”
All that she could do was to nod, dumfounded as her hoofs brought her to the stallion and stood next to him. All the while thinking, “that, thing. It just, appeared. He, He can do magic, is he a unicorn? No, I didn’t see a horn. But he may have one, after all, its really dark in here so I could have just not seen it.”
Her friend Swirl followed Shadows and stood near to the stallion also and turned to shadow. She then mouthed out the words without making a sound, “A Strong unicorn?” Shadow could help but mimic her friend by mouthing, “Who is he?”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Thinking to himself, “Ok, now that the way is cleared, lets head out of here. The faster I get them to the outside, the faster I can get back to these books.” Seeing as the two were now standing close, the Roegadyn walks to the whole that was over 3 meters wide and enters the now unsealed steps that went in a straight line and was going up at a slight slope towards the surface.
It had taken them roughly ten minutes of climbing before they came to a set of wooden double doors that had a long-carved log placed across it to prevent it from opening. Brex reached out and grabbed the wood and lifted it off the metal hooks that kept it in place.
When he did that, there was a set of runes that flashed for but a second and disappeared as if they had lost their power. At the same time however, the unicorn that was called Swirl Sugar called out in a panic but stopped abruptly.
Turning towards her, Brex asked, “Yes?” All he got was the sight of the mare moving her mouth, but Brex couldn’t hear her making any sounds. He turned to shadow and said, “She, ok?
The earth pony shook her head and replied with an uneasy expression, “I, think so. Um, t-thanks for helping us down there. Your more than welcome to come back with us to Canterlot if you.” That was when Brex cut her off by saying what came next in a way that made it seem final. “NO!”
Brex started to push the set of doors and walked outside, the sun was still in the sky, but he looked at his clock and noticed that it was getting close to 3 in the afternoon. With what he knew, he figured that it would take them too long to get back to the outskirts of the Forest before it got dark and spoke. “Late… Stay tonight.”
This obviously wasn’t what the mare’s expected, Shadow called out to him by saying, “Huh? But we, can’t stay. We have to get back, isn’t that right Swirl?” the pony called Swirl said, “He does have a point there, Shadow. Just look at where the sun is now, it has to be two hours until the sun goes down. We can’t make it back out of the Forest before that happens. I’m not going through there in the middle of the night either.”
Brex then pointed back to the Castle and said, “Know… safe spot.” He escorted the pair of guard mare’s back to the castle and retraced the most direct path that let into the lunar wing and made it back to the bed chamber that belonged to the princess of the night.
He could hear the two talking to each other now and then but just focused on the path and kept an eye on his mini map for any other extra pests that may pop up as he showed them to the one place in the castle, he knew would be both safe and comfortable for the mare’s.
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
They arrived at the double doors to a room that was on the top floor of a tower that had silver all along the door frame with moons and stars etched into it. The stallion opened the door and walked right in. soon after she and her friend entered as well and what they found was a rather large room that seemed to have been left to the passage of time thanks to all the dust covering almost everything within the room. Shadow did notice that the biggest bed she had ever seen seemed to be in wonderful condition though.
She was just about to ask how the sleeping arrangements were going to be but she heard the words, “I’ll take floor.” This caused both her and Swirl to stop and look at the male with confusion. Shadow then asked, “But, don’t you want the bed?” She then started to show a blush as she averted her gaze towards the floor and continued with, “Or we could, Umm. S-Share… the bed among all three of us…” She was now a full shade of red at the end of that sentence.
There was a short pause before he answered with, “Rather… not.” The stallion then turned to the door and was about to walk out. This caused Shadow and Swirl to look at one another with panic and reached out and both called out at the same time, “Wait, you don’t have to go!”
Shadow was kicking her self right now for what she had just tried to do with the whole, wanting the share the bed idea. She thought, “BUCK, BUCK, BUCK, Shadow why did you mentioned something like that?! Of course, he isn’t going to want that, especially after what you figured out about his past. You just made a move on a vulnerable stallion.”
She had just closed her eyes tightly. Just the idea of looking at him caused Shadow to fear that she could trigger some sort of traumatic memory to surface for the stallion. But what was said next brought that to a crashing halt.
The stallion turned and while looking over his shoulder said, “I’ll get food.” Then he walked out of the room and closed the doors. She could hear the steps become distant quickly before the silence was all that she could perceive.
Swirl placed a hand onto shadows right shoulder while standing behind her and said, “Its ok you see. He isn’t mad or anything, after all, he just said he is getting food.” She lets out a small chuckle before continuing, “He really isn’t like most stallions is he. Letting us have the bed to only end up taking the floor… I don’t know of any that wouldn’t take advantage of this situation.”
Swirl then turned Shadow around while changing her face to that of seriousness before saying, “But your idea about him being important may just be right on the money after all.”
Shadow tilted her head and said “HUH? Um… well of course he is important. After we inform the princess about the crime’s we can get him help.”
Swirl just held up her hand to let Shadow know she had something to say, “It’s not just that Shadow. Did you happen to notice anything odd about how we made our way up here? To be more specific, the fact that the runes that are in place to stop intruders all along the hall ways and including the ones outside this room didn’t react at all to him aside from a slight glow?”
Shadow reached up and began to scratch the back of her neck as she said in an unsure tone, “I think I saw that happening. Why do you ask?” she then tilted her head.
Swirl sighed at the sight before answering, “There are runes in place that are meant to stop any from entering areas of the castle that are not meant to be there. Which means that there are a select type that can just pass right by them and cause them to react in the way they have.”
Shadow raised an eyebrow as she asked, “So then, who would be the ones that could do something like that?”
This caused Swirl to facepalm before she talked past her hand, “The spells work on all that pass by them, but there are exceptions.” The unicorn then held up one finger and said, “The first is that only the princess can walk by them, this means royalty.”
A second finger is brought up before continuing, “The second would be some one that is with the princess at the time.” Swirl then pointed to Shadow, then herself.
Bringing her hand back up, Swirl showed an additional finger before saying, “The runes can detect if some pony is extremely trustworthy. Did you happen to know that back in the past, the princess worked with a powerful unicorn called Star Swirl the bearded?”
Shadow just closed her eyes for a moment or two and hummed to herself, but in the end, she gave a bashful expression as she replied with a simple, “sorry Swirl. No idea.”
This caused Swirl to use the hand that she had been using to count with to join the other in massaging her own tempol’s slowly. After calming down, Swirl explained, “He is a famous unicorn wizard. Aside from that, he and Princess Celestia worked on a number of runes in this old Castle.”
The unicorns’ eyes hardened again and she looked into Shadows eyes and talked in a serious tone, “So we have some new possibilities as to who this stallion could be now. Taking out the first part seeing as he is in fact, not the princess. He is either extremely trustworthy to the point that the princess could put complete faith in him with her very life or the last explanation is the fact that he could very well be of… royal lineage!” Swirls voice was getting higher as she got to the last part due to how excited she was getting.
The earth pony raised an eyebrow as she looked very confused during the explanation. As Swirl got near the end, the ponies expression turned almost pure white as she had a mortified and fearful expression, but quickly morphed to what could only be called a pissed off mare.
Shadow was now breathing heavily as she started to see red tinting her vision. Turning to Swirl, who by this time noticed her friends change, had taken a few steps back and was now sweating from nervousness.
Shadow then talked in a nearly, demonic like possessed tone that just oozed of unadulterated hatred, “IF I EVER COME ACROSS THE MARE THAT DID THIS TO HIM, I’LL, I’LL…” That was when she stomped the stone floor. This caused a network of spider web like cracks to spread from the spot while shaking the room. One could have confused the mare for a raging bull at that moment.
Back within Brex’s mind, Rory was watching her master, but then she turned her head around to some random direction and muttered under her breath, “Why do I feel as though I have a comrade?”
Now back with the girls. Shaking her head up and down at speeds that would make a certain pink mare impressed. Swirl, attempted to calm down her friend that was right now, more terrifying than the giant bug from down below the Castle. “Take it easy Shadow, we have the Stallion in our protective custody now. Like you said, we can explain the story to the princess and she can take it from there. All we have to do, is wait until tomorrow morning, then we head to Canterlot.”
Shadow had then taken a few deep breaths and replied in a more normal tone, but was on the edge of crying, “If what your saying is true… that he is just a really good pony or even royalty. Then what happened to him is just unforgivable. He, *Light Sobs* Saved us from death and told us we can use the bed and he would just take the cold floor. Also, he is out there looking for food for us…” Shadow was now rubbing at her eyes with her right arm while trying to keep it together, but was not doing a very good job.
She continued with, “It should be us that are doing that for him, not this way. He should be the one to have the bed. *Sobs* Why do I feel like this Swirl! Why can’t I stop thinking that I should be the one protecting him!” At this point Shadow was nearly bawling her eyes out.
Swirl came closer and gave her friend a tight hug as she wrapped her arms around the slightly smaller pony. The talked calmly to her and said, “It’s just your protective instincts kicking in, that all Shadow. Just take a moment to rest. Look, lets just sit on the bed. Today had been a long and stressful one.”
The two mare’s then approached the bed and sat near the edge. As Shadow calmed down. Swirl was taking the time to glance from her spot and gave the room a quick examination. She soon noticed something about the room and asked Shadow, “this room seems to have not been cleaned for a long time.”
She pointed to the floor near the door and brought her hand towards the balcony, then back to the bed before saying, “Its so dusty that I can tell just where one has been walking inside this room. Aside from a few spots here and there. I can tell that the only traffic is from the door, where it starts, then it leads to only the balcony and then to the bed.”
She then turns her head to the bed and leans in closer to give it a good sniff before saying, “His scent is so strong on this bed. Moreover, I can tell that its so strong that he must have been here for more than a day. If you take into account of how many hoof prints there are on the dust covered floor, then he must have only come in and left once.”
She then takes a thinking pose with her legs crossed before voicing her thoughts, “With how strong his scent is on this bed. Along with how it looks like he only came in here once. I think he must have been in bed for well over a day, maybe even two. But if that’s the case, then why… oh… could it be? Did he get hurt by the Star spider he mentioned and he had taken refuge in here to recover?”
She then turned to Shadow, who was strangely quiet for all this and discovered that she was face first into the pillow and taking in deep breaths through her nose. Swirl’s eyes widened and she screamed, “Shadow are you drowning yourself in the stallions scent?! Don’t tell me you’re in heat?!”
While still deep in the luxurious pillow, she replied with an exhilarated tone, “No~ I’m not in heat, its just. *Sighs in delight* He is such a good Stallion~ and he smells so good~ I can’t help it. This causes Swirl to just blink repeatedly as she was forced to watch her friend that was once a shy mare just earlier today, to some how become some sort of love-struck mare that even scares Swirl who was once in the red district. She couldn’t help but mutter, “Oh Buck, you got it bad girl!”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Back with the Roegadyn, he was just down in the kitchen trying to find some plates to use for the food he had managed to get after he left the girls. Running into the Everfree, he found some wild berries and other plants that he knew they could eat and made into a simple salad for their meal. He didn’t know why, but Brex was now shivering from nonstop waves of cold chills that wouldn’t stop running up along his spine.
He asked Rory mentally, “Any idea as to why I feel as if there is trouble in my future?” The girl within his head answered while giving out a cheerful tone, “Oh master, I think you need to pay more attention to your surroundings.” Brex then asked in a confused tone, “What do you mean by that?” After a moment, Rory replies, “Oh its nothing big. However, I will say this. Bringing them food in bed is a very high-level move, He-he.”
*Point of view: Unknown, Daddy* *Location: Unknown*
Just like before, there was the location with a color changing sky above a sea of white and gold water. At a large oval shaped table there was two beings sitting in office chairs placed side by side.
Daddy was sitting beside little moon while apparently getting a crash course in how to use the table before them. He then said, “Oh, umm, so if I do this then…” there was a series of beeps and what could have only been the iconic sounds of an old-fashioned game over sound that soon came forth.
With a disgruntled sigh, Little Moon groans for the billionth time. She then says, “Uhg! Really?! Just how did you even manage to log-in in the first place?... I can’t do this without you daddy. I been trying to re-connect but it keeps rejecting my pass code. Apparently its keyed to you, so you better get caught up to how things work now!”
Daddy just groans in annoyance before saying, “Why do we have to use this anyhow. What happened to the whole thing where we just go down and do it in the direct way?”
Little Moon replies with a deadpan tone, “Well, if some one remembers the last time that was done, then they could recount the incident that was caused back on some other world?”
Daddy couldn’t help but show it in his voice a reluctant reply, “H-H How was I to know that would cause that worlds snakes to be the higher life form down the road and that they would kill one another over the color of their scales?”
Little Moon then says, “Well, that’s why we do things this way now. This table acts as the go between with us and there. It keeps us from going to far and is a kind of a buffer so that Snake fiasco doesn’t occur again.”
Daddy grumbles, “Kids these millennium don’t know how to let things go… not like I go around and point out that one time a certain Little Moon didn’t like where a particular moon was placed and decided to move it over a bit. In doing so she placed it in the path of two gods that happen to be leaving their world and caused them to crash through it. Thus leaving that world with a broken moon.”
The light blue and purple mist figure then turns a shade of pink in the area a face should be and quickly replies with an embarrassed tone, “You, you said you wouldn’t bring that up! Those brothers should have looked where they were going in the first place!”
Daddy then says, “Your lucky that it was the brother of light that got the worst of it and was forgiving in the end. Now if the dark brother was to be the one that got injured. *SHIVERS* I’ve seen the black and white things he calls up. Nasty buggers.”
He then continues with, “So back to the nitty gritty. How do I log into this thing again? I need to give this boy his things before something else happens. Also, it needs to be done before she shows up. You know how she can get about the rules.”
Little Moon just sighs before saying, “Oh she just needs time to cool off. She did have that nasty break up awhile back after all. Ever sense then, she has been acting like the new goddess of rules or something.”
Daddy then replies in a confused tone, “Didn’t that happen like… er… when was it again? Now was that before or after the primordial ooze started to spit out life?”
Little Moon answered with, “No, this was around the time the dinosaurs died out. Your thinking of the one before that.”
It was then that a new female voice came and it sounded as if it where right behind the two sitting at the table in a cold tone, “No… daddy. Your thinking of my first. The one after the dinosaurs was my third boyfriend…”
Both Daddy and Little Moon slowly turned their chairs towards the new arrival and in perfect unison they said, “Hi there, when did you get back Little light? Hehe Hehe.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 12: Questions for himself and their answers.
Chapter 12: Questions for himself and their answers.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Castle of the two sisters. Within the Kitchen* *Time: 4:15 in the Afternoon*
The Roegadyn was busying himself with a search in the kitchen for some plates that could be of use. This was for the meal that he had prepared with what he could find within the Everfree forest. A basic salad was made using some wild fruits and plants that he was sure the ponies could eat. This was thanks to his observations over the last two weeks during his time in Equestria. He had hoped that even without his maxed-out cooking class, this would still be good.
Brex was looking into the last kitchen cupboard and that was when he had found them. Taking them out he walked to a wooden bucket that was quite large. He figured that this was meant to be in place of the sink. He began to think, “Oh I’m so happy I don’t have to worry over something like, going to the bathroom. Sure, I don’t need to eat or drink, but it’s nice at times. I guess that this is the time period where no one had invented indoor plumbing.”
He then starts to chuckle before continuing with, “I wonder what it would be like if I was brought here wearing a red shirt and blue overalls, while sporting a rather heavy mustache. HAHA, bet I would have made a killing by showing them plumbing and charging them to install it…” Shaking his head, he then adds, “Naw… if that happened. I bet, as soon as I installed them all over the place, there would be some giant turtle showing up to kidnap one of the princesses.”
Sighing, He continues with his task and places the plates into the wooden bucket and looks around from his position and remembers that there was no source of water inside. Shrugging his shoulders, Brex opens up his item window that displayed everything he had that wasn’t equipment and weapons. With a small mental command, a small tab was clicked at the top and the display shifted and showed what seemed to be an organized set of icons that were colored in red, blue, green, brown and so on, along with a set of numbers next to them.
Brex looks at them carefully and selects one of the icons. He holds out his hand and just then a rock appears in midair and falls into the palm of the Roegadyn. Holding it, he brings it closer and gives it a scrutinizing glance.
The rock was instead, a blue, lightly glowing crystal. What Brex had done, was to bring out a water crystal from his inventory. To explain, within the game known as Final Fantasy 14. There are elements contained within crystals that had three ranks. The lowest were referred to as Shards. The middle ranks are called Crystals. Now the high rank ones are called Clusters. Depending on what the player wanted to make, this affected which of these three ranks were needed. In the current case, Brex wanted to use a Crystal to get a generous amount of water.
He then takes the stone and drops it into the bucket and watches as a faint glow from within quickly intensifies and dies down just as fast. Leaning in, Brex could see a nearly, full to the brim bucket of pure water. Using this, he cleans the plates and soon after, fills them with food and leaves the kitchen. But not before using a few of the water shards to make enough to fill a large mug and takes some cups for the Mare’s to use. Even if Brex, didn’t need such things anymore, it didn’t mean he wasn’t aware of what the others required.
On the way up to the tower, The Roegadyn was walking along down a hallway and started asking Rory something with the mental connection, “Say, I was wondering about something for a while now, but this could just be me simply being paranoid. Although if that is the case, It would still help if I talked to you about it.”
Rory answers while humming, “Oh, what might that be master? I’m sure that whatever it is, then it can’t be out of paranoia.”
With a short pause, Brex then says, “Well, it has to do with all these Cold chills that I have been getting all day long. I know that I wasn’t getting these while I was spending all that time in the forest. They only started at the time when I happen to set foot in the Castle grounds. It didn’t matter if it was down in the underground library or up here. I wonder if there is something wrong with me. You don’t think I’m sick, do you? Can I even get sick? It’s just that I’m a game character… now.”
Brex nearly spills some water from the mug but manages to recover in time. With a long drown out sigh, he continues in a dejected tone, “It’s just… I can’t remember anything really. You did say that a lot of my data was lost before the fight on the bridge. There is also what you said about how a large portion of it was replaced before the reconstruction.”
Rory replies with a somewhat worried voice, “Um, yeah… I remember. So, what are you trying to say master? I’m sure you’re not sick. after all, I have the anti-virus up and running.”
Brex then says, “It’s just that, I’m starting to wonder just how much is… er… I mean, how much of my real self is still there. The Roegadyn’s eyes from under his mask turned worrisome before adding, “Just how much is affecting my actions here. I’m not just talking about right now, but everything. Could it be, that all of my choices have been done because of what has been placed inside to fill in the gaps? Or perhaps there isn’t anything left of the real me and I’m possibly the fake?”
Rory was talking in a stern tone as she said, “All I know, is that you’re my master and that’s all that matters. I’ll be here for you and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. If this is bothering you then we can find out together. I can’t say for sure, but I just know that everything that has happened is due to your real feelings. It could be that, even without the memories being there to act as the root of your actions, I just know that somewhere in all the data, is the effect those memories had imprinted.”
There was a long stretch of silence after that as the Roegadyn continued walking. Just as he had climbed the spiral steps that led to the bridge, he spoke again, “I’m scared Rory. I’m really scared that I am the fake and the real, me is gone. You said it yourself after all. I’m data, right...” He lets out a small pitiful chuckle before adding, “Haha… not once did you use the term soul. It was always data…” At that point, the part of his mask that covered the eyes had been showing a small amount of wetness that was slowly staining the white section.
When Brex had made it half way across the bridge, he continued while using the same tone, “I don’t even know my name or even if there was a family waiting for me. By the twelve! I don’t even know what I looked like before. To top it all off, I can’t help but say something like, By the twelve… I know I meant to say Hell, but that’s what came out instead. Am I a human or am I a Roegadyn? I mean I am one now but, maybe I was always one and the whole human thing was really a dream… I don’t think I can tell anymore Rory… I… I don’t know for sure…”
His mental voice was becoming more somber with every thought. This also translated over to his body as small shutters had been plaguing his form while walking across the bridge. Just as he came close to the door that led into the lunar princess’s room, Brex stopped but a few feet away and just stared at the set of double doors. From under the mask, his eyes were becoming blank.
With a sigh, Brex finishes with this last thought, “Rory, I… I can’t tell you how much it helps that I’m not alone here. At least you’re with me. I-I don’t want to be alone with these thoughts. They scare me so much; I might do something and regret it later. All I ask is that you help to keep me from hurting myself… but for now, I at least have a goal in mind to keep my head focused on. Just promise me that I can count on you. After all, I have no one else I can trust now that I’m on another world. Another world full of aliens while I’m the only one of my kind. The thoughts of what they might do if word gets out that I’m not one of them is always on my mind.”
Rory answered while having a small amount of trembling in her voice, “I promise that I’ll be there by your side. Even if the world should be against you, I will be there to lean on. Also… I’m, sorry about the whole data term that I had been using, it hadn’t occurred to me that talking about you in such a way was being inconsiderate for your current predicament. It’s just that I was a program that was created to assist. So, it was something that I ended up saying over and over…”
Brex remained silent while Rory was speaking and as she finished, he had this to say using his own mouth for once, but managed to remember to keep his voice low while wearing a small smile underneath the mask, “Thank you Rory… if it wasn’t for you, I would have died. You have no idea how much you mean to me.” He couldn’t help but to let out a few quiet sobs before regaining his composure.
After letting Rory know his thoughts, Brex takes in a few deep breaths to calm his nerves before opening the door by pressing his foot against the wood. He did this because of the fact that both arms were currently full of either food or the water he had been carrying practically half way across the castle.
When the door was being opened, Brex hadn’t expected to come across the sight before him. The room was being slowly exposed to his vision, but the first thing that was noticed was the image of the two mare’s, that happen to be on the bed and the one that he was sure to have been called Swirl Sugar was in the act of pulling on the tail of the other female called Shadow Lily while standing on said bed. This had the unexpected effect of blowing away the somber atmosphere that was present but a few seconds prior to opening the door.
However, what was even more unexpected, was that they had removed their armor and this left them both wearing only a set of tightly hugging, short black pants and what he could only have considered, white sports tops. The darker one was currently pressing her face into one of the large pillows and letting out a choir of noises that he could only have taken as a form of joy. At the same time the pink one had a hold on the first’s tail and was saying in a disgruntled and exasperated tone, “Shadow…Lily… *GRUNTS* I said that you need to stop doing that! What do you think is going to happen if he comes back… and… sees?” That was when she noticed him standing in the doorway.
Swirl, with wide eyes, lets out a nervous chuckle while sweating bullets. During this, Shadow had not seemed to notice the situation and just lets out another content sigh and starts to talk through the pillow that muffles her voice, “Just awhile longer~ this just feels so nice~ I just want to take it in a little longer.” It was a few seconds later that Shadow noticed the silence. She then lifted her head and turned towards Swirl, but stopped when her gaze met with the figure standing in the door way. The darker mare’s face became frozen and her cheeks quickly turned red as her mouth opened and closed at an almost imperceivable pace, however no words were coming out during this.
Brex couldn’t deny that this scene was rather humorous and soon remembered that he still had his hands full and stepped inside. Using the back of his foot, the Roegadyn closes the doors and walks to the bed and sets the plates near the edge and turns to the night stand to put the mugs on top. He then fills them with the water from the mug and pours the contents into the ceramic white cups. He thought to himself, “These seem rather fancy compared to the others. I bet they were once used by Celestia.”
Turning his attention to the mare’s, who by the way, have yet to move an inch from the time he had witnessed there little playing around, gave them a small cough to gain their attention to the objects placed before them.
Brex spoke in his now considered normal talking to ponies’ tone, “Must be hungry.” He then pointed to the plates. He had made sure to get the kind that used a dome cover to protect the contents during the long walk from the kitchen. Slowly the Roegadyn reaches for the lids and lifted them to reveal two salads. Being thankful that he didn’t have to rely completely on the forest for all the ingredients, Brex had found a small garden and within it was some growing lettuce… or was it cabbage?... no, it was definitely lettuce. That happened to be the time when he started to think on his memories and this sparked the depressing conversation with Rory earlier.
He then pushed those thoughts aside and began to make his way to the glass double doors that led out to the balcony and checked them to see if there were any problems with it. Finding nothing, Brex locks them from the inside and walks towards the door. Passing the bed, he could see the mare’s looking at the food while they had been drinking the water given.
Brex then thought, “Ok, so I got them food and water. So, they should be all set for the night. Seeing as I’m not tired, I think I’ll head Back down to the library and start looking at a few of the books. Hmm, I wonder if I’m able to read that whole place from one side to the other within a month. Seeing as I did manage to get through two of them within minutes then it might be possible. HA! If I was a regular human, I doubt I could get through a small fraction within my lifetime.”
Just as before he had made it all the way to the door, he heard the two yells out to Brex with what could have been a mix a surprise and fear as they both said in unison, “Wait, don’t leave!” This caused him to look towards them from over his right shoulder. Replying, he asked, “Yes?”
This got the mare’s to look too one another. Soon the one called Swirl said, “You’re not going out again, are you? Also, it hasn’t been that long. Aren’t you going to eat with us?”
Brex answered with, “Not hungry.” This caused the pink mare to tilt her head in confusion. She then replied with, “When was the last time you had anything to eat, if you don’t mind the question.” Brex didn’t see the need for a lie here so he just said, “Three days.” But soon regretted it when he saw the expressions on both of their faces before the one called Shadow, practically screamed, “WHAAAT! But, but you need to feed yourself. Are you saying that even if you hadn’t eaten in so long, you just went out and got us all this?!”
He just nodded his head one time and started to make for the door once again, but was stopped yet a second time by a set of arms that wrapped themselves around his waist from behind, it was accompanied with a set of sobbing from the one doing so. This confused him and just held back his protest’s so he could gauge just what was happening. He didn’t even notice this mare coming at him and with a glance at the mini map, Brex could see, for the first time ever, the dots on the radar were not red or yellow, but green. This was not something that the Roegadyn had counted on. He had figured that everything on this world would be a danger to him. But here are two that his map says are friendly.
Within his mind, Brex quickly asked Rory in a panic, “Rory, I’m really confused here. Just why is this mare holding me like this, also why is she crying?! I don’t remember noticing when their dot colors changed, did that happen back down in the library or while in this room? This isn’t the game so it’s not like coming into this place would change them just because this is a safe zone, it doesn’t mean that just because they are here could make them friendly, right?! There has to be a reason.”
Rory replied with a mischievous tone, “Oh master~ didn’t I say you needed to pay more attention to your surroundings just earlier~ It seems with all this time, you forgot something important about food and water. Now as for this mare, it seems that this caused her to think of you as the type to sacrifice food for her and this would leave you with nothing and just going hungry yourself.”
Raising an eyebrow, Brex thinks over what Rory just mentioned and mentally did a facepalm. Humans could only live for three days without water and as far as food goes, they could go for anywhere from 6 to 10 days before dying, but that was in the best conditions. Well, that’s what he could remember, those numbers could be off for all he knew. He then thought loudly, “Having memory loss really sucks!”
Being very careful as to not hurt the mare. Brex reaches down and slowly pulls her hands off from himself and once her grip was loose enough, the Roegadyn steps away a few feet and turns towards the mare. What he saw caused his heart to practically break apart. Right there, was a purple mare with tears streaming as she had what he called the saddest expression he had ever witnessed. This however wasn’t saying too much as this counted as the first time, he had seen such an image.
He then spoke to the mare, but for once it wasn’t in the regular tone that he had been using all this time, but in a worried one, “Shadow… What’s wrong?” This caused the mare, to blink a few times before her expression changed, ever so slightly into something that he couldn’t really put a label on.
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
She was stunned at just what happened. For the first time, this stallion just asked her if something is wrong, but what really got to her was the fact that his way of speaking had changed from all the other times that he spoke. Each time he had talked, it was always in either a detached or emotionless way. But just now, he had used some real emotions behind those words and this struck at something within.
She then spoke up while trying to hold back the crying, “Where are you going, why don’t you stay here and eat with us?” She then thought, “Yes, yes please say yes! This way we can get a good look at you.” It also didn’t help that she was scared when he had left to get food for Swirl and herself. But it did give her the opportunity to get intimate with the bed that he was apparently using to sleep in. Shadow was still embarrassed to have been caught in that position. She then thought back to during the time he had just left.
She was essentially drowning herself in the stallion’s scent and had completely lost track of time and before she knew it, both She and Swirl had decided to get comfortable and had taken off their guard’s armor and placed them onto the ground near the bed and she had resumed in the activity that was able to completely distract the mare from the near-death experience earlier.
It had actually evolved to the point that she had begun to roll around on said bed and pushed her face into the pillow. That was when the unicorn tried to pull her off with magic but Shadow fought the magical force that Swirl was using. Thanks to her friend having a lower limit, she was able to keep her spot. It soon escalated to the point that Swirl had taken a hold of Shadows tail and was pulling on it to get the mare off of the pillow. Of course, that would happen to be when the stallion in question returned.
Back to the present, Shadow asked yet again, “Please stay… I-I wouldn’t feel right if I had something to eat and you didn’t.” Looking back towards the bed, she could see the salad and, on another look, remembered just how good it was when he had showed it to them when pulling the lids off. There was also that amazing water. She had never tasted such pure water in her life.
She then saw that the stallion was lowering his shoulders, this was followed by what she could only see as some type of shrug. He then spoke again, “For a while.” This filled Shadow with hope that she would be able to spend more time with this male and thought, “Oh yes! If he is going to eat, then he is going to have to take off that mask of his. I can’t wait to see just what he looks like.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex couldn’t help but comply with the mare. He thought, “Why do I feel something when she looks at me like that. Can’t really place what it is though, is it regret, or perhaps its pity? Ugh… why can’t I even get a beat on my own emotions. I guess it’s better than just going and leaving them here. For all I know, these two may just decide to run off without me knowing and call the princess here. I don’t intend to keep them as prisoner’s or anything like that, but I would like to know when they leave so I can come up with a time limit for me staying here before I need to vacate this castle for another base of operation.
After giving his reply, Brex walks over towards the bed. The mare that was still on it, glanced towards him and for some reason, she was starting to blush. He didn’t understand the reason but just as he had always done up to now, brushed it aside and continued walking, but instead of going for the bed, Brex just went past it and approach the wall and sat down onto the floor and rested his back up against the stone wall while facing the door.
He soon noticed the gazes from the mare’s in the room and decided to say, “I’ll keep watch.” He thought, “They must be scared or something. I’ll just stick around here for a while and leave when they fall asleep or something. I don’t really have to read everything down there. Maybe just a handful will do. Eh, I’ll just walk along and pick something up that catches my eye. Just need to focus on the history on this world and maybe pick up a few details about their kind of magic. To be more specific, the types that deal with their magic holding, mind reading and see if I can figure out some defensive measures. Above all else, something for blocking Luna’s ability to get into my dreams.”
He continued thinking to himself, “Hmm, later when I fall asleep, I guess I can have a chat with Rory about what that firewall and anti-virus are capable of. She did talk about changing my dreamscape before, perhaps we can do something with that.”
Brex was brought out of his thoughts by the one called Shadow talking to him while holding an expression Brex couldn’t quite place yet again, “Umm, a-aren’t you going to sit on the bed or have anything to eat?”
He just shook his head to the sides before replying, “I’m fine.” This however didn’t seem to do it for the mare as she turned towards her fellow guard and they nodded to one another before the one called Shadow added, “We won’t eat until you have something at least.”
With an inward sigh, Brex relented and moved his hand towards his chest and slipped a few fingers into a small gap and pulled out what seemed like a small handful of wild strawberries. These happen to have been something he found several days back, but thanks to the item box, Brex could put anything in there and no matter how long the item in question remained, it would come out in the same state from the moment it entered. This made it possible to store anything he wanted, without the fear of spoiling.
While holding the strawberries in his right hand, Brex used the left and takes one and brings it closer to his mouth. While he had his sights set on the food, the mare’s watched in fascination over the fact that he was going to have to pull off at least some of the mask in order to eat the fruit.
But instead of doing that, Brex just continued with the motion and just as the fruit was about to push into the fabric. The mare’s reached out and tried to tell him that he was still wearing his mask but froze when they saw something that neither couldn’t comprehend. The strawberry just seemed to pass through the mask and there was the sound of the stallion chewing it.
While eating, Brex thought, “it’s a good thing that I don’t need to take this thing off just to eat something. This will help out in keeping my identity a secret. Don’t need to blow my cover by wanting to try something and letting others see my face… or forbid my teeth. In the stories, they flip out when they find out the newcomer isn’t an herbivore like them but is an omnivore. Just thinking that I might make friends, but then when they find this out, they turn on me. No thanks.”
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
She was dead set on seeing the stallions face, but when he just sat on the floor, and said that he was going to keep watch, she couldn’t help but push a little harder. So, when she delivered that ultimatum about not eating until he did, Shadow was sure it worked but was surprised when he just reached into some pocket within the coat and pulled out the red fruit.
Shadow thought, “Huh? Just where did those come from. I didn’t smell those on him at all, now that they are in his hands, the smell is fantastic. Wait, are those strawberries? But those are really hard to get one’s hands on inside Canterlot. I was told that they became scarce after the capitals relocation, so in other words one could only get them if they had the bits or venture deep into the forest.”
She then also recalled that the area one could find them just happened to be deep in the territory of the Timber wolves. She then had this to think, “Oh my Celestia, did, did he go that deep into the woods to escape from that mare? If that’s the case, then he must have taken out a lot of those beasts.” If only she knew that was indeed the case for Brex. He had actually found them shortly after that time he had killed the 16th pack of Timber Wolves.
As soon as she and Swirl both realized that the stallion wasn’t going to take his mask off, they both tried to call out to him but stopped when the fruit past right through the mask as if it was never there to begin with. While holding a dumbfound expression, Shadow looked over to her friend and asked silently with only using her eyes, “Did you see that?!” She then got a nod from the unicorn beside her.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex had continued to eat one piece of fruit, after another. But when the number had reached four. The Roegadyn looked up and noticed the two watching him intently. Feeling a little uneasy, he asked in the normal tone again, “Here, take rest.” Standing to his feet, Brex approached the mare’s plates and placed on each the remaining Strawberries so that they both ended up with two each to have for themselves along with their salads.
When he did this, Brex had caught sight of them both eyeing the new fruits and without hesitation, they began to devour them and moved onto the salad. He then thought while having a wide-eyed expression under his mask, “Oh, wow, I had no idea that these ponies had a thing for Strawberries. I had an idea that they may have wanted some with how that Shadow Lily girl was looking at the ones I had just been eating but, by the twelve… are these really that good to them?”
Without realizing it, Brex had said the next words in a sincere tone that was completely unlike the others that he had used so far, “Glad… you… like.” Just as those slipped, he mentally scolded himself for the slip up and turned his head away from the two mare’s that had been eating his food with such vigor. Feeling embarrassed, he thought, “Jeez, what was that all about?”
Rory then asked in a joking tone, “Oh master, I didn’t know that you had a softer side. It would seem that you like having these girls around, or could it be that my master is a play boy?” at the end of that remark, Brex was feeling something from Rory, but just like before with the mare’s, he couldn’t place his finger on this one either.
Now getting an uneasy sensation that was boiling from within his mind. Brex attempted to focus on keeping his attention on both himself and the mini map. He did say that he would keep watch.
Thinking to himself, “I really don’t understand girls. *Sigh* also, why do I feel like I have a sense of dread that I can’t seem to push down. It was one thing when it came to being in a fight, or perhaps just speaking to them in the way I had been doing. But, why do I feel so bad when I talk the way I just did. Why do I feel as if… I’ll be hurt. Could it be, this is something to do with Rory’s theory about the imprinted effects from my missing memories? Did something happen to me to cause such a negative reaction to opening myself up?”
Brex stops himself from diving any deeper into that metaphorical rabbit hole by redoubling his efforts in his task and looks back to his map and starts to come up with plans for when the two mare’s leave in the coming morning.
He then adds, “I need to come up with a real plan. Those two are no doubt going to tell their princess about me and that’s going to spark the chain of events that may very well send a nonstop torrent of trouble in my direction. When that happens, I’ll have only a few options to pick from. Ok, just think Brex, just look over what you know from all the stories and come up with something…”
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
Shadow was looking right at the stallion that was currently looking in the other direction and with a small blush in her cheeks she leaned closer to her friend and whispered, “Oh my Celestia… did you just hear what he said? It sounded so cute!”
Swirl was also wearing a blush as she replied in her own whisper, “I know, right? I didn’t know hearing a stallion say something like that, in the way he did, would make my heart skip a beat. It has to be the first time I heard him sound… happy.”
Shadow then said, “But did you see the way he quickly looked away, I-I think he was embarrassed. That only added to the moment. I think we might be getting through his armor. I’m going to try and ask again for his name. he might just tell us this time.”
Her friend then whispered back, “Oh, that’s right, we never did get it from him. With everything that happened, it got away from me while underground. Gah… I remember that we asked once, but he just brushed it off.” Swirl then gave a nod before adding, “Go for it.”
Even with the strong influence of wanting to ask for his name, Shadow Lily was still hesitant in mustering up the courage. But she then thought, “Come on, mare up already. It’s just a name right, it’s not as if asking for it is like proposing or anything like that…” This caused her blush to only deepen. But after a moment, she began to ask in a friendly tone. “So, um… I know we already asked you this once before, but could you tell us your name at the very least?”
This caused the stallion to turn towards her. Shadow could feel that this was something he had not wanted to tell them from how he avoided the question when they first met. But, with this much time passing, along with that little outburst of emotions, she was hoping that now would be different.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
To say that Brex was not expecting this question, was a huge understatement. It had completely slipped his mind and he didn’t have an answer ready to give. Turning to the mare, the Roegadyn was unsure as to how he should answer. He then asked Rory with the mental connection, “So Rory, any ideas on how I should handle this?”
Rory, was taking a thinking pose while inside her masters mind while placing a finger on her chin and was humming for a brief moment before saying, “It wouldn’t be a good idea to tell her your real name. An alias would work, but then again, that may bite us in the ass later on in the future. But really, it’s your call master. Too bad we don’t have some way to make her keep quiet about your name.”
Brex thought about what Rory had to say. He then came up with a small idea and after a pause, hoping that this would work. He looked towards the purple pony and answered with a tone that was laced with doubt, “Can… I trust?”
This made the mare’s current smile that was on her face to grow wider as she replied with a gentle nod, along with a simple, “Don’t worry, you can trust us. I’m sure you have your reasons for not wanting to say it. But we just want to help, that’s all. You don’t seem like a bad pony, otherwise you would have just left us with that oversized bug. There is also the food, water and not to mention wanting to give us the bed when any other stallion would have taken the chance to take advantage of this scene.”
Brex turned his head away and added an unsure voice, “Not… sure…” He then let a short sigh out from his lips, he soon turned back to the mare and after a second or two, he added, “if I… should.”
He could tell that this was having an effect on the mare as he witnessed her expression becoming that of concern. She then looked towards her friend and while still doing this she said, “If it bothers you so much to tell us your name, then I can only assume that, it’s to keep others from finding out about you. Then what if we both promise to keep it between us, at least until you say its fine for the two of us to tell others what it is. What do you think Swirl, will you promise too?”
This got the one called Swirl Sugar to give him a genuine smile as she said, “I’ll promise not to tell any pony what your name is.” This was when Brex said, “E-even… the princess?” He had intentionally made his voice to show real fear when adding the stutter and when he said the princess, there was a slight panic there.
This caused both mare’s to drop their smiles and they adopted a shocked look on both of their faces. With a glance towards one another, they turned to him and said in unison while bringing back the smiles, but this time there was traces of concern. “We promise that we won’t tell the princess.”
Brex asked Rory within his mind, “I think it worked, but I’m not fully sure on this. I could tell them my name, but then they would notice in an instant that it’s not normal. Perhaps I should use one of my titles in its place. Or I could just come up with another name to use?”
Rory answered with, “Hmm, well, I think it would be best to use the real name, never know if a title will work. If anything, you could always use another later if this doesn’t work out. Besides, from what I know from what I had been able to see before in your head, the unicorn might be using a lie detection spell. If so, then this would really back fire if we used anything but your name.”
Brex then thought back and just as he was about to say something to the mare’s, there was a flash within his mind and an unknown scene plays out. He was in a large city above the waves that was made of white stones. Brex was leaning over what could have been a dock near a fishing boat, or was it a ferryboat that would take others to another port.
(This is the sea side city.)
The air was filled with the smell of salt water and the hustle and bustling from the many people on the upper levels as they crossed a stone bridge but several meters above could be heard. There was then the sound of a girl speaking. When Brex turned towards the individual, all he could see was the black silhouette of a girl that just barely came half way up to his height.
From what he could tell, it was a petite girl and by the points on her head and the long tail, she was obviously of the cat race known as the Miqo’te. She spoke in a proper tone that just spoke volumes in how educated she was.
She then said, “May haps, you would know of any worthwhile groups that I may join? It is just, I arrived here but a short time ago and am seeking some guidance.” All the while holding her hands behind her back and twitching her right ear for just a moment after speaking.
Brex answered with a hollowed voice, and turned away towards the sea again and sat down on a wooden crate that was next to him and said, “I hear there is a lot of people recruiting up near the home crystal. Just use one of the teleport nodes and pick the central plaza. Can’t miss them. You’re of the healing classes I take it. So, you won’t have a problem in getting an invite.”
He then points to his right while not taking his sights off the sea. The Roegadyn’s finger was currently showing off but no more than 7 meters away a floating, pointed crystal of a brilliant teal color that was spinning in midair and it appeared to be no more than one meter in height.
The girl glanced over in the direction, but a moment later she walked over and stood on the right side of Brex and while leaning forward and turning her head towards him, asked, “Hmm, interesting indeed.” There was a short pause before she continued, “You speak of others that actively seek out and toss a line out in hopes to reel in participants, but this brings up an unusual pondering.”
Tilting her head just a small amount, she looks into Brex’s face, then talks in a curious tone while that tail of hers starts to sway, “Thou are also in a group, so this puts forth my question. Why are you turning away a possible member to others?”
Brex just looks away from the girl and replies with, “Just so you know. I got sick of getting those messages to join. So much spamming from all of them. So, I asked a few random people if they could help me start my own and then they could leave when that was done. Now here I am.”
Sounding even more confused, the girl that He found to be very odd, says, “So you are in need of compatriots? ‘Twas fate that our paths have crossed at a fortunate time. Might I join your company?”
This caused Brex to nearly fall off the crate from the unexpected words. Looking towards the girl, he saw that she was now standing upright and appeared to be holding her left hand up and stifling a small giggle.
She then continued, “The name is *Static… Static* So, pray tell what may yours be?” She was now leaning in yet again, but this time her face became so much closer to Brex’s. This caused him to stutter out of surprise and embarrassment, “I-I I’m called Brex Mith…”
The girl then had her ears twitching while she had a puzzled expression. Then, as if a light bulb went off in her head with the way she leaned back and bringing a finger up to her chin, said, “Ah, this a powerful name indeed, but it seems to be lacking. After a moment she gave Brex a confident smile before saying, “How about Brex Von Mith. Ah yes! Thus, I shall call you this from this point on. So please treat me well from today forth. It will be an immeasurable honor to fight alongside you!”
(Stop the music here.)
It was at that point that the scene ended with a blinding light and the real world came rushing back as the sight of the two mare’s looking at him expectingly became his focus once again. To him, it was like reliving a memory that lasted a few minutes, but with how everything looked right now. Brex thought, “Wait, what happened there, also didn’t they notice that something happened?” He then looked towards the floor.
This was when Rory spoke up in a confused tone, “Master, what is wrong? You were about to say your name, but you suddenly stopped.” Brex then answered, “I just had a flash back… I think. How long was I out of it for?” This got a hesitant reply, “Master, umm. No time at all passed by.”
The Roegadyn then said, “I’ll explain it all to you later, but first.” Bringing his head back up. Brex, takes in a breath and readies himself. The mare’s that had been waiting, now looked worried. The purple one leans in a little and seems to be close to reaching out towards him.
With a light bow, while holding his right hand over his chest. Brex takes a regal posture and talks in a serious tone as he closes his eyes as well. The Roegadyn then says, “Brex… Von… Mith.” After a second of two, he stands up to his full height and looks back at the two mare’s. But to his surprise. Brex didn’t hear them laugh, or give him anything that resembled, the are you fucking joking look. Instead, they seemed… genuinely surprised, even to the point that by the way their bodies moved, Brex could have sworn that they were nearly about to bow.”
Letting out a nervous breath, He turns his head to the left and thinks, “Well, what are they waiting for. I’m waiting on the sarcasms, or even the laughing. I don’t know why I added the Von part to my name, but for some reason it felt standard to say, like it was normal to hear someone else calling me that.”
That was when Shadow Lily began to speak with an astonished voice, “Um, I-If you D-don’t mind the question, but, just what rank are you by chance?” This confused the Roegadyn, but soon thought, “Oh! She must be referring to my rank in the company I was in. well, seeing as I was the founding member, of course I had the highest rank. But I didn’t like the attention, so I made some one else at some point take the rank while I ran things behind the scenes. But I guess I’ll give her my current rank. Seeing as it was set on the western European titles of nobility.”
He didn’t want the title of King or Queen. Also, the second ranking, Prince or Princess. So Brex settled on the third highest witch was Duke or Duchess. Taking another breath, while still not looking towards the mare’s, Brex answers with a shaky tone, “Duke…”
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
For Shadow Lily, it was one thing to speculate on the male’s story and come to the conclusion herself, along with Swirl Sugar. But to have the stallion in question telling it right to their faces was nothing less than a shock to Shadow. Her friend Swirl, was fairing no better.
Just earlier, when they had asked for his name. It appeared that he was having some sort of trouble in bringing himself to give it out. Then the stallion asked if he could trust them. Shadow thought back to before when they had assumed that the mare in question, could have come from Canterlot. Seeing as he was conflicted in giving his trust to a royal guard, then that must have meant that there were guards that had taken bits from the mare.
Shadow thought, “Buck… then, its true, she is in Canterlot. Moreover, this sorry excuse of a mare even has some of the royal guards in her bit purse. How could this have happened. But… oh no… if they could have done this sort of heinous act to a member of nobility, then who knows what else they could be doing. How many other stallions and mare’s are being held captive and forced to become theirs?” This caused Shadow’s feeling for the guards to turn sour.
Bringing back the days of when Shadow was in the boot camp to become a guard. The days and nights of nearly relentless persecution and degrading. Most of them were of the noble class or at least close to it. Unlike Shadow Lily, who was one of the very few non-unicorn’s, she had gotten the worst due to the fact that she didn’t do magic. Now she was seeing them in another light, how could she have been so blind. Wanting nothing else but to be a pony that served under the princess, this clouded her perception.
Then the stallion sounded unsure, but what he said next caused the both of them to freeze up completely. Shadow, after saying that they would keep it a secret and not tell any pony his name. The stallion had even added the princess to that list. This caused her to look over at Swirl and with the feeling that her friend was all in this, answered with, “We promise that we won’t tell the princess.”
Shadow, in an internal panic, thought, “Oh, wow… even the princess. Has… Has this mare scarred him for life so much that he isn’t able to trust even Princess Celestia?! How… how is that possible. She is our princess. If we can’t trust her, then who can a pony trust? Has his faith in Mare’s been so shattered that it had gotten to the point that he may never be with one in his life? Does the idea even now cause him to feel disgusted or hateful?”
It was at this point that she noticed him getting ready to say something, but there was a pause, and his head tilted down. Internally Shadow thought, “No, No, No, NO don’t pull back from us. What should I do?” She had noticed that she had taken a step closer and was about to reach for the stallion, but stopped herself quickly. Then mentally scolded herself, “What do you think your doing Shadow, if you reach for him now, then everything will be ruined. No doubt he would assume that you’re going to do something to him and he might just run off.”
She then saw that he had regained his composure. However, there was something else different this time around. He then told them, “Brex… Von… Mith.” Shadow had just had her mind blown into pieces. She didn’t know a lot about the nobility and their hierarchy, but she did know that when there was the word Von, added into their name, that meant that they are in the upper tier. She had nearly, instinctively bowed as if she was in front of the princess herself.
She couldn’t help but to ask the following question. It was eating away at the purple pony to the point she couldn’t keep it under control and just needed to know. She had asked for his rank. When she heard the word, Duke. This caused the mare to almost faint.
She thought, “Oh… My Celestia… He, He, He is essentially a prince. But how… From where…did he live before coming here? From what country is a name like Brex Von Mith common? I never even come across a name like that. Is he from overseas? was he taken from some far-off land. How far did this mare go to have a stallion?!” To say that Shadow Lily was beyond pissed, was an understatement. She wanted nothing more than to be the pony to take the life of the one that could have done such an unspeakable act.
Shadow, while on a roll asked one last question, “Why do you not want even our Princess Celestia to know your name. Do you know her or does she know you?” this got the stallion to turn completely towards the door and started walking. When he had made it to about half way to it, he answered with, “Dangerous… for me…” that was when he quickly made it to the door and swung it open. Standing in the doorway and without looking back at the mare’s, he added, “Need to… think.” After saying his peace, he then closed the door and Shadow could hear his steps grow lighter as he walked away from the bed chamber.
It had taken a few seconds of silence within the room for Shadow to realize just what had happened. With her mind full of rage over the unknown mare and coupled with the new information that had just been divulged, the purple mare had in other words, run the stallion out of the room with all of her questions.
With a shocked look plastered onto her face, Shadow Lily had crumpled straight down right next to the bed and started the waterworks. With her right hand covering her eyes and the other gripping the cover of the bed, Shadow was letting out sobs after sobs as she mentally screamed at herself.
Within her mind. She thought, “Shadow, what did you do! Of course, he is just going to run out of the room. All you intended was to know his name, but instead you kept prodding for more. He probably thinks that you were trying to interrogate him as part of your job as a guard. With how he just acted, he must be regretting that he had told us so much. He didn’t even let us have the chance to stop him from leaving… no. It wasn’t that… he didn’t let us, we just let him. Why didn’t I notice things until he left?”
That was when Swirl Sugar spoke up after an extended silence. With a trembling tone, the unicorn looked towards Shadow and said, “This is worse than *Gulp* I had expected…” Taking a moment to steady herself, she continued while still sitting on the bed, “This could become an international disaster. I had hoped that it all was leaning towards a trustworthy stallion. But, for it to have been a real Prince that had been taken from some far-off place and abused on top of it all.”
Brex had not known just yet, but in the land of Equestria, the title of Duke was on the same level as a prince, so this was a major problem. Swirl Sugar then continued, “Who knows what this will bring to Equestria. A Prince being held against his will by a noble that resides in our nation’s capital is a huge scandal. This wont end with just looking for this one pony, but all the nobles will be investigated.”
The unicorn then changed her expression to that of intense focus and said in a commanding tone while sitting up straight, “Shadow Lily, I know that I have already said this before, but I must say it again. We cannot, I repeat! We cannot let anything bad happen to this male. We are going to inform the princess and clear up this matter. I feel that it is our responsibility as representatives of Equestria to help him to the best of our abilities. This even applies to helping in his… emotional healing.” At this point, the unicorn was now sporting a heavy blush across her cheeks.
When hearing her friend speaking, Shadow was feeling a strong sense of wanting to do everything that she could for the male. However, when it had gotten to the part of helping in his emotional healing. She was confused by just what Swirl meant by that and asked, “So, when you say healing, J-just w-what did you mean by that?”
Swirl while still blushing, starts to sweat like crazy and stutters out, “I-I think that w-we may need to show that us mare’s are not like the one… that he knows about. He must see those from our country as vile monsters that abuse the males and just go around and do whatever we want with them.” This caused Swirl to shed a tear before wiping her eyes and continuing, “S-so we will need to show him that isn’t the case. Also, there is the fact that he flat out ignored that little scene from before when he walked in, that couldn’t have help in our image.”
Shadow upon hearing this, covers her face with both hands and lets out a shriek as steam raises up from her head and calls out to Swirl, “WHAT! BUT BUT, ARE YOU SAYING THAT WE SHOULD… WITH HIM… I MEAN I’M NOT SAYING NO, BUT SHOULD WE. I MEAN I WANT TOO; WAIT I MEAN I WOULD LIKE TOO. GAWWW!” This was when Shadow began to nearly faint from the rush of embarrassment and falls onto the bed and blacks out.
*Point of view: Swirl Sugar*
With a heavy sigh, the unicorn lets out an amused chuckle before saying to no one, “I can’t be the only one to think this mare is a virgin… right?” Getting off the bed, the unicorn lights up her horn and looks to the room as a whole and says, “Now, lets see about fixing this place up and setting the mood.” Looking back to Shadow she then adds, “As for you. We may have to come up with a plan.” A devilish smirk appears as it grows from the corner of Swirl sugars lips.
*Point of view: Daddy* *Location: Unknown*
Back with Daddy and Little Moon. They had encountered an unexpected newcomer. Said newcomer was called Little Light, this one was another mist like being that was made up of orange and silver colors. The two who had been sitting at the table before were now looking at Little Light as she was towering over them in a way that just screamed, they had some explaining to do.
Daddy, while letting out a small voice said, “We… can explain.” This was mirrored by Little Moon as she added, “We have a reason for what we are doing dear sister…” One could have sworn that the two of them had cartoonish style drawn sweat marks floating above their head’s. Well, where the heads would be anyhow.
With a deadpan tone, Little Light replies with, “Oh, let me guess…” There was a long stretch of silence, all one could hear was the rippling waves from the ocean floor. Then she leaned forward and while going right between the pair that was still sitting, reaches out a mist appendage and this causes a series of tapping, beeps, chirps and what could have been mistaken for the sound an apple computer makes when booting up.
With a long, deliberately drawn-out sigh, Little Light talks in a professional tone, “Daddy forgot his pass code and you both couldn’t figure out how to get into the last thing he had gotten mixed up in. Well, there you go. It is a good thing that I remembered it myself, seeing as I had helped him the first time that we had this installed.”
This caused the fore mentioned pair to do the equivalent of a nod. Then Little Light said, “Also, Daddy has gone and got himself into a complicated situation that he felt the need to hide from us. However, You, Little Moon found out and is now working together with Daddy. Am I correct so far?” This only caused Little Moon and Daddy to let out a nervous gulp as they both said, “Yes”
The mist of orange and silver then stood up again and started to move around the table slowly. This caused the pair to turn their chairs as to follow her movements in silence.
Little Light then continued, “I can only assume that Daddy wanted to do some good in his eyes and this caused some trouble and the two of you wanted to clear it up before I found out, am I also correct in this assumption?” There was a set of audible gulps from the two again.
Just as she had made it to the other side of the table the mist stopped in place, she then said, “Does this have something to do with a being called the merchant and an unfortunate soul by chance?”
This caused Daddy and Little Moon to sit up straighter than normal and give Little Light a set of nods once again.
Letting out another sigh, she talks while leaning over the map and this causes a set of images to appear that depicts a large muscular being with very pale color skin and everything that had happened from the moment, he had arrived in Equestria and leading up to the very second that the connection was lost.
“So, mind filling me in on the details of this little secret mission the two of you are on? What I say and do next will be determined by the words spoken from here on. Also, you better tell me the whole truth, otherwise…”
This caused the two to get out of their seats and lean closer to one another and whisper in a panic fashion.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 13: A much needed reboot.
The Roegadyn had just left the bed chambers that belonged to Princess Luna, along with the two mare royal guard ponies within. Brex had just told them his name, if that wasn’t enough, he had also mentioned to them his rank in the free company that he had created back in the game, which happened to have been that of Duke.
Now all that would have been fine, but out of a strange sense of trust that had been building from telling those mare’s something about himself for the first time. Brex, had also slipped that he had seen their Princess Celestia as an individual that he considered dangerous to him. Now that may have been a costly mistake. That’s when he had decided to go for a walk and started to make his way down the tower.
He was now scolding himself for such a thoughtless blunder, “Stupid, stupid, stupid. I’m such a moron. Why did I say so much? I told myself that I was going to keep what I say to the bare minimum, BUT NO!~ I had to let it slip out that I don’t trust their ruler. I just know that they are plotting something back in that room now. These ponies are all about their princess.”
Shaking his head, he continued with, “Saying anything bad about Celestia could be considered a suicidal act. One would see it to be on the same level as some crazy person, waltzing up to… I dunno… say, the largest church in the world filled on Christmas eve and yelling at the top of his lungs something offensive.”
He had reached the bottom of the steps for the tower. With a grunt of frustration, he struck the wall with his left, outstretched fist. The hit was strong enough to make a light indentation of his knuckles and a few cracks to form. Of course, Brex did feel this and brought his now aching hand back and rubbed over the injury with the other. Letting out a defeated sigh. He then walks towards the library.
Along the way, Brex thinks, “I need to start looking into those books. That may help in calming my anxiety somewhat if I can find some tips on defending myself from their magic. Unlike in the game where we have a set list that is keyed to our class, these ponies have thousands, upon thousands built up that they can use at any given time. Before I return to the tower, I need to at least learn how that telekinesis works just in case they try to use it on me. In the stories that was always the game changer.”
Shaking his head, he continued, “I remember that in a few of those, the main character would be trapped or dragged off against his or her will by some random unicorn or by either Twilight or Rarity. I don’t know why, but the idea of being under another’s control in such an underhanded way where I would have no say as twilight takes me some place just terrifies me to no end. Could I have been in such a situation in my past life as to make that image have the power to nearly make me want to hyper ventilate.”
Brex’s mind was going a hundred miles an hour with thoughts of how this was affecting him so much. His breathing had taken a sharp spike while his heart rate was nearly through the roof. At this point in time, the sun had already gone down and the shadows within the old Castle had taken hold of nearly every inch along the way that he had been traveling.
Just when he had reached his destination, Brex’s vision had started to get hazy. Unknown feelings flooded his body and mind. Things he could only have identified as, fear, anger, sorrow and resentment towards an unknown target. Bringing both hands closer to his face, the Roegadyn could see that his fingers were all twitching as if in the motion to grab something in the air. All the while, his breathing was quickening in rate.
He could just make out that he had his mouth hanging open and the mask was becoming damp from his drool. His eyes were becoming unfocused and shaky. Brex quickly deduced that he was in fact, having a panic attack. After all this time, fighting with beasts of the Everfree forest, the Giant Star Spider on the bridge and then there was the recent tomb keeper in the underground library.
Brex had not once had a legitimate panic attack. He didn’t count the effects from the spider because of the power it had been using during the fight. But right now, he was having one just from thinking on something like being contained or forced to do something, by… by…
This was when the Roegadyn came to a revelation. What he had been feeling, was caused by the idea of not only someone doing something like that to him, but it was mostly from the idea of a female being the one.
Brex then Thought, “Was… was I abused by some girl in my past life? Did something happen to me. I-I-I Gah! I can’t stop shaking… please… someone… anyone… I-I can’t… I’m scared. Please MAKE IT STOP!” The next set of words slipped into his thoughts from out of no ware. Then there was a small glass cracking sound that resounded from the back of his neck. “Please, don’t… please, don’t do it…” He was now crying so much that his mask was completely soaked through.
It was then that he could hear another voice. Brex almost didn’t hear it over his mind screaming and the convulsing that racked his form. He hadn’t noticed it, but he had been leaning his back to the wall just outside the door that led down to the underground area.
There was that voice again. It was getting louder with each passing second. But still, he couldn’t make it out. He had brought his hands up to his head. With his fingers, Brex was practically digging his gloved finger tips into the upper part of his face while using his palms to cover his eyes in a futile attempt to somehow cut off these feelings.
It was then that there was a booming cry from within his mind that said, “MASTER, MASTER!! SNAP OUT OF IT! CAN’T YOU HEAR ME!!?” Wrenching his hands away, Brex called out through his lips, “RORY! PLEASE, I NEED YOU!” His voice was loud but thankfully there was no one else around to hear it, but honestly even if there was another, Brex couldn’t have cared less. His crying of anguish, instantly turned to those of relief when he could hear Rory’s words.
However, when he had thought that everything would be fine, the Roegadyn’s world went black. The last thing that registered to Brex was the desperate cry of Rory’s voice as his senses cut out and he lost consciousness.
*Point of view: Rory Mercury*
Rory Mercury was in a state of panic as her master suddenly started to have some kind of attack. She was trying to call out to him repeatedly but it seemed as though her words couldn’t reach. Soon she saw him practically slumped onto the wall and sliding down, then his vision was covered by a pair of hands. This was when she had managed to get through to him and just as she was thinking that things would calm down. Her master’s consciousness slips.
Now, Rory is floating within the mind of her master while surrounded by what appeared to be a scene identical to that of the dream scape. But, after a glance around, Rory noticed that there was something off about the place.
Where there was an empty void that was home to a sea of moving stars before, was now filled with far fewer lights and now there were dark patches of clouds that hovered in place. She had moved closer to one of these clouds, when the distance was close to 8 meters between the girl and the strange object, a large boom came forth from it and Rory was suddenly hit with a heavy impact to her stomach that sent her flying back several dozens of meters. This caused her to let out a scream of pain from being suddenly attacked.
After taking a few seconds to recover, Rory let out a pained grunt as she looked to the spot that had gotten hit and saw that her clothes in that area had been burnt off and the skin was in the middle of rapidly regenerating. She had also taken a small amount of the attack to her right cheek, but that just left a small scratch. Within a few more seconds, the wound was completely healed and thanks to this being in the mind, she was able to have the clothing imitate the same affect that her healing powers had done for her body.
Now with a look of annoyance, she calls out to the cloud that had just assaulted her with a disgruntled tone, “I don’t know who or what you are BUSTER! But you certainly don’t belong here in… MY MASTER’S MIND! That was when she held out to the side her right arm and there was a serge of dark lightning that collected into her palm and this shot up and down. There was an intense flash and when the light died down. There was Rory the reapers signature weapon.
Now back to Rory herself, the girls pink lip stick color had shifted to a dark purple and her eyes had taken on a slight reddish glow. With very little effort, the large weapon was spun at such high speed that it was nearly impossible to trace its movements and when it stopped, there was a gust of wind as she held it leaning over her right shoulder.
Now with a murderous edge to her voice, Rory calls out, “You don’t belong here… He is under my protection. Normally I would give you a chance to explain yourself. But you have caused my master to suffer. My dear master… you… you caused him pain! For that, I WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU, EVEN IF YOU BEG FOR YOUR LIFE.”
When finished with that declaration of retribution. Rory dashes towards the cloud with inhuman speed and when Rory had closed in to the point that she was less than a centimeter outside of the last attack range, she swung her weapon with such force that it sent a shock wave through the air. This not only cut the cloud in half, but scattered it so much that it disappeared into nothingness as if it had been in the path of a miniature tornado.
Within moments, the area that had the odd cloud, returned to its normal star filled state. After watching this, Rory thought, “I see, so I just need to clear all of these unwelcomed guests and master will be able to recover. However, I feel as if these didn’t just appear out of nowhere. If I find out that some one was responsible. They will pay dearly, not just to me but I will make sure that they pay for what they had done to my dear master in the most degrading, agonizing way possible.”
After that, Rory the Reaper, set out into Brex’s mind and attacked every one of the clouds. She even made sure to go around another time to make sure that each and every one of them was long gone. When Rory was content with her savage elimination of the pests to her master, she then made her way towards the location of the door that she had found the last time she was in the dream scape.
It hadn’t taken her much time at all now that she had its location memorized and as she drew closer, Rory was expecting to see the same egg white colored door as before. However, there was something off about it.
The white paint had dulled and, on some parts, the paint was showing cracks and chips that had fallen off the door. When she looked to the handle to grab it, she saw that it was no longer the shiny brass like before. Instead, it was rusted and seemed as though it would snap off on the slightest touch.
Being careful as to not cause any undue damage, Rory opens the door. When doing so, the mechanism creaked and she could hear the grinding of the small parts within it. The door opened with an eerily creepy moan as it slides across the floor. The hinges appeared to have been in desperate need of oil as they screamed.
Expecting to see an empty room just like the last time, the girl blinked a few times when she noticed that the room had undergone some renovations of its own. The floor was warped to the point that when walking, she could tell through her boots that parts were on the edge of breaking. There was also area’s that felt as if they could have been rotten, along with one that felt squishy in a way that would have one think that it had water damage.
The room had become darker. Last time, one could see while inside, however Rory had not noticed the light’s source. This time however, that light was acting like some one had just used a dimmer switch and turned it to the lowest point posable before it simply turned it off. This made it difficult for the girl to see beyond a few feet ahead.
Turning towards the place she had remembered her master’s bed to have been before, she makes her way over. Every step caused a loud echo to boom throughout the room. After a few moments, Rory thought, “Where is the bed? His room wasn’t this big, I should have come across it already.”
There was then the sound of glass cracking off to her left. Rory quickly turned that way and saw a little way off, an odd sight. With a confused look plastered on. She approached and stood a few feet away from what she could have only called an oddly shaped window that could have been used in an old stone building or even the castle that they had been inside of for the last few days.
The window was tinted blue. Looking through it, Rory couldn’t make out anything. At first, she had expected to see what was outside the room and see the star filled emptiness. But instead, all she got was a haze of dense fog. However, there was a hairline crack that was almost missed that ran from the bottom left and it went to the very top, near the center.
Rory thought to herself, “I know that I didn’t place this here. My master couldn’t have done this… did he?” It was then that there was yet another familiar resonating sound of multiple cracks and shattering that filled the room. Turning around to see what had caused it, Rory found herself to see that along all the walls and even in the middle of the door itself, was even more windows of various types and sizes. She then said out loud, “What’s going on here, why are there so many windows.
Remembering why she was there, she then calls out, “No, where is my master! Master, are you here? Call out if you’re here, please!” Feeling uneasy, she yells in an even louder volume. “Tell ME! Are you there!? I can’t find you. Are you hurt?”
She turned back and forth to try and see as much of the room as she could in order to find anything that would indicate just where her master could be. As it to answer her prayers, the lights within the room brightened a little bit when the window’s all gave their own from the outside. But it seemed that, the lights that came from those window’s appeared to be of different hues of color as they streamed out and onto the ground.
They all gave the impression of what ever was on the other side, could have been of varying places. But this was pushed aside as the girl saw the bed from before. Quickly getting closer, Rory’s stops a few feet away and finally see’s just what had happened to her master.
The mentally constructed bed from her last visit had changed so drastically. The legs had cracks and pieces falling off that make it seem as if, it could topple over at any moment. The covers had rips and faded patches of color in some spots. The whole thing was the picture of a bed that could have come out of an abandoned, haunted house.
Laying on the bed that now was nothing like before, Rory’s master was on his back and seemed to be fast asleep. Eye’s darting back and forth along his form, Rory was now panicking as she thought, “If he had been here the whole time, then why hasn’t he woken up when I called for him?” Reaching to touch his left arm, the girl lets a gasp escape her lips as her fingers pass through his flesh and brush’s up on the linin of the bed below.
Rory called out in a desperate tone, “No, No, NO! what’s happening? Master you need to wake up. Your just really sleepy right, he Hehe~ that’s right, you had a long day. That’s why you haven’t woken up, right? Also, the whole thing with this place must be some joke…” Rory had taken on a, not so convincing smile as she fought off tears as she attempted to drag up one explanation after another as her words became frantic.
She continued with a nervous chuckle, “Hah Hah… very funny master. This… this is your way for getting back at me for that joke about paying attention to your surroundings… right?” Gripping her weapon with trembling hands as she pulls it into her chest to hug the pole part of it. It was then, that she came to a realization. The words that she had just mentioned resonated with her.
She said out loud, “Pay attention to your surroundings… your… surroundings!” That last part was a shout as she turned back towards the first window and darted over to it. Rory then peered through the window and found it to show the same thing as last time. She then moved to the next, then the next. This continued until she had looked through each one and stood in the middle of the room where the bed currently was now.
Going over what she had witnessed she said, “Most of them I can see out side and they all had that thick fog that blocked anything from being seen. However, there was a few that I did manage to see something as I looked.”
Rory was referring to one slanted window that had the design where it could be pulled up to open it half way. There was a large crack that was on the upper glass. When she had looked outside with it. Rory could see what seemed like a type of sea port town with large pillars that had bridges crisscrossing above the water. This on its own was unusual, but what had gotten her attention among all that, is the image of her master sitting on a wooden crate and he was talking to someone that Rory couldn’t identify due to its body being obscured with black, but she did see what looked like a tail.
Going over what she had seen from her master’s mind, Rory quickly realized just where that window was looking too. She then said in an astonished tone, “Limsa Lominsa, that was Limsa Lominsa, the marine city-state of Eorzea in Final Fantasy 14. But… But how is that possible? Could it be, that was his past. But he didn’t have anything personal that he could remember. Wait! OH! How could I have been so dumb!”
She had given herself a facepalm, when she lowered her hand, there was a glowing red hand print that was left behind. She then winced at the pain before saying, “Note to self… demi-goddess strength hurts… A LOT!”
Regaining her train of thought, she then starts to think, “Ok so, if that window did have a past scene playing out, then these windows are meant to display his memories. But, nearly all of them have nothing at all.”
It was then, that Rory recalled the time when her master was having trouble with that star spider. The words from the Anti-virus came to the forefront of the girl’s mind. She then thought, “Master didn’t have much positive memories. But what if that only counted towards the life, he had from outside of the game world. It would make sense if I think on how he knows this much about it.”
Taking on a thoughtful expression, Rory bites her lower lip in concentration and she thinks further on, “There is nothing from being human, but he is having some sort of back lash from those times. He could be having a mental break down without a foundation to stabilize his mental condition. However, my master seems to have everything from the time he played that game. That would explain that memory within that window.”
Glancing over towards her master’s form on the bed, Rory shows a conflicted expression as she walks a little closer. She then asks to him while showing some hesitation in her voice, “Master… I know that you forbid me from looking anymore, but I believe this would count as an emergency. So, please don’t be too harsh in my punishment if you happen to be mad at me for doing this.” At the end of what she had just said, her face had taken on a heavy blush as she added in a whisper to herself, “Damit Rory, not right now…”
Holding her weapon in her right hand, she placed the lower tip onto the floor to stand it up. The left hand was outstretched over her master’s body and the girl had taken on a serious look as she said out in an authoritative tone, “Access main dat… NO access my master’s soul, NOW! Open direct link to his memories and display any and all that have anything to do with final fantasy.”
There was a moment of silence before a blinding light enveloped the room and when that had died down, Rory could see a large number of small computer screens floating in midair. On then, were images of her master in different places and doing activities that ranged from fighting, exploring, crafting and talking to other players while enjoying the life within the game.
But after watching the screens for a few minutes, Rory had noticed something that just didn’t fit for her. Thinking back to the window from before. These screens all showed events in a way that just screamed, video game. But when it came to that scene on the dock with her master talking to that girl. It felt like it was real life. The actions and body language were on the level of it being a real memory.
She then thought to herself, “Is it possible to make what I can see, to become something real? If I can just tweak these so they line up in a way that it could take the place of his past life. Perhaps that might stabilize my master. I could alter how the players and the non-player characters move and talk, that might do the trick. But… but… wouldn’t that count as me… brainwashing my master…” This made Rory pause and take on a terrified expression.
She thought, “If master finds out what I did. I have no doubt that he would hate me for it. To just go in and mess with his mind and turn it into something else. He might see that as a form of betrayal. He would never trust me again…” she had started to show signs of wanting to cry at the idea of her master, no longer trusting her.
She then continued with, “But if I don’t do anything, who knows what might happen. I was the assistance program, not the real anti-virus. I don’t know how to do everything. So, I can’t do a lot. Oh, master, if only you could tell me what to do. All I need is for you to let me know that what I have planned is ok to go ahead and try.”
That was the moment that she could feel the floor beneath her feet starting to shake. Rory then waved her hand towards one of the many screens and said, “Display the dream scape.”
The screen flickered and what she saw only caused Rory to gulp as it displayed what she considered to be another of those dark clouds from before. That wouldn’t have normally been the cause of the reaction she had just showed, but the cloud was many, many times bigger that all the rest that she had destroyed. This one was discharging lightning at random directions at a nearly nonstop rate. It also didn’t help with the fact that it was currently making a bee line right for both of them at that moment.
Now sweating like crazy, Rory quickly turned her head to look at the still unconscious state of her master. While doing this, she had noticed that his color was gradually fading and the sheets under his form, were being seen much more clearly. She thought, “Oh no! master, master is fading, does this mean that he might completely disappear if this continues?”
In a fit of frustration, Rory stabs her weapon into the floor with the handles end and with both free hands, she grabs her hair and screams, “WHAT DO I DO, THAT CLOUD IS ON IT’S WAY HERE AND MY MASTER IS FADING.” Looking towards the screen displaying the cloud, Rory yells, “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO HIM!?”
Closing her eyes tight, she starts to think, “If I don’t do this, then he will disappear in here. I don’t know what that might do to him outside, will he die, or just be an empty shell? That would be the same as becoming brain dead!”
Taking in a few deep breaths, Rory gets a steely look in her eyes. With both hands being raised to point towards the many screens, the girl then gives the next set of orders, “Ok, lets get started. I’m doing this to save him. If he hates me afterwards, then I’m fine with it and I’ll take any punishment he wants to give out. All I want is for him to live.”
Closing her eyes for a few seconds, Rory lets out a deep sigh. When she opens them again, the girl says, “Use the accessed memories and start the reprogramming, I want them to become his past. Extrapolate from them and reconstruct a new set. Also, integrate everything else he has, I want to make it so he can fall back on them. This means the information on all the Stories, movies, anime, books and games he had played. I mean everything! Also, make sure to put in there the knowledge that this is not his real past, but a temporary one that is needed for his survival. I’m not about to let him think I’m doing this in some sick way of changing him for my benefit.”
The screens light up and there is a blinding flash, the sounds of computer texts being typed at incredible speeds could be heard as they all went into action. Rory couldn’t even keep her eyes open as the light was to much for her and this caused the girl to fall to the floor and onto her butt. This elicits a small annoyed grunt. She yells out, “Could have warned a lady!”
The screen that could not have been seen right then, started to display a series of lines. Almost as if they had been possessed, they acted on their own accord.
Access internal memory… Access granted….
Selecting files for analysis… Files selected…
Scanning selected files for re-programming…
Scanning files… Scanning… Scanning…
Analysis complete…
Attempting to integrate existing files with newly selected files…
Error… incompatible… reason… discrepancies exceed set parameters…
Attempting to alter new files… attempt… successful…
Compatibility rating… 50 percent…
Attempting to alter new files for higher compatibility…
Compatibility rating… 79 percent…
Attempting to alter new files for higher compatibility…
Compatibility rating… 90 percent…
Attempting to alter new files for higher compatibility…
Compatibility rating… 100 percent…
Re-attempting to integrate existing files with newly selected files…
Attempt… successful…
Analyzing newly integrated memory files…
Internal memory reconstruction… complete…
discrepancies … non-existent…
Commencing final scans…
Error… unknown program detected…
Scanning error…
Error file found… Identified under name… Y’shtola
Attempting to correct error… Denied…
Message found within error file… displaying…
“Tis not time, the story as only started…”
Error… system scanning records… re-written…
Scanning complete… no error’s detected…
Restarting Systems…
Displaying newly constructed memory core…
(Stop the Music here.)
This was when the blinding light from the screens died down and this allowed Rory to finally open her eyes. Getting up, she approaches them and they all began to display an event on each of them.
Rory quickly remembered the clouds and looked towards one of the screens and ordered it to display the dream scape once again. When it did so. Rory had let out a relieved sigh at the sight. What was shown, was a star filled void that she had grown accustomed too.
She then turned to the room itself and what she saw surprised the woman. What had once been the equivalent of an abandoned house, was now slowly morphing into something else.
The windows that lined the walls had started to show signs of them mending as Rory could see the glass repairing in a way that looked as if, time was going backwards. Even the sounds of breaking glass were being sung out, but that too was played in reverse.
The floor, that had shown varying states of decay, was now turning into a smooth, polished light brown color wood. The walls had also begun to take on a shade of white that had once been that of the door that led into the room on Rory’s first visit.
She looked closer into the windows from where she stood and found scenes being played out of her master talking to who she considered to be his friends. Some of them were cat like beings, while others looked to be normal humans, elves and even a human like race that had horns growing from the sides of their heads and what seemed to be dragon tails. Those must have been the Au ra, that her master had mentioned before when talking about the retainers.
Now speaking of her master, Rory turned back to the bed. That too had taken on its previous form from when she had constructed it. Right, there was her sleeping master. But now his color had returned. With a trembling hand, Rory reaches towards him with her left and before making contact, she stops. She then thinks, “Did it really work. This isn’t a trick, right?” she then continued and touched his form.
With a wide smile on her lips. Rory lost all composure, letting go of her connection to her weapon, it falls over, but before hitting anything, it fades away. The woman then jumps into the air and lands on top of her master. Sitting over his waste with her legs hung over either side, she leans forward and lays onto his chest. Grasping his clothing, she lets out a cry of relief as she brushes her cheeks into his chest while screaming in a tone that had a mix of joy and crying.
“Master, Master… I was so scared that I lost you. Please don’t do anything like that again! Also, I’m so sorry I looked into your mind again. I didn’t know what else to do, you started to have an attack and then you passed out. I looked for you and… and…”
She had stopped mid-sentence when she had felt something laying across her back. It was something big. Looking up, she saw the face of her master. From under the hood. She could see that the mask had been removed.
There, Rory could see her master… Giving her a gentle smile with closed eyes. He then opened them and said in a relaxed and tender tone. “Thanks again Rory. Not all too sure on what happened, but I think you saved me again.” She felt the object on her back giving a little pressure and that was when she realized that it was his hand giving her a hug. This caused the demi-goddess to blush hard and start to stutter out a line of incoherent words.
She then could hear her master asking a question in a jovial voice, “So, I know your glad and all, but do you mind explaining just why it is that you’re straddling me like some horny girl?” this was paired with him giving her a small grin along with a raised right eyebrow.
Rory was now overloaded with the situation and started to think in a panicked mind set, “HUH, wha... what did he just, did I hear right? What’s with that face he’s making. Did he just make a sex joke? But, but he never talked like this before. He is also holding me against himself. AM I BEING EMBRACED?!!! NO, NO, IM NOT READY FOR THIS, ITS TOO SUDDEN.”
Steam had gushed from Rory’s ears as every inch of her skin that was visible had started to turn into a shade of red as it traveled up her body, The woman’s heart was beating over a hundred miles an hour inside her chest. The girl’s eyes started to show swirls as her mind was melting and this led to her falling onto her master’s body as she passed out from the unexpected shock.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex was looking down from his laying position at the girl that was laying across his form. When he had woken up. He had noticed the weight on his body and quickly realized that with the smaller body that was dressed in the gothic style clothing, that this had to be Rory Mercury. Feeling ecstatic to finally meet the girl, Brex had reach and placed his hand onto her back and waited for her to notice that he was now awake.
While not fully comprehending just what was going on, Brex did recall a few things just before blacking out. But he had just known somehow, that she had saved his life again. After saying his thanks, the Roegadyn felt the urge to poke at her for a little fun and asked, why she was straddling him. This got him to nearly laugh as he watched the girl have the stereo type anime girl embarrassment meltdown.
When he saw her fainting, Brex had a toothy smile and mumbled under his breath, “Well, I can’t say I dislike having a girl using me as a bed, but I’m not sure this is the right time.” Being careful as to not disturb the girl, Brex some how manages to slip out from under Rory and lets her sleep on the bed.
He stands onto his feet and takes a glance at the room and says, “Hmmm, so, I’m thinking this is that dream scape Rory had mentioned this morning. I could have sworn that she mentioned it to be darker in here. Also, there are all these windows.” Walking over to one, he could see it to be one that resembled a fun house mirror with how its dimensions were all lopsided. He then said, “A lot of these window frames make me think of something that discord would have inside his house.”
Getting back to how he was in this state, Brex concentrated and noticed something odd. He could tell that he remembered things more clearly. however, there was this unknown knowledge that what he had in his memories where, in fact false and that Rory’s did this to save his life. After taking a few minutes to look over everything inside his head. Brex considered that that feeling was true.
He was a game character now, so it was strange to have vivid memories of him chatting to non-player characters and doing body motions that couldn’t normally be done in that game. He knows that in some way, he would have been furious and despising her for what she had done. But Brex couldn’t bring himself to do so. In a strange way, The Roegadyn felt, relieved, even happy in a way. The building anxiety that had been festering ever sense coming to Equestria had been calmed.
He thought to himself while looking over towards Rory, who was sleeping on the bed, “I think I was about to lose it with not having a past to hold onto. I know that its not real. But you made it real enough for me… thanks Rory. I’m still worried about what’s to come, however I believe that I can think more calmly about it now.”
Taking in a deep breath, the Roegadyn holds it in for a moment before letting it out. He then says, “Well, now how do I get out of here? I’m sleeping so all I need to do is wake up but, this is a lucid dream. Guess I’ll have some fun.” Giving it some thought, Brex snaps his fingers and the door to the room shifts a little. While retaining its previous form, it had now an addition to the wall right next to the handle. Walking to it, Brex takes hold of a nob on the center of a round pad that resembled a Simon says light up toy. It had the colors, Black, white, red and blue. with a twist, the whole thing rotates so the white color was now on the top and as that color lit up, so did the edges of the door.
With a small chuckle Brex looks towards the new item on the wall after seeing the door react and says under his breath, “Always did like ‘Howl's moving castle’. Just a small twist to the color wheel from the movie.”
Opening the door, he was exposed to a brilliant white light. Walking through it, Brex finds himself back in the real world after opening his eyes and looks around from his sitting position next to the door that led down into the library.
He thinks to himself, “Just how long was I out of it this time. Never got a time frame from Rory before she went and fainted. Hehe, now I know how it looks like from the outside for once. Oh wow… I feel so much more relaxed compared to before. Well, I won’t get anything done if I just lay on the ground. Time to track down some books to read.” Brex slowly rose to his feet and turned to the door that led into the darkness.
Before going in, he brings up his inventory and takes out one red shard and heads over to a near by torch and uses the stone to lite it up. After doing this the black clothed Roegadyn walks into the steps leading down under the Castle.
*Point of view: Swirl Sugar* *Location: Luna’s bed chamber* *Time: 8:15 at night*
Swirl sugar was waiting in a chair that she had found in the corner of the room and looking over her achievement that had taken close to four hours. Letting out a long sigh as she used her arm to wipe the sweat off her brow.
She then started to think back to earlier when the stallion had left the room, he had said he needed to think. Swirl was worried that he would just up and leave, but tossed the thought out of her mind when she recalled that he had saved them two times already. There was even the fact that he was willing to go through with getting the two of them food. She nearly laughed at how they needed to convince him to just have something to eat.
She began to think to herself, “Huh… so there is a male out there that treats us mare’s with respect, I was so used to how so many of them would flaunt their status. Most males inside Canterlot are either nobles or just close enough to be considered to be with them. Its true that outside of the capital, it’s another matter altogether. The males are treated as week and taken advantage at times. There have been cases where they had been assaulted during the times mare’s would go into heat.”
Swirl sugar continued, “I just wonder, what had been done to Brex… was he abducted from some far-off land by a mare within our nation’s capital? Had he been locked away in some dark place? How was he brought here without any pony noticing? Also, just how did he escape? From what I can see, the guy is really strong. Stronger than the captain, that’s for sure. Then there is his size. Only stallions I seen that can even come close are the earth ponies on some of the farmland nearby. Dam… those earth mare’s got the pick of the crop!”
But when it came to the thoughts on how he says that he is a Duke. Now that had tossed wood onto the figurative bonfire. She had thoughts on just how badly this would affect the image of Equestria, along with the Princess. A stallion of royal lineage, foal napped from another country and brought over to be a noble mare’s property. They would think that we condone slavery. That was outlawed nearly 300 years ago.
The world would think that we are nothing but monsters. Relations between kingdoms will weaken. Trade would also get hurt and who knows how badly that would cause export and imports between us and others to be handled.
She had mentioned to Shadow Lily that they need to do what ever they could to keep him safe. Also, to try and undo any damage that this unknown mare, may have caused. Of course, Shadow was not so ready for the implications, Swirl sure wasn’t ready either, but she did have experience in these things.
After the talk with shadow, er… well when the talk had been cut short thanks to her friend fainting… Swirl Sugar had started to use her magic on the room and started to clean the place up. Getting rid of the dirt and dust on practically every inch of this large room.
She was surprised when she had found some. *Cough* interesting items that happened to have been hidden away. At first, she had the thought that they belonged to the stallion. This caused two conflicting sides to form in her mind.
One was that he wasn’t really all that good natured. She had thought that he only saved them so he could do what he wanted. The other was with her fantasizing about him doing just that and this caused the mare to get slightly damp down in her private area.
After having some time to think it over more. Swirl had come to the conclusion that they had been here for some time. Therefore, they couldn’t have belonged to him. This both relieved Swirl, but somehow the disappointment of it not being the case devastated her far, far worse.
But after a while longer, Swirl Sugar had finally finished with her work. At some point after getting past the idea that the items belonged to the stallion or not, Swirl had started to enjoy the act of fixing up the room for the male. She had a strong sense of honor, well not too strong, after all, she did work in the red district for a year or two. But that was to earn the bits so she could make the bills. During that time, the guard’s recruitment rates just happen to be really low.
Swirl had realized that she didn’t mind it at all in this instance. She wasn’t some house mare. But when it came to the thoughts of a respectable male like Brex, she had felt some pride. This did confuse her somewhat. It was common that the females here had to take up the hard work so the males could be safe. After all, they are considered rare with the mare to stallion counts being so far off from one another.
Now she was just sitting in the room with a some what bored look on her face. Glancing back to the bed, she could see that Shadow was still passed out. She started to think, “Oh Shadow, just how long are you going to be like this. I just did the work of the princess’s maids for the last few hours and you managed to sleep through that.” When Swirl had finished that sentence. She had developed a wicked grin.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Underground library*
The Roegadyn was currently navigating the library in search for some worthwhile booty. *Cough* whoops, meant books. Right now, Brex was looking through some pirate story book that he had randomly come across and was nearly done with it.
He thought to himself, “I only wanted to see what a pony pirate story was like, but I’m hooked. With how fast I can read these, its like watching a movie in fast forward times 6. Now just need to finish this last chapter. OH, COME ON. The writer didn’t even finish writing the dang thing?! What is captain horn hook going to do so he can save Solar Flare.”
It had taken him a few moments after finishing the book and putting it back in place when he suddenly froze on the spot. He then thought, “Wait Solar Flare? The mare was white and her hair was pink, then there was the fact that she was a unicorn that had a dream of flying… oh Crap! How did I not notice? Dang it all. This was written by Sun Butt! Why didn’t I remember that Solar Flare was used as an alias for Princess Celestia in a number of stories!”
He continued with, “Well, now I know a little bit about the mare. It turns out that she has a wild side, just like her sister. Hehe he, I think I just might hold onto this as blackmail material for later on.” A wide grin was now under his mask.
Brex couldn't help but be in a better mood ever sense Rory had helped him out. However, there was still no word from her. He had figured that she was still out cold from him giving her that hug and teasing. He thought, “I had no idea that Rory would be so weak to some light teasing. After all, I happen to remember that I was a big fan of her character from before coming here. She was portrayed to be a teaser herself.”
Time went by as Brex walked through the shelves and picking up any book that had snatched his attention. It had only taken him a few minutes to read through even the largest of them all. Nearly two hours and 40 minutes had passed sense he left the mare’s by the clock on his display when Brex looked towards it. At that moment, he was sitting at some randomly placed table and had actually used all the books he had been reading through to build a book fort.
When he had realized just how long it had been, along with the building of books he had constructed. He thought this in astonishment, “Soooooo~ this is what its like to be Twilight sparkle? I feel bad for spike. If she is half as bad as I am now. The kid really needs to get paid more. No wonder he is always stuck at the tree library.”
This whole time, Brex had poured over nearly 150 books on subjects of, medical, science, history and of course magic. He was shocked with just how close these ponies are to humans. Brex was really ashamed to think it, but this whole time with those two, the Roegadyn had been ignoring them to the point that he didn’t notice their features.
Every conversation, Brex had only focused on their voices so he could remember them. Then there was the color of their hair and mane, on a side note, the pony’s hair was super short to the point one could just say its colored skin. As for the muzzles, they didn’t go out all that far. The eyes didn’t really seem over sized to himself at all.
If Brex had to think of the scales of these ponies on the anthromorphic line. Then with human being at the number one and my little pony cartoon being a seven, then the ones on this world would have to be considered the number two spot.
He had learned all he could with what was known on them during this time period. Of course, this was focused on mainly the unicorns. As it turned out, nearly every one of these tomes had been made by a unicorn. Seems that they did have a few from the other two tribes, but they seemed to be in bad condition. He had no idea if they had been treated badly or they just didn’t get the protection spell placed on them.
Moving onto the magic portion. Brex had learned quite a lot actually. From being able to tell just what type of magic is about to be cast when looking at the horn’s glow. How one can focus their mind and unravel some of the basic types which included that telekinesis that they all seem to do.
Now when it came to learning how to fight the whole mind reading, that was a flop. The same could have been said about the whole, fighting off Luna’s dream attacks plan. He had still wanted to talk to Rory about that. With the words, Anti-virus and Firewall, one would think they could do something.
When it came to the history, now that was a bit complicated. But in the end, Brex had gotten the most of it down. It would seem that in this world’s version of My little pony, it followed the same basic principle from the show. But there were some key changes that got Brex’s attention. In one book, there was a line about a Queen Umbra and the Crystal empire. But that was all that was written. Just like in the show, the princess had also erased it from history. He chucked a little at the idea that she had missed the one sentence within a book in her own library.
After letting himself have the chance to gather his thoughts and assimilate all the knowledge that was crammed inside his head. The Roegadyn stands to his full height and lets out a moan while stretching his limbs.
He then thought, “I know that I said that I shouldn’t go near that tree of harmony, but with how well my body has been able to trick those spells in place around the castle, I think I’ll be fine giving the girl a visit.” He then turns to a random direction and adds, “Yes I’m calling it she. Why? Because it’s always been a female in a lot of the stories, and I intend to keep the trend going.”
Now blinking and having a confused expression, Brex then says, “Ummmmm, why did I just do that? Eh, maybe I’m a little nutty now. Not like I got people reading about me like so many other displaced.”
He then froze and looked to his surroundings for a moment and then shrugs. He then thinks, “So what if I am, I’m here after all. Not much they can do, I guess. Not like there is some one writing this and they intend to place a Vote as to what item I’ll get… right?” Letting his eyes dart around, he finish’s with, “Oh please, if some one is writing about me, please please give me something useful.”
*Point of view: The Writer*
At a desk, a person looks to their lab top and exclaims, “Oh shit! He’s onto me! Rory, I think you made him too smart!” A new voice comes into the room and says, “Hay, that’s my stick, no one breaks the fourth wall but me. Ok there is also Deadpool too, but my point still stands!” The first voice calls out, “What do you think your doing? You’re not meant to be in the story right now. Its still early in the script.” There was a happy reply as the second voice said, “Okie dokie Loki! Brexy, I’ll save you a blueberry muffin!”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Letting out a happy moan while rubbing his tummy. Brex muttered under his breath, “Hmmmm, Blueberry muffin, me likes.” He then tilts his head and thinks, “Why do I have a craving for muffins now? Oh well.” He starts to hum a toon in his mind as he sings within his head, “Off to see the tree, the wonderful tree of harmony.”
It had taken some time, but Brex was now standing at the entrance to the cave that the tree of harmony was said to be residing. He starts to think, “if it’s a crystal tree, I wonder with it being magic and all, I might be able to use it in the way I’m hoping for.”
Entering the cave, Brex finds it to be darker than even back in the library. If it wasn’t for him tapping into Rory’s situational awareness ability, odds are that he would have tripped over at least a few of the rocks that littered the ground. This also counted towards the ones that hung from the roof of the cave.
He thought, “They didn’t show the ponies in the show hitting their heads on rocks in here. Well, with me being too tall. I guess low bridges and doorways may become a regular hazard. Oh, I’m really chipper right now. I wonder if its from the changes or could it be a side effect of coming closer to the physical embodiment of good for this world. Hmmm, so would that count as me walking into a form of radiation? Naw, this isn’t fallout. It would be if I was wearing power armor.”
It had taken nearly 10 minutes of slow walking within the cave before Brex could see a faint light being shown on the wall around a bend. Taking the turn, he came out of the tunnel and into a spacious circular room. In the middle was the Tree of Harmony.
Brex could feel a warmness being emitted from the crystalline tree that just rolled off in waves. Feeling that it was safe, he walked closer to it and just as he had gotten to maybe three meters away. There was a force that compelled him to want to reach out his right hand towards it.
With the Roegadyn’s hand fully outstretched, the Tree of harmony started to let out a crystal-like hum. A gentle stream of light was being given off and lighting up the whole room. Then the light started to focus and target Brex’s open hand. This became a solid beam that was surrounded by small particles. From underneath his mask, Brex had a look of amazement.
He thought within his mind, “Oh, By the twelve… is… is this how it feels to attune oneself to an aetheryte crystal? How can I even describe this sensation… it’s… like. I dunno, that feeling you get when you watch a movie for the first time and at the end there is that one scene where everything that is bad, some how changes into something incredible and the music becomes epic. It’s like that surge of positive emotions. If I had to name a movie scene… it would have to be the moment that Captain America catches Thor’s hammer for the first time when fighting Thanos. Or maybe when all the avengers come back and walk through all those portals.”
With a small mental pause, Brex then adds, “Ok, later on I’m so going to make a movie theater in my dream scape and having a movie night with Rory.” That was when the tether of light between Brex and the Tree of harmony faded and he noticed in the lower left of his vision a notification stating, attunement with Tree of Harmony successful. With that, Brex gave a fist pump of joy.
Grinning from ear to ear. Brex thinks, “Yes! I have a teleport point. With this I can use either the teleport or the return spell that every player can do. All I needed was to have at least one crystal that I have made contact with.”
Brex then stopped and started to have a worried face before adding, “I really hope that it works exactly like the game. Otherwise, things might get somewhat hairy.” Looking back to his clock. He had noticed that it was getting close to three and a half hours sense he had left the girls.
Shaking his head, He looks towards the tree and calls out to it in a friendly tone, “I know your not going to answer me. But thank you for letting me attune myself to you. I would do something about those Plunderseeds that discord planted but it’s needed in the timeline to help Twilight Sparkle. I doubt that its all going to be the same as in the show. But I want to try and keep whatever I can to be as close to it as possible.”
Turning away, Brex makes for the exit of the cave, but along the way, he could have sworn that he felt something within that made him think that the Tree of Harmony was ok with how things are and understood.
It was now, that Brex had finished with walking through the castle and was close to the bed chambers that the two mare’s had been staying inside during his little field trip around the grounds. Glancing to his mini map, he saw the two green dots and they were still inside the room. Preparing himself for some trouble, the Roegadyn approached the door and pushes it open slowly. Being weary for anything, he had gotten his mind ready to use any of his ninja skills at the first sight of something wrong.
Just as the door was halfway done with its swing, Brex could hear Rory stirring and hears her giving out a little yawn before asking, “So what did I miss?” At that moment Brex’s jaw drops and a cold sweat forms on his brow. Within His mind, Rory’s stands there and gives an intense blush while showing a mischievous grin thanks to the sight that they had both walked in on.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 14: Am I lucky or cursed?
Brex had been expecting something along the lines of the following. The first being the idea of them waiting for him near the doorway as to ambush him with a sneak attack. The second option was for them to have set up some overly elaborate trap to spring on the Roegadyn and then attack him. The third and last was that they were simply resting within the room waiting just as they had the last time when he came back.
This time, however, was not nearly what he had thought up as a scenario for his return. With himself being in what could have been considered to be a mind-numbing state as he bore witness to the current scene.
Rory on the other hand was not in such a state as her master. Standing there inside of his head and seeing the same thing. The girl was giving a mischievous grin while clasping her hands together and giving a squeal of delight at the sight.
When the door was fully opened, both Brex and Rory was privileged to the sight of the room being completely cleaned from the floor and all the way up to the roof. All the furniture had been dusted and wiped clean of anything that could have been even remotely considered as dirt.
But that was not what caused the two of them to react the way that they had. Brex had his eyes trained towards the bed and the two mare’s that happen to be on it right now. allowing himself to have a silent gulp. He uses the mental connection and asks Rory in an emotionless voice, “Either I’m still in the dream scape or I’m looking at reality. But just to make sure. Could you tell me what it is I’m looking at?”
Rory answers with a smug tone in her voice, “If you’re referring to the two mare’s on the bed and one of them appears to be on said bed all bound up with what seems to be wrist and ankle cuffs that are connected to the four bed posts while the other mare is currently at this moment adding a light blue ball gag into the mouth of the tied up one. Then, yes, yes you are seeing it all in reality.”
Gulping again, Brex replies with a shaky tone, “T-That’s what I T-Thought… So um, I think il just come back later and hopefully by then those two will have finished with their fun…” He then slowly starts to back up as to not make any noise but was halted when he heard the one called Swirl Sugar calling out in what he could have sworn to be a sultry tone.
“Sir Brex, so good of you to have returned on time.” She had just finished with strapping the ball gag onto the darker mare’s mouth and was right now turned towards him. She then added, “Might I have a few words with you?”
Seeing as he was caught, Brex felt that there was no danger. Double checking his mini map, he saw that they were still labeled green for friendly. Giving a nod the Roegadyn walks inside and closed the door behind himself. All the while not saying a word.
However, inside his mind was a whole other story. He was practically screaming bloody murder as he thought, “What the fuck is going on here! Hold up, just think it out. There must be an explanation for what’s happening. Think Brex, Think! Ok… so I walked in and found Swirl Sugar currently having some fun time with Shadow Lily. So that must mean that they are a couple. That’s normal right? I mean, in the stories it’s common for same sex couples. In fact, it happened a lot in all of those. There is a shortage of males after all, so how else are these mare’s going to have some fun without one. Also, why did Swirl Sugar call me Sir Brex just now?”
Looking back and forth between the mare’s, Brex continued with, “But, what I don’t get is why here and now. I mean, they could have hung a sign on the door or something. They knew I was in the castle. Is it possible that they just forgot about me… it’s not like their… in… heat? Oh no… this isn’t good. If they happen to be in heat, then I’m in very deep trouble!”
While attempting to keep his voice at the normal tone. Brex asked while sweating buckets and turning his head between the two, “Your… in heat?” All the while backing up at a snail’s pace towards the door so the mare wouldn’t immediately notice the strategic retreat as to gain some distance.
Within Brex’s mind, there was him still screaming, “I’m too young for this… umm. Wait, just how old am I anyhow? Dam it all. I don’t even know my age. Am I underaged for this sort of thing? Also, there is the whole deal about my body being one from a video game. I have no idea on how my current race even deals with this sort of activity. I THINK I NEED AN ADULT!”
Mentally shaking his head, He thinks on it further. His age is important, so knowing it, or at least having an age range is crucial. He continued with, “So, I think I had to be of mature age when I started to play. The game had been running for nearly eight years. So, if I take that as a starting point, then I could guess myself to be roughly around… maybe, 21 to 24 years old.”
When he had come to that conclusion, Brex had come up with another question for himself. “Wait, so if I’m 24 years old. Then I may have had relations before. Gah! I don’t even know if I was a virgin in my past life. If I went with what had been happening in the game, then this body is also a virgin too. It’s not like I could have had sex in a game world. I don’t even know how big I am when I get worked up down there! It’s not like I had much reason to examine myself often. I made sure to wash in the river quickly each time. Besides these are anthro ponies. The males must be giants, right? No way could a human compete.”
Right as he had come close to the door that could let him back out and was about to place a hand onto its handle, he heard Swirl Sugar calling out to him with a small amount of panic laced into her voice, “Oh no, no, no. we aren’t in heat! You don’t have to leave. I just want to talk about something, that’s all.”
He then stared back towards the pink guard mare and back to the one that was still tied to the bed that had yet to make any sound. Just as he returned his gaze to Swirl Sugar, he had noticed that she was now looking rather ashamed as her ears were now pinned to the side of her head. Brex just asked one question, “About what?”
*Point of view: Swirl Sugar* *Time: Several minutes ago*
Swirl Sugar was currently trying to save the situation. She had come up with a half hazard plan to somehow, do some damage control. With how there is a royal member from some far-off kingdom here that could possibly see all Equestrian mare’s as savages, there is the possibility that this will cause some sort of war between us and his kingdom.
She was worried that with how strong just this one stallion on his own was, then who knows how powerful their military could be. She knew that they had the princess, and she could handle anything, but if they are half as strong as him then the casualties before it all ended would be disastrous.
Swirl Sugar could just see it now. An army with others like This one marching into our lands. The strength to take on the guards with ease. If he alone could take out one Hydra and a giant bug, in the way Shadow and she had witnessed, then hundreds working together would wipe out most of our towns and cities.
She wasn’t very proud of it herself, but she believed that this plan would work. However, she needed Shadow to help out in some way. Witnessing just how smitten the mare was for this stallion, Swirl thought that this plan might just help her as well.
Just a little while before Brex had returned to the room. Swirl Sugar had pulled out some of the items that were found during the cleaning. They had been placed onto the table near the door and Swirl Sugar picked out the restraints and ball gag to lay on the bed. She then proceeded to wake Shadow Lily by splashing a little of the water they still had onto the darker mare’s face. This had the effect of waking the girl and the first words from her lips were, “Swirl! Why did you do that for?! I was just getting to the good part with Bre… Er… I mean I was having a nice dream”
Swirl Sugar had a good idea as to what her friend was about to say and let it go for now. She then said, “Shadow, I need your help with my plan to try and fix all of this. Well, I doubt it will fix all of it, but it might at least lessen the tension between Sir Brex and our country.”
This only got a confused look from the darker mare. Letting out a small sigh, Swirl Sugar continued, “Shadow, we need to somehow show to him that we are sorry for what had happened and by any means. Right now, he must see Equestrians as females that take advantage of their males. Then there is how he has trust issues between not only us, but with the Princess as well. Didn’t you notice how he wanted to leave so urgently after telling us how he felt towards our princess. This runs deep.”
Shadow Lily was now nodding along with Swirl Sugar during the explanation. Swirl then continued after seeing that Shadow was following along. “I also see that your attracted to him.” Swirl Sugar then gives a smirk before adding. “So, I think we can work with what we got. I cleaned the room and found some rather useful items we could use to help with. *Cough* Healing his condition even just a little. So, the idea is for one of us to offer ourselves to him as some form of apology. We are royal guards, so we essentially are representing our kingdom.”
This elicits a heavy blush from Shadow Lily. The mare’s eyes dart back and forth across the room in a panic as she attempts to speak, “But… that’s… are you serious Swirl?! I don’t think he will go through with it… I think.” Letting out a gulp of nervousness, she continues, “There is also the chance that he might just take out all the pain that he had to suffer from onto us. Only Celestia knows what he might just do. For all we know, we might be beaten or harsher…”
Swirl Sugar slightly closed her eyes and gave Shadow a calm smile while saying, “Do you really think a stallion like Sir Brex would do such things. We have only known him for not even half a day, but from everything I seen, I can safely say that he is not the type to do the things you’re thinking about Shadow. Who knows when he might return, so I need your help in my plan now before it’s too late. Can you trust me?”
The purple pony looked rather hesitant, but after a moment or two to give it some thought, she agreed. They had talked for a short time and came up with the idea of Shadow Lily being the one to be bound to the bed and gagged. Both Shadow and Swirl thought that this was needed to show Brex how serious they both were about the situation. Shadow Lily was scared at first but went with it even with how nervous she was getting, even though she had wanted to do something with the stallion before this plan had even been thought up.
Both of the mare’s examined the gear that Swirl Sugar had discovered and was amazed at the quality of it all. The cuffs had an inner lining that was very soft to the touch. As for the rest of it, the cuff was made of a dark silver with etchings of a crescent moon encircling around the band. What did confuse the earth mare was the fact that there didn’t seem to be any type of locking mechanism as it just hanged open. Swirl Sugar had used her magic on it and found that it was magickly imbued to seal seamlessly when placed onto the body.
But then Swirl Sugar had also informed Shadow Lily that the enchantment was made specifically to work only on females. Moreover, it seemed that they had had an added effect of releasing after a set amount of time was indicated by the one that locks them in place. When Shadow Lily had it laying in her hands, the mare shivered at the thought of this keeping her in place as she was taken by a stallion.
Then they had looked towards the ball gag and quickly found it had been enchanted as well. This item was created to shift its size to fit any mouth to the fullest. Just like with the cuffs, this had a seamless seal upon locking and a release timer enchantment, but with one more added effect of completely muting any type of sound the wearer made.
Both mare’s had no idea who these belonged too. With them now knowing that they could only work if placed on a female, they came to the conclusion that they didn’t have anything to do with the mare that had taken Brex and with them seemingly being here for such an extended time due to how dirty and covered with dust when Swirl Sugar had first found them, they thought that they once belonged to some noble from the past that used to live in the old castle before it was abandoned.
There were a few other items, but they felt that those could have waited seeing as they had no idea how long it would be before Brex would come back. In a hurry the two had gotten everything set up. Shadow lily was still in her clothes that comprised of a tight dark shorts and a white top. She had taken the cuffs, when putting them on she was instructed to whisper how long they should be on for, Shadow Lily gave them the command to stay on for 30 minutes as she had no idea how much longer they had. Wanting to be safe, she had set that length time just in case something was to go wrong.
The cuffs closed shut around the darker mare’s wrist and ankles. They both witnessed them adjusting to the size of the one who happened to be wearing them and became snug enough to prevent escaping, but not too much as to become uncomfortable. When that was completed, the securement to the bed was started. There were a set of black woven rope with strands of silver running through the fiber, these seemed to be drawn towards the rings to tie themselves to the cuffs all on their own and when pulled to the corner posts of the bed, they practically came alive and tied to the nearest bed post and their length shortened through magic and made it impossible to move more than an inch when all was done.
The two couldn’t hide the amazement from their faces when they completed the preparations. Seeing all the skillfully crafted enchantments on these items, made them both wonder just who did these belong too. Those thoughts stopped when they could hear footsteps from outside the chamber doors and Swirl Sugar hurried to place the last addition which was the gag. Right has she was half way with placing it on Shadow Lily’s mouth did the door start to open. Trying not to have the comical, dears in the headlights look. Swirl Sugar swiftly replaced it with a calm demeanor.
Now, back to the present. She had just asked the stallion if she could have a word with him. She noticed the way he was on guard when seeing Shadow and herself and inwardly started to think that this might have not been the best plan she had come up with.
But when He had asked her, if they were in heat and was looking to be inching his way towards the door, this caused alarms to go off in her head as she screamed within her mind, “Huh? Why did he… Oh my Celestia. Does he think we’re in heat? That must be why he’s backing away. Oh BUCK! This isn’t what I meant at all. I need to fix this now.”
Swirl Sugar knew that with the heat kicking in, the stallions that didn’t have a special some pony would avoid the mare’s affected and essentially evacuate the area and go into hiding due to fear. After all, mare’s could get in a lack of a better words at the moment, Crazed. When their body’s get into that season it was well known that the stallions around would disappear for maybe a week or two. Unfortunately for those that don’t, they either have to fend off the females by locking themselves away or get taken and forced to serve the mare that gets their hooks in them.
Swirl Sugar had always had control over herself. It had actually helped her to have worked in the red district for her last job and she had learned how to either control the heat to a manageable state or there was always a customer that could help her out.
Right now, she had thought that she scared this stallion who had escaped being foal napped by causing him to think that he was about to become their victim. She called out to him by saying, “Oh no, no, no. we aren’t in heat! You don’t have to leave. I just want to talk about something, that’s all.” Feeling terrible, she couldn’t help but look towards the stone floor as her ears laid flat on the sides of her head. That was when she heard him saying, “About what?”
Inwardly, the unicorn was cheering that he hadn’t dashed out of the room. Lifting her eyes, she then gestured for him to come inside. Noticing the small pause, she feared that he would think this was some sort of trap.
Swirl Sugar started to think, “Ok, so he isn’t running for the hills. So far so good, now I need to convey just how sorry we are about what happened to him. But I can’t just come out and say, so we want to make it up to you and please don’t send your kingdoms military over to retaliate for the crime that was committed, so please take our apology and use us until you feel satisfied that the debt has been paid.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex was now very much on guard. Not knowing just why this was happening, the Roegadyn takes a few steps into the room and stops when he was about three meters away from the bed.
Without moving his head, Brex looks over to the one called Shadow Lily and he couldn’t help but to be drawn to examining how the mare was bound up all spread eagle on the large bed. Arms and legs pulled with rope to the point that he could tell that she wouldn’t have been able to move much at all.
It had taken him a moment before realizing that the equipment looked familiar. He then thought within his mind while raising an eyebrow, “Aren’t those from Princess Luna’s secret stash of toys that I found earlier when I searched through the room before coming across that diary? Do these mare’s know just who is their owner? Luna is going to have a field day if she were to find out that her little secret had gotten out.”
Secretly glancing over to the book shelf, he had found the lunar princess’s diary, Brex could see that it was left undisturbed and this caused a mental sigh of relief. He then thought, “No way they would believe that Lulu had a secret fetish involving her and self-bondage.”
Brex remembered just what was inside that book while trying to learn about this world and coming across some, very detailed fantasies that the lunar Princess had written inside those pages. If it wasn’t for him just meeting with Rory for the first time at that point, He was sure that if he was still alone then there might have been some private time to carefully read through those sections. Looking straight ahead, he mentally thinks to himself, “Oh come on, like I’m going to pass up on reading a personally written erotic self-made story by my favorite Princess?”
That was when Rory spoke up with a teasing tone, “Hmm, so master likes seeing a girl all bound up.” She then giggled before adding in a lower volume, “I’m glad that’s the case.” However, Brex didn’t hear that last bit and asked her with the mental connection, “What was that last part, I didn’t quite hear.” She replied with a tone laced with innocence, “Oh I was just saying that this might just be what you need.”
From under his mask, Brex was looking quite confused, but then she saw that Swirl Sugar was about to say something and gave her his undivided attention. Watching the mare shifting her body on the bed until she was near the edge. The mare was now taking a seated position where she was sitting on her knees. Hands placed onto her lap, the mare then leaned forward and was now giving him a type of bow with her head almost laying on the bed.
This caused the Roegadyn to involuntarily take half a step back out of surprise. He then heard her speaking in a submissive weak tone, “Please understand that we don’t mean you any harm. I can tell that you would rather not talk about your situation but we don’t want you to see us as monsters. I don’t know where you are from but I can tell it isn’t from anywhere near Equestria.”
This caused Brex to Flinch out of fear, he thought, “Oh, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK. I should have known that helping them out was a bad choice. Now they know I’m not one of them and they are doing all of this thinking I’m some overpowered being that they need to fear. If they hadn’t seen me kill strong monsters compared to them, they might have tried to attack and kill me already. But instead, they did and their giving themselves to me out of fear that I will eat or kill them if I’m unhappy!”
Mentally groaning, Brex couldn’t help but think, “This is just great. I show them some power and now they are basically offering themselves to me as a kind of sacrifice. This isn’t what I wanted. If Celestia caught wind of this then my life in this world is over. I’ll be hunted without any remorse until I’m killed or sealed away in stone! Everything on this planet will hate and despise my existence. Being called a monster, evil, an abomination. But, but I didn’t do anything wrong. All I did was help out some ponies that were in trouble!?” To say Brex was panicking would be an understatement.
The Roegadyn was visibly trembling while thinking this out. Within seconds, images of the sun goddess hunting him down and unleashing her powers onto his mortal body. His mind played scenarios at an accelerated speed. Within five seconds Brex had watched in his mind, himself being blasted into ash, turned to stone and fall into madness, beaten to an inch of his life only to be forced to live and be subjected to torture for her amusement. That last bit was actually changing some of his fear into anger towards the Solar goddess.
Brex asked Rory, “I don’t know what I should be doing here. Things are going wrong too quickly. They already see me as a possible villain. I only just got my hands on those books and now this sort of thing happens. I still need to come up with a base that I can call home and stay hidden. Then I need to make plans on how to live in this world. It would have been a whole other story if I was at least at max level.”
Rory seeing that her master was on the edge of losing himself to paranoia called to him in a reassuring voice. “Master, I think you might be looking into this too much. If you continue with going down this path of thinking, then you’re just going to run yourself into the ground. Let’s at least hear this one out.”
Hearing Rory’s advice, Brex begins to take control of his active imagination and calms down enough to think more rationally. That was when Swirl Sugar spoke again, “We don’t know what your situation is, but we just want to make it clear that we only want to help in any way that we can. All I can say is, that we don’t mean you any harm and just want to show you that we aren’t as bad as you might be thinking.” She said this all the while still in a lowered, bowing position.
Swirl Sugar continued further with, “I know that you don’t fully trust us. But we just want you to know that not all mare’s are as bad as you might think.” This caused Brex to think in confusion, “Just what is this girl talking about? Just what about having one of them tied to a bed has anything to do with what is being said?”
The mare then slowly raised herself to a sitting position. Looking towards him and asked, “If it can convince you of our intentions...” He could see her glancing towards her friend before looking back at him. The mare then said, “We would like to offer our bodies to you so we can somehow make amends to the suffering you have had to endure. Please use us to your hearts content, there is no need to hold back and do whatever comes to mind.”
Bringing her right hand to her chest, she then adds in a confident tone, “I happen to have experience when it comes to such things. However, Shadow isn’t. So, if you could at least go easy on my friend at the very least, then I would be very thankful.”
Taken aback by the blunt explanation, Brex found himself blushing intensely from under the mask. He didn’t know how to respond to what was just spoken. He started to think, “Hold on here! What is this girl thinking! Did she just tell me to have sex with them? But, but, but WHY?!” It was a miracle that Brex was able to keep his body from displaying his internal reactions with how blown over by everything he felt.
Looking more at the mare’s forms, Brex was finally taking notice to their features more closely. The one still sitting on her knees was called Swirl Sugar. A unicorn mare that had pink hair over most of her body. Brex thought back to the book on their anatomy and recalled the part where it described their hair and mane’s. Apparently, they were so short that it felt so close to skin that Brex could have confused them for those equestrian girls’ version of the cartoon show.
Now back to Swirl Sugar. Aside from the pink, there was that light blue mane that was let out in a natural style that was just nearly half way down her back. the ends had a bit of a curl going on that added a small amount of wildness. He could see that she had a figure that most girls had when they would go to the gym. As for the chest, Brex could only guess from a glance, but they could have been around the C-cup. However, when he had gotten to that point, Brex had to take a doubletake when he noticed the small nubs sticking through the sports top.
He thought to himself, “Ok so they don’t wear bras in this era, so that must mean that those are her nipples. But why are they poking out like that. It isn’t all that cold in here, right? Wait, she couldn’t be turned on right now… could she?” Ripping his eyes from what he had just seen, Brex then say that the mare in question was indeed blushing up a storm with how her cheeks are becoming tinted with red.
All in all, Brex found Swirl Sugar to be quite beautiful for an anthro pony. He was then starting to feel himself getting a bit aroused by all of this and quickly turned his eyes towards the other mare that was still tied to the bed.
This one was called Shadow Lily. An earth type that was only an inch or so shorter than her friend Swirl Sugar, but was no less a sight for Brex to behold. She had a body of dark purple and her mane was black like the night. She was on the slender side compared to Swirl, but her chest could have been the same or perhaps a size smaller than the unicorn’s. Of course, Brex couldn’t really tell for certain. Not like he had any real personal experience to go off with inside his head. Brex was beating himself up mentally for not noticing how attractive these two mare’s were, even with how long he had been around them.
The very sight of Shadow being bound was actually starting to cause the Roegadyn to consider with going along with what Swirl Sugar had intended. He started to think, “I don’t understand why the sight of this mare being tied to the bed is getting me so hot and bothered. Did I have a thing for this sort of stuff?” Brex’s eyes widened as he continued in astonishment before continuing, “By the twelve… I think I might have really been some kind of a pervert in my other life. NO, NO, I’m not going to go down that road.”
Looking for some type of moral guidance, Brex calls to Rory within his mind, “Rory, you need to talk me out of this. I’m finding these girls to be hot and I don’t know how much I can handle right now.”
Rory replied in the most innocent voice she could muster in this moment and said, “Oh, I don’t know master. These mare’s really seem to be into you after all. Why not have some fun with them. In case you hadn’t noticed during those worrisome thoughts you’ve been having; I can tell that they both are also getting turned on themselves. Te he~”
Brex was panicking with how Rory wasn’t talking him down. In fact, the girl was trying to push him into doing this. but with her saying that the two on the bed were also getting turned on had caught his attention and Brex couldn’t help but to look more closely.
To his surprise, Swirl was now placing her hands closer to her inner thighs as her legs were making small motions that indicated that she was rubbing herself but keeping the movements to a minimum as to not draw too much attention.
When his eyes went towards the bound mare. He could see a small amount of drool was leaking from the edge of the ball gag and running down the side of her mouth. What also got his attention, was how her chest was raising and falling in a quicker pace while her hips were shifting about on the bed.
Exclaiming within his mind he thought in astonishment, “Are they seriously aroused by all of this too. But we only met today. I don’t know them much at all. Is this how things are in this version of Equestria or is there something else going on?”
Brex was just about to play into his body’s lead on what to do when he suddenly remembered something extremely important. This caused all those feelings of wanting to act on this scene to come crashing down so hard that it could have made the led zeppelin crash seem like a small cherry bomb firework.
In a weak inner voice that just radiated sorrow, Brex thought, “Oh… what was I thinking. How could I have forgotten that I’m not of this world, moreover I’m not one of them. These ponies are xenophobic to the letter.
This is during the time that piece has started to take hold. But they still have those warrior instincts in their people. In the show that takes place over 800 years from now they are scared of anything that’s not a pony. They even go nuts when that zebra, Zecora came to ponyville and they all treated her badly. She was close to being called a pony to begin with.”
“Just what are they going to do when I try to take them up on their offer. I would have to show who… NO. What I am to them. I can see it now. I take off my hood and they go all wide eye and scared. They would then scream that I’m a monster and their going to get eaten. That would be followed up with them throwing spells and objects. This will lead to that, then that will lead to the princess crashing in. Then Pow! I’m blasted with six glowing rocks or I’m hit with a sun powered beam and that will be, that’s all she wrote!”
Brex hadn’t noticed, but he was starting to take shaky steps backwards while these disturbing thoughts raced through his head. The anxiety from before was now creeping back in. if only he wasn’t level 35 and restricted to only his Ninja and Paladin class’s. He might have had a small chance in fending off the Sun goddess. In this time period that was well known for being a hypocrite and extremely arrogant to the point that she wouldn’t understand a reasonable conversation with something that’s not of her world and just blast it, which would happen to be Brex, into atoms.
Thinking on things further. Brex figured that he should just stop all of this and convince these mare’s to drop their plan all together. He didn’t have to tell them what he is. It had dawned on him that there were other sentient life forms on this world. The books in the library confirmed this fact. So, all he had to do was tell them that he wasn’t some pony and this would cause them to pause and the whole thing would get tossed out of the window. All he had to do, was to play on their whole ideal that anything that’s not a pony is something they shouldn’t be around.
With what control Brex could muster up. He replied to the mare’s in a reluctant tone while lowering his head, “We… can’t.” All the while, still inching back towards the door in case they turned out to be the types to attack him for what he was going to say soon.
This got the mare sitting on the bed to lift her head and give him what he considered to be a confused… or was it possibly a hurt expression. Swirl asked, “What do you mean by, we can’t? Did we do something wrong or offend you in some way?”
Brex shook his head slowly before answering, “Not, like you.” He could see that the mare was about to get off from the bed as she had a confused look. He could hear the mare asking in a cautious tone, “I don’t understand what you mean by that. Please talk to us normally. I know that you’re hurting inside and I just want to help. What do you mean by your not like us?” she was now standing on the floor and taking a step closer.
He thought, “Well, its time I bite that bullet. Let’s hope that this pans out. I don’t know how much more I can take from this. I have to face the fact that I’m on a world that has so many other types of life and currently in the one country that is the most racist of them all. Not to mention that it has the one being on this planet that has the power to shoot me with the sun itself.” Brex takes in a deep breath and exhales before saying, “Not a pony.”
What the Roegadyn was expecting was for the mare to look confused. Then followed by some screams as she either, launch some spells and possibly rushing to grab her weapon and take up a guarding position between him and the one mare that was still bound. But instead, all he got was silence. Soul crushing silence. Brex had started to feel like he would have preferred his previously thought up scenario over this nothingness of reactions from the mare before him.
*Point of view: Swirl Sugar*
The words, not a pony, rang inside Swirl Sugar’s mind over and over. She thought to herself while having a dumfounded expression, “Did he just say, that he isn’t a pony? That can’t be. I don’t see any horns on his head, so he can’t be one of those minotaur’s. He doesn’t have any wings or talons so that takes out being a griffon. Could he be a dragon? No, he hasn’t shown us that he could breathe fire. I had been told that they were brutes and just attacked and were known to eaten ponies. He is so considerate and strong, no way he is one of them. But then what could he mean by what he had said?”
Lifting her hand, a little, Swirl Sugar attempted to placate the male’s apparent reluctance. But this only caused him to take another step back once her hand had gotten to a certain point. Noticing this the mare quickly lowered her hand and started to scold herself. “Buck, you’re and idiot Swirl! He must have thought that you were about to cast a spell at him or something with that reaction.”
She started to rethink on his words. This only brought up the thoughts on before while waiting for him to come back. The ideas on how a noble had been taken and the implications.
She started to think, “Oh, this is even worse… if he was a pony, then this would have been one thing. But if what he said is true, then its not just some incident that involves our own race. But that of another. It’s not something that has to do with some group that left to go off and form their own country. This is like declaring war on the gryphons or the minotaur’s all over again.”
She started to recall back to a few minutes ago and she had noticed just how Sir Brex had been staring so intently at both Shadow and herself. She was sure that her plan was going to work.
Swirl Sugar would have been lying if she said, she wasn’t into the idea as time went on. Knowing that his eyes were looking over their forms. His large frame towering over them. The way her imagination was going crazy with trying to figure out just what he was like under that hood. With an inward resolve, Swirl Sugar felt that this would still work out. The idea of doing this with a non-pony male was actually starting to show some genuine interest for the mare. Would she end up like those girls that somehow got together with other species. This was getting her turned on all over again and caused a heavy blush to show back onto her face as she looked down.
Remembering her friend, Swirl Sugar turned towards the bed. Quickly she had noticed that Shadow was looking towards Sir Brex. Expecting to see the girl to be somewhat confused or even scared that the one they had been calling a stallion, was in reality, not even a pony. But to the unicorn’s surprise, Shadow was showing an unknown gleam in her eyes. Without even thinking it, Swirl had started to breathe through her nose and found a strong scent of arousal emanating from Shadow lily. She thought, “Shadow… Are you turned on more that we found out he isn’t even of our kind?”
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
Shadow Lily had been waiting from the moment she had been placed into those restraints. She was scared of what might happen to her. Starting to regret in letting herself to be a part of Swirl’s plan at the start, but as time went on, the mare was strangely getting into the role. With the cuffs placed onto her wrist and ancles, the dark mare started to see images within her mind. These mainly were of her being a captive or even some type of slave that would at first fight back, but in the end, she would gradually get into the role and start to love it. The biggest factor was that the one in said image was none other than Brex himself.
She had never had these thoughts before. If she was being honest, she had been scared of the stallions that resided in Canterlot. She had on occasion, thought of doing the lesbian thing, nonetheless never really got to trying. Shadow was currently 19 years old and still didn’t have any experiences, but was right now placed into a position as a sacrifice to make up for something a mare had done to a male.
She was at first resentful that her first time had to be like this. however, as time went on while waiting, those feelings had turned fully back towards a strong arousal. She couldn’t deny that she had felt attracted to this male. With how he displayed his strength in saving them, then there was the willingness to provide them with a safe place to rest and was even kind enough to bring them both something to eat.
The very idea that he would possibly take her to be his, actually made the mare wish that he would burst through those doors and jump at her like some wild animal. While this was running through her head, the mare was pulling on the bindings to add to the fantasy.
Right as Swirl Sugar was in the middle of placing the gag into Shadow’s mouth. The stallion opened the set of double doors. This causing the mare to skip a beat when the moment came that he would see her in such a compromising position. Fighting the urge to say something, Shadow waited for her friend to finish with the last item needed. When it had been strapped around the back of her head, the blue ball that was inside the mare’s mouth began to grow in size until it fully pressed onto the roof and lower jaw. Then the item gave off a light glow and Shadow could tell that it had caused all sound to become muted. Giving it a test, she found that not even the noise that would have been caused by even breathing was noticeable.
When it came to the point that Swirl Sugar was telling the stallion that she wanted to talk, all she could do was watch in silence. But when the conversation had gotten to the point that he was starting to back away after asking if they were in heat. Shadow had felt a small amount of pain. But was relieved when she saw him staying.
There was some embarrassment when she heard Swirl Sugar saying that she herself hadn’t had any experiences and tried to protest, however the ball gag had done its job and prevented the exchange.
She felt the gaze of the male on her body when he had walked closer. The thoughts of her being completely helpless and trusted up like some, Hearth's Warming Eve gift. Becoming painfully aware of how she must appear right now. The mare was getting aroused by the fact that she couldn’t see his face, but she could somehow tell that he was looking right at her.
This caused her breathing to pick up. In turn Shadow looked down and she could see her nipples poking into her top and knowing this only pushed her embarrassment harder. It wasn’t long until she noticed that she was getting rather wet around her crotch.
However, when she heard the stallion say “We… can’t.” and soon after, “Not like you.” This caused Shadow to blink a few times in confusion. But when he had added that he wasn’t a pony. Shadow tried to process those words and what they meant. Her thoughts were, “Hold on. Brex isn’t… a pony? He… isn’t a pony…” this echoed within her mind. Shadows internal voice was at first, sounding like it was scared at this reveal. But it quickly evolved into an emotionless tone, but that also changed yet again to resemble an excited one. Her next thoughts were, “Oh my Celestia… I’m, about to be taken by another race. I’m going to be claimed by something, other than a Unicorn, Pegasus or Earth pony… why does this idea turn me on so much more?”
Suddenly, Shadow couldn’t resist her body. She could feel the drool pouring from the edges of her gag. Even her hips were rocking around in a frantic attempt to gain some attention from the male to do something to her right then and there. Without even trying, she felt her juices leaking even more than when she would pleasure herself in the past. Never once had she had this level of arousal.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Letting out a small sigh. Brex, decided that he really needed to step back out and vent his frustrations. Even with his urges being forced down due to knowing how he couldn’t even show his face, much less take off enough clothing to even consider the act of being with two beautiful females. He knew that these two are anthro ponies, but he still found them attractive enough to disregard the species barrier.
He thought to himself, “Sheesh, there are so many displaced that got it on with their versions of Equestria after all and here I am ditching what could have been a once in a life time chance. Honestly, I have no idea what I should do. But if things go with how all the other displaced people end up when they first arrive in the time line that the mane six has yet to even be born into, then there is an extremely high chance of something going wrong. I don’t think I could handle the idea of getting involved now, to only lose it all and find myself in the distant future…”
He turned to the door and opened it fast enough so there wouldn’t be any time for another interruption and walked out. He then closes the door, but before it had closed all the way the Roegadyn called out to the two inside, “Need to walk.” That was when he closed it completely. Still with hands on the handles, Brex mutters under his breath while lightly pressing his forehead to the wooden door, “Better… off… alone…”
Brex left the tower and retreated to the ground floor. But this time, he had forgone the steps and just ran off the bridge when he had reached half way across and landed onto the ground without showing any signs of it troubling him. This was thanks to a passive skill known in the Traits section of skills called, All fours.
Trait, All Fours: Reduces damage taken when falling, also the added effect of making small drops emit no noise
To clarify, there are three lists that each combat class can utilize. It goes in the order of Action skill, Role skill and lastly the Traits.
Action classes are basically attack skills and such that are unique to the current class. Then there is the role skill and that’s for those that play the tanks, damage dealers and healers. The traits are passive effects that are keyed to the current class equipped.
In this case, Brex had fallen for ten floors to only suffer a small amount of damage. However, with him being out of combat the auto healing that all players had, kicked in and restored his health to full within seconds. He then thought, “Oh good, now that’s working too. Wish I had it the other night. Is it me or am I getting more of my in-game effects ever sense Rory saved my life? Haha, she must have somehow unlocked them for me.”
That was when Rory spoke up in a concerned voice, “Master, why did you run from those two. I’m sure that you would have loved it. If the way your eyes were roaming all over their forms had any indications, tee he~”
With him mentally groaning, Brex answers with, “You know exactly why I did that. I can’t get mixed up with them. They work for the princess after all. I just need to make sure that they get out of here in the morning and I’ll get what I need from this place and high tail it deeper into the woods. Maybe I could head to the boarder and stay hidden for a while as I prepare. I’ll just stay alone and live a normal life without worries. If I’m lucky I can get my levels back up. Then I might just return again. I’m sure if I can get maxed out at 70 then Celestia would at least have a hard time killing me. Right?” His shoulders slump and the ninja give’s out a tired sigh before adding, “I sound like a wimp… don’t I?”
Rory asked, “So, your really worried about her finding you huh. For all we know, the one here might be one of the nicer ones. Not all of them, turned out to be a crazy, self-deluded high and mighty princess in every one of those stories. But I’ll support whatever you decide on. How about we go on that walk, it’s a nice night tonight.” She then whispers to herself so Brex couldn’t hear, “It can be like a date. Hehe.”
Brex walked across the courtyard under the moonlit night sky. The light wind felt comfortable. Not too cool and not too warm. Just the right temperature. Brex could see the garden off to the other side of the grass lawn, there he could see a large number of blue flowers blooming as the moon rested right above them. Feeling at ease, the Roegadyn approached the flowers and stopped a few meters away and just stood there with eyes unmoving from the sight.
After a minute, Brex couldn’t help but to look up towards the moon and he said out loud in a gentle voice that was full of genuine feelings, “I love the night far more than the day. To some, it’s the time to sleep and recover from their activities. Then there are those that see it as a time to be scared. But I can’t help but feel more at ease. I’m glad I don’t need to sleep all that much. Now I can enjoy the night that you placed your very heart into making. I wish I had the chance to at least see you in person.”
Brex then closes his eyes and lets out a small chuckle before thinking to Rory, “I’m really weird, aren’t I? I mean, here I am giving myself a hard time over Celestia but I couldn’t help but want to see her sister. Haha Haha, she would have attacked me too. She was known to be the battle nut. I confuse myself at times.”
Brex just stood there while looking over the flowers for the next half an hour while the moon slowly crossed the sky, the sounds of the night helped with his stress and soon decided to return to the girls. He thought, “Hope they aren’t mad at me. I just want to get comfy and sleep so we can meet up in my dreams. There are a few things I want to talk with you about Rory. Also, I think it’s about time we got to be in the same place without one of us being passed out for once, don’t you think?”
This got an amused laugh out of the girl before she replied, “That’s for sure. I can’t wait to finally have our long overdue formal introduction. It really isn’t fair that one of us always seems to be out of it. This will be fun!”
By the time that Brex had arrived that the door to the room once again. A long sigh escaped his mouth when he thought, “Well, here I am again. Just how many more times am I going to end up leaving this room tonight? Calm down Brex, just stand your ground and everything will work out… somehow.”
Entering, Brex made sure to open the door quietly and walked inside. He saw that the two were sitting on the bed with their backs towards the door. He was about to get their attention when they started to talk. Wanting to find out what this was all about. Brex used his hide skill and approached the two to get into a better spot to hear just what they were saying.
The one called Shadow Lily talked in what Brex considered to be a whisper, but he considered that they didn’t really have to keep it down too much in the first place seeing as they were actually a fair distance from the door so they must have thought that he wouldn’t have been able to hear them if he was standing outside the door.
“I think we really did it this time Swirl. A second time, really, we did it a second time.” Shaking her head while her ears pressed down to the sides. “We caused his to retreat twice. Why did we think it would have been a good idea to try and use our body’s so we could make him feel better about that mare foal napping him from his country. I bet she threatened him with talk about doing things in bed and we just caused the poor guy to remember those times…”
Brex tilted his head in confusion and asked Rory, “Um, so I’m lost and they only just started. What are they talking about? Also, who is the mare and who was foal napped?” Rory on answered with a confused tone of her own as she said, “Yeah, lost here as well. Let’s hear more.”
Swirl Sugar looked over to her friend and had her arm behind Shadow Lily’s back and hand on the shoulder as she talked in a comforting voice, “I’m positive that wasn’t the case. I could tell that Sir Brex was getting into the mood. I think he will be back soon. I do admit that, we may have been a bit too forceful…” She almost winced at the memory of them running him out of the room with their antics.
Swirl Sugar continued while pulling Shadow Lily into a sideways hug, “Perhaps Sir Brex’s race has customs that we didn’t consider. He is from royalty after all. We don’t even know what he is. All I know is, he’s not a Minotaur or Griffon. He sure isn’t a dragon… well I don’t think he is. All we have to do is show that we didn’t mean any harm and convince him to not demand some form of retribution. The last thing we need is to go to war with an army that can fight half as well as Sir Brex can.”
At this point his mind was going over a hundred miles an hour from trying to piece together just what these two are talking about. Soon it dawned on him and he asked Rory in a shocked tone, “So, correct me if I’m wrong, but am I right to assume that that think I’m a royal that was kidnapped by a female and they also believe that I was held captive for sexual purposes?!”
Inside her master’s head, Rory was scratching her head and giving a confused look towards the mare’s within Brex’s view before replying, “I-I believe to master. Did they hit their heads or something when we weren’t looking? Oh wait, you don’t think that they got the nobility idea from your Free company ranking, do you?”
Brex mentally facepalms with frustration when he realizes just what had caused this confusion. He then said to Rory, “Ok, so I understand that part. It’s the rest that I don’t follow. How did they come up with the whole, I was kidnapped part?”
Rory thought on that for a moment before snapping her fingers in realization. She answered with, “Wait, I think I get it. They see males as weaker, right? Then there is the part with you not talking much to them. If I take a guess, then I would have to say that the males on this world are more talkative. I bet they think your scared of them. Then add that to how you said that you didn’t trust them after they wanted to bring you back to their Canterlot. They must have thought that you escaped. Seeing as your probably considered a prime catch among them with being so big and strong. There must be mare’s there that might have done something like, kidnapping a good looking male for herself. That’s where this is all coming from!”
Now visibly twitching her right eye, Brex had to resist the urge to scratch his head, as to not cause any, unneeded sounds to give himself away to the mare’s. He then asked Rory, “Just how in the Seven hells did you even come up with all of that?! Here I was thinking, I was the overly paranoid one inside of my head!”
Shaking his head, He continued, “Soooo~ if we go on what you just said. Then these two have somehow come to the idea that… what, I’m some prince and I’ll be attacking their lands with my own army because I was allegedly taken by one of their citizens. So, the only way they could fix this mess, was to offer themselves to me like I’m some kind of female hunting type of guy? Honestly, I would be calling bull on this or calling them out with, ‘what era are you two from’. But this is the past so, this might just be that kind of era for all I know.”
Having heard enough, the Roegadyn turns away and stands near the door. Dropping the hide skill, Brex silently, opens the door and closes it to make it appear that he had only just came inside. This catches the two and they turn towards him and he could see them attempting to turn their bodies while still on the bed.
Before they could so much as get a single word out, Brex holds up his right hand in a waiting gesture. This gets the two to stop whatever they were about to say or do and the mare’s just look towards him with trepidation in their eyes.
Brex then talks to them while closing the distance, “I’m not mad.” He takes a few more steps and stops at the edge of the large bed and lowers the hand that was used to silence them. Then Brex adds, “Just feel… tired.” Pointing to the mare’s, then to the bed. Brex continues with, “You sleep here.” Taking the same finger, Brex points back to the far wall that was near the door and says, “I sleep there.” When finished, the Roegadyn starts to turn around but is interrupted by his left hand being pulled by a pair of smaller hands.
Looking over his left shoulder, Brex see’s the one called Shadow Lily holding onto him with both hands all the while having an upset look on her face. He was about to protest but stopped when the mare shook her head before saying, “We…, I don’t want you to sleep on the floor. There is more than enough room for us to be on the bed. It wouldn’t feel right to me if you had to be uncomfortable… especially after what we had just pulled on you. I-If you still insist on going through with it, then I’ll sleep on the floor too.”
Brex started to think, “Is she really going to pull that card again on me. What is with this mare and wanting to share the bed. I don’t even know these two. Didn’t anyone talk to her about not leaving herself open to miss interpretations. Maybe she does know what she’s doing after all.” *Mentally sighing* “I didn’t know why I even stand here listening to this. I don’t even have to stay in this room. I lived in the forest for two weeks and I was fine. Am I the type that doesn’t like to leave a task half done or could I have a moral compass? Naw! I really don’t think I’m all that good of a guy. Guess I’m just entertaining the idea of sharing the bed with two hot girls. Yeah, that’s it! it’s the hormones doing. This isn’t really me. I did originally plan on living alone and far, far away from these ponies to begin with.”
Closing his eyes, Brex was having a conflict of epic proportions. On one side was the figurative forces called, WE CAN’T SLEEP WITH THESE MARE’S. On the other side of the battle field was, WE CAN’T MISS THIS CHANCE TO SLEEP WITH THESE MARE’S. Both were in a desperate clash of might as each side was comprised with countless characters from the movies, anime and video games as they continued to fight on the front lines.
Ironically, on the side that was against the idea and leading the charge was the robotic and logical thinking machine Cyborg of the teen titan’s cartoon. Yelling out, BoooYeah. while shifting his right arm into a sonic cannon. He would call out to the other side and say, “We have to stick with the plan. Or do you all want us to suffer later on knowing that we could have avoided making any unnecessary misunderstandings?”
As for the side that was all for wanting to share a bed with two beautiful ladies, was the lectures monk, Miroku from the anime, Inuyasha. He could be seen striking his opponents with his long, golden ringed monk staff while saying, “Why should we squander this opportunity to sample this worlds treasures? Are we not men with needs?”
Within Brex’s mind the fight had lasted for was started as days then week and finally a full month had passed. Thankfully this all was really happening in the span of a few seconds thanks to his heightened sense of thinking as demonstrated with the speed he was reading the books before.
The final strike was delivered when Miroku, had managed to sneak up on Cyborg and sucked him up with the wind tunnel within his hand. Cyborg wasn’t able to escape and was drawn in by the miniature cursed black hole and that ended the ruthless debate. But not before the teen yelled out, “Oh come on! And here I thought I was going to stay after being canceled all those years ago!”
Back to Brex, he just nodded his head and said to Shadow Lily, “No tricks, ok?” this got the mare to smile back up at him and she replied in a happy tone, “No tricks, I promise.” He could see her looking towards Swirl Sugar and the mare nodded as well.
Seeing as they agreed, Brex removed his hand from the darker mare’s grasp and lays on the far-left side of the bed, while on his back, the Roegadyn places his hands over his stomach and starts to close his eyes. This was quickly interrupted by the voice of Shadow lily as she said, “Um, is it ok if you slept in the middle, so we could be on either side of you?”
Brex couldn't help but to raise his right eye brow as he answered with his normal monotone style, “What is purpose?” this got the two mare’s to look towards each other before retuning their sights to him. Noticing the heavy blush on both of them, Brex’s curiosity peaks.
Shadow Lily was now pushing both index fingers together as she replied in a whisper while looking down, “We would feel… better if we were close to you…” Brex couldn’t help but see this mare as some distant relative to Fluttershy with how her words got weaker near the end. With little resistance, he shifted himself so that he was now in the middle of the bed and the two mare’s quickly crawled into position on either side of the larger male.
At first Brex was thinking that they would just go right to sleep without anything happening, but was proven wrong within seconds as he felt the two mare’s pressing themselves onto his form. With how they were laid on the bed, Brex could feel their chests pushing onto his arms just above the elbows. Then they had a leg placed over each of his as then proceeded to use his arms as pillow’s.
Brex couldn't help himself when he asked, while trying to hold back anything that would give away just how this was affecting him. “What is this?” he felt the one called Swirl Sugar rubbing her face into his arm as she answered in a relaxed voice, “What do you mean? We are getting ready to sleep. Have you never slept with others before? I’m sure you’ve done so with your family. This cant be any different, unless its different from where you’re from.”
This caused Brex to think back to how his memories had been replaced with a realistic facsimile by using what was already in his head from during the time he played on Final fantasy 14. Along with a small combination from adding some other aspects from what he knew from other games and shows.
However, no matter how hard Brex tried. There was nothing there when it came to a family. It was as if his life only started from the moment that he entered the game on the intro quest while on the ship ride that brought him to his starting location which happen to be Limsa Lominsa. He said in a whisper, “Never did this.”
This only got him to feel the two snuggling even closer to his form as he could feel their body heat through his clothing. There was no longer any talking between the two parties as Brex felt comfortable and soon fell to sleep.
*Point of view: “Shadow Lily*
The Mare was snuggling into Brex’s body and was enjoying it to the fullest. It was an understatement that she was devastated when he had left before and it had taken awhile before the restraints released her. She had no idea that things would turn out this way. She could just tell that the one she was next too, was fast asleep now. Gripping his clothing as she laid on his right side, Shadow was actually more attracted to him for the fact that he didn’t act on the male’s desire for sex like any other stallion would have done. Even if she did feel bad about it being the case. Shadow Lily was confused as to what she had wanted.
But for right now the mare was elated for the opportunity to sleep beside a promising future mate. Now all she needed to do was to put all the troubles to rest back at the capital and get his attention. The image of him and her together danced within her mind. At some point she had seen Swirl Sugar even in there with them as they formed a herd. But first she wanted to be the one to end the mare that dared to hurt him. She was never the type to think those thoughts but something about Brex had triggered a protective instinct that demanded that she takes out all that stand in his way.
Back with Swirl Sugar the mare had been doing the same on the Roegadyn’s left side. As she fell to sleep the pink mare was unaware that she too was having the same thoughts and feelings for the one between them.
*Point of view: Break Down* *Location: Canterlot Guard Office*
The Brown male pony was standing behind the couch from the last meeting while looking across the room at another pony standing in front of a large grandfather clock. The second was Break downs father Beat Down. The son was looking at his fathers back while waiting for a reply for the report that he had just given.
The report in question was in reality a kind of run through for what he was to give to the captain in the morning. It was essentially saying that they had been assigned to patrol the old Castle and while there, the group was attacked by some unknown creature and it had killed his comrades. He alone was the only one to escape. There was some theatrics added here and there to describe the way he had tried to save them and his challenging escape through the forest at night.
Break down was extremely reluctant when his father had said that he needed to show some battle marks, later on his own father would be the one to inflict some realistic injuries. This caused the Break Down to visibly whimper at the thought that he would have to sustain things that would have to line up with the story that he and Beat Down had come up with.
After a long pause of silence, Break Down finally got something from his father. With a determined glare from over his right shoulder, Beat down said, “Good, Good. Now this will all soon be cleared up. Our family name will be kept clean and we will even be seen on a higher pedestal when all is said and done. Now make sure no one sees you. The next part is soon to start.”
*Point of view: Daddy* *Location: Unknown*
The one called Daddy was sitting in what could have been seen as a class room seat from middle school and right next to him was the one called Little Moon. The place they were at was not the ocean of gold as all the other times, but what appeared to be a college lecture hall. The room was large enough to have seated over a thousand humans. However, the only things within were the two seats that happen to be right in front of a large chock board that was roughly 30 meters wide and 20 meters tall in diameter.
On the forementioned board was written a series of complex, mathematical equations that would have caused the most intelligent people in earths history a migraine if they even looked at what was written for more than ten seconds.
There was the one called Little Light, she was right in front of the board and had just added the last line to what was written. Placing the piece of chock down she turns towards the two in their seats and asks in a professional voice that could have been mistaken for a strict business person that was in the middle of a staff meeting.
“So, as you can see. I have put up the laws that you both have broken and their ramifications on this world. Not to mention the chain of effects this would have on other worlds that have a high degree of interacting, thanks to the introduction of a displaced.”
She lets out a long sigh before continuing, “It’s widely known about these merchants and their influences. I won’t say that a displaced would have never come here if you didn’t get mixed up in their matters, but this means that you are responsible in some way now that your metaphorical finger prints are all over this mess.”
There was a long stretch of silence. Then Little Light screamed, “ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME!” there was a large pop sound as what could have been seen as a dream bubble had busted and a yelp came out of the one called Daddy, “I-I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DINOSAUR’S EXTINCTION!” there was also a clattering from some small device hitting the floor and tumbling across the ground. When the item had stopped, Little Light picked it up to find it to be the old Gameboy that first came out from earth.
There was an uneasy chuckle that was coming from Little Moon as she said, “Um… is the answer… 42? Haha haha.” This earned Little Moon a face full of the once, sought after hand held gaming tool from back in its time. There was a small reply from Little Moon as she said, “thanks… Sis.”
Letting out a Grunt of frustration, Little Light exclaims, “Just what are you two even thinking, UHG!!! To think I’m even related to the both of you! Why are you both taking this so easily? You both broke the rules. Am I the only one that even follows those anymore! This is just like my old boyfriend all over again!” Little Light was now going off on one of her rants for the countless time. This had all started when the other two had filled her in on everything that had to do with the one summoned to that world.
Daddy leaned closer to Little Moon and whispered during Little Lights newest rant, “I lost track. Just who was her last boyfriend again?” Little Moon replied in the same level of volume, “Oh you know the one. He had a deal going on with some guy back on the earth your kid came from. Er… what was the guy’s name… Craft… something… Oh, it was a guy called Lovecraft.” Daddy blinked a few times, but after a moment he remembered the old boyfriend. He had started to think, “Oh I remember now, I was really hoping that he would balance Little Light out with his antics.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 15: First impressions.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Brex’s Dream Scape*
Brex opens his eyes and finds himself in a star filled void and right before him is a white door floating in midair. Reaching for the door, he turns the handle and opens it. The first thing he noticed is the room from before, with the numerous types of windows lining the walls and a bed in the middle of a nicely polished wooden floor.
Looking around the room from just inside from the door way, Brex realizes that no one else was around. He considered that Rory was on her way to him thanks to the story of when she had to search for the door when they had first met that morning. With a smile, he turns and closes the door before reaching for the color-coded turn wheel next to the handle along the wall.
Giving it a good turn to the left, the red was now rotated to be on the top. The light lit up and he quickly opened the door and braced himself while his arms were held out to his sides. Not even a second had passed after he had opened the door again, when something collided with him in his lower chest area. It wasn’t hard, but it also wasn’t soft either. Looking down Brex could see a confused Rory mercury being held in his arms while giving her a warm smile.
Letting out a chuckle, Brex gives the girl a hug while saying, “Good to see you dropping by. How did you like my little short cut?” It had taken Rory a few seconds to recover and notice the situation and after hearing her master’s words, she couldn’t help but use her legs and push herself higher so she could give him a hug around the neck and placed her chin into the nape of his neck and giving out a chuckle of her own.
They help the embrace for a good solid minute before letting go of one another. The girl stood up to her full height and gave him a small curtsy by taking hold of the sides of her skirt and giving a little bow. Before saying, “it’s nice to finally meet you my master~, you have no idea how long this day had been for me to introduce myself formally.”
Brex quickly gets to the point knowing that the time in the dream scape could go at a much slower pace. This meant that they didn’t have a whole lot of time to get things done in preparation.
He asked Rory, “Rory, I had been meaning to ask you about the anti-virus and Firewall. Could you tell me if they can be used to protect my mind or body from outside influences? What I’m talking about would have to be, things like, getting sick physically and possibly protecting me from any forms of mind control or mind reading. There is also the thing with Princess Luna getting at me through my dreams.”
Rory places a finger onto her chin and hums to herself while closing her eyes for a moment. After seeming to have thought it over, she replies with a confident smirk, “That shouldn’t be a problem there at all, when it comes to anything trying to get into your head. However, you can get sick from a cold or being exposed to some kind of poison, if that’s what you meant by getting sick physically.”
Giving a wide smile, she continues with, “We could set things up for a full mental block if you want.” That was when Brex gave her a firm head shake. He then said, “No I don’t want that exactly per say. It would tip them off, if I was to somehow be able to fully block their powers. Don’t misunderstand me. No way I want them to have any control over my mind. What I want is to have separate layers of my mind set up. Er… how do I explain my idea…”
Scratching his head, Brex attempts to explain, “It’s like this, I want to keep my real thoughts completely hidden while having a lower level of them that would have a weaker protection that those that try to gain access would end up dealing with instead. All the while my real self is protected and not a target. Does that make sense?”
The girl gives it some thinking before answering, “Oh I get it, you want a decoy layer of thinking. One that the princess and others would see, but not the real one.” Laughing Brex gives her a nod as he says, “Yes that’s it exactly. I need a decoy so I can let them hear only what I want. They will still have to try and put some effort to get into it though. Don’t want it to seem too easy or they might get somewhat suspicious.”
Rory gives him a wink while showing a mischievous grin before saying, “Oh master. That’s a great idea. But what do you want to do about the one that can dive into dreams? It’s one thing to lay out a thought for the mind readers, but as for the dreams, we will need to come up with a plan.”
Closing his eyes now, Brex cross’s his arms and mutters to himself for a minute before opening his eyes wide and exclaiming in an excited tone, “Ha! I got it. Why don’t we just make it so I have multiple layers on my mind that can also act like decoys just like how we will do it for the mind spells we just talked about?” This caused Rory to tilt her head out of confusion.
Brex continued by saying, “Keep my true memories and thoughts locked up in a spot, for example, here in this room. This could be the core if you want to give it a name. No, No. wait, lets think of my head as a three floored building. The first floor could be my thoughts I want others to hear if they use spells in the real world. Then the second floor is where we will construct the fake dreams I have and the past I’m willing to share from time to time. We can make it so Lulu will only be able to be on that second floor and we will have control without her realizing it herself. Now as for the third floor, that will be this room where I have the real stuff.”
He continues with, “Now it’s not like we can lay everything out for her to walk through. I do want the second floor to give her some resistance. That would explain how she can’t get whatever she wants out of me, also, if I feel that I want the princess out then I could force her to leave. That way, to her perspective, I just started to become aware of her and either woke up or managed to expel her from my dreams. Do you think that’s possible for the Anti-virus and Firewall to do, or am I asking for too much?”
Smirking, Rory replies, “Oh, not at all. That’s well within their capabilities to do. So, what sort of dreams do you want to set up for now? I doubt that you want to show too much about yourself.”
Brex lifts a finger into the air while he answers with, “I think coming up with the port town I started in would be fine. Just don’t add any of the people inside of it yet. So just the structure and buildings. Make sure that there is an invisible dome around the city so Princess Luna won’t have the option of leaving to go sightseeing the country. Well not yet anyhow. If she is going to go dream hopping, then I want to have a test run and see what she does.”
When he was done with giving the rudimentary outline for the mental defenses, He then turned his attention to the room and wondered aloud, “As for this.” he motions for the room in general before continuing, “I’ll go ahead and see about adding some more décor.”
Just as he was about to snap his fingers, Brex halted and gave a toothy smile before placing his hands together. When they parted, it displayed a small man that was no larger than Brex’s own head. The man had a neatly trimmed, light green hair cut. Wearing a common businessman’s white button up shirt with a black neck tie. But what was strange above all else, was the fact that he was floating in the air with the help of small wings and a gold crown that didn’t even come into contact with his head and holding onto a wand that had a golden star on the tip.
The small man looked about and said, “Hold on here… this isn’t the candy store! Also, I was about to grant a wish for a chocolate snake. Wonda! Oh Wonda. Shnookums!” That was when Brex called to get his attention and explained, “Oh don’t worry, I just summoned you here. You’re, um. On a temp fairy program and you have to grant me one wish or… you get your license suspended for… er… one week.”
This convinces the small man and Brex wished for his room to look exactly like his old house from Final fantasy 14. With a flick of his wand. The room was covered in a blinding flash. Brex could hear from behind himself the voice of Rory yelling. “What’s with all the blinding lights in here, I said warn a girl!” it was then preceded by the sound of something hitting the floor with a small thud.
When the flash died down, Brex could see an exact copy of his house that was put together with the help of his friends over many years. It was essentially a mansion with it being two floors tall and one basement level. The main room had an opening on the left and right sides that led to a set of large rooms filled with furnishings. Looking ahead, Brex saw a set of twin steps that led to the next floor on both sides of the main room and off to the back was the way down into the basement. The whole building was made up of, the main room, two large side rooms. A basement that held four rooms for personal decorating and on the upper floor, there was space for six rooms all together if one was to add some walls. So, there could have been, ten bedrooms altogether.
With that done, the small man called out to Brex with a good bye and disappeared in a cloud of white smoke. Within that cloud was some letters that spelled the word, ‘POOF!’ That also vanished with the smoke.
Brex nearly fell from laughing when he looked over and saw the extremely confused, blinking expression on Rory’s face as she got back to her feet and asked in an uncertain tone, “Sooo, should I ask about that, or should I just pretend I didn’t see anything so I can preserve my sanity?” That sent Brex over the edge and he had to brace himself onto the wall so he didn’t hit the floor with how hard he laughed. This lasted for a good five or six minutes before calming down.
Calling to Rory, Brex spoke while still getting the last of it out of his system, “Haha, Oh I’m sorry about that Rory. I just wanted to have some fun there. I knew I could will all of this into existence with how it’s all in my head but I couldn’t resist the chance to meet that guy. Besides, after episode one, he is somehow not as smart, but at the same time he can be very accommodating. I knew he wasn’t fooled with that line about getting his license suspended. But with him being fabricated by my imagination, he went along with the half-baked fib I used.”
Looking around, Brex noticed that his bed was now, just sitting in the middle of the main room and said, “Now, where should my bedroom be at in this placed.” Lifting his gaze to the second floor. He spots the one door way right between the top of the steps and nods before snapping his fingers and sending the bed into that space.
Turning to Rory, He asks, “So Rory, where do you want your room to be? You, pretty much have the pick of the litter. There are so many rooms and I could always decorate them later on. So, what will it be? Want a room on the top floor next to mine, or maybe a spot a far distance away for some privacy?”
His ramblings were cut off when he felt a pair of arms wrapping themselves around his right arm, this caused Brex to look down to see a set of teary eyes from Rory. Confused, he asked, “Umm, what’s wrong. Did I say something to upset you?”
While still holding his arm, the girl pressed her chest into it and brought her hands together to touch the tips of both index fingers. He noticed then, that she had a light blush before Rory replies in a weak voice, “I-Is it ok with master if I can stay with him? I don’t really want my own room. It’s just that, I don’t want you to be alone, just in case there is another incident again. This time, I want to be there for you at a moment’s notice… is that ok with you?”
Letting out a small sigh, Brex gives Rory a small smile and then proceeds to pat her head lightly before answering, “Sure thing. In fact, if I’m being honest myself, I think I would feel a lot better if you did that too. If this keeps up, I’ll soon lose track of how many times you save my ass.”
This elicits a happy giggle from the girl as she starts to pull on his arm towards the right set of steps that led to the second floor. In an excited tone, Rory calls out, “Well? What are we waiting for? Let’s set up out love nes… I mean, our Room!” He noticed that Rory seemed to have turned another shade darker at the end of that sentence, but dismissed it was the girl being overly excited.
Sometime later, the two finished with setting up the bedroom that they would be sharing. There was a large bed with a big headboard and four posts that connected to a canopy above, that could have comfortably kept 10 people sleeping soundly. Brex was hesitant in getting one that big seeing as he had to remove one of the dividing walls to make the room twice its size. However, Rory said that it would be necessary for the future. The Roegadyn wasn’t all that sure, but he went with it anyhow.
The rest of the room was furnished with the common items, those being, dressers, mirrors, nightstands, a large table and four-person sofa. Of course, the room had to have its own personal bathroom that was designed in a way that it would have made even the nobles of Canterlot to become envious if they had gotten a glance at it.
With everything leading to the completion of the bedroom, Brex noticed that it was roughly two hours that they had been at it. He turned to ask Rory, “Hay Rory, if two hours go by in here, then it means that six have gone in the outside world, right?”
Rory taps her chin and answers with a nod and says, “Yup, that last time you slept, 20 hours passed in here, but three days went by out there. Why you ask, want to get up early or something?” she then shifted her thinking expression into a big, beaming smile as she added, “Or perhaps you wanted to get some time to enjoy the feeling of those two mare’s while they’re still clinging onto your body?”
This caused Brex to look a little embarrassed as she replied, “Well, I won’t deny that they felt rather nice when they laid next to me. But I want to be awake before they are because I just remembered that among those items that Luna had, there was something that I might want to hang onto, just in case.”
This got a sultry reply from Rory, “Oh master, was there something that caught your eye? Oh, I wonder what it could be. There were quite a few interesting toys in the bunch. Hehe Hehe~”
Brex could only shake his head to the sides as a sigh escaped his lips. Turning to the girl, He then asked, “By the way, while I was working on the house. Did you happen to have the other things we talked about set up too?”
This got a salute from Rory before replying in a cheery tone, “Yup, its all set up just how you wanted it. If you want to, we could go and give it a once over to see if there are any changes you wanna do to it.”
Giving a nod of approval, Brex walks down to the lower floor and approaches the front door. Just before Brex’s hand was to touch the color wheel, it stopped. Looking over his left shoulder, he calls to Rory, “Want to do the honors?” Grinning, Rory comes up to the door and takes the wheel in her right hand and rotates the colors until it lands onto the blue. This causes it, along with the doors edges to give off a faint glow for but a second. Afterwards the door was opened by Brex and he waved his other arm to usher Rory to go first. With a nod of thanks, she exits and was then followed by Brex himself.
Now the two found themselves to be standing by a large turning brilliant crystal that was floating a foot above a pedestal that seemed to be comprised of the same material. Where they were at, seemed to be located in the middle of what could have been considered a main plaza.
Taking in a deep breath, Brex calls out, “Oh wow! I know this is a dream and all, but I can smell the cool ocean breeze.” Taking another look around at his surroundings, he could see all the buildings just as he remembered. There were all the tall structures that seemed to have come right out of the sea and on those were numerous bridges and balcony’s that came from the buildings that had been incorporated into the natural stone spires.
His sight was pulled to the sky when he started to hear birds flying overhead and the wind blowing. Letting out a joyful laugh, He turned to Rory who was right now showing excitement over seeing this place for the first time.
Brex called to her and said, “Its amazing Rory! You really did all of this yourself? It’s even more detailed that I would have imagined in my life. This got the girl to squirm on the spot from such praising that she averted her eyes while muttering, “It was… n-nothing. This much is just child’s play to a demi goddess like myself.”
Giving some thought, Brex asks Rory, “Say, I think we have a bit of time until the sun comes up. Is there anything you want to add to this? After all. We are sharing this dream scape.” Rory was surprised by the request but quickly recovered. He could see that her eyes were tracing the scene before them and after a minute she replied, “It seems rather empty in a sense. I know you wanted to keep the ones living here out of sight, but the silence makes one feel uneasy in away.”
Brex thinks over what Rory had just said and after some consideration, came to an agreement and said, “Hmm, I see what you mean. How about we add some ambiance to the background? Let’s add some noise. Something like, the sounds of a small crowd talking. We could give it an outdoor market feel. Just make sure it’s not something that Luna can make out. We still need to keep her guessing.”
It had taken Rory only a few tries as she went from one type of background sound to the next until she got one that they both felt was a good match. After giving the place one more look, the two decided that everything was set up perfectly.
The Roegadyn looked towards Rory and said, “Everything seems good to go. I think I better wake up now. It’s almost daybreak and I need to get up before those two wake up. Today is going to be one busy day and I’ll need to do it fast.”
This triggered Rory to have a sad expression that Brex didn’t miss. Coming closer, he reaches down and with his right index finger, places it under her chin and brings her gaze towards his before he says, “Don’t worry, I’ll see you later. Besides, your always with me. Maybe when things calm down and I get some breathing room, I could find a way for you to be in the real world. There is magic after all on this planet. I’m sure a spell is out there.”
This caused the sadness to vanish and an elated one to replace it as she clings onto him. Brex didn’t expect such a strong reaction but welcomed it. When they finally separated, the Roegadyn turned to a door that led to some random house right next to them and came right up to it and said, “Until next time!” that was when he opened the door. That caused the dream to fade into black.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Luna’s Bed chamber*
Brex was now in the waking world with his eyes closed. He could feel the softness of the bed under his body and the warmth from his left and right… SIDES?!” Brex had nearly panicked and darted from the bed but caught himself before anything was done when he quickly remembered the way things were at the time he had fallen to sleep.
Noticing that they still had their bodies wrapped around his arms. He was about to try and slip from their grasps but halted when he caught something being whispered by the one called Shadow Lily. The mare was talking in her sleep while having a light blush and a small amount of drool that was leaking from the corner of her mouth. He started to blush when he heard her say, “Oh…master Brex… a little tighter… please…” the way that she said it, caused Brex to look down in shock when he felt that he was getting aroused.
He started to think while having wide eyes, “No, NO. don’t you dare! Stay down, we can’t do that anyhow! Remember what was decided last night!” This only got more difficult when he started to hear another voice on his other side whispering in her sleep, “Oh…Yes. Take me…” that wouldn’t have been so bad but the one that said it had added some very arousing moans at the end.
He needed to get out of there in a hurry and after some difficult maneuvers, Brex had escaped their holds and stood at the end of the bed while panting under his mask. With a shaky tone to his inner voice, Brex muttered, “Any longer and something… might have happened…” tilting his head downwards, He pointed down and added, “And you’re not helping!”
After letting himself to have a few moments to cool down. Brex turned to the pile of items that the two had made from looting the Princess’s personal stash. Coming up to it, his hand hovered over each item but came to a stop when he found a particular one that had caught his attention back when it was first discovered yesterday morning.
Carefully picking up the item in question, Brex rolled the small thing over in his hand. Taking a good, long look. Brex figured out just what it was thanks to all the stories that had given a small example of how it looks.
The item was called a, Magic nullifier ring. But what got his attention the most, was with how more decorated the thing was. Normally these would appear to be, somewhat simple in design. A band that would go onto the horn and slide down until it was snug in place and the wearer wouldn’t be able to take it off themselves. it would have some runes etched into the metal and there might be a jewel added.
But when it came to this item however, Brex had a feeling that it was something of a higher grade then the standard type. Wanting to make sure on his suspicion, the Roegadyn dropped the ring into his item box and opened the window to display the ring to see what was in the information for it.
When he had found it, Brex took a moment or two to read the texts carefully and blinked a few times when he had finished. “Oh, Wow… Lulu. You really went all out on this one. I wonder if your sister knew anything about this. if not then she might have been really mad if she had ever found out.”
In the text, it was saying that this was a, Magical nullifier ring that was made by using star metal. If he recalled correctly, Star metal was one of the rarest and most expensive kind there was. There were moon decorations added to the outside but when it came to the inside, that was another matter altogether. The runes where at such a high level that it was fully capable of blocking even an alicorn’s magic. There was a blue gem affixed to it and the text mentioned that it came from a falling star.
When it came to the descriptions for its effects, Brex had expected to see the magic blocking, but there were a few things added to it. The first was that, the one who places it on, can add a time for when it activated and deactivates with a whisper when first put into place on the horn. The second was to use the own users magic to stimulate their body.
Brex was starting to get turned on by how much his favorite princess was so well prepared when it came to her fetish. But what had gotten his attention was what he had seen on the bottom of this window. When anyone looked at a description, in the bottom would be a set sale price of an item to show what they could get for it at a vendor. Normally, one would get maybe a quarter or if lucky a third of the original paid price. When it came to the ring, it said that it could be sold for, 20,000 bits. So, if he was to have gotten it from a shop. Then it would have cost him close to a solid one million bits to purchase.
Rory asked with a sultry tone, “Oh master~ are you planning on taking one of the princesses with that?” This caused Brex to stutter with the mental connection when he replied, “I-I-I J-just thought that it would be a good idea to have something like this ready in case the situation was to come up where I needed to hold a powerful caster. You know… like, um… Nightmare Moon or Chrysalis. Their so powerful that any old ring wouldn’t be able to work. This got an unconvinced reply from Rory, “Oh I see… Sure.”
Feeling even more embarrassed now, Brex looked back towards the two mare’s and thought in a serious tone, “Well, it’s almost time. When they go, I might never see them again. I’ll get everything I can from the Castle and head towards the east. Just need to make sure I avoid the griffons so I don’t end up in their gladiator matches or sold off as some exotic pet. Their a warrior race that will show off power whenever they can. At least they are forward with how they are. Not like here in Equestria with how they teach friendship and harmony, only to turn around and show their true colors when it comes to anything that’s not a pony or even slightly different to the mass’s.”
He continued after a short pause, “If I was stronger than I might entertain in the idea of staying in this country. But with how I am now. It’s only a matter of time until misfortunes strike. I just hope that these two can get back home and get that commander thrown into jail for his attempt at getting them killed. I would have liked to deal a good blow to his face if I had the chance though.”
It was then, that the sun finally started to rise from the horizon and the night, shifted colors from the light blue hew and into the orange filled morning day. Brex thought, “Look who’s awake. At least I can tell when she gets up with that worldwide announcement of hers. I bet she must have a bedhead right now.”
After a few more minutes, the two mare’s started to stir awake. Brex was currently standing near the double door windows that led to the balcony while looking into this distance thanks to the elevated height of the tower.
The one called Swirl Sugar called out in a drowsy voice, “Good morning, Shadow… we need to get into armor before the commander bursts in and starts yelling at us again…” Brex mentally laughed when he realized that they thought this was their place. He said, “Morning, Swirl Sugar.”
This caused the mare who was trying to get out of the bed to panic and fall onto the floor with a small thud. Hearing a small groan of discomfort. Shadow Lily fully awakens and makes her way over to the side of the bed that Swirl Sugar had fallen from and winced at the sight of Her friend holding onto her head but that turned int slight panic when she saw some blood when Swirl had lifted her hand.
Brex had noticed it as well and rushed over from across the room and kneeled next to the injured mare. She tried to play it off as nothing but hissed at the pain and he could tell that she might be showing signs of a bruise showing thanks to how short their body hair was.
Feeling terrible for being the cause, Brex picked her up in his arms and placed the mare onto the bed. This prompted a startled whelp from the pink mare as she looked towards him with wide eyes. Without saying a word, He reaches into his pocket and had a potion appear in his hand before pulling it out. Within his grasp is one, high health potion. Fearing that this might turn out to be something serious, the Roegadyn gets to one knee and pops the cork. he leans closer to Swirl Sugar’s face and takes hold of her jaw to help in keeping the mare from moving so he could get at the injury.
*Point of view: Swirl Sugar*
Swirl Sugar was feeling like a fool when she fell from the bed after hearing a stallion’s voice. She was about to say that she was ok but she couldn’t help but to bring a hand to her head and she could feel some wetness on the left side of her forehead. Swirl had wanted to get up but she was suffering from some dizziness but before she could do anything else, her body was lifted into a princess style hold and was deposited onto the bed with ease.
With eyes that had been a bit blurry from only just waking up, her vision was clearing up in time to see the black and white masked face of Sir Brex standing right next to her. But then he lowered himself and takes hold of her jaw.
To say that she was surprised, was an appropriate assessment. Swirl thought that he was going to be rough with where his hand was placed, this caused her to close her eyes. Memories of the time back in the red district flashed before her with how roughly the stallion would get. Especially when they held her face like this. Expecting either a slap to the cheek or even something to be jammed in her mouth, the mare froze when she felt the grip to not hurt at all. It was somehow comfortable.
She soon opened her eyes to see him holding a small clear bottle that had a small piece of rope tied near the opening and a cork dangling from said bottle. Within it, Swirl could see a light red colored liquid being contained that could have been enough to be drunk in one go. Somehow the mare thought, “What is that stuff… it… it looks like, B-blood! Why does he have a bottle of blood?”
This only caused the mare to try and weakly struggle but that was stopped when she heard Brex say, “Swirl, hold still!” this made Swirls body freeze from how Sir Brex had given the order. She felt her cheeks going red when she realized that she followed a males command without so much as a thought and started to think, “That’s… That’s the first time I heard him talk like that. Why did I do what he said without a second thought. Also, why am I so hot right now. No! stay focused. What is he doing with that blood?” Letting a small gulp escape from her lips. Swirl Sugar asked in a shaky tone, “What are y-you going to do with that…b-blood?”
This got a light head shake from Sir Brex before she said, “My healing potion.” This got her to feel confused by those words. What does he mean by a healing potion? Didn’t he intend to say medicine? But it seems to be liquid, it is something that he needs to soak into a cloth perhaps?”
However, that thought was thrown out when his hands gently made her mouth to open and before she could register the act, Sir Brex had placed the bottle to her lips and the red liquid was poured into her mouth. On instinct, the pink mare drunk it down greedily. It had all been drunk by the time Swirl Sugar realized this and looked towards the masked male before her while showing a worried look.
She was just about to say something when there was a small tingling sensation that ran throughout her body that felt quite pleasant. It had only lasted for a few seconds and when that faded, there was a gasp from her side. Her jaw was released, but was grabbed right away by her friend as she felt that her head was being forcibly yanked to the right.
Shadow Lily was giving a wide eyed, amazed expression towards Swirl Sugars forehead. Shadow asked in an extremally fast pace, “Are you ok? How are you feeling, does it hurt at all? How did that stuff taste? Did you know that you were glowing for a second there! Oh, That’s amazing! The wound is all gone, there isn’t any marks at all, also the blood had vanished too!”
In a panic Swirl Sugar wrenched her face free from her friends, death grip and started to take in a few deep breaths to calm down. Wondering just what had gotten to the mare, she had brought her hand up to the injury but was unable to find the spot. After a moment the mare was positive that she had the right place and quickly got off the bed and ran to the only mirror in the room and started to examine her head.
There was no trace at all. Even the blood that should have stained her fur or hands had disappeared as well. Turning to the one that had given her the drink. Swirl Sugar wore a stupefied expression as she muttered, “You said that was…*Gulp* your healing potion… right? I-I never seen anything like it. I didn’t sense any magic at all. But how is it possible for something without magic to have such a drastic effect on an injury?”
Glancing to the mirror then again to Sir Brex. The mare asked, “Is… is this some secret from where you come from? It must have cost quite a lot… you shouldn’t have wasted such a thing on me… I-I’m just…”
She was cut off when he said, “I made it.” This caused Swirls mind to go into overdrive. She started to think, “Did, he J-just say that he made it. Then could be a master potion maker of some kind? To make something like this, his country must be more advanced than ours. They have strong warriors and they have something that can heal wounds faster than any magic I had ever seen before. Not only that, it can be carried on hand so that they could use such an item at any given time. A unicorn wouldn’t be needed to be present to administer first aid.”
Looking back towards the empty bottle still in his grasp, Swirl continued with, “That potion must have cost a lot. I can’t believe that he just used something that any noble would have stopped at nothing to get their grubby hands on.”
Lowering her head, the mare approached Brex, while not looking back up to his face. She then said, “I’ll repay you for it, I swear. J-Just give me a little time to…” But was stopped when she felt a hand resting onto her right shoulder and heard him saying, “Forget about it.” This made her blink, before she thought, “Did he not want a form of compensation?”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
He had panicked when he saw the head injury and feared that it may have been something worse. Without hesitation, Brex pulled out the bottle and forced Swirl Sugar to drink it. The reason he did that was because he didn’t want to waste time explaining when medical attention was required.
He had noticed the way she looked towards the bottle and an image flashed into his mind of a skeleton mage offering a healing potion to a young woman that was with her little sister, but they had assumed it to be blood.
When the wound had been fixed, the two seemed dumfounded to see that all the evidence of there ever being a problem had disappeared. But then Brex saw how they were looking towards the empty bottle. That was when the Roegadyn realized that he had gone and messed up badly.
Brex had to mitigate the damage this one item was causing. It had slipped his mind that such a thing may have been something they didn’t have in this world. Those fears only made themselves known when he noticed the way the two reacted to the potion’s effects.
He watched the one called Swirl Sugar going to the mirror and after a while, she had come closer to him. Her head was down and he heard her saying something about repaying him. However, Brex didn’t want anything. In fact, he wished that they would simply forget about ever seeing the dang thing used in the first place. He then said, “Forget about it.”
Brex started to think, “Great, just great. Now you really gone and done it. If I go with how these two went nuts over this one healing potion, then I may have just made myself a bigger target. Why does everything I do, end up causing me even more trouble. If the list of me not being from here and being strong wasn’t enough, now they will see that I can make stuff that they don’t have. I may have to completely leave this land. I wonder if I can survive up north where the Crystal Empire is meant to be? At least when it returns, then I’ll know when in the time line I am.”
Looking towards the window, Brex started to wonder just how long would it even take for him to get up there. That was when he heard the pink mare speaking and turned towards her and heard, “Is, what you used on me… something valuable? If so, then I must repay you back for it.”
After hearing this, the Roegadyn had an idea. Letting out a small sigh, He turned his head to look at the darker mare, then back to the pink one and said, “Keep it secret.”
He watched as the two glanced to each other before bringing their sights back to Brex and the one called Swirl Sugar then said, “I don’t understand. Are you saying you don’t want us to tell any pony about the potion you gave me? Do you know how much something like this would go for back in Canterlot? We don’t have anything like this. I’m sure that you could become famous if word got out. The Princess would eve…”
That was when the Roegadyn stepped forward and brought his face close to the mare. She was obviously caught unaware with the sudden movements and Brex could see the girl gulping and showing some fear. Seeing this caused him to feel bad, but he needed to make it clear to them both. In a clear, deep voice that was laced with urgency, he said, “Dangerous for me!” The mare was nodding her head vigorously and on the edge of his peripheral vision, Brex could see the one called Shadow Lily doing the same.
Seeing that he had just spooked the two. Brex backed up a step and started to talk in his normal tone, “Time to go.” This got the two mare’s to give him shocked looks as their eyes went wide. The one called Shadow Lily called out to Brex and said, “I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to make you angry.”
This had confused him and he thought, “Didn’t these two mare’s plan on going back when the sun had come back up?” Thinking that he needed to remind them, he pointed to the window and said, “Remember Break Down?”
This caused them to stop and a look of comprehension crossed both faces. That was when the pink one said, “Oh! That’s right. We have to get back and report to the captain just what had happened. She then added, “Are you sure you won’t come back with us. I can assure that you won’t have any trouble if we are with you.”
This only got Brex to shake his head and say, “Risks, too high.” He could see the two looking to the stone floor. Before giving him some reluctant nods. It wasn’t long until the pair had dawned their prospective gear and weapons. During this time, Brex was looking over the armor they were using and had noticed that they seemed to be made of a type of metal that resembled silver but that wasn’t the case at all.
He thought, “Hmm, so I see that the gear is close to how it is in some of the stories that describe the guard’s armor to be made up of softer types of metal. But thankfully these aren’t really made out of silver. I do wish these two had equipment made from iron though. That would have been far better for defense. He had to resist taking a piece to place into the item box so he could look over its stats.
It had become seven in the morning by the time the mare’s were ready to go and they were currently standing outside the castle gates that led right to the rope bridge that crosses the dark chasm used to protect the old castle. Brex couldn’t help but to think, “Did it really take them nearly three hours to get ready to go? If I didn’t know any better, I would have called them out on stalling.”
The two guard ponies stood close to the bridge while giving the Roegadyn the equivalent to the dreaded, all powerful, Nuke busting potential… Puppy dog eyes! Cue the music, Dah, Dah DaaaaaH! It had taken nearly all of Brex’s willpower to resist their pleading for him to return along with them to the capital.
There were so many times that He had almost broken his self-imposed, three-word count restrictions to tell these mare’s to just go already. He had found out that they had the wrong idea that he was some noble from some far-off kingdom. To top it all off, the two were dead set on the notion that he was here due to being kidnapped, er… he supposed the term here would have been foal napped.
But as for the way they acted during the time between getting ready and the moment it was time to leave, Brex had felt the two looking towards him in a way that he just couldn’t explain. While walking through the old castle walls, He had caught them looking to him to only avert their gaze when the Roegadyn had turned his head in their direction and back to the path. Shadow Lily and Swirl Sugar had even walked a little closer now and then when it wasn’t needed.
Shadow Lily was currently asking yet another time, “Are you sure you won’t go back with us? Your all alone out here, its not safe.” Swirl Sugar added to the conversation by saying, “Yeah, besides that. We can use your help in the investigation of those nobles back in the city. If we tell the Princ…” She had stopped herself before finishing the sentence. Brex thought, “Good, she’s learning to reframe from saying her name around me. I do feel bad that I let such an outburst out. But I really needed to drive it home that I didn’t want anything to do with that mare.”
They let out a set of sighs in front of him. Thinking it was all said and done, Brex was about to say the final good bye when he was suddenly hugged by the two mare’s. Stiffening up, Brex wasn’t too sure on what to do. He didn’t want to say it, but he was actually going to miss them when they left. It had been a long two weeks alone in the forest. Even so, now that he had Rory living inside his mind, things seemed to be getting, just a bit better.
The two released their grip and started over the rope bridge. When they had reached the other side and were standing on solid ground, Brex could hear them calling out and saying things like, they would be back to see him. This only caused him to do a small wave with his right hand. They turned around and disappeared into the thick brush and into the Everfree woods.
Still planted on the spot, Brex had not stopped his waving for a good minute. But during that time, he had whispered under his breath with a borderline, sad tone, “Yes, I’ll see you soon… soon. *Sigh* Who am I kidding. We won’t be seeing each other again. Afterall… I’m a displaced. When has one ever had things going for them well enough to be considered a happy life…”
Brex had returned to the castle and was currently walking towards the courtyard that was at the end of a long hallway. Normally to get this far, Brex would have only taken a few minutes. But with how slow he walked; it had taken him close to ten.
When the Roegadyn had lastly reached the open courtyard. He could see off the far side, the same blue flower garden that was able to take his attention that night. Letting out a deep sigh, he had approached it and stood but 2 meters away and just stood there.
Rory let out a small cough as to carefully gain her master’s attention and when she felt that it worked, she said, “Master, I don’t mean to rush you, but didn’t you say that we needed to hurry when those two left. There are still plenty of tomes to read, is there not?”
Giving an almost imperceptible shake of the head, Brex uses the mental connection to reply, “It’s going to take the two of them close to four hours to get out of the Everfree woods. Then there’s the time it takes to get up to Canterlot. Even if what they say causes Princess Celestia to come running, its going to be well over six hours before she even gets here. Even with the use of teleportation, I’ll have at least that long. So, I think I have close to three or four hours of free time before I have to pack up and go.”
Brex could sense that even with her saying that things would be ok, along with the times that she had attempted to convince him that the Princess may not be as bad as Brex had thought, there was the sense that Rory was somewhat cautious about the mare too.
After a few minutes he decided to use the mental connection to say, “Ok, I guess I’ll revise the plan a little. Let’s leave before three hours are up so we can have some extra distance from here.” Turning towards the structure that was in the eastern direction from the garden. He had only taken a few steps before there was a searing heat that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, along with a blinding light that started from behind. Within an instant the heat had multiplied to the point that Brex couldn’t even tell if it had gotten hotter after that point or that it cooled off considerably.
Before his sight had recovered, Brex felt an incredible amount of pain on his arm, just a few inches before reaching the elbow. Letting out a loud scream the Roegadyn fell onto his right knee and went to grab his arm. However, when he had attempted to take a hold of it near the elbow, his arm had waved through nothing but air.
In shock, Brex moved his arms franticly until it managed to finally touch something. Feeling something that seemed to be somewhat hard on the touch, he could feel that underneath was soft and in the center was something hard like… Bone.
His vision had returned after several seconds and without thinking about it, tried to bring his right hand to his face but nothing happened. Now hyperventilating from under his mask, the Roegadyn turned his head unsteadily towards the arm in question and the sight had left him stunned. He didn’t want to believe what was happening.
With eyes wide from both the pain and the sight, Brex mentally screamed to the point that Rory had to cover her ears to prevent any damages to them. The mental system that they had both set up, was on the edge of shattering apart.
Brex was gaping at the stump that was once his right arm. The spot that the pain had been coming from, was nothing more than a chard piece of flesh and what he could have considered to have been his bone covered in dark black burnt, remains of muscles and what little left of clothing. But at this point Brex couldn’t even tell one apart from the other now. The wound had been cauterized to the point that no blood was being lost. If not for the mental fortifications done by Rory, the Roegadyn may have died from the unexpected attack and resulting pain right then and there.
Unable to think properly, He was just staying on his knee and hadn’t moved for nearly 9 seconds before he heard Rory screaming at the top of her lungs, “MASTER! MOVE NOW!!” With the warning, Brex put everything he could into his legs and kicked off of the ground. This sent him tumbling across the courtyard’s lawn. He could just barely hear something before a shock wave was felt slamming into him and this assisted in sending the Roegadyn to travel even further. When he had come to a full stop, He saw that he was now over 17 meters from his last position.
With him in so much pain, Brex was doing all he could to try and keep his mind calm enough to think rationally. Fighting to keep his left eye open, he looked to where he had jumped from and saw a large, blackened hole that was giving off some smoke from the glowing patches of rocks along the edges. The first thought that ran through his head was, “Was that a laser blast?!”
Brex felt something coming towards him with the situational awareness thanks to Rory and ducked to the right. There was another warning from Rory’s ability, then another. After dodging and weaving from the unknown attacks for what he counted to be 8 times, Brex called to Rory with the mental connection, “What’s happening, why didn’t I get a warning from that first attack? I thought that I made sure to have that up ever sense that Shadow Lily girl got the drop on me so many times back in the room? Did I drop it by mistake?”
Avoiding another one of those yellow laser blasts, he heard her say, “No, it was being used. But, that first shot was made from outside of my range of sense. They seemed to have crossed into it when they made the second. It’s still far out but I can tell that they are getting closer. After every attack, the accuracy seems to be getting better. Whoever is doing this can shoot some powerful long-range attacks with devastating aim.”
Brex had to avoid yet another one of those beams, but nearly got hit in the right side again. He knew that he had the stamina to keep this up, however the accumulating damage was a whole other matter. Even without another direct hit, the amount of power used in each one of those was causing him to take more and more with just a near miss.”
Looking towards the general direction they seem to be coming from, Brex couldn’t even see his attacker due to the sun being in the worst possible spot. This caused the Roegadyn to go into a mental shock at the realization. Brex spoke to Rory with the mental connection, “Oh Fuck. NO, THAT CAN’T BE! WHY IS SHE HERE?! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN FROM ALL OF THIS. THE COLOR OF THE SPELL, THE WAY IT IS NOTHING BUT RAW POWER, THE ACCURACY! ITS PRINCESS CELESTIA!”
He had to avoid yet another blast that nearly hit his right leg. As Brex rolled on the ground, he felt that leg going numb. Looking to it, Brex could see that the clothing had burned off from the knee down to just above the boots. The exposed skin had been badly burned to the point that Brex could see a few grotesque boils forming from being nearly cooked.
Letting out a Pained grunt, he grasped his knee and shakily got to his feet. His senses were now heightened thanks to the adrenalin coursing throughout his body and was breathing in quick breaths. Looking to his mini map, he didn’t see anything to indicate that anyone was around. But his added senses thanks to the bond with Rory, said otherwise. The attacker had to be the Princess using some long-range spell to kill him.
Brex started to think, “Why is this happening? I didn’t do anything to warrant this surprise attack from her. In the stories, she had at least gone and showed herself to the displaced before giving some bogus reason for attacking. It would always be something like, she never seen my kind before, so that makes me dangerous to her ponies. Maybe the part about saying, I’m something her sister sent to cause trouble. There is also the whole thing where she knew about humans and hated them, but that doesn’t make sense here. Their anthro ponies and no way she knows I’m human with me being a Roegadyn.”
Another one of those blasts came in and Brex jumped back to get out of its path, but another, less powerful version was quickly shot down and struck him in the left side of his back and that sent him flying forward and across the hole made from the one before. Brex’s body slammed into the ground and tumbled over a few times before landing onto his back. Currently sprawled on the lawn like a beaten-up rag doll that had been thrown into a barbeque for a few minutes just before hand.
The Roegadyn was in considerably more pain now with his lungs feeling like the air inside had now become burning hot steam with how all he could do was feel the worst case of heart burn any living thing could have experienced. It was all he could do to alleviate the suffering by gasping for air as a fish would when pulled from the water. He had, so wanted to pull out one of his potions, but with how fast the attacks came, he doubted that she would give him the chance to try anything.
This whole, one-sided exchange had only gone for maybe five minutes, but Brex would have said this felt like an hour with the amount of pain he felt throughout his body. Losing his right arm at the beginning. Then to have small burns added with just dodging. Now, even his right leg resembles a burnt turkey leg on thanks giving. To finish the list of injuries, his lungs were begging him to find a fire extinguisher and place the hose down his throat and pull the pin so the pain from burning from the inside out would stop.
All that Brex could think was, “GAWWWWW! Dam it all. The bitch won’t… even show her own face. I knew that she was weaker to her sister in fighting. But to think she would focus completely on magic and coming at her enemy from a distance. That’s just cheap! I had expected her to fly in while wearing some gaudy armor… and holding either a spear or a set of sword and shield. Now I can’t even move by body without it screaming. It feels like nearly every part of me had been inside of a microwave oven. Gah! Even… my own breath burns on the way out.”
Brex hadn’t noticed it yet, but the blasts had ceased. The courtyard was now in shambles. The amount of damage this time, seemed to be worse than compared to the fight between both Celestia and Nightmare Moon. Large and small holes littered the area. The smoke had nearly cleared out, but the amount of heat that was being generated from the impact’s had caused the area to resemble the desert with how a person’s sight could see everything to have a heavy haze one would see coming off a black top in the middle of a heatwave in summer.
After nearly half a minute had passed from when he hit the ground. When Brex noticed the change. His body was still convulsing from the way his nerves had been messed up with the amount of damage. His eyes were hardly capable of staying open as his vision was seriously blurred. He thought to himself, “Uhg! Now… I know what it feels… like to get hit with… a volley of missiles…”
He had attempted to use his left arm to push on the ground so he could at least sit up and see just what was happening now. With several grunts of exertion, the Roegadyn managed to bring himself into a sitting position. Leaning over, he couldn’t help but to place his left arm over his chest. Now that his back was no longer on the rocky ground, Brex could start to feel the sensation of a breeze hitting it. He started to think while trying to add some humor to lighten the dire situation, “I… think, she burned half of my shirt off with that last one. *GASP* Haha… I wouldn’t be so surprised if it looks the same way my leg does now…”
After coughing a few more times, he then called to Rory within his mind, “Are you still with me? Do you think I could tap into that regeneration you got going on? It would really come in handy, right about now…”
There was a pause before he got a reply. With an exhausted tone to her voice, Rory said, “I’m sorry master… that was something you couldn’t use. Also…. Not sure, but it seems that last hit… did something to me… I’m so weak right now. I think it did something to your body and now… the connection is… weakened…” During the explanation, Brex could tell that she was trying her best at communicating, however, as she went on, Rory’s voice was getting lower in volume.
Brex thought, “Just great… Sunbutt must have done a number on me. *Heavy breathing* If it’s having this kind of effect on Rory. Or maybe, it could just be with how much pain I’m in right now and that’s doing this to us. Speaking of Sunbutt. I been stationary for too long now. Why hasn’t she finished me off already. What’s, *Cough* She waiting for, an open invitation?”
Blinking to try and relieve the blurry vision, Brex looks up towards the sky. Expecting to see nothing like before, Brex was surprised to see something now. Off in the distance was a person flying in the sky with wide wings. However, with how far away the person was, identifying them was out of the question. The sun was still behind them and that caused the Roegadyn’s eyes to look away towards the ground.
Wanting to at least stand on his feet to take the final hit, Brex stumbled feebly onto his knees and with a good amount of effort, brought himself back up. Clutching at his chest and still looking down. He had guessed that she was savoring her overwhelming success in this instance. He was about to consider calling this a fight, but in light of how it all went down, he saw it to be nothing but a kid stepping onto an ant in the schoolyard.
Inwardly laughing at himself. Brex thought, “And here I was going to try and make sure that she was kept in check… what was I even thinking. I couldn’t even be good enough to be within 100 meters of her in the first place. I’m so pathetic. Now that I think more on it. Am I really a displaced in the first place? I have no idea what my item was. Just what did I buy from the merchant before coming here. I got so caught up in what was happening around me, that I didn’t even try to figure that part out.”
Taking another look around, he noticed the state of the area. He continued with, “well it’s a good thing I wasn’t using my paladin class before this happened. With how strong those blasts were, I doubt I would have been able to take more than one direct hit. The only reason I’m still ticking, is due to how much speed I have as a ninja.”
While still taking in the sight around himself. The ground was getting brighter. Now thinking, “huh, what’s going on? Why does it feel like how overcast clouds move out of the way to show off the sun directly? It was already a clear day.”
This drew his sight back up towards the sky. Looking confused from under the mask, Brex asked himself, “Was there always a second sun, or was I hit a lot harder than I thought?”
Right there above the person flying, was a large orb of yellow that was quickly growing. For it to seem so big from that far, it must have been over 10 meters wide. He thought, “Oh shit! She is going to hit me with the literal sun! I don’t know if I should feel honored or say that’s overkill!! SOME ONE CALL THE REFEREE, WE NEED A CALLING ON THIS!”
Letting out a deep sigh to calm down before adding, “Well, how many can say that they left with a bang… ha... ha… guess that’s all she wrote. If I knew things would turn out like this today, I would have taken those two up on their offer last night. Gah!! Darn it. Too… much pain to pull out any more, bad one liner’s.”
Accepting his fate, the Roegadyn stands up straight and keeps his head looking up, with his good left arm he raises it to his side in a type of, come on, I’m right here, whatcha waitin for gesture. Right then he thought, “Oh wait… I got one more… oh, never mind. I can’t even talk right now with my lungs like this. I wanted to yell out, you can’t even hit the broadside of a barn! Man… I think I’m going crazy from my body’s injuries.
Finally giving into reality. His eyes close shut while waiting for the end. Brex could feel the heat building as the light penetrates his eyelids with how bright the spell was getting, His last thoughts were, “At least… I got to save two beautiful girls before it all ended. If I’m lucky…. I might have a happy life in the next one.”
Just before his body lost all strength, Brex heard someone calling out from not too far away, “BREX! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!” That shocked his eyes wide open. Turning his head to the voice’s direction, he saw Shadow Lily who was running towards him from the other side of the courtyard. She had apparently, come out of the same hallway used by him when entering this area.
Screaming in his mind, “SHADOW! NO, WHY DID YOU COME BACK?! STAY AWAY, RUUUUUUUUUUUN!” but it was too late. There was a massive pulse from above. This made Brex assume that the spell was finished and ready to fire. Shooting his eyes back to the attacker, he saw it moving towards the ground, thankfully this one wasn’t nearly as fast as the beams.
Thoughts streamed through his mind, thoughts of how he just might be able to survive if he ran. Those were utterly crushed when he remembered he wasn’t alone out here. He thought angrily, “Fucking Celestia is willing to kill one of her own to get at me! I’LL MAKE SURE SHE PAYS!!” All the while those thoughts had been in his head, the Roegadyn’s body was rushing to the dark mare. Brex had forgotten the pain being felt in place of only one thing now. He needed to safe this girl, no matter the cost to him.
The orb was now half way from the point of firing and the ground. At the rate Brex was running, he predicted the spell to land right behind himself, this meant that he was in the direct path between it and Shadow Lily.
When Brex had gotten within 8 meters from Shadow. The ground quaked from what he suspected to be the orb hitting the ground. There was a strong burst of air hitting his back that caused his burn back to flare up in pain.
Turning completely on the spot, Brex buried his feet for the anticipated impact. Fighting with everything that he had, he held out his arm to the side in a pitiful attempt to add some extra mass to help in blocking at least some of the blast.
Brex’s body was then slammed with a powerful shockwave that quickly began to shred his clothing bit by bit. Within not even a single second, his hood and mask had been blown away along with nearly all of his top part of the scions clothing. The combination of force and scorching heat being generated racked his form right down to the core. With an ear-piercing scream, Brex had let out exactly how badly this was making him suffer. “GAAAAAAAWWWWHHHHHH!”
*Point of view: Shadow Lily*
Shadow Lily had only been a short way off from the castle when she started to hear booms from back where she was just from. Fearing for Brex’s safety, she rushed back to only find him standing in the middle of what could have only been considered as a war zone. Seeing the scorched earth and debris scattered about, the mare had wondered, just what had caused this destruction.
When she had noticed the male standing off in the distance, she sighed in relief, she had started to run towards him but when she had gotten close enough, the sight wasn’t what she had expected. It was like a nightmare to Shadow.
She could plainly see that Brex had lost an arm and most of his clothing had burned marks covering him from head to hoof. When she had seen the area’s that were uncovered, Shadow was thinking that he had dark fur. That was dashed to pieces when it was apparent that it was in reality, burns. Very, very bad burns. The sight had nearly caused the mare to faint.
In a panic, she had called to Brex and redoubled her efforts to getting to him so she could render him first aid. That was when she noticed him turning his head in her direction. Shadow had expected that whatever had done all of this to be gone already. That was when she noticed the sun getting brighter overhead and looked up. She regretted it immediately and wanted to scream but nothing would come out thanks to the sight of a large fireball of magic hurtling down upon them both.
Not even a second later, shadow lowered her sight to see where Brex was and had gotten another shock. He was already closing in on her and had placed himself in the path of the fireball. Eyes going wide as plates at the idea that a male was going to use themselves to take a hit for a female was unheard of. There was then a heavy blast and it knocked shadow to the ground.
She had her eyes closed in fear for not only her, but for Brex too. She prayed that Celestia would come and save them but that was cut off when she started to hear the cry coming from the one Infront of her. It was like nothing she had ever had the misfortune of coming across in her life. She knew that if she lived through this, that sound may forever haunt her dreams. The mare had a horrified expression while holding her arms up to try and protect her head, the sight of his body getting hit as the fireball hit the ground and a bright flash of light.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 16: Just Who Are You Three?
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Unknown* *Time: Unknown*
The Roegadyn’s consciousness was muddled with blurred images and sounds that he just couldn’t make any sense of right now. At first all he could feel was, nothing. Over time the sensation of laying on his back rolled across his mind. This was soon paired with knowing that his eyes were shut. That was when the realization struck him, he was just sleeping and was on the edge of waking up.
But before his body could respond, Brex started to hear a set of voices that seemed to be off to the side. They didn’t seem to be any that he had heard before and decided to remain as he was and listen to what was going on. It was apparent that if they noticed him opening his eyes, then they might try to do something to him. Also, it was a way to find out what happened before, arriving where ever he is now.
Making sure he didn’t tip them off, Brex controlled his breathing and attempted to cut off his emotions as a precaution incase, they said anything that would otherwise cause him to react. He didn’t know where he was right now. Also, he had yet to hear anything from Rory either. He had expected to hear her voice the moment his consciousness came back.
A young woman’s voice started off by saying, “Shouldn’t he be up by now? It’s been a long time already. Are you sure he is, ok?” Brex then felt a presence standing right next to himself and he could have sworn that someone’s face could have been mere inches away from his own.
Then a male’s voice rang out in a cheerful tone, “Oh don’t worry about the kid. If I didn’t know any better Little Moon, I would have guessed that you had an interest in the lad. Ho, Ho…” Brex had to use all of his willpower to hold his face from showing his surprise at the males voice. Thinking, “What’s going on here. Was… was that the voice of, Master Roshi?”
A third voice followed. This one sounded to be of a slightly older woman. It spoke in a business tone, “Come now you two. Daddy, please stop it with those nonsensical jokes. Besides my sister is far too young to have her sights set on anyone.”
This got a reply from the one Brex identifies as Little Moon, “Hay! I’m sooo~ too old enough to start dating. Besides, I’m still young, just like you said. I bet I could go out and have a line of guys and girls waiting to date me! You’re just saying that because you can’t seem to find a boyfriend that can keep your attention away from those rules you love soooooooo much!”
He thought that he heard some thunderclouds overhead. That’s when the man Brex was going to call Daddy started to butt in, “Now, now, calm down the both of you. Little Moon, apologize to your sister this instant. As for you Little Light, you do the same to Little Moon.”
Brex thought, “Huh? Little Moon and Little Light? What’s going on here? At first these sounded like pony names… but now I’m not so sure. Also why does this Daddy person sound too much like Master Roshi from Dragon ball Z?”
After a minute of hearing the two girls grumbling to themselves, they finally said sorry to one another. Little Moon changed the subject by saying, “Seriously though, who would have thought that he had it in him. The look on Celestia’s face was priceless!”
This got Brex’s attention like a dog hearing their owner yelling out that they had bacon. He thought, “Wait, what’s this about Sunbutt? What happened, and when?!” Being deeply confused, the Roegadyn tried to recall anything from before waking up.
He remembered everything leading up to the point in time that he watched those two mare’s leaving… then it all turns into a blur. There were patches that he just couldn’t bring into focus and when he had felt the image coming clearer, it just snapped back into a fuzzy mess. Deciding to hold off on that until he found out more about his current situation, Brex focused all of his senses aside from sight to figure out as much as he could.
Daddy spoke up next, “The kid could wake up at any time. I already shifted my form to something that he could recognize. You both better do the same. Unless you both plan on his brain exploding at the speed of light, that is?”
This got an excited, “Yes” from Little Moon. As for the other, there was simply, “Quite right Daddy, I can’t believe that it slipped my mind.”
Feeling more confused, Brex finally registered just what was said and screamed inside his head, “Brain exploding sounds bad! Very Bad. Exploding BAD. Oh, please don’t forget! Do it, DO IT NOW! I LIKE MY MESSED-UP BRAIN AS IT IS!”
There was a pair of sounds that he could have sworn were from some cartoon characters that would do that wild spin trick where they changed their clothing within a self-created tornado. Then there were the girls giving out hums. Brex thought that they might be examining themselves.
Daddy spoke up again, but with a mischievous tone, “Oh my, if I didn’t already know you were my daughters, I’d be hitting on yeah so fast that it makes Gaetano Casanova, look at himself in shame.” Within Brex’s mind, he thought, “I wonder if he and Rory would get along, they seem to have the same personality. I bet they would make the perfect wing team to help one another… NAW! An old man like Master Roshi getting aid from a Lolita girl would hurt the man’s pride.
The younger one’s voice called out, Euww! Gross! Cut it out Daddy! It’s been so long I nearly didn’t get it down on the first go.” Brex almost didn’t recognize it to be Little Moon. She sounded a lot like a character he knew from a video game called Diva from Overwatch.”
The next to speak nearly made Brex open his eyes from shock. The voice was no doubt from the one called Little Light. It sounded so much like a character from the anime RWBY. Ah, finished with the preparations. I must say, I do appreciate the way this individual use’s function and elegance in her appearance. Oh, and it comes with a fashion accessory.” He knew just what accessory she was talking about too. She was none other than Glynda Goodwitch.
Little light continued after a few moments and says, “With that all, out of the way, I do believe it’s time for our guest to awaken.” There was a set of footsteps approaching. They stopped right beside Brex, however from the way they echoed with each step, he had figured out that he was not on the ground, but on a table of some sort.
The woman spoke into his ear in a gentle tone, “Wakey wakey. We have a few things to talk about.” This got him to decide that now would be a good time as any to show that he was up. Opening his eyes, he was met with the anime character Glynda Goodwitch. Her face was only a few inches away and he saw her jump back into an upright, standing pose from how quickly he did as she asked.
( This is Glynda Goodwitch from R.W.B.Y. )
Inwardly chuckling, Brex thought, “I didn’t think she would look so cute being surprised.” That was when she started to blush and have a small pout on her face before she said, “I’m not cute!” Raising his left eyebrow, he said aloud in a slightly irritated tone, “I see no one told you that reading others minds is considered rude.” This only got the girl to use her hands to quickly flatten the wrinkles on her clothing from the moment before while giving Brex an annoyed look from the side.
There was then the one called Little Moon poking her head around the first woman. She waved her right hand enthusiastically and ran around her sister to stand right beside Brex. Leaning in, she said the next set of words without taking a single breath.
( This is Diva from overwatch. )
“That fight was amazing, I never seen anything like that from a mortal. I mean with the way you went, NOOOO. Then you did that thing where you ran to that spot and the lights and the screams! Then there was the pang and boom and the…MUMHPFF!” that was when Little Light placed a hand over Little Moons mouth while showing Brex a small smile and mouthing the words, “sorry for that.”
While still laying down on his back. Brex looked around without bothering to move his head and asked. Why am I here?” the place was nothing but four walls and a ceiling above their heads. It was well lit but he couldn’t tell just where the light source was coming from. He began to think this might be the dream scape from how strange it seemed. However, he was interrupted by the third person in the party.
( This is Master Roshi from Dragon ball. )
With the same cheery tone from before, the being did, in fact have the appearance of the character Master Roshi. It was the one where he had the big black sunglasses that had the red frame. There was the button up orange shirt that was covered in letters and purple triangles. Below was a short pair of white pants. On his back was the iconic purple turtle shell, while in his right hand was the wooden staff.
“HO, HO! I was about to try some drastic measures to get yeah to wake up kid! too bad you didn’t pretend to be asleep. Another second and my hand might have slipped and Little Light would have given you a good morning kiss! HO, HO!” This earned the man a good uppercut to the head by the one in question. He landed a fair distance away thanks to the sound of hitting the ground. Brex couldn’t see just now where the old man Roshi look alike landed, but thought it might have been a good 7 meters with the thud.
Letting out a small sigh, he tries to will the scene to change but nothing happened. This proved that this was no dream. The next action was to simply ask in a monotoned voice while looking straight up into the sky, “I take it I must have died, right?”
Little Moon yelled out, “Wow! Already he gets 100 points for getting it on the first try!” this only gets the Roegadyn to half close his eyes in a gesture that oozed just how he is over this whole scene. He then asks in a dead tone, “So what’s next, do I just up and disappear after I’m told of all my sin’s or do, I just get reborn or some other unknown deal going on? If so, then let’s get it over with. I’m finally away from that world of ponies…. *Sigh* not like I belong there to begin with.”
This earned him the stupefied gazes of all three of the others in the room. Daddy scratched his bald head while asking in a confused tone, “Um, are you alright kid? you seemed a lot happier before the incident. You sound as if, you’re giving up.”
This only got Brex to close his eyes once again before replying in the same dead tone, “Yeah… what’s the point… I got killed. I don’t know what did it. But I’m dead and there is nothing I can do. I did hope that I would appear at the tree of harmony if this happened, but instead here I am. *Sigh* It’s probably for the best. Like I said before. Being the only one of my kind in a place that would sooner attack and label me as a monster, than get to know me isn’t a place I want to be. All I did was make things worse anyway. So yeah, get it over with. I don’t know why but being dead doesn’t seem to worry me as much as before for some strange reason.”
This only got sets of concerned looks directed at the Roegadyn laying on the table. Little Light asked in an uncertain voice while lifting her right eyebrow, “Are you sure you don’t want to… maybe go back, at all. Didn’t you have some grand plan to help that world and keep in check the one called Celest…”
She couldn’t even bring herself to finish saying that name before she clasped her hands over her mouth at the sight of Brex giving her a death glare. Letting out a gulp she then coughed into her right fist and continued, while having a drop of sweat on her forehead, “Perhaps you would like to know about how you arrived here?” This only got a grunt of annoyance from him before he answered, “Why not. Go ahead… knowing my luck, it was probably her that got me in the end.”
There was a stretch of silence in the room that lasted a few seconds until he called out in a frustrated tone, “Gah! I knew it! Fine tell me! I bet she showed up and did some over the top speech and attacked me. Did she at least try to use the stones, or did it all go right to the killing me bit?”
This only got him a strained smile from her before the one called Little Moon butted in by saying in a loud voice, “Oh no, the two of you never even got close at all. She actually sniped you from wayyyyyy far away. Kinda like Widow-maker! Then there was a huge explosion. Then you MUMPHFF” Little Moon looked over at Little Light with an annoyed expression after getting her mouth covered yet again.
Brex asked, “Why do you keep stopping her from telling me what happened?” This earned the one called Daddy to step in. clearing his throat. he said, “Its like this kid. You went and handed that girl her butt on a silver tray after you snapped. I won’t go into detail but, you broke one of your soul stones by doing so. Sufficed to say, you can’t be a ninja any time soon. But look on the bright side, it’s not gone for good. Just during the time, it takes to recover is all.”
This got him to ask in a disbelieving tone, “So, you’re saying that I’m dead. But at the same time, I actually beat Sunbutt? How does that even work? I don’t even remember it happening.” Holding his head, Brex tries hard to come up with anything to show how the supposed fight happened, however he got nothing. It soon dawned on him that there was something missing. No, it was someone missing. In a panic he called out, “Rory, are you there? Rory! Please tell me you’re just sleeping right now!”
This got Little Light to say, “Sorry to say, but she isn’t here. You see, she was a part of your mind and body. Without one of the two, she isn’t able to function. So as of the moment you died, this Rory you speak of, is currently in a state of suspended activity until you go back to that world.” This caused Brex, who was about to freak out to calm down somewhat after hearing the explanation.
That was when the three looked to each other with puzzled expressions for a moment before Little Moon asked the other two, “I think something is really wrong with him. Are we sure that we got everything back where it’s meant to be?”
This got Daddy to look towards Little Light before asking, “Yeah, it does seem as if the kid isn’t feeling like himself. From what we looked at, he may have been a pessimist, but he wasn’t this bad. Think you could do another check to see if there was something we missed dear?”
This pulled a sigh from Little Light as she takes out a tablet from out of nowhere behind her back and brings it up to her face to get a good look at it. Using the free hand, she also puts on a pair of glasses and proceeds to tap on the device for a moment while giving it a scrutinizing glare.
After doing that for a small amount of time, she gives the other two a disgruntled expression and says, “I’m sure I didn’t miss a thing. The search was very thorough. It would be nearly impossible to…. Miss…. Any….” Little Lights voice trails off near the end. Giving an apologetic smile, Little Light continues in a near whisper while bringing the tablet up more as to hide her face. “Um, I maaaay, have missed one, tinsy winsy little thing…” Her eyes were now looking in any direction that was away from the other two.
Little Moon called out in mock horror, “My big sis went and made a boo-boo? This can’t be!” that only got the other sister to change her expression from embarrassment to that of slight annoyance before giving a fake laugh.
That was when Daddy steps closer and lets out a small cough to gain their attention before asking, “So, mind telling me just what it was that we missed my dear?” Bringing his staff up to tap on the tablet and forcing his daughter to lower it enough so that the group of three might see what it says.
Little Light coughs into her right hand and replies, “It seems that the missing part, happens to be the one that contains his confidence. Um, that would explain Brex’s current state.” The group then looks back over to the young Roegadyn and notices that he has yet to move even a muscle. Letting out a small sigh, daddy motions for little light to go and fix her mistake.
The woman then approaches Brex while still clutching the tablet to her chest. Giving him an apologetic stare, she says, “Uhm… so it would appear that we did in fact forget to add this last bit to your soul. Normally it would be implanted into you, but under these circumstances we’re going to need you to… swallow it.”
That was when she tapped on the tablet a few more times in a glowing blue cube appeared that seemed to be made up of light and crystals, no bigger than one’s pinky finger. The cube is then brought closer to Brex’s face and little light motions for him to open his mouth.
While looking at the object and the woman’s hands his eyebrows raise in confusion as he asks, “So you’re telling me I have to swallow this thing so I can feel normal again?” this gets a small nod from the woman. Looking from her and to the crystal in her hands, Brex gives it a few moments to consider some other alternative but then reluctantly shrugs and sits up.
Without showing any enthusiasm for swallowing what he considered to be a piece of himself, Brex opens his mouth wide and says, “Ahhhh.” This surprised the woman as she thought that he would simply take it from her hands, he can see her looking back to the other two then back at him. A resigned sigh escaped her lips as she brings the crystal to his mouth and carefully places it on his tongue before retracting her hand. Brex could hear the woman mummering under her breath, “This is just humiliating…”
While still giving the woman hey conscious look brecks finally swallows the crystal. A few moments pass without any changes he then looks back at the group and says, “I don’t feel any different Are you sure you did this right?” While still giving them an uninterested tone of voice.
Brex was about to say something else but caught himself when he felt his stomach rumbling this was then followed by a burning sensation his eyes went wide do a comical size before he let out a large belch of flames from his mouth. This was then followed by several more bouts of smoke in small embers flying into the air. All the while, Brex had a terrified expression as to what’s going on.
When it was finally over, Brex was holding his arms over his stomach and his tired body was trembling from the sudden exertion of heat that had been escaping from his body. Now he felt completely cold inside, like somebody had shoved an ice cube or two down his throat and continued to do so until he turned into a walking ice pack.
Now giving the group standing in front of him the death glare while still having his teeth chattering from the cold, spoke out in in angry tone, “You… better have a very good reason as to why that happened. Otherwise… I will find a way to do it to you…”
This got a round of nervous chuckles from the three as they took an involuntary step or two back. He could clearly see beads of sweat trickling down there faces while they resisted the urge to cover their own mouths.
That was when the one who gave him the crystal spoke out in a subdued tone, “I believe that happened because of the large number of negative emotions that had accumulated due to the lack of confidence that was missing from your body. All the smoke and flames that you were shooting out of your mouth I believe that was all of it getting burned up and expelled honestly, I’m quite surprised there was so much of it in there considering that you’re only a mortal. From what I saw, if you were a normal person that would have caused you to commit suicide within moments waking up.” that was when he caught her looking down at her tablet in confusion.
Brex could feel his body warmth increasing as she spoke. If he was being honest with himself, he had a strong urge to end his own life before they gave him that crystal back. Looking back at that moment, he thought to himself, “I think she’s right; I can’t believe I said those things before why did I want to end things right then and there why didn’t I want to go back also there’s Rory she must be waiting for me was I actually going to abandon her and just die?” That last thought made him feel shamed even more than the thought of killing himself or giving up.
Giving himself a few moments to breathe in and out to calm himself down. Brex closes his eyes and tries to remember how he ended up like this. The words from little moon kept ringing through his head about how he beat her. He beat Celestia. But how, also why did they get into a fight in the first place. Why couldn’t he remember. Still, he couldn’t figure out why any of this had happened. The memories from the point that he had said goodbye to the two mare’s we’re the very last complete image in his head, everything beyond that and to waking up in this place just kept slipping from his grasp.
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a small coughing from next to him. It was the one called little moon who was currently taking on the form of Diva, from Overwatch. Opening his eyes and turning towards the girl. Speaking in an apologetic tone, “I’m sorry for snapping at you the way I did. I don’t think I can apologize enough; I know you were only trying to help. Again, I’m sorry.”
This earned him a big smile from the girl as she winks towards him and then she says, “Don’t worry about it, after all it’s not every day you see someone crumble away into a billion pieces and float off into the wind!” Brex heard a pair of slapping sounds from behind the girl. This caused him to lean to the side. He caught a glimpse of the other two removing their hands from their own faces.
Seeming to struggle at coming up with a few words, Brex couldn’t help but to simply nod absentmindedly towards the girl before saying, “Does anyone care to explain exactly what is going on here? From what I can tell I died, but at the same time I beat Celestia in some kind of fight. But I can’t remember any of it, so could you fill in the blanks for me?”
That was when daddy stepped up. walking closer while using his cane to help him along. When he had gotten close enough to Brex that man looked up at him it started to speak while taking his free hand and placing it behind his back in one of those simple styles that one would see in old man attempting to relieve some stress on his back while speaking.
“It’s like this my boy, after you saw those two girls you went back into the castle and that’s when the fight occurred. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you exactly what happened.” The old man held up his hand in an attempt stop Brex from saying anything before he continued, “It’s not that we don’t want to tell you it’s more like we don’t think we should.”
Slowly taking his staff and touching it to Brex’s his forehead lightly, he brings it back down and continues with, “We believe that your mind is intentionally blocking those memories from you. We did see the incident happening and we came to the conclusion that the reason that your memories are blocked are due to how stressful it was. This would also have to do with what you did during that fight. Now before you start asking questions about what you did, consider this. Whatever you did, did lead to you winning however it also led to you dying, so just consider how enormous that impact would have to your psyche.”
That was when he noticed the other two shaking their heads at the moment daddy said something about him dying, but then quickly nodded at the part when he mentioned how enormous of a strain, the memories would cause to him if he remembered right now.
Letting out a tired sigh brecks looks towards the old man in front of him and asks, “OK I get it. But could you at least tell me something about it anything will do.” This got him a strange smile from the old man before he noticed the guy looking back towards the one called Little Light.
Little light then stepped forward few feet and started to speak in a clear tone while fixing her glasses, “We do know that your body is based off of a video game character known as a Roegadyn. Then there is the fact that you have abilities and memories from said Cain that have been translated to the real world. I can surmise that you have already determined that these abilities do not work exactly as they did in your original game. Now here is my question, what are the rules for changing your jobs in and out of a fight?”
This caused him to tilt his head as he answered in a reluctant and yet confused tone, “Well, you can change your job at any time you want, however the rules state that you cannot change it when you’re in the middle of a fight. Why do you ask?”
This got a small nod from little light before she continued while beginning to pace back and forth like some sort of teacher giving a lecture. “Good, good, you understand so far. Now this also brings me to the point about how your, ninja soul stone you call it is currently unavailable.”
Brex’s eyes shot wide open as he quickly took in the last part of what she just said and exclaimed in a loud voice, “WHAAAAT!?” This surprised Little Light as she jumped back and held her tablet to her chest while gawking at Brex’s outburst. She had a look of realization as she calmed herself down before saying, “Oh, I guess I should have brought that part up first, sorry about that. Well anyway this has to do with your switching jobs in a fight rule. It would seem that at some point you forced your way past that written rule and switched over to your paladin class during the fight. But as a result of doing so you heavily damaged the stone that contained your abilities as a ninja.”
With disbelief written across his face breck slumps over in places both hands on his knees while still sitting on table. Slowly he raises his head and asks, “Tell it to me straight, is it gone for good? Am I never gonna become a ninja again?” the woman only shakes her head lightly before giving him a small smile.
That was when daddy spoke up and said, “Oh don’t worry about that kid I’ve already started fixing it. You see putting something physical back together isn’t really all that hard for me however there is the thing about the soul though that’s always the tricky part.” He then holds up in his hand, sitting in the middle of his palm was small stone that breaks realized right away to be the ninja soul stone from the video game that he had been equipping this whole time.
( This is the Ninja Soul Stone. )
The stone is then handed back to Brex. He turned it over on his palm a couple times before asking, “It looks fine to me, what’s wrong with it?” That’s when daddy replies with, “That’s just it really. The form is fine, however what’s contained within is still broken. But lucky for you there’s enough there for it to regenerate, it’s just gonna take some time before it’s complete. Until then, you’re just going to have to wait.”
Brex asks, “How long is this going to take to repair then? A week, two weeks, a month?” This only gets a head shake from the old man as he replies with, “I’m not really all that sure it could be anywhere from…” There was then a long pause as he watched the old man holding his beard. The seconds turned into nearly a minute before he replied further with, “I would say anything from six months, to maybe…. five years.”
With his eye now twitching uncontrollably. Brex slowly begins to talk while showing just how badly he is trying to contain his frustration at the idea that something would take that long. “So, you’re saying I might not be able to use the ninja class for five years. Am I hearing you right?” This only gets a nod from the old man before he adds, “Yep, five years. Of course, it might take longer, I’m not so good at these sorts of repair work.” Taking in a sharp breath. Brex holds it in while clutching his fists hard enough to cause them to give off a few pop sounds before relaxing and letting a deep breath out.
Seeing this daddy lets out a few chuckles and adds, “Well look on the bright side, now you can freely switch between classes even in the middle of a fight!” This catches his attention and while looking at the old man with an astonished look on his face. Brex asks, “What? What are you talking about didn’t you just say doing that was what caused this to happen to me in the first place?”
This only got a round of laughter from the old man as he said, “Well, yes that did cause the whole fiasco to happen. But in doing so it did open another path for you to use. It would seem now you’re capable of not only switching between classes but it also looks as if you can now fuse some skills together.”
Brex could only give the man a confused look. Seeing this, the old man begins to talk in a very cheery tone, “Well why don’t you just take a gander at your skill list and see for yourself?” Taking his advice, the Roegadyn mentally commands his skill list to appear before him. In less than a second a window appears displaying three sets of skills that a class would normally have. At the moment it showed him to be equipped with the paladin soul stone but what really caught his attention was a fourth list appearing at the very bottom.
Narrowing his eyes, he mentally commands the list to expand. Instead of seeing only the Actions, Jobs or Traits. He saw something in bold letters that said the words, Custom class ability list. There was currently one skill listed for the paladin called, Holy Shield Crash.
Custom class ability list: Holy Shield Crash, Deals Light damage with the potency of 1,500 plus any Damage taken by the User of this skill has accumulated within the last one minute. User launches themselves skyward above their target and with the use of both fused skills, Passage of Arms and Shield Base. The target is then hit from above and is slammed into the ground with the Users full body weight with the aid of both light magic and non-elemental base damage.
Lifting an eyebrow, Brex turns his attention to the one called daddy and asks, “This isn’t something that was in Final Fantasy 14. Never even considered that the makers would add a function where existing skills would make up a new one in this way.”
The old man simply shook his head and replied with, “Son, your still thinking of it all as a game. Yes, you can think of a skill and you would end up doing it. But in the end, it’s all on you. Did the idea ever cross your mind of how the things you had been doing up until now didn’t follow your game to the letter? That would have been a big hint right there.”
Brex cross’s his arms and adopted a thinking pose while mulling over what the man had just said. Thinking on how he used his attacks this whole time. There wasn’t a lot of periods where he activated his skills when striking. A lot of the times he used regular one’s where they wouldn’t have normally done a lot of damage, but somehow, they did. Not as much as the skills but they did much more than he had expected. Then there were the items like the water crystals. They couldn’t have been used in the way he had like back when that bucket was filled. They were just a part of the creation list of items needed.
Pinching the bridge of his own nose, Brex lets out a tired sigh before saying, “Yes I did do things that would have been thought of as outside of the game mechanics. But I never considered that. With how everything seemed to work slightly different, I just thought that it was a result of me being in Equestria. So, I’m not as restricted in how I can use my skills. That’s good to know.” Giving the one called Daddy an inquisitive gaze, he asks, “I assume that I can create my own in the future, right?”
That was when Little Moon butted in and started to say, “It isn’t all that easy! Yup you can make new ones. However, you’re going to need to find the right combination. If you just started to play with all of them, I can guaranty that there will be a few outcomes you won’t like. Your new skill might work, but then if it doesn’t… then the outcome may not show anything at all. Then there is the worst case where it could cause some real bad problems that may lead to either yours or someone else’s death.”
She leaned in closer to the point that she was lightly pressing her nose into his before speaking in a lower volume, “Seeing as that new skill is on your list, means that it worked. But it also did yeah in. I can only assume that your body wasn’t ready in the first place to handle it, or with the forced switch between your Ninja and Paladin added to the mix is what caused your game over.”
Brex carefully gives the girl a light push to give him a few inches of breathing room. Taking a moment to absorb what they had been saying, Brex could understand just what they were attempting to drill into his skull. Just experimenting wouldn’t be a very good idea. More so if there were any others around. He would have to come up with a safe location for these kinds of tests in the future.
Giving them a good nod. Brex then asks, “So, from what I gathered. Your names are, Daddy, Little Light and Little Moon. The next bit would be the fact that I died after fighting Princess Celestia, but I have no recollection of ever doing so. However, I did manage to beat her with this unknown skill that I managed to create while breaking the no switching class’s rule while in a fight. But what I don’t get is… even if I did go and equip my Paladin class, how could it have even made any difference seeing as it was also only level 35 just like my Ninja?”
This time it was Little Light that stepped up and gave a small cough before saying, “Now you do have a point there. Even if you had done the exchange, the outcome wouldn’t have changed at all under the circumstances. But there seems to have been one more factor that contributed to the sudden upset of the fight at the very last pivotal instant.”
That was when she handed the tablet that was used by her not long ago. Taking it, Brex turns it over to get a good look at what was displayed. Soon his eyes go wide with disbelief. But it soon turned into an excited grin before Little Light continued while adjusting her glass’s, “As you can see clearly right there. All of your Class’s have now been unlocked. Furthermore, all of the items you possessed from the time playing in the world you call Final Fantasy 14 have also been added to your inventory box and armory. This means that you are fully capable of utilizing all resources you previously had access too.”
When she had gotten close to the end of what she was saying, Little Light had closed her eyes and this led to her being surprised by getting a big hug from Brex the instant she finished speaking. Eyes going wide as saucers, the girl lets out an adorable, Eep! As she was lifted off the ground and twirled in circles a good four times before coming to a stop. All the while, Brex was talking over a hundred miles an hour, “OH THANK YOU, THANK YOU! THANK YOU!”
Finally coming to a stop, Little Light was now looking rather flustered with her glass’s slightly tilted awkwardly. She then gave him a small cough to indicate that she would like to be back on the ground again. Looking sheepish Brex did as she wanted and gently place the woman back down onto her feet.
Still looking a bit messed up with the sudden display, she then began to smooth out the outfit and straighten out her glass’s while attempting to regain that professional demeanor. When Little Light had finished, she said, “Um… your quite welcome. But all I did was to inform you of the current status your body is in right now. B-but I do appreciate the thought.” Her eyes seeming to be looking off to the side so she wouldn’t be giving him direct eye contact.
He started to wonder just what was up with her reaction but before he could think any further on it, another thought came to mind. That was when he said, “I’m happy that you helped me out with the whole… er, think I don’t remember and putting me back together situation and all. But mind telling me just where we are? All I see in here is a plain room and a table. There aren’t even any doors I can see.”
That was when Daddy knocked himself up side his head and called out in surprise, “OH! I knew we forgot something! Well, seeing as your all good now, I think we won’t be needing this stuffy little room anymore.” Using his staff, the Roshi look alike taps the floor a few times. The walls and top of the room pull from one another and slowly vanish from view. What laid before Brex was now an ocean of gold that seems to be going on for eternity, he noticed that nearby was a very large oval shaped table and a set of office chairs next to it. It had taken him no time at all to realize that the table he was on before had shifted into this massive one when the room changed.
Before He could ask anything, Brex felt his left hand being pulled by Little Moon. She rushed him to the table and pulled out one of the chairs and sat down before indicating that he should use the other. Feeling that there wasn’t any problem he sat down and took a good look around at the environment with wonder plastered onto his face.
Brex couldn’t help but to feel calm in such a serene and open area. Back in the Everfree Forest he didn’t feel safe unless there was cover nearby. As for this, he couldn’t really explain why felt that this unknown location that should have sent his paranoia into overdrive, was actually doing the complete opposite. Now fully relaxed, Brex looked back to see the other two following along but at a slower pace.
Daddy walked to the other side of the large table and waved his staff over it and in a nice neat row was a set of boxes that had various sized and dimensions of shapes. Giving them a confused look as to what is happening, Brex asks, “So what’s up with those? Is it some one’s birthday or something?”
The old man only chuckled while fixing his large sunglass’s and replied, “OH OH, nothing like that kid! I’m merely returning what belong to you, that’s all. You see its like this. You already guessed that you’re a displaced. We can also see that your unsure as to what items you acquired from the merchant.” Waving his free hands towards the items on the table, he continues with, “These by boy, belong to you.”
Giving Roshi a raised eyebrow, He says in an unsure tone, “But wait, if those belong to me, then why do you have them in the first place?” This caused the old man to scratch the backside of his bald head before replying, “I’ll come clean with yeah kiddo. I talked to the merchant and requested that the next one that they sent out into the multiverse with items that had anything to do with Final Fantasy 14, would be sent to my world. Well, one of my worlds.”
When Roshi finished, he brought his staff out and crossed his arms in anticipation of an attack and went silent. The seconds ticked by but nothing happened. Thinking that it was still to come, the old man tensed up even more. This lasted a good 12 seconds before he heard Brex say, “I see. Figured as much from all the stories I used to read. So, go on. I can tell that there is still more to tell. Don’t let me hold yeah up.” This made the old man take a double take as he made an, “EH!?” sounds.
He went to asking, “So, you’re not mad at me?” Brex shook his head and answered in a normal understanding tone, “Why would I be mad at you for asking for the next to show up on your door step. At least you didn’t go and pick me personally. If I have anything to complain about, its towards the one that sent me, right? Now as I said before, continue please.”
Letting out a sigh that seemed to drain all the tension from the old man’s body, Roshi continued with his explanation. “There was an incident that caused you to come to that world in a severely hurt condition. As a result, the items that were meant to come along and as well as the skills you should have already have had access too had to be limited until the damage had been resolved. Do you understand so far?” This got a solid nod of confirmation from the Roegadyn.
Roshi then went on with, “You probably noticed that physically your body is fine. But as for your soul, well… that was another matter.” That was when Brex chimed in with, “That would have to do with my memory loss, right?” This caused Roshi to snap his fingers and exclaimed, “That’s correct kiddo. Think of your body as the cardboard box, that’s what you and others see from the outside. Now within that box is a glass jar. This holds your soul. That jar suffered some cracks, so what do you think would have happened if you came to in Equestria with new items and overwhelming power while in that condition?”
Without missing a beat Brex answered while pointing at the old man, “The jar would overfill and shatter into… a million… Peace’s…” He quickly looked over to the girl sitting next to him and the words that she had said before came to the forefront of his mind. Little Moon give him a nod after noticing the Roegadyn’s conclusion.
Apparently wanting to be in the discussion too, Little Moon continued with the explanation from her father and said, “We wanted to give these to you when your *Cough* Jar was restored to normal. However, there was that incident regarding that one Spider and from that time until the moment you died, we couldn’t regain any type of connection to you. But with you dying and all, we got a good opportunity to bring you up here to give the items back before you popped up at the Tree of Harmony.”
Crossing his arms, Brex looked to the table. Letting out a long breath, he says, “I guess I should be thanking you all for at least looking out for me this much. But what I don’t understand is why go through all this trouble for a guy like me? There aren’t that many displaced that would get this much help from strangers like this unless they had something they wanted in return. So, let’s hear it. Just what is it you want me to do when I go back for these things? Do I have to give up my freedom in some way, or maybe you need me to kill someone?”
This caused all three of the other beings in the room to look towards him in shock as they shook their heads franticly while waving their hands in front of themselves hastily. This got Little Light to take the conversation into her control by saying, “NO NO, nothing of the sort. Its like this. Daddy cares for this world. Its just that we have rules we have to follow.” That was when she shot a death glare towards the other two while they averted their eyes while whistling.
Using a hand to cover her eyes, Little Light gave out an annoyed huff before adding, “Its just, this world is in trouble. You did notice that there are things out there that look almost identical to the monsters in your game, right?” Brex started to think about the other spiders and that one large bug under the Castle of the Two Sisters before giving her a nod.
Little Light then said, “He wanted someone that could help it out, that’s about it. We can’t directly interfere unless conditions are met. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case now. So, he found a loophole and got an outside source to help with that. This is where the merchant comes into play.”
Bringing her hand back down, the woman looks into Brex’s eyes and gives him an honest smile before asking, “Do you think you could be a proxy for us and help out one of our worlds? You can do anything you want while there. I mean anything. As long as it doesn’t end up being destroyed. Because if things aren’t done about the monsters anytime soon, that planet may be destroyed and be won’t be able to do anything to stop it. Now don’t get the wrong idea that this in exchange for the merchant’s items that belong to you. We do plan on giving them back no matter what your choice is. All that we ask is that you consider it.”
Brex could feel his insides being bulled in all sorts of directions. Within seconds he thought of how he got here. The time living alone in the Forest. All the fights and how it resulted in saving Shadow Lily and Swirl Sugar. He didn’t forget that he had also died in some skirmish with Celestia to end up in this place now and talking to what he suspected to be a god and two goddesses. There was no real need to do what they wanted; she did say that he was free to do what he wanted when he got back. But the image of those two mare’s leaving the Castle with looks of concern over his staying flashed into existence. That broke down the wall that was built in his mind that screamed that he should turn his back on everything and all on that planet was out to get him. If there were others like those two, then they needed help if what these three were saying was true.
Brex gave Little Light a small smile as he replied, “Lets open these up so I can put together a plan. Need to know what my arsenal is and how to use them properly, right?” This got the collective group to let out a shared sigh of relief before Little Moon screamed, “WAY!!! PRESENTS TIME!! WOOHOOO!” The girl then jumped onto the table picked the first one up and started to shake it like a overly excited child before Little Light grabbed her by the jumpsuit neck line and wanked her from the table before yelling at Little Moon. “This isn’t something you should stand on. Don’t what another broken moon to happen again, right?” This got an indignant pout from Little Moon before she tossed the box into Brex’s lap.
Brex wanted to ask what they meant by a broken moon but figured it wasn’t the best time to ask. The package on his lap was wide but somewhat flat. He quickly opened it to find a large book with a leather cover. When he pulled it from the box and turned it over to the cover, Brex started to read it out loud, “Potions and Spells from the Shield Hero’s World.”
This got him to think of an anime where the main character was one of the four summoned to a world to defend it. However, the hero of the shield was framed for a crime he didn’t commit and started down a road of self-destruction while surviving. Brex recalled some spells used in the show and a few other things and wondered if everything from that anime was within this book. He wanted to look inside but decided to move on to the next box.
Daddy used his staff and pushed it close to Brex to take and with a smile he takes the box. This one was the same shape as the first but much smaller. When Brex opened it, he found a four inch long, curved white horn laying on top of a picture of a character he recognized from another anime called, That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime. It was of the one called, Souei. He was a Kijin that played as an assassin with the power to move in the shadows, use his energy to create strong threads that he could control as if they were alive, along with the power to make shadow doubles of himself to use was spies and other cool stuff. He thought that this must have been the horn used to cosplay as the dude. Then he realized that he could still be like a ninja if this gave him the same abilities.
( This is Souei from the anime, That time i got reincarnated as a slime. )
The third was picked up and brought over by Little Light from around the table. This one was in a perfectly cube box about four inches wide and tall. The item taken out looked like a watch but after getting a good look at it, Brex noticed that it was a bracelet item from Final Fantasy 7. It had slots for round jewels to be fitted in it. Feeling giddy, Brex almost went full on nerd over it but managed to hold that back. However, he noticed Little Light giving him that, knowing smile. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Brex turned to the last item on the table.
( Bracelet picture here. )
This one was larger than the bracelet, but not as big as the box that the book was inside of. When he opened the box, there was a white piece of paper obscuring the item inside. Picking up the paper, Brex noticed some writing. He began to read it aloud, “This is a thank you.” With a puzzled glance, Brex flipped the paper of to see if there was anything else but he found nothing at all aside from those few words. Looking over too Little Light, He asked, “What’s this about?”
He saw her shaking her head as she answered, “I’m sorry but that isn’t something for me to say. But I’m sure that someday you’ll find out.” She said this while giving him a smile. But Brex could tell that this was had something behind it, but he felt that it wasn’t something to worry over. He thought to himself, “Why do I feel like I can trust these three so much?” shaking his head, He decided to move on.
Reaching inside, Brex pulled out what he could only call an old, fashioned telephone. This confused the Roegadyn as he turned it over to figure out what it was from. All of the stuff had come from either a game or an anime. So where did this come from? It wasn’t long until he found a set of numbers etched into the side and some words printed below. Yggdrasil central informational hub line. Brex’s eyes went wide as this hit him. This was the telephone from the anime, Ah My Goddess. This meant that this would connect him to the computer in heaven that would contain everything one could ever want to know in the universe.
Brex was about to place the box that the phone was in onto the table but he started to hear something rolling around inside. Tilting his head he asked, “Huh? Is there something else inside?” He tilted the box over so the item in question would fall out and onto his hand. What fell out was a metal tube the same size as a can of soda. On the side he could see writing. He started to read it and this too managed to stun the Roegadyn.
He hadn’t noticed, but a small piece of paper fell out of the very same box. This one was picked up my Little Light who was still standing next to him. She started to read it after fixing her glass’s. After a few moments Little Light looked towards Brex with a raised eyebrow before asking, “Don’t you think this is overkill?” Without looking in her direction while still looking at the tube, Brex could only nod absentmindedly. She then handed the small paper to him, taking it, he placed it into his item box along with the other things he had received.
Little Light had filled the other two in on just what was found along with the telephone and this cause both of them to have slacked jaws as they looked in Brex’s direction. During this time, He was still getting over what he had just been holding in disbelief.
He soon asked, “So… um, moving on. Is it fine for me to head back to Equestria at any time or is there something else I need to do?” This got Daddy’s attention and he spoke up by saying, “Oh, about that. Hehe, that’s the think. With us pulling you out from that world into this one. You’re not synchronized right now. Time moves at another rate here compared to over there. The only way we could see you in real time was due to us having a link with your body. But seeing as you’re here and all. That link had been temporarily severed.”
This was when Little Light added by waving her hand over the over sized table and the surface of it changed to appear as a television screen. It showed the Castle that Brex was staying at. But on closer inspection he could see from some of the images that it seemed more run down with how there was more vegetation overgrowing and the walls looking more brittle compared to how he remembered.
Brex asked, “Just how much did time already pass on that side? And how long until I can be in sync with it again to return?” Daddy started to play with his white beard after seeming to be giving it some thought. He then said, “I would have to say that for you. It’s been over two-week sense arriving here with us. But as for Equestria, I’d say… 200 years. Give or take a decade or three. As for being able to go back. I say your ganna have to wait for nearly, two more months. By that time. It should be about 900 years sense the moment you died over there.”
He couldn’t believe just what was being told to him. 200 years had already come and gone. That meant that those two mare’s he met before would have died from old age a long time ago. Slumping into the chair. The Roegadyn looked more depressed than back before regaining that missing piece that he had to swallow.
He chuckled darkly to himself while saying under his breath, “Ha…ha… I knew it. That really was the last time that I would see them. Why did I think I would see them again… a small part of me thought that, there was a small chance we would bump into one another again…” letting out a deep sigh, he continued, “I guess I was right in not getting involved with them in the first place? Honestly, I should have seen that coming. Any displaced that showed up in the past always had something happening to them that would cause the story to end up going to when the Nightmare Moon story starts or some time afterwards. Why would I be any different…”
During this little speech, the others had walked around the table and stood before the Roegadyn. They patiently waited for the right moment to speak up. they had looks of pity and remorse for his plight.
It had taken Brex a good while before he recovered enough to look up. noticing the others were waiting, he looked to the ground and muttered, “I’m sorry you had to see that. I-I’ll be fine now. I wasn't all that attached to them anyway…” a lone tear ran down his face at the end of that sentence. Unknown to Brex, Little Moon was currently biting her lower lip as she clutched her right hand into a fist. She appeared to be on the verge of saying something when she was stopped by Brex speaking up again.
“I just wish I knew what had happened to those two after they left. Did they manage to make it back to Canterlot? Did they manage to get that Break Down guy arrested for trying to get them both killed?” He then looked towards the three and asked, “You keep an eye on that place, right? Think you could find out how things turned out for the two called Shadow Lily and Swirl Sugar?”
This got a silent nod from Daddy as he turned to the table and after waving his staff, some windows appeared over the surface. Brex’s eye's where glued to the images. It shows the one called Break down and some other older guy standing in the throne room before what he could have considered to be an extremely pissed off alabaster mare with green, pink and blue mane. She was wearing a white dress that seemed to have a long slit on one side that showed off some legs.
Beside the princess was Swirl Sugar with a triumphant look on her face. But there was no sign of Shadow Lily. The next scene showed a group of guards escorting some finely dressed ponies from some large house while wearing cuffs, after a few of these played Brex caught a glimpse of Shadow Lily working along some the guards. But she didn’t seem to have a very pleasant look on her face. He could have sworn that her eyes were red as if she could have been crying. Brex felt his heart aching at the sight.
Turning away from the images, he asked Daddy, “What happened after they left? I can understand seeing the one called Break Down standing before the Princess. But what’s with all that other stuff?”
This time it was Little Light that spoke up, “It would seem that after they got back, those two went to the captain of the guard. This quickly made its way to Princess Celestia and they used some spells to find the truth from that young Break Down and his father. Turns out they were in on the plot from the beginning. They lost their titles and land. afterwards the family got thrown out of the capital. Don’t be sad, those two were the only ones in that family to begin with. So, no one else suffered from it.”
Glancing over to the ones with guards going into some of the houses that looked far mor fancy compared to the others. She added, “As for those images. Shadow Lily has taken it upon herself to do an investigation on both the royal guards and a large number of the nobility. She found out a lot quickly after getting the full backing of the Princess it seems. It was found out that a large portion of the guards were getting paid off to work for some of the nobles. As for those nobles themselves, it turned up that they had ponies and a few other members of other races captive on their property. They all were freed of course. The ones found guilty got everything taken by the crown and forced out of Canterlot.”
Now turning to Brex, Little Light continued while holding her tablet up to cover her lower face to hide a smile as she talked. “It seems that the one called Shadow Lily is under the impression that you were some, nobility from a far-off kingdom and was extremely adamant about finding the one that had taken you captive.” Her eyes now showing some glee before continuing with, “I don’t know about you, but if I was a mortal, I wouldn’t want to be in her way.”
She began to chuckle as she waved her free hand across the table and this caused it to return to normal. Now giving her tablet another glance. She said, “This incident is forever known as the, Noble Shadow purge. Shadow Lily seems to have a reputation for being the one pony the higher ups shouldn’t mess with. Hmm, seems that soon after she retired from the guard and move from Canterlot. It says here that she lived to a good age of 125 years old. Wow that’s impressive. They have only an extra 60 years on the humans 100 from your earth. So that would basically make her close to 90 in human terms.
Brex couldn’t help but to let out a relieved sigh. Soon a small smile graced his lips before he thanked Little Light for the story. Brex turned to Daddy and asked, “Is my time for going back set in place or can I have a say in when I end up coming back?”
Daddy hummed for but a moment before answering, “Well… I suppose we could tweak it a bit. Why, do you have something in mind?” Brex answered by getting out of his chair to get closer and whispered into the old man’s ear. After a minute the man gave a wide smile and gave the Roegadyn a pat on the shoulder before saying, “Consider it done kid. I’ll set it up so you pop up a good 12 years before the year 1,000 A.C.”
After that, Brex stayed in that world for the next six and a half weeks. During that time, he trained with using his newly unlocked class’s and got a grip of the fighting styles needed for each of the weapon types he had access too.
It was hard doing it all on his own, but with the help of the three Brex had it all down in record time. They used their powered over the environment to change the landscape and even produced some monsters that he could fight. When it came to mastering his weapons, Little Moon offered herself as a sparing partner. She even summoned some anime and video game characters to help with instructing him.
( Picture of Fairy Tail’s Erza. )
There was, Fairy Tail’s Erza. She really helped with learning to switch weapons in combat effectively. However, after a short time Brex found that he had a limit when switching while in a fight. It seemed that the number of times he could do this was cut when he was set to a higher level. So, from level 1 to 20, he could switch 5 times. From 21 to 50 Brex could only switch class’s 3 times. Now when it came to anything above level 50, he could only do it twice before any more attempts caused him to just fall over, passed out.
He had been using the settings to lower his stats like how players ran into a random event in the field or when they would cue for a dungeon where they would pop inside of one made for level 20’s, then that player who was at 50 would be set to level 20 for that particular dungeon. Brex figured quickly that this level lowering setting could come in handy when he wanted to blend in and not stand out as too powerful. He also discovered that practicing without the overpowers stats gained from being at 70 would contribute to his over all performance. When switching back to level 70 paladin, Brex noticed after the few weeks of training, his overall points had gone up some. This was something he found amazing.
( here is a Picture of Kenshin Himura from the anime, Rurouni Kenshin. )
There were also some characters that specialized in weapons that each of his class’s would be known for using. When it came to the Samurai class, Little Moon summoned, Kenshin Himura. Brex really liked his easy-going nature. It had taken some doing on Little Moons part to convince Brex to let him go when it was time to move onto the next instructor.
This continued with many more teachers over the weeks. He had to train for so many classes. this wasn’t restricted to the combat types either. There was some that help him in understanding his cooking and so on. Brex had nearly broke down into a sobbing mess when Little Moon summoned the dreaded Chef Ramsey to give him some, *Air Quotes* constructive criticism.
He remembered just how amazing Final Fantasy 14 was as a game. After while Brex made an off-hand remark about playing it again and this caused Little Moon to practically pounce on the man. It wasn’t long until she had set up a gaming computer for the two of them. She explained that it was all artificial, so the player characters seen in the game weren’t actually players. It had fooled Brex a number of times with how realistic they all acted.
She had even managed to add a new expansion called Shadow Bringers into the game. She said that it was the newly released one on earth. It wasn’t long before their game had caught the attention of the other two. Soon the four of them were questing along one another and dungeon diving like a group of close friends… or maybe as a close nit family on game night.
Little Moon was hooked on playing any of the ranged damage dealer types like the Machinist. As for Little Light, she played as the healer and strategist such as the Scholar. Brex found her adorable when she made a small mistake, mind you she would never admit to them and say that it was the game’s fault. But she turned out to be one amazing healer with that sharp mind of hers. When it came to Daddy. Now that was what one would call a veteran gamer through and through. He just loved playing any class he could get his hands on. If Brex didn’t know any better, he would have called him out on playing it back on earth. He played one of the new tank classes from the expansion called the Gun breaker.
Without the need to eat and sleep. the group powered through the whole thing in less than one week. In the end, the all could have been confused for walking zombies with the dark bags under the eyes and lifeless reaction to everything. It had taken them all over a day to recover thankfully. Without saying it, that was one amazing expansion. The story was capable to keeping the one called Little Light from leaving to take care of work. After she did complain about how hard she would have to play catch up though.
During the opportunities of training and checking in on world events back on the pony’s side, Brex would get some study sessions with Little Light on this and that. At first, she would complain about how it wasn’t really her job to play teacher to a mortal and dodge his requests now and then. Soon she broke down and relented. After while Brex noticed that she wouldn’t even complain after the first week on lessons. It had even gotten to the point that he thought that he had seen her smile when she first caught sight of him coming to see her but played it off as a trick to his eyes.
As for Daddy, Brex found the old coot to be hilarious with his stories and antics. There were times he would be on the verge of letting out an embarrassing story about one of the other two but for some strange reason, either one of both of them would appear out of nowhere and start to drag him off to do something. Half the time Daddy would end up getting some type of injury but he would see the old man not even an hour later looking fresh as a daisy.
There wasn’t any time that Brex would sleep and this went 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until the day of his predetermined departure. Daddy had done something so that Brex would appear at the Tree of Harmony exactly 12 years before the anticipated night of Nightmare Moons return.
But before he left, the three wanted to talk one last time. Brex could tell that they might just miss him. But he knew better. They would forget about him after some time with how they live forever. It had taken him some time but after putting the pieces together the Roegadyn was able to figure out their true names but never said a word. He had no idea if they knew that he knew. Over the weeks Brex had practiced at hiding his thoughts and emotions now and then and noticed that it may have worked maybe half the time.
Daddy came up first and gave Brex one of those elderly hugs that screamed, don’t hug the old man back to much or you might snap his back. But that was never really the case. He knew that this guy was build like a stone house. A stone house made with several feet of pure solid titanium underneath the surface that is. He touched Brex’s forehead with his staff and said, “There yeah go kiddo. That’s my blessing. Before you ask, its to help you in not ageing thanks to some time magic. Mind you, your hair can still grow… wish I could say the same for this body I picked. HO HO! Also yeah got an extremely high affinity for earth-based magic and your body is ganna be a lot tougher to take down in a straight up brawl!”
Next was Little Moon. She gave Brex a big hug as well, but she didn’t let go for a full minute before pulling away. Brex had spent the most amount of time with her. Brex wondered if this is what it would have been like to have a little sister, even if she was older. Little Moon always acted like she was a teen with the energy she had... Heck he looked all three of them as family at that point. She leaned in and raised her right index finger close to Brex’s right eye. There was a small, weak flash before she lowered that hand. Little Moon said, “Now here is my Blissing. Your affinity with Ice will be super high now! Also, you luck is bound to get a big boost. So now the cold wont bother you any way!~ This made Brex laugh. He had just recently showed her the memory of the movie Frozen. Sense then Little Moon was hooked on Disney movies.
Now came Little Light. As professional as always. She strolled up to Brex and did the same motion as her younger sister but with his left eye. She gave him one of her knowing smirks before saying, “Now don’t forget those lessons I was so gracious in helping you with. Watch out for pick pockets, don’t forget to double and triple check the spell matrix with those spells in the books. Also, please for the love of all, don’t rely on speaking out incantations like some of those morons that need to look flashy. Don’t need to let your enemy know just what your about to cast. Also don’t forget the counter spells I taught you! Oh DEAR! I DON’T THINK YOUR READY! I HAVE SO MUCH LEFT TO TEACH YOU! Maybe you could postpone this for another year or two?”
At this point Little Light was now holding onto both sides of his head and looking into his eyes like some overly protective older sister. Brex caught this side of her only in the last two weeks now and then but not once was it this bad, not to mention she never did this while in front of the others. But here she was doing it. This bade Brex feel both embarrassed and grateful for her to be this worried over a guy like him.
She soon recovered and did that signature move where she would cough into her fist before fixing her outfit and glass’s. She started back up and said, “As for my blessing, your affinity with fire with be brought to the maximum potential. Heat won’t have much effect on you, if any. But don’t go and testing it on taking a dip in lava. That’s still molten rock after all. Also, you will receive a substantial boost in your cognitive functions.” Giving him a small smile before adding, “We wouldn’t want you messing up on a spell and having it go boom like that one time.” She was referring to the first day of magic practice while trying out some from that Shield hero’s book. There was a small explosion at the time.
They finished up with their goodbyes after a few more words were exchanged. Daddy tapped the golden water at his feet and a spell matrix formed behind Brex but a few meters away. He looked towards it and the plans he had made came to the forefront of his mind. However, he turned back to the people he had gotten to know over the last two months.
He gave them a salute before taking a step backwards before giving them a big dopey smile while he held two thumbs up. Just before he was about to take a step into the hole, Brex did a high back flip and before entering the three could hear him yelling at the top of his lungs, “GERONIMOOOOO!”
*Point of view: Little Light*
It had been only a few moments after Brex had left when Little Light turned away and started to walk slowly in the opposite direction from the now closing portal. She had only gotten maybe several steps away before she went and exploded in a rage filled scream as she throws down her tablet. The item breaking into countless pieces with the strength used in doing the act.
This caught the attention of both Little Moon and Daddy. They look on Little Light with horror on their faces. They could see a swirling tempest of pure malice and hatred erupting from the girl. Gulping, Daddy calls out too Little Light and asks in a tentative tone, “Um, is everything alright there? I didn’t know that you would be this upset about him leaving.
This got a head shake from Little Light before the atmosphere returned to what it once was before the outburst. In a frustrated tone of voice, Little Light said, “Brex didn’t deserve to have that done to him… he is such a nice kid…” That was when she balled her hands into a pair of fists and the other two could hear the joints popping from how much pressure she was using in doing so.
Little Moon stepped up and said, “We all know that what happened with Celestia wasn’t fair. But we got to finally help him out with giving him his stuff. Also, there was the extra help too. With all the power up’s we gave the guy, I doubt that that girl would pose him any real challenge now!”
This cause Little Light to release her grip. She takes in a few deep breaths before saying, “Uh… yeah, right… Celestia… your right, she won’t be an issue now…” Still turned away from the others, she tilts her head down. Her eyes now concealed by shadows; the woman adds under her breath so that the other two wouldn’t hear. “Its not her I’m talking about… If… If it wasn’t for the rules… I would go after that woman for what he put him through… he didn’t deserve any of that… if I ever get the chance… I’ll make sure she suffers in all 7 levels of hell…” Little Lights eyes, unknown to the others, now had a gaze that could kill lesser gods at that moment.
After that she gave her father and sister a good bye. She informed them that she had taken too much time off and had a literal mountain of work to catch up on. When The woman had left, Little Moon asked Daddy, “Wow… just wow… I had no idea that sis would take a strong liking to Brex like that. Do you think we should have helped in persuading him to stay a bit longer?”
This got a Head shake from Daddy before replying, “I don’t think so. She is the goddess of inquiry. She knows a lot of things we both will never know. But really, that was scary right there. I never seen the girl get that angry. Not even during the break ups with her boyfriends. She must really like the kid to get this worked up. Anyhow… I hope his plan works out. Either he will be seen as some mastermind villain or some hero. I just hope he can get past his self-doubts and fear of girls. Besides… he is practically family in more ways than one! HO HO.”
Little Moon looked confused as she asked, “Um. Just what are you talking about daddy? Sure, I like the guy, but what do you mean by more ways than one?” This only got the father to give the girl a mischievous smile before saying, “Oh Little Moon.” Bringing up a finger before his face, Daddy waves it, side to side while answering, “IT’S… A… SECRET.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Portal back to Equestria*
Brex was still falling through the portal that was lined with constantly shifting colors of blue as he continued to fall into what could only be described as a worm hole. His body was being tossed back and forth. There was no way in keeping himself from tumbling around like a dust bunny caught inside of a running vacuum cleaner.
( This is what the inside of the portal is like. )
Just when he was seeing another light source off at the other end of the tunnel for what seemed like an hour within this portal. Brex could feel a sudden surge of energy coursing throughout his body. Just as he was to come into contact with the light. His momentum came to a screeching stop. The light had taken on the form of the Tree of harmony.
At first, he thought, “hold on here. Is she trying to stop me from going back or what?” that thought was dashed when he was then pulled into the center of the tree’s image and Brex could see flashes of pictures of 6 girls. Each of them still young. It hardly needed any thinking power at all to realize that these were the main characters of the show in anthro form.
Brex could see, Twilight Sparkle, Apple Jack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. But no spike. He figured that it was still too soon for him to even be hatched at this point. Maybe in another year or two.
After the power point presentation was concluded, Brex found himself kneeling on the floor inside of a cave. Behind was the tree of harmony giving off a faint glow. Turning to it, the Roegadyn gives it a nod before making a mad dash out of the cave and up the steep cliff side. Within seconds, Brex finds his feet firmly on the top and facing the old castle.
Taking his sight from the ruins, the Roegadyn runs into the Forest at blinding speed. A moment later he heard Rory’s voice yelling, “Huh, What?! Wooh! Master slow down! What’s the rush! Hold on. How did we get out here? Also, when did you get this fast?!!!”
This got a reply from an excited Brex using the mental connection, “Good to see your up Rory. I’ll explain along the way. We have so much time and so little to do! Wait, strike that and flip it around! We have places to go. But first, I have to talk to a pair of ponies about some apples!! WOOOOHOOOOOO, HOLD ON IN THERE! I’M GANNA OPEN HER UP!!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 17: No Dropped Apples.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Everfree Woods* *Time: 9:47 in the morning*
Brex found himself standing next to a large tree at the very edge of the forest. Looking ahead, he could see a small town just a stone throw from what many, would call the most dangerous place in all of Equestria. Off in the distance to the north west was the mountain where the city of Canterlot sat on.
Taking a good long look, Brex thought, “Well I guess they really did build the whole thing on the mountain to begin with. Here I thought they only had the castle there and the rest of the city was going to be at the base of the mountain. Seriously! Even with some good construction and help from magic, that was just plain stupid on the Princesses part. What would happen if some one was able to sever that place from the hillside? It would be a full body count of the citizens that didn’t get out beforehand.”
Tearing himself away from the eye sore, Brex returned his attention back to the town. He could see some of the residences flying around. A few of them seemed to be moving some clouds above some of the buildings. Speaking of the buildings, those were so colorful. He knew that they could resemble the show, but to this extent, still baffled his mind as to how these ponies could handle the near blinding colors.
From his position, there was the towns, tree library on the far side. Brex wanted to take notes on what the lay out was at this time period and attempted to see if any of the iconic buildings were around yet after seeing the future home of Twilight Sparkle. There was no sign of what he considered the eyesore known as, Carousel boutique. Then he spotted the candy lovers dream home, Sugar Cube Corner. Brex had to resist the urge to get to that building and try to take a bite out of the side to see if it really was made of food. Thankfully he managed to push those thoughts out of his head.
Knowing full well that this world wouldn’t follow everything from the show, Brex began to use one of his new skills from the horn he had received from the other side. Closing his eyes, the Roegadyn felt that he was tapping into the character called, Souei. There was a stinging sensation that started in his forehead, almost immediately. Quickly realizing what was happening, Brex concentrated his mind to keep the white curved horn from growing from his skull. The pain soon subsided after some considerable effort.
He started to think to himself, “How does that always slip my mind that whenever I use that guy’s powers, that horn tries to come out? Oh well, It’s just for now. Don’t want these ponies to know I have a horn, then they would assume that I could cast magic. It would be best to let them believe I can’t for the time being.” Rory spoke up with, “Oh Master~ I know you already mentioned the horn but I think it looks rather nice on you. Gives you a more rugged look.”
Shaking his head at how Rory seems to have already become enamored with the newly acquired head ornament. The Roegadyn continues with tapping into the stealth skills. With the use of shadow movement, Brex melds into the shadow of the tree next to him and enters the realm of shadows. In this realm, the world is shrouded in a darker version of the real world. The other difference is the fact that he can see everything going on but the people of the other side can’t see him.
Brex runs out of the woods and into the town. Passing by the stalls selling their goods, he spots one selling apples. The one manning the stall was a rather large stallion that Brex could have mistaken for Big Mac if it wasn’t for the color of the hair and mane being off. His hair was a very light brown and a red mane and green eyes. He was wearing a light brown flannel shirt and dark blue jeans. There was even that Stetson hat that Applejack would always wear in the show. Thinking on what he was selling and with how the male looked, he came to the conclusion that this was her father, Bright Mac.
Still in the shadow realm, Brex watched the guy standing there while selling apples to anyone that would come up to the stall. Wanting to be sure that this was the guy, he focused in the individual and triggered the one skill that the main character of Final Fantasy 14 possessed. It was known as the Echo. During the story line, it was explained to be a type of sight that allowed the warrior of light to look into a person’s past and experience a moment their life from a third persons point of view. This made it possible for the holder of the Echo to understand that person’s feelings. Brex wanted to know, just what type of guy this Bright Mac really was before he continued with his plan.
Thankfully, during his time training with Little Light, Brex had been able to use the Echo on command now. His vision quickly faded and he soon found himself standing in a dimly lit room. Off to the side he noticed a bed with a white sheet covering the lower part of another person that was resting. Beside the bed was Bright Mac sitting on a chair and leaning over and kissing the one resting. It was a mare with a caramel mane with teal-colored eyes. She was holding in her arms a cloth bundle. Stepping closer, he could see the face of a baby with nearly yellow hair and a red mane, just like her father. The girl’s eyes were still closed so he couldn't check to see the color but Brex knew that this was Apple bloom.
Brex could feel the full brunt of Bright Mac’s emotions while in this state. The sense of overwhelming pride and happiness nearly broke the connection he needed for the Echo to continue. A second later two others came into the room and Brex could tell right away that these two are, Big Mac and Granny Smith. The kid was almost a spitting image of his dad. Aside from his hair being red and the mane is slightly darker than his mothers, as for the eyes, they were the same as Bright Mac. He was wearing a flannel shirt and a lighter shade of blue jeans.
As for Granny Smith, well she was exactly the same as in the show. Well, with a few less wrinkles and she had on more than just that top that was always worn in the show. Still as gray as ever. She was a light shade of green with orange eyes.
Shortly after there was one more that entered the room. This one was a mare wearing a working, button up shirt and a pair of shorts that showed some muddy patches near the sides. Brex nearly chuckled seeing that even as a young girl, Applejack was a hard worker.
He watched them looking at the newest addition to their family for the course of a few minutes. He got to hear them calling one another by their names and surmised that this was shortly after Apple blooms birth. Every member of this family seemed like the perfect picture of what a happy home should be like. But this had to come to an end as Brex felt the connection losing its strength. He blinked and found himself standing a few yards from the apple stall with the stallion in question still there while making another sell.
After watching Bright Mac continuing to sell bushels of apples for another few minutes. He turned towards the clock tower and made his way over and scaled the building. He crouched in the bell tower and exited the shadow realm by coming out of the large bells shadow. From there he surveyed the town from a higher vantage point while staying out of view of both the ones on the ground and any flying Pegasus.
When it got close to three in the afternoon. He caught sight of a small girl rushing towards the road that had the stalls lined up in and stopped in front of the one manned by Bright Mac. Squinting his eyes, Brex used the examination function on the girl and a window appeared with a standing image of the girl. It displayed her name, level, class and items equipped. It showed it to be a young Applejack. The girl having a back pack equipped indicated that she had just come from school and came to meet up with her dad. She had her hair all done up in a braid just like in the show. Although it had nearly thrown him off with not seeing her in that trademarked Stetson hat.
Watching them packing up their goods. Brex climbed down the tower after slipping back into the shadow realm with the use of Shadow Movement. He followed them as they left the town and down a dirt road leading away from the still busy townsfolk. It had taken them nearly 20 minutes for the two to reach a large wooden arch with the words, Sweet Apple Acres, written in large letters.
Looking beyond in the distance, the sight of rows upon rows of hundreds, if not thousands of apple trees blanketed the place. Brex had to hold back a whistle. But Rory on the other hand didn’t have to do that. letting one of her own out at the sight. She said, “Now that’s a lot of apples!” Brex could only nod at that line.
Soon the pair of ponies went into the barn and came out several minutes later and went into the house. Brex wanted to take a closer look but felt that would be going too far. Instead, he fixed his gaze onto the apple trees and went into the orchard. He spent a good hour wondering around to see just how big this place really was. During that time the Roegadyn was thoroughly impressed. Brex didn’t know why but when ever he thought of how farmers worked so hard to made what the mass’s needed, he felt that they needed to be held up higher than even any noble should. They put in so much work.
The Roegadyn stayed in and out of the property for the next few days. During this time, he would venture into the town to see what was the latest news being talked about. Also, there was the library for the books that have been written within the last 900 years. Sure, they weren’t all top secret and full of forbidden spells like back at the castle but what else was he to do until the appointed event to occur.
Just to make sure that he didn’t miss anything, the Roegadyn had used another skill that belonged to the person the horn came from. It was called Body Double. Just as the name implied, it created an exact copy of Brex and it was left at the farm to keep an eye on what happened there. This was similar to something from the anime called, Naruto and its Shadow Clones. But these didn’t go poof when they got hit. Also, there was the information being sent back to the original, these are able to use a skill called Mental communication. This meant that Brex could be told anything at any time so they didn’t need to go poof for him to be notified of anything new. Brex could only make up to three for now but Little Light told him that with practice, he could make far more in the future.
When it became the fifth day, Brex was back in the library. He had been dodging the current librarian every time he had come in and this day was nothing new. He had just spotted a new book that he had yet to read when he got a message from his double. The event that he had been waiting for was starting right now. Making sure that he couldn’t be seen, Brex used the evolved version of shadow movement, which was called, Spatial Travel. This allowed Brex to instantly disappear and reappear wherever he had been before.
Taking a short hop off from the ground, Brex fell into the floor by using his own shadow. Back in Sweet Apple Acres, he appeared out of the ground. Quickly, he looked around to see what was happening.
He noticed that he was on the part of the property that was closer to the Everfree. There was a girls scream that rang out and Brex found himself running at full speed in its direction. Muttering to himself, “I hope I’m not too late. Please don’t let me be too late. If anything, let me change this part of the story.”
Looking up to the top right corner of his vision, his mini map showed a group of dots showing up at the edge of its range. He then used the Situational Awareness from Rory to get a better feel for what was going on. In an instant he could tell just what the situation was. This was happening near that tree house that Applejack played in before the Cutie Mark Crusaders turned it into their clubhouse in the show. There were two adult sized ponies. He could also sense another two but one was much smaller. With eyes going wide, Brex cursed under his breath. “Dam it all. Don’t tell me that Applejack was going to see her parents die right in front of her as a child? No not happening! Not this time!”
Turning his attention to the others along with the Apple family, he could see a pack of 19 Timber Wolves. This confused Brex as to why there was so many. Before when he spent time in the woods, they never when over 12 at most. Normally it would be roughly six or seven in a pack. Right now, they seemed to be separated in groups of three or four while surrounding the family.
( This is the warrior gear and Soul Stone for the class.)
Brex was only 30 seconds away at his current speed. So, with a thought, he switched over to his Warrior Soul Stone. His body was covered in millions of streaks of light that covered his form, it soon burst away to reveal him wearing the level 50 Warrior gear with the face cover down to both protect his face from getting hurt and to prevent his identity of being discovered. This all took place within a split second. Again, he was grateful for not having the drawn-out Sailor moon transformation scene for this. A shiver ran across his back at that image.
He was now only 20 seconds away. Brex new that he needed to get the wolves attention and fast, otherwise this was not going to turn out well for that family. He activated the Defiance passive that makes it so he would generate way more threat from the enemy. This meant that he could gain the wolves attention far more easily and they would be less likely to go after anyone else.
When the now, warrior Roegadyn had got to the 5 second marker, he could see that the four ponies were huddled together and surrounded by a ring of Timber Wolves. This made Brex smirk under his metal mask. He thought, “Oh now this makes things much more accommodating.
*Point of view: Applejack*
Applejack was only a short time ago, out here with her mother and father to fix up that tree house of hers that had some repair work to do from the last winter doing a number on it. Her big brother Big Mac had just arrived with some lumber when they were attacked by a large pack of Timber Wolves. The fight had lasted well over 8 minutes with her mother staying by her side just incase any of the wolves ever got past Bright Mac and Big Mac.
Applejack knew that those two wouldn’t have any problems with handling those varmints, even with them being stallions. She was always told that the males are weaker by other ponies around town and in school, but she never had seen her father and brother to be that way at all. Sure, the other males back in town did seem like they couldn’t stand up right while in a light breeze but, they didn’t turn out well build like those two.
She had seen times when her brother helped out with selling apples in town to only be asked out almost every time. This would always happen when ever Big Mac would leave the farm. It had gotten to the point that she had even noticed that her brother would come up with some excuse to stay home to work out in the orchard.
This left her father to be the one to sell their apples. In fact, it was only him that did that now. Applejack had asked once about it and her mother answered with how father didn’t want either her or her mother, Pear Butter, to be pestered by the others in town about how the males of the Apple family would do the hard labor of working out in the fields. It was an almost an unspoken law that the males had to do really safe jobs or stay at home and manage the household. Because of this, her mother would come home at times in tears. Applejack knew about this even with the effort that her mother used to try to hide this from her.
But now she could see just how strong both her big brother and father were. While armed with nothing but planks of wood no longer than four feet in length. The two had fended off the wolves for this long. But with how those things would keep up with the assaults, she could see that their movements were getting sloppy along with the haggard breathing when ever they had been able to drive one off, but to only have its place taken by a new one while the last recovered from any damage they had taken.
At one-point Bright Mac had called to Pear Butter and said, we are needing to break their line so the kids could make a run for it. If we don’t, then we all are ganna get killed!” Applejack looked up to her mother and screamed, “Mamma, what’s Daddy saying? I’m not ganna be leavin yeah here to get ya self eatin.”
Her mother was about to say something to her, but was interrupted by one of the wolves charging past the pair of fighters and making a straight shot for the two mare’s. Noticing this, Pear Butter lets go of Applejack to get in the wolf’s path. Taking it on, the wolf and mare fall into Applejack and she is sent back a few feet and hits her head on the tree that was directly behind her. This knocks out applejack and causes her world to go black.
*Point of view: Third Person*
Bright Mac and Big Mac had just seen Pear Butter being tackled by one of the Timber Wolves and were about to make their way over to her but the wolves weren’t having that. Noticing their comrade had just made an opening, a small group had made their way to position themselves between the two stallions and mare’s
They started to growl and bark menacingly towards the ones with weapons while the others kept back and continued to incircle their pray. Pear Butter screamed as she was fending off the one attacking her by grabbing at its upper and lower jaws for dear life. The monster was dripping its disgusting sap from its maw onto the mare below. It was all she could do to keep it from clamping down on her face.
Back with the boys, their faces twisted with both anger and terror as they could do nothing more than to watch from a distance as they try again and again to get past the smaller group of four Timber Wolves. There was a series of howls being emitted by the rest of the pack. Bright Mac looked more visibly worried at the prospect of these beasts calling for even more. He had never even seen a pack this large in his life. Sure, there would be maybe three to five showing up in the orchard, but this was unheard-of.
Big Mac wanted to call out to his mother and sister but he had his hands full with just fending off attacks aimed at him with the piece of wood in his hands. He saw his father taking a mighty swing at the nearest wolf, but it only dodged it like it was nothing. Then the one in front of Big Mac lunged forward and bit down onto the improvised weapon in his hands and wrenched it away. It quickly looked towards the kid and it displayed its jaw strength by biting down and breaking it with a loud snap.
Now without a weapon, Big Mac had resorted to using only his legs. He had confidence in how strong his kicks could get from helping with bucking the apples. But still the stallion wasn’t some idiot. He wasn’t going to do something reckless, so he was now biding his time fore the perfect moment to strike back. He didn’t want to add to how bad this scene was already turning out to be. Still his mind would constantly snap back to his mother who was some how managing to fend off the one still looking over her.
He could still see that his little sister was on the ground and out cold from being thrown into it, just moments before. Big Mac wouldn’t have said it to her face but he didn’t think that she would have been of any help right now. If this had happened only a few more years later from now, he knew that she would have been able to take these varmints out without a lick of help with how talented she was. Being the big brother, he got to see that she would easily out do him, in and outside of the farm in no time at all. But for right now, he was glad she wasn’t doing anything reckless. Big Mac knew just how bullheaded his little sis could get.
Back with Bright Mac, he wasn’t doing much better. He had a least managed to keep his weapon from being taken away like the one his son had. It confused the stallion at how these wolves were acting this day. They never worked this well in a pack before. Timber wolves did work with one another, but with how they had moved to cut them from the mare’s, Bright Mac could have sworn that some one was making them do this. He wondered for just a second if this was some type of scheme by some business rival to get the Apple Family out of the way to buy up the farm. He did remember that one fella that had those two boys with him. Bright Mac couldn’t remember the father, but he did remember that the little boys were called, Flim and Flam.
Pear Butter had just let out another scream when the wolf had just tried to snap its jaws down onto the mare’s face. But yet again, the farm mare showed just how strong she could be. Bright Mac knew that it was only a matter of seconds at the most before his wife’s efforts would finally run out. He was about to just charge right towards her and the wolves before him when he heard the sound of something whizzing through the air.
He could hardly tell what it was as it flew through the air and towards the timber wolf that was attacking his wife. Before he can even register what happened the wolf had been utterly destroyed as the object passed by behind it. All that was left was the head section that pear butter was still holding. Without the rest of the body, the head quickly lost all life as the eyes grew dim until there was nothing left of those once green orbs.
That was not the end of it of course as the object made a large arc as it returned. This time on its return path it struck into the pack of wolves that divided the two sets of ponies. Without so much as slowing down or showing any signs of resistance the object’ caused the pack to practically explode as it continued back towards the tree line that it had originated from. All that remained from its once previously made travel was nothing but scattered twigs and branches.
The pack of Timberwolves now seeing what had been done to their comrades all stopped what they were doing and turned towards where the object originated from. Not even a second later a figure stepped into the line of sight of all to see.
What stepped out was a towering being clad in a mix of heavy plated armor and what appeared to be linings of fur in the gaps between the neck, shoulders, and elbow joints. His face was covered by a metal helmet with two slitted eye sockets and a pair of metal horns protruding from the sides of his head that curved forward. Grasp in his right hand, with the tip hanging low to the ground was an enormous two-handed axe.
The first thing to go through Bright Mac’s head was this must be a minotaur by the looks of the horns. But then quickly questioning himself as to why a minotaur would even be in this part of Equestria to begin with. Deciding to put those thoughts aside he attempted to call out to the being for help but was interrupted by the collective howls of the Timberwolves as they all turned their attention towards the newcomer.
Seeing what was about to happen Pear Butter called out in a yell, “Be careful there partner there’s a lot of them out here. Don’t go worrying about me, get my kids and husband out of here.” This only got a small headshake from the new being before he replied with a casual tone that’s somehow set her at ease, “None shall die.” Lifting the axe towards his front and taking hold with both hands the being lets out a yell of epic proportions that even the Princess herself would have some trouble matching. “HYAAAAAHH!”
This action nearly knocked both Big Mac and his father over while at the same time causing all the Timberwolves surrounding them to apparently be lowering their heads as to stand up to the mighty sound being caused by this unknown stranger. Big Mac could have sworn that he was hearing a manticore roaring straight into his face with how powerful this was.
The air in front of the horned being in armor was basically rippling as it distorted sight. This feat would have normally only had been possible through the Canterlot voice that the Princess would use when she would get mad, or at least that’s what the stories say.
It had lasted a good four to five seconds before subsiding, at that point all in attendance were on the verge of cowering in fear at least. That’s what Pear Butter, Bright Mac and Big Mac were feeling. As for applejack, she was still out cold. The wolves however, were attempting to regain their status as the hunters as they tried to get back onto shaky legs.
There was a howl from one of the wolves from the rear of the pack. This caused the rest of them to now bare their fangs towards the newcomer. Almost immediately the pack swarms and begins to work out a coordinated attack. One wolf came from directly to the newcomers left side. However, without even turning his head he simply let go of the axe with his left hand to leave the right to be the one left to hold it. and quickly through his backhand towards the creature as it came into range of his arm. Without showing any signs of resistance to his arm the entire front half of the timber wolf bersted into many pieces and the rest of it fell apart without much effort from the being.
Without showing any regards to their fallen member another three came. Two were coming from directly ahead, a third approached on the right-hand side. All three jumped into the air hoping that at least one of them would be able to make contact and take out their new prey. Unfortunately, that plan did not pan out too well.
Sliding his left foot back he takes hold of his gigantic axe with both hands once more and without any time at all passing, swings his entire top half of his body along with the axe and cleaves in ark through the air striking all three at the same time. Only stopping when his axe was now to his far right. His left hand having releasing its grip halfway through the swing to allow full reach.
There was then a shower of twigs and branches littering the ground, a few bouncing off of his heavy plated armor as if they were nothing but rain droplets. But without any time being lost at all, another set of three came from directly behind. It seemed that these three had circled around and used the tree lining as covers within the orchard to get around behind in order to do a sneak attack.
It seemed as if this was a tactic that would work, but unfortunately without even skipping a breath, that being quickly turn towards his left once more brandishing his long axe in one hand. This time doing the entire process with just one arm, he had completely turned in a 180 degree and quickly cleaves through the incoming wolves with little sweat. This time instead of any parts hitting him, the debris was blasted back in a way, this littering the ground over 12 meters from the point of impact between the axe and wolves.
He then spoke in a bored tone, “Is… That… All?” as if seeming as though the wolves understood his words, the amount of anger was apparent as they all began to growl and close in slowly. Now learning from their mistakes that charging in was not a viable plan.
So far, the fight had only lasted a good 30 to 40 seconds and already ten of the wolves had been utterly destroyed. Their remaining members being worried, now that their numbers have been cut in half, circled him even closer while tightening there hold or so they perceived. If only these creatures had realized that underneath that mask was a man with a devilish smirk.
He called out yet again, but this time in a serious tone, “I'm waiting...” The air around the unknown being had started to shift. One can tell that the sound of the wind and rustling of the trees had died down only to be left with an eerie silence. His stance now lowered and gripping his axe in both hands, holding it to his right side.
The next word spoken from the being sent shivers down not only the wolves but the ponies hearing him as well. It was spoken so quietly but at the same time it could be heard in volume, “I'm... Still... Waiting....”
After saying those words, he quickly dashed towards the nearest wolf and with a small jump, raises his axe above his head and swings it straight down cleaving the beast in half down the middle. Both halves easily slid from one another and upon hitting the ground, they break into a small pile as if it was never alive in the first place.
Next, he turned to his right and began running towards that one. Brandishing his axe on his left-hand side he readies for a powerful swing but before he manages to get within range, he changes direction and heads to the next one over. Swinging the axe that was clearly intended for the second wolf, cleanly bisected the first one on its way to its intended target. The wolves seeing this were clearly caught off guard seeing that faint. now that they have seen it in action. They showed signs of being more cautious.
Back with the apple family, all those who were still conscious were gawking at the sheer strength and speed that this oversized being was displaying. How effortlessly he was able to swing such a huge heavy metal object, the ease he demonstrated in adjusting its course at split second intervals, not to mention how easily he was able to cleave right through their bodies as if they were nothing but clouds. Bright Mac’s thoughts about him being a minotaur were becoming more and more pronounced in his mind with each and every action that he was making.
The Timberwolves noticing that this was a fruitless endeavor quickly communicated to one another with barks and howls and abandoned their attack only to turn towards the apple family.
Quickly noticing this the being rushes towards the pack as they run away. But to all present, what he did next went beyond reason. Instead of attacking the pack of wolves from behind, the large heavily armored being who was carrying an axe as long as he was, ran at such speeds that he overcame the wolves and jumped clean over them and landed directly between the pack and apple family.
He rose his axe above his head one more time. Bright Mac, noticing this thought, “Why is he holding that above his head, shouldn’t he have it at the side so he can hit more than one of them while their coming at him all at once!”
What happened next stunned all present. Just as the wolves were coming within 5 meters, the unknown being swung his axe straight down into the ground where there was clearly no target to be hit. However, upon hitting the ground there was a massive explosion of power behind that downward swing that it literally made the ground in front of him in a cone shape spreading outwards become upheaved. An invisible shockwave slammed into the oncoming group of wolves. The end result was at the charging pack was blown to pieces by some unknown shockwave as their body parts were scattered clear across more than a dozen meters in front of the being and the family.
All three members of the apple family had their eyes as big as saucers, their eyes clearly showing the disbelief and the struggle of trying to comprehend the situation. This was also paired with their jaws hanging low.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex was currently looking over his handiwork after using the skill, Overpower. During the whole fight he wasn’t using any kind of skill at all, until that finishing move of course.
Weapon skill, Overpower: Delivers an attack with a potency of 130 to all enemies in a cone before the user. Utilizing overwhelming strength, this attack focuses all the power that one possessed into one devastating swing that creates a shockwave in a cone in front of them doing damage to any in its path.
The Roegadyn then checks his mini map to see just how many are left, only to see that a single Timber Wolf remained. After seeing this he came to the realization that this was no doubt the alpha of the pack. It had stayed back and issued orders to the others.
Before he had started his assault on the Timberwolves. Brex used his examination ability to take a quick look at the stats of the creatures he was going to fight. To his surprise all of the Timberwolves range from level 5 to 9. There was also this one buff icon that was indicated on all of them. Being curious, he focused on this icon and got the following. Advanced pack mentality. This was clearly not something he had noticed on anything before, unfortunately his ability to perceive the stats of others came well after his encounters with these creatures in the past. This meant that he had no basis to tell if this was new or not.
He was quite surprised at how easily these things went down. In fact, compared to his previous fights they were practically standing still. He figured that this was no doubt due to the fact that back then he was a level 35. But this time around, he was currently equipped as his warrior playing as level 70. If comparing the two sets of levels one would think that he was only slightly twice the power. But thankfully, in the game once you hit a set level cap, there was a huge explosion of stats until you hit the next. In Final Fantasy 14, the stats when one got to this point would skyrocket once they hit level 50. This phenomenon would occur once they hit level 60 then 70 as well. This was due to how the gear one would get, would have a drastic change in added stats. So, one could say that compared to the last time he fought them, Brex could easily have been considered, seven to eight times stronger.
Now going back to this unknown buff that was on the Timberwolves. Brex focused his mind on obtaining information on it. Thanks to that telephone that he had gotten while in the other world, he had now access to certain key information. One of which is a Bestiary, a descriptive or anecdotal treatise on various real or mythical kinds of animals. Luckily it also listed some skills and abilities that the creatures of this world could have. This meant that Brex could look up this. Advanced pack mentality.
Skill buff, Advanced pack mentality: This skill is only active when a group of the same type of creatures gathers together under one leader. The total number must be 15 of its own kind or more for this effect to take hold. The leader is capable of controlling the others with its thoughts as well as getting a significant increase to mental capacity and planning more complex maneuvers that normally would not be possible. The leader of the group will gain more power with each additional number added to the group.
Seeing the detailed explanation, Brex understood just how these Timberwolves were able to move around the way they did. This had fully explained their ability to quickly change their tactics with hardly any discussion other than a few yips and barks. But fortunately for him they were nothing but weaklings.
Now returning his gaze towards the remaining wolf, he can tell that this one was the only one that was level 9 while the others were only level 7 and under. Rex had wanted to turn around and get a good look at the levels for the apple family but decided against it as the fight was not yet over.
Knowing full well from all the stories he had read about these Timberwolves, the Roegadyn was ready for what was about to happen. Instead of being scared or nervous he was actually showing underneath his helmet a wide toothy smile of excitement.
Right on cue the last timber wolf lets out an earsplitting howl towards the heavens. Within a few seconds later the wind within the orchard picks up. Leaves and twigs start being pushed around randomly or so a normal passerby would have thought. But in reality, the debris was all being collected towards the last timber wolf. The debris was actually the remains from all the others that Brex had taken down. He had even noticed quite a bit of debris was even flying through the orchard from the direction of the Everfree forest.
The discarded pieces clambered together and began to stick to the alpha wolf’s body. Within no time at all, he had been completely covered in a mound of dead twigs and branches. There was a rumbling sound from within the mass as Brex could hear the crunching in mashing of twigs and rocks. He could see that the mound was slowly undulating and rising as it slowly started to take the new form of a gigantic wolf.
( Timberwolf Prince picture. )
Brex looked towards the creature and looked at the name displayed above. The new timber wolf was now called, Timberwolf Prince. This confused the Roegadyn as he thought that it was going to become the Timberwolf King, but thought that this one wasn’t really all that big considering it was only just taller than the apple trees themselves. If it was going to call itself, the king, he had expected it to be far larger.
Brex started thinking to himself, “Huh, I guess he would need a whole lot more Timberwolves to make the king huh. Now a Timberwolf Prince, now that’s a new one to me.” His musings were interrupted when the creature decided to turn its full attention to him after the very last piece of debris was fitted into place right between its eyes.
He was about to take this fight seriously until he saw what level this guy really was. Brex, really couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at the sight of seeing this mighty creature only being a level 37. This caused his body to shutter while letting out. It had seemed that the timber wolf had noticed that and started to become visibly angrier.
Taking his weapon, Brex stabs the blade of the axe into the ground and strolls right up to the beast. He then makes a motion of tilting his head to the sides as to pop the neck muscles to make them looser. That was then followed by him rotating his right arm then his left.
Brex could hear the family of three behind him a distance away trying to get his attention. He can hear them saying such things as, “What are you doing there, runaway. There’s no way he can take a varmint like that. It’s gonna rip you to pieces!” that was then accompanied with a big, “YUP!!” This made Brex smile as he knew, just who said that last bit.
Before Brex made the next move, he thought to himself this last bit, “Time to put this overgrown puppy through obedience training.” He then waved his hand at a come forth gesture towards the beast.
Taking it as its cue the Timberwolf Prince, lunges it's entire body towards the now smaller creature in front of itself. Fully expecting to overpower him, it had both paws stretched out to crush the Roegadyn. But instead of feeling flesh being pulverized underneath its massive weight, it felt as if it ran into a mountain. This caused the Timberwolf Prince, to let out a pained whelp as it saw it’s front paws being smashed apart as it came into contact with Brex.
Currently standing as if nothing was happening, he tilts his head down and watches as this once proud mighty hunter was reduced to a creature laying on the ground with its half broken front paws flailing about with the bewildered expression.
Brex then called out, “That’s one!” before taking a relaxed stance as he waited for his foe to recover. If he was telling the truth to anybody, he would have said he felt something from that. But due to him being at such a high level and wearing level 50 gear on top of his level 70 stats, what the timber wolf did, amounted little more to someone playfully shoving another’s shoulder.
It had taken less than a minute after the last attack for the Timberwolf Prince to recover his front legs. It then stood upright and turned his gaze towards the Roegadyn with obvious hatred and malice filling its green eyes. Brex could plainly see that it was knitting its browse with how all the wood was bunching up while crisscrossing right above the eyeline.
This time it attempted to use a roar at close range. It had taken a deep breath, nearly inhaling some of the apples into its mouth before releasing its mighty roar which echoed through the orchard. However, Brex was remaining standing firm. He then said out loud, “That’s Two!”
This only served in infuriating the wolf even further as it lost its composure and decided to go for another frontal attack but with it’s large jaws. As the creature through its body towards Brex, it extended its jaws wide open while turning its head so that it would clamp on the sides of the creature before it.
There was a series of screams and gasps from behind him from the apple family as he watched the large being made of wood careening towards him like an avalanche. Brex just lifted both arms to his sides casually and at the last second gripped onto both the lower and upper jaw. He could feel that his feet were nearly at the point of losing his footing but he had managed to hold his ground. He soon felt the force from the Timberwolf Prince trying to bite down on him, but his arms were more than sufficient and holding them at bay.
The timber wolf attempted to thrash his head around in order to dislodge his mouth from being in the grips of the Roegadyn. however it was more like he was stuck in a bear trap with how little amount of movement he managed.
After nearly a minute of holding onto the timber wolf brecks finally releases it, but during that time he had noticed that the creature was beginning to show some signs of fear. Brex knew that now was the perfect time to finish this lesson.
With one good shove, Brex pushed the Timberwolf Prince back far enough so he was no longer within it's mouth. Jut it was enough to cause the beast to flail about as it tried to get back up onto its feet.
When it had finally managed to get up, it looked down towards Brex. That’s when he said in a cold emotionless tone, “That’s Three!” that’s when he darts forward at nearly blinding speeds and launches a strong, left-handed jab directly into its chest. This causes the Timberwolf Prince to hunker down from the sudden impact.
With its now lowered head in close distance to Brex, he holds up his right fist. Using his left, he begins to twist his fist around comically as if winding up a spring. When finished, he calls out, “MY TURN!” that was when he launched a mighty uppercut straight into the jaw of the timber wolf Prince.
(Start at 2:35 in. A Scene From a Movie called Popeye the sailor.)
This caused the beast to lunge its head back with a quick snapping motion, its entire body went rigid, eyes fully wide before the light begins to dim. One could start to hear the creaking of wood as it begins to lean to the side. That was when Brex decided to yell out, “TIMBERRRR!!” as it crashed to the ground. Nearly the entire orchard shook from the impact as well as a number of apples from the trees nearby.
*Point of view: Third Person*
Back over with the apple family, all three of the ones who witnessed just what had happened or looking on in astonishment and disbelief. At this point this may as well be their trademark look when around the Roegadyn.
They had just witnessed what sounded to be a male from the voice, to have actually gone in taken down, not only a full oversized pack of Timber wolves. But also, with his bare hands. Knocked out a giant version of their kind and the most one-sided fistfight that they have ever seen. But he had also showed signs of having fun while doing so.
They were so stunned that they didn’t notice the being coming closer to them. It was Big Mac that noticed only after being passed. Looking behind himself he saw his little sister being propped up gently by the unknown beings right hand while holding some kind of glass vial to his little sisters mouth, by the time he had made his way over there in a rush, his little sister had finished whatever she was being given. She was now breathing more calmly than when she was earlier. In fact, he could see the small amount of blood that was coming from behind her head and near her ear from being struck with the tree was now vanishing as if it never existed.
Big Mac had started to panic that his sister was in trouble from this unknown individual, but seeing as her injuries were being healed, the older brother finally released the breath he had been holding in.
*Point of view: Applejack*
Applejack felt like her head was about to be split open. She wanted to open her eyes but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Even the act of moving was still out of her reach. The events leading to how she got like this was all hazy. Soon she could feel herself being propped up with a large hand pressing on her back. Feeling that she was now being set up into a sitting position, the mare wondered what was going on. She could feel something touching her chin. This made her head tilt upwards, then something was pressed to her lips. A liquid was flowing into her mouth and the mare felt the urge to drink it down or she would have a hard time breathing.
She had wanted to get up but for some unknown reason she felt so sleepy so she let herself slip back into unconsciousness. When she had finally come too, she woke up startled and began looking around where she was. It was soon discovered that she was currently laying in her own bed inside of her own room. Suddenly remembering what had happened before she had blacked out, the young mare through off the bed covers and jumped onto the floor only to dash out of the room in a hurry.
When applejack had finally reached the bottom of the steps, she looked around frantically and started to call out for her family. Images played through her mind of the Timberwolves and how her mother had stepped in front of one of them. She started to hyperventilate as tears ran down her face. It wasn’t too long until she heard someone calling out to her. It was the sound of her mother. She thought that right now was a dream and she wanted to find out for sure, so she made a mad dash for where the voice was coming from.
Applejack skidded to a halt as she entered the dining room and found her family setting up the table for dinner. With wide tear-filled eyes applejack dashed into the arms of her mother as she began crying out her tears in full waves while pressing her face into the mare’s chest.
She did this for a good solid ten minutes before she pulled away. While wiping her eyes, she started to ask, “How did yah get away from those Wolves? I-I I saw yah get tackled by one of them Mother!” Applejack's mother then knelt down and gave her a firm hug and said, “We got some help from some fella that was nearby. But every thin is just fine. No one was injured. Its all but a bad dream now.” Pear Butter then motioned to the table and added, “How about we get some food in us. It’s been a hard day for everypony.”
After that day, Applejack started to notice that there was a small part of the orchard that she didn’t have to do any work in. She had asked her mom dad and also her brother why only they were the ones that would go there. But the only answer that they would give her, was that it was along the lines of it, being an arrangement with a business partner and that it was a secret that they promised to keep. The only other thing that they would tell her that it was for a new type of apple that they may sell in the future. But it was going to take some time for the trees to grow.
As the days, weeks, months and years went by, Applejack would notice that her family who is normally not supposed to have too much to do during the winter would on occasion go out to that part of the orchard and come back with a bushel or two of some apples that she had never seen before.
Too an outsiders’ perspective this would seem no different from their regular apples that they would normally grow. However, these ones had an unusual majestic shine to them. With hardly any effort at all, or well any at all to begin with they would be so shiny that one would mistake them for a red tinted hand mirror when holding up to their face. Applejack had asked her dad what were they and he replied with, “We’re told that these are called, Mirror Apples and they only grow and bear fruit during the winter.”
Applejack had remembered the first time she tried one of these apples when they were brought into the house for the first time. She was mighty stubborn that her apples were the best anywhere around, so she had kept her distance. But after some time, she got around to trying them out of growing curiosity. That was when she found out that they did in fact have a different taste altogether but it was still rather unique. She had quickly grown fond of them due to their rare times of being able to produce fruit. She had even looked forward to having some of them every winter as a seasonal treat.
Of course, she never did mention this to her family out of respect and stubbornness. But that stubbornness gave way when she finally got her cutie mark and found out that lying was not the best policy. After that point she made it fully aware to her parents that she loved these apples and looked forward to them. She had wished that she could be told more about where they came from. But she only got the reply that she’d always been getting. It seemed like she was going to have to wait until she was a little older to know the full story. However, Applejack did notice that every year when they picked the first batch. Her dad and brother would leave with five baskets, but only return with three filled while the other two remained empty…
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 18: From Country to City Roegadyn, Part 1.
Chapter 18: From Country to City Roegadyn, Part 1.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: East end of Equestria. City of Baltimare* *Time: One week after saving the Apple Family*
It had taken Brex a full week to travel to the city called Baltimare on the far east side of Equestria. After helping out the apple family. Brex soon departed but not before leaving a shadow double of himself behind at ponyville so he could keep tabs on anything new. Already deciding on what his next move would be. The Roegadyn followed the train tracks from the Ponyville station and headed towards the east. As it turned out, the train tracks leading to his next destination had to first pass through the city of Canterlot before moving on. Fortunately, it would seem that luck was on his side. The locals were easily dodged and he was able to avoid any form of detection by sticking to the shadow realm.
Brex followed the tracks further on as they exited the city and found himself heading towards a set of mountains off in the far distance. Once a sufficient distance had been achieved from Canterlot, he felt that no one would be able to notice him if he were to exit the shadows at this point. The Roegadyn decided that now was a good time to get out a ride, seeing as the trip was going to be a rather long one.
Bringing up his set of menus, Brex scrolled down to the point that it displayed an option labeled, Mounts. Within the world of Final Fantasy 14, any player would have access to a mount once they hit level 30. At which point, they needed to fulfill the requirements for completing one particular quest. Normally a player would ride a large yellow bird called a Chocobo. The creature was capable of having others riding it thanks to its large size. This creature could be summoned at any time whenever the player was out of combat. They would then be mounted by said player to get to their destination much faster than they would on foot.
The player even had the option of summoning it to aid them in combat if they fed it its favorite food. This would last from 30 minutes if they were given the food once, but if fed two times, then the Chocobo would stay around for a full hour. However, at this time he didn’t quite understand yet, how summoning a living creature like that would turn out. The very idea that he might not be able to provide for the creature if he couldn’t send it away, or even protected from being taken by another from this world that would see it as a rare creature that has never been seen before, did crossed his mind.
So, after giving it some thought, Brex decided to go with something mechanical in nature. He did this for two reasons, one was because of what he thought before and the other was due to the fact that while he was in the otherworld, he did practice summoning the one in mind. Then when he was done and had no more need for it, it would just simply vanish into thin air.
With that decided. He flicked his mental finger on the button icon of a motorbike. There was a small flash before the screen disappeared. Within the time it took for a person to blink, a large motorbike with one large wheel in the back and two joined wheels that were side by side in the front had appeared.
( Here is the picture of the Bike mount. )
What Brex chose was the motorbike that he had purchased on the in-game store that was selling items modeled from Final Fantasy 7. Looking it over, Brex gave out a long whistle before quickly jumping on it. The engine quickly started up without any trouble at all. After giving the handle a few turns to rev up the engine, Brex was off and leaving a dust cloud in his wake.
It had taken him nearly a week to travel all the way to the coastline where he hit the city called Baltimare. Of course, he wasn’t stupid enough to simply go straight in there while riding a motorbike, considering these people don’t have anything like it yet. So, when the city came into view and he was still near the tree line of a forest not too far from the city, Brex dismounted and dismissed his bike which disappeared on the spot. That was when he thought to himself, “Well that sure beats finding a parking garage or a meter to put coins in.”
But at this time, the sun was going down and night was fast approaching. Brex was more than four miles away from Baltimare at this point. Deciding that going to the city right now may not be such a good idea, he decided to camp out for tonight and planned to continue going into the city when day broke.
Even though he said he was going to camp out, Brex couldn’t bring himself to sit down for a good while as he rubbed his butt cheeks while complaining inside of his head about how long the ride was and how his ass felt like it was nearly going to fall off. This only caused Rory to laugh and giggle at his antics while he refused to sit down for a good solid three hours to enjoy the sensation after sitting on that motorbike for such a long time.
During that night, Brex and Rory decided to catch up on things a little more in detail. He had explained to her everything that he knew about why they appeared at the Tree of harmony. He had reminded her that they had just said goodbye to those two girls at the bridge as they left to go back to Canterlot.
This of course, led to him explaining the surprise meeting between himself and the three people on the other side after his death. This however, caused Rory too basically go into a full-blown meltdown as she blurted out many obscenities and promises of retribution towards the sun goddess. This had taken Brex a good hour to calm the girl down enough to continue with his story. Brex didn’t wanna say it, but he was both happy and at the same time terrified at just what Rory had promised to do to the Princess for what she did to him. Some of which had very detailed, visual images being described that had the use of the Princess’s removed horn playing a big part in them.
It had taken nearly the entire night for him to regale her of his encounter and training sessions with the people on the other side. Even though Brex couldn’t see her, he was positive that he could sense some jealousy radiating from Rory while she was within his head whenever he mentioned either of the two girls and how much time he had spent with them. But when it came to the one called Daddy, Rory seemed to have taken a liking to the story when it would mention anything about him. Apparently, Brex’s thoughts on those two getting along was right on the Gil.
When it had gotten to the point where he explained the trainers that were summoned with the help of Little Moon, Rory was fascinated by the cornucopia of fighters that were giving him personal tips and training. She had taken a personal interest in the one called Erza, from Fairy Tail. However, there were a few that she was not so keen on, but those of course were the female trainers. Now when it got to the non-combat guests, Brex was positive that Rory had fallen over laughing with in his head when he had gotten to the part about chef Ramsay and his evil training season.
After the girl recovered from her near mental death of laughing, she asked her Master why he would even focus so much on cooking when he didn’t even really need to eat or sleep in the first place. That was when he would tell her that it was a small part of his long-term plan. Also, it’s not like he was never gonna eat again. Just because he doesn’t need to do so, it didn’t mean that he was not going to enjoy himself now and then.
Now by the time he had gotten to the point that he discussed what his long-term plan was going to be, that was when the sun finally broke the horizon. Seeing as their discussion was going to be placed on hold, Brex told Rory that he can tell it to her later on. It didn’t take them any time at all to pack up their camp, considering all they did was sit in the dark while near the edge of the forest. Brex didn’t need a campfire seeing as how he had the blessing from both Little Light and Little Moon, which meant he didn’t get bothered by the weather being too hot or too cold. Then there was also the situational awareness that Brex constantly had up.
Now before entering the city, Brex considered how he should appear while in the city. First, for his plan to go forward. He was going to need to not stay in the shadow realm for the rest of his life. Opening up his inventory, Brex started searching until he found a set of items that he thought would be very useful in this situation. He had pulled out a set of pyramid shaped gems that were called glamour’s, along with a set of gear meant for casters to equip.
The equipment was basically a set of robes and other types of clothing that would cover up every part of his body from site. The robe that would be covering most of his body, had a hood and a mask that had round eyeholes and was painted black and white and what could loosely resemble the face of an owl. There was a small purple gem affixed to the forehead that was just barely visible from under the hood. This gear was part of a set called, Qarn Cowl.
In the game a player can use a glamour only on an item they are wearing that is the same level or higher than the item that they wish it to look like. This meant you couldn’t make a level 15 item look like something from level 55. But in Brex’s case, he was going to use the option of lowering his level which meant this was also gonna level down his items so that they are of the same strength as the number chosen. In other words, even if he was wearing a level 50 gear if he were to use the level sync, like one would do when they entered a dungeon or some random event happening out in the field, not only would his total level lower but his items would adjust to that level as well.
So now the question that ran through his mine was, just what class was he going to be while being at this city. Again, Brex didn’t want anyone to know that he could do magic in case his identity got out. So, he was reluctant to use any of his caster types. This of course meant that he would also need to pick something that this world could recognize. Thinking on it, this would most likely cross off the use of the Machinist class seeing as it uses a gun. He doubted that they even have guns in this world from what he’s seen so far. Sure, they must have cannons, but that was the extent that he believed these ponies to have progressed in warfare.
He had given some thought towards playing as his samurai class but decided against it, seeing as this would be a trial run and he didn’t want to stand out too much right now. After some personal deliberation, the Roegadyn decided to go with the classic Archer. Well, that’s how this worlds residents would see him as. In reality he would be equipping his Bard soul stone which happens to be the advanced class of the Archer.
Now having donned his level 50 Archer gear, Brex continues with using the glamour prisms on said gear to turn them into the Qarn set. Now with his body covered with a dark yellow robe and gear while his shoulders and head are covered with a dark brown fabric compared to the rest and the owl face mask concealing his identity, Brex equips the Bard’s bow onto his back. Again, he didn’t want to draw too much attention so he glamoured his weapon to look like a regular one.
The reason he did this was because of the fact that the Bards weapon, was capable of folding itself up into the shape of a harp when not being used while on his back. Figuring that having such an item opening and closing in front of others would draw a little too much attention and he didn’t want to talk to ponies too much if they started to ask questions about it.
It was getting close to 7:30 in the morning by the time Brex had approached the city. It pretty much looked like any other that anyone can picture. There were actually quite a few tall buildings mostly ranging from two to four stories tall, however he did notice that near the center of this large city was a couple of very tall towers that went a good 10 to 12 floors up.
But what did catch his attention was that there was a perimeter wall outside. They had it extended a good quarter mile beyond the city limits. Brex would have to say it was a good two stories tall and from his vantage point there was maybe two or three entrances spread out on the side that he was on.
Each of the gates were big enough to allow three or four carriages to pass through at a time and the gate was built to be raised and lowered with cross sectional bars that he could see protruding from the top of the gate that indicated it was ready to slam down at a moment’s notice. That was when he started to think to himself, “I guess what they said on the other side about there being a monster problem was true. At least these guys were smart enough to build a defensive perimeter around the place. What I don’t get is, why hasn’t Ponyville done this? it is sitting shoulder to shoulder with the Ever Free that is almost overflowing with those dang wolves.”
Luckily for him this wasn’t one of those situations where he had to wait in a long line, to eventually come across some kind of incident that would cause him to be in a fight. Instead, he came up to the gate and was only needing to stay behind three ponies that were at that moment checking in.
Brex didn’t quite see their faces but he didn’t really pay too much attention. However, the process was taking a little time so he had the opportunity to glance and noticed their cutie marks and hair color. The two adults seemed to be in regular clothing while wearing sleeveless shirts. The first of the three was a male unicorn with grey hair and a dark brown mane that had a cutie mark on his exposed shoulder that appeared to be a set of three footballs. The next was a pink unicorn mare with a purple mane, she had on her exposed shoulder, three cookies that seem to be starting to crumble. The last was a small girl with, white hair and a purple mane. But he wasn’t able to see what her cutie mark thanks to the girl standing just in front of the other two.
During the wait, he had caught a few words from the group in front of him that mostly consisted of visiting someone and a hospital. Before he could think on what he had heard the three ponies moved ahead and it was now his turn.
Stepping up the Roegadyn comes up to a booth with a pony sitting beyond it. It was a gray mare with red hair staring up with wide eyes. Without even looking away she reaches under the desk and pulls out a piece of paper and fumbles with a pen in the other hand. That’s when she asks, “Are you here on personal or business matters?”
Brex replied with his normal, almost emotionless tone, “Business.” That was when the mare started to write something on her paper before she asked the next question, which was, “Do you mind telling me what this business of yours is? This is so we can document it.” Brex simply said, “Applying, Adventurers Guild.” Brecks could see the girl jotting down is answers before a split second later she looks up with such speed that he could have sworn that she snapped her neck. Inside, Brex mentally winced at the sight.
At first, he wondered what this reaction was about, then quickly realized what was about to happen and was fully prepared for his reply. The mare then asked in an unsure tone, “E-Excuse me… but, if I’m correct… you’re a male, don’t you think that’s too dangerous for you to look into?” Knowing full well that in this society from what he had been reading back at the tree library in Ponyville, males typically didn’t do any dangerous jobs. So, the very notion that a male would even go out into the adventurers Guild would have been considered a suicidal act.
Carefully, Brex leans in a little bit as to make sure that the mare was giving him, her undivided attention. He then said in a monotoned voice that was lightly laced with anger, “That… a problem?” this only caused the poor mare to start shaking while she begins to stumble around with her words, clearly trying to come up with a reply.
He had felt a little bad that he had to use this card. But from what he had been reading, it seemed that the gender roles had basically been switched in this world, and he wanted to play this card and see how it would work. From what he had remembered in all those anime’s and movies, it was never a good idea to tell a girl that she can’t do something. So, in this situation, the males were now the females in a sense. Brex had hoped that this would work in his favor while in this world.
After a while of moving her mouth without uttering a word and looking back and forth to her sides, the mare finally looks back up to Brex and answers with a shaky tone, “T-There isn’t any problem with that… I-I was just making sure… that’s all.” Brex could clearly see this girl shaking and sweating up a storm as she said those words. That was when Rory spoke up in his head, “Master, I get the feeling that she’s been yelled at by another male before. By the way she’s panicking, she might have a heart attack by the looks of it.”
Now feeling like a complete jerk, Brex scrunches up his face before letting out a loud sigh and then talks to the girl using a comforting tone, “I’m, not mad.” Honestly speaking, he really wasn’t. But he had the feeling that in the future, there were going to be those who would be more deserving of him playing this tactic on them.
After hearing him say that, Brex noticed the girl calming down before she asked his name and for a form of identification. Thankfully he knew something like this was going to happen thanks to his research, so he knew that having a story on hand would come in handy. He replied with, “Never had one.” This drew a confused look from the mare before she asked, “I don’t quite understand. What do you mean by, never had one, just what town did you come here from?”
That was when he casually replied with, “I’m a nomad.” This only caused the mare to tilt her head and confusion even more as she replied, “Wait, hold up… Are you saying you’ve never lived in a town? And when you say you’re a nomad, you’re saying that you just wander around? How long have you been doing this for? You can’t have gotten into any towns without some kind of identification.”
This was the moment that Brex had to choose his next words carefully as to convey the urgency and necessity for never coming into a town until now. Thanks to him being able to think faster than a normal being. He was able to run a number of scenarios through his head within a moment after the girl had said those words. He then replied while using a grim tone and speaking under his breath just enough to make sure that only she would hear, “Protection from… herds.”
It had taken a few moments for the girl to finally understand the meaning behind those words. That’s when her eyes went wide again while her mouth hung open and she started to speak up in a low whisper while giving him an apologetic smile, “Oh, oh, I’m… I’m sorry you had to go through that…” after another moment, she began speaking again. But this time in her professional tone from back when they started, although still looking a little frazzled, “If you’re going to the adventurers Guild, you can have them make a new identification card for yourself to use later on.” Brex gave her a small nod then started moving on after she indicated that he can pass. But just as he was turning, the mare called out for his attention and handed him a folded piece of paper. She then said, “Show this to the Guild member at the desk.” With that done, Brex left the gate.
As Brex was entering the town, Rory spoke up and asked him, “Mind explaining to me what that was all about. Also, what’s this stuff about protection from herds?” Mentally speaking to Rory while letting his eyes drift from place to place, he replied with, “Well it’s like this. The male to female population ratio in this world is way out of whack. Apparently, the male population makes up only 10 or 11 percent. It would also seem that this also applies to the other races as well, but not nearly as bad. This of course led to the whole herding thing. From what I had been able to dig up on those books back in ponyville, nearly 50 years ago there was a radical movement where the females actively hunted down males to add to their groups. This of course was completely illegal as they basically took the male’s rights away from them.”
Taking a cursory glance around before continuing, “It had gotten so bad to the point that any males born into a family had to be put into hiding. There would be whole groups of families that would just up and disappear just to get away from being hunted down by these herding fanatics. Of course, this only lasted maybe five or seven years before the Princess managed to put a stop to it. But there’s still talk about it happening here and there illegally. So, by me telling that to the girl at the guard post at the entrance, I basically gave her a very good reason as to why I have no identification. So now she thinks I’m one of these in hiding stallions that has just now come out into the open.”
He then added, “I’m also taking into account how big I am compared to the regular pony here. After seeing both Big Mac and Bright Mac, I could safely say I could be considered the largest male here in Equestria aside from minotaur’s. This would help cement the idea that I was in hiding seeing as how I can be considered, a prime catch with how the rest of the males in this society seem to be smaller than I am.” Rory then replied with, “Oh, I see now, that makes perfect sense. So, if anybody asks a question as to where you are from, you have the perfect answer to give.” Making sure that nobody saw this, the Roegadyn does a short nod of confirmation.
With that discussion being concluded, he now started to make his way towards the center of the city. Knowing basically where key buildings were placed within the city due to the maps he saw while at the Golden Oak’s library. Brex knew just where to look to find the adventurers Guild.
It had taken him a good 23 minutes to find the building in question. It would have taken him less than 15 if it wasn’t for being constantly hounded by a random mare for what seemed to be every ten paces. He had managed to either sidestep them or flat out reject their advances. At one point, about halfway to his destination, there was a group of four that actually barred his path and they had attempted to direct him into an alleyway.
Brex would have found this amusing with what happened next. It was essentially them hanging off of his body while trying to pull him away from the busy street, but to only to end up dragging their hoofs on the ground while he remained motionless in place without even batting an eye thanks to their weak attempts to move him. But instead, he only found this more infuriating that this was being done while there were onlookers. After shaking the group of four off of himself, the Roegadyn continued on his way. After the incident, his thoughts were, “Did that honestly just happen while others watched? Not one being in that crowd lifted a finger or spoke up a single word in protest. Either this was a common occurrence or something was up with that group of four mare’s.
Now standing in front of a set of double doors leading to a four-story building that was about 24 to maybe 30 meters across from his point of view. The Roegadyn looked to the sign above the door and saw that it was reading as, Baltimare Adventurers Guild. What caught his attention was at the beginning and at the very end of the words on the sign. Were a pair of ponies holding a weapon in each hand but that wasn’t what caught his attention, in fact it was the details of the ponies themselves. They were both female. He started to think to himself, while having a devilish smirk under his mask. “Oh, I see how it is now. This is going to be interesting.”
*Point of view: Third person*
The inside of the adventurers Guild was large enough to be considered a pub. Most in fact did consider the place to mainly be dealing in it with how there, at the very back where there would be a reception desk was off to a side, an actual bar with a few patrons sitting at it. Pretty much the whole building was made of wood with only a few modern conveniences spread around. In place of light bulbs, there appear to be glowing bright crystals that hung from either one large chandelier in the center of the room or what could have been originally torch stands along all the walls that have been replaced with these crystals.
The place had a mixture of relaxed, yet at the same time a professional vibe. On the far side of the wall directly across from where the drinks were being served was a large bored with many papers tacked onto it that had a few with some crudely made drawings of things that pertained to the request on them. Right next to it was a door leading to another room that would have a place for a group to enter and discuss certain things regarding quests and rewards. Now behind the reception desk is another door that leads to a private area that only those who work inside the building itself may enter, with the word’s, personnel only, printed on it.
Scattered about the large room on the bottom floor was eight round tables big enough to sit six people. At the moment there was a good nine ponies sitting inside as well as three others from different species. One being of the diamond dogs and the other two were Griffins.
The diamond dog was what one would consider to be a crossbreed anthro version of a Husky and a retriever mix. This one was obviously male with most of his body hair being black with the ends of his arms and legs being white along with his face. He was currently wearing a mix of leather and a few placements of metal on his shoulders, his arms and legs. On his back he had set a wooden shield that had a metal bolted frame around the edges and painted in white at the center was a wolf’s head howling at a moon that was shaped as a Crescent right above it.
As for the two Griffins, they were painfully obvious to be twins. The only way that someone could have told them apart was the fact that one had blue eyes and the other one had green. Their bodies and wings were mostly brownish gold. While their talons and faces or Snow White with purple highlights under the eyes. Both were currently equipped with the bare minimum of leather gear obviously meant for allowing them to move quickly without anything hampering their movements. The one with green eyes had at her waist, a bag with a Red Cross on it while the one with blue eyes was brandishing a pair of short daggers strapped to either side of her waist.
As for the rest of the members inside of the building, it was mostly comprised of a few unicorns. But most were earth ponies and Pegasus. Aside from the one diamond dog everyone else inside of there were all females. They all had their own set of gear and weapons ranging from being a tank or some type of damage dealer. Some being healers that either used magic or were forced to only using the items available in their bags.
Back at the reception desk, was a Pegasus mare with the hair of yellow and a very light green main that was all swirled up on top of her head. She was apparently looking through a set of documents and separating them into different piles of various types of colored papers. That was when the doors to the adventurers Guild were opened and set of steps or made approaching the counter. Without even looking up from her paperwork to see who it was, she asked while not sounding disrespectful due to her being very busy with the paperwork in front of her, “What can I do for you today, come here for work or do you got a request to put in?”
That was when she heard the voice of a stallion speaking, “Here to register.” This caused the mare to look up at the one speaking with an incredulous stare before replying, “Uhm… I’m sorry dear, but could you run that past me again, I-I don’t think I quite caught that.” She can now see that it was a tall individual wearing a set of robes and a mask that hid pretty much every part of his body. This being was extremely imposing with the size of his form.
The mare, then heard him speaking once again, in a matter-of-fact tone, “Joining the Guild.” The mare was visibly confused before she started speaking again, “Twirly Whirly’s the name. I currently run this branch of the Adventurers Guild. We’re always in need of some good members, but I’m not quite sure you understand what that means Hun. You do know that it’s a dangerous job right, are you sure you can handle it?” Twirly Whirly was greatly concerned about a male wanting to join, but she was among one of the few that actually believed that males could do the same things that females could. But she didn’t want to get one hurt when they weren’t ready to do such jobs.
That was when the person in front of her placed a piece of paper on the table and carefully slid it in her direction before letting go. Twirly Whirly picked it up and examined its contents. It didn’t take long for her eyes to go comically wide as they quickly darted up towards the being in front of her and back down to the paper repeatedly.
After what seemed like almost 20 seconds had gone by before she placed the paper face down on the desk and closed her eyes as she let out a heavy sigh. She then mumbled under her breath, “Those Bucking mare’s. To think that there’s still some out there in hiding because of them…” Now taking the paper and placing it into her back pocket, she looked up to the male before saying, “Don’t worry about a thing Hun. I’ll get everything set up for yeah, just hold on a moment. All I’ll be needing is your name and age, we won’t be putting anything else on there.”
This got a subtle nod from the robed individual before Twirly Whirly walked into the backroom, only to return five minutes later with a set of papers and a small box no bigger than the size of one’s palm. Placing the stack of two or three papers on the table she takes the top one and grabs a quill that was sitting off to the side and dips it into the inkwell before asking, “OK Hun let me have it, what’s your name and age?”
He replied with, “Gambit, Age 23.” Twirly Whirly started to dot this down into some sections of the paperwork. Looking back up she asks, “Gambit huh. That’s all? No last name?” this only got him to shake his head with a negative. Giving him a warm smile, she replies with, “That’s quite alright dear, I think that should do it.”
When she finished with the paperwork, she brought up from underneath the table a large item which was about maybe 22 inches square in diameter and flat. It was then placed onto the table. Afterward she turned her attention to the small box and opened it. Within was something that resembled a metal version of a driver’s license card that appeared to be made from iron. The mare then placed it into the center of the device and looked up to the one in front of her, now known as Gambit and said, “OK. one last thing. Just need to check how strong you are. All you need to do is place your hands on either side of this tablet and focus on it. This will then show your stats on this card and we can use it to determine what your available quests will be, along with your starting rank.
Gambit was about to place both hands onto the magic item before he paused. Twirly Whirly saw that he was turning his attention towards the other members of the Guild. She thought he was just being shy about his stats being known for all to see, so she spoke up while leaning in and began to whisper, “If you’re worried about them knowing what you can do, then you can relax. We have a ranking system from A’s being the strongest and all the way down to F’s. No one will know exactly what your abilities are, all they will see is your name and rank. It will only be us here that work for the Guild office that can see the rest of your stats aside from yourself. Any others that look at this card, will only see those two things I mentioned.”
After a few more seconds, Gambit then placed his hands onto the item and there was a fairly dim light that was growing underneath the card that was laying in the center. The process had taken less than ten seconds before the light died down and a set of words and a picture was displayed on the card that depicted a large F in the center that acted like a background design. Twirly Whirly, picked it up in order to examine it and saw the following.
Name: Gambit.
Age: 23.
Level: 10.
Adventuring Guild rank: Rank F.
Race: Classified.
Gender: Classified.
Class: Classified.
Weapon specialty: Classified.
Twirly Whirly tilted her head to the side as she saw this, and with raising her right eyebrow, asked under her breath, “Just what in the name of… T-This… this has never happened before. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anything saying classified.” She didn’t look back up towards Gambit and asked under her breath so that no one other than him can hear, “Just who are you?” Gambit then replied with the same level of volume, “I’m nobody.” This only caused Twirly Whirly to scrunch up her face and confusion as she thought to herself, “Doesn’t he mean to say, no pony?”
She was about to ask him to repeat the process once more, but then gave it a second thought and said to herself that this wouldn’t change anything. So, she just handed him the card and said, “Welcome to the Guild, Mister Gambit.”
After that point, the mare quickly and efficiently began explaining the rules and etiquette behind the members of the Adventurers Guild. Which was basically, standard practice’s. There was a long stretch of rules but it had seemed that Gambit was able to understand them easily. In fact, he had hardly even said anything at all aside from a simple yes or no here and there during the explanation.
It all basically boiled down to saying that the members should be assisting each other. Don’t break major laws and please, finish the quest you started without piling them up, only for other adventurers to never be able to do them. Otherwise, they would remain incomplete. There have been instances where a group of adventurers would grab all the quests available and never get them all done. This had the negative impact of making it impossible for others to get any work.
When the explanation was finished, she pointed towards the board and said, “Over there you will find the quests available. Everything on the top are the higher ranked quests, while the ones on the bottom row are ranked F. Now, pretty much everything on the bottom can be done by yourself. But above that, you will require one or more members in your party to even take on those quests. It doesn’t matter how good you are, it’s all a matter of safety.”
She looked over to see that gambit was looking towards the board and was nodding his head. Twirly Whirly, normally would have thought that this was one of those adventuring types that didn’t really care what she said. But for some strange reason she felt that this guy’s attention was sharper than her own kitchen knife. She then continued with, “I know you look like you can handle yourself, but I suggest you be careful about who you party up with.”
Twirly Whirly’s shifted her gaze across the room before returning it back to Gambit and then adding, “There aren’t many males in adventuring groups so I wouldn’t put it past some of these ladies to try something if given the chance. Make sure you come straight to me if something does happen. Between you and me I’m happy that you’re willing to try and do this type of work. I remember stories about my mother being told by her grandmother, that in the past, males were a lot more outgoing and honestly I’d like to see that myself.”
When she had finished saying that she snapped her fingers and had a look of realization before she spoke up again, “Oh, one more thing. I almost forgot; I don’t want this slipping my mind. These cards are able to record your deeds. But they only keep the information on what you’ve done in that branch. So, if you ever go to another town and head into their adventuring Guild, make sure you tell them you need to have the information requested to be sent over, otherwise you’ll be starting from zero again. If you don’t do that, then you won’t be able to go up in ranks.”
After mentioning that little tidbit the door behind the counter swung open and a small Pegasus mare came rushing out and ran right up to Twirly Whirly. The girl seemed to be no older than six years old. Her hair was of a light greenish Gray while the mane was mix of very pale apple green, a light cyan grey and light emerald greenish Gray. Her eyes were a pale grayish turquoise. Twirly Whirly exclaimed out of surprise, “Vapor Trail, what are you doing here, I thought you were doing homework in your room?” The young Vapor Trail then said, “But Mama, you said you were going to help me with it today.”
That got the older mare to chuckle before she patted her little girl on the head and said, Oh, I’m sorry dear. I got caught up with helping this one here with registering for the Guild. I’ll be right up in a minute; we were just finishing up the last of it.” This got a nod from the little girl as she ran back to the back door. Letting out a small chuckle she looks towards gambit and asks, “Little ones are always a big handful. I don’t suppose you have one of your own running around here and there also?” She only got a slow shake of the head as he replied, “I doubt it…” Twirly Whirly was feeling like she should ask after hearing that, but decided not to push the subject.
After the two exchanged another minute of going over the guidelines, they parted ways. Gambit approached the board and quickly scanned each and every one of the quests that were currently posted. After a few minutes he reached over and grabbed one of the F ranked quests and carefully removed it from the large board. He checked in with Twirly Whirly and got more details from her about it before exiting the building.
During the entire time starting from when Gambit had entered the building, until the moment, he left the entire room was silent. All the guild members were watching the two talking at the reception desk, but due to the tables being too far away they couldn’t hear much of anything. However, the one diamond dog sitting at the far side of the room at the table who is currently sitting alongside the two Griffins looked at one another and slowly got up and went to the counter.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
After leaving the adventurers Guild, Brex holds up the piece of paper to his face and brings up his map of the city. Thanks to having access to what could be considered heaven’s database through the phones power. His map displayed everything about the city including the address to where he needed to go for this quest and the most direct route to get there.
He was currently traveling along the roadsides while looking at the buildings and stalls when Rory asked, “OK. I’m a little confused, mind telling me why you’re calling yourself Gambit?”
This got an internal chuckle from Brex as he answered, “I already told those two mare’s in the past my name, who’s to say they haven’t told anyone else. Moreover, what do you think the odds are, that it never made its way to Celestia? This way I have an adventurer’s name to go by and I can keep my true name a secret and only give them out to those I trust. Tell me, what do you think would have happened if I told them my true name and that got circulated around? Then miraculously Celestia, got word and remembered it from 900 years ago. If she and I really did get into a fight, who’s to say she wouldn’t just show up the moment she remembers my name just to finish the job.”
This got Rory to reply with, “Ahh, OK I get it now. Yeah, you got a good point there. We’re talking about a goddess here. I wouldn’t put it past her myself if she got really pissed off, that she lost the fight to anyone else that wasn’t her sister. Honestly, if I was considered a God and I got beat up by a mortal, I would really be angry about it too. So, mind telling me why you’re calling yourself Gambit? From what I saw in your head before, isn’t that the name of a character from a cartoon or something called X-men?”
This only got Brex to laugh a little bit inside before he answered, “I can see where you get that from, but no, I got it from something else that’s related to Final Fantasy. You see in one of the earlier versions there was a gaming mechanic called the gambit system. In that game, you can basically make your character be anything you want. Whether it be a tank, a healer or whatever. Also, it kind of plays off that my entire plan is basically a gamble on its own. So, taking into account that I can literally be anything I want to be in terms of class and I’m basically gambling with my life, the name Gambit sticks.”
Brex could hear Rory giving herself some time to digest what was being said before she gave out a few hums of agreement. After that the Roegadyn in disguise proceeded to the address on the paperwork. During the way, Brex got more looks and another attempt was made by a new group of mare’s that were being a little too forceful. Thankfully, he was able to get away from them without causing any kind of harm. But yet again, seeing a male getting pulled away by a group of females while at the same time, not getting anyone’s help really started to get under his skin. He started to wonder where the heck were all the guards. Images of a Donut Joes being here in this city flashed in his head and he began to imagine all the cops in town stuck in there, unable to leave because of all the good donuts.
He soon found himself in front of a four-story apartment building that was situated between the center of the city and the shoreline to the east side. The place looked reasonably good, aside from some faded paint in some corners the place appeared pretty nice to stay in.
Taking another glance at the request he saw that the person in question that posted this, was on the second floor in room 202. It was stated that this was an information gathering request. But it seemed as if the one who issued it did not want to give out too much details for everyone to know. So, it was stated that whoever accepted it would be told only in person.
Upon entering the building, the Roegadyn noticed that it was in much better shape compared to the outside. If he had to rate this place compared to a one star and up to five stars rating, he would have to say this would be either a three or perhaps a four, tops. There was a reception desk close to the door and beyond that were a set of stairs going up to the next floor.
Behind the desk was an elderly earth stallion that was completely Gray with green eyes. He called out in one of those shaky tones that make you think that this guy needs one of those microphones to be able to be heard by others. “What can I be doing for yeah kid. Looking for a place to lay low? Haha haha.” He then lets out a few small coughs while still giggling to himself while he points up at Brex’s hood.
Seeing as to what the old man is getting at, Brex replies with, “Here for this.” That’s when he places the paper from the Guild onto the desk for the old stallion to see. Brex could see the old guy leaning in to try and get a good look at it, then after doing so he gives out a small nod and says, “Poor thing. Yeah, you’ll be finding her up in her room. She hasn’t left in like two days now. Hay, mind giving her a message from me? Tell her she needs to come down to at least say hi to me. I’m worried about the young thing.”
With that exchange he heads up to the second floor and walks down the hall. Down a few doors he finds the room marked 202. Giving it a few weak taps with the back of his knuckles. Brex steps back a foot to give the door some space as to, not freak out the one behind it. There was soon, a weak feminine voice coming from the other side that said, “Who… who, is it?” he was able to tell by the tone of the voice that whoever was answering the door had just been crying.
Brex spoke in a calm voice, “Here from Guild.” A moment later the door is slowly opened but just enough to let someone look through. From beyond the door, one could see a set of baby blue eyes as well as a green face. Everything else was obscured by the door. He then slowly held out the piece of paper with the request written on it for the girl to see. There was a glimmer of hope just barely noticeable on the mare’s face when she saw it.
After that, she let him into her apartment and they both sat down on a couch that could have sat four but due to his size, it seemed only big enough for two of him to be on. However, the mare was on the other end and there was still some space between them both. His current client was an earth mare in her late 20s by the looks of it. Her clothes and mane were disheveled and he can clearly smell that she had not been taking care of herself due to how messy the place was. Like before, she had baby blue eyes and her hair was all green, as for her mane, that one was an even lighter shade of green but at the moment it was in a mess.
Brex had sat on the far end of the couch in order to give her some space. He can tell that the girl was having some trouble speaking and gave her all the time she needed. It had taken her a good five minutes before the mare spoke out and filled him in on the following.
Apparently, she was a single mother and her name was Green Sweet. Her daughter’s name is Cherry Sweet and was only 7 years old. Just like how her mother’s name mirrored her coloring, Cherry Sweet was basically all red from the description. She was foal napped three days ago.
They were both over at the east end of town, near the coast when it had happened. While in the middle of shopping for dinner, Green Sweet had only turned her back on her daughter for not even two seconds to look at what a stall was selling. During that time, she had disappeared right off the street.
Green Sweet had gone to the guards to report what had happened and told them everything. However, it has been two days already and she had gotten no word from them regarding her daughter’s case. It was only earlier today that she went to the adventurers Guild and pleaded to post this request on the board. Of course, being one with little money, she couldn’t offer enough for the reward fees to get a higher-ranking member, but all she could afford was to make it an F rank.
She had nearly given up when she had heard him knocking at the door. She then proceeded to tell him everything she could from the start of the day and leading up to the disappearance. Apparently, there have been others talking around the neighborhood about other kids disappearing from all over the city, but no one has figured out how it happens, or just who the next target could be. He questioned her for how long this had been going on and she replied by saying that it was going on for the past two weeks now.
On the outside, Brex was listening carefully, but on the inside, that was a completely different matter. No… within his mind, he was a boiling volcano ready to blow his top. The very idea that someone would go around kidnapping children made him want to strangle these individuals with their own… Brex, had to stop himself from continuing down that line of thought. Knowing full well that if it went on any further, it was going to get extremely dark, very fast. At the same time that he had stopped himself from going down that line of thinking, he could have sworn that he felt Rory inside giving off a wave of fear before he felt the sensation of the girl diving deeper into his mind.
His thoughts were broken when he heard the mare beside him on the couch speak out in a confused tone, “I’m sure I didn’t turn on the heat. Why is it getting so warm in here?” inside, Brex was mentally panicking when he realized that this was probably due to the blessing from Little Light. She did tell him that his affinity for fire would go up. Maybe his anger was actually causing the room to warm up. Mentally berating himself, Brex decided that it would be a good idea to keep his emotions in check.
Going back to what the mare had told him. It seemed that there was one small common occurrence that lined up with all these disappearances. However, he found it very odd that no one ever looked into it. Green Sweet had mentioned that two weeks ago a traveling carnival had arrived in the city. They had apparently set shop just north of the boardwalk over on the coastline.
Brex used the mental connection and communicated to Rory. “Say, don’t you find it odd that no one’s looked into this traveling carnival? I know this is Equestria and all. The ponies are normally not so…” That was when Rory finished it by saying, “Competent. Or perhaps a lack of common sense?” Brex had to mentally flinch when hearing that and had to resist the urge to acknowledge this, but felt it would not be fair to judge these ponies by what he saw on the show so readily.
He then asked, “Well I doubt these ponies are as incompetent as in the show, but this is going well beyond that. It’s too much of a coincidence that these kids are being taken during the time a carnival comes into the mix. If the guards haven’t done anything, then the odds are of them being part of this whole thing might be plausible. Remember when I was on the other side and I told you about what I saw about Shadow Lily? She was apparently investigating the guards for being in the pockets of the nobles. Maybe some of the guards in the city are under the thumb of the kidnappers as well.”
After talking with Green Sweet for a few more minutes he decided it was time to head out and start his investigation. Just as he was leaving through the open door, he felt his robe being tugged at the end of his right arm. Looking over he can see the mare crying as she looks at him with pleading eyes. He can hear her saying something under her breath repeatedly before she had finally let go. Rex couldn’t help himself but to pat her on the head lightly as he said, “Make her dinner.”
After saying that. He quickly left the apartment and was now going down the steps and out of the front door of the building. Wanting to give it a shot. The Roegadyn tried to use the connection to heavens computer to see if he could get any information on this Cherry Sweet. But it seemed to be a fruitless attempt. Brex had figured as much by now that he couldn’t look anything up on a person, er… pony unless he had already met them beforehand. There was hope for it telling him just where to find her, but that plan had run into a wall.
Afterwards, Brex made a beeline straight to the boardwalk. All the while dodging more looks from all the mare’s around him. But yet again, there was another group of them in his path after only six minutes after leaving Green Sweet’s place. This time, it was a gang of eight in total and it was comprised of all the mare’s from the previously failed two attempts. Right as they were going to come close and try their way again. Brex, who was not in the mood, spoke in an extremely threatening tone that was on the edge of being perceived as demonic. “NOT…NOW!!!” This caused the group of eight to cower back and to separate themselves down the middle into two rows of mare’s as they stood in attention while quivering in place, desperately trying not to make eye contact.
After leaving the group, the Roegadyn finally made it to the coastline. The place had look like pictures that he remembered in his head from a video game where he would play a character called Spider-man. In it, he would swing out to some boardwalk over the water with a bunch of rides and a Ferris wheel on it. However, he did not have the mental capacity at the moment to gawk at wonder at such a spectacle.
His full attention was on looking for anything that resembled a carnival. At first, he thought what was on the boardwalk could have been it. But he was quickly able to discern that it had been here for more than two weeks. This was thanks to some of the traveling brochures that were inside the Golden Oak’s library. At that moment he wondered if it was possible that Celestia already put most of the knowledge of Equestria into that place before Twilight even moved in.
Without even a second thought. He thought to himself, “Yep, she would do that all right, she is a manipulator. What else would one call it when the time of Nightmare Moons return would occur, that all of the ponies needed to use the elements of harmony would end up in the same place, at the same time. Not to mention that their leader would also happen to be her student. The one being that she had practically raised to see her like some all-knowing, perfect, second mother. Now if that isn’t being a manipulator, then I don’t know what is.”
Moving his gaze up and down the shoreline, he saw off in the distance towards the North End just before the shoreline curved out into the ocean, a set of lights that were quite colorful. He then said to Rory using the mental connection, “Well if that isn’t a carnival, I don’t know what is.”
At this point it was getting close to noon. But as Brex got closer to the carnival set up, he quickly saw that it was no longer in business, but in the act of packing up. He knew that none of them had seen him coming yet, due to him being nearly a mile away and currently traveling on the sand instead of going up and running through the groups of ponies closer towards the city.
Cursing himself for not thinking this through more, he quickly looked around for anything that gave off any kind of a shadow large enough for him to duck into. After a second or two, he noticed one of those weird jumping Jack cement shaped monuments they set up to act as a barrier against the water near the edge of the shoreline and made his way over. Making sure that is situational awareness and along with his mini map showed that no one was around to see him. The Roegadyn gets behind it and ducks into its shadow using Shadow movement. This way if anyone was watching from a fair distance away, they would simply think he jumped into the water.
*Point of view: Third Person*
Closer towards the city not far from where Brex had ducked, was a figure standing in the shadow of a large tree carefully concealing himself from anyone noticing his presence. There was the sound of two sets of flapping wings that could be heard before a pair of Griffins landed behind the figure. Now with all three keeping their identities hidden in the dark, one might have noticed the two Griffins landing to be shaking their heads in a negative fashion with how their eyes moved left and right as the distant light from the shoreline glistened off of them.
There was a grunt of frustration before something was heard hitting the side of the tree with a heavy thud. This was then followed by a set of loud crunching and scratching sounds as the figure began tearing away at the bark.
In a low gravelly voice, the first figure says, “Our prey will not escape us…” This was paired with a set of feminine voices that both replied as they spoke in unison, “Yes.” Before a small group of random ponies walked by. When the ponies passed, the three were nowhere to be seen.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 19: From Country to City Roegadyn, Part 2.
Chapter 18: From Country to City Roegadyn, Part 2.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Baltimare, East end*
Back with the Roegadyn, he was currently making his way through the shadow realm as he approached the carnival setup. He can hear all the people that worked in it screaming and yelling at each other in a hurried fashion while trying to pack up as quickly as possible. Brex found this to be highly unusual seeing as they’ve only been here for two weeks. Also, there was the fact that while he was going through the city, he hardly heard anything about this place. One would have thought that he would have at least seen some flyers put up or at least some type of other kind of advertisement about the carnival being here. If this was what he thought it to be, then they weren’t doing a very good job in hiding their tracks.
Wanting to make sure that he wasn’t being overly paranoid, as well as to get a good feel for the grounds, he continued walking through the carnival. All the while dodging all of the stage hands and performers. During this, he had got to see glimpses of the pony’s version of the bearded lady. Then he saw what he thought to be the sword eater, but it turned out the pony was showing off that the swords were actually, grey liquorish molded into a blade.
He got to see a sign that depicted a manticore, but when he actually had come across it, he could see that the beast was nothing more than a common house cat that had a spell woven around it that made the small animal to only appear as a ferocious beast. The only way he was able to see through the spell, was due to little lights constant drilling into his head on how to look past enchantments and spells. It also helped that he was able to see it’s status above it when he examined it. There was the icon for an illusion buff placed upon the creature.
For a split second the Roegadyn actually started to feel homesick for once. But what really confused him was the fact that this feeling of being homesick was for the other world more than anything else. Mentally he chuckled to himself but made sure to keep Rory from hearing it, “Wow… I really do miss those three, it’s only been nearly two weeks, but I’m already missing their voices.”
He had finally made his way through most of the carnival but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary besides some sloppy work along with some blatant disregard for health and safety, this had extended towards not only the work environment, but also in the area regarding terms of food service. Brex had to get over what he had seen or he might never eat out again. Then there was the part about the acts being half assed or just being fake. The last thing he came across was a large tent about a third of the size of the big top. This one was roughly half the size of a high school gymnasium if he was to compare it. Unlike the others being pulled down, this one was not colorful in the slightest. To Brex, this just stood out as one saying. Don’t mind this tent, this is just a very boring tent, so don’t go in.
He had considered going in through the opening, but thought better of it. Even if these guys were complete morons based on how they couldn’t keep up the appearance of a legitimate carnival, he doubted that they would have left it completely open for just anyone to walk in. Instead, Brex picked the option of going around to the backside and carefully slip in through a small gap using the shadows to appear within the tent. When he had made it inside, Brex exited the shadows and found that he was pressing himself between a rather large wooden crate to his front, while the tent was pressing into his back.
Thinking that this was a very snug fit, he decided to go into the shadows again by using the one provided by the crate so he can move more freely. As it turns out, while one is in the shadow realm, their body is very malleable. A person is able to partially mold his body almost as if he’s turned himself into silly putty and he’s able to get himself to fit through most gaps. During those five days spent in Ponyville, Brex was experimenting with this as he tried to go through different sizes of openings, he found that as long as his head can fit through something, then the rest of his body can go through as well.
Not even five seconds past after entering the shadows, when Brex picked up some unusual sounds from deeper inside the structure. He wasn’t quite sure where they were coming from, but then he mentally did a facepalm when he realized that he had a mini map that would come in handy for such a moment. Checking it he saw that within the structure was a set of six yellow dots. Moving closer to the dots Brex noticed that a lot of these crates had holes near the top of them. When he walked past one that was shorter, he was able to see a set of bars just beyond the holes.
Freezing in place, he had a horrible thought in his mind but quickly stopped because of the sound that just rang out a short distance ahead. It was still muffled but it was loud enough to catch his attention. It sounded as if something had just hit wood, like a small thud. He had just gone around one of the large crates and found himself three meters away from what appeared to be a cage. There were wooden boards on the top and all sides of it that covered up the bars except for the front witch had a barred door. It was obvious that they were going to hide it by disguised this cage to look like any normal box to be shipped out.
With how it was already naturally dark inside of the tent, it was even harder to tell what was inside through normal vision alone, this was thanks to being in the shadow realm with it making things even harder to see. Using his gamer ability, he was able to see a set of status bars appearing one after another inside the cage.
Each one of the bars were reading that the health of the ones inside, were nearing halfway down. However, there was one that was still almost full. Brex surmised that this must have been one of the kids that had recently been kidnapped. He was about to say something when he noticed the name of the one who was still in perfect health. It was displaying the name, Rarity. Having already known that this was a case of these young kids being taken from their parents was one thing. But knowing one of them, nearly snapped Brex into an unstoppable rage. Catching a hitch in his breath as he desperately tried to keep his emotions in check, he let out a controlled breath just low enough so that the ones inside couldn’t hear him. It was all he could do to keep them from noticing his heart, that was thumping so very hard within his ribcage.”
Getting close enough to almost touch the bars. Brex looked within to examine the condition of the kids. He quickly saw that they were all of the female variety. They weren’t just ponies either. There was also one diamond dog and a Griffin throne inside the mix. The clothes on the kids were mostly in tatters but still usable. Carefully examining their clothing from a distance, Brex had to hold in a relieved sigh when he was able to tell that these kids were not abused in the way that he had feared, but instead, were just thrown inside and kept alive until they were taken away. But this did very little in calming him down.
Now being able to get a good look, he turned towards Rarity, who was at this moment sitting right next to a red hair and maned earth pony. He was able to see due to the information popping above her head with the health meter that this was Cherry Sweet.
Turning his attention back to Rarity, he noticed the gown that she was wearing looked awfully familiar. After giving it not even a moment’s thought, he realized that, if he saw her standing from behind, she would be the spitting image of the girl from earlier that day when he was at the gate that led into the city. He actually cursed himself in his mind as he screamed inside his own head, “Dam it all! I saw her this morning. I’ve should have noticed by those two standing in front of me that those were her parents. I didn’t remember them that much from the show. But… if I had, I would have realized that she was right there. If only I had paid more attention back then.”
Becoming worried Rory asked, “Master, you couldn’t have known this was going to happen. Please calm down. We need to get them out of here first.” Thanks to those words, he was able to calm down enough to think straight. He noticed that her clothing was not nearly as torn up as the others. Which meant that she either didn’t give too much of a fight or they had taken her by surprise. Either way she was still just a child. If he had to guess she couldn’t have been more than nine years old.
Taking a good look at Rarity as a child, Brex found it hard to believe that she would become such a drama queen when she was to grow up. The girl wasn’t even looking upset in the least or even giving any complaints…, this caused the Roegadyn to get somewhat suspicious. Taking a closer look at the girl’s status bar, he noticed that she was currently under some kind of a status effect, thanks to an unusual icon that was next to her name. Carefully, he began to read the words that spelled, Gaze.
This caused Brex to think about the name of the effect currently on Rarity. It didn’t take him long to remember a certain move that would be used by some monsters where they would show a symbol of a giant eye flashing red before it would show its effect being cast outwards from it in a cone in front of them. This was something that required the target to look directly in their direction without anything obstructing their view. If the player looked away before it was used, then they would be fine, otherwise they would suffer some rather nasty effects all at once. One of said effects was basically, a numbing spell which would cause the targeted party member to just stand in place and take damage.
Looking towards the rest of the girls in the cage, he could see that each one had the same negative effect next to their names. They were all in the same sitting position and had no signs of wanting to escape or even any discomfort of their situation. Some had their eyes closed while others were only half opened and with a slight unfocused gaze.
Mentally snapping his fingers, he then came to the realization that she was under the effects of a monster ability. But if that was the case, then a monster was behind this whole thing. Unless it was being controlled by someone else and being forced to do this. Brex started going through his head for all the creatures he can think of that had the ability to use the gaze. One after another he was eliminating them from the list.
He had to use the criteria of how this creature would be used while inside of a city without being noticed. This meant that he had to cross off his list anything that was larger than a pony. That alone allowed the list of suspects to grow very short. After that he had to come up with scenarios to where this thing could be used, even if there were other witnesses around. This thing couldn’t be hiding all the time due to its effect requiring the target to be looking straight at it. So, it had to be something very small, something that could be easily disguised so it could hide in plain sight or carried on a person. Immediately, one came to mind. It was something called an Imp. They would be smaller than a pony but resembled a demonic, floating baby flapping its bat like wings. It would have a very long tail and an oversized head.
( This is a picture of an Imp. )
The next question that ran through his head was, “Is this something being done by the imp itself, or is there another that’s doing the controlling and using it to aid in their pony trafficking?” Before he can start speculating any further, he could hear a big ruckus coming from outside of the tent, this was near the entrance from what he could tell.
Knowing full well seeing him there was not going to be a good thing for anyone, especially the kids. Brex jumped high up into the air and landed on the tallest crate near the entrance. Kneeling and keeping silent, the Roegadyn looked down from above while still in the shadow realm.
Soon he began hearing the sounds of fighting outside. There was the sound of screams and swords being clash together over and over again. Close to two minutes later, the sounds of battle died down and a group of three came barging through the entrance of the tent. Squinting his eyes to get a good look at the three, he saw their names displayed above their heads.
One was a diamond dog with black and white fur that was wearing a mix of leather and metal plates along his body while carrying a sword and shield in his paws. He was easily able to tell that this was a male due to how broad his shoulders were. This guy’s face strongly resembled that of a Husky. The name was, Einstein.
The other two were basically identical Griffin females wearing light leather armor. The first one was brandishing a pair of daggers in both hands while limping on her left leg. She was currently being tended to by the other one who had been pulling out some bandages and ointment from her pouch while they had been crouching near the entrance to stay out of sight. The one that was doing the bandaging was named, Linda. While the other was, Greta.
Brex quickly realize that he had seen these three before. Recalling the time that he was inside of the Adventurers Guild, he had seen them while getting a good look at everybody’s stats, as to determine where he should set his level sync. Back then he needed to pick a number that didn’t make him overpowered. But, on the other hand, he didn’t want to stand out too much as being a weakling. He knew that the idea of a very low-level person, going out and doing something that was well beyond the norm, would only bring up even more problems and suspicions from the other members.
Most of those within the Guild ranged between level 8 and 11. So, putting himself as the next highest level in the group inside the room was the surefire way to make sure that he can get away with doing the things he could do. But after leaving the Guild building, Brex switched his 10 back up to 25 just to be safe. Even if he wanted to keep his real power a secret, he wasn’t stupid enough to make himself so weak that he can get killed again shortly after getting back. Also, he didn’t know if the whole coming back to life had some type of drawback. For all he knew, it could be like that one anime, Log Horizon. His mind was already messed up to begin with. He didn’t want to lose anymore of it with each death.
Thinking back on it, he was relieved that Rory was able to mess with the magical apparatus that was currently making his identification card. Brex was worried that it would display everything about him. But Rory was capable of messing with it thanks to the Anti-Virus. In a sense, Rory bullied the thing by saying something along the lines of, it better not tell these ponies everything about her Master or she’ll make sure she destroys its programming. Ironically enough, magic and programming are basically the same thing in this world. Nonetheless, it was still pretty amazing that Rory was actually able to make an enchantment scared of her and got it to do what she had asked.
Now going back to the three within the tent, they had just finished patching up the leg of the knife wielding Griffin, they started to make their way deeper into the tent. Just as they were getting to the point where they were four meters inside past the entrance, the ground gave in and the three fell several meters straight into a pit that was a few meters wide with a set of heavy thuds.
Shaking his head, the Roegadyn mentally faceplanted as he said to himself under his breath, “I knew it…” that was when he heard Rory saying in a surprise tone, “Well now that’s something. To think that your paranoia was actually spot on for once.” Brex started using the mental connection and came back with a snappy tone, “Oh? And what about my paranoia about Princess Celestia killing me. That… I… think… came… true!” After that, he could have sworn he heard Rory giving a nervous chuckle from deep within his head.
Before their witty retorts could continue, Brex began to hear a large number of steps coming from the entrance. Soon a group of ponies came walking inside. It was a group of three unicorns and three Pegasus, this made six in all. All of which were female. He can feel his eyes becoming sharper as they filled with anger. He thought in his head, “What in the seven Hells! All the kids that they foal napped were females, but the ones doing it, turned out to be females themselves. Here a part of me was thinking that this was done by a male getting revenge seeing as there wasn’t a single one in there.” Brex had really thought that this would have had something to do with how the males in this world had been treated as nothing more than weaklings to be taken advantage of.
That was when he heard one of the Pegasus females call out towards one of the unicorns and said, “Whatcha wanna do with these three in the whole, Penny Pincher?” hearing that name he wondered to himself, “Hmm… I wonder if she has any relation to Coin Pincher, I remember hearing some of the fan fictions. In those stories it was a mare and she was always trying to make money off the princesses. But hold the phone, Penny Pincher? Penny is an earth name, or could it be that there is another form of currency like back home?”
That was when the one that had been called Penny Pinchers spoke up in an irritated tone, “Oh by the love of Celestia! You are such a BUCKING idiot! We discussed this earlier, no using names!” after saying that, she holds up her right hand towards the girl and shoots a magic blast towards the Pegasus mare and launches her into the side of one of the crates. Thankfully it wasn’t enough to kill her, but she was pretty badly banged up. Brex looked at the mare and saw that her health bar had dropped to only a third of its full amount. Looking back up to the unicorn, Brex could see her hand glowing, but so was the horn. This interested the Roegadyn, seeing as the books in the past mentioned that all spells needed to be channeled through the horn. But it would seen that it could be redirected into a magic user’s hands as well. But after the horn gathers the charge.
The only thought to run through his head was, “Ouch! Being a bad guy… or I guess in this case, a bad girl, does not have very good job security.” That’s when Penny Pincher spoke up again, while strolling towards the hole with her horn lit while being accompanied by the others. “Well, they’re too big to be sold off, but who knows, we might be able to find a buyer. But only Celestia knows who would want to do anything with a dirty old diamond mutt! Now as for the other two, I think I know of a couple of buyers right off the bat. Not too often you find twins falling into your lap.”
The mare’s horn flashed and something appeared right over the hole floating in the air. Brex was able to keep his eyes open and immediately discovered that it was in fact, an Imp. This one however was wearing some kind of a dark, metal collar around its neck that had a rather large black stone affixed to it. Brex found it unusual so he decided to use his examination on it. Unfortunately, with it being a monster, a detailed status screen did not pop up so he was unable to get a reading on what this item was. All he was able to get was its name, level, difficulty and along with how much health it had, which at the moment was at full.
Name: Lesser Imp.
Level: 20.
Difficulty: Medium.
Brex cursed his luck that he couldn’t scan something that was not either in his inventory or on a person that he can use an examination on. But he remembered the status that was over Rarity’s head, so he quickly glanced over to the creature’s bar to see if it had any status effects in place. Just as he thought there was in fact, one currently set on this monster. When a player sees any kind of a status effect at all on something it would either indicate it by having an icon and an arrow pointing up or down. The up arrow meant that it was a positive buff, while an arrow pointing down meant it was a negative type, which meant something bad.
In the Imps case it had a status effect called, Subjugation. Brex wasn’t an expert but this was completely new to him. He began to consider that this was probably due to the collar around the creature’s neck, obviously. He thought, “So some ponies are capable of controlling monsters huh. I wonder just how common this is. I guess this also means that the imp isn’t the mastermind, but really this Penny Pincher. I wonder what she’s gonna do next.”
His internal question was quickly answered when penny pincher motioned towards the hole and said, “Won’t you be a dear and please use that little eye trick of yours on the two girls inside? We won’t be needing the male. He’s a diamond dog after all, they breed like crazy. After you get that done, have those two go ahead and kill the mutt.” When she was finished, the other two unicorns used their magic to restrain the two Griffins and brought them out and over the hole and forced them to face the imp.
Brex could see the two Griffins attempting to keep their eyes closed. But soon, their faces of defiance soon turned into that of pain filled expressions as their eyelids were painfully pried open with magic. This caused him to think back to his fears when he first appeared in this world. Thinking back then to when he imagined the one called Twilight using magic to manhandle him the same way that these two were being done. Only caused him to lose control of his emotions.
What was once fear for the Roegadyn when it came to this memory, was now at this very moment, rage Incarnate that was being fueled by seeing it being done to another two that were only here to save a bunch of kids. Letting himself slip out of the shadows while on top of the crate. Brex readies his bow as he pulls it off his back.
He knew full well that this was a delicate situation, but still there was a driving force that screamed that he needed to do something and it had to be done now. Reaching for the quiver on his back, the Roegadyn pulls three arrows and places them between his fingers in his right hand while his left was holding the bow. Preparing to launch one after another in quick succession, he notches one of the arrows onto the bowstring.
During this time Brex concentrated on the situation and was able to hold in his emotions just enough that it would no longer control him. but it was still being a driving force that he would use in this oncoming fight. He didn’t want to kill these ponies, but by the twelve, he wanted to scare them SHITLESS!!
Carefully controlling his breathing, he slowly pulls back on the first arrow and takes in his surroundings. He used his mini map to judge where everything is, as well as everyone. Using one of the in-game functions. He marked each of his targets with an icon marking them in numbers. This was the order in which he was going to take these girls down. Also, if they should happen to make a run for it, those marks would be visible to only himself and would aid in tracking them down later.
In his eyes, the world had slowed down to a crawl. The waves of magic light that was coming off the unicorn’s horns was flowing like a slow mist before him. Right then and there, Brex wanted to let loose his first arrow. But stopped himself knowing that right now was not the perfect moment. Seeing as how Penny Pincher wanted the Imp to enslave the two Griffin’s minds. He knew that it was more of a form of mind control. A memory flashed before Brex, of when he was back in the other world.
It was a point in one of the sessions with Little Light where she explained the effects of mind control spells and how to either deal with them, or to mess with their effects. One of her examples was of a target who is placed under a mind control spell, would need to have the caster reapply it continuously or at least within short intervals of one another or the target would break free.
But there was another form of magic when it came to this type of category where the caster would only need to use it once, so as long as the connection between them remained constant, it wouldn’t matter how far away their victim would go. They would still be under their control.
That was when Brex remembered how the girls in the cage were reacting when he had found them. More so when the image of Rarity popped up. Remembering how the Gaze effect that was still on her made the Roegadyn realized that she was not under a simple mind control spell, but one that was constantly in effect which meant that she was directly linked to the imp.
At one-point, Little Light had explained that when an individual is at the point of being placed under the spell that would be used for the long-term version, a link had to be established to the one casting it. This meant that that was the exact moment when it was at its most vulnerable. If the spell is interrupted at the exact moment that it nearly takes effect, then it would cause a backlash and undo the others that were currently under that caster spell.
Looking back down at the Griffins, he inwardly apologized that he had to wait just a little longer before he struck. With how time slowed down, Brex was witnessing this at a snail’s pace which meant, to him, it was literally lasting an eternity as he watched their pain filled expressions slowly morph as the Imp begins to take hold of their minds.
Right at the very moment that Brex felt that the connection was being established between the imp and the two females. He started chanting a spell within his head that came from the book he had gotten from the anime, Rise of The Shield Hero. He still had yet to master all the spells but there were a few that he was capable of casting at their lowest rank. One of which was called, Low Quick.
Rise of the shield hero spell: Low Quick. The lowest version of the speed enhancement spell. Low quick allows the user to have an enormous boost of speed for only an instant.
Just as brecks had finished mentally chanting the spell and had only stopped at the last syllable, he started his volley of arrows down onto his opponents. With fluid motion, he notched the next arrow in his hand onto the bowstring and launched it and repeated it for the last one.
He had carefully aimed their shots to hit the right sholders of each one of the unicorns. He knew through personal experience with his training, that intense pain would hinder a casters ability. So, shooting them in the shoulder would cause this effect while at the same time limiting the chance of it being fatal.
Just as the last arrow was more than halfway across the room, Brex finished the chant. Feeling the Low Quick spell taking effect, there was a sudden surge of pure adrenaline coursing through his veins and this caused his senses to heighten even further. From an outsider’s point of view, one would have mistaken him for a much bulkier version of the flash with the way he jumped down off the crate and speeded towards the hole that the two Griffins were currently being held over.
Seeing the three unicorns falling to the ground after getting shot in slow motion, Brex weaves between two of them and jumps into the air right over the large hole. Taking hold of his Longbow in his left hand, he brings it to his right side and then quickly swings it into the side of the head of the imp. There was a sharp smack sound that emanated when colliding with its skull. With his forward momentum still unhindered whilst in midair. He keeps his arms held out and grabbed hold of the two Griffins and travels until he lands on the other side and quickly puts them down and turns his body, just as the Low Quick spell runs out.
When the world returns to its normal speed, he begins to hear a set of cries as all three mare’s raven agony while looking at their shoulders in disbelief as they see a long arrow stuck in them. As for the imp he struck with his bow, it was still in transit as it slams into one of the crates rendering it motionless.
Brecks then reaches back and grabs another set of three arrows and takes aim at the two Pegasus mare’s standing directly behind the now downed unicorns. Brex then spoke loudly in a menacing tone, “Wings are next!” this caused the two mare’s who were at that moment getting their wings out so they could be ready to fly, to quickly pull them in and take a step back, before holding their arms up in surrender out of fear.
It would appear that these two knew better after seeing all three Unicorns getting shot in the shoulder perfectly, at almost the same instant and didn’t want to follow the same outcome with their own wings. He knew that to a Pegasus; their wings were the most valuable thing in the world and having them threatened was the same as killing them in away.
Not forgetting the one that was over by the other crate, he calls out to the two Pegasus, “Bring her over.” While saying this he used the tip of his arrow and motioned towards the downed mare and back to where they were. The two quickly ran over and dragged their nearly unconscious comrade and added themselves to the group and quickly sat down while visibly shaking.
During that however the one known as penny pincher looked up towards Brex with anger in her eyes as she screamed out, “Just who the buck do you think you are? Do you have any idea who you’re messing with, or how much trouble you’re gonna be in?” While still clutching her shoulder, she gives a pathetic laugh while trying to act tough before she added.
I got half this town under my thumb. Don’t think you’re gonna walk away scott free. The guards will round you up and then we’ll make sure that you never see the light of day again. Ha! you won’t even see the next day again. So why don’t you go ahead and put that bow down before things get even worse for you. Otherwise, I’ll have to make you suffer. How about I give you a taste!”
Turning her attention towards the crate in the back of the tent she calls out, “Hey! new Philly! Go and kill one of the kids in there with you!” After saying that, she turns back to Brex and gives him a manic smile of a deranged mare. She then spoke out while cackling maniacally like some B-rated villainess, who is awaiting the sounds that were to come from the cage.
However, Brex just stood there unfazed. Not even attempting to lower his bow or to turn his head towards the cage to stop what was happening. The seconds went by with no sound being made. During that time, Penny Pincher’s face was slowly melting away to that of confusion and this then continued to change as her right eye, began to twitch uncontrollably.
The mare then screamed out, “What are you waiting for you stupid brat! I gave you an order!” Yet again there was nothing. But after a moment they can all hear a girl speaking in a week scared voice, “I just want to go home… please let me go home. I-I want to see my mummy and daddy, where are… my mommy and daddy?” Brex immediately realized that that was the voice of Rarity. He had remembered that during the show she had this Canterlot accent present but it seemed that she had yet to develop it at this time, but he was able to pick out her voice all the same.
Penny Pincher, now with an expression of utter rage yelled towards Brex and said, “Just what did you do to them! there is no way that you could have broken that spell! That was meant to be permanent! How?! tell me how did you break that spell!! TELL MEEEEE!” She was clutching at her now injured shoulder while screaming this in frustration.
However, there was no way he was simply going to tell her exactly what he did. He began to wonder to himself what kind of an idiot would explain how they undid something only to give the villain or others that try the same to figure a way to prevent it from being stopped again.
Brex just shook his head in a negative motion and then replied with, “Switch with kids.” Again, using his arrow while still notched to his bow, he indicated that their group should be the ones to be in the cage. Of course, there was some heavy protest from Penny Pincher. But that was quickly put to an end when Brex gave the other mare’s the command, “Knock her out!” to which they quickly obliged by doing just that. Seeing this Brex thought, “Well that’s a change. I didn’t expect them to do what I said without any hesitation. I guess the idea of getting shot, really is a good motivator.”
After the children exited their cage and the mare’s were now locked up inside, the keys were confiscated and Brex placed it into is robes for safekeeping. Unknown to any of them, he had placed it into his item box which meant that it was no longer accessible by anyone other than him. He didn’t bother with the Unicorns seeing as how they also had Unicorn children inside the cage in the first place. So, it was safe to assume that the cage had a magic resistance so they weren’t getting out anytime soon.
All six children were currently huddled together a fair distance from the mare’s who had kept them captive. Now they were currently staring at Brex with curiosity and a little bit of fear. But the one Griffin of the group of kids had an expression of concern as she looked towards the two Griffin females that were still knocked out, due to the attempted mind control by the Imp.
Brex had noticed this and at that moment, he saw how the girl looked now that she was out of the shadows. Her eyes were of a brilliant amber color. She was mostly brown but everything from the neckline going up, was white. While around her eyes and on the tip of the feathers above her head, had a shade of purple. From under his mask, Brex squinted his eyes and suspicion and used his examination skill on the kid.
He immediately found his suspicions spot on as the kid’s name displayed it as, Gilda. This was in fact the Griffin from the show but as a small child. It was one thing to run into Rarity, but he had also run into the very Griffin that caused trouble when she was to show up in Ponyville a little over 12 years from now.
Realizing that he was still holding his bow, while the arrow was tilted towards the ground, he then did a mental facepalm that this was no longer necessary and this was possibly the cause for the kids to be that scared of him.
Placing the arrows carefully back into his quiver, Brex then takes his bow and places it onto his back once more. The Roegadyn then motions with his head and questions the young Gilda, “You know them?” This got a cute little squawk of surprise from the child as she hears him speak. But just as he thought, she quickly tries to look tough but still not quite reaching that point due to her small size, replies with, “Yeah those two are my aunts. Are they gonna be, OK? I saw what happened from in the cage. You ran into them pretty hard; you better make it up to them otherwise I’m gonna break you’re… your… uh.” Gilda then trailed off as she was unsure as to what Brex was so she couldn’t give a very good accurate threat to use.
He then motions with his right hand and says, “Go to them.” At those words the young Griffin leaps into the air and quickly arrives at their side and begins checking on them. While this was going on he caught a glimpse of Rarity giving him an intense look. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it though. He didn’t think it was anger, fear, distrust or anything really, she was just staring at him without blinking. It was actually making him quite uncomfortable as shivers ran up and down his back.
Cold sweat began to run down the side of his face as he thought, “Uhm… Rory, I don’t know about you, but I think we need to get out of here soon. That kid is starting to freak me out…” That got a cheerful reply from Rory as she said, “Oh come now. You go after giant spiders and Timberwolves. You literally bitch slap, an Imp to the wall, shoot three mare’s in the shoulders, intimidate the rest of them to following orders to knockout their leader. But you’re now terrified of a little girl looking at you?” He then gave her a quick and decisive, “Yup” As a response.
Luckily there was an interruption to this very uncomfortable moment when there was a series of grunts and moans as the one that was still in the pit had just climbed over the edge and was basically clawing his way out by using, well, his claws. Brex had actually forgot about the guy and was happy that his face was covered so the Dimond Dog wouldn’t see his eyes darting around out of a sense of embarrassment.
The diamond dog finally rose to his feet and began looking around before asking, ugh… who dropped a mountain on me. Also, what did I miss?” It would seem that he was somewhat aware that the situation had been pretty much taken care of, after noticing the kids were now out of the cage and all the ones that were in charge of the carnival, were now inside of said cage.
Brex simply walked off to the side and leaned up against one of the crates as he observed the Diamond Dog checking on the two Griffins and kids. Brex could hear him explaining that he was a Guild member and he and his two comrades were looking for them after hearing about all the foal napping’s.
The Roegadyn had begun to think that the one diamond dog among the group of kids may have been his. However, there was no sign of that being the case with how the young pup was not making any type of reaction towards the male member of her species. Perhaps she was just taken from another Diamond Dog that was living within the city.
There was a stirring sound from across the tent. Quickly, Brex realized that he had completely forgotten about the knocked-out Imp from just earlier. Seeing as it was now attempting to fly back into the air, Brex then pulled out an arrow and prepare to use one of his Bard skills.
But before he had the chance to even think of which one to use, the imp that was now in the air, waved both its arms towards them and a small icicle shard quickly appeared and shot towards one of the kids.
Brex unleashed his arrow and intercepted the icicle when it was only a meter away from the kids face. It then shattered into nothingness. Now catching the attention of everyone in the tent, all eyes were glued to the imp and they all quickly saw that it was launching yet another icicle at a random pony. Yet again this one was intercepted in mid-flight buy another arrow.
The monster now getting more impatient began channeling even more magic into its hands as it created another icicle then another and another. Soon there was four being created all at once and they all shot out at different directions.
The Roegadyn shot arrow after arrow at each one of the icicles being created by the imp. But it did not end there as the creature only unleashed volley after volley attempting to rain down ice on anything other than itself within the tent.
The ponies that were currently locked into their own cage huddled up together on the far side. It would seem as the one called Penny Pincher, had come too and saw this and screamed out, “That’s it! Go, go on and kill them all. Kill them all for me!” That was when one of the icicle shards flew through the cage and was nearly about to strike the mare before that also, was destroyed by another arrow. However, that one continued on until it slammed into the back of the cage where the wooden wall was leaning up against the back side. Penny Pincher looked to the side and saw that the arrow was no less than a few inches from her head. Seeing this the mare fainted with her eyes now rolling to the back of her head.
Back to Brex, he had almost regretted saving the mastermind from being killed by the very monster that she was controlling, but thought better of it seeing as how she needed to suffer and pay for her crimes. This wouldn’t be possible if she were to end up dead.
Turning his attention back towards the imp, Brex continued with intercepting its seemingly random attacks at anything alive within the tent. He started to think while taking another shot, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that that Penny Pincher girl lost complete control over this thing. Either that or it misinterpreted her words. I’m placing my Gil on it going crazy considering it did this before she had even given it any commands before.”
This got Rory to reply while Brex was still fending off the icicles with his arrows. “Could be that, but I wonder if this thing was ever really under her control in the first place. Who’s to say that somebody else wasn’t really the one pulling the imp strings and it was simply told to follow her commands until something like this happened.”
He then gave a nod and answered with, “Yeah, you got a point there. I mean come on, this place and those working here just scream hired help. They didn’t do any proper advertisement to make this seem like a legitimate operation. The carnival was set up way too far from the busy part of the coast to be considered a good spot for business. A smart person would have had it much closer to the boardwalk. Then there was the utter unprofessionalism between Penny Pincher and that one mare she shot. I’m 100% on board with there being something else happening. To top it all off, what were the odds that Rarity and the one called Gilda would even be here. I’m starting to think the tree of harmony stopping me on my flight back and showing me those images of the girls may have something to do with all of this.”
Before Brex could continue his musings, he noticed something odd with the imp after releasing yet another arrow. He was capable of seeing the magic flowing from it that was being condensed into the icicles which it was using as ammunition. But with how much it was radiating, the Roegadyn couldn’t figure out where the creature was putting it all, considering it appeared to only be using a fraction of its output for the ice shards so far.
He hadn’t noticed it, but thanks to his attention being divided so much by protecting the others, the Imp’s true intentions went unnoticed until it was too late. There was a huge buildup that felt the same as all the other spells it was casting, however you can tell that this one was much larger.
After Brex had shot what he counted to be number 49 of his arrow’s, that built up of energy started fluctuating around the Imp. That was when his, In-game functions kicked in and a warning flashed in his vision.
Quickly identifying what this was, Brex internally panicked for a split second when he saw the words, Blizzard Rain. Back in Final Fantasy, this sort of warning would appear above the monster the player was fighting when they were about to use a special move. Judging by the amount of magic, he knew that this one was going to turn out to be a type of area of effect attack, also referred to as an, A.O.E. By the players.
Judging by the name and how this implies using ice to fire at its opponents. The Roegadyn came to the conclusion that this one was going to be just like the others, but at a much larger scale.
He had wanted to end it right then and there, but was unable to do so because his efforts were being poured completely into protecting those around with all his concentration. Not even the option of casting another speed enhancement spell was a viable move, much less changing his level back to its maximum. If only there was a small window of hesitation on the monster’s part, then Brex might be able to do one of these.
The Imp then launched its devastating new spell immediately after firing the last icicle. Its body became surrounded by multiple smaller rings of light which quickly condensed into a smaller version of the icicles it was firing before, but this time it was in far greater quantities. They were then launched at all directions and at great speeds. Each one was roughly half the size of a person’s fist and was hurtling towards a random person within the tent. Screams of fear rang out from the crowd consisting of both adults and kids alike.
Brex began cursing within his mind as he saw this occurring in front of him. Without even realizing it himself, his hand was still moving at the same speed as before and was currently grabbing onto another arrow. Time came to a near, grinding halt and the world around him turned into a shade of blue.
Another memory flashed within his mind’s eye of a training session with Little Moon. This was during the time that he was practicing with his Bard skills. They started to have a discussion about whether or not he could use one of the skills in a certain way.
Little Moon was standing there wearing her jumpsuit with arms crossed while giving a thoughtful expression as she said, “OK, OK. Hold on, I can understand that you want to be able to snipe things in mid-air. That I can understand, but what you’re talking about is just crazy. There is a whole lot of things that can go wrong with that idea. Trust me when I say I know what I’m talking about. So, you should understand me when I say, that is humanly impossible. But if you wanna give it a go, then I don’t mind. That is, if you don’t care about getting a whole lot of bruises afterwards if this messes up.”
After that the two tried practicing with Brex’s idea, but ultimately in the end it was a complete bust. They had been using small projectiles and at the end of the session, the Roegadyn was covered in numerous bruises while he was laying on his backside against a tree that they had constructed to rest against.
Breck squeezed out a cough as he rubbed his temple from the most recent impact. With grunts of exertion, he attempted to work out the kinks while little moon spoke in a, I told you so tone, “So that makes try number seven. I’m pretty sure you should give up on this idea. Sure, you can snipe things one at a time with what you can do now compared to a normal human, but controlling that many at once is not a very good idea. For one thing, you can’t control that many projectiles at the same time with that level of precision. You may as well be asking Junkrat, to not blow things up. You might at least get more progress out of that.”
After that memory was done replaying in his mind, Brex had let out a grunt of annoyance and gritted his teeth. With little left that he can do, he tightened his grip on his bow and right as he was going to let go of his next arrow, he concentrated on the skill, Quick Nock.
Weapon skill: Quick Nock: Delivers an attack with a potency of 150 to all enemies in a cone before you. An arrow is shot that is infused with its user’s energy and this causes it to break up and scatter wide as to rain down on multiple targets within 15 yards ahead.
From his very core, he can feel a surge of energy traveling out into his right arm and this flowed straight into the arrow that was still being gripped. At the same time his mind was fully focused on each one of the magic circles surrounding the Imp.
Both combatants launched their attacks simultaneously. With on goers to his back and to the sides he knew that he had to intercept as many as possible. He himself could easily take half a dozen or more of these in his current level without much problem. But that wasn’t the same case when it came to the others. With two Guild members currently out cold, along with a group of ponies in a cage within the line of sight of the spell, then you add the six children, there was no way casualties could be avoided if any of them got struck. He knew that the six wouldn’t be able to survive even one of these hitting them.
As the shower of icicles were traveling, the one arrow that Brex shot glowed with a yellow light in scattered into smaller golden ones that intercepted the spells. When a golden arrow came into contact with one, this caused it and the icicle shard to burst into pieces and scattered to the air. Unfortunately, Brex’s attack was not able to block all of them as he saw a number of them whizzing by and striking parts of the tent and the boxes around.
There was a series of screams from both the children and grownups as a number of icicles had nearly hit them. He can see that they had made impact with either the floor or some nearby objects, thereby leaving noticeable small holes. Cursing the fact that he was unable to do more, the Roegadyn notched another arrow. Ready to fire, what surprised him was the fact that the imp’s magic had yet to fade as it just came off of it in continuous waves. There was then another set of magic circles appearing.
Brecks screamed angrily in his head, “Hey! don’t tell me it’s gonna fire another one of those? That’s just cheating! Wait don’t tell me this is a continuous one?! FUCK!!” after seeing this he launched another volley. This one pretty much had the same effect, but one additional outcome came from it which made the Roegadyn start too internally panic.
One of the Imps attacks had made it through and was currently making its way directly towards one of the random earth pony children. Brex could do nothing as he watched it in slow motion as it drew closer towards the child’s head. Emotions of dread exploded within his mind as he can feel the welling up tears ready to come out at the site. The ice was drawing closer and closer, the little girl had only seen it when it was only several feet away.
But thankfully the diamond dog from before, held up his arm that had the shield and deflected the magical projectile. Brex was able to see how it scraped along his wooden and metal shield, nearly gouging clean through as it slid across. He can feel his heart come to a stop at the very notion of what that thing could have done if it had made contact.
Turning his attention back towards the Imp, he saw that it was ready to do this same trick again. But this time, there was a few more circles appearing. Its face was twisted with a maniacal grin as its eyes narrowed towards him. He thought to himself, “That piece of… this isn’t just attacking, that thing is actually ENJOYING the fact that it could kill these kids!” this very notion caused his breath to hitch as the anger swelling up only intensified even further.
Pulling another arrow from his quiver, he notches that and fires another volley of arrows by using the skill, Quick Nock. This was countered by the imp and this started the epic struggle of tug of war to see who would come out on top. Volley after volley from both sides the arrows and ice collided.
Brex had managed to focus his attention mostly on the shards that would be going at someone. This had worked for the next three attempts, but the imp just screamed and earsplitting screech as it thrusted its arms and legs forward. That was when the number of circles increased even further, not only that, they appear to be rotating. When the next set was launched, he can tell just what the intended purpose of the rotating circles were.
The icicles were now traveling at a faster velocity as well as traveling in arcs so they were no longer going in a straight predictable line. From a sideways point of view, it appears that the invisible wall separating the two sides was now being pushed back towards the Roegadyn. More and more were getting through his arrows with the apparent screams of panic and crying of the children and the ponies that were currently in the cage. Thankfully the ones in the cage were able to set up their own barrier, but they had to make it small enough to only encompass them so they could withstand the hits. But he can tell that it was cracking with all the hairlines appearing after each strike.
Attempting to keep up with it, Brex increased his speed as much as possible. His arms were basically moving in a blur as he was shooting arrows faster than the eye could track. The air was completely filled with flashes of blue and gold as they collided, however a small majority was getting through and was causing even more damage to the surrounding. A stray thought ran through his head as Brex considered the idea, that if this continued the whole place would come down on everybody.
With his breathing now becoming heavy and ragged the Roegadyn cursed that he was not at level 70 right now for this, otherwise it would be an easy task to deal with this creature. If only he had set up some type of backup plan or a safeguard in case this situation was to occur. He made a promise to himself that no way he was going to make this type of a blunder ever again, not when lives could be at stake. He knew that he had the power of revival magic from his other classes, however he had no idea how they would work on the residences of this world or even the ramifications of such a spell existing.
Attempting to concentrate even harder at his task, the Roegadyn failed to notice or even care that there was a pressure that was building up behind his left eye. He had simply pushed it aside thinking that it was due to him concentrating so much, so his eyes could keep up or they were simply getting watery from the amount of exertion.
The world around him was now starting to get dark as everything faded from view, all aside from himself and the Imp could be perceived. His eyes could track every movement between it in himself, this included the magic flow from its body and the spells that were whizzing through the air. His body began to feel sluggish as if he was attempting to move his arms while underwater. Breathing became slow and shallow, even though he knew he was supposed to be breathing quickly.
Within his head he couldn’t stop chanting the following mantra over and over again, “Faster, faster I need to be faster, faster, faster, faster…” Each word was paired with the loud thump of his heart beats. When his last arrow was shot, Brex could see how it’s physical form would slowly disperse as it left his bow and spread across his vision and towards the shards. Watching as each one intercepted its target. But there was those that would either miss or would be unable to hit its target due to it merely missing or being hit from the side by a random one that was at an odd trajectory with how the circles rotated before the spell was fired.
Now that feeling from before that was slowing him down was being lifted and Brex could feel his arms moving like normal again. Another arrow was launched, then another. Each one seemingly faster than the next. It hadn’t taken long until he noticed something about the smaller ones that broke off. They were now changing their flight paths. when one would miss, it would only do a loop and strike the spell from behind. Not only that, they flew through the air even faster than before.
*Point of view: Third Person*
Back in reality perceived by others. Brex’s movements had taken a drastic spike in speed. Before, his arms were already moving in quick succession. But now they could have been considered to nearly be blurs. The spells that the Imp were using, seemed to be unable to progress past a certain point after the spike.
When the fight of attrition had started between it and Brex. There was a line right between them were the two had been at a stalemate with only a few getting back and landing near to the others behind the Roegadyn. Then that line was pushed back and was nearly up to him. Now however, the icicles appeared to have hit a solid wall of arrows seeing as not even a single one was making it through.
Before, the onlookers were flabbergasted when they saw that this one that was wearing a yellow robe was actually fending off magic from a monster by shooting them out of the air. But when the monster had gone and casted a spell that sent more at them, they all were sure that was the end and their lives would be taken away.
Those fears got dashed when they saw the unknown being fire a single arrow that immediately turned into a yellow silhouette and broke apart into many others and struck the multiple spells over and over again.
But there was a horrible scream from the flying monster and even more ice came flying at them. Some had gotten through and hit the shield the unicorns in the cage had erected. Others would hit either the ground, boxes or floor.
The diamond dog was watching in amazement at such an extraordinary feat. Having a sharp sense, he was able to tell that the ones that had gotten past, were not the being’s top priority, seeing as they turned out to be stray shots that wouldn’t have hit anyone. But to see a single arrow to be infused with something and turn into many was a sight to behold.
But when one of the spells had gotten past the defenses of the unknown individual that was protecting them, the Diamond Dog quickly noticed that it was heading right for one of the kids and intercepted it. It was hard to hold his ground but he had managed to deflect the ice. But it was at the cost of his shield. It was almost gouged out and was hardly able to keep its form now with how it was nearly falling apart.
Right after he could see that his two partners had regained their senses and were coming too. Those griffons looked about and were quickly able to get a grasp on the situation. They had their beaks hanging low as they witnessed something impossible.
Their looks only gave way to more astonishment when they saw the approaching wave of ice was halted a short distance away. Not only that, not a single one was making it past. When the diamond dog glanced to the one in robes, his eyes went comically wide and were almost popping out of his skull when catching the sight of the one that was firing the arrows. He was moving even faster. It appeared that each muscle in his arms were operating in the most efficient way possible. Not one fraction of a single second was being wasted. In fact. He could see that his shots were no longer going out in a straight line but appeared to be tracking down something to hit. He had seen magic before from ponies but this seemed different to him.
Back with the two Griffins, they could only watch while muttering under their breath in an almost, unintelligible language. Their eyes darting back and forth while having faces of concentration and frustration whenever they had to blink before trying to refocus on not missing anything.
Soon the physical manifestation of their two attacks colliding which was comprised of scattering clashes of blue and gold within the air was beginning to make its way back towards the monster at a snail’s pace. The diamond dog noticed that its features were changing to that of fear as its once angry eyes went wide at the site of this happening before it.
With every wave of icicles that came another two waves of arrows flew. The one in robes was literally firing two shots a second. With the increased rate of firing clearly outmatching that of the monster, he could see that it was losing ground and fast.
Within a matter of a few seconds the situation had completely reversed and the once confident monster from before who was assured of its victory was now on the precipice of losing this battle. Mere feet away it was attempting to hold back the onslaught of arrows with everything it had, but still the wall of sparks from the two attacks colliding drew only closer and closer until finally it was too much and the arrows struck the magic circles as they were about to launch their next volley. This appeared to be a fortunate distraction as it had caused the magic circles to disappear into small pieces when they were struck.
Looking back towards the one in robes, The Diamond Dog could see that he was now pulling one more arrow out and was taking his time. Then he heard the being say out in a loud voice which radiated his displeasure for the creature in front of him, “My… turn.”
Letting loose a single arrow, it flew through the air and created a mighty gust of wind that filled the tent. Before it had physically made contact with the monster, one could see its flesh being torn by an invisible force as if a giant drill was burrowing into its skull. At first there was a small hole that had gone clean through the center of its forehead. Then said hole began to spread at an astonishing rate. When the arrow had actually reached the creature, one could see it dispersing as if someone threw a pebble into a pond and its body was easily ripped apart. Nothing remained of the creature but small tatters of its flesh and the tip of its tail remained motionless off to the side.
Behind said creature the tent had been completely obliterated with a hole large enough for the being himself to walk straight through, but just beyond that several meters away was a large trench that seemed to have been dug out from some mighty force that went on for a good three meters before stopping and in the center stuck in the ground was a simple arrow.
( Stop music here. )
Everyone else within the tent was completely silent for what seemed like a good 10 seconds before all the children screamed in excitement and started cheering as they all ran up to the one in robes and gave him a group hug.
However, it did not escape the diamond dogs notice when he saw the one who had saved them was visually bothered by the sudden show of affection and went stiff, but remained unmoving. The bow that was still grasped in his left hand hung down to his side and it was evident with the many cracks, that the bow itself was near the edge of breaking apart at any moment. When it came to the other hand, the glove which covered it completely was now in tatters but still enough to cover his skin.
The Diamond Dog began to think to himself, “Unbelievable, to do that to a bow and glove within that short amount of time is unthinkable. Just how fast, no… just how many arrows did he fire during that whole skirmish. It couldn’t have lasted for more than three minutes but it felt like it was going on forever. Didn’t the guild lady say he was only level 10? Just what training did this guy go through?” As for the two Griffin females, they kept close to one another while whispering under their breath, their eyes never leaving the robed being.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Rex was not entirely comfortable at this very moment with how these kids were clustering around him. This was not exactly what he had envisioned happening, but was relieved nonetheless to see these smiling faces. But that relief quickly escaped when he remembered that he needed to get out of here before others asked too many questions. Letting out a small sigh he says low enough to not seem threatening to the kids around him, “Parents are waiting.”
This quickly got looks of recognition from all of them as they followed him when he exited the hole that he had just made and towards the city. Before leaving the tent completely he called out to the three from before and while pointing to the cage, “They’re all yours.”
After some time to cross the distance into the city. The kids all kept close to him like he was some unstoppable guardian. By the time Brex had gone into the city with the children he had indicated that he would follow them home to make sure they made it. During this, Brex would get odd looks from random ponies but none tried to bother the Roegadyn. He had wondered if this was due to how he had put those other mare’s that hounded him in their place earlier or if it was something else that was making the onlookers to keep their distance.
Whenever a child made it to their house, the parents would open the door and they would have a tear-filled reunion. But before they can even pry themselves away from their child to give thanks to the one bringing them home, Brex and the other children had already moved on and were heading towards the next house.
With it being a city, you know most of them lived within apartment buildings and one of them even lived in a high-rise that seemed rather flamboyant with its decorations. Brex was unsure if this one kid literally lived here or knew someone who did, but as soon as they came close to the doors, a group of mare’s wearing black suits and ties came out and greeted the girl in ushered her inside. Seeing as how this place was more of a problem with how it has some high security, the Roegadyn quickly ushered the remaining kids and left before he got into any more trouble considering that this place seemed high end and he didn’t want any more attention than he was already going to get.
When all but one child was returned home the Roegadyn looked down to see a red philly who is looking up at him with worried eyes. Getting down to one knee, he spoke in a reassuring tone in the best way he could, “Mother is waiting.” The girl was smiling up at him while having a teary eye. This time however Brex knew where this one lived and started to lead the way himself. It was getting close to four in the afternoon by the time they arrived at the old apartment building where he had first gotten the full story on the quest.
Upon entering, the little girl runs up to the counter in is greeted by the old timer manning it. Rex could tell that these two knew each other very well with how they embraced one another and shed tears upon the girls return.
It didn’t take long before the old geezer pointed up and told the girl that her mother was waiting. This caused the little girl to let go and to start running up the steps to the second floor. As Brex was about to take the first step up leading up on the stairway, he heard the man at the desk call out to him and say, “Thank you for finding Cherry Sweet. She’s all that Green Sweet has. If you ever need a place to stay for a while there’s always a room here waiting for you. I’ll even give it to you at a special price.” With that, the old stallion nods with his head to head up.
When Brex had got to the top and reached the second floor, he looked over and saw Cherry Sweet already embracing her mother at the door which was left wide open. Quietly stepping up, Brex stands near the doorway and watches the two crying in each other’s arms just a few feet within the apartment while the mother was down on her knees and covering Cherry Sweet with both arms as if she would disappear again if she didn't do so.
He wanted to let them have their moment so he waited. It had taken the two a good 10 minutes before they realized that he was there. Green Sweet was hurriedly trying to wipe the tears from her eyes so she can see while she got to her hoofs. She then enthusiastically thanked Brex over and over again and had attempted to give him the payment that was promised. However, Brex simply shook his head and gently pushed the bag of bit’s back towards the mother. When she tried again to give it to him, he simply said, “Already been paid.”
This had confused green sweet but reluctantly she let it go. Brex was about to leave when she asked him if he wanted to stay for dinner. But he refused with a shake of the head and reached for his bow to hold up near his face and pointed to it with his free hand before saying, “This, needs repairing.” Upon seeing the weapon in such bad shape, Green Sweet’s eyes went wide before she exclaimed, “Just how did that happen?” this only got Brex to reply with a playful tone, “Occupational hazard.” Saying his piece, the Roegadyn left the apartment building and began walking into the streets of the city, all the while keeping close to the shadows and waiting for the moment to talk to those three who are still tailing him for the last half hour.
After a while, Brex turned into an empty street alley and faded into the darkness. His last thoughts were, “So Rory, want to take bets on what’s going to happen now?” This only got a giggle from the girl as she answered with, “Oh master~ I think I learned by now that betting against you is a chumps bet.” Almost immediately after, three other figures entered the alley…
*Point of view: Young Rarity* *Time: A week after being rescued* *Location: Ponyville*
As for rarity she was escorted into the high-rise hotel by the staff and was quickly brought to her parents who were overjoyed with their reunion. She remembered that they had originally came to that city in order to visit a sick friend while her younger sister was currently back at their home with a sitter. The trip was extremely important and not one that a baby should be on, so only rarity had accompanied her parents.
With everything that happened, Rarity and her parents finish their business in record time and headed straight back to Ponyville. As the days went by, the young Unicorn went back to a normal life but with a small twist. The girl was always fascinated with art and anything that had to do with fashion. In fact, the girl was already putting the finishing touches on something that she had been working on during her free time over the last four days.
There was the sound of hoof steps slowly approaching the girl’s door and she hurriedly put everything away and stashed the object into a brown box before stuffing it under her bed just as the door opened. The one standing there was Rarity’s mother with a bright smile on her face.
The mother called out for rarity and said, “It’s time for bed, you got school in the morning little one.” This got an immediate reply of a nod from the girl and it was good enough for the mother to leave and close the door.
Rarity didn’t allow others to know it just yet, but ever since returning home she had been practicing her levitation in secret. Normally for a Unicorn, especially for a young one, it was normal for them to be able to use a levitation spell. But when it came to Rarity’s age. It was believed that they can levitate anything from one to two objects and three being rare. But after witnessing what she did back on her trip while being saved, the girl was given a driving feeling after seeing the spectacle of witnessing one being that was controlling so many arrows while they were in midair.
In the young mare’s eyes, was a shining glint of determination. With using her hobby of making dresses as a form of practice, she had managed to get to the point where she can use four items at the same time to work with. As it turns out using one’s levitation for exact, precise acts such as sewing, was the perfect medium in training one’s ability and levitation while at the same time not turning it into full on training.
She was excited at the prospect of being able to use her great control over many small objects in her future as a fashion designer. But what she had just put under her bed, she had considered her most precious object that she had ever created.
She had quickly gotten ready for bed and jumped under the covers. Using her magic, Rarity turned off the lights and snuggled in place to go to sleep for the night. But before closing her eyes, her horn flashed once more and something was pulled out from under the bed and brought under the blankets for her to cuddle with.
The snuggling item in question was a plushy toy that was about half her size. It had arms and legs and was covered from head to toe with yellow and brown fabric. Where a face would be was a set of black and white stripes and on the forehead was a tiny purple gym affixed in place. Before nodding to sleep, Rarity whispers into it and says, “Thank you…, dear…” as rarity falls off into a dream filled night of sleeping, the light of the moon cascades through her window and onto the upper part of the plushy, the light shines off of its left eye, this exposes a very small but extremely detailed drawing of a sun that was made by using gold colored thread.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 20: Anger in the kitchen.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Baltimare* *Time: One month after stopping the kidnappers*
Brex opened his eyes after another good night’s sleep. Soon he found himself laying on his back while on a mattress inside of a small room that was part of an apartment that he had been living in for the past month. Blinking his eyes awake, he took in the sight of the room, only to find it bear of any type of decorations or nick knacks of any kind. In a sense, it was the picture of a spartan lifestyle.
After giving out a long yawn as he stretched his arms, he spoke to Rory without the mental connection and said, “Morning, well I guess it doesn’t really count considering we literally just saw each other a moment ago.” This only got a small giggle from the girl from within his head as she replied with, “Oh, I still think it counts after all. Even with their only being a short time between you leaving the dream scape and you coming back in the real world, it still feels like it’s too long in between.” This only got the Roegadyn to shake his head lightly as he gave out an amused chuckle of his own and rub the back of his head to relieve a small itch.
He then asked, “So, what did you think of our anime marathon this time?” Feeling that Rory was thinking it over carefully in her head, she waited a few seconds before replying with, they really need to put more scenes of Rory fighting in that Gate anime. I know that I’m based off of her, but wow. I got really turned on whenever she got into any battles. Oh, uh I, I mean she really knows how to swing that weapon of hers around and she’s very reliable as a character, hehe- he…”
Brex wasn’t quite that stupid, he knew very well that Rory in her head suffered from the same problem as the one did in the very show that they were just watching. In just a single day after the incident with the kidnappers, Brex had found an apartment to rent out from the old man in the building that Green Sweet lived in. That very night that he moved into it, Rory and him had a small discussion that had been waiting for the last 800 years or so.
The girl had confessed that she had been suffering from the aphrodisiac like side effects from whenever they got into a heavy fight which involved taking out multiple enemies. At the time, Brex was blushing up a storm knowing that he was responsible for getting a cute, lolita girl who was stuck in his head to be extremely aroused whenever he got into a fight. But ironically it actually got him a little aroused as well. Thankfully, Brex was able to keep that part from being sensed by Rory. He knew that she had a young form but in reality, she was actually a fully matured woman.
For the last month or so, the Roegadyn was fairly busy with a number of small projects that ranged from collecting more information about this world and the current timeline. This was also along with doing odd jobs in the Adventurers Guild to earn some extra bits.
He had even on some occasions, joined another group to complete some rank E missions that required an additional member. Thankfully those ones that were right above his rank weren’t really that difficult or all that dangerous. In a sense, they only required more man power. He had no idea that his previously completed rank F quest which was originally classified as an information gathering type, had actually turned out to be more dangerous than the E rank’s he had been doing once in a while. With it being a kidnapping ring, they had a handful of ponies in it, along with an Imp that was capable of control the minds of others and shooting deadly ice spells. One would think that would have been marked down as a difficult D rank or even up there with the C rank requests.
He had still been getting hounded by random mare’s on the streets, but it hasn’t been as bad as the first day. Honestly, without him being in such a rush to save a little girl like back on that day, he was actually feeling quite flattered that he was getting so much attention. Then he realized that it was mostly due to the fact that there were hardly any males that roamed the streets.
Brex had been keeping to himself and had made the attempt at not letting anyone no where he lived. In fact, whenever he came home or left, he would always do so by using the skill, Shadow Movement to avoid any detection. Really the only one who even knew he lived in that apartment was the old man at the front desk. Right now, the Roegadyn was wearing a plain white T-shirt in a set of blue jeans and comfortable shoes as he walked around his small apartment. The long hair that he had been living with was now currently tide up into a messy ponytail and his face was still showing signs of only moments ago, waking up as he made his way to the bathroom.
Arriving in front of the sink, the Roegadyn had to lean down far enough to be able to be in the view of the low mirror that was obviously meant for those who were not over 7 feet tall. Splashing some water onto his face with both hands, Brex rubbed away the dirt that had been accumulating during his time being asleep. Speaking of his sleep, that night was one of many where both, he and Rory were inside his dreamscape and had been watching some episodes from the anime called Gate. Which happen to be the one that Rory’s body structure was modeled after. The characters name was Rory Mercury. Almost immediately after getting the apartment and going to sleep, Brex had made good on his word and created a movie theater in one of the bedrooms in his house within his mind. The two of them would sit in a comfortable couch and watch some random show or movie that he remembered.
The only reason why Rory wanted to see the anime Gate, was due to her not having a full memory regarding the girl considering that Brex had forbid her from going through his mind all willy nilly in the past. As it turns out she was quite impatient in the time it took for her character to actually show up, but whenever Rory Mercury was on the screen, he can tell that she was completely enamored with how this girl portrayed herself.
Brex had actually caught her peeking at his lap during the first episode that her character had showed up on. She was biting her lip while her eyes traveled back and forth between Brex’s is lap and her character in the show that was sitting on the lap of a soldier, who happened to be the main character, that the story was centered around.
Going back to the bathroom. Brex was just finishing up with his daily routine of washing his face before jumping into the shower, which he then continued to give himself a good washing down. The first time he had done this was quite a shock to him when he could sense how Rory within his mind was reacting to the sight of him getting butt naked and jumping into the shower. Realizing only seconds after jumping in and beginning to give himself a good washing, did Brex realize this and quickly used all his willpower to erect a mental wall to shut off all of Rory senses to the outside world. This only got him a slightly annoyed harrumph from her when he did this and she called him a spoilsport before going quiet until he was all finished.
As mentioned before, Brex did do odd jobs which were considered rank F from the Guild. These mainly consisted of him delivering small packages or documents from place to place that required personal handling or couldn’t be delivered through normal means. There were even occasions where he had to help out with some public cleaning such as clearing out the park or helping with some minor repair work that needed the extra hand or two. Now that last bit, was easily done thanks to him maxing out all of the crafting jobs. The one that got the most use during those times, was the Carpenter class. It mostly consisted of fixing some leaky roofs or mending a few fences. He did get around to fixing this one rocking chair that was apparently going to be shipped off to somebody outside of the city.
So really, everything was pretty much mundane but he did have a few side projects he was doing now and then. Then there were all the times that he would go to the beach and stare out into the water for a good half hour before returning to the city and continuing on with his day. Brex played with his short beard while thinking out loud, “Little Light was right, that thing that was in that small canister, was really going to end up being overkill when it was finished. I’m both glad and a bit sad that it’s gonna take such a long time before I can even whip out that ace in the hole. I’m gonna have to come up with a scenario where it’ll be usable.”
Before Rex could muse on that random thought Rory spoke out to remind him, “Master, we may want to hurry up. Don’t you remember what today is?” This caused the Roegadyn to snap his eyes wide open and exclaim while quickly darting out of the bathroom, “Oh yeah, that’s right. I gotta let the old man know that I’m leaving, if I don’t then he’s going to be really mad when he finds out that room is no longer in use and not earning him any bits.”
After using his equipment menu and selecting the appropriate gear which turned out to be his yellow and brown robes, Brex changed his clothing within a second and stood there now fully dressed. Currently looking down at himself, Brex whispered, “I’ve been wearing this thing for so long, it’s going to feel weird if I have to change it again. Oh well, I wonder what class I should be when I go to the next town over.”
As it turns out this day in question was something that he had been on the watch for ever since he signed up at the Guild building. Wanting to keep a low profile as much as possible considering he had a lot of time left before Nightmare Moon returned, Brex decided that he would stay in one place and only leave when the mandatory review for leveling somebody’s rank was going to come up.
This meant that today was the day. Normally this would be kept a secret and would only be told when the one involved came into the Guild building. But the Roegadyn had made a body double of himself and had it hiding within the Guild Hall so that it would hear things coming up as they came in real time, so it was a small shock to him when he found out just last night through the body double, that when he would normally come in this day, he was going to be called in for the review.
He had made some acquaintances in the city. A few of those he gained some trust that went both ways, so he ended up telling the ones he trusted the most so far. That being, he was going to leave before he was forced to go up in rank. This was then followed by his intentions to go to another town, of course the ones he told to were very confused by this and wanted to ask why he didn’t want to go up in rank. But he wouldn’t tell them any further, after a while they just accepted it and went ahead and gave their regards ahead of time. This was just in case he would have to disappear overnight.
Even though he had an incredible amount of Gil saved up in his item storage. Brex didn’t want to use that money or it would cause a stir as to where it came from. Considering it was not of their world. A while back he had examined the two sets of currencies and found that the Gil was quite a bit larger than the bits used by the ponies. If he went by the amount of mass, then it would be assumed that one Gil had the gold content of three bits. So not only would it catch the attention of anyone who saw the coin, it would also draw even more attention if there was a sudden influx of unknown gold in the market. If he ever intended to use the Gil, there was going to need to be some creative thinking.
So, he had been forced to reduce his spending and only used what he needed of the bits he earned from doing low ranked jobs. Thankfully he didn’t really need to eat anything, so the food expense was pretty much all cut out, aside from him trying a dish or two out of curiosity. As for the apartment, he had gotten a good deal thanks to the old man at the counter. In a way, he got to keep nearly all the money he had made and had hardly any expenses at all.
So, over the course of a month, Brex had amassed a good, 960 bits. At first, he didn’t know if that was a good amount or not. But as time went on, he realized that it was quite a lot considering that he didn’t really need to eat or sleep. He had at one point over heard someone talking about their apartment rent while on the street and they said that a regular room went for 200 a month. This made it possible for him to do what seemed to be, constant work without pauses, except for the few times he actually went to sleep so he could hang out with Rory.
With a destination already in mind, the Roegadyn looks across his apartment to make sure that there was no stray item that he left behind. Even though he never really did anything with it aside from coming back to rest, it felt like it was second nature to double check. He had considered that this reflex of action was probably due to his past life, but he was still unable to pull up very much about himself. While in the city he could have sworn that he was on the edge of grasping onto some sort of ghost of a memory that had nothing to do with his time within Final Fantasy 14, but as soon as he realized that, the feeling would just vanish into thin air. It was no different than watching a person trying to trap between their fingers a cloud of smoke.
Brex had just stepped into the shadow realm by using his Shadow Movement and was making his way down the hall after exiting his door. He was living in the apartment labeled number 207, which was at the end of the hallway, which meant he had to pass room 202 to which green sweet and cherry sweet both resided within. On occasion, Brex would see the two whenever they would pass by him in the hallway or just outside of the building as they went on with their day, however they never once saw him. There were times he had the urge to want to say hi, or even to allow them to even notice his very existence. This would pop up in his head a number of times, but quickly that was pushed away. He knew that forming connections with others was not a very good idea.
This was due to a number of reasons, but the main ones that he can come up with on the top of his head at any given moment were, the fact that he was not even a member of any race on this world. Then there was the whole blessing he had gotten from the one called Daddy, which in a sense, made him immortal when it came to him aging. He already had a grasp on what the rulers of this world went through, along with the random bits of wisdom from all the TV shows, anime’s and whatnot. He had remembered they had to do with a person not being able to grow old and would be forced to watch as others died around them. This meant that he came to the conclusion that it would be much easier for him if he was to simply keep others at arm’s length and to avoid having meaningful relationships because in the long run, it would only cause him to suffer more.
Brex had arrived to the front area of the check-in counter and saw that there was no one around but the old man. Careful as to not give him a heart attack, the Roegadyn steps off to the side, near the steps and exits the shadows. Making sure to make his footsteps loud enough to hear, he approaches the counter and waves to the old coot. Ironically enough the ponies name was actually, Old Coot. Even after living on this world for over a month, Brex still couldn’t figure out the whole naming convention that these ponies lived with. He found it odd that they would somehow have a relation with their name given at birth, which would coincide with their activities later on in life. But he decided it would not be a good idea to dive into that considering it was brought up in so many other stories about the displaced. In all of them, it was not very well explained so he relented as to avoid a migraine from trying to figure it out.
Old Coot had noticed Brex coming up to the counter and gave him a wave before saying, “Well, well. What do we have here? If it isn’t my resident ghost, nice to finally see you around. For a big guy you sure are good at keeping yourself hidden. I think this makes what, the tenth time I’ve seen you? So, what’s the big occasion this time?”
Just as the stallion said, Brex didn’t really show himself that much, but when he did, it was to either ask a small question or to simply come by and say hello. Old Coot was the only one manning the front counter and Brex felt a little bad that he was mostly alone a lot. So, he wanted to give him some company once in a while, even if he didn’t say much to him. Either way, he can tell that the Old Coot, pun intended, was actually happy to have someone around. Unfortunately, this only made what Brex was going to tell him, to be much more difficult.
The Roegadyn stood in front of the counter and reached into his robes to show that he was pulling out an object. But what he was really doing was taking out the key to his room from the item box. Placing the key onto the counter and slowly sliding it over, Brex looks up to the old man and says, “My time’s up.” This got the old man to open his mouth and raise his eyebrows for but a second before he clicked this tongue. Old Coot then replied with a knowing smirk, “Well you did say you were only gonna be here for a little while. I appreciate that you’re at least letting me know now, before you up and disappear. Honestly speaking, you are a model tenant. I wish some of the others in this building followed your example, especially the ones that are really, really loud.”
This got a small laugh from the Roegadyn, before starting for the door while waving goodbye to the old timer. Brex exited the building and took in the sight before he then turned to the direction of the shore and headed that way. Along his route he looked to his left and right as he passed a number of buildings and thought of the places he had been inside during his time here. Passing by a small restaurant, Brex recalled how he went in and ordered a few dishes over the days to get a feel for the tastes of this world’s citizens. There were quite a few dishes that actually tasted good, while others only brought back memories of chef Ramsay and the Roegadyn started to imagine what it would be like if that guy showed up as a pony. He quickly shook his head of those thoughts because he would know that that guy would shut down so many restaurants for not meeting up with his high standards.
Then there was the bookstore with a kind old lady that ran it. Brex would never forget the look on that mare’s face when he asked to get a copy of every book in the store ready for him to buy. It had actually only taken him up till last week to get through every single piece of paper and that very store. At the moment he had a sizable amount of books within his item box. He had considered the thought that if he continued along this path, he might end up having more books than what was inside of the golden oak’s library.
The next place that came into view along his walk was the City Park. He had one request from the Guild that had him cleaning up this area about a week and a half ago. He was told that it would take at least three or four days to do. But without any need to eat or sleep, Brex was able to do it in under a single day. He had to hold in his laughter when he realized the next morning that there was a group of ponies coming to pick up whatever he had already gathered and placed in the garbage bags. They had no idea that he had already done all of it at once, so they were giving him some angry looks. That was because they had to do so much work in one go. Apparently, they had expected to be there for no more than an hour or two, not the next six while loading up their wagons and making multiple trips to the dump. He didn’t find out until later that the group that had arrived was told that a male had accepted the job. He had guessed that they assumed very little was going to get done.
It was nearly eight in the morning by the time Brex had made it to the boardwalk. From there, he looked towards the north where the carnival had been set up to see it was now completely empty. That was when Brex asked Rory through the mental connection, “I do hope that she didn’t get scarred by this incident in some way.” Rory then asked, “Are you talking about that one called Rarity? From what you’ve told me about her and that show of yours, she can be fairly tough. I doubt very much that that incident affected her too much.”
Brex only gave a subtle nod of agreement before coming closer to the shoreline. He stood there for a good 10 minutes as he was gazing out into the sea. That was until he heard a familiar voice coming from behind. Turning around, he found a small mare that had all sorts of aqua colors going on with her hair and mane. As it turns out, Brex has seen this one on a number of occasions when going into the Adventurers Guild.
With a small wave, he said, “Hello… Vapor Trail.” This got a toothy smile from the girl as she walks closer and stood next to him on the right side and looked out to the ocean just as he was doing only a moment ago. She then looked up to him and asked, “Mister Gambit, I always see you out here almost every day while I’m coming and going from school. Do you mind if I ask why you’re always doing that?” When she had gotten near to the end of her question, Vapor Trail was tilting her head as if a puppy would, when not understanding something.
Giving a small smile from under his mask, the Roegadyn replied while turning back to the ocean, “Thinking about future…” This got Vapor Trail to turn back up to him after looking towards the ocean to see what exactly he was talking about before she asked, “I don’t quite understand, what about the ocean has anything to do with the future?” That was when Brex reached down and began to ruffle her head with his hand, very gently before saying, “That’s a secret.” This earned the Roegadyn a set of puffed-up cheeks from the small mare as she playfully bats his hand away. But Brex could fully see a blush forming on her cheeks just as easily as one can spot the broadside of a barn.
Immediately after doing that, Brex blinked and realized that he was starting to form a connection with this small child and was on the edge of mentally berating himself for this fumble. He wasn’t quite sure just how much this girl was used to him being around after only a month, but Brex feared that this might have a negative impact on her in some small way. At the moment there was less than a handful of individuals that knew he was about to leave, but Vapor Trail was not one of them and he started to consider telling her right now.
Turning to Rory for advice, Brex remained quiet on the outside, but then at the same time, he asked Rory with the mental connection, “Hey Rory, do you think I should tell her or should I just up and disappear?” There was a short pause before Rory spoke in a tender tone, “It might be best to at least tell her that you’re leaving. As for her mom and the other adults, they could get over it and understand eventually, but she might not take it so well. If you’re really gonna take my advice, then I think you really should tell her before it’s too late.”
Taking a few seconds to mull over his options, Brex decided to say something to the little one that was standing beside him. Now sitting down completely with his legs crossed in front of him, the Roegadyn was only slightly taller than Vapor Trail as he spoke while not looking in her direction. “I’m leaving today.” This got an immediate reply as Vapor Trail turned towards him with wide eyes and she quickly asked, “What do you mean you’re leaving today? Aren’t you at least gonna go by the Guild? Did something happen?”
This only got a subtle head shake from him as he continued to explain, “Others need me.” There was a long stretch of silence from both of them before Vapor Trail spoke up again. He had expected her to be crying or angry about him suddenly leaving, but what happened next surprised him. She only gave him a smile after walking in front, before giving him a big hug around the neck as she spoke quietly, “I guess there’s other philly’s out there that need your help, just like before huh? But will you at least be visiting now and then?” He wasn’t sure just what to think. Soon the words she said caused him to wonder within his mind, “Did Twirly Whirly or someone else tell her about the abductions? Isn’t she too young to be told about such stuff?”
Not sure as to how to return this form of goodbye, Brex uses his left hand and gently pats her on the back as he replies with, “I sure will…” Vaper Trail then let’s go and gives him a gentle smile as she held out a hand and extended her pinky finger. Immediately recognizing the gesture, Brex then extends his own hand and locks both of their pinky fingers together and gives it a light shake as they both said in unison, “It’s a promise.”
After that, they departed ways as he saw Vapor Trail taking to the skies with a strong flap of her wings and heading in the direction, he knew to be the Guild Hall. He hadn’t really expected to run into the little girl out here that day, but with it being the weekend and all, it wasn’t too surprising. Turning his attention back towards the sea, he muttered under his breath while having a smirk under his mask, “Well, I’m waiting.” After saying those words, Brex turned and started heading north towards one of the city's exits. After a month of staying in Baltimare, The Roegadyn leaves through the gate after showing his identifications and makes for his next destination.
When he had gotten a good distance from the city, he summoned back his motorbike from before and climbed on board. Thinking on the map he had seen of Equestria, he figured that he would make his way towards Mane Hattan. but along the way he would have to pass through Filly Delphia. So, with the destination in mind, Brex turned his bike northwards and followed the coastline for a few days until he had come across the next city.
When Brex had reached Filly Delphia. He could see that it was pretty much the same setup as Baltimare with how the city was surrounded by a two-story high wall that went all the way around. Yet again after seeing this he contemplated just what was the reason for Ponyville to not have such a wall surrounding itself. Seeing as he was nearing one of the gates, Brex pushed those annoying thoughts aside and got in line, this was of course after he had long ditched his ride before even coming close to the city.
He had already switched his class over from the Bard and was currently equipping the Monk Soul Stone. This one relied on the player to use both punches and kicks to fight and only used weapons like knuckles and clawed weapons. In Brex’s case however, he used a glamour prism on his current weapon and made it disappear. So, it would seem as if he was fighting with his bare fists while others watching when he needed to get serious.
( This is the Monk Soul Stone. )
There were at least a dozen ponies in front of him in the line for entering Filly Delphia. While still outside of the defensive perimeter, he was capable of seeing many tall buildings that jetted up into the air from his outsider’s point of view. From what he had been able to read, Filly Delphia was one of the largest cities and was apparently a mixing pot of different cultures from both this continent and the other that was across the ocean.
That fact was evident with him seeing not just ponies, but there was a Griffin or two in the line. There was also his first sighting of a minotaur. What surprised Brex the most, was the fact that this one was not even taller than he was. He had figured that they were at least a few heads taller than him by some of the descriptions, but just like he had figured before, what was written on other races was apparently in short supply and their credibility was sketchy at best. The ponies of this world don’t really put too much effort into learning about other races.
Now back to the one in front of him, Brex could see that this one was maybe a foot or so shorter than he was, but he did have some pretty large horns. The guy’s hair which covered most of his body was a very dark shade of blue. The hair on top of his head, was somewhat slicked back into a short ponytail. After taking this all in, he could have sworn that this guy might have been related to that one minotaur that visited Ponyville later on in the show that tried to give Fluttershy that motivational program to get the mare to be more assertive, but ended up making the girl out to be some jerk. But for the life of him, the name of that minotaur just kept escaping his grasp. So instead of racking his brain even further, the Roegadyn simply looked at the guy’s status bar and saw the name Steel Will. Immediately, Brex snapped his mental fingers and internally exclaimed, “Hey, hold on. Is it possible that this is Iron Will’s dad or something?”
Without standing out too much, he cautiously watched the on goers in front, until he was finally the next to last through the gate. Now the one that was directly in front of him was in fact the minotaur and he was giving a very opinionated response to some random question that was asked by the guard mare that was behind the desk. He didn’t wanna get involved but he sensed a lot of anger coming off of this individual, that was at the moment threatening her with his fists that were currently slamming themselves onto the counter with such force that it made it all creek from the impact.
Not wanting things to escalate any further than they had already had gone. Brex stepped forward and asked in his normal tone, “What’s going on?” However, this appeared to be the wrong thing to do considering the minotaur quickly spun around on the spot and swung the back side of his left arm towards Brex while yelling out in a loud, annoyed tone, “It’s none of your business, go back home and drink your mom’s milk!”
As the minotaur finished speaking those words, his annoyed expression turned to shock when he realized that his arm did not strike its intended target, but was instead caught with one hand with little effort. From under his mask, the Roegadyn gave the minotaur a very unamused look. You know the one with the half-closed eyes that just spoke volumes with just how much one cared at this moment and what they were looking at.
It seemed that the minotaur had somehow sensed this and grew even more angrier as it wrenched its arm free. Well… at least it attempted to do so. The veins were bulging on its arm as it tried to pull away but found that it was locked in place by the strong dexterous appendages attached to the one holding him. Brex could sense that he was about to use his other arm to make an attack but decided to forego that whole song and dance and skipped right ahead to the end result.
The minotaur found his arm being twisted behind his back as he was pulled forward and was forced to get on his knees, while Brex held onto him with just one arm and pulled the wrist up towards the back of his head. This elicited a pained grunt as the minotaur screamed out in pain. After which, the Roegadyn loosened his grip just enough that it was merely holding him in place.
After waiting a few seconds, he asked the minotaur the same question as before, “What’s going on?” This got another annoyed grunt from the one on the ground before he can feel the minotaur beginning to relax and lower its head. With a reluctant sigh, Steel Will finally started to speak in a normal tone of voice without the same high level of volume from before. “It’s nothing, she was just taking too long for my taste. Do you mind letting me go now, I’m sorry about that. I tend to lose my temper pretty easily.”
Hearing this, he quickly releases his grip and watches as the minotaur gets back to his feet and turns back towards the mare who was still behind the counter and lightly lowers his head as he begins to apologize for his behavior. Soon after, the business between the two of them was concluded. Brex watched as the minotaur continued into the city while he walked up to the counter and began the process of entering the city himself.
Before the procedures began, the mare gratefully thanked Brex for what he had done. He gave his name and showed his Guild identification card and this made the process much quicker than it was back at Baltimare and he was inside in a matter of minutes.
He had taken at least a dozen steps inside and coming to a stop before looking around. He could see that this city was far more advanced in its structure and diversity compared to the last. Where there were buildings that range between two and four stories tall and very few that range up to 12 back in the last place. Filly Delphia had much more buildings in the double digits in both terms of height and size.
Not being in too much of a hurry, he decided to go sightseeing for today and went deeper into the city to see what was in this place. Knowing full well that eventually, the Adventurers Guild would come up during his exploration, Brex took his time as he familiarized himself with most of the stores and stalls.
Trying to recall anything about the city from within the TV show. The Roegadyn only came up empty. He could have sworn that he had heard the name at some point when he watched the show, but after giving it some thought, he realized that it was never shown. Well… not that he could remember. Just as he was about to give up, something managed to pop into his mind. It was during the episode with the Parasprites showing up in ponyville. At the end, Princess Celestia had to call off the visit because a swarm of Parasprites had made their way over to Filly Delphia and was causing a lot of trouble for her ponies.
Just thinking of that one episode reminded him of how Twilight would go completely bonkers about everything when it came to making sure that the visit would be perfect for her teacher, slash second mother figure. That episode would eventually evolve to the point that she would lose her common sense and wouldn’t listen to anyone that would try to give her any advice. Even though Pinkie Pie knew exactly what to do, nobody paid her any attention until the end.
Brex wondered if Pinkie Pie was actually a secret genius and everyone was unable to even perceive her advanced way of thinking and only saw it as being completely random and nonsensical. After a short pause in his mind, the Roegadyn had made another crucial decision which was, keep a close eye on Pinkie Pie…
Nearly several hours had passed by now and Brex was able to pretty much, map out every single street in the city. He was extremely grateful that he didn’t have to take a rest because if he had, this entire process would have taken any other person, maybe a week considering how much up and down running there would have been involved if he had to stop all the time.
He had been walking his way from the outskirts and going around. He was making his way towards the center, in a closing spiral of the city. At this point he had finally come across the Adventurers Guild.
From the outside Brex could see that this one was far bigger with it being five stories tall. The front, he noticed that it was maybe large enough to have six rooms on the bottom level alone to which he was in front of. So, he had no idea how far back it went, for all he knew this place was maybe the headquarters of all the other guilds. The front had the exact same hanging sign as the last. The front entrance was made of a set of windowed double doors with tinted glass to ensure that the sunlight was filtered before it came in. While still standing outside, he can vaguely see shapes and lights from beyond the glass itself, from this he knew that it was quite busy inside, that along with the amount of noise emanating from the building.
Right as he was about to open the doors, his instincts kicked in thanks to the situational awareness and Brex skillfully dodged to the right side of the entrance, just as the door swung open as something big, hairy and blue was thrown out and onto the street with a heavy thud. Blinking from under his mask, Brex looked over and saw that it was Steel Will, the same minotaur from before. Laying on his back and giving out a few meager hiccups. He held up a finger and pointed vaguely towards the entrance and started to yell in a very slurred tone of voice, “You’re just… *HICUP*… just mad that I, beat you at arm wrestling.” Immediately after, a small wooden keg that Brex assumed was used to hold some type of liquid was thrown out and made a loud crashing sound as it hit the minotaur’s horns, which then dumped a good amount of water over his face.
Brex thought this was immediately going to escalate, but what the minotaur said next threw him for a loop. He started speaking in a smashed, happy tone, Steel Will called out, “Thanks for that lass… *HICUP* I’ll see you all tomorrow!” now visibly tilting his head, Brex wondered if this was normal, but immediately went with, trying to make sense of this was on the same level of attempting to figure out Pinkie Pie herself. This of course sent shivers up his spine at the very notion of trying to unravel the mystery that is, that pony.
Steel Will, slowly got up and dusted himself off and then began to hobble down the street while singing some type of Irish drunken song from what Brex could tell. With the way he seemed so drunk, the words were completely unrecognizable. Even after the minotaur had long since disappeared from sight. Brex couldn’t bring himself to look away from where he had last seen the guy stumbling along. This had lasted a good solid minute before he realized that he was just standing there like some kind of idiot.
When this thought came to light, he finally turned around and began to enter the building by opening the set of double doors with great care. Even though a large man who probably weighed close to 400 pounds, had just been thrown through them, Brex didn’t quite want to take the chance of them spontaneously shattering at the next slightest touch. Knowing his luck, that may very well happen.
Approaching the counter, Brex asks the mare behind it, who was lightly brown colored, along with a blonde mane, looked up at him and asked, “So what’s the request? We are pretty much all backed up right now. So, if you need someone to help pick up groceries, you’re gonna have to wait.”
Hearing this, Brex was visibly miffed that instead of asking whether or not he was there to work, this one had assumed that he was just going in to get some help. Unlike Twirly Whirly, this mare just assumed that he was some random, weak male. But what really got under his skin, was what she had said about him needing help with something as mundane and trivial as carrying groceries. Immediately the Roegadyn decided that he didn’t like this mare very much.
Not wanting to say too much to this receptionist, if any at all. The Roegadyn placed his card on the counter so it was in plain view and simply said, “Here to work.” Just as he expected, the mare looked up at him with an incredulous and skeptical look, but unlike Twirly Whirly, this one was just oozing the urge to want to have a snappy comeback about why he’s a male and how he shouldn’t be doing this type of job. After a second, the mare stopped herself just as she had opened her mouth and looked down at the identification card and gave Brex a not so convincing smile, which registered a, one out of ten, on the seeming believable scale.
Rory spoke up from inside of Brex’s is mind and stated, “I don’t quite care for this little miss…thing. Honestly, I have an urge to be the one, who gets to cut her up into pieces with my weapon. So, it’s a good thing that I’m inside your head.” This got Brex to reply with, “I’m sure you don’t mean that. Besides seeing what happened before with that Steel Will guy, I’m guessing that she had a bad day or something along those lines.”
Immediately Rory replied with, “Master please… you don’t understand. She is clearly making fun of you and I can’t stand for that. I’m telling you, if I had a real body out there, I would be Bitch Slapping this mare until she landed all the way in the White Tailed Woods.” This surprised Brex for two reasons, one of which was the severity of how Rory would react if she really did have a real body when these mare’s would try to do something to him. Then there was the fact that she already had a grasp on this continent’s layout but quickly remembered that one of Rory Mercury’s abilities had something to do with having a very high intelligence.
During this little discussion, the one at the counter who was the mare in question that Rory had made promises to do bodily harm too if she was in the real world, was currently pulling out a set of papers and jotting down Brex’s name onto the duty roster. But after a few seconds, he noticed that she was holding onto his identification card while giving it a very confused look. He was a little confused himself as well. Then he immediately remembered the extra information on there that was only available for those who worked in the office. Of course, the ones behind the counter would notice it was saying a bunch of stuff to be classified and judging by Twirly Whirly’s reaction at the other branch, this was something very unusual.
The mare was about to say something when another came out from the backroom from a door marked personnel only. This one also had light brown hair, but her mane had this amber red color to it. This one asked what was going on and the first receptionist began whispering into her ear. This lasted a good minute before the new one looked up to Brex and gave him a cheerful smile that was clearly not an act, that registered an 11 out of 10 and said, “Well welcome to the Guild, mind telling us where you came from last, seeing as how you got a Guild card and all.” Not seeing a problem with it, Brex replied with, “Baltimare.”
Now that was when the second one had a look of realization and then clap her hands together in excitement and set out loud for nearly everyone to hear, “Oh, then you must know Twirly Whirly. How is she doing, I haven’t seen her in like, two months?!” One could feel the excitement coming off of this one and Brex didn’t quite know how to reply, considering he didn’t try to get to know the mare in question all that well. Giving it a second thought he simply replied with, “She’s doing well.” This earned him another cheery smile from the girl. Quickly stealing a glance between the two in front of him, Brex couldn’t help but to see these two as two sides of a coin with their attitudes.
That was when she then said, “Oh where are my manners, I forgot to tell you my name. I go by High Road. This one over here with the great customer service is my younger sister, Low Road.” After hearing this the Roegadyn couldn’t help but see, the effects of being named from birth, has on these ponies. High Road was apparently a very happy go lucky and energetic mare, while her sister Low Road was the complete opposite.
High Road then grabbed Brex’s attention by taking the identification card from her sister and began looking it over and then quickly asked him in a very, hush hush tone, “Pissstt! Hey I don’t think you know it, but I think there’s something wrong with your card. There’s a whole bunch of stuff here I’ve never seen before. *GASP!* Oh, Oh wait are you a spy? What do you do? Do you look up secrets or do you blow stuff up? No wait, I bet you go around and say something like. “Shaken, not stirred!”
On the outside he was calm and collected, but at the same time within his mind, Brex was having another internal panic attack as he said to himself in a frightened tone, “Oh, by the 12 it’s another Pinky!” It was a good thing that he was wearing a mask in the first place, because then the two of them would have seen his completely blanched expression and eyes filled with horror.
Out of reflex that not even Brex could explain to himself at a later date. He asked the following question, “Relation… Pie family?” This elicited an overly dramatic intake of air through the mare’s mouth as she gasps and then went in to grab the sides of his head while getting dangerously close to his face as she then says the following, in a clearly sugar rush induced speed of talking, “Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, do you know my cousins?” after hearing those words the Roegadyn’s mine came to a screeching halt, it took him a good solid five seconds to reboot. But during those five seconds, Brex was now seeing an overlaid image of Pinkie Pie over this mare. This only caused his eyes to go comically wide from underneath his mask and a beat of sweat was running down the side of his head.
When his mind had finally fully rebooted, he couldn’t help but scream in his head, “I’M NOT READY FOR THISSSS!!!!!!!” but during this internal crisis the two in front of him were completely unaware as they patiently waited for a reply from the Roegadyn. Quickly calming himself down so that he can speak properly. Brex answers with, “Heard of them.” High Road then quickly returned to her spot as if nothing happened and she started speaking again, “Ooh, I can’t wait to see them. We’re supposed to have a family reunion next month. Ah that’s right, Low Road, do you want to go or do you still want to stay here?” This got a small grunt of annoyance from the younger sister as she replied with, “We both can’t go at the same time remember? There needs to be one of us here to at least run this place, otherwise that Steel Will fella’s gonna end up busting up the tables again. You know how it is, whenever he gets at the drink.”
This brought back the memories of seeing the minotaur getting thrown out of the building. Brex wondered just who was it that was capable of doing such a feat. That’s when he turned back to Low Road and pondered the idea that this earth mare, who was apparently related to the Pie family, was fully capable of doing such a feat. From what the show showed, Pinkie Pie had enough strength to rival that of applejack at times, considering she spent most of her life moving rocks.
High Road then turned back towards Brex and asked, “So, I take it you only just got in town since I haven’t seen you around these parts before. I hope you already got a place to stay, otherwise you’re going to have a hard time getting one right now. I heard from a bunch of guild members that there isn’t a lot of places to stay right now sense the festival will be starting within a few weeks.”
Giving a small tilt of the head, Brex reply by saying, “Just got here.” After a moment he then added, “What festival?” This time it was Low Road that answered while leaning her head on her arm as she leans onto the counter with an uninterested in tone, “Oh it’s just something where a bunch of bakers get together. I don’t know, honestly, I’m not all that interested in it, but it seems everyone else is. Around this time of year, the place gets packed and almost every hotel that has rooms for rent, or by any of the other people in the city are booked solid.”
High Road then jumped in and asked, “So you didn’t answer the question, do you got a place to stay? If not, then we got a couple of spare rooms for anyone who doesn’t have any where to stay. We keep them on hand for whenever any members come in, unexpectedly.”
It had taken Brex some considerable brainpower to process the lightning fast talking of what could have been the earlier version of Pinkie Pie. It had taken him a moment to catch up to the conversation and he said, “One room please.” This got a quick nod from the cheerful sister and she ducked underneath the counter. When she had disappeared, Brex, from behind his mask, was currently having his eyes dart around in hopes of catching the mare before she snuck up on him. Thinking she was gonna do the same thing Pinkie Pie always did. But instead, the mare just popped back up where she once was and handed him a key. Sighing mentally, Brex retrieves the key and is led to a room on the third floor.
When arriving at the door, High Road informs him that he’s going to need to go and find himself food because they’re not really a hotel, so there’s no complimentary breakfast. From what Brex understood, he could have sworn that he had not come across any literature regarding that practice and just accepted it, knowing who she’s related to.
After saying goodbye to the mare. He enters the room and locks the door behind him and begins checking his temporary living quarters. After going through it with a fine comb, Brex concluded that there was no type of surveillance equipment or any other means of spying on him. That’s when he dropped his disguise by switching over to his relaxing set of clothing by using the equipment menu function. The room was comprised of one main area with a medium sized bed and a door on the far side that led to a small bathroom with a stand-up shower inside, there was also the standard toilet and sink. However, it was quite the snug fit and he cursed himself for picking such a large race during these times.
Brex then decided to head straight to the bed and head off to the dreamscape to meet Rory. Right as he had laid down and closed his eyes, the Roegadyn was already in the middle of his dream house and Rory was currently sitting on the couch in the waiting area of the main room. Upon seeing her Master, the young woman quickly rushed up and gave him a gentle hug and dug her face into his stomach and began humming and content.
During the past month staying in Baltimare, the two had gotten quite a bit closer. In the beginning, Brex could say that she was rather reserved, but now she was more open with him and quite a bit more affectionate at times. During his busy schedule back in the previous city, Brex had rarely gone to bed, instead he focused nearly 24 hours of the day and nearly seven days a week on some project or another. Whether it be for personal reasons or Guild related assignments, the Roegadyn was constantly busy. There were even a few whispers he had picked up here and there from those around him. It seemed that some ponies were now wondering if he had ever slept or was on some type of drug that would be the cause for his constant work ethic.
Well apparently, not one person in this world realizing it, but the Roegadyn didn’t require sleep to recover, unlike any other living life form. Neither was the need for food, for which he found out quickly after arriving in Equestria. But during the rare occasion that he would end up going to sleep, Brex would spend pretty much every moment of it by doing something with Rory. After rescuing the children, Brex quickly went on to creating a theater system in one of the rooms so that the two of them can be comfortable while watching some movies and anime’s that he could remember from his old world.
Brex was sure that they were about to do the same thing tonight, but thought otherwise when he looked down and saw a worried expression on Rory’s face. She took a small step back while still clinging onto his clothing with her slender arms. While slightly looking down, she said, “Master… I think there’s something you need to see…”
Feeling a little more than confused, the Roegadyn quietly nodded and was pulled gently along towards one of the unused rooms of the mentally fabricated house. Brex took a quick look at everything he could from his vantage point upon arriving in the middle of the room, but found nothing amiss. The room itself was essentially empty except for a few tapestries hung on the walls that had something to do with a red banner and a silhouette of a ship. But he quickly noticed that Rory was standing next to one of them and was gingerly holding onto the edge of the fabric.
The woman then let out a small sigh as she pulled it. This revealed along the wall, a hairline crack that was chipping away some paint that was about half her height that had started from the floor and was now going up the wall. While glancing at it, Rory then said, “This is what I need to talk to you about. I only just noticed it today after doing a quick overview and check up on your mental state. From what I can tell, this is a type of strain on your psyche. In other words, Master… I think you need to rest tonight. And what I mean is actually rest, as in, fully sleep.”
She then let’s go of the tapestry and slowly walks up to Brex and bows her head while holding her hands together and twiddling her thumbs. She then says in a little, sorrowful tone, “I’m happy in all that you're willing to spend your free time with me every night when you can, but I’m afraid that if you don’t take an actual night of sleep now and then and continue doing something in your dreamscape, there is a chance that this might become a problem. Your mind is always working when you’re with me. Whenever we’re using the entertainment area of your mind to pass the time until you wake up, that too also puts a drain. Please don’t get me wrong master, I’m grateful you’re willing to go through all of this for me, but I don’t want you hurting yourself for my sake. I’m perfectly happy knowing that you’re fine. So please take tonight off and go to sleep in your own dream and recover.”
Brex was honestly surprised at this notion that Rory believed that she was the problem and felt a little bad about it. He drops to one knee and gives Rory a hug while whispering into her ear, “Don’t ever think that you are a problem or that me spending time with you is something bad. You’re the only one in this world that I’m able to actually talk with and entrust everything about me. All the stuff we did so far, it’s something that I wanted to do. To be honest, I had no idea this was even happening to me. It makes me happy that you’re willing to look out for my health to this degree. I’ll take your advice and go into a deep sleep tonight.”
He hadn’t noticed it, but when he had given Rory a hug and whispered into her ear, the entire time he was talking the Lolita woman was blushing up a storm. Her eyes were becoming hazy as she stared straight ahead without blinking as if she was in a trance. When Brex had finally let go of her and stood up and started making his way towards the door, the woman was still staring straight ahead stiff as a statue as her face turned a dark red and small wisps of steam were coming from her head. When her Master had left the room and was clearly out of sight and heading up to his own room, Rory collapsed onto her knees and began to hyperventilate as she was holding her chest while muttering under her breath, “Oh Master… you have no idea just how turned on that made me feel. why did you have to whisper into my ear like that… just how am I going to get to sleep tonight?...”
Back with the Roegadyn, he had finally made it to his bedroom and had climbed into his massive ten-person bed that Rory insisted that they must have. He had actually taken a liking to it considering his massive size compared to a normal pony in that world. He was always in quite a tight fit in most situations when it came to entering structures. It didn’t take much time at all to slip into a deeper sleep after he had closed his eyes.
Without him even knowing, Rory had come into the room several minutes later. She went behind a dividing wall and came out and was now wearing a night time kimono and climbed into the bed and was straddling his side in an attempt to use him like an oversized stuffed bear. After a few moments of this, the girl turned her eyes in a random direction and muttered under her breath, “Go away, nothing to see here…” Before closing her eyes for the night.
( Can stop the music here. )
When Brex had awoken the next day, he was still in his dreamscape and next to him on the large bed was Rory cuddling up against his form. He had found her in such a situation a few times before, so he wasn’t all that surprised and began running his hand over her head and this elicited a set of content sighs from the girl.
He began thinking to himself while making sure that she couldn’t hear these thoughts. “If you only knew how much I had to hold myself back to… I wonder what it would be like if you were actually out in the real world with me? I think you’re pretty much the only reason I’m able to prevent myself from going insane. Keeping myself at a distance from all the rest of the people of this world and not talking all that much would put a strain on anyone. with you here, at least I know I’m not alone.” While still patting her head the Roegadyn carefully uses one of his fingers to brush a strand of hair away from her face and continues with, “Someday, I’ll find a way to bring you out.” He then stays there relishing in this comfortable feeling next to Rory for a few more minutes before fully awakening by exiting the front door of his dream house.
Back in the real world the Roegadyn sits up from his bed and gives his body a good stretch. After taking a few minutes to continue stretching all the muscles in his body, he begins going through his mental checklist for what is plans today are going to be. The first thing that came up was finding out what this festival was about, then moving on to checking out this city to see what he could get from it before moving on.
Making his way down stairs he could hear a small ruckus from where he believed to be the bottom floor where the reception desk was and found a familiar minotaur sitting on a large bar stool that was apparently pulled away from one of the other tables and was now right in front of the reception desk. In his hand, was an empty glass mug and on his face was a slightly slurred and irritated scowl as he looked straight at the pony that Brex had met just yesterday. This pony was the one named, Low Road. She however was giving him the same type of look that Brex himself had received the day prior.
Low Road then said to Steel Will, “I told you already, you’re cut off until I say so. You haven’t had a legitimate job in almost a month and all you do is come in here and drink yourself into the floor or until I toss you out.” Hearing this, Brex understood that his assumption on this earth mare was correct, so even with him being really strong and able to take a good hit, he wasn’t interested in being on the receiving end of her when she’s in a bad mood. So, he made an inward promise to avoid such an act.
Brex stood there off to the side and waited until the two were done with their little conversation to get to the bottom of what exactly was going on, seeing as he had nothing really to do at the moment.
Steel Will appeared to be having a hard time speaking clearly at the moment, but Brex was able to piece things together after the conversation was drawn out for nearly 20 minutes. It seemed like Steel Will was a part of the Adventurers Guild, but was meant to be only part time to get some extra cash, but was mainly into doing odd jobs. Unfortunately, due to his temper problem he was fired from many of them and now he has a reputation for not being given a chance anymore after losing 50 jobs. Now for the past month, he's just been drowning himself in booze and complaining all the time while trying to earn some bits by winning arm-wrestling contests. Regrettably, there aren’t many that are strong as himself, so he barely ever gets them at all.
Brex had wondered why this guy only works part time for the Guild and isn’t going out there and slaying monsters. But there was a part of the conversation that he picked up that had something like, the minotaur doesn’t want to go out and kill things or hurt others. But he can’t help it when he loses his temper and he ends up regretting it every single time.
At some point Steel Will ends up passing out on the counter and he got to witness Low Road picking him up by the scruff of his hair and drags him over to the corner and lays him down. She then leaves, only to return with a large blanket and puts it on top of the sleeping bull.
Brex then, thought it within his mind, “Well will you look at that, so she does have a heart.” Rory quickly replies in a regular cheery tone after giving a few yawns, “Morning Master. Oh yes, this is what you might call tough love or what do you call it in your other world language? I beleave you call it a, Tsundere.”
Understanding quickly what she meant by that, he then begins to think to himself while making sure that Rory couldn’t hear him, “Ah that’s right, at least it’s that type and not that other one. You know the one where the person is in love with you, but they’re all crazy and will kill others that get in their way or… insult the one that they are in… love… with…” Just as those words were escaping his mind, the Roegadyn’s eyes went wide behind his mask as he realized that was in a way, referring to Rory herself to the letter. He had thought about it as a joke to say to her, but was grateful that he tried thinking through it first.
Now going back to reality Brex wanted to check something out and use his examination skills on Steel Will. Immediately, he saw that Steel Will’s information was not exactly what he had expected. With a raised eyebrow, Brex mulled over the minotaur’s information with Rory who was also a little confuse over what was being seen as well.
Name: Steel Will.
Level: 20.
Race: Minotaur.
Class: Chef.
Weapon specialty: Frying pan, Fists.
Now after seeing this guy who mostly only showed signs of aggression and can obviously take a punch or two from a freight train and get up standing to walk away home was not something either Brex or Rory could have seen as a chef at any time at all. From what he could understand, the minotaur’s were widely known across all of the multiverse to be into building structures or working with metal. He had only heard of one story where a minotaur was a Baker, but then he started to rethink that stereotype considering that they had a whole civilization. Which meant they had to have other minotaur’s doing other types of jobs in the first place, so after considering this thought, the idea of a Baker minotaur wasn’t so far-fetched.
The Roegadyn just stood there for a little while. He was looking over to the corner and began to wonder to himself, “Say Rory. I think I found my next project.” This earned him a clearly confused, “Huh?” from Rory. He then continued, “This guy is a baker and right now, he’s currently having a hard time. I got nothing else left to do right now anyhow and now my curiosity is piqued when it comes to this baking contest coming up. I’m also curious as to what type of foods a minotaur can cook up.
He could feel Rory giving a sigh of resignation as she says, “Oh Master. I take it this has something to do with this long-term plan of yours?” This got him to reply with, “Hey, if you really think about it, everything anyone does is part of a master plan in their life. I just happen to know things about the future and I’m getting ready for that. Besides, once that one project is finished, I could use all the extra hands I can get.”
It had taken some time but Steel Will had finally came back to the waking world, but at that moment the minotaur found Brex sitting right next to him while leaning back against the wall. He then said to the still groggy minotaur, “Want to learn?” At that moment the Roegadyn reached inside of his robes and pulled out from his item box a frying pan that had an image of a creature in printed onto its surface that resembled something that came from the game which was made up of flames, known as a Bomb. This elicited and overly exaggerated raised eyebrow and a slacked jaw from a still recovering Steel Will, but soon it turns into a challenging one as he replied with, “Let’s see what you got. I doubt a milk drinker like you can put up a good fight.” After saying those words, he gets to his feet and calls out to High Road, who is currently manning the counter. “Hey! The two of us are gonna be needing to steal your kitchen for a wee bit!”
( This is the Fryingpan. )
Shortly after those words were yelled out by the minotaur, the two of them found themselves inside of a large kitchen that could have easily been able to serve up to 100 customers. Brex couldn’t stop himself from comparing this scene to something that he had seen in another anime that involved a pirate crew with a chef.
The kitchen itself was fairly well stocked and had clearly seen some use. This was obvious thanks to the kitchen pantry door being wide open and all the ingredients were on display. Then there were all the kitchen utensils that were currently set up on either racks or hanging by hooks. If one was to look closely at the counter top, they could see a number of nicks, cuts and gouges from blades cutting up the wooden boards and such from years of use.
Steel Will was currently standing behind the counter and facing Brex while giving him a dirty sneer. He then called out to the Roegadyn and then, in an obnoxious, over the top tone that just oozed his contempt at being challenged to some cook off by some upstart. “Me specialty is baked goods. You think he could top me? I ain’t letting some milk drinker show me up. Don’t go looking down on me just because you saw me in that sorry state earlier! Let’s do one dish apiece. We’ll let the one at the counter decide who’s better. Nothing will be at stake aside from our pride, that’s all that really matters.”
Knowing full well that the minotaur race was all about honor, Brex nodded to the challenge and gestured towards the counter itself, then towards Steel Will to indicate that he should start first. Steel Will then let out a grunt of annoyance while furrowing his brows and exclaimed, “Don’t go thinking I’d be going easy on ya!”
That was when the cook off started. Brex just stood by the side to see what the old bull would do. During the baking process, he could see that Steel Will was having an awkward time as he tried to carefully measure out his ingredients and working with his tools. One can feel the anger in the air becoming more palatable with each passing second. It would appear that he was attempting to bake a small cake, but was getting more and more frustrated whenever he would either spill some of the batter or when he would try to pour it into the mixing bowl. Then there was the moment when he tries to handle the hand mixer only to have bits of cake splatter onto both the counter and himself.
After what should have taken a good 10 or 15 minutes to prepare the batter and pour it into its proper receptacle to put into the oven, had actually taken a good 45 minutes with the problem being, that there was no more batter left to use after a couple of failed attempts of being gentle, then there was Steel Will becoming frustrated and inadvertently, breaking the mixing bowl and spilling the contents all over the counter. All the while spouting nonsensical words and what he assumed was originally the minotaur’s native tongue.
Unfortunately for Brex, he found himself flinching whenever his chat box on the bottom left side of his vision would automatically translate the words into English. He had found out that while in Boltimare, there was a mixture of different languages being spoken out loud.
He had checked his options for the chat functions and located the translation matrix. In the game it was originally put in place for players to do some small communication through the chat box with others from someplace like Japan. There would only be a few key phrases put together that could be sent back and forth. One could tell that these were used in the translation system when one found a red or green arrow at the beginning and end of the sentence, but for Brex it would appear it was fully capable of translating everything. He had even found out that it would translate for him through actual voice to others to hear when he had tried it out with other races that use a different language. There was even a new function where he can hear them speaking the new language in English, but with a small underlying layer of the original language being spoken as background noise.
Just as Steel Will was getting through with his newest set of bovine related curse words, he had just placed his finished pie mix into the oven and was now slamming the door shut to wait for it to be finished. Brex, on the other hand from behind his mask had his mouth hanging wide open thinking to himself, “I wonder if he ever kissed his mother with that mouth. What he just said I bet could have turned a few eyes from a sailors ship with how crude his language was.” After a moment Rory replied to this by saying, “I had no idea one could be so colorful with using cow and bull related terms in such a way.” Brex then finish this by saying, “I may never look at a steak the same way again.”
Steel Will then turned to him and gesture to the counter before saying, “Well you’re up now. Don’t go and disappoint me!” without saying or giving any kind of indication the Roegadyn approach to counter, but along the way he had snagged a few pots and pans as well as a handful of small kitchen utensils on his way over and deposited them neatly onto the counter.
Before, the kitchen was racked with all sorts of noises that consisted of both cooking and verbal abuse from the minotaur, but now one only heard the gentle clicks and clanks of kitchen utensils and some ingredients being set up. Seeing that his opponent was making a cake Brex wanted to try something a little different and see what he can get as a reaction.
Using the appropriate ingredients, Brex was able to measure everything down to the gram without so much as a second glance with how his hands moved in a fluid motion. Back in final fantasy 14, one was restricted to only having one class at a time. That meant the rules made it so a player could not be a monk and a cook at the same time. However, back when he was using his Carpenter job a few weeks back, he had discovered that he could still keep his main job as a fighter. But at the same time, he can equip his non-combat classes. Grinning from under his mask, Brex couldn’t help but compare himself to that one character from the anime, One Piece. The one in question was referred to as Blackfoot or in other words, Sanji. The chef from the pirate crew straw hat.
( Play this music during Brex's Cooking. May need to repeat music if needed. )
During his movements, the Roegadyn couldn’t help but play a certain song in his head as he continued. His almost possessed hands, skillfully started mixing the ingredients together to create what appeared to be a strong paste like substance with the dough.
When he was finished, Brex started to pull the dough out of the mixing bowl and was now slamming it directly onto the counter after he had originally covered it with a thin layer of flour to prevent sticking. He noticed that this caught the attention of Steel Will as he saw the rough handling of the ingredients with a raised eyebrow.
After making sure that his hands are clean, He then continued with his preparation by punching the dough with his fists which was about twice the size of his own head. First it was slow, then it quickly accelerated until he was pretty much pummeling the thing into submission.
The sounds created by the kitchen from earlier when Steel Will was cooking had pulled in a small crowd from the front to look through the doorway to see what the commotion was all about. But now, with the intentional thud sounds created by Brex, a few more had added to the doorway and were now piling up above each other to see what was going on.
The crowd was a mixture of different races comprised of Ponies, Griffins and a diamond dog or two. There was another minotaur who appeared to be of the female variety. The crowd had looks of confusion and doubt on their faces along with some interest with how this originally perceived cooking contest was seeming to be more like some kind of fight in the literal sense with food.
After Brex had pumbled the dough until all the ingredients were properly mixed and had now become more malleable, he grabbed, twisted and then pulled on it multiple times and slammed it back down onto the counter before repeating the process over and over again. This had taken at least three or four attempts before he had finally stretched it out one more time before bringing the two ends together. That was when he swung most of it into the air, he twisted his hand so he was currently holding on to one end. The dough that he was needing was now quickly twisting into a Corkscrew before he slammed it straight down onto the counter, thus causing it to keep its form.
Brex glanced over to the side and saw that the cake that his opponent was cooking was nearly done by the looks of the egg timer nearly running out. He then left the dough alone and moved on to his next part of his preparation. He reached over to a pan which happened to be the one he had shown to Steel Will before. It had the image of a bomb monster engraved into its metal lining and it was placed it over the stove. Brex then grabbed on to some more ingredients and began mixing them into another dish.
After a few minutes he had finished making a brown substance made of different types of seasonings, but was mostly comprised of what appeared to be dark chocolate. He then poured the ingredients onto the pan along with a little bit of milk and butter and started stirring it, it all was melted down until it had a syrup like consistency. It was then poured directly onto the length of the dough that he had just twisted. After making sure that was completely covered, the Roegadyn picked it up and placed it on a long cooking tray and inserted it into a separate oven and began the baking process.
Brex then went over and began cleaning up his mess. He didn’t have to wash his hands considering he had placed some cooking gloves made of rubber on beforehand, but still did so out of being hygienic. They were in a kitchen after all. When he had finished his cleanup work the Roegadyn went over to the sidewall and leaned up against it and waited for his dish to finish baking.
The whole time the crowd, along with both Steel Will and High Road, were sniffing the air after detecting the sweet scent of chocolate and sugar. He could see that the crowd was staring with eyes completely fixed on his oven. After seeing that, he glanced over to the minotaur and saw that he was starting to sweat a little bit while glancing between both oven doors.
A few minutes later, Steel Will’s cake came out oven and he began frosting it. This time however, he was a little gentler with the process and Brex could have sworn he was attempting to copy the hand gestures and movements of himself from before.
Soon the cake was completed. Steel Will displayed it as a vanilla cake with strawberry frosting on the outside. Brex was actually very surprised with the way he was able to decorate it considering the baking process itself was so anger fueled in the start.
The crowd looked at the cake with watering mouths and he could have sworn that he had seen High Road, who was off to the side, pulling out a pair of forks from underneath her shirt in preparation. A stray thought made its way into Brex’s is mind, “Well at least she doesn’t keep those in her hair. Ouch, I’d hate to fall on my head while I have something like that pressed up against my skull. I guess she really is related to Pinkie Pie in some way.”
After waiting a good 10 to 15 minutes after the cake was finished, the one that Brex was making had finally come out of the oven. This one was baked to a very, very light golden brown and had seemed to have inflated just a little bit from the time it went in. It resembled a cinnamon twist, but on the top layer there was a mix of chocolate with some small lines going through it from the process of pouring it across the entire thing. The chocolate had managed to completely soak into the dough, leaving it to appear that it was originally a part of the dough mixing process itself.
After placing it onto the counter, Brex took out a long knife and a large serving tray and began to cut it in half and placed one onto the serving tray before carefully dicing that up into hand sized portions. The room filled up with even more sweet smells, but it was not at the point where it would cause someone who was sensitive to the taste of sugar to be repelled. But just enough to still be appetizing to those types of people to try such a dish.
Brex thought he would have to stand guard when he noticed that High Road was literally vibrating in place out of excitement. Before anything else happened, Steel Will stood behind his creation and motioned for Brex to do the same with his and ushered over High Road to stand on the other side of the counters that the dishes were on.
When the crowd had noticed that she was going to be the one to taste these creations there was a murmur among them that quickly erupted into a chorus of complaints that they should be allowed to try it as well. Brex turned towards Steel Will and gestured with his thumb towards the group. Seeing this Steel Will accepted it and said, “This is a battle between Guild mates! It only makes it right that the Guild itself, be part of the judging! Get on over here you milk drinkers! Don’t you know it’s a fire hazard to block the doors!”
At the beginning of the Bake-Off, Steel Will had been giving off this aura of contempt and anger towards Brex, but right now, that seemed to have vanished and the Roegadyn felt that this seemed more along the lines of a friendly rivalry all of a sudden.
There was then a flood of Guild members pouring into the large kitchen. This surprised him, considering that he thought that there was only a small group. If he had not neglected to look at his mini map, then he would have noticed that there was a good 50 people in the back, beyond the door.
Soon the kitchen was completely packed with only enough room around the table to give the bakers and the judging some space. First up was Steel Will, as his cake was carefully cut and served into small pieces so that everyone can get a bite.
There was a murmur from the crowd as different variations of joy spread across their faces as they tasted the sweet pastry. There were those who expressed this openly while others kept it to themselves as best, they could. In the end, the group got together and started to vote. Taking in a number of factors that ranged from, baking process, the way it looks and tastes. When all was said and done High Road held up a piece of paper that had the results for Steel Will’s cake and placed it on the table folded up to be looked at later.
Now, it came to the pastry that Brex had created. Quickly, each piece was snatched up and he had to cut up some more to make sure that there was enough for everyone, seeing as how his pieces were just a little bit larger than the ones that Steel Will had handed out.
The crowd began eating it and immediately there was an uproar of sounds that started off as pleasing, but quickly they evolved into something that made him feel a little uncomfortable. The oohs and Aahs and yumz, soon turned into those that would have made someone who had just walked in without knowing the situation, to think that the entire crowd was having some kind of orgasmic experience through their mouths with the way this was tasting so good to them. Internally, Brex was wincing as he thought to himself, “Uhm… maybe I should have gone with something a little plainer?”
( You can stop the music here. )
Some of the crowd members had eaten their piece so quickly one would’ve second guessed whether or not they even had one to begin with, while others were savoring them as if it was the last food on earth and they wanted to make it last until the end of their life. But they all shared the same expression of delight upon placing the food in their mouths.
Brex then heard a voice from directly beside him as he felt a hand resting on his left shoulder. Turning to look, he saw that it was Steel Will giving him an all-knowing smirk before turning his attention back towards to taste testers. The minotaur then said out loud for all to hear, “Yes, yes, I think we all know who won!” He then grabbed the hand of the very shoulder he was holding onto and raised it high and called out to the crowd. “Who thinks this fella here has a chance of winning this year’s cook off?!”
There was then a huge uproar of cheers and closed mouth murmurs from the ones who couldn’t speak due to their mouth’s still being full of food. Brex saw this and turn towards Steel Will and shook his head in the negative, while using his free hand and pointing towards the minotaur. He then said loud enough for the guy and others to hear, “Not me. You…”
These words cause the entire kitchen to go silent and a fair number of those within tilted their heads before they all exclaimed in unison, “WHAAAAAT?!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 21: Bad Taste in my mouth.
The next two weeks came and gone, but not all that quickly. Every day Brex and Steel Will would meet up in the guild’s kitchen to practice their cooking techniques for the upcoming festival. As Brex had figured out, this event was a series of cooking challenges that ranged across multiple types such as, baking, barbequing and general cooking altogether.
When he had found out about the barbecuing bit, he was deeply concerned that this would be an issue considering the ponies are herbivores. But as it turns out, he had recalled a small passage in a book from the time before he died that mentioned that ponies were capable of eating certain types of meat, but it was frowned upon by the majority of them. So, when it came to the pony race, only the Pegasi indulged in eating fish while the others rarely ever did at all, but they did substitute for that so they didn’t eat meat themselves. In other words, they could eat it, but not all that much.
Just as in the show, there were animals that were considered sentient such as the Ponies, Griffins and minotaur’s and such. But there was also another sub category that involved farm animals such as cows and such. Back when he was inside of the golden oaks library, Brex had looked up a few things about what the races of this world would eat and he found that when it came to the meat-eating types, they did in fact eat cows and pigs but they had set up a system where they would only have the ones who passed on due to natural causes. Of course, there were also the wild ones that didn’t develop any type of intelligence, but that was a very gray area for him to try and figure out.
Going back to story at hand. Steel Will was very adept at making anything that had to do with baking. When they had first started to do their practicing for the upcoming festival, the minotaur wanted to try and bake a cake, but after seeing the creation produced by Brex, Steel Will decided to try something a little different for the upcoming festival.
As it turns out, Steel Will had tried to get jobs in bakeries all over the city, but was unable to hold one considering how his volatile nature would always tend to rear its head at unexpected times. He was also a husband, but due to his race’s stubborn nature, he had not gone home in nearly a month. Brex had inquired about this once and the only response that he got from Steel Will was him saying something along the lines of, he wouldn’t be going back until he regained his honor and if he could win at least one category of the events in this food festival, then he would be going home to his wife.
Brex was curious about who his wife was, so he discretely accessed heavens computer and was delighted to find information on Steel Will. However, a good portion of it was redacted due to what the system having something called, a personal privacy claw that was currently put into place. He had internally grumbled about not having full access to all the information, but figured that this was required to prevent this item from being overpowered. He wondered, if it did give him complete unrestricted access to any and all information, would this count as him being an all-knowing God of some sort. Immediately, he shook his mental head and considered that this was for the best. He didn’t know if knowing everything was going to drive him mad or not, but he didn’t wanna take the chance and he was satisfied with the information he was able to gather.
So, as for Steel Will, it showed that he was 22 years old and was married for the last three years to a wife called Melody. Brex tried to look up this Melody person, but came up empty. Again, the system wouldn’t show him anything on anyone that he had not physically met in person yet.
Now when it came to the cooking practice, Brex noticed that Steel Will was having a really hard time when it came to the delicate things such as measuring and mixing. This would always result in him making a huge mess, so he carefully guided him into another method of cooking that happened to be how he prepared that one dish during their fight against one another.
As it turns out, cooking really was a good way of relieving one’s stress and anger with how the minotaur was capable of quickly adapting to this way of preparing dough. In fact, he was so good at it, that it wasn’t just a form of preparing the ingredients but Steel Will had turned it into a type of exercise for himself as well. This was become evident when Brex came into the kitchen one morning and had already found the guy wailing on a large pile of dough that was nearly half his size on the table like some kind of punching bag that was simply laying on its side.
The Roegadyn paused at this time and wondered to himself if he had inadvertently created a minotaur version of Poe from the movie Kung Fu panda. However, this didn’t involve a lot of fluff and bouncing but more of the wailing of large muscular fists into dough. Suddenly, a picture of an old school boxing ring training school, all of the equipment being based off of food related items and they were all used by different types of cooks ranging from using their tools to simply beating up the dough for making their foods. This of course would have given a whole new meaning to the word’s, food fight.
It was now the day before the scheduled cook off time and Brex had left Steel Will to practice on his own for the last four days. During this time the Roegadyn was working on something special just for this occasion and was putting the finishing touches on it.
He had spent the better part of the last four days locked up in one of the first-floor rooms that had an easy access in-and-out of the building. On the door itself that could be seen on the outside, was a sign that said do not disturb.
He was currently hammering away at another piece of metal and affixing it to a larger mass that was partially hidden underneath a gray tarp. Next to him, just a few feet away from the table itself was a small pile of organized parts and other hunks of metal that he had been forging from a nearby blacksmith shop that was on good terms with the Guild.
As it turns out, when Little Light had informed him that he had all his gear and items from back in the game, she was not kidding. Not only did he get access to all his weapons and armor that he had been collecting during his entire time playing, but all of his crafting materials that he had been gathering from the beginning. Not only the ones he still had from the time this all happened, but it seems that he had also been given everything he had ever used to level up his skills. This basically meant that he had gotten a complete refund and was currently sitting on enough materials that ranged from crafting and cooking, that he could easily have built a town of his own and been able to open a grocery store and would have had enough in stock to keep it going for a full couple of years if he just used his item storage in place of a refrigerator to keep things fresh.
Now as for going to the forge near the Guild building. Brex had been using some of the stored-up materials that he would normally use for building armor sets. He had taken the raw ore and had it fashioned into bars of metal and ingots. From there, he turned them into nuts and bolts and various sizes of metal for what he was creating underneath the tarp.
When the time had reached midnight, Brex stood to his full height after affixing the last section together and started to wipe his brow. After four days of working on this project, the Roegadyn was starting to feel the effects of fatigue and was currently in a pair of blue jeans and a T-shirt. The door behind them was shut closed and there were no windows leading to the outside. He knew no one was getting in so his secret identity was kept safe. Of course, he wasn’t all that stupid, so as an added measure he had put together a dead bolt and a few extra locking mechanisms to the door while also reinforcing it to withstand a heavy beating.
Looking around the room at the scattered bits of pieces leftover that he had made beforehand in case something broke, the Roegadyn then quickly placed it all into his item box and started to unlock his now impenetrable door, to what he had called his fortress of solitude for the last four days.
Before making his way over to the door, he switched out his attire for his now iconic yellow and brown robed set with the mask. When he had gotten to the door, it had taken him nearly a minute to undo all of the locking mechanisms and when the door opened there was a pair of feminine, welp sounds that came through just before two mare’s fell face first onto the floor before the Roegadyn.
While looking down, Brex began to think to himself, “Did I just pull off a scene from a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie where the dad is cooped up forever while working on an invention?” Pushing the stray thought away, Brex focused on the two and immediately identified them as both High Road and Low Road. The two of them had push themselves up onto their elbows and were both giving him different types of looks. High Road was looking a little nervous while giving out a small pathetic chuckle while her younger sister, Low Road was giving him an incredulous scowl.
Reaching down, he takes hold of one of their hands each and pulls them to their hoofs. They quickly brushed themselves off of any dirt and immediately jumped into the questioning.
High Road begins to start shooting off question after question without giving any time at all in between for any answers to be given, which mostly consisted of the following. “Do you know how long you’ve been in there? It’s been like 4 days, that’s like…. FOREVER! What’s with all the sound you’re making? Are you building something secret? Oh duh, of course you’re building something in secret! Why else would you do it in secret behind a big locked door? What is it? TELL ME! TELL ME! Oh wait! I know, you’re building a giant pink teddy bear that shoots muffins! No, wait! you’re building a muffin that shoots muffins! Oh, I know, you’re building a big pink robot bear that shoots muffins, that then shoots even more muffins!”
Brex then slowly turns towards Low Road and gives her a slight tilt of the head sideways to indicate his confusion. Low Road then gave out a heavy sigh as she held the bridge of her muzzle before lowering her hand to answer his unspoken question. “She’s been trying to get in here for the last three days. It’s about time you came out. I didn’t know what she was about to go and do next.” At that moment, the two felt the need to look over to High Road and that’s when they saw her holding onto a red cylindrical stick with the letters T.N.T. printed in bold letters on it. When the older sister noticed the two of them looking in her direction, she quickly hid the item behind her back while giving out a small whistle while looking in some random spot within the room.
Blinking a few times, he knew exactly what he had seen but figured that it would be best not to pursue that thought and move on. The Roegadyn spoke in a somewhat tired tone, “It’s all done.” That was when he indicated the item in question that was currently fully tarped by pointing at it from over his shoulder with his right thumb.
The two mare’s poked their heads around his large frame on either side to look at what he was telling them about. Low Road then asked in an unsure tone as she lifted her eyebrow without moving from her tilted position while still looking at the item in question. “So, what exactly is it?”
High Road had just taken a deep breath while straightening up and was about to say something when her younger sister covered her mouth which muffled her speech. She then looked towards Low Road with a playfully, angry glare and Low Road responded with, “No, I don’t think it’s a giant robot bear… whatever, a robot is.”
Brex was a little confused with the fact that high Road even knew what a robot was. This world’s technology level was all over the place from what he can figure out. They had things like microwaves and refrigerators but they didn’t have anything like computers or cell phones. So, there should be no way they would even know what a robot would be, unless it was some type of science fiction they had. That was when the Roegadyn remembered something in some of the fan fictions where spike the dragon would have a comic and it would depict superheroes. Maybe they do have science fiction but without the actual science behind it.
After considering this, the Roegadyn turned back towards the two and answered with, “It’s a tool.” The two girls then looked towards each other and started to scratch their heads in unison as if looking at a mirror at one another before High Road replied with a quick, “Okie dokie!” As she said this, Brex was positive she was going to add to the end of that the word Loki.
After that little exchange, the three of them left the room and Brex locked the door from the outside thanks to the key that was for their original lock that he had decided to leave behind. He had only installed the extra security to keep people out while he was still inside of the thing.
He then went up to his room on the fourth floor after saying his goodnights to the two girls by simply waving his hand as he walked away over his head. When he had gotten inside, he made sure that the door was secure and made his way over to his bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror he then switched out to his normal relaxing attire and stared at his face.
For what seemed like the first time in his life that he could at least remember. His face had dark bags under his eyes from lack of sleep or rest. Unlike that one month where he had gone and done nearly nonstop guild work, this time however was more taxing on him. For the past four days, he had been working himself nonstop by pounding metal and forging it into something completely brand new. He had made multiple sets over at the blacksmith and had ended up scrapping a number of ideas until he had finally gotten the right thing put together.
Letting out a tired sigh, Brex looks at himself while still standing in front of the mirror and asks Rory in a low voice, “I look like shit, don’t I? I think tonight I’ll just go straight into REM sleep. Gotta be ready for tomorrow. Who else is gonna lug that big thing out of here?”
After hearing this Rory replied with a slightly concerned tone in her voice, “You really need to pace yourself Master. Don’t you remember what I showed you before the last time you went to bed. Even with your mental fortitude being enhanced the way it is, no living thing can go without a decent night’s sleep without having some type of negative impact. Even if your body can handle it, the mental stress alone can stack up overtime.”
Nodding to himself in the mirror, Brex imagined the sight of Rory overlapping his in the reflection as he talked to himself. He then replied with, “Yeah, I see what you mean. I guess I’ve been pushing myself too much. It’s just that, we have just under 12 years until nightmare moon comes back. That’s when all my knowledge on the show will start. I have no idea what’s really gonna happen in this world’s timeline. It’s already different. The ponies here are anthropomorphic. The ratio between male and females are way off, then there’s the whole way the society is built up around the ratio gap. I know males weren’t shown all that much during the show, but not once did they show anything that had to do with the way they’re treated in this world. And let’s not forget the fact that there are monsters from Final Fantasy here.”
He then lets out a long sigh while closing his eyes for a moment before re opening them to stare directly at the imaginary image of Rory in the mirror before saying, “I have already changed the future concerning applejack and her family. There is also the whole kidnapping of Rarity. If I wasn’t here, who knows what would have happened to her. Would she have even been in ponyville to become one of the elements? There are way too many stray variables and I can’t rely heavily on this prior knowledge I have.”
Pausing, the Roegadyn reaches down and turns on the faucet and takes some water and splashes it onto his face before wiping it away with his hands. Looking a little more refreshed than before, Brex adds, “Having a long-term plan can be really tiring. Helping Steel Will is sort of like helping myself down the road, but at least I’m having fun while doing so. Do you remember last week when we walked into the kitchen and found him buried under a mound of dough that he had made that got too big? The poor guy had to literally fight his way out. Who knew that an unbaked pastry was a match for a big strong minotaur?” This got a light set of chuckles from Rory after he had mentioned that little incident.
After that little discussion Brex then turned in for the night and just as he had mentioned he did in fact go straight to REM sleep. For Rory, it went just as the night before where she would cuddle up to his form within his mind.
The next morning Brex awakens just before five in the morning and does his daily preparations and exits his temporary living arrangements and heads down to the room that was currently containing his latest creation. On the way he ran into High Road and she ended up following him all the way to his destination. With the building being as large as it was, it was going to take him maybe two minutes to get there, but to the Roegadyn, it may as well have been a mile away with how High Road was chatting up a storm.
She would constantly bring up the fact that she was excited to see what he was building and this was only dwarfed by her overly enthusiastic personality when the subject of how much she can eat was suddenly brought up by herself. Brex couldn’t help it, but everything that this mare did and said, just kept bringing up her relative that he is going to end up meeting in 12 years’ time, if not sooner by the way things are going.
After unlocking the door and stepping in, Brex takes hold of a handle sticking out of the edge of the tarp covering his contraption and starts pulling it out of the doorway. Luckily thanks to a few small annoyances from his last Carpenter job, the Roegadyn remember to measure twice the object and the doorway to make sure that he didn’t build a car inside of an apartment type of scenario.
The hallways and doorways were big enough for a large being to walk through. This was obviously considered into the design when it came to different species that might use the building. He made his way to the front entrance and spotted Low Road sitting behind the counter with an expression that just showed how little she was awake at this moment. Her eyes were unfocused and droopy, he could swear that she was trying to write something but her hand had no quill in it and it was just moving while it rested on the counter with a piece of paper that was a few inches away. The mare could have been sleep-working for all he knew.
His thoughts were brought back to the real world when his vision was covered with nothing but brown and light red directly in front of his mask. This would have caused him to have reacted in some way but at this point, Brex was now becoming a little more desensitized towards this pony’s antics. He then heard her talking at a very fast pace. “So, are you finally gonna tell me what it is it’s under that tarp? Come on, you can trust your auntie High Road! Come on tell me tell me tell me. I wanna see the muffin shooting robot already!”
It took everything that Brex had to prevent himself from just stopping on the spot to take off his mask and pinch the bridge of his nose with how this pony is so fixated on some type of robot and muffins. He started to say to himself inside his head, “If I didn’t know any better, I would say that this pony was also related to Ditzy Doo. She has such a fixation on muffins, I wonder if she’s part Pegasus. Also doesn’t she know anything about personal space…” That’s when he noticed and did a mental facepalm before thinking to himself, “Oh right, their ponies. Of course, such a thing as personal space is foreign to them. Also, how the heck did this mare managed to sneak up on me this time? With the ability I got from Rory, I should have enough reflexes to nearly catch a bullet. Yet this girl just jumped on my face and I couldn’t sense it happening until it was too late.”
Rory chimed in and said, “Master, what I find hard to believe is that you’re thinking about this when you currently have a pair of breasts pressing right up against your chest. I don’t know if you’re just good at hiding it or you just didn’t notice.”
After hearing those words, Brex’s face from under his hood just turn several shades of red. While still clearly embarrassed the Roegadyn manages to keep it hidden from those around him and let’s go of his package to take hold of the mare on both sides of her hips and pulls her off before setting her back on her hooves.
High Road looked at him while blinking and it appeared that she was none the wiser to what she had just did. Brex couldn’t help but think, “Did she do that on purpose or does she really not notice that she had her chest on me?” After giving himself a moment to calm down he then takes hold of the package and walks around the mare and towards the door. Just as he was going to exit the door that he had just opened using his free hand, High Road called out from behind using her usual cheery tone, “Save some muffins for me!”
Shaking his head, Brex leaves the Guild building and starts his way down the street in the direction of the cooking festival which was almost halfway across the city.
By the time he had arrived it was close to seven in the morning. He had made sure to go over the rules of the contest word for word and figured out that even though the contestants had a time limit that they had to present they’re finished works, they were allowed to have as much time as needed until then, but they could start only on their actual food preparations once the sun had come up. Brex looked towards the distance that the sun was rising and concluded that it had happened about an hour ago. He double check this by looking at his regular clock on his visual display.
Even with a clock on hand at any given time, the Roegadyn would often fall back on the natural way of looking towards the sun to indicate what time of the day it was. He wasn’t quite sure if this was an instinctual or a force of habit but he couldn’t bring himself to stop doing so. It had taken him a few weeks to adjust to how the sun moved in the sky with how it would quickly ascend and lower. During this he had noticed that when the moon was to be in the sky, its movements were not as fluid as the sun when being worked with. Brex concluded that this was due to Celestia’s concentration being better during the daytime, so her hold over the moon was suffering somewhat.
After pulling along for a little while longer, Brex arrived at the venue. Taking a good glance around he noticed that there were multiple stands and numerous large stages that had a wide variety of cooking instruments. These ranged from items used by hand such as mixing tools, bowls and whatnot. They had even set up some ovens and what appeared to be refrigerators. Near all of the stages were stalls set up with different types of ingredients.
From what was written in the rules, it appeared that whenever the participants arrived, they would have to sign in and wait until the judges say that they had full run of their selected kitchens. From there they would have to rush down to the ingredients area and get what they needed. Then they had to return and start cooking their meals which would be presented at noon. He could have sworn that this reminded him of some television show he may have seen back on earth.
He could see that there was not too many at their kitchens at the moment, but he did happen to catch the sight of Steel Will standing up on stage and wearing a chef outfit that even included one of those muffin top hats that was currently sitting on top of his head.
After exchanging some greetings, the Roegadyn pushed his cart into position near the stove and pulled off the tarp. Steel will was visibly confused as he began scratching the top of his head after removing the hat and when he placed it back on he turned towards Rex and asked, “So yeah mind explaining what it is I’m looking at here?”
Without wanting to break his three-word count and with such little time left, he simply handed a scroll over to Steel Will who took it with a small amount of annoyance visible on his face. The minotaur then started grumbling as he began to look it over, “Dang milk drinker! Just talk properly already! I just might make it my life goal to get yeah to say more than three words.”
When Steel Will was finished, he looked up at Brex with a raised eyebrow and said, “So, this is that thing you were explaining before? Well, I can’t say I’ve ever heard of it being done like this using cheese. I tried the stuff you made back in the Guild kitchen, but I guess this will make it better huh?”
What Steel Will was referring to, was the improvised version of smoking cheese. Brex figured out that this world’s culinary abilities were nowhere near that of earth. This was evident when he had tried out those multiple restaurants back in Baltimare. So, while helping out Steel Will with his cooking training, slash anger management, the Roegadyn was showing him new methods of cooking certain dishes and improving some existing ones. He thought the bull would fight him along the way and say things along the lines of, “I ain’t fixing anything that ain’t broken.” But it turns out that you can teach an old bull new tricks as he eagerly soaked up the knowledge like some yellow sponge that lives under the sea. Brex couldn’t help but look at Steel Will and picture him with a spatula in hand and screaming, “I’m ready I’m ready.” whenever he got excited about something new to try cooking.
From there, Steel Will started his preparation work. He went through the process of getting a few different types of wheels of cheese and began cutting them into manageable sizes and placed them in the smoking box. It was fortunate that Brex had inside of his inventory what he needed for the unique flavor that they were looking for to add to the cheese. While in the game he had to harvest different types of lumber and among those, were a type of apple tree wood. He wasn’t sure if it was a personal memory that was engraved into him or if it was some type of passive effect by equipping his cooking job, but he knew very well that using these wood chips would add a unique flavor.
Seeing that the minotaur had everything in hand, Brex decided to go ahead and begin with his exploration of what the other participants were doing. Waving goodbye to Steel Will, Brex then heads into the crowd and manages to disappear into them. Normally this would be impossible but there were a fair number of different races mixed in with them. With so many other minotaur’s mixed in every now and then, it was easy for the ponies to mistaken him as one of them. This meant he got quite a few fewer lingering eyes in his direction.
He began to wonder if there were any meat based cookoffs but dismissed it due to the nature of these ponies. However, he did detect the scent of cooking fish off a short distance away, this drew his attention and he followed his nose to a stand near the outskirts of the event.
When he had arrived, he saw a Diamond dog and a Pegasus mare working together at a cooking station. Quickly concluding that they were participating in another type of category, Brex looked around and saw that there weren’t that many compared to the others that comprised of non-meat-based dishes. He smirked to himself from under his mask as he began to think, “Well, can’t say I wasn’t expecting something like this. Makes sense when it’s a society full of vegetarians that they would keep the meat-based contestants as far away as possible.”
He fully understood the reason for the Diamond dog to be working on something that used meat. After the incident with the kidnapping ring, he had been around that diamond dog that went by the name Einstein for a while and found out that not only did they actually eat diamonds, but they do partake and consume fruits and vegetables along with meat of course. He remembered that there was a book in the Golden Oaks Library that had a small amount of information on the Diamond dogs. That however didn’t say much about their diet aside from that they eat gems. Again, this was another example of these ponies being ignorant of others that are not of their own species.
Now when he looked over to the Pegasus mare that was working alongside of him, Brex noticed that this one was somewhat older, maybe around 35 or 40 years of age. She was dark yellow with some orange on the tips of her wings and on her mane as well. It appeared that they were trying to grill up what he could have considered as a salmon.
He thought about going over there and trying some when they were done but thought against it. That was when Rory spoke up and asked, “Master, I know you don’t really need to eat and everything, but how long has it been since you’ve had any meat at all? It’s just that, wouldn’t it be more along the lines of a psychological thing if you didn’t eat something that you liked in your past?” With the mental connection he replied with, “Well I can’t say haven’t been craving it now that I’ve gotten a good whiff of the smell. But I think I can get by. After all I can’t show anyone that I eat meat. I can only imagine what type of complications that would bring up.”
Not showing any signs of letting the matter go Rory continues with, “Master I’m beginning to worry about you. You have been running yourself ragged doing pretty much doing any work you can get your hands on. You have not even taken a single day off. All work and no play is not a very healthy lifestyle. From the moment we showed up at the Tree of Harmony, you have not taken an opportunity to enjoy this world. Sure, you would go and eat things here and there but…” there was a short pause before Rory continued a subdued tone, “Perhaps Master may want to… sample something other than food…”
Raising an eyebrow, the Roegadyn stands in place for a few seconds before going wide eyed and replying in a shocked tone towards Rory with a mental connection, “Rory I I… I’m not entirely sure, but what exactly or are you talking about?”
This only got a reply from Rory in a low whisper, “I think Master may need to relieve some stress in some way or another. I mean, you do get some attention here and there. Perhaps Master may want to partake in what’s offered…”
If one was to see Brex without his mask, they would see that the pale skin on his face was now beet red. With his eyes fixed straight ahead, the Roegadyn takes in an involuntary gulp before replying, “That… may not be such a good idea. I mean it’s just… But I’m not one of… I don’t even know if I can… I understand the functions of how they… I mean I know how the human body works, but I’m of the Roegadyn race now.”
Tilting his head down, Brex glances down to his large form and then towards the nearest pony to gauge the size difference in height. When he realized what he was just doing, he diverted his gaze and looked straight ahead at some random object in the distance while his blush only intensified.
Taking another gulp, Brex then says to Rory, “I may have gamers knowledge and then there’s the whole thing about those displaced stories. So, it’s not like I’m entirely against the idea, considering how many I’ve been reading...” That very last bit was muttered under his mental breath. He continued on with an unsure tone, “B-Besides, I don’t even know how this body works when it comes to… those types of activities…” He could have sworn that he was developing a very intense fever at this point. He knew that Rory was only looking out for his best interests but at this moment, he wished that something would happen that would distract the woman in his head but unfortunately for him that was not the case at this exact moment.
He could have sworn that he had an image of Rory giving him a, are you kidding me look right then and there before she replied, “Master, I don’t want to say it but, I think you’re just making excuses. I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with a little experimentation. Besides, from what I got a good look of you before you locked me out, I think you’re-
That was the exact moment that Brex cut her off by quickly exclaiming within his head while in a panicked tone, “I think that’s quite enough! And before you go any further, yes I will admit that these anthro ponies are… very attractive.” That last bit was said extremely quickly as if trying to pull a Band-Aid off of a fresh wound.
Rory then spoke up while giving him an alluring voice, “Well you are my Master after all. If you need a way to blow off some steam. I’m more than willing to help out with that~” That was when her voice felt as if she was literally whispering into his ear, “I’m very willing to help you out… My Master~”
At that exact moment the crowd of ponies that were scattered about that were within 20 feet of Brex, decided that now would be a good time to shed an article of clothing due to the temperature around the Roegadyn increasing to the point that it went from a nice cool spring temperature, to that of the middle of summer within that radius.
There were no male’s insight, so he was essentially surrounded by at least ten females that could have been considered for models, that were now only in their bras. But that didn’t even register towards the Roegadyn as his eyes were still transfixed straight ahead and his mind was apparently out for lunch.
It had taken him a solid minute to recover and another two or three for the temperature around him to return to normal. Letting out a long mental sigh, Brex then asks Rory in a professional tone that was laced with some sarcasm. “You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”
This elicited one of Rory mercuries trademark giggles before she replies with, “Oh Master~ Now this is something I would not kid about. You know… we could try something tonight, that is if my Master wants something~ I’m sure we can figure out how your new body works together.” There was then a small fleeting image of Rory licking her lips that was racing across his mind’s eye. Brex was about to blush up another storm that would have caused another enclosed summer, but was able to control himself now that he had felt the effects from just earlier and was ready for it.
While trying to think clearly, the Roegadyn replied with, “I… I’m not sure if we should or should I say, can we? It’s just, your… not out here so I’m not entirely sure if it would do any good to try that, you know… in there.” At this point Brex was actually being swayed by Rory’s words and had to stop himself from starting to imagine things, knowing full well that if he did so, there was no way he was going to have the mental fortitude required to prevent Rory from seeing it.
Just as he was about to try and talk his way out of this conversation, Brex suddenly felt a cold chill running down his spine. He could feel that the hair’s on the back of his neck were standing on end. This caused his eyes to go wide and he hurriedly checked his mini map but only to find nothing out of the ordinary. Now focusing completely on his situational awareness ability, Brex attempted to extend the range as far as it can go. Yet again, there was nothing. Thinking it was just his imagination and his nerves being played with thanks to the teasing that Rory had just administered. So he dismissed it as him imagination playing tricks.
He was caught unprepared when he saw straight ahead in the distance past the many groups of ponies that were crossing his path, a figure dressed in a black robe with purple jagged tribal tattoo like markings going along the sleeves, was turned sideways towards him. He could have sworn that he caught the glimpse of a corner of a red mask underneath that only covered upper portion of the face. Unfortunately, he was unable to see the lower section very well from that distance.
He had only blinked once and the figure was no longer there. His eyes darted to and fro in an attempt to catch the person again. He even spun in place quickly to get a good view of everything around him before returning his gaze to the spot that he had just seen the robed figure. Now breathing with a shaky breath, he uses the mental connection and asks Rory with a panicked tone while his eyes continued to dart left and right as if on alert for danger. “Rory! Tell me you saw what I just did!”
This only got a confused reply from the girl as she said, “Uh, I’m… not sure what you’re talking about. Master, please you need to calm down you’re going to have a panic attack if you don’t do something about it.”
Taking her advice, He takes in a few deep slow breaths. He could start to feel his heart rate which was skyrocketing just a second ago, to come down to a regular and more manageable state. After taking another gulp of air and resisting the urge to remove his mask to wipe off the bead of sweat on his forehead, he then says to Rory while still shaken up, “I- I think, I think I saw one of them. I’m positive it was one of those guys…”
Rory then attempted to reassure her Master by saying, “It’s gonna be OK. I didn’t see anyone in the crowd that looked like anything out of the ordinary. Please tell me what exactly did you see.” Had taken a few more seconds before Brex answered with, “I think I saw an Ascian…” After a few seconds Rory then asked in a very worried tone, “Master, are you talking about one of the beings known as the Bringers of Chaos? But these ponies didn’t react at all, they’re still going about their day as if nothing happened.”
Now feeling more like himself, Brex answers with, “In the game, it was explained that not everyone is capable of perceiving them, not unless they want them too. The only ones that are capable of freely sensing them at all, would be those that have the Echo. So, I have no idea if what I saw was real or was a trick from my subconscious. All I know is it terrified me to see him. Felt like life was draining from my body.” That was when he brought his right hand to his chest, as if examining himself for some unknown wound.
After that traumatic scene played through, the Roegadyn made his way towards an area with the least amount of traffic and found a bench to sit off towards the side of the road. His head was hanging low and his arms were laying across his knees. Still feeling the effects from earlier, his eyes were currently shut as he attempted to put himself into a calming state.
At first, he tried to drown out the sounds of those around him but that was becoming difficult thanks to the situational awareness which was in constant use. He considered about dropping it for the moment but thought otherwise. If he did so, he would put himself at risk to a sneak attack of some sort.
Trying to come up with another way to relax the Roegadyn thought back to a part of his training in the other world, this soon brought him to a scene with one of the trainers that little moon had summoned.
This was when he was training with his Monk class. Seeing as there were countless methods of fighting with your bare hands and legs, Brex wanted to train with a few different masters so he can develop a mixture of fighting styles. Originally in his game, every class had a set movement pattern and the monk was no exception. He made sure that when he trained with all the classes, he was going to have his own style after being trained thoroughly.
It was a big help that his memories were converted over to the game being real to him, so his body upon equipping the soul stones, was fully capable of mastering fighting styles that pertain to that class at an astonishing rate. As a result, Brex was able to learn what would normally take a person years to do, only would take a few days at most.
Now when he was training with his Monk class, he had two trainers popping up. The first which was quite comical to him at first was the one known as Po, from the animated movie Kung Fu panda. The second one to train him was Jackie Chan in his prime.
Without even having his own personal memories, Brex was capable of nearly going into fanboy mode at the sight of these two. He was even visibly shaking with anticipation. They had worked together and training him in multiple styles of fighting arts. These mostly consisted of what was seen in various movies in anime’s. But they were mostly focused on karate, Thai Kwando, and free form Thai boxing.
Due to this, he was capable of honing his fighting skills with a mixture of punching, kicking and various types of grappling, while at the same time adjusting his body for quick movements at odd angles. As for Thai boxing, that mostly consisted of him using attacks which required the use of knees and elbows. This of course meant that this type of fighting style was used primarily for killing blows so he would save those for desperate situations and rely on the other ones mostly.
The training however, did not only consist of fighting and body training, but had a good mix of meditation. It mostly consisted of him calming his mind and putting himself into a centered state. Now this was the part of the memory that he was focusing on at this moment.
Back in the present, Brex had straightened up and was holding his hands together with his palms facing up. He had then adopted a meditation pose with them where his thumbs were now touching the tips together. After which he took in a deep long breath and held it in for a few seconds before letting it out. Almost instantly the large amount of anxiety that he was feeling left his body and it was beginning to feel rejuvenated.
When he had finally opened his eyes, he noticed in front of him a small transparent window that he recognized from his gaming system. He started to read the text that said, new monk ability acquired.
Passive skill: Zen mental state. Zen mental state, your monk class is capable of resisting negative mental effects. Weak mental attacks are negated, medium ranked mental attacks have high resistance, high ranked mental attacks will be dispersed after a short time.
Raising an eyebrow, Brex asked himself a question in his head, “OK, now I’m confused. This was not part of the game mechanics for the Monk. I thought I can only get new stuff if I combine existing skills?” Bringing up his skill list, the Roegadyn checks to see the fourth list and begins to examine it for any clues.
That was when he found the new skill Zen mental state and saw that there were two skills that were used in its creation. The first was called Meditation. The second one used in it was Mantra. He was rather confused considering that these were chakra energy recovery abilities and one that helped with restoring health. He considered that maybe using these two in tandem was what inadvertently created a new skill. Either way, he felt grateful now that he had a much clearer head.
After he had gotten done checking over the new skill, he got up and then went back into the crowd to check out the festival a little more before heading back and meeting up with Steel Will. During his time while exploring, he got to see quite a few more groups of cooks, but he ended up catching a momentary glimpse of a pair of young Colts that ran by and disappeared into the crowd.
The only reason he noticed was because of the fact that they were males and he had hardly ever seen many of them out in the open. The ones he did see were always with one or more females. What had caught his attention even further was the coloring of their hair and mane’s. They appear to be yellow on their body but their hair was streaks of white and red. They were even wearing some type of version of clothing that resembled that of barbershop quartet members.
Coming to a quick stop to glance back in the direction he had just seen the two, Brex muttered under his breath, “Oh I really hope I didn’t just see who I thought I did. If so, then things might get a little complicated.
His assumption about things getting complicated did in fact come true only when he got back to the main judging area that was set up in the middle of the main Plaza for all to see. Where all the contestants where to have their dishes placed and hidden behind a set of screens made of fabric to be presented to the judges.
For when he got there, they were about to do the judging when there was a scream from behind the tent and a couple of mare’s stumbled out and knocking over the judges who were just about to pull the cord and reveal what was on the tables inside.
When the covering fell it displayed a horrific scene for any food lover to ever come across. They was tossed over and broken shattered pieces of plates and food everywhere. There were several large tables all neatly placed in a type of square pattern and in the middle, was a creature that Brex knew quite well from his gaming past.
( This is the form of a Flan Monster. )
Right in the middle of the chaos was a 5-foot-high monster known as a flan. This grotesque gelatinous creature was given the name due to its body resembling a type of food or other kind of gelatinous mass. It had appendages that were attempting to reach out towards anything nearby to consume while it’s twisted and very stretched out mouth was currently chewing on some assortments of delicacies that were meant for the judges.
It didn’t take even a second upon the creature being fully exposed for the masses to begin screaming in horror as they began to evacuate the area. Within record time, the evacuation of the square was completed. The only ones to remain was Brex, Steel Will, High Road and a small handful of adventures that were nearby, along with two royal guards that were the ones helping in directing the evacuation and came to lend a hand.
Checking is mini map, Brex accounted for every one of those individuals there, but found two dots off in the distance before they disappeared from his radar range. Narrowing his eyes in that direction, he muttered under his breath that was laced with great annoyance so that no one else can hear aside from Rory, “How much do you wanna bet that those two dots were Flim and Flam, Also for a bonus, do you want to place a bet on whether or not that monster is here because of them?”
Rory replied with an equally annoyed tone towards the situation and said, “Oh I’m so betting on both of those questions being yes. From what you’ve told me of the show, I can see those two being a part of this mess. That thing is a Flan right? I bet those two thought because of its name, that it would be a type of food and try to enter it into the contest as something they made but then this happened.”
Brex replied with, “That’s an interesting theory. But I think you’re right on the Gil on that one. I’m not ashamed to say when I heard the word Flan back in the past, I started to get a little hungry. Now back to what’s happening right now. I could probably take this thing out if I was to get a little serious with no problem at all. However, we have a bit of a crowd this time. Which means I need to hold back, A LOT. Now let’s see how strong this thing is.”
Brex quickly takes a look at the creature’s status bar and sees that it is level 17. When seeing this he thought to himself, “Well at least it’s not level 28. I could take this down in no time flat. But I’m registered as level 10. So, I’m gonna have to play a bit more of a supporting role in this fight.” Slumping his shoulders, he lets out a very drawn-out sigh, Brex looks up to the sky and mutters under his breath, “Can’t I just have one slow day? I feel like I’m the main character in a badly written story.” Just then there was a Thunder clap in the distance and Brex quickly amended his previous statement and said, “Oh, I mean I feel like the main character of a nicely written story, Hehe~
Looking over, he notices that the assembled group of adventures and Steel Will had taken up a position around the monster and encircling it. Glancing over their Status bars he could see that their levels ranged from 9 and up to 13, The only one that was a higher level was Steel Will, but he was classified as a Cook.
More than half of them were brandishing swords and Shields, while the other half was comprised of ranged attackers that used magic along with bows and arrows. There were a few Unicorns that were charging up their horns. Taking a closer look at the Unicorns, he can see that three of them were classified as Casters. He was sure that with this world being centered around Final Fantasy 14, they would have been called Conjurers. Now this was the beginning class that evolves into the White Mage after completing a Level 30 quest to get the Soul Stone.
Brex felt a little better now knowing that they actually had some healers on hand. He began to wonder if he was really needed for this fight seeing as the creature was so weak and clearly out numbered. But that hope came to a screeching halt when He saw that the creature was beginning to swell up. There was a faint dark neon color emanating from a single point deep within its body. Over the course of several seconds, the creatures form nearly doubled in size. Where it was once completely smooth aside from the jagged teeth along its wide mouth, was now riddled with spiny thorns that protruded from random spots along its body. Its eyes began to glow purple with a single point becoming bloodshot red. The color of the slime That comprised most of its form was steadily shifting to that of a sickening, dark black purple like fluid.
Before, the air was riddled with the smell of the food that was previously prepared, but now that soon quickly shifted to that of rotten garbage and other types of fowl odors that could make a seasoned garbage man turn tail and run for the hills. The ponies that were closing in had to stop in their tracks and cover their noses from pure disgust. Some of them had visibly turned green around their faces. Almost immediately, they started to throw up onto the ground While having one hand on their stomach and the other on their mouth to prevent more from escaping.
Brex couldn't believe it, but the monster had undergone some type of evolutionary state. This was something he had never seen happen in the game. At least not to a regular monster anyway. This was something that would normally happen when he was engaged with a.... Boss or some Raid Monster. With his eyes now going wide he realized that this situation just went from manageable, to something very dangerous.
Quickly he examined the monster once more and discovered that its name had also undergone a change. Before it was called a Flan, but now it turned into something called a Poisonous Pudding. Next to its name, he could see that its level had risen up to 26. Now that this had happened the idea of him staying on the sidelines was no longer an option. If something wasn't done soon, then very bad things were going to happen. If this was a Boss Monster, then who knows what abilities it might have gained. Then there was the whole poisonous part in its name. He didn't know why this happened, perhaps it was due to something it ate that caused this reaction, or it could have had something to do with the amount of food in this event?
Before he could speculate on the matter at hand any further, the creature began to make a chorus of gurgles, splurches and squishing sounds. They were rather loud so they were very intimidating as they came out of its wide mouth. A mouth that now sported a set of razor-sharp teeth That was now dripping off the tips and in-between, a black fiscus fluid onto the ground.
Brex couldn't help himself but call out to the others in a loud booming voice, “CAREFUL! IT’S POISONOUS!” This caught the attention of everybody around and they took a step back in caution. High Road came up next to Brex and asked while still keeping her eyes on the creature, “How do you know it's poisonous, have you seen this thing before?” He quickly nods his head before continuing by saying, “Don’t make contact.”
After hearing this, High Road calls out to the others, “Gambit Says this thing's poisonous and it's strong, be careful. Everyone with Shields, keep your distance. You're only the step in to block its path or protect one of the long-range Fighters. Archer’s, Unicorns, you’re to focus your fire. Don't let that thing get close to you. There's only one of it and there's a bunch of us, so no one better be playing the hero!"
After hearing High Road speaking in such a way, Brex was quite surprised that she was able to think so well on her feet, er hoof in the situation. he was actually beginning to wonder on how well these ponies would react in a life-or-death situation. But Brex was relieved when he saw that the way that they were organizing themselves, was the correct course of action.
Brex was currently level 25 with his level sync. He had considered bumping it up a little but thought otherwise. If he did, there was a good chance that he was going to have to explain more than he would like. He thought back to the game world where he would often fight creatures that were 10 levels above him and would still come out as the victor. Of course, during those fights, he had to think more clearly with the use of skills and items more efficiently.
But then he realized yet again that this was life-and-death and not some video game anymore. The creature only had a few levels on him and he had a group of others around on his side for once. Glancing at his items menu he could still see the potions that he had at the very start. Among them was a handful of poison cure potions which would come in handy if any of these ponies were to go and get themselves poisoned by the creature during the fight.
It would seem that the monster had grown impatient and was now making a charge for the nearest pony. The one in question was a female unicorn who was wearing casting gear that was clearly meant for a magic user. This meant the pony would have very little defense. The creature's sudden movements caused the mare to inadvertently shoot her spell, but it overshot and went into the sky right above the creature's head.
Seeing as she was going to be hit straight on, two of the other members with shields blocked the path of the creature. Just as it came into the contact with their shields, the two ponies let out a pair of shrieks as they disconnected from them and ran back to a safe distance along with the Unicorn. Brex wondered why they screamed but quickly saw that the shields in question were stuck in place on the monster's body. The wood that they were made from quickly turned a dark, sickening shade of purple before they broke apart and were absorbed into its body.
Brex cursed himself for not having a viable means of attacking a creature from a distance with his Monk class currently equipped. The safest course of action was for him to turn into his Bard or one of his other class’s that could cast spells. Mentally, he shook his head seeing as this was not something he could do right now with so many witnesses. He had prepared himself by glamouring nearly all his gear to look like the robes that he was wearing now. That way if he ever needed to switch jobs, he would look the same to everybody. But suddenly breaking out another weapon or casting spells was not a viable option. He still didn't want anyone here to know that he could cast any magic at all. That needed to be his ace in the hole for the future just in case something happens. This was because he knew that they always let their guard down when something didn't possess any magic to use.
He started looking around for something to use as a makeshift weapon but all that was around, where the still scattered about ingredients laying off in the distance near all the cooking areas. Just as he was about to tear his sight away from the cooking area, Brex turned back and saw a large bag of flour. That was when a devilish grin appeared underneath his mask.
Quickly calling out to Steal Will, he yells, “Steel, with me!” Brex could see the minotaur rushing over with a confused look on his face. He then pointed towards the kitchen area and said, “We need flour!” This got the bull to scrunch up his face while lifting an eyebrow before he said, “Do you wanna cook at a time like this?! Did that things stink get to your head?"
Without saying anything else, he rush’s over to the nearest kitchen and grabs one of the large bags of flour. Afterwards he proceeds back to where he was and gets in position with the bag in hand. Tossing it up into the air several feet, the Roegadyn does a 180 degree turn and stretches out his leg for a strong kick. It strikes the bag of flour as it comes down and is launched straight at the monster. The force in which the bag flew upon hitting the creature, had enough force behind to cause it to explode upon impact. There was a thick cloud of flour in the air and most of the monster's left side had been covered in a thin layer of the white powder. Immediately after doing this, Brex reaches down and grabs a random small rock that was near his feet and throws it at one of the areas covered, instead of being stuck and getting sucked inside, the rock hit the creature. This caused it to let out a displeased sound as the projectile used, fell to the ground.
Seeing this, Brex calls to the others and says, “Use the flour.” He then saw that nearly half of the ponies around him, including Steel Will, had made a run for one of the many tables and was looting it of every bag of flour they could find. In the meantime, the creature was making its way slowly towards them at a slow pace.
The ponies had more than enough time to get their supplies together seeing as the creature was very slow in its movements. Within moments they had amass at least 10 bags of flour that were 20 Pounds apiece. There was a loud battle cry from Steel Will as he shouted, “Now this be a food fight! Let's show this sorry excuse of food what we think of it!”
After that, Brex could hear High Road yelling, “Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! Justice will be… DELICIOUS!” The pony screaming this was holding a small carton of milk and had crushed it in her hands. If this wasn’t enough to make the Roegadyn to take a double take. Then it was with how High Road was now wearing a school uniform that he was positive he had seen somewhere. That was when there was a loud chorus of cries from the other ponies that war had just begun. But Brex could have sworn, he heard Steel Will muttering under his breath, “Hey that was my milk..."
The Roegadyn, just couldn't believe what he was seeing. What was once considered to be a very dangerous situation had evolved into a comedy. The creature was now getting pelted repeatedly with bags of flour that were telekinetically thrown by the Unicorns. While somehow, High Road had pulled out, what could have only been called a cannon from behind the kitchen counter. The thing was being packed with a flower bag every time it was shot. He could have sworn he only blinked once and the mare was now wearing a pirate hat in an eye patch. She was giving more commands to the troops while speaking in pirate lingo.
It didn't take long for all the bags of flour to have been used up and by the time the cloud of carnage had settled, the entire ground was covered in a layer of white powder. In the middle of the clearing was the creature but something was off about it. For one, it was completely white, the next thing to be noticed was the fact that it was no longer moving, which was very, very odd for a slime creature in the first place considering they are incapable of staying still. He approached the now, stone like creature and with a finger, Brex started to poke it repeatedly. With everything that was happening, he had completely forgotten to check the creatures HP. When he did so after poking it for a good minute, he saw that its H.P. was down to a paltry one percent.
Brex was about to say something, but then he heard High Road screaming in an excited tone, “Found one more!” Just then the creature was hit with another bag of flour which ended up covering himself as well. When he was finally able to see again, he could see that the creature was now on the ground and broken up into many pieces. Brex was no longer able to see a health bar, which indicated that the creature had been defeated.
Letting out a few coughs to get some of the flower that managed to get under the mask out of his mouth, Brex turned to see High Road already standing next to him and she was looking down at the remains of the creature. She didn't turn towards him and asked while pointing down at it, “Are you gonna eat that?"
As soon as those words left her mouth, everyone that was able to hear it started to make vomiting sounds and groans. Blinking several times, Brex just couldn't understand why this mare would even consider eating something like that, but quickly replied by saying, “Recommend against it.”
Afterwards things got quite busy. There was the clean-up of the monster, then there was an investigation being launched about it. They found out that somebody who was using a fake name had entered a dish and it turned out to be the monster in question. It was originally small, but after it started to consume the other food, it quickly grew in size. They weren't able to find who the culprit was.
After that they managed to clean up the mess somewhat and gave all the contestants that still wanted to participate another go, which meant that they would be cooking until 6:00 that night. As it turns out, that fight drew in a large crowd that was unnoticed by the participants or Brex. It ended up becoming a type of advertisement in a way and managed to get a number of the participants to stay around. There were even some discussions in the group about doing something similar next year, seeing as it was so much fun to fight food with food on purpose.
Later that day, the contest judges came back and had made their decision after sampling everyone's dish’s. In the end, Steel Will ended up winning. He used the smoking box on the cheese he was making and created the world's first Filly Delphia cheesecake.
As it turns out the winner got a substantial number of bits. Thanks to the judges and their review after speaking aloud and what they thought about the food, Steel Will was approached by some investors. It didn't take him long to accept the job of opening up a new bake shop. When the investors asked what Steel Will wanted to call the bakery, He told them that he wanted to call it, The Angry Bull Bakery.
After that, things went pretty much as scheduled for what was planned for the event. Even after several hours had passed, he was still brushing off random bits of flower from the last one that High Road had shot out of her cannon. He thought to himself, “I wonder if she's the reason Pinkie Pie even has a party Cannon?"
That's when Rory replied with a mischievous tone, “Perhaps Pinky will end up visiting High Road and learn a few things from her in the future?” This only caused Brex to blanche from behind his mask before exclaiming in a panic tone within his mind, “NO, I do not want the fun to be doubled!” Unknown to Brex, somewhere high above the planet, there was a voice coming from the satellite that orbited Equus, “Who, what? Who hath doubled thee fun?” It was soon followed by a small yawn before going silent.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: A few hours after the cooking festival*
It had been nearly Three hours sense the festivities concluded. Steel Will ended up winning and was now going to open up his own shop soon. It had come to a surprise when soon after talking to the investors, A female minotaur came up and Steel Will recognize her and they began to make a spectacle of themselves.
As it turned out, the one who had arrived was Melody, Steel Will’s wife. Apparently, she had been waiting for him to return home, but due to their society upholding honor, she was a little stubborn as well and didn’t come looking for him until their race’s law was concluded over this issue. So, she didn't outright come out to try her hand at bringing him home until she heard about him winning. But she did say that she was there the day that he and Steel Will were having their little cook off against one another.
Brex couldn't help but smile from underneath his mask at the sight of a family getting back together again. However, that smile soon morphed to that of sadness after some time had passed. This confused the Roegadyn, seeing as he had no memories of his own past but something about this scene was savagely tugging at his emotions quite hard.
He got to see High Road stuffing her face until she complained about needing Low Road to come over to roll her back home. In the end it took both Steel Will and his wife Melody to help carry her home, while still trying to keep her from grabbing any nearby food to stuff into her face as they walked by more tables on the way out.
Going back to the present, Brex had gone back to the Guild Hall and was now making his way up to his room. He had just made it to his door and had opened it up when Rory spoke up. She then said, "Master... Are you OK? You seem a bit off ever since you saw those two walking off with High Road."
Brex stayed quiet until he closed his door and made sure that he had locked it, then began making his way into the bathroom and took his place in front of the mirror. That's when he bent down and spoke to his reflection that slowly transition to that of Rory.
He switched over to his regular clothing and had let out a long-drawn-out sigh. He then ran the water from the faucet and splashed the water on his face and dried it using a towel nearby before looking back at the reflection.
He then started to speak in a somewhat, tired tone, "I really don't know. Just seeing those two back there, made me feel a little weird inside. It's a little odd, sort of like... Getting that lump in your throat while your insides feel as if they're being pulled towards your center. Is it possible that I'm actually lonely or did I have someone that I miss from my past?"
Rory then spoke up, "It's not like I have much experience in these sorts of things, my existence has only been around for as long as you've been here. I only know as much as you do. Perhaps these have something to do with your past life, like you say. Have there been any other clues or sensations you haven't been able to explain?"
This only got a headshake from him as his eyes began to look down towards the sink itself. Letting his shoulder sag, the Roegadyn splash some water onto his hands using the faucet and wiped his face in an attempt to somehow, clear his mind from doing this act.
He then responded with, "I keep getting these weird sensations now and then whenever I see something. It's not as if I noticed them as soon as they happened, it’s more like a lingering feeling that takes a while to register, so it's really hard to figure out what's been causing them. So, whenever I'm consciously trying to remember something that pops up, it just simply vanishes without a trace."
Brex could hear Rory humming to herself for a moment before she responded, "Perhaps the damaged sections within your mind, are already attempting to create a link with whatever you're seeing. You know, like in those videos you remember about human brain and the synapses. Perhaps The more you experience, the more likely these memories are going to come back."
He then responded to this by saying, "Well that's a plausible hypothesis. It's not like I already went and tried to use heaven's computer to look myself up.” That was quite true, one of the first things that he had done was to look up himself to see if there was anything he was unaware of. But when it came to him, it was a little weird. He had noticed that whenever it was about someone else, Heaven’s computer would either give the information or have it redacted by having it blocked out with some black texts that covered what was going to be seen. But when it came to looking at Brex, it displayed his name, race and other key information that he already had knowledge on. But other than that, everything else looked as if someone had loaded a computer virus. The words and texts were all jumbled up and pixelated.
He began to mumble to himself, "Maybe my past isn't something I want to know... I mean I already have enough on my plate as it is. Do you remember back in the castle when I had that weird panic attack?"
Rory then answered with a reluctant tone, "Oh yes... I do remember that. It was really scary the way you just suddenly broke down the way you did. If I recall, it sounded as if you were begging someone to stop. Did you ever figure anything out about that?"
Letting out a long sigh, the Roegadyn Answered with, "I never did come up with a reason for what that was about. No matter how hard I try to look back on that day, all I get is absolutely nothing. I just vaguely remember the sensation of letting down my guard, then that occurred."
After that, Brex started on his process of cleaning his gear of all the baking flour that had gotten on it from the fight with the Poisonous Pudding. It had taken him at least half an hour to get it all out of his robes and other parts of what he had been wearing back then. With a quick look to his upper right, he was able to see on his clock that it was getting close to ten at night.
Seeing as he had to suffer some very strange events that day, the Roegadyn climbed into bed and closed his eyes for the night. Just like every time he went to bed, he was capable of falling asleep almost instantly as soon as he laid his head onto the pillow and closed his eyes.
To the Roegadyn, only a few seconds had passed and he found himself in his dream house once again. He had expected to see Rory standing in the entrance hall like she had always done every night whenever he went to sleep. But he found that she was nowhere to be found from where he stood.
She had gone silent ever since their conversation not long ago. Finding an odd, Brex calls out, "Hey Rory is everything OK?" After a few seconds had passed by, he heard her voice from the second floor above. “I'm up here master.”
When he had turned his gaze upwards, he could see Rory who was leaning onto the railing while looking down towards him. Instead of wearing her usual attire which comprised of red and black Goth Lolita Clothing, she was instead wearing a gray night time bathrobe. This caused him to raise his right eyebrow as he has never seen her wear that aside from when he would find her sleeping next to him whenever he would start to wake up from his deep sleep.
She then fluttered her eyes once in a slow motion while giving him a small smile. Without saying another word, she slowly turned and proceeded out of his sight towards the door leading to their bedroom that was just out of view from the first floor.
Brex's eye suddenly went wide as is mouth hung partly open in shock. That was when the conversation that they had earlier that day came to the forefront of his mind. He started thinking to himself, “Oh no... Is she planning what I think she's planning? She... She wasn't really serious, was she?" He had recalled an episode from the show her character was on. It was the one where Rory Mercury tried to put the moves on the main character while they were at the hot springs resort in the middle of the night.
He then thought, “She is modeled after that character. Is it possible that she also…” He wasn't able to finish that thought when he heard Rory calling out to him, “Oh master, I'm waiting~” He could just feel the emotions that were coming from those words as Rory spoke.
Feeling goosebumps all over his body, the Roegadyn wasn't quite sure what to do right now. On one hand, a part of him was telling him, “NO.” This was the part of him that was all about reasoning. It was screaming that this would only cause him more pain if it didn't work out somehow. There was also the whole thing with this only being in his head.
Now for the other part that was saying, “Yes do it.” That was the part of him that was more impulsive and driven by his more natural based desires. This one was telling him it was OK. If this wasn't all happening in his head, then there would be no issues. Also, Rory seems to be really into it.
He was now in a mental dilemma. Does he hold himself back even though he has been having feelings? Or does he dive into that realm that he fears might change him. The only knowledge he had was not from his real life. As it turns out he did happen to remember things that he watched on either television or the internet. His knowledge on the subject was not limited to what he had seen in video games or anime. This meant that he had seen adult sites on the Internet And was not oblivious to those types of activities.
He had approached one of the stairs going up and had just stepped onto the bottom step when he had a stray thought running through his head. Because of his current race, he was far larger than a human. As for Rory, she had the young form of a human woman. This caused him to grow concerned for the one waiting in his room just ahead.
Taking a nervous gulp. He slowly ascends the stairs and walks over to the half open door of his bedroom to only stop a few inches away before crossing over to the point that he could be seen from within. Feeling even more nervous now than before, he takes in a deep breath of air before exhaling. Brex then says to himself in a low whisper, “No need to be nervous. It's just Rory on the other side. You've been with her for quite a while now and you know that she would never do anything that you wouldn't want to do... So just why do I want to run screaming right now?"
He closes his eyes to give himself a chance to psych himself up, then reaches forward and slowly opens the door the rest of the way. When he slowly opens his eye’s, he sees Rory sitting on the edge of the bed with her robe that was partly open just above the chest area.
Rory then sees Brex entering the room and gives him a small smile that just seems to grow bigger. Her slender arms were now at her sides and were helping to proper up as she partly leans back into the bed. As for her legs, they were still together but pushed to the side to give a mysterious vibe.
Quickly noticing that her eyes seemed slightly less focused the normal. The Roegadyn wondered if she was currently under the effects that the real Rory Mercury would be under after a fight.
After walking in, Brex closes the door behind him, but doing so without taking his eyes off of Rory. He came a little closer to the bed and stopped a good six feet away. Feeling unsure as to exactly what she had in mind, He went straight for the question and asked, “Does this have something to do with what we talked about earlier today?"
This got an enthusiastic nod from the woman as her smile turned into a hungry grin. Her eyes became more focused as she slowly licked her lips that were beginning to transition over to purple. A clear sign that she was worked up. She then got up and began to approach Brex at a slow pace. Her movements were clearly thought of ahead of time as she gracefully came towards him.
However, Brex Was feeling even more nervous with each step the woman took in his direction. Even though this was his dream self, his heart was still beginning to beat at an even quicker pace with each passing second.
Rory had only gotten within three feet before she came to a stop. Her once, almost predatory like features softened and a look of realization started to cross her face. She took in a few deep breaths before returning to what Brex was more accustomed to seeing.
She then continued the rest of the way with her normal strides and gave him a hug when she had gotten close enough. the Roegadyn tensed up for but a second before finally relaxing. She then spoke in a reassuring tone, “I'm sorry for freaking you out just now. It honestly slipped my mind about how you feel about aggressive women. I guess I got a little caught up in the moment.”
Upon hearing this, his body moved on its own and was now giving her a returned hug as he pulled her closer. This enlisted a gasp from Rory which quickly turned into a small giggle that he remembered so well.
Giving out a small laugh of his own, Brex Looked towards Rory and proceeded in picking her up until she was at eye level with him. This action however got a surprise, yet cute welp from the demi goddess.
Noticing the obscene sound that she had just produced. Rory then began to blush up a storm while slightly puffing up her cheeks in annoyance and was now looking off to the side to avoid her Master's eyes. Brex couldn't help but say the following, “Do you know you look cute when You pout?”
Immediately she buried her face into his neck while trying to hide her intensifying blush. Trying to speak, she ends up sounding as if she was on the verge of losing all self-respect while attempting to sound like a grown up. “I'm not cute! I'm supposed to be sexy!”
He then spoke close to her ear in a playful tone, “Can't you be both?” Rory then began to squirm while talking in her normal mischievous voice, “This didn't quite turn out how I thought it would.”
Brex Replied with, “I see, then how about you explain to me just what you intended to happen?” Rory then pulled away while showing a smaller pout than before, but this time it was way more playful, as if only putting it on for an act, “I don't know. I sort of expected you to just jump me. You're my big strong Master and I'm the little... Um well... Actually, I'm not really sure what I am really... I know what to call you, but you just call me by my name. This kind of makes me wonder what I should be referred to as whenever I’m talked about.”
Rory's face had finally turned back to its normal tinted color but with an under-lining blush still present. She then continued while speaking in a much softer tone, “This is something I've been wondering about once in a while for some time now." That was when Brex spoke up and said, “I get it. You don't want to be, just Rory. Is that it? Honestly that's something that I've wondered about too. How about this, I'll let you decide.”
Rory's eyes went wide as dinner plates when she heard this. It appeared that she was attempting to say something with the way her mouth was opening and closing. After a few seconds it became apparent that no words were escaping her lips. The only other change was the fact that now she was as red as a tomato and whisps of steam were now coming from the top of her head.
After what seemed like a good ten seconds had gone by, Rory closed her eyes and manage to calm herself down enough to open them again and speak up in a unsure tone while holding her hands up to her face and tapping her digits together nervously. “I um... well I h-have... Had a few in mind. I mean I-I could think of a few!” She was now squirming even more in his embrace while her legs were lightly kicking the air.
After stuttering a few more times the woman finally came to a decision and said the following with determination in her eyes. “I think for now we could start with you thinking of me as your...Servant…” She ended up trailing off at the end and Brex was unable to hear it.
He then asked in an assuring tone, “I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that last part.” Rory then turned her head to look straight up at him. But now there were slight traces of moisture on the side of her eyes as she was giving off these small contained squeals before she blurted out, “I WANT YOU TO CALL ME YOUR SERVANT!!”
This caused Brex to begin blinking while recovering from the sudden shout from Rory. Not only did the yelling catch him off guard, but it was also with what she wanted him to refer to her as. From how things were going, he had suspected that she was going to ask to be called his girlfriend or something along those lines.
He didn't quite know how to react to this. On one hand he was sad that she didn't say the other option. To him, this meant that she didn't really have a thing for him as a person. But instead, this was more of a Master, Servant relationship. As for the other side, a part of him was rather relieved, although he didn't know exactly why.
He then asked Rory, “Could you tell me why you want to be called that?” She then looked straight into his eyes and began to speak in her normal tone, “It's just that... I see how you look at the females now and then. So, I know you're into girls. But I can also see how you react towards them and I can sense your emotions to a degree without reading your mind.”
She then gave that a few seconds to be absorbed before she continued, “You're always on guard around them. Also, it doesn't help with the way they tend to treat the males of their race. Especially with the groups you had to encounter when we arrived in that city we went too.” She then lets out an annoyed sigh that was paired with a grunt as she looks to the side before continuing, “You started to get defensive when I came up to you just now. That's a clear sign that you have trust issues, especially when it comes to girls. Whenever you have to talk to any female, you always tend to keep them at a distance and leave to do something as quickly as possible. But when it comes to any of the guys, you're perfectly fine. I'm positive this has something to do with how things were before you arrived in Equestria.”
Brex closed his eyes and released a breath he was holding before replying, “I honestly don't know what it is. I can't bring myself to relax when they're around. Something inside just screams that I need to not trust them fully. I can’t shake the feeling that they're going to try and take advantage of me in some way.” That's when he finally opened his eyes to look at Rory and adds, “But I don't feel that way when it comes to you. I'm sorry for what I did a moment ago. It's just that, I wasn't expecting something like this. So, I ended up getting defensive.”
After saying that, he then adjusted his hold on Rory so that she was now being carried in a princess style. This caused her to let out a small giggle as she looked up at him with half lidded eyes before asking in a sultry voice, “Well, now that’s been cleared up. What would Master like to do with his servant now?” That was when she began tracing her left hand's index finger on his shirt in a small circular motion.
Brex started towards the bed with Rory Still in his arms. He then sat on the edge of it and laid Rory sitting on his lap sideways so her right side was pressing up against him. His left hand was on her shoulder pulling her in close, while his right hand was now laying on her right leg’s inner thigh.
The woman visibly shuddered in excitement with the new sensation she was experiencing. Noticing the reaction, Brex asked, “I know that in a way, you are made up of everything I knew from the time you came to be. But could you tell me just what it is you know when it comes to what we're about to do?”
She then answered with, “Well I know quite a bit of it. By that I mean, you know, the basics. Along with some interesting material. She then gave him a sly smile before adding, “I think my master used to be a bit of a perve, Hehe.”
This got Brex to blush furiously. He thought to himself, “Huh, just what is she talking about?" He began racking his brain for what she could have meant. After a few seconds his eyes went wide with realization. It didn't take a rocket genius to put two and two together. If she was created using things he knew, then that must have meant that she had some of his knowledge from all of the anime's and video games, as well as various videos he may have seen in his past life. Which meant, the adult theme subjects from those must have also been incorporated into her.
When he looked down, he could see Rory sporting a wide smile that could have put the Cheshire cat From Alice-in-Wonderland to shame. She just had to have known that he realized what she meant. Giving a nervous gulp, he then asked, “So... Have you... Done anything that I'm not aware of?”
This question was apparently what was needed to turn the tables on the young woman. Rory began to stutter while squirming on his lap. Her legs were now grinding against each other as she attempted to respond. The knowing smirk that she once had, was now on the Roegadyn's face as he lifted one of his eye brows to show interest.
Bringing both hands up to her face and an attempt to hide it, she began to blurt out, “I may have done a few things here and there while you were busy or asleep... I didn't do much! The worst of it was at the very first day!” This drew a very confused reply from him as he said, “What?”
He could swear that she was attempting to look smaller. She then continued with her story by saying, “It was the very day we met. Well, I guess it should be the first day you woke up after you were out cold for three days. Do you remember when you were clearing out the castle?”
This got an absent-minded nod from Brex. She then continued with, “Well if you recall that time you had to shout to get me to respond... I... Was rather preoccupied with something. After watching you fight for a while, I started to feel these urges that I wasn't quite sure about, So I retreated deeper into your mind out of fear that I might do or say something that would anger you. That was when I began to use...Um…” When she had gone to that point, Brex could tell that she was at her limit due to the embarrassment and quickly came to a conclusion.
He then asked her in a low, tender tone, “You used things on yourself, didn't you?” This got a silent nod from the girl before he continued, “Please go on.”
This only got another series of high pitch squeals as she tries to contain herself. She manages to fight through the embarrassment before shouting out. “I placed myself on a bed and used bondage on my body! I wrapped my body from head to toe, literally. I originally wanted it to contain me so I didn't end up doing something I would regret. But all I did was make things worse! But no matter what, it just wasn't enough! It took you calling for me to finally push me over the edge!”
She was now getting up and had situated herself to sit on his lap with her legs spread while facing towards him. There was now a hunger in her eyes as she stared into his. Brex could see that she was now breathing very heavily. Her lips were partly open and they had fully transitioned over to their purple lipstick color. She then wrapped her arms around his neck and began to whisper in a desperate, Needy tone, “M-Master... I-I need Your help... Just thinking about that time, has me going...” Her voice was now trembling.
She had just closed her eyes shut while her entire body was visibly shaking from some type of carnal need. It was painfully apparent to the Roegadyn that she was in distress. Without even thinking, Brex moves in and gives Rory a gentle kiss on the lips.
He could feel her body going rigid from the moment of contact. Slowly, she began to relax her muscles and leaned into the kiss. The sensation of them making contact was enough to send a small shock to run through his form. After a few seconds of this, he pulled back and looked into her eyes. They were now glazed over, but before he could think of anything else, Rory came in for another kiss but this time with more force behind it.
Brex could suddenly feel a set of legs wrapping around his lower section as Rory moaned into his lips. He could feel his own body heating up from this exchange. From down below, he could feel something that was now stirring.
After several seconds of this, Rory pulled herself back. Her breathing had become quick and heavy as her entire body was essentially convulsing. She then began to rock her hips forward into his crotch where his member was beginning to swell up from underneath his pants.
With unfocused, half lidded eyes, she began panting. She then started to speak in an extremely submissive tone that she had yet to show to him before. “P-please... Master, I can't stand it anymore. I've been waiting for so long. I said I was going to wait. I said I wouldn't try anything...” At this point she was almost crying as if trying to speak was becoming extremely difficult for her.
She then pressed her entire body on to him and buried her face into the side of his neck. At this point she was full on crying as she started to speak again, “I can't take it anymore. I got all worked up before you even went to sleep. Then you had to go and hug me like that... Now we're on the bed and I just got done telling you what I did all those years ago without your knowledge... Please, Please do something with me!”
Even after hearing this, Brex could hardly believe what she had said. Rory was essentially throwing herself at him. He had no idea that she had done such things, much less back then. He couldn't deny that he was feeling it right now with how she was begging for him to do something to her. Even if she was something that was created to help him in his time of need and the past. He never really once thought of her as a thing or a program. Sure, at the beginning he didn't fully trust her, but as time went on, that trust grew to the point that he felt that he could place his very life in her hands. She would help him with any problem and give him advice whenever he asked for it. Even if that advice was not exactly what he had expected to hear.
Giving her a gentle smile, Brex asked, “Are you sure about this? I mean just look at us. You're human and... Well, I'm this.” Brex then motion towards his body with one of his hands. He then continued with, “Not to mention I don't really know how things would work with my new form. For all I know right now, It's like a human but much bigger. What if the similarities end there?”
At this point, Rory was panting as if she was in heat. She released her grip on him and brought her right hand down between the both of them and gently placed it onto his crotch, right over the bulge that was developing in his pants. Using her palm, she began to stroke it along with her fingers. This had the immediate effect of causing it to tug tighter as it tried to escape the confining clothing.
Brex was now beginning to breathe a little heavily himself. Seeing Rory in such a state and coupled with how she was attempting to coax his lower part was arousing him even further. What he heard next from Rory nearly sent him over the edge.
While showing him a drunk expression of lust. She managed to say, “We can experiment with your body together. This is a dream after all, right? Hehe. You can do anything you want to me~ Anything we do in here will feel real.” She then leaned closer to his left ear and began to whisper in a very alluring voice. “I'm pretty strong. You don't have to worry about little me. As much as I want this... I'm worried about you too. I can feel that you're so pent up, it's not healthy to hold back~ So please, use my body anyway you want.”
It didn't take much more effort after that for the Roegadyn to take action. He takes hold of Rory’s robes near her neck and begins to slowly pull it down. Upon seeing this, the woman undoes the knot that was holding the front together. This allows the robe to easily glide down her form. The clothing is then hastily tossed to the side to reveal that she was wearing nothing at all underneath.
Rory had perfectly smooth skin with no blemish at all. Her raven black hair fell down to just past her ass cheeks. From the front, her crimson red eyes which would normally be seen as something intimidating, was right now, extremely alluring. Just as Brex had assume before, this woman had a pair of A-cup breasts and their nipples were standing erect.
He then allowed his eyes to travel south to find that she was completely shaven down below from what he could see. Noticing where his eyes were going, Rory gave out a small giggle as she said, “Do you like what you see? I thought you might like to see something that's not covered in hair for once.”
After seeing Rory completely naked after being around her for this long, Brex just couldn't take it anymore. In the beginning he thought he could weather it out but he kept finding his eyes wandering whenever there was an attractive female over the course of the last month. It didn't help any that he kept getting hit on by pretty much every one of them that he came across.
Inside he finally screamed, “OH fuck it! Screw celibacy. I'm stuck here for who knows how long. I'll go insane if I don't do something about these urges!”
Now surrendering to his natural instincts, the Roegadyn concentrates on his clothing. This causes them to simply fade away and leave him in the nude with Rory in a position where her sex was pressing up against his standing tall, erect cock.
It just so happened to be at that very moment when his clothes disappeared that she was grinding herself along the bulge that was inside of the pants. A loud gasp escaped her as she felt her needy, lower lips grinding up against is fully erect member.
Brex could feel at the time she rubbed herself against him, that her lower region glided across it with very little friction. It didn't take him long to notice that the underside of his member was now coated in Rory’s juices. If he had been paying more attention before, then he would have noticed how his crotch was getting soaked in her juices through his pants earlier.
They both looked down and caught the sight of what a Roegadyn’s member looked like. It was quite a surprise for the both of them. With Rory living within his head, Brex was never really alone, so not once did he ever take care of himself in private. This meant that he didn't even know how big he was when he got worked up. He had never really considered that the size might be proportional to his body. If so, it would stand that his package would be quite large since he’s well over seven feet tall.
Now while Brex was surprised about how big he was. Rory on the other hand, was not wasting her chance and took his hard member in both hands. She then began to run her hands up-and-down its length in a slow, tender motion as if she was worshiping what she had found.
*Point of view: Rory Mercury *
From Rory’s side, she felt overwhelmed when she saw her Master's member. Just to make sure she wasn't imagining it; the woman was running her hands up-and-down his shaft as she was taking note of its size. By the time her mind registered that it was more than seven inches long and over two inches in thickness. She had absent mindedly stroked her Master's cock for at least a good 30 seconds.
During that time, her lower lips were only growing even more moist with just a simple gesture of giving him a hand job. Through her slender fingers, she felt his member giving a few twitches. This indicated to her that she was making her Master feel good, which only fueled her desires to continue.
Bringing up what she knew from her Master's memories, Rory got up from her spot and dropped to her knees right between his legs. With eyes transfixed on his member, she began to stroke it while only inches from her face. She had been fantasizing about this ever since the day that they spoke. She was so focused on him, that she failed to notice that she was grinding her lower lips onto the floor while keeping pace with what her hands were doing. This only caused the floor to grow damp as a small puddle was beginning to form.
She could hear how her Master's breath was becoming quicker himself as she worked his shaft. She was about to approach it with her lips but stopped herself and looked up to her Master with pleading eyes. She then spoke with a shaky tone in her words, "Master... Can your servant please have a taste?"
She knew deep down that her Master just loved it when she called him that. She didn't need to see his thoughts or anything of the sort to know that this type of talk would turn him on. But she was able to feel his emotions enough to anticipate what she said and did would cause him to feel. She also knew how he felt about losing control. That was the only reason why she had stopped herself from going any further, she knew that she needed his permission.
It didn't take any time at all for her to hear her master to give her permission by letting out a small grunt while he shifted his hips forward enough to push his member up to her face. When he did so, it brushed up against both her lips and nose. Unfortunately For Rory, she had no access to any memories of what this would smell like so she wasn't able to enjoy the act of having it so close like this. But she was capable of feeling everything through her body. She may have been created within his mind, but Rory was still able to somehow feel things as if she were alive.
She only wished that she was out in the real world. So, she could feel absolutely everything when it came to her master. But for now, the two of them would have to make do with this wet dream of theirs.
Rory opened her lips and brought the tip close enough to give it a long caressing lick. This got her master to jerk his member and let out a content gasp from above. Again, knowing that she was actually bringing him pleasure, only made her nethers feel even more hotter.
She then took more of it into her mouth. She only had inside about an inch or two, but she felt that she was already filling her mouth to the limit. She was capable of feeling it but still knowing that she couldn't taste it was driving her mad. Oddly enough, just doing this and feeling it in her mouth was only making it more enjoyable for herself.
Her hands were still rubbing at his shaft. She made sure to look up towards her Master as she continued to pump his cock inside of her mouth while she sucked near the tip and used her tongue to lick at the underside. All the while making sure that whenever he looked down, she would give him the sluttyest expression she could muster.
It didn't take long for him to look down and she noticed how drunk he was on what she was doing for him. She was about to pull away to say something, but she was grabbed from behind the back of her head by his left hand that had come down without her noticing it.
That was when he pulled her in and began to push more of his member into her mouth. Normally in this situation a girl would most likely try to resist in some way, even just a little. But in Rory’s case, this was a welcome act of control from her master. She could sense that he was feeling this as much as she was, if not more.
At first, he went at her slowly, with only pushing the tip to where it was only a moment ago before pulling back out back to the tip. It was pushed back in once again, but this time just a little bit further than the last. When the number of times he thrusted came up to the sixth time, Rory was now being penetrated in her throat which was now causing her to make some gagging noises. Thanks to her Master's constant thrusting that was keeping a steady pace, Rory was able to time her hips to grind the floor to imitate his thrusting.
With the woman, just having her Master’s cock in her mouth and being in control with his hand on her head, was enough to get her juices flowing even more than before. Now adding that to a gyrating hip that was at work at that moment, meant grinding her lower lips onto the bedroom floor was now fogging up her mind. She was feeling some discomfort from her throat being roughly used, but it wasn't enough to cause her any concern. It was actually extremely enjoyable for the woman.
She had managed to take him about halfway down his shaft before she realized that her throat was bulging all the way as it repeatedly penetrated her. Rory knew that if she was in the real world, she would be unable to breathe right now and would most likely be struggling to stay conscious. But with this being in the dream, air wasn’t really a problem.
The only thoughts she had in her head at this point, were those about her Master being rougher with her body. She wanted him to take out his frustrations with her as his tool. What she had said before to him came across her mind. It was when she said that she wanted him to call her his servant. She remembered that she had said that, but what she really wanted to say was that she wanted to be called by, something more.
She wanted a title that meant more than just being a servant. Why, why didn't she say that she wanted to be called something like, Like a slave... Yes, that's what she really wanted to be called. But she knew that would be too much right now. She didn't know why, but she had the feeling that if she said something like that before, it will only cause her Master to feel something that she knew she didn't want him to. Maybe in the future she could tell him this.
Her thoughts on this only melted away as her arousal started to take her over. The woman’s lower lips were now screaming for attention that didn't come from just bucking Her hips in place. She managed to pull her face back far enough that her master's cock popped out from her now glistening lips.
With drool now dripping from her mouth. Rory asked while heavily panting, “M-Master... Please I really... I really need it down... there...” She was reaching down while she spoke and was sitting down and spreading her legs. With two of her fingers, she easily parted her lower lips. This displayed Rory’s womanhood in plain view to her Master to see from where she sat on the ground. She was so turned on right now that she was positive that her pussy was winking uncontrollably for something to enter.
She spoke with an out of breath and trembling tone, “I can't... I can't wait anymore; Master I need you... *Panting* I need you inside me. My pussy is burning. *Panting* Please give your servant your hard cock...” At this point, Rory had a thick line of droll that was escaping from the corner of her mouth as her eyes were completely fixated on her Masters manhood.
Brex Bent over and reached for Rory. She was taken into his grasp by both his arms and was pulled to her feet. He didn't stop there and lifted her off the ground. She was then placed in the same position that she was in prior to getting onto the floor. The only difference was that she was now being suspended just above his now throbbing cock.
Rory was then slowly lowered so that her pussy was now touching the tip of his member. A loud gasp escaped her mouth as she looked down with wide eyes. Biting her lower lip, Rory braced herself for what was going to be the first time that she and her master were going to be so intimate.
She could feel her lips below being parted as his cock was beginning to push its way through the opening. Experiencing such a sensation was almost too much for the woman as a loud moan escaped her mouth as it began to hang wide open when she threw her head back. Her left hand was brought up to her mouth as she then started to bite on one of her fingers to stifle any more unlady like moans from escaping.
That was when she heard her master speaking. His voice almost didn't register to her with how overwhelmed she was with only this much being done. She could tell that he was excited as well and was holding himself back with how he grunted between breaths. He had asked if it was OK to continue. Rory was able to tell that he was deeply concerned about her with how the two of them had such differences in body size.
Rory began thinking, "Master, if he cares about me... Gah! But this is just torture... I just want him to do what he wants... But he's still worried about me... I just want him to do whatever makes him feel good and not hold back. He has no idea just How much of a masochist I really am... If he only knew the type of things that turned me on. But I can't tell him right now. He still has trust issues and I can't push him too far."
Without even looking at his face, Rory continued to stare up at the ceiling while partly keeping her fingers in her mouth as she spoke, “Master can do anything he wants, *GASP* to me. You remember who I am."
When those words escaped her lips, Rory was suddenly pulled down and her master's cock began penetrating her vagina as three inches rammed their way in. This was accompanied by a high pitch scream of ecstasy from Rory as she arched her back from the welcomed rough penetration. Feeling something so deep within, nearly caused the woman to have an orgasm right on the spot.
Now having quick and short breaths escaping her mouth she couldn't think straight anymore. Rory could have sworn that she felt some type of stinging pain down there, but it only lasted for but a split second. It barely registered to her that was in fact, her Hymen being broken. The woman's insides felt that they were being stretched to their limits. The only thing that managed to go through her head right then and there was, “Oh... My... God! If I knew it felt this good, I would've tried to get him to do this... A Lot sooner~”
Her Master then began to pull her up with his hands on either side of her hips. This only got her to let out another loud gasp as she felt his member beginning to slide back out. Right as it got to the very tip, he then lowered her back down again. But this time, at an agonizingly slow pace. Unlike the thrust that broke her Hyman, this one was something that allowed her to feel every centimeter of her insides being brushed up and pushed wide.
Rory was now just a pile of jelly at this moment. Her body was now shivering as her Master slowly penetrated her repeatedly. Losing herself completely to her senses, Rory had her arms hanging limply at her sides while her head was pulled back. The woman's tongue was now hanging from the side of her mouth as drool was flowing freely and falling down onto her chest. From there it traveled between her small breasts until it reached past her belly and down to where she and her master were now connected.
She was barely able to keep herself from passing out, but she was able to hear her master's grunts of pleasure as he took full control of the situation. Which only caused her to feel more aroused that she was now being used by him.
Her master continued with this set of motions for perhaps a dozen more minutes. But halfway through, he began to increase the speed and force that was used on her body. At this point his head was pushing harder and harder on to her cervix. There was even a part that his cock was rubbing against constantly that sent more electric shocks through Rory’s body. She wasn't able to concentrate enough to figure this out, but right there, her master was constantly rubbing onto her G-spot that was located inside of her vagina. This was due to the fact that, up until then, she had never even put her fingers into her own body.
She didn't know when it had happened, but when her senses started to come back. Rory found that she had been turned around while her Master was still inside. She tried to get a grasp on what happened but was distracted when she felt her Master's fingers lightly pinching her small nipples. Yet at the same time, he was rocking his hips which caused the cock inside to continue moving. She was quite literally writing his cock as she could feel at least four or five inches of it penetrating her tiny pussy. She didn't know, but there was still more that hadn't been able to push in due to her size.
Each time her nipples were pinched and lightly twisted, this sent a new wave of pleasure that almost caused her to pass out. There was also a new feeling that was swelling up below that she knew full well resembled what she had experienced when she had herself bound to the bed back when she didn't think that she could trust herself to keep control. Rory was about to have a massive orgasm unlike any other that she'd felt before. Sure, she had been playing with herself now and then, but this was on a whole other scale.
Rory wanted to scream out that she was coming, but all that managed to come out of her mouth was some unintelligible sentences. Wanting to last long enough for her Master’s enjoyment, the woman managed to put together a sentence and screamed, "MAS-MASTER! I’M... I’M CUMMINNG! MAY I CUM?! I-I CAN'T HOLD BACK MUCH LONGER!"
She heard her master letting out another grunt, but this one sounded more virile and wild. It was then followed by him calling out in a commanding voice. “I'm about to cum!” All she could do was respond in a pleading tone as she screamed out loud while grabbing her breasts from underneath. "OH, CUM INSIDE OF ME! FILL ME MASTER!!"
Only a second or two passed before the pair of them came together. As Rory filled the dream building with her high-pitched screams of ecstasy, there was also a beast like roar that emanated from the Roegadyn.
The woman felt the pressure explode from within. She was literally on the edge from nearly the beginning and because of this she was the first to feel the release. Her womanly juices came spraying from around the sides of her master's cock and ran down the rest of his member until it was staining the bed. Her crimson eyes widened as the iris’s became the size of pinpricks’ during this time and slowly return to normal as her face began to relax which left her with a dreamy expression plastered on.
But this didn't last for much time at all as she felt her Master's member swelling as it got ready to release its load within her small, slender form. She quickly noticed that she was still sitting on his cock which was still rock hard. All of her strength had left her body So she had no means of bracing herself for what was about to happen. Gravity itself was holding her fast in place, which meant that his cock was pushed as far as it could go.
There was then a nearly searing hot source of heat that had come out of Nowhere from deep within her. A new wave of pressure was now building at an alarming rate. With what little strength she had she tilted her head forward to gaze at what was happening. To her surprise Rory saw that her belly was now showing a small bulge that was growing ever so slightly.
Still not having fully come down from her orgasm before, Rory's pussy was still clamping down on her Master's member. This made it difficult for any of his seed to leak from her lower lips that seem to refuse anything from her master from escaping it.
With nowhere to go her master's semen continued to be pumped into her. From this another orgasm was quickly crashing upon Rory’s mind. Any words that she would have wanted to utter were caught in her throat as her eyes began to roll back from Yet another wave of intense pleasure. Her master was unleashing rope after rope of thick seed into her body. By the time he had deposited the last of it, Rory's belly now resembled that of someone who was at least two or three months into being pregnant. By now, Rory had her second orgasm and had passed out due to the overload of pleasure.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex was at this moment coming down from losing control. He couldn't believe what he had eventually done. The things that Rory said and did for him, were practically out of a porno. He had to admit that after getting a moment to think about it. He did have a whole lot of memories when it came to seeing things on the Internet. Which was quite strange seeing as that would count as something personal.
Putting that aside, Brex saw how Rory was completely out of it. She was still riding on top of his cock even though they had both finished. Carefully he pulled Rory up and off of his member. When he did, the cum that was contained within her small frame was now gushing forth and onto the edge of the bed, from there it continued until it fell onto the floor beneath them.
He went wide eyed upon seeing the amount that he had just produced. Scared that he might have overdone it somehow, he looked back towards Rory’s face and saw that she had an extremely gleeful expression. Letting out a relief sigh, he held her close to his sitting form in a loving embrace.
He couldn't help but think back to more of what she had just done with him. The way she worked his shaft and had it within her mouth. Then there was what she did While on the floor and begging him to take her. There was nothing he could do and his body's natural instincts just took control. Brex then remembered how it felt when he had pushed himself into her lower lips. Rory was so tight and warm, even though it was lubricated from so much of her aroused juices.
He had wondered if this was only because he was inside of his own mind, that he was capable of doing such a thing along with how big he was down there when he turned on. Shaking his head of that idea. He didn't believe that he was capable of doing such a thing in the real world.
All that he knew now, was that he had slept with Rory Mercury. He smiled to her and got up while still holding her and brought her around to the side of the bed, then carefully placed the girl under the sheets.
He wasn't about to get a big head over doing something like this. But of course, this was no small thing to him either. He started to think to himself, “She was probably putting on an act for me... I doubt I was really all that good. I just hope that she at least got to feel good from it.” At this point his shoulders were sagging a little bit as his self-doubt over his performance was slowly taking hold. After a few seconds he managed to shake those doubts away and climbed to bed beside Rory.
Somehow, he felt a whole lot better than before he had gone to bed. But before closing his eyes to fall into REM sleep, The woman beside him who was still out, somehow managed to move and began to straddle his form while giving out a series of content sighs as she nuzzled her face into his chest. He then couldn't resist muttering this under his breath, " What did I do... to deserve you." That was when he finally closed his eyes for the night.
The very next morning, Brex woke up straight into the real world. Normally he would have done so first and his dream house but He felt that he really needed to get up as quickly as possible. He was about to throw off the sheets that were covering him but when he shifted his legs, he felt something odd.
The Roegadyn had always slept in his clothing since coming to this world, but for once he wished he hadn't. Letting out a long-drawn-out grown of annoyance, Brex mutters while giving himself a facepalm. “Great... just great. Now I need to go and find the nearest laundromat. Thank goodness I'm not in the full-on pony version of Equestria. At least here they wear clothing everywhere.”
*Point of view: Little Moon* *Location: The Other Side*
Back on the other side. Little Moon, while still in her Diva body, was walking through an oddly shaped hallway with numerous doors made out of different materials. These materials ranged from metals, wood and what appeared to be liquid and gas. Each one was designed distinctly different from the other.
Little moon made her way over to a door that seems to be an amber shade of red. Where there would be a nameplate hung for someone to know who was behind the door, was instead a drawing of a smile with a large circle above it that made it look as if someone was looking at a drawing of a Cyclops smiling.
While seeming to be in a hurry, little moon flings the door open and nearly causes it to crash into the wall as it is violently pushed open. When this was done there was a feminine whelp that came from the room within. The sound in question came from a woman who was in a white blouse and a short black Mini skirt that had her hair tied up into a bun.
In a somewhat panic tone, the woman starts shouting, “Sister what are you doing here? Also why are you busting into my room like this?” While the woman was speaking, her arms were attempting to move aside paperwork that was strewn across her desk. One of which fell off and fluttered closer towards Little Moon and landed next to the younger sister’s feet.
Seeing that she had caused a commotion, Little Moon bent down and picked up the piece of paper with intentions of bringing it back to her sister. She was now taking a glance at it as she was walking towards the desk and her footsteps became slower as her eyebrows slowly began to rise. She then asked in an accusatory tone, “Ah, little light, do you mind telling me what this is?” She was now standing at the foot of the desk and was now waving the piece of paper next to her head as if trying to draw attention to it.
While giving a somewhat embarrassed chuckle, Little Light begins to say, “Oh that?! well... that's just. I mean to say... That's just a little doodle I was doing while thinking on... Something else..." Little Light was now giving a big toothy grin as a halo appeared above her head while her eyes were now glistening with sparkles.
Seeing this, Little Moon gave her the, “Are you kidding me look.” She then slammed the paper on the desk and pointed an accusatory finger towards it while asking, “Oh a doodle you say? It looks more like something else to me. Just who makes a doodle with a diagram of a human woman that has numbers on it that state height, weight, along with some notes on activities, likes and dislikes. Then next to it, has a list of unfortunate outcomes that are made using very complex equations. Equations I might add, I have seen you yourself use on occasion when giving Daddy and myself a lecture?”
Little Light quickly snatched up the paper and threw it into a cabinet nearby and snapped her fingers. Then a bunch of chains and a giant padlock with the engraving saying “Acme products” appeared and it began wrapping itself tightly and locking in place around said cabinet.
After completing this, the older sister turned back towards Little Light and asked, “It's not that I enjoy you coming to visit me once in a while. But just why are you here in the first place anyhow?”
Little Moon then went and was now throwing out her arms to the sides and started yelling, "I JUST PICKED ONE OF THEM UP ON THE TABLE FOR A FEW SECONDS! I THINK THEY MIGHT KNOW ABOUT HIM BEING BACK IN EQUESTRIA!!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 23: Monkey Suit. Part 1.
It was now a little over two weeks since that night with Rory. To say that things were a little awkward on that morning was an understatement with how Brex had to find somewhere that he could get his clothing cleaned. In the end, he ended up just fine. The Roegadyn found what he required to do it himself and washed the clothing in his bathroom. This was because his gear was glamoured so it was a lot tougher than it looked and he didn't want to raise suspicions by having those that work with clothing on a regular bases to notice something off about them.
Then there was the whole attitude with Rory changing overnight. She was far more attentive when it came to the time that he would go to sleep. Whenever they were doing their thing whenever he didn't have to go into deep REM Sleep, she would always be trying to cuddle up next to him whenever possible. There was also how she was always trying to entice him into more activities now and then.
Brex was still under the mindset that everything that happened was just for his benefit and that the things Rory would say about him, may not have been entirely truthful. So, he was rather reluctant in doing anything during this time.
But it seemed that Rory was able to understand him to some degree and reluctantly did not press the subject too much. But that didn't stop her from doing some rather provocative poses or letting out a few phrases now and then that would get his attention.
As usual he would still go and do a few jobs here and there to make some extra coin. There were a few times that he had passes made on him by either the other Guild members or the clients that he would end up coming across. He managed to sidestep their advances without seeming too rude about it but it didn't help when Rory would point something's out and would actively encourage him in trying new things. Well, those were her words. If Brex didn’t know any better, he would have thought that she was encouraging his natural urges.
Now back to the present. Brex was now getting ready to leave his apartment and start heading down to the new bakery shop that Steel Will was going to open today. It didn't take that much time to decide on a location and with all the publicity from the festival it was quite easy to get some eager contractors to renovate the building for his purposes.
Brex found it funny that normally the phrase would be something along the lines of, “It’s never a good idea to have a bull in a shop.” Or something along those lines. He wasn’t quite sure seeing as he was not some genius, proverb writer. At any rate the shop was going to be opened soon and he was making his way down the street after exiting the building. For once he didn't run into either High Road or Low Road at the front counter, which would have made the exiting process so much longer. This was because they were going to be at the opening ceremony. The trip over to the shop only lasted a good 15 minutes and when he arrived, there was already a small group of individuals that he knew from his time there.
( The larger building with the nights on near the corner is how it looks.)
As for the building itself, it was one of those types that was built connecting to another building next to it. It was comprised of three stories with the top floor that was meant for living arrangements and storage, while the bottom floor was where the kitchen and shop was for the customers to walk in and place their orders. The inside of the bottom floor had windows for those outside to look in and what was seen reminded Brex of one of those 1950s cafes Is with the long L-shaped counter that went around and several booths near the windows.
The front of the building looked pretty much like everything else, but the floor with the shop was a little more decorated. Ironically enough, a lot of the styles of decorations that were on the outside and the inside reminded him of a cowboy theme. The entrance was comprised of two double doors and right above it on the outside was a pair of fake horns.
There was currently a big red bow that was stapled to the sides of the doorway and Steel Will and his wife Melody were standing in front of it while holding a pair of silver scissors that were a good foot and a half long. Further from the door was a group of individuals that Brex new well.
Low Road was currently trying to keep ahold of her older sister High Road who currently was vibrating in place like a jackhammer. This was due to her being told ahead of time, which was a mistake learned immediately. After the ceremony was concluded, there was a truck load of pastries already made ahead of time for this occasion for all those who were invited on opening day to get free samples of.
There was also the group of investors which comprised of two Earth ponies, one Unicorn and a Pegasus. These four he never really got the name of nor did he really try too, so he was just going to call them ponies one through four. The investors were wearing black suits and ties and had an indifferent look on their faces. But Brex was able to see that they too were drooling on the sides of their mouths waiting for the ribbon to be cut.
There were also multiple members from the Guild that were invited that knew Steel Will pretty well. So, if all individuals were counted including himself, that there would be a good 14 standing outside of the store right now.
One of the Guild members who happened to be a female unicorn came up and said, hey there Gambit, you almost got a little late there. We're setting up the camera you're. Gonna get In line or what? Brex gave the pony a nod and started walking towards the group and got into position for the shot.
It didn't take long for everyone to get in place and the photo was taken by using one of those oversized ones that needed the flash powder. Turns out the ponies used magic in place for the flash. Steel Will and Melody were standing there and saying that they were going to hang up this photograph inside the bakery, which was going to be the start of many.
The party lasted pretty much the entire day. Just as predicted, High Road ended up eating more than twice her body weight and pastries. Brex wondered if these ponies had a natural metabolism for all that sugar but considering that there was this one pink mare in the show that always looked the same, He just went with it.
But what got the night to go into overdrive, was when Steel Will and Melody made the announcement that she was pregnant. If that wasn't enough, then what they announced right after nearly caused Brex to faint on the spot. Apparently, he and Steel Will got along together so well that he ended up saying to all present that Gambit was going to be the godfather of the child. It was understandable that he wasn't able to really speak much at all when the announcement was made.
At some point in the party, the couple were off to the side and Brex was able to catch some of their conversation while strolling around and making his way towards the kitchen to check it out. He went wide eyed and was standing in place as he blinked repeatedly when he heard that they were going to call their kid Iron Will. He couldn't believe it. He had recalled in the show that the character known as Iron Will was older in the cartoon show. This only proved to him that not everything was going to be the same.
When the party was over and everyone was leaving to go home, Brex was with the group that was made up of Steel Will, his wife and the investors. In the middle of leaving was Low Road who was currently rolling her older sister High Road on the ground like some pony shaped bolder. When they were all outside of the front doors, a messenger pony came up to them from the street that was wearing one of those oversized caps and handed a letter to one of the investors.
There was a huge uproar among the four of them before they quickly turned to Steal Will and started to inform him that it was a letter from Canterlot. Apparently, word had reached the princess about his new culinary creation and she was planning on a visit. This of course caused red flags to pop up all over inside of Brex’s mind. He thought to himself, “Oh screw waiting until that rank up thing happens! I'm high tailing it out of here tonight! No way am I going to wait for… for…”
Brex couldn’t finish that sentence when his mind went all fuzzy and a vague memory flashed before him. It was with him standing before a blue flower bed and the sun was high in the sky. He had just turned around when the image turned dark after seeing that his form was now missing its right arm and was showing a pained reaction as he was looking at what had happened and grasping the stump that remained. After that, the world quickly came back into focus and it appeared that no one around him had noticed, so he figured that it may have been something similar to that time with the starting town in his game that had to do with that one girl he still couldn’t identify.
Brex was able to determined that what he saw, was most likely a part of what happened between him and Princess Celestia in the past. Those three from the other side didn’t say what exactly had happened concerning that interaction between the two of them, but he knew that very flower bed was from the Castle of the two sisters. Judging from where the sun was in that flashback, he could tell that it was in the day and the only time he had remembered seeing those flowers, was the night before those two guard mare’s left to go back.
Trying to control his anger, the Roegadyn shook his head and figured out what Little Moon meant when she mentioned the bit about the Princess pulling a Widow Maker on him. In his head he thought, “Dam that Bitch! She really did shoot before asking questions… Who in the seven hells just shoots someone minding their own business…” Taking a few, slow and calming breaths. The Roegadyn brings himself down from an eruption of anger that might have caused a scene in front of all those nearby. He then finished with, “I really need to leave, like now… I don’t think I could trust myself if I delayed and ended up seeing her with my current state.”
He had no problems with just up and leaving at a drop of a hat. But after what happened during the party, he wasn't just going to go up in a puff of smoke without saying a few words to Steal Will. When everybody had left, it was just the three of them and Brex pointed to the building and they all went inside for their little talk. It had taken a fair amount of time for him to explain the situation. This was only due to the whole three word limit he had placed onto himself. In the end, the pair of them understood his situation to a degree, but made sure that he promised to come visit them whenever possible. Steel Will even made promises of castrating him if he missed the day that their kid was going to be born.
He figured that the both of them would smooth things out with the rest without spilling too much of the details. What the Roegadyn had mentioned to them, was essentially the following. He and Princess Celestia had a complicated past with one another and he didn't want to see her right now. Also, he was going to be traveling around a lot, so he was not going to stay in one place for too long.
When it had come down to how they would get ahold of him, He had convinced them that he would somehow know and would show up when he was needed. If anything should ever come up, he would come running.
A few hours passed after that and he was currently leaving the Guild. Brex left a note for the two mare’s at the front desk that informed them that he was leaving and the room was usable for another.
(( This is the Mane Hattan Picture but more Anthro. ))
Just like always, the Roegadyn exited the town and made his way to the open fields towards the next town on his list. Which happened to be Equestria’s own big apple, known as Mane Hattan. It was a little more than half a day longer than it had taken for his last little road trip but it was still along the coastline, so made for an enjoyable sightseeing cruise on the dirt roads while riding his bike.
When he had arrived at Mane Hattan. He found that it was not like the previous cities that had a large wall to surround it. This one had a natural defense seeing as it was built on a very large island that was just a stone throws away from the shore and was connected by a large suspension bridge.
Just as he previously anticipated, this one was in a way, a carbon copy of New York City. Off in the distance on the far side of the island, he was able to make out a much smaller one that had a gigantic statue of an anthro pony wearing a toga and holding up a torch.
He began joking to himself and thought, “I wonder if I could find enough pink slime and play some music, would I be able to get that thing moving. It would be a funny sight to see Lady Liberty smashing Celestia into the ground with that large torch of hers.
His musings continued for a little while as he was imagining the scenario playing out in different ways in his head. Afterwards, he dismounted his bike and walked the rest of the way towards the city by way of the bridge. He wasn't in the sight of any ponies quite yet, but he had neglected to think ahead of time on what class he should be during his time here.
Still wanting to keep his casting classes a secret for now, he was limited to only his physical and Ranged types that could be considered normal for their world. He then looked through his list of classes and started with the tanks and ran down that.
He had already used his Warrior so far. As for his Dark Knight, that was a no go considering these ponies flip out at the slightest smell of dark magic. Then there was the Gunbreaker, no way he was going to whip that out considering they have no weapons like guns that he has seen. This only left his paladin as a viable option.
Healing class was not something he could use right now with it being magic based, so that too was out of the question. The only things left for his Ranged damaged dealers that had nothing to do with advanced technology or magic was his Dancer and Bard. He had already used the Bard so that only left Dancer in that category.
Now when he went to go look at his physical damage dealers. The only ones he had not shown off after coming back yet was the dragoon, ninja and Samurai. He hadn't seen too many lance wielding fighters when he was within the last two Guilds. So, Brex thought about holding off on that for now. Now as for his Samurai class, that was a little too unique, so that too was benched.
Now when it came to the Ninja, that made him remember about how that Soul Stone was currently inaccessible. But even without it he could still use the basic class below that, which was called the Rogue. Unlike its advanced class which was more about doing high amounts of damage and tricks with Ninjutsu, this one primarily focused on things such as trick attacks, going stealth and stealing.
After going through all of his current options, Brex went with the Rogue for now and stuck with keeping his strength at level 35. After picking what he was going to be he quickly pulled out his set of dual wielding daggers and use the glamor prisms on them so they would appear to be basic Iron daggers with no unique markings on them. However, with his large stature they were also larger than the normal ones that any pony would be wielding. To them, they may as well have been called short swords.
Having the weapons tucked underneath his robes, the Rogue approach the entrance to the city at the far end of the bridge. Now fully accustomed to the whole song-and-dance when entering and exiting any city now. He made his way through the checkpoint and straight for the Guild Hall. It was only midday, but seeing as he nearly missed out on a place to stay in the last city, he wanted to get straight into it and find one that he can call his temporary home.
There were a great many tall structures and the streets were a little filthier than he had seen in any other town or city. While walking he had an inadvertently walked onto a street with a bunch of hookers standing to the sides.
Surprise to say he had quite some trouble when they started to actively call out and a few even blocked his path to get his full attention. That was a very long, grueling ten minutes as he got past all of those females. It didn't help that Rory was actively speaking out during the entire time and giving her own type of commentary on their actions and looks. If Brex didn't know any better, he would have sworn that Rory was trying to pick out someone appropriate for his use.
By the time he got back onto a normal street, he was fighting very hard to keep his natural urges and check due to how the girl inside of his head was actively making suggestions. Having had enough he ordered Rory in a commanding tone to stop. Immediately after doing so, he worried that he may have overstepped himself, but those thoughts were tossed out the window when he was positive that he had immediately heard Rory giving out some type of moan. He had no idea why she responded in that way but it had at least gotten her from egging him on.
When Brex finally got to the Guild building, he found it to be rather small compared to the rest around them. He found it extremely odd seeing as this was a fairly big city, even though it was on an island. He then used the mental connection and started talking to Rory, “Say, don't you think this place should be a bit bigger? I can understand with it being on an island that there shouldn't be that much going on when it comes to monsters or anything but still, the jobs here and there for the F ranks should be all over the place.
Rory responded in her own confused tone, “Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. This place is only two stories tall and I only see two windows on each floor. This would have to be the smallest I’ve seen. Maybe this is a branch office and there's a main one somewhere else in the city?”
Giving himself a small shrug, He goes through the set of double doors and sees the place completely empty. Taking a closer inspection from just inside of the doorway, Brex could see that the place was very dusty and there were numerous cobwebs in the corners. There were hardly any decorations at all aside from a few lamps and a pair of tables that were just off to the side. There was a job posting board but that was practically void of anything. From a cursory glance he was able to see that there was only one piece of paper tacked to it. When he turned towards the reception counter, his eyes went wide as he saw the literal layers of dust covering every inch of it.
Wondering if there was something wrong, he was about to call out but went for looking at his Mini map to see if there were any life signs around. After zooming in enough that it would only show the building itself and not those on the street just behind him, Brex found that there were two dots in the building aside from himself.
After seeing them, he went over to the counter and after searching and eventually discovering the bell, he rang it a few times. After what seemed like a few minutes, a pony came through the door that was behind the counter and looked towards Brex.
This one seemed rather short compared to the rest and was currently covered in their own robe That was a very dark shade of gray. The hood obscured most of their face but he was able to make out due to the jaw structure that was shown, that this was a female.
The pony then spoke in a somewhat hollowed, aged female voice, “So what brings you here sunny? I think you may have found the wrong place. I think what you're looking for is back down that way.”
She had lifted her left hand and pointed in a general direction. Seeing the gesture Brex tried to think what was over in that direction but then realized that was the way he came and immediately came to conclusion that she was talking about the hookers he had just gone past before. He gave her a quick and decisive headshake to indicate to her that was not what he had intended.
This got a weak chuckle from the old mare as she covered her mouth. She then asked, “So if that's not what you're looking for, then go ahead and tell me.” Brex took out his identification card and placed it onto the dusty table. This action ended up causing the dust that was accumulating to get pushed into the air and was now floating between them both as if it was a living creature before dissipating.
The old lady gave out another one of her chuckles as she said, “Sorry about the state of things. We haven't really had much need to clean up the place ever since business started to dry up.
The Roegadyn then tilted his head to the side inquisitively and asked, “Care to explain?” This caused her to lift her head and almost give him a glimpse of her full face as she exclaimed, “Are you telling me you wanna listen to a groggy old hag like myself? Well, I never thought I'd see the day. It's not like I get many to talk to aside from my husband, Eh, why not. But first, do you mind if we take a seat? Can't really stand my hoofs too much.”
Brex gave a light nod and stepped away from the counter to give the old lady some extra space to move around. They quickly found themselves sitting in a pair of chairs at one of the tables that was not as dusty as other. After sitting down the pony spoke, “Well my name is... Haha, feels like forever since I told someone my name.” Brex inwardly thought to himself that he knew exactly what this mare was going through before she continued, “You can just call me old lady, that’s what every pony used to call me.”
After that, she let out a long, drawn-out sigh before continuing, “You've seen the sign outside, so you know that this is the Guild Hall for the Adventurers. But I guess you can already figure out that business has been going very slow for a while. That's because there's been some changes around here. As it turns out, there have been a few businesses that hire any pony That's willing to do anything for bits. The problem being, these businesses charge more for the work and those here in the city have no problem paying it. Well, that is the ones who can afford it anyway.”
The old lady then takes a glance around their surroundings before continuing, “There's hardly any pony here anymore. So, we don't get many requests now. I really don't know what's going on. It just doesn't make any sense. This only started happening around a month or so ago. Just out of nowhere a bunch of Big-wigs just up and said that they are going to off branch to get more employees.” Letting out another one of her sighs, she adds, “I guess young pony’s In this town just don't understand any anything unless it's all flashy or from some big business.
The old pony takes a look at the Guild card that she picked up on her way over to the table and then began examining it. When she was finished, she returned it to Brex without much reaction. Raising an eyebrow behind his mask, he wondered why she didn't make a big fuss like the others did, but that question was answered when the old lady said, “I've trotted around the block more times than I could count, this don't surprise me all that much. Honestly, I'm happy that there's a male out there willing to do work aside from staying home. But hey! I'm not complaining, at least I know my husband's safe here at home. We aren’t as strong as we used to be back in our hay days.”
She looked towards the back door for a moment before turning back to him and said, “You probably didn't guess this, but we've been running this place for quite a while now. We actually used to be a pair of adventurers back in the day and we got promoted and asked to take over as this place's workers back when the ones before retired.”
She then let out an amused chuckle before looking back up to him. She then said, “Just look at me, I'm so old I'm rambling. Anyhow, I guess you're here for some work I take it. Well, I'm sorry to say we only got one on the board. But there's been none around that could accept it.” She seemed to pause at end there while he had a feeling that her eyes were tracing up-and-down his form.
She then brought a finger up to her chin and started tapping it while she gave out a few hums to indicate that she was in mid thought before she said, “Actually, I think it might be the perfect fit. That their job on the board right now requires a male and we haven't had any of those in quite a while. Luckily it was only posted just 2 days ago. So I doubt the position's been filled.”
The old lady had gotten up and wandered over to the board and pulled the piece of paper off, she then returned and handed it to Brex. When he had gotten it, he began looking over the contents while the old lady was beginning to ramble off a few random subjects. During that time, he got to see the following written down.
Wanted, personal guard.
Requirements are as follows.
1. Must be capable of defending themselves and their employer. Combat skills are a must. Magic use is optional.
2. One applying must be male, Females will be rejected on the spot.
3. Good pay. Meals provided. Must be good at keeping secrets.
Talk to Guild Hall representative for additional information.
Raising an eyebrow, Brex wondered exactly what type of a job this was. The way that everything was written was rather suspicious. There was even consideration that this was some ploy from some herding group trying to catch a male that was stupid enough to take the job, but thought otherwise. If it was posted here in a Guild, then it must have been legitimate. Otherwise, those behind the counter like this old lady might not be on the up-and-up but Brex didn’t see her like that.
Turning back to the old lady, he found that she was just ending with some storied involving a turnip and honey. But for some reason he was glad that he had zoned out for some reason for it. He then used the mental connection and asked Rory, “I wasn't really paying attention. How about you?” This got a somewhat odd tone in the reply from Rory as she said, “Oh Master, you're lucky. You really did not want to know what she was talking about. A part of me wants to find some bleach to pour on my brain so I could forget.”
Taking her words at face value. He then turns towards the old lady and asks about the request. From there, she proceeded in informing him that this was a client that wished to be kept a secret and if anyone was to take the job, then they would have to talk to her to get the rest of the details which was noted on the paper that had a picture of the client.
(( This is a Picture of Fancy Pants. Just think of him in Anthro form and without the mustache. ))
As it turns out, the one in question was called Fancy Pants and it was a guard job that he needed for the next two weeks while he was in the city. This got an immediate internal reaction from Brex as he realized that he knew this pony from not only the show, but from many Fan fictions. Even looking younger and without the mustache, Brex knew him right away. It wasn't quite known why, but he seemed to have been a universal good pony and so many of the stories. From what stories he could remember, if he had to rate all the ponies on a percentage of being good, then he would most likely be in the number one spot.
However, he wasn't going to let his past knowledge affect his decision so he was going to see what this pony was really about before making any final decisions. The old lady had gone on and said that he was here and courting some mare that caught his eye, but he was also on business and required a guard to be with him pretty much at all times.
She had asked him why this was and what Fancy Pants told her was that, “He didn't want to risk the chance of the one he was courting to become jealous of him if he were to have a female by his side. Also, he had tried employing them in the past and it always turned out with some scandal of some sort with how they would try to get his affections and were only into him for his money and turned out to be fake in the end.”
Brex Internally mumbled to himself, “So I guess gold diggers are a constant universal thing.” After that, he got the general information on duties along with where and how to contact Fancy Pants. After giving it some thought, he went and took the job and headed towards the address indicated on the second piece of paper that was given to him by the old lady.
When he got to said address, he found it to be a ten-story high rise hotel. The front had three entrances side-by-side and a pair of guards at each one wearing black suits and ties along with black sunglasses. He couldn't help chuckling to himself within his head as he thought of the idea of one of them pulling out a neutralizer before saying, “This is just an eye exam.” Then they would erase random pony's memories.
When he came up to the door, one of the pair of mare’s guarding that door came up and blocked this path. This one was a gray earth mare with a black mane. But what struck him as odd was the fact that she and all the other guards in front of the building were identical. He then thought back to the show and how it was explained that the Royal guards themselves had an enchantment on their armor to make them look all the same to prevent their identities from being leaked. He figured that this was essentially the same process.
The one he was going to refer to as guard mare number one. Spoke in a condescending tone, “Move along. We don't need your kind here. You obviously look like you're from the lower class. We don't allow riffraff like you in here. Now get!”
Two things got to him right then and there. The first one was how she had gone and outright called him out to be some type of beggar. Then there was the way she talked down to him without any remorse or respect of any sort towards her own kind when he hadn’t even said a single word. It would have been something if he wasn't covered, but she couldn't tell that he was no pony. He wondered if this was that superiority complex that all guards get whenever they're hired for a job to protect someone important.
He thought back to the instructions that the old lady gave him and found out now why they were so odd in the first place. She had mentioned that when he got there he would have to try and make his way to his new employer to get hired. So now he got a pretty good idea on what needed to be done.
Without saying a word or even looking back towards the pony in question. Brex quickly pushed his way past her which nearly knocked the mare over. Before this was noticed by the others, he made a run for the lobby and towards the stairway to the side.
Sure, he could have gone the straight route and took the elevator or something like that, but that would mean fighting in an open area for a random passerby or civilians to bare witness. With him being in the stairwell which no normal high-class pony would go inside of while they had an elevator. He was now able to do what he wanted and only the guards that were hired for this building would know anything about it.
He was almost sure that that incident in the front was part of the act when it came to the hiring process. This was how blatantly obvious it was with how condescending the mare was. This was because during his entire stay while in the cities, the mare’s would always try to get on his good side and not once did they outright say things like that to him.
He had just passed the third floor of the steps on his way towards the very top when a pair of mare’s jumped out of the doorway on the next level up. Luckily for him this was one of those buildings where they had ample room and a long wide walk way between the next set of steps on each level. the walkway was quite long so he was able to maneuver easily. When the pair of guards had gotten down to his level and started running towards him, Brex went straight for them. But before reaching each other he jumped to aside and began running along the wall and ended up traveling above their heads and landing behind to only run up to the next set of stairs.
If Brex had taken the time to look back, He would have seen the slacked jawed faces they made after seeing such a large being that did such a feat of acrobatics right before them. Despite running around after just coming from outside. The Roegadyn hadn’t left a single smudge on either the carpeted floor or the white walls in his wake.
He had noticed so far that all the guards he had run into were earth ponies. This was odd considering that it would be more effective to in their ranks the full set. Just where were the Pegasus or Unicorns. But immediately figured that this was due to it being an enclosed environment, so they needed more raw strength and defense while indoors. But then again, if this was what he suspected it to be, Then the one in charge was going easy on him.
By the time he had reached the sixth floor. Another pair of mare’s were waiting with a set of shackles with a long chain attached to them in hand. With a grunt of annoyance, he ran at them and as they tried to grab on, Brex had taken hold of one of them by the wrist and pulled her into the other. That was when he used a series of movements to pull their arms at awkward angles across one another and took hold of the shackles. Brex then slapped them onto one of the mare’s and after a strong tug, caused them to start spinning on the spot. The Chains had gotten wrapped around the two and the second shackle was locked into place.
After doing so, he ran up the next set of stairs to only leave behind a pair that were currently pressed up against one another due to the restraints. What made it slightly funny was the fact that they were pressing their breasts up against one another while their arms were locked firmly in place that could have been perceived as the two holding one another in an embrace. The only part of them that was free were their legs. The Roegadyn had managed to wrap the long chains around them in a way that also made it so the two were pressing lips against one another due to how the chains had encircled their necks. This left a set of brightly blushing mare’s in a compromising position.
Brex had ran a number of floors without running into any more hindrances. But when he got to the tenth, the door was blocked by at least six guards on his side alone, while on the other side of the open doorway he saw another set of four.
From behind his mask, Brex was giving them a, “Are you kidding me” Look while holding a very unamused stare. After internally saying fuck it. He moved backwards and jumped over the railing. When he did this, he was sure he heard all the mare’s from above letting out all sorts of gasps and screams of horror. It was quickly followed by what sounded like a stampede running for the steps down.
When he was sure of the very instant that he was out of their sight, The Roegadyn had used his Rogue skills and activated his hide ability. That was when he grabbed on to the next railing below and hoisted himself backup onto the floor and proceeded to jump to the next level up and leaped across the opening of the stairwell. Turning around, Brex peaked over the railing he had just fell from only a few seconds before. He got to see the group of guard mare’s all rushing out into the stairwell and going down to where they had believed him to have fallen.
Letting himself have a moment to have an internal chuckle as he asked Rory with the mental connection, “Do you think I went a little overboard with that trick?” Rory then replied with a giggling tone, “Nah, besides this was a quick way to get around that pack. I'm pretty sure if you had to get through all of them without doing any bodily harm, then at least one of them would have been able to put their hands on you. With them all hiding their identities, I don't trust those mare’s to even come close to my Master.”
This got Brex to reply with, “Oh and you were fine with those hookers on the street? How does that make any sense?” Rory then answered with a confident tone, “That's because with them I can at least judge. These ones I can't get a read on at all because they're all carbon copies of one another thanks to that enchantment.” This only got a small shrug from him as he continued strolling the rest of the way on to the tenth floor and into the hall way that was on the other side of the door that was previously filled with guards.
At this point the hallway was completely empty of anyone. This made it easy for him to find the door in question and gave it a few light knocks. After a few seconds the door was opened by another one of those mare’s that was the same as all the rest, but this one did not make any actions towards arresting him. Instead, she simply stepped aside and gave a low head bow before she waved her arm to continue inside.
Brex entered the room and found that it was one of those pent house suites where the occupant had practically half of the floor to themselves. It didn't take him long to notice the pony who was sitting in the middle of a large couch while looking at a newspaper. The guard who was in the room announced the arrival of Brex by saying, “Sir, I believe the candidate has successfully arrived. The one who spoke had an almost robotic tone and was now doing a small bow while her eyes were closed with her hands together towards the front.
Seeming to have finally noticed the situation, the pony with the newspaper finally folded the article he was reading up and placed it onto the table in front of himself. That was when brecks got to see exactly who was sitting there.
What he saw was a light gray Unicorn with a light azure mane. He happened to be wearing a very expensive looking suit. It was jet black and on the breast pocket, appeared to be a depiction of his cutie mark which was represented by three crowns and a small purple jewel in the center of each one. He saw the pony removing a monocle from his left eye as you began looking up-and-down his form.
Fancy Pants looked exceedingly intrigued and asked, “I see you managed to get past my little test downstairs. “Oh, I do hope they didn't rough you up. I do apologize for the unorthodox interview process. But I hope you can see that I needed to take precautions in selecting a worthwhile candidate. I made sure to give them instructions of not doing any harm to any that apply.”
Brex only shook his head once before replying, “Quite understandable.” This got a small smile from the Unicorn as he got up from his seat and approached Brex. Fancy Pants then said, “Oh where are my manors, my name is Fancy Pants. Might I have your name and just what are your qualifications? If you don't mind me asking.”
He then gave him a nod and replied, “Gambit. Weapons specialist.” This got an inquisitive raised eyebrow from Fancy Pants before he asked, “I see you're a pony of little words. Well normally I would ask a few more questions but seeing as you got past the guards for the building, then we can forego with that process when it comes to your skills. I believe you have been informed about what is required of you?” This got another single nod from the Roegadyn.
After seeming to be satisfied, Fancy Pants went over what was previously told to Brex but added a few key details that were excluded until this point. After a small series of yes and no questions with Brex giving the shortest number of answers, the details had been finalized.
So, for the foreseeable two weeks, Fancy Pants was to be accompanied by Brex every time he left the building. During these times he was to make sure nothing bad was to happen to the unicorn as he went about his official business and his romantic rendezvous with the mare that he was courting. Of course, if everything was going to go as they did in all the stories and television show, then he knew exactly who this mysterious mare was going to be.
On the first few day’s things went a little hectic. He was given a room on the same floor as Fancy Pants, but with him being on call 24 hours and 7 days of the week for the time being he wasn’t really allowed to leave unless he gave them information on where he was going and at what time would he be expected to return. Seeing as how he didn't really have much to do anyway, he opted for just staying at the hotel.
He ended up having a run in with the guard mare’s from the test almost immediately and what caught him by surprise was how they were doting over his condition. Apparently, they really did think that he had been hurt gravely after his little diving stunt in the stairway. There were even a few harsh reprimands from a number of them but it never got physical. One who turned out to be the same from the front door ended up apologizing furiously when she had revealed herself to be that very individual that He had spoken to on the ground floor. She had informed him that she had been with a group that had to draw straws on who would be taking on the role of the mean one at the start of the test and she lost.
There was actually so many of them that he couldn't keep track of their name, so he just mentally assigned numbers to them. Which turned out to be fine with how they never really referred to each other by their names anyway. Ironically, they actually referred to one another as numbers which came in handy for the Roegadyn.
Whenever a day came that he didn't have to leave with Fancy Pants, he ended up needing to dodge the guards due to them being a little overprotective because of his gender and at times when we're a little too flirtatious.
He had lost count on the number of times that he would walk by some of them and they would come up with some silly excuse to drop an item and bend over to show their asses towards his direction. It didn't help that their uniforms were extremely form fitting.
As for Brex, it was quite obvious that his current outfit would not do for a pony of stature like Fancy Pants. So, when he had a moment in his room alone, he had checked to see if there were any surveillance equipment of any type. When it was apparent that there was none, He proceeded and taking out of his inventory box the gear set that he had called, The loyal Butler. This was a set of clothing that included a pair of black shoes, black pants, a pair of white gloves and a black dress coat that had a white undershirt and tie that was iconic for butlers.
( Butler suit. The one on the left is how it looks on Brex. Just add the mask. )
The only problem was with his head. He needed to get that covered up, so he got into his item box yet again and took out one of his masks that he had been collecting along with a black cloth and fashioned a type of hood with the mask in front that He could pull over his head. After he had finished, he then used it as an example for his glamouring tool and used it on the armor piece for his head. With his look completed he then dubbed this disguise, The mysterious Butler.
In a hindsight he should have anticipated that this might have been one of the many reasons that he was getting so much attention from the mare’s. Unlike the robes from before which normally just hung off his body, this set of gear however was in a sense clinging to him and emphasizing all his features.
Most of which centered around how muscular his form was. Unlike before where his mask was that of some thick lines that vaguely resembled an owl's face. This one gave an impression of a type of hawk with its color being a bone white with a set of dark purple lines that streak out from the sides and underneath the eye holes of the mask. Where the nose would be, the mask was shaped just enough to give it a slight point as if looking at a beak.
Now when it came to the days that he did leave the building with Fancy Pants, it was to go to some business partners that he knew in the city. When they travel they would go by coach. Being curious, Brex was surprised to see that they still had ponies pulling the carts around. These would normally be of the earth race. It reminded him of pictures he had vague memories of concerning Japan where they had people pulling others around in small carts.
At one point he had to stop himself from thinking too much when the image of one of the pony's pulling popped into his head when he started to imagine what would happen if they were in a hurry and someone who was driving needed to use the whip like they used in many movies. Yet he quickly reprimanded himself and said that they are not animals. For once, he was very happy to be constantly hiding his face all the time.
Rory however, was able to have a full view of those thoughts and images because he had neglected to keep that to himself by mistake. This was then followed with her making small gestures towards using such a tool on her. Overtime Rory was slowly hinting at what she found interesting when it came to bedroom activities. Wanting to stay focused as to not mess up on his job, Brex ordered Rory to stop doing that when they're on the clock. Of course, this only meant that when he got back to the room and went to bed that night, that she would continue with this line of talk.
Now going back to what he was supposed to be doing, The Roegadyn would be at the side of Fancy Pants wherever he went out. On occasion he would even be allowed to sit in on what appeared to be very important meetings. When it had nearly hit the one-week marker of his employment. He was now more well versed in the economics of this world.
He had got to overhear talks on future development sites and important projects that were going to be coming up within the next decade. One of which that caught his interest was the construction of more readily available airships. From that he got to see some crew drawings of what they were going to be which turned out to be more like the Zeppelin's from his earth. Already recalling the history from his world regarding this type of lighter than air travel, Brex took the next opportunity that Fancy Pants was not preoccupied and slipped him a note that he had quickly written out that explained the pros and cons to such an idea of using Zeppelin's.
(Hindenburg diagram. But the ponies had a much more crude design made. )
At first Fancy Pants wasn't quite sure what he was getting at, but after a few minutes of going over the notes that were being passed in during some of the meetings when no one was watching he got the idea. Luckily Fancy Pants was a very influential individual and was able to steer this project towards a safer direction. Brex had an internal sigh when he realized that he may have saved this world from a Hindenburg accident.
There were times when he caught some signs of malicious intent coming from either the other members in the rooms during the meetings or from somewhere else within the building as they were going between the meetings and the carriage.
When it had gotten today ten, Brex finally got a little hint of action. An attempted assassination of Fancy Pants went poorly when Brex stepped in and quickly disarmed the Pegasus mare of a dagger that was hidden among her feathers. With a little bit of digging around shortly after it was found out that one of the members inside of the last meeting did not take too kindly in diverting some funds to the less fortunate and had a pony on hand to take out his employer.
Just like in the show and so many stories he had read, this Fancy Pants was all about the less fortunate that were down on their luck. When the matter was settled, he spoke to the one that attacked him and found that she was in a desperate situation and needed the bits for her family. Fancy Pants dropped the charges on her and even offered a job in one of the companies he owned within this city. Whenever he would do business, it was not only to make money but to make sure that the common folk would be treated with humility and respect. He was even very enthusiastic about trying to find jobs for those who couldn't get any.
There were even a few times that the Unicorn would pull Brex to the side and ask him what he thought about some of the topics that would come up in meetings. Even with him only saying a few words, Fancy Pants was quickly able to catch on to his meanings after a short time of speaking to the Roegadyn.
One thing that he did notice was that there were hardly any males aside from a scant few. The bodyguards that accompanied the other board members were all of the female variety that were comprised of the three races of ponies. There were even times when the guards from the other big wigs would often attempt to flirt with Brex.
One even Tried to test his skills and ended up being pinned to the floor with her face pressed into the carpet as her right arm was twisted at a painful angle behind her back. He didn't quite feel very good about doing that but the mare in question was very, very annoying. But he intended it to be a way of showing force and to get them all the back off. In the end, there was talk about him that was spreading like wildfire and ended up getting him even more attention. At some point, he had goosebumps when he felt more intense stares from the guards the next day when standing in on one of the many meetings. Thankfully, everything had to be treated with a strict form of conduct so they didn’t try anything.
It was a good thing that it was discussed earlier on day one that Fancy Pants would not refer to him by name. If so with him wearing something that he had never worn before, it was impossible for any of them to trace him back to the name Gambit. This made the attention that he was getting to not be so bad compared to how he would normally. With his name being withheld, he didn’t have to worry over someone looking into his past and discovering his guild name.
( Picture of Fleur de Lis. Just picture her in Anthro form. ))
When the days got to the point that he was on the twelfth day. Brex had finally got to catch a glimpse of the one Fancy Pants was courting. She was coming out of his room in the middle of the night while the Roegadyn was making his nightly rounds. He was not ashamed to think it, but he found her extremely attractive. She was wearing a form fitting night cocktail dress that matched her bodies coloring perfectly.
She was light gray Unicorn. Her mane was the color of light magenta with a white streak going through. The eyes were that of a pale light violet. She was already known as an up-and-coming supermodel at this point. He hadn't gotten much of a chance to speak with her, but from what he caught a glimpse of now and then with the two together, it was painfully obvious that she had it in for Fancy Pants.
The two of them were basically made for one another from what he was able to see. They both had a nice atmosphere around them and both clearly were thinking more of the average pony than that of material wealth. The mare was very soft spoken. If Brex didn't know any better he could have sworn that she and Fluttershy knew each other with the way their voices would just come out all smooth and comforting.
There was only a little more than two more days left before Fancy Pants would return back to Canterlot and miss Fleur de Lis was to accompany him back home.
Right now, Brex was sitting in his room in the middle of the night and laying down in bed while staring up at the ceiling. He had just gone over how much money he was going to end up with when this job was completed. As it turns out, he was going to end up tripling how much he had with just the last two weeks alone. Fancy Pants was quite generous with the pay to begin with, but with the outstanding job he was apparently doing and giving him some outsiders point of views when some topics came up, the unicorn ended up telling Brex that he was going to up his pay dramatically.
He was about to go to sleep for the night when he heard the door being opened in the hallway that no doubt came from Fancy Pants’s room. He got up and opened the door and saw that it was Fleur de Lis exiting the room of her lover once again.
But for some reason, Brex was getting warning alarms through his situational awareness and they were all pointing hundreds of arrows towards the mare. Narrowing his eyes from behind his mask, the Roegadyn looked at the pony in question and focused on seeing her information.
It started to show her name above her head along with a status bar. But there was something weird about the name. It was doing that thing where you would look at a computer screen and it would do some type of a glitch into another word before returning to what it once was. He was positive that her name for just a split second had said the word “Drone.”
Quickly realizing what this meant, Brex had to act quickly. As to not tip off the drone before him, Brex concealed his emotions. This was due to the mental training he had undergone while on the other side when he was trying to prevent the three there from reading his thoughts. That training had also helped him in concealing his emotions. He knew back then that this would come very much in handy when it came to encountering a certain species of ponies on Equis.
The unicorn that he was now going to eternally reference as fake girl. Turned to him and gave him a smile which just did not seem right before she turned away and left down the hall.
Brex then went to the door belonging to Fancy Pants and rapped on it with his knuckles in the same way he would normally do when checking in with his boss as to not arouse suspicions.
After a while the door was opened by the pony he was looking for. Upon seeing the expression on the unicorn's face, Brex already knew that he was under a changeling’s control. Fancy Pants had a look of pure euphoria, but at the same time he had a dead, lifeless expression behind his eyes If one was to look very closely.
Knowing how the changelings operated, he had to be very careful with his next move. After quickly checking his environment for any life signs, it was found that the both of them were the only ones on the floor. Brex then said, “Message from Fleur de Lis,” The unicorn quickly reacted to this and began asking a million questions an hour about what the message was, but Brex only responded with, “Inside.”
Almost instantly, he was pulled inside by the arm thanks to the Unicorn and the door was quickly closed. During a brief instant that Fancy Pants had turned his back and was busy with the door, The Roegadyn had switched over to his White Mage class. By the time Fancy Pants had turned back to him the only thing that was different now was that there was now a staff in his left hand.
Fancy Pants then began the questioning once again and seem to be completely oblivious of the fact that his body guard was now holding something that he clearly did not have upon entering the room. Brex held up his right hand with his Palm facing Fancy Pants and used to spell Esuna.
Healing Class Spell, Esuna: Removes a single detrimental effect from target.
After a few seconds of a calming stream of light and particles bathed Fancy Pants. The light faded and there was a bewildered expression on the Unicorn's face while he was lightly shaking his head from any lingering effects. After giving him a little time, Brex placed his right hand onto the pony's shoulder and asked, “You feeling better?”
The Unicorn shook his head once more and blinked a few times before responding in his regular tone, “Oh I dare say. That was rather unpleasant. Pardon me, but do you happen to know where Fleur de Lis might have gone too? The last thing I remembered was, we were sitting down on the couch and she wanted to talk to me about something. But then everything started getting all fuzzy. I thought I saw a little bit of green at some point.
Letting out a short sigh, the Roegadyn attempts to explain just what has happened. But just as a precaution, Brex brought a finger up to his mask to do a shush motion. Immediately after, he found a piece of parchment and a quill to use for writing a note. After a few minutes he was finished and gave it over to Fancy Pants who then looked it over. As the time went on, the Pony's eyes went wide as dinner plates along with his mouth that just began to hang lower and lower.
Judging by the way he was taking longer than needed to read the letter with how his eyes just kept going back to the beginning before slowly tracing their way back down again. Brex knew that Fancy Pants was attempting to make sense of it all and was having a hard time with coming to terms with reality. But eventually he relented and put down the paper and then looked up to Brex and asked, “What are you intend to do?”
Upon hearing this, the Roegadyn turned towards the door and began walking, but when he was halfway to it, he started speaking, “Aggressive… negotiations.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 24: Monkey Suit. Part 2.
After saying that, Brex left the hotel. On his way down he did make it a point to quickly glance over each and every one of the guards to see if there were any Infiltrators. As it turns out, he knew quite a bit about the changelings thanks to all the stories from both the television show and the fan fictions. Of course, he wasn't going to rely heavily on that as pure fact, but it was good enough to go on for some starting clues.
Changelings we're a race of ponies with bug light features that live from consuming what is produced from other beings when they feel certain types of emotions. They're general characteristics are that they are black with an exoskeleton instead of fur. They have wings, but unlike the Pegasus, they closely resemble a dragonfly. The horns are curved and all their magic was considered the same class and all have an identical green glow when used. Instead of having normal eyes, theirs were all completely blue.
It is believed that they could do simple telekinesis with their magic and shoot magic projectiles. They're most iconic spell that they can use on themselves is that of transformations. They are fully capable of taking on the form of any other living creature, as long as its form was near to theirs in the first place. This meant that a changeling couldn't turn into a giant elephant, nor could they become a tiny mouse.
Another one of their abilities that has to do with their Physical anatomy, the ability to sense emotions. They can't really read minds of others, but they can somehow either see or smell what another is giving off as the current emotions. It could be compared to saying where a predator can smell its praise fear.
The second type of ability that they're known for, is the power to brainwash their victims into loving them. This is because of their need to consume something from their victim that is only produced while they are having romantic feelings. This makes them a type of emotion vampire. In the show they were capable of extracting it from the air around the pony, while in some stories the Changelings would use their fangs to get what they needed. Their victims would normally be unaware of what is being done to them if they were careful about how they did the extraction.
A changeling would typically kidnap one individual and take their place. Typically, the one replaced would be a love interest. The pony that is taken away is normally cocooned and placed in a safe location for future use or taken back to a Hive so that they could be used by the rest. By placing them into a dream state to draw more from them for feeding.
They typically work together as a colony that thinks the same due to a mental connection among them. It is unclear wither or not this was a direct control method or just a way of communicating among their kind. Brex knew about their Queen Chrysalis. But there have been many stories where she was not the only one to control a Hive seeing as in some of those, they each had a distinct color scheme. For all he knew, there could be other Queens out there and opposing Hives. Heck, in this instance, it could just be a group that got exiled from theirs or even just a single one on its own.
With Brex now outside of the building, he was going to need to make this fast before the drone discovers that the brainwashing was undone. Otherwise, the missing pony might have their life be put in danger.
Instead of having to do the whole detective thing and run around the city for who knows how long, the Roegadyn finally had an opportunity to use heaven's computer properly in locating Fleur de Lis. Thanks to meeting her a number of times already, he knew that there was no way that this was going to backfire on him like It did the last time he attempted using it to locate the little girl called Cherry Sweet.
Quickly, his map of the city popped up and an icon that was reminiscent to a quest marker appeared on it. He zoomed in on the image and quickly discovered that it was a location he had previously been too in the last week. Recalling back at least four days prior, he and his employer Fancy Pants had gone there for a meeting with a small group of other ponies. He also remembered that he didn't quite like the feeling he got from that particular environment. Back then Brex didn’t really know why he felt that way.
While heading over to the quest marker, the Roegadyn had a few plans running through his head. He also began speaking to Rory through the mental connection, “Say Rory, I know we set things up so my mind couldn't be looked at, but how is the defense when it comes to emotions?”
She then replied after a moment and Said, “Now that I'm not entirely sure. I mean I could dampen them a little. But I’m more in control when its memories and current thoughts. So, this one is a little bit out of my realm of expertise.”
Brex then said while giving out a small sigh, “Well I guess I'm gonna have to focus a lot more. As long as I keep myself in control and don't lose too much concentration, I think I can fool their senses. If I use my Hide skill and close off my emotions, then I should be able to get in-and-out without them knowing until it’s too late. The only real issue is with me seeing something that will cause me to explode inside. If that should happen, then it may as well be like someone throwing a Flash Bang in the middle of a room and announcing, Hey! I'm right here! Anyway, our number one priority is getting Fleur de Lis out of there safely. second is to find out how their operation works and see if we can throw a monkey wrench into it.”
After getting a short agreement on what they should be doing from Rory, they continued their path on the streets. Luckily Brex had already initiated the hide skill so he wouldn't be attracting any attention from the civilians or any disguised drones that could be keeping a lookout.
Thanks to the skill slowing down his maximum movement speed, it had taken nearly an hour and a half to finally get to the structure that was marked on his city map. It was currently in a part of the city that was not quite savory. Brex had been to a number of locations and among those included, area’s that the rich would live, Factories and a few other various types of locations that were considered for remodeling or on a list for complete rebuilding.
This one however, was in one of those run-down factory buildings. Brex thought to himself while still hiding, “Really just… really... Are they...” Brex had to place his hand over his temples to give them a massage because of how stupid this seemed. For what could be considered a kidnapping ring or criminal organization, it really did pull a cheesy cartoon move and set up shop inside of a abandoned building In the middle of nowhere.
The Roegadyn wondered if he could have been considered one of the most intelligent beings on the planet at this point. Well... When it came to common sense that is. If it was him, he would have picked a less conspicuous place to put a base. For one, he would have picked a livelier spot that didn't scream “bad guys hide out.” The other is the fact that, if they had done this within the city limits where there were crowds of ponies around, then that would have limited the authority’s ability to use heavy Magic spells out of fear of hurting civilians.
This would give them the ample time needed to use an escape strategy. Like using a small tunnel that would connect to a nearby building a few blocks away for which they would get out from and they could easily collapse said tunnel if they ended up being followed. Afterwards, they would carefully blend into the streets and escape. With them being here in the middle of nowhere, they would just stand out like a sore thumb. They're changelings, they could easily walk into a large crowd and duck behind an object to change into someone else and disappear among the other ponies.
When he got done with all these thoughts and scenarios in his head. Brex mentally faced palmed himself before thinking, “How did these guys even stay alive for this long without being found out in the public? No wonder their food supply is so short the ones running their branches must be idiots.”
The building along with the surrounding area was marked for possible torn down options and to be rebuilt as a community center. This of course was an idea that was proposed by Fancy Pants. The one who currently still own the building was opposed to this idea. Now that Brex thought about it, he was extremely against it. In the end, it was put to a vote and that came to a tie. Another one was going to be held tomorrow. Now the pieces were coming together inside of his head. It made sense for a changeling to make a move now if this location was at risk.
The changelings must have had this place under their thumb and didn't care for the idea of their operation being found out. So, they must have sent one of their agents in, in order to brainwash Fancy Pants into changing his mind on the vote and leaving the building untouched. With that out of the way, they could continue with their activities.
It was most likely that the one who argued with Fancy Pants was one of the ponies being controlled. If it was a changeling back there in the room with him, then his senses would have gone off just like it did in the hallway when Fleur de Lis left Fancy Pants's room. But there was also the possibility that he was not being controlled, but instead could have been working with them from the beginning.
Brex shook his head out of this endless, what if scenario and walked towards the building’s side entrance. He had figured that with them being a secretive bunch, then they would most likely keep an eye on the two main entrances, which were the front and back. But have very little on the side entrance.
When he got there, he saw two Unicorn guards standing watch next to the single door. After giving them a good inspection from a distance. It was found out that they were changelings and they had used their abilities to change themselves into the form that was an exact copy of those that work inside the building that his employer stayed in. The door itself was a basic type and there was a single light fixture above it. Taking a closer look towards the floor and the door itself, it was discovered that this had barely any traffic in or out.
When Brex had got closer, he started to hear the two talking to one another. Just like with the hotel, he was just going to call them by numbers. Changeling number one was on the left side of the door while changeling number two was on the right side. One spoke and said, “Why did we have to get stuck with guarding this place? I'd rather be doing something else.” After letting out a sigh number one continues, “I had a date lined up tonight.”
Number two responded with, “Oh, my, gosh! I know right! I like, had a date of my own and it was gonna be with this hottie mare that I met just yesterday!” Number one asked, “Oh I disguised myself as a female for mine, what about you?” Number two answered with, “Oh a girl obviously. Don't know about you, but I really rather not be treated badly. There is absolutely no way I'm gonna let myself get tackled by some of those herd mare’s out there.” At the end of that sentence, she gave a few notable shivers.
Number one then spoke up again with resigned tone, “Well we got no choice. We have to do what the boss say’s. You know what will happen if we don't... This got a reluctant sigh from number two as she then said, “Yeah, But I'm not gonna like it. Things were a lot better before.”
This caused the Roegadyn to raise an eyebrow behind his mask after taking in what the pair had just finished saying. Brex asked Rory with the mental connection, “OK, some things are a little more complicated than I thought.”
Rory responded with, “Yeah seems like it. From the sounds of it, there seems to have been a power exchange of some sort. These two don't seem to be liking how things are run and the one that’s currently in charge is using some type of threat to keep them in check. Do you think they have a new Queen that took over?”
Brex Is replied with, “I'm not sure. Queen Chrysalis doesn't make an appearance for at least another 14 years. Also, I doubt we're gonna run into a kid version of her. She is in a way, just like an alicorn. So, she must already be an adult by now. If that's the case, then it would make sense for someone to take control of these drones. I doubt a person of her reputation would take kindly to that. Anyhow, we should probably get a move on. We could save the theories for later.”
Brex snuck up behind the changelings by using a combination of skill and concentration to keep himself undetected. Currently, Brex was right behind the pair of them while they were still in arms reach. He had considered the idea of just outright taking them out, but couldn't bring himself to do so. All this time he had been able to fight monsters, but these were technically ponies. They were living, breathing, thinking beings. It wasn't their fault that they're doing something like this. Especially right now with how it sounds like they're being forced into it.
Brex knew that there was going to be a brighter future for the changelings if things follow the storyline. Not all of them were bad. They only wanted to survive and live, so they couldn't help their biology.
Right after he thought about their biology did, he had an epiphany. He accessed heaven's computer for information on changelings. It didn't take long till he found a few references. Among the info was some fighting tips when going up against them. What caught his eye in particular, was the bit about drones and them having certain weaknesses. One section described how there was a nerve cluster that was between the shoulder blades and the neck.
After reviewing it for a moment, he blinked in place. He then muttered to himself within his mind, “Am I really about to pull this off? Am I really gonna do the one thing that every nerd hopes to do at least once in their life?”
He couldn't help the broad smile he was having as he reached for both of the changelings in disguise. Then like a viper, he struck by using both hands and pinched the base of their necks by using a thumb, index and middle fingers. This was followed by a pair of feminine gasps that sounded a little too much like pleasure before they crumpled to the ground unconscious. When he did this, the Roegadyn became visible once more but his body had stayed in the same position as when he had performed the set of movements. From behind his mask, he had a stoned face that just screamed, “what the fuck.” As he muttered under his breath, “That was… supposed to feel epic... But instead, I feel dirty.”
That was when Rory replied with a smug tone, “Oh master~ In your haste in reading that info, I believe you may have overlooked something important. If you had made sure to read it all fully. Then you would have known that spot was meant to be touched gently. The reason that would knock them out, is because it's a pleasure zone similar to acupuncture. What you did was overwhelmed them with an instant, mind blowing orgasm all at once. And I think it was a lot more potent with how you caught them unaware.”
Hearing this, the Roegadyn couldn't help but look straight up into the dark moon filled sky and internally said, “I'm sorry… I am so sorry for perverting your technique.” That was when he raised his right hand and while holding out his thumb to the side. He lined up his four fingers pointing up and divided them down the middle to form a V-shape and held that pose for a few seconds while a single tear slowly ran down his face.
Afterwards he opened the door and checked by poking his head inside to see if any heard the commotion and found that nothing was happening. Carefully, Brex dragged both changelings inside and place them in a spot that they wouldn’t easily be seen from. He had figured that they would have changed back to their normal form after getting knocked out, but these two retained their disguises. With there being a time limit and all, he didn't want to go into trying to figure out this mystery and went on ahead and began checking the building one room at a Time.
He could have gone into the shadow realm and used that but, Brex didn’t want to miss any details with how it would make things a lot darker in there while in that state. When the first floor was checked thoroughly, he moved on to the second. Just like the one below, there was nothing that showed any signs of the pony that he was looking for. But what he did found, was a bunch of Changelings randomly posted around and inside of some of the rooms.
Seeing it to be a very effective means of taking them out without causing any undue harm, the Roegadyn reluctantly repeated the “forbidden move” that he had begun to call it by. By the time he had finished with the second floor and was moving on to the next. He was responsible for inflicting hell on what he counted to be 31 changelings. Just like with the two outside, they all retain their forms after being knocked out. He concluded that this was in no way some kind of fluke and was due to what he had done to them.
It didn't take him long at all, for as soon as he ascended the steps, he came across a hallway that was in better shape than the rest of the building. It appeared to have been falling apart at the seams. However, this hallway had a nice red, cleaned rug that started from the steps and went all the way down to the far end. There were fancy gold-plated crystal lights affixed to the walls every six feet. The doors themselves appear to have been recently replaced with some fairly expensive looking ones.
From where he stood, Brex was still under the effect of his stealth combo. There was a total of three rooms on one side and three on the other. One door was at the very far end of the hallway. After using his various abilities to detect others around him, he was able to see that there was one at the very far end and only three others on this floor for a total of four.
Within his mind, the Roegadyn was grumbling to himself that his quest marker couldn't be more specific as to where his target was within this building. All It gave him was the building itself, so he didn't get a floor or even a room. He guessed that it was too much to ask for this thing to directly point out the pony.
The first two rooms on the left side were empty. One was alone on the very room on the end of that side. While the right side of the rooms were empty except for the last room on the end that had two inside. This meant that the only ones occupied were the three that were right next to one another at the very end of the hallway. Now this was going to get a little tricky. If he didn't handle it right, then the others who were in close proximity would get a heads up when he finally made a move.
The Roegadyn had to be very careful because if he was found out, then he would not be able to go back into hiding by using the Hide skill when combat was initiated. So, he had to make a choice. Does he go for one of the single target rooms or should it be the one that has two inside? He considered that if he went for the single ones, then there was a higher chance of him being able to get away with it without being detected. But if he messed up then the others would make a move and it would put the Unicorn in danger. Then again, if he went after the room with the two within, then he would cut down their numbers by half even if he messed up. That would mean that the Unicorn would have been alone in one of the other rooms and she wouldn't be attacked immediately.
After running the scenarios through his head, Brex slowly approached the door on the right side as to go after the pair within. Slowly he made his way and was successful at making no sound as he went down the carpeted hallway. It took a moment to comment to Rory through the mental connection, “They really are stupid.”
This got a confused tone from the girl as she replied with, “Um, Master what are you talking about?” He then replied with, “Oh I'm just commenting on how they got this whole build set up and not once did they set any kind of trap. Its painfully obvious that they have been here for some time, especially with how they got this part fixed up. I suppose they didn't really need them with their being over 30 downstairs. But still, if it was me, then I would have put something around the VIP target in the event of someone getting past the rest. The one in charge must be really full of themselves or just really stupid.”
By the time he got done saying that to Rory, he arrived at the door and had kneeled down to peak through the keyhole. It took him a few seconds for his eyes to adjust from looking through such a small opening and immediately caught sight of the missing Unicorn. Just to make sure, he looked for her status bar and there was Fleur de Lis right above her head. The other figure in the room was another changeling of course, but this one was not wearing a disguise.
At first, Brex thought this might have been a guard or maybe the Queen that's in charge. But that turned out to be far from the truth when he heard Fleur de Lis speaking in a worried tone as she was tending to the changeling currently laying in the bed with bandages wrapped around their head.
The diagram that he saw before didn't go into too much detail on how they looked in person, but from what he could see of the one bandaged up, they didn't look too different from the ponies aside from their skin looking much darker and without fur. If it wasn't for the slight equine features and the horn. The Roegadyn might have confused her for a human.
He heard her say, “Oh I'm so sorry, if only I were there for you when it happened… If I was, then you might not have...” She was then gently shushed when the changeling took a hold of her hand and started to speak in a weak voice, “You have nothing to be sorry for... I don't want you to ever say something like that again. I will not have my daughter say such things in front of me. This would have happened either way... I just got careless, there is nothing else to say…”
This made the Roegadyn pull his head back and scrunched his face in pure confusion. Seeing as the situation was not what he had thought it to be and with Fleur de Lis seemingly safe. He checked the door. But made sure that he didn't make any sounds when doing so and found it to be locked tight. There was even a faint glowing that came from the edges itself around the hinges. If he wasn’t so paranoid about something like traps, then he might have missed the extremely faint light. He then muttered in his head, “So it looks like they're sealed inside. I guess one of the others must have the way in. I could probably break my way through the door or even the wall itself if I had to, But I think I'll opt out for something else.”
He then checked through the other keyhole directly across from the room that Fleur de Lis was in and found that the room a Changeling within. But this one was wearing a disguise. Brex narrowed his eyes when he saw that this changeling had taken on the form of Fancy Pants. But after a few seconds the one in question had a burst of flames wrapped around their body and Fleur de Lis was now standing in his place.
He was about to go right in there to take her out when he heard the changeling beginning to speak to herself, “I wish I didn't have to do this to you. If I was just stronger back then, I could have helped. After finally finding a pony to love, this entire thing had to go down. I hate myself for this.” The changeling then punched the wall and brought her hand back quickly, afterwards to nurse the fresh injury that action had caused. Brex was able to see a small amount of green blood smeared on the wall from the impact. She then returned to her normal form after another display of the green flames covered her body.
Almost immediately after, he witnessed the changeling going back at the wall and punching it repeatedly with the same hand. During this she was crying hysterically but he could tell that it was not from what she was doing to herself.
After seeing more than enough, He got to his feet and began to lightly knock on the door just quietly enough so that the other occupants would not be able to hear. There was a sound of scurrying and things getting moved around a little bit from the other side of the doorway before it was slowly open to reveal a Fleur de Lis with eyes red from all the crying.
As soon as she caught sight of Brex, the Changeling in disguise had her eyes going wide. It appeared that she was about to say something very loud when he noticed that she was taking in a lungful of air. In almost one quick fluid motion he rushed in and clamped his hand around her mouth before she was able to say anything and with the other closed the door silently.
The changeling in his grasp was trying to wrench her mouth free but his fingers were latched into place and gave no option of escape. Her horn started to light up, but before anything was done, Brex had gone into his item box and pulled out an item from long ago and skillfully slid it down her horn.
As soon as it went down as far as it could go, there was a metallic clank sound and There was a small flash of light that came from the jewel on the item. Her eyes went wide and she suddenly gave up fighting when it was apparent that the magic was cut.
Brex brought a finger from his free hand up to his face to make a shush motion. After seeing this, the mare was allowed to move her head a little and she nodded slowly. She was then released. The changeling brought her hands up to her face to massage the now sore muscles of her mouth and jaw. After a few seconds of this she turned towards him and asked in a very shaky voice, “You you're that body guard of his. I remember you from earlier back at Fancy Pants’s. But, but… how did you get up here? You couldn't have gotten past all of the others below.”
Brex answered by saying, “They're all asleep.” This got a confused look from the changeling but it soon turned to relief when she let out a long sigh. He then asked in a tone that demanded that she answered immediately, “Explain the situation.” Afterwards, he stood there with arms crossed while looming over her like some intimidating, unmoving monolith.
She quickly shook her head and began to explain, “You know Fleur de Lis. But did you know that she’s, my sister?” This would have blown him over if he hadn't already seen through the keyhole in the other room, so he just nodded and motioned with his hand in a circular motion to move it along. But underneath, he was screaming, “SHE’S A CHANGELING??!!!” The small changeling was taken aback by his nonchalant attitude towards that revelation but quickly recovered. After coughing into her hand, she continued with, “This wasn't supposed to happen. She isn't like the rest of us. Fleur has a chance at a normal life.”
She released another sigh and sagged her shoulders as she walked towards the bed in the room and sat down on the edge. She was currently looking at the floor when she continued. “It all goes back to when we were in the hive. Oh wait, maybe I shouldn't talk at that point. You probably don't even know what I'm talking about. I'll just skip to what's relevant. Long story short, a bunch of us changelings were kicked out of the Hive and came to this city to try and get a life for ourselves. We managed to scrape by and get whatever was required to sustain our body’s. In case you don't know, we need to survive by…”
That was when Brex chimed in and said, “You consume love.” The way he said it was the same as if someone was talking about the weather and this caused the changeling to look up at him with wide eyes before she asked, “Uh...Yes but wait, just how much do you already know about us?” Deep down Brex wished that he could do the Gravity Falls Bill Cipher trick with flashing images in his eyes.
The Roegadyn just raised his hands in a “I don’t know gesture” and answered with, “A fair amount.” This got a raised eyebrow from her before she slowly nodded her head and went on with the story. “It's been almost two months, but some changeling came in to the city and just took over our group by beating our leader. She was taken down in a fight and now she's… in the sense being held hostage so we don't try anything against our new leader. We don't know what she used as a poison, but whatever it is, it's preventing the natural recovery process from happening and the amount of love she can hold is severely restricted.”
That was when she brought her hands up to her face and began to silently weep into them. Brex could see the tears falling onto her hands along with how they were dripping onto her knees. He asked Rory Through the mental connection, “Changelings are all about manipulation. Do you think she's doing that to me right now? I can't tell if she's telling the truth.”
Rory replied with, “I seriously doubt it. Especially with the scene we saw before we came in. She's obviously been beating herself up about this.”
Brex then brought his attention back to the changeling and asked, “What is plan?” While still crying, the one in front of him began lifting her face and was giving Brex a look of someone that had just been told that the sky was really an ocean floating above their heads. The Changeling then asked while not blinking, “Huh? Plan… didn’t you come to kill us?”
Hearing this, Brex leaned in closer to the point that they were less than a foot apart and spoke in a cold tone that just radiated an underline threat, “Kill… for… what?” The changeling was now seeming to go deep into the beds stuffing as she slowly leaned away and sweating bullets as her eyes shook from intense fear. She answered while her voice was extremely weak, “Because we… we are…”
She was interrupted when he brought his mask closer and whispered, “Because your different?” She nodded slowly and was now closing her eyes as one would when awaiting a strike. She then said, “Yesss……” Brex brought himself back and spoke in an emotionless tone, “That’s just racist.” She opened her eyes and looked towards him and spoke without blinking, “That’s… Huh, what? We’re Changelings, we hunt others and drain them of their love. We are more different than anything else on our world. There is nothing like us out there. We are alone. They all hate our kind… but… just what are you saying? Don’t you want to kill us for what we are?”
He was about to break right there. Hearing the way, she talked about herself and her own race. It reminded him of how alone he was. How there are none like him on their world. All alone, without anywhere to go back too. No one to rely on besides the girl in his own head… Brex was now feeling the weight of his situation and it was coming down hard. The concentration meant for keeping his emotions under wraps had crumbled for but a fraction of a second before it was reformed.
The once small terrified Changeling’s eye somehow went even wider than they had been before and she was gazing at him with something that he couldn’t place. Now feeling uncomfortable he diverted the subject and said, “Where’s new leader?” Now seeming to have calmed down considerably for some unknown reason to Brex. She asked in a much more relaxed tone, “What for?” He replied in a casual tone, “She’s getting impeached.”
It had taken her a few seconds to realize what he had meant. A look of realization struck her and she got up and gave him determined look before she started to inform him on how things are in more detail. After a short talk, well a talk on the Changelings part and Brex standing there and soaking it all up. She had included what was to be done In regards to Fancy Pants and the reason that it happened now.
She told him about how the new leader of the Changelings had them take over control of a handful of the wealthy ponies in the city. As a result, they got control over a good chunk and they even used their resources to pull many of the would-be adventurers from the Guild to limit their actions when it came to doing investigations and such. This meant that while they had control over those ex-Guild members, they would ensure that no stray variable would pop up and they wouldn't be discovered so easily.
Brex thought to himself, “Well I guess the one in charge isn't too much of an idiot if that much was done.” She then continued by saying that, when Fancy Pants came around, it wasn't going to be that much of an issue. However, when it came to the vote regarding this building and this caused the leader to panic and immediately wanted him under her thumb. But as it turns out, the one known as Fleur de Lis who was dating Fancy Pants was one of them, but this information was withheld from the new leader. Once it was soon discovered and in a fit of rage it was ordered that she was to be taken in and locked up with the original leader. She was also to be replaced with a drone.
They were going to influence him to change his vote to leave the building alone and possibly get him to transfer a good amount of his wealth to a dummy corporation for their new leader, who would have full access to said funds.
It seemed that the drones here did not want anything to do with such intentions. But were constantly reminded that if they didn't do what was ordered of them, then the one that they all loved in the group would die. The new leader had used some type of poison that didn’t fade with time and she had to administer a weak dose of the antidote to keep their old leader alive.
When it came to her relationship with his boss’s lover, she knew Fleur de Lis very well with them being sisters. So, it was thought that it would make things easier with the replacing process by sending her as the drone for this task. She began to say how guilty she felt about ruining her sister's future. She went on to explain that Fleur de Lis was born looking the way she did now. Unlike other changelings she's mostly pony. Also, she requires only very little love to live off of and mostly lives the same way as any other pony. She doesn't have the ability to transform or anything like that so the only thing that remained was the need to feed on love and some talent for sensing the emotion of others, but to a much weaker degree. So, in a sense, she was a Unicorn but she had another type of dietary requirement.
After being filled in on all their plans and getting the story, The Roegadyn came up to the changeling and asked, “Where's the key?” The changeling looked visibly confused that she knitted her brow, but then snapped her fingers and exclaimed, “Oh you must be talking about mother's room. The leader has it on her at all times. None other than her can open the door.”
He motioned to her with his finger to stand up and when she did, he reached up towards her horn. When she noticed this sudden action, she flinched. But a second later a metallic clank was heard and the ring was removed. There was a small spark from her horn. When this was done, the Changeling return to her natural state.
( This is sorta how the Small Changeling looks. )
When she did this, she revealed herself and what Brex saw, could have been considered a 14-year-old kid with the typical dark skin that changelings were known for. But instead of seeing the eyes that were completely made up of one solid color like they were in the show, they instead resembled the same eyes that any other pony would have aside from them having that slight reptilian slit going on. When he searched his memories on the show it revealed that it was only Queen Chrysalis that had Iris's. Narrowing his eyes in suspicion the Roegadyn looks at her status bar to see if she was in fact Chrysalis but in her younger years, but instead all he got was the word drone. He thought to himself, “Huh, maybe they don't have bug eyes like they do in the show in this version of Equestria and I’m just overly paranoid.”
Her body did have the same characteristics of the holes forming as if someone just shot her up full of bullets. He was about to move on to the next subject when he noticed that one of her hands had injuries and was still bleeding. Feeling bad for the girl and how he just didn’t register this earlier he went into his item box and extracted from it one of his low-grade potions that he had put together with some of the materials he had during one of the nights he had gotten bored back in Filly Delphia.
Making the motion to make it appear as if he was pulling it out from some pocket, the Roegadyn offered it to the Changeling. She looked at it with suspicion after recoiling back when he made the movement. She was about to protest but Brex didn't want to waste any more time than needed in trying to explain this to her. So, he did the same as he did with Swirl Sugar and grabbed her by the wrist of the busted-up hand and pulled it forward.
This startled the Changeling as she flinched and closed her eyes. He then popped the cork with his thumb and poured some of it onto the wound. Remembering the intense reaction he got from the ponies back at the castle of the two sisters, Brex had done a small experiment where he injured himself and applied the potion onto the injury instead of drinking. That was when he found out that the curative effects still took hold, but at an only slightly less effective rate.
It was his plan to have some weaker versions of the potion on hand in case a medical emergency was to come up and he didn't want to use any spells. Also applying it directly to the body would be a good excuse seeing as Swirl Sugar and Shadow Lily had made such a big deal about it being something one had to drink. This way it would just seem like a very good medicine that was poured onto the injury itself and he can get away with not making such a big deal about it.
Now when the potion was poured directly onto the Changeling's hand, she gave out a loud hiss That only lasted about a second before she stopped and looked back towards him with a look of astonishment on her face as her eyes were looking at the hand he was holding.
When the liquid came into contact with the skin, there was a small sizzling sound reminiscent of something burning on a stove. There were also small wisps of white smoke coming off of it but that too only lasted for a few seconds. Almost instantly, the skin began to heal at an alarming rate. The cuts mended themselves along with the bruises that were now forming from what she had done to herself only a short time ago we're now fading fast.
For Brex, the healing part was expected. But what came immediately after threw him for a loop. All the holes on the changeling's body began to shrink and close in on themselves until there were barely any left on her form. Even the small wings on her back had nearly all closed up the holes that were forming on them. The horn that had ridges Every now and then running along it, we’re now gone to only leave something that was much more unicorn like except with it having the curve.
The Changeling began to hyperventilate a little bit in place as she looked over her body. She had just started checking underneath her clothing and had begun removing some articles such as her top. Catching on to what she was doing in time, the Roegadyn quickly turn his head away out of embarrassment and wondered to himself, “OK I didn’t expect that one. I only meant to heal her hand. So why is that happening to her body? Is it possible my potion is somehow imitated the formula inside of the love that Changelings absorb? I wonder... Is it possible that I can substitute their needs with the potions I can make?... Nah... I doubt it's that convenient. It's probably just a random side effect of the healing.”
When he had finished with those thoughts, he found the girl standing in front of him and was now looking up at him with puppy eyes. Without showing it on the outside, Brex had nearly had a heart attack from how fast she had suddenly gotten in his face without him noticing. He wondered to himself, “I really need to figure out how that happens. Is there some weakness or blind spot for my detection skills I don’t know about?”
She quickly started speaking to him in an excited tone, “What did you just use on me. I can't believe that you did all this with just that red liquid. Please tell me you have more. Please, I'll do anything please! Name your price! If you have any more, please use it on my mother. I'm sure It can cure her.” The Roegadyn's mind went blank after hearing her say those dreaded words “I'll do anything.” He couldn't help but scream in his head, “WHAT IS UP WITH THESE GIRLS AND SAYING SUCH DANGEROUS WORDS, DON’T THEY KNOW HOW MUCH TROUBLE THAT COULD GET THEM INTO??! Someone really needs to educate these kids on what is appropriate.”
It had taken him a few seconds to recover from this and looked back down to the changeling in front of him that was still giving him puppy dog eyes. Another stray thought crossed his mind, “It’s not even season one yet and they already weaponized cuteness!” Wanting to make sure that he didn't commit himself into doing something that was way beyond his limits, Brex nodded and said, “One more bottle.”
The truth was, he had made a good 20 of them. But after seeing this reaction he was going to get from a Changeling after using a low great potion, then he was better off letting them think he had very little. He was cautious of the idea that they might try to get him to make a constant stream of the stuff if they knew that he was capable of doing so. So, letting them believe that he had very little would dampen that thought and cause them to think it was something rare or hard to make and drop the idea all together.
The Changeling then asked, “Could you give one of them to my mother?” This got her another single nod from Brex. As soon as that body motion was completed, he was then given a tackling hug by the girl. Fortunately, she didn't put enough force into it to knock him over. Brex had to strongly resist the urge to fight her off when she did this and was feeling extremely uncomfortable. He was able to hide it and during all this the concentration needed to hide his emotions was still intact. He wasn't stupid enough to lower his guard at any time at all while still in the nest of the emotional readers.
Brex gently pulled her off and made towards the door and when he got to it, he turned his head a little and said, “Let's get key.” They both left the room and stood in the middle of the hallway. She then pointed towards the door that was between the one they had just came out from and her mothers and said, “She's in there. Be very careful, she's strong because she's the only one that has been feeding the most. The rest of us can only get what we need to survive while she grows in power.”
When he heard this, Brex realized why it was that this Changeling was covered in so many holes. It was due to her and the others being malnourished. It was one thing for there to be a lack of food supply but still… to horde it all for herself. It was just unforgivable for the Roegadyn.
While in front of her, he pointed towards the door and said, “Go. Act normal.” It appeared as though she was trying to come to terms what he was intending to try and do. After a few moments she had a look of realization and replied with, “Oh you plan to catch her off guard.” This got another nod from the Roegadyn.
The young Changeling approached the door but before touching the handle, she sparked her horn and a rush of flames covered her body. When the flames subsided, it revealed her to be taking on the form of Fleur de Lis once again. She knocked on the door a few times and immediately got a reply from inside.
The one inside shouted through the door, “What do you want?! Can't you see I'm busy in here. Never mind! Get your ass in here! Don't waste my time with excuses. It better be good, otherwise you're gonna get it worse than before!” There was then a crashing sound that indicated that something was thrown and smashed into pieces against the wall near the door way.
The voice was feminine, but at the same time it was one of those types that you just wish you could block your ears with how shrill it sounded. Brex could feel the condescending and egotistical manners that were behind every word that was said.
Brex quickly noticed how the Changeling next to him was now terrified with how she was cowering with her arms up in a defensive manner even though she had yet to open the door between her and the one within. He placed a hand onto her right shoulder and gave her a reassuring tap to indicate that he was still there. She did a noticeable gulp as she straightened up and started to turn the handle.
Brex had stepped off to the side and away from her peripheral vision and use his Hide skill to disappear. At the same time, he focused more of his concentration on to hiding his emotions to the point that he was having a hard time with even noticing them himself.
When the both of them entered the room, the young Changeling closed the door and approached a very large decorated wooden desk that had a tall changeling that was sitting behind it. She was a fair bit taller than the one he had been talking to and appear to be having far less holes on her body compared to how his new friend once had before taking the potion.
Taking the opportunity to do an examination, The Roegadyn discovered that this one had a name and she was called Phase. Now having a name to put with a description, Brex continued with his analysis.
Name: Phase.
Race: Changeling, Possible Queen.
Level: 28.
Weapon specialty: Poisons.
There wasn't really a whole lot to go on for what he saw so he wondered if she was even that much of a threat. But still Brex wasn't going to take things too lightly with how it mentioned that bit about her being a possible queen. He thought to himself, “I wonder if she is royalty or is a sub race that has the option of becoming one if certain conditions are met.”
Phase looked too the smaller Changeling with disgust and picked up a lamp on the table and threw it at the floor very close to the smaller one’s hoofs. This caused her to jump back in fear and began apologizing profusely.
The older Changeling got up from her chair and slammed her hands onto the desk and began to yell at the younger Changeling, “Go on then. Report! how did it go, Is he now under my control? If he is then start getting things set up! By this time tomorrow I'll be the one to have him. To think that worthless sister of yours was capable of getting such a fine catch. Not only was he bursting with love, but he has so many bits that I don't know what to do with. At this rate I'll be taking control of the entire city from behind the scenes in no time at all.”
Phase was too busy monologuing to notice Brex coming up from behind after slowly circling the room. Having heard more than enough, the Roegadyn reached forward with his right hand and grabbed the strands of silver hair on the back of the Changeling's head and sharply pulled until her eyes were forced to look straight into the ceiling. The amount of strength that was used had pulled a fair number of her hairs out by the roots.
This act caused Phase to scream in terror from both the sudden pulling and pain that the act had caused. Brex had taken out the same horn ring that was used just earlier and shoved it harshly down the Changeling’s horn until there was a large clanking sound as the ring was slammed down until it hit near the base of her horn. Just hearing what she had intended to do, along with calling Fleur de Lis such a thing only caused him to lose his concentration and his emotions erupted with fiery anger.
The Changeling that was currently still being held by the hair was pulled further along until she stumbled and fell onto her backside. He released her long hair on the way down. Before Phase was able to recover from the fall, Brex had already stepped over and had placed his left foot over her neck. Now underfoot, she was now coughing and gagging as she attempted to claw at his foot to release her along with futile attempts of kicking her legs while underneath him.. It was clear that words were trying to exit her mouth, but due to the strain on her neck that was caused by Brex pressing down onto her wind pipe had made her attempts at communication to come out unintelligible.
After several seconds, Phase relented and stared up at him with terrified eyes while she remained silent as her body frozen place when she appeared to be looking right into his eyes. But with the mask, it may have been the same as looking into the darkness.
Quickly coming to realization that he had lost his temper, The Roegadyn restricted his emotions once more. When he did this the Changeling under him started showing signs of even more panic and a lone tear ran down the right side of her face as she attempted to move her mouth to say something repeatedly.
It was exceedingly hard for him to continue with holding back his emotions from being sensed. His body was visibly shivering from the built-up rage. Lifting his foot, the Roegadyn quickly reaches down and grabs Phase around the neck and hoists her into the air. With his arm fully extended he swings her and slams the Changeling's body into the far wall with his arm holding still as to keep her from getting too close to his face or be able to kick him as she was now pinned a few feet off the ground. The impact was loud enough to shake the wall and had nearly caused a nearby book shelf to topple over. there was even some blood that escaped Phase's lips from the thud.
Brex thought to himself, “What's gotten in to me... Just what is it about this bug that just sets me off. Is it her voice? or is it perhaps the way she talks? It could just be what she's doing. All I know is… I want to hurt her so much... And it's taking everything I got to hold back...”
Rory spoke up in his mind and asked in a worried tone, “Master are you still with me? It’s OK, you got her now… This isn't like you. You've never lost your temper like this without a reason. If you don't calm down you might really do something you won't like...”
Rory's words manage to reach Brex and he could feel his anger beginning to shrink rapidly. During this time Phase was still pinned to the wall and slightly dazed from being roughly handled. Her eyes were slightly unfocused as she was looking towards the ceiling and crying nonstop. He could have vaguely made out the words coming from her lips that sounded like, “It... can’t... your.... I’m... I'm sorry... mercy... please... I... I didn’t...” Each word seeming to be weaker than the last.
Hearing Phase begging and saying sorry and wanting mercy only sparked the Roegadyn’s rage once more. But unlike the earlier outburst, this time, it felt different... A type of cold unfeeling anger was swelling up. His fingers that were wrapped around her neck began to tighten ever so slowly. The expression on the changeling's face became more fearful. But instead of fighting it or trying to claw her way free, she just stayed there limply while looking into his eyes.
Rory was attempting to get his attention but he felt no need to answer her. Phase's eyes were now beginning to roll to the back of her head from what appeared to be a lack of air. He would have continued if it wasn't for his arm being lightly pulled by another set of arms off to the side. Without releasing his grip, Brex turned his head towards the one that was interrupting him and saw that it was a now shivering young Changeling that was looking up at him with concern in her eyes. There was also some fear, but that was drowned out by something else that he couldn’t identify.
At that moment the world did not seem real to him. There was neither the cold or warmth. Even the sensation that gravity gave off on his body had also left his senses. He instantly realized that he was cutting off his emotions too far too much and was becoming detached from everything. But upon seeing the face of this small girl that was getting his attention and looking up at him with that expression of hers, caused him to feel something new.
His chest began to ache. Brex sensed that a lone tear was running down the right side of his face underneath the mask. His grip on Phase’s neck loosened and he could hear the taller Changeling gasping for much needed oxygen. He then thought, “Was... Was I about to.... In front of a child...No…” Brex was right now on the verge of having a panic attack at what he was about to do, but Rory's voice came crashing through.
She called out to him in a loud voice, “Master! It's all going to be fine! You haven't done anything. All you did was rough up that changeling, that's all you did.”
This was enough to calm Brex down to a manageable state. He gave a slow nod to the younger Changeling before turning his gaze back to Phase. Pulling her from the wall, he brought her to his face to the point that they were nearly touching nose to mask and he spoke in a very low intimidating tone, “Thank her... now.”
( Stop the Music here. )
This got a very weak nod as Phase turned her eyes towards the other one in the room and was able to squeeze out of her mouth a week, but still heartfelt “Thank you.” Yet as more tears began cascading down her face. But unlike before where it was from an expression of fear, was now an expression of relief.
Brex then asked, “Where is key?” While clutching at her now severely bruised neck, Phase raised a shaky right finger and she pointed towards one of the bookshelves and muttered something that sounded like, “Behind the blue book.” In a flash, the younger Changeling rushed up to the bookshelf and began pulling off every single blue book on it until she'd found a large key and rushed back over to Brex.
With nowhere to put Phase, he brought her along as they all left the room and quickly approached the door that the other two were trapped behind. The young changeling undid the magic lock and swung the door open with such force that Brex was almost positive that the door hinges would now need replacing now.
There was a set of gasps inside and when Brex poked his head in, he found all three huddled in a big group hug with the one on the bed just sitting up in the middle of her bed. Upon entering the room, the Roegadyn yanked inside Phase by the neck. Almost seeming like the changeling had done a 180 degree on her attitude, she was now whimpering uncontrollably while being roughly handled but gave no resistance.
He had figured that she was just scared for her life and let it go. With his free hand he closed the door to ensure that if something was to happen, then it would not be easy for Phase to escape by simply running through an open doorway.
Taking a good look around he found the room to be windowless and there was a small pile of what seemed to be necessities such as extra clothing, toilet paper, food and water. It was now apparent that Fleur de Lis was going to be kept here for an extended period of time.
Now as for the Unicorn in question, she was now looking straight at Brex with a bewildered expression before she asked timidly, “Is… Is that you? You're not a trick, are you?” This confused Brex as to why she asked that. But then it might have been due to him hiding his emotions unlike all the other times she had been around. She was part changeling after all, so he must seem very odd to her with his current state.
He asked in an emotionless tone, “Your mother, OK?” Fleur de Lis's eyes went wide as dinner plates as she brought a hand up to her mouth. It looked as if she was about to say something, but she drew her eyes down to the floor and began to look extremely sad. She then spoke in a quivering voice, “She... She isn't doing too well. The poison…that Phase used. It’s doing too much to her body… but I feel that...”
Brex heard enough and threw Phase onto the floor near the bed. When he was sure that she was giving him her undivided attention, he pointed to the ground near her feet and gave the Changeling the unspoken command to stay put. Without even a moment's hesitation she got to her knees and bowed her head so low that she was pressing both her nose and horn onto the floor and remain still. Not even registering her actions, the Roegadyn turned and approached the bed quickly.
Fleur de Lis was showing signs of panicking and was attempting to get in his way by taking a protective stance for the Changeling in bed. All the while, her eyes were closed as if one would when waiting for a beating.
It was the smaller sister that spoke up and took her older sister by the hand gently and spoke, “Sis, he’s not going to hurt her. You're not… are you? you're going to help her like I asked right?” That last part was asked in a very hope filled tone.
Brex began turning his head towards the smaller sister and backup to Fleur de Lis and ask, “You love her?” This got an immediate reaction out of the two as they both practically screamed in unison. “Of course, we love her.” This was all that he wanted to hear and he place a hand into his coat pocket and extracted from his item box one of the weaker versions of the healing potion that he had administered before and along with one antidote potion for good measure.
He handed both of them over to Fleur de Lis. He pointed to each one and called them out by name. “Antidote, Medicine.” That was when the younger sister chimed in and began telling them about how the medicine had helped her earlier. When the explanation was finished, Fleur de Lis quickly administered both to her mother. It didn't take more than ten seconds for the older Changeling in bed to look visibly better.
She had begun to get out of bed, but was stopped by her daughters who were in a panic as they were tenderly trying to coax her into being slower about what she was doing. She gave off a weak chuckle that seemed quite sincere before she relented and just simply sat on the edge of the bed. After promising to them both that she would take it easy.
She then began to slowly unwrap the bandages that were covering most of her form. When she was finished it was noted that she was wearing something underneath the bandages and Brex nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw how she appeared.
(This is how the Changeling Queen, Bellona looks like. )
Before him was a changeling Queen that was almost identical to what he thought Queen Chrysalis would look like as an anthro pony. He quickly searched for her health bar to find out if she was really who he thought her to be, but found that was not the case. She was called Bellona and was level 34. He quickly compared that to Phase and concluded that the reason That she had won the fight was due to the poison that was inflicted on Bellona.
Not wanting to overstay his welcome, the Roegadyn begin leaving the room. He was quickly stopped by an arm grabbing on to the back of his dress coat. When he looked over his shoulder, he found it to be Fleur de Lis but she was still looking towards the ground so he wasn't able to see her face.
After a moment of silence, she began to speak in a worried tone, “Are... Are you going to tell him...? About who, I mean what I am?” At the end, she was visibly crying as he could hear droplets hitting the floor.
Without moving he asked, “Tell him what?” This got her to look back at him as she blinked a few times. She then asked, “What do you mean? You... You know everything now. You know that I'm a changeling... That I'm a monster...”
Brex turned and place slowly and brought his left hand up and began to lightly pat her on the top of the head in an attempt to reassure her. He then spoke in a tender tone, “Tell him.” Fleur de Lis was looking left and right as she showed that she wasn't quite sure on that. She was about to protest when he held up a finger to show that he wanted her to wait. She saw this and closed her mouth that had just begun to open.
The Roegadyn stood tall and crossed his arms while looking with his head tilted down towards the mare Before asking, “You love him?”
He was nearly taken aback when he saw how she now had an extremely determined look in her eyes that just screamed, “Are you kidding me did you really just ask me that question.” For as long as he had known her for, what little time it was, she was always a soft-spoken mare. But she looked as if she was on the verge of exploding on him. Before she was able to let out anything, he raised a hand and gave her a thumbs up and gave another nod to show he understood.
She then stumbled back a step and had a look of embarrassment on her face before she started to tap her fingers together as she spoke, “I'll tell him. I don't know what he will think of me, but he deserves to know this much.”
When all was said and done, the Roegadyn and Fleur de Lis found themselves walking on the streets as they were in the middle of returning back to the hotel that Fancy Pants and he were both staying at.
There happened to be a spare set of clothing for the Unicorn to wear back at the Changelings hide out. So now she was wearing some casual clothes. These were not as extravagant as what she would normally be seen wearing, which consisted of a pair of blue jeans and a pink hoodie. She was also wearing some type of baseball cap with that had an icon that was made up of a thunderbolt with wings on the side of it.
It was rather late at night so the streets were empty of civilians, aside from a few drunkards traveling from bar to bar. He had looked into it and found that they had alcohol here, but it was made using cider. He hadn’t tried any himself but that was what he heard from random ponies when he would be in the guild halls, it was able to get them plastered. Brex didn’t know if he had ever had a drink. All he knew was, he wasn’t going to test his tolerance and find out he was a talker. They had just stepped on to a street that left them with a straight shot to the high-rise hotel that they could currently see five blocks away.
With it nearing midnight, the air was still warm thanks to It being early summer. Brex was having a hard time containing himself when he thought about how odd they both must look right now on the street. Fleur de Lis wearing a cute regular outfit, while at the same time, being escorted by a masked butler who towered over any pony.
Fleur de Lis looked up to Brex and asked while still looking ahead as to not trip over anything in the dim lighting of the street lamps. “Are you positive you're fine with how things went back there? From what little my little sister told me. I'm rather surprised that you let Phase off the hook and allowed us to take care of her punishment.”
What Fleur de Lis was referring to was Phase. With everything settled and fixed, in a way. Brex didn't want to be meddling with their private affairs any more than he already had. He would have been lying to himself that he felt as if he wanted to do a whole lot more to Phase. But seeing her groveling at his feet all pathetic like that, just ruined his mood. All he really wanted to do, was to get away from that girl. Seeing how he scared her that much, Brex didn't feel like he can trust himself around Phase without snapping again.
By the time they had left that building, the other changelings that he had *cough cough...* Incapacitated, we're coming too. But before they could say or do anything, he and Fleur de Lis made a hasty retreat out the front door. Going back to Fleur de Lis’s question, Braxton turned his head down towards her and replied With, “Better this way.”
There was some time of silence between them as they passed a number of light posts before Fleur de Lis started back up again. She spoke with an underlying tone of reverence in her words, “You're a lot more accepting than I thought. You know, I was fully expecting that you would become hostile to all of us, including myself after finding out about us. Whenever our secret ever gets exposed, we always have to cover our tracks in one way or another...”
She then let out a small sigh before continuing, “Did you know I was actually scared of you before this whole night happened?” This got a raised eyebrow from behind the Roegadyn's mask before she gave out an amused chuckle before Adding, “I'm not all that great when it comes to doing the things that my kind can do, But I can sense emotions to a small degree. You see, I've always been surrounded by both the males and females. So, I have a fairly good idea on how they are in our society. The thing is… you are not like any of the males I have ever encountered.”
For some reason Brex was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable right then and there, but allowed her to continue as he stayed silent. “All the others would always be worried about something or another or scared. But you, I can't really put my finger on it... It just feels like you're worried about something that you've been holding onto for quite a while. I'm not really sure how to describe it. The closest thing that comes to mind is... What goes through your head makes me think that your worries could be compared to that of a mountain. While the others just seem like pebbles in comparison…. Just listen to me! I must sound so weird right now.”
They were now less than a block away from the hotel. The sign near the lobby doors were in view and Brex could make out a few of the guards positioned out front. Seeing that their time alone was about to come to an end, Fleur de Lis turned towards him while still walking in the direction of the hotel as she said, “Do you think you can give us a little time alone to talk things out... I get the feeling this is going to be a long talk...” Brex gave her a nod and replied with, “Love transcends all...”
This got a giggle from Fleur de Lis before she quickly responded with, “Oh, I had no idea you were romantic. If that's the case I could always~ Have a word with my sister.” She then gave him an overdramatic wink before stifling another one of her little giggles. Seeing that she was obviously joking, he decided to play along with her but spoke in a serious tone while looking straight ahead, “She's too young.” This apparently was good enough to cause Fleur de Lis to stumble for a few feet while erratically flailing her arms and attempt to stay on upright before quickly righting herself up and giving a quick blush at the apparent blunder.
After that, there was a few seconds of awkward silence between the both of them before the pair erupted in a small course of giggles and laughter at the joke, they just played on one another. With that the tense mood was alleviated. Soon they found themselves within the hotel and standing in front of Fancy Pants's door. Fleur de Lis knocked on the door and Fancy Pants opened it immediately. Upon seeing Fleur de Lis, his eyes went wide but with some slight hesitation on his part until he saw his bodyguard standing next to her giving him a little nod. This was a signal for the guy to essentially glomped his lover and quickly rush them both inside.
It didn't take long before he left the room and went into his to wait until the night was over. He had a feeling that it was going to be a very, very, lengthy discussion between the two and he was not just going to stand around in the hallway for the entire night.
He had just began laying down on his bed when he spoke outloud in a whisper, “Hey, I can’t help but notice that you’ve been rather quiet today. I sort of expected you to make a comment during the return trip. Got something on your mind?”
Rory soon responded in what sounded to be a carefree tone, “Oh that? I just enjoyed watching the show. I did find it rather interesting that you would go to such lengths in helping the changelings today. As far as I know you don’t particularly trust the ponies, but you seem to get along with fancy pants and Fleur de Lis quite well. You know if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you had a thing for her. She is the only one you’ve ever went and tried playing a small joke on. Then there was the whole helping her with her love life with convincing her to tell him the truth.”
Brex closed his eyes and replied, “It’s just I feel that I can relate to their situation when it comes to the whole keeping one’s existence or identity hidden from the world. As for her, I don’t know. I’m sure it’s not anything romantic. Just that I can relate to a degree. I think I’m nothing but a hypocrite. Here I am getting her to spill her biggest secret to her lover, yet I’m still hiding what I am, even to them.”
There was a short pause in the conversation before Rory spoke up again and asked, “I know that you would rather avoid this subject, but do you want to talk about what happened when you confronted Phase? You know… about how you reacted.”
Brex rolled over onto his right side and opened his eyes slightly as to stare directly at the wall next to his bed. He let out a heavy sigh before saying, “Something about everything she was doing just triggered something within me. It was the way she did everything when it came to taking advantage of others for her own greed. But it was the way I saw her talking to that small changeling and throwing that lamp. I thought I was able to handle myself but as soon as I saw the frightened face on that one on the other side of the desk… something in me just snapped. If this really is some kind of trauma from before I became a Roegadyn, then I would really rather not know what it was. If I reacted so violently with that even with the mental fortitude you gave me. Then I’m scared to see what I would be like if I was back to how I was when I first showed up and was in that position.” That was when he slowly closed his eyes for the night.
Just as he thought, the night went on, and on... and on, with no word from the pair. When it was around 8 in the morning, there was a subtle knock on the door which awoke Brex from his sleep. That night he went into REM sleep due to the excessive use of trying to contain his emotions, along with that outburst he had near the end.
He found it to be both Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis standing outside of his room and they were apparently holding hands like they normally do. There was even a set of smiles on both their faces that indicated the night went smoothly. They invited him back to their room for their own little discussion.
The both of them had explained that they were still going to be together and even with Fleur de Lis being part changeling, it did not dissuade the romantic Fancy Pants. He was also informed that they had come to a plan in regards to the other changelings. In short, Fancy Pants was going to do his best to help out his future wife's family and finding them a suitable job placement and housing so that they can both live among ponies and somehow managed to get their daily supply of love.
There were a few ideas and one of them was in regards to their hide out and how he had wanted to turn it into a community center. But through some subtle choice words on his part, of going along with that plan and possibly adding onto the building a psychiatry section seeing as how changelings would most likely make the best therapists with how they can empathize with their patients.
But when it came to their food supply, now that was the tricky bit. Brex knew that they had a second evolutionary form which was shown in the show. But had begun to think about what the ramifications would be if he was to introduce this idea to them before the appointed time that it was supposed to happen. For all he knew, Queen Chrysalis could get word of it and stamp them out like she had attempted to do so when her own colony turned against her when they went through the transformation themselves.
But knowing that these were outcasts and were not part of her hive, he convinced himself that it would be best to let them know now and inform them that it would be a good idea to be keeping it a secret and whenever interacting with any other changelings that are not from their group, they could just change themselves to look like how they once did.
After deciding to go with that option, Brex got some paper and a quill and began writing out detailed notes in regards to the sharing of love among each other willingly. Just as Thorax discovered when he became friends with Spike and it alleviated his need to feed.
After showing the notes to both of them, Fleur de Lis eyes shot open and her mouth was a gape as she continuously darted her eyes between the paper and Brex. He was rather concerned when she continued this for nearly a minute, thinking that she may have suffered some kind of a stroke. But she stopped soon after which was a relief to him. He thought that she was going to possibly disagree with him when she brought a finger up and opened her mouth to retort to the accusations made on the paper, but quickly snapped her mouth shut and a look of realization grew on her face as she lowered her finger.
She then notified the both of them that even though she requires very little and hardly need to feed much compared to her family, she noticed that after telling Fancy Pants about her, and her family, she didn't need to feed on any love at all. In fact, the thought never even crossed her mind during the entire night after returning.
She then told them that she was going to give this information to her family and see if it works for them. There was also an agreement that this should be kept a secret among them for now and to be very careful about who they bring into their fold in the future, unless they want other Hives to find out and trigger some type of a purge for being different from the rest.
When all the heavy discussions were finished, Brex reached into his coat and pretended to grab something out from it like he normally does and produces a thick stack of papers that could have easily been 50 pages long. They were then placed onto the table and slid over to the pair while they were all sitting on the couches that surrounded a coffee table.
The two Unicorns looked rather confused and when they split up the papers and started to read, both were looking up at him with raised eyebrows every now and then and going back to the papers before exchanging them among each other and discussing amongst themselves about various topics relating to what he had given them.
Fancy Pants upon finishing looked towards his bodyguard and gave him an amused smile before saying, “Good sir! I think this would be a very beneficial partnership for all parties involved.” With that the two of them shook hands and Brex had a broad smile behind his mask as one more part of his long-term plan was about to be put into motion.
*Point of view: Queen Bellona* *Location: Changeling hide out* *Time: Two days after the incident*
It had been a few days since they were visited by the one wearing a mask who had saved them from a corrupted changeling that had taken over their small hive. All of the members of their community were now gathered on the second floor of the building where there was one large room that could house all of them at once.
Counting all those that were at the hide out that night and the ones that were still out in the city, there was a grand total of 50 Changelings In attendance for this meeting. It was understandable that quite a few of them were very confused during the next day after the incident, but were quickly caught up on all the relevant information.
Seeing as the corrupted Changeling had been brought down and their original Queen was returned to power, the other drones were itching to take out their grievances with the previous leader, but was stopped by Bellona.
Now as for the Changeling in question, she was the focus of much animosity from the others. Phase was currently groveling near the pedestal that Bellona was standing behind. If one was not a part of what happened in the last several weeks and had never seen Phase until right now, they would have never of guessed that this was the very same mastermind who was in a way, corrupting the whole city through her actions and greed.
Her name was Phase, the ex-leader of the Hive. While groveling, she was taking a very low bow as to keep her face hidden from all present. But what was really odd with her behavior right now was with the way she was muttering under her breath in a terrified tone.
Just earlier before the meeting started, she was in a calmer state but still was showing submissiveness and was already bowing before the original Queen. But when the meeting started and the Queen's youngest daughter who had yet to have been given a name spoke of what she saw that night, it only triggered what could have been considered a traumatic backlash for Phase for that was what brought her to be in such a frantic state at this moment.
The youngest daughter of the Queen was standing on the far side of the podium opposite from Phase and was in the middle of regaling them of what she had witnessed.
She spoke of how the masked Individual came into the room and subdued her. This was followed by his act of kindness towards giving her what she had assumed to be an extremely rare substance that was capable of not only restoring her to perfect health almost immediately, but was capable of substituting for the love within her body which ended up with her form becoming completely solid with hardly any holes left in her body aside from a few that remained in her wings and the natural whole pattern that was present in her hair.
This caused a great many of them to murmur among themselves excitedly at the prospect of learning something that could possibly help them with their food shortage.
The story continued to the point where they had confronted Phase. But it was at that time that all present began to show more signs of interest as they all began to go deathly quiet as to not miss a word.
They were told how the masked being erased his presence from her completely. Even with being told the plan that he was going to sneak on Phase. The young changeling was unable to perceive him to the point that she had forgotten about his very existence. To her, he appeared out of nowhere in a blink of an eye and had taken hold of Phase from behind. She then spoke of how he roughly threw her around as if she were some pathetic rag doll, even with her being so strong.
She continued on by saying that the room had become scorching hot at one point, but then it would turn blistering cold the next. The young changeling compared it to standing in the middle of the desert at high noon and blinking to find themselves in the frozen tundra the next.
The next part was a description of how he had Phase by the throat and was squeezing the life slowly from her body. The masked being only releasing her after the young changeling got his attention. He was fully willing to take Phase's life, even with all the begging she was doing, but granted the request when she was the one who made the motion to stop. But it seemed that he did not want to take the credit for her release, instead she made Phase thank the young Changeling in his place.
The story progressed to them getting to Bellona and healing her wounds with the same substance that she herself was given. Along with another liquid that was mentioned to be an antidote. All present were astonished that one who had just shown up that very night, would have something capable of undoing the diabolical poison that was inflicting their Queen.
After she had told that last bit, she went on to describing what she had felt during the whole event. Even though he revealed himself when taking on Phase, the young Changeling was having an exceedingly difficult time in perceiving his very existence. She compared it to what it would be like when a single water drops onto a stone floor. But when it came to this individual. That drop of water which represented their sight and senses towards him, was obstructed by a bubble the same way as a drop of water would bounce off and run to the outer edges of the circle. This was exactly how she felt whenever she tried to look directly at him. She knew that he was there, yet again, all of her senses compelled her to not perceive him.
When her youngest daughter was finished, Bellona brought all in attendance to give her their undivided attention as she began to speak. Along with all of their gazes of admiration and astonishment from the story. She can see how they admired the way she looked. Just like her younger daughter, Bellona was also in peak condition.
Her next words came out with such authority that it would have compelled any to give her their attention no matter what they were in the middle of.
Taking in a deep breath, she closed her eyes for about a second before opening them and letting out the air in her lungs. She then said, “To all present, from what my daughter has said. Along with what I myself have seen and heard. I have no doubt in my mind that this was something foretold to the changeling race thousands of years ago.”
This got a quiet murmur from the gathering before Bellona raised her left hand to get their attention once more. She then continued, “There has been an ancient tail passed down from Queen to Queen. I know it to be ancient from seeing it myself on the great black obsidian stonewalls of our homeland. There was a foretelling written in our ancient language in a form of a rhyme.”
Bellona allowed herself sometime to regain some composure as she was beginning to get a little frazzled by what she was about to say to them. She done said, “If I remember correctly, it goes something like this.”
Beware, beware young Changelings.
Beware, beware for we are the hunter.
For others are our prey.
Beware, beware young Changelings.
Beware, beware for yet there is another.
For we are its prey.
Beware, beware for if you gain his ire.
Then your fate will be most dire.
Beware, beware young changelings.
For he will not permit being seen.
Beware, beware young Changelings.
For all you will know, will be searing heat and blistering cold.
Beware, beware young Changelings.
To avoid such a fate.
One must curry his favor.
Beware, beware the long-lived Myth.
The Apex Predator.
*Point of view: Daddy* *Location: The other side*
Daddy was currently strolling across the sea of gold while still in his master Roshi form. Even with the ground appearing to be made of pure liquid, his sandals and walking stick still made the clanking sounds that they would normally have done so if he was on solid ground.
He was currently making his way over to the table that was sitting in the middle of the empty ocean of nothingness when he was unexpectedly blindsided on the right by getting tackled to the ground by one of his daughters.
Letting out a weak chuckle Daddy says, “Well I didn't think that I'd be missing this much whenever I go out for a little walk. Ho Hohooo. Maybe I should do those more often, than maybe I’ll get a little more attention from the two of you.”
The figure got off of Daddy and stood to the side of him. This was Little Moon and she was looking rather distraught. She grabbed Daddy by the scruff of his neck collar and pulled him to his feet as if he weighed no more than a piece of paper and place them on the ground facing her.
After seeing that her dad was now on his feet, she gave a disgruntled groan as she threw her arms out to the side and yelled, “Just where did you go off too? I've been looking for you literally everywhere!”
Daddy did the motion of brushing themselves off of any dirt which wasn't really needed with how clean everything was and said, “Did you check the black hole behind that broken planet that was once called Namek? You know, the one that had all those green men on it?”
This got yet another disgruntled grunt from Little Moon as she replied with, “Yes I checked behind there!” Daddy Then said, “Did you check over by-But was interrupted by Little Moon screaming, “And yes I did check over at the adult bookstore that you like to frequent back on Earth.” This got a sigh from Daddy when he said, “Yeah well, I don't go there anymore. Everything is digital now. You gotta download that stuff and it’s a pain to learn how to do…”
This only got Little Moon to become more frustrated as her character's thick accent began to take hold as she grabbed onto Daddy by his shirt collar with both hands and brought him up into the air so that he was at eye level with her. She then started speaking in a strained fashion as one would see someone who was on the verge of losing it. “You see here old man! I need to tell you that-
She was then interrupted by something hitting the ground and making a pair of metallic sounds underneath Daddy. Furrowing her eyebrows, she looked down and found what looked to be a small hammer along with a metal chisel. Without even saying a word, she looked at him and gave him the what is that look.
Giving out a weak chuckle while sporting a Cheshire grin, Daddy said, “Oh that? While on my walk I just felt like doing a little bit of artwork. It's been so long since I've seen anybody write anything down on a stone wall. It started with paper, then it was computer texting and posts. It used to be that back in the day, if someone puts something down on stone, they would look at it a lot more. No one seems to appreciate the classics anymore.”
This only got him to be released while still in midair to fall on his butt. Little Moon then massaged the bridge of her nose to relieve what could have been her very first migraine within the last millennium. She then threw her arms straight above her head in a, I give up motion and said, “Just forget it! I just wanted it to tell you that I picked one of those guys up on the table. Now come on! I need your help.” That was when she reached down and grabbed him by the back of the shirts collar again and started to drag the old man the rest of the way to the large table. All the while, Little Moon was unaware to how Daddy was sporting another one of those big grins.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 25: Between a Rock and... a Rock. Ouch! Part 1.
Chapter 24: Between a Rock and a Rock. Ouch! Part 1.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Mane Hattan, High rise hotel* *Time: The Day after the two-week job finished*
Brex was currently standing in the main lobby of the high-rise hotel with Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis that were standing in front of him, along with a contingency of guard mare's that resided within the building itself.
At first glance, one might think that he was in a predicament but that was far from reality. What was currently happening was a type of farewell between Brex and Fancy Pants as employee and employer. The two weeks had expired the night before and Brex was getting ready to leave.
It had been only a few days after the whole Phase incident, but during that time there were a few small changes around that he had noticed. For one, there were a few more guard mare's around that were of the unicorn variety. Well, that's what it would look like to an outsider. The unicorns that were newly employed were in fact Changelings from Fleur de Lis’s family.
Last night before his final hours were up, a group of Changelings had requested an audience between Fleur de Lis, Fancy and Brex. Apparently, the reason was that they wanted to work alongside their sister and future brother-in-law. Of course, when this was mentioned the pair in question were blushing deeply from embarrassment, but in the end after a small chat it was agreed that they would come and work alongside Fancy Pants and be his personal body guards along with protecting Fleur de Lis.
But there apparently was a slight change in the dress code that caught the Roegadyn's eye. The several Changelings that were standing before him right now with the group that was already a part of the staff, happen to be wearing a female variant of his Mysterious Butler outfit. But when it came to these females that were now employed, their version was rather... provocative with how they emphasize their curves and somehow Brex wasn't quite sure what to think about it. All he knew was if they switched out the pants for some stockings then they would be the Butler version of a Bunny girl.
Rory had picked up on this and commented by saying, “Oh~ I see how it is. So, my Master has a thing for outfits I see. Perhaps I should think about trying something next time we-“ But was quickly interrupted by Brex saying to her using the mental connection, “Could you not do that while there's emotion readers around?! The last thing I want is to be accused of being some kind of a pervert and ostracized. Also, do you know how hard it is to mask my emotions and still feel things. It's hard I'll tell you that. Oh wait, Fancy Pants is saying something, I need to focus on this...”
Most of the staff had already said their goodbyes and had returned to their duties while the only ones that remained in close proximity where the two unicorns along with their four bodyguards. Fancy Pants came closer and took Brex's hand into a firm handshake. He then spoke in a very friendly tone, “I must say, it was a great pleasure working with you, my friend. I only wish that you had accepted my offer and staying on as a permanent detail for my personal guard. I know you have places to be and I do hope that we get to see each other again very soon.”
He then paused to pat a bulge in one of his jacket pockets before looking backup to Brex and says, “And don't worry about these plans you showed me. I'll make sure they get started post haste.” That was when Fleur de Lis chimed in and took Fancy Pants by the right arm locking them together with her own and says, “Oh and I am so excited to see how it turns out myself. It's such a marvelous idea.” Fancy Pants then continued after giving a light chuckle with, “My dearest is quite right, we have already sent word with her family and they all agree that it would be a good opportunity when it’s completed. But I must ask how did you come up with such an idea in the first place?”
Brex gave a moment to think it over in his head before replying, “Traveling long ago.” Fancy Pants brought a hand up to his mouth to stifle a small laugh as he replied with, “I have to say you are a very interesting Individual. Well, I must retire back to my room and continue packing and I believe my fiancé and her family would like to have a few words with you before you leave, so I shall take this opportunity to head on upstairs. Tally Ho!”
With Fancy Pants leaving the room, Brex couldn't help but feel that he was going to miss the guy. The Unicorn really did turn out like he usually does in the stories that he'd come across in his memories. He had just turned his attention back to Fleur de Lis and noticed that not only was she standing up straighter than usual but the four Changelings in disguise were lined up at her sides doing the same.
Raising an eyebrow, Brex was about to say something but was beat to the punch when one of the Changelings nearest to Fleur de Lis on the right hand side spoke up. She had given a courteous bow with one hand behind her back while the other was across her midsection and when she had returned to her previous stance she said, “From all of us we can't thank you enough for all you have done. I have a message from Queen Bellona. Would my Lord would like to hear it?”
Brex had to try very hard not to react to what she had just referred to him as. He had quickly asked Rory in his head, “Hey-Hey what's going on here, just why did she call me her Lord? I think I missed something important. Please tell me I didn't zone out somewhere and someone said something that I just neglected to hear!”
Rory replied with a confused tone of her own by saying, “Uh... I'm confused as well, no one said anything about this before. Maybe it has something to do with you saving their Queen like a title? I did notice that they've been acting a little different when it comes to you over the course of the last several hours after they arrived.”
Brex quickly went over his mind on the memories of what Rory was mentioning. It didn't take him long to notice that she was right. Ever since they arrived, they've done everything that the pair had asked them to. But whenever it concerned Brex the Changelings would be far more attentive, whether it be their actions or simply how they spoke to him with reverence. There were even a few times when he had caught them looking at him in a rather strange way. At first, he thought that it was what all the mare’s did when it came to him being a male, But the way they did it, seemed like it was on a whole other level. He could have sworn that they were intentionally focusing on him the most aside from Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis and had attempted to anticipate his needs whenever he was about to do something.
Even though his mental communication was being accelerated, he didn't want to waste too much more time and went back to the conversation in the outside world. Brex nodded to the Changeling that was speaking and he was positive that she was beaming with pride as he did this.
She then spoke, “Our Queen Bellona, wishes to give you her sincere and heart felt gratitude to you once more for what you have done. She already knows that you intend to leave the city but wishes that I Relay the following message in her words. She carefully cleared her voice before continuing, “Greetings My Lord. It pains me to hear that you will be departing. But I do hope that you will come by once again to grace us with your presence. We have received word on your recommendation on what to do when it comes to our need for love and I am happy to say that There have been remarkable effects on my hive. Ever since, we have all adopted this new policy. There have not been any cases recorded of any need to feed. Furthermore, it would also appear that we have all undergone a small metamorphosis. The bodies of my children are no longer riddled with many holes as they once were. From this day forth, if you should ever need of our aid, all you must do is ask and it shall be yours.”
At the end of the message all the Changelings including Fleur de Lis, were all giving him gentle smiles while a few appeared to be on the verge of crying. After a few moments of this, the very same changeling came closer and held out a rolled parchment towards Brex. Before he can attempt to ask about it the changeling then said, “Our Queen wanted you to have this. Please make sure you are alone when reading it.” The Roegadyn gave her a slow nod to show that he understood.
After that there was a small exchange between him and each of the Changelings, but he did notice that there was a bit of a blush whenever they came close enough to either give him a hug or a handshake. He had wondered why they were reacting that way but immediately afterwards when he was sure that one of them thought that he wasn't looking, they had brought a hand up to the point between their shoulder and neck, that was when Brex recalled what he had done to a majority of them. When he had exited the hotel there was a bright blush underneath his mask.
Rory couldn't help but say out loud in a very chipper tone, “Well it seems like you have some fans. Not many can say that they met someone that they sexually harassed and got a favorable reaction.” It was then followed by a series of laughing from the girl. Brex was seriously happy that he had gotten a fair distance at this point that there was no way for any of them to have been able to detect what he was feeling right now. She then finished off by saying, “I think 31 is a good record for a night's work, hmm... I would even say it could count towards being a world record! Te-hee!” This caused him to stop on the spot and mentally speak to Rory in a very cold, flat tone of voice within his head, “Seriously stop now or I will punish you later...” After he had said that there was no more from the girl in his head aside from a small amount of moans that he was barely able to catch as he strolled down the road.
Brex was about to leave the city but had one place to stop by before doing so. Managing to avoid the street walkers this time with another route. Brex had made his way over to the Guild Hall for the city. Before he had gone inside, he had seen a few individuals coming and going through the front door. Brex thought to himself, “Huh. It looks like things are going back to normal. Guess with Phase no longer controlling the big wigs, the adventurers are coming back to their old jobs.” He had considered going in but put the thought aside and considered that this would be a good place to return to one day and simply going in right now would only start rumors about him. It would be best if he started with a clean slate the next time he was around.
The process for leaving the city was just like any other and while he was crossing the bridge to get to the mainland, The rolled-up parchment came to mind. Taking a quick glance around as he was still moving, he saw that there was none nearby.
Brex took out the paper and opened it up to see that it was a map of Equestria and a number of places were marked with an X. There were also some very small notes nearby each of the marked locations. After a closer inspection, Brex found them to be marked locations of Changelings that belong to Queen Bellona's hive.
Brex said in a whisper, “I guess if it's true with them being able to communicate with each other, then I guess this is her way of saying this is how we can keep in touch.” After looking at it a bit more closely, it showed that there was one Changeling in both Canterlot and ponyville. He remembered that in a few of the stories there was a particular pony that turned out to be a Changeling. It would be rather fun to find out if it's the same pony in this world or someone completely unexpected. Only time would tell. But just as he was about to put it back into his item box, he had turned the paper over and had noticed something in the bottom corner. Right there was something that looked like a blue mark in the shape of a set of pressed lips. He had gone silent for a moment after that before quickly packing it away and starting down the bridge once again. All the while he was thinking to himself, “Nope, nope, nope, I hardly even know that Queen.”
*Point of view: The Small Changeling*
The small Changeling that had the opportunity to talk to the mast patron to their hive was at this moment walking Through the third floor of the building that they had made their home for quite a while now. For the last two months there was nothing but fear and dread whenever she went down this hallway. But for once she was in a very happy mood. The door at the very far end of the hallway had opened and the one who had just now came out of it was Queen Bellona herself.
She quickly waved to her mother and was about to open the door and enter her own room but was quickly stopped when she heard a gentle, motherly voice asking, “Oh, I think this would be the first time I've seen you wear lipstick, and such a lovely shade of blue. It goes so well with your eyes. By the way, did you make sure that small present was given to our Lord?” The smaller Changeling quickly nodded her head. Afterwards she said her goodbye to her mother and rushed into her room and closed the door. Only moments later squeals of delight emanated from behind her door and filled the hallway.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Back with Brex, He couldn't help but shiver for a split moment. He started to look around randomly in an attempt to find out what would have caused this sensation. Yet after nothing was revealed, he shrugged his shoulders and continued on towards his next destination that just so happens to be Baltimare. He thought to himself, “Well I did promise her that I'd come and visit now and then. Also, there’s a spot near the water I need to sit by for a while.”
After several hours of walking on foot to explore the terrain in more detail on his way back, Brex found a secluded area that was far from any settlements. He quickly came across a stump and sat down while staring up at the sky that was just beginning to get dark. Pulling out of his inventory, was a large leather-bound book with a picture of a silver kite like shield with a blue gem a fixed in the center. Above and below were the words. Rise of the shield hero, Spells and potions.
After a few seconds, Brex opens the tome to a few pages in and with a finger, runs it down until he finds something in particular that catches his attention. He then whispers to himself while looking over what he had found. “I wonder what I should try to learn next?” That was when Rory chimed in and said, “What's this? Ah, I see you're about to try and learn another one of those spells. But do you really think that this would be a good time to try, you do remember what happened the last couple of tries right?”
This got a rather reluctant reply from Brex as he said, “Yeah I remember. It was not a very enjoyable experience. He was referring to his first attempt as he tried to read the book after looking over the instructions on the introduction page. The instructions for outlining the use of the book and what precautions are needed when learning a new spell. For some reason that he could not discern, this book was only able to display things that he was currently able to learn. This meant a great deal of the pages were blank. But what really annoyed him the most, was the method in which he learns any of the spells or potions.
During his last three times that he used the book, Brex was stuck in bed for at least a full day due to the after effects. He was quite sure that if it wasn't for the mental fortifications that Rory had instigated, Then the downtime would have been much greater.
As it turns out, Brex could not read the book at the lightning-fast speed that he was so accustomed to. Whenever a word was looked over, there would be this agonizing pain in his head as his eyes roamed each and every letter in a slow, agonizing pace. It was as if something or someone was opening his skull and was carving the knowledge straight into his brain.
He had only learned a few spells due to him needing a safe location to rest, along with free time in which he had no prior engagements. Over the past couple of weeks, he had not been able to look at the book at all due to him either traveling or being on call for whenever Fancy Pants needed him at all times.
Going over what he had learned in his head, he listed off the spells in chronological order. The first spell was low quick. This was meant for an intense burst of momentary speed. Now that spell came in very handy when he was up against that Imp.
After learning that last spell, He had attempted to try and learn something else that was not as useful to see if it would affect the process. Unfortunately, the same result happened when he was finished and he was still stuck in bed for another day. The spell that he attempted to learn as an experiment was one called low gravity. As the name implies, it has an effect on gravity but it can only be targeted at small objects.
On the third spell, he did a different type of experiment and wanted to see if the time in between learning the spells would affect it. The time in between both the previous spells was well over a week. So, when he attempted to learn the third spell only two days after the last one, He had a rude awakening. Not only did the pain he suffered tripled, but the after effects were nearly as bad and was unable to get out of bed for five whole days. During that time his head felt like it was constantly being split open. What he got for his third spell, was an attack type called low wind. Just as the name implies the spell utilizes the wind as a weapon. He had figured that if he needed an attack spell of some sort then this one would be the hardest to notice.
After all that, he had placed three conditions that needed to be met before he would even try to learn another spell. Rule one, make sure you are in a safe place. Rule two, make sure that you are not needed to do anything for at least two or three days after attempting to read anything from the book. Rule three, under no circumstances there to be another reading within one week between learning anything new.
As of right now, he was currently looking at the instructions for a particular item that he had seen used in the story That this book was based off of. This was a spell that caught his attention when he realized what was in the book. But had kept himself away for his own good. Brex wasn't all that clear on whether he felt that he couldn't trust himself with it or if he was even capable of bringing himself to use it in the first place.
Rory, after waiting for some time, noticed that he was not doing anything at all asked, “Um... Master are you OK? you've just been staring at that book for a good 10 minutes now. I know you're not learning whatever is on that paper because you aren't in pain, so what is the problem?”
As it turns out Rory was unable to see anything that was written in the book. Among the instructions on the beginning page, said that no one is capable of reading from the book aside from its owner. So, to Rory and most likely any others who looked towards the book, all that would be seen were some very obscure blurred lines that couldn't be made out. Well, that's what Rory explained it to look like when she tried to gaze at the contents.
Brex spoke up after another few moments and sagged his shoulders while doing so, “I’m Just trying to figure out if I really wanna learn This one right now.” Rory then asked, “Hmm, what is it anyway? You know I can't see it.” He then replied reluctantly and said, “Well... in the story that this book is from... There's this thing called the cursed tattoo. Its… well... It's used in.... Slavery…” All the while his sentences were becoming more broken between each word until the last word left his lips, but that one felt the most bitter and sour to him.
Rory quickly replied with a nonchalant attitude and said, “Oh is that all, I don't really see what the problem is. Sounds like fun, you should really learn it.” What she had said nearly caused him to drop the book onto the ground but was capable of snatching it out of the air before it landed on the dirt. From behind his mask, the Roegadyn nearly screamed out of surprise.
He began to stutter within his mind as he used the mental communication from this point and asked, “W-what! Y-you. Just what are you saying? How, why? Why are you fine with me learning something like this?! Shouldn't you be talking me out of it?!”
There was then a deep sigh from within his mind as Rory replied with, “Master, I really think that you should learn that spell. It can come in very handy. And don't tell me that you didn't think about how it could be useful as well. Also, I don't want to hear you say something along the lines of, how you shouldn't learn it because of what it was meant for back then. Do you really think that you would misuse such a thing like this?”
Brex quickly retorted by saying, “But you don't understand, this spell will effectively render anyone I've used it on to be my slave. That means not only will they have to go through a painful process in which it is put on to them, but it will also bind them to me. That means they will be unable to disregard any order I tell them and if they try to, they will go through agonizing pain. Whether it be them disobeying an order or even attempting to do something that would hurt me. it would Inflict the same punishment. You saw how I was with Phase! This is just too much...”
After a few seconds, Rory begins to talk again but in a tender and relaxing tone, “I know that you had an issue when it came to that one Changeling. But look what you have been doing all this time, you are not a bad person. I'm sure there will come a time when this will be needed.
While still holding the book open to the same page with his left hand, Brex used his right to massage his temples For a few seconds before he said, “Yeah, I guess you're right. This is an extremely useful spell to know. It doesn't have to be for what its intended purpose was. There could be a time when I need to force... someone into keeping my secret if it should ever get out. It could possibly be used on someone that I can't contain through any normal means...But still... I just know that when the day comes that I use this. I might get too comfortable with it and use it again.”
Rory then assured him by saying, “Yes, there’s a very good chance that might happen. But then again, I know that I can trust you to do the right thing. Besides I know you better than anyone.”
This made the Roegadyn smile from underneath his mask. After that discussion, Brex went for the idea on learning the spell. But he was going to need to find a place to do so. After giving it some thought, it would be best not to do it when he got back to that city. Also, there's the whole doing it out in the middle of nowhere being a bad idea.
The only place he knew that he could go to that he would not be disturbed was one place in particular and that would be the Tree of Harmony. He had access to the return spell from his game which would send him to the last crystal that he had attuned himself to as a home point. Then there was the simple teleportation spell which would send him to any home point crystal that he had ever come across in his travels. This also was only the tree of harmony. Then he had his third option, which was his evolved version of his shadow movement which allowed him to jump into his own shadow or any other and pop out at any location he remembers.
Seeing as he had already experienced traveling through his own shadow once before, Brex went with trying something new and started up the return spell. Feeling his feet lifting from the ground, the Roegadyn was hovering in place a good two feet. Then there was some swirling purple light that was engulfing his form in a bubble before that turn to a blinding white streak of light and everything went hazy. Soon the sensation of ground under his feet could be felt. He immediately started blinking and found his eyesight returning and what he saw before him was the Tree of Harmony which was located inside of a cave underneath the castle of the two sisters.
Letting out a heavy sigh, The Roegadyn reorientated himself after experiencing the odd feeling he had gotten when using the spell. He then spoke out loud while pulling off his mast to place his hand near his mouth, “Ugh... Now that's an easy way to get motion sickness... I think I nearly Lost my lunch...” Brex makes his way to the back of the cave which was brightly illuminated by the tree and sat down and leaned his back against the stone wall. He then spoke towards the glowing tree; “I hope you don't mind some company for the next day or two, but this is the safest place I can think of.”
There was a faint glow that emanated from the tree before dimming back to normal. When he saw this the Roegadyn had nodded and said, “Thanks.”
Immediately after he took out the book and began his process of reading the spell meant for the cursed tattoo. The whole thing lasted a good hour before Brex had closed the book shut and keeled over onto his side while clutching his head. For the next 26 hours, Brex was moaning and clutching his head repeatedly and had barely been able to get a solid hour of sleep at a time. All the while he would curse under his breath to the one who gave him that book.
When the side effects had subsided, Brex got up and placed his mask back on and left the cave. He was about to make his next trip by using his other means of long-distance traveling when a plant monster that he recognized from the game had appeared only a short distance from the mouth of the cave. Looking over its name above its head he saw that it was a Rafflesia and only a level 12 at that. The main body was just over half a normal ponies height but the long arm like appendages easily make it more than twice that of them.
( Here is the picture of the Plant monster. )
During his time in the Everfree Forest, not once had he encountered one of these. Luckily the creature had not noticed him yet which meant he was freely able to switch classes without the limit on how many times he could change in combat. Quickly he switched back over to his monk and dawned his iconic robe. The fight didn't take much time at all when he launched a series of quick punches and kicks to the main body that the plant like limbs were coming out from.
( This is the Robe set Brex is wearing. )
When its form crumpled to the ground and became motionless it soon dispersed into a black mist and faded into the air. When seeing this, Brex gave it a Harrumph, and was about to turn away but noticed something laying on the ground. Wondering why the loot didn't go into his Box after he had long since used the menu to set it up so that any loot that he got from defeating a monster would be deposited straight in there.
He reached down and picked up what looked like a small lantern with a faint green glow that was emanating from the center where a candle should be. There was then a voice that came from within his mind that was clearly Not that of Rory.
It was that of a young man and it said, “I AM WARDEN I PUNISH ALL EVIL, BE YOU FRIEND I SHALL GO TO HELL AND BACK WITH YOU, BUT BE YOU FOE YOU SHALL KNOW PAIN AND EVEN TRUE DEATH, CALL ME FORTH BY LIGHTING ME, SAY MY NAME!”
Immediately Brex understood that this was a token. So far, he had yet to run into a single one of them. If he had so before his apparent death by the hands of princess Celestia, then he would have been positive at that point that he was a displaced.
He wasn't quite sure whether or not that this item would be a good omen, but that thought was interrupted when a familiar window from back in his game days appeared right before him. On it was a set of texts indicating that it was a quest. But what really caught his attention was the picture of what he knew to be the one known as Titan. He couldn't help but remember a familiar cartoon character from a certain television show regarding a little blue monster from outer space. He then hung his arms limply with a, are you kidding me look plastered underneath his mask as he said, “Oh… Blitznack...”
For the next ten minutes, the Roegadyn was pacing back and forth while in the deeper part of the cave he was just inside of. If he had kept this up for much longer, there would be a groove made on the stone floor.
The reason for this odd action, was due to two things. There was how he had found a token from another displaced. The next was how the Primal known as Titan was going to appear in Equestria, if it hasn’t already. Currently, Brex was debating to himself on what action should be taken. On one hand, this was a threat to all. If something wasn’t done soon, then Titan would go on a rampage and take everything down with his power over the ground. The very idea of a city getting buried came to the front of his mind.
With how things are, it wouldn’t be a good idea to rush in to Canterlot to try and get the Princess’s help. Not only didn’t he trust her, but he knew that the whole thing would take too much time with him needing to make it inside. Also, there was him having to get them to believe his story about Titan in the first place.
Not many had a level over 20 in the world that he had seen. There was the Queen Bellona, but he didn’t want to drag her into it. There was no telling what questions would arise from that situation if she was in it.
He then brought his attention to the item that he had clutched in his right hand. This would summon another to this world that could have the power to help. However, he knew from the stories that there were those out there that turned out to be real monsters. There was even one story were a displaced showed up as Jack from the Guardians. He used his ice powers to kill the very sun. Brex Shivered at the thought that he could inadvertently cause this world to die from just saying a few words.
Taking a few deep breaths to steady himself, the Roegadyn brings the item up and closely looks it over. While doing so, he had gone over what the message had said. After a few seconds, he concluded from both that this was something from a character he knew from a video game called League of Legends. The displaced must have something to do with champion called Thresh. Thresh was a undead like being that used a scythe that was on a long chain and on the other end was a lantern that was the same as the one he was holding right now.
Now, but judging from what was said, this one was one that hunted evil. That meant he may not be some monster like the real Thresh. In the end, He just said Fuck it, to himself and decided on calling for this guy’s help. But first, Brex had to go somewhere that was not next to the Tree of Harmony.
He checked his map and found that the quest marker was at the edge of what he was looking at and zoomed out. When he did this, Brex found that Titan’s quest marker was smack dab in the middle of the Rock farm to the south, west. The Roegadyn’s eyes went wide from behind his mask. He knew from the time line that right now; Pinky Pie was most likely still living there as a small girl.
The very idea that she would get hurt sparked a flame inside of Brex and he gripped the lantern in his hand with even more strength. That was when he spoke in a low, dangerous tone, “She better not be crying when I get there…”
He then ran out of the cave and started in the direction of the Rock farm. He had an idea of doing the summoning along the way and between the Forest and Pinky was a place called Ghastly Gorge. That would make the perfect location to summon an unknown element without getting any attention if something was to go wrong.
It didn’t take Brex long to get to the Gorge and made his way into the deepest part of it. It would have taken even less time if it weren’t for the few monsters he had run into. He did notice that they were also something he had not seen 800 years ago while hiding in the Everfree. He wondered if they were something that came about recently or he was just not lucky enough to have encounter them.
He found a spot that was surrounded by high walls and a mixture of both large boulders and small rocks. He hoped that the environment would be to his advantage and trip up the summoned if he turned out to be and enemy. Once he was satisfied with the summoning site. The Roegadyn brought out the lantern and held it tightly. Focusing on what was attached to it. He then spoke in a loud and clear voice, "Warden, I am in need of your aid."
When the word ‘Warden’ was spoken, a dark portal appeared before Brex a few meters away. It started off small like a pin hole. But rapidly expanded to one that could allow a person to cross the threshold. Within a few seconds of watching the swirls of what appeared to be nothing but a void. A man started to come through. He looked like a well-toned white man that could have been in his twenties. Jet black hair could be seen coming from under his mighty black Stenson hat. He was wearing a black trench coat, blue jeans, black combat boots, with a red shirt that read skull for the skull throne.
He walked through the portal to see the displaced in question that had done the summoning. The man than spoke in a businesslike tone, “Brex Mith, Destroyer of the possessed spider, savior Bright Mac and Pear Butter, the ender of a slavery ring.” As soon as he got to that last bit, he had stepped onto a sharp rock that was able to pierce his boot. This caused him to fall down in pain.
Brex saw this and raised an eyebrow from behind his mask while looking both very confused and astonished at the same time with how someone who had just walked through a portal, would even know about him. After noticing the fall, he then said in a rather unsure tone, “And… apparently, the worst that picking a summoning location...” He also thought, “How does he know about he when he didn’t even make it all the way through the portal? He might have sounded like that, but I don’t like others knowing about me. I didn’t send out a token.” Rory replied with, “It’s possible that he had the power to know about who summons him. But yeah, I get what you mean. But I think it was funny how he was interrupted by that rock.” Brex then used the mental connection to say, “Now that isn’t nice. It looks like it really hurt.”
The man sits down and lifts his injured foot to see that his boot had already fixed its self. Slowly he gets up and asks, “So what have you summoned me for to chat or to help with something?”
Brex starts to relax a little bit after noticing that this guy was not a hostile from the start. Seeing that this wouldn’t turn out to be a shoot first, ask questions later scenario. The Roegadyn takes a seating position about three yards away on a nearby flat rock.
He then checks the surroundings by using his situational awareness and the mini map to see if there's any nearby that could see or over hear them. Seeing that it was clear, Brex began speaking, “Okay, seeing as I just summoned somebody by using what could only be a token. The displaced stories are completely true then. I found your item after defeating a monster.” That was when he held up the small lantern in front of himself. Afterwards he continued with, “I called because I think I'm gonna need an extra pair of hands with handling a Primal problem. Are you familiar with the game called Final Fantasy 14?”
The man then places a finger on his chin and replies with, “Yes I am familiar with it. I played till a little after the Heavensward beginning, but I know only a little. But I only know a few things about the new DLC called Endwalker.” He then he puts out his hand. Speaking politely, he says, “Sorry, its rude of me not to introduce myself, my name is Ryu Blood. A pleasure to meet you.
Reaching his own hand out, Brex takes his hand and give it a firm shake. Afterwards, he returns to his seating position before saying, “My name is Brex, but I already know that you know my name given your... Entrance.” He then gestures with his right hand towards the spot that the incident had happened with the rock just moments before.
The Roegadyn brings a hand up to his face and starts to stroke the chin of the mask as if it was an actual face and starts to make a thinking gesture by tilting his head. This was then followed by saying, “That's a nice party trick you pulled off with knowing who I am. I take it that’s either part of your displaced powers or something else is going on. Because I doubt that I'm famous enough to be known in the multi verse, considering I have not sent a token of my own out yet.”
Ryu looked at his gantlet when the text appeared just like a Discord message would. Then he looked to the Roegadyn and said, “I can only say I have friends in high places.” He continued with saying, "So what do you need help with?”
Brex lower his head and began to talk in a serious tone. While at the same time, sounding a little tired. “It's like this… I got a notification through my game system that came along with my character. It says that Titan got summoned only recently and when I looked at my map to find out where it is, I found the quest marker pointing to the rock farm. If you happen to be like me and know anything about My Little Pony, then you should know what that might mean for a certain pink pony. I'm worried that I might not be enough and I summoned you to see if I can get some extra assurances that nothing will go wrong. My situation is a little... complicated. I made sure that I'm not noticed all that much. In fact, everyone assumes I'm a pony or something along those lines. I could probably take out regular Titan or even in his stronger version beyond that by myself. But that would require me to do a lot more and I don't want to raise my power level too high, otherwise Sunbutt might pick up on It.”
Ryu looked at Brex with a knowing look and said, “Ah I see, so you are one of those displaced. Is she evil or is she just a bitch like the rest of the multiverse?” He then added, “Titan might be hard since I have no idea of the power scaling is for me in your world. Also, I have no training what so ever, I have only made my gunblade recently. Well, you are in luck that I have my army on call. Maybe that might work.” He then lifted his gantlet and a screen popped up and Ryu started typing something in it.
Without even bothering to lift his head, Brex raised up his right arm with the back of it facing towards Ryu. His eyes laying on it while he spoke, “Honestly speaking, I don't really know if she's evil or not. But I can tell you what our first and only exchange was. It involved her in the sky at a great distance, pulling a widow maker on me.”
Rory chimed in and said, “Oh I like him. He doesn’t like the bitch and has an army, how about he get him to…” Quickly Brex reprimanded her by using the mental connection to say, “That’s enough. I have better things to do then pull someone I just met into a grudge I have with the Princess. We need to focus.”
Letting out a sigh, he continued, “She got me from behind and literally disintegrated my right arm. This led to me getting pretty much beaten to hell him back. In the end, I somehow managed to beat her but my memory of that day is... not so reliable and I don’t know the whole story just yet. I was told that I did beat her in combat, but it resulted in me dying and having to be respawned at the tree of harmony after I had already set it as a home point.” He started shaking his head back-and-forth Before adding, “I didn't even get to see much, Ha! Not even a speech. Just up and tries to kill me with a sneak attack.” At this point the Roegadyn was visibly shaking from anger.
After a few seconds Brex said, “You mentioned something about an army. But I would really like to keep this under the radar if at all possible. As for the training, how about I give you some lessons on when my little problem is settled?”
He looks at Brex and shakes his head before stating, “Keeping this under the radar will be impossible if it is a Primal, because it will drain the Aether from the world which is its magic and life force. She will sense it as soon as it comes into this world.” He then continued by saying, “But you will not be alone if Celestia tries anything, I know what my powers are and how to use them. Not all that well, but I can help.” He gave a nod before going on, “But getting lessons does sound good. Oh right.” He pulls out a scroll as a token of appreciation and says, “I would like to offer you this scroll of mending.” Ryu then offers it to Brex from both of his hand with a slight bow.
Graciously Brex takes the scroll and examines it, but he made sure not to open it out of fear of prematurely activating the spell. Glancing back at the man, he asked, “Scroll of mending? Isn't that from Dungeons & Dragons?” Brex’s head tilts and turns towards Ryu’s weapon and then back at him before adding,” If I'm not mistaken, isn't that lantern I used to summon you meant to be part of the weapon that Thresh uses on that game called League of legends?” That was when he held up the lantern he had mentioned.
The man looks closely at him and says, “Yes, I got two D & D classes, The Dungeons 3 Gantlet, Thresh’s weapon and blue magic from 14. So, what did you get, i see 14. Not much else?"
Brex responded with, “Seeing as you're being forthcoming of what you've got, it’s only right that I did the same with you. I was originally nothing but final fantasy 14. So, I got all the classes. But for some… let's say, reasons that would take a while to explain, I didn't get to have everything all at once when I arrived here and had taken some time to get the others.”
He pulls out from his item box not even a second later, a large leather-bound book that appears in his hand within the amount of time it would take to blink. Playfully waving it as an example, Brex continued with, “I got this book of spells and potions from the anime Rise of The Shield Hero. Along with a few small nick knacks like, the telephone from the anime, Oh My Goddess. The last bit is this bracelet that one would equip onto a character from Final Fantasy 7.”
Brex had neglected to say anything about the canister. But after seeing the note that came along with it, he knew that it was not meant to be talked about openly. So that was omitted from the list that he gave.
The man looks at the gear Brex broke out and asked, “All right, so the Pie's rock family farm is in danger. What date is it?"
Putting the book back into his item box, Brex makes the motions of looking up to the sky and humming to himself for a moment before answering, “It's close to about… 11 years and 10 months before Nightmare Moon’s return... So, I'm before the pilot episode. Right now, all the members of the main six are roughly around 6 to 8 years old, I think. I already had a small run in with Apple Jack and Rarity.”
he looked at his gantlet and a screen appeared. On said screen, was a dark elf wearing a black dress. You think it was to get you to focus on her body Brex could see the screen a little and could have sworn that she was speaking, but he wasn’t able to hear anything. Brex then hears him replying to the woman with, “Maybe, looks like I will need to head in soon then.”
Rory then says, “Seems he has something going on back in his world. I wonder who that is. She doesn’t look like a pony to me.” Brex replies to her by saying, “Nope, that’s an elf. Now going by what he said about Dungeons 3. Then that must be that one from the game. Umm… I can’t remember her name right now.”
Slowly getting up from his rock chair, the Roegadyn starts dusting off any dirt that may have gotten stuck to his butt after sitting on the rock. Turning his direction towards that of the Rock farm, he gestures with a wave that the both of them should get a move on. He then says, “We are about half a day out. We can chat along the way. Just keep an eye out for anyone. From what I could tell, they don't know about humans. But if they did, they're keeping it a good secret."
Ryu nods his head, then looks to Brex and asks “Do you have a scarf or something? I guessing my clothes will be fine but I have nothing to cover my face.” He then turned back to the screen and said, “Alright Thalya, have the minions tell the adventurers they can eat at the Goble grill and rest at the Travelers lodge.” After he stated the orders, she gave him a bow, then the screen disconnected.
Raising an eyebrow from behind his mask, Brex asks, “Say, what's this about adventurers, got something going on in your world that you're able to keep track of while over here?” At the same time, he reaches into his item box and pulls out one of the wooden masks any player would get as a quest reward. It was dark brown and had two lines going down the sides of the face that were colored red while eye holes were circular.
Turning back to the man, he hands the item over and says, “I think this should do the trick. From a distance it will work. Just avoid getting too close to them for too long and you should be fine. Either that or I can give you a copy of that mask from dragon quest that I got as a quest reward for a seasonal event. You know the one with the small horns and what looks like an air filter around the mouth area.”
He reaches up and takes his cowboy hat and puts it behind his back and it just disappears. Ryu then takes the mask and puts it on before raising his hood. He then asks, “Thanks. Do you think this will work?"
Raising both arms in a, I don't know gesture, Brex reply’s with, “I've been around for over a month now inside of a city and you’d would be surprised that they don't really care about you wearing a mask, but they do seem to care far more about the fact that you're a male. So, I haven't had anyone try to pull my mask off or anything. I just keep my distance… a lot."
Ryu couldn’t help but to groan before he said, “Oh, it's one of those worlds. Funny thing is the most dangerous villains in MLP are mostly male. Hmmm I wonder, could that be the reason they become villains is because they were treated like shit, so with them being seen as monsters, they literally became monsters in one way or another? But of course, I know that too well." He sighed out loud afterwards.
Wanting to make sure that his new partner was up to speed, Brex then told Ryu a basic run down on this world's current status when it came to the male and female dynamic. This went on for a good 15 or 20 minutes, which was just the right amount of time needed to get out of that deep ravine.
As Ryu was walking out of the crag. His gantlet lit up and the dark elf was on the screen. Brex saw this and after a moment, he sees Ryu as he looks at the screen and lets out a sigh before saying, “Have their wounds treated and let they rest up.” At that moment his stomach demanded food. That was when he commanded the dark elf, “I will need two gobblers and a barrel of beer." Afterwards the elf bowed and the screen cut out. He then spoke up and asked, “Sorry, I have not eaten today so can we rest for a sec?"
Hearing the request, the Roegadyn gave a nod and they made their way over to the nearest set of trees to get out of the open. Taking the opportunity he asked, “So mind filling me in on what your world is like?”
The man then starts to set up a fire and says, “Well I didn't get an Equestria like most. Instead, I got a Runeterra with an Eques mixed in, like how your world is an Eques with Final Fantasy 14 as the primary that was switched. I have to deal with asshat of Pilltover, basically hitech Canterlot with a super slum Chempunk city under it.” As Ryu said this, a portal open and a beer barrel and two tied up, live turkeys Brex assumed to be the Gobblers came out. Ryu then asked, "Do you have your chef leveled up? I could only do a basic cooking. I can slaughter them and pluck them."
After seeing the portal and turkeys, Brex got the gist of what he was saying and replied with, “Yeah I got It leveled up. Made sure to get it maxed out. Well as Maxed as I could get it for my current time frame anyway. I have no idea how much time passed between our world and this one. I do remember there being a DLC called Shadowbringer that was about to be released. When I died before because of what Sunbutt did, I got to meet some people on another side and they conjured up the gaming system for me to play it on. But yeah, I can give it a go. If I can cook stuff from this world, I can probably cook stuff from yours.”
Ryu picked up the turkeys by the legs and brought out his red glowing kusarigama and with one strike, the heads came off the Gobblers and their bodies went limp. bloody mist poured out like a waterfall leading behind him, then as sudden as it came, it stopped. He then spoke again while he began plucking the feathers off the birds. “Well, before I was displaced. The DLC was Endwalker with the Reaper and Sage classes. This was after Shadowbringer. I wonder if you have those stones or will you have to get them. If it is the latter, then my temple might help."
Hearing this, Brex’s eyes go wide behind his mask. With interest clearly laced in the Roegadyn’s tone he asked, “So they already came out with another DLC. So I guess it's true that when someone gets displaced, there thrown in a random timestream. I guess it's nearly impossible to try and figure out a correlation between the times when a displaced is taken from their world. Sounds like you came at a later point in time. I've already gone through the halfway point of 1000 years in this world.”
That's when he looked down to his hands for a few moments before adding, “Well, I have no idea what the Reaper and Sage class are capable of. Judging from the names, I can pretty much guess that they’re the new damage dealer and healer types. I think if I was to suddenly learn them now, I'll probably pass out from some migraine after learning a whole bunch of new spells all at once. I remember that's what it felt like when I had to master Gun blade as soon as I got the quest back when it was just a game. I don’t want to imagine what it would feel like with it actually being stuffed into my brain…”
Brex then lets out a chuckle as he takes the readied bird from Ryu and starts on the cooking preparations. Going into the item box, the Roegadyn made a small number of different seasonings appear on the ground. The two gobblers were then prepared to be roasted over the fire. It didn't take much time before the prep work was complete and they were now sitting on a roasting stick that was improvised using some random branches that happened to be just right for the job.
Ryu had sat down on the ground and started to speak in a serious tone, "Yea, first rule. Murphy rules the multiverse, so trying to predict anything is a losing game. From what I know of the influence of this world, it will try to mirror its primary, eques then secondary being 14, but don't forget your trinities, being slime shield ETA. they may have a few major influences, like how I found out that there is a Tarrasque from D&D is in my world. So be careful, so try to remember that all you can to prep."
While still keeping an eye on the food, Brex then asked, “From what you just said, I take it in your version It's not really all that friendly now is it. Well, I can't say that mine's better or worse. All I've been doing is hiding and biding my time. From what I understand, it’s nearly a constant among all displaced that the element bearers need to have been assembled at least one time. So, until the pilot episode starts, I'm reduced to hiding in the shadows. Ha, No one from this world has even seen my own face and I've been technically around for 800 years. Just to make sure I don't slip up or say too much, I limited myself to only saying only a few words at a time.”
After a few seconds of silence, the Roegadyn shook his head up to look towards Ryu and said, “You already got to meet up with your twilight, right? Or at least any of the main six. I should already have the strength to be able to stand up to that Sunbutt they got ruling this land. Yet here I am hiding like a cockroach.
Waving his hands in some random direction, Brex also asked, “So tell me, how did your first interaction with the ponies of your side turn out? I ended up losing an arm on day two after showing my existence.
Ryu started by saying, "Well, the first time was me arriving in the world. I landed on my back, Broke a wooden desk. I was very out of it from the pain. It ended with me getting a bed and sleeping but nothing reacting badly.” He then grabbed one of the barrels and putting a tap in before pulling out two mugs and filling them to a nice foam level and offering one to Brex. He then said to the Roegadyn, “Don't worry, this can't get anyone drunk. It just relaxes the body and taste like your favorite alcoholic drink.”
Excepting the mug, Brex takes a look at the contents inside. After slushing it around for a moment, he gives a shrug and brought it to his mask. Just as it comes into contact, the liquid is poured and quickly vanishes as If someone had poured it straight down the drain. As soon as the last drop disappears, he lowered the mug. There was then the sound of someone moving their lips as if tasting what they had just drunken a little more before there was a loud belch that caused a few birds in some nearby trees to immediately take flight.
There was a small pause of silence before Brex spoke out in an embarrassed tone, “Well I have to say that tastes pretty good. Also, that was my very first alcoholic beverage I can remember.” This was then followed by a second belch, but much lower in volume. Now feeling a little more relaxed, Brex then finished off by saying, “I think with you so far, I have spoken more than I have in the last 800 years. Haha hahaha, maybe that makes me the king of the loners.”
Ryu had sipped from his mug before saying, “Yeah, I tinkered with the brewer to make this turn out well and I know someone that has you beat, the champion Skarner has been alone for about two to three millennium. So, yeah it could be worse.” He then spoke in a dark tone, “But then again, I know I will have to fight literal gods. Most gods out there are not nice, some of them slaughter whole cities.” He then asked, “So how’s the food coming along?"
After taking a quick glance Brex replied with, “I think it's about done, what do you prefer, original recipe or extra crispy?” That's when he takes his off of the fire and takes a good look at it before saying, “You know, this is probably the only time I've even had meat on this world that wasn’t fish. Wow… I'm missing out on a whole lot of stuff...” That's when he takes one big bite out of it.
He takes another out of it and after a few seconds of chewing he swallows before saying, “Neat trick huh? You can keep the mask; it does the same thing.” That's when he points towards the one he’s currently wearing and then adds, “Never have to take the darn thing off. Gotta love to look some pony's faces when they see that you're about to make a mess out of your face, only to find out you're eating through your mask.”
Ryu called out. "Extra crispy" He then grabbed some of the crispy gobbler. After taking a bit, he moaned a little, "MmMMMMMMM so good." He then takes another sip of his drink.
After Brex finished eating the gobbler and stuck the stick back into the ground near the fire, he looked up at Ryu and asked in a unsure tone, “Say, I know we're getting along and all. But I'll be forward with you. I'm paranoid as fuck. Now we're about to go up against a Primal here and a small part of me still thinks that you're gonna stab me in the back. Yeah, heck… I wouldn't be surprised or take it personal if you thought the same about me. So, before we move on, I gotta ask. You know about my game and how in it, there's a special ability that the player has as the main character right?” He then gestures to himself with both hands.
The man asked, "Are you sure you want to do that? My past has mostly been a nightmare, there is a reason why I could kill so easily. But if you must, then do it.” He then stated, “I’ll say this, you're being careful, now I am paranoid. I have designed a home to survive most apocalypses and supernatural threats of all mythos, now that is paranoid."
After a few moments, Brex activates the Echo and the world begins to fade as a distant memory comes into view.
Brex finds himself in a hospital room of white with a child that looks no older than five years old that was laying in the bed with almost no motion except breathing and his head unsupported by his neck and a dull-looking pale blue eyes that are dead to the world. He was wearing a white gown with hair a light brown. Brex heard a woman crying outside the door. He couldn’t see them, only hear them. The women cried out and asked, “Is he going to be aright doctor” The doctor replied, “After the damage to half of his brain, he will never be able to walk, see, hear or speak ever again.” He said flatly. Brex heard the sounds of a broken mother.
The next memory came into focus. It was the kid from before, he looked about 8 and he was walking, talking, but Brex saw he was in a nurse’s office of what looked like a school, she hands him a plastic cup of water and two yellow pills. He took them without complaint. then the Roegadyn saw his eyes just glazed over like no one was in there.
The scene faded and was taken by another memory. This time, he looked like he was eleven. His eyes still glazed. He was on the ground not moving while kids were kicking him in the stomach, then you saw his eyes change from the glazed to a deep abyssal blue. Brex saw him grab the lead kids’ leg and drag him over to the nearby fence and processed to laugh as he stomps that guy’s skull. The other boys ran away. The next thing seen was the kid being dragged to the office the principle. A fairly aged black man in that was wearing suit. He came out with a pedal with holes and proceed to beat him. Afterwards the kid walked off back to class.
Another scene came after that. He looked to be in his late teen when a slightly pudgy girl walked up to him and said, “Do you want to go out?" Brex saw her ex was behind her and that she just broke up with him. The guy was steaming with rage. As a fool he said, "Sure"
The next day later. The girl said, “Thanks, I no longer what to go out with you. I just used you to hurt my ex by going out with the most degusting, serial killer like monster here.
Another one came after. He was now in his twenties laying on a bed concentrating on something in his hand. It was a ball of energy, he looked like paler as he put in more energy as he was saying, "Breach the veil, MERCHANT I NEED YOU. TAKE WHERE A MONSTER LIKE ME TO A PLACE I CAN HAVE A HOME AND LIVE, NOT JUST SURVIVE IN A HELL!"
After Brex sees this vision, he finds himself on both hands and knees, while breathing heavily. He had taken a moment to catch his breath. Brex then spoke out in a tone that was filled with both exhaustion and uncertainty, “Note to future self, brace yourself… *HUFF* When using that on another… human.” After getting back on his feet. Brex takes a seat again and mutters, “I've only used this one time before.... And it was nowhere near as intense as that. It's either you or that humans have way more intense emotions compared to the ponies.
Ryu spoke as if talking about the weather. “It is both, humans were always cruel to each other. I think that’s the reason I got sent to Runeterra. I would have been one of the ones attacked by Celestia anywhere else sense you know Thresh is all dark magic, but not any kind, necromancy. My life before was hell, I willingly threw myself into a land of war for a better life. Isn't that ironic?"
After taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Brex said, “I think we should probably get a move on. So, I don't know about you, but I really want to kick something in the skull… repeatedly, and Titan would make for a good outlet. Besides, we only got a few days before the reunion of theirs starts up. If we don't take care of that primal before then, we are gonna literally have an army that’s known for their extreme strength.”
The man then replied with, “Right." Before putting dirt in the fire to put it out and spreading the ashes. Ryu than said while brushing the dirt off of himself. "You can take the keg; I literally mass produce it.”
Immediately after hearing that, Brex takes hold of the keg and it disappears into his item box. He then said, “We're close to half a day away from here, so we may want to get a move on it. We should also come up with a battle plan.” Ryu replied with, “I'm a crack shot and good with machines, so I guess I'm a machinist for the day.”
As they walked, the Roegadyn brought a finger up to his chin and began to hum to himself. After giving a few seconds he turned towards Ryu and asked, “OK so you're gonna be playing mostly the range damage dealer. Say, you said something about dungeons 3. Does that mean you have access to call on a few Nagas to help us with the healing? I would prefer to avoid using any magic classes right now, So I'll be focusing on either melee or tanking. I'm capable of switching in a fight so I can do it a few times, depends on what the level cap I'm setting myself at. first thing we need to do, is track down and find out how strong he is. Luckily my quest has a marker on the map that should lead us right to him.”
Ryu then answered with, "Yeah, I can call some Nagas, along with some Arachnids to help with the damage dealing."
He then replies with, “Sounds like a plan. But something's been bugging me. I raided the library in both Ponyville and in the sister's castle. But not once was there any mention of Primals. Either they never existed until I showed up or Sunbutt has been hiding knowledge about them…” Brex said this while crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side for a questioning pose.
Ryu then said, "The latter, have you seen the forbidden archives Celestia likes to keep? I mean even in the show Star Swirl had that time travel spell." He then blanched before going on, "Well shit, hope she doesn’t think to use that spell to see us fighting the Primal.”
Brex began shaking his head before saying, “I considered that. But if she had been able to do that in the first place, I doubt there would have been an issue with her sister. Also, wasn't that spell incomplete? Oh well, I'll deal with it when it happens. As long as we keep our faces covered and don't show too much power to make her think we're some new pair of villains, then we should be fine. If anything, I'll just change my outfit after a while.
Ryu reasoned, "Well for the Luna bit, it took longer than a week for that to happen. That was limited too and if Celestia does use it, she would not do a Twilight and reveal herself." He then agreed, “But yes, we should keep our power down though."
Letting out a small chuckle, the Roegadyn shakes his head before saying, “As long as we don't go over 9000, her scouter shouldn't be able to pick us up. Ha!” Ryu then retorted, "It would only take a seismograph to find titan" He also mused, "But we should take him out fast or things will get complicated really quick."
Using the mental connection, he asks Rory, “We still got aways to go till we get to where were going. I would like to use a mount but the only one I got that can seat more than one person is, that one… think I should chance pulling it out?” Rory answered with her usual confident tone, “I believe my Master should go for it. Don’t see any settlements on the map so I doubt that we would get any witnesses all the way out here. Plus, I think it would be fun to travel that way!” She was getting more excited towards the end there.
Stopping in his tracks, Brex looks up to the sky. He then says, “Well I just checked my world map and looks like it's a clean shot over the wilderness. This might be a good opportunity to try out another mode of transportation. If we stay low enough, we should be able to avoid any detection.” That's when the Roegadyn held out his left hand towards an open area next to the pair. A quick flash light erupted and when it died down, there was a tall bronze robot that was hovering with the use of two large propellers near where the shoulders should be.
(This is the Picture of the Cruise Chaser Mount while in humanoid form.)
(This is the Picture of the Cruise Chaser Mount while in flying form.)
Taking a second to admire his work, Brex then turn towards Ryu and says, “This guy seats two. Should get us there within an hour easy. Although I have to warn you, I never once saw any seatbelts in the game.
The man hops on and says, “Well that should be alright. Oh wait, there is a seat belt for me on this side but I don’t see one for you." He then eyes the belt suspiciously.
After seeing Ryu jumping on, Brex jumps onto the robotic mount as well. Taking a look around, he sees that there is in fact no seat belt for him. The Roegadyn then gives it a few taps with his right hand and this causes it to leap high into the air with them both onboard of it. It then proceeds with its transformation while managing to not throw off its new passengers. They then find themselves kneeling down nearly side-by-side, while holding on to the edge of what appeared to be a large surfboard flat surface on the top of its rocket shaped form. The engines then rev up with the combined power from two propellers and one large rocket engine firing. Brex and Ryu were now shooting through the skies at high speeds while avoiding the tree tops by the narrowest of margins.
Ryu just started to lay back on the board of the ship. Watching the sky passing by as they flew. Within his mind, Brex was having the time of his life. The wind was causing his robes to flutter and it seemed that Rory was having a grand time as well. He could hear the girl giggling as the Cruiser continually raised and lowered to keep it at the lowest possible height with the tree tops only inches below the mount.
It had taken them no more than 40 minutes for them to get near the land that the Pie family owned. Brex’s mount started its descent run and landed within the nearest patch of trees for cover before they started to dismount the robotic transformer mount.
The man got off and stretch to get the stiffness out of his body and afterwards said, "How far away are we now?"
Turning his head towards the direction of the rock farm, Brex gives out a small hum before answering, “We're less than half a kilometer away from here. If we were to go the rest of the way on foot, then it shouldn't take no more than 15 minutes for us to arrive. I can cut that time in half if I was to cast a speed spell on the two of us. However, it would take me some time to recover to cast more of the same type. It’s from that book for the Rise of The Shield Hero's anime, so the spells from that one are more difficult for me to use, unlike the kind I could cast from my game.”
Ryu then concluded, “I mean, you probably won't cast any spell even when fighting anyway. Should be ok to use it for now.”
Giving a small nod, Brex says, “That’s true. I’ll be using my non magic class's during this. But if I need to, then I can still go back and forth. It all depends on where I set my power at. If it can help, I would prefer not to go all out. Just like how you said before, she might have a way to gather evidence on me. Should it come to that and she does, then I don’t want to tip my hand."
Taking in a deep breath, and says, it’s a good thing that this spell leveled up when I learned my newest one.” Brex then begins to chant out loud, "By my name, decipher the laws of nature and bestow upon us your power. Medium Swift." When the chant was completed, the two displaced beings were surrounded by a shroud of barely noticeable green swirls of energy before fading away. Brex spoke up quickly and said, "We need to hurry, this will only go continuously for a few minutes." Ryu responded with, "Right let's go, lead the way!”
It didn't take the duo much time at all for them to arrive. When they did, there was no sign of any living creature in sight. However, there was a rather large opening between some rocks towards the end of the area that seemed to be used by the farmers. Brex indicated towards it and led the way to the entrance. He then spoke up just enough for the other to hear, "My Quest marker seems to be leading down in there."
Ryu looks at the cave, then back to Brex before saying, "Well let's go and see how Primal's like to party, Valkyrie lets go.” He reaches behind himself and pulls out a large black hilt that quickly unfolds into a blood-red chainsword with a blue glow emanating from its core. With a flick of his wrist, it started changing, the hilt folded into a forty-five-degree angle. The backplate splitting and this led to it revealing a rather large barrel of a gun. Pieces shifted about as to let the barrel with the chain on it to pop off and become coiled around the gun. This all happened in a split second.
Brex raises an eyebrow from behind his mask upon seeing this and started to let out a whistle before saying, “Now that's a way to intimidate somebody.” Just as a precaution, The Roegadyn raised his level sync from 30 to 35. After doing so, he started down into the opening and found that it led into a cave network that stretched deeper into the earth that went at a slight drop every few meters. Rory asked, “Do you thing going for level 35 will be enough? Its only difference is five levels after all.” Brex answered her with, “Eeyup, If Celestia manages to have a way to check how powerful some one is at a location, then I don’t want to seem too strong. I’d rather have her think I’m something she could take out without any effort.”
As they descended down, Ryu spoke up while motioning to his weapon in hand, "Best part, she has a bottomless cup and uses 50 caliber rounds. We shoot something, we put a hole in it.” There was a strong sense of pride in his voice. He then brings Valkyrie next to his face and added, "Tell me when and I’ll summon our support."
While still not taking his eyes away from the rocky patch ahead, that was just large enough for a small group to traverse together, he asks, "What yeah got for this support? From what I can see, there isn't much room for a large force. We may be limited to 5 or 6 altogether and that’s including the two of us."
Ryu then responded with, “Well, since it's Titan and he's not exactly small, we should have plenty of room for Nagas and Arachnids like what was discussed earlier. I'm thinking of calling on additional Arachnids since they can shoot webs. If we can slow him down, then we will have an easier time. About two Nagas and three Arachnids should do it.”
It didn't take them too long until they found the seemingly random tunnels that were leading them to a section that seemed to be made up of more than simple rocks. The walls now had veins of what appeared to be a clear crystal like structure that started off in very small amounts until it became more frequent as the walls slowly began to transition over to it more and more, until every surface was now made of it completely.
He soon found that the walls were now getting higher and further apart. This made more space for the two displaced beings. Brex walked up to one of the walls and placed a hand on it. His gloved hand soon found a lose section and broke off a small shard and after a few seconds of looking it over, he placed it into his item box and began to examine it in more detail. With the Roegadyn, he opened the window to look for the thing that he had just put in. After quickly locating it, the info was then displayed and what he found on it caused his heart to nearly miss a beat. Brex then said in a nervous tone, "Um... Houston, we have a BIG… problem."
Chapter 24: Between a Rock and a Rock. Ouch! Part 2.
Ryu looks over to Brex with eyebrows raised, "What kind of problem?" Turning towards him, Brex answers with, "This is a pure, natural Aether Crystal. If all we see here, is in fact the same, then we don't have much time… I can only dream of what this Primal can do if it was to get the Pie family to dig this all up as an offering to it. With the reunion coming up soon, he would have all the hands he would ever need to get all of this in record time..."
The Man then asked, “I have an idea that might help out with this. I could summon Little Snots to gather it for projects down the line and that way there will be less Aether here for him to absorb. Do you think that would work?”
Tilting his head down, Brex thinks the idea over. Within a few seconds he looks towards Ryu and gives a firm nod. He then says, "Sounds like a plan. Think they can get it all? It wasn't in any records over 800 years ago. Neither have I heard anything about Aether Crystals during my time back. If it’s been kept a secret, then its best that all of this isn't left here. It would only take a pony casting the wrong spell in here to cause a chain reaction. If all of this was to say… Be brought back to Canterlot for example. The whole mountain would be wiped off the map from the explosion. If there is even half of what I think there could be.”
Ryu then said, "Probably, I have five little snots equipped with bags of holding since each bag holds five hundred pounds and about 20 other snots free with their Teleport and Pitiful Look upgrades, nothing should stop them, I bet not even Celestia would harm them." When he finished talking, a portal opened up and twenty-five Snots, two Nagas, and three Arachnids came through. He commanded them by saying, “Snots, dig the crystals. I want them all.” Then he gave them all head pats and there was a *POOF* They were all gone from sight.
( Little Snots picture. )
( Nagas picture. )
( Arachnid Picture. )
With that problem now being taken care of, Brex turns towards the way they hadn't gone yet and led the march. He called out, "OK, let’s find the Primal. We don't know how powerful it is right now. So, let’s not draw his attention until we find out what is going on down here." The man nodded at Brex.
As the group made their way even deeper. The walls that were almost completely made up of Aether Crystals soon changed into that of Sedimentary rocks. Soon all they could see, was a type of orange and light brown glow coming from the walls. It wasn't all that hard for Brex to make his way with how there was hardly any light thanks to his situational awareness, but he realized that he didn't check on the others. Turning his head slightly, he asks in a quiet voice, "How are you at working in the dark?"
Ryu answered with, “My minions will be fine, they work in a dungeon after all, also my gantlet gives me a basic dark vision, so yeah we’re all good.” Letting out a small sigh, Brex nods and goes back to looking out for anything new. They continued to go even deeper. By now they had been traveling under the surface for well over half an hour until there was a dim light coming from further down the tunnel. As they got closer, Brex could hear the sounds of something hitting rock just ahead thanks to a long, drawn-out echo that was produced.
After a bit, Ryu whispers to Brex, “What do you see down there?" He then braced himself against the wall as to aid in keeping out of sight. Making his way closer to the end of the tunnel. The Roegadyn peeks just past the mouth and what he sees, only causes him to straighten up and turn back to Ryu and starts to talk in an emotionless tone that would make one think he was imitating that guy from the Visine eye commercial. "What's big, brown, looks angrier than the hulk after being told someone had just eaten all of his pizza bagels?"
While not moving, he points over his shoulder to let him look. From just behind Brex, was a large cavern that was massive enough to fit the sister’s old castle. At the center, was the Primal known as Titan. The walls were lined with a number of large orange crystals that were easily over 30 meters high and 4 meters wide.
After a few seconds, Ryu asked, “It looks like the arena in 14. I wonder if he will use his mechanics?" Afterwards, he pulls out his kusarigama and it started to glow a violent red. Ryu then asked, “Should we use 14 tactics, you agro, we attack the back?” Brex turns back and looks towards the cave and says, “Give me a sec, I need to check something.” He then uses his examination skill and looks over Titan. The following is shown.
Name: Titan.
Class: Primal.
Level:25.
Difficulty level: High.
( This is a Picture of Titan. )
Brex whispers, "He's at 25 right now. That’s way weaker than back in the game when the main character first got into a fight with him. I think we can do it. We should be fine going with the game rules. He isn't going anywhere right now. Also, I don't see where that sound from before is coming from.”
Just then, off in the distance on the other side of the cave, he saw a group of ponies working away on a wall. from how far away they were, it was easy to not see them until now. Brex could see that there was two adults and four kids. however, with how the lighting was in there, it was hard to tell them apart aside from their body size.
Brex says, "Ok, looks like they are far enough away to not be in the way. Ready to move out? I'll take the lead." That’s when he cracks his knuckles in anticipation.
After a moment, Ryu asked, “Alright! my first shot will remove 25 percent of his armor and magic resistance for the next five seconds. We need to make that time count. Should I summon more Arachnids to pacify those ponies so he doesn't try anything with them? Then again, this place is big enough to summon cannon fodder since my Undead will just respawn in their graves back in my dungeon. I can micro their movements to dodge the moves I remember." He looked rather nervous for some reason.
Brex answers with, “I'm reluctant about using those Undead you mentioned. I’d rather not take the chance that Celestia somehow finds out there have been Undead involved in this. But if we can use them to keep those under his control from getting in our way, then I guess we got no choice.” After a second, Brex then asked in a strained tone, “Um... they, aren't contagious, are they?"
The man answered with, “No, their magic, not like a plague and there will be no trace since they were not originally raised here, also the corpse will disappear. This will keep them from getting in the fight and get themselves killed. We don't want Pinkie to be sad. Might change her destiny.” He opened a portal and a group of creatures came out. They were comprised of eight Skeleton Archers, four Zombies and five additional Arachnids. Afterwards he said, “The Arachnids will web up the Pie family and drag them away from the fighting and we will free them when it's over. This will be easy as pie.” He said that last part with a smile.
( Skeleton Archers picture. )
( Zombie Picture. just think of them with green skin. )
With their preparations in place. Brex motions for them to make for the Primal. They had to use a narrow path along the wall of the large cavern that brought them closer to the giant. At the moment, Titan had made no signs of detecting them so far. Unlike in the game, the fight was not going to be on some elevated platform, but within a wide arena that was in a wide circle.
With a quick glance, one could see that it was roughly 200 meters wide. The edges had a line of brightly lit orange pillars of stone that went up and around like a fence. Said fence was up to 20 meters tall. The only part that was different, was the one and only opening to which they had to enter by.
Ryu started to whisper to Brex and said, “Good thing my Arachnids can climb walls so they can get the pies without getting noticed." He then suggested while Readying Valkyrie, "As soon as they get them to a safe location, we should move in.”
Giving a silent nod. Brex gets into place near the entrance to the arena. He then whispers, “Be ready to change how we fight, no telling how this will go down. You know the saying; no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy."
With a gesture of the gantlet. The Arachnids started to climb the wall. They made it over Titan and got over to their six unsuspecting preys.
Brex gives Ryu the signal to begin the operation with a quick nod just as he gets himself ready to run at full speed at the Primal by getting into a runner’s stance. In this fight, the Roegadyn intended to start with the Monk class. This was due to the idea that the Princess might try to use a time spell of some sort to peak to this point and he didn’t want to tip his hand just yet.
The Arachnids quickly webbed the Pies and ran off with them. Ryu had his troops rush up. The ranged units quickly got themselves into their firing positions. As soon as they had lined up, did they launch a volley of projectiles that rained down onto Titan. At the same time, the Zombies charged Titan and with a single shot from Valkyrie, Titan's armor rating was temporally weakened after a shot had struck the Primal.
Brex had just finished with mentally chanting the Low Swift spell. With the added speed, the Roegadyn was able to close the distance within a few seconds. He used the momentum that was built up from the rapid movement to deliver his first attack skill, Bootshine. The attack struck at Titans left legs knee. Bootshine was the start of the three-skill combo that the monks used in the game which consisted of a series of three blows that alternated between both fists.
Weapon Skill: Bootshine, Delivers an attack with a potency of 210 Damage. A series of three strikes to a single target at near, lightning-fast speeds. This attack becomes a critical hit if used from the targets rear.
Quickly, it followed with him rushing to the side and delivering the second skill, True Strike. This one was aimed for the same left leg in the side of the knee. The attack had the Roegadyn digging his feet into the ground and striking with both fists at the same time from the front and using his body’s weight to insure maximum impact.
Weapon Skill: True Strike, Delivers an attack with a potency of 300 Damage. A double strike on a single target with both hands. Can be quite difficult to block with the user utilizing their body weight behind the attack.
With yet another long side step, Brex found himself directly behind the same spot and delivered his last attack for the full combo, Snap Punch. This was able to cause the Primal to let out a loud roar as it fell into that leg. Its massive arms now being used as leverage so it didn't fall completely. Its fingers were digging into the stone as it tried to get a grip for traction.
Weapon Skill: Snap Punch, Delivers an attack with a potency of 250 Damage. 310 when executed from a target's flank. This attack has the user using all their strength into one powerful and precise jab to a vital point of the intended target.
Ryu dashed closer after seeing the leg was damaged. He casts Hextech Micro-Rockets which were all focused on the leg to try to make it unusable. It was also paired with him letting off as many shots from Valkyrie into its left arm. During this, his minions focus on the Primal as well.
Seeing as the Primal was down, Brex immediately jumped up and onto its back. Once he had made sure to have a footing, the Roegadyn aimed a flurry of punches into the lower area of the back that he assumed was where the spine would be located, that is if this Titan's body even had one. Brex used the same combo attacks as before over and over again until he had gone at it for six rounds. Whenever the cycle was to go again, the first weapon skill was always a critical hit, doing double its original damage. The Primal’s rock body was cracking and chipping away with each hit.
Titan roared even louder than before. The ground began to shake violently. From his high vantage point, Brex could see some spots on the battle field to look as if the ground was being pushed up. This revealed four Rock Golems. All of which were level 15 and each one was less than half of the Primal's height.
( Picture of the Rock Golems. )
Ryu ordered his zombies to split up and tank the Golems. He had his ranged minions continue to focus on Titan. Ryu started shooting the Golems for his Zombies wouldn’t last long if left on their own.
The Rock Golems had the Zombies outdone in strength and size. This was evident with how one of them had just snatched up one of the Zombies and was swinging it around like some two-year old would with a toy they had just found, while being quite rough with it. The ones that got shot with Ryu's weapon, seemed to have diverted their attention from the annoyances, to that of the displaced. In fact, they paid little mind to the Zombies and now were slowly lumbering towards him.
As for Brex, with the amount of attacks on Titan being weaker due to the additional targets that now had to be delt with, Titan was now trying to get back onto his feet and this knocked the Roegadyn from its back and onto the ground with a heavy thud and muttering a grunt of annoyance from not expecting the large giant to be moving that fast.
Ryu grabbed a small glass vial of water before shouting, “ALL SHALL BE MY PREY!” He then crushes the vial and it turns to dust. [He casts 'Protection from evil and good.] Then he throws out his kusarigama somehow in a straight line. [He Casts death sentence, Thresh's Q ability.] hooking one of the Golems switching to his chainsword form and pulled himself to them with his chainsword roaring to life as it makes contact. It seems not only to cut through the rocky flesh, but was also able to rip the eather from it.
[Protection from evil and good Until the spell ends, one willing creature you touch is protected against certain types of creatures: aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. The protection grants several benefits. Creatures of those types have disadvantage on attack rolls against the target. The target also can’t be charmed, frightened, or possessed by them. If the target is already charmed, frightened, or possessed by such a creature.]
The one Golem that was cut by Ryu, falls to the ground and breaks apart into the many rocks that were used in its creation. Now there was but three Golems to contend with. It would seem that Titan was not all that happy with the destruction of one of its minions and after finally getting to its feet once again, it lifts its right arm up high and slams it down onto the ground with a mighty crash. Half of its fist was buried from the force used in doing this.
This caused the ground Infront of it to glow with a pale orange light from underneath. The light was traveling in a straight line and ran across the arena until it reached the fence of crystals. It was four meters wide and quickly it was getting brighter. What only made it worse, was that it was going right at the smaller displaced. Seeing this Brex yells out, "Ryu! MOVE NOW!"
With that shout, Ryu tried to get out of the way from the incoming attack, only to find his leg pinned under some of the remains that came from the Golem he had only just taken out. He exclaimed, “Well shit!” Ryu placed his lantern down and used its power, giving himself a shield. He then shouts out, “Consume!” [He casts, Absorb Elements] to which he braced himself for the attack.
[ The spell captures some of the incoming energy, lessening its effect on you and storing it for your next melee attack. You have resistance to the triggering damage type. Resistance cut damage in half].
The ground quickly erupted in a shower of light as the attack causes everything that was caught in the Primal's attack to be hit with enough force to be flung into the air a good several meters. What remained was a long, gouged out trench. Unfortunately, the attack had completely destroyed one of the other zombies that just happened to be along its path.
Just as the large fist that was used to launch that attack was being pulled from the ground, Brex ran over and started to run up the length of the arm and jumped off when he had gotten near to the shoulder. Taking hold of Titans long white beard, the Roegadyn uses it and swings around to its other side and lands behind Titan’s head. From there, Brex roughly pulls on the long hair to turn the Primal's gaze away from Ryu.
After that hit, Ryu was not looking well, but for a strange reason, his movement was not hindered at all. But thanks to titan's attack he was now free, so he fired another volley of Hextech Micro-Rockets at Titan's wounded leg. He then continued his assault on one of the Golems, but now being mindful of where the rocks landed.
When Ryu shot Titan in the leg that was repeatedly attacked time and again, the Primal only got more enraged, it started to thrash about wildly. It then pulled its head sharply and with Brex’s grip still firm on the beard, He was thrown off. The Roegadyn had managed to land on his feet a short distance from Titan thanks to him instinctually remembering how he had fallen off before. The Primal was about to do the same trick again, but Brex wasn’t going to let that happen so easily.
Just as Titan raised his fist to launch the same attack as before, Brex rushed forward and right up to the front of Titan and with one fluid motion, the Roegadyn used his patented Leg kick that stunned all of his foes so far. But thanks to this being the largest he had ever used this skill on, the attack was heading right between the legs, in fact it was heading right for the tiny loin cloth that the humanoid Primal was wearing.
When his foot was only a few inches away, time slowed down and one could have sworn they caught sight of the Primal's glowing, yellow eyes going wide just before the large foot struck. Immediately, all movement on Titan’s part came to a screeching halt. There was also a strange high pitch, yet gravelly groan that resonated within the whole cavern.
Ryu with his Chainsword eating away their eather, the Golem he was fighting fell until it was just Titan remaining, he throws out his kusarigama right into Titan's face. He then rode up the line and when the displaced had landed onto the Primal, he started inserting his Chainsword into one of its eyes. While this is happening, Brex could see Ryu's eyes were now a devilish red instead of his normal deep blue and was laughing a haunting laugh.
Taking a glance at the Primal's health bar, Brex could see that he was just under the half way point. He was just about to say something when he realized that with his health at this point, Titans attacks would only intensify. In a fit of rage from having his, *Cough* Rocks kicked, along with a chainsaw in one of its eyes. It grabbed Ryu in his right hand, along with ripping out the weapon from his eye. There was a heavy flow of yellow glowing liquid gushing from the now destroyed orb.
The Primal was now summoning rock shards from all around. Titan then incased the smaller displaced being inside of a stone coffin that was being held together by the orange energy that was similar to all the crystals around in between the small gaps. The now incased Ryu was thrown into the ground, thereby imbedding it in place.
When that happened, the Primal jumped high into the air and was going to do a full body slam onto Ryu, but the rock he was inside of was pushed aside just before the Primal had even landed. Ryu's rock coffin broke after hitting the ground after a few bounces, but Brex was underneath a literal living mountain with tiny legs. That proceeded after the enormous crash that the attack had produced.
Recovering fast, Ryu was now showing that parts of his face were missing and revealing his skull. His left arm was now missing from just above the elbow. Even in this condition, Ryu still showed no signs of being hindered when he dashed towards Titan while the Nagas were healing him and Brex from a distance with long green, flowing streams of light that came from their gold staffs. He got to Titans wounded leg and was trying to saw it off with his weapon.
Seeing what Ryu was doing, Titan rolls over in an attempt to get away and back onto his feet. But this was quite a challenge for it while in its weakened state. Within Brex’s head, Rory was screaming bloody murder as she yelled, “MASTER! MASTER! PLEASE TELL ME THAT YOU’RE GOING TO BE OK!!” Just as he got off of Brex, the Roegadyn couldn't help but to hold up his right hand while on his back. Raising a single index finger, he muttered in an odd, whippily tone, "Don't... WoRry... I'm, cUte aNd... FLUFFY~
Ryu's kusarigama was floating next to him. It started pulling Titan's leg away from the body as Ryu kept pressing the attack while still keeping up that laugh. Red mist was flowing everywhere from both of their wounds.
Coming to his senses, Brex got back to his feet after shaking his rattled head from the mountain that had decided to use him as a bean bag chair. Seeing as this wasn't going to cut it with how he was getting tossed off so much. The Roegadyn switched class's and went over to his Samurai Soul Stone. When he did this, a long slightly curved blade held within a sheath appeared on his left hip. He then pulled from his inventory the bracelet from Final fantasy 7 and placed it onto his left arm. This was an item he had yet to use so far due to it being overkill. Or so he thought, but this fight called for a bit more force.
The Roegadyn started to think in his head, “Ryu doesn’t look so good! I know that look and laugh. This fight needs to end, FAST! I better have enough saved up after all this time! Oh, please let it be enough!” What Brex was referring too, had to do with that bracelet. In the game of Final Fantasy 14, the player had a powerful attack called the LIMIT BREAKER, that could only be used when in a party with others while in a dungeon or raid. With him being alone, that was not an option to use. But thanks to the Bracelet being equipped, he could now bypass this rule due to how in Final Fantasy 7, each character was able to use their own personal LIMIT BREAKER.
After concentrating on the item, Brex then saw a small window appearing on the upper part of his vision and watched as it was quickly filling up at an astonishing speed. It took less than three seconds for it to be at max, but then another window next to it appeared, then a third. At the same rate, all three had now been fully topped off with a glowing gold color. This meant that the Roegadyn had access to the Level Three LIMIT BREAKER.
( Here is a picture of Samurai Soul Stone. )
Brex then yelled, "IT'S MY TURN!" He then pulls his katana from its sheath slowly and takes a stance with the blade held in both hands above his head, while the blade itself was pointed straight up. As if out of nowhere, an explosion of power comes rushing from his body. the yellow and brown robes fluttered like that of someone in the middle of a strong wind storm.
From that pose, the Roegadyn's movements turned into a blur as he slashed the air multiple times at what could have been said to be at supersonic speeds. Each slash left a line in the air that appeared to have some energy radiating from them until it appeared to have been cut a dozen times over. He then placed the blade back into its sheath, but this was for a fraction of a second before unleashing one final slash in an upwards strike straight from said sheath. this caused an eruption of energy to come flying from the accumulated slash's from before along with the finishing move.
This wave of destructive force crashed into the Primal who had been weakened by Ryu. The upper half of Titan was devoured by the attack. Its stone form was torn into large chunks. Those chunks were quickly turned into stones, the stones turned into small pebbles and finally, all that was left was dust. The rest of its form that didn’t get hit, was only the legs and a part of the hip area, which quickly bursts into particles and disappears into the air. This dropped its health bar to zero in an instant.
He then slowly sheathed the blade once more before speaking in a low tone, "Till next time..."
(Play here for the limit breaker move. Play this from 2:20 to see the Samurai attack. )
With Titan dealt with, Ryu falls unconscious, the blood mist stream that was leading to his missing arm, but what was found was a skeletal arm instead. the Nagas continued healing Brex and Ryu with their magic. Ryu’s remaining minions all form up on him to guard his downed form. The Arachnids came out with the Pies that were still all webbed, but they were all passed out and snoring soundly.
Brex looks over to see the state that Ryu was in and wenst at the sight. He managed to hold in the Gobbler that was eaten before from making a returning appearance. The Roegadyn’s attention was then turned towards the now passed out Pie family and he saw their passed-out forms soundly sleeping. One could tell that there was the mother, father and the four kids. among them was a loudly snoring pink mare with flat hair that was sucking on her thumb.
Brex hoped that they wouldn't remember a thing when they woke up later, if they did recall anything, they may just see it as a weird dream. Going back to Ryu, Brex shook his head and said to the creatures currently around him, along with the Arachnid's that were holding the ponies, "Let’s get outta here before things get more complicated. Think you lot could get those six back up in their house and block this cave? I know I’m not your master and all, but he looks out of it and isn’t in a condition to give out orders at the moment.”
The Arachnids took the Pie family back through the tunnels and up to their house, not knowing which room was who’s, they put each of them in random rooms that had a bed and after, they removed the webbing. Afterwards, the Arachnids patted themselves on the back for the good job and returned to their stations. When they came back, they had a web between them and Ryu their master was slung into it for transport. Where the arm was missing, was now growing muscles that was covering the bone. His body started to spasm.
The monster rushed up the stairs, stopping at the portal. The group was currently looking at Brex and one of the Little Snots pointing at it before than putting a fist into their hand.
Wondering just what the creature was getting at, it had taken Brex a moment to remember the mechanics for that Dungeons 3 game and realized that they wanted him to get rid of the portal after using it. Otherwise, they would just end up back at the arena. Giving it a nod, they all go through. Shortly after Brex changes into one of his caster class's and uses a spell and gets rid of the portal.
A dark elf rush over to Ryu that was still suffering from body spasms. She exclaimed in a very upset tone, "Master!” She looked him over and found out what was going on and commanded the minions, “Take him to his bed chambers.” Then she takes a look at Brex and starts scowling. She asked with fire in her tone. “What did you do to him?”
( This is the Elf from Dungeons 3. Thalya, Anika Linke. )
Raising his hands in a clear sign of no hostility, Brex could see that this was about to turn into something if he didn't start explaining... and fast. Clearing his throat, he starts to talk very quickly and says, “I called for some help and we ended up fighting what you might call a piece of a crazed god. Fortunately, he was weaker than we thought. But in the fight, Ryu might have gotten a little chainsaw happy and got roughed up... a lot in the process. At least he didn't turn out as a crushed egg.” As soon as those words left the Roegadyn, Rory whispered, “Uh-oh...”
Her scowl turned into anger and she proceeded to kick Brex below the belt with her high heels, then she rushed over to where the minions took Ryu.
A lone tear ran down the side of the Roegadyn’s face from under his mask as his legs locked together while he was hunched over. His hands clutched his neither's. Rory then spoke in a not so sure tone, “Master… I, um… Think you may need to work on your ability to talk to others… I-I’m sure the pain will pass. If it helps, I would have done the same if this sort of thing had happened to you…”
He then spoke in a low whisper that somehow was in a high pitch, “S-Shouldn't have used the word EGG... I'm… so glad that Daddy made me a lot sturdier.” Looking off in some random direction he then muttered, “This is what happens when you don't work on social skills...”
After taking the time to use his White Mage class to use a cure spell or… three on his now aching manhood. The Roegadyn sees that he was not gaining the attention of the many creatures from the underground dungeon. He went on and walked through the halls and explored to pass the time until he got word about Ryu’s condition. At the same time, he was keeping an eye out for who he assumed to be Ryu's lover out of fear of a round two.
As he strolled through the cave network, Brex caught sight of a number of Ryu's minions. There was some large Orcs, Trolls and a mess of those ones he called Snots whizzing up and down the corridors. There was even a Succubus that crossed his path.
After what seemed like a good hour, the Roegadyn found himself in a section of the underground dungeon where there was a number of training dummy's set up and some of the creatures under Ryu’s command were currently using them. What got his attention, was this one Orc that was swinging his axe in a somewhat random style. After watching for several minutes, he couldn't take it anymore and switched to his Warrior Soul Stone and brought out his hefty axe. Brex then proceeded in giving the Orc he was watching, a few pointers for what seemed like hours as he sparred with it.
The dark elf from before was following a refreshed Ryu but something was off, he looked taller and there was now a pulse of yellow that happen instantly every few seconds. But he walked to the training area like he had already known that Brex were there.
After just finishing with a mock fight with an Orc, Brex turned to see Ryu and waved from near the training dummy in the middle of the room. He called out, "Good to see you recovered. Is it just me or do you look taller now?"
Ryu replied sheepishly, “Well yeah, any time I do a task for a champion or defeat a champion, I can get one of their powers. Had no idea it would work with Titan though.” He then continued with, “Why did you think I could use Donger's rockets and Jayce's transform?” Ryu then said proudly, “What I got from Titan, was double the density of my bones and muscles.”
Making a small motion towards his lower area. The Roegadyn says, "Yea, I got something along those lines also. Good thing too, otherwise, I would be a pancake from taking that belly flop. A gift from someone I met on the other side."
Ryu started to pace back and forth and said, “Yeah, I heard how you closed my portal. So, I checked and found that my friends time distortion is in effect, so our worlds are in a lack of a better terms, frozen in time."
Going rigid, Brex then asks in an unsure tone, "But I was sure that one of your subordinates wanted me to close the thing." Letting out a long, drawn-out sigh. He then says, “It’s like with those three all over again. OK so, what do we need to do now?"
After a bit, the man started to say, “Well it should not be a big deal for you. I believe you can exit through the main door or I hope you have an eather crystal that your attuned to.” He continued with, “But time will resume in your world when you get back, so it will be like you never left at all.”
Letting out a relieved sigh, Brex says, “Well that's a load off my shoulders. I do have one crystal that I'm attuned too. So, I guess I could go at any time. Seeing as time is stopped on my end, I'm no longer in a rush to get back at the moment. Hmm, with things being paused on my Equestria, I guess we can do the standard displaced tradition of the trade. So, what would you like? Items, a spell or two, maybe some training in fighting? Got the experience of over 15 classes of adventuring in here. It may have been a game back then, but it’s all been converted into actual knowledge of fighting when it comes to all my jobs." That’s when he pointed at his head.
The man responded with, “Well I need formal training, my blue magic book is empty, spells would be nice and it would be nice if we could upgrade my Valkyrie here.” He then asked, “Now is there anything you want? I have steel from all over Runeterra, books from the dungeon, I found blueprints for a dungeon key, and I can make a few D&D items."
Brex uses the pantomime emote he had bought from the game store for his character in the past and made to sit on a chair that wasn't there. Now crossing his legs, The Roegadyn places an elbow onto a knee and adopts a thinking pose. Within his head, Brex was cheering inside over that fact that he had used that emote without thinking and it actually worked and was now doing a bit that the god of chaos himself would have done.
After a few seconds he says, “Well, I got the book filled out for the Blue mage class, I suppose I could teach some of the worthwhile one's, we could see if you could learn them if I was to write them down. A lot of them aren't all that great to have. I could train you in how to use that Gunblade of yours in combat, hmm… could also toss in some upgrades by using my crafting skills. I did notice you had a hard time when those Adds had gotten closer and you had to stop using that gun.”
After a few seconds of thinking, the Roegadyn continued with, “As for the other spells. How about I teach you a few of the ones from that anime, Rise of The Shield Hero? Unfortunately, I could only teach you what I have unlocked for myself so the list is limited, but once you learn a spell, it could upgrade in your head after a while. I could use that dungeon key you were talking about though. It would be useful to have something that's along the lines of a hyperbolic time chamber just like that in the anime, Dragon Ball Z. If you got any metal that's resistant to magic, that would be useful, I could come up with some uses for that. Got anything you could make that would help with a temporary disguise? I think there is something from D & D.
After giving it a moment to think it over, Ryu responded with, “I don't see how you could teach me blue magic since I have to kill the mob to get it.” He stroked his chin before stating, “A hat of disguise would work for you, I'll give you a paper with its details. Gunblade training would be good, but I will need training in chain weapons too. Now upgrading things with Materia would be really good.” He nodded before going on and said “The key will take time to craft, I need a lot of gold and that will take a while to mine up. More spells will always be good for me.”
Looking towards Ryu, Brex nods back. Turning his attentions back to the Orc he was sparring with, he calls out, “Hay, make sure you watch out for over extending yourself when doing your swings. You don't want to give the other guy a big window to counter attack!” After that exchange, Brex went back to Ryu and says, “That shouldn't be too much of a problem with the chain weapon and close quarters combat training. You be surprised how often a weapon like that shows up on a bunch of anime's. With the combined skills from my Soul stones and years of anime and online videos, we can work it out.”
He nodded “I won't need any gun training since I've always been good with firearms, hell first time I shot a gun I was only a couple millimeters off from a merit badge.” After telling Brex that, he pulls out a folder and a piece of paper. They were then handed over to Brex. Ryu then said, “The paper tells how the hat works and this folder is a survey that can be updated at any time. It can classify all known things by their threat level. The average multiverse Celestia, is rated as B+. Meaning she can threaten a solar system, the details are inside.”
After taking a look at what was written, Brex came to understand the ranking system. He then placed it into his item box to go over later and turned to Ryu and spoke while pointing over his right shoulder towards to the training ground they had, “Well no time like the present. Let’s work on your reflex's.” He then takes out from his collection, two wooden practice, level 1 swords that the Samurai class uses and hands one of them over to Ryu and finishes with, “Let’s start with these. There is a gravity spell I learned that can up the weight on an object. Not had a chance to try it out yet.”
Giving his a few swings, Brex says, "Yeah, this will work for the start, show me what yeah got with what you can do. I’ll use the weight spell on these. So, we won’t be moving on to the next stage until you feel that you can swing that thing like normal. The spell should last about ten minutes at a time before I need to reapply it.”
He was swinging it with ease thanks to titan's enhancement. Ryu kept using a one-handed style with his right hand that had the gauntlet on. But over the hours, he was starting to develop a decent style of his own.
At this point, the pair had been at it with trying out various fighting attacks on one another. Also, during that time, Brex was adding to the weight on the wooden weapon and had to stop before it was too much for the item to handle. Brex called out and said, “Ha! I see that buff you got from Titan has really done wonders for that body of yours. From what I saw of your gun blade, I'd say your swinging something that's nearly four times as heavy compared to that Gunblade of yours by now. That means there shouldn’t be much problem with reaction delays between attacks. You can keep that sword for yourself if yeah want. But let’s move onto your blade, need to work on how you fight an opponent with various weapons.” That was when he put away the wooden blade and switched to his Gunbreaker Soul Stone and got into a battle stance with the blade resting over his right shoulder.
( This is the Gunbreaker Soul Stone. )
( Here is the gear and weapon Brex is using for Gunbreaker. )
Upon hearing that, Ryu commanded the creatures around, “Hoard front and center! We can use my Orcs for this since death is very reversible for them here and they need training since all they have going for them is numbers.” Afterwards he pulled out Valkyrie and revved up its engine.
The Orcs looked excited and quickly grabbed their axe's. Even Goblins joined the mix as they came in mechanical suits with mounted guns in the arms. There were even some Nagas with their staffs out and they all were now surrounding both Brex and Ryu.
Turning his head towards the Orcs, Brex gives out a small laugh before calling out to them, “Well you heard the man!” He then went back to Ryu and said, “This will also be a good session for them as well. They just might learn from the experience. With it all not being a game now, they will continuously improve their skills. Now don't hold back, they just might take you out if their given enough time." The Roegadyn then went into a low stance while facing the Horde and called out, "I hope you all had eaten, because we are going at this for no less than 12 hours! HAHAHA!”
The Horde charged in immediately. Orcs in the front making a wall of flesh, goblins fired their makeshift firearms. As for the Nagas, they stayed in the back to cast their heals on the group of monsters. Ryu looked at the Roegadyn and spoke flatly, “We can go maybe six hours, we do need to eat and sleep.” He then charged into the Horde; the makeshift guns kept rattling so accuracy was practically nonexistent.
( Here is how the Orc looks like. )
( Here is the Goblins. )
( Here is a Goblin while inside a suit. )
With a playful grunt of annoyance, the Roegadyn charges afterwards and says loud enough to be heard over the gunfire, “Fair enough! I forgot what it’s like to need things like sleep and eating! Fine, but they better try even harder in return!” Over the next six hours, two fought what seemed like an endless wave thanks to them coming back to replenish their numbers. When the time expired and the Horde got what was required, they were at it yet again. Brex pushed them till this cycle had gone for the next two days.
All the while, Brex would give some pointers and on occasion and would pause things to switch out weapons and have a few sparring matches with Ryu to get him used to fighting against different weapon types.
Later at the bar within the dungeon, Ryu was drinking some newly named 'Tryndabeer, quench that undying rage' and eating a Gobbler
Brex was sitting next to him while chatting with one of the Orcs that didn't go down by the time frame that Brex had set expired. He then spoke to Ryu, “I think you’re getting that sword style down fairly well at this point. As for the chain weapon however, it needs just alittle more practice. Here take this.” He hands over a stack of papers to the displaced and says, “Right there are some Blue mage spells I got back when I played the game. Give them a look over later and let me know if there are any problems with learning them this way.”
After that, Brex pointed to another set among the stack and said, “Now those are some of the lower rank spells from the Book of The Shield Hero. I'll warn yeah, those are trouble to learn. I suggest putting aside a lot of free time when you read that set. Hell! I can read so fast it would make Twilight jiz herself, but that thing... each word causes your mind to feel like it’s a block of wood and someone is using a soldering iron to burn the knowledge in there. So only read one or two tops a weak. otherwise, you’re going to be stuck in bed with a splitting head ache for days.”
Ryu chuckled after hearing that and said “Too bad we don't have any Belmont displaced here.” He joked and started to take another sip of his drink. Grabbing the papers Ryu then puts them away. He then sighed before saying, “Well we should head to my workshop, I need to get working on your hat and the key still needs about double my current gold.”
Brex replied with, “Oh that's right. Mind if I borrow it to help with those weapon modifications that I promised for your gun blade? By the way, what type of Materia did you want on it? Could toss on a full set of either the block chance up kind or did you want more offence?”
The man replied with, “I was thinking elemental to help in augmenting my attacks, but be careful with her. Also, my workshop is still crude with it only having a few advanced tools and no I don't mind you using it. But I should set up a new workshop for other displaced. Still don't know how long the minions will take to get the gold.”
Giving a few nods, Brex replies, "Should be fine, just needed to use a few things so I can set it up to be compatible with what you got here. That way you can make changes whenever you want. Shouldn't take long to do. Oh, before I forget..." He goes and holds out a small white orb just small enough to be held in one’s hands and shows it to Ryu before saying, "Hmm, guess I should finally send my own out there. A Link Shell should do the trick, I'll just set this one for the Displaced Channel. Now... as for my message..."
Ryu responded with, “Alright, when you’re done follow me, I need to stop by the temple on the way there. "
Holding the small pearl object up to the right side of his head and close to the ear. He starts to speak loud and clear with an emotionless tone, “WHETHER YOU BE IN NEED FOR A WARRIOR OF LIGHT OR A WARRIOR OF DARKNESS. JUST HOLD THIS CLOSE AND MAKE THE CALL. FOR THOSE THAT SEEK TO DESTROY ORDER SHALL BE MY PREY, IF NOT THEN YOU WILL HAVE MY BLADE BY YOUR SIDE. SON OF HYDAELYN. MY NAME IS, BREX VON MITH.”
After setting those words into the Link shell. He gets an idea and goes into his menu options. From there he looked around until he found the language section. He went through the list of languages and found that it was nearly infinite. It would appear that it ranged from all known languages from earth among those were also ones that he had only heard about in books and anime. It didn’t take him long to find something that he found very amusing and brought back memories of a certain show. After tweaking the link shell, he was then finished.
He takes a few moments of silence before he looks it over and says to himself, "Well that should do it. I wonder if the small tweaks I made will work when it’s found?” He then toss's it into the air. not even a second later, a black portal appears and the item is sucked inside. It is then split hundreds of times over and two come flying out and Brex catch's them both before the portal disappears.
He then runs to catch up to Ryu and toss's one of the Link shells to him and says, “There yeah go. One fully functional Link Shell. I also used my options menu to add some functions to it when used by a displaced. So not only is it my token and it acts as a communication device just like in the game, but thanks to my translation function I set it up so whenever two displaced are together and want to keep their conversation a secret, this will cause all others to hear them to be speaking in another language. What makes it funny is, I set it for Namekian. Found that I can understand practically anything that anyone says no matter what tongue they use, I just used that to add that effect to the Link Shell.”
( This is how the Link Shells extra effect would look to others. )
Ryu catches the pearl and puts it away before saying, “Thanks." After he started to lead them into a room with alters lining the walls. Each one with different idols. One with a black mask of a wolf, the alter next to it had a white mask of a lamb. The next one had an anvil. Then there were ones such as, a chime, white bird, the last one was a goat. Ryu placed a live Gobbler on both the wolf and lamb alters.
The Gobbler on the wolf alter, looked like it was ripped apart after it attempted to run out of the room. While the one on the lamb alter just fell over dead. He then places a freshly crafted sword on the anvil. After, a pile of gold was then placed onto the goat alter and a strange orb on the chime one, this was followed by Ryu also adding a gas mask on the bird alter as well.
After he placed the last item, a new alter appeared in the back of the room that was bigger than all of the others by at least four times. It had a symbol of a coin with an ornate four and he bowed in front of it praying.
Brex stood there as he watched Ryu doing the various tasks. All the while tilting his head now and then as the odd occurrences transpired. After what seemed like a few minutes had passed, Brex spoke up, "So... mind explaining what I just saw? I played the game dungeons 3 some and I remember the alter room. However, all of this is new to me."
Ryu got up and spoke with a voice full of reverence, “These are the gods of my world, worthy of praise, except this alter.” He then points to the alters and says, “The wolf and lamb are kindred, the anvil is Ornn, the goat is Soraka, the bird is Janna, and chime is the bard. As for the last one, I can't say, but they are the most worthy of my praise!” he exclaimed.
Brex gives a light shrug and says, “To each their own. I think there was someone that wrote a story where Pinky prayed to a 12-foot tall, stone statue of a rubber chicken. So, I got no problem with all of this. Are you about done or should I give yeah some time?"
Ryu then shrugs as he said, “All of these are champions so it's not like I don't have proof they're real. I'm trying to get my hand on manuals to teach my minions the D & D levels. It’s for paladins and clerics.”
Brex makes for the door and looks over his left shoulder and says, "Well, now that you got that all taken care of, let’s get to that shop of yours.”
Brex follows him to his work shop, he got to see chests on one side that all had names printed on them to show the different materials held within. One was named Black Steel, another named Petricite Steel, the others were Iron and Steel. Soon they both saw the most basic of forges, except for the furnace which was one of the heavy-duty models. Ryu turned and said, “I told you all I had were the basic forges. I can't make the tools I need just yet.”
After getting a good look around, Brex turned to Ryu and says, "I can work with this. Time to pull an Iron Man and see what I can put together." He then switches out his equipment for that of his level 70 gear set meant for his crafting class’s and starts working with the forges.
Nearly two hours had gone by and Brex is putting the last piece into some water to cool it off. Then another hour pass’s as he works on the final parts and installs the Materia slots onto Ryu's weapon. When that was done, a number of assorted colored orbs were pulled out and arranged onto the large table that the weapon was resting on.
Brex called out to Ryu, “I'm all done with this. Got it ready to be slotted with any of these.” He points to the various colors before going on and says, “I'll let you have these and you can switch them out with another whenever its needed. There are defense up ones. Then there’s the block chance kind. Next are the critical chance boosting ones and all out damage types. Now if you’re fighting someone that relies heavily on magic, then we got these magic resistance ones here. Got a lot of these laying around so you have these. Keep in mind, these were all extracted from high level gear around the 50 range. Also, thanks to the bracelet from Final Fantasy 7, I also have some of the elemental types as well. When I tried to use anything higher, the gear didn’t take kindly and fizzled out. But it can handle three in there.” He then scratches his head and adds, “I think it has to do with the incompatibility between our gear or perhaps it has to do with the differences in power from the Materia and yourself.”
Ryu picks up Valkyrie and starts slotting fire Materia. When he was finished with adding those, he revved up the engine and the chain quickly started to glow a burning red. Ryu then said, “This will do fine.” The man moved over to the table that he was working on and showed Brex a bandana and a black box. Brex could have sworn that he was hearing music coming from it.
Looking over what was there. Brex asks, “Ok I take it the bandana might be the hat of disguise from D & D. But just what's up with the Music box?”
The man responded with, “Yes, the bandana is the hat, it makes it easier to hide.” Afterwards he turned to the box and continues, “As for the music box, it's a test of sorts. It will allow me to find out what your Celestia is like.” He stated with a wicked grin on his face.
Brex starts to scratch the back of his head for a moment before letting out a small sigh. In a reluctant tone he asks, “From that look on your face... I take it you’re going to troll my worlds Celestia, aren't you?"
Ryu responded while still holding that grin, “Yes, that is why it’s a test. This will mess with her head and her emotions will be all over the place. Makes her honest to a fault and she will want to send a letter to me from this candle that will only work once. It sends a letter on a one-way trip. She will be mad, of course she will try to track the spell, but with it going into the void to get to me, she will lose my tracks and nothing will be traced back to you. Then I can let you in on how she is really like. All you need to do, is make sure this gets to her. Just use the bandana or some other type of stealth ability and you should be fine.” He stated.
Brex shakes his head and moves his hands in a manner that one makes when pulling their face down before saying, “Oh, Fine I get it. But it better not turn out that she is a ticking timebomb and the mountain that Canterlot is on, better not be missing because of it...*SIGH* Can you at least fill me in on what’s inside?"
He replied with, “I don't kill for no reason, I look at why another does what they do, unlike everyone else. Also, if she is a bomb, that will not be because of me. All this will do, is play a song that will be using both the voices of both her and Luna's in a duet called Lullaby for a Princess.” He then asked, “Do you know that song Brex?"
He looks down to show he was in thought. Soon he looks up and says, “Yeah. I think I do. Wow... Now that's going to do a number on her. Especially after all this time of being apart from Luna. Don't think they had anything back then that could record voices. You know... Now that I think about it. This would make for some good material to use when we do meet. I can already come up with a few things that could break that legendary stone mask of hers. Ok, I'm all for it. just make sure to send me a copy of that letter too when you get the chance.”
Ryu responded with, “Will do. I know how to get into most people's heads. I have a theoretical degree in psychology.” Pointing to the box he said, “This is a real Pandora's Box for her. No matter how old you are, something will always hurt. You saw my past; you should know that better than anyone now." He then started to laugh out.
Looking back at the box. Brex turns to Ryu and says, “Ok. I'll get it to her when I'm in Canterlot. With how things are going, I'll end up there at some point.”
Ryu then said, “Don't forget this letter that tells how to use the candle.” He then hands the letter over. It was in a traditional envelope with a wax seal of a lantern. After Ryu gave the Bandana and began to sigh before saying, “I need to start setting up to make a key, why does it need 25,000,000,000 gold to craft.”
The Roegadyn then replied, “How about I lend a hand on that. With my mining stats, I bet I could get what you need in record time. There is that skill that lets me see where to dig and along with another that ups the number of what I dig up."
Ryu stated, “That sounds like a plan. I'm not sure how the nodes would react to that though.” He then went on to say, “I have a ritual room to prepare, I’ll have a minion guide you there. I need to make the spell circle.” After, the man left to set up the circle he mentioned.
Brex found a nearby Snot who was at that moment picking his nose of well… snot. He was then escorted to a nearby area of the underground dungeon that had not been carved out yet. After changing his gear to that of the mining set, his work began. He had used one of the skills that was given to all gathering classes which was the ability to detect where something would be that he was going to mine out. After setting it to find gold, the Roegadyn was right to work and attacked the walls with his pick axe and hammer.
After about an hour of digging through the earth, he had made several tunnels leading to a number of veins. As soon as he had found it, a group of Snots came out of nowhere and started mining it up like no one's business.
Eventually his ability led him to an Infinity node. In the game of dungeons 3, there would be regular gold veins that had a set amount held within, but there were some Infinity nodes that well, in a lack of other words, had an infinite amount. He then spent the next two and a half hours mining away like crazy.
At one point, he wanted to experiment with his body double ability and created two more to see if they were able to do any mining for themselves. Currently, Brex was now capable of making up to a total of 5 body doubles. He had learned early on that they were not very good when it comes to combat, but when it's manual labor, they did exceptionally well when it came to mining. They even had access to his gathering abilities which sped up the process immensely.
He had gone an additional two more hours without taking a single break and had gathered quite a fortune. Unlike the Snots who can only carry so much and had to deposit it somewhere else or bring it straight back to the dungeon heart before returning, Brex was capable of storing it all into his item box so he could carry all back in one go. What made it even more surprising to him, was that his body doubles had access to his item box as well and had been sending the gold that they gathered straight into it. When he had noticed his eyes went wide behind his mask at the numbers he saw.
When he felt that he had gathered a sufficient amount for now, he left the vein and watched the group of other Snots come to take his place. Now Brex was going through the tunnels that he had just made to try and find Ryu to inform him of the progress.
Brex found Ryu in a large carved out room that had runes etched in big letters on the floor. He was going over a clipboard and commanding his Snots to pick at the ground to make even more runes. Cages were put into crevices between runes and each one was filled with prisoners that were malnourished, bloodied, and clearly frightened. But Ryu always just looked past them to his work, even as they cried out for help.
Walking close to Ryu, Brex whispered as to not let the prisoners hear, “I know this might sound like a stupid question, but where exactly did they all come from? It's your world and all, so I don't think I really have a right in saying on what you can and can't do on it. This is just curiosity.” While saying this, he was motioning by slightly tilting his head towards the prisoners.
he looks at Brex and says, “These scum are bandits, murderers, rapists, and slavers of my world. They all tried to steal my treasure too. So, their punishment is a slow death in my dungeon. They will learn the meaning of despair and fear. just as their victims did.” He said all of this with a chilling finality to his voice.
He then continued with, “Look, there are people like them in every world. They don't want to change. So the best thing I can give them is the mercy of death so they can never hurt another thing again. This is my job after all. That makes me the devil but I'm not sad about this job, it is something that must be done and I am more than happy to drag scum like this away.” He spoke without keeping his voice low. The prisoners all looked at Ryu with horror dawning on their faces.
Letting out a small sigh, Brex says, “I haven't really come across too many like these yet. So far all I've punished and killed were monsters. Well... I was rather rough with one… but that got settled. I just don't know how long it will be until I actually kill something that's sentient. If I'm not careful or end up hurting one of her ponies though... that will just get me instantly branded as a danger for her kind and sent to Tartarus.”
He then turned his gaze back to the prisoners and continued, “Do you think it would be possible after we get the key finished, that I could toss those that could be changed with a good scare over here for you to persuade them to change their ways? Right now, I don't think I can trust myself not to lose control. I don't mean to say that I'm gonna send them here hoping that you'll go all Hell Raiser on them or cause any real bodily harm or something. Just to scare them a bit.”
He put his finger on his chin before replying to Brex’s request and says, “I will agree on one condition, if I determine that they can't be changed, then they stay here with me.”
Brex gave a reluctant sigh before replying to that and said, “I could agree to that, as long as I'm there when you make the judgment. Wouldn't be fair to you if I just throw my troubles down in your dungeon and not see it through to the end.
Ryu only shrugged before saying, “As long as you don't have a mana vampire down here, I'm fine with it.” He points to a long trench in the floor and says, “The gold goes in there.” Ryu then went back to looking over his clipboard in hand.
Brex holds out his left hand and accesses his item box. Within the time it takes to blink, there was a torrent of gold pieces just flowing from the space no less than an inch from his hand out into the trench. As if this was no different than watering one's garden, he turns to Ryu and says, “I don't know about you, but I take that over one of those spirit spiders I remember reading in a D and D book. You know the ones that look like they're meant to be out in the snow and they liked to jump between space and just reappear anywhere around you. Those things always give me the creeps.
Ryu laughed and replied, “Naw, the worse monster…is a Toilet Mimic.” He visibly shutters after mentioning the mimic.
The Roegadyn had to admit now that was a terrifying idea. He then replied with, “Yeah that's got it beat hands down.” He also has the same reaction as Ryu.
He looks at Brex and laughs after seeing how the Roegadyn reacted and said, “Alright, that should be enough you should get out of the circle unless you want to be one with the key.”
After hearing that, he stopped the flow of gold that was coming out of his inventory box and quickly jumped out of the circle. When he was sure that he was at a safe spot, he responded with, “If it's all the same to you, If I'm gonna put anything, inside of anything, I'd rather not be a key when doing so. I’m fine with it being metaphorical, but literally I don’t.”
Ryu raises his gantlet and starts the ritual, “I call to the void hear my voice.” The gold became molten and flowed with purpose within the trenches. He continued with, “Grant me a rift key, I offer a price." The prisoners started to melt away and mix into the stream of liquid gold, their screams echoed throughout the whole room. But Ryu wasn’t done and went on with the ritual and spoke again, “Now let it be so!" All of the fluids flowed to him. It curling around his form and started shooting up his body and encircled the gantlet and the gold started compressing the impossible amount of gold into a single small point that formed into the size and shape of a key. It had a golden demon skull as the handle and the blade was a bone-white rod. He grasped it and tossed the key towards Brex.
Seeing it being tossed, He quickly snatched it from the air and began examining it. After a little bit he then said out loud, “You'd better not let your Celestia find out that you’re doing something like that again. I don't know what yours is like, but If mine was to ever catch sight of something like this happening, I'm pretty sure I'd be sent straight to Tartarus no matter what the reason I had for doing such a thing.”
Ryu then said, “There is a reason I call myself warden and my Celestia is Leona. So, she is on mount Targon.” The then stated, “There are worse people then me. Those being Mordekaiser, Viego, the real Thresh and Aatrox. So, I’m low on the list if on it at all.”
After hearing this Brex looks over to him and quickly says, “Hold the phone! The real one is here? I thought you were him. I mean, you got his weapon and everything. I thought you took his place. What does it mean if you ever run into him?”
Ryu then said flatly, “That is not always the case, I am the game Thresh. The one from my world is lore Thresh, what that means is, I am so much weaker than him with how I’m mostly mortal.”
After carefully thinking it over a little more in his head, Brex nodded before saying, “OK so he’s the lore one and he’s a lot stronger. Does that mean the only reason the one from your place is stronger right now is because of all the souls of the dead opponents he already killed? I vaguely remember him having the ability to grow in strength just like how you did when you got that power up from Titan.”
Ryu responded with, “Yes and no.” He shook his head and continued, “He gets more from souls then I would and he has one thousand years of experience under his belt. But it looks like I was sent back before the big events in league of legends. The Burning Tide hasn’t happened yet.”
Brex just shook his head and raised his hands in a, I don't know fashion before saying, “Honestly I don't know anything about the story when it comes to League of Legends. All I really remember is playing the character and killing the other champions and minions. But you seem to be the resident expert on all this, So I'll take you at your word.”
Ryu responded to that by saying, “Yeah that is my power, what happen with Titan was one of my abilities from my patron, not one of Thresh's power.”
After hearing the explanation, the Roegadyn nodded before asking, “Well as far as I can tell, things are pretty much settled. Oh, you told me that that metal from before can work a certain way. Do I need instructions on how to manipulate it the way I want? I understand that it takes in magic but how do you get it out?”
Ryu started to explain and said, “Ah, Petricite Steel you have to be able to control the flow of mana and if you don't it will just drain you dry. It can store a lot of mana. It can even hold off a god's magical attacks for a time.” He explained, then went on to continue with, “Yea I'm only able to thanks to my mist. But this will be valuable. I do have Black steel, it is just a super-strong metal, I heard it can't even be chipped after a hundred battles.”
The Roegadyn reached up and started to scratch the back of his head before saying, “I guess I have another reason to use the key now don't I. Honestly I don't think I have enough mana control to even try an attempt in using it right now. I've been so focused on hiding my magic that I’ll probably need a good while to get a grasp on the whole notion. Maybe after I start using my magic classes again, I'll come back and grab a bunch of it. But until then, it might be a good idea to keep it here for now.” The last part was said rather reluctantly.
Turning to Ryu, Brex asks, “So I take it, it's sort of like adamantium. If so, does that mean once it's forged into something, it will no longer be able to be reforged into something else again?”
Ryu quickly responded with, “No it's not that strong but it is durable. It's what Darius’s axe and armor are made of after all.”
After hearing the explanation, The Roegadyn snapped his fingers and said, “Yeah that might do it. I'll take some of those bars when I got things settled a bit more back on my world and I'll get to work on it in the future. I might have a good use for them, also when I get better control of my mana I'll see about getting some of that other steel from you.” Bringing a finger up to his masked chin, he then finished with, “I got some very interesting ideas that I can put stuff to good use with.”
The man replied with, "Alright I should head back to my world, no rest for the wicked.” He began to write something down on a new page on the clipboard.
Seeing that this would be a good time for him to go as well, Brex attempted to use the shadow traveling technique but found that it was not able to connect him Back to his world. Immediately after, he went with the return spell. Brex’s body became wrapped and a familiar aura of light that levitated him off the ground. Just as the familiar warping ability was going to kick in, he quickly turned to Ryu and called out, “Be careful not to get that elf mad at you. That kick of hers really hurts!” The second those words left his lips his form disappeared from sight.
Brex quickly found himself within The Cave that he had just been inside of just recently. Taking a quick look around to make sure that he was in fact at the tree of harmony he saw it and gave it a quick wave. He then said, “Hey there don’t worry just moving on through this time.” But when he was about to turn away, he noticed that there were two sections on the tree’s limbs that were now pulsing with light. After squinting his eyes to get a better look at the parts that were glowing. Didn’t take him long to discover that there were two gems giving off a light source different from the rest. They were one of red and pink. Immediately images of the ponies came to his mind and focused on the ones he knew to be Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
After tilting his head, Brex then says, “I guess this is your way of telling me where I need to go now huh? Oh well at least now I got another destination. Now where would they be around this time frame?” After giving himself a few minutes to think things over, he snapped his fingers and said, “It’s nearing the beginning of summer, so if I remember my story correctly, then they should be starting their summer flying lessons soon. Well, it looks like I know where I’m heading. Hello Cloudsdale! HERE I COME!”
He went for the entrance of The Cave to get out and as soon as he took the first step he stopped and blinked behind his mask and thought to himself, “Hmmm… why do I get a strange feeling I forgot something important? Eh, I’m sure I’ll remember eventually.”
*POV: Pinkie Pie* *Location: Pie Family farm house* *Time: Early Morning the next day*
Pinkie Pie, also known as Pinkamena Diane Pie. Was waking up at the crack of dawn as she normally did. She had climbed out of bed with her eyes closed and seemed to be having some trouble when she talked in an extremely tired tone, “I must have worked really hard yesterday moving those rocks. that must be why it seems like it’s taking forever to get out of my bed, it just seems so big.” By the time she had gotten her hooves onto the ground, she had taken only a few steps and hit her nose into the door to the room and with still not opening her eyes, she rubbed the sore spot and spoke in a confused tone, “Did I move my bed closer to the door and forgot? Eh… too tired… need to wash up before we eat…” She then lets out a yawn.
She opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Pinkie Pie then turned to her left to go to the bathroom located at the end of the hall and only after taking a single step and there was a large number of *THUDS* that caused her to fall back and onto her butt. She then reached up and was touching a now aching head. The pink pony opened her eyes and found the sight of her whole family on the ground in various states that ranged from being on their butts to laying across another member of the house.
When Pinkie lowered her hand, she was surprised to see that she had not come out of her room. Instead, she walked out from her mother and father’s bedroom and the rest of her family had done something similar as well. As it turned out, they had all come out at the same time and without looking ahead, they had run into one another when trying to make the same turn that they always had done. But this day, the order of the rooms had caused them to turn and intersect with the rest.
She then heard her father ask in an unsure tone, “H-How did this happen? Ok, we need to cut down on the work day by five minutes. If this could happen, then we need more rest.” After the mess was straightened up. The Pie family went on with the day as usual and when she was moving a rock, it had rolled over what seemed to be a large weed and when she had completely rolled over it, she looked towards the plant and had seen that it was just fine and managed to retain its shape from before. Strangely enough, she could help but show a very, very small smile and said under her breath without realizing it, “Don't worry I'm, cute and FLUFFY." After saying those words, she began to chuckle for a few seconds and when it had passed, the pink pony was right back to work again.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 27: Weather Team? No Thanks!
*Point of View: Brex Mith* *Location: Everfree Woods* *Time: Early in the morning after dealing with Titan*
As Brex was heading through the forest on his way in the direction of Cloudsdale, he began to muse to himself as he Internally spoke to Rory, “Hey did you find any of that a little odd?” The girl then replied with an uncertain tone that was slightly laced with sarcasm and said, “Hmm... I'm not sure what you're talking about. Are you referring to Ryu, the assortment of monsters he has under his control, getting stuck in a pocket time zone or are you referring to how we coincidentally found a token and a quest just happened to pop up immediately after?”
The Roegadyn Immediately replied with a bit of playful sarcasm of his own and said, “OK, OK, I get it. There was a lot of things that didn't seem normal there for a while. But I'm referring to the Titan in general.” This got a confused sound from the girl in his head before he continued, “I'm talking about the whole incident in general. Didn't you find it odd that there was no altar or anyone praying to him? Also, I have this weird feeling deep down that there was not something quite right about that Primal. I know his level was lower than normal, but there was just something that screamed that something was missing.”
After waiting a few moments of silent contemplation, he snapped his fingers and then said, “Primals are usually summoned through prayer and offering of crystals and ether. Now if we follow that general rule, then that would mean the Pie family summoned Titan. But still, it makes no sense. I know that in the stories that Pinkie’s family may be a little strange, but I can't really see them going all crazy and summoning something like that. Also in the game, they’re only really called by the beast tribes when they're in danger.”
Brex had just jumped over a log and was walking aside a small river that was heading to the north. While keeping an eye on his surroundings he continued, “When the two of us got to the farm, nothing seemed out of the ordinary aside from the family being missing. Then there was the whole thing with it being timed out for the Pie family reunion That was to occur in a few days from what I remembered High Road saying back when I first met her. Now that just seems a little too convenient to me.”
Rory then chimed in with, “I see what you mean there. If you put it like that, then it's obvious that someone had set it up so that when Titan was summoned, he would have a flock of worshipers soon after being brought to this world. But who in the right minds would do such a thing? Not only that, they just up and left. This only set up the situation for Titan to be unsupervised. Well, I guess you can't really tell a god like that what to do huh. But wait, are you getting at something here?”
He then nodded to what she had just said and replied with, “Ah, I see you're starting to catch on there. Just think about it. first, I find the Tree of Harmony and I'm able to attune myself to it. Next was how it tried to stop me when I came back to life and gave me those Images of the girls. Last but not least, I have had to run into them randomly as it seems, only to end up saving them from one emergency or another.”
Immediately after, Rory continued on with that thought and said, “Then there's also how we're heading over to Cloudsdale. The tree did flash those colors when we got back from dealing with Titan. But hold up. Isn't that place like, I don't know...up in the sky? Just how are we going to get up there and help them? We can't really walk on clouds and going up there with an airship isn't really something we should even try. I’m pretty sure we would draw some eyes if a balloon was to be floating around for days at a time.”
The Roegadyn started to hum while tapping the chin of his mask. After a few moments he replied with, “That is true. I know that they have a cloud walking spell, but Twilight doesn't get to work quite right until later on in the show for Rarity. Also, I can't even cast their type of magic anyhow. Sure, I can sense it, feel it and see it. Although when it comes to using said magic, It's a no go. The best I can do is resist or break the spells that are being used on me thanks to my extensive studies on them. Honestly, I don't know why Little Light was so insistent on teaching me so much about their magic if I don’t have the capacity for it. I guess it was just so I could have the ability to resist or counter what the beings of this world might try to do to me. But it would be nice to be able to use some, they have spells that would be fun to use.” Afterwards he lets out a long, drawn-out sigh.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful from then on. The river that he was following led him through a section of the Everfree Forest and right up to Ponyville. He had avoided the outskirts of the town and continued on his way without gaining the attention of any of those that lived within the town.
Nearly five days passed by the time he had arrived to a spot that allowed them to have a good sight of Cloudsdale. It had taken a bit longer than he had anticipated with having to scale a mountain between Ponyville and his current destination. He was less than a few miles away while standing on a high hill. The Roegadyn’s eyes were transfixed on the large city in the sky with admiration. He quickly thought to himself, “Now that right there is a cloud city.”
( Here is a picture of Cloudsdale. )
As he drew closer, the sun was nearly in the middle of the sky and that made it easy to see everything all lit up. Even from that great distance, it was apparent that this city was a true masterpiece of both architecture and art. He couldn't help but think that Zeus himself would rent out a place here for a vacation home. From what he could tell from any of his memories, is that Cloudsdale was a stationary city even though it was technically a large cloud. The map for Equus had it marked to be in this territory, so it must imply that they were meant to keep it stationary as to not mess with the map makers.
It had taken Brex a couple of hours to make his way over with how he couldn't bring his gaze away from the city too long with how he would constantly find himself admiring its form. At this point he was practically underneath the city’s foundation, literally. He had started to ponder on a strategy to get up there when something caught his attention with his surroundings. There was a large open field like area with very few trees and vegetation in small clusters that were spread all about.
He began to go through his memories of what he knew when it came to the past of both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Rory started noticing that her master was acting somewhat strangely, so she asked, “Is something the matter, you seem to be looking around quite a lot. Just what is it?” Without answering, the Roegadyn started to explore the area underneath the city in more detail while still glancing back up to it every now and then. All the while his body movements indicated that he was becoming a bit more stressed out as the time went on.
After a good half hour, Rory finally broke and asked again, “OK, you do know that I can't really read your mind, you know that right? Master, could you at least tell me what it is you're looking for?”
After a few moments of silence while still looking around he finally answered with, “It's not enough... No, no. It's not nearly enough. This isn't going to work... It's not supposed to be like this!” After another few more seconds he then asked Rory, “I need you to go into my head and find something and review it for me, just to make sure that I'm not mistaken. Could you do that for me?”
Sounding a little unsure, she then asked, “Um… sure. Just what is it you want me to look up?” To say that she was confused was an understatement. Sure, whenever they were in the dreamscape, they would look up his memories to watch things that he has seen from his old world while together, but this was the only time he had ever asked her to go in there on her own when he was awake. She then heard her master say, “You're going to have to go into my memories about the show. To be more specific, the one part concerning how the main six got their cutie marks. Look at the video of Fluttershy when she fell from flight camp during the big race. I know it's a cartoon in there, but compare the background to that of what we see now.”
Rory quickly said yes and began to work. For the next five minutes, there was not a single sound from the girl in his head and Brex was biting his lower lip in frustration while slowly glancing at his surroundings to help Rory with the comparison that he was having her do.
Soon he got word from Rory as she spoke, “Yeah, I just got done comparing both the show and this place and they really don't match all that much. The amount of plant life is far lower than it should be. There is also the way the ground doesn’t look so good. Now don’t get me started with how there is hardly much water and the air quality is rather poor. Also, how can butterflies even have the ability to hold up a pony anyway? It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Brex only retorted by saying, “We are on a world where magic is real and they can walk on clouds. Need I really say more?” Rory replied with, “Touché. But yeah... But what I really don’t understand is, why is that a bad thing?
The Roegadyn gestured towards the scattered vegetation and said, “It has everything to do with it. Tell me, do you think it's possible for there to be all those butterflies and animals around when Fluttershy falls off the clouds if there's no place for the animals to even live?”
He allowed that a moment to sink in before he continued with, “Just think about it. There isn't a whole lot around here to support that many animals that are meant to show up in the show. He then pointed to a nearby patch of grass and plants and said, “Now that right there is something that attracts butterflies and there's hardly that much to attract the swarm as big as it was in a show. And over there there's hardly any place for the animals to stay with a lack of trees and cover. Now look over there, there should be some adequate water supply but that's pretty much almost all dried up. I can already see it now, if we don't do something about this. Fluttershy is going to die...”
This only got an even more confused, “Huh” From the girl as she asked, “I don't really get it. If she falls, we can just catch her, so no biggie.” This only got a slow headshake from Brex as he answered that question with, “The animals are the whole point. On that day there's goanna be a huge chain of events happening and it all starts with Rainbow Dash making that sonic Rainboom.”
Brex pointed upwards to an area that was hardly divided from the edge of the city that appeared to be in the shape of a stretched-out circle. He then said, “In that episode Rainbow Dash defends Fluttershy from some bullies and that leads into her getting into a race that will be the start of a domino effect for the other girls. But when it started, Rainbow Dash and the other participants end up knocking Fluttershy off the cloud and she went into a free fall. If it wasn't for those butterflies suddenly coming together and catching her just before hitting the ground, she would have gone splat.”
From behind his mask, the Roegadyn’s eyes went wide as he inadvertently imagined the situation playing out as things currently stood. Every detail was being superimposed on to the memory of that episode and it was nearly too much for him as he watched an anthro version of Fluttershy slowly falling to her doom. He attempted to stop but his imagination was running away and he was clearly able to make out her terrified expression as this was happening in his head.
Fluttershy’s arms and legs were flailing like mad as her wings tried flapping only to lose a few feathers in the erratic patterns of movement. Only mere feet away from the ground did time slowed down and his concentration was only broken from going any further when the image of Rory appeared in his imagination of the scene and grabbed his face and forced him to look straight at her as she screamed, “MASTER! LOOK AT ME! THIS IS ONLY IN YOUR HEAD! ITS NOT REALLY HAPPENING!” She then quickly wrapped herself around his head and pulled his face into her chest to block his vision completely. Strangely enough, Brex was fully capable of getting the sensation of his skin coming into contact with her clothing and there was even the faint heat that one would have if coming from another living being. This had an immediate effect on Brex.
There was a sudden loud gasp sound of air that filled the open area as Brex found himself on his hands and knees and he was positive that he felt from underneath his mask that he was sweating up a storm. With heavy and labored breathing, he spoke through all of it with a, “Huh, what.... What was I just...? Did I almost”
He was about to say more when he heard Rory speaking as if she was right next to his ear and whispering in a calming voice, “You were having another panic attack. You wouldn't stop thinking about what would happen to that girl, so I had to force my way through and into your imagination. I'm sorry, please forgive me Master... It's just that you weren't responding anymore to anything I said and I didn't know what to do.” While still breathing quite heavily, the Roegadyn had recovered considerably from moments ago and quickly sat down on the ground and leaned forward while resting his elbows onto his knees and said, “No, no. You did the right thing. I really wanted to stop but I couldn't. I had no idea you could do something like that. Why didn’t you tell me?”
He could have sworn that Rory’s tone had turned a little sheepish when she replied with, “Oh well, it's just I didn't know I could do that either. Honestly, I only thought that we could only interact while you were asleep. We should really look into this. It felt… different. Not like how it is in the dreams.”
Now finally fully calmed down, Brex replied with, “Maybe, but not right now. I think I have an idea what I might be able to do. But first we're going to need to search for a bit. I'm also going to have to use a magic class for once.
After checking to make sure that there weren’t any nearby that could see him from the air. The Roegadyn equipped is White Mage Soul Stone. Once This was done, he now had a large red staff that made a hook formation with the wood on the top. Kneeling down, Brex placed his right hand onto the ground and closed his eyes and tuned out the world of all distractions.
( Here is a picture of the White Mage Soul Stone. )
( Here is a picture of Brex's current gear with the staff. )
Thinking back to the game, there was a quest line for the White Mage where they had a lot to do with maintaining the balance and health of nature. So, it was a worthwhile attempt at seeing if this was something that he could do in real life. At first, he felt nothing new but as the seconds went on, there was this small tugging sensation that he felt that seemed to be coming from his very core. Then there was a subtle resonance that was coming from that sensation. Smiling from underneath his mask, he opened his eyes and communicated to Rory, “Looks like it might work after all. Now all I gotta do is listen to the sound of nature.”
Closing his eyes again he went back to putting all of his senses onto trying to grasp that feeling. That was when Rory asked in a whisper, “Master, just what are you listening for?” He only stayed quiet for a few seconds before Replying in a calm tone, “I'm listening to the voice of nature. And before you ask what I mean, In the story for the White Mage, we had to go and purify the land. This was for something a player got when they reached level 30. Right now, I'm trying to find out if there is a problem that I can fix to rejuvenate the land and hopefully lead to accelerating the growth of vegetation down here for the animals to have a place to call a home.”
He was about to say more but his body went rigid and the Roegadyn’s hand began to tremble while it was still making contact with the ground. Immediately after, he pulled his hand free and gasped for air. This was then immediately followed with him giving a few coughs before he quickly said in a panic, “Now that was intense. But I found out what's wrong. There's something corrupting this land and it needs to be stopped now.” While turning his head towards the Southwest, the Roegadyn got to his feet and pointed in that direction and said, “Over that way. I sense three of them. I wouldn't be surprised if this mirrored the quest line for taking out the corrupted energy of the land.”
Going in the previously indicated direction, Brex walked for nearly an hour before he had made it to the base of a mountain. Turning his head left to right in order to see what was around him, he let out a strong sigh before saying, “It's around here somewhere but I can't seem to feel just where it is. I just hope this is something I can do on my own. During that quest there was one or two other White Mages that came along as Non player characters. I got no other choice, do I? Too bad Zecora isn't here. I can really use that girl’s help for this nature stuff.” He had joked on that last part, knowing full well that right now she would just be a little girl, but still, it would have been reassuring to have some backup when it came to doing this sort of activity.
He was closing his eyes once more and was about to kneel down and do the same thing he had done back in the open field. But before he could have knelt down, he had already gone stiff and exclaimed in his head, “Oh shit!”
Dodging to the right and doing a roll on the ground, Brex had gone a few meters before getting back to his feet and immediately caught sight of a large boulder impacting into the ground right near where he used to be standing. This was roughly half the size of his upper half. Turning his focus towards the direction that it had originated from, he caught sight of another one coming straight for his head.
While side stepping and nearly getting clipped, he quickly asked Rory within his head, “Hey! What's going on here, why can't I sense this thing with my situational awareness? Also, its not showing up on my map either. I'm going purely off instinct thanks to my white mage class.” This got Rory to speak in a tone that was laced with both confusion and agitation, “I'm not sure. I think it has to do with it being purely nature. It could also have something to do with this energy that you're trying to locate. Whatever it is it's giving off the same feeling as everything else around you so it's hard to pinpoint. I'm so sorry master, I don't think I'm gonna be much help in this.”
A third rock came through a gap in a few of the trees and had nearly struck Brex in the left shoulder but he had managed to deflect it partially with his staff. He replied to Rory by saying, “Don't sweat it. It's not your fault. At least we learn that there's stuff that we can't sense using that ability. Better to know about that little weakness now and not in the middle of a real big fight. Now I just need to figure out where it is. Judging from the trajectory from those attacks that were thrown at me, the thing must be on the move. I guess it would be too much to ask for it to stay in place and let me strike it over and over again like they do in the game.”
There was then a strange feeling from inside that compelled him to raise his staff higher and to his left. It was then followed with him casting a number of spells, one immediately after the other in the direction his staff went towards. First, he started casting the spell called ‘Stone 2’.
Caster Skill: Stone 2. This is the upgraded version of Stone that is available when the caster reaches level 18. Deals earth damage with a potency of 190. The caster channels a spell and summons up from the ground a large rock and launches it at their target with great force.
This conjured up a large rock twice the size of his head that came jolting out of the ground and was hovering in place in front of him after a few seconds of him casting the spell. It was then launched straight at an oncoming rock that was coming from between the same trees as before. The two collided but it seemed that the one that Brex had used clearly had more force and did not break up so easily, so most of the debris shot away from him.
He then started to cast another spell called, Aero. This was normally a spell that a player would cast on a single target and would cause some damage to occur repeatedly over a set time period, also known to the players as a Dot or if one was to get technical, Damage over Time. However, with his training from back on the other side, Brex was able to figure out how to manipulate this spell in a different way. Seeing as there was nothing else in the immediate vicinity that could get hurt from collateral damage, The Roegadyn channel the spell longer than what was needed and sent it out in all directions when the right amount of magic was gathered.
Caster Skill: Aero. Deals wind damage with a potency of 50. Additional Effect: Wind damage over time. Duration: 18 seconds. This Spell incircles the target in wind that slashes away at it until the spell runs its course.
The wind picked up all around him and became visible with wisps of light green and a faint amount of white as it snaked its way out in a gust and slipped through any open gaps between the nearby trees and rocks until he felt the magic hitting and wrapping around some sort of object a distance away. In a sense, he had turned what would normally be considered as a damage over time spell, into a makeshift sonic ping like one would do underwater with a submarine. With the spell being significantly weaker by using it in this fashion, there was little time to spare as he rushed in the direction that it had made contact. After dodging and leaving through a couple trees for the next 20 or so meters, Brex came across a familiar sight.
( This is the picture of Earth Elemental. )
Just as he had originally thought, this was going to be similar to the White Mage quest. The elemental was currently using parts of its body to try and bat away the elusive wind that was slowly ticking away at its health as it slashed at the hard body and leaving small scratches on the surface. After a few more seconds the spell timer ran out and it had stopped taking damage as the wind faded.
Now with it no longer being distracted by the annoying spell, the Elemental turned its attention towards Brex. Even though it literally did not have a face he just knew that it was staring stone daggers at him.
The parts of its body that covered the large crystal in the center began to move and undulate. Brex could feel a surge of magic building up around the creature during this. Wanting to end this quickly, he used the skill afforded to the caster class called Swift Cast. With that skill used, The Roegadyn then went to cast his ‘Stone 2’ spell. The spell had ripped out of the ground a rock far bigger than previously used by the elemental and was easily the same size as it as well. It was then hurled at said elemental at tremendous speeds when Brex thrusted his open palm forward.
Caster Skill: Swiftcast. Next spell is cast immediately. For a short time, the caster can use a spell instantly that requires time to gather magic for its use.
Before his opponent’s spell was fully activated to counter, the large rock had collided with the elemental and threw it dozens of feet across the open area and into a tree, which then caused it to topple over due to the sheer strength of the impact alone. Now as for the condition of the elemental, all that remained after its rock body had been completely dispersed throughout the area was the crystal that was from its center, but this one had a massive crack running through it. After a few seconds the crack began to spread out in an alarming rate and shattered into tiny pieces to only vanish as if it never even existed.
However, something else remained in its place. There was a weird green and black miasma that was wafting through the air but it seemed to be staying in one localized spot and swirled to make a mini tornado. It was slowly descending to the ground but Brex was not going to have that happening. He prepared another set of spells, but this time they were not of the damaging variety.
He first used the skill called Lucid Dreaming. This would allow him to recover mana faster than he could use it for a short period of time. The next one he used, was the spell Esuna, as to remove any negative effects that would be on the miasma.
Caster Skill: Lucid Dreaming. Gradually restores own Mana points. This places the user in a state that allows them to recover Mana as if they were in a relaxed state, that would be the ideal mind set to recover the quickest.
The next set of spells were Regen and Cure. This would mean and that it would get a constant stream of low healing along with a spike from the second spell. After that Brex continued to cast the Cure spell over and over again until the miasma began to change its colors and turned into a swirl of light green and white. When he saw this, he backed off and stopped casting any more magic and just stood there and kept an eye on the mist as it began to slowly dropped to the ground and meld into it until there was nothing left.
Caster Skill: Regen. Grants healing over time effect to target. Cure Potency: 250. Duration: 18 seconds.
As soon as that was done, the Roegadyn released a relieved sigh as he slumped towards the nearest tree and sat down for a rest. He then said to Rory, “So that's what it feels like to run low on magic. I didn't think he was gonna take that many healing spells for it to finally be cured. Well as soon as I recover a little, I'll head towards the other two spots. I'm guessing the other ones are water and air if things go on like this.”
Rory then asked in a confused tone, “Master, could you please explain to me what just happened?” This got a low chuckle from Brex before waving his arms in a nonchalant way as he answered with, “Oh well, wasn't it obvious? I just fought a corrupted Elemental for this area and as soon as I released its form, I cured its energy and sent It back into the world. Now I just need to repeat this again another two more times. Hopefully doing all of this, will start the process of rejuvenating the land.”
After humming to herself a little bit, Rory replied with, “Do you think that's why the tree was telling us to come this way? It could be with it being a tree and all even though it's made of crystals, it sensed that there was a problem with nature.”
The Roegadyn only shrugged his shoulders and said,” No use thinking about that too much right now. The next two are gonna be the tricky ones. Now what direction is the closest one?”
After that, Brex went through the same process as before to track down the next patch of corrupted elemental energy. This time it felt like it was a lot easier to zoom in on its location and it was pointing straight North. Brex left the mountain area and traversed over the land and along the way it was apparent that things were already improving. Unlike before he was capable of sensing life in the ground underneath his feet. He pondered to himself whether or not this was what the Earth ponies felt whenever they worked with the land.
After a couple of hours of running at high speed, he had arrived at a dried-up lake. It could have easily have been over 300 meters wide, but the only amount of water was at the very center and that was barely enough to fill up half. The ground that should have had water on top of it was so severely cracked that one could have stuck a stick that was over a foot long into one of the deeper crevices. When comparing the outer area to the one spot with water, it could have been thought of as if everything was being sucked into that very spot.
Just like before, there was no signs of it on his Mini map or situational awareness. To say he was unnerved was an understatement. He had always had the tactical advantage of knowing where his opponent would be, but relying only on his regular senses was nerve racking for the Roegadyn. At least this time they were in an open area and there was no place for it to hide.
He approached the single patch of water and after a minute of walking, he was now within several meters of it. Right as he took the next step his senses went wild and he had to take a step back from caution. He wasn't sure, but he was positive that feeling was not from a situational awareness, but more of a feeling coming that was from the Soul Stone in his possession.
Right then, the water began to bubble and then immediately Shot out from the water’s surface and began to coil around a center section as it floated in midair. After a second or two, it finished and was now one large orb of water that was surrounded by three smaller ones orbiting it in a clockwise motion. The center of each one which was supposed to be a brilliant blue color light, was a sickly green.
( This is the Picture of the Water Elemental. )
Without so much as a warning, the orbs spun around quickly and released several small jets of highly pressurized water towards Brex at a high speed.
Seeing the motion that the creature was making, he had already started running to the right to incircle the elemental. His robes fluttered in the wind as he was holding his staff in his left hand in a guarding position. It was firing continuous streams of water, but most of which missed and impacted the dry ground to leave deep holes behind. The ones that hadn't missed were deflected with the staff in his hands. At that moment, he was very appreciative about the training he had gotten from Little Moon when it came to fighting with his equipped weapon even as a caster. There was no way he was going to follow the simple gaming mechanics of only relying on spells and not use a weapon that happens to be in his hand even if he played as a healer.
After dodging and weaving for several more volleys, The Roegadyn managed to close the distance and get within ten meters and at that moment the creature shot one of the large orbs that orbited it towards Brex. Narrowing his eyes from under his mask, he called out to it, “Oh no I'm good, but you on the other hand look a little thirsty!”
He had swung his staff and somehow the hook shaped end of it was able to literally grab the orb as if it was a solid object and he spun it around his body using centrifugal force that was added from the initial launching and release it to shoot straight back at the elemental. As it turns out, the split second before it had tried that trick, Brex had infused a good amount of magic into the staff before as a protective measure and that was what allowed it to grab onto the magickly infused water projectile. It also had the additional effect of adding his own magic energy into it, which more than doubled its initial damage output. As a result, the water elemental was flung back and had nearly hit the ground.
Not wanting to waste this opportunity between volleys, Brex channeled as much energy as he could and launched numerous Stone spells at it. Try as it might, the water elemental could not protect itself from the onslaught and its water supply was quickly dwindling as it was blocking the Incoming attacks with little success.
Brex thought that he had it, but wasn't prepared when its body began to split apart and had quickly rushed towards him and began to wrap itself around Brex like a snake. Seeing as it was restricting his form, the Roegadyn struggled as much as he could but was unable to throw it off. It had just wrapped around his neck and was slowly encompassing his head in an attempt to suffocate the Roegadyn when he had remembered what he had done with the Earth Elemental.
Channeling as much energy as he could as to surround his form with the Aero spell, Brex could feel it trying to force its way between him and the Water Elemental's body. After a few seconds of this it had managed to cover his head and a few bubbles of air were escaping the Roegadyn's mouth. But then a green light shined from his body and Elemental was quickly thrown off with an explosion of wind. Brex found himself clutching his neck while trying to get all the air he could while down on his right knees.
The Water Elemental had splattered everywhere and was slowly attempting to reform itself near the water's edge. There was a strange feeling he couldn't describe coming from his head but he contributed it to the lack of oxygen prior and focused on using his concentration on the next stone spell. During the channeling, he was wishing to himself that he could somehow contain this thing before it managed to get to the water and resupply its reservoirs. But what came next surprised the Roegadyn. Instead of pulling a large boulder out of the ground like normal and throw at the elemental, it had instead caused the earth around it to swallow it whole in a small dome of tightly packed rocks.
One could hear that the Water Elemental inside was attempting to blast its way through, but to the outside world, it sounded no more than someone using a weak water pistol toy on a window. After a few seconds the sounds ceased. Thinking that it was all over, Brex was about to lower his guard when he felt the ground under his feet beginning to shift and this caused him to step back quickly.
His opponent had dug its way under the ground and attempted a sneak attack on the Roegadyn. And the split moment that it was fully out of the ground, it had assumed the shape of a snake's body and head. Out of reflex, Brex threw his right fist into its body and channeled the wind magic directly into its form. It had suddenly expanded twice in size and was surging with a mixture of blue, green and white within its body. One could see the different types of energy colliding with one another as they danced and attack repeatedly over and over again countless times.
In the end, the Water Elemental lost as the green glow within died down and had quickly lost its ability to retain its shape and turn it to regular water. What was left, was the same as the last as a green and black type of miasma like before. Repeating the same procedure, Brex was able to purify the energy and a it was slowly returned back to the ground. At this point the Roegadyn was very tired after using so much mana to both attack and defend. But he was not allowed to rest as he had to make a mad dash out of the area because the water was beginning to gush forth from that one spot in the center at an astonishing rate.
Luckily, he had managed to make it all the way out before the water had caught up to him and sat near the edge of the lake. Seeing that her master was getting more tired with each fight, she asked, “Master, don't you think you should take a rest for now? it’s just that you really aren't used to using so much magic, right? Also, wouldn't things be a lot easier if you were to go and adjust your level up again? I noticed that you didn't lower it after going after Titan so your still at level 35.”
Brex only shook his head and replied with a somewhat tired tone, “No I don't want to have to raise it any higher than it is. I'm at a fair distance from Canterlot right now, but I don't want to take too many risks by going any higher. Besides I'll be fine, I just need a few minutes to rest and I’ll be ready to go again.”
The two of them sat near the lake's edge and watched as the water reflected the light. The surface was sitting still and hardly moved at all, but Brex contributed it to how they still needed to take out and purify the Wind Elemental that he had assumed to be the last he had to deal with. As the minutes went by, The Roegadyn's power was quickly replenishing.
After a few more minutes Rory spoke up again and asked, “Master... I understand that you're trying to save them, but isnt this an overly complicated way of doing it? Why not just wait for it to happen and catch her while she's in midair. Instead, you're going through all this hassle and almost killing yourself with how much work you’re putting yourself under. I know for a fact that if you were to go all out, you could have taken both of those elementals in one simple hit. Just what is it about these ponies that's got you working so hard?”
Brex leaned back and used his arms as support to look straight up into the sky and watched the clouds. Closing his eyes, the Roegadyn mused to himself about that question. Seconds turned into minutes until he finally had a response. While speaking in a relaxed tone he said, “You know I'm not entirely sure myself... Why do I do all this? Is it a sense of pride? Is it a sense of honor...? No, No I don't think that’s quite it.”
He had gone silent for a few seconds before going on, “Maybe it's got something to do with those memory fragments. Hmm, what did you call them, in printing? Maybe it's got to do with the whole, I'm in this place and this is basically what we as displaced beings do. Heck, I could try and take over this world, but what would be the point...” That last bit was said with a hint of sarcasm. Brex continued with, “Who knows, this could just simply be me trying to pass time. I already know that not everything is the same as in the show. I guess for right now... I'll see how things turn out and I'll make my judgments then. But my first goal is to make it to the pilot episode of the show and see that the outcome still happens like it should. There's usually a universal constant among the displaced where they are needed to save those six girls. As much as I don't like Celestia right now, I'm not about to let my petty grievances endanger innocent lives."
After that, he paused for a moment before continuing, “Now as for your question regarding me taking the complicated route. It's just me trying to keep things as close to the story as possible. I've done my best to stay away from the girls and they've only been able to seen me once when it came to Rarity. Even then I was covered and said very little around her. I'm sure with everything that happened that day, she will have forgotten about me by now. If anything, I’ll just be some guy and she will move on without another thought.
Rory then asked, “So it seems like we're supposed to save them all. Ok then, what's the plan for Rainbow Dash? You're only able to go for Fluttershy because she's coming down here, but I don't see how we can even get up there for the blue one."
Brex only chuckled after hearing that question and replied with, “Oh we're saving her too.” After saying that he was sure he could sense that she was tilting her head in confusion and quickly added, “By saving Fluttershy, we’re also saving Rainbow Dash in a way. You can save a person in more ways than simply stopping them from dying or something along those lines. Just imagine what would happen if she found out that she was somehow a part of the incident that caused Fluttershy to die from the fall. It would eat away at her over time. She would become a hollowed-out shell of herself that only thinks of what she had done and would lose her confidence. One is going to lose their life and the other is going to lose their will to go on. Just because nature had to go and get itself thrown out of whack. I don't know about you, but that's not fair for them and that really ticks me off...” During that last bit, Brex was visibly shaking from anger for a few seconds.
After a short pause Rory began to laugh but in a gentle tone before saying, “I believe my master is a good person. You could just say you don't want to see people getting hurt. Well, I guess in this case its Ponies is getting hurt.” This got a headshake from Brex as he talked in a somewhat emotionless tone, “No I don't think I'm a good person. This is simply me making sure that I survive. So, as long as they can stop Nightmare Moon, then I’m fine with the results.”
This only got a resigned sigh from the girl in his head before she said, “Master I believe all you need is some confidence. You say all this and do these things even though you feel like you can't trust them to even know about who and what you are. Maybe with time things will change. You seemed a lot better when you got to talk to somebody else besides me. I noticed this when you got to converse with Ryu without limiting your words. As much as I would love to have you all to myself, your mental state is my top priority. I only hope that one day you could go around without that mask on.”
When those words were exchanged, the both of them remain silent for a good 15 minutes until Brex felt he had recovered enough. This time however, he didn't need to close his eyes to tell where the final Elemental was. Thanks to the corrupted nature of the energy that was contaminating the land being purged to this point, He was capable of sensing exactly where the last one was. Looking off towards the East, he could feel that it was fairly close to Cloudsdale. Right now, the land was recovering and the water was coming back and filling the dried-up rivers. All that was needed now, was to clean up the air and everything would go back to normal.
After their little talk, Brex headed towards the last location. Along the way, it was apparent that what he said before about the land recovering was already showing signs of this happening. The ground started to grow more grass and the river was beginning to fill up gradually and was now flowing through the area. There were even a few fish here and there now that he could see near the surface.
He was close to a mile and a half away from the outskirts of Cloudsdale when he felt something shifting with the air. Going back to tracking the Elemental, The Roegadyn’s senses we're going all over the place. Brex was sure that he was able to zoom in on the exact location, but right now it was as if he was standing in a giant cloud of whatever the energy was being radiated off of the Elemental.
Feeling the hair standing on the back of his head, Brex quickly grabbed onto his staff and took a fighting position while trying to keep the senses out and wide as possible to sense any incoming threats. It didn't take long for the wind to begin picking up. Small debris were getting blown around and a wall of visible wind was being created to incircle his position. The air began to rush past him in almost every direction. The hood of his coat was nearly blown off his head and he had nearly lost his footing but managed to keep on his feet while guarding his head.
After several moments of this intense attack did the wind finally die down to reveal that he was now within a dome of wind that seemed to be fully able to block out the outside world from his vision. In a way it reminded him of the raid he fought in while going up against the wind Primal known as Garuda with how he was now in an enclosed environment.
From inside, there was nothing at all aside from the ground and what few traces of grass was left over after the strong wind had subsided. Every breath he made, had essentially made a loud echo with how there was no sound at all now. The dome itself could have easily reached 14 meters high, but with the way it looked, his estimations could have been off by all he knew. So going by that assumption then the outer radius must reach out to a full 20 or 30 Meters wide for the whole area.
Brex thought to himself, “Now this is gonna be tricky. I know it's here; I can feel it but I don't see it. This is not like the video game at all. At least on that one the target stayed in one place and you just had to pound it until it went down or avoid some attacks. Here they can dodge, hide and do sneak attacks. Also, this one seems a lot more powerful than the others.” His thoughts were cut off when he had an inexplicable urge to dodge to the right fast and did just that. By doing so, he had narrowly escaped an attack that caused the ground to have a large gash in it from an invisible strike. He wouldn't have known it happened if it wasn't for this weird vacuum like sound that appeared for a split second after getting out of the way.
Quickly trying to figure out the direction of the attack turned to be a fruitless endeavor as yet another came from a different angle that was from his blindside. This one managed to make a direct hit on his backside and had thrown him forward. Brex held up his right arm and had gone into a roll, he got back to his feet and turned to where he was attacked from only to hear another one coming from his left. With the staff being in his left hand he managed to block it but not without suffering some damage that came immediately after the first impact. It made no sense in the way it felt when he was struck, but after hearing the sound that came right afterwards it clicked. The Elemental wasn't using some simple type of wind blade technique and it was somehow using it in a way to get vacuum effect that would occur afterwards. This meant not only was a getting hit with one type of strike, but there was a secondary one that was pulling air inwards and this was catching him unprepared.
This reminded him of something he had seen in an anime called Rurouni Kenshin. There was a villain that would swing a sword and after cutting his opponent the air would get sucked out of the wound. This would in a sense, leave no blood left to be seen. It would also have the effect of making it harder for the victim to heal properly. That explained the gouges he saw on the ground and how there was hardly any debris from the attacks themselves. There was no health bar for himself but he could feel that a large chunk of his health had been taken away already. Even with his back taking a full-on hit, he could still feel the clothing there and was relieved that his armor held up. But out of a strange curiosity he pulled up his character information and looked at his currently equipped armor to find that it had a drop in durability and was now down to less than 70 Percent after just taking one strong hit.
Even after all that was done, he still couldn't get a fix on were his target was. He had considered the thought that it was in the worlds environment but thought otherwise when he felt something for a split second. That feeling was that of something moving around at high speeds all around him. Brex then employed the same wide area effect spell he had used to find the Earth Elemental.
Just as he was charging the spell halfway through, there was a loud screech and the magic in his hands exploded and threw him on his back with a heavy *THUD*. He thought to himself, “Ghaw! OK, well that obviously pissed it off. I guess it just didn't really like me using the wind for myself. Looks like that's out of the question as an ability to use. Doesn’t really help my situation if one of my own spells was to blow up in my face. The White Mage is primarily focused on healing and recovery. The only real offensive abilities I have is that wind spell for the damage over time effect and the rock throwing ability. So just how am I... Oh, wait the rocks!”
He had gone over his memory of the moment he fought the Water Elemental and how he had managed to enclose it in a type of rock trap by accident. Even if it was only able to hold the Elemental for a few moments before it managed to figure a way to get out, there still was a window of opportunity that was created from it. He then continued this in his head by thinking, “OK so I might have a way of trapping it, but I still need to get it to show itself. Come on! Think, think!”
During this time, he was avoiding yet another series of invisible attacks and only escaping by the skin of his teeth. Even though he wasn't taking any real damage his armor's durability was slowly being chipped away by the secondary effect that followed each of the attacks. All the constant jumping, rolling and blocking was covering his robes in dirt and grime. He had even resorted to casting a few healing spells on himself every now and then to fully recover whenever one managed to hit him in the arm or leg. His top priority was trying to figure out how to get this thing out into the open and protecting its vitals from taking any serious hits.
After a minute or two, Brex had a small idea but wasn't sure if it was going to work. Taking in a deep breath he readied himself to call out the loudest voice he could possibly make to be overheard through the attacks being made and yelled, “HEY! IS THAT ALL YOU GOT? GRANNY SMITH COULD PASS A STRONGER WIND THAN THIS!!” When those words left his mouth, the attacks suddenly came to a stop and there was no longer any sound aside from the wind barrier. He shifted his gaze to look around in all directions. He was beginning to wonder if it worked with how many seconds had passed by. There was no reaction so he didn’t know whether or not his ploy had worked.
With how things are going, he was about to try and figure out something else to do when there was a strong burst of gale like winds directly in front of him that nearly pushed him off his feet. It was then followed by a loud howling roar that was accompanied by distant thunder. Hearing the thunder confused the Roegadyn. He was positive that this was not a Lightning Elemental so he contributed it to just being really pissed off.
The air around him began to pull towards the direction that he felt the gust of wind coming from. Thick wisps of green and black filled the air as they were being condensed into a single spot only a few meters off the ground on the far side of the dome.
( Here is the picture of Wind Elemental. )
What he saw were a bunch of glowing lines representing the patterns and flows of the winds that was circling a single point of light. In a center, what should have been an emerald green glow, was instead a dark purple that emanated a foul light. Something within Brex wanted to make him throw up at the sight and feeling of this Elemental Infront of him. Shaking off the feeling, he took another ready stance and held up his staff in a defensive position while having his hand behind his back witch was already channeling some earth magic to be used at a moment's notice.
At first the creature's movements were slow, but then the sections quickly began to spiral around the light and he was able to see a large column of wind being created around the Elemental before it was launched straight at him. The ground in front of the pillar of wind was being torn apart and when vegetation was within its path, they became uprooted and torn apart until there was absolutely nothing left in the wind. Brex tried to run to the side but the pillar was changing course and closing in rapidly. Casting a stone spell, he launched a large boulder at it… but it broke up instantly and was thrown off to the sides as if it was nothing but a pile of sand.
With only a second away, he braced himself and crossed his arms in front of his body. The pillar of wind crashed into his form and not only did he feel like something had hit him with the force of a charging elephant, but instead of being thrown back afterwards, he was sucked into the pillar and was then attacked from all sides by smaller versions of the wind blades from earlier. Every inch of his body was struck repeatedly by hundreds upon hundreds and this lasted for the next twenty seconds before the pillar dispersed and he was harshly slammed onto the ground from falling from near the top of the dome. All the while he was letting out grunts and cries of pain as they all felt to be piercing his very flesh.
Brex landed onto his right side to only bounce twice before coming to a stop on his stomach. Letting out another grown of agony after getting cut and bashed, Brex tries to get onto his hands and knees but a strong force of wind slams into his left side, sending him careening towards the edge of the dome. When making contact with it the strong force that it was made up of took hold and Brex was thrown to the far side yet again and he crashes into the ground one final time.
At this point the wind was quite literally knocked out of Brex several times over as he struggled to take in breaths. Rory quickly called out in a panic, “Master! I don't think your class is going to be able to handle this one! Quick, you need to switch out now!” Brex was going to take her advice and finally stop being stubborn to switch out his Soul Stone. It was about to switch over to something else that could do more damage at a distance, but found that it was not something he could do.
When he tried to switch, there was an error message appearing on the bottom left-hand side of his vision that said, ((Error unable to switch at this time. Cause unknown.)) This was followed by the iconic triangle shape with an explanation point in the middle. He slammed his left fist into the ground and screamed in his head, “Damn it all! I don't understand, this isn't a quest. There should be no reason for me to be locked!” He hung his head and lets out a long sigh before beginning to speak in a very tired and resigned tone, “Fine… I'll up my level. Hopefully I'm far enough away and I can get this done quickly enough that I can make a run for it before anyone comes to investigate...”
He brought up the options menu and selected the level sync. From there he attempted to bring his level up to 50 but the same error message occurred and everything regarding the level sync had somehow gotten frozen. His eyes went wide in disbelief and his mouth hung low from behind his mask. He was about to say a long list of curse words, unfortunately he was interrupted by getting hit in the face with another strong blast of wind when he was not ready. It sent him flying towards the dome's wall and repeated the last process when he had made contact, sending him over the elemental and on to the opposite side again with yet another heavy series of THUDS.
Brex felt his body going numb while his vision began to blur. This caused him to remember about his health and how he had no idea of how much he had without some kind of status bar over his own head for display. Before his opponent could do anything else, he used a pair of spells to recover. One of which was Regen to help recover over time and the next was ‘Cure 2’.
After the spells were cast, his vision returned to normal and he was able to now feel his extremities again. Sluggishly, he got back to his feet and gripped his staff tighter and got into another battle Stance. The Wind Elemental launched another one of its wind pillars to track down Brex. He tried to use his stone magic but in a different way. Instead of calling up a large stone to throw, he instead made the ground in front of him to build up in between himself and the pillar of wind. Right as it got to the point where it was taller than him, it was blasted apart by the wind pillar and it sent him back onto his back a few meters away after sliding for half of the distance. The force in which he was hit with was far less destructive than previously experienced. This was all thanks to the rock wall he had created to take the blunt of the hit.
Getting back onto his feet, Brex felt a sharp pain in his left leg just above the knee. Quickly glancing down he saw that there was a large rock shard that had stabbed into his flesh and was now bleeding profusely. The dark red liquid was quickly staining the pants and was already down and nearly to his boots. He reached down with his right hand to grip the foreign object and roughly pulls it out of his body and chucks it to the ground. This made a heavy thud as the large piece of rock landed on to the ground near his feet. Placing his hand over the wound he casts a Cure spell which quickly closes up the wound. Afterwards he felt himself staggering for a second before regaining his balance. Brex could feel himself getting lightheaded from the sudden blood loss.
He had not even caused any real damage to this opponent and yet he was already draining himself of mana trying to keep himself upright. Gritting his teeth, he thought to himself, “Just what am I supposed to do! I can't switch to a different class nor can I raise my level! Just what is it that I meant to do?”
Another wave of fatigue washed over him and this caused him to drop to his knees with his arms hanging down. The wind was beginning to howl even more fiercely than before. Hearing this, Brex lifted his head and caught the sight of the Wind Elemental doing something different.
The floating lines that represented its body we're now turning with the top going clockwise and the bottom going counter clockwise. It appeared that the energy within the air itself was being pulled towards it as if indicating a strong attack was just over the horizon.
Going into his item box, he accessed one of the mana potions and started to drink down and when he was finished, the bottle was tossed away. At the same time, he used the skill Lucid Dreaming to expedite the recovery process. After but a few seconds he was positive he had more than half of his magic back while it was still recovering more.
He thought to himself in a defeated tone, “Just why am I trying so hard. Maybe Rory is right. I could probably let this thing kill me and I could re-spawn. I’ll come back and just catch Fluttershy when she falls By myself when the time comes... So, what if it results in her not getting the cutie mark that she's supposed to have, at least she'll be alive...”
He was about to go on but was interrupted by a strange, sharp burning pain riddling his body. Letting out a hiss of pain, he looked towards the area of his vision that would normally display status buffs and found one that indicated a negative effect was currently on him. Quickly looking at what it said, Brex found that it indicated that he had somehow been poisoned by negative energy. With another hiss of pain, Brex used a spell to remove the negative buff.
He wondered just how he had gotten it. The only explanation he could come up with was during one of the attacks that struck him earlier. Turning his gaze back towards the Wind Elemental he could see that it was still gathering power. There were flowing trails of purple and green going towards the very center light of its body. The core was beginning to enlarge and was now pulsing a strong purple light that was now bathing the area in its sickening rays. There were even small sparks of what could have been electricity coursing around its entire form.
Brex was just about to give in to his last thoughts and resign himself to being taken out when the image of a small Fluttershy without her animals came to the forefront of his mind. Brex felt another new type of pain through his chest when that happened. He remembers that in the show, all she's really had was her animals and aside from that she could hardly speak to others without being terrified. So, if she didn't get that mark, then she would most likely be all alone. The very idea that such a sweet person who wouldn’t hesitate to help those in need, to be made to suffer because he gave up was enough to make him nearly throw up in his own mask at how disgusted he felt towards himself right now.
Gritting his teeth once more, he got back to his feet and stared down the Wind Elemental. With eyes filled with an unbridled rage, he was about to try and put everything he had into launching an endless stream of earth attacks, but quickly halted in that thought when he could have sworn that there was some new sound flowing on the wind that he could just barely make out over the crackling of energy that the Elemental was producing.
Whatever it was caused a new lump to form in his throat as he felt that he was on the verge of crying out of sorrow. Deeply confused, he looked around to try and find the source. It wasn't until he heard it a second later that he turned his head in its direction and found it to be emanating from the Elemental itself.
He thought to himself while still trying to fight off this new feeling of sorrow, “Is this some new skill? It reminds me of what that spider did to me a while back… This must be a new defense it has to prevent me from attacking while it’s charging up.”
Letting out a grunt of exertion, he raises his right hand towards the Elemental in another attempt to try and channel his ‘Stone 2’ spell. Just as it was nearly finished with its cast time, he hears the voice again, but much more clearly. What the Wind Elemental had just said caused him to throw his arm to the ground and this disrupted the spell only a fraction of a second before it was fired. From behind his mask Brex was contorting his face in pain, not out of something physical. No, this was something on a deep emotional level. His eyes were on the verge of crying rivers as he continued listening to the wind.
What he heard was not in a tongue that could be expressed by any normal creature. It was more along the lines of it speaking to the soul. The best he could do to describe it, would be comparing it to what someone would feel when hearing a tiny child crying in pain, alone and frightened.
Because of this, Brex could no longer bring himself to even use a single one of his attack spells. Now beginning to show signs of hyperventilating, the Roegadyn found that his right hand was clutching the fabric of his robe right over his chest, while at the same time he was using the staff to help him in keeping his balance by leaning into it.
Being filled with an unspeakable amount of desire to help the one who is in pain before him was nearly enough to break his spirit. Now rapidly breathing through his clutched teeth, Brex regained his stance while still holding onto his chest. He thought to himself, “Needs... my help. In so much pain...”
The Wind Elemental was apparently near the end of its charging process and the energy was being further condensed, but a majority of it was towards the front and aimed directly at Brex by the looks of it. It began to form a funnel and that the energy was now taking on the form of strange runes. It began to glow from within in the same fashion as a cannon would be charging up in an anime.
Time literally started to grind to halt for Brex. A strange sensation was being felt on his forehead during this and a distant memory came to mind. Going back to when he was on the other side, Brex was currently walking next to Daddy as they were strolling across the endless sea of gold. He had just finished one of his many lessons with Little Light and the pair was discussing what he had learned that day.
He had just finished giving a short explanation on what he had gone through that day with the older man that seemed to draw another one of those smiles from the guy. Daddy gave out another one of his amused laughs before speaking, “Ho hooo~, Well that's my girl for you. She's been that serious from the very day she came into existence. Don't worry, you'll get it soon enough. But you know, it wouldn't hurt to have some other source of material you know, just look at me. I can do things just fine with my energy. I could do the same kind of magic as my girl Little Light. But unlike her, I don’t follow the same method.
This only got a confused tilt of the head from Brex before he replied with, “I'm not quite sure what you're going on about when you say that. According to her, I need to go by the preset path for the magic to even work. Just what could you be doing that’s not the same?”
This only got another one of those amused chuckles from him before he answered with, “Literally everything my boy! It's not all about the rules and getting things precise. Now yes, this would be very important, but me on the other hand. I do things a little differently. That was when he gave him a grin and lowered his sunglasses to give him a sly wink. He then placed them back on and said in a confident tone while taking a stance with his fists on his hips, “Listen to me, this is how I do things! To me, doing magic is all about the following.”
Daddy cleared his throat for just a moment before continuing, “40 percent calculations, 20 percent hard work, 40 percent imagination, 60 percent Believe and 40 percent luck. That's how I do, EVERYTHING! Hoohooo hooo!”
when hearing this, Brex scrunches up his face in complete confusion before scratching the back of his head with his right hand and reluctantly replies with, “I don't need to be picky but, I'm pretty sure that's 200 percent.” Daddy only grinned and much enthusiasm, replied with, “Yup I know that, and you know that.” Daddy then paused and turned his head to look around a bit and started the whisper, “But the magic doesn't know that!” All that came out of the Roegadyn's mouth was a very confused, “Eh!!”
After going through that memory, Brex had blinked and brought himself back to the present. Inside he was screaming to himself, “I have to do something. If only I can get close enough. Maybe I could use one of my healing spells on it. Using an offensive one isnt doing the trick.” That was when he felt another one of those strange feelings again and it was resonated within his core. To the Roegadyn it translated over to the Wind Elemental saying something along the lines of, “Make it stop. Please make it stop, I don't want to hurt anymore! I don't want to hurt others anymore please...”
Hearing this only brought tears and they were now dripping from the bottom of his mask. But these were not tears of sorrow, no these were those of a man that had just been pushed over the edge. His teeth were grinding to the point that they could have started to crack at any time and his eyes burned with an unrestrained fury.
He began screaming in his head once more out of pure frustration and righteous fury while still looking straight at the Elemental that was mere seconds from launching its final attack. Inside he just kept chanting, “COME ON! COME ON! COME ON! I NEED TO DO SOMETHING, COME ON, THINK, THINK. I’M NOT GOING TO GIVE UP. I HAVE TO-“
Brex’s mind went blank when he had heard a distant, echoing chuckle. No, to him this was a haunting laugh filled with malice and a sense of someone that delighted in the joy and misery of others. The way it resonated made it difficult to tell whether it was from a male or female. When his vision came back to normal, all he knew was that he was now pissed off more than ever.
Throwing his arms out to the sides, he lifts his head at a slight angle towards the sky right above that was being obstructed by the dome. He then finally screamed out loud to the world to hear. “HWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
After screaming out loud, the screen that always displayed whatever he saw, along with his Mini map and everything else glitched for a second and suddenly started to display two large highlighted icons side-by-side on opposite ends of his vision. They were those of his Cure spell and his Esuna spell. Quickly they started towards to center and with every passing inch that the icons approached, there was a connecting line of overlapping lightning bolts. The closer they got the more connecting threads appeared along with becoming more violent as if trying to prevent them from making contact.
Taking in a quick breath, Brex screams to the heaven's while concentrating on the pair of images. At the same time, he was chanting this in his head repeatedly as loud as he could, “Come on! I don't care what this does, just make it happen, give me anything.”
As if hearing his thoughts, the two images rapidly collided and overlapped one another. The images themselves could no longer be made out until they were burning away at one another to reveal something underneath that was completely different.
This new image was partially glitched as were the texts surrounding it. But a few of the words made it through while others either had question marks or were just completely unreadable. But he was able to make out a figure clad in white, red and blue that was holding up a single hand and it was giving off a dazzling light. Even though Brex had no idea just what this move was called or if it even had one, he somehow knew just how to utilize it right then and there.
Looking back down towards the Elemental that had just released the spell that had been charging. Brex had noticed that the time which was slowed down dramatically was began to speed back up again. Taking a heavy breath, the Roegadyn could feel something burning from deep within that was now traveling through his arm and right up towards his hand. The dark glove which was covering it was blown off and had torn up the very end of his sleeve several inches up his arm. What was revealed was his appendage and it was now glowing with a faint green light that had a brilliant blue outline. The light radiating from it was nearly strong enough to blind any who was looking directly at it. Small particles of white light were flowing into the air in all directions beyond that.
The attack from the Wind Elemental had traveled across the fighting area they were in and had nearly made contact with Brex when he threw that very arm forward to intercept the attack. When they collided, the black, purple and green's swirls of electric energy that was fired did not push back the Roegadyn. In fact, it was being parted and as it flowed over his body. This was followed by it turning into the very same color that his hand was discharging.
The Roegadyn then charged the Elemental while still outstretching his right hand and traveled along the constantly fired beam. All the while his heavy footsteps made the ground quake under his feet. Barely even feeling what his opponent was using, he began roaring into the air, “HEYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” When the Roegadyn was within a few meters from his target he screamed out, “IT’S MY TURN!”
After saying those words, his hand made contact with the barrel of energy created that the beam was launched from. It only slowed him down for a fraction of a second before it too began to shatter as his hand passed through. His palm traveled even further until it made contact with the large orb at center of his opponent and he grasped it tightly with the hand of light. At that moment Inside his head, he couldn't help the following words to be said, “TAKE THIS, TAKE MY LOVE, MY ANGER AND ALL OF MY SORROW! SHINING FINGER!!”
The core attempted to fight back by expanding to a size that made it nearly impossible for the Roegadyn to hold on to it completely. Arcs of dark purple lightning coursed around its outer surface and made its way towards his fingers. When the energy made contact with the hand, it began to change colors and imitated that which he was creating, only to bounce back the way it came and disrupting the defenses completely.
Clenching his fingers more tightly onto the orb. The combination of strength and the power behind it caused the orb to slowly shrink back to its original size. The rays of light that were being emanated grew in intensity. Before long the orb had shrunk even further to the point that it was enough for his fingers to wrap-around completely, but it did not stop there. It only grew even smaller and smaller until it was completely hidden within his hand.
There was then an explosion of pure white that expanded from that very spot that engulfed all within his vision. In that brief instant the strong emotions that had flooded his very being had vanished, all but a sense of relief and joy. From within his core, he felt the words ‘Thank you’ Before the light grew even more blinding and he felt himself getting pushed away at high speeds. Brex's vision was severely blurred and he felt his consciousness beginning to leave his body. Before passing out he saw the following.
The dome that was encompassing him during the fight had been disrupted so violently, that it was blasted apart and there was a ring of pure energy radiating over the land and into the sky until dispersing after a long distance. Any could tell that he was traveling at a stounding speed as he rocketed through the air away as he saw that Cloudsdale was slowly shrinking in the distance. His form had been covered in white light and he was leaving a very long trail behind in his wake. But before his mind completely left him, he could have sworn that he had passed something in white, but he couldn't make out what it was with it being nothing but a blur.
( Stop the Music here. )
*Point of View: Rainbow Dash* *Location: Cloudsdale* *Time: Earlier that very day*
Rainbow Dash was a young filly That had yet to learn how to fully fly just yet. Sure, she had the energy along with the drive, but she just didn't have the focus. Her flying attempts often ended up with her crashing into one thing or another. This of course was how she got her old nickname in the show known as Rainbow Crash.
This day she was attempting to learn how to fly all on her own before the summer camp for young flyers started. For the past couple of months, she had been teased by the others of her age about her tendency to lose control and she wanted to be ready before class started in order to show those bullies a lesson that they wouldn’t forget any time soon.
She had woken up early that day and had nearly finished her self-imposed training and was now taking a break on a cloud near the outskirts of the city that was only a short distance from where the camp was to be held later in only another seven weeks. Just like in so many other displaced stories, she was also sporting a blue T-shirt with the logo of the wonder bolts on the front and a pair of black shorts.
Laying on the cloud on her back she was gazing up at the clear sky above and wondered to herself. “Oh, come on! I know how to fly but I can't seem to do it too well. Just what am I missing?! Hey, I'm awesome so I'll figure it out. Just need to recharge after a power nap and I’ll show them all how great I am!” She then rolls over onto her stomach, laying her head over her crossed arms and kicks her legs into the air behind her while gazing down at the ground below.
From that height it was very hard for the filly to see everything there was but she had never actually gone down to the ground before. In fact, most Pegasus who were born in that town never really left until they were able to fly on their own. She had let out a long sigh of frustration as she placed her chin onto the cloud itself and had a very dull and bored expression. In a low, almost imperceivable volume she muttered to herself, “It would be great if I could go really fast, Like I don't know, Super-fast like faster than sound fast. *Sigh* Like that's even possible. Mom and Dad told me all about that legend about that thing called the Sonic Rainboom. But that's just an old mare's tale.”
She had led out another sigh and was in the middle of turning over as to get ready to head back home. Rainbow Dash froze in place while half way onto her hoofs when she heard a distant boom. The sound had originated from deep below the city. She quickly rushed over to get a peek off of the edge to see what could have caused such a thing. A wave of light quickly passed over and pushed her onto her tail, but thankfully it didn't cause any harm. With eyes going wide she couldn't believe what she was just seeing in the sky.
Off in the distance, she saw a trail of white light shooting across the sky at a speed that she thought was unattainable. Rainbow could barely make out a faint outline of some pony within the light in the front. She clasped her hands over her mouth to hold back what she knew was going to be a girly shriek and quickly mumbled to herself, “Oh my gosh! oh my gosh! my gosh! oh my gosh! oh my gosh! That pony must be going at almost the speed of sound! T-Then, then that could only mean that... The Sonic Rainboom Is Real!” When those words left her lips, the one she was watching was beginning to form a cone of wind. Shortly after, the wind barrier was broken and the one in the sky had gone even faster and was lost going over the mountains and out of sight.
After seeing that display of speed, Rainbow Dash’s life was forever changed and she knew what she wanted to do. If there was one out there that could do the impossible like that, then she had a new goal. And that new goal was to be the fastest pony in Equestria.
Time passed after that and the following events went just as they did in the show. Rainbow Dash was eventually picked on. Then Fluttershy was made fun of by some bullies, but in this version of Equestria the bullies were a pair of females. Then that led to the race to defend Fluttershy’s honor.
Rainbow Dash ended up knocking Fluttershy off the cloud just as planned and won the race, thereby creating the Sonic Rainboom and cause the chain reaction among all the Element Bearers. However, there was one tiny thing that was different when it came to Fluttershy. She was in fact saved by a flock of butterflies and had made friends with the animals just as she was meant to do in the show. But she had met something new that also became one of her friends. That being a very small creature that seemed to be a tiny light made of pure white and green that always stayed around Fluttershy, but kept out of sight of everything else.
Now and then if someone was very cautious and was on high alert and they knew what to look for, then they would see a very tiny swirl of white and green that constantly made a small amount of wind in places where there shouldn't have been any. From the very day that she got her cutie mark she had an unknown guardian watching her back and making sure that she came to no harm. All the while, it would make its way over to a window at least once a day in the very same direction that the unknown flyer had disappeared to all those weeks back when a strange rumor started about an unknown flyer that broke the flying speed record.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 28: Crossing the Line.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Unknown* *Time: Unknown*
Opening his eyes, Brex couldn’t help but feel as if he was walking on clouds with how light his body felt. He opened his eyes to find an empty, white void filled with a thick veil of fog. He took a few steps and after a moment, the fog began to part as it spread away from where he stood. Soon, objects began to pop up in his vision and he got to see a multitude of buildings that did not seem quite like those he had seen in Equestria.
Some appear to be simple one-story houses, while right next to them was a contrast of tall skyscrapers. He turned on the spot and noticed how disorganized the world was seeming to be all around. Apparently, he was standing at an intersection that was in a circular shape and there were six roads going off in different directions like a spider web.
All of the buildings were quite different from one another as if someone had cut and pasted pictures from different locations. He had even seen a random carwash or department store mixed in among them. But what caught his attention soon after was the fact that there was no one around, there wasn’t even any sound at all to be heard. Not even the wind was blowing and he began to hear his own heart beat louder and louder as time went on.
He felt his feet being compelled to walk in a certain direction. After passing what seemed like fifty or sixty buildings, did he finally come across one that caused him to stop and place on the sidewalk. For some odd reason, he couldn’t bring himself to notice exactly how this place looked like. He attempted to memorize the style but every attempt would cause his mind to waver and only focus on the front door.
He went up to it, but just as he was about to place his hand onto the circular knob did it open slowly to reveal a shadowed figure standing just inside. Brex was about to say something when the door suddenly slammed shut and the world began to grow dark as clouds formed overhead and a light rain started to come down. A distant Thunder echoed through the sky continuously as if imitating his own heartbeats. The rain started off light but then quickly became a downpour.
The weather had gotten to the point that it was coming down so hard that it obscured his vision and he could not even see across the street anymore. The world around him was now nearly pitch black and he could tell from the distance that all the streetlamps had started to turn on. With each passing second, those lamps would grow dim as the rain got heavier until there was only one light which came from the house that he stood before.
He turned back towards it and found himself about to knock on the door. But before he had even managed to touch it, something from the shadows from behind had grabbed onto his shoulder and roughly pulled him back. His vision became completely black and he could feel his body being harshly turned face down and pressed onto the ground as his arms were pulled behind his back as he felt something locking around his wrists.
Not too far away he heard a set of laughing. This started off with a woman’s voice but then was soon joined by a man. It didn’t take long for the voices numbers to grow until it sounded as if there was a group doing the same. They were the type of laughter one would make after watching someone suffer.
He then felt his body being pulled to his feet by his shoulders and the last thing he could remember happening was something striking him on the right side of his face which left a sharp burning sensation running across his cheek. After which, everything went blank and he could feel his consciousness swiftly fading. The pain that he had just felt disappeared along with any memories of what he had just experienced until he could no longer remain conscious.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex begins to stir as he lets out a very loud grunt of pain as he could feel almost every nerve in his body screaming for help. His eyes shot open and found himself to be in a dimly lit cave with a weak light source streaming in from the opening that was straight ahead just a short distance away. It was somewhat difficult to judge just how far with his vision being all blurry. But he could swear he made out some type of a jagged line going across his vision that was similar to what someone would see when looking through a cracked window.
He then reaches up towards his face and begins to feel along his mask. After a moment he realized that his right hand was completely exposed and it appeared to be slightly burnt with signs of red patches here and there on the palm and near the finger tips. Putting that off, he went to continue trying to figure out what the source of this weird obstruction in his vision was until his fingertips found what felt like a crack along his mask.
This whole time he had followed the gaming mechanics where he could see perfectly fine when wearing anything that would be covering his face. Because of this, he would easily forget at times that he was wearing one in the first place. But with his mask heavily damaged in the way it was, he couldn’t help but compare it to what it would be like if his computer screen had been cracked and he was forced to play with it.
Ignoring the pain through his body, Brex attempted to recall what he had been doing before waking up. There were vague flashes of him being in multiple fights and coming across a strong opponent. At first, he had a hard time making it out, but they soon cleared up after a few minutes. When he had fully recollected everything up to the moment that he had completed that last attack, he grunted to himself and set out loud, “Ugh! Just great... Little Moon warned me about this. Trying to fuse skills together randomly really wasn’t a good idea.”
Letting out another series of groans, Brex rubs the side of his head that apparently took a heavy hit due to the bruise that was being felt just off to the side, near his right eye. He blinked a few times and from behind his mask he had a look of concern. He quickly mumbled to himself, “Wait, hold up now, how can I even have a bruise. I have an out of combat auto healing function that should have kicked in. Just how banged up did I get to have that still around?”
Suddenly, Brex was almost scared out of his skin when he heard Rory screaming at the top of her lungs like some fan girl at a concert, “OH, THANK GOD YOU’RE AWAKE! I was so scared you weren't gonna wake up! I couldn't even find you in your dreamscape! I thought you were really gone this time!” When Rory had gotten near the end of that, she was beginning to cry but when the last word left her lips, the water works had finally turned on in full force as she began bawling out nearly nonstop.
Brex had wanted to go into his dream to be able to console her in person but as it turns out, it's very difficult to go to sleep when you're in a lot of pain. So instead, he sat there and waited for the girl to finally calm down which took a good half hour to do. During that time, he couldn’t help but be astonished at how much she was upset about him to this degree.
She managed to calm down to the point that there were only small sniffles coming from within his head when he began to ask the following questions that had been plaguing his mind from the moment he woke up.
Clearing his throat, Brex spoke in a gentle tone, “Could you tell me how long I've been out for, along with where I am?” There were a few sniffles before Rory answered with, “I'm not really sure about where we are right now, all I know is that we flew quite a distance. You were opening and closing your eyes now and then. But the last thing I remember seeing out of your vision was a large mountain directly in our path.”
Putting together what she had just said, the Roegadyn had reached up to his head and winced again as he imagined himself going through a mountain at high speeds. Afterwards he looked ahead towards the opening and was finally able to make out how it looked. With eyes going wide, he put it together that he had crashed through the wall and ended up where he was now and that the whole in the wall was just barely big enough for him to fit through.
Somehow, he had managed to end up stuck in a large open area that was naturally a part of the cave system for the mountain. Looking around his general area, he spotted the rocks and was about to check something out when he noticed that some of them were of a different color than most. He went to go pick one up and brought it close to his face and the scent of copper began to fill his nostrils.
The smell caused him to involuntarily drop the rock, but his eyes still laid on his hand as he saw that there were flakes of red stuck to his fingertips. Going pale, he glanced at the rocks all around him and found that quite a few were dark red or brown, while the rest along the walls and ceiling happened to be grey and white.
While gaping at the site of so many of the rocks near where he was stained in what seemed to be his blood. He asked Rory and a very worried low tone, “Just what condition was I in when I landed?” There was nothing from Rory after a few seconds, so he asked again in an even more worried tone, “Rory… Tell me just what condition was I in when I ended up in this cave?” There was even more silence and this only caused Brex to stutter as he asked one last time, “R-Rory this is an order, tell me just what was my condition. I don't care what it is, just tell me. You've never kept any secrets from me before so don't you start doing it now.”
There was a few more seconds of nothing but this time he had gotten a response as Rory made an audible gulp before saying, “It's just... You weren’t in the best of shape...” This however, wasn't quite enough for him and as he was about to press even further, Rory continued, “You were doing that thing where you were opening your eyes once in a while. I got a glimpse… and it… wasn't all that… good.” Her words were becoming more broken and further apart that indicated that she was having trouble with trying to relay what he wanted to hear.
Seeing as this was really messing with the girl, Brex took a deep breath and consoled her by saying, “It's OK, take your time. Tell me everything and don't be scared to go into detail.” Even though he had said those words, he was beginning to feel a pit in his stomach that told him that he should not have said that.
Before he could take back his words, Rory had taken in a deep breath and spoke all at once as if trying to rip off a Band-Aid and said, “You crashed through amount inside and along the way your body got ripped up pretty badly. Then you crashed into this wall over here. Whenever your eyes opened, I got to see that you had broken several of your bones, if not all of them. You were pretty torn up and bleeding all over the place. I was also able to see the blood everywhere and I was positive I saw bones coming out of different parts of your body!”
Brex was beginning to imagine just what she was describing, he wanted to stop the image is flooding his mind but couldn't. It didn't help when she continued further by saying, “I'm not sure how long we've been here, but I'm pretty sure I saw the way the light was moving across the floor through the opening, that at least eight days have gone and went.
She paused and seemed to be taking another breath to go on and said, “Whenever you opened your eyes, I ended up seeing how your body was pulling itself back together again, but it was going very slowly. The bones were being pulled back underneath the skin and wounds were slowly mending themselves. What was really disturbing, was how the blood was flowing back into your body as it flowed across the ground.”
Seeing this all happening in his head, Brex nearly vomited at the idea of what could have possibly been traveling into his body along with his blood after being splattered all over the ground. His skin crawled and his limbs twitched at the very idea of bones retracting into his flesh and re-aligning themselves.
He could sense that Rory was about to go on, but quickly held up his hand and shouted, “No! no, that's enough! No more please! For the love of the twelve, don't go any further with the details! Please! I regret everything!” Now we knew just why Rory was so hesitant before when it came to filling him in on the details and how she reacted when he finally began to wake up. Brex knew that he would be freaking out as well if he saw somebody slowly being put back together before his eyes.
Needing a good half hour to digest everything that had happened along with trying to keep whatever was in his stomach from coming back out. The Roegadyn concentrated and brought up his status window for his character.
From what he could tell, all of the equipment in each one of his slots had been reduced to under ten percent of their total durability. This rendered them all pretty much useless at this point. That was when he took a better look at himself and found that even though he still technically had clothes on, they were all ripped to shreds and a large amount of his body could be seen through the many gaps. The yellow robes that he normally wore were nearly completely soaked with red, most likely from how his blood splattered on the insides during the collision.
He couldn't help but to make a pathetic joke as he said, “Now why couldn't I be like the gamer. He didn't get rough up all that much, all that happened was that his H.P. got lowered. But no, I actually have to endure the injuries. This only earn him a few harsh words from Rory as she conveyed how upset she really was about how he had gotten hurt so badly. This of course lasted a the good several minutes until she was finally satisfied and quickly went back to her normal attitude.
Still hurting quite a bit. He just sat there against the wall of the large cave and began by going Through his item collection for something new to wear while walking around. He then spoke up, “I'm pretty sure what I did was going to warrant an investigation with how much that last elemental was doing, along with how flashy that last move of mine was. It would probably be a good idea to change up my look a little bit.”
But first, Brex wanted to take care of his injuries that were left over and he had no desire to drain any mana at this time, so he brought out one of his healing potions and greedily gulped it down before tossing the glass vial aside. With the aches and pains, along with the severe bruise that still remained on the back of his head vanishing, he let out a sigh of relief and return to his task.
He had just brought up his menu screen for his character and to come up with what job to be right now, along with choosing an appropriate outfit scheme to glamor his gear into. Just as he was about to click on the monk as a default, there was a distant scream that could be heard coming from one of the cave tunnels.
He had originally thought that he was alone and because of this the, noise had caused him to inadvertently select his Dark Knight class. When this was done, his body was instantly equipped with the classic gear meant for his level 70 Dark Knight. Feeling the small amount of weight on his back from the large weapon placed on it, he looked over his shoulder and saw the long, two-handed handle and grunted in annoyance.
( Here is the Dark Knight armor set he is wearing now. )
Growling a little bit, he said to himself, “Damn it! This is not what I wanted.” He was about to try and switch again but the cry from earlier came back, however, it was at a much weaker volume than the one before. This only got him to disregard his unintentional job switch and he started running down the cave that the sound echoed from. All the while his boots were making heavy clank sounds with each quickening step.
The cave was making multiple turns as he followed in the dark, but thanks to his senses he was capable of avoiding any accidental mishaps with any rocks on the ground or the low parts of the ceiling. However, there were a few moments where he had come a little too close to either the wall or the ceiling and his armor plates and even his large weapon ended up scraping along the rocks. Each time, this would cause a few sparks to appear within the darkness and lighting up the narrow cave a few times.
After a few minutes of running at high speed, well as fast as a person and heavy plated armor can run anyway. Brex had noticed that the screams had stopped awhile back and there was no longer a way of tracking them back to their source. He had just cursed his luck when he gave himself a facepalm with his gloved hand, which gave out a loud metallic clank that echoed through the cave network.
After recovering from accidentally rattling his brains, he rolled his eyes and looked up to his mini map for answers. While at the same time, he would mumble to himself almost incoherently under his breath about how stupid he was for not using it from the start.
It had displayed a number of red dots littering the area. From judging from the distance that they appeared on the mini map, they could have been within sight, but with how the cave was going up and down, he surmised that they must have been on different levels nearby. Taking a closer look at one, he saw that it displayed an arrow pointing down.
He was going to bring up his world map to find out where he was. But instead of showing the whole of Equestria, it instead displayed a not fully made map of cave network of tunnels and some large open areas that seemed to be currently grayed out.
His eyes began to twitch in an erratic manner from behind his helmet as he internally screamed to himself, “Oh come on! Can't I get a break. Isn't there some kind of rule that I should get like a couple days off before the next adventure? Where's a human resource number for me to call to complain about the unjust work hours? Don't I get some kind of medical leave?!” After letting off a little pressure, Brex focused and charted out the most direct route to intercepting the nearest red dot.
With just a little bit more of walking through the cave system, did he finally find an opening to the nearest large area that was displayed on his map. He had carefully exited the small cave and entered the large room that had a light source on the far side of the wall. It was just a single lit torch, but with how the walls were shaped, he had come out where the entrance was well hidden in the shadow.
It would appear that this one was carved out using tools while where he had been previously traveling was more natural. The walls went up a good fifteen meters and the room itself was an oval shape that was roughly thirty-five meters across.
There was a large pile of crates pushed up against the far wall and Brex counted a good fifty of them from where he stood. They all ranged from those that would be small enough to put a bowling ball inside of to those that were close to a few square feet. A number of them laid with half open lids, while a great number were stacked up nearly twice as high as himself.
He began to think to himself as he was glancing around the room, “Well I didn't exactly expect to see a storage room inside of a mountain. I guess someone lives here. I wonder what's in these things. Might give me a clue as to what I'm dealing with.”
Seeing as he was alone, he went over to one of the half open lids and lifted it with his left-hand. But with how dim the lighting was, he was having a hard time in seeing the contents clearly. He was about to walk over and grab the torch off the wall but considered that it might alert others to something going on if the positioning of the light changed. So instead, he went to his item box and retrieved a single cluster of Earth crystal.
Holding the glowing earth cluster in his hand, Brex used it as an improvised flash light and held it over the crates open lid. At first it looked to be a container full of long cylindrical objects but after a moment, his eyes focused a little better and they went wide with horror as he took an involuntary step back and nearly dropping the cluster from his hands.
From behind his helmet, the Roegadyn was turning a shade of green while trying to keep himself from getting sick from what he had just seen. He then muttered under his breath quickly, “No… no, I'm just seeing things. That's all, it's just a trick of the light. I didn't see what I think I saw.” Rory spoke in a rather resigned tone and said, “I'm sorry Master, but I saw the exact same thing you did and I'm pretty sure it was exactly what you think it is.
His armor rattled as he tried to contain the sudden flood of emotions he was feeling right then. Taking a shaky step forward, he approached the crate again and wearily held the cluster above the opening to get another Look.
From underneath his helmet, his teeth began to grind together and his eyes became narrow and filled with hate. The shaking from before was out of pure shock, but was now being made for a whole other purpose.
Quickly, he went to another crate and lifted the lid only to find the same thing inside. Brex then proceeded to open another and another and another. After going through nearly twenty of the fifty crates, did he finally stop. Looked towards the doorway leading to the rest of the structure, a low growl escaped his lips as he bawled his free hand into a fist. The earth cluster within his right hand disappeared back into his inventory box and he began to walk towards the double doors leading out of the room.
But along the way, he reached over without looking and grabbed one of the items from within the first crate that he had opened and placed it straight into his inventory box. He then said to Rory in an emotionless tone, “I'll be holding on to this for a while.”
The door had slowly opened and produced a weak screeching sound as the hinges grinded along one another. Brex stood there silently looking straight ahead. From his helmet came two glowing, reddish orbs where is eyes could have been seen through the slits of the face cover. The redness quickly subsided and he began making his way through the corridors with slowly deliberate steps that left a low echo.
Deeper down the corridor, was a lone figure walking along while holding a torch in one hand. They were wearing what appeared to be asset of long red robes with a gold mask covering the top part of their face. Their body seemed rather slim while wearing said robes, it was easy to tell that this was a female as she was swaying her hips with each step she took.
She had just turned around the corner to her left and bumped into something hard that made a metallic clank. This caused her to fall onto her butt with a small thud. Quickly the girl got up and rubbed the forehead of her mask.
Before the one in robes could speak, she was interrupted by a large gloved, metal hand grabbing her skull and slamming the back of her head into the wall, thereby knocking her out cold. The woman went limp as her entire body was being held up by only her head alone. When her head was released, did she fall to the ground.
She was then dragged back to the very same storage room that he had started from. Brex reached into one of the many crates and produced a set of iron shackles and proceeded to place them onto the woman by binding her hands behind her back and using another set of slightly longer ones on her legs.
When he was finished with restraining the woman, he left and went down the corridors again, only to disappear into the darkness.
Over time, he repeated the process whenever he had come across another person that was traveling down the hallways. It was either a single individual that was alone or a pair. But he managed to make swift work of silencing them all and returning to deposit them only to leave after they have been fully Immobilized. It didn't take long to notice the pattern in which every single one of them did not have a horn or wings which meant that they were all of the Earth tribe.
During his little collection Run, Brex was slowly mapping out where he was and made it a point to take out the ones who were near the opening. The ones further in were going to be something he was going to handle later.
With how it was all laid out with the construction, there was a number of paths one could take to the exit. But after a certain point there was only really one way to go as all the rooms were connected in a line when one went further inside.
The entire time he was doing this, he did not utter a single word and was almost moving robotically. He would always sneak up on them all with a combination of his Shadow Movement and quick movements where he would grab them by the heads and either bash them up against one another or up against some surface like a wall. Not once did any of them give out anything more than a small syllable before being silenced.
By the time there was only one route left, he had cleared out the others and had collected at least ten of the so-called red dots. Right now, he was currently standing in that storage room and looked over the chained women with a cold, unfeeling gazed that could be felt from beyond his Helmet.
Brex had brought them all close together and took some of the spare chain links that hung from their restraints and brought them to one another. Then with his strength, he bent the chains so that they would connect to the ones on their ankles and form a chain gang among all of them.
Just as he was finishing with the last one, he saw that there was a few that were beginning to stir awake. Right as they were to sit up while holding their heads, Brex went into the Shadows and disappeared from sight. This was easy thanks to how little light that single torch in the room was giving off.
It didn't take long for the first few to realize what was going on when they attempted to stand, only to fall and drag the next one on the line with them thereby causing a commotion to happen among the group.
There was a series of shrieks and gasps as they all began to struggle in their bonds. In the biggening, it was slow but it quickly evolved into them thrashing in place as they attempted to use brute force on breaking the bonds. A few of them had even tried to work together at pulling at one another to see if they could at least separate from each other. In the end it was fruitless, the chains and shackles that were binding them all proved to be too well made and none of them had the strength to pull themselves free.
One of the females called out in a panic and said, “What's happening, how did we all get here? Where are the keys? Some pony, find them now!” She then began to struggle a little more but after some communication among the group it was found out that none of them had any keys to use on their shackles. The one from before spoke again in more of a panic and said, “We have to tell Grandmother about this, some pony needs to warn her that we have an intruder in the temple!”
At the same time, Brex who was in the shadow realm, held up his right hand to look at a set of keys that he had pilfered from the crates and from a few of the prisoners as insurance as to his prisoners would not be getting free so easily. He began to think to himself, “Ha! They call this a temple. Just what kind of a place keeps these sorts of tools?”
Some of the ladies were beginning to sound more worried as the grunts of exertion from pulling at the chains were slowly going from that of determination to that of being more scared by the moment. This caused Brex to narrow his gaze towards the group. A quiet snarl escaped his lips as he began to make his way behind and slowly exited the shadows. he just stood there while looking down on them with contempt.
One was trying to get into a more comfortable position, but slipped and fell back. But instead of landing on the ground she had bumped into his right leg and this created a metallic clank as the metal shifted slightly from the small impact.
This however, was enough to gain the quick attention from the rest as they all turned to Look in the direction of the new sound. When they saw him, they all let out a gasp in unison as they began to Inch away from Brex. first their eyes were transfixed on his boots and slowly traveled up his form to notice how his armor was designed to be dark and foreboding with How his gear was covered in jagged edges and spikes.
The one that had bumped into him was hanging her head back as she looked straight up in utter shock. It was easy to hear her quick and labored breathing as she trembled in place. This was made even more obvious with how the chains on her arms and legs were apparently rattling almost nonstop.
Brex simply stood there while towering over all of them without saying a single word, much less showing any signs that he was even breathing with how still he kept his form.
One of the braver ones called out in a posh tone, “You there! What are you doing? let us go this instant! Do you have any idea just who it is that you...” She quickly trailed off as he turned his head very slowly towards her as she spoke. With how quiet it was within the room; one could hear the flickering flame as it burned away on the torch and how the slow grinding of the metal of his helmet being turned was making.
The mare who is trying to Insert her dominance, quickly shrunk as she attempted to back away, but was unable to thanks to being connected to two others.
Brex than slowly approached the mare. Each step created a series of metallic clanks that seemed to echo within the room, making them much louder than they really were. While he was doing this, that very same mare was kicking her legs onto the stone floor in a frantic attempt to gain more distance from Brex, but it turned out to be futile with how the others around her were frozen in fear, so her chains couldn't go far.
When he stopped less than a foot away, he lifted his right hand and gestured with a finger towards the pile of boxes to the side of the room That just happened to be directly behind her only a few feet away.
She slowly turned her head and after seeing what he was pointing towards. She quickly turned back to him and began shaking her head frantically as she spoke in a scared tone, “I-I don't know what's inside of those...”
Within his head, Brex asked Rory, “I get the feeling that she's lying. What's your take on the situation, should I press a little harder?” This got an immediate reply from the girl as she spoke in an oddly sultry voice, “Oh, I think we should. Little miss thing right there is obviously lying. Otherwise, why would she spout that nonsense about not knowing what's in the crates with such enthusiasm?”
As soon as she said those words, he went over and took hold of two of the crates and tore off their lids. Grabbing one in each of his hands, Brex then went back to where he was earlier Infront of the girl. She began to look rather fearful as she attempted to look away as he presented the crates.
Brex lifted both containers overhead and began to pour the contents out onto the mare. She released a small gasp, which instantly evolved into a scream as she felt something touching her. Instantly, the mare went silent when one of the objects landed onto her lap. When she looked down there was an ear-piercing screech of horror as she began to thrash about in an attempt to get it off.
The others that were chained to her also began to let their own fears be known as they all began to give off their own shrieks. Some of which were crying and others appear to have nearly fainted at the site.
The object in question which caused this whole thing to happened, was a severed wing from some flying creature. By the looks of it, it was rather old. But there were still a few feathers clinging to the dried up skeletal remains. That wasn't the only thing that was inside the crates. Among it were quite a number of long objects that were approximately three to four inches long. Each one ending in a spiral tip. It was all quite obvious when one was to put these pair of items together. That the only conclusion was that, what was inside the crates were the removed wings of many Pegasi and the horns of Unicorns.
Right now, the girl in front of him was surrounded by these extremely important parts that belonged to the two races. Some of the ones who did not pass out or rendered speechless from what just happened began to plead with him desperately they had no knowledge of where those came from and that he should release them.
They would say things like, they would do anything he wanted If he would just let them go. Yet he said not a single word and just stood there as a statue as they continued to plead with him and make up some stupid excuses as to why these things would even have come to be here.
After finally hearing enough, he bends down and grabs the girl that he was interrogating and hoists her into the air while holding onto the robes just above her chest.
Seeing one of their own being lifted was not all that surprising to them. What did get them all to go silent, was that not only was she being lifted, but the girl was literally off the ground and because of the chains, the being in armor was also partially lifting two others.
The mare was brought up closer to his face plate and she could have sworn that she heard a low growl come from beyond it. She gave another desperate attempt to convince her tormentor by saying, “Please let me go. I promise it won't happen again please. We were only doing what we were told.
But suddenly, she halted in her speech and began to make a sniffing sound. Almost as if the laws of reality were flipped upside down, so did her attitude from just seconds ago. Now sounding as if assured of some unseen victory.
The girl spoke in a condescending tone that just oozed with self-entitlement, “Hold on, that smell? Ha-ha Ha-ha! You're a stallion. Do you have any idea where you are right now? Why don't you be a good little pathetic colt and put me down and just surrender before things get worse. If you prostrate yourself in front of us, we may just make your last days enjoyable, between your obedience training.”
Brex was currently seething with rage at this point, but was doing his best at containing it. She said that she didn't know anything about what was in the crates, then she's saying that she was only doing what was being ordered of her. Now that she realizes that he's a male, she thinks that she can just order him around.
He then asked Rory, “I think she needs a little more convincing to jog that faulty memory of hers, wouldn't you agree?” This got a small chuckle from the girl inside his head as she replied with a mischievous, yet dangerous tone, “Oh yes. Any that talks to my Master in such a way, deserves some obedience training of their own.
Seeing as he was not going to get a clear and concise answer from this one, he went ahead and began to tap into the power of the echo to see firsthand at what this one had been a part of.
While still holding her firmly in his grasp near to hist face, Brex could feel the familiar sensation as the power began to take hold and his vision was now transitioning to a new place.
Unlike the previous times, this one was not focused on a single event, but on a handful of which flash before his eyes in quick succession. They depicted her and a group of other Mare that were abducting stallions from their houses and off the streets. It didn't matter if they were young or near that of being old age.
They all were brought here and put into cages and kept as breeding livestock only to be discarded as offerings to one that was always covered in robes who was always refer to as grandmother that had on a far more decorated version of the red robes and a golden staff with a dark gem affixed at the top. Only to never be seen again.
There was a select few that seemed to be wearing some pieces of armor over the robes that always stayed near the one called Grandmother. Those were the ones that took on this heinous act of taking away the horns and wings of ponies. Thereby rendering them unable to fight back or run.
There were also glimpses of rituals being conducted and initiations of the new members. They would teach any who joined them that males were meant to be used and discarded when they're usefulness was at an end. This Grandmother would preach that with the males being so much weaker than the females. This would give them the right to do whatever they wanted with them because this was obviously by nature's design.
There were then glimpses of acts between the males and females. Under different circumstances, this would be something that would get him highly aroused. However, the context in which these acts were done only made him thirst for blood. Seeing as the males had no say whatsoever and were treated quite harshly.
The last vision he saw was that the group had just brought in someone new. They were going to place him in the deepest part of their temple. Brex could not make out just who was in the bag but judging by the sounds it was obviously someone very small, perhaps a young kid.
There was talk in the background of the memory about how they had to wait until he was of proper age. Then he would be put to good use. The bag began to struggle and was abruptly hit with a long staff held by one of the armored robed females which made it go silent. After witnessing the scene, his vision came back and he saw the female still clutched in his hands. She was still holding an amused smirk from the lower part of her face that was exposed.
Only silence proceeded immediately after this. It seemed that the girl was gaining more confidence with each moment that passed, but that privado quickly evaporated at what was about to be done next. Brex brought up his other hand that was clutched around an object and held it in front of the girl and when he opened his fingers, it revealed that he was clutching with his thumb and index finger, a single Unicorn horn. He made the motion of turning his head between the horn and the mare once before resting his gaze back on to her.
He then brought the tip up and slowly approached her mask aiming for one of her eye holes. Seeing this, the mare began to panic even further and scream and terror as she tried to wiggle loose from her bindings one more time. Unfortunately, with her arms pinned behind her back thanks to the shackles and the leg chains being attached to another prisoner, there was very little that could have been done on her end.
The jagged appendage only drew closer and closer until it had just passed through the eye holes of her mask. She began to whimper and cry excessively. Just as it was about to make contact with her eyes that were currently closed out of fear, did he stop his approach with the tool in his hand.
Inside his mind, Brex was in the midst of a mental tug-of-war with both his need to take vengeance for what they had done. Whereas on the other side, it was saying that he was going too far with his actions.
Rory, seeing the hesitation, asked in a confused Voice, “Master, why did you stop? You're so close to killing this, Thing. Oh! I get it! You want to scare them don't you, oh what a marvelous idea. Draw out the anticipation, make them squirm even more. Oh, this just sends goosebumps up my very skin. I love it.”
Mentally communicating with Rory, he spoke in a bone chilling tone, “No I'm not going to hurt them. They do not deserve that kind of release. I do however have a few in mind that will get my full and undivided attention...”
There was a very noticeable shuddering sound from within his mind that was accompanied by a low moan as Rory replied in a slight stutter, “M-Master, I-I love it when you show your dominant side like t-this. You need to do it a lot more o-often.”
Brex then throws the girl that was still in his clutches onto the ground, which made a loud thud. There was a loud scream of pain from her as the others in the room released gasps of shock after seeing such violence from a male. Going over to the crates one more time, he began opening one lid after another from the ones he had yet to examine and tossed them aside. This act caused the contents to spill onto the ground whenever he didn’t find anything he deemed useful.
The crashing of crates only served to make the others around the room more nervous as they began to try and huddle together for safety and to avoid all of the removed parts of ponies while on the floor on the far side of the room. Not once did any of them attempt to try and make their way towards the door out of fear of repercussions from the one who obviously had the upper hand.
Soon he had found something that resembled iron bars that were approximately a meter long. Quickly they were stashed away into his item box, afterwards he made his way back over to the girls and grabbed the first one on the line of chains and tugged her to her feet using her hood as a handle.
This got another series of shrieks as he motioned with his other hand that he was about to grab the next one to do the same, but it appeared that they knew what he wanted and all stood before having the rough treatment done to them.
Brex had taken another strand of chain and looped it around the mare in the lead. Making sure that it was nice and tight around her waist so she couldn’t slip out and making a leash that was about five feet long. He led them to the door to which he used his left boot and kicked it in the center so hard that not only did it open, but the force in which was used, caused hinges to snap from the wooden doors.
The pieces flailed about before tumbling to the ground several meters ahead. Instead of screams, he heard one of them making a large thud from the back of the line and when he looked over his shoulder, he saw that one of them had fainted and was being held up now by the two in the line that was in front and behind of her.
Roughly tugging on the leash, he led the line of prisoners down further into their temple. As they all marched with him in the lead, he could hear the ones behind him whimpering from under their breaths. When he had managed to get to the point of The Cave system where there was only one way to go deeper into their temple, he had brought out one of the iron bars from his inventory box.
Turning to the group, he displayed the bar by grabbing onto both ends. Then as to show off a bit more of his strength, the Roegadyn slowly started to bend the bar until it was in a perfect U-shape. Afterwards, he grabbed the mare that was at the center of the line and pushed her up against the wall. She had let out a scream but her eyes went wide as she saw him pulling back his arm which held on to the bent bar and thrusted the ends towards her neck.
She appeared to have fainted instantaneously thinking that her life was coming to an end but in reality, he had aimed the U-shaped bar as to stab into the wall on either side of her neck and he had begun pushing it until it was snugly in place, preventing any type of escape.
By doing this, Brex had effectively rendered them all stationary with how their one member was now, literally nailed to the wall. He then repeated this process with every other one on the link until he had stuck half of them onto the wall while the other half was forced to watch it all in horror filled eyes.
At some point during this, he could have sworn that he heard water dripping but chose to ignore it. But when he had finished and had stepped back to admire his work, Brex had found a number of puddles that were forming from under a few of the ones who had been stuck onto the wall. Some of the mare’s that hadn’t had this done to them were now hyperventilating as they tried to avert their gazes away from what he had done.
Looking over towards the female that he had tried to interrogate. Brex found that she was white as a bedsheet and he could plainly notice that she was nearly catatonic, while mumbling something under her breath that he was having a hard time in understanding.
Glancing down to his chat window, Brex flipped over to the whisper tab and found that there were texts being typed in time with what the mare was saying.
He began to read them as, “How is this happening. How's this happening? This is a male. It's a male. It's a male. How, how can he do something like this, it doesn't make any sense at all. Aren’t they meant to be weaker than us? Could it be possible that Grandmother... What you taught us, that we were better than them. How is this possible, were you wrong...?” He couldn't help but sneer from under his helmeted face upon reading this dribble.
As he was making his way towards the next set of doors leading further in. He walked by a few of the girls and he saw how they averted their eyes, while others shut them tightly out of fear of gaining his attention.
He couldn't help but to think to himself, “They think they should deserve any pity? Especially after what they did to the males just because of the gender and what some crazy old hag had taught them? They're just sick. They kidnapped the young and old just to use them. I can understand if it was some form of punishment for some criminal act, but to go after those that are innocent... it just... makes me.”
Before he could go down any further, he snapped himself free of those thoughts. There were others that were deeper within. Those that would have the pleasure of receiving the punishment that was in store for them all.
*Point of view: Grandmother*
The one known as Grandmother, was currently within a large assembly room that was easily big enough for a full-sized, three-story house to fit within and easily enough room for a good five hundred to easily stand side by side quite uncomfortably.
There was an oversized altar on one side of the very room that was at the top a series of steps. A stone slab in the shape of a coffin sat there with a set of torches that were lighting both ends. At the base of the steps was a podium to which Grandmother was currently standing behind, giving one of her many sermons.
Attending this were a group of thirty all wearing red robes, that were all standing in attendance, making sure that they were silent as to hear every word that was said. On either side of the room, next to some pillars meant to help in supporting the roof, where some that were carrying ornate staffs and spears made up of gold.
These mare's had sections covering their body with the same kind of ornate golden plates. What else that stood them apart from the others, was with how they had their faces completely covered with their masks only allowing small slits for the eyes to see through, unlike the rest that only had to top half of their faces concealed.
Grandmother had most of her face covered with a mask made of white, gold and silver that took on the facial features of a young woman. Held in her left hand. a golden staff with a dark crystal a fixed on the tip that was a bit larger than one’s fist. While adorned with at least seven long, golden necklaces with various types of designs on the larger pieces of decorations thar adorned it.
She spoke in a way that made one think that she was in her thirties and did not sound at all as if it belonged to a person called Grandmother with how the voice was coming out in a silky, smooth tone.
She had just finished giving one of her hour-long speeches and was confident that she had every pony hanging on each one of her words. Grandmother had been giving the same sermon for so many years that she had lost count long ago. Smirked to herself from underneath her own mask, over how she hardly had to put much effort anymore in converting new members to her cause.
She then quickly turned into a small scowl as she reminisced on how she could have gotten a bigger following, if it wasn't for the princess cracking down on the religion and preaching about nonsense like equality. She never really understood why the princess of the sun would consider that a male could have any leeway in society.
They were weak and feeble, not to mention that they could not could not win a fight in their life, even if it was to defend themselves or someone they cared for. Grandmother believed that she was doing Equestria a service by rounding up whatever males that she could, in order to impregnate her followers to not only boost the herds numbers and raise their own stallions for personal use right from berth.
At the moment, she was pretty much on auto pilot and still speaking to her congregation while having these internal thoughts. She continued with her thoughts on how inept the stallions could be when it came to impregnating her girls. Grandmother had wanted to get as many of her followers to give birth as to build-up a supply of males in order to do what they wanted. However, the birth rate for a colt was so low, that one would be lucky to even get one out of thirty with how things were going.
As a result, she did have a good flock of mare’s that had been thoroughly educated from birth. Of course, with so many, she had to spread them out as to cover as much ground as possible, while still keeping to the shadows and out of the eyes of the public.
Glancing over to the guards that were lining the sides of the room. She could see how they were standing completely still as statues. An internal chuckle escaped as she gave herself a metaphorical pat on the back with how she was able to fully enthralling so many into becoming her most devout followers. Even to the point of getting them to give up their very lives in order to become personal guards.
After that thought, she couldn't resist the urge to use her free hand to caress the golden-white mask with a lovingly, affectionate touch.
Just as Grandmother was about to raise her voice once more to conclude the gathering and send them forth on their duties, did one of the disciples that was not in attendance came bursting through the doors while screaming at the top of her lungs in a hysterical fashion. “WE HAVE AN INTRUDER IN THE TEMPLE!!!”
The screaming mare’s words had caused a loud chorus of murmurs to erupt from within the large gathering. Grandmother called out to the others in a commanding voice, “Heed my words! We have a defiler within our midst. You! Just how many are within the sacred temple?”
The acolyte that had come in to warn them, only shook her head quickly before saying, “It is but one. But grandmother! From what I could tell… It’s a stallion! The guards at the front have already been taken out, so easily…. How can this be?”
A number of the girls in the crowd only brought their hands to their faces to let out a loud gasp, while a single mare had ended up fainting on the spot. Luckily, she was caught by one of the many companions nearby.
Grandmother couldn't stop herself from twitching her eyes erratically at the very notion that a stallion could be defying her will in such a blatant disregard of her authority by attacking her temple.
She lifted her staff and called out, “Hear me! Go and subjugate this male and bring him before me! He must be punished for his transgressions. For he goes against nature itself by defying our will!”
This was apparently enough to get them all to be riled up as the flock had quickly made their way through the large double doors that would lead in the direction of their unwanted guest.
Just as the room became empty aside from herself and the twelve guards that had yet to move a muscle at each of the pillars, did she start to chuckle to herself. There was then an almost, inaudible slurp sound that emanated from her mask. She then spoke in a sultry tone and said to no one in particular, “Well, well. It would seem that the gods have graciously given us another to add to our collection. I suppose we won't have to wait for a few years now if the newcomer is of perfect breeding age.”
She then turned to her left and had her eyes on one of the guards that was currently standing nearby. Afterward, she gave a delightful little giggle as she touched her mask again before saying, “Oh it's a good thing that I had my face fixed up recently. I must make sure that I'm presentable for company. I wouldn’t be a very good host otherwise.”
Several minutes went by without any word from those that she had sent out to the capture the intruder. Then it became more than ten minutes, then it became fifteen. At this point, Grandmother was beginning to get a little aggravated with being made to wait for this long. She was now leaning forward against the podium. The room was filled with the drumming of her right hands fingers that were going in a repeated tempo while staring at the closed set of doors with an unamused face from under her mask.
She was wondering just how long would it take to take down a single male with a group of that size. Grandmother had made sure that each one of her acolytes were of the earth tribe. Which meant that when it came to close quarters combat, they would easily have the upper hand. It also helped that her staff had a unique ability of preventing magic within her immediate vicinity from being able to be used that wasn’t aligned with her element. Thankfully not many ever delved into her type.
Quickly glancing over to the top of her staff, the masked mare began to mumble to herself and said, “If only you were strong enough to be of use around that infernal princess. Then I wouldn't have to be hiding in this dungy, old hole in the ground. I should be the one standing at the throne room at the Canterlot castle. How dare that witch even consider the thought of giving the stallions over there, titles and privileges that they don’t deserve to have.” Afterwards, Grandmother lifted the bottom part of her mask, only to harshly spit onto the ground in disgust before fixing it back into its proper place.
Finally, having enough of the waiting game, she pointed her thin, gloved index finger towards one of the guards that was closest to the door and gave a command. “Go! Retrieve the stallion and bring him to me this instant! I bet they're having their way with him as I speak. I would need to install more discipline into their training it would seem. Just because we have a new one in our midst, doesn't mean that they can just do what they want. It's one of our rules that I would be the first to have a go at every new piece of meat that goes through our halls.”
Without so much as a word or salute, the one guard swiftly made it to the door and just as they were about to open It, did the large double doors swing inwardly at an astonishing speed and crash into the guard. The act had the effect of launching her clear across the open area, to only slide and crash into the podium in a disheveled heap.
When this had happened, Grandmother had her eyes following the motions that her guard had taken and was now looking down near her feet at the now, apparently unconscious mare.
Grandmother then looked backup to see a large stallion clad in what appeared to be a set of dark armor. To which seemed that it could have come from someone's nightmare standing in the doorway as if nothing had happened. She then slammed the tip of her staff onto the floor which gave off a heavy thud that echoed throughout the room, as to gain the attention of the intruder.
Quickly, she then began to speak in a sultry voice that was laced with a heavy dose of sarcasm as she said, “Hasn't anyone ever told you that it's not polite to barge into a mare's room? Oh, but I won’t hold that against you my dear, you are a male after all. I see that you are without an escort. Tut, tut. No this won't do. Not at all. But it would seem that I have some volunteers that are more than willing to entertain a big, strong, stallion like yourself. Especially after you went through all the trouble of getting yourself so dressed up for the occasion. I have to ask, just who is it that does your wardrobe? because she seems to have a very good taste in style.”
After a few moments, she was seeing that this one was not going to be as talkative as most. So, in response she only shrugged her shoulders before motioning with a wave of her hand.
This being her signal to the others in the room with them to begin their attack. When this was done, each and every one of the stone still guards leaped into the air hoping to land directly on to the stallion in armor. Even the one that was apparently knocked out before, got back to her hoofs and sprang into action as if the incident from earlier had never even occurred.
Grandmother had specifically picked her personal guards for not only their strength, but also for they're fighting capabilities. Half of them brandished a long halberd with an axe and a long, jagged spear at the very tip of the weapon. With how it was made of gold, it would have been an easy weapon to break, but as it so happens, she had some friends enchant those to be near unbreakable, while retaining their heavy mass. That being said, it was only the earth ponies who had the strength to wield them with a deadly level of efficiency.
The other half, were equipped with staffs with thicker ends that that were meant more for bludgeoning, rather than the cutting and stabbing motion of their counterparts. Wielded in her personal guard's hands, one of these staffs were capable of splitting a small boulder into pieces with but a single strike.
With so many coming down on this stallion, she thought that there was no way that he could evade their attacks and would quickly succumb to their incoming onslaught. Without showing it, she watched in eager anticipation as they buried down onto his form.
Just as they were going to strike simultaneously, the stallion quickly backstepped. Grandmother was surprised at the sudden burst of speed and saw that each one of her guards had impacted their weapons onto the ground in which he originally stood. In doing so, they had all ended up sinking the tips of their weapons into the stone floor thanks to the amount of force used.
From behind her mask, she had let out a confused, “EEEH! T-They had only missed him by only a few inches!” Quickly, they yanked their weapons free and ran around to surround their target. Then the flurry of attacks started.
One would thrust their halberd forward, while another from the opposite angle would come in and attack his backside to do a wide sweep with their staff towards his Legs. The stallion turned his body half way towards the right and with both arms he did the following.
The right hand had gone up and grabbed onto the long handle of the sword on his back and appeared to have released the weapon from what was holding it in place. It was then harshly thrusted back down until the tip had sunk into the floor.
The staff that was aiming for his legs came into contact with the blade and it inexplicably broke it on contact. The piece went flying and struck one of the other guards in their midsection, sending them flying a good, few meters until they finally skidded to a stop.
As for his left hand it went forward and grabbed onto the handle just past the halberds blades and held it in a way that he was guiding it away from the center of his body and off to the side. After, the blades had crossed over his chest, did the weapon come to an abrupt halt thanks to his apparent strength.
With one quick motion, he lifted the halberd up and somehow managed to cause the guard wielding it to fall forward. As the other end was brought down, he had thrusted his left leg and hooked on to the bottom of the weapon and after pushing the tip onto the stone floor, did he thrust the top half back towards the guard, smashing it into her masked face. This action sending the mare flying until she landed on the ground where she had originally started her charge.
As for the halberd that was still in his left hand, that was swung around without him looking and the poll of the weapon had struck at the first attacker in the side, sending her to land onto the stone floor with a heavy thud.
With those three apparently incapacitated for the moment, the next set stepped forward. This time it was a group of triplets consisting of only staff wielders as they leaped towards him from the front. they all were diving down with their weapons in a wide, over the head swing.
Using his right arm, the stallion had brought it up in a guarding motion and intercepted all of the golden staffs. There was a loud metallic, clank, clank, clank. The noise echoed throughout the room from the staffs making contact with the metal guards on his arm. Grandmother was able to see that his feet had sunken into the stone floor and created a number of spiderweb cracks upon impact.
A devilish smirk appeared behind her hidden face after seeing this. The very thought of this stallion's arm being broken was filling her with glee. It was only a matter of time. But she paused when she noticed that the guards, whom she could see from the back, were trembling while still holding onto their weapons. There were some low, un-nerving grunts of exertion as she saw that all three were still pressing down on their weapons. Even to the point that they were beginning to bend the metal from the amount of strength being applied.
The stallion's arm which was lowered slightly from the impact was beginning to rise and this in turn, was pushing the set of guards back. Grandmother couldn't help but to have her mouth begin to hang open out of disbelief. She thought to herself while clutching at her own staff, “Just what is this stallion made out of? It’s as if he was built like a brick house. I was hoping to add him to my collection but it would seem that he might be a little too much trouble in the end. Such a pity, would have loved to see what was under all that metal.”
She licked her lips before continuing, “I suppose I could still do that, after all, there's no reason that I can't rough up my new toy. I just have to make sure that I keep the important parts Intact.
Right as the stallion pushed the weapons away, did another set come at him from both sides. He blocked one halberd coming from his right by using the large weapon in his hands. But was struck in the chest by the one on his left which happen to be a staff.
This sent the stallion an armor flying until he crashed into one of the stone pillars and fell onto the ground with a heavy crash. A few pieces of stone broke off from said pillar and landed all around him.
Grandmother grinned ear to ear at the sight, but it quickly faded when she saw the stallion standing to his feet and taking on the same relax posture as before and watched as he had placed the sword back onto his back. The three that had gotten knocked down had recovered and joined the group as they all charged at him from all sides, just as they did before.
However, the stallion did not offer any type of resistance, allowing each one of their attacks to land without any trouble. The staffs would send him flying over to the next guard and was launched again with a serious blow to one part of his body or another.
The halberds would slice at the metal coverings or try to stab into his body at any of the joints, but each attempt only resulted in creating sparks and chipping away at their weapons slowly. After several seconds of this, the intruder had been hit at least a dozen or so times over. Currently, the stallion was now face down on the ground, in between all the mare’s in armored robes.
Feeling delighted, Grandmother was about to say something to push the superiority of mare’s, but her words were caught in her throat when she saw him getting up once more. At this point she was getting more frustrated than anything else that the stallion was not staying down after the severe beating he had just taken.
Clutching at her staff she slammed the butt of it onto the stone floor rather harshly before pointing with a free hand and commanding, “What are you all doing? Why are you all going easy on him? Take the worthless stallion down, NOW!
With that, the group redoubled their efforts and began wildly attacking the stallion over and over again. Even with the increased attack numbers, it appeared as if things were getting more difficult for the ladies. In the beginning the stallion was being knocked around like some sort of tennis ball with each strike, but the distance was becoming less and it progressed at a point that he was not even being knocked off the ground anymore.
After another minute of this, it was apparent that each blow was barely even budging the one in armor with him only nudging after being struck by a staff. He was even brushing off the stabbing motions of the halberds.
As for the guards, their movements began to get more sluggish and slower with each passing attack. More and more grunts of exertion were being emitted with each swing that they made, there were even some odd gurgles mixed in there. Until finally one of them lost grip on their heavy staff and collapsed on the ground and fell over unconscious.
Grandmother cursed herself under her breath and thought, “Buck it all! I don't understand how this is happening. They're even using their own life force to wield these weapons. That one right there just ran out of juice. These twelve are capable of even taking on the entire royal guards if the opportunity were to ever came up. Yet, this one alone is able to cause them to get this exhausted?”
She gripped her staff even tighter, would cause arcs of black electricity to be discharged from the crystal on top. A blast of black rays came forth and rained down upon the stallion and the guards striking them all.
Grandmother then commanded in a booming voice; “I command you kill this stallion at once! I want him out, do whatever it takes. I care not how! I don't care if you sacrifice what little life is still inside, just make him gone!”
Upon giving these orders, all of the guards rose back up again, even the one that had just fallen. But their movement seemed rather odd with how they were shuffling around with their shoulders hanging low and heads tilting off to the side.
One of the mare's had their masks crooked upon getting up and this caused it to fall upon standing fully. This revealed a horrific sight of a mare who had her face apparently ripped clean off, only to expose the flesh underneath.
The eyes were completely glazed over and a few of the teeth appeared to have fallen out. The site in which could only be described as looking at the face of a walking zombie.
The one in charge only clicked her tongue and annoyance upon seeing this. She then said, “I knew I should have bolted those damn things to their faces. Disgusting dolls the lot of ‘em. Note to self, the next set I put together, I’ll make sure to screw bolts into their skulls so I don't get to see that horrible face of theirs.
When she had finished those words, Grandmother couldn't help but feel an uneasiness filling the air. She looked over to see that her guards were currently shambling back a few paces from the stallion. But what really got her attention was how he was staring straight at her without breathing, moving a muscle or making any type of aggressive stance. Even with him only standing there, somehow it was sending shivers up-and-down her spine like crazy.
A cold sweat began to fill the inside of her mask as she had to constantly concentrate on not trembling as to give away what she was experiencing. A heavy gulp couldn't be held back as she pushed forward and ordered her guards with her hand to continue by simply pointing at the intruder.
Taking the command to heart, all the now identified zombies picked up their weapons and raised them higher in preparation for their next assault. When they all went in, it was a surprise to Grandmother when she saw that the stallion had grabbed onto his sword once more. But instead of bringing it up into the air to swipe down at his opponents, He had held on to it in a reversed grip and was pointing the tip straight down.
The sword was then thrusted until several inches were embedded into the stone floor and a wave of black and red energy that appeared eerily similar to blood started gushing out along the ground in all directions like a wave. Within the time it took for a Pony to blink, A multitude of serrated, red blades ad shot up from the ground and quickly impaled all of her guards through various points of their Bodies.
Weapon skill: Unleash. Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 120 damage to all nearby enemies. The user commands the energy within their body and sends it out in a wave. The wave is then condensed into sharp blades that shoot up from the ground to strikes any enemies within range
And just as fast as they came, they all went back into the ground and disappeared leaving a spray of blood to fill the area around the stallion and coat the floor with the substance that came from all twelve. Her eyes shrunk to pinpricks with the sight of each one being impaled in such a way that they were being lifted off the ground before being dropped unceremoniously. A few had even had limbs taken clear off with how wide some of the blades were.
Taken aback by the site, Grandmother stumbled back and fell on to her tail but quickly got back two more feet before running halfway up the steps of the altar above before turning around and pointing her staff towards the stallion that had not moved from his spot.
She then called out in a surprised voice and said, “But, t-that's not possible! You can't use any type of magic that's not aligned with the kind that I use, not while I have this staff! That only means that… You were using dark magic… just like me. How is it even possible? How is it that you can use that kind of magic, I demand that you answer? I thought that I was the only one that can do it! Dark magic is forbidden! Who in their right minds would teach this to a male?!”
Just like all the other times, she got no response as he took a single step forward, then another and another. Each one being slow and deliberate as to draw out the moment. Letting out a grunt of annoyance at being ignored, she pointed the staff at him and called out, “Stay back! I command you to stay back, I am your superior. Why aren’t you obeying me? Don't you know your own place, you're beneath all of us!”
This only got her nothing before she called out one last time, “Find then, have it your way. Time to die! I'll show you that my powers greater are far greater than yours!” While pointing her staff at the stallion, she channeled more power than before and shot a large blast of black energy that condensed into a solid mass That was spiraling towards its target.
It had made a direct hit and a large explosion of energy spilled forth and bathed the room in darkness. She saw how he was thrown back to the far side and had crashed into the wall, thereby embedding him halfway into the stones. The stallion was but a few feet above the ground with how he was now stuck in place as some impromptu decoration
Grandmother hunched her shoulders and lowered her staff as she was struggling now to stay on her feet after releasing such a powerful blast. She began to chuckle to herself maniacally as she regained some of her strength and got back into a boastful posture with how she threw her head back.
Now speaking in a triumphant, over the top tone, “Do you see now? I am truly the most powerful black magic user in all of Equestria. None can stand before my might! Really, you honestly thought that you can just come in here and rip down everything that I've worked so hard for? You males are nothing. You're all just... Just...Huh?” Her voice trailed off and became quieter as she saw the figure beginning to stir.
Watching in silent horror. Grandmother observed the armored stallion turning its head that had been buried halfway into the rocks. Soon she locked eyes onto the face plate. Dread began to seep into her very soul at the blank expression that was molded into the steel.
Slowly he began to pry himself loose from the detailed indentation created from the impact and fell towards the ground, only to catch himself on one knee while both hands were pressed on the floor for support. When he had landed, it created a cloud of dust, along with hey a heavy metallic thud.
After a few seconds, he got back to his feet once more and took on the familiar stance that he had been using the entire time. Her eyes were nearly bugging out of her skull at the very notion that stallion could have taken such a blow and not show signs of any injuries. By Tartarus, she had not even heard him once complained in any form of beating he received. All the stallions that she had come across would whine and cry at the littlest bit of pain.
She then thought to herself as she gritted her teeth, “No. This can't be possible. How can he be doing this, this makes absolutely no sense. No wait, it’s that armor. It's gotta be, there isn't even a single scratch on it. There must be a strong enchantment placed upon it. That can be the only explanation for everything that’s been happening today.
Now showing a new found sense of resolve, Grandmother took a step forward and proudly proclaimed, while outstretching her right hands index finger towards the stallion. “I know you're trick now! To be able to do what you've been doing and taking that hit head on! The only explanation is that you are wearing a cursed set of armor. I'm right, aren't I? There's no point in denying the obvious. You're just some weak-minded Colt that got his hand on a dangerous artifact.”
Waving her arm in a dismissive fashion she continued on with, “If I can't hit you with any physical means then I'll have to attack you at where you are at your most vulnerable. I bet that armor has already stripped you what little sanity you have left, which will make this all the easier!
Grandmother then then focused her thoughts, along with whatever energy she had left in her staff. A spell was now in the making as the power condensed as to shoot towards the unwanted interloper. Dark mists flowed from the staff and coiled around the shaft until it traveled up her arm. From there it then entered the holes of her mask. There was then a Violet light shining out that began to cast its rays upon the room, bathing it in a similar color.
With an ominous banshee like scream, she then released the spell. Now there was an erratic beam that was traveling towards the stallion and armor and struck directly upon the helmet. It was then enveloped in the same violet light.
Grandmother's vision went dark the very instant her spell had made contact and brought her into a dark empty void. She then let out a maniacal cackle as she raised both arms into the air along with the staff.
She then began to speak in a voice that was filled with joyous victory, “Haha. I did it, I did it! He is all mine now, the perfect puppet. Who needs a set of guards when I can have an enthralled cursed armored stallion at my side? And of course, when his usefulness is at an end, I can just order him to strip away this armor so that another can use it. Finally, I can take over Canterlot and take down that arrogant princess!”
Her ramblings were cut short when she looked around during her speech and caught sight of a small figure quite a distance away standing in place with their back turned towards her. Grandmother was quite confused and quickly went over with a teleport spell and was now directly behind whoever it was to investigate.
At a quick glance she assumed it to be some mare with how she was dressed in a black and red outfit, with the head ornament. Grandmother had assumed that those were the ears of a pony but could not catch the sight of a tail which confused her further.
She was about to say something to whoever this was, but the figure quickly turned around to expose a girl who had a death glare that was currently fixated on her. Those red eyes and purple lips, were quickly drawing her full attention, which sent a bone chilling sensation to run down her spine.
The strange female then threw back her right arm and balled it into a fist. Just as she threw it forward, she called out in a loud, angry tone, “Stay the fuck away from my master's mind, you decrepit… old…HUSSY! He's mine!” Immediately after, the fist made contact with grandmother's face and this threw her out of the stallion's mind.
Back in the real world, the spell that was linked between the two had spontaneously snapped and disappeared. The room was at the same time filled with an ear-splitting screech of pain from Grandmother as her head was forced into snapping back rather violently. She was then thrown back and onto the stairs behind. In doing so, the mare had released her staff which tumbled to the very bottom with a series of clanks until going silent as it rolled a few feet off to the side.
Clutching at her mask, more screams escaped as she tried to yell, MUY NOSE… MEH NOSE! HOW ITH IT BROKEN! HOW?!” Her voice was coming out all slurred in an odd way as she talked. She then pulled her mask free a little bit and began to spit out a large amount of blood which was accompanied by a few teeth that clattered onto the stone steps. Witnessing the site, she looked back towards the stallion and began to shiver as one would when looking at a monster.
She was only within his mind, yet being punched in there had transitioned into the real world and she had suffered a physical wound. Her sight was getting blurry as she assessed what had happened to her face. Indeed, her nose was clearly broken and a number of her teeth had either been completely broken off or shattered. It clearly felt as if she had been punched in the real world by someone with Godly strength.
By the time she had gotten her mind back together, the stallion had slowly made his way over and was now standing at the foot of the steps. At this point there was only several feet between the both of them. Knowing that he had gotten so close while she was distracted, caused the mare to nearly leap out of her own skin from fright.
Attempting to speak, she found it difficult with the way everything was being rather slurred. Even with her jaw being nearly destroyed and a stream of blood dripping from the bottom of her mask, did she try to plead for mercy. She then said, “Paweeze, I'm shorry. I didn't mean to! I-I thought that you were like all the resht! How about we team up? You can have all the girlsh you could ever want! I have so many that work under me, you can have a harem. We could-“
The distance between them had suddenly closed as he leaped up and onto a step that made it so that he could lean directly into her face. This is what caused her to stop in her ramblings. With him now being so close she could now see just how large he really was. It was as if being towered over by a Titan, that was judging a mortal for their crimes. Never before did she feel so small before any other.
With just one swift motion, he reached over with his right hand and wrapped the large gloved fingers onto the mask. Immediately after it was ripped from her head and toss clear across the room. With how terrified she felt, she didn’t notice the action until she heard the clattering of the golden white mask hitting the firewall.
What was exposed was an amalgamation of stitched together bits and pieces of multiple faces, not to dissimilar an art project one would make when cutting out parts of different magazine articles to make a face.
Each section was put together with very fine, thin thread that were hard to see, unless you were looking very closely. But what made it all stand out to be so obvious, was with how each one was of a different fur type and color pattern. There must have been at least a dozen different pieces that were put together. On the very outer edges, it was then stitched onto her very face. One could see the pale skin and bald patches along the outer edges of her collection of facial features.
Then that too was gripped with the other free hand. Shock was all that she felt when her mask was taken away. But it quickly turned into horror when she realized what he was about to do with the other hand that was now gripping on to her face.
She attempted to call out, however this was soon found out to be impossible with how his palm was pressing against her mouth and ceasing any means of communication from being done. All Grandmother could do was to show how scared she was by having her eyes going wide as he watched from between his fingers.
When the stallion and armor pulled, there was a series of ripping sounds that came from all the stitches as it was quickly removed in one violent motion. This caused a blood curdling scream to be let out by Grandmother as a small torrent of blood came squirting out from her now faceless head.
Grandmother had attempted to clutch at her face with both hands to protect it from anymore abuse and to prevent any more blood from escaping. With all her effort this turned out to be a fruitless attempt.
The amount of pain was so much that she was unable to even see properly as the world became jumbled in green and black as her vision swam in an endless sea of torment. Normally when she would have things done to her face, she would be using magic to numb all the pain receptors but that was not done this time around.
She began to wail as she attempted to say something, “WHY! WHY DID YOU DO THAT! PAWEEZE! NO MORE!” This was when she heard the stallion finally saying something for the first time, but what he said had sent chills that ran through to her very soul.
His voice came out low and in haunting thanks to the helmet. She could have sworn that it was nothing less than demonic with the coldness that reverberated in his tone. The words that left him were, “How many times did you hear those very words from your victims...”
When he had stopped, she moved a few of her fingers to the side so she could look at him. With blood-red eyes filled with complete horror and dismay, as she witnessed him taking the blade from his back. It was then raised up high with a tip facing towards her. Before grandmother knew what happened next, the blade had sunken into her gut.
There was a silent scream that came from her lips as she flailed in place but quickly found that she was unable to move due to the sword not only passing through her body but it had even penetrated the stone steps and sunk in enough that the blade was literally pinning her to the ground.
Gurgles escaped her lips as she tried to call out for any help, but the amount of blood loss and pain that she had suffered earlier only caused her to go limp. The light in her eyes that displayed life, slowly faded until all life within had finally been extinguished
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
All he could do was stand there after plunging the sword into the old hag’s body. All that remained now was a lump of flesh that once belonged to a foul creature in his eyes. During the beginning of the fight, he was on guard but it became obvious at the vast difference between himself and them.
As far as he could tell, all the ponies so far were around level 15. The guards however, we’re all level 24. The one that was in charge for putting the whole thing together, was one called Grandmother. Who had the level of 36.
Seeing as they were of no threat at the moment, he had foregone any means of attack or defense and just focused solely on the one known as Grandmother. During the fight Brex used the hero of light's ability known as the echo once more. With it, he was able to go in and catch glimpses of many of her misdeeds. Unlike all the others, she had committed so many atrocities over the years, that she was far beyond the point of being redeemable.
By the time the visions had ended, Brex was getting up from the last hit he had taken that sent him flying. When it got to the point that his assailants were getting tired and she had ordered them to continue, despite their frail nature showing, he got the chance to see one of their masks falling off. When that had happened, there was no doubt that he had witnessed the last bit of proof to seal her fate.
This Grandmother had not only started the whole herd religion, which spread across Equestria and tormented so many stallions, but had also mistreated her own followers and used them for such a grotesque form of personal gain.
The ones who had become so fanatical and had abilities far greater than normal were subjugated to horrendous tests. These tests would eventually turn them into mindless puppets. Those that caught her attention as being beautiful, would have their faces removed and grafted onto her own so that she could preserve what she would call her everlasting beauty.
All of this had only fueled his hunger for vengeance to a whole new level. During this entire event leading up to the death of grandmother, Rory was just giddy within his head. What surprised him the most out of everything, was how Rory had not only kicked out Grandmother from his mind, but had actually been able to cause physical harm to another in the real world through this action. This was clearly something that they were going to have to experiment on in some way or another in the future.
However, even with Grandmother's death and the rest of the followers currently incapacitated, Brex was not satisfied with the outcome. He looked around and saw that the blood was slowly trickling down the steps. His gaze went upwards to the altar. Out of curiosity, he slowly went up the steps and when he had reached the top he saw that there was a chasm on the other side that seemed almost endless with how dark it was.
He went over to one of the torches near the altar and lifted It, stand and all and threw it into the chasm. It only took a few seconds until it landed. As the light began to shine, it quickly brought a horrific sight to be shown.
It looked to be a small mountain of corpses with pieces missing from various parts of their bodies. But what made them all the same, was how all of them had their ribcages torn open. It was nearly enough to cause Brex to vomit within his helmet. But the boiling rage that was now becoming too much to handle, was overtaking that nauseous feeling.
Turning on the spot, he returns to the corpse of Grandmother. While looking at it, he said in a low, cold tone, “I don't think this is enough for what she has done. Wouldn’t you agree?” Rory quickly answered with an enthusiastic, “Yes! She deserves much, more. But it's a pity that she's already dead. Not much we could do. Oh, don’t tell me you’re gonna cut off her head and show it to the others? That’s just a bit tacky.”
A devilish smirk began to grow on Brex's lips as he replied with, “I think she would make a great test subject for something I've been quite curious about.” Rory sounding quite interested in what her master was saying replied with, “Te-hee, I can't wait to see what you're gonna do. Seeing you take charge like this; it just gets me so worked up. I knew you had it in you, but to see it in action... I am so glad that you're my Master!” At the end of that, Rory's voice was becoming more husky by the moment.
Brex switched over to his White Mage class and began to cast one of the resurrection spells on Grandmother's corpse. After several seconds of charging up the spell, it was then launched as a brilliant small orb of light flew into the corpse. The blade that was stuck in her gut was removed and held at his side, ready to be used right after he had already changed back to his Dark Knight.
Grandmother's body began to float into the air as some of the blood that had exited her body returned. When the spell was completed, she was gently lowered onto the steps to which she had previously fallen on.
He could see that her body was twitching and even with the recovery it appeared that the face that she had sewn on to herself had also returned. Soon those dead lifeless eyes began to blink and she took in a big lungful of air before sitting straight up.
It took several moments before she realized that she was not dead and began to pat herself all over. There was then a chuckle that came from her as she yelled out, “HA…HAHAHA! I'm alive! I’M ALIVE! The gods have deemed me worthy to survive. My cause is just! my cause is... is...”
He noticed that her voice was trailing off and was now caught in her throat as she caught sight of him. Brex checked her status and saw that there was a familiar icon next to her name. It was the symbol that would appear when a player was resurrected, which depicted the top half of a person, but the inside appeared to be some type of gauge that was not fully topped off.
This meant that she had lost twenty-five percent of all her stats and this would not go away for a good minute or two after resurrection. Yet, just as she was about to utter something ridiculous to him, he had swung his blade. There was now a shallow cut across her chest. The many long gold necklaces separated and fell to the ground all around her, what blood that was not caught within a robe began to spill out of the opening in her attire.
He went on to give her several more cuts along her arms and legs until she was no longer able to move and was now lying on the ground bleeding out. The entire time, she would scream and beg for mercy. But Brex was having none of it. He lifted his long sword once more and paused. Before plunging it into her chest, he said the same thing, “How many times, did you hear those very words from your victims...” Then the blade came down and impaled her through the heart, which killed her within seconds.
Rory called out in a slight panic that was laced with a needy feel behind it, “Master! You do know what this does to me right? If you keep this up, I might not be able to control myself the next time we go to sleep.”
Brex chose to ignore her words and switched back over to his White Mage class and redid the resurrection spell again. To which it, he did the same process as the one previously done and brought Grandmother back to the point just before her death. She was healed but extremely weak. The look of sudden realization crossed her twisted, horror filled face as she discovered that she was alive again, which meant more was instore.
He pretty much continued this process a few more times. With each one, he would change his methods slightly as to make sure that the mare would experience as much pain as possible before each of her deaths. At first, he had a small smile after she died after coming back. After doing it again, he found the smile growing.
After the second resurrection, she would begin to plead with him to end her suffering and permit her to pass on. His only reply to those requests would cause him repeat the same line, along the finishing blow. It would either be by stabbing or slashing with the long great sword in his right hand.
There was even one time where all he did, was step on to her with his metal clad boots. The act would slowly crush her arms and legs, making a sickening crunch with how her bones would snap. Until he made his way to her neck, thereby snapping it with his weight. That time she was making a lot more noise that he was sure could reach the entrance outside the mountain.
He was about to continue further after casting the next spell. However, when he went to cast it for the fifth time, it did not take hold and the corpse remained where it was. He surmised that it had something to do with every twenty-five percent of her stats being reduced with each resurrection. Without allowing time for the icon to disappear, there was a set limit to which he could bring the target back.
He did notice something that got his attention. With each one, her mind was apparently degrading. However, he chalked it up to her being constantly tortured and wasn't quite sure if was due to what he had done or if it was a side effect from resurrecting so many times. It was possible that continuously bringing a target back over and over again was the cause. The other option could have been from simply with him not allowing the resurrection sickness to fade beforehand.
When he realized that she was no longer capable of coming back, he glanced around and saw that there was so much blood splattered everywhere. Anyone would have thought that he had massacred an elephant with the shear amount, just on the steps themselves.
After a few moments with nothing to focus his anger on, Brex was now calming down. His nerves were now shot, the adrenaline and anger he was feeling before were beginning to subside at a rapid pace. His breathing became more labored and heavier as the seconds went on.
Climbing down the steps, Brex went over to a far wall that was the furthest away from all the bodies and blood and leaned into it using his right hand. Using the other, he quickly went to his face plate and abruptly opened by pulling up to reveal a heavily sweating face.
The face that was once hidden was now exposed and it was that of a man showing just how deeply disturbed he was with himself. As he looked straight down to the floor. A few drops made their way to his nose and began to fall, making a hollowed sound as it boomed through the now silent room.
In a weak, shaky tone. He asked Rory within his mind, “I really did all that didn't I? I just killed a pony in cold blood and brought her back to life, only to be torture repeatedly by my own hands... It wasn't some type of dream, right? I really did that? Oh my... W-What have I done? I-I went too far. I went way too far... I killed someone, I KILLED SOMEONE!!!!, I KILLED SOMEONE... This is not a game. I really did it... What have we done...? No, not we, I. What have I done? I even liked it! I’M A MONSTER! Displaced beings are dangerous, I’m dangerous! I’m one of the dangerous ones… I’m dangerous… I’m… dangerous…”
At this point, he was beginning to hyperventilate again. With each word, his mind was slowing down and it seemed that his body was getting heavy, along with his legs that felt as if they could give out at any moment. He covered his face using his other hand as if too ashamed to even show his face to the world. Things were going dark in his vision.
He heard Rory's voice as if standing right next by and felt an odd sensation on his right shoulder, “Master, you didn't do anything wrong. Yes, a pony was killed, I won’t lie. But she was nothing but a real monster in the strictest sense with all she had done. She went so far as to used her own disciples. They were mutilated even though they looked up towards her the most. I saw what you did when you used the echo on her. I may be modeled after someone who works for the God of death and delights and taking the lives of others. But I don’t do it to all. Just those that deserve it.”
Turning his head to the right, he saw Rory standing right there, with her left hand gently placed onto his shoulder. In a shaky, disbelieving tone. He asked in a whisper, “H-How are you even doing that? I can literally feel your hand on my armor plates... But this shouldn't be possible. You’re in my head, you can’t interact in the real world… Can you?”
She gently closed her eyes and gave him a slightly amused smile as she replied in a tender voice, “Well, don't tell me that crashing into a mountain would cause you to forget what happened back with your, Fluttershy episode, right? All I did was tap into your imagination; this is all being simulated through that. I knew that just listening to my voice wouldn't be enough to help. So, I figured seeing me would have a bigger impact in calming you down. It seems that It did just that with how you’re looking more like yourself.”
Rory then removed her hand and went to wipe the sweat from his brow. He could really feel her fingers making contact, this sending a releasing sensation across his skin. He was quick to notice that even though he could feel her, the sweat wasn’t moving away. Still, it was calming Brex down enough to breath normally.
Brex could feel moisture building up in his eyes as he began to silently cry. A small smile began to form on his lips as he spoke in a somewhat shaky voice, “Thanks...” Afterwards, he just stood there silently weeping for a few minutes before he brought himself to wipe his eyes and lower his face plate once again. Taking in a deep and slow breath of air through his nose, he exhaled from his mouth and stood straight once again.
He brought his gaze back to the projection of Rory and gave a light chuckle before Speaking in a jovial tone, “Since when did I start getting an Al to follow me around?” That was when he moved his hands slowly and it went across Rory’s head as if she was never even there.
She then gave him a slightly, playful scowl as she placed her hands onto her hips and swayed them gently before replying with, “Oh, does this mean you're gonna want me to have a cigar and start pushing at a tiny, multicolored cube remote now? I don't think so!” She paused while looking up into the air before finishing with, “Although, opening up a doorway leading to a white nothingness as I come through for an entrance, isn't such a bad idea.”
After hearing that, Brex couldn't help but to chuckle a little bit more. He then asked, “Since when did you even learn about that show? I don't think we got around watching that.”
He then watched as she be pivoted on one of her feet and turned away before saying, “That's one of the few tidbits that I remember from back when we shared your memories. I know the plot and I remember a few scenes from here and there, but that's about it. By the way, did that show ever happen ending, because I think I might want to watch it when we do another movie night.”
Brex only shook his head as he replied with, “Regrettably I don't know. From what I remember, back around that that time, the shows didn't really have a tendency to end. They simply got canceled or some other crazy thing happened and they just stopped airing.”
Rory quickly turned on the spot and ran up to him with panic in her eyes as she quickly asked, “Oh no! Please don't tell me the ship with the castaways... that never ended, did it?” This only earned her another headshake. She fell to her knees and started screaming with her arms held to the heavens in an extremely, overdramatic way, “NOOOOOooooo!”
He was almost taken aback at this display, seeing as he had no idea that she was so into the shows that he was letting her see. Then he began to contemplate how old was to even remember such old-fashioned television shows with such detail.
As if feeling that the situation was needing his attention, Rory got back to her feet and looked about the room. She then asked, “OK, back on topic, right? Didn't they just capture Someone just recently?”
Brex took in a sudden intake of air as he had just remembered that part of the visions. He searched his mini map and found that aside from the ones he had taken out earlier, there was no other dots it's in range that he could see that would indicate another Pony nearby. He began to jerk head left and right to try and find any type of clue within sight but found nothing.
He was beginning to think that they had sacrificed the pony, but remembered that they wanted to keep him around until he was of proper age, which meant that he had to still be alive somewhere.
It took him several minutes of combing the room by searching underneath the altar and along the walls for him to find a small draft coming through a crack in the wall that was off to the right end of the steps.
Upon closer examination, it was discovered to be a magically hidden room that was not showing up on his map of temple. He then mumbled to himself while examining it, “I guess I can't always rely on my mini map to show me everything. Should have learn that after not being able to sense those elementals. I think I've been relying on it and your situational awareness skills too much.”
He could see Rory was now leaning up against the wall, just off to the side as she casually said, “Yeah I've been sort of figuring that myself. Master, maybe you should not use my ability’s all the time. It might be dulling your other natural senses. You were able to sort of sense them after you stopped using it and relied on your own.”
While still looking over the enchantment for the sealed room. Brex replied with, “Yeah, I see what you mean there. Also, I really wasn't thinking very smart during those fight.” This got a confused tone from Rory as she asked, “What do you mean? I think it did pretty well, considering that a lot were sneak attacks and you avoided them.”
Brex then answered with, “No, I could have done it a lot smarter. For example, I've been collecting a lot of items, I could have easily have switched over to something that would have given me a slight advantage in some of those fight. If I had followed your advice and bumped my level up when I could, then things might have gone better. It didn't occur to me that my stats could be locked when it wasn't coming up as some kind of a quest. If I'd only been listening to you from the start, I would have already gone up to level 50.”
“Not to mention, I neglected using any weapons that might have worked on their particular element. With how things aren't like how they are back in the game, there's a good chance that if I had equipped one of the items that I had gotten as a reward in a raid that was modeled after an element, then it might have had an actual effect in this world. Not to mention I could have added some stones to them like I did for Ryu’s gear.”
Rory looked over to the side as if trying to look at something and when she was doing this, she was being quite silent. So, Brex looked towards her and noticed how her eyes were going up-and-down as if reading something that he couldn’t see.
She then looked back towards him and said, “Ah, yes, you're talking about the weapons that have the elemental themes. Like if you were to use any of the Lightning infused ones when fighting the water elemental, right? I just looked over your armory.”
This got a nod from the Roegadyn before he answered with, “Yup. Looks like I'll have to do a lot more training and experimenting to see if those theories have any grounds to work with. It would seriously bump up my game if I had a little extra to work with. Also, if I think about it… If things go as most displaced story’s go… Then sooner or later, I’ll run into something that’s a lot stronger than me. I’m not like those that have enough power to bend reality or blow up the world with but a single attack.”
Rory pushed herself off from the wall and stood right next to a man. She looked at the hidden door and asked in an excited tone, “So does that mean you're not gonna hold back so much and up your levels when you do your level sync?”
This got a resigned sigh from Brex as he gave her a noticeable, slight nod. This cause Rory to let out a relieved sigh as she threw herself against the hidden passageway and leaned her back against it. Giving him an amused look as she said, “Oh Thank goodness. You have no idea how worried I get when my Master is making it easier for others to kill him. I know you don't want to stand out or show just how strong you really are, especially with you being a male in this world. But still, this is really no way for you to live. You know that all I want for you is to be happy.”
“Maybe at some point you can take a vacation and relax for a while. And I mean a real vacation, go somewhere you can let go. No fighting, no having to figure out a mystery and above all else, somewhere that you won't have to wear a mask twenty-four hours of the day.”
Brex was still examining the entrance around Rory as he shook his head and replied, “Well I'm all for relaxing, when I don't have to do anything. But odds are I'm gonna be wearing a mask for a… very long time. There are so many reasons why I need to do this. A few of the reasons are, either I'll be hunted down for what I am, or there will be those that would want me for experimentations.”
When hearing all this self-doubt and paranoia from her master, Rory couldn't help but to lower her head and let her shoulder sag as she replied, “Master, I'm sure that's not always going to be the case. We've had this discussion a few times already but, maybe things won't turn out as bad as most of those displaced stories.”
“For one, the ones that ended up getting the worst, landed in a Equestria where they were all on four legs. Which made them stand out a lot more. At least you can walk around with a hood and do what you have to do when around them. Didn't a lot of the displaced get attacked on site because they were the only ones on two legs?”
This caused Brex to momentarily stop his examination as his hands that were traveling on the stone came to an abrupt halt. After a few seconds, he went back to his work. As he did so, he replied, “Yeah that's true. But still, I would rather be careful than sorry. I've already experienced dying at the hands of one of the rulers. If she's meant to be there standard to be held up too, then odds are the rest would no doubt do the same if they ever found out what I really am.”
Rory brought a hand up to her face and began to massage the bridge of her nose. She then released another sigh before saying, “Well master, I'm gonna hold onto hope that the worst-case scenario doesn't happen. But until then, you're stuck with me and I will make sure that you don't go insane from the isolation.”
There was an amused chuckle that escaped his lips as he replied with, “Well just so you know, I wouldn't have it any other way. As long as you're around, I don't think I would have too much of a problem if I was to suddenly be thrown into an empty abyss for a thousand years or so. Besides, I... AH! There we go. Found it! It's a good thing I didn't just go and cast my dispel on it. Seeing as how Grandmother was so twisted, I had my suspicion that if someone else tried to break this one out, then something was going to happen to the one inside.”
He then gestured by pointing at two spots on the wall that were fairly close to one another. Rory leaned in and tilted her head questionably before looking back up to him.
Brex then went on to explain, “There's two separate enchantments that are tied together on this hidden door. Little Light explained it to me once. One is basically for the concealment and unlocking. But that is meant to be overlayered across a separate spell to hide it. This means if someone was to try and force their way through, then it would activate the second spell that was placed, which would kill the occupant inside. Looks like its infused with dark magic.”
After a moment, he went on to continue with, “Now that I know it's there, I can target that one first. Rory then gave him a look that just said that she was impressed with his deductions before she said, “Oh so it's sort of like my hex spell, right? The Rory from the anime was able to place curses on objects. One of them was the Hex. The curse would be placed on an object and any who touched it, would die if they were not previously given permission.”
This caused Brex to freeze in place and think to himself, “Note to future self, if Rory says to stay away from something of hers, then stay away! No telling what might have that curse.”
As if already knowing in what he was thinking beforehand. Rory spoke up in a joking tone, “Oh Master, you would have nothing to worry about when it comes to that spell. After all, everything that I have belongs to you.” She then gave him a half-lidded stare, as she continued with, “And I do mean, everything~”
There was now a tint of redness forming on his cheeks as he stared at the wall. He then shook his head and stepped a few feet back and pointed his right palm towards the hidden passageway. Switching over to his White Mage, he used one of his spells to break the harmful enchantment and when that was gone, he continued with the concealment.
When this was done, the stone wall began to shimmer and faded to reveal a simple wooden door in its place. Before approaching, he had gone back to his Dark knight and got himself ready just in case something was to happen, by reaching up and placing a hand on the hilt of the long sword on his back.
The door was slowly opened and it revealed a rather small room that was pitch black. The light coming in from behind him was enough to illuminate the bottom of a set of iron bars that was about six feet ahead.
There was but a single torch on a fixture next to the door that that was not lit. Brex brought out a small fire shard and placed it against the tip, which instantly caught a blaze. When he did this, the room was quickly filled with the sound of the flame burning as everything was now lit up.
The room turned out to be quite small as the floor itself was approximately ten feet wide. However, where the bars were situated, it appeared that that it was carved into to a half dome shape. With the center being the only place high enough for a Pony to stand at six feet high while it quickly dropped towards the sides.
Deeper into the cage he could see a figure laying on their side and unmoving. When he got to the door. He grabbed onto it with both hands and began to pull until there was the audible noises being made by the iron bars being bent and contorted until they snapped off their hinges.
When the door had come completely free, he placed it against one of the walls outside of the cage and then entered the cage. With how cramped It was within, the Roegadyn had to bend down and crouch as he walked.
He then carefully picked up the small figure and exited the secret room. When he was now within a better lit area, he glanced down and got a better look on who he was carrying.
It was a young colt, hadn't even made it into his teenager years, in fact, he looked to be the same age as when the cutie mark crusaders were while in the show. From the looks of it, he was wearing a pair of very dirty, dark pants. They had clearly seen better days with how ripped they were. The shirt must have been white at one point, but was so thick with grime that it could have been confused for dark gray or even black.
His fur was a dark shade of red, while the mane and tail were jet black. The part on his head was a bit spiky as it went forward. One of his short shoulder sleeves was torn on the left side and it depicted a symbol of a flame being surrounded by four stars.
Brex could see that his health wasn't all that bad, but still, it was concerning with it being close to the halfway point. Without putting him down, he swiftly went back to being his White Mage once more and started to cast a series of low-level healing spells, as to not deliver a shock to a system with a strong one being used.
It didn't take long at all for him to become noticeably healthier after the fourth cure spell was administered. He was so fixated on his wellbeing that by the time everything was done and he had taken another glance at his status bar, did Brex tilt his head at what he had finally noticed.
Right above his health bar and name, was a set of words that would only be present when a title was administered to an individual. Brex had figured he'd eventually come across those but what was written had thrown him for a bit of a loop.
He carefully went back to his Dark Knight and brought out from his inventory box a cloak and wrapped it around the young colt. Afterwards, he brought him up to hold him with just one arm to lay into his chest, just off to his left side.
He silently walked through the doors that he had abruptly kicked in just a short time ago and navigated through the secret underground temple and towards the exit.
Along the way, he passed numerous mare’s that were still in an unconscious state from when they all had attempted to rush him in the hallway. Some were out cold, while others were in various states.
The one thing that they all had in common was with them being bound and shackled in one way or another. Anchored to either the floor or a wall to keep them from going anywhere after leaving to venture in further.
There were even a few large cages that could have easily held five or six within that that had a few locked away inside. The doors on those cages however, had the locks that were built into the door had been crushed in a way that made it impossible to open anymore without taking the whole thing apart. Too bad for them that there wasn’t a single unicorn in the bunch because their strength was not going to get them out.
What he did notice about the ones that were awake, was how they were avoiding looking in his general direction as he walked. There were those who were whimpering uncontrollably and covering their ears while in a fetal position. Some looked almost catatonic with how they were shivering and unblinking as they looked towards the floor.
There was even a strong odor in the air that smelled too much like ammonia. Brex immediately surmised that a number of them may have pissed themselves after hearing all the noise that was being emanated from the large room that housed the altar. Apparently, all the screaming and pleading from their leader had reached down here and had literally scared the piss right out of them.
When he had rounded a corner and was well out of view of any of the ponies, he stopped in place and used the body double technique. From out of his shadow came an exact copy of him, right down to the armor and sword, but without the kid in his arms.
Before he left the mountain, he had Issued the following commands to his doppelgänger. Give them food, give them water once a day. Patrol around them so they would not try anything funny. Search for anything that looks to be records and transcribe copies for me. Aside from those, you are not allowed to interact with them in any other way, unless it was to stop them from escaping.
He knew with the connection he had with his body double; important information would be relayed in real time if the need should arise. If there were any useful documents around, then the copies would show up in his item box to review later on.
He was done, after killing Grandmother. Brex wanted to leave before he did something else. He then thought to himself that Rory had done a good job at bringing him back from a mental collapse. But he was sure that this was going to haunt he for a while. But for now, there was something far more important that needed his attention.
As Brex carried his new passenger away further from those awful mare’s and disappeared into the nearby bog. He whispered to himself, “How about we get you somewhere safe, then you can tell me your tale, hmm?”
*Point of view: Third person* *Location: secret Mountain temple* *Time: Three weeks later*
The hallways where a word dark with how there was no light source to speak of. The temple that had once smelt of burning incense, was now reeking with a not so delightful odor. One could hear what sounded like some weak breathing that was echoing throughout the seemingly darkness.
Soon there was a sound of heavy metallic boots making their way in said darkness. In the opposite direction of the sound was a slowly glowing light source that was casting shadows of figures coming down the hallway. Just as the light was reflecting off one of the walls, did it show the body double standing in the middle of the hallway like a silent, ominous guardian. But just as whoever was holding the light source had gone around the corner and could stand before it, did the creation disappear into nothingness, indicating that it's roll was now fulfilled.
The one who was holding the light source turned out to be a tall mare and she was wearing a white and gold armor. An emblem of a golden sun could be seen shining off of the chess plate she adorned. Within moments, came more until there was at least twenty or so coming down the depressing hallway that barely allowed four to walk side-by-side in.
One of the guards spoke up in a tone that clearly showed how nervous she was with where they were, “Ah... Sergeant, are we sure that we're in the right p-place? We've gone pretty deep and we've found that storeroom with those.... Those…” The mare was clearly having trouble with even discussing what she had seen only a short while ago.
Another spoke up from within the group. This one had a rougher tone to her voice as she replies, “We need to find out exactly what happening on here. The guard can't just ignore it when we find a package just sitting in the middle of the squad captains’ desk back at the barracks. More so when it was containing a note, along with a... severed unicorn horn sitting inside of it.” Clearly, she was also having a hard time with talking about the subject with how disturbed her voice was getting near the end.
A third voice came out of the group that seemed a bit angry in comparison to the other two and shouted, “That's quite enough of that. We’re on the job, now stop the chatter and let’s get back to it. The truth in the matter is, we received a tip that there is a herd cult going on here. Furthermore, we cannot ignore the fact that there is a real unicorn horn sitting in one of the evidence lockers back at the barracks.”
There was a short pause before the mare went on, “Now that we located a large stockpile of...” The mare that was speaking trailed off before continuing, “Additional evidence. Then we need to investigate this entire place from top to bottom.”
The first voice that spoke up in the beginning, called out and asked, “Just what was written in that note anyway? If this really is a herd cult, then wouldn’t they be long gone by now, why bring along the entire garrison? Also, there's the five wagons that we brought along too; I doubt there's going to be that much evidence. We could probably fill up two of them with everything we found in that store room alone.”
The third voice spoke up and replied with, “The note specified that there was a group of incapacitated members and we would need transportation to get them all out. Either way, if there are cultists here, then we're going to need the numbers. Better safe than sorry.”
It appeared the conversation was about to go further, but one of the female guards at the very front of the formation had let out a terrified shriek that spooked entire group into pulling out their weapons and taking a defensive position as they got ready for an attack to come out of the shadows.
One of them from the very front called out, “We need a unicorn up here for some light.” Immediately there was some shuffling as one of the other guards came forward and began casting an illumination spell into the darkness ahead.
The entire group let released a series of gasps as they caught sight of a row of mares wearing dirty red robes, shackled against the wall thanks to some metal bars pinning a few by their necks against it, while the other half were on the ground laying still.
They were quickly checked on and during the examinations they found that they were all mares. Appearing to be quite weak due to malnutrition. The ones that laid still, were still alive. But what really caught their attention, was how the ones that were still conscious, seemed to be mumbling under their breaths repeatedly, almost the same thing.
When one of the soldiers that was a few feet away got curious, she asked the unicorn that was currently tending to their condition about what they were mumbling. The medic turned and replied with an unsettled voice as she said, “They're all saying the same thing. They're asking for forgiveness. Some of the exact words are, we're sorry, we're sorry. Please forgive us. Stallions are not weak; we won't ever mistreat them again. Please, just say something. Why won't you speak to us, We're sorry....”
When the medic had finished conveying these words, did they hear some noises coming from deeper in the hallway. In the beginning, one could barely notice its presence. But soon they got a little louder. All of the guards present began to shiver in their armor upon what they heard coming from in the darkness.
It was a repeating echo that was virtually identical to what the medic had just said out loud. They were the voices of many mare’s calling out calling out, saying that they were sorry and they wanted some pony to speak to them. One of the guards near the center of the group was showing that they went wide eyed before exclaiming in a terrified tone, “By Celestia's teets... What could have done this?”
What they didn't know, was that later when they found the deepest part of the temple. Would they understand what kind of a being could have caused so many of these mare’s, who were known for abducting and torturing stallions to become what they were now. One of the guards was trembling when she said the following, “S-Sergeant.... When we get back, I really, really need some time off to talk to my colt friend and apologize for a few things.”
Off to the side, only a few paces away, stood a pair of beings clad in black robes. One was close to six feet tall, while the other was just over five. The taller of the two had a red mask that covered the upper part of his face. As for the shorter of the pair, that one was wearing a black mask of similar design. However, there was a cloth veil that obscured the rest of the face from view.
They were there the entire time, following the group of guards that enter the temple, but appear to be unnoticed by any of them. This being proven when one of the guards walked past without showing any indications that they were even there.
The one with the red mask began to speak in an odd language that made it nearly impossible to tell if they were using a male or a female voice. That one then turned his hood towards a Pony that was now holding a large golden staff that had a large black stone set in place at the top. The figure then shook its head as it turned to the one with the black mask and said a few words.
The black masked one then reached into their robes and pulled out something and presented it. There in its hands, laid three small white orbs with some gold decorations. The red mast one said of few words and carefully took one of the orbs. In response, the other merely shook their head slowly.
Now carefully pinching the orb between their thumb and index finger, did the red mask being start to bring it close to the side of their head. As soon as it got within a few inches, a familiar monotone voice rang loud and clear.
The following could be heard coming from the smaller item. “WHETHER YOU BE IN NEED FOR A WARRIOR OF LIGHT OR A WARRIOR OF DARKNESS. JUST HOLD THIS CLOSE AND MAKE THE CALL. FOR THOSE THAT SEEK TO DESTROY ORDER SHALL BE MY PREY, IF NOT THEN YOU WILL HAVE MY BLADE BY YOUR SIDE. SON OF HYDAELYN. MY NAME IS, BREX VON MITH.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 29: A Short Rest.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Mountain top* *Time: Two months after dealing with the herd cult*
The scene shows a remote valley off in the distance from high above. The atmosphere was in a sense, serene and tranquil with how there was a set of small waterfalls that could be heard in the background along with a multitude of birds in the nearby trees. A small pond of water was within view close by, that was giving off a fair amount of steam which indicated that it was a hot spring.
A short distance away there was another that was more than three times the size. This one, instead had source of fresh water that came from a waterfall coming down along the wall that was about twenty-seven meters up.
On the other end of the water, was where it would drain as the excess flowed off the cliff side. The sun had just started to rise to illuminate the hidden, peaceful cove. All seemed right in the world. This continued for a few more scant seconds before that idealism came crashing when a literal burning bed came flying through the air and splashed into the large pond, thereby extinguishing the flames immediately as it became half sunken in.
As a large plume of ash erupted, it was accompanied by the distinct sound of sizzling as the flames died down instantly. The bed itself seemed quite small and was now charred to the point of almost being unrecognizable for what it used to be.
Off just a short ways, was a large being wearing a white set of robes and a dark gray mask with their right arm fully extended, showing that they were the one who had thrown the bed. He went back into a relaxed posture and turned around on the spot and was now tilting his head down slightly to look at something.
Right behind the tall figure, was a small pony child with red fur and a black mane, that was showing an expression of embarrassment, framed around a set of red eyes that were currently down casted.
The young Unicorn colt then looked up before speaking in a dejected tone, “I'm sorry. I… had another accident…” This was followed by a wince before giving a, not so confident smile. The kid then continued with, “I guess I still need a lot more training, don't I? This hasn't happened in over a week, so I thought that it had passed me by now. I'm really sorry about the bed... Again.”
The tall figure in white robes came up to the kid and gave him a light pat on the head before replying in an assuring tone, “It's fine Blaze.” Before walking around the pond to situate himself near the cliff side. He then pointed his right arm towards the remains of the bed and with one fluid motion with that arm, the large figure had turned to his left. The bed then flew out of the pond and over the edge, towards the distant ground below.
Class Skill: Rescue. Instantly draws a target party member to your side from up to 30 feet away. Brex is able to use the skill to move objects in a direction with the wave of his arm if needed. Does not work on anything that is larger than the one that is using the skill.
The one in robes then proceeded to walk past the kid, while waving to follow along. Blaze look towards the ground and was slow in turning to accompany the figure. His ears were flattened, but they perked up when he heard the one in front saying, “Up for pancakes?” This got an immediate reaction as he darted forward and caught up quickly with an excited, "Yes!" Escaping his lips.
Near to the pond, was a rustic wooden house that had two floors. One could easily tell that this was made to blend in with the environment to some degree, as to not mess with the surrounding nature's calming design.
The kid rapidly approaching it and had already gone through the already open door and disappeared within the structure. Before the being in white managed to get to the door, he mumbled under his breath just low enough to make sure no one could hear, “I do hope he gets that under control soon. If this keeps up anymore for too much longer, I'm gonna end up waking up with tools in my hands and find that I'm building a bed in my sleep.” It may have come out as a complaint, but it seemed more playful with how he was saying it as if it was a joke.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Upon entering the cabin, he looked to find that Blaze Caster was already sitting at the dinner table with a knife and fork in his hands, along with an eager expression on his face.
Brex had been living in this cabin along with Blaze Caster for the better part of a month and a half after he finished its construction. Until then, they had to make do with camping supplies and a set of tents until it was finished.
The scene from earlier, was the kid having another one of his accidents. Where he had unintentionally released his magic and caused himself to spontaneously combust into flames, which led to the bed catching on fire. Luckily, he was awake at the time and had made swift work with carrying it out of the house and throwing it into the water before it became a bigger problem. Right now, Brex was up to bed thirteen… well that was until that morning. Now he was going to have to make number fourteen before the night came.
But before that, he needed to get their food started. Going over to the small kitchen, the Roegadyn went to work on making their batter for the pancakes by taking out the ingredients from his item box and placing them all onto the counter top.
While in the middle of his preparations, he thought back to how it all started with the kid and their first interactions. To say it was a little rough in the beginning, was an understatement.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Two months ago*
The moment he woke up, Blaze Caster seemed sure that he was still being held captive and had tried to run. The attempt had stopped short when he caught himself before falling off the edge of the flying machine that they both were on. But a strong gust of wind blew against the kid that was about to push him off. Just before he fell, Brex grabbed onto his shirt and pulled him back on to the flat surface of the craft.
Brex spoke up over the wind and said, “Watch your step!” The kid immediately turned to him and was now showing a confused expression while trying to understand what was happening by the looks of things. The Roegadyn had intended to land before the kid had woken up, but it seemed that luck was not on his side with that plan with how the pair was still in transit.
From looking at the world map, Brex had discovered that he had traveled quite a long distance and was near the badlands to the South. They had been traveling for well over a day now while riding the Cruise Chaser mount.
He had it keeping its flight as low as possible to avoid detection and sticking to the less populated areas on their route. At the rate they were going, it was going to take them another day before they even got close to Ponyville. That had not been his intended destination, but instead it was in the mountains that he had crossed when heading over to Cloudsdale, which would make the journey another day.
He was rather surprised when he had found out that the blast had sent him nearly two-thirds across Equestria. There was no doubt in his mind that if it wasn’t for Daddy giving him that increased durability in his body, that he would have become a bloody mist upon impact with that mountain top. No wonder it had taken him so long to recover. It wouldn’t have surprised him in the least if he was actually down to just a single health point.
Back to their traveling, if Brex had gone in a straight line, they could have gotten there in a fraction of the time, but he ended up needing to go in a roundabout route. There was no way he could have explained having an unconscious Unicorn child if they were found out. Now, there was a scared kid that was a good hundred feet or so above the ground and he wasn't exactly looking good with how his eyes were darting around in a panic.
He wasn’t all that sure but he could have sworn that he heard some type of creaking noise coming around where he saw the kid’s hands frantically trying to grip tighter onto the metallic surface. Kind of like how they have those videos and you could hear the sound of a submarine creaking as it went deeper underwater.
There were two reasons as to why Brex had brought the kid along with him up to this point. The first had to do with the information that was brought up when he looked up this child using heaven's computer. What he had found was not all that nice. From what he could see, it showed that the kid's name was Blaze Caster. Currently ten years of age and had recently gotten his cutie mark within the last nine days. This wasn’t the bad part.
But the present information wasn't very encouraging. It displayed a brief history of him coming from an orphanage after being left there by some distant relatives. It was shortly after his parents had passed away from being killed by a rampaging monster.
Using the information to locate the town that the orphanage was in, he had found that it was not too far away from the temple, just under a day’s walk. It required one to pass through a marsh that was filled with flames that would erupt from naturally formed geysers of methane. Brex finally made it to a small town but what he saw had caused him to hesitate as soon as it was within sight.
There was a number of creatures roaming around the streets that consisted of these floating heads with faces. These things were made of flames and small hands that were extremely familiar. Accompanying them were also some black creatures with long ears, they were carrying rocks, roaming around and causing destruction.
( Here are the picture's of the Bomb and Rabbit monsters. )
The town itself was mostly in shambles, while most had already collapsed, there was still a number that were a blaze with tall roaring flames. Using his senses and mini map, Brex found that there were no living creatures around, aside from the monsters. From where he stood, he could plainly see a few dead ponies laying in the streets. Judging from that and the number of buildings, the occupants must have fled and these were most likely the ones that stayed behind to fend off the creatures.
With the level of destruction along with counting the numerous creatures, it was quite obvious that this had all started within the last day or two, at the very least. Thanks to constantly burning gases from the marsh, he was unable to distinguish it from the smell of a burning town. Most likely word of this happening here may not reach another for quite a while.
Seeing as how it was already lost and he still had to make sure that the kid was safe. He turned his back and left the scene, seeing as there would have been no point in staying. With everything burnt down and no one around, Brex summoned his two-seater mount and quickly took to the skies.
Now as for the other reason that the kid was still with him, had to do with the title that was beside his name. When looking at others status bar overhead, the game a player one of these to display. It was a kind of, reward for completing a certain type of quest or gaining an achievement through some special action.
But what the title said was the main focus of his interest. Right above the name Blaze Caster, it displayed the words, ‘Ifrit’s friend.’ Now if this wasn't enough, he had found some additional evidence when he went and did a more detailed examination.
On the window that would show a standing version of the kid, there were all the slots that would indicate what he had equipped. At the far bottom right hand corner, there was a symbol that would only have been displayed when one had a Soul Stone.
The stone itself had the name, Ifrit shard. He then tried to get some information on it but it was not displaying anything, not a word was in the item description window that would pop up when doing this. Seeing as he had what appeared to be a Primals Soul stone, along with that title. It was safe to presume that he had some type of a connection with the being.
Going back to the kid that was currently clutching at anything to keep from falling off. Brex spoke up again over the wind once more, “Hold on, Landing!” This got an overly enthusiastic head bob from the kid. Brex had stopped the mount just before it had made touchdown to prevent it from doing its transformation back into humanoid, as to avoid scaring the kid any more than he already was.
After getting off first, Brex got into position just underneath to motion for the kid to jump and that he would catch him. Blaze Caster audibly gulped before trying to climb over the side and hang, so that when he didn’t have to drop so far. They were currently in an open field with there being at least half a mile around them that was clear. But just a short distance away, was a small tree giving the only source of shade from the sun that was now high in the sky.
The kid had immediately ran to the tree and had taken cover behind it, while sticking his head around the side as to watch Brex from a distance. Blaze Caster then proceeded to start sending a barrage of question after question in his direction. Quickly realizing that with this being a child, along with how things have been going, It was going to be extremely difficult to communicate with him just sticking to the three word limit.
So, after a moment of going over the options in his head, did the Roegadyn finally break down and decide to be a little more lenient when speaking to the kid that was currently huddling behind a tree for safety. He turned and dismissed his mount and with a reluctant sigh. Brex then sat down and crossed his legs as to not seem so threatening.
Thankfully, he had long since switched over to his White Mage set of robes. Knowing that if the kid would wake up and see him in the dark armor, then things would have been a lot more difficult with their interactions.
He thought it over for a second on how he should start things off and went with the obvious option of introducing himself. After clearing his throat with a small cough, Brex said, “Name is Gambit.” It didn't quite sit well with him for lying to the kid, but that was the name he chose to be known by when it came to the public. Also, he didn't want to risk the child saying his real name by mistake and have others hear it.
The kid was shaking like a leaf with how his hair was jittering about as he began to speak, “M-My name is B-Blaze Caster. W-What's going on, what happened to those others that took me?”
Brex found himself looking in the direction that they had been traveling from, before returning his sight towards the kid and replied with something in his voice that had a hint of malice buried deep down. “They're being punished... You're safe now.”
Brex started to mentally scold himself with how he had slipped back into his word count limit Immediately after telling himself that he was going to not do that. But at least he managed to string together a sentence, even if it was broken. It was obvious that he had spent too long doing this and it has now become a nervous tick for him.
The kid after hearing this, was now beginning to calm down from the looks of things. But he then poked his head out a little more and was taking stock of where they were before asking the next set of questions. After taking in a deep breath, he spoke in a somewhat worried tone, “Just what is this place and where are you taking me?”
There was an internal sigh of relief from Brex as he was now thankful that this kid was not going to go all bat shit crazy over what's going on. Seems that they could have a calm discussion, at least to a degree. But what he said did click as something he had not fully thought through.
He had wanted to use the echo to learn more. But as it turns out, using it so much, especially inside the temple, had put a strain on the ability in some way and he was unable to activate it. So, aside from what was mentioned in the information that he had looked up before, he was going off of guess work for this kid.
He brought his left arm across his chest to hold on to his right arm's elbow and use the right hand to stroke the chin of his mask to adopt a thinking pose. Looking to the north, he said, “Canterlot is north… Four days walk.”
He then stopped his chin stroking after a moment and snapped his fingers. Now pointing towards the kid, Brex then said, “What's your story?”
After asking the question, Brex was able to tell that he had made the kid a little uncomfortable. This was evident with how Blase Caster would look around before his eyes landed back onto him. There was also a very loud gulp sound that came from the kid. It rather surprised Brex with how he was able to hear it from over fifteen feet away
Brex couldn't help but to have a flat look from underneath his mask as he rolled his eyes for a moment before saying, “I know Ifrit.” There was a small pause before he added, “Care to explain?” Again, immediately after, he gave himself a mental facepalm before internally thinking, “By the twelve!... Why can't I shake that! Come on Brex! You can do this; you can talk normally for a little bit. He's just a kid and he’s alone right now. Not to mention he’s out in the middle of nowhere with a stranger like me... Who wouldn't be scared out of their minds?”
The kid's eyes went wide with disbelief as he began to look around more quickly. But after another few more seconds, he had let out a heavy sigh. Blaze Caster then asked, “How do you know about him? Was it you that wrote the book?”
Hearing about a book made Brex scrunch up his face in confusion. He then started to think, HUH?! Wait, what's this about a book? Also, why would he think I wrote something about that Primal? OK, I really need him to start from the beginning. Come on, you can do this. Just concentrate and say what you mean. I am not about to start becoming a walking, talking, haiku.”
He used his right hand to gesture to the ground in front of him before saying, “What book?... Start from beginning.” From the outside, an onlooker would think that he was just being kind, perhaps very calm and collected. But from behind his mask, his right eye began to twitch erratically and his inner thoughts were mostly comprised of him swearing in a mixture of grown up and kid friendly versions of cursing.
Just as he had finished with the last bit, which was comprised of the words ‘fudge nuggets.’ Did he notice the kid had come out and was now sitting with his legs crossed in the same way as him, just four feet away on the grass.
Rory however, was flat on her back within his head, kicking her legs into the air while trying to stifle a series of giggles at her master's expense by clamping both of her hands across her mouth.
Blaze Caster closed his eyes and tilted his head down slightly before taking in a deep breath through his nose and exhaling slowly. After, He began to tell his story.
“I once lived in a very small town that was pretty far away from where I live now. Along with my mom and dad, who were potato farmers. We were pretty happy, we had everything we could have needed. Even grew enough potatoes to sell at the market almost every day.”
He paused and look to his left with what a dejected look on his face before continuing. “That was, until our town was attacked by a group of rampaging monsters. I was sent away to safety with a number of the other kids that live nearby, but later on, I was told that my mom and dad had both died while fighting off the monsters for the rest to escape. In the end, most of the town had been destroyed.”
Blaze caster was now looking straight down at the ground with his shoulders that were lightly trembling. After taking a second to steady is nerves, he then went on to say, “I was sent to live with a distant relative of my father, but they said that they couldn't take care of me.”
“I was then put into an orphanage. There were only a few kids there and they all had their cutie marks already, because of that I got made fun of a lot. It even got to where I was the only one left and I was sure that the only reason that I hadn't been adopted was because I didn't have my own yet.” Blaze Caster started to cry a little at this point.
It took a few minutes for the kid to calm down enough to go on with the story. “I pretty much did everything I could to find out what my mark would be. Got into a lot of trouble when I tried my hand at cooking.”
Brex couldn't help but to eternally think, “I wonder if he’s as bad as Sweetie Bell is in the show? I think I did read somewhere that she managed to burn an entire breakfast, including the water. Scary part was, all she did was pour the water into a cup straight from the jug of water.” He quickly tuned back in as Blaze Caster went on.
“How was I supposed to know that I can make water catch on fire?!” Hearing those words made him quietly gulp at the idea of him in a kitchen, but quickly refocus on the kid's tale.
After letting out a resigned sigh, along with shaking his head. He went on to say, “After a while, I tried going into the small library that we had at the orphanage for any answers that might help. Maybe there was some clue or a story that could help me in finding my cutie mark. I searched and searched through almost every book.”
“I was about to give up until I saw something that was wedged in one of the bookshelves in the far back of the library. Whatever it was, was wedged in there really tight and took a while to get loose. I guess I shouldn't really have left it there after seeing that it was a book with a very scary cover. But I just couldn't give up so I opened it and found some strange writing and pictures.”
Brex, after hearing this thought to himself, “Oh… I don't really like where this story is going. Kids with books that look scary along with strange letters is not a good combination for anyone.”
Blaze Caster then said, “I looked at it for a while and was about to give up. Right as I was in the middle of closing it, I saw that the letters were beginning to glow a little and shift until they became letters that I could read. From what I can tell from the front few pages, It was a book for those called ‘Summoners’. Beings that had the power to call forth creatures to help them in fighting. At least, that's what I thought it was telling me. A lot of what it was saying didn't make any sense to me.”
“There were instructions on what to do and I thought that if I could do this, then maybe I can get a cutie mark as a Summoner. So, I followed instructions that were written and gathered what I would need. It talked about meeting a lot of Aether and Crystals. At first, I wasn't sure what it meant by Aether but when I return to the page again, the word had changed to that of Magic.”
“I didn't know what it meant about Crystals either, but if it means glowing rocks, then I thought of a cave in the marsh that I had explored once. While there, I did see some large glowing rocks inside. So, after a little bit of work, I'd went to the cave after lights out. I had gotten really good at sneaking out of the orphanage by that time. I guess with me being the only one there, also being a colt, they thought that I would just sit around and be quiet. So they didn't watch me too much.”
This made Brex frown from behind his mask when he heard that they didn’t properly care for the kid when it was their job. He thought to himself, “Probably has something to do with how they see the males as weaklings and not very outgoing. Must have thought that he would just sit around like some sort of a doll.”
Blaze Caster went on to say, “Well, I followed instructions and made a small altar with what I could find. There were a few crystals that were about the size of my fist. Had them all lined up in a circle. I then did some chanting that was really, really hard to say. The lights in the cave went out after the small torch I had sitting at the altar fell over from a strong wind that came out of nowhere.”
“After that, there was this glowing bubble… I think. That was hovering in the middle of the circle I made. It hovered closer to the crystals and they all started to lose their glow after a few seconds. When they were all out, the bubble came flying at me and went inside my body through my chest.”
“When that happened, I ended up falling over and got very sleepy. When I woke up the next day, I was about to leave the cave, seeing as the sun had already started to come up. But I started to hear a weak voice that seemed to be coming out of nowhere. After freaking out for a while, I discovered that it was coming from in my head.”
“The voice was really hard to make out and it didn't say a lot. But it did call itself, Ifrit. When I had stepped outside, I saw that I got my cutie market while I was asleep. I was so excited that I ran straight back to the village and quickly found one of the ladies running the orphanage to show them. They didn't even know that I had gone out that night and of course, I was then yelled at for a while. But they seemed really happy that I had finally got mine.”
“Later that night, I woke up after having a scary dream about attacking other ponies by throwing fire at them. When I opened my eyes, I found that there was a lot of light coming into my room through the closed blinds. I thought that there may have been a party or something that I didn't know about but when I opened them, I found that half the town was on fire and there were these scary monsters running all over.”
“I tried to find some pony to help me… But, but there was none of the ladies still inside of the building. I panicked made a run for the bog. I don't know how long I ran for, but I ended up falling in the water a couple times while trying to find a safe place to hide. I tried going to the cave from before, when I got there, there was already some monsters around it so I tried to sleep up in one of the trees.”
“The next thing I knew, I felt like some pony had hit me in the back of the head. When I came too again, I was inside of a sack and I heard some mare’s talking. I tried to get out when one of them hit me again.”
“After that, everything's a blur. I was then on that that thing and flying in the sky. I guess, well… You know everything else...” Letting out another sigh, Blaze Caster hunched over and began to begin to cry a little after recalling everything up to this point.
Brex felt bad after realizing that he had caused a kid to re-live all of it by asking him for the story. He also started to go over all the small details that he heard. First, there was this book that was hidden away in the weirdest place. Then it started off being unreadable, but something caused it to change so that even a child would understand. There was even the part about it changing a word or two so that he could figure it out a little easier. If this didn't scream out someone was manipulating the child, then he didn't know what would.
After allowing the child some time to calm down, which took a good half hour. Brex started to try and explain what he had found when he had gone to the nearby village. It had taken some work thanks to his stupid, nervous tick when it comes to talking. But he had managed to communicate well enough that the child was able to understand what he meant.
After that, Brex went on to ask about what the book looked like and where would it be now. Blaze Caster informed him that it was a large, dark brown book that was maybe eight or nine inches wide and just over a foot long. The pages weren’t numbered or anything, but it could have had over four-hundred pages held inside. The cover was the most unusual it seemed.
There was some odd stitching that used a material that made Blaze Caster to think it wasn’t made of thread that running along the edges. At the center had a sideways picture that resembled the face of a dragon in a way. Right above the face was a set of short glowing orange horns curved back at first but turned to the front.
Unfortunately, after the ceremony was completed and he had blacked out, the book was no longer around anymore. Blaze Caster had even checked the whole cave and the surrounding area, but found no signs of any pony coming by to steal it thanks to how muddy things were in the bog.
Brex went on to explain just who this, Ifrit was and what the ceremony that he had described was really intended to do. Back in the game, there would be these beast tribes who would call down gods to deliver them from harm. He wasn't really quite sure where they were from or if they were truly gods.
But they would be summoned and a piece of their souls would come into this world to do the one thing that they were called for. In the end, they would end up corrupting those around them, turning them into their thralls. This would in turn create followers that would do anything for their Primal Gods, even if it meant killing their loved ones if was for their benefit.
Brex had concluded that with the lack of sufficient Aether or in this case magic, along with the small number of crystals that was offered, was insufficient and the primal must not have had enough to come to this world with a physical form. As a result, a piece of it was now inside of the kid. This would explain the weird title, along with that one equipped item that was in place of a Soul Stone.
During the explanations, Brex was going over options in his head as to what actions should be taken. The Primal residing within him was all about destruction with the use of flames as its medium. It didn't help that it was giving him nightmares about hurting other ponies. Then, what were the odds of there being fire based monsters roaming around only after the summoning ritual was conducted.
There were still a lot of questions that needed answers, but without the book from the story, then there wasn't much left to do, other than endless theories to be tossed into the wind.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Back in the present*
Brex had just finished making the pancakes and was now bringing them over to the table in both hands. Since that time, he took it upon himself to take in the kid as an unofficial... Actually, he wasn't really that quite sure on how things were set up. He didn't know if this was a, Big Brother and little brother thing or if he had adopted a child and had become apparent.
All he knew was, Blaze Caster didn't really refer to him by name or some type of title. This was mostly due to them being away from others, so names weren't really used that often. It wasn't until a little while after that, that they had realized that Blaze would have frequent nightmares. He couldn't recall them all that well and these would quite literally, spark the flames of fear that was the cause of so many deaths among the race known as the beds.
Brex placed one plate in front of the kid and went to the other side of their table that was just large enough to seat four. He watched as Blaze Caster dug into the pancakes with such ferocity that he knew that if he had gone and reached anywhere near that plate, his own fingers would be gone before either of them realized what had happened.
Just as he was about to reach for his fork, his hand stopped after feeling a weird sensation from underneath the table near his leg. With a deadpan expression that was hidden behind his mask, he mentally thought, “OK, Rory that's enough that, just how many times have I told you there's a kid right there?”
Not even a second later, Rory’s head begins the phase through the table and only stopped when getting just past her neck line. She then gives him one of her signature, come hither looks while speaking in her joking voice, “You're such a spoiled sport. I'm merely giving my Master a good morning greeting. Now what's so wrong with that?”
Apparently Blaze Caster had noticed how he had suddenly stopped moving and with some food still making his cheeks all puffed up, he asked, “It's something wrong, why aren't you eating? Their so good!”
While still looking towards the head resting in the middle of the table that was now giving him an all-knowing smirk, he casually replies by saying, “Just remember something.”
The girl then stands to her full height and saunters over to the right and sits at the one unoccupied chair that is situated on the side and right between the both of them who were eating. Rory then says, while putting her elbows on the table and resting her head in her hands, “So, I guess telling him about me anytime soon is still out of the question I take it?”
As to keep it as subtle as possible and not gain Blaze Caster’s attention, he shook his head quietly. Brex then replied mentally with, “You know we can't tell him anything like that. I've told you before that you're my ace in the hole. Besides, how do you think others are going to react knowing that there's another inside of my head.”
“It's one thing to be something that doesn't exist in their world. But to be that and have another voice inside their head, that's just telling them that I'm dangerous and unstable. Not to mention that if I should ever come across Luna and she gets wind of this, she'll most likely assume that Nightmare Moon is trying to take control of me. Then shit will hit the fan.”
“I would rather keep them all guessing than to lay everything out. If things end up going downhill, then I'd like to not be one of those labeled villains that gives away all their secrets and tells everyone how to kill us. Besides, it worked out when we went against Grandmother.”
Brex then had an internal chuckle before continuing, “I wish I could have seen the look on her face after you nearly punched her head off. Maybe when he gets a little older, I might tell him about you but things aren't exactly concrete right now. Especially with how his powers are all fluctuating the way they are.”
Rory then sags down and lays the upper part of her body across the table while laying her head on the side and looking at him. Rory then replies with, “Master, you're living with another... Person. Yet you're still being overly paranoid. Blaze Caster is a kid. Yes, I get it, but do you really need to be that cautious with him?”
Brex reaches down the rest of the way and grabs onto the fork and begins to eat his pancakes. As soon as he brings a forkful of some of it close to his mask, it is instantly slurped through without showing any traces on the wooden covering.
As he is eating, he glances down towards Rory and replies with, “I especially need to be careful around the kid. This isn't just for me but for his own safety. I plan on trying to help him as best I can and give him the information he needs, then if something should happen, then the kid can claim that he knows nothing. There have been stories where those who know the displaced end up getting hunted down just for their knowledge.”
Rory then gives him a defeated sigh as she goes to stand. She then heads over to one of the nearby windows and begins to glance outside through it. Thankfully, from his spot at the table, Brex has a good view of the outside so she would be able to look outside for real.
Brex couldn't help but to be impressed with how effortlessly Rory has been able to adapt his way of imagination as to allow her to be in the real world, in a way. She may not be able to interact with anything now, but whenever she comes into contact with him, he’s able to sense something.
There were even a few times where he had to catch himself before he ended up speaking out loud with how realistic it all felt. The last thing he wanted to do was to explain to Blaze Caster that he was talking to what the kid would only see as an imaginary girlfriend
The word girlfriend then began to echo in his head for a moment as he found himself looking towards Rory a little more, before quickly returning a site back down to the pancakes that were nearly finished. He wasn't quite sure, but those words would cause him to think of Rory within an Instant.
Pulling his thoughts away from that subject, he went back towards thinking about what to do for today. Aside from living with the kid, Brex had been teaching him some basic knowledge when it came to schooling. Well, at least basic knowledge from Earth anyway. He had recalled earlier about how their educational system was sorely lacking when he had gone through some of the books at the Golden Oaks library.
From what he could tell, their education stopped as soon as high school level was reached. There were other advanced classes. Those were mostly meant for the Unicorns and their magic. While others would end up going into their jobs and professions or just help out with their family until they got old enough to support themselves.
A small bit of anger had been lit within Brex at the thought that the Unicorns had a monopoly on learning, but he quickly extinguished it before it became a rant.
There were times that he had to leave to take care of business and had to leave Blaze Caster alone in their cabin. Thankfully, he had built it to be quite sturdy and was only gone for a short time thanks to his ability to travel to any place he’s been to before. There was also the added benefit of leaving a body double around to keep an eye on things while he was away.
Speaking of body doubles, this was something that he had just recently introduced to Blaze Caster, along with switching over to his Black Mage as to help in teaching him on how to use this fire abilities. It didn't take much to convince the kid that he knew an unorthodox style of magic that had to do with his kind. He had to control himself from bursting out in laughter when he saw the bugging out expression on the kid's face when he produced a copy of himself for the first time.
Now when it came to the times that he had to leave the cabin. Brex would go to three places at regular intervals at least once a month. While there was a fourth that he would go to pretty much every day.
The first of the three would have to be whenever he went back to Baltimare to sit at the shoreline and have a short run in with the kid called Vapor Trail and chat for a short while before she had to get on her way. She would often ask him about where he had been going and he would always keep the answers somewhat vague. But it did seem that she was always happy whenever he showed up.
The second stop was over by the confectionary that his future godson was going to be born too. Melody and Steel Will would always receive him with open arms. The old bull would always be trying to get him to try out some new crazy experiment that he had going on in the kitchen. Which usually ended up with him giving a few pointers here and there, as to not cause his customers to vomit all over the tables as soon as they put it in their mouths.
There was even one time that he was sure that he had turned green underneath his mask after trying something that had some kind of a weird name that he couldn't even pronounce. But after the first time that he had gone to visit them, Brex had gone into his item box and pulled out another one of his link pearls.
This one was a shade of light blue and he used it to create another and gave it to Steel Will. The Minotaur was quite surprised when it was explained to be a communication tool and it would allow them to call one another should something happen.
After trying really hard to escape the expecting couple. Brex had used his abilities again and got close to Canterlot for the third stop. Thanks for that one time that he passed it when he had left ponyville, Brex was near the base of the mountain and had ducked into the shadows using his Shadow movement and enter the city.
He had pulled out a small piece of paper that had an address written on it. Unfortunately, he got a little lost with how they had numbered all the buildings in a weird way. Halfway through his searching, he mentally complained that this should have been counted as a quest and there should have been a quest marker to show where to go.
By the time he had found the address, it was a good hour of searching. The paper had led him to a rather large, four-story building that looked as if it could house a good dozen ponies. As soon as he had crossed over from the sidewalk and onto the lawn, his senses started to go haywire at the sudden flood of information about there being Changelings just ahead.
Thankfully, there was none around that could see the front door thanks to the high stone walls that was surrounding the property. So, Brex came out of the shadows that was made from a nearby bush and stood in front of their door, wearing his white robes and a dark gray mask.
Remembering the encounter from last time, he closed off his emotions once more. But only to the extent that it would make it extremely difficult for the ones inside to sense them. Brex found that he could still feel things if he focused enough. To say that it was tricky was an understatement. The whole thing was like balancing on a tight rope.
One wrong slip-up and he would lose his connection to all of his emotions. While on the other side of the coin would cause everything to come out for the Changelings to see. He didn’t like the idea of others knowing how he felt or thought.
When he had knocked on the door, it was answered by an elderly stallion wearing a Butler's uniform. Brex had raised his right eyebrow after getting a good look and he was almost sure that it was the exact same style as his Mysterious Butler, just without the head covering.
Without saying a word, he presented the note that had guided him to the building and when the Butler had gone over it, he was quickly ushered inside. After going through the whole song-and-dance of being asked to wait and then be presented to the master of the house, Brex found himself in one of the second-floor rooms and sitting on a large couch while surrounded by a group of Changelings. They were lined up in a neat row along both sides of the room and currently in their pony disguises.
He was positive that there was maybe six at most the last time he had seen the couple. But it would seem that after coming back to Canterlot, a few more had joined fancy pants and Fleur de Lis.
From a quick glance, it was apparent that each one of the Changelings were female. However, half of their numbers was dressed in the female variant of his Butler outfit, while the other was wearing maid's outfit with the skirt just barely reaching down to their knees.
What made things worse for him, was the fact that the Butler uniforms now had the stockings that he had thought about before and this was making him very glad that he had already put his emotions in check. Otherwise, there would be a hard time with concealing the Brex junior from being seen from under the robes.
It really didn't help with Rory walking around and pretending that she was going to try and lift up the maid's skirts to get a rise out of Him. He was momentarily considering the idea of picturing her with a leash to control her, but thought otherwise. Knowing her, it would just make things worse.
The meetings would usually consist of the meet and greet. Then discussions on their project that was in the works. Brex would normally just write things down and make alterations to blueprints that were presented.
It wasn't until the second meeting that Brex had informed them that he had someone in his care. They had asked why didn't he just bring the kid along, but the Roegadyn Inform them that it was a complicated situation. Fleur de Lis had actually attempted to suggest that they have one of the Changelings accompanying him to help with caring for the child.
When this was said, he saw that out of the corner of his eye, there was a few of the Changelings that were nodding their heads furiously, along with big dopey smiles. Brex had managed to decline the offer but said that one of these days, he might bring the kid along.
This got a delighted squirrel from Fleur de Lis as she clapped her hands excitedly at the prospect of meeting Blaze Caster. Afterwards he would bid them farewell. It didn’t escape his attention when he saw a number of the guards in disguise looking rather dejected at thought of him leaving.
Now, as for the fourth and final place, that one he would go to on a daily basis. This being the Tree of Harmony. Brex had been going there every day to see if there was going to be any more clues as to when he needed to be around for Twilight.
Ever since that incident with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, he had been expecting it to give him some type of a warning. But over the past two months, there had been nothing to indicate that any trouble was about to befall the Pony.
As a precaution during one of his visits to Canterlot, Brex had made a body double and ordered it to stay in the shadow to infiltrate the castle grounds. Making sure to give it strict orders on not interfering with anything and to stay clear of Celestia. In fact, it was so much so, that he indicated that unless it was an emergency, it was not to be within one thousand feet of that Pony so she wouldn’t detect its presence.
The first thing that Brex did, was to carefully monitor his copy while it was inside of the palace thanks to the mental link that he had with them. From there, it was only a matter of time until he spotted the princess walking down one of the halls that was partially exposed to the outside.
To make sure that he knew whenever that she was to instantly walked within range of the Mini map, he had placed a marker above her head. With that in place, Brex could be immediately alerted whenever she came in to close proximity as to avoid her whether it was his doppelgänger's or himself in the future.
For the first time since seeing her image back when he was with those three after he caught sight her through his copy's eyes. Brex would have been awestricken by beauty, if it wasn't for the underlining mistrust that he had towards the individual right now all he could think of when he came to Celestia, was how she had blasted his arm into ash and their meeting.
Afterwards, he broke off the connection and ordered his copy to only send relevant information when needed. This was because he didn't know what he would end up doing if he had to look at that mare for any longer.
Now blinking, he saw that Blaze Caster was sitting there with a content smile, along with a bloated, pancake stuffed belly. Brex felt a smile slowly creeping on to his face at seeing someone thoroughly enjoying something he had made.
He then picked up the now empty plates and went over to his sink and got them cleaned up quickly. When finished, he turned towards the table and saw that the kid was no longer there. Raising an eyebrow, he was beginning to wonder just where Blaze Caster had run off too. That question was quickly answered when He heard a lot of shuffling sounds that coming from the floor above.
Turning his attention towards the noise, Brex found that the young Pony had already changed out of his pajamas and was now wearing his usual white T-shirt and black long pants.
Brex could only shake his head at how the kid was so adamant about keeping the same style of clothing. Especially when he had offered to make pretty much anything he could have wanted to wear thanks to the many crafting skills available.
Catching sight of Blaze Caster using his magic to levitate over a satchel had caused Brex to think about something that they've been long awaiting to do. This was because of the aura that the magic was making when in use.
When a Unicorn uses any kind of spell, their horn would give off a glow as it would emit the energy when it applied in their telekinetic hold, that object would also have the same hue of color surrounding it as well.
Blaze Caster on the other hand, was rather unique with how it would always show small how sparks as if looking at a sparkler being used on the fourth of July.
He had the kid pretty much cooped up here until he had a grasp on his powers a little better, seeing as his tendency to lose control of his magic and spontaneously combust was an issue in the beginning.
But over the past couple of weeks, the kid had made an enormous leap in control. Brex then called out to the kid that was standing near the edge of the second floor and said, “I'm going out... Care to join?”
This got a shocked look from the kid from hearing the question. Brex had expected him to be excited. However, the look of concern crossing the kids face caused him think otherwise. It soon dawned on Brex that Blaze Castor was still nervous about being around others due to his is magics volatile nature.
He then mentally facepalmed when he remembered that kid had a tendency to flare up whenever he got nervous and this caused him to have an Issue with his self-confidence.
There were a few times that he ended up burning away all of his clothing when he was in the middle of one of their training sessions on how to use this fire-based magic, which happened to be Blaze Casters specialty thanks to the Primals spirit within.
As a result, his abilities were restricted to certain types and he was now unable to cast as many types of spells as other Unicorns. Typically, they would have a few areas that they could work with, but blaze Caster was a special case.
As far as Brex could tell, the kid was limited to only casting magic that had anything to do with fire, along with some levitation. There was also another issue that had to be resolved. This being the traumatic experience he had gone through when it came to the town that his orphanage was located in. The fire left a scar that had yet to be healed.
Blaze Caster was fully convinced that what happened to his town, was a direct result of his attempt at summoning. Because of this, he now has an aversion to fire and gets really nervous when using it. So, even if the kid was scared of fire, he made it obvious when told Brex that he was more afraid of hurting others then his own wellbeing.
He knew that it was gonna take some time for his mental wounds to heal before he could fully utilize his abilities. Brex was relieved when Blaze Caster had agreed to get some help. Even going as far as calling forth the flames when clearly disturbed while doing so. This showed that he had great character in self-improvement.
Knowing this, he had been using an hour a day to help ease the kid into using his fire-based magic. Brex had actually scared when one time, one of Blaze Caster’s spells had misfired and blew up in his face after he had tried to make the flames into an orb. But when Brex found that he was unharmed, he gave out a heavy sigh of relief. An added resistance to heat was a plus thanks to the soul currently in the kid, to which he was extremely grateful for.
Now going back to the kid, Brex walked up a little bit until he was just at the bottom of the ladder and called out, “Try this on.” That was when he pulled from his item box something that resembled a very heavy coat. It was then tossed up and immediately caught by Blaze Caster who began to examine it thoroughly with interest.
With all the troubles with clothing and wanting to take the kid out at some point, Brex had been working on something while Blaze Caster would sleep in order help in allowing him to go out in public.
It was modeled after something he remembered seeing on some anime involving firefighters who had abilities to control flames in unique ways. It was mostly black with some light-gray sections along the neckline and arm sleeves. On the right shoulder, was a shield type of design with Blaze Caster's cutie mark embroidered in the center.
The clothing had taken a number of attempts and experimenting with fire magic until he had found the right combination where the materials and design was something that would be highly flame resistant.
There was even a set of pants and gloves that went along with it that had some metal guards on the knees of the lower section. As far as the gloves went, they looked as if they would give him some ample protection if he was to ever punch something hard thanks to the small strips of metal padding along the knuckles.
By the time Blaze Caster had put everything on, he looked up to Brex with a broad smile. Brex then said, “It looks good.” After saying those words, he couldn't help but to look at the kid and see a miniature version of the character that was code named juggernaut that the outfit was modeled after.
Immediately, he began to blink repeatedly with a blank expression on his face. Within seconds, it turned into a confused one as he went over all the facts regarding Blaze Caster. Brex then began to compare little tippets between the kid and the character known as juggernaut from the anime that he knew very little About. He shook his head and thought to himself, “Nah! It's just a coincidence… Right?”
Brex saw Blaze Caster climbing down the ladder and stood before Brex. After a second, the Roegadyn then asked, “Not too hot?” Blaze caster then shook his head and showed another beaming smile as he replied by saying, “Nope! Not at all. I know it's summer and everything, but I hardly feel hot at all. I bet I could wear a hundred of these things and not even start sweating.
This only caused Brex to look off to the side as if glancing at an unknown audience and quickly thought to himself, “Yeah, It's just a coincidence. It's not like he’s really gonna do that... Right?” All the while showing a strained face that was just begging others to say that he was right.
After that, Brex went to tidy up the cabin. During the tidying up, Blaze Caster was walking around and getting a better feel for his outfit. There was even a few times that Brex had caught the kid out of the corner of his eye throwing a punch at an imaginary target. Apparently Blaze Caster was pretending that he was wearing a suit of body armor or something by the looks of it.
The gear that Brex had made was tailored to Blaze Caster's current level. He hadn't mentioned it to the kid, but it would seem that he was already as strong as an adult thanks to the small peace of the Primal living within.
Most civilian ponies were around level seven or ten. Brex had even noticed that when it came to the guards at any of the cities that he had visited, they were closer to level twenty. Only a few were above that as far as he could tell. Honestly, Brex was scared for the ponies for being that weak.
Now when it came to kid, he was at least four times stronger than a kid should be at his age. Instead of being around level two or three, Blaze Caster was already at level twelve. So, because of his advanced skills, Brex had already gone ahead and made his gear to be that of level ten. Right now, he could literally be laying on top of a lit torch and it would hardly burn away at any of the fabric.
So, if one was to think of it that way, then Blaze Caster really was wearing a suit of armor. Brex had contemplated in training the kid in how to fight but wanted to wait a little while longer so that he would have a chance at making the decision when he had a leveled head. It wouldn't sit right with the Roegadyn if he forced a child into a life that he really didn't want.
When the preparations were complete, the two of them stepped outside and Brex locked the door behind. Blaze Caster was already making a break for the path that was leading out of their hidden cove but stopped after running a good distance or so to turn around and notice that Brex had not moved from the door.
Blaze Caster then called out while waving is right arm above his head, “Hey! What are you waiting for, let's get going. If we don't go now, then we won't make it to the nearest village until nightfall.” He then paused and looked a little nervous as he then continued with, “Um... We're not gonna go on that thing again, are we?”
It didn't take long for Brex to know what he was talking about. It wasn't too surprising to figure out from the way he talked, that kid had an aversion to flying and was scared that Brex was about to throw out the same machine that they were first riding on.
Brex only shook his head in the negative and gestured for Blaze Caster to come back over to him as he took several steps into the open.
When Blaze Caster had come back over, Brex began to say, “Going another way... It's a secret. Can you promise?” This caused the kid to tilt his head in confusion, but after a few seconds his eyes went wide and they were now sparkling with interest as he nodded. When Brex saw this, he internally asked Rory, “OK, it's not my imagination right, how do they get their eyes to sparkle like that?”
Rory stepped into view on the right side and began to lean in as if taking a closer look at the eyes for herself. She then leaned back up and gave a halfhearted shrug as she said, “Yeah, don't ask me. You're the one who looked through their medical books. At least he’s not doing the... Halo... Thing?” Rory's voice was trailing off as they both noticed a Halo that was right above Blaze Caster’s head that wasn’t there before. They both then muttered within his head, “Cartoon logic... just go with it.”
Mentally shaking his head, Brex held out his left hand for Blaze Caster to take. When he did, the Roegadyn bent his knees a little and made the motion that he was getting ready to hop in place. When Brex was sure that the kid had understood what he was doing, he said, “Jump on three.”
Blaze Caster had a look on his face that said that he was about to ask what was going on, but was unable to do so when Brex began on the count down.
After crouching down a little, Brex said, “One… Two… Three!” As soon as that last word left his lips. the pair jumped into the air. As soon as they were about to touch the ground, their shadows began to expand and they both fell in. The moment that they had completely disappeared, the black spots on the ground would quickly shrink until there was nothing to indicate that they were even there.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Tree of Harmony*
Within a cave, stood a tall majestic tree made of crystals. All along the floors, walls and ceiling, the light from the tree was causing everything glisten with the multi spectral colors of light that emanated from it.
Suddenly, the colors on the tree began to sparkle more vibrantly for but a few seconds before returning to normal. Then two small black dots appeared Infront of the tree and grew until two figures came hopping out to land in place.
Brex looked up to the tree and gave it a small wave with his right hand. In his left hand, was still Blaze Caster hanging onto him tightly. Brex then looked over to see if the kid was freaking out after jumping into his own shadow but found that he was already taking in the sites around them.
Blaze Caster then finally released Brex's hand and began to run around while examining every nook and cranny impossible. After a few seconds, the kids turned around and asked Brex, “Where are we? When you say that you got business, this is where you go all day?”
The Roegadyn only shook his head lightly before replying, “A quick stop.” After a few seconds, he continued to say, “Checking on something.” Brex then approached the tree and stood about five feet away and began to examine all of the branches.
Seeing that everything was in order and there were no new lights being shown, Brex was about to turn around when there was a sudden burst of purple light directly overhead.
Blaze Caster noticed this and quickly ran over to his side. He then spoke in an awe inspired tone, “Wow, what's that?” Referring to the large multi pointed star that sat at the center of the tree.
Letting out a small sigh, Brex looked down towards Blaze Caster and spoke in an apologetic tone, “Work is calling.” As soon as he had said those words. Blaze Caster began to lightly kick at the ground while looking at his hoofs and swaying his arms. There was also this look of resignation that was slowly growing.
Inside, Brex was cursing to himself at the extremely bad timing of the multiverse. This entire time, he had gotten nothing from the tree. But the very instant he decides to have something to do, it starts calling him. He had an odd feeling that made him wonder if the tree was somehow connected to telemarketers like how they always seemed to call during dinner.
He had considered bringing him straight back to the cabin, but knowing that something might happen was gnawing at the back of his mind. There was no telling whether or not he would be able to come back right away or if something was to happen to Blaze Caster if he was to be away for too long.
Suddenly an idea popped in his head and he quickly snapped his fingers. This caught Blaze Caster's attention as he looked up towards him with a bit of confusion written across his face at the sudden sound that was made.
Brex asked, “Been to Canterlot?” This got a quick headshake from the kid and Brex went on to say, “While I'm busy... Stay with friends?” As soon as he released the word friends, he blinked and internally asked himself, “Huh, do I really see them as friends? Never really thought about it before.”
Brex then saw Rory coming out from behind the tree and was now circling the crystalline sculpture with an intrigued gaze. After a pass, she turned to him and said, “Well, there are the closest things to friends. You help them, they help you, they don't ask too many questions. Sort of sounds like friends to me.”
During this time, Blaze Caster was looking down and had brought both of his hands together. While poking both the tips of his index fingers into one another, he spoke in a quiet voice, “Are… You sure that it's OK, for me to go without you? I mean, I don't know what to do if I end up having one of my… incidents. Also, how long are you going to be gone for?”
Brex returned his attention to the kid and started to gently pat him on top of the head. Eliciting an annoyed grown of protest. Although, it was kind of difficult for him to continue with the act when he started to giggle near the end.
After removing his hand, he began to stroke the chin of his mask absent mindedly. A few seconds later, he replied with, “Not too sure... Maybe all day.”
After hearing the answer, Blaze Caster began to look even more nervous as the seconds went by. Brex immediately went in and started to ruffle the kid's hair playfully. Afterwards he said, “Their nice folk... You'll like them.”
This had managed to calm the kid down and he looked backup to Brex with a small smile before nodding. When the exchange was completed, Brex held out his hand and Blaze Caster who knew immediately what was to come next. The both of them leapt into their shadows once again and disappeared into the floor.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Canterlot*
The pair quickly found themselves leaping out of the darkness and into a brightly lit area that was in the middle of a walkway, surrounded by many shrubs. Before them stood a rather fancy building that Brex had come to visit at least twice already. Around them was the hustle and bustle of a busy city, with tall buildings. Off in the distance was a castle that was taller than anything else in sight.
Brex noticed how the kid was already at work looking at the various types of plants around. Using the opportunity, he went into his item box and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill. After dipping the writing instrument, he jotted down a few things.
It was a basic run down on the situation, that said there was something that had come up and he was going to need Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis to watch over the kid for the day or so. It also listed a few things about his condition when it came to magic control and caution when it comes to flames around Blaze Caster.
There was also a bit there about requesting that they don't ask too many questions because of the complicated nature surrounding the both of them. Brex didn't want to go into too much details so he only put down the bare minimum of information as to not give away too many secrets.
By the time he had finished, nearly all of the paper had been filled out and Blaze Caster was already back after finishing his examination of all the lawn sculptures.
Blaze caster was currently looking up at him with wide eyes as he asked in excitement, “Just where are we and who do you know that lives in a huge house like this? They must be rich, like princess rich. Are you sure it's OK for me to be here? I don't want to make a mess of something, or get you into trouble...”
Brex reached down and began to guide Blaze Caster towards the front door by lightly pressing on his back. They were but a dozen or so steps away and Brex knew that this was going to be a little difficult for the kid, seeing as he'd been with him pretty much the entire time and is the only one that really knows about his current situation.
He spoke in a gentle tone as he said, “It's fine, so don't worry about it.” Brex was sort of caught off guard when he caught the kid blinking at him with surprise. It took him a few seconds for the Roegadyn to figure out just what would cause such a reaction, but came to a grinding halt on the spot when he had realized that he had just broken through the three-word limit and said seven words without even knowing.
Within his head, Brex was jumping for joy that he was on the verge of breaking this nervous tick of his. But quickly remembered that they were about to meet with the pair that owned the house and he was going to have to go right back to it. Which caused his internal cheering to die down instantly.
They resumed their walk and finally made it to the door. He had knocked on it and after a few moments, it was then opened by the same elderly Butler as always.
After getting a polite nod and a small smile from the house attendant, they were both guided in and stood in the waiting parlor for the couple. Soon, one could hear the steps from two coming down the stairs just outside of the room. Then there was another set and another set. Quickly it became what resembled a stampede with the numbers within seconds.
Brex just stood there staring at the door with a look underneath his mask that just said, "Really now? Why does it feel like I just came home and all the dogs in the house just have to rush to meet me? What’s next, bringing me my slippers… Um wait, I think they would actually do that if I was to ask… and… much more." There was a small gulp after that thought.
Before the doors were flung open thanks to a pair of maids holding each door, allowing Fleur de Lis to quickly rush inside the room. She was followed by a calmly walking Fancy Pants that was not far behind who was currently looking over the note that Brex had written just a few minutes ago.
Fleur de Lis was wearing one of her usual fancy dresses that one would see if they were to go to a high society party. But at the moment, she was acting more like a kid who was just told that they were going to the toy store all day with how excited she looked.
She quickly came running right up to Brex and took hold of his hands together and spoke in an overly enthusiastic tone, “Oh but of course we'll watch him for you! We just didn't expect you to be coming so soon! He-he!”
From what Brex understood about Fleur de Lis, was that while in public, she was always a very quiet mare. But in private she was just like any other. In a way, she kind of reminded him of some of the clips that showed Candace when she was younger and babysitting twilight.
Fancy Pants then stepped in and with his usual polite mannerisms said, “Well it's good to see again old boy. Indeed, we didn't expect your visit for another couple of weeks.” He then chuckled a little bit while fixing his monocle before continuing, “I'm all for helping you out and as you can see my wife is very excited. If truth be told, she has been smitten with the idea of you bringing your young charge ever since your first mentioning of him.”
Bringing a fist up to his face, he then chuckled a little more while looking over to his fiancée with an amused look. Fancy Pants then went on to say,” In fact, she hasn't stopped talking about It sense the last visit. She was already running down the steps by the time I had even gotten my hands on this letter. My dear just threw it up into the air and dashed out of the room. Never seen another pony run that fast before.”
This only caused Fleur de Lis to sit up straight after she had already gone to the couch to sit down and was now turning a deep shade of pink that started on her cheeks and traveled down her neck. Which was quickly paired with a set of puffed-up cheeks as she gave him a gentle, “Humph!” And turned her face away for a moment before bringing it back to ask, “Just how long are you planning on staying in the city?”
Brex looked towards the nearby window that showed the Castle in the distance before turning back to the pair. He then replied with, “Maybe two days.” Honestly, Brex had expected to only be there for one day but he wanted to give Blaze Caster some time to relax and be around other ponies for at least a little while.
After hearing the response, Fleur de Lis clapped her hands excitedly and proclaim, Ah, that's just marvelous. I'm sure...” She trailed off and began to look more nervous as she turned towards the kid and asked in a flustered tone, “Oh please forgive me, I don't think I got your name. My name is Fleur de Lis and the handsome gentlepony over there is my soon to be husband Fancy Pants. What might yours be?”
Suddenly being put on a spot like that, Blaze Caster somehow managed to get behind Brex with such speed that one would have thought he had somehow used a teleportation spell. He then poked his head around the left side of Brex and replied with a curiously stuttering voice, “I-I my, my name is Blaze Caster... You said that your name is, Fleur de Lis... Are you really Fleur de Lis the supermodel?”
Fleur de Lis then brought one of her hands up to cover her mouth a little as she giggled and replied with, “I see some pony as young as yourself knows about me. I guess I have another fan.” She then looked towards her fiancé and said, “Oh and don't worry, I'm not about to trade you up for some pony younger.”
Fancy Pants then blink a few times before giving her a scrutinizing glare that quickly evolved to him giving a roaring chuckle before replying, “No need to fret. I dare say he has a bit of growing up to do before I have to worry about any type of competition.”
Brex looked down and saw how Blaze Caster was somehow managing to turn a darker shade of red out of pure embarrassment at being the butt of a joke between a soon to be married couple. Honestly, Brex was a little surprised that the kid even knew about her. Just goes to show how popular a supermodel can be If word about her got all the way to a small town like that.
After just a little bit more of the playful banter, did Brex look over to one of the Changelings within the room that was wearing a maid's outfit and realized that it would be best to get this out of the way now rather than it becoming a surprise later on for the kid.
Giving a light cough as to get the attention of Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis. He then gestured with a small nod of his head towards the maid and Blaze Caster before saying, “Needs to know.”
A sudden look of realization came across the pairs faces as this as they look towards one another and then the rest of the guards in disguises within the room. Fleur de Lis looked over to Fancy Pants and received a subtle nod and a small as reassurance.
Afterwards, she called over one of the maids which was disguised as a Unicorn mare with a pure white hair scheme and a black mane and tail. She then gave them all a short bow before standing up straight. She was quickly engulfed in a torrent of black and green flames that disappeared as quickly as they came. Gone was the Unicorn and now was a standing Changeling that was vaguely similar to the disguise from a moment ago.
Instead of white and black, she was more of a light shade of gray, with a bluish tone mane and tail. She had a set of dragonfly wings with only a few small holes in them. The horn was now an inch longer and slightly curved. This action caused the kid to duck behind Brex with a sudden welp. After a second or two, he poked his head around just enough to reveal one eye and a flicking ear, trying to figure out what was going on.
Afterwards, it took a little bit of explaining on Fleur de Lis’s end. Blaze Caster got the full story about what had happened when Brex had come along. She went on to inform the kid on just what a Changeling is.
At first, Blaze Caster was pretty nervous at the idea of being wrapped up in a cocoon and drained all of his emotions. But those fears vanished over time when the explanation had gotten to the point where he was told that they didn't need to do such a thing anymore.
Brex was glad when everything was done, it seemed that the kid was no longer afraid and was now sitting on the couch while sipping on some type of drink with a straw. At some point one of the maids had left and come back with some refreshments for everybody, but Brex was the only one who didn't take anything.
It had soon dawned on the Roegadyn that he had no idea as to where Twilight Sparkle might be during this time. As far as he knew, the sonic rain boom had not occurred so this was before the entrance exam to get into the School for Gifted Unicorns.
Brex had taken a gamble and turned to Fancy Pants and asked, “Anything happened recently?” This got the Unicorn to scratch his chin for a moment while having a look of contemplation on his face. It didn't take long before he seemed to realize something and snapped his fingers before calling out towards one of the maids for a newspaper.
The maid had left and came back a few minutes later and presented Fancy Pants with the article of paper he had requested. After flipping over a few pages, he stopped at one and flipped it over until it was fully displayed for not only Brex, but for the rest to see.
Fancy Pants from behind the paper began to reach around and pointed at two parts that were standing out on the large piece of paper. On the bottom was a news article talking about the upcoming entrance exams for the School for Gifted Unicorns that was to happen in the next three days from today.
The other which was at the top and with bold letters and a very obscure picture of a large building with columns in front. That one was talking about there being an attempted robbery at the Canterlot museum of history.
( Here is the picture of the Museum.)
To Brex, this was an extremely valuable piece of information. Now knowing the exact time frame to which to sonic rain boom would happen and the whereabouts of Twilight Sparkle during that event. He was about to go and stake out the school, but just as he was turning his head away from the paper, he stopped and glanced back at the article about the museum.
He had been quickly glancing over everything and two words stood out that was able to get his attention instantly. Those words happening to be the name Night Light. Immediately, he reached over for the paper and Fancy Pants handed it after seeing the urgency that it had brought
The Roegadyn began to comb over every word that was being printed on it regarding the museum heist.
Apparently, about two days ago, some group of ponies broken to the museum of history and tried to steal some new relics that had come in only recently. They managed to get away but one of the guards who had been there to stop them had gotten injured. Luckily none of the pieces were stolen, however a few were destroyed due to some accidental discharge of explosive spells.
The one pony in question that was injured in preventing the theft was a Unicorn stallion by the name of Night Light. As far as any Pony knew, he has been hospitalized and is in extensive care due to something that was in one of the relics.
Some interviews with the doctors showed that things weren't looking very good and they had to call in some specialists. Night Light was being watched over by his wife Twilight Velvet and Twilight Sparkle while being hospitalized at Canterlot General Hospital.
After that, it went on to talk about something else on the paper but within Brex’s head, the gears were turning and everything began to click into place.
He said to Rory within his head, “This is not good, not good at all. Twilight still has both her parents in the show. They're meant to be there and participate in the magical accident she has. So, if her dad is stuck in the hospital and the entrance exams are only right around the corner, she's not gonna be going. If she doesn't go, she doesn't have that magical mishap during the sonic rainbow and she doesn't become the princess's student. If that happens, she never gets sent to ponyville and the elements of harmony are never brought together to stop Nightmare Moon.”
During these thoughts, all the Ponies and Changelings within the room were watching him with bated breath after seeing the large figure just standing there and looking at the paper as still as a statue. The Changelings however, were looking rather worried the longer they watched Brex. A few were even beginning to fold their ears back in reflex.
He then lowered the paper slowly and just stared blankly at the far wall that was right behind Fancy Pants. He wasn't sure why, but the very thought of Twilight's father in the hospital in critical condition was making a deep hole start forming in the pit of his stomach. Suddenly, he noticed that his emotions were fully on display, which meant that he was radiating pure despair.
Taking a quick glance to his right, he saw how a number of the Changelings were looking disturbed and the rest were rather scared. A few even had looks of concern that were directed towards him.
After taking in a few deep breaths, he managed to reel in his emotions. This quickly got a noticeable response from all the girls in the room. Some seemed relieved, while others were still looking at him with faces that show that they were even more worried than before.
Without even looking at any of them, he walked towards the still open door leading into the waiting room and stopped at the threshold.
Without even thinking at all, he called over his shoulder with his voice filled with determination, “Blaze Caster, I need to be somewhere. Please stay with mister Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis. They, along with the others here will protect you if anything should happen. I'll be back as soon as I can and we can go sightseeing around Canterlot together.” As soon as those words escaped his lips, he rounded the corner.
*Point of view: Blaze Caster*
Blaze Caster was still sitting in the middle of one of the couches and had a drink in his hands. He was right in the middle of slurping something up through the straw, but after hearing the one who he had been staying with for so long finally speaking normally, had caused him to go into a near catatonic state as he lowered the cup while the straw remained in his mouth.
Still staring with eyes as wide as dinner plates at where his caretaker known as Gambit had just stood. This had to have been the first time he had ever heard him speaking in such a way. Sure, in the beginning, it had always been just a few words and recently it had changed to broken sentences now and then. But going straight to this had nearly caused his mind to break from the sudden strain.
Blaze Caster then turned his head to glance at the rest that were present and found that they too were in similar conditions. A number of the servants were snapping out of their stupor to adopt a look of determination as they stood more proudly.
He had even caught sight of Fancy Pants staring at the door with a confused expression plastered on. Apparently at some point, his monocle had popped out of his eye and was now dangling From Its chain.
Turning to Fleur de Lis, he was a little surprised at the expression the mare was making. Instead of looking as if she was stunned or confused, she had a small endearing smile that was just barely noticeable.
Blaze Caster then nervously coughed after taking the straw out of his mouth and said, “Ah... I guess my big bro doesn't talk a lot with you all either, huh?”
This earned him a collection of every eye in the room now focus directly at him as they all snapped in his direction. This was quickly paired with each and every one of them speaking in a unified voice as they screamed, “HUH!! BRO???!!! HE’S YOUR BROTHER???!!!!!!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 30: Leap of Faith.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Canterlot* *Time: Right after leaving the Fancy Pants manor*
As soon as Brex had left the room, he quickly made his way to the front door. They were thrown wide open and immediately closed. He then ducked into the nearby shade that was created by a large bush close to the front entrance to enter the shadow realm. From there, the Roegadyn began to navigate through the streets as he dodged and weaved between every pony that stood in his path.
Thanks to already coming to Canterlot at least twice now, he had a basic run down on the key buildings. One of which being the General Hospital. From what he understood, Fancy Pants had his house within ten city blocks of it. It wouldn’t have taken long but avoiding all the obstacles had stretched the time by leaps and bounds.
Rory spoke up after a minute of being on the streets. Her voice sounded as if she was coming out of a daze as she said, “Umm... Master, do you realize what you just did back there? Brex merely replied with a quick, “No, what are you talking about?”
Sounding a little confused by this point, Rory then answered with, “Well, it's just that, you didn't do the thing you would normally do when talking to others... What I mean to say is, you spoke to them like you would with me.”
It didn't take long for it to finally click in his head at what he had just done before leaving the ponies behind. He then said within his head with a frustrated tone, “Fuck, fuck! You're right, I really did do that. How stupid can I be! I did it without thinking. Gah! I just wanted to get out of there so I could take care of what's happening over at the hospital. But at the same time, I didn't want Blaze Caster to get worried while I was gone. Damn it all! I even went as far as to say that those ponies are my friends, what was I thinking?!”
“This entire time I've been trying to talk a little more normally around the kid but it’s now that I finally kicked that damn habit?!” He then let out a resigned sigh as he went over to one of the alleys that seemed empty and had gone in to get away from the crowds, he then rested his back against a stone wall.
He then said to Rory, “Well, I guess now this will make things a little easier whenever I need to talk to him about getting things done, I suppose. But, it's just gonna be with that group. If possible, I'm going to do the thing I normally do when around others. Would rather not take the chance of slipping up and saying stuff that I shouldn’t. Besides, when it comes to that set, they've been trustworthy so far.”
Rory made a door appear on the wall opposite of the one he was laying against, revealing a world of white on the other side as she came out of it. Afterwards, she sauntered on over to him and laid against the wall off to his right side.
She then leaned forward as to get a good look at his mask covered face and said, “Personally I think this will be good for you Master. At least now you have someone else to talk to a little more often. But I do wish that you had turned around so I could have at least caught a glimpse of their reactions, I bet it must have been just priceless.
Brex then released a small grunt of annoyance as he got up and made his way out of the alleyway. Glanced over his right shoulder, he saw Rory giving him a big dope grin before darting off into the imaginary doorway she had made, which closed as soon as she went fully through.
Before continuing, he then said to her, “Sometimes I really can't tell if you're making fun of me or really trying to help. It makes me a little scared to wonder just what kind of mischief you would get to if you were out here with me.”
Rory then replied with a tone that was clearly that of amusement, but had a underline layer of malice in it when she said, “Master, I can tell you one thing I would do for sure. That being, I would kick that winged, horned hussy so hard that she would be meeting her sister face-to-face by the time she landed for what she did to you.”
He then replied as he started back down the streets, “Oh I believe that. I have no doubt that with your demigod strength, you would be more than capable of booting her up that far. But if something like that was to happen with you coming to this world, I would appreciate it if you curved your tendencies a little bit so I didn't get into trouble.” This only got him a small harumph from the girl before going silent.
It took him about five more minutes of running pretty much nonstop to find himself coming up to a set of the large double gates that would lead to the building itself from the street.
When he had arrived, there was still a group of ponies with press passes hanging around their necks while some had them sticking out from their hats. Holding papers and quills, they would be asking questions to those who would be coming and going from the hospital. Brex figured this had something to do with the Sparkle family member still being inside and they wanted to get more information to be in their papers in regards to the theft.
It didn't take too much effort to get around them and get to the building. One problem he had was that he couldn't pass through solid objects while in the Shadow Realm and if he wanted to interact with something he would have to come out.
Brex found it annoying at times whenever he was in this state. He could only travel and observe. While doors were constantly an issue that he had to watch out for. That being said, he had to wait a few minutes for the front doors to be opened by any pony that would be going through them.
Finally, after nearly seven minutes had passed, did one exit building and Brex had to do that thing where he turned his body into a more malleable form just so he could squeeze through the small opening that was left just before the door fully closed.
When he had fully formed himself again after a moment of landing within, he thought to himself, “That's never gonna be something I'll be used to doing. I literally felt my organs shifting around when I do that. I bet that the anime character I got this power from didn’t have this sort of trouble… maybe I’m doing it wrong.”
After taking a quick glance around, Brex saw that he was in a large waiting room of some sort with a number of chairs neatly put into multiple rows. He then spotted the counter with a few mare’s sitting behind. All of them currently talking to other ponies and getting some paperwork signed. Brex would also hear them asking general questions such as to their names and the nature of the injuries they were in for.
What caught his attention quickly, was how there were no male staff members from what he could see with the uniforms after watching a number of hospital workers coming and going through the few doors leading into the waiting room.
He then mumbled within his head, “I guess they don't really trust males to go and do the work of caring for others either, now do they?” he then took a few minutes to make sure that he hadn’t jumped the gun but a few more nurses came by and still, not one stallion was among them.
He then went on with his internal ramblings and said, “I'm starting to think that they really just don't trust us with anything important at all. Just what do they do anyway? Makes me think that Night Light was lucky to even get a guard job at all, even if it was a cushy one within a history museum. They ones that hired him must have thought that nothing would ever happen to the stallion.”
Brex then kept an ear open for any indication as to where they would be keeping the Unicorn and his family. With it being such a big news and all in the papers, it didn't take long before he caught wind of a few attendants talking to one another.
At first, it was just some random nonsense as Brex just stood there with a blank expression on his face while waving his right hand in a circular motion as to somehow force them into moving on with something relevant, even though they had no idea he was even there.
While waiting Brex was beginning to show signs of agitation with his right eye having a twitch now and then. He began to think to himself, “Oh come on, really?! They’re talking about everything but what I wanna know about. Please don’t! Ugh, no, please just skip that one. I don’t wanna know about what you did last weekend when you went to get your mane done… The roles are reversed on this world, why aren’t they talking about other things?”
Finally, after hearing some personal tidbits that he would rather not have ever heard of. The pair had gotten around to mention something about a stallion in an emergency room on the third floor, in section F.
As soon as he heard that, he quickly ran over to a board that displayed a map layout of the hospital and begun to frantically search until he found the area question. It took a few seconds for him to memorize the layout and come up with a direct path that would get him there. It baffled him how all of the hospitals were made to be like a maze and he scratched his head for a moment before thinking, “I wonder if that's a multi-verse thing?”
After getting past that question, he shook his head and was on his way. To say that it was extremely aggravating for the Roegadyn was a drastic understatement right now. Being stuck in the Shadow Realm to avoid detection was something that he didn't want to experience any time again soon. He literally had to wait at every single door and elevator for some pony to open them in order to move on.
Now, the elevator was the most aggravating part for him. He had to wait at least a good eight minutes before any who stepped onto the elevator had pressed a correct button for the floor he wanted. Brex could have done it himself and pressed the button for the Florida wanted but the inside was well lit, so there was no way for him to have an exit from the shadows. It also didn’t help that there was always a pony in there.
All the while, he was tapping his foot impatiently with a aggravated expression behind his mask from having to listen to the same elevator music nearly nonstop. He swore to himself, if he ever found the pony who wrote the peace had to listen to, he was going to strangle them with their own harp.
As the elevator doors opened on the third floor, did he dash out and had to resist the urge to scream, “I'm free!” Afterwards, he went down the hallway until he came across a number of closed doors and just a short way away, on the left-hand side of the hallway was a small reception area that had two nurses standing behind the counter.
On the wall, opposite of the reception desk, there was a large white whiteboard with a row of names with numbers for the rooms listed. Brex went over and while pointing at each one, he went down the row of ponies until he had finally come across the one with the name Night Light.
It showed him to be in the extensive care zone, which is all the way down at ended of the hallway. When he turned his head left to look in that direction, his eyes blanched when he saw that there was a thick door that was currently shut that way.
Rubbing his hand down the front of his mask in frustration, he saw that it was one of those types that required the nurse at the reception desk to press a button in order to open.
He then threw his head back and looked up to the ceiling while grumbling under his breath, “Great just great... I'm gonna have to wait until someone goes through that.” He began to walk closer to the door slowly while examining his surroundings.
He then caught sight of an air vent off to the right-hand wall near the ceiling of the door and contemplated squeezing through in his more fluidic form. But that thought stopped within a few seconds as he realized that not even his head would have been able to fit through that small opening.
Again, his large stature was becoming a hindrance to his actions. He wondered what it would be like if he had chosen a different race, one that was capable of moving through places without the worry of getting stuck. With a heavy sigh, his shoulders sank and he just went over back to the reception desk and sat along the wall that had many waiting chairs that were currently all empty.
The minute's tick by at an agonizingly, slow pace. Soon those minutes became an hour and then another hour. Everything was becoming a blur with the ambient sounds seemingly getting louder has his hearing adjusted to his surroundings.
Brex was at this point, leaning back into the chair and was resting his head against the wall behind him. The hallway was filled with the nearly perceivable sounds of the heart monitors and distant ramblings of the workers of the hospital.
It had even gotten to the point that he was fighting himself from continuously yawning every few moments. There was this one particularly strong yawn that escaped his lips that had caused his jaw to get stuck open and he was trying frantically to close it, at the same time ignoring the pain it was causing.
At the same time Brex was yawning, the two mare’s that were at the reception desk were looking around and had worried expressions on their faces. By the time Brex had managed to close his mouth again, he had caught one of the mare’s saying something that made him feel a little embarrassed.
As it turned out, his yawning did not go unnoticed and they were talking as if they were worried about the hospital being haunted with the odd moaning sounds that they were hearing that were coming from nowhere.
Another hour passed, Brex had to sit there while listening to the pair speaking now and then. Thanks to the embarrassment he had felt, he was able to prevent any more yawns from escaping him. The last thing Brex needed, was to cause some type of panic right now seeing as there were other patients and it wouldn't be very good if the doctors weren't able to do their jobs very well. Especially if he was the cause.
It was now getting close to ten in the morning when he started to hear a set of hoof steps that were coming in the direction from the elevator. From his current distance, Brex could see that it was an adult mare and he could make out a small child that couldn't have been more than six years old.
The older one was about five feet tall and appear to be a mare with a light-gray fur coloring. Her mane and tail were that of a lighter shade of purple along some white streaks thrown in there. She was wearing a modest office work suit that had a skirt that was just going past her knees. When they got closer, he saw that she had a baby blue set of eyes and embroidered onto her right shoulder, was a set of three purple, five-pointed stars.
As for the shorter one, she was wearing a purple dress with a six-pointed star that was covering most of the front of the dress’s upper section. She was purple in color, while her mane and tail were that of a very dark shade of purple and a single streak of hot pink running through, or perhaps a type of purple, but he wasn't quite sure.
What he noticed next had caused him to tilt his head. On the girl's face was a set of big, wide glasses that she was currently fixing back in place with her left hand while a large tomb was held tightly at her side with the other.
There was no doubt in his mind that these were both Twilight Sparkle and Twilight velvet, the daughter and wife of Night Light.
Of course, he wanted to make sure that he wasn't mistaken seeing as a lot of ponies had varying color schemes, so he glanced up at the at their status bars and confirmed their names.
Twilight Velvet was apparently level thirteen. As for Twilight Sparkle, she was currently at level two. Internally Brex chuckled to himself after seeing as that was the lowest level he had seen so far since coming to Equestria.
The pair then went over to the reception desk and began to speak with the nurses. After a few moments of talking between one another, did the mare behind the desk motion towards the set of doors at the far end of the hallway.
Seeing that this was the opportunity he was waiting for after so long, Brex got to his feet and followed both the mother and child close behind. Being mindful of not making too much noise with his steps on the tile flooring.
When they had gone to the door’s, Twilight Velvet turned around and watched as the nurse from the desk reached over and pressed a hidden button, which then began the opening process.
During those few seconds, Brex could see her face clearly and even though she was putting on a brave front and had a little bit of makeup on, he was able to tell that she had some bags under her eyes from a lack of rest.
It was clear that the mare had been going through a lot with her husband in the hospital and keeping up with caring for her child. As for Twilight Sparkle, Brex couldn't get a good view of her face, but she was dragging her hoofs and was looking down to the floor pretty much the entire time while fixing her glasses every few seconds.
He had recalled that the only time he ever seen the girl wearing glasses, was back when they did the Equestria girl's version of the show. He silently hummed to himself as he began to think, “I wonder if she ever had those when she was a pony and got her eyes fixed later on?” He couldn't resist by going on to think that a small Twilight Sparkle with glasses was kind of adorable.
After the doors were fully open did the set go on into the next section of the building. Brex had to rush to get through before getting caught between the doors when they closed.
The three of them were now in an area that was mostly in an oval shape with rows of openings that would show some others sleeping to beds. Most of which could only be cut off from the rest of the room by a thin veil of curtains. There was one in particular that had a door with a very alarming picture of a skull in crossbones to the side of it that had the words, dangerous and caution printed in bold letters next to it.
Looking down towards Twilight, Brex brought his gaze backup to the offending sign and thought angrily, “Fucking assholes! They could have chosen something that didn't display such an image or those words when they have a kid visiting their father. No! no… calm down. No need to cause a scene.” Brex had to shake his head in order to calm himself down a little bit over the inconsideration of some of these ponies.
Brex followed them as they went through the door and into the smaller room. He found that there were a few lights turned on near the bed and one of the windows had its blinds open close to a third of the way to allow some natural light to come in.
There was a number of machines that Brex understood to be monitoring devices that were leading to the one that was resting in bed. Twilight Sparkle approach the bed and placed the book she was holding onto the night stand nearby.
In bed, was a greyish azure colored stallion with a dark blue mane, that seemed a little disheveled with how it wasn’t neatly combed while in the hospital. He had just opened his eyes a little bit upon seeing his wife and daughter entering the room and was now beaming with a weak smile.
Twilight Velvet soon joined her daughter and was now leaning in to whisper good morning to her husband Night Light. The pony in question was now opening their eyes a little more, be it slowly. Brex could clearly tell that the pony was having a hard time in focusing with how long it took him to have a bigger smile to cross his face before replying in a somewhat strained voice, “Good morning, dear.”
That was when the voice of Twilight Sparkle as she called out to Night Light by saying, “Daddy! You sure sleep a lot.” This got a weak chuckle from the stallion as they all look towards the one who had just spoken and saw how Twilight was trying frantically to climb up onto the bed. She was obviously too short to get on without any help. This was evident with her arms just barely able to cling to the fabric While giving off these adorable little grunts of exertion as she tries desperately to pull herself up.
It didn't take long before a pair of hands had taken hold of her from underneath her arms and hoisted her up so that she could sit on the bed. Twilight then thanked her mother, but not until she had finished giving a small pout of protest that she could have done in herself.
Brex felt himself smirking at the adorable site. He didn't know why all kids wanted to do things all by themselves and refused help from others when it was needed. He thought that it was most likely their stubborn streak and wanting to show that they were more capable than others thought.
Brex stood over to the far side of the room as to stay out of their way and observe their conversations to get some more details on the stallions condition.
After a little bit, Brex focused on Night Light and tapped onto using the Echo. The room slowly transitioned into darkness. When the lights came back, the room had changed to that of a large opened area that had stone columns spread all about.
There were multitudes of display cases that sat at the top granite pedestals. Just a little way before him stood Night Light who was currently wearing his museum guard uniform. It was mostly blue with a silver shield that was pinned to his left breast pocket. A top his head was a small blue cap that had a black rim going around and there were yellow words printed on the black area saying, security.
There was another guard nearby that was walking alongside of him. This one was apparently a mare wearing the same type of outfit, all be it a bit slimmer. The pair were making their way through the exhibits while keeping an eye out for anything odd by the looks of it.
The mare was a light shade of pink, with a little bit of green coming out from what little mane was sticking out that wasn’t hidden underneath her cap. Just as they were about to head into the next room, she said to Night Light, “So care to explain why you've been taking so many double shifts lately? All I know is that you're trying to get some favors for getting a day off on a certain day. What's going on? Got something going on with your Partner? Oh, let me guess, she's finally letting another join you both to start a herd?”
Brex then saw how Night Light was looking a little uncomfortable for a second before he shook his head and replied by saying, “Ha-ha, no, nothing like that I assure you. I'm a one mare stallion, you know that. No, I'm just trying to make sure I can get that day off so I can attend my daughter's entrance exam for the School for Gifted Unicorns that's coming up soon. She's been studying a whole lot and we both believe that she has a good shot at getting in.”
The look on Night Light's face was becoming more brighter with each word he spoke about his little girl. Brex began to feel the emotions coming through and a strong sense of pride was beginning to overload his senses. He had to concentrate a little harder as to keep the vision going.
Soon, the scene switched to another and this one showed that the pair was about to split off to go in different directions when they had come across a T-shaped intersection. Night Light chose to go to the right.
The guard mare waved to Night Light and called out, “Make sure you don't get yourself hurt. Oh, by the way, they just brought in some more pieces from that dig site. If you happen to see things scattered about, we need to document that. They need to be stacked correctly. Sometimes the day shift gets a bit lazy and just drops them wherever.”
After that exchange, the scene changed again. This time it was just Night Light by himself while walking through what appear to be a storage area that had a large archway leading into another part of the display area that was about halfway put together.
There was at least a dozen or so display cases and nearly all of them were covered with some white tarps. The ones that were left uncovered were empty, but there were a few wooden crates sitting next to the pedestals.
Night Light approached one of the boxes and leaned forward. Trying get a look at the item inside thanks to the lid being removed beforehand by one of the workers that day.
By the looks of it, it was some small trinkets of metal mixed in with some pieces of rocks of varying sizes. Unfortunately thanks to it being a memory from the pony and not being that of reality, Brex was unable to get a very good image to tell just what it was he was looking at.
He then heard Night Light beginning to talk to himself as he stood back up, “I wonder where they got these from anyway. Spot Light did say that they came from a new dig site. Maybe after we take care of the entrance exams, I can ask the curator if I can bring in my little girl to see these before they get shown to the public.”
“Shouldn't be too much of a problem. Aside from the library, Twilight pretty much lives here too. I bet if there was some old dusty scroll mixed in here somewhere, I would be hard pressed to keep her from busting down the doors to try and read it.” There was then a series of chuckles that came from the guy and Brex couldn't help but do the same. It then popped into his head. The scene of Twilight busting down the front doors like some bull in a China shop, just to get at something new to read.
It then struck him that Night Light had called the other guard Spot Light and wondered if they were related or if it was just another one of those names that simply sounded as if they were from the same family. Brex wasn’t sure if Twilight’s dad had a sister in the show.
The scene soon changed after Night Light went to another section of the museum. The next scene showed the same room, but judging from the amount of light being let in through the windows, the sun must have recently of gone down. Before, everything was pretty well lit up, now things were now relying heavily on crystal light fixtures and these were leaving much to be desired with all the dark areas being left out.
Night Light had made his way over to one of the pedestals and when he turned around, he was looking down to the floor several feet away. Brex watched as he walked forward and crouched down, only to pick up what appeared to be a small piece of metal that was heavily rested.
The stallion then said to himself, “Huh? That's weird, I could have sworn there was nothing like this on the ground earlier. Did I just miss it on my first pass? I'd better go find Spot Light and report this. Some pony could really get hurt if they step on some random object that was just left in the middle of the floor like this.”
There was then a loud crash that came from somewhere behind him. Brex saw how Night Light had charged over and was Immediately broadsided when one of the stacks of crates was pushed over on and on to him. The pony had brought both of his arms to shield his head but was brought down.
One of the boxes had tumbled over a few times and a contents within had spilled out. It appeared to be a large piece of rock, but it crashed into one of the stone pedestals and broke open. Inside was what could have been a jumbo-sized version of a fire cluster. Suddenly, the cluster exploded and this caused a series of miniature explosions nearby.
Apparently, all of the rocks held fire clusters within and there must have been at least thirty or forty of them scattered all over the ground after being released from their confines. The first explosion had caused a chain reaction with all the others that had spilled out from multiple crates.
With all the concussive blasts happening, most of the display cases were shattered, along with what was already placed within began to tumble around.
One of which appeared to be a ceramic urn that depicted a large plant with four long vines reaching to the heavens. When the urn crashed to the ground after being released from the glass case, it broke into dozens of pieces.
From that, came a black dust cloud that enveloped the immediate area. It didn't take long for to dissipate but Night Light had taken it in a good breath of it and began to cough violently. There was a large cracking sound that came from somewhere off to the side of Night Light as he laid on the ground. One of the tall supporting pillars for the roof had started to tumble over and fall near the pony.
But before the vision can go any further the link was broken. Brex stood there within the hospital room once again and was clutching at his head after experiencing such a long set of images. He thought to himself, “I really, really, need to get a better feel for that. It seems that the longer the vision goes, the more stress it puts on me.”
After taking a moment to recover his senses fully, Brex started to go over what he had seen. From the looks of it, Night Light had interrupted the robbery but ended up getting exposed to something that was sealed away in that urn with that picture of a plant. Oddly enough, it looked a lot like the creature that he'd come across when he exited the cave with a Tree of Harmony that had dropped the token for summoning Ryu.
A good twenty minutes passed by with them talking about daily life activities. Then it came to the subject about the upcoming exams to enter the School for Gifted Unicorns. Brex was beginning to tune things out but as soon as that subject came up, he began to take more interest in what they were saying.
His eyes went wide as dinner plates from behind his mask when he suddenly heard that Twilight was not going to go. Both of her parents gave her a warm smile, but tried to convince her into going even with her father still in the hospital. But in the end, she was adamant about being with her dad until he had gotten better.
It was obvious with how the two parents were giving her wide smiles, but as an adult, Brex was able to tell that they were wincing from just behind those faces. The pair knew how bad the father's situation was and they couldn't bring themselves to explain it to their daughter.
During their talks, he was able to glance over at all the machines, as well as the information that was currently being shown on the clipboard near the end of the bed that was facing him.
Without being able to interact with anything, Brex wasn't able to comb through all the medical information. Although, from what he was able to gleam, along with what knowledge he had gained from reading a multitude of books about their anatomy from both eight-hundred years ago and now, it was obvious that whatever was going on with Night Light, was something that couldn’t be easily cured with what they had available now.
Night Light's vital showed that his blood pressure was dangerously low. Also, his heart rate would spike erratically which was not a good sign with how he was not being exposed to any new forms of stress whenever it happened. There was even one of the graphs that was showing his internal body temperature. From the it, showed that it was several degrees above what it should be, which meant he was having a high fever, even though he wasn't showing any symptoms of it happening.
Soon, a nurse came in and the family that was visiting had to step aside while the stallion was getting another checkup. When the nurse was finished, she looked over to Twilight Velvet and gave a shake of the head while Twilight Sparkle was looking away.
Brex could see that Twilight Velvet was on the verge of crying, but had recovered enough to hide it from her daughter before it was seen.
The nurse then asked if the wife could come out and have a word with her and Twilight Velvet agreed. They closed the door behind them as they told Twilight Sparkle that they were going to go and talk about treatment options and that she should stay with her father.
The little girl agreed and went over to her dad and started to talk about her day. Night Light gave her a weak smile as he laid back into his bed and answered a few yes or no questions that the young one was sending in his direction.
Aside from Twilight Sparkle speaking, the room was filled with the constant beeps of the instruments monitoring her father.
A few minutes had gone by and Brex noticed that Twilight was still talking, however, Night Light was apparently out cold and now sound asleep. Taking a good look at the pony, the Roegadyn used the examination function and opened up a window that displayed the stallion. At the moment the only thing it showed him to be equipped with was one of those nightgowns that would be given to patients and a wedding ring on his left hand.
After a bit more of searching, he closed the window and glanced back at his status bar. From the looks of things, Night Light was down to about six percent of his health and it had just dropped down to five during the time he was looking at it.
Brex had expected to see some type of a negative buff placed on the guy, but he didn't find anything. He cursed to himself about it not being as easy as he thought it would be. If it was a simple effect that was being done by a disease or a poison, then it could have easily been removed with an antidote.
Now if the problem was due to a magic effect or curse, that would have been a simple matter with the use of his Esuna spell. He was brought out of his thoughts when he suddenly heard Twilight's voice that was turning into real concern when she was repeating her father's name over and over, but to get no response. It would seem that she had finally noticed that her dad was no longer conscious and was now beginning to freak out.
Seeing this caused Brex take an involuntary step forward. Luckily the heavy footstep was unnoticed by the girl who is frantically running in place at the side of the bed and was on the verge of hyperventilating.
Before he could do anything else, he watched as Twilight looked towards the table that she had placed her book and snatched it up in her hands.
She then began to scream at it as if it was a living creature while crying out, “MY DAD IS DYING! WHAT GOOD IS MAGIC IF IT CAN’T EVEN HELP MY DAD!? THEY HAVE ALL OF THESE DOCTORS BUT THEY CAN’T DO ANYTHING FOR HIM! DADDY… MY DADDY WORKDS SO HARD. HE EVEN WORKED MORE HOURS THIS WEEK JUST SO HE WOULD BE THERE WHEN I WHENT TO THAT… THAT! STUPID SCHOOL!! THIS WAS ALL BECAUSE I WAS SO FOCUSED ON LEARNING MAGIC! THIS IS ALL MY FAULT!! I KNEW THAT THE BOOKS I WOULD NEED FOR THE CLASS’S WERE EXPENSIVE… THAT’S WHY HE GOT THAT JOB… BECAUSE OF ME… My… My dad… He's going too…”
In one quick motion, Twilight raised the book high above her head and threw it as hard as her small arms could into the nearby waste basket. Brex had to hold in his astonished gasp at seeing Twilight mistreating a book. Such a sight was up there alongside of saying that the Earth really was flat or gravity was suddenly turned in reverse and everything was thrown into the sky. Or even worse... Pinkie Pie… acting normal. That very concept caused a series of, ‘Da da da~’ To echo in his head.
Brex thought, “This was really bad. Not only would Twilight not go to the school, but this would also destroy all her dreams in learning magic. If something wasn't done right now, then everything will fall apart. Nightmare Moon won't be stopped. Luna won't return. Discord will have free rain when he finally breaks loose. So many things will go wrong.”
Brex looked around the room in a frantic attempt to find out what he could try to somehow fix this. He knew that he couldn't use any type of potion seeing as there's no status ailments detectable. Healing would only be a stopgap seeing how Night Light's health points were going down on their own. They must have been using healing magic of some sort on him but it's clearly not doing enough.
He needed to do something right now. Something that would cause Twilight to not lose her father and regain her confidence in magic. To her, magic was failing her dad. His eyes were darting across the room even faster than before trying to spot something... Anything.
Lifting his right hand, Brex looked at his palm. He then glanced back at the scene before him before looking back down. Seeing this only caused Brex to feel a pain in his chest. He was on the verge of crying as if he was feeling what Twilight was going through right now. A sense of being powerless, the sense of hopelessness. A lump began to form in the back of his throat that threatened to prevent him from breathing.
He began to recall what happened when he had used that new skill. How it was able to purify the negative energy from whatever was infecting the elemental. The idea crossed his mind to use the same skill on Twilight's dad, he also started to remember what the repercussions were when putting it into use and how it was glitched as fuck.
He had no idea if using the skill would even have any effect on something like whatever was affecting Night Light. The sudden wailing of despair from Twilight broke him from his thoughts once more.
Rory spoke up from in his head and asked while seeming to be very worried, “What are you planning on? By the looks of things, he’s gonna be a goner soon at rate things are going.”
Sounding as if he was not anywhere near being one hundred percent sure on his next action. He spoke to Rory in a panic and said, “I'm, I’m about to do something incredibly stupid and way out of character, also, that I am sure without a doubt, that I am going to regret at some point in my life. Now, whatever happens, I want you to not interfere, OK?”
This got Rory to reply with a strained and stretched out, “Ooooooooookaay...” that showed that she wasn’t all that happy with what was just said.
Taking in a deep breath, Brex began to silently pray, “I know that I say, Buy the twelve, all the time... And seeing as this world is based off of that one... I really, really! Hope that one of them is listening to this... Daddy... Little Light... Little Moon... Anyone! What I'm about to do, I just hope that it does not hurt others. I'm fully prepared to get launched through another mountain if I have to if I could do something for Twilight's dad...”
Rory heard this prayer and quickly jumped In and yelled at nearly the top of her lungs in panic, “Master! Don't you dare do what I think you're going to do!” Before she could say anything else, he snapped at her in the most aggressive tone that he had ever used towards Rory and said, “Rory! I said… to stay out of this. If you're gonna continue calling me your Master, then do WHAT... I SAY!” Every one of his words at the end was emphasized with an intense rage behind them.
There was a small gulp sound that came from within, along with the familiar sensation of Rory retreating deeper within his mind. He then thought to himself, “I'm really, really sorry I had to say that to you. I just hope you won't hold it against me. I know you are only trying to protect me from making a mistake...”
After taking a few quiet deep breaths. Brex turned towards the bathroom that was connected to Night Light's room, which had its door wide open and the lights turned off inside. He's entered the smaller room and used the darkness to step out of the Shadow Realm and went into his windows. With a series of quick mental commands, he found himself in the armory tab for his character.
After several seconds of quick motions, he switched over to his white mage class of level 70. With a small flash of light, Brex was now wearing his maximum grade armor that had been glamoured to look like that of his iconic white mage level 50 attire.
In the game, his head would normally be fully exposed while wearing this, but now he was able to reach behind and pull the overly sized hood to conceal most of his face. This would only leave visible his chin, which had his black beard covering it.
( Here are some picture's of his gear set. )
Brex exited the bathroom as quietly as he could and began to approach the hospital bed. With how the room was set up, it had Twilight's back towards him while she was facing her father. So as a result, the young Unicorn was unable to see the sudden flash of light that Brex had made while in the bathroom, along with his entrance.
The site had made the Roegadyn pause in misstep, which only left him but a few feet away. Brex closed his eyes and began to take in slow numerous deep breaths in order to calm himself down. Getting too emotional was not going to help him and seeing Twilight in such a state was only exasperating things.
He started to think to himself, “You can do this, you can do this. Just breathe, in and breathe out. Just remember that you need to do this for her. No matter how scared I get, no matter how unsure I get, I must not show it. Think, just think. Think just think on something that would help.”
Brex took in another deep breath and held it for a few seconds before finally letting it back out. He then thought, “OK, how… How am I going to handle this? She doesn't need the paranoid version of myself. Twilight is hurting right now and she's lost all confidence in magic. She needs someone that can reassure her. Someone that can restore confidence... Right now, her father's condition seems impossible for any to help with....”
He had paused in his thoughts and had adopted an expression that show that he had come to an epiphany. From underneath his hood, Brex began to actively produce a smile that was threatening to fade almost instantly, but he managed to push through and make it stay.
His next thoughts were, “This is going to be so hard to do. Come on, you got this Brex! Just remember that guy. Put yourself in his shoes. Remember the suit remember, remember the running, remember the nonsense. Remember the bow-tie and that ridiculous fez that got shot off his head by his wife!” That was when an image of a man came to mind that was instilling a new found sense of confidence in the Roegadyn.
Scenes from a television show began to flood his mind. It was a man who was all alone and had done many impossible things. All the while instilling in a renewed sense of hope to those around him.
He looked over to his staff in his hand and placed it back into his inventory. Afterwards Brex began to flex a few of his limbs to loosen then up a little bit and felt how his throat was contorting in some way as to change his voice.
After a few seconds of this he opened his eyes and found that He felt almost light on his feet and there was a big dopey grin That was hidden away from underneath the hood. All the while he was on the verge of tearing up but was holding it back with a sudden flood of emotions that he was unaccustomed to filling his mind.
From within his head, Brex said the following to himself, but his internal voice had changed a little bit to soundings if he was British. “It's time I put on a show!”
He went on over to the waste basket and gingerly reached down for the book that twilight has just thrown away. By doing so, he ruffled a few of the contents inside which were comprised of some old papers that were no longer of any use.
The sound had caught Twilight's attention while she was still crying hard. She then to look over and see Brex just standing there while holding her old book in his hands.
*Point of view: Twilight Sparkle*
Twilight Sparkle had just caught sight of some pony that had just gone through the trash can. With a small sniffle escaping her lips, she used her right arm to wipe her eyes after she had first removed her glasses.
Once she was finished with the task of clearing her vision, did she put them back on and asked in a somewhat confused tone, “Who… Who are you and what are you doing in my Daddy’s room? I didn't hear any pony coming in.
The figure was wearing an odd type of robe that was mostly white but there are these red patterns on the sleeves and near the hood. The pony's face was mostly covered by the hood and what parts that would normally be visible were shrouded in its shadow. The only thing she was able make out, was the small amount of fur that was just underneath the chin, which was mostly black with just a few hints of gray on the tips.
She then heard the pony start to talk in an odd accent that was similar to those in Canterlot, but just not quite the same. It came out smooth yet at the same time deeply concerned, which nearly threw Twilight off with how distracting it was. “My oh my! Did this book say something mean to you by chance? You have to be careful when you read these days, never know what’s behind these covers. I was once told you can’t judge a book by its cover.”
She then caught him pointing an accusatory finger at the book and spoke in a disappointed tone, “Now here this, you can’t just go around saying mean things to little girls that just come around and open you up. Now, apologize this instant!”
Twilight felt as if she couldn't resist and replied with, “No it didn't say anything mean to me. It's just a book, it can't talk at all.” This got a small chuckle from the pony in robes as he replied with, “Oh but they can talk. After all, they do tell stories, don't they? Besides, I think there was one out there that would get all bitty-mic-bites a lot if it was in a horrendous mood.”
This only got Twilight to shake her head at the random word play that she was hearing from this stranger. She thought to herself, “Just who is this pony and why is even here? Also, what's with that accent, it sounds so much like the nobles on the streets.”
Twilight was about to ask her question again but the stallion began to open the book and was now thumbing through the pages at an astounding speed. This caught her attention as she had never seen someone skimming a book like that before. That one in particular having no pictures at all, so it would have made no sense to do such a thing.
After about thirty seconds of this, he gingerly closed the book and went over and placed it back on the nearby table that was next to the hospital bed. She then heard him say, “Ah, Star Swirl the Bearded. I can see that you are quite a fan of his. The book looks well used with how the bindings are so loose, yet at the same time I can tell that you've been taking great care of it. No if I'm not mistaken, I'm thinking that you are using it as your bedtime story book.”
Twilight Sparkle began to blink as she listened to this pony speaking nonsense again, but was now showing a rosy tint on her cheeks as she looked away with what could have only been considered a look of embarrassment as she replied with, “And so what if I am! I-I mean, what if I did?! I don't anymore just so you know, I don't want that book!”
The pony then asked her while apparently tilting his head a little bit from what she could see from underneath the hood, “Why would you suddenly not want your book anymore? I can tell that you really like it and you just said it didn't say anything mean to you, then why?”
Twilight was starting to get a little angry at the stupid questions and threw her arms into the air before pointing at her father in the bed. She then began to yell as she sent daggers his way with her eyes, “It's because it won't help my dad and it's because of it that, that I'm going to lose him! If I had never gotten into magic, then this might not have ever happened!”
She had suddenly come to a dead stop and had clamped her mouth with both of her hands as she stepped back. She then thought to herself, “Oh no, I just yelled at a stallion. I'm a bad pony, I'm a bad pony. We're not supposed to yell at the stallions.”
Twilight was about to apologize when the stallion went over and began to examine one of the monitors that were hooked up to her father. It wouldn't have seemed odd, but the way the pony was holding it and bringing it closer to his face, while knocking on the side of it with his knuckles gave her cause to stop the apology in its tracks.
She then watched as he continuously went over from one piece of equipment to the other as if seemingly excited with how he was moving at a rapid pace without stopping for more than a few seconds before moving on to the next.
Afterwards, he went over to the paperwork at the edge of the bed and begin combing through it while mumbling to himself, “Rubbish! Rubbish, just rubbish. No, that won't do, no this won't do at all. Ha-ha! Oh, wait, hold on, nope! False alarm!”
He then went on to move and was getting closer to her father from the opposite side of the bed, which was facing a large window and began to lean in. He then used his fingers to open her father's eyes for a few seconds. He then went on to examining the inside of his mouth before closing it immediately to lean way back. As soon as he had done this, he loudly proclaimed, “Gah! Well, I know one thing, they've been feeding your dad that horrible hospital food. Because that just stinks!”
This had caused her to lash out and yell at the stallion once more, “Hey! Of course, my dad stinks, he’s been here for a couple days. It's not like he’s been able to brush his teeth much!” There was a sudden, Eep! That came from Twilight as she closed her hands over her mouth once again. She had no idea what was going on with this pony, but he was obviously unwell.
Twilight had wondered why he was examining everything at such a high speed without giving it enough time to show all that much and had begun to look over her father. Only to instantly insult him.
Being such an intelligent young Unicorn that she was, her eyes suddenly shot wide open as she uncovered her mouth and quickly pointed towards the stallion before saying, “I-I see what you're doing! You're trying to make me angry so I wouldn't cry anymore, aren't you?”
The stallion turned a little bit towards her and quickly replied with a juvenile tone behind his voice, “Oh no! No, no, no why would I ever do such a thing? I'm not trying to make you angry. I'm just saying that the hospital food here is awful. Hmm, I don't know why it is, it must be a rule that it has to be bad. How else are they gonna get their patients to leave?”
Twilight quickly responded with an extremely confused, “Huh? What? No! They give you food that's meant to help you recover better and doesn't give you anything you don't need.” This only got a quick shrug from the stallion as he replied with, “OK, well believe what you want, but I personally believe that they intentionally give you really bad food that way, you try to get better and finally get out of their house.”
The young Unicorn had scrunched up her face in more confusion as she heard him call the hospital a house and went to correct stallion by speaking in a nearly exhausted voice, “This isn't a house. This is a hospital!”
She then caught how he was looking back-and-forth across the room and then went over to the window and looked outside after opening it. After a few seconds, he turned around and went back to the spot he was at previously and scratched the back of his hood before Saying, “I guess you're right. That would explain the lack of couches and refrigerators. Not to mention there's no television. Hmm… I thought that there were way too many chairs to be normal.”
Twilight began to scratch the back of her head in frustration at how strange the stallion was acting, along with trying to figure out what this television thing was, that he was just mentioning. She then asked, “Again, you still haven't answered my question. Who are you and what are you doing here?
The stallion then brought up his hands to slam his fist down onto his right palm and quickly said, “Oh sorry about that, I can get a little distracted sometimes. New things will do that. Well, as for my name...” There was a short pause before he went on with saying, “Oh that one's a little complicated. Can't really decide on what it is. I guess I take do care of things, so... How about you call me The Caretaker? We good? GOOD!”
Twilight tilted her head in confusion the as she asked, The... Caretaker of what? The stallion then simply replied with, “Just the Caretaker. Nothing more, nothing less. Now seeing as there's a problem that needs to be taken care of, maybe I can help you with it.”
She then looked down into the side with her eyes as she began to speak in a defeated tone, “There's nothing you can do. The doctors did everything they could and we don't have any magic or medicine that that will cure my dad of whatever is making him sick. I don't think even princess Celestia can do anything..." It didn't escape her when the stallion gave a quick flinch as soon as she had mentioned the princess.
This apparently had drawn out an amused chuckle from the stallion which only caused Twilight to look at him with an intense rage behind her eyes as she yelled, “Why are you laughing! It's not funny, my dad's going to DIE!”
The stallion then brought up his hands in front of him as a form of defense before quickly answering, “No, no, no, no. I'm not laughing at you or your dad's circumstances, but I'm just amused that you think they did absolutely everything.”
Twilight quickly snapped back by saying, “Of course they did everything. They used every magic spell in the book! I know, I even looked up the book that they used. There's just no helping my dad...”
She then saw how he was wagging his right hands index finger before he said, “Ah, I see what you mean. Are you referring to the medical text book on Pony Anatomy and Magic volume number 47?”
When she heard this, she felt her jaw nearly dropping at the sudden reference. That had been, in fact the same book that she was looking up only last night at home that listed all the known spells used in the medical field. Twilight asked herself, “How would a stallion know anything about medical practices?”
As far as twilight knew, there hadn't been any competent magic users or medical personnel with skills among the stallions for a good many years from what she had learned from books. Star Swirl the Bearded was the last in recorded history to be known as a competent male and had made great strides in multiple fields of magic. But after his passing, things began to decline rapidly when it came to the males doing anything important in society.
Twilight then asked with a skeptical look on her face, “Are you saying that you really did read that book?” This got her a quick reply of an overly enthusiastic head bob and Twilight was almost positive that she had seen a small smirk showing as the hood bobbed just a little bit.
She narrowed her eyes and leaned in a little bit just before she asked, “Fine! Then prove it to me. What's on page 61, 92... And.... Uh, Ah!... 116!” That last one had taken her a second to come up with and she herself had actually forgotten what was on that page, but wanted to throw in that third page number just for good measure.
The stallion quickly replied in a sing-song voice as he went back to looking over the monitoring equipment. “Page 62 talks about the inner ear canal of a Pegasus. To be more accurate, the part that helps with their ability to hear while under high amounts of air pressure as they fly at higher altitudes.”
“Hmm, now as for Page 92, that’s on the tail end of discussing the effects of what is commonly called as, Magical Exhaustion. Which mostly consists of the following symptoms, heavy labored breathing, trouble with focusing on tasks, blurred vision, migraines, extreme levels of fatigue and magic misfires which could lead to a Unicorn passing out. Also, in extreme circumstances, it can even lead to one's death.”
She then heard him coughing into his hand before turning completely around as he said, “Now as for page 116...” There was a slight pause before he continued with, “I'm rather surprised that a mare of your age would even know about that page. Really! There should be some kind of age limit on that book. But if you need me to tell you... Then that page talks about what happens when you stroke a female Unicorn's horn in a particular spot to gain a, *COUGH* Physical response of a certain nature.”
To say that Twilight was dumbfounded at how quickly the stallion was able say just what those pages were about, not to mention he was capable of reciting a few things from those was an understatement.
However, when it came to that last page number that she had given, Twilight had to think carefully over his response and quickly began to blush furiously. The young mare had completely forgotten that in that section of the book, was completely focused on mating habits and sexual intercourse.
Steam was quite literally coming off of the small pony as she stood there turning from purple, to a deep shade of red due to the extreme levels of embarrassment she was feeling.
Twilight had combed over that entire book in order to try and help her dad, but it had taken her a few pages into that one section before she realized what she was reading and skipped over the rest of it until she got to something new.
Now that she thought about it, there was a marker on the book that said it was for those of the age of thirteen and higher. Twilight had disregarded it thinking that it was nothing and only referred to one's reading capabilities.
She then quickly shook her head and shot back at the stallion; “OK, fine! You know about the book, so what does that got do with anything?”
She then heard the stallion saying, “How long do you think magics been around for?” Without even thinking, Twilight was about to answer that but as soon as she that opened her mouth, she clamped it down and began to adopt a thinking gesture with her hands scratching the back overhead.
She then answered, “A… Really long time, I know that. Sense as far back as the founding of Equestria.” When Twilight had finished, she had caught him raising his finger just as he was about to say, “Now, if magic has been around for as long as you say, tell me just how many spells do you think there are. Oh, and that was a rhetorical question, I'll tell you now.”
“On record, there are approximately 35,821 that are officially recognized. Now, when it comes to the medical profession, that number goes down to 3,195. Wow! You ponies have a lot of spells!” That last quip caused Twilight to scrunch upper face and confusion.
Twilights jaw just dropped after hearing how many magic spells there are in the world. This alone wouldn’t had been enough to gain this type of reaction however. It was really over how this stallion was able to know about something like the exact numbers, that is if it was even true to begin with.
However, what he said had dawn on her as to how he said that there were officially recognized spells. This meant that there were others out there that have yet to have been used on her dad. With a hesitant tone in her voice, she spoke out weakly and asked, “Y-You wouldn't happen to know of any spells that are not in that textbook, would you?”
Her eyes lit up when she heard him say, “But of course my dear! There are new spells being made every single day. There are also spells that have been forgotten every single day as well. Now, as for what can help your dad. I think I got something that just might work.”
Now with this new found sense of hope, Twilight leaned into the bed and spoke to the stallion on the other side and asked, “Can you tell me what it is? Maybe I can cast it!”
The stallion then said, “I'm afraid I can't teach you the spell, because it's not yet complete. I've actually only used it one other time and well… There was a bit of a kick back.” He had been making a so-and-so motion with his right hand when he had said that last bit.
Her mouth had just been dropped again after hearing that a stallion had been working on a new spell that could have an effect when everything else that had been tried by a female doctor had gone with little to no results. Hesitantly, she asked, “Do you really think that it would cure my dad?”
The stallion had taken on a thinking pose as he absentmindedly stroked his beard while turning halfway to the right. He had turned towards her a few more times before returning back to his original thinking pose before asking his own question, “Do you think we can keep this as our little secret? After all, I am just a male. Wouldn't want to step on any hoofs and discredit any of the doctors. Now, would I?”
Twilight thought it was odd that this stallion wouldn't want to gain any type of recognition, especially if it was for developing a new spell. Twilight began to wonder if there were others out there that had made a new spell as well, but never got the recognition. If that was the case, then it would explain why only the female Unicorns have been making them and getting published.”
But to her, if it meant helping out her father, then agreeing to keep the spell a secret was but a small price to pay. So, Twilight gave him a strong nod as she said, “I promise I won’t tell another pony about what I see here.”
He then clapped his hands together and quickly said, “Well then, we got a few things to take care of before I start. Let's get this window open and that door blocked. Also, we need to get anything that could possibly fly around put away. Don’t want to lose an eye from a runaway bed pan! Trust me, I seen those things do some damage to another.”
He paused again and asked, “Um, before we do anything, do you know if there are any rhinos around? You know, like the kind that have big horns and… like to take hospitals?” Twilight gave him the, are you serious look. Before replying, “I… don’t think so…” He then showed a relived sigh before saying, “Ah good! I don’t want to mess with them.”
Twilight quickly replied with, “Huh!” Before she watched the stallion running over and grabbing all of the objects that were small enough to be blown away and placed them inside of containers such as drawers and cabinets within the room. Afterwards he grabbed one of the spare chairs and use it to prop up against the door handles to prevent any pony from coming in.
By the time she knew it, something had been pushed into her hands. Twilight found it to be her book from earlier. Before she could ask as to why he had given this back to her, the stallion said, “Now you seem like a smart cookie. Tell me, if you were to say that casting a magic spell required parts, then what would you say those parts are in percentages?”
Twilight responded with, “Well there's the amount of magic you need, then there's the focus and... And...” Twilight was having a small breakdown as she was unsure how to answer such a question. No pony had ever asked her such a thing, but she was positive that she had seen it written down somewhere before.
She was going to try and say more but she saw how he was in the middle of doing something, but stopped in his tracks to look at her dad. As if some pony had lit a fire under his hooves, The stallion moved even quicker at getting the room ready. Which only took another minute at the rate he was going.
When the preparations were completed, he was now standing between the bed and the open window was directly behind him.
The stallion then brought his right arm up and was pulling it back as if to thrust is palm forward only a second later. As soon as he had done that, he spoke up and said, “Allow me to answer that question. Normally I'll follow this type of principle when it comes to casting a magic spell.”
“You see, I knew someone from a while back that was teaching me magic and they had a formula that they were trying to drill into my head. Mind you, I was having trouble at the time and the lessons were really hard to understand.”
“Now what she said was, a magic spell needs one to have a focused mind and a sound body. One has to use the following to cast an effective magic circuit. 20 percent energy, 40 percent calculations, 20 percent preparations and 20 percent concentration.”
After hearing this, Twilight nodded as she understood what this mare was saying when she was teaching this stallion. Now that she thought about it, it made it all seem quite obvious.
The stallion then went on to say, “Well… After one day, I was on a walk with her dad and I got around to telling him how the lessons were going. As it turns out, he was able to use spells just like his daughter. But he had explained to me that he would do things in a somewhat different way.”
“He went and told me that whenever he was to use any kind of magic, he followed these principles. “Its 40 percent calculations, 20 percent hard work, 40 percent imagination, 60 percent believe and 40 percent luck. That's how I do, EVERYTHING!”
After hearing this, Twilight's eye began to twitch and there was a stray hair that had just poked out on one side of her mane. She called out, “EH! But! But that doesn't make any sense! Putting aside the nonsense alone, that would mean he would be doing 200%?!”
The stallion then chuckled again and replied with, “Ha! You know, I said the exact same thing. But as it turns out, I got into a little situation a while back and I followed his way of thinking. Thanks to his ways, I was able to produce this new spell.”
Twilight couldn't help but the stutter repeatedly as she tried to say, “B-But that's just! It, you can't, but… But it doesn't! How can it? Magic doesn't work like that! Things need to be exact and precise and you can't just throw in stuff like, what you were just talking about! Most of what you just said, that has no effect on magic at all!”
Right then, as she had finished with her ramblings, did Twilight see his right hand that was covered in a glove, was now giving off a faint source of light that was starting at the center of his open palm. It grew until it had spread across his entire hand and had shifted into a small amount of green, white and blue. Which was now slowly bathing the room in its seemingly warm light.
Soon, the light had begun to shift until it was becoming brighter and brighter. It had progressed to the point that she was having a hard time with looking directly at it. Twilight hadn’t noticed until a few seconds after this was being done, that she had been holding her breath.
Inside her mind, the small pony was thinking, “Am I really about to see a spell that has only been used one time before now, by a stallion no less? Wait, what's with this feeling, why do I feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Could this be a side effect from his spell?”
The quiet room began to be filled with the sounds of crackling lightning that was being emitted from the stallion's right hand. She thought that this was all part of the spell at first, but began to worry when she saw how he was showing signs of struggling. The glowing hand was twitching its fingers rather erratically and grants of pain were coming from him.
Twilight was about to call out to have him stop after seeing that it was causing the stallion some form of discomfort. Another series of electrical discharges began to coarse from his fingertips and up to his elbow. Then she heard him speaking underneath his breath, “I don't know if any if you can hear me... But if you are... A little help, would be nice...”
Twilight had no idea just who the stallion was talking about. but she was getting more concerned by the moment. She had no idea that there would be a stallion out there that would go through with something that would cause them this much pain, just so they could help another that they had only met minutes ago.
Even more grunts of pain continued to escape the stallion as he seemed to be having trouble with keeping his arm stabilized in the same position.
A sudden gust of wind came out of nowhere to blow some of the equipment hard enough that it caused the number of the wires to sway back-and-forth. She then heard him say one more word, which she didn't make out over the heavy winds.
The sound of electricity became even louder and the light was now nearly blinding at this point. Twilight was beginning to get scared at how everything seemed to be escalating. If things went on any further, she was sure that there was going to be some damages in the room. Not to mention the stallion might end up injuring himself with this unknown spell.
But before she can say or do anything, the sound of electricity and wind within the room instantly vanished, only to leave the shining light that bathed everything in its white rays.
While trying to squint eyes as much as she could to keep an eye on what was happening, she saw how his green, glowing hand was showing that it now had a symbol that was glowing in the middle of the palm. It resembled a small plant with three leaves coming from the stem.
Expecting that this was the final stage of the magic the stallion was going to use, she was startled when the clothing that covered his hand and all the way up to his shoulder was being ripped to shreds. Or so she thought at the beginning
The white cloth was ripping away in a pattern that was just like watching a flower blooming with how it was in five long pieces. Those pieces then began to move in an odd way that made them seem almost alive. There was this wave of energy that coursed along to fabrics, giving them what appeared to be a metallic sheen.
At this point, the fabric seems more like sheets of metal as they began to fold and cling to the stallion's arm. There were a series sounds reminiscent to pieces of metal that were shifting into place and colliding with one another. Until finally it was finished and this revealed that his entire right arm was now clad in a white and silver set of armor with traces of blue and red as the arm guards. The only part that was exposed now, was the front of the hand that was facing towards her father.
Twilight had never even heard of any type of magic that would have such a unique spectacle. She knew that if she hadn’t seen this with her own two eyes, then she would have never believed it.
The hand was then thrusted forth and just before it had made contact with her dad, the hand seemed to have hit an invisible wall that was a mere few inches above the pony’s form.
Twilight could do nothing else but to stand there and watch through her squinted eyes as she saw something dark being given off from dad’s body in the form of small black dots. Said dots, were accumulating quickly to where the stallion had his hand right above.
During this procedure, Twilight was sure that the light was being so intense that it should have blanketed her vision in nothing but white. Nevertheless, the way the rays shined across the room; it was as if they were passing through the walls themselves instead of bouncing back towards the three of them. She had even noticed that in spots where there should have been a shadow being caused by what the stallion was doing, there was no shadow to speak of.
Her attention was brought back towards father and the stallion when there was an ear-splitting screech that came out of nowhere. When she looked back towards the accumulating black dots, she could see that it was about the size of her fist and apparently shifting its form Between that of an orb and tendrils that were attempting to reach out at her father and herself, but was obviously avoiding getting any closer to the glowing hand. That was a mere two inches away.
The sounds that the thing was making only grew an intensity. Twilight was sure that she was feeling the reverberations throughout her own body with how loud it was getting.
Just as she was going to cover her ears to block out as much of the noise as possible. She heard the stallion calling out in a booming voice that just radiated confidence with that odd accent of his, EVERYONE GOES HOME TODAY!!!” Before he clamped down on the weird object and began to crush it between his glowing fingers.
The thing was fighting off whatever the stallion was doing by lashing out its tendrils several inches in any direction, but was beginning to dissolve into nothing as the long grueling seconds went on.
Just before the last of it was gone, the light had gotten so much brighter that Twilight had to finally close and shield their eyes as she turned away. Several seconds had passed by after she had done this and the room was now dead silent.
The small pony was now holding her breath as to hear the stallion saying something about how the spell was a success. Unfortunately, as the seconds went by, there was nothing to be heard. Twilight found that she was beginning to take in quicker breaths and was on the verge of hyperventilating at the idea that it had ended in a failure.
Just before the water works kicked in, she heard a familiar voice calling out to her with a weak tone that said, “Twilight... Twilight? What's happening, on are you OK, are you hurt?”
Snapping her eyes wide open, Twilight turned on the spot and saw that her dad was now sitting upright in bed with a look of concerned and confusion etched into his expressions.
Without skipping a beat, she literally leaped into his lap and was now laugh as she began to nuzzle her face into his chest. She hadn’t noticed it, but she was still crying and this was staining his nightgown to the point that it was almost completely damp withing seconds.
Twilight called out through her muffled words, “Daddy! Daddy, you're up! you're up! It worked! It really worked! Daddy I was so scared! I thought that I lost you!!” Twilight would have most likely have stayed like that for quite a while if it wasn't for the sudden crash coming from the door, several ponies had falling past the now open doors and were now laying across the floor.
Seeing the other ponies in the room made Twilight remember about the stallion from earlier and hurriedly turned her head around, only to find that he was nowhere to be found. The doctors that were flooding in-and-in we're standing there with their mouths almost touching the floor when they caught sight of her dad sitting up and looking as if there was never even anything wrong with him to begin with.
Twilight's mother came rushing in and did pretty much the same thing as her daughter and dived for Night Light. The family instantly became a three pony pile up on the bed with all of them giving each other hugs while crying into one another shoulders.
The doctors then started to examine Night Light and found that he was as fit as a fiddle, which confused them all to no end. Twilight had even caught her mother saying that he looked a few years younger. This ended up causing the stallion to blush heavily and a few of the doctors chuckled at his expense.
Twilight had just removed her glasses to wipe away some of her tears of joy that had started to fog them up. Just as she was about to put them back on however, she stopped and blinked while looking straight ahead. After a few more times of blinking, she had brought her glasses close to her face once again, only to lower them immediately after and repeat the process a few more times.
The young mare couldn’t bring herself to believe it. Somehow, her eyesight had miraculously been fixed and she no longer needed the use of her glasses. The only explanation that she could have come up with for them suddenly being this way, was because of the stallion’s spell.
Twilight Sparkle's mother looked over to her and with a questioning stare. Twilight Velvet asked in a small voice, “Twiley, what's wrong, is there something wrong with your glasses? You’re fiddling with them a lot.”
She only placed them down onto her lap before she said to her mother and an equally quiet voice, “I don't know why, but I don't need them anymore now. I can see just fine.”
Twilight Velvet looked towards her daughter with wide eyes before taking her face in both hands and looking into the young Unicorns eyes more carefully. She then asked, “Is that true, can you really see without them?!” Twilight Sparkle nodded furiously and this got an excited gasp from the mother before she hugged the child nearly to death.
The smaller Unicorn then started to tap on her mother’s arm to let go, all the while saying, “Mommy... C-Can’t, b-breath!” to which she was released immediately.
Even with the pair speaking as quietly as they could, one of the Doctors overheard this and called out, “Did I just hear that you right, can see perfectly fine? I guess you're one of the many who are very lucky today.”
What the Doctor said only confused Twilight Sparkle along with her parents as they all look towards the Doctor that was speaking. Seeming to sense the confusion, the Doctor then straightened her white coat and cleared her voice before answering, “It’s just that, along with yourself miss Sparkle... It would seem that every one of the patients in the hospital has suddenly recovered from whatever that was ailing them.”
She paused for a moment before continuing, while showing a facial expression that just said that she couldn't understand either, “It's not just the simple things like being sick or having a broken bone. But even the small things like injuries that were already partially healed or scars have all been removed. It seems to have affected any pony who was within the building of the time of the exposure. I myself used to play Hoof-ball. Had a small injury on my knee that I would feel now and then, but even that was gone. If I didn’t know about it, I would think I was never injured.”
Twilight Sparkle upon hearing this, only sat there while blankly staring at the far wall. Within her head, she was thinking, “Oh my... By sweet Celestia... Did he really do all that with just that one Spell?! It was really able to affect the entire hospital?! That's just insane! To have that much power to affect such a wide radius to such an extent... No stallion Unicorn should even have anywhere near that amount of magic. Not even the works of Stars Swirl the Bearded mentioned him having any ware near this much. Could it be that he’s as powerful as the princess?!”
Her thoughts stopped in their tracks when she had a full grasp on the scale to which the amount of energy would have been required for all of this and thought, “Is it possible, that he could have been an Alicorn, just like Princess Celestia?! No, no. I didn't see any wings. Hold on! Maybe he used some type of magic to hide them... No, that can't be, there's only one alicorn in existence and that's the princess... But he wanted me to keep what he did a secret... Could that mean that he’s in hiding?”
Twilight tried as hard as she could to figure out just what the reason would be for a powerful caster like Mister Caretaker to be in hiding. Soon a memory of something she had once overheard came to mind. While out with her mom, there was a few mare’s on the street that were talking about some rumor about there being these herd cults hunting down stallions. She then thought, “Could it be that he didn’t want them to get word about his skills? What do I do? I promised I wouldn't tell any pony about him.”
Unknown to any others within the room, Twilight Sparkle was struggling with an internal dilemma. Things had barely begun to calm down after several minutes since the doctors finally got into the room. But it would seem that another commotion was about to start again when a new visitor came flying through the large open window.
Landing with a heavy thud, was a crouched down alabaster colored mare. She had a long main with three color tones comprising of light cerulean, turquoise and some light cobalt blue. There was a long spiraling horn on her head and a set of long white brilliant wings. There were also these amazing pale, light grayish magenta eyes. She stood at an impressive height of Six feet and five inches.
She was currently dressed in a long dress that would just touch the ground if she was to stand up straight. The style resembled something similar to a toga. She had on a set of golden regalia and a crown with a purple gem affixed to them. Along with those, were some matching of hoof guards and bracelets that had some golden chains running along the length of her arm and attaching to a loop on her forearm just above the elbow.
Twilight Sparkle, who was sitting on the bed along with her mom and dad, looked on with dumbstruck expressions as the rest of the ponies in the room began to bow Immediately upon seeing their princess. They were about to do the same when the Princess saw them making to motions but waved a hand and said, “Please, you are unwell. I ask that you don’t place any undue stress on yourself.”
She couldn't quite place it, but when Twilight Sparkle saw the princess standing straight again, there was something that caught her attention. Princess Celestia was looking around the room with an anxious expression that lasted but a few seconds before she regained that tranquil image that all knew her to have.
But it did not escape Twilight Sparkles notice that it seemed that a few of her feathers were misaligned, which indicated that she had been flying at a very fast speed. There was even further evidence with how the mare was slightly out of breath upon arrival. With being the only on looking in the direction of the window at the time, she had caught it quickly.
Twilight Sparkle wondered just what could have caused her beloved princess to come straight to the hospital in such a state. Then the image of the stallion popped into her head.
While trying to hide her nervousness, she thought to herself, “Is… Is the princess after the Caretaker? Did he do something wrong? Did he run knowing that she would show up? Wait… He did flitch that one time I mentioned her. He isnt a bad pony, is he scared that she would take him? It would make sense if he was this strong for the princess to want him as a partner.”
She had just heard the princess asking about the strong magical surge that she had felt only a short time ago, but the doctors around couldn't give her much information aside from there being a bright light that was shining throughout the hospital. Along with the reports on how all injuries within the walls had miraculously been healed.
Seeing that the princess was asking questions to the doctors about what was happening, Twilight Sparkle held her tongue and remained silent until all the commotion had settled down. It didn’t feel right to keep something a secret from the princess but she did make promise.
It was a couple of hours later and Night Light had gone through yet another examination before he was given a clean bill of health. After filling out some more paperwork, the family was now leaving the Canterlot General Hospital and had just exited through the front doors.
Upon stepping into the outside world, there was a sudden shout from a short distance away. Twilight Sparkle looked ahead and saw that it was her older brother, who was still wearing what appeared to be a set of training gear from his Guard Academy.
He was a stallion that was pretty good shape compared to most. His fur being the color of light gray. The mane had three colors that comprised of Moderate sapphire blue, cerulean and a dark phthalo blue streaks. He stood standing at the height of Five foot and eleven inches. Twilight Sparkle couldn't see his cutie mark exposed thanks to all the armor, but she knew that it was one that had a six-pointed star just like her own that was in the middle of a darker colored shield with three stars on the top.
Shining Armor had been away for over a week thanks to an off-site bootcamp that he had to attend. Since the incident with the museum happened shortly after he had departed, Twilight Sparkle didn't have any hard feelings towards her own brother for not being around to see their dad. She shivered for but a second when the idea of what kind of state both Shining Armor and her mother would have been in, if things had gone differently.
As soon as he had approached close enough, Twilight Sparkle leaped from her mother and father side to give her older brother a bone crushing hug onto his right leg.
Shining Armor asked quickly upon seeing his family, “I got worried about what happened, are you OK? Why are you out here? Did the doctors already fix what was wrong? Did they find out who-.” His ramblings were halted when Night Light raised his arms in defense and said, “That's enough. I'll fill you in on everything once we get back to the house. Don't know about all of you, but I am homesick. Also, hospital food is the worst!” He said that last bit with a dead-pan expression that just screamed that he was over it.
Shining Armor, upon hearing this, only cringed and flexibly took half a step back with his free leg. He then said, “If it's anything like the gruel that they give us in boot camp, then I sympathize. Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if that stuff was used in building the castle walls…” Immediately after, both of the stallions began to shiver in place after mentally re-living their experiences of the food.
Twilight Velvet and Twilight Sparkle could only look at the pair, then to one another before muttering to the other, “Stallions!” Before breaking out in a small set of giggles. At seeing a mirrored reactions by both father and sun.
*Point of view: Night Light* *Time: Around Seven at night* *Location: Sparkle family household*
Later on, when the entire family was back home. They had gone back to their daily routine and were enjoying each other's company. As far as they all knew, Shining Armor had a few days off due to the incident with their father and Night Light had at least a full week before having to report to his boss.
Things were up in the air on if he was going back to his job. It had taken some effort to getting the position to begin with. It was meant to be something that wouldn’t get him into any danger after all. Now that there was this incident all over the papers, odds where he might be let go out of fear for his wellbeing. It wasn’t like they needed the bits. It was just something to do. staying at home wasn’t so bad for the stallion.
They had just finished their dinner and were now sitting in the living room of their two-floor house while a small fire was lit in the fireplace that was surrounded by three sets of couches that were lined up in a half circle.
Night Light had just gone over in more detail with his family about what had happened during that day at the museum. He went through the entire process, starting from the moment he found that strange object on the floor, along with the detailed descriptions of the following events that came afterwards.
How he was nearly crushed by falling stone support pillar and found shortly after by some of city guards that quickly brought him to the hospital. From there, he went and talked about his horrible experience with the food, which only caused the two mare’s in the room to roll their eyes, But his son did flinch at the mentioning of the horrible meals.
During the whole tale, Night Light watched his daughter with a curious gaze as he saw that she was clutching at her favorite book much more than usual. He wasn't quite sure, but he thought that he had some strange dream where he could hear his daughter screaming about how useless magic was. Thinking that it was just something caused by a fever or whatever was wrong with him.
The stallion had neglected to share that dream with his family, thinking that it wasn’t worth mentioning, seeing as Twilight was doing just fine. Another thing that he neglected from his story, was what happened between the time that the pillar was falling and being found by the guards.
Back during the incident, while he was still in the midst of a heavy coughing fit after breathing in that strange black substance. Night Light watched as one of the nearby explosions caused a crate to fall over and land in the path of the pillar as it fell.
When it was being struck with the heavy stone support, The wooden crate was smashed and splinters were sent flying randomly. What was inside had prevented the column from reaching the ground.
From what Night Light could tell thanks to his blurred vision at the time, was that it was a large stone. Roughly the size and shape of a fully grown watermelon. Within seconds, cracks began to form thanks to the heavy weight sitting on top. Within the next five seconds, the following happened.
The cracks began to spread at an astonishing rate, this caused large chunks to begin falling away. Sections of it began to display what appeared to be the side of a face, as an eye was being revealed. Then a nose, an ear, until finally all that could be seen was a perfectly preserved stone statues head and it was facing directly at him.
What got his attention about it, was how it was not of a pony or anything he had seen. Thanks to the nose and ears. It had a chiseled jaw line and a fairly large nose that was not the same as a pony. From the looks of it, it was carved to give it the appearance of having a short beard and there were these markings edged into the cheeks that ran underneath the eyes. There were even these two small scratches on its right cheek, but they seemed to be placed there intentionally and not from being crushed.
Immediately after that, it too began to crack until it had finally had enough and gave way to the support pillar, which crushed it in the dust in an instant.
The reason why Night Light hadn’t told them about that bit, was because of what he had seen while still in the hospital bed. Shortly after having that weird dream of Twilight screaming and crying, Night Light had opened his eyes just a bit thanks to a shining light that was penetrating his eyelids and waking him up. Still feeling rather weak, his eyes roamed around as best he could until they landed on the figure who had an outstretched arm over his body.
For a brief instant before everything went white, Night Light had caught a good glimpse of the one underneath the hood and what he saw, had made his heart stop for but a second. The face of the hooded being, was an exact match to the stone statue's head that have been destroyed in the museum. Everything was there, the ears, the nose and mouth. Even the markings right underneath the eyes and those scratch marks.
Night Light found himself looking out of the window that was leading to the street and the lanterns with their turned-on crystals. The next thought that went through his mind was, “Just where in Equestria did they dig up that statue?”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Time: A few minutes prior to Brex using the spell* *Location: Unknown*
Somewhere off in the vast emptiness of space, where only the distant stars could be seen as the smallest specks, was what appear to be a swirling mass of luminescent gas that was comprise of a mix of blue, pink and yellow.
Near the very center of this, was a lone green speck of light that remained motionless as the rest of the cloud was clearly rotating in a counter clockwise fashion. Suddenly, the form of green gas began to move separately from the rest. Upon closer examination, it showed it to be having a pair of glowing yellow eyes that were just beginning to open.
There was then a sound that echoed through the vast vacuum of space, which shouldn’t have been possible that resembled that of a whale song being played. From where the yellow eyes were on the green mass, there came a gentle feminine voice. It came out sweet and endearing as it spoke in a sleepy tone, “Oooh… Come on~ Just… A few millennia or two... It's just so comfy here~.”
The whale like sound came again and the green mass began to move a little more while seemingly trying to turn over in place. There was yet another sleepy voice coming from it that sounded a little muffled this time that said, “But I'm so sleepy. Can't I just get another five-hundred year’s more~.
As soon as she is said those words, the gas cloud that was easily several thousand times bigger, had started to swirl at an accelerated speed before the green figure was thrown off and into deep space just a short distance.
Well, if one was to think of it in relation to the size of the large cloud, then it could have been a short throw. But in reality, it was far enough to be counted as the distance of the Earth's whole Solar System from one end to the next.
The green mass finally opened their eyes fully and called out while sounding playfully disappointed, “OK, OK. I'm up.” It then zoomed back to the cloud and what occurred next, was it was cuddling. Another wailing sound came from the mass, but this time it oddly sounded as if it was purring.
The feminine voice from before came back, this time cheerier than before earlier as it said, “Oh, I can't be mad at you. Whose mommy's little intergalactic space whale~. You are! Oh yes! You are! This elicited another series of the weird whale and purring sounds that was now loud enough to cause space itself to shimmer with its volume alone.
The voice then said, “So just what's got you all riled up?” The green mass then paused in its tracks and the eyes quickly shifted to turn in some far-off distance. A loud gasp escaped it as it proclaimed in an extremely, excited and giggly tone, “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Is it really coming from there?”
There was then a sudden, loud girlie shriek of excitement before the voice went on to say, “I can't believe it. I thought I was just hearing things!” An appendage came out that went close to the glowing eyes and took on a familiar shape that was reminiscent of a person's hand that was cupped to listen better.
There was then another gasp, but this one seemed more urgent. “The feminine voice then called out in a panic as it said, “Oh! I'm so sorry. I'll come back and we can finish your nap another time, but I really need to go, like now!” There was another loud whale sound that came through and the feminine voice replied with, “Don't worry, I'll come back. Shouldn't take more than a thousand years, give or take a hundred. I'll be back long before you wake up again~.”
There was then the sound of what one would make when blowing a kiss to another. Suddenly, the mass of green shot off in the direction it was previously looking towards and disappeared into the distance. After a few seconds of this, the voice called out, “This is going to take way too long, I better take a shortcut.”
When it had said this, a portion of its body began to stretch out and become much thinner until it resembled the shape of a scythe and swung down in its path with a loud, swoosh. As soon as it had done this, a ripped open in which the green mass slipped through and rip in space slammed shut immediately afterwards.
It was now within what appeared to be an endless tunnel in the shape of a tube. Multicolored lights swirling along the walls and were mostly flowing in one direction and into a bright light source at the far end of the tunnel. From the way all the lights were circulating in random patterns, it was difficult to make out just how large this path really was.
The feminine voice which came from the green mass called out, “Now, where is the exit again? No… no… no… no, no. Not this one. Not over there. Is that it, wait, nope! Where is it? It's been such a long time. Oh, there it is!” It then brought out the scythe lake appendage once again and cut away at the wall before slipping inside.
It soon found itself in a sea of gold with a rainbow-colored sky. Holding itself in midair, it's spun in place while the yellow eyes began darting back-and-forth as if on the search for something.
The feminine voice began to speak again, but this time it was oddly sounding as if listening to listening to a little girl that was doing the. I need to go to the bathroom dance. “Come on. Come on, which way is it? Why is it so big here? I told them they need to put a sign down.”
After a few seconds, the mass just remained silent before it went rigid and turned in one random direction. Letting out another one of its excited gasps, the feminine voice said, “I hear you! I hear you! I'm coming! I'm coming! Just wait! Oh, please… Don't let me be too late. Don't let me be too late!”
It then darted at astonishing speed and even though it was clearly nearly a mile above the sea of gold, the rate at which it was traveling was causing the sea below to part with the force it was creating. Over the course of several seconds, it had managed to create a series of wind cones, in which it broke one after another as it increased its speed. Just as it broke what seemed to be the fifth cone of wind, it called out loud enough to be heard from over the wind, “DON’T WORRY! AUNTIE IS ON HER WAY!!!”
Soon, there was set of screaming coming from far up ahead. From it, there was a total of three. Two of which sounded feminine, while the last sounded as if it came from a shrill, old man. The old man's voice could be heard screaming, “Don't do it. You can't handle doing that right now! You need to stop this instant young man!”
The second voice came from what sounded like a teenager and she was screaming bloody murder as she yelled, “YOU IDIOT! WHY ARE LITTLE BROTHERS SO STUPID! DON’T YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME? BIG SIS IS GOING TO BE REALLY MAD AT YOU IF YOU GET HURT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW! YOU GOING TO MAKE LITTLE LIGHT CRY!”
The last voice that came out, wasn’t nearly as loud as the other two, but this one seemed more startled than scared unlike the others as it screamed out, “Hay! I am not going to cry!”
From where the voices were coming from, one could see a large, brightly glowing circular table. The green mass upon getting closer began to dive down as soon as it was nearly directly overhead of it.
With it coming at such high speeds, it was nothing but a blur. It had come crashing down onto the center of the table, which then changed its coloring to match its own. Along its surface, it began to draw out the symbol of a tree with three leaves growing on it. As soon as it was done, the entire world of gold and rainbow colors became engulfed in a brilliant white light.
As soon as the explosion of colors that was known to be the sky came back into focus, it showed the three individuals standing on the side of the table. While what appeared to be their hairs being blown back and sticking in a cartoonish style.
The one with the blond hair, now resembled the state of one that just walked into a tornado. The one with the dark hair was blown back and was stuck in place. As for the shorter one, being that he had no hair at all, there wasn’t anything new, but they had lost their pair of sun glasses and now showed a set of squinting eyes.
The one that was apparently wearing the jumpsuit called out in an exasperated tone, “What in the name of us happened?!” The girl then Lifted an arm and quickly pointed towards the figure that was now sitting at the center on top of the table.
Instead of there being the green mass with yellow eyes from before, there was now a sitting, petite lady, wearing a set of yellow clothing and sporting a set of very wide, pink circular glasses. She was currently giving them the biggest grin one could make when they wanted to be praised for something.
(Here is a Picture of the girl. )
The one sitting on the table then raised her right hand and called out in a sing song voice, “Hiya! Long time no see! Ooh~ I'm just so excited that we finally got someone to call us again! Tell me! tell me! Tell me everything you know about him. I only got a glimpse through the connection. Oh, I thought I heard someone calling us for a while now! I'm just so excited!”
She then hopped off the table and began to jog in place as if overcome with an endless source of boundless energy. She then threw her arms off to both sides and ran right up to the three figures and gave them all a crushing bearhug, while at the same time lifting the shorter went off his feet.
Just as it appeared that the tallest of the set being hugged was about to say something, did the newly formed person say, “And if we're using code names, I want to be called Honey Lemon! I heard you being called Little Light.” The newly named Honey Lemon leaned in to rub her nose playfully onto the one called Little Light.
While still in a bone crushing hug, the smallest of the group called out, “Oh, I was afraid of this. Looks like the boy managed to call out far enough for even this one to hear. That means that even… she's gonna hear the boys voice too...” He then released a big gulp at the revelation.
This got another paired series of loud *GULPS* from the other two that were in the bear hug as they both turned to one another and said underneath their breaths, “Oh, right... Mother...”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 31: Not Everything is the Same.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Right as the spell blinded the room* *Location: Canterlot General Hospital*
Brex could feel the magic taking hold and was astonished that there was no back lash, unlike before. He was about to let out a loud cheer when he had suddenly gotten an important emergency message from one of his body doubles while still in the middle of the blinding flash of light.
It was apparently the one he had placed in Canterlot castle. The message was in the form of a memory that only lasted a few seconds. It displayed Princess Celestia who was sitting at a table while out in the middle of the garden and she was enjoying a slice of cake. Just before a forkful of the delicious treat had made it all the way to her mouth, the princess had suddenly shot up from her chair and dropped the fork onto the grass as she took flight.
Brex’s eyes shot wide open at the implication that the princess, lover of cakes, had just disregarded her own favorite food. This was something that needed to be paid attention too. From what he knew, for her to do something like that, would constitute a disaster of epic proportions to be occurring.
Before the memory cut out, it showed Princess Celestia flying over the castle walls and heading towards the center of the city, which just happened to be in the same direction as the general hospital.
Within Brex's head, he screamed, “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! She's heading this way! She must have sensed me. I was so stupid, I forgot all about her being able to sense magic! I need to get outta here, NOW!”
That was when he turned and jumped through the open window just as the light had nearly died down. As he fell, he caught a glimpse of his right arm that was currently clad in a type of white metal and it was shifting back to a perfectly pristine white and red robed arm and glove.
Just as he was about to have a face-to-face meeting with the ground, he activated his ability and at the very instant his body created a shadow on the cement floor near the hospital, did an opening form for him to enter.
The only place that he could think of right then, was the exact location of his body double within the castle. But instead of arriving there, he exited through one of the shadows of some random alley and flew through the air thanks to his built-up momentum of the fall and crashed into the wall adjacent to where he had exited. There was a loud heavy thud as Brex had struck the wall in a way that him upside down.
His body slumped down as it slid on the brick wall. All the while, letting out a pained grunt or two until he had managed to turn over and was now sitting with his back pressed up against what seemed to be a large trash can.
While rubbing his head, he opened his right eye to glance at the object he was leaning against and saw that there were some street numbers printed on its side. After giving it a few seconds, he had concluded that he had somehow managed to exit prematurely and had landed in an alley close to half a mile away from where he had started from.
A door appeared in front of him and came out Rory, who quickly kneeled down next to him and began to look over his form in concern. She then turned to him with a steely gaze as she began to speak in a very disappointed tone, “Master… You know what you did was just, without a doubt, the most reckless thing you had done to date, right?”
Brex then replied with a very low grunt, before going on to think, “Yeah… Uhg! Note to self. Don't go using that way of travel while falling from a building… At least make sure the exit is facing up and away from stone walls.” He reached over and pulled a small piece of a green vegetable from his shoulder before finishing that sentence with, “Or trash cans… Oh! Now that stinks!”
He then noticed how Rory was now puffing up her cheeks while looking away before she said, “Yes, that part is true, but I'm talking about what you did in the hospital room. Master, just what exactly were you thinking was gonna happen if you use that same glitched spell again? Back then, you were set at level 35. This time, you were at Max level, along with your gear. Who knows what could have happened? For all we knew, it could have been a hundred times more severe.”
She was obviously about to go on, but Brex had reached up and grabbed onto her hand. Rory froze at that and looked at him. Her eyes traveling along his arm until they had reached her own. Brex then mentally communicated, “Well, well. Will you just look at that? It seems like, if I concentrate hard enough, I can sort of interact with you too. All be it, to others I am just holding out my arm and grasping at nothing but air.”
Rory Had pulled her arm away and puffed up her cheeks again. This was then followed by her crossing her arms, before looking at him with a slightly grumpy expression. She then said, “Master... That's just not fair. Changing the subject like that.”
Brex attempted to get backup while propping himself against the wall, but found himself crumpling to the ground as his legs gave out almost immediately. Another grunt of exertion came out when he tried to do the same again, this time with only little results with him just barely staying on his feet.
Rory was watching him with a worried expression as she asked, “How are you feeling?” After steadying himself, Brex replied with, “Just feeling really tired. I think that spell still had some side effects, even though it went a lot better this time around. I can feel my magic, but just barely. That probably explains why I came outside in this alley, instead of going straight to my body double. Just didn’t have the gas for the trip.”
Rory then asked, “Master, why on earth would you even head over there, isn’t that like, the last place you wanna be? Anywhere would have been a better location.”
Brex only shook his head while, he pushed himself from the wall to see if he could stand on his own two feet, to find that he was now standing, albeit shakily. He then replied with,” I don't know if you saw what my body double sent me, but this is the perfect chance for me to get in there and drop off the gift that Ryu gave me to deliver. She literally dropped a piece of cake to come running out here!”
Seeing how Rory was giving him this, I don't understand expression, while tilting her head. Brex went on to explain, “Princess Celestia is known for loving cake. If she was to do something like that, then it must have been an emergency. And if it was an emergency and she ran off in that much of a hurry, then she would not have informed others of her departure. So, if I go off that, then there is nothing set up for a while she's gone. If that's the case, then I can’t see any other as a good time for me to slip in and out while she's away.”
Rory then rubbed her face with her left hand while sliding it down before asking in an exhausted tone, “Can this wait? You could drop it off at some other time. You're exhausted and low on magic. Just how are you gonna get in there? You can't just appear next to your body double, you said it yourself.”
To answer her question, Brex switched out his White Mage class to that of his rogue and equipped a set of gear that was still glamoured to look like his mysterious Butler set, along with the mask. He then said, “Simple, I'm just going to run in there and do a panty run inside of Celestia’s room and plant the gift.”
Rory then tilted her head and gave him a questioning look before she asked, “It's OK, I get that you're gonna go in there to drop off that music box. But why didn’t you just have your body double do it for you to begin with? Aren't they connected to your item box too?”
Brex slowly approached a section of the wall that had a dark shadow being cast upon it by an overhang far above. As he got closer, he replied with, “Actually, I thought about doing that, but I didn't want to take the chance of something going wrong. She had been in the castle this whole time and it and if she had found my body double and he just up and disappeared after being struck with something, then my secret about making a copy of myself would be fully exposed. Besides, you know they're not very good when it comes to actual combat.”
Rory then shrugs as she replied with, “Fair enough. So, what's the game plan? Teleporting over is not an option, at least in your current state.” She watched as Brex placed his palm onto the wall that had the shadow and was showing signs of pushing into it. After a few seconds, his hand began to slowly be devoured by the darkness until his entire body went in. As soon as Brex had fully entered the shadow realm, Rory open another one of her doors and disappeared after going through.
Within the shadow realm, Brex had climbed to the top of one of the buildings using a fire escape and had started to jump from rooftop to rooftop in order to avoid the many crowds on the streets below.
He had Jumped across at least twenty-four buildings but a time he had made it to the walls that encircle the castle structure. Luckily, he didn't have to climb the tall stone deterrent seeing as the very last building that had led him to the place, was just high enough for him to take a running start and leap clear across onto the top of the wall.
The very instant he landed, he felt a sudden rush of exhaustion that was so strong that it forced him to his hands and knees. Each breath felt as if the air itself had turned into putty as it slowly filled his lungs. There was a strange pressure that could be felt all over his body, similar to being underwater.
The world was beginning to look darker than he would perceive normally while in this state. Brex had this urge to want to get out of the Shadow Realm as quickly as possible and started turning his head to find another shadow for him to exit through.
Fortunately, not too far away appear to be an entrance to a set of stairs leading into the wall itself. He couldn't sense any ponies within his immediate vicinity, so he lumbered over. Each step getting heavier as time went on. Soon it became almost impossible to breathe with how thick the air was becoming. The instant that he had entered the stairwell, he used the shadows provided to get out.
As soon as his body was fully out of the shadows, he took in a heavy breath of air before quickly exhaling. The feelings that were being pressed down onto his form were no longer there and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Clutching onto the railing with his right arm, Brex looked about so as to get his bearings. For some strange reason, even his sense of direction was being messed with during those final moments and vertigo was beginning to set in.
He then muttered to himself, “W-What was that all about? That never happened to me before. Could it be that you need magic to be able to survive in the Shadow Realm or something? I guess I'm too low to use that trick right now. Note to self, do not bring others into the Shadow Realm if they're low on magic. Geez, I felt like I was about to drown in there. How do my doubles manage staying in there all the time?”
After giving himself a few moments to recover, he went into his item box and pulled out a familiar bandana that he had received as one of the gifts from Ryu. This was an item that had the ability to disguise it's wearer into looking like another when worn.
The only issue was, that the items effects were limited due to a time limit and it was only an illusion. This meant if he was to disguise himself as someone really thin and small, he would still have to make sure that his real body didn't bump into anybody.
Brex then thought to himself, “Good thing I asked him for this. Always a good idea to have a backup plan for a backup plan. If going into the Shadow Realm or using the advanced teleporting skill didn't work, then the only things I have to rely on are my stealth and this item. In my current condition I have no idea If the lack of mana is going to affect my ability to use my Stealth skill. Better use this for now.” He then took another breath seeing as he was still pretty winded before continuing with, “OK, now I just have to come up with a face to use for my disguise.”
Brex thought over about all the ponies he had seen so far, along with those he had come across and many of the books and magazines he had gone over during his stay In Equestria. He didn't want to pick something that was already out there. If he was to somehow mess up, he didn’t want to be responsible for dragging a innocent pony into trouble.
He didn't have a whole lot of time seeing as the princess could get back at any moment. So, he quickly put together an image in his head. It was of a stallion that was a full foot shorter than himself and just a little a bit slimmer. He also added memories that he had gotten from his body double on what the Butler's within the castle would wear. Luckily enough, it was similar to his own outfit so he didn't have to concentrate too hard on that.
He then placed the bandana on his head and is his head after finishing with the mental picture. His body began to ripple and shimmer as his form became distorted. Within seconds, a stallion took the rogue's place. Gone was the tall, nearly two-meter-high juggernaut, now there was a six foot, eight inches tall stallion with a gray coat. His mane and tail were jet black, with just a few silver highlighted tips on both. His eyes retained the hazel color from before, but were now those of a pony.
Brex lifted his arms to check out his new form and went on to say, “I wish this thing wasn't limited to adjusting my appearance by only a single foot. Most ponies barely go up to six feet. The only ones of that height are typically the princesses, so this is going to be a little awkward. Definitely gonna draw some attention with just my height alone.”
Rory spoke up from inside his head in a joking tone, “You could have gotten around that little issue by copying another pony we both know~.”
Brex quickly snapped back with the mental connection and said, “If you're telling me that I should have disguised myself as Celestia, then you got another thing coming! Cross dressing is the last... And I say last, desperate option, I would even consider doing. Thank you very much!”
Rory then came back with a quick quip by saying, “Ahhhhh... But I bet you would look so sexy as a mare. In retaliation, Brex imagined Rory within his mind getting slapped on the ass with a heavy wooden paddle. There was then a sudden welp that echoed in his head and he grinned maniacally behind his mask. Which in turn, causes his pony illusion to grin in the same way as well.
He then went on to say, “OK, not much time left, need to hurry need to hurry. I'd rather not still be here when she gets back. Now, I just need to bring up the map and figure out the best way to her room.”
It only took him a few more seconds to come up with the most direct way to go, as to avoid the patrols that were on duty during the day. Thanks to his invisible spy that he had staying in the Shadow Realm, this whole time he had a pretty good idea as to the inner workings of the castle. Maybe even better than the princess herself. Not only did he have all of the paths memorized and the work schedules for the staff. But also, the patrolling patterns and timing for all the guards.
He then went down the stairway. As he was traveling, he thought to himself, “Who says you can't be over paranoid?”
Brex had used both the disguise and his stealth abilities to slip through some areas to avoid detection. There were times that he relied heavily on the illusion spell provided by the bandana and had gotten quite a few looks from the staff as he walked down the many hall ways.
There were more than a few times that he felt his skin crawling whenever he had passed by a few of the maids as he saw them giving him this predatory gaze. Luckily before that had happened, he had come across a mirror and noticed how his pony face was imitating his own, so he was fully aware of containing his emotions and facial expressions as to not give anything away.
Brex had gone so long with wearing a mask that he was having a tough time with keeping his face straight. He had even once overheard a pair of maids who he had just walked by saying things like, “Who the new hired help? Oh, my! He is very big. I wonder what he’s like in bed. A stallion that fine, he must be working directly under the princess.”
That last one made his skin crawl. Sure, he found Princess Celestia rather, alluring but the personal memories regarding her squashed those thoughts quite easily. At the moment, Brex could only feel a sense of revulsion when it came to that mare. So, the very idea that others would think that he was serving her, had almost caused him to turn around to rebuke the accusation.
He was nearly to Princess Celestia's room which was at the top of the tallest tower built into the structure. Apparently, it was in the wing that important Ponies and dignitaries would stay. He was but a minute away and was just two floors below the one that he was heading for when he had heard a small ruckus from just ahead of him.
Right there, were three ponies blocking the hallway near the stairwell. two of which, appear to be a set of female nobles with how they were dressed up to impress. However, Brex noticed their facial expressions and spoke under his breath, “Why do I get the feeling that these are the mean ones?”
He had found that his assumptions were correct when he saw one of them pointing towards the third figure, which was a small stallion wearing a very nice set of clothing that reminded him of the higher-ranking nobility. A white button up shirt with some elaborate patterns on the shirt cuffs and navy-blue silk pants.
As he drew closer, he heard the mare speaking in a very condescending tone, “Do you really think you deserve what you have? You're just a male and the only reason you're even in this castle and dressed the way you are is because of the princess. Honestly! I don't even understand why they gave you a title of Prince. Like we need another stallion to have any type of authority. Just remember, your title is in name only, you have no real power here!”
The other mare jumped in and continued with, “And don't even think about going to your aunt and telling her lies about us. There's no possibility that she’ll ever believe anything you say. After all, aren't we among the elites that serve directly under her? We have been guiding Canterlot for generations. While you’re just a kid.”
Brex slowed down in his walking and picked out a few words from that conversation. The words Prince and aunt were are the ones that caught his attention the most.
Taking another glance revealed that the small stallion looks to be around the same age as Blaze Caster. He was mostly a light shade of gray and his mane and tail were that of amber. From behind a set of arctic blue eyes, Brex could tell that he was just terrified when it came towards these mare’s
He then looked for the kid’s status bar and found the name Blue Blood, Level 3. Brex started to feel some anger building up, but not towards blue blood. It was more focused on the mare’s that were talking down to him. He had wondered why the prince was taking this without retorting yet, but found that the kid was having a hard time with opening his mouth and was actually on the verge of crying.
Brex quickly thought to himself while still approaching, be it at a slower pace, “Could it be that things are different with Blue Blood because of the way the society set up in this world? In the show, he always tried to have his way, but here the males are looked down upon.”
“I could just walk right by and pretend I didn't see anything. After all, Blue Blood has been a thorn and many displaced sides.” Brex had intended to change the direction he was walking slightly as to pass by, but found that he was unable to when he began to internally grunt to himself in anger.
This was because of what he had heard next. The first mare that spoke, had gotten a little closer to the prince and leaned in while having a predatory grin on her muzzle. Even though she was keeping her voice low, Brex was able to hear it as clear as day when she said, “Now, why don't you be a good little dear and come with me. I'll show you exactly what a little colt Like yourself is good for.”
Inside, the rogue was so furious that was ready to burst at the seams with how angry felt towards this mare. Even if this was Blue Blood, he was still only a kid. Brex knew nothing about him from this reality, but the very idea that this mare was essentially strong arming this kid into what could only be considered an adult activity, only made him want to charge in head first.
Brex angrily thought to himself, “This fucking piece of shit! I can see how this is going. Making the kid believe that no matter what is done to him, the princess won't believe a word of it. This way she could do what she wants without fear of being exposed. Then she takes advantage of this and uses him for her own selfish desires. I really… really hate these nobles. What the fuck is the princess doing with having ponies this messed up in helping her to run things.”
“Isn't this the one place that stallions are able to rest easily without having to worry about this kind of prejudice? It's only proving to show that those with power will just do whatever they want. Even if it's literally right behind the princess's back.”
He looked towards Prince Blue Blood and saw that he had this look of resignation on his face, which caught Brex completely off guard. He had expected the kid to lash out, maybe make some empty threats, but it seemed to be like any other child.
Just as it seemed that the mare was in the middle of reach for the prince’s hand, did Brex finally get to them. The other mare had noticed him and shot him in angry glare. But the look she was giving him had immediately left her face as she went pale as a set of bedsheets only a second later.
Brex was currently staring down at the mare who was unaware of his presence with a look that could kill on site. Eyes narrowed and pupils partially shrunk to give a blood thirsty glare. It also helped that even with his one-foot reduction in size, He was still towering over them in comparison.
The mare that was in the middle of making a move on the kid had just noticed how her companion had gone completely silent and looked towards her, only to have a look of confusion. She then followed the other mare’s gaze and locked eyes with him.
Seemingly out of reflex, the mare began to speak in a loud, condescending tone as she said, “Be gone with you! Can you not see that I am quite busy with... The... Prince...”
The clear self-entitlement in her voice had shrunken considerably as she got near the end of that sentence. Her eyes went comically wide and she took a hesitant step back as she and her cohort were beginning to shake in place.
If he had a mirror to see himself at this very moment, then he would have known that the disguise he was using was clearly reflecting his real face through its expressions. It was clearly that of a stallion looking down on the mares with a look that clearly said that he saw them as nothing more than pieces of dirt on the side of the road, full of contempt and disgust.
They all stood perfectly still, aside from the two that wouldn't stop shaking for a good solid minute without any saying a word. As the seconds went by, it was clear that the mare who was clearly the leader, was attempting to say something. Although the words seemed to stop at every time. The colors drained from their faces as time went on, until the pair had fainted on the spot and collapsed to the ground.
Immediately after, Brex turned to one of the nearby doors in the hallway and threw it open. This revealed that it was a broom closet and he proceeded in picking up both of the mare by one of their legs and unceremoniously threw them inside. When he had thrown the second one in, a number of groom handles that were on the wall had fallen over, along with a set of rags that were inside of a box that was on a shelf overhead.
Just as Brex had slammed the door shut, did he hear prince Blue Blood beginning to speak from behind, while his voice seemed rather hoarse and shaking. He was clearly on the verge of crying as he said, “T-Thank you. I-I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't shown up when you did... Again, thank you.”
The rogue had froze on the spot when he heard the prince. As far as Brex knew, Prince Blue Blood was never one to say thank you to another, or to even acknowledge another. Much less bow down to any others that tried to make him do something that he didn't want to do without some type of protest. But here was a version of the guy that was about to be taken advantage of, and was thanking him.
While slowly turning around, Brex was attempting to control his facial expressions from showing how surprised he was. When he had fully turned, the sight of Blue Blood leaning his back against a far side wall while in a fetal position was not something he had thought he would ever see.
He had to resist the urge to use the echo to find out the whole story, but went against it as he thought to himself, “OK, I gotta stop relying on that so much. If I keep going on like this, I'm going to end up using the echo on everybody I meet. Feels like I'll lose myself to the emotions every time and I don't want to go on a rampage if what I think is going on turns out to be true. Besides, there's always the chance that there could be those out there that could sense me using it. I need to be careful.”
Seeing as Blue Blood wasn't going to move from his spot anytime soon, Brex looked towards the kid and then back down the hallway in which he was previously heading towards.
Rory spoke up in his mind and said, “Master, you're going to help him, aren't you?” Brex quickly replied after having a small mental sigh by saying, “Was it that obvious?” This got a small giggle from the girl as she answered with, “Oh I'm pretty sure I know you pretty well by now. You may not trust these ponies, but I know you can't resist a kid crying.”
He then straightened up and approached Blue Blood and sat against the wall, just on the kids left hand side. After a few more seconds of listening to Blue Blood giving off a few sniffles here and there, the kid finally seemed to have gotten over his current state enough to finally say, “I'm supposed to be a prince, that’s what auntie said. Why is it that they all talk so mean to me? I didn't do anything... This is all because I was born as a Colt. I wouldn't be going through this if I was a filly.”
He sniffled a few more times and continued with, “I tried to tell auntie what's going on, but she doesn't believe me. No pony seems to be on my side at all. They either say they saw or heard nothing or things aren't the way I said and say something completely different to make me sound as if I’m some monster…”
He then began to ball out more tears as he sunk his face into his knees even deeper as he brought his legs closer. Blue Blood went on to say, “I hate mares... All they do is look down on me... If I had the power... Then... Then I would…. Oh, who am I kidding… I'm just worthless. They're right, I'm only a prince by name.”
Brex had an extremely concerned expression on his face as he watched this pony having a break down and giving up. This Equestria’s Blue Blood was clearly not the same as in many of the stories and the television show. However, with all the constant harassment that he had been going through, Brex had no doubt that he was going to end up becoming a pony that would try to get revenge like so many other villains, just because of what happened to them when they were younger.
Brex found himself reaching over and laying a hand onto the kids’ right shoulder and giving it a few light pats as to try and comfort the kid. Seeing as he was in his disguise it wouldn't hurt for him to talk a little bit. He then said to Blue Blood, “Not all of them are bad.”
This got Blue Blood to raise his head a little bit, as to look towards Brex before he replied with, “Are…Are you sure? Pretty much every pony I've met, has been mean to me. If not that, then they hardly say anything. It doesn't matter who it is. The ponies I meet in the castle and even my teachers all look down on me. The castle staff all but ignore what I say and just go on with their work. My own guards don't even stay around that much.”
Now this piqued his interest upon hearing how things were going for the kid. Could it be that the princess really is that oblivious to what's going on or could It be that she already knows about it and does nothing. Or worse, she's instigating the whole thing. Too many speculations were racing through the rogues head at this point.
But the part about him and the guards was most concerning. He hadn't realized it, but there were no signs of any within the last several minutes. Brex then wondered and thought to himself, “That's just odd, where are they? Rory, you don't think that...”
Rory finished that sentence by saying, “They got bought off by those mare’s? I'm thinking that's the case. I mean, even I can see this is a setup. The princess suddenly leaves and no pony knows when she'll be back. Then the guards are sent away and Blue Blood is suddenly being pressed into doing what that one mare wants. It’s clear that he’s being targeted.”
After giving it some thinking, Brex turned towards Blue Blood and spoke in a reassuring tone, “Are you friends with any of the ponies in the castle?”
This got a quick headshake from the young prince and Brex internally sighed. He then thought to himself angrily, “I wouldn't put it past them to made sure to ostracize the kid so that he wouldn't have anyone on his side.”
As soon as that thought was over, he went back and said to Blue Blood, “Do you know of a pony called sir Fancy Pants?”
After a few sniffles, the young prince nodded once before saying, “Yes, I believe I saw him once or twice in auntie's court. I don't normally get to go in. The guards always try to keep me out. Saying such things as, I don't belong in there and that my auntie is far too busy for the likes of me... Which turns out to be almost all the time...”
Brex brought up his right hand to stroke his chin as he thought to himself, “I see, so she might not be in on this after all and some pony is trying to keep Blue Blood away. Something doesn't seem right with this city that's supposed to be all about equality among the two genders.”
He then lowered his hand and began to say to Blue Blood, “He's a nice guy. Would it be OK if I told him about what's going on?” This got an immediate headshake as he ducked his face between his legs again. Thinking on it a bit further, he revised his question and asked, “That's fine, how about I let him know that you would like to hang out?”
This got an immediate reaction out of the kid as he fully lifted his head, only to tilted it before asking, “I don't quite understand. Hang out what?”
Brex had to resist very, very hard not to show it on his face with how ridiculous this was. He knew he wasn't using any type of lingo that the ponies did not understand, but it seemed like Blue Blood had never had a chance to a chance to be around other kids around his age if he hadn't even heard of that phrase before.
letting out a small sigh, Brex replied with, “Hang out, refers to one pony interacting with another in doing some type of activity that the both of them like. This could range from either talking or doing some type of activity. Typically consist of those that are around the same age range, but it's not limited to that alone. A young kid like yourself could still hang out with an adult.”
During this time, Blue Blood was listening to the explanation. His posture began to relax a little bit more. At the end, Brex saw that Blue Blood was now showing a small smile as he was looking up towards him. Afterwards the young prince then replied with, “T-That does sound nice. But I don't think I have any way of contacting him. Furthermore, it would be quite odd if I just suddenly came out of the blue and asked to... How you say, hang out.”
The rogue gave a light chuckle as he was getting backup to his feet. When he had finished, he reached down and offered his hand to Blue Blood, to which he gratefully took ahold of and was pulled back onto his feet.
Reaching inside of his Butler's uniform, he pretended to grab something while taking a small piece of paper and a quill from his item box. After a few moments of Brex writing on the paper, he handed it to Blue Blood. He then said, “Go to the lower levels and ask for a maid by this name. Once you've found the mare, hand her this paper and let her know that you would like to meet with sir Fancy Pants.”
The name that he had written on the paper belonged to the one Changeling that had already been posted in Canterlot castle and was posing as a maid. Brex had been informed about her by Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis during one of his visits. She was placed there to gather any information regarding the Changelings being found out, so they could get the others out of harm’s way if anything were to happen.
Blue Blood took the note, which was already folded and opened it up to see a mare’s name and what seemed to be a doodle of a mask of some type. He then asked the rogue in disguise, “Interesting picture, what does it mean?”
Brex then replied while bringing a finger close to his lips as he said, “A mutual friend of ours likes to wear something such as that. You could think of it as a code among friends.”
While Blue Blood was looking at the paper a little more, he asked without looking away from it in an unsure tone, “Just so I’m clear, does this… make us friends?” The sudden question had completely dumbfounded Brex and he began to think, “Oh, um, wow... That's just something that doesn't feel right coming off the tongue. What do I do now? It's not like I could just stroll into the castle all the time as this guy. What if I bumped into Celestia?”
He continued to rack his brain as hard as he could until he began to think, “Well, I could show up at Fancy Pants's place while are wearing this bandana once in a while. But they don't know that I could take on different forms... Do I really want to take a chance of letting them know more about the things I can do? This is a real big gamble.”
After another few seconds of mental deliberation, he looked back down to Blue Blood who was looking at him with what could only be considered a look of pleading that manage to make a critical strike on the Rogue's heart strings.
Now giving Blue Blood a small smile, Brex replied with, “I suppose that does make us friends.” But before the kid could reply, he went on to continue with, “However, my boss keeps me rather busy. I'm only here for a task and I have to return right away. But perhaps, I could get some days off once in a while to make a trip over here. It could be possible for me to go over to sir Fancy Pants's manner and we could hang out for a little while. Mind you, wouldn't be for very long. Would you still want to be friends?”
Immediately Blue Blood gave Brex one of the biggest smiles he had seen on record coming from a kid, which nearly blew him away. Inside he shouted, “Dang! so that's what it looks like when someone with perfect teeth smiles all of a sudden. Well, that's a prince for you. Forget about building a flashbang grenade, just toss the kid out there and have him smile.”
Brex then asked Blue Blood, “Are you going to be OK from here on? I have to get going.” To which he replied by giving a strong nod before turning towards one end of the hallway that was in the opposite direction of where Brex was heading and saying, “It's quite alright. I'll be fine from here on. Oh, and thanks again for scaring those mare’s. I doubt they're going to try anything soon after that little scare.”
Brex then took a step back and gave a light bow before saying, “I must be going now, till next time Prince Blue Blood.” Just as he turned away Blue Blood called out, “Wait, I don't think I ever got your name.” To which Brex replied by waving over his head with his hand as he was still walking away and said, “You can call me whatever you want. But if you must call me something, then I'm fine with you calling me The Caretaker.”
At that moment, Brex had gotten to the point of the hallway where there was a sharp turn and he went around the corner. Not even a second later, he heard hoof steps walking in the opposite direction rather hurriedly.
He chuckled as he thought to himself, “I don't know why I did that. It looks like I got another identity to keep up now. Also, I now have to tell Fancy Pants and others about my little trick. It'd be kind of awkward if I suddenly showed up in this disguise out of the blue. I guess what the saying is true, In for a penny, in for a pound.”
Brex had only taken a few more steps before he began to feel a weird sensation that compelled him to want to look at his windows for his character. When he had done this, the section which wouldn't indicate his soul stone’s slot was now glowing. Scrunching up his face and confusion he mentally clicked on it and the window displaying all of his soul stones. Right there, among all the stones he had collected, was one that was faintly glowing.
Brex then arched an eyebrow and thought to himself, “Huh! Well, what do we have here?” He then turned and looked in the direction he had just come from before turning forward again and continued with his thoughts, “Out of all the ponies I've met so far, I had no idea that you would trigger something like this. I guess I didn't make a mistake in stepping in there. I guess The Caretaker is going to be showing up now and then after all.”
With a subtle smirk growing on his lips, Brex continued his way toward Celestia's bedchambers. The phrase, know thine enemy, came to his head. He then thought to himself, “I wonder if that also counts towards going through a mare’s underwear drawer for secrets?”
After hearing those thoughts, Rory released a sinister cackle as she spoke in an amused tone, “Ooh, I like what you're thinking. Also, if you think about it, the rolls are reversed here. So, saying would be something along the lines of, no going through a stallion's drawers. If we follow that logic, then I think you're safe.”
A little bit after that, Brex got to the floor that Princess Celestia's room was located on. The only problem was the two guards that were standing at either side of her bedchamber. Internally he grumbled to himself, “Oh... I forgot about them. Now what am I gonna do? It's not like I can just waltz right up there and go right on inside.”
He then had an uncomfortable look on his face as he continued to think, “And in no way am I going to go around the flirting route, even I have my dignity. I suppose I can lie to try and get in. No, no. That won’t work.” He then lets out a small sigh before going on to say, “Can't leave any type of evidence to show I was even here. Also, I would rather not lose this face after what I've gone through so far with Blue Blood.”
Brex then pulled up the map of the city and began to zoom in on the castle itself. After getting to the point where it displayed his immediate surroundings, did he pan back-and-forth between his current floor and the ones below. After a few seconds of this he saw that there was a window directly underneath the balcony of the princess's chambers.
After Signing to himself, he then thought, “Well back down I go.” After that, he proceeded down the steps and had finally arrived two floors below and made his way towards the room with the window that he was looking for. Seeing that there were no witnesses, Brex went to open the door but found it locked tightly. Now scowling at the door, Brex thought to himself, “Oh come on! Isn't this pony land? I thought locked doors were just an urban myth among them?!”
After fiddling with the doorknob for a while, Brex had finally had enough and applied just a bit more force on the door handle until it finally broke inwards with a small snap. He then went inside and closed the door, but took a little more effort in getting it to look as if it was just fine due to how it kept trying to open a little because of what he had done to it. He then mumbled under his breath, “Either I'm stronger than I thought or that was a really weak door.”
The room was pitch black thanks to the closed blinds. When he went over to open the window to the room, the sunlight bathed it with its warm light. When this had happened, he got a good look at the contents within and his jaw just dropped at what he saw. Off to the bedside, there was a large collection of what he thought to be adult themed toys of all types and sizes.
There were small whips and crops all neatly lined up in a row. The bed itself he could easily see tied to the corner posts where a set of shackles ready to be used on a moment’s notice. With a nervous gulp, he turned on the spot to look outside of the window with a slight blush on his face. Inside he was screaming, “OK! THAT EXPLAINS THE LOCKED DOOR!”
Rory quickly came up alongside of him and leaned forward to check out his pony expression before she coyly said, “Master~ Why are you all embarrassed? Oh, I see now!” There was now a mischievous grin on her lips as her eyes went back-and-forth between the bed and himself.
She then went on to talk in a very seductive voice, “Could it be that my Master is turned on after seeing all of this equipment? You know, if you want to... Tonight, we could-“
Brex snapped towards her and quickly imagined Rory to be wearing a purple ball gag that was now placed in her mouth and strapped were now going around her head in a way that there was a belt going around the back and a third strap was heading up to meet the rest in the back. Then, there was a loud clank from some type of lock closing shut.
There were a few muffled sounds as Rory tried to complete what she was saying, but gave up immediately and resigned herself to just stand there with her hands on her hips, while giving him an all-knowing look that had a small gleam behind her crimson eyes that said that she rather liked this.
Brex then faced planted his head against the Stonewall near the window while thinking to himself, “Come on Brex! Get your mind out of the gutter! Why did I even use that thing on her? I could have easily had pictured her falling through a hole in the ground, that would have been enough to shut her up.”
When he had finished with his internal ramblings, he looked towards Rory again, only to find her poking at the ball-gag while having this look of delight in her eyes. After Witnessing the sight, Brex said out loud in a whisper, “I really wish I could tell whether or not you're like this because of me or you've been modeled after Rory from that show.”
This had gotten Rory’s attention and she turned towards him while giving him what could have been a smirk from behind a ball gag. She then pointed straight at Brex with her right hand's index finger. While giving him an amused look with her eyes.
Seeing the girl wearing the headgear was beginning to get to Brex and he had the focus on other things before getting caught up too much further in this distracting subject.
Turning his attention back to the window, he stuck his head out and took in his surroundings. Right now, that he was above what looks to be a large garden. There were no other windows nearby and when he left to look up, he could see the underside of the princess's balcony that was a good two floors up and nothing between the windows.
He reached outside and began to feel the surface of the wall with his hand as to determine what he would be dealing with. The wall was coarse and rough, which was a good thing. This meant that it would be difficult for others to tell if it had been tampered with in any way. With a small grin, he went back inside and switched from his rogue class to that of his monk.
From there he dove into his armory windows and selected a particular weapon and brought it out. Appearing on his hips were a pair of handles which he grabbed onto and detached from his waist. Giving them a good once over, they appear to be a set of knuckled handles with two long blades jetting forward that end with a hook near the ends. Turning the weapons over a few times, he nodded and said, “I think these will do the trick.”
Double checking that there were no Pegasus around outside or any guards on the ground. He got up onto the ledge and turned his back towards the outside world. Reached up with his left hand, it was swung so the clawed weapon would go into the wall just above the window.
With a series of grunts, Brex had managed to pull himself up with one arm and use the other to grab onto a section of stone just a foot and a half higher than the first. Carefully, he got a foothold on some of the rocks along the wall and used those to help stabilize himself as he used his arms to pull himself up as he went.
He had gotten nearly a third of the way up before he began to feel a little dizzy out of nowhere. This made his right foot slip from the wall. As a result, the next swing with his weapon ended up missing. Quickly, he stabbed it back into another section of the wall and steadied himself before he ended up falling off completely.
Rory spoke up in his head and asked, “Master! I really don't think you should be doing this. You really should have put this off and rested.” This got a reply from Brex as he mentally communicated while beginning to pull himself further up the wall, “No. Gagh! No, I'm good, just got a little dizzy there for a second. But I do find it odd that I can still feel that my magic is really low. Out of combat, I should have been recovering quickly. If this is gonna happen whenever I use that skill, then I'd better make sure that I don't plan on doing anything else afterwards.... Gagh! C-Come on! Just a little further.”
When Brex had gotten on to the balcony after a little more effort than what was needed with how tired he was feeling. He turned towards the entrance and found the window to be partly opened and the curtains were being pushed by the slight breeze that was coming from outside world.
When he got inside, he found it to be lavishly decorated from top to bottom. The room itself could have easily have fitted a small house with how it was easily a good forty-five feet wide and nearly fifty feet towards the ceiling. Clearly Celestia wanted there to be enough room to fly around if she ever had the urge to do some indoor flying within her own room.
There was a large dresser and cabinet off to one side of the room. While on the other appear to be a writing desk and an open door, leading to what seems to be in the bathroom.
There was also a round table with what seems to be a tea-set sitting in the center of it that could easily have seated four or five ponies. Along one side of the room, there was a pair of beanbag chairs of enormous size. With one being pink and other a light shade of blue, which caught Brex's attention.
Turning his attention to examine the rest, he came across a very large four-post bed that was similar to the one that he had found in the castle of the two sisters that belonged to Luna. However, this one was themed towards the day instead of the night like over there. He was able to see that it was neatly made and the curtains were tied open. He had to take a double take when he saw that the frame itself along with a post appeared to be made of solid gold.
His right eye began to twitch erratically as he tried to keep a straight face. All the while saying within his head, “I really hate rich people... I think I heard of the term, sleeping on a bed of money. But this is just ridiculous. Let me guess, those sheets must be what, a five thousand thread count or something? Come on Brex! Calm down, focus, need to focus... Forget the décor and drop... the damn... music Box.” He was trying really hard to get the task done at this point.
He was about to place it on the dresser, but turned towards the bed and approached. Reaching over, he carefully placed the small box on the center of the bed to make sure it would be the first thing she would see when going to sleep.
When he had set it down, he found himself just standing there and looking at it for a good few seconds. He then thought to himself while holding a thoughtful expression, “Am I really gonna go through with this?”
Rory came through one of her doorways on the other side of the bed. While slightly tilting her head she asked, “Master, what's wrong, this is what you wanted to do, right? Breaking into the castle and getting all the way into the Princesses room had taken a lot out of you.”
Letting out a small sigh, he said to Rory, “It's just that I don't know what this is going to end up doing to her. This is Ryu's idea and I agreed to go along with it. It's just, even with everything that she did to me I... I'm finding it rather difficult to go through with it.”
Clutching at his head with his right hand, he shook it a little bit before going on to say, “It's almost like there's a part of me that's screaming.... No. That's not the right word. More like, begging me to stop out of fear. I don't understand, after what she put me through, I shouldn't be showing her any type of mercy, even for something as small as this. I know this is gonna mess with her head and a part of me is really excited about that... But that part scares me.”
After a good long several seconds of silence, Rory went around the bed and wrapped her arms around Brex as she got close enough onto his right side. With a tender voice she said, “Master, it’s quite all right for you to feel like that. I think this might have something to do with your past life. She is in a position of power and a part of you is most likely accustomed to just letting others in a similar position having their way.”
Rory then nuzzled the side of her face into him before going on to say, “She is just a mare after all. Only difference between her and the ponies is that she has more magic and she can live a very long time. She is not a God and you've been terrified of her ever since your first meeting. Now, you keep that mind that she hurt you, it's OK for you to feel like you need to make her pay in some way. I just want you to know that whatever you choose to do, I will be there with you.”
After taking in a few deep breaths to calm his nerves down a little, Brex nodded and replied with, “Thanks for that Rory. It's just so easy to forget that she too is mortal. I've just been so caught up in so many of the stories where she's this powerhouse that can't be stopped. But she always did call on the elements of harmony to do things for her when she couldn't handle things. Haha… those were just a bunch of girls that weren't overpowered and had a lack of combat training.”
“Just look at me... I'm just being so stupid over nothing. I practically tortured those mare’s in that temple. Not to mention, I brutally slaughtered their leader four times over. Yet, when it comes to hurting the princess of the sun's feelings, I can't help but to hesitate.”
Rory giggled a little before she pulled away to look at his face as she said, “Well, that just means I have a nice Master.” She then turned away and whispered under her breath, even though Brex was able to fully hear it as she said, “Maybe, a little too nice~.”
Brex was about to say something to her, when and a picture frame on the nightstand next to the bed had drawn in his eyes. Narrowing his gaze, he tried to make out what it was. It appeared to be a hand drawn picture of a pony. But there was something about it that made it seem a little odd to him. Instead of it being a portrait, it was more of a half assed sketch that was made rather hastily on an old piece of paper.
It was a silhouette of a pony wearing armor from head to toe, but thanks to the way it was drawn, it was hard to make out whether it was made of plate or cloth. The pony appeared to be turned part way and was brandishing a large shield that was covering more than half of its upper half.
Where there should have been a face, was instead, mostly shaded with how it was drawn in. There was a pair of outlines for the eyes. Thanks to the way that they were drawn. it almost feels as if they were looking down at whoever was gazing at the picture with a sense of disappointment.
From behind the figure, was a pair of sharply drawn wings and what could have been the sun shining brightly just overhead. It was the shield however that drew most of his attention. Brex couldn't place it, there was just something that was extremely familiar about it. It was a type of kite shield with three points at the top and a oddly shaped cross in the center. The shield itself was also drawn to have a weird type of aura coming from it thanks to the vague lines extending out from near the edges.
He was about to go and reach for it to get a better look but his mini map displayed an icon quickly approaching his position. Within his head, Brex screamed, “OH FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! OH FUCK! SHE’S ALREADY COMING BACK! OUT OF TIME, NEED TO GO, NOW!”
Brex immediately started to use the return skill to teleport straight back to the Tree of Harmony. The spell required him to hold still and not go anywhere for the next seven seconds to be completed. All the while, he was panicking inside as he continuously glanced over at the mini map to watch as the icon of the princess proceeded to get closer and closer with each passing moment.
At this point, his eyes were nearly bugging out as he began to sweat with how things were getting too close to the wire. With four seconds left, the Celestia icon was close to four-hundred meters Away. At three seconds, she was now two-hundred and sixty meters away. With just two seconds left, she was down to just one-hundred and forty meters away. one second left and her icon was forty meters from the balcony.
Each passing second, felt like an eternity to him. His anxiety was beginning to overcome him and his vision began to get blurry again as he felt that he was being lifted off the ground thanks to the return spell.
Just before his vision went black, the spell had finally been completed and the large, white silhouette of a mare had just landed on the balcony and was currently folding their wings in and making their way towards the room.
Brex could feel the disorientating sensation from the teleportation along with the weightlessness that was quickly subsiding. Finding that he had closed his eyes during the trip, he opened them to find himself sitting against the Tree of Harmony as it fully illuminated the familiar cave.
He was making a move to get up when he noticed that the lights from the tree were getting a little brighter. So, with a quirked eyebrow he sat back down again while looking up at the tree. After a few seconds, he said out loud, “I take it you want me to rest too huh?” There was this subtle hum that filled the cave, along with the tree flashing its lights a few times right after he had finished asking.
With a reluctant sigh, he then said, “Fine... You and Rory are the same. Well, it's two against one. Guess I’m out voted. That was when he heard Rory speaking up in a cheery tone, “You see. Master needs to listen to me once in a while. Also, what was up with all of that right before the princess got back. You are beginning to have another panic attack.”
With another sigh, Brex allowed his shoulders to sag as he hung his head low. Then he replied with, “I really don't know. Maybe it's because she's the only one who's actually killed me since coming to this world. I guess I'm suffering from a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Honestly, I have no real idea on how strong she is compared to me. I mean, come on. She has the magic to move the sun, teleportation, years of battle experience back when there were wars and she can use pretty much every spell out there.
Brex then threw his arms out to his side while taking on a panicked expression before continuing with, “And exactly what am I? I'm just some human, turned video game character that can throw up to maybe ten spells per magic class. Perhaps a dozen weapons skills on each of the non-magic types. To top it all off, I can only switch a number of times before passing out while in the middle of a fight!”
“Just look at me, I'm in this condition after casting... just one... glitched spell! Things have been going easy so far.” Brex then lowered his arms and adopted a pathetic look on his now disguised pony face as he took in a few deep breaths of fresh air to calm is nerves.
Leaning back, he pressed the back of his head onto the tree while looking straight ahead into the dark parts of the cave that were leading towards the exit. After closing his eyes for a few seconds, he opened them again and reached up for the bandana and yanked it from his forehead. As soon as he did that, the disguise faded and returned him to his normal Butler attire, complete with the wooden mask and hood.
Letting out another sigh, he examined it before saying, “I got a lot of things I need to do. We got just a little over eleven years until Nightmare Moon comes back and I need to get things set up. That town that was destroyed by those fire monsters and the ponies didn't stand a chance. I can't be everywhere at once and stay under the radar at the same time.”
“From what I can tell, the monsters are getting stronger and I can only guess at how strong they'll be when she gets back from the moon. At the rate things are going, the ponies are gonna get wiped out if they don't get stronger, and fast. A lot of these creatures are well over level twenty and the only ones who have even anything higher than that are the villains that I've been going up against. The guards that I see inside the castle barely even reaches high as fourteen or fifteen. I only caught a glimpse of maybe a handful out there that were close to level twenty.”
“Rory, I got a question for you. Do you think I should show Fancy Pants and the Changelings what I can do?” This got a long couple of seconds of silence from the girl before she finally spoke up from within his head. She replied and what seemed to be a serious tone as she said, “Master… I don't really think I should be the one to tell you what you should or shouldn't do when it comes to this sort of a decision. But personally, speaking from what I've seen among them, it might be wise to fill them in on some things.”
Brex then gingerly reached up to his mask to run his fingers along its edges while replying with, “I don't think I can show them my face though. That's… really something I'd rather not do right now. But I guess I could open up a little bit. I would just be a fool if I were to think I could do everything by myself.”
He then took his right hand away from his mask and brought it back in front of him so that he could grab on to it with his other one. It continued to clutch onto it as if it was a reminder of the past as he began to whisper to himself, “It's gonna be OK... It's not going to be like last time... I'll only tell them what I need too.”
Brex then slumped back into the tree and it took on a more relaxed position as he closed his eyes. The Roegadyn sat there underneath the serene cave setting for the next hour, while closely focusing on his mana to see if he can get a grasp on how much he had. After about thirty minutes had passed, he could feel it beginning to recover after it seemed to be having a hard time with keeping itself from being depleted for some unknown reason.
At the end of the hour, he felt as if he had nearly all of his magic back and slowly got back to his feet once again. He then stretched out to relieve some pops in his joints after setting still for so long and looked up towards the tree before saying, “Sorry for always showing up unannounced.” The tree began to shine a little bit before going back to normal after a few seconds.
Brex then motioned towards each of the spots that were meant to hold one of the elements and said, “I guess that takes care of all of them. I'll still come by every now and then to check to see what's going on just in case there's any more problems. I just really hope that those girls won't need my assistance for a good, long while.” He had reached into his item box and pulled out the key that Ryu had crafted with a little help from himself in gathering one of the materials required in its crafting.
Brex rolled the key in his palm a few times as he said, “Guess I'll just wait a few days and I'll head over back to his world and see what he can tell me about that letter Celestia is meant to send.” He then gave himself a heavy facepalm as he recalled something and exclaimed, “Oh that's right! I need to collect all of those Aether Crystals that his little Snots gathered up from that cave we defeated Titan in. I might even grab some of that Magic absorbing metal to put away to experiment with on later.”
After putting the key away, he turned towards the general direction of Canterlot and look back towards the tree really quick before giving it a wave as he said, “I'll see you around!” When he had finished saying goodbye to the Tree of Harmony, Brex concentrated on where he wanted to go next and took a quick hop before falling into a shadow.
A second later, he came popping out of the ground right behind a bush on the Fancy Pants estate that was near the door. Brex wasn't stupid enough to just pop up right in front of said door, only to be discovered by some random passerby or house guest that he had no idea what's coming by.
After seeing that his worries were unfounded, he came out of the bush and began to knock on the front door.
The same butler from all the previous times answered the door and without a word, stepped to one side of the door to allow Brex access. Just as he was passing the old stallion, he heard him speaking in a joking tone, which somehow sounded professional at the same time. “Perhaps sir would like a key to the house. Considering most recent events?”
From behind his mask, Brex couldn't help but the quark and eyebrow in confusion as he saw the stallion holding up in his right hand, a set of keys dangling from a loop that was pinched between his thumb and Index finger. While at the same time, giving him a small smile with his eyes still closed.
As if sensing Brex's confusion, the stallion took his left hand and placed a set of keys into his palm before saying, “I believe sir would understand once he has entered the parlor.” Once the stallion had closed the door, he proceeded to guide Brex into the forementioned parlor that had its doors closed right now.
When the doors were opened by the butler, Brex stepped in to find Fancy Pants, Fleur de Lis and what could have been nearly every changeling in the manner within the room. But what caught his attention instantly, was how there was no sign of Blaze Caster anywhere.
He then went to check his mini map, he found that aside from the butler outside of the room, there was only the parlor that had any pony inside of it. Fear began to grip at his heart and the Roegadyn was now visibly shaking at the very thought that something may have happened to his young charge.
The room began to grow a little colder and the occupants inside, who had yet to notice his presence, we're now shuttering at the unexpected cold front that came out of nowhere.
Fleur de Lis was the first to catch sight of Brex who was still standing inside of the room, just passed the open doorway. She got up and approached him with a big beaming smile but the moment she had gotten within a meter of him, her eyes shot wide and she involuntarily took a step back while there was a look of concern on her face.
Fleur de Lis spoke rather hesitantly while looking up-and-down Brex's form that was still in his mysterious Butler attire and said, “Is there something wrong?”
In a rather detached, yet cold tone, Brex spoke slowly as he tilted his head down to look at the mare, “Where is Blaze...” He hadn't raised his voice, but it seemed as if it had caught the attention of every individual in the room who looked at him blankly while a few more seem to shiver even more now than when the sudden coldness hit the room.
While looking extremely sheepish, Fleur de Lis began with darting her eyes left to right, while giving him a strained smile.
Seeing that Fleur de Lis was having a hard time. Her fiancé, Fancy Pants stood up from the couch and approached as if nothing was wrong and stood next to her before fixing his monocle and speaking in his jovial tone, “Oh come now o’l boy. No need to get all riled up. Master Blaze Caster is still here, in fact, he is in this very room.” Fancy Pants then went on to fix his monocle again before peering across the group of Changelings that were strewn across the room.
Brex then went back to looking at the Changelings and found instantly that there was one that was acting a little out of character compared to the rest. As many of the Changelings in disguise we're currently in a type of submissive posture with their hands in front of them, as one would expect a maid to perform when greeting someone.
There was one that was just standing there with a relaxed gesture of leaning against the bookcase on the far side of the room.
Now concentrating on bringing up the status bars over all the ponies heads, Brex found that that Changeling in particular had the name, Blaze Caster overhead. There was even an icon next to the name that resembled a robber's style mask that would cover their eyes.
Seeing as the Changeling was singled out, it puffed its cheeks before crossing its arms and adopted a brooding expression as it spoke in a young colt's voice, “Oh come on! How did you figure it out so darn fast? I was even able to full Mister Fancy Pants and the guy that watches the door.”
Brex couldn't help but to say out loud, while sounding both relieved and very confused, “How?” Immediately he got his response as the Changeling stepped away from the bookcase and was engulfed in a set of flames that ran across it their body from head to toe in a flash. Unlike the Emerald green flames that Brex had seen numerous times, this one was of a mix of black, orange and red, along with a few sparks here and there.
As soon as the spectacle was finished. There stood a giggling Blaze Caster who was smiling from ear to ear. The kid then spoke up while sounding extremely excited, “Guess what I can do!”
Brex then slowly turned towards the pair of Unicorns and without saying a word. He managed to ask the question by tilting his head slightly. To which he got a nervous chuckle from Fleur de Lis as she said, “It's like this. Young Blaze was asking us a lot of questions about Changelings and one thing led to another. Next thing we knew, he did this on his own. It gave us quite a fright when we saw him spontaneously bursting into flames.”
“I would say this happened close to twenty minutes or so ago. I must say, he’s doing quite a fine job at his transformations. Fleur de Lis then adopted a thinking pose as she looked towards the young colt, while rubbing her chin before going on to say, “Ah, now do I think about it, it's not so much as a transformation like us. It's more of an illusion.”
Quickly getting the gist of it, Brex turned towards Blaze Caster and began to speak in a somewhat dead pan tone as if talking about the weather. “Blaze Caster is using his manipulation over fire to super heat the air around himself to the point that it can refract the light and because of his control, he was able to mimic the appearance of another nearby. It might be possible to refine this technique to having a lasting disguise that could be implemented at any time.”
“I find intriguing is that he’s capable of doing this without creating any excess heat around his immediate area. Furthermore, I sense no magic, but a pure control over the flames themselves. It's extraordinary he’s come along so far already to be able to do such a thing with the level of concentration he has right now.”
As soon as he had finished with his ramblings, he noticed that there was complete and utter silence in the room. Pulling his gaze away from Blaze Caster, he found that nearly every mouth in the room was a gape and paired with a set of wide eyes. He then tilted his head slightly before asking, “What is it?”
After a few more seconds they all began to shake their heads to return back to normal before Fancy Pants spoke up after fixing his monocle that had popped out once again. “Oh it's nothing. No, actually it's just surprising how we've grown so accustomed to how you spoke to us before. This is rather shocking to us still is all.”
Rory spoke up in his head while giggling, “You see! I told you they were going to freak out. I wish I could have seen their expressions the first time.” At the end, Rory’s tone was becoming a little whiny over how she got to miss out on the site. She was acting as if she were a kid being told that they're not going to the toy store today.
Letting out a loud sigh, Brex proceeded past the Unicorns and sat in the center of one of the couches. As he was getting comfortable, he thought to himself, “It's now or never. I better bite the bullet now and just get it over with... I hope you're right about them being friends Rory.” After taking in a few deep breaths, he leaned forward and placing his elbows onto his knees. Brex began to speak in a serious tone the moment he had gotten settled.
“Sir Fancy Pants, Fleur de Lis, Changelings and Blaze Caster. What I'm about to tell you needs to stay between us. None outside of this building, aside from your hive is to know anything of what I say next.” He shifted his gaze towards the door and called out, “This includes you too.”
A few seconds later, the Butler popped his head around the corner while looking rather sheepish as he nodded and replied with, “Of course sir. My family has been serving the Pants Manner for many generations. I can assure you that any secrets in this household will remain a secret.”
Brex quickly replied by saying, “Just as you have kept it a good secret that you're quite experienced when it comes to hand-to-hand combat by the way your hands felt from earlier.”
Hearing this, Fancy Pants came into the conversation by quirking his eyebrow and saying, “What makes you say that? I don't believe I mentioned it to any pony about what he’s capable of doing.”
After turning his gaze away from the Butler, he went to Fancy Pants and said, “When he handed me the keys earlier, I felt how strong his grip was. It was quite subtle, but I could tell that he was holding back his strength as to not be noticed.”
What Brex didn't tell them was how he was glancing at all the pony’s levels and saw how Fancy Pants was level 21 and the Butler was level 20. He then went on to say, “Fancy Pants, you're roughly twice the strength of a regular pony. As for your Butler, he’s only slightly weaker than you are. Miss Fleur de Lis and the Changelings are roughly around two-thirds of your strength. While the same could be said about their Queen in reverse with her being the strongest.”
Fleur de Lis came into the conversation finally after shaking her head after hearing this information. While sounding both surprised and bewildered. She said, “But you've never even fought my mother or any of us, how can you tell just how strong we are?”
Brex replied by saying, “It's just something I can do. You could call it a skill or sixth sense if you wish. But enough about that.”
Brex then asked Fleur de Lis, “Would it be possible for you or one of your sisters to open a direct link with your Queen for what I'm about to say? I would rather have her be a part of this discussion rather than being filled in on it later.”
The Unicorn quickly nodded before turning to one of her sister Changelings that was standing nearby. The Changeling then stepped forward and was among those that were wearing the maid outfit. She then quickly nodded before closing her eyes.
There was then the lighting up of the Changeling's horn which was a brilliant neon green. When the drone had opened her eyes again, gone were the solid blue. Only to be now replaced with ones that contained an Iris unlike before.
The Changeling then took on a more relaxed posture while placing her left hand onto her hips while giving Brex a coy smile. She then opened her mouth and began to speak in a familiar, motherly voice while giving a short bow. “Greetings my Lord. I must say, that this is quite a surprise. When one of my children informed me that you wanted to speak directly with myself, I thought it was just a miscommunication.”
The Changeling who is now apparently acting as a proxy for their Queen, made her way over to the couch that was directly across from Brex and sat down next to Fleur de Lis and Fancy Pants who spoke to Queen Bellona, “Sure is a joy to be able to speak to you again. Even if it is just in this fashion.” To witch the Queen Bellona responded with, “Ah yes. It has been too long. My daughter has told me much.” She then gave him a wink. This however made the stallion blush.
As soon as she had made herself more comfortable and finished with her little chat, Brex looked dead into her eyes and said, “Queen Bellona, what I'm about to talk to you all about is something that has to stay only among us for the time being. Those here have already promised me this. But your entire hive is connected to you. My question is this. If you also agree, will you be able to promise that your entire hive will do the same?”
Without so much as batting an eyelash, the Queen immediately replied by saying, “But of course. I have no doubt that all of my children would feel the same. You have my word that not one would even consider the very notion of betraying your trust. Although, I do wish I was there in person for this. Alas, we can't have everything we want.” She said that last part while giving a light shrug with her shoulders.
*Point of view: Third person* *Location: The sea of gold, on the other side.
Surrounding the large table was a group of four individuals. Three of which were closely huddled together while one was idly sitting on the edge of the table and playfully dangling her feet.
The group that was huddled together was comprised of Daddy, Little Light and Little Moon. Daddy however, being the shorter one of the three was currently balancing himself on top of his staff in order to meet the same height as the others.
Little Moon spoke up quickly in a hushed tone, “What are we going to do now? He's bound to draw even more attention now that he has four blessings. Not only that, he managed to call her all the way over here.” While speaking, Little Moon was motioning with her eyes towards the individual that was still sitting on the table and giving them a big beaming smile.
Little Light was the next to speak up as she gave out a small *Huff*, “While I do appreciate her timely appearance in helping Brex, this does pose us a difficult situation. Just as you said, now that Brex now has four blessings, he’s going to be far more noticeable by the others. Odds are we may have to come clean with them sooner rather than later.”
Daddy was the next one to say something when he leaned in closer, “It's fine girls. I knew I was going to end up telling your mother eventually. I just wish I had more time is all. But I do wish that she had at least changed her symbol to something a little less obvious, like how the two of you did it.”
After he said those words, both Little Light and little Moon looked straight at him and giving him a, are you kidding me look. Before they both belted out, “WELL, THAT’S THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK! You're the only one out of the three of us that didn't change theirs”
Daddy immediately replied with, “What? Hour glasses are cool. Besides, why do you think I placed it on his forehead. Unlike the two of you that put it in his eyes, he won't be able to see mine if he was to look into a mirror.”
He then shot a side glance towards Little Moon and brought his face closer to the girl until his nose was nearly touching hers as he whispered, “And who's the one who told a half truth about her blessing to the kid?”
Little Moon suddenly gave a quick gasp as she looked anywhere but his direction. She began to slowly stutter out, “Huh, w-wha?! I-I have no idea w-what you're talking about! I told him it was going to give him luck!”
Upon seeing this, Little Light only gave out an annoyed sigh as she said to herself, “Why do I always have to be the grown up here? Seriously, I feel like I'm doing Uncle's job most of the time.”
Immediately, Little Light's mouth was covered up by two sets of hands and a pair of eyes that were looking at her with fright. As if in perfect unison, the two of them practically screamed, “SHISHHH! HE MIGHT HEAR YOU!!!!”
Back over to the table. The one called Honey Lemon was still swinging her legs, but a small sound from the table was causing her to turn and look over her right shoulder to see what it was. There was a small section on the large table that was now displaying a window of a city that was sitting on the side of a mountain.
The picture then began to rapidly zoom in on a large, white building that was within the city limits. The motion of the camera stopped from what seemed like several hundred feet above said building and there were two glowing red dots appearing on the picture.
Honey Lemon tilted her head while leaning forward to get a better view, by placing her right hand onto the table for support. As soon as she had done that, the contact had caused the picture to begin shifting its perspective again.
It was now displaying the inside of a hospital room on one of the upper floors of the building. Inside were a few individuals, two of which were covered in black robes while the third appeared to be an anthro pony wearing a janitor's outfit and currently mopping the floor.
Honey Lemon could see that the robed individuals were apparently saying something to one another, but unfortunately there was no audio coming through with the picture.
The two robed individuals then proceeded with jumping straight out of the open window that was only a few feet from where they were currently standing.
Honey Lemon watched as they began to fall quickly, but then slowed down their movement's before for hitting the ground. For but a second, she was able to catch a glimpse that one was wearing a red mask, while the other was wearing a black version with a vale.
The red masked one seemed to be speaking with how their mouth was moving. But after a few seconds that one turned to leave. But stopped after a few feet, only to turn back and watch as the one with the black mask was currently kneeling down with their hand caressing the ground in front of them.
Honey Lemon then watched as the red masked individual went over and grabbed on to the other one and proceeded to start dragging them away by the scruff of their robes. All the while, the smaller one was attempting to claw at the ground as if trying desperately to return to where they once were.
After that, the screen immediately closes and the table was soon back to what it once was. Honey Lemon glanced back to the others and back to the table before shrugging. She then said to herself, “Huh? Oh well, I guess it was nothing.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria Chapter 32: Setting the Ground Work.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Fancy Pants Manor*
Brex got more serious as he brought his hands together to interlock his fingers. He then said, "First off, I need to inform you that I gave your name to Prince Blue Blood. I ended up having a short run in with him while I was inside the castle. From what I could tell, he isn't in a very good situation.
This got Fancy Pants to quirked eyebrow as he asked, “Are you referring to thee Prince Blue Blood, as in, the nephew of Princess Celestia?” Brex had to try really hard to prevent himself from flinching when he heard that name being said aloud, but quickly nodded all the same. Fancy Pants then went on to ask, “I believe I have seen him only a handful of times, but the things I have heard have not been very... How would one say… Flattering?”
Brex only shook his head before saying, “I believe he is being singled out by a single individual or perhaps a group due to the severity. Most likely all of the negative rumors that have been going on about him have been intentionally started to ruin his image as to discredit any accusations made on his behalf. He asked me not to say anything about it, but I will tell you this, if things aren't changed soon, then odds are he will become what those rumors have been saying due to the negative effects they will have on the kid.”
Fancy Pants then started to play with his monocle as he hummed to himself quietly while closing his eyes. After a few seconds of this, he opened his eyes again and said, “I have had my suspicions as of late in regards to these rumors. After all, I am not one to believe something that is said about another without first seeing it for myself. If I didn't do that, then I wouldn't be a very good business pony, now would I?”
Fleur de Lis then came into the conversation and asked while tilting her head, “Just what sort of rumors have there been about this young Prince? As far as I know, he is only around the same age as Blaze Caster over here.” She then waved her hand towards the general direction of the colt in question who was currently talking to one of the Changelings on the couch.
After letting out a small sigh, Fancy Pants went on to explain how they were all sorts of nonsense about how unscrupulous the young Prince is. The rumors would range between him being a young womanizer to that of a fiend that only cared for himself and would brutally admonish the servants at every turn, for even the smallest mistakes. There had even been this one rumor floating about that had been started out of nowhere that said that he was planning on overthrowing the princess once he had amassed enough power.
Of course, Fancy Pants found this to be utterly preposterous, seeing as the kid is only so young and has no training once so ever when it comes to combat as far as he knows. There were also the few times that he had seen the young Prince and he hadn't seen anything to indicate that any of the rumors were in the least bit accurate.
Once, the Unicorn was in the middle of discussing something or another with the princess when Blue Blood came into the throne room. The prince stood silently near the door as to not be a hinderance to the current discussions. Blue Blood was quickly pulled out thanks to a nearby guard within moments. It wasn't long after that on the very same day, that he had come across a pair of mares in the hallways of the castle as he was leaving that we're gossiping about how the prince had parged into a meeting and demanded the most ridiculous things and interrupted the current meeting.
Fancy Pants went on to say, “And of course, you could see how I began to disregard these preposterous tall tales. After all, it was I who was in this alleged meeting and prince did absolutely nothing of the sort. I would have to say I am fairly certain that the princess had not even noticed his presence before he was pulled away seeing as the door he used to come in, was on the other side of the throne and behind the princess herself.”
Fleur de Lis was now looking rather agitated with how she was now clinching her right fist as she began to say, “That… That is just terrible! What kind of a pony would ever even consider doing such a thing to a small child?”
She then turned to Brex and asked, “And just what did you tell him?” Brex replied with saying, “I mentioned that he should try to get ahold of Fancy Pants through informing a maid in one of the lower levels of the castle. I wrote down on a piece of paper the name of the Changeling that was currently posted in there and drew a small sketch of my mask. You should be hearing about it soon enough. There's a good chance that he might end up visiting once in a while to, Hang out.”
Fancy Pants scratched the back of his head as he took on a confused expression before he asked, “Hang out? I believe I have heard of that term said among the young ones, but I am not entirely sure what you mean.”
His fiancé giggled to herself before she placed a hand onto his left shoulder and gently said, “Oh honey, it means that Prince Blue Blood might be wanting to spend some time with you as a role model of sorts.” She then adopted a thoughtful expression as she glanced to her fiancé with a set of bedroom eyes as she said, “You know~ This could be a good experience for when we have our own little one~.”
This caused the normally all put together Unicorn to stutter as he literally dropped his monocle from his fingertips, which then fell onto the table in front of himself. From there, it appeared that Fancy Pants was a complete loss of words as he just stared dumbfoundedly towards his wife as a small blush began to grow on his cheeks. Fleur de Lis then said, “Oh hush now. You know I'm only teasing you. I know that we both agree that we wouldn't be trying for our own for at least another five or six years.”
This apparently was enough to calm down the stallion and he took a nervous gulp while's eyes shifted around the room. It didn't escape Brex's notice at how all the Changelings within earshot were currently glancing at him with all-knowing smirks while trying to hide it.
As soon as Fancy Pants manage to recover, he looked towards Brex and asked with a very curious tone, “Pardon me old chap, but you mentioned having a run in with him within the castle. I'm curious as to know how this came about. I once served in the guard for a few years until I was discharged due to a small injury. So, I am fairly certain that they would not have allowed an individual that was wearing a mask into those very walls on a whim.”
A small chuckle escaped Brex's lips as he replied by saying, “I had some business which required some attention within the castle. That was when I came across an incident that was in the making and stepped in.”
After letting that little bit of info settle in for a few seconds, Brex continued with, “That also brings me to something else that I need to inform you all on. Blue Blood is expecting to see me here on occasion during his visits. However, I don't think my current appearance would go over very well.”
Seeing as all eyes in the room were looking with interest. “Brex elected for showing, rather than just telling them. While keeping his mask on, he tapped into the bandana underneath that was currently wrapped across his forehead and began the process of turning into the stallion from before.
As soon as the effect had fully taken hold, there was a set of gasps that echoed within the parlor. Fancy Pants was apparently in awe as he quickly asked, “I dare say! I had no idea that you had the same ability as that of my dear's family!”
Brex only shook his head Before saying, “Not quite. Similar, but vastly inferior. Unlike them, this is merely an illusion. Closer to that of which Blaze Caster can do to himself.” As soon as he had said this, the young colt in question appeared out of nowhere from behind the couch and began to obsessively poke at the new image that was now covering Brex’s form.
However, with him taking on the image of something smaller, it was quickly found out that he was unable to get to the point where you should have been able to touch the image. But instead, came into contact with something solid which turned out to be his true form in an invisible state.
One time, Blaze Caster poked him where there should have been a nose but instead, went in just past the image and came into contact with the wooden masked surface that was just underneath.
After giving the kid a good ten seconds to mess around. Brex released the image, thereby turning back to his original self as the image shimmered away in a few seconds.
Fleur de Lis then said, “I will say that is different from both us and Blaze. Both requiring the use of flames in order to enact the change. Yours on the other hand, seems as if it works in a completely different principle.” Brex nodded to that before saying, “Yes, it is rather unique.”
But before the discussions could get further derailed, Brex cleared his throat and went on to ask, “Tell me, what do the two of you think about how strong the monsters are becoming and the future of the ponies.... No, not just the ponies, of the world?”
The pair were rather taken aback by this and remained silent for several seconds as they looked towards one another. It didn't take long before both of their ears began to lower to the sides of their heads as they began to take on expressions of concern.
After letting out a small sigh, Fancy Pants was the first to speak up and said, “It was due to one of these monster attacks that I was forced to retire rather earlier than expected from the guard. There have been reports that I have been receiving now and then that would inform me about how these creatures have become more difficult to handle.”
“In the beginning, there weren't very many and their strength was nothing to be concerned over. But in more recent years. The number of sightings have more than quadrupled. What was once no more than a minor nuisance, has now become a major issue. It had gotten to the point that close to ten years ago, the Adventurers Guilds began to open up after some much-heated debates in order to bolster our numbers when it came to defending the towns.”
“In the beginning, it did the trick just fine, or so we thought. After encountering numerous creatures that were far stronger than previously sited, the ranking system I believe was installed to prevent casualties from occurring from sending those that weren’t ready.”
“The only reason I know about these things, was because I was a part of the debates concerning both of those activities. You could say that I am one of the benefactors that help with the donations that pay the adventurers to do their job and keeping up with buildings that assist them.”
After letting out another sigh, Fancy Pants looked over to his future wife before returning his gaze back to Brex as he continued to say, “Now, as for your question... If I am being frank about this. The situation looks quite dire from our point of view. There are not that very many that have the strength to handle many of the monsters out there. As for the ones that do have the abilities, it's beginning to show that it's no longer enough.”
As soon as Fancy Pants was done, Fleur de Lis took over and began to say, “Thanks to our network of agents that are stationed across Equestria, we can get a reliable source of information quickly through our link. I could tell you first hand that the monsters are beginning to push into our territories far more than what is being told to the public.”
“In fact, I could tell you about a town that had recently been attacked by a group of monsters that was burned to the ground. The news reached us after being informed by a traveler that had just returned to the town after a week of being gone on a delivery. It was discovered nearly a month and a half ago.”
As soon as Fleur de Lis was done speaking of the incident, Brex turned his sight towards Blaze Caster and caught how the colt was now looking extremely gloomy after hearing word of the town that the orphanage was at.
Brex then reached over and lightly began to pat at the colt’s head while turning his attention back towards the three on the couch before him. He then spoke in a resigned tone, “The town that you just spoke of, is where Blaze Caster once lived. I met him a short time after. If you wish to know more, than you would have to hear it from him. It is up to the kid on whether or not he tells you the rest of the story, so I ask that you do not press the matter.”
After revealing this, Brex could see that practically every single one of them were looking towards Blaze Caster with a mix of sorrowful expressions.
Now going back on topic, Brex continued on to say, “Sir Fancy Pants, I wish to open up a number of schools for training various arts of combat. And before you say anything, hear me out. From what you've told me so far, I can clearly see that time is short. If something isn't done soon, then it will be too late to turn back.”
Brex could see how Fancy Pants was now adopting a serious look of his own. The Unicorn simply replied by nodding before gesturing with his hand for Brex to continue.
Brex then went on to say, “I received training in a number of fighting techniques, ranging from close range to long range combat. Along with the use of various means of both combat and support type magic.”
Fancy Pants then quirked an eyebrow as he leaned in a little bit to ask, “Forgive me for my ignorance. But what do you mean by magic? I know that you can change your appearance. However, you are not a Unicorn as far as I could tell. I was quite surprised when you did that little trick earlier, seeing as you have no horn to channel any spells.”
Brex then replied by saying, “I know how to use magic that pretty much any can use, even if they are not a unicorn. That is if they have the drive to study it, or the talent. I however, am rather unique where I have learned them all, whereas others have to focus on one aspect during their training and it becomes a life long study.”
The Queen Bellona jumped in and asked while sounding extremely interested in what she was hearing, “And just what sort of magic are you referring to. Also, you mentioned any can use it. You wouldn't be referring to those such as the earth ponies and Pegasus, would you? I know that they have their own brand of magic, but they can't use spells.”
Brex shook his head before answering with, “Under normal circumstances that would be true. But my magic from the schools that I learned from can be accessible to any that have even the smallest amount magic within them. Just about every living creature in this world has magic to begin with. Just think about it. “
“Adventuring groups that would no longer have to worry about not having a healer in it due to the lack of unicorns around that are trained in its use. Now picture an Earth pony that would be able to heal wounds instead of relying heavily on those first aid kits.”
He allowed that a few seconds to set in before he continued on with saying, “Now think about all the times that you would have to fight a monster and arrows are just not enough. You wouldn't need to retreat right away because none of your party members can launch an offensive magic spell that could do enough damage to get the job done.”
“I've seen how magic can be powerful and some unicorn's hands. But think of them being stronger now, or even a Pegasus being able to get above the enemy and reign fireballs from above to take out the monsters or give cover for the retreating member of the party.”
“Think of what it would be like if we had Warriors that were more skilled in combat and had techniques that were previously unused to bolster their protection or striking power. Archers that would be better at aiming and firing much more quickly, along with providing support from behind the lines and strengthening their allies with techniques that would boost their offensive capabilities or movements.”
“The ones up front would not have to rely solely on sword and shield in combat. They could specialize in any kind of weapon that seems most suited to them along with specialized techniques that go along with those and being trained thoroughly by others who have mastered what I know. Groups would be taught how a party composition would work with what they have on hand instead of aimlessly running into danger without a clue.”
“I been with those that have not once be in any guards or army, but have gained the knowledge to quickly analyze the situation in real time and synchronize with those around them to handle the situation effectively and make plans ahead of time to result in high degree of success with the least number of casualties.”
During his little speech, all eyes in the room were fixated on him as they hung on every word. Brex noticed how the Butler was holding one of his hands closer to his face as he clenched his fists tightly while having a look of determination in his eyes.
Fancy Pants was the next to speak as he asked, “Pardon me old Chap. But even I haven't learned all that much about fighting during the few years I had in the service of the princess. How is it possible that some pony as young as you, could know so much about fighting and about magic that we've never even heard of that could be utilized by a non-unicorn?”
This was when Brex began to falter within his mind as he tried to come up with a plausible excuse for such a question. He knew that this was going to come up, but had neglected to settle on an answer beforehand.
After a few seconds, he resolved himself to answer with, “I learned it a long time ago from my homeland.”
This got Blaze Caster to jump in and ask while sitting next to Brex, “I've been with you for two months now and you haven't mentioned anything about yourself. What are you? I don’t think you’re a pony, maybe a minotaur? Where Did you come from? Are you from around the dragon lands, or even the Griffin Empire?”
All these questions, Brex could tell that they were drawing just as much, if not more than what he was saying previously with how everyone's expressions were completely focused in on what Blaze Caster was asking.
Brex simply replied by using a tone that just said, that it was not that important when he said, “Very far away. Doubt very much that any pony has ever heard of it. Now, I need to ask you Queen Bellona. Learning from the schools will take a long time and I'll need headmasters, er… I mean headmare’s as you will, to run each of them. Along with instructing the students in the fighting styles that I wish them to learn. So, my question is this, is it possible for me to teach a number of your daughters and have them run schools in my stead?”
Queen Bellona suddenly had her eyes going completely wide as she began to ask in disbelief, “Y-You want to teach my daughters, But-but why? We're best at infiltration and-.”
Before she can go on, Brex raised his right hand to motion that she should wait up and he quickly said, “Queen Bellona, the reason I want to teach your daughters is because of their innate ability to blend in and adapt to their environment. I find that changelings are the best at learning anything new quickly. I dare say that your kind, is without a doubt the most resilient and adaptive of any other on this world. If I have any chance of getting this plan off the ground, I will need your help. You and your changelings are the only ones that I can turn too.”
That was when Brex began to bow his head until it was nearly touching the table between the couches. There was a long pause of silence after this gesture before he slightly lifted his head enough to get a look at the scene before himself.
From behind this mask, Brex looked completely shocked at the sight of Queen Bellona and the other Changelings in the room that were virtually on the edge of tears as their eyes watered.
It had taken a few more seconds before the proxy for Queen Bellona reached up and wiped away the moisture from her own eyes before replying in a voice that was half choked, “I dare say... For as long as I have known. My kind has heard that said to us while in our disguises. But this is the first that I have ever heard of it being mentioned to the real us.”
It appeared that every single one of the Changelings within the parlor were attempting to contain their emotions and most had quivering lips that were a mix of a smiles and sobs.
Queen Bellona quickly snapped out of her state and replied by saying, “Please, you don't need to bow. It would be my honor to have my daughter's assist in your plans. Just tell us what you need and you shall have it.”
Brex then returned to a seated position and saw how Fancy Pants was having a thoughtful expression while tapping his index finger lightly on his chin and staring up at the ceiling.
Seeing as Fancy Pants was a business pony, Brex had already deduced as to what the stallion was going on about within his head. That was when Brex reached into his pockets and produced from his item box, a single gold coin known as a Gil from his game world and slid it to the center of the table for all to see.
Brex then said while motioning to the coin. “In terms of cost, I know that it would be asking too much of Sir Fancy Pants to fund this operation seeing as he is already a large donator to many organizations, along with already on a project that I proposed. Also, this would be a massive undertaking.”
“This is a form of currency from my homeland, and from what I have determined, the gold content is roughly three times that of your bits. After putting the two separate coins together, I found out that mine is of one hundred percent pure gold. While the bits used by the residents here, have a slightly lower gold content and is mixed with a few other minerals.”
“I have been reluctant in using my homeland's currency out of fear of being found out as an outsider. The ponies of Equestria are not… very welcoming to those that they don't know much about. So, my question to you Sir Fancy Pants is this. Would it be possible through your connections to use this currency? I don't care if it is melted down into gold bars or used as it is through some trade. But I have a sizable amount of them and they could be used in funding what I have been talking about.”
“Before you answer, I have already taken into consideration the influx of such a large amount of gold when it comes to the economy. Also, how it would draw attention as to where such a large amount would suddenly appear from to do just one activity. So, my proposition is this. We open up a number of dummy corporations and or businesses to use, that way, we could launder the gold around and have them be the ones on paper to be funding these schools.”
Fancy Pants was looking towards Brex with wide eyes as he slowly developed a smile while Brex went on with his little plan. The pony then reached down and picked up the large coin and began to examine it more thoroughly. He had also lit up his horn and the magic was enveloping the currency in his fingers.
After a few seconds, Fancy Pants exclaimed in a loud voice, “My word! How can this be possible? This has absolutely no blemishes whatsoever on both the interior and exterior. I've seen coins being molded by using magic, but none have even come close to being as perfect as this!”
“I dare say, it makes ours in comparison appear to be works of a child with mud. I am sure that the gold content alone is as much as you say. But given its exquisite design, we could most certainly sell it as it is to some distant traders for far more. To be able to create such a masterpiece, it’s unheard of that we have never come across Your homeland before.”
Fancy Pants continued to ogle the coin, not for its value, but with how it was expertly crafted for another few more seconds before going back to Brex and asking, “As for these Corporations and businesses that you wish to put together. Did you have any plans in mind as to what they should pertain to?”
Brex gave a quick nod before answering with, “I believe I have an associate that would be willing to assist with a few. As it turns out, I know of a brew that can be sold alongside of other Alcoholic beverages on the market. I have a small supply hidden in a way that I can have you sample later. The best thing about it is the fact that you don't get drunk off of it and you still feel the relaxing effect of a buzz.”
“Also, there is a market out there for those of the meat-eating variety that has not been fully tapped into as far as I know. Through this acquaintance of mine, I can get a sizable number of birds that could be sold off to the races that consume meat, such as the griffins.”
“There are also a few other ideas that come to mind that I have seen lacking in society. These of course were common from where I came from so I have no doubt that they would draw in a crowd if they were to be used in the market here.”
Fancy Pants immediately replied by saying, “Well, now you have me rather intrigued. This alcoholic beverage of which you talk so highly of, I would love to get a sample to try. Now as for this meat business, I would have to say that your assumptions on it not being tapped is right on spot.”
“However, there are griffins within our country's borders and I have also gotten wind of there being a small food shortage in the Griffin territory thanks to the monster attacks on the other side of the ocean. If you can get your hands on these products, then I'm fairly sure I can set up what is needed to start the businesses if you have enough of the capital and these birds to start things off.”
Brex then answered by saying, “In a few more days, I'll need to get in touch with my associate. In the meantime, I would like to spend a few days here in the capital and take Blaze Caster around to relax. As for training, it would be good to have ten daughters on hand that can start right away once my business here has been straightened out.”
Queen Bellona chimed in and replied with, “But of course. I can have a number of my children get ready and set out towards Canterlot immediately. To this, Brex quickly shook his head and said, “No need, I'll come and get them. They will need to conserve their strength.” The way that Brex had said that last bit, was a little ominous and made the Queen gulp in response and quickly nod.
With plans being put into place, Brex spent the next few hours in the parlor along with Fancy Pants, Fleur de Lis and Queen Bellona to discuss what was to occur after he had gotten in touch with his, so called associate.
During that time, Blaze Caster was still talking to the number of Changelings and practicing what the kid referred to as his, cloak of disguise while getting some tips from them to help in perfecting it.
When it was finally time to eat, Queen Bellona excused herself as she needed to return to her duties and the link was preventing her from doing anything else with her real body. After every pony had said good bye, the Changeling closed her eyes and Re-opened them to see the solid blue from before.
The Changeling proxy however after cutting the link, was somewhat disorientated and was in the middle of falling over, nevertheless Brex stepped in and caught her before it was too late. It had taken a few seconds for the changeling drone to realize what was going on and began to apologize profusely while trying to hold back a blush and covering her face.
Brex was positive that he heard a number of the other Changelings on the far side of the room whispering and he was able to catch one of them saying, “If I was the one that was standing next to sister, then I could have been in that position.”
Immediately after, all an attendance made their way to the dining area to which there was already a setting of food on a large table. Apparently, during the talks, a number of the Changelings had left and prepared the meal while Brex was distracted with the final details.
The meal itself looked like what one would see in a five-star restaurant. But Brex was rather Uncomfortable with how it was just himself, Blaze Caster, Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis sitting while the table, while being tended to by the others as they took on their roles as butlers and maids by serving them their meals.
Brex had never been served in such a way and this was just making the meal all that much harder to enjoy. Especially with how he had a pair of dedicated maids on either side of him. He had taken only a quick glance around and found that the two beside of him, had a slight alteration to their uniforms.
Unlike the others, these Changelings had their skirts cut just a little shorter and the cleavage on their chest was more pronounced with how their clothing had an open slit that started from the neck line and ended in the middle of their cleavage.
From behind his mask, Brex was blushing up a storm. He then thought to himself while the plates were being placed in front of him, “Just what's going on here? Why am I getting fan service like this? Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis have an attendant nearby, but they're giving them more space. Not only that, they aren't as skimpy with the outfits as the pair around me.
Rory then spoke up while opening a door the other end of the table and stepping through. “I'm pretty sure they're doing all of this for you, and only you. Now I see and hear everything you do and I know for a fact that you're not that oblivious to how these Changelings feel towards you.” The image of Rory was now standing next to one of the Changelings that was lined up along one of the walls that was not serving any at the table and was giving them a scrutinizing gaze.
She then continued with this as she went from Changeling to Changeling until she had finally gotten to the ones that were next to Brex. As soon as she was done examining them, she then jumped up and sat on the edge of the table right to the left of Brex's meal and began to swing her feet while speaking in a sing song voice, “You know, this could be a good opportunity.”
Brex couldn't help but raise one of his eyebrows and Rory continued on to say, “I'm talking about finally getting it on.” This made Brex's mind come to a screeching halt. There were suddenly the sounds of screeching metal and what vaguely resembled a crashing locomotive. Luckily from outside, nothing was wrong with Brex. However, his mind was beginning to slowly piece itself back together after hearing what Rory had just proposed.
Brex then replied to her with the mental communication and spoke in a flat tone as he said, “Rory, I don't think that is a very good idea.” Rory replied to that with giving him a flat stare as she said, “Master, ever since that first time we did it. we haven't really done it again. I can tell that you don't have much confidence. Perhaps if you were to actually do the act, then it could help out with that. Besides, if you're scared about me being jealous or something, then don't worry.”
At this point, all in attendance that were sitting at the table were now digging into their meals which consisted of soup, salad and what appeared to be a type of steamed vegetable in a lasagna dish.
Brex had just started on the soup and bringing the spoon full of the meal to his mask. He then slurped it up quietly and continued on with his meal even with the astonished looks on every pony's face. At this point, it wasn't really a matter of being funny to him with it being an everyday thing. Still, it was amusing none the less.
Rory then spoke up in a rather annoyed tone, “Master… Please don't ignore me like this. I only want what's best for you.” Brex replies to that by saying, “You know full well that I can't do anything of the sort. Do you expect me to do such a thing while wearing my mask? Also, I'm pretty sure my anatomy would be a dead giveaway that I am not one of them. Besides, it would just be torture for me anyhow. If I was to do it with anyone in the real world, I'd MUCH rather have my first time to be with you.”
This caused Rory to start blushing like mad as she began to poke her two index fingers together in front of her face. She then went to shut her eyes tightly as she spoke up in a low volume, “Hey! That's not fair. Now that's what I call a low blow. You don't normally say things like that, so it's quite a shock when you do.”
She then shook her head quickly before giving him a stare down as she went on to continue by saying, “Master, please don't distract me like this. These are Changelings they change between any race as long as it's similar to their own physical shape and size. Which is pretty much everything, aside from minotaur’s due to them being so big. And it's clear to me that these two have plans seeing as how they're all dressed up for you. Or should I say, dress down for you.”
He then glanced to his left and right and took in the sight of the pair of Changelings that were currently disguised as ponies. Both were roughly the same height of Five feet and four inches tall. The one on his right-hand side, was a light blue with a short black mane that just made it down to her neckline. From what he could tell with the top, she was most likely a D-cup with a modest waistline in hips.
As for the one on his left, she was of the same color as the first. The only thing that separated her from being an identical copy, was how this one had her mane in the color of silver and in a set of ponytails that was roughly twice the length compared to the first.
Honestly, Brex Found them both quite appealing. He had even seen some of them while not transformed and noticed that ever since they had change in lifestyle, their forms had undergone a set of changes that had them resembling Queen Bellona more and more over time. Which meant that even in their natural form, Brex found them extremely attractive.
While finishing the last of his soup, Brex mentally replied with, “Rory, could you please stop trying to push me into having sex. What we did in the dream scape is completely different from out here. I have no idea what this form of mine is capable of and I seriously doubt I can beat a horse in terms of size down there. I just be setting myself up for disappointment and ridicule. These Ponies and Changelings are most likely used to bigger.”
Rory couldn't help but to throw her head back to let out a loud, drawn out, exasperated sigh. She then said with a slightly defeated tone, filled with exhaustion, “Master, I told you that when we did that, it was taking into account what you could do in real life. It wasn't your imagination. In fact, you could be bigger than that for all we know.”
Brex then shot back, “It could also be nowhere near that size to begin with and I would just be embarrassed to no end if I was to try something. Besides, I stick to what I said. If I can at all help it, I want my first time to be with you and only you! I don't fully trust anything on this planet. And as I said on many occasions, I trust you with my life. Now, could we please drop this?”
Rory only returned to blushing as she looked away. She then grumbled under her breath knowing full well that he can still hear her, “I can't believe my master's so stupid. Stupid... Stupid... Why did I have to have a hopeless romantic for a master. If he keeps this up, he'll end up staying a virgin forever. I don’t mind it if you had fun now and then…”
With a quick application of imagination, Brex envisioned Rory being pulled into an imaginary chair right next to him. To which got him a startled welp from the girl when it had happened. Brex then said to Rory, “You forget where we are right now. This is the magical land of ponies and death rainbows. They can make things appear out of nowhere, move the sun and moon. Have spells for every situation imaginable. I have no doubt that there's one out there that can get you a body. Be it through magical means such as a spell or some ancient artifact.”
“So just keep in mind when we finally do get that done. I plan on going to town on you and use up all this pent-up frustration you keep making me go through by saying such things.” His tone then went a little dark as he continued with, “And trust me… I don't plan on going easy on you. Like you keep implying, you’re kinky because of me, which means you better watch out.”
Rory had quickly placed both of her hands between her legs and pressed them up against her skirt while looking down and shivering. Brex was sure that he was hearing the girl letting out some heavy breaths only a few seconds later. Unfortunately for him, seeing her in such a state was getting him aroused and it seems that the two Changelings on either side of him must have picked up on this and scooted a little closer.
At the point, they were so close that with any movement with either of his arms would cause his body to come into contact with their short skirts and this was only making this harder for the Roegadyn to got get any more excited. There was now starting to be a sweet smell that he was able to pick up on and remembered something he had seen while looking up the Changelings thanks to Heavens computer.
Apparently, Changelings would give off a sweet smell when highly aroused to attract a willing mate. Fortunately for Brex, this pheromone didn’t have an effect on his body. But knowing about their state towards himself was still working on him none the less.
Within his head, Brex thought to himself, “Oh FUCK! I nearly forgot that they can sense emotions. Just my luck. Now they think I'm sexually attracted to them... Well, it's not... untrue. Gah! Come on! Get your mind out of the gutter. Just calm down... Take… deep… slow… Breaths and calm down.”
The rest of dinner went by as normally as possible and Brex managed to avoid any more embarrassing moments from occurring. Of course, when it came to putting the dishes away, there were a few instances where the two maids that were attending him, would bend over rather provocatively as to show off just a little bit more of their cleavage.
The one with the twin pig-tails had even attempted to do that one trick where she would drop a utensil to bend down to get it while sticking her rear in Brex's direction from only a few feet away.
Brex had just gotten up and was leaving the dining room when he heard from over his shoulder a short discussion between Fleur de Lis and Blaze Caster, which consisted of her asking him what would he would prefer for breakfast. This of course, caused Brex to raise an eyebrow as he thought to himself, “Wait, what? Breakfast? Why would she want to know about breakfast? It's not like we're-.”
His thoughts trailed off as he recalled what had happened when he returned to the manor. How the Butler had handed him a set of keys and said that he would soon know about their meaning. He had to resist giving himself a literal facepalm in front of everyone when his mind had finally put two and two together.
He then thought, “So, this is what he meant. I guess they have taken real liking to the kid. Good for you Blaze.” Brex couldn't help but to have a small smile creeping onto his lips of this development.
He then recalled how Blaze Caster was able to get along with the Changeling so easily. He began to muse to himself about what it would have been like if the Changelings had managed to discover this alternative means of food and made a better impression on the ponies, instead of going through that whole wedding fiasco in the show.
These thoughts then turn to a certain individual who was in charge of that attack. This made the smile from before vanish instantly as it turned into a scowl. Brex then thought to himself, “I wonder if things are gonna play out the same way here too? Just what am I going to do when she shows up? That is if it follows the same story arc.”
“She is considered one of the main characters when it comes to the protagonists. Will I be able to bring myself to taking her down for good if it should ever come to that choice. Also, if I do that, would Queen Bellona take over or will Thorax still become the new king if I don’t let her continue to attack the ponies?”
Brex was going through a mental dilemma about whether or not he should stomp out this reoccurring thorn or allow things to play out as they do in the show. In the end, he had let out a quiet sigh as he simply came to the conclusion that he would need to play things by ear when the time came. After all, in this version of Equestria, Blue Blood seems to be a decent kid. Who's to say that the wedding crashing would even occur anyway.
While in the middle of these heavy thoughts, his mind was brought back to reality when he suddenly heard Blaze Caster saying, “If it's all the same to you, I'd really rather have big bro's pancakes.”
Seeming rather confused, Brex turned and began to scan the room for who Blaze Caster would even be referring too. Only the catch the few eyes in the room that remained to be staring directly at himself, which consisted of three other Changelings, along with Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis.
Within Brex's head, he thought dumbfoundedly, “Huh? Wha?... Who? Wait, me? Hold on, I'm big bro? When did this happen??!!” While still trying to come to terms with what was just said. Fleur de Lis began to excitedly clap as she had a beaming smile growing on her face. She then called out to Brex from across the room, “Oh, I didn't know you can cook. I'm quite interested in trying it myself now that I have heard how Blaze is looking forward to it. Could you make some for us in the morning?”
She then had a small blush as she noticed how excited she was and attempted to calm down before continuing with, “It's just that, neither I or Fancy can cook and I can't remember the last time I've had pancakes.” That was when one of the Changelings that was walking past with some dishes remarked to that statement by saying over their shoulder, “Oh yes, I remember that day well. Took us nearly a week to rebuild the kitchen.”
Looking really embarrassed at this point, Fleur de Lis called out as the maid went around the corner after exiting the door, “It was not a week!” Her voice then went very, very, low as she whispered, “It only took four days to fix... Maybe five.”
Brex had brought up his hand as to cover the portion of his mask that would normally have a mouth behind it and lightly chuckled at finding out that Fleur de Lis is a complete wrecking ball in the kitchen. He then responded in a casual tone, “It would be my pleasure to make some in the morning.”
The two Changeling maids that were still in the room, we're now looking in his direction and Brex could see how they were giving him a double whammy of puppy eyes. From behind his mask, he ended up rolling his eyes as he said, “I'll make enough for all of you.” This got the two maids to giggle to one another before they hurriedly took the rest of the dishes away to inform the rest of the plans in the morning. But not before giving him a grateful bow.
It was at least a half hour later when everything calmed down and seemed that everyone in the house was up to their own antics. Fancy Pants with spending time with his fiancé Fleur de Lis. The Changelings were off doing their jobs by cleaning and doing other necessities around the house.
Blaze Caster was talking with the Butler. At that point, Brex had noticed that he hadn't actually gotten the name of the Butler in all the commotion and when he had gotten a good look out of the guy's status bar, he was surprised to see that it said the name, Butler Shine.
After seeing this, Brex thought to himself, “Well, I didn't exactly expect that. To think that someone who works as a Butler was really named Butler at birth. Hmm... That shouldn't be something you give to a kid at birth. Maybe they change their names when they get older? Eh, I'll look into it some other time.”
After a short time, he had gotten a little bored and began to stroll around the manor, seeing as he had only been to a few of the rooms during his short visits in the past.
Even with all the decorations and furniture, it was quite spacious. A plus on the architecture, was the fact that he didn't have to crouch down seeing as the doorways were made a little taller than most buildings than any he had been inside of. At one point, he wondered to himself if this place was any bigger, would they devote a single room to an object.
After going through a few of the rooms by looking through the open doorway’s while in the halls, Brex had caught sight of a room in particular on the second floor that had a large piano sitting in the middle of it. He was about to move on but felt a small impulse that made him want to go inside.
He then approached the piano which was made of what appeared to be a dark oak with a glossy finish. The keys were currently covered by a wooden lid being placed down. He also examined the long rectangular seat to see if it would be able to withstand his weight and was relieved to find that it was quite sturdy. Probably due to it being wide enough to allow a pair of ponies to sit on it at the same time while playing a duet no doubt.
he began to run his white gloved right hand across the surface of the piano. During this, he thought to himself, “I wonder if I used to play a piano back in my own life?” Rory then appeared through one of her usual doorways and made her way to sit on the long seat meant for the piano while giving him a thoughtful expression.
She then asked, “Well, is my Master going to sit and play? There's only one way to find out.” Brex ended up shaking his head a little before mentally replying, “It doesn't belong to me. Also, it would be rude just to start playing with another person's instrument.” He then chuckled to himself within his head as he went on to say, “Besides, I don't know anything about pianos. I know that when they introduced a system in the game where anyone with a high enough level in their Bard Class, I did try my hand at playing the available musical instruments for fun.”
He then looked towards the piano again before going on to say, “If this is because of the game, then I don't think I would be able to actually play a real one.” Rory then quirked an eyebrow as she had a thoughtful expression that morphed into a beaming smile. The girl then said, “Master, you should give it a try. Switch over to the Bard and see if anything happens!”
Brex turned his attention between the piano and Rory a few times before finally turning away. He was about to say something when he had finished turning completely around, only to find one of the Changelings that was attending to him from dinner just standing in the doorway.
This had startled the Roegadyn, but he had managed to hide it. The reason that she was able to sneak up on him the way she did, was because of Brex turning off his connection to Rory’s situational awareness ability.
He had been turning it off and on now and then as to help with developing his own sixth sense. Brex had hoped that with a good feel for what it should be thanks to Rory, then it might be easier to have his own in case another incident came up where Rory wouldn't be able to sense the target. Perhaps combining hers along with his, might somehow close that blind spot that those like High Road would exploit.
Now, going back to the Changeling in the doorway. She leaned towards her right as to get a look at what was behind Brex. After a second or two, she straightened backup and asked, “Do you play a piano?”
Hearing the question had caused Brex to tense his muscles in response. From behind, he could hear Rory giggling as she called out, “Master, what are you gonna do now? You could say you got your hand caught in the cookie jar. You may as well go all out.”
Closing his eyes, Brex grumbled internally for a few seconds before opening them up again and saying, “It has been… A while. I doubt that I am very good.” He was about to try and leave when the Changeling appeared to be fidgeting in place as she looked off to the side with a look of embarrassment on her face. She then asked in a hushed tone, “Do you think I could hear it?” This was then followed with her giving him a hopeful expression that just begged him to say yes.
Brex found himself letting out a heavy sigh as he lightly nodded to the Changeling’s request. Without even waiting to see her reaction, he turned on the spot and took a seat at the piano next to Rory’s imaginary form. Who is now at that time, giving him a victorious smirk. He then closed his eyes once more after lifting the cover over the keys and began to think as to what sort of song should he try to play.
As he did this, a particular song came to him. After taking a few more deep and relaxing breaths. He lifted his hands right above the keys and pressed a few notes to get a feel for the instrument before him.
As he did this, the world around him no longer mattered. All he could envision in his mind was the piano and himself within a dark, empty void with just a single bright light shining straight down on him. As soon as he had finished his test run from pressing a few of the keys, did he finally start to play the song.
As soon as Brex began to play the music. The room had this electrified feeling as if every note that was being hit resonated in an unknown way. The Changeling who was watching all of this, was instantly captivated by the strange new music.
Immediately her horn had a faint glow as her eyes closed, only to open a few seconds later with the same irises that were present when Queen Bellona was in direct link with one of her daughters.
Just as that was done, every changeling in the house had an immediately stopped whatever it was they were doing and adopted a wide-eyed expression. Fancy Pants, Fleur de Lis and Blaze Caster had started to hear the music being played above their heads and quickly made for the stairs leading to the floor above.
When the three arrived, they saw just who is playing the song. Not wanting to interrupt, they stood quietly within the room and allow themselves to be swept up by the strange melody.
Only moments later did the other members of the house come filing into the room only to become a silent audience that was beckoned into following the enchanting sounds made by Brex’s fingers that continued to glide from key to key.
A number of the Changelings were now swaying with the tempo. While those that were apparently being affected more so, were just standing and being completely entranced by the music so much so that they were closing their eyes in an attempt to focus more on the melody and drown out any other distractions.
Elsewhere back at the current hive that was still in use within Manehatten. All of the other Changelings had already come home and practically in the same state as they were receiving the link from their Queen who was witnessing, they're Lord at work.
A number of which, were now humming along in an attempt to mimic the tune themselves. One of which, was a young drone that was currently sitting on her bed up on the third floor.
Unlike the last time that Brex had seen her, this Changeling had also gone through some small changes as her muzzle began to shrink and adopt the same structure as their Queen as so many others have. But unlike the rest who normally have silver, gray or black hair, hers was beginning to take on a slight hint of what could be green or teal.
Now going back to the Fancy Pants Manor. There were another two sets of eyes that were unknown to the others present and watching Brex play the piano. In the dark of the night, black robed individuals were currently floating in the air only a few meters from the closed window on the second floor.
These two were mysteriously drawn in by the unknown feeling in the air being produced from within this building and we're now completely entranced in the same way that all the others were.
One of them had moved closer towards the window to hear just a little better. As soon as that one had gotten within a foot and a half of the window, did the light from within the room illuminate their face to reveal a black mask with a veil. If any were to look right then and there, they would have been able to see a pair of shining yellow eyes just past the holes of the mask that were gleaming as if stars were lit up within them.
They then reached up with their left arm and expose a gloved hand with sharp points woven into the fabric for the nails. The hand was then carefully placed on to the window as to not draw any attention as it caressed the smooth surface longingly.
The black mast one then turned to look at the other which was still floating behind. After a few seconds, the second one moved closer to reveal that they were wearing a red mask and was now slowly shaking their head. The one in the black mask turned back towards the window and removed their hand, all be it hesitantly, only to slowly ball it up into a fist as it shook in clear frustration.
As soon as Brex had finished with the song, did the two from outside of the window slowly back away until they had disappeared into the night as if they were ghostly specters. Only to leave behind a single, warm handprint on the window that began to shrink due to the cold wind outside until there was nothing left to ever show that they were ever even there.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex still had his eyes closed shut and his fingertips carefully resting on the last keys that he had pressed. The world began to fade back into his senses and he was sure that he was feeling the presence of many all around. To which he thought couldn’t have been right.
As soon as he had opened his eyes and found a large audience standing before him, did he mentally scream in his head, “OH NO WAY! I WAS REALLY THAT BAD! They're probably here to complain about the awful racket I made. Why do they have to be so silent? Was it really so bad that they can't even say anything about it?” All the while from underneath his mask, the Roegadyn was now turning beat red out of embarrassment.
He then quickly reached up and placed the piano key cover back down and adopted a sitting pose with his hands on his lap. He then heard Fleur de Lis speaking in a tone that sounded as if she was on the verge of crying, as she said, “That was simply superb. I have been to my fair share of concerts and I have yet to come across a musician that has made such a piece.”
The Changeling who was originally there from the start had stepped forward and began to speak in a familiar voice that Brex identified immediately as Queen Bellona. She had wiped away a fresh tear in one of her eyes and was fighting back a set of quivering lips as she attempted to say, “I do hope that you can forgive my intrusion, but it would seem that my daughter was so overcome by the music that she had inadvertently forced the link between myself and the rest of my hive and I just couldn’t bring myself to break it until the end.”
Hearing this only made Brex gulp as he now knew that there was far more who had listened to his first attempt at playing the piano.
Queen Bellona then asked, “Would it be possible for you to tell me where you learn to play such an enchanting song. It almost feels as if it was from Prance. Yet at the same time, I can't help but think that it is not with the uniqueness.”
Brex wasn't sure, but he thought that if he had got anymore embarrassed, then there would literally be steam coming out from the eye holes of this mask if he had gotten any hotter after hearing the unexpected praise.
After taking a second to swallow the lump in his throat, Brex then began to speak in his normal tone, “What I played just now was from a story I heard a very long time ago that was told to both children and adults alike. I do apologize for using your piano without asking beforehand.” That last part was clearly directed towards Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis as he turned in their direction.
To which Fancy Pants merely waved the apology away as he replied with, “No need to apologize old chap. I had only wish that I had known sooner, I would have asked you to play during your previous visits.”
Within the mind of Brex, he thought to himself, “I'm sure I wasn't that good... They're probably just saying that to spare my feelings... I think I'd much rather have them telling me how bad it was than having all of this false praise... I must have messed up a whole bunch of times. I lost track of what I was doing and just allowed my body to move on its own at some point. No doubt it ended up sounding as if a baby was banging on the keys randomly.”
Brex could plainly see that Rory was seemingly getting upset and just as she was opening her mouth, Brex could hear Fleur de Lis asking a question that drew his attention from now fuming Rory.
“Would it be too much to ask about what the story is about that would go with such a melody?” Queen Bellona stepped forward in her proxy form and nodded to the question to show that she too was invested in knowing the answer.
Brex brought his attention to the window while looking out into the night sky that could just be seen over the rooftops from the building across the street.
He then began to speak in a sorrowful tone that was just barely above a whisper, “The story itself would take too long to tell. Although, if you are interested, I can give you a brief run down if you wish.” To that, there was a chorus of yes's that came from behind.
Letting out another small sigh, he went on to continue by saying, “If you break the story down, it is a tragic romance that takes place on a faraway land, between two star crossed lovers that met from different worlds, only to be pulled apart.”
After hearing this, Fleur de Lis stepped forward until she was on his right side and looked up to his mask. She then said, “I can see why the song sounded so sad. Do you think you can tell us a little more of the story?”
To this, Brex only shook his head slowly before responding with, “It is a little complicated and it would take some time to tell. If I was, I would require some time to recall everything to tell the story correctly. Would it be OK for me to do this on another day?”
Fleur de Lis then nodded to him as she said, “But of course. Take all the time you need. If the music was any indication, then it must be one that must be told correctly, as you say.”
After that, everyone went back to their own business once again. The night had gone long and most were already heading to their rooms for bed. At one point, Blaze Caster tried to argue that he wasn't tired, but Brex caught him on a few occasions falling asleep, quite literally on his hoofs. To which Fancy Pants offered to show him to his room. Apparently, they had went ahead and set up some guest rooms for both Blaze Caster and Brex that were located on the middle floor.
It was getting close to midnight and he didn't really feel the need to go to bed. However, simply staying up was not going to be an option while in this house. He really didn't have much to do and leaving to find an activity was not something he wanted. He had a good feeling that Blaze Caster would be safe within the Pants Manor. But after the scare from earlier, he was extremely hesitant to leave the kid alone tonight.
Typically, back in their mountain cabin, Brex would keep himself busy with pretty much a number of activities that would range from tinkering with some of his crafting classes, practicing his fighting techniques or refining his uses with magic to see if he could unlock some different uses. It was due to these free times that he was able to utilize the spell from the healing classes called Rescue to pull objects around, instead of other members of the party.
It had even dawned on Brex as to how he hadn't even considered just what was going on in this world when it came to the monster attacks until Fancy Pants had mentioned his encounters and some of the reports.
During these thoughts, he was currently standing at a window in the parlor that had its curtains closed and only one small crystal light on the wall near the doorway. With using his right index finger, he parted the set of cloth to peek out into the night sky.
Brex began to think about what Fancy Pants mentioned about a food shortage over in the Griffin Empire due to the monsters. There was also what Fleur said about there being territory’s slowly being taken over. But what really stuck to him the most, was the sight of Blaze Caster looking so sad after hearing about the town he had once lived in.
Even after everything, Brex had to mentally scold himself for being so narrow minded as to only think about the main story line for that show when it came to this world. Time and time again there were signs that this world was on its own path.
He then began to shake his head lightly as to lose these depressing thoughts. He then said within his mind, “What are you thinking? You're not some hero. You just happen to be around when things happen sometimes. You can't be everywhere at once. Besides, making the schools isn't your way of trying to save everyone. It's just a means to an end when it comes to surviving.”
That was when he finally heard Rory speaking in his head after a long stretch of silence that had followed the unscheduled recital. Brex had no idea why, but ever since then, Rory had been keeping to herself and whenever she did speak up, it was short while at the same time, sounding as if she was angry about something. To which he doesn’t understand why.
“Master, could you please not think so poorly of yourself. I thought that the piece you played was just perfect. I couldn’t hear any imperfections. Also, I don't think you can keep playing that, just to survive card, for too much longer. Honestly, I can't see why you keep trying to play down your parts. We really need to work on your self-confidence. It just makes me so angry when you’re like this.”
Near the end of that, Rory was beginning to calm down and take on a much more caring tone. Brex was about to try and persuade Rory otherwise when he heard a set of hoof steps approaching.
Looking over his right shoulder, he saw a figure coming into the parlor. Immediately Brex identified the newcomer as the maid with the short black mane from when he had dinner. She had given him a short bow before she said, “It is getting quite late. Would the Lord be heading to bed soon? If not, then I could prepare a snack if you so wish.”
Brex quickly replied with, “Won't be necessary. Heading there now.” Seeing as the maid was making no efforts to say anything else or even move. Brex started to walk past her and up the steps that were just beyond the door. As he was doing this, he heard the maid following from a respectful distance.
He thought to himself during this and said, “Hmm, I guess she's going to bed too. The house is rather silent now. Must just be us that are awake. Honestly, I don't think I'll ever get used to the idea of maids. Just feel so weird to be weighted on handed foot, er, I mean hoof.”
When Brex found the door that was meant to be for him, he went to go to open it, but the maid had hurried along and did so for him. Looking at her questionably from behind this mask. Brex then said, “Thank you. Good night.” To which got him a small bow from the maid again.
After entering, he could see that the room was well furnished and there was a large bed waiting for him. The room was dark thanks to no lights being turned on and the only source currently available was the faint light coming from the full moon through the curtains.
Upon hearing the door being closed, Brex internally signed to himself after being left alone. But his thoughts of finally being able to relax were broken when he heard something from the direction of the door. When he turned to investigate, he found not only the maid that was accompanying him, but the other one was there as well.
Within his head, Brex couldn't help but to think, “OK, what is it this time? Why are they in my room right now when I'm supposed to be going to sleep?” He was about to go on with those thoughts but stopped when he smelt a sweet fragrance in the air. Instantly, his eyes shot open from behind his mask and he had to resist taking an involuntary step back to assume a defensive posture.
As to not jump to conclusions, he asked in a cautious tone, “Why are the both of you here?” As a reply, the pair of maids began to unbutton themselves from behind with their arms and only a second later did the already revealing outfits fall as to expose more of their bodies.
Thankfully enough, they were wearing some nightgowns that just barely went past their hip’s underneath. However, the fabric that they were woven from, made it easy for one to see what was underneath if they were to focus hard enough.
On the outside, Brex was standing firm and acting as if nothing was wrong while staring towards the maids. The inside was a whole another story. He was literally screaming with his internal voice as he said, “WHAT THE FUCK! WHY DID THEY JUST DO THAT? OH, BY THE SEVEN HELLS, NO! IS THIS BECAUSE OF EARLIER? WHAT DO I DO RORY!! I NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS!”
Rory then spoke up in her casual tone when she said, “Master, please just calm down. It might not even be what you think it is. Besides, the Changelings practically worship the ground you walk on from what I can tell. I doubt they're gonna just straight up and rape you. Although, they did have a history of capturing... You know what?... it might be good just to hear them out first.”
The dark-haired maid was the first to speak up when she spoke in a reserved tone that had a hint of embarrassment behind it. “If the Lord would permit it, would he be pleased with us warming his bed tonight?”
Brex quickly asked Rory in his head, “What does she mean by, warming my bed?” Rory then responded in her mischievous tone, “I dare say they want to sleep with you tonight. Just as you thought. This must be another one of those maid things.”
Brex then quickly snapped back by saying, “Well I can pretty much guess that with them being in their nightgowns. Oh, umm, and are they not wearing any underwear?” During his discussion with Rory, his eyes roamed their bodies and immediately found that they were not wearing anything under they're revealing nightgowns.
In the outside world, a few moments had gone by in utter silence during the time that Brex was having that chat just now with Rory and it was beginning to make the Changelings squirm in place.
As a result, the other one with the pig tails spoke with an underlying tone of disappointment as she said, “Does… The Lord not like the way we look, if that is the reason, then we can take on any form you wish. What you see before you are just our pony personas. Just inform us on what adjustments to make and we will do so post taste. Please forgive us for not knowing what preferences you have.” Then the both of them bowed low and held the mirrored poses without showing that they were not going to rise up again.
Brex was essentially stuck in place with what he had just heard. Rory was the next to speak up in his head as she said, “Looks like you're gonna be able to get that chance after all. I think you just hit the jackpot. Two willing maids that can literally become anything you want, just by saying the words. I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of guys out there that wouldn't hesitate to jump at this action.”
Brex had finally recovered after a few seconds and had taken on a relaxed posture after letting out a small sigh. He then turned his full attention onto the maids and began to speak in an authoritative tone, “It is not a matter of your appearance.” He had paused there to think carefully on his next word. There was no way he was going to just come out and say that he’s a virgin. From the looks of things, just simply turning them away was not going to end well. He had no idea if this would put a strain on his relations with the Queen and her daughters.
His eyes suddenly snapped white open again after remembering about the Queen and that these were really her daughters. He then asked, “Does the Queen know about this?”
That was when they both stood straight up again and nodded in unison. The one with the pig tails was the next to say, “Our Queen knows all about us being here. It is a part of the lessons we went over about when it came to what a maid should be expected of. There are set rules that state what should be provided to those of high status when staying the night. Among these rules are to provide a relaxing environment and tend to all of the guests needs.
At this point, Brex could see how the two of them were shifting in place again, but it seemed most of the movement was more focused to their hip areas and thighs. He then thought about it a little more and recalled something along what they had just said being done in the old days on earth when it came to nobility.
He didn't know too much about it, but he was fairly sure that it would have come out as some type of an insult to outright deny the hosts hospitality. Now trying to prevent himself from sighing any more in front of the maids, he tried to come up with an idea to get around it, but he came up empty.
So instead, he decided to bite the figurative bullet and come out with it. Crossing his arms, Brex went on to say, “Is this something that the both of you asked for by chance or ordered to do? He got a quick set of nods from the maids as they both said, “We wanted to do this for the Lord.”
He then went on to say, “I want to make something as clear as possible. I find you both quite beautiful. If we were under different circumstances, then I would not hesitate to take you up on your offer. However, I am currently saving myself for another.”
This apparently was able to make the pair gasp as they both took an unsteady step back. The one with dark hair begin to raise a trembling finger and she was trying very hard not to stutter when she asked, “D-Did, you say you are saving yourself? Then, are you saying that you have not been with another, e-ever?”
That had made Brex flinch from underneath his mask as he internally grumbled to himself about how he had accidentally said that he was a virgin. He then heard the same Changeling starting up again as she said, “B-But, how can that be? I find it unthinkable that you would have not been with a mare yet. To be around for this long and still be saving yourself? Just what kind of a mare could possibly have you giving them such devotion?”
From deep within the Roegadyn, he was almost positive that he could feel an odd sense of embarrassment coming from Rory. A devilish smirk appeared underneath his mask as he saw this as a good opportunity to get back at her.
Brex began to say, “She was there when I was at my lowest. When I was completely alone, she found me. If it wasn't for her showing up, Then I would not be here today. I received encouragement and guidance from her. I could say with certainty that I would entrust my very life to her at a drop of a hat. There's no doubt in my mind that if she were here and something was to happen to me, then she would not only take out upon the one who did me harm, would feel the fury to which would make the burning sun seem as nothing in comparison. And I too would do the same for her.”
In the beginning, his voice was normal, but as his little speech went on, Brex's tone became more sincere with each passing word. The one changeling with the short dark hair was the next to speak when she asked, “S-So where might this mare be right now, why is she not with you?”
Brex turned his mask towards the window and slowly answered with, “Regrettably, I don't know... But it still feels as if I can hear her voice when I really need to. All I have is what is in my head and that keeps me going every day. If it weren't for that, then I would be lost. I often dream of a day when we can finally be together. For that, it would not matter if I had to wait a thousand years to see her and hold her in my arms.”
He then turned back towards the Changelings and spoke this next bit as if making an oath to those watching from above, and as a threat to those below. “There will be a day when I get to be with her. Even if it means I have to become a demon to do so… And nothing will stand in my way.”
Rory was definitely beginning to feel the full on embarrassed at this point with how he felt her retreating deeper and deeper into his mind. As it turns out, Rory is all about making fun of others, but has a hard time when it comes to being talk about in such a way.
He then saw how the two Changelings were now inching closer together as if terrified with the way they were shuddering. Brex then thought to himself, “Oh crap. Did I just scare them?” Not knowing what to do, he approached the pair and carefully wrapped his arms around both in an attempt to calm them down. Fortunately, it had the desired effect and the shivering from their body’s had died down almost instantly.
He then whispered in a calming tone; “I apologize if I ended up frightened you both. I am not mad and I know that she wouldn't be either for what you wanted to do. Ha-ha, she always did say that I should not wait for her, but I still do.”
He then gently released them both and started his way over to the large bed and pull down the blankets. Afterwards, he climbed inside and laid in the center. The Changelings slowly looked down towards their clothing on the ground and began to reach for them when Brex called out, “You must be cold, come to bed.”
This caused them to both take a double take at his words. Brex then said, “I'll let you know this, I don't plan on doing anything, I would hope that you would respect my wishes and do the same. That being said, I am not opposed to simply sharing a bed. That is, if you still wish to.”
Inside, Brex was thinking, “It would probably be a bad thing if I sent them away, but at least now I made it clear. If this is what is expected from their society, then I may as well go along with it. I have been trusting them so far. Besides, maybe this will get Rory off my back for a while. How did that saying go? You have to learn to walk, before you can run?”
*Point of view: Third person* *Location: unknown*
The moon was high in the sky, the ground was bathed in its soft glow. The terrain was that of a desolate wasteland with hardly any vegetation to be seen and rolling hills of sand. Two lone figures stand in what appeared to be a gathering of corpses spanning thousands of meters in all directions.
At the moment, their forms were obscured thanks to alone cloud giving them cover from the rays of the moon. One appeared to be standing while looking off in the distance, while the other was currently sitting atop of a corpse that once belonged to a four-legged beast that had half of its body missing starting from the torso going back.
As the cloud finally shifted its position in the sky, did the shade that gave them cover finally reveal it to be the same two black robed individuals from earlier. The one that was currently standing, had just at that moment placed what could have been a long thin object into their left sleeve.
As for the one that was sitting on the corpse of a monster, what could have been considered a set of daggers had quickly retracted into their robes. This one then reached into the opening underneath their hood and pulled out what appeared to be a short necklace with a white round object attached to it. It was then held high above their head in a positioned so that it would be directly between their site and the moon as it dangled freely in the night wind.
Just then, the wind picked up and this caused the surrounding sand to blow high into the air to show the signs that a sandstorm had just begun. But, right as the two were being enveloped, did the veil get pushed aside on the one that was sitting, only to allow a split second to show a pair of sharp fangs protruding from a set of dainty lips that were forming a subtle smile.
A Roegadyn in Equestria Chapter 33: Spies in The Family.
*Point of view: Third Person *Location: Fancy Pants Manor* *Time: Close to one in the morning*
After Brex had invited the Changeling maids to share his bed, did they jump at the opportunity without any indecision. They ended up laying on either side of Brex in the same way as they were positioned during dinner. With the dark haired one on his right and the silver haired maid on his left side.
Brex realized that the bed, although being as big as it was, would have made it difficult for all of them to fit comfortably with him having his arms down at his sides. Seeing as the only option was to either kick them out or use his arms to pull them in, Brex had little choice in the matter.
He then reached up and around the maids and brought them closer into his body. Thereby causing them to roll and press their chests onto him. This left both of the Changelings to use his upper arms as improvised pillows while leaning in.
Although, when he did this, he had elicited a set of excited. ‘EEPS’ From the two. Seeing that both of their cheeks were getting heavily flushed at being made to do something like that without first asking. Brex immediately apologized by saying, “Sorry if what I did startled you. There isn’t a whole lot of space and I wanted to make sure that the two of you didn't fall out of the bed in the middle of the night. If this is uncomfortable for you? Then I could…”
He was about to remove his arms that were currently placing his palms on Their backs to keep them steady. However, the moment his hands began to let up on pressure, did both of the maids suddenly let out a set of gasps as they quickly reached around with their free arms to grab onto his hands in order to prevent it from leaving.
While trying to prevent their faces from being seen as much as possible, the two attempted to hide their expressions by pressing themselves into his clothing. The one on is right spoke up and said, “N-No please my Lord, That's quite all right. T-Thank you for the consideration. I can say for my sister that we are quite comfortable as we are now.”
What they neglected to say to Brex, was that they were both getting turned on more and more as time went on with how he was going right ahead and doing things without even asking permission first. Which was a rarity among the males, as they always seemed too scared to make the first move most of the time.
The maid on his left was the next to speak as she asked while still hiding her face, “D-Does the Lord not intend to undress before sleeping? It must be quite uncomfortable to be wearing those clothes to bed. If you wish, we could help with the undressing.”
To that, Brex simply shook his head as he said, “No, that won't be necessary. I tend to sleep fully dressed. So, this is no issue for me.” He then felt them releasing his hands and soon were now placing their own across his chest only a few seconds later.
Of course, by doing this, they also shifted their bodies just a little. This small act of movement had the effect of allowing Brex to feel they're ample orbs pressing up against his form quite firmly. This in turn, only caused him to feel some more arousal, which he had to concentrate far more on containing the feelings from being detected.
Both of the maids began to shiver and Brex began to think that they must have been cold with how they were only wearing a set of extremely revealing nightgowns that barely covered much of anything. He had wanted to use the rescue skill to pull the blankets backup, but he had neglected to glamor any of his gear to that of the mysterious Butler. So, if he tried the change right there, then his outfit would have as well and he didn't want to startle the girls.
With a careful application of moving his right leg, he managed to hook his foot underneath the edge of the blanket and began to pull it along its body until it was close enough to grab onto with his hand. All the while, he felt as the maids were beginning to shiver even more. So, he hurriedly pulled the covers the rest of the way up until it was just below their shoulders.
What he hadn't realized was yet, was that the reason that the maids we're shivering, was not entirely due to the cold of the room. But it had more to do with their close proximity to Brex. Ever since they felt something being emitted from him during dinner, they had yet to calm down and this situation was only making things more difficult for them in the current scene.
It didn't help them anymore when they felt him moving his arms and legs as he tried to bring up the blanket to cover them. During this act, he had inadvertently caused their legs to swing over his own and this was causing them to repeatedly press their lower lips against the fabric of his pants leg.
Thanks to the glamor turning his gear to that of a Butler's outfit that was meant to be extremely stylish as to serve those of the higher class, the fabric itself was essentially the same as the finest silk. Which only meant that the rubbing was that much more pleasurable for the maids as it brushed into their privets.
The dark haired one opened a mental link with her sister that was on the other side of Brex and began to say, “Sister are you doing OK over there? I can't tell if he’s purposely doing this or if it is an accident.” The other then reply to her the same way with saying, “I really can't tell. I can't sense his emotions at all. But its hard to believe how soft his clothing is on my... All I can say is-.” She had suddenly stopped in mid-sentence. Not even a second later, did she release through the mental connection a low moan to her sister.
To which she got a confused tone from her sister in her mental voice as she asked, “What just happened are you OK?” She ended up getting a following answer that was more of a whimper as the other sister said, “It’s... Fine...*HUFF* He, just moved this leg little more and it... *HUFF* Brushed up on my... *GASP* Oh! He did it again! Uh~ I don't know how much longer I can handle this. I've never been with a stallion that didn't just go straight for having sex. By the time we normally get them in bed, it's a done deal.”
The maid with the dark hair then said, “I know how you're feeling. This is a first for Me Too! I don't think I've ever Been this pent up before. Is it weird of me to say that not knowing how he feels and having to hold back, is really turning me on? I think if he was to do what he did to us back at the hive again, I would most likely be out of it for a full week with how I'm all wound up right now.”
Back with Brex, he was completely unaware that the two of them were having a discussion with how everything was silent in the room. It was too bad that he had a hard time with sensing their body heat with how he had a high resistance to both fire and ice. But feeling them cozying up against his body was sending him a sense of comfort in some strange way. He didn't know why, but this situation seemed rather familiar to him.
He then focused on putting himself to sleep as to avoid any more embarrassing moments. Only a few seconds later did he finally close his eyes and fall into the realm of sleep just as the clock in the room had reached one in the morning.
Unknown to him, the two Changelings maids however, had yet to fall asleep with how they were constantly fidgeting now and then while pressing themselves against him. Several minutes passed after Brex had finally fallen asleep and the Changeling on his right-hand side was now bucking her hips lightly against his pants leg. All the while, trying not to wake him up and letting out small, short whimpers.
The one on the other side wasn't faring so much better as she was biting down on a few of her fingers to stifle a moan. Whenever one of them was making too much noise or was about to go too far, they would stop immediately. Only to only shutter uncontrollably before relaxing. Much to their dismay… or perhaps pleasure, to end up repeat this process over and over again throughout the course of the night.
*Point of view: Dragon Lord torch. *Location: Dragon lands, Northwest territory. Across the sea.
High above in the skies and just below some of the few clouds, was a large dragon of epic proportions hovering in the air with the use of its mighty wings. At this moment, it was currently staring down at the mountain range below with anger burning in its large eyes and smoke bellowing from the edges of its partly open mouth that was lined with sharp teeth that were fully capable of shredding even steel.
This was the current Dragon Lord of all dragons and his name was Dragon Lord Torch. His body was so massive that it would not have seem out of the realm of possibility that his entire body would not have been able to fit within the castle of Celestia even if they were to completely hollow out all the furniture and walls within the structure itself.
In the middle of a small range of mountains, on the edge of their territory was a large hoard of monsters scaling their way down the side of a few of the mountains as they made their way towards the flat planes below.
There could have easily have been close to two hundred and total as they made the sight of the mountain appear as if it was rippling with the waves of them crossing over the surface. Most of which consisted of these lizard type creatures with long arms, legs and a long neck that had a serpent head that resembled a cobra.
( Here is the Lizard picture. )
There were even these creatures that looked as if they were dogs that were half starved to death with how they were so thin. But at the same time, their body structure was quite large as they roamed on four legs and had an oversized jaw with sharp serrated teeth that could be seen from quite a distance.
( Here is the Monster Dog Picture. )
The last type of monster that could be seen in this grouping, appear to be a two-legged creature that was a cross between a dinosaur and a bird that had a large mouth with many small teeth within it.
( Here is the Dino-Bird Picture. )
Judging from the size of each monster, they were large enough to be around three meters tall. Three and a half to four if you counted the long snake like neck on the lizard. As for the one that appeared to be resembling a dog, that one was closer to one and a half meters tall.
A myriad of noises was being made by each of them that consisted of howl's, hissing and snapping of jaws while marching.
One of the lizard like creatures had come across what appeared to be a prairie dog that was out in the middle of the open, while trying to escape the horde of monsters. It had made the unfortunate mistake of looking towards the lizard like creature for it to see a red light emanating from its eyes. Which instantly turned its form into stone. Only to be immediately crushed by the same monster as it continued on its unknown path with its front leg.
Dragon Lord Torch had finally had enough and had made a dive bomb after folding his wings in. From an outsider's point of view, they would see a large black object falling from the heavens and heading straight towards the mountain range. Halfway down, its entire surface erupted in a bright flame that caused everything within a hundred miles to be bathed in its light as if it itself was a miniature sun crashing to the earth.
Just before getting to the ground, Dragon Lord Torch unfurled his wings once more and changed his heading to go down along the slope. Keeping at a very low altitude, the dragon breathes out a heavy torrent the flames which was capable of spreading out and covering the entire side of the mountain he was passing.
The monsters that were caught up in the sudden tsunami of heat were instantly engulfed within seconds and turn to nothing but bones and ash, which crumpled to the ground in heaps.
As soon as he had gotten down to the plains, he had circled around immediately. This allowed him to display his abnormal ability to change his flight path even with his enormous stature. In doing so, he caused a miniature tornado to occur right when his tail whipped out as he straightened out.
This too had done a significant amount of damage to the few monsters that had managed to run down the base of the mountain. These were swept up and bashed against the large nearby rocks, thereby killing them instantly with the blunt force trauma.
Taking in another deep breath after holding himself in a hovering position and facing the way he had just came, another blast of flame that was more intense than the one previously used to be launched while he swept his head side to side. This attack had the desired effect of blanketing everything in sight with his flames. During each of these attacks, the heavens themselves were rumbling with his tremendous roar that came with each breath attack.
The whole scene had lasted for no more than a few minutes until he was finally finished and landed on the ground with a heavy crash. He then propped himself up with the use of his arms and legs until he was now sitting on his tail and observing the carnage that he had just brought.
The once pristine mountain range that was mostly comprised of brown earth and rock, was now completely blackened. There are even sections which had been turned to glass due to the intense heat and was now reflecting the light of the moon above.
After letting out a menacing growl that echoed through the deepest reaches of the planes, did he finally take flight once again with just a single flap of his enormous wings. He then soared over the dragon lands to which he was so ruler of for the next hour until he had come across the site of at least fifty dragons that were in the midst of their own battle against similar creatures. This was due to him having the eyesight of a dragon which could see miles upon miles away.
By the time he had finally gotten to them, the battle had been won. But not without a few of the dragons showing injuries that would no doubt take some time to recover. Unfortunately, he could see that there was one that was on the ground not too far away that appeared to have been turned to stone and broken into several pieces.
Dragon Lord Torch couldn't help but to let out a growl upon seeing this site as he said, “Grrrrrr... For all of our strength and might, as well as our resistance to magic. We are still falling to these lesser creatures. You there! See that this one's family is notified. Tell them that he fell bravely in battle in defending their family.”
The dragon he had called out to, had immediately bowed before taking flight to the center of the dragon lands to where the hatchery and much of the remaining dragons have taken refuge, along with their hatchlings.
Dragon Lord Torch then called over the nearest dragon. Which was only up to his knee in height. This one had blue scales all over its whole body and a short-bladed tip on the end of its tail that appeared to resemble that of a diamond with how smooth and dangerous it seemed.
The dragon then spoke in a female's voice as it said, “My Lord! All enemy combatants have been slain. I regretfully inform you that we lost another four dragons in this raid. That brings the total of this year up to twenty-one dead.”
Dragon Lord Torch then snarled at this information, but manage to quickly calm himself down before he went and lost his temper. This would normally end with him striking the nearest living creature, which would have been one of his fellow dragons.
He then spoke with much irritation in his voice, “This makes the fifth time this year that we've seen one of this size coming towards us. It's like they breed just to make numbers to attack us as if it was, they’re only meaning in life. If this keeps on going, odds are we'll end up losing the dragon lands to these monstrosities. Do they intend to weather down our numbers by sending these nearly endless waves?”
He was about to go on before he heard the flap of another dragon that was speeding towards him at nearly breakneck speeds. It then suddenly passed by overhead and whizzed around while making a large arc before coming back to land with a heavy thud, which displaced much of the dirt nearby.
This had the effect of causing not only Dragon Lord Torch and the blue dragon nearby to cough at the dust cloud filling their lungs, but also at least half a dozen more nearby. After finally being able to breathe once more, Dragon Lord Torch bellowed out, “Thunder Claw! How many times have I told you to slow down?!”
Before the Dragon Lord, was a new dragon that was jet black. Some of the scales were colored neon blue and they were arranged on his body in a pattern that was reminiscent to a thunder strike reaching out as it started near the back of his head and ran along the length of his body and wings.
The now named Thunder Claw, began to speak in a very rushed tone that would make one wish that a tape recorder had been invented already in their world to capture what was being said, only to be played back in slow motion to be understood. Thunder Claw was saying, “I found another group of monsters, they were over on the South side. They were heading towards the hatchery!”
Dragon Lord Torch picked up the word monster, south and hatchery. With eyes going wide, he was about to take flight after bringing out his wings to full mast. However, he was stopped when Thunder Claw zoomed up and block this path while hovering in the air near his face. Getting rather annoyed, Dragon Lord Torch thought to himself, “This whelp is not even half my height and yet he always shows me disrespect.”
He was about ready to simply blast this tiny dragon out of the way, but stopped when he heard what the dragon said next. While speaking in the same rushed voice as before, He said, “Don't worry, they're already dead!” This earned him a confused stare from Dragon Lord Torch.
Appearing to be taking a few breaths to calm down, the dragon then began to speak again. But this time at a more understandable speed. While pointing towards the south, Thunder claw said, “I was making my rounds on patrol in the south right after a sandstorm had just passed through. What I found was the corpse of a number of monsters littering the ground. I couldn't tell how many there was because of the storm, but there could be many more buried just underneath the sand.”
The dragon went on to continue with, “From where they were, they could have easily have gotten to the hatchery long before our forces returned. We're lucky that they were stupid enough to go through a sandstorm and to be killed off by it.”
Dragon Lord Torch then released a long sigh of relief as he pulled his wings back in. He then looked in the direction of where the hatchery should be. With his eyes now going relaxed, he said under his breath, “Thank goodness... We deployed all of our forces to the North. There was almost nothing left to defend the hatchlings. If those monsters had gotten through, then even my daughter would have been killed.”
He then turned towards Thunder Claw and commanded, “I want you to head back after rallying the troops to return. You're our fastest flier. I will return home and stand watch until our remaining forces arrive.” To which the dragon bowed and took off again towards the nearest group of dragons to relay the message.
Afterwards, Dragon Lord Torch then took back to the skies and was now making his way back home. The night sky still had a few hours left before the princess of the sun began the rotation.
He grumbled to himself as he said, “These attacks are coming too often. If it weren't for our scouts, we would have been unprepared for a night time assault. I hate to admit it, but we may need to call on outsider's help… No! What am I thinking! We're dragons, we're the most powerful beings on the planet. We can handle this; their numbers are not infinite.”
The scene then shows the large dragon disappearing over the horizon with the moon still hanging high in the sky.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Griffin Empire. One of the small towns along the coastline. Over the sea. *
Along the coastline near the Griffin Empire. Is a small village with no more than forty residents living within it. The occupants were that of the griffins and they lived within wooden houses built into the high trees of the forest nearby the sea.
The Griffin's living here happened to be very much accustomed to warm climates and wore very little in terms of clothing. The males would commonly wear what appear to be leather armor made of a crude design that was only meant to protect their chest. As for their arms and legs, they were merely wrapped in brown leather that seamlessly matched the tone of their fur, which all happened to be that of a light brown.
The females that didn't wear any armor at all, would be wearing something reminiscent of a bikini. As for the males that wore no armor, they simply had on a loin cloth to cover up their privates and tails. This small town was known for their fish that they would catch and then sell their extras to the towns and cities deeper Inland.
Tonight, seemed like any other with some of the youth who are accustomed to being out at night we're only just now coming back to sleep. The atmosphere was that of a tropical paradise with how the distant waves can be heard over the wind.
However, tonight that at was going to be broken. A series of loud shrieks and squawks could be heard coming from the coastline. This brought the attention of all those within the town almost immediately.
Those who knew how to fight quickly grab the nearest weapon they could find and made haste in taking to the skies. The urgency of the screams from before caused those who had not done any armor previously, to forgo dawning any to answer the call.
When a number of the fighters and hunters had arrived brandishing their wooden spears that were tipped with metal added to the points showed up, they found one of their own kind, a male Griffin roughly the age of eighteen on the ground. It was clear to all that he was dead after having his head bitten clean off by some predator.
One of the hunters had immediately lost what they had eaten that day onto the sand after seeing the site. Before any of them could say anything, there was a sudden swish sound that came from near the tree line where a small river was entering the forest from the sea.
A number of the Griffins that were on the sand, were suddenly knocked over onto the ground unceremoniously after a large object had sped by and struck them all with its momentum.
Those that were flying, were having a hard time of seeing just what was attacking them. Thanks to it being night time and the blinding glare from the waves reflecting the moonlight, the Griffins were having a hard time with adjusting their sight with the constant changes between the darkness and the light of the moon.
Eventually, one of them had managed to position themselves so that they had their back towards the sea and called out while pointing their spear towards the target that was attacking and said, “A fish is attacking us! A fish that floats on land!”
( Here is the Picture of the Fish monster. )
What the young Female Griffin hunter had said was true. Right there floating only feet above the ground as if still swimming along the sea floor, was a large fish. Brown in color with a very long snout with rows of teeth showing. With each movement of its fins, it moved the same way it would in the water. It then charged towards one of the nearest set of Griffins that were still on the ground and began to spin in a corkscrew motion as water began to surround its body that just came out of nowhere.
It suddenly had a burst of speed and tackled one Griffin that wasn't ready and there was a sickening crunch as the body went limp as it tumbled across the sand until it finally came to a stop. Now motionless. Now getting wise as to its attacks, the remaining Griffin's took flight and began to throw their spears at the monster fish.
A number of the spears had ended up missing and when the opportunity came up, any Griffin that was currently without a weapon, would dive bomb the sand and retrieve one of the weapons to use again before the fish had managed to get to them.
Most of the attacks that did land, only bounced off and caused very little damage. But eventually the accumulation over time had managed to finally catch up to the creature and it fell to the sand after one of the spears had gotten through one of its scales that had been previously damaged after repeated strikes.
One of the griffins finally spoke up after examining the strange monster after landing and said, “This is the first time I've seen one of these, have any of you?” This only got shakes of the head from every one of the Griffin's in attendance. The same Griffin then pointed towards the river and said, “That there leads near town. If we hadn't had stopped at here, then it could have made its way over to us while in our sleep.”
Upon hearing those words, a few of the female Griffin squawked in hysterics and one of them called out and said, “They would have gotten to the chicks. We need to put up more guards incase more of those things come back. We need to send a word to the Griffin Empire that a new monster has appeared.”
The one Griffin that had gotten taken out after arriving was being tended to by another. After a few seconds, that one turn towards the group and slowly shook their head.
The one that had spoken up first and pointed out the river then said, “More guards may not be enough. You saw what it took for us to take one of those beasts down. We need to come up with new way to combat the new threat. I suggest that we should send a few warriors to get training at the capital. Then they can return and teach us. Until then, no Griffin is to go anywhere alone, especially at night.
*Point of view: King Longhorn the Third. * *Location: Minotaur kingdom Capital, Island of Thrace. *
Right now, King Longhorn the Third was In a meeting with one of his generals and a leader of the largest mine that was directly underneath the kingdom. Where they would dig up a large portion of their minerals that are used for their crafts, which consisted primarily of metal working.
At the moment, the mine leader and the general were currently having a heated discussion which consists of them literally grinding their horns into one another as they bash their heads repeatedly. Apparently, this had been happening quite often and this current bout of discussions has already passed the thirty-minute marker.
King Longhorn the Third, who is known by those close to him as simply being Longhorn, was now massaging the bridge of his snout while sitting at the end of a long table watching these two bickering like an old married couple.
After finally rubbing his hand down his face one last time, did he finally stand up and slammed his left fist onto the table. This had the effect of creating a defining boom as it nearly made a noticeable indentation onto the steel table itself. Thankfully it had the desired effect of getting the two arguing Minotaur’s attentions.
After letting out a strong snort, Longhorn then bellowed out, “Mind telling me what the problem is this time?!” To which the general answered with saying. “We're having issues with taking out the new problem. Because of this, the miners are not doing their job and of course this leads to a lack of weapons to deal with the new threat.”
The mine leader then stepped forward and pushed onto the general with a heavy shove as he turned to give Longhorn his version of things. While holding up his arms in exasperation, the Mine leader said, “It's not our fault we can't get at the raw minerals. Ever since those lumbering giants showed up down there when we broke down a few of the walls leading to new cave systems, they've been popping up one after another. It's gotten to the point that my workers are scared of their own shadows!”
“Now if that wasn't bad enough, the little monsters that come flooding through the new openings are not helping. One of my miners had gone and mistook a monster as a hunk of ore to be mined, only to be attacked unaware of the danger. Of course, we can't make new weapons if we aint got the raw materials!”
Longhorn then leaned across the table while sitting down again. He then rested his right elbow and propped up his head as he leaned onto his hand and asked in a exhausted tone. “Tell me what the casualties were on this latest issue.”
The Mine leader then spoke up again and said, “We lucky no life has been lost. However, a number of our equipment went and got itself all smashed up due to the monsters swinging those blasted oversized sledgehammers of theirs.”
“A few of our heavy excavator equipment ended up getting blown to bits by some of those weird floating fireballs that got too close for comfort. I got about a quarter of my men in the infirmaries right now trying to nurse some rather nasty lumps and it's gonna take more than a wee while before they recover to be of much help.”
When that report was finished, the general was the next to speak up with his own as he said, “My King, my men have been fighting these things off for a while now and our weapons are just not cutting it. We keep needing to get them repaired or more often, replaced faster than the blacksmiths can handle the orders.”
“And seeing as we specialize in this here in our city, that's saying a lot. Nevertheless, if we can manage to push through enough and mine up some of the new ore that we discovered around the time that these creatures showed up, that might be what we need to have a fighting chance.”
The ore in question, was something that they had not come across until only around a week ago. A small amount was brought to a blacksmith and it was found out that the mineral was easily twice as strong as iron. It had taken some considerable work, but they had managed to get whatever they could to form a single one handed, wide blade sword that was roughly five and a half feet long.
The King recalled how he had originally wanted his general to use the weapon to help fight off the creatures as to mind more. Yet, it was voted against with the council's recommendation that such a rare weapon should not be used out of fear of being lost and wielded by one of the beasts to use on them would not be the best course.
When Longhorn at first heard about these creatures that stood on two feet that were obviously taller than themselves from a report, he was dumbstruck that there was something else out there aside from a dragon that could have been taller than themselves. Even the princess of the sun was but a few inches shorter than a regular Minotaur.
Longhorn then asked the pair across the table, “What are our losses if we allow such an occurrence to keep going? To which he got an answer from the general as he said, “My King, we have troops that are in desperate need of new weapons and repair work on their gear who are out in the field fighting the monsters as we speak. Our island nation only has problems with the monsters that are in the underground mines and those that come onto shore from the sea. Those we can handle with what we have on hand.”
“But It's a whole nether issue when it comes to those on the mainland. They don't have access to the stockpile we have here when it comes to weapons and provisions. I'm the last one to say this, but we may have to reach out for aid. If things go on as they are now, it's only a matter of time until our military structure collapses.”
With that, the general stepped back and looked towards the Mine Leader, who then nodded and stepped forward to give his own say. After taking in a deep breath, he then said, “What the lunkhead over here is saying about the situation with the ore and minerals for our gear is pretty much spot on. We have a sizable amount of iron to keep the forges going for a while. But if we don't turn a profit with the mine's after so long, then we will be unable to provide anything when it comes to exports.”
“We rely heavily on trade and something like this would not only destabilize our military, but our economy completely. If some new policies are not put into effect soon, odds are we will never be able to recover. We would be forced to give whatever we could for aid, which would of course look poorly on us.”
Longhorn then closed his eyes while letting out an exhausted sigh. After a few seconds, he then opened his eyes again and sat up and leaned against the back of his chair as he said, “Send a messenger to Equestria. The message will be this. The Minotaur Kingdom requests aid in the form of adventurers. Inform them that we are need of skilled fighters to handle a monster infestation in our lands. Payment will be negotiable upon arrival and further information will be given then.”
The general was the next to speak up as he asked, “Payment to be negotiable? Isn't that a little reckless?!” Longhorn then answered with, “We’re saying that to get them to come here. No doubt those words will cause the greedier of the bunch to show up. But what we need right now are numbers and this is the only way I can think of to get those ponies to come all the way out here from the other side of the world.”
“No way am I gonna call help from those ignorant Dragons or those conniving Griffin's. And before you say it, I already know about the racism that the ponies have. Those bunch, they're the lesser of the three evils.”
He then let's out a long sigh before continuing with, “We Just want to do what we like and that's working with metal. We dig it up, process, mold, build things and sell it to other nations. We pretty much keep to ourselves and don't start any trouble. Just why is it we have to deal with stuff like this?”
After rubbing his eyes, he went on to say, “Sometimes I wonder if it was really worth taking over the throne for my father?” The King then slammed his head into the table with a resounding thud. The two from a cross said table were only looking at each other and then the king as they whispered the following words in unison, “Glad I'm not the king.” After a few moments, they saw how their king had yet to sit back and the Mine leader asked the general, “Hay…You don’t think he got his horns stuck again in the table, do you?”
A few seconds later, they could hear the King grumbling with his face that was smooched into the metal table saying in a low whisper, “Could I get a little help here? One of yeah get the crowbar… its in the corner by the door.” Apparently, his horns had managed to impale the table and he was literally stuck.
*Point of view: Brex *Location: Fancy Pants Manor *Time: Close to six in the morning
During the night after going to sleep, Brex had gone into his dreamscape and found that Rory had locked herself away in one of the other rooms that were not in use. It had taken a little while of coaxing and he had managed to get her to come out.
Brex had figured that Rory was not very good when it came to being praised, considering the fact that she was modeled after the anime character who always seemed to get uncomfortable when a devote follower was praising her. But he had no idea how weak his Rory was to being flattered and talked about in such a way.
As a result, she wanted him to cuddle with her for the night as a form of an apology. To which he was all for and the pair undressed immediately and climbed into the large bed together. At first, Rory wanted to at least play around, but was reminded by Brex that if they had done something and he had ended up getting too aroused, that might have an effect on the Changelings outside in the real world that we're currently clinging to him.
After pouting for a little while from hearing this, Rory resigned herself to simply holding on to her master for the rest of the night while he fell into a deeper sleep.
When it had come close to being six in the morning, Brex had begun to wake up as per the norm. Upon opening his eyes, he found himself in an unfamiliar room. But after allowing himself a moment to recall the previous day’s events, he remembered that he was in the guest room. Unfortunately, he had taken too long to recall those memories before his hands had unintentionally dropped from where they were. Which was on top of the maid's backs and we're now resting on their asses.
When he had done this, he had elicited a pair of high pitch moans as both of them instantly bucked against his legs hard while arching their backs. Brex's eyes went wide upon seeing the shocked looks on the both of them before witnessing their eyes rolling in the back of their heads as they immediately after ended up slumping their bodies on top of him while panting heavily.
Within Brex's head, all thought came to a screeching halt for what seemed like an eternity to him. After several minutes had passed, it appeared that both of the maids were currently out cold and we're not going to be getting up anytime soon.
As if on auto pilot and without thinking, he used to shadow movement to dive into the one that was being made on the bed just underneath his body. Before the pair of Changeling maids could fall through, the whole had closed up and they were now resting comfortably on the bed. Meanwhile with Brex, he had appeared on the far side of the room where there was the most amount of shadow in one corner.
Thanks to the way that his body was positioned earlier, he had only traveled through for a split second to find that he was already set up to exit the shadows on his feet. Then as if almost robotically, he turned towards the other door of the room that led to the bathroom and quietly went inside before closing the door with as little noise as possible.
As soon as the door had made that small click, did he whirl on the spot to face towards the mirror that was just over the sink and leaned in to look at his emotionless, wooden masked face.
With his shaking right hand, he reached up and removed his mask and slowly placed it on the counter next to the sink. While he was doing this, he had not looked away from the mirror and watched as his face was being revealed to show that he had gone from his usual pale color to that resembling of tomato with wide unblinking eyes.
He felt that Rory was about to say something, but quickly nipped that in the butt by mentally saying, “Not... One... Word...” Thankfully for once, Rory listened to him and remained silent.
Seeing what he had done to those two was making it very hard for him to have straight thoughts and even trying to figure out what had just happened was well beyond his current cognitive functions. Right now, his mind was in the middle of trying to reboot as if having a system crash. Slowly, over the course of several more minutes, did he manage to finally bring himself to even blink. A minute after that, he began to turn on the faucet and tried to splash some cold water on his face to help wake himself up from the stupor he was in.
He then sighed immediately after when he remembered how he had a resistance to the cold, so the water simply felt the same as room temperature to him.
He then went back to looking up at the mirror and slowly whispered to himself in a low volume as not be heard by any other besides Rory. “This is something I need to take care of now. I really need to apologize to them both. Even after I told them I wouldn't do anything and this being an accident, it's still on my part.” Before he could even get his hands on the door knob to exit the bathroom. Rory spoke up and halted him by saying, “Master, I think you should hold on.”
While he gave her a confused look, she went on to say, “Just think about your position. Yes, it was an accident, but you're beating yourself up too much over it. Also, if you go out there in your current state, you’re only gonna make yourself seem weak.”
Within his head, Brex replied by asking, “I don't really understand. What's wrong with me simply coming out and saying I'm sorry. Isn't it always the best plan to straighten these misunderstandings in the beginning, rather than letting them go on?”
Rory then released a tired sigh as she replied to that by saying, “Just think about it. Yes, it was an accident and you didn't mean to do it, but you don't have to run to them. From what I could tell, they went through a big rush just moments ago. Right now, they're not thinking clearly.” The next part she whispered so low that Brex was having a hard time of hearing it when she said, “I can relate to how they're feeling after being touched by your hands.”
Brex was about to ask on what she had just said, but she went on to say, “Talk to them later tonight. Get them alone and explain the situation calmly. Don't overthink things, just give them the facts. Otherwise, it will just seem like you're begging for forgiveness when you don't need to. Keep in mind, they're the ones that wanted to do this and they were fully expecting something to happen to begin with. All you did was accidentally move your hand down and they ended up having that reaction.”
“Besides, it's not like you already didn't make half of their colony collapse from a sudden, orgasm sneak attack in one night already. This is pretty tame compared to that.”
What Rory was saying was beginning to calm him down, but the part at the end had only Re-lit the flames of embarrassment as his face turned beat red again after only moments ago it had just finished with returning to normal.
It had taken Brex a good ten minutes to calm down enough to finally get out of the bathroom. Only to find the two Changeling's still in bed and passed out along with a set of content smiles as their bodies were spread out underneath the blankets.
Brex made a motion to the door, however, he stopped after a few feet and looked over his left shoulder towards the bed. After letting out a small sigh, he went over to it and gingerly pulled the blanket so that they were fully covering the maids has to make them more comfortable before exiting the room and closing the door behind himself.
The next fifteen minutes went with him digging through the kitchen and locating all of the ingredients required to make his pancakes for all of those living in the house.
While getting everything set up on the counter, he thought to himself about if he should try adding a little something to it and opened his Item box. Brex then began to scroll through his contents. Luckily, once he used the organization tab, everything was shuffled around and placed into neat groups that went with what they were meant for.
First, we're all of his extra weapons and armor, along with jewelry consisting of rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings. After that was an assortment of other various items. It didn't take long until he got to the section that had all of his ingredients when he came to cooking.
He had considered in going in and pulling out a few of them, but he had yet to see any on his travels to say that they were around in their lands. Not wanting to draw even more suspicion by pulling out something completely alien, he scrolled around more until he had found an item that he knew was from this world. Right there, in a neat pile within one of the slots, showed something being called Everfree Strawberries.
As soon as he mentally clicked on the icon, did a small mound appear on the counter before him that consisted of approximately thirty of them in total. Just as he went to go pick one up to begin washing them all, did he have a sudden déjà vu feeling. His face, that was at the time relaxed, became a little sorrowful as he began to picture the faces of the two mare’s that he had begun to talk with for the first-time sense coming to this world.
He spent a good minute in silence just staring at the piece of fruit. During that time, more images of their encounter came flooding from his memories. He almost broke into a small smile when he recalled their reactions when it came to him giving these to them back then.
A small sound caught his attention and he moved his head to trying locate where it was, but it's all nothing. Then there was another and that was then proceeded with another one immediately after. Upon the last, he located the sound to be becoming from directly below him and when he looked down, he saw a couple of wet spots on the stone floor.
He was just about to kneel down to find out what they were, when he noticed a single droplet falling from the bottom of his mask to join the others on the floor. After blinking a few times, he came to realize that they had been tears that he himself was unaware of making.
At that point, Rory had already used her imaginary doorway and was now standing alongside of Brex, while placing a hand onto his right arm, just above the elbow. She then asked, “You really missed them, don't you?”
Immediately, Brex went back and began to wash the strawberries hurriedly with a bucket of water that he had retrieved before starting his preparations. While doing so, he answered Rory in an obviously fake, cheery tone. “What? I don't know who you're talking about. Who would I be missing?”
She leaned over the countertop to make sure that her face was within his peripheral vision. Rory didn't say anything, but just gave him a flat look that said, are you kidding me.
With a strained chuckle within his mind, Brex then said, “Ohhh~ Your talking about those mares from back at the castle? Of course, I don't. I only knew them for one night. Besides, I already said my goodbye to them before everything happened. I already knew I was never gonna see them again. We were about to head towards the Griffin Empire to get out of Equestria After all.”
Just as Brex had finished with his, not so convincing excuse. Did Rory finally relent in giving him the stair down and adopted a more relaxed posture as she went over to sit on the counter as to be out of the way. It just so happened that the window leading to the outside world, was right behind her and when Rory turned around to look outside, she had a questionable look on her face as she turned back to Brex.
Seeing this, Brex tilted his head in confusion and asked, “Uh, what's going on?” To which Rory replied by pointing over her shoulder with her left thumb before asking, “You normally don't get up this early before sunrise. Shouldn't it already be lit up by the time you've started making food?”
He then tilted his head to look up at an angle while humming to himself. He then said, “Hmmm-mmm. You know, now that you mentioned it. I think my internal clock usually has me getting up about five or ten minutes before that even happens. It's been more than half an hour since then, If not more. Let's see...”
Taking a quick glance to his upper right corner, Brex went to examine the current time and found it to be fifteen minutes before seven in the morning. Now looking extremely puzzled, he wondered to himself as he thought, “Huh... Say Rory, I may have missed it. But I don't think I ever saw anything about there being a daylight savings time on this world. Did you?”
To which Rory slowly shook her head with a dumbfounded expression. Only to have the sun beginning to rise a few seconds later. Though it seemed to be coming up at an accelerated rate compared to normal until it got to the point in the sky where it should have been at the time.
During this, both Rory and Brex were at the window now and watching the event occurred with raised eyebrows. Rory then asked while not taking her eyes away from outside the world under her breath, “So... I take it this normally doesn't happen?” This got Brex to reply in the same manner by saying, “Uh... no. I've never once seen this happen before. Usually, I could set a watch and do a countdown for when it comes up.” That statement was completely true as Brex had actually done that a few times where he would do account down as to predict when it would come up.
If one was to see this happening, they would think that he was a kid at the time. One that was counting down the seconds to being able to leave when the bell rang to get out of school.
Brex then said while shrugging, “I guess the little gift that Ryu had me deliver, may have had something to do with this. I wonder if she stayed up all night and ended up oversleeping. I wouldn't be surprised if we started to hear stuff about this happening while we're out today. I mean, she literally controls when the day starts apparently. Honestly, this would be considered a national emergency and she ended up getting letters coming in that would be demanding an answer as to why this rare occurrence happened.”
He had just gotten back and was halfway washing the strawberries when he added the last remark by saying, “I doubt very much she's gonna say that she stayed up all night because of a music box. That wouldn’t run well with a pony of her status.”
When he had finished with that, he went right back to preparing the pancakes and the strawberries he was going to place on top. It was a good thing too that he spotted what he needed to make some whipped cream and thanks to his chef abilities from the game world. He was able to cook everything faster than a professional cook could thanks to his game logic.
Normally in the game, whenever a player wanted to craft something, they would simply kneel down and the appropriate, miniaturized set of gear would just appear on the ground and he could start crafting. Brex had found that this would still happen, but as to not draw more questions, he relied solely on what was available to him. This in turn made the cooking process skip the whole, ten seconds and it's done rule. However, it was still quite fast with how his hands would move as if on auto pilot.
At this point, Brex was gliding from station-to-station while quickly dealing with not only the mixing and cooking on the stove top. But also, with arranging the strawberries that he was in the process of cutting up as he went. To him, hardly any time at all had passed, but in the outside world a good nine minutes have gone by the time he had finished with placing nearly fourteen plates of pancakes on the large Island counter in the middle of the kitchen.
Without wanting to cause any more problems for the staff that had nothing to do with the meal, Brex went straight to washing the pots and pans. As he did this part, he thought to himself, “That food is gonna get cold if I take too long, I better trying speed things up a bit.”
That was when he began to mentally recite a pair of spells almost simultaneously within this head. Thankfully, this was something that Little Light was very adamant about him learning how to do. Especially when trying to combine spells while in the middle of combat. She once said that in order to be able to do something while in the middle of a fight, one should be able to do something along these lines as a form of practice in everyday life. As to get into a rhythm.
The two spells were from the book of the Shield Hero. One was being the Low Wind spell, while the other was the Low Quick spell. With a little subtle application of funneling a steady flow of magic, Brex was able to literally speed up his body to wash the dishes while keeping the spell on for longer. To an outsider's perspective, it would have been the same as someone picking up a remote to a television and clicking the fast forward button for the, times three.
The Low's Wind spell was used in rapidly drying what he had just washed to be put away almost instantly. It had only taken him a few minutes to get everything all cleaned up and the counters washed with a quick wipe down with a rag before he began to pick up the plates and rush them over to the dining area.
From last night's dinner, Brex could tell that the table was quite large and could have seated not only the four of them, but all of the Changelings and the Butler if they were all to sit. So that was where he was planning on feeding them all.
He was still funneling magic into the Low Quick spell and this made it possible for him to finish the task long before the pancakes had even cooled. During the preparations, he had nearly stopped to facepalm himself when he realized that all he did was make the food and there were no drinks or utensils. So, he quickly went back into the kitchen and scrounged those up along with a bunch of mugs for everyone to use and poured both a glass of milk and orange juice for each plate.
There was just one small snag. He soon found out there was hardly enough for all of them to drink when it came to both the milk and orange juice. Out of a form of desperation, Brex went into his item box and clicked on the icon that showed milk, as well as the one that showed an orange from the game.
Seeing as the pancakes were going to cool soon, he poured even more magic into the Low Quick spell and without realizing it, had inadvertently change it to that to the Medium Quick. Brex hadn't noticed it, but he was almost moving quick enough to appear as if he were in two places at once while squeezing the oranges after getting all of the Changelings their milk.
After the remaining preparations were completed, he cut the flow of magic and stood there at the end of the table that was fully prepared for breakfast and wiped away some imaginary sweat on his mask's forehead.
A second later, his eyes went wide as he thought to himself, “Oh wait! Hold on, just how am I supposed to wake them all up. It's not like I could just start shouting.” While Brex was currently trying to come up with a wake-up plan, he had failed to notice that there were a large group of eyes watching him while he was at the table from over at the entrance leading to the stairway up to the next floor.
Now resigning to simply going up to wake them all one at a time, he turned on his right heel. Only to come face-to-face with the house's occupants that were now all lining up with dumbfounded expressions and hanging mouths. Not wanting to show that he was surprised, Brex stood there silently.
After six seconds of absolute silence, which felt like an eternity. Brex finally went on to cough into his fist before saying in a jovial tone, “How much did you see?”
Fleur de Lis had just then, began to shuffle her way past a few of the Changelings to get in front before she began to speak after finally recovering her voice. “I think we all came down just as you're coming out with the food.”
Her eyes then roamed the table before returning to Brex as she went on to say, “I think I might have still been sleeping, but it wasn't my imagination that you were moving really fast, right?” That whole sentence was her talking as if she couldn't believe the words that were leaving her mouth.
As if to play it off as nothing, Brex shrugged a little with his shoulders before saying, “That would be due to a spell I picked up while on my travels. Now before we continue, I suggest that you'll sit to eat. Wouldn't want the pancakes to get cold. Now do we?”
Without so much as waiting for a response, he went over pulled out a chair and sat in it to begin eating. He noticed how Fancy Pants, Fleur de Lis and Blaze Caster we're both taking a seat. As for the rest, they were simply leaning over and we're taking hold of their plates. He surmised that they were about to take them away in order to eat at some servant’s quarters no doubt.
While letting out an annoyed Huff through his nose, which was clearly heard by the rest. He lifted his right hand just above the table and sharply motion downwards as he said out loud for the others to hear him saying, “Sit.”
By doing that, Brex caught how all eyes in the room were looking directly at him in shock. Aside from the obviously assigned seats for the four of them, the others who had normally been tending to them and standing off to the side, were nervously glancing to one another.
One of the Changeling maids was the first to speak up as she began to talk in a confused tone as she asked, “B-But my Lord. Servants are not meant to sit at the main table. That's reserved for the current heads of the household, along with their guests.”
That was when Blaze Caster chimed in while already inhaling half of his pancakes as he tried to speak through his full mouth and said, “It's one of his rules.” The colt then swallowed before continuing, while still already plunging is fork into the next set of pancakes, “He doesn't want pancakes to be eaten other than at the table. Otherwise, it makes a mess.”
Fancy Pants then went and join the conversation while looking up at the others in the room as he said, “I think it would be OK to disregard formality for today. Sir Gambit is a special guest and if he wishes it, then I see no problem with doing so.”
After getting the go ahead from the head of the house, all of the servants took a seat. All be it wearily, as this was something that they didn't think would happen. From behind his mask, Brex was watching this whole thing unfold and began to think to himself, “I guess even with Fleur de Lis being as fiancé, the rest of them still try to keep up with traditions or appearances. If I think about it, it's almost as if he has complete authority over his sisters-in-law’s in this case. Ah, I better not think about it too hard. This is a whole another universe after all, they got their own rules of etiquette.”
During the breakfast, he was constantly hearing how all the others present were enjoying his food. But as to not seem rude, it appeared that they were not troubling him at this time. Although we can plainly see that some of them were going to ask about how to make it themselves with how they kept drooling over the next bite.
He had even caught sight of the pair that were in his room that night and it appeared that they had recovered and we're now looking as if nothing was wrong with them being nearly halfway down the table. That was when he remembered what had happened and he resolved himself to talking to them at some point tonight. As per Rory’s advice. He did however think that their pony disguises were showing a little bit of color aside from the blue Fur on their faces. But thought it was just from how they were apparently enjoying the food and didn't think any more about it.
Soon, he heard Fancy Pants speaking up and when Brex looked up, he saw that the stallion was looking straight at him. He then heard the Unicorn say, “I don't know what you did, but this tastes absolutely amazing. Also, I was unaware that we had any strawberries. I didn't know you had any on hand. Not to mention the orange juice. I'm not sure why it is, but it has a very pleasant, unique taste. Not like any I have had.”
After taking another sip of his orange juice, Fancy Pants went on to say, “I take it you happen to have a dimensional pocket spell to be able to hold all of these. Hearing those words had caught Brex unaware and he was trying very hard not to show it on the outside.
He then began to curse himself as he realized that he had not thought things through when it came to where he got his ingredients. He did remember when reading the spells that the Unicorns can use. They did have a pocket dimension where they would place some items in. It was essentially the same thing that Twilight used in the show to grab quills and parchment most of the time.
He then began to relax when he thought about how he had already explained that he can use magic. In the outside world, only a few seconds had passed and Brex quickly started to say, “I do have a way of storing items in a similar manner.”
To this, Fancy Pants smiled as he replied by saying, “Well you did say that you could use magic. I honestly shouldn't have been surprised that you can cast such a high-level spell given your abilities. Is it right for me to assume that yours is something different from what you just said?”
Not seeing that it would do any harm in going into a little detail about it, Brex answered with, “I'm capable of storing perishable foods in it and while within its confines, they do not go bad. What I used to top the pancakes were from the Everfree Forest. As for your drinks, most were freshly squeezed from what I brought from my homeland.”
“Ah, about that. That is something I want to talk to you about as well when it comes to one of the businesses I wish to open. One of which being the cultivation of unique foods to be sold on the market.”
Brex could see how Fancy Pants was leaning back into his chair while adopting a thinking pose. After getting a quick nod from the stallion, Brex went on to say, “I have a supply of fruits and vegetables that I want to start growing here. Much of which closely resembles what is already grown in Equestria. While others would draw the eye. We can set up greenhouses to ensure that they will grow with a steady flow of artificial sunlight to maximize production and to protect them from unwanted pests.”
“This will allow us to grow them without the need of using any pesticides. Back from where I'm from, this is called growing them organically. It's actually a healthier form, rather than spraying them with chemicals.”
Fancy Pants raised an eye brow as he fixed his monocle before saying, “I do know that pesticides are used when keeping bugs from eating our crops. However, I have never heard of this… Greenhouse you talk about. Would you mind going into details on what that is?”
At that point, Brex went on to explain the building of a typical greenhouse and what it was used for. As well as what is considered to be an artificial light source, which would be turned on at night to help plants grow.
Apparently, this was a huge thing to the pony when Brex had finished explaining the concept of indoor sunlight. The Roegadyn hadn't realized that they had not developed the technology for that and had to explain on what he knew about it. Oddly enough, he knew just what was required to create one and simply contributed it to his past life. With how fast the discussions were going, he didn’t have time to think about it.
Just then, the large grandfather clock in the next room over rang and when it had hit seven, did all eyes in the room go wide and disbelief. Brex internally chuckled to himself when he thought about how they all must have gotten up due to the sun raising. But had no idea that it was essentially an hour off.
It didn't take that much longer until the meal was finished off by all in attendance and Brex found himself with Fancy Pants in the parlor. While there, they continued their discussions from the night before in regards to locations that could possibly be of any use.
Fancy Pants on his part was a little confused as to why he didn't want to try and build next to or within cities and towns. As a reason, Brex had insisted on building in spots that were wide and open for a number of the the businesses as to avoid onlookers during the construction, as well as expansion if needed.
When it came to the farm to produce the meat for them to export to those that consumed it, it was decided that they would need a natural area for the livestock. So, Fancy Pants and Brex looked over a map that was brought over by Butler and unrolled it onto the large table in the parlor.
Upon closer examination, Brex pointed to a section of the map that was just off to the west side of the Everfree forest. It was a nice chunk of land that had yet to be claimed and was still up for grabs. There was a set of mountains towards the North and there was also a stable flow of water supply just to the South. There was even the added benefit that there was already an existing set of tracks nearby that they could immediately build a train station on. From there, their products could easily be shipped to Canterlot that just happened to be a main hub in the center of the country to distribute across Equestria.
Brex mentioned that after things were discussed with his associate, that they should consider meeting in that area that was pointed out earlier. Fancy Pants was a little confused about not having a meeting in his house, so he asked as to why. To which Brex said that it would be better to get things going as quickly as possible as to not waste time. The business’s needed to be started before the schools.
Afterwards, they checked the map again and began to select other areas that were available for purchase. Fancy Pants was a little worried about the cost but Brex simply told him how he would be able to cover the cost once they found a solid way of using his lands currency as capital. The young stallion was rather surprised when he heard that Brex would be essentially taking care of the bill when his monocle shot out of his eye again after hearing this.
Upon seeing this happening yet again, Brex wondered if that thing was spring loaded or something. It had only been less than two days and he has seen those lenses fall from his face at least a half a dozen times already.
By the time it was eleven in the morning, they were pretty much set on what they could do for now. Brex then excused himself, along with Blaze Caster to go out on the town to see what there was. After all, he did promise the kid last night that he was going to do just that.
Calling for the kid had the effect of informing him that they were to get ready, to which Blaze Caster immediately ran to the front door while literally hopping from hoof to hoof while saying that he was already set to go and sporting a big smile of excitement.
The Roegadyn was happy to see how Blaze Caster was able to put aside his earlier misgivings about coming to the city. It seemed like being able to speak with the Changelings and the soon to be married couple had really lightened his mood.
As Brex was opening the front door, he heard Blaze Caster ask, “Is it just going to be us that's going out?” With a tilt of his head, Brex asked, “I had planned on that being how it goes. Why do you ask?” To answer Brex, Blaze Caster looked towards the stairs and pointed over with an amused look.
Following the kid's gaze, Brex found Fleur de Lis just coming down from the steps while wearing fancy dress with a large stylish sunhat on her head. After finally being noticed, Fleur de Lis finally came up to them while giving them a wide smile. She then lightly clapped her hands together in excitement as she said, “I'm already to go if you are!”
Honestly, Brex had not counted on anyone else joining them, but took her up on her offer seeing as she knew the city better than he ever could. Sure, he had the basic layout of the important buildings, but she knew what went on for real after living here for a while and having some connections through her career. But he couldn't help but to ask, “What about your Fiancé, will he not be accompanying us as well?”
To that, Fleur de Lis shook her head lightly before saying, “He's quite busy today. I didn't really have anything planned to do either. So, upon hearing that you want to go out on the town, I saw it as a perfect excuse for me to have a little fun. I'm usually so busy with schedules that I hardly ever get to do anything for myself these days.”
That was when Brex recalled that she was just starting her modeling career not too long ago. Which meant that she was quite busy with photo shoots and going to those big celebrity parties. Well, that's what he thought was mainly going on.
After Fleur de Lis gave her fiancé, Fancy Pants a kiss goodbye did they leave the Pants Manor. For the next hour, they found themselves being led by Fleur de Lis as she took the lead and taking them to some interesting spots in Canterlot.
On Brex's part, he didn't have a particular place that he wanted to go, aside from the history museum that had that most recent heist to see things for himself. However, that wasn't happening because, along the way to someplace else, they were passing by and saw that there was a closed for reconstruction notice on the front door. Apparently, the explosions did a number on the place and it was now in some desperate need of a repair work.
There was a number of stalls open along the streets in the market district and Brex had to keep an eye on Blaze Caster with how he was darting from stall to stall. He could have sworn there was a few instances where he literally left the dust cloud in the shape of his own body when he had a sudden burst of speed to catch something that caught his eye. Again, in his head, Brex had to mumble to himself about cartoon logic. But at the same time, he considered it could have been an effect from his fire abilities and getting a little too excited.
Of course, while on this little outing, he did catch little snit bits that were being said from a short distance away by the onlookers. Brex had opted to stay in his mysterious Butler attire for this day. So, most assumed that he was her bodyguard or possibly a lover. It seemed that it didn't take long for the crowd to notice just who Fleur de Lis was. There was even one ridiculous whisper going on by a pair of elderly mare’s that Blaze Caster could have been our child.
To which Fleur de Lis immediately began to stutter out of embarrassment upon hearing the whispers herself. At the end of the two and a half hours of walking around the city, did they find themselves in a park. Blaze Caster was currently playing on a jungle gym while Fleur de Lis and Brex were both sitting on a park bench not too far away.
He had actually gotten to feel more relaxed during the excursion then he had realized. Not once was there some type of calamity or monster attack occurring while outside and the kid was obviously having a lot of fun just like any other child his age should be having.
His musings were disrupted when he heard Fleur de Lis beginning to say, “I didn't want to say this before, but… would it be that Blaze Caster happened to be from an orphanage in that town that got burned down that I mentioned?”
While giving an amused smirk, Brex answered while still not turning away from Blaze Caster, who was now dangling from a set of climbing bars. “Your information network is impeccable.” After letting out a small sigh, he went on to continue saying, “Yes, he did come from that orphanage. Like I said before, if you want more details, you'd have to ask him yourself.”
Without changing any facial expressions other than just enjoying the day. Fleur de Lis kept her eyes on Blaze Caster just as Brex was when she said, “I did not forget. But after feeling something from him after we mentioned that town last night, I couldn't help but to want to learn more about what had happened. So, I asked one of my sisters that was stationed near there to look into it last night.”
“I got word from her only a little while before we left. That was one more reason for why I wanted to come along with you both. What she told me, was rather concerning. Brex went and released a small hum and nodded his head once. He then asked, “Just what did you hear?”
She then looked towards him for a moment before returning her gaze back to Blaze Caster as she said, “I know about it being attacked, that's common knowledge now. But what got me seeing things as weird was the testimony from the mare’s that ran the orphanage.”
This earned Fleur de Lis a single hum from Brex before she went on to say, “By their words, they said that Blaze over there should already be dead.” From behind his mask, Brex had an incredulous look on his face. Seemingly, Fleur de Lis picked up on his emotions that manage to spike at that moment. This was an evident with her giving a slight nod before going on.
She then said, “They collaborated with each other in stating that the building was already on fire and they had tried to make their way to his room to rescue him. However, when they got to his room and swung the door open, he was already on the ground and in the middle of being devoured by strange black creatures with long years and mouths full of razor-sharp teeth.”
Upon hearing the description, Brex did recall seeing those at the town when he had come across it. The only problem was with the testimony itself in regards to Blaze Caster's condition. According to what he was told by the kid. He had woken up and attempted to find them, but they were nowhere to be seen. Also, from the description, none of the monsters had made their way over to the orphanage just yet.
Brex then answered in a low tone, “And what do you think happened?” As soon as he had asked that question, he caught a glimpse of Fleur de Lis adopting a look of killing intent that only lasted for a split second before her calm demeanor came back. Afterwards, she then said in a sing song voice as if trying to play off what she had shown earlier, “I believe those mare’s are bucking Liars. My sister also dug around a little deeper and found a few other things that didn't seem to match up.”
She found it rather odd that there was a colt that had yet to be adopted while all the others were already taken by the time of the attack.” She then raised her left eyebrow as she looked towards Brex as she continued to say, “You must already know that males are exceedingly rare among us ponies. To think that he had yet to be adopted by that point is utterly unthinkable.”
Brex had to admit that part of the story was something that had been nagging him in the back of his head for a while. Blaze Caster should have essentially been considered the pick of the litter with just being a male by itself. Any aspiring parents to be would give their tails to have a son.
Fleur de Lis then went on to continue by saying, “We dug up some paperwork that was shuffled around and found that there were applicants that wanted to adopt Blaze. But for some reason or another they were rejected. Some had legitimate reasons stated. However, we found some discrepancies on others that were just absurd. If it was done right, then he should have been in a new home within that first week.”
After a few seconds of going silent, she then turned her head towards him and said, “I'm not sure, but I think they were intending to keep him for themselves. Or perhaps, to even hand him off to another when he was older.”
Brex recalled how Blaze Caster mentioned how they hardly ever spent any time with him. He then started to think to himself, “If it was a case of them wanting him to stay with them, then there should have been more activity between those mare’s and Blaze Caster. Hmm... I think Fleur de Lis’s idea about them holding on to the kid to pass him off seems more reasonable.”
He then began to think about the herd cult that wasn't too far away and began to put the pieces together. He wasn't a one hundred percent sure, but odds were that those mare’s were a part of that group. Upon coming to this conclusion, Brex began to speak as the air around him was beginning to get warmer. “Do you happen to know anything about the Herd Fanatics?”
To which got a settle nod from the mare as she replied by saying, “Yes, who hasn't... Even we Changelings detest what they do. Before you came along, we would abduct ponies to take their place or simply take on a form to attract another for source of food. At least we try to make them happy by giving them dreams while in one of our cocoons. But these mare’s that go around taking all the males, they are nothing but monsters.”
As soon as she had gotten finished saying that, her eyes went wide in disbelief as she quickly asked, “Y-You… really don't think that...” Brex stepped in and finished her thoughts my saying, “That those orphanage mare’s were most likely going to send him to a group like that? Yes, yes, I do. Listen, could you have your sister's keep an eye on them? Let me know if you find out anything in regards to this group.”
To this, Fleur de Lis quickly nodded as she said, “But of course. I was thinking of doing something along those lines. Honestly, at first, I thought it was just them being neglectful in their duties and leaving the child to die in order to save their own tails. I didn't even consider the other option.”
Just then, a couple had walked by while passing on through the park. They both waited until new comers had left to continue with their talks. However, Brex picked up on the stallion saying something about not being able to go to day court today. To which Fleur de Lis tilted her head upon hearing the same thing in a confusion.
Internally, Brex was chuckling to himself. Now being curious, he opened the link to his doppelgänger that was in the castle to get an update. It only took a few seconds for the relevant information to be sent over to him and he had to try really hard not to laugh out loud.
Apparently, his double had witness from a distance how the princess had her lights on in her chamber's window for nearly the entire night and had overslept by the talk in the castle, which was why the sun was late in the morning.
Then she had even ordered to cancel today's day court. However, that was not what got him to nearly burst out laughing. The reason being what had happened later on when a flood of complaints came from a number of nobles about being late to their appointments due to the princess neglecting to raise the sun on time.
To which gained them the ire of the princess as she ended up using the Canterlot voice to send them away. His body double had managed to catch a glimpse of a few of them literally being thrown several feet back by the force alone. It seemed that his initial thoughts back in the past about the voice being used as a weapon back in the warring days may have been correct with how effective it was on a number of those ponies.
When they were finally alone again, Brex said, “Before I forget. Could you explain to me more on why you gave me a set of keys?” That was when he gestured to his coat pocket near his chest and began to pad where the pocket was to indicate that he was holding the item there.
Fleur de Lis gave him a gentle smile before returning her gaze to the playing Blaze Caster. She then said, “Blaze is a gentle colt. It's also a breath of fresh air to see how open my sisters can be around him. We don't normally get to interact with other species unless we're in disguise and this is rather nice. What I'm trying to say is, Fancy Pants and I wouldn't be against you both visiting more often. I know you must have your reasons for living wherever it is you are and only coming to visit once a month. But he is still a growing kid and socializing would be good for him.”
As Fleur de Lis was speaking, Brex found themselves nodding to the words and saw her point. Brex had been focusing on training the kid in order to harness his powers so he wouldn't have an incident occurring. Because of this, he didn't think it threw more on the kid's social Development.
Brex then replied by saying, “I wouldn't be opposed to bringing him for a sleep over once in a while. Of course, I would make more frequent visits as well. He's only staying with me for now for his own safety, but I do hope to find him a more stable living environment in the future.”
Fleur de Lis looked towards Brex with a concerned gaze as she slowly asked, “What do you mean by that? Blaze looks up to you like a big brother. I assumed that he was going to stay with you from now on.”
To that, Brex sighed as he said, “I'm not a good role model. If I can help it, I would much rather have a normal life for him. When he gets a little older, I'll ask him what he wants to do. He has a lot of potential and if he chooses to, then I would train him to using his abilities more for combat-oriented situations. But if you told me he wanted a normal life, then I do everything I could to find him a family that would take him in. Of course, if I can't do that, then I’ll take on the responsibility myself.”
He then released another sigh as he leaned forward to rest his elbows onto his knees. After a few long seconds, he finally went on to continue by saying, “But that there is the issue. I don't know how long I could possibly give him a normal life. There are going to be things happening that are going to require my attention. When this happens, I most likely won't be around as much.”
By the time he had finished, Fleur de Lis had stood up and was now directly in front of him. He then noticed how she was giving him a scowl before she said, “Honestly! I don't see why you would say you're not a good role model. Now, as for Blaze, I think he’s old enough to figure out what he wants to do.”
She then straightened up and adopted her usual calm smile as she went on to continue with saying, “Now I think you forgot something very important. In case you haven't noticed, you have Fancy Pants and my family. We all happen to like him. So don't hesitate to ask us for any help.” On that last line, she playfully gave him a light tap on the shoulder with her fist.
This brought a small smile to his face from underneath his mask. He didn't know why, but talking to Fleur de Lis like this kind of made him wonder if this is what it would have been like if he had a sister to talk to. Unlike the other Changelings, she was more open with him and didn't hold on to the whole attitude that just screamed that they saw him as royalty or something.
After that little discussion, Blaze Caster had returned after a good hour and a half of playing around in the park. Brex had no idea just how much energy this kid had. To him, it seemed limitless with how he wasn’t even breaking a sweat, even after wearing that coat to prevent accidents from occurring with his powers.
They were now heading back to Fleur de Lis’s home and just as they got up to the door, did Brex remember that he still needed to have a talk with those two Changelings later. Which only caused him to be a little anxious upon thinking of when it was time.
It really didn't help that when they finally opened the door, the two maids in question were the first to be seen on the inside just past the door. This only made Brex to think his head, “Why do I feel like I'm gonna be in for a long night...”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 34: Late Night Dance.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Fancy Pants Manor* *Time: Two in the afternoon*
He had just finished thinking to himself, “Why do I feel like I'm gonna be in for a long night...” After seeing the two attendants from last night as he came in through the front door while following Fleur de Lis and Blaze Caster when they had returned from their outing.
It didn't escape his notice how the of them were immediately showing a set of blushes on their cheeks for a few seconds before immediately getting back into their roles as servants.
For the rest of the day, Brex pretty much went into relaxation mode. He didn't have to lift the finger, considering that he had a set of dedicated Changelings following is every movement as if waiting for that one small sign to jump into action before a word was even muttered.
All the while making him even more uncomfortable with being treated so well. A part of Brex wanted to just up and go into the woods to do some training, but as soon as he had even considered the idea, he could feel Rory beginning to stir.
He did mention that this was a sort of getaway before and it seemed that Rory was intending to make sure that he at least tried to relax while in Canterlot by the looks of things.
So, without being able to do any training for Blaze Caster or himself, Brex resorted to going over to their small library that was located in one of the other rooms on the bottom floor. A number of the books that were on hand, were ones that he had already gone through before during his travels. But it turns out that there were a couple of rare versions that were not in the stores, which caught his attention.
There was a mix of folklore and more magic textbooks that seemed to have been printed within the last two hundred years. He had even brought one of them to Fancy Pants to ask about it and was notified that those were discontinued and very hard to locate out in the public.
When he inquired as to why, the Unicorn relayed that the princess ordered no more copies to be made. It was to Fancy Pants’s understanding that the spells within were far too dangerous for the public. Many of which could have dire consequences to the caster if even one mistake was made.
When he found out this, he began to think to himself, “So, it seems that Sun-Butt, with a stick stuck in her butt, has been stunting her pony's growth when it comes to spells. I suppose she's just being cautious and looking out for their safety. But still, she could have at least looked into these more and had them refined to be stable enough to use.
While flipping through the book before bringing it to Fancy Pants's attention, Brex caught sight of a number of spells within that would be very useful in and out of combat. Those being a revised version of a fireball spell that a Unicorn could use. The current ones that are in the books given to the public and in some of the special shops that he had come across, we're basically a dumbed down version, with less than a tenth of its power.
He then sighed to himself as he began to think further on how he might be able to help with altering the spell for better use. If he could only use them to begin with. He had the basic knowledge down, but no practical ability whatsoever. In a sense, he could be compared to a pistol that was specifically designed to be able to shoot a particular bullet. However, with his inability to cast the magics that the Unicorns could, he was without bullets to load into the chamber so to speak.
It wouldn't matter if he had to spell down to the point that he himself could be considered its original creator. but it meant nothing to him. He just didn’t have a grasp on their type of spell craft to even get a warm spot to build on the end of his finger.
A few more hours passed sense then. It was now getting close to dinner time and Brex had gone through pretty much every book in the library which consisted of a grand total of seventy-seven books.
During his little hunt for knowledge to keep himself occupied. He had failed to notice how the Changelings would peak in on him occasionally. Seeing as he was so engrossed in reading, they did not dare to bother him. But it didn’t stop them from gawking had him with open mouths with how he was breezing through all of the tomes in their library.
He had just finished the very last book and had gone over to one of the lounge chairs and carefully sat down. Brex could see just how immaculate and expensive it was, so he was very cautious about just plopping down on it with how big he was.
He glanced to his clock and found it to be a good eight minutes until six. Which should be around the time that they serve dinner. He then leaned back into the chair and rested the back of his head on the top while staring up at the ceiling. Which had a small chandelier hanging in the middle with some finely decorated crystals lining it in a circular pattern. After letting out a content sigh, he finally closed his eyes to wait until he was called.
After some time, he was finally awoken by somebody that was lightly shaking his left shoulder. He then glanced over to see that it was the maid with the short black hair standing at attention near his side. After giving him a little bow, she respectfully said, “I am very sorry for waking my Lord up, but dinner is now served.”
After he nodded, she started to make her way out of the room. But Brex called out to her by saying, “Please wait.” To which caused her to stop in place almost immediately and turn back towards him just as she was halfway across the room.
He then got up from the chair and approached the Changeling maid. When he had gotten close enough, Brex leaned in and began to whisper into her right ear, “I would like to talk to the both of you tonight regarding this morning.”
He got a nervous gulp from her before she quickly answered by saying, “O-Of course my Lord. We shall be there tonight.” After he had gotten that response, he began making his way to the dining room with the maid closely following behind.
Dinner itself went pretty much the same way it did before. With the only key difference was how Brex was no longer being as shy as last time with his mind completely focused on what he was going to need to talk to the girls about later rather than what they were doing right then and there as they were serving him food.
When the meal was over, Fleur de Lis approached both Brex and Blaze Caster and asked, “If the both of you are ready, we can get the bath going for you.” Brex was surprised by this and had nearly facepalmed himself when he remembered that they had not had one since the day before coming here. They had been using the hot spring that was carefully hidden a way behind their house in the mountains and it didn't even cross his mind to take a bath while here.
Brex was trying to come up with a way to say that he didn't want to, but Blaze Caster was the first to act by saying, “I can take a bath. Although, I prefer the hot spring one that big bro built.” This only got Fleur de Lis tilt her head in confusion as she looked towards Brex with a face that begged an answer.
Before he could so much as open his mouth, Blaze Caster went on and started saying, “Oh yeah! Big bro went and built us a hot spring behind our house. I saw him laying down the rocks for the flooring and where to sit. Pretty much have hot water all the time.”
The kid then began to scratch at the back of his head while looking up at Rex. This was followed with him saying, “He even put a door up so that when he goes in, he won't be seen. I've been living with big bro for a while now and I don't even know what he looks like underneath the mask.”
Fleur de Lis then glanced up at Brex and gave him a mocking, flirtatious grim before saying, “Now that's just too bad. I could just tell that my two sisters behind you were looking forward to helping with your bathing.” That was when she began to glance past the disguised Roegadyn.
Even without the use of Rory’s advanced senses, Brex was beginning to familiarize himself with their presence and was already aware of the pair standing directly behind himself right now.
Brex took this point in the conversation to add his two cents in by saying, “I appreciate the offer. However, I-.” Fleur de Lis quickly stepped in and had managed to cut off his excuse before he was able to get it out by saying, “Now don't be like that. If privacy is what you want, then you will have privacy. Now I can promise you that none of us will see you in the bath. You have my word.” That was when she brought her right hand up and placed it over her own heart.
Internally, Brex was grumbling to himself that he couldn't seem to bring himself to argue with this mare. Reluctantly, he slowly nodded once, but that was enough to snap Fleur de Lis into action. She went over to Blaze Caster and hurriedly ushered him up the steps to the bathroom on the next floor.
Just before they had completely ascended the steps, she then called out and said, Blaze will take his now and then you can go in after. We’ll let you know when it's ready. You can use the guest bathroom for this. There is a tub that’s big enough for you to fit inside.”
Now that was a first for Rex. Everywhere he had stayed before had a tub that could barely even fit his form inside of it. So, he had to rely primarily on showers. His hot springs were the only way for him to get an actual bath in this world as far as he knew that didn't require him to jump into a river that just barely made its way past his upper arms.
After waiting for his turn, which took a good half an hour. Brex was finally called by one of the maids and informed that his bath had been prepared. After walking up the steps and finding what he assumed to be the guest bathroom, did he open the door to find a steam filled room with what appeared to be a large marble tub that was surrounded by a tiled floor. His eyes went wide when he saw that it was more than twice what was needed for him to fit inside.
Brex then thought to himself in astonishment, “OK, this is something! I would expect this to be on the bottom floor. Just how did they make it so this thing doesn't fall through?” He had paused and adopted a thousand-yard stare as he continued that thought with, “Oh, right, magic. Of course, everything is solved by magic. Why do I keep falling back on basic physics while in this world anymore?”
After recovering, he took a more detailed glance about the room. A countertop with two sets of sinks and a long row of bottles that he assumed to be hair and mane care products. As he went to lock the door to make sure that he had privacy, he found that there was no locking mechanism whatsoever that was a part of the door itself.
Letting out a disgruntled grown, Brex thought to himself, “Really? Really now? You would think the bathroom of all places would have a lock on it.” He then heard Rory speaking in his head in her usual sing song voice as she said, “What's the problem? Fleur de Lis did say that none in the house would see you. So, I don't see the point of needing to lock the door if we already got a promise.”
After letting out another grunt, Brex lowered his head as he slumped his shoulders. In a defeated tone he uttered to Rory within his mind, “What I wouldn't give for a spell to lock doors. And before you ask, I'm glad that I don't know that Hex spell of yours. Wouldn't want some unfortunate soul to go touching the doorknob, only to die but a moment later.”
After letting out a playful grumble of her own, Rory replied to that by saying, “Master, you would appreciate it a lot more if we were on the battlefield. Then you wouldn’t want our supplies taken.”
While Rory was speaking, Brex had already made his way back to the bath. He had passed on using the provided hair care products for those that he was more accustomed to using within his item box. He knew that this being the Fancy Pants Manor and all, there was no doubt that whatever was on those shelves, were extremely expensive and Brex didn't feel comfortable with using such extravagant luxuries as he didn't see himself as someone who would even be deserving of their use.
So instead, he brought out some generic body wash and shampoo. It had taken him a number of tries, but he managed to find something that would work for him seeing as most of their bathing products revolved around the user being covered in hair. It was all thanks to his alchemy class that he was able to even come up with a mixture that used a combination of one of their shampoos with some plant extract.
When he had taken them out and placed them securely on the edge of the bathtub, Brex opened up his character window and began the process of un-equipping all of his gear. one by one, did items on his person vanish from sight. Which consisted of his one ring on each hand, The two bracers, one of them being the final fantasy seven item. Then there was the necklace. Next came the rest of his gear up until he had finally gotten to the head section of his character window.
While keeping a fixed gaze on to the screen, The Roegadyn brought up his left hand which was no longer gloved. His index and middle finger glided across the mask and he felt the smooth wooden surface on his fingertips. After some hesitation, he mentally clicked on the icon for the head gear. As soon as he had done that, the one that he was wearing in the real world vanished within a blink of an eye.
Immediately, his long black hair with the silver highlights fell over his shoulders and back. Now giving a very tired expression, Brex made his way over and stepped into the tub of water. When he had fully immersed himself down to his lower waste after sitting, did he finally release a relaxed sigh of relief.
It was hardly any surprise to him that the water level didn't go any higher seeing as his stature was far larger than an average pony. He was sure that if one of them was in here and had taken the same seating position, then the water would easily be up to their shoulders.
After a little bit, he looked down and caught sight of his reflection in the still water that only had a few ripples that were being caused by the subtle body movements of his own. He began to muse to himself about how this has to be the first time that he has been able to see himself while taking a bath. All the other times that he had used the hot springs while with Blaze Caster had been taken during the night. Also, without any sources of light.
His eyes were drawn towards the scratch marks on his right cheek. He then began to wonder as to why he chose to have his character wearing such a thing. He felt that it had nothing to do with making himself appear to be more rugged or tougher. It was just something that he felt he needed to have. Almost as if it was meant to remind him of something.
He soon blinked himself free from the sight and continued with his preparations. It had taken a little while to work in the lather through his long locks and after several attempts of leaning in to dunk his hair in the water, did he finally get it all out.
Next came washing his body. The arms and legs were no problem, even with the seemingly large muscles in the way. He was just really glad that he wasn't one of those body builder types where they were stuck in a certain pose with their arms out to their sides and unable to move because of so much muscle mass.
His face and chest area didn't take much time at all. He had found out early on during his early bathing that his form was essentially waxed clean of most body hair. It appeared the only places that had any was on both his head and his privates. He had no idea if this was what a Roegadyn really is like or if it was just a byproduct of his character being from a game.
When he had gotten past his abs and was about to work on his private area, did Rory finally speak up after exiting one of her doorways off to the right-hand side of him. With a relaxed tone, she walked towards him while he was still preoccupied and said, “Master, you know we could answer one of those questions of yours right now.”
At that point, Brex had just finished with cleaning himself up down below and without looking in her direction, he mentally asked, “Oh and what question would that be?”
He didn't get a reply other than hearing Rory coming up from behind as she walked around the tub. Thanks to how he was practically leaning against the edge of the tub, Rory was able to lean over and press herself on to his backside.
Thanks to them both sharing the same mind, along with a combination of his imagination added into the mix. Did he feel her warm body against his own. He suddenly looked straight up ahead as his eyes went wide upon finally noticing how he was able to feel the warmth of skin on his back. After looking over his left shoulder, he confirmed his suspicions upon seeing Rory butt naked and pushing her breasts up against him.
Rather hesitantly, Brex asked, “You didn't exactly answer my question.” To which got him a small giggle from the girl before she leaned in a little more to have her lips near his left ear. She then whispered using her alluring voice, “I'm pretty sure that my Master knows exactly what I'm talking about.”
Afterwards, she released him and started to climb into the tub and situate herself so that she would be sitting facing him while on his lap. Rory's skillful manipulation of his imagination was making this extremely difficult to discern from something in his mind and reality with how things looked and felt.
Her hands began to grasp his biceps as she peered into his eyes with a hungry look behind them. With her eyes shifting to those of being half lidded, she leaned forward and began to rub her chest onto his while not breaking eye contact.
After swallowing a small lump in his throat, Brex found that he couldn't look away. There was the subtle dripping of water from him lifting both of his hands out of the bath before they were placed on both of Rory’s shoulders. He was sure that he was able to feel himself coming into contact with her, all be it a far weaker sensation than touching a physical object in the real world.
There was a part of him that said screw it and have a little fun. However, there was an opposing faction that said that this was not a good idea and it needed to stop. At the moment, it would seem that the foremost thought was beginning to win with how Brex was shifting his hands down the sides of Rory’s body as they came increasingly closer towards her hips.
When he did this, she parted her legs and situated herself better so that they were hung over both of his. Brex could feel his arousal beginning to spike through the situation and it did not escape his notice when his member below the water line was beginning to become more active. With the position that Rory was in, he couldn't tell exactly what was going on below, but he was sure that he began to feel the sensation of pressing it against something.
As soon as he had felt that sensation, Rory's eyes went wide for about a second before turning back to what they were before and giving him a small smirk that showed her approval of what had just transpired.
Rory then went in and began to kiss his chest a few times before saying, “Master, I can't really do things like this back at home with how dark it is whenever you take your bath.”
She then glanced over to the center of the tub where there was a drain before bringing her sight back to Brex as she continued on with saying, “Also, when the bath is done, it would just simply get drained away. So, we wouldn't really have to worry about cleaning up afterwards if there was to be a mess.” When she had finished, she began to lightly lick her lips in a suggestive manner.
All Brex could hear after that, was the subtle sound of his heart beating harder and quicker. It didn't take long until it became similar to a hunting drum being hit repeatedly. His hands lightly gripped onto her waist from the sides and began to lift her several inches. If he had a mirror, he would have been able to see a nearly predatory like expression on his face. Rory seemed rather surprised by the sudden movement, but quickly recovered as she gave him a very hungry, almost a manic grin of anticipation.
It had been months since he and Rory had done anything with Blaze Caster always around. Brex had been trying to keep Rory at bay whenever she tried to pull one of her antics. But right now, he was beginning to feel a rush of all of those times that she had tried to push at his buttons in order to get him to do something to her. He knew that this was all his imagination at work, so he was focusing a lot on not disrupting her form by putting too much pressure and moving his hands through her body.
A sudden low growl escaped his mouth as he opened his lips to show his clenched teeth. This was apparently enough to get Rory to start breathing heavily as her cheeks turned flushed red and her smile grew even wider. A flood of images and thoughts came to mind of things he would do to her if she was only there with him in reality. They would start off with that being on the tender side. But would quickly progress from what would be considered vanilla, to those of being a rougher nature.
Brex did not try in the least to hide these thoughts from Rory and this was evident with her appearing to be panting and more bothered as they evolved. Because of all of this, Brex could feel himself getting worked up to the point that he didn't care about anything anymore, other than doing it with Rory, right then and there.
He looked down in order to see if he could line himself up, to just go straight into Rory who was nodding furiously at that thought. Due to how the water was still soapy and had a small layer of bubbles from him just washing only a short while ago. Brex couldn't see too well so there was no telling just how big his member was down there without first reaching down to feel for it. However, his hands were currently busy and wanting to find out his real length was not exactly on the top of his list right now.
He began to lower Rory who is looking down into the water while biting down on her lower lip. Just as he began to feel the sensation of something touching the tip of his erection. Did he hear a noise coming from the door that was situated right behind him.
As if someone had just dumped an entire bucket's worth of ice down in the front of his pants, The Roegadyn was snapped back to full reality and the image of Rory just blinked out of existence. Right now, he was stuck in position with his hands just barely coming out of the water while outstretched.
As if halfway coming out of a daze, he was essentially paralyzed with not knowing what to do. The sound of the door's hinges lightly squeaking brought him out of his stupor and he quickly reached out with his right hand towards a large white towel that was folded neatly on one of the counters and used his Rescue spell to pull towards himself.
Well, that's what he intended to happen, but at the moment he was not currently one of his healing classes, so that ability was not usable. He had neglected to switch out from his Rogue class and was now scrambling to bring up his character window to switch over to something else.
Unfortunately, he was fumbling too much with his thoughts while in a panic that he was having a hard time with doing anything with his windows, as his thoughts caused the cursor to swing about wildly.
He then heard a feminine voice coming from behind that sounded eerily familiar as it said, “My Lord, are you in need of any assistance?” Brex was positive, he was one hundred percent positive that this came from one of the two maids that were constantly doting on him.
Hearing her voice caused him to completely lock up his body and hold a perfectly still position with him having both of his arms up in a frozen pose as they were in mid flailing.
Inside of his head, Brex was screaming, “WHAT THE FUCK! WHY DID THEY COME IN? DIDN’T FLEUR DE LIS SAY THAT I WAS NOT GOING TO BE SEEN?” He then heard her saying, “My Lord, did you hear me?” Right now, Brex was on the verge of hyperventilating at the thought of being found out. But as soon as he knew who it was that came in, he had instinctually cut off his emotions from no longer being felt.
While trying to keep his voice steady as if nothing was wrong. He began to turn his head to the right, ever so slowly with subtle jerks every few centimeters. Not unlike a gear in a clock slowly turning. Eventually he was able to get out the words, “Everything, is OK.”
By the time he had fully turned enough to get a view of her, he went from a terrified expression to that of confusion when he saw that it was not only her. But the other one as well, standing side-by-side with the door closed behind them.
Instead of wearing their usual maid attire, they were instead in a pair of black bathing suits that left very little to the imagination. The tops could have slipped in either up or down and the nubs underneath would have come into view. The bottom peace’s were practically strings. Because of this, Brex was near the edge of a nose bleed that was threatening to pull off one of those anime moves where he could have been sent flying.
But what really got him to look at more closely, was the fact that they were both wearing blindfolds. While still not lowering his arms, he asked hesitantly, “I have some questions. first is why are you both in the bath while I'm in here? The other question has to do with why you have those outfits along with the blindfolds that you're wearing.”
The one with the dark hair began to nervously move in place as she had her right arm partly covering up the lower section of her breasts, while the other was modestly covering the front of the panties.
During this, she spoke in a submissive tone when she said, “It-It's just that... We felt your arousal earlier and... And we thought that… You might want some, help with it. As for the outfits... Our sister Fleur de Lis mentioned that this would be appropriate when entering the bath to help you. In regards to the blindfolds, it was due to the promise earlier of no pony seeing you while you were bathing.”
It didn't take any time at all for Brex to process everything that had just been said. His eyes went wide and he was frantically trying to keep hold on his hidden emotions from slipping out as his face turned beat red within seconds.
He realized that while in that state with Rory, he had mistakenly lowered his mental defenses and allowed his emotions to come flooding out. This meant that he was giving off the strong feeling of arousal it had literally called out to these two.
He then thought to himself while in a panic, “So that must mean that I... And they... So that must mean? I'm in a house full of emotion sensing girls and they just felt me... Then what do they think about me now? Oh, by the twelve! They must think I'm some sort of an animal. This is just so awkward.”
He then lowered his arms and was about to ask them about just what they felt when his thoughts came to a halt when he caught sight of them both rubbing their thighs together and wearing a set of heavy blushes on their faces, just underneath the blindfolds.
This made it painfully obvious as to what they felt coming from him. It became more apparent when the smells that came from his bathing products was beginning to be overpowered by a familiar sweet aroma.
Closing his eyes for a few seconds, he mustered up the courage to turn back around to face away before saying, “Thank you for your concern. I take it that the both of you picked up on my emotions. Correct?”
He then got an immediate reply from the one with the pig tails when she spoke in a needy voice that was being desperately hidden, but with very little Success. “We both thought that you… Huh... May need an extra set of hands to, umm. Reach the... Hard spots.”
Inside, Brex was nearly brought to the point of being amused at hearing a Changeling who was speaking as if they had never been around a male when he knew that they had actively went out and had fun with both sides of the gender ratio.
He was about to tell them to leave, but Rory quickly spoke up in his head and said, “Master, don't tell me you're about to just tell them to go? At least take them up on their offer to help. Now please, before you say anything, I'm letting you know I'm not talking about getting you off. You still haven't gotten your back. Just ask them to help wash it, they can't see you anyway. Also, this will help you in getting used to being around others while not in a disguise. Think of it as, slowly desensitizing you.”
Brex was literally a fraction of a second from imagining Rory dropping into a deep, dark pit for a while, just as he heard one of the maids speaking up in a tone that made him think that she was on the verge of crying. “Sister the Lord doesn't wish for our help, we should, we should just go. Please accept our apologies for coming in unannounced.”
After hearing that, Brex began to feel a pit in his stomach and he halted in mid image of Rory falling. After letting out a very small sigh, he lowered his head a little and spoke in a gentle voice as he said, “It's quite alright. If it is all the same to you, I... Do require some assistance in washing my back, that's all I have left to do.”
He could have sworn that he heard Rory deep in his head letting out a few loud claps of excitement and the sounds of her jumping in place as her boots landed on some surface to produce an echoing sound. No doubt from the wooden floors in his mentally constructed house.
Brex was worried that he may have still messed up, but stop to those thoughts when he heard them approaching from behind. Somehow, even without Rory’s situational awareness being turned on, he could tell that they were right behind him and had kneeled down to sit on their knees. After some maneuvering, Brex handed them both one of the sponges lining the edge of the tub and instructed them to proceed.
As soon as they began to make contact with his back, did his senses start to scream that he needed to get out of there. But he fought those urges. It wasn't the fact that he had two beautiful ladies washing his back to be the problem. It was simply because he was without any type of covering and had literally put himself in an exposed situation that he had been trying to avoid at pretty much all costs since the beginning of his arrival.
His entire body was in essence, trembling no matter how hard he was fighting it. But it seemed that the maids were having issues of their own, which was preventing them from noticing it. He only knew this due to how they were heavily panting while shifting around on the spot as they worked on his large back with the set of sponges. This only made things a little more difficult on his end, as he was beginning to get a little stimulated down below thanks to their gentle touches.
He just knew that if anything happened at all, no matter how small it was, he wouldn't have been able to control his body in just throwing these two off and making a break for the front door. Months of keeping himself at arm's length have been ingrained into his psyche. So, at this very moment, he was fighting those reflexes.
Rex's eyes were staring straight ahead at the far wall with a nearly blank expression. Inside his mind, he kept repeating the following thoughts, “It's fine. They're only washing my back. They can't see me. They can't see me.”
During this time, Rory was attempting to whisper encouraging and calming words to him in order to calm down, even if it was just a little. She reminded him about how they shared a bed that very night and this shouldn't be any different. Unfortunately, she didn't get a direct response from him as she continued to hear him repeating the previous thoughts over and over again, in what seemed like an endless loop.
To Brex, this entire ordeal was going on for what seemed like ours in his head. But in reality, it only took just over a minute before one of them had informed him that they had finished.
From the feel of things, they were taking their time and making sure to get his whole back, which was quite larger than an average stallion's. After peeking over his shoulder to make sure that they still had their blindfolds on, which they did. He said to them, “Thank you for helping me. I am going to get dressed now, so please wait till I leave before you take those blindfolds off.” Thankfully, there was no other words exchanged other than them both simply nodding.
It literally didn't take him any time at all. For as soon as he got out of the tub, did his body begin to dry almost immediately. This was another gaming mechanic where, as soon as he got out of any body of water, he would begin to dry off within seconds. As soon as that was done, Brex went into his character window and re-equipped his Mysterious Butler attire and switched over to his Monk class for now, seeing as he would need its new passive ability to calm himself After going through all of that.
The instant he did that, did all the anxiety from earlier vanish with hardly any trace. Now thinking clearly, he went over to the door of the bathroom and just as he was about to grab onto the handle to exit. He turns towards the two that were still knelt down on the floor and said, “Could you please come to my room tonight. I would like to discuss with you both about what happened this morning. After hearing them both reply with a set of yes’s in unison, did he leave.
Brex had just gone around the bend that would lead him towards his room, when he nearly bumped into Fleur De Lis. Who was standing in the middle of the hallway. She had just let out a small startled welp and staggered back a few feet. As soon as her eyes met his, did she adopt a wide-eyed expression that could have been seen coming from a small child who had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
While giving him a crooked smile that was threatening to leave her face, Fleur De Lis waved with her left hand sheepishly before turning on the spot and running at high speeds down the hallway until she disappeared around the nearby corner. During all of this, Brex was watching her from behind his mask with a very, unamused, flat expression. He then thought, “Rory, you know what I said about thinking that she's kind of like what a sister would be?”
Rory heard this and replied with a sing song voice that just had a hint of mischievousness behind it as she said, “Hmm-mmm, Master I believe I remember you thinking that while out today. Why do you ask?” Brex then answered her while using a emotionless tone as he said, “I think she just tried to prank me?” He then released a small sigh as he continued with, “She has no idea why it is, that I don't show my face. If she did, then I doubt she would have done that.”
He then brought his right hand and cupped his mask as if he was about to remove it. But instead, he carefully grasped it in his fingertips as he squeezed on it a little. He then went on to think, “I have no idea when I'll be able to show my face. As far as things are going right now, I can't afford to cause a panic with revealing my true identity. I nearly freaked out when those maids came in the bath. Rory, what do you think I should have done if they had seen the real me?”
There was a short pause before Rory replied with a serious tone in her voice as she said, “Master, I really don't think it's healthy for you to be beating yourself up over this. I won't tell you to just show your face and get it over with. But you do have that one thing that you've neglected to use. If they had seen you, then you could have just forced them into-.”
Rory was unable to finish that sentence when Brex threw down his hand from his face and exclaimed in his head, “Force them into what?! Just because they're sent in on someone else's orders when they're only trying to help. You expect me to use that on them?! I told you before, if I start using it, even once, then the odds of me using it again will only skyrocket! Having that kind of power is addictive. I've seen it in so many stories where the hero does something and can't bring himself to stop because it's so convenient!”
Rory then replied by saying, “Master, are you telling me that if they did see you, then you wouldn't have used it?” Brex stumbled in his thoughts for a moment before he said, “No! I-I mean yes. I mean… It wasn't their fault, even if they did see me. It doesn't give me the right to use it on them like that when they were the ones that were sent in by Fleur De Lis.”
To this, Rory quickly replied with, “Then are you saying that the one responsible would be the one that gets punished? By that logic, then you would have to end up using it on Fleur De Lis instead.
Brex was obviously pushed into a corner with how Rory was able to pick up on what he was saying and turning it on him. Just thinking of robbing any of those within this very house of their freedom, was something he couldn't bring himself to even consider doing. They were the only ones in this world that he knew that treated him so well. Even though he has yet to expose his true identity they, trust him well enough to allow him to come and go as he pleases.
Brex then shouted loudly in his head out of frustration, “I DON’T EVER WANT TO DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT TO ANY OF THEM! IF THEY EVER FOUND OUT ABOUT MY IDENTITY ON ACCIDENT, THEN I WOULD SO RATHER LEAVE EQUESTRIA AND ISOLATE MYSELF FOR ALL TIME IN SOME REMOTE LOCATION INSTEAD!!!”
Rory was obviously taken aback by the sudden internal shouting. But instead of retreating, she gently said, “I'm sorry if I made you angry Master. It's just a suggestion is all. We did talk about it before and using it to keep secrets, was something that we agreed on. I suppose it's one thing if it's a complete stranger. Using it on those that you know, especially those that are trying to take care of you, would no doubt cause you stress and hesitation. I'm sure that whoever you intend to use that skill on for the first time, will be something that you want to do.”
As soon as Rory had finished, Brex felt like a complete ass and spoke to Rory with a defeated tone. “I apologize for yelling. I… Don't know what it is, but I think it stems from me not being in control. I can see myself in other shoes, and taking away their freedom just doesn't sit too well with me. It would be one thing if they had done something that deserved it but... Just to protect my privacy is not enough for me to do that to those that have earned my trust.”
With that, their little discussion came to an end and Brex made his way back to his room. While inside, he started on keeping himself busy until the maids came by later that evening. Brex went into his item box and began to peruse his collection of potions. By doing this, he recalled that he was in desperate need of some mana potions before and went to start on making more.
After switching over to his alchemist job, Brex went into his windows and brought up the list of items to make while in this class. After a bit of clicking here and there, he finally came across the potion section and began to create more. Since he didn't have access to any materials to use out in the world such as beakers and other types of grinding tools.
Brex went ahead and knelt down. When he did this, a weird type of mechanism appeared before him that came up just past his knee and height, with an air pump on one side and some valves situated in different areas of a large container.
( Here is a picture of the Alchemist tool. )
As an added surprise, another item appeared next to that, which was a small table with a stone wheel meant to crush herbs that was set up neatly for immediate use. There was even, what appeared to be a few metal flask with a valve on top, in which to hold alchemic brews before they were cooled, seeing as there was a weird type of temperature gauge on the top.
( Here is the picture of the Grinding tools and containers. )
All the other times that he had gone and started to make something while in this class, had only produced one of the needed items depending on what he was making. He began to wonder if this was some type of a glitch. So, after poking around at both of the objects for a few minutes, he found that there was nothing out of the ordinary.
After giving it a shrug, Brex went back to his list and selected the mana potion. As soon as he selected the synthesizing option. He found himself pretty much on auto pilot as he started to produce one after another. Back in the game he would simply use one of these large tools but it appeared that this time around he was alternating between them both. After he ground up the necessary ingredients with the wheel, he immediately added them to the large pot and began fiddling with the valves and pressure gauges.
He wasn't all that troubled about using the materials, seeing as he had so much in this supply. If anyone was to ask how much he had, then Brex would have replied by saying that he had enough to fill a large warehouse if he had dumped it all out.
Whenever he had finished one batch, he would pour it into one of the metal containers and watched as the thermometer showed it to have cooled to a stable level in poured it straight into a glass vile to be used later on. Even though it was showing him to be doing more than what was shown while in the game, Brex was still producing them at a speed that would make any medical professional spin their heads.
So, after a good hour had passed, Brex had produced nearly six hundred potions of varying classes. About half were considered low grade. While the other half was divided into medium and high-grade mana potions. With being so engrossed in his activity, he had neglected in putting them straight into his item box and had just placed the bottle wherever he found an open spot before going back to work on the next. A few had even had to find a place on the floor nearby.
When he had finally finished and looked around, he was slightly surprised by the way his room looked as if it was covered in nothing but blue, aside from the walls and ceilings with how every flat surface was covered was by many little blue bottles. He had blinked and thought quickly about where those glass bottles had come from, but was thankful he didn't have to worry about making those ahead of time and they just came whenever he made a potion.
He had dismissed the Items needed and they disappeared into nothing. Just as he was about to reach for one of the bottles to begin putting them into his item box, did he hear a small knock coming from the door. He then heard one of the maids calling out to him from beyond the wooden door as she said, “My Lord, we have come as you requested. Please pardon our intrusion.”
He saw that the door handle was already halfway turning and his eyes shot open as he realized that when he had switched over to his alchemy job, his head was completely exposed and he was wearing a set of glasses that had attachments to add more lenses has to zoom in on things.
( Here is a picture of Crafting outfit here. )
So, in a frantic panic, he brought up his character window. Unfortunately, with so little time and being in such a rush, he had missed the monk icon that he had wanted and had gone back to his rogue instead.
His entire outfit had gone away in a flash and was replaced with his usual Mysterious Butler attire. Just then, the door was swung open and the pair of maids from before stepped in. They only taken a half of a step beyond the door frame when they came to halt and stared wide eyed at all the blue potion bottles littering the room.
Seeing their expressions caused Brex to think, “I might need to tone it down with what I do around them. That really can't be good for their eyes to do that so often.” When he was done with that thought, he motioned with his hand for them to enter.
They both blinked a few times before doing what was silently asked and fully close the door. It was the silver haired one that spoke while eyeing all of the bottles as she asked, “My Lord, just what is all of this?”
He was about to come out and just say that they were mana potions. But stopped with that thought when he recalled what he had done when giving that health potion to that one young changeling. However, he wasn't going to be able downplay that he didn't have much when it came to this stuff. So, from behind his mask, Brex was sweating up bullets while darting his eyes around for some clue to somehow mysteriously guide him in what he should be saying next.
After a few seconds, he finally relented and decided to just come out with it. After all, he shared so much with them already, this much should be fine. Well, that's what ran through his head anyway.
Brex kneeled down and grabbed on to one of the weaker versions of his potions, which had golden colored metal band encircling the mouth of a long, thin glass vial with a cork firmly in place to hold the liquid inside.
The inside was comprised of a liquid that was blue and color and was giving off a very faint glow with no more than two ounces of the liquid inside. At a cursory glance, they all appear to be exactly identical, with the only discernible appearances that was changing among them, was the number of rings at the top of the container. One ring, being the low grade, while three rings meant that it was the max grade.
He went over and carefully handed the one ring vial over to the silver haired maid. Who graciously took it and began to hold it above her head while examining the liquid as it sloshed around inside of the clear glass container. While this was happening, the other maid it was apparently taking stock in just how many there were all around, with a clear look of disbelief in what she was seeing.
Going back to putting away the bottles and having his back towards them. Brex replied to their earlier question with saying, “These are called mana potions. I know that you all don't have this here in your lands, but it is quite common from where I came from.”
While Brex was pretty much a third of the way done. He heard the one that was playing around with the potion in hand saying, “I don't know what that is. This mana, is new to me. What exactly does it do?”
Brex had just picked up another one off of the floor when he answered in a tone that just made them sound uninteresting as he said, “If you start to run low on magic, just drink one of those and you'll recover a portion of it, if not all. It depends on how much you have as a whole and the grade of the potion that is consumed.” He was about to say more when he began to hear the two behind letting out a sudden gasp.
At this point, he was pretty much over the whole, surprising them thing for right now and was now rolling his eyes. He knew about their society having medicine which helps with Unicorns when they have magic exhaustion, so this was just a better version of it if one thought about it. what they had out now, merely assisted in one’s natural recovery rate.
He had just finished putting everything away after a few more moments of silence and turn to look at the maids. Only to find them doing something very odd, while inching their way over to one of the tables.
Apparently, the silver haired one was shaking like a leaf while carefully coddling the vial that was within her palms as if it was a snowflake. As for the dark-haired maid, she was constantly hovering around the other one as she was giving words of encouragement as to be careful.
With the way that the maids were acting around this one vile, Brex couldn’t help but see them as a pair of scientists handling an extremely volatile substance. The image of one of them holding a pair of long metal tongs with a nuclear substance at the end, came to his mind.
He just stood there a few feet away and watched the spectacle with his arms crossed, along with a small smile creeping onto his lips. By the time they had finally made it to the table, a good eleven seconds had passed. If they had been walking normally, it would have taken less than a few to make the distance.
They apparently were trying to come up with a way to put it down, without so much as jostling the liquid inside. When they had finally gotten to putting it down with a small clank, they finally let out a pair of relieved sighs.
Brex then gave a light cough as to get their attention and when they turned to him, he pointed towards the vial on the table and asked, “Mind explaining your reactions?”
The both of them suddenly got into an attention posture while side-by-side. Their eyes were fixed straight ahead and unblinking while showing expressions that he quickly identified as intense fear. Upon seeing this, Brex was fearful that he had done something horrible.
He was about to say something when he finally got a response from them both as they began to shake in place. The silver haired one began to speak in a stuttering voice as she said, “I-I I'm sorry! I'm so sorry. I missed handled such a precious object. I'm so sorry… P-Please don't be mad.”
Brex was just about to open his mouth to tell her that he wasn't mad, but the other one quickly spoke up in her defense and said, “Please my Lord, if you have to be mad at any pony, be mad at me. I'm the older one, I should have stopped her when she started to play with it!”
At this point, they both had closed their eyes tightly and were apparently awaiting a harsh punishment to be delivered by him. Brex just remained there dumbfounded as he was watching what was happening before him. He then thought to himself, “Seriously? Do they really think I'm gonna punish them for something that I just handed over? Also, what's with those reactions?”
He then went back into his memories and recalled the reactions he had gotten from Swirl Sugar when he had used that health potion on that wound on her head. From that, he got a pretty good idea that these two were acting this way because of its effectiveness.
After letting out a small sigh, Brex approached them both. He was about to do that thing with placing his hand on their heads, just like he does with Blaze Caster when he does something wrong to assure them that things were alright.
But as soon as his hands came into contact with their heads, did they both start to shake even more while letting out a constant stream of whimpers.
Inside his head, Brex was shocked at the reaction. This had the complete opposite effect of what he had intended. He couldn't even bring himself to move his hands out of fear of causing them to be more terrified of him.
Seeing this, was causing a swell of emotions to bubble up within and a small amount of moisture to build-up within his eyes, as he was on the verge of releasing a tear. Brex slowly began to think the following. “Just why are they so scared of me? Could it be that they've been scared of me this entire time? Is that why I've been treated so well? Then, calling me Lord. All of the attending to my needs... Even them coming to my room last night? Was all of this done just to make sure I don't get angry with them?”
There was this sudden sinking feeling that was forming in his chest. This was the last thing he wanted. It all made perfect sense to him now thanks to his current mindset. Brex was sure this was because he shared too much about himself. That he had gotten too close to them. This was nothing but the early signs of the point where a displaced in one of their stories, where everything would be turned upside down and they would be hunted down.
He had finally started to slowly backup and had lifted his hands off of their heads. Just as he had gotten maybe a step or two back, did the pair of maid’s eyes suddenly shoot open and were now staring straight at him.
Brex was beginning to be overcome with the urge to want to make a break for it and run as fast and as long as he possibly could. He had no doubt that, along with his nearly endless amount of stamina, he could very well get to the other side of the world without stopping with the way he was feeling right now. He didn't know why, but seeing those two being so terrified of him for something that he didn't even do, was resonating throughout his body.
From deep within his mind, he began to hear an odd sound that was beginning to grow in volume. Because of this, his vision was beginning to darken and he couldn't help but to look straight ahead past the maids with a blank expression and unfocused eyes. He was almost sure that he could start to hear Rory’s voice, but it was beginning to fade, and fast.
The unknown sound that was growing, was beginning to become clearer as Brex could make out a voice. Soon it was accompanied by many more of different pitches. Soon it became a group that was spouting pretty much the same thing over and over again, in angry accusatory tones. They would repeat things such as, “You're a monster! I should have known. Oh, I knew from the starts. You deserve to die. How could you! Just kill him already!”
Each thing that was said, was obviously from a different person. Within seconds, Brex was beginning to copy what they are saying over and over in his own voice while within his mind. It didn't take long until he himself was beginning to believe their words.
He was just on the edge of losing all of his vision when he suddenly felt that he was being tackled. Whatever it was, he didn't care anymore. He didn't feel the need to fight back. He didn't see the point in doing so. Whatever happens now, he must have had it coming. Those were his thoughts right now.
Oddly enough, whatever had collided with him wasn't enough to send him falling and the voices that were taunting him, were beginning to fade almost as quickly as they came. The next thing he noticed, was how his vision was slowly returning to expose a faintly lit room, to which he quickly recognized as the guest room inside of the Fancy Pants Manor.
The next thing to catch's attention, was how he was feeling the sensation of something wrapping around his waist. This caused him to slowly lower his head to look down and what he saw were both of the maids. They were both clutching at him while burying their faces into his jacket. They were apparently crying as he can tell by the moistness building up through his clothing.
While still having a hard time with coming to forming coherent thoughts. He slowly asked Rory within his head, “What... Happened?” This earned him a relieved sigh from Rory as she answered by saying, “You had another one of your panic attacks. I don't know what it was, but this is the worst I've seen. Even back with the princess showing up while we were in her room wasn't anywhere near this severe.”
Brex shakily spoken his mind as he said in a very slow and scared tone. “Rory.... I-I think I may have done something in my past life, that was very bad... I might have been a bad person...” Just thinking those words was beginning to make him more emotional. At the same time, the two that were holding him had started to tighten their hold in response.
Rory then spoke up and said, “Master, you need to breathe and calm down, it's OK. You're not a bad person. Also, you need to bring back up your emotional wall. Everything is laid out for them, so you need to bring it up again.” Seeing as this was something that Rory was very insistent on. Brex went ahead and focused on the task to get his mind off of what he was feeling.
Soon, he heard Rory speaking up again as she said, “OK. That’s good, just a little more. And… that's enough, hold it right there. You don't want to go too far.” To which he complied. If it wasn't for Rory giving him advice and guiding him along, he would have gone too far with cutting off his emotions and became a blank slate with no emotions at all with the way he was going.
It had taken him a few minutes of slow breathing to finally bring himself back to a more manageable state to witch he could even put together thoughts. During all of this, the ones that were holding on to his waistline had not let go, for even for a second. They hadn’t even uttered a single word through the event.
Brex had his eyes closed as he spoke to Rory within his mind in a tired tone. “I think I'm doing better now. For some reason, my anxiety is leaving me a whole lot quicker than the previous times. To this, Rory replied with saying, “I wish I could take the credit. But it would seem you have them to thank for bringing you out of it. I don't believe that you're in a state to feel it, but they've been pouring magic into you from the moment they grabbed on. From the looks of things, it’s having a positive effect on your emotions.”
He then opened his eyes again and tilted his head down to look at the maids. From what he could see, they had their faces buried in his coat while tightly grasping onto the clothing with their balled-up hands.
After thinking about what Rory had just said about them giving magic. He brought up their status bars and saw how they both had an icon next to their names that he hadn’t seen before. It depicted two stick figures holding hands, with a green background.
When he went to closely examine what it was called. It brought up the name of effect being called, Soothing link. Apparently, they both had this effect happening next to their names and it was obvious to Brex that they were both using it on him.
Judging from what it was called, he didn't think it was something that would be harmful. But just to be on the safe side. Brex quickly brought up heaven's computer and went to the section that displayed the Changelings. From there, it showed a list of abilities and the one that they were currently using had just been right there at the bottom of the list. What got his attention about it, was how there was a star icon next to it to show that it was something newly added.
He quickly asked Rory, “Huh? Hold on, if I'm reading this correctly, then this means that they just learn the skill. Give me a sec, let me see what it does.” From there, he clicked on it and it began to show a row of texts.
Changeling exclusive skill. Soothing link, this is a previously unknown skill that is capable of fundamentally linking the Changeling to an intended target to share their emotions and energy in order to assist in the physical and/or mental recovery. The effects and strength vary depending on how familiar the user and the target are to one another. The deeper the feel
Warning, this skill is not recommended to use on an unwilling target. Attempting to do so will have negative effects on the caster.
After reading this, Brex closed the window and dismissed the status bars from view. He was just about to say something when he felt their grip suddenly becoming weaker until their hands released his clothing and they began to fall. But before they could hit the ground, he had reached down and caught them both in his arms.
Letting out a relieve sigh, the Roegadyn shifted his hold and carefully brought them over to the bed and laid them down so their heads were now resting on the fluffy pillows. From what he could tell, they were breathing normally but were out like a light. Rory then spoke in a concerned tone, “Master, do you want to fill me in on just what you're going through? You started to freak out and it seemed as if you weren't hearing me at all. When I tried to use your imagination to interact with you, I wasn't able to form any type of image.”
He stayed silent for a few seconds as he continued to watch over the maids. After finding a chair at the one desk in the room, Brex went over and sat down in it. He then crossed his arms and laid his head in them as he silently began to weep on the wooden surface.
Rory had used the door and came out into the world and was now laying her right hand on to his left shoulder in a calming fashion. While at the same time, remaining silent and patiently waiting. After several minutes had passed with Brex causing his body to convulse with each shudder, did he finally bring himself to begin talking to Rory in his head.
While using an extremely depressed inner voice. He began to say, “I could hear them. There were a bunch of different people screaming at me. Honestly, I don't know why. All I know is, this was not a part of my imagination. It had to have been something from my previous life.”
“Rory… from what they were saying, I must have done something really bad, something that deserved being outright told to die. From what I can tell, most of them seem to sound as if they were from people around the age of twenty. There were even a few that sounded as if they were from the elderly.”
He began to shudder again as his voice began to sound more panicked as he continued on. “Rory, what if I was a psychopath in my past life. I might have killed someone. Was I on the run? Or was I killed and sent here after doing the deed? Whoever it was that sent me to this world… They made a mistake!”
He then pulled his head out of his arms and gripped on to both sides of his head as he stared blankly ahead at the empty wall before him. Brex then continued to say, “If this is meant to be a form of torture for something I've done, then it hasn't been doing its job. Everything I've done so far seems to be running smoothly, so that can't be the case. Sure, I was killed once, but I still came back.”
As soon as he had finished that sentence, he quickly twisted his head to look straight at the imaginary image of Rory before he began to speak in a more frantic tone. “Rory, what if somebody else was meant to come here? What if I cheated somebody else out of a better life? What if you were meant to be with... a… another person?”
Those last few words had really struck Brex as he really did begin to believe the nonsense that was coming out. While turn sideways on his chair, Brex was now hunching over while holding his masked face with both hands.
While on the verge of crying again, he began to think further on how things might have been better if he had allowed himself to be discovered in the past and turned to stone like so many others have. He then moved a few of the fingers on his left hand to allow himself to peak through and look at the two on his bed.
Brex then started to think, “It's because of me that they're like that right now. If I wasn't here then... Then they-.” Brex couldn't even finish that thought when he felt Rory tackling him into a tight hug as she herself was beginning to cry with her face close to his.
Through sobs of her own, Rory began to speak with her tone being that of a mix of anger and sorrow. “MASTER! PLEASE! Don't let me hear you say something like that again. I don't know what it is, but I don’t think that you are a bad person. No! I know! that you're not a bad person. Would a bad person go around helping those that they can't even fully trust enough to show his own face?”
“Would a bad person help the Changelings and show them a better life. Do you really think a bad person would have simply just knocked them all out, instead of just out like killing them when they had a chance on that night?”
“Do you think a bad person would be eaten up about their first kill? Even if the one that they ended up taking out, was a really bad pony who did horrific things? Would a bad person hold themselves for an imaginary girl like me, instead of having fun with the many available partners that have obviously been showing signs of interest? Do you really think that those girls over there are better off without you ever showing up?”
“Right now, they're resting, but what they did was completely up to them. All they wanted to do was help you when they obviously sensed that something was really wrong! They don't have to scrounge around and do what the rest of their kind have been doing anymore. Fleur de Lis’s family was on the edge of dying from starvation due to that one that took control. Also, you could have killed that Changeling out of anger, but cared more about doing something horrible in front of a little girl.”
She then tightened her grip, which surprised Brex with how real it felt as she began to slowly whisper to the spot on his head where his ear should be right underneath the hood. “I told you before that I'm with you no matter what you decide to do. However, I will not tolerate my Master to demean himself in such a way.”
Afterward, she remained silent and just held onto Brex as he just sat there in silence. The words that Rory had used, were echoing in his mind as he replayed them over and over again. Even though he was still fully believing what he had previously thought. Deep down, he knew what she was saying was the truth and it was beginning to slowly take hold.
He didn't know how long had passed. By the time he had opened his eyes again, he looked to see that the light shining through the window had nearly crossed all the way over to the other side of the room. That was when he glanced up at the clock in his view and saw that it was already getting close to two-thirty in the morning. What surprise him the most, was how Rory had not left aside even once and was still holding onto him as tightly as she could without a real form to do so.
While trying to give a playful tone to his inner voice. He said, “Rory aren't you ashamed to have a push over like me as a Master?” This earned him a somewhat tired giggle from the girl as she replied with, “To tell you the truth, I'm all for you being strong and everything. I want to see you be more confident. But at the same time, it relieves me to know that you have a caring heart. Now, how about you go to bed, you must be exhausted after going through all of that.”
Brex had thought about it, but shook his head immediately when he answered with. “No, I'm fine. I think I might step out for a stroll. You know, for a little fresh air.” That was when he brought up his windows and selected his dragoon soul stone. He had yet to come up with any uses for this class, so he had neglected in glamouring any of its gear to look less threatening.
( Here are picture's of the Dragoon Gear. )
So, right now he was wearing a very imposing set of armor that made him resemble a dragon. Especially when it came to the helmet itself. Rory had immediately asked in a confused tone, “Why are you using this one? Also, doesn't wielding a big Lance like that tend to draw a lot of eyes if you were to go out in the city, especially at this time of night?”
Brex only shook his helmeted head that made a few small clanks when he did so. He then answered with saying, “No, I think I'm gonna go into the Everfree woods. It'll do me some good to run around and stretch my legs a bit. Maybe doing some practice swings and the gorge or some out of the way spot will help me in clearing my head. I don't know why, but not doing anything seems to make me feel all cooped up.”
Rory only gave a small shrug as she relented. She then pointed towards the bed and said, “Well? What are you going to do about them? I'm sure they’ll freak out if you don't return by the time they wake up.” About halfway through, Brex was already at the table with the office supplies and was now writing a short note that said, he was going out and to get a good night's sleep and not wait for him.
After he'd put the finishing touches on the letter, he placed it on the nightstand next to the bed and stepped into one of the large shadows being cast on the corner of the room.
When Brex had exited the other side of the shadow realm, he found himself in the middle of the Everfree forest, near the old castle. From where he stood, it was in plain view, just off to the East. Perhaps within fifteen minutes of walking would reach it. But instead, his destination was nearby a spot with a large clearing for him to swing his long lance around.
When he had found it, the moon was a good two thirds of the way in completing its crossing of the sky. The space in which he stood, was a good forty meters wide. In the middle, was just a single, large tree in the center that could have been as tall of Fancy Pants’s house.
As he was taking in the sights, he began to remember his first day when coming into this new world. The clearing that he had appeared from, was no different from this one, aside from the tree. The wind was softly blowing there was a nice, gentle chill in the air.
Brex expanded his mini map and turned back on, Rory’s Situational Awareness once again. He may be strong in all when it came to the standards, but he was not stupid enough to be out here without some foreseeable warning as to danger approaching.
He then took a ready stance with his lance in hand pointing straight ahead and his body shifted sideways. After closing his eyes for a few seconds, he opened them and began his series of movements. There were many thrusting motions that transition to a low sweep.
Then he would twirl the lance around a few times behind his back, before unleashing a powerful thrust forward. He would continue this last set with the attack being launched at different points of the spin. Brex was trying to get into the motions of being able to launch any type of counter offensive, no matter what position his weapon was in at any given time.
After several minutes, he began going into some even wider sweeps with his weapon. This would transform to him doing some backflips and landing on either the sharp end, or the blunt end. While taking a hanging pose as he used it to balance on. This would then be when the Dragoon would launch himself from there and land with a powerful, downward piercing attack to the ground.
At one point, there was a heavy gust which launched a wave of loose leaves that were coming off of the trees nearby, along with those from the ground. Seeing this, he took it as an opportunity and began to unleash a flurry of attacks with his lance.
With the sounds of swishing and slicing filling the air. Brex would stab and cleanly cleave every one of the leaves as they tried to pass by. Some would be hit with the full force, while others were merely taken out along with others in one sweep. Even though he himself had never really done such a thing that he knew of, the Soul Stone, along with the adapted memories that Rory gave him, had essentially transformed him into a seasoned master when it came to the weapon that came with the stone.
But the time he had taken at least his thirtieth leaf, he was taking a second to catch his breath. Although he wasn't tired and really didn't need to, it was more of an instinctual reaction to doing something at high speeds.
After doing the initial warm up exercises. He was about to start practicing his weapon skills when he began to sense something off about where he was. His mini map didn't pick up any life signs nearby, but his situational awareness was giving something else. Unlike all the other times it would tip him off, this one was very subtle. If he had been in the middle of doing one of his weapons skills, he may not have even picked it up.
Swinging his lance until it was pointed perpendicular to the ground on his left side, behind his back. He took on a waiting stance with his legs partially spread in order to react to a sudden attack. Still not knowing where this odd sensation was being eliminated from, the Roegadyn narrowed his eyes as he shifted his gaze across the open area.
Inside, he was cautiously asking Rory, “Say, am I just being overly paranoid, or is there something going on? I never had a reaction like this from your senses before. It's almost identical to what happened with the elementals, but this time I'm feeling this sensation that I'm being watched. It's coming from all directions. Yet, at the same time, I just know it's coming from a single target.”
Rory then answered in a hushed tone as she said, “You better be on your guard Master. I can't pin it down either, whatever it is, it's dangerous.” This only cemented Rex’s thoughts on the situation. Rory had never been this cautious before.
Several seconds turned into minutes, then nearly half an hour. To which Brex was standing in place as a statue. It didn't matter if it was caused by the wind or the rustle of a random woodland creature stirring, but he did not move even an inch. The feeling that he was getting through Rory’s situational awareness had not faded at the least. In fact, it was getting suddenly stronger to indicate that whoever was watching him, was coming closer.
From under his helmet, Brex could feel the hairs standing up on the back of his neck. His palms began to feel sweaty and moist from within his gloves as they tightened around his weapon. Brex and Rory had not exchanged a single word during this time out of fear of missing that crucial opening.
Even though nothing had been going on in this quiet clearing, it was obvious to him that this was already a battlefield. This meant that the first one to lose their focus, was obviously going to be taken down.
Off in the distance, there was the sound of a howling pack of Timberwolves that echoed through the cool night air and being carried by the wind. Somehow, the forest itself was becoming darker and more foreboding than usual. Brex began to feel the sensation of something breathing onto the back of his neck, but knew it was just as imagination playing with him with how long he had been there for.
There was then the sound of a branch breaking just off to the South. When he slightly turned his head barely a hair in that direction, did he hear something else coming from the opposite direction, towards the North. The second sound was emanating a low whistle, along with a weird hum as it traveled through the dense trees.
He was so fixated on it, that he failed to notice another sound that had just been produced that was coming from were the first came from. By the time he realized it, his senses were pretty much screaming bloody murder, that he needed to move to the left or right, or his life would be at risk.
He was about to jump to the right, but his instincts caused him to jump left instead at the very last instant. When he had done this, a figure landed where he was about to go and had a long, thin object that was coming out of their sleeves already embedded itself into the ground. Whoever it was, raised their other arm and pointed it towards him. Without so much as turning their hood in his direction, caught something that was whizzing by.
Brex couldn't tell exactly what type of weapon was first shown, but this one that was just caught, appeared to be a large ring, with four points sticking out at even spacings on the outer edge. The object itself appeared to be easily four to five inches thick, while the center had a gap that was nearly a full meter wide. It looked like a black, demonic looking Hula-Hoop with spikes.
The figure was holding perfectly still in their current pose, while there were some falling trees off in the distance that indicated where the weapon had been previously coming in from. Brex knew that since he didn't hear anything being bashed apart, meant that the weapon itself was not meant for bludgeoning, but more for slicing through whatever was in its path.
Brex already had his lance’s tip pointed towards the ground, the edge of the bladed end only being a few inches from touching the dirt. Trying to get any type of info on his attacker, Brex brought up the status bar and had to prevent himself from blinking in shock when he couldn't get any information on this attacker. Both the name and level had question marks all over.
In his head. He carefully thought, “Well, this is something new. The only time this ever happened was in the game, when you had to go on a quest to keep an Non-player character from being hurt or going up against an enemy that was a far higher level than the player.”
While he could, he tried to examine whoever this was in the moonlight. They appear to have a slim build and might have stood up to five feet tall. The robes themselves appear to be jet black, with no discernible markings. The hands that were exposed from the wide-open sleeves were wearing gloves that appeared to be of cloth.
However, on the tips of the fingers were apparently metal claws that were sewn into the fabric. But what drew his attention instantly, was how the figure turned their head towards him and exposed a black mask that was covering the upper part of their face and a veil that was obscuring the rest of the face underneath.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 35: A Night to Remember.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Everfree Forest* *Time: Around three in the morning*
When last left off. Brex was in the middle of a late-night training session in the woods, when a mysterious, cloaked stranger appeared after launching a surprise sneak attack. Right now, they were currently in a standoff with neither one moving after the assailant had caught their airborne weapon.
The subtle noises of the woods were now long gone and replaced by the thumping within the Roegadyn’s chest as he evaluated his opponent. Rory whispered within his mind by saying, “Master… I can see her right there but-.” Brex finished her sentence by saying, “She's not registering on your senses fully… Yeah, it's as if, she's here and at the same time, not here. I don't know about you, but I don't think she's an illusion.”
Rory then spoke up as she asked, “Master, I had no idea that you had already figured it out. What gave it away?” Brex wasn't sure if that was a real question or if Rory was being sarcastic, but replied anyway. “It's obviously the body movement. Also, there's the framework. I might be oblivious to a lot of things, but I know when I see a female.”
“Besides, I hate to say it, but the males of this world are nowhere near good enough to do what she does. If I didn't allow my instincts to take over, then I would've stepped right in the path of that strike of hers. Now, if I'd simply turned around to defend myself, I would have been taken out by that throwing weapon of hers.”
“Now judging from the way that outfit is hugging her form. I really doubt that there's a pair of wings under those robes. I don't see anything that would give away there being a horn underneath the hood either. Odds are, she's an earth pony.”
He was about to go on with his internal chat with Rory when it seemed that his dance partner had become rather impatient. They had taken on a different stance by shifting their right foot to be in front and had brought up their other weapon in the full view. Which was a one and a half foot Long, black dagger. Starting from the handle, it got wider and quickly sharpened to a point as it went out past a few Inches from the handle. In a way, it was similar to an oversized kunai used by ninjas.
What caught Brex's attention, was how they had positioned their body to have most of their body weight on their back leg while the front was on its tip. The dagger was pointing straight at him while the second weapon was held directly behind her form in a slanting fashion.
Obviously seeing that this was a form of ready stance. Brex returned the favor by shifting his body into a more stable stance. Not wanting to be obvious, he took on a position where he himself was on his left foot. While his other foot was just barely having its heel off the ground next to it.
His left arm was out down to his side, with his palm facing towards his opponent. While the right arm, that was holding on to the spear, had it gripped in the center and the tip was pointed towards the ground, away from his body horizontally.
Ordinarily, this would be a bad posture as it would force the user to put too much strain on their hand and wrist to make an effective counter attack. But he had done this so that no matter what angle she came from, he could adjust his body so that a part of him would be making contact with the pole. This would in turn, cause his spear to react with enough force and speed to counter what was to come.
Brex had hoped that this odd stance would throw off his opponent into letting down their guard. Any who had received training would be able to tell that Brex was in an advantageous position and his pole-arm was not primed for rapid movement and pinpoint accuracy with the way he was holding it. Which was exactly what he wanted his opponent to think.
Seemingly taken aback by his actions. His attacker shifted their stance again until they were nearly crouching low to the ground. When Brex saw this, he thought to himself quickly, “This one seems rather experienced. If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were trying to use their size difference as an advantage against my larger build. Rory, is it weird that I'm strangely excited about this?”
Rory quickly replied with a quick, “It might be due to the fact that this would be the only opponent you've gone against that actually shows that they know what they're doing. I believe your race is currently playing a factor in how you’re reacting to this.”
Brex was about to ask her what she meant, but didn't have the opportunity when his attacker had finally made the first move. With nearly blinding speed, she had already closed the distance between them. With a twirl of her body, she gracefully brought her larger weapon across to strike Brex on his right side.
This was countered when he started to bring his hand up, while at the same time, using his free left hand to reach around to grab onto the handle and force that end down, as to accelerate the speed in which the tip of his weapon would intercept. Similar to a seesaw on a playground when one end is pushed down, the other rises. This had the added benefit of not only adding speed, but power as well from a weak stance.
When the lance collided with the wheel shaped like weapon, a shower of sparks was produced and the girl was momentarily put off balance from the unexpected amount of force. She then used the new change in direction to swing her other arm towards him in an attempt to stab at his lower chest area.
To counter this, Brex followed along the same path that his lance was going previously and sidestepped the blade by mere inches. After which, she continued her flurry of attacks, alternating from one weapon to the next while throwing in a number faints to try and trip him up.
Brex on the other side of the coin, was using his foot work thanks to his Dragoon class, which was good at jumping to avoid the wide arcs made from her dual weapon attacks as to get at a perfect distance to accurately use his lance effectively.
He would spin it in one hand, then the next while using it to simultaneously attack and defend. Whenever one end would make contact with his opponent's weapon, he would use the initial collision and rebounding force to start the opposite swing.
As the fight went on it was clear that neither one was using any special techniques with the attacker merely using the weapons provided. In turn, Brex had yet to use a single weapon skill or ability for himself and just focused merely on the sword play itself.
As the fight went on, their attacks on one another only grew in both ferocity and speed as their weapons collided over and over again. Whenever it seemed that one was being pushed back, they would quickly recover and begin again the seemingly endless game of tug-of-war, in which who would gain ground. Brex would thrust his lance straight ahead, only for his attacker to side step to the left and catch it within her own and counter by thrusting her dagger straight at his chest.
When this happened, Brex would jump while still holding on to his weapon with a tight grip until he was clearly soaring overhead. And as he landed, he used his current momentum to swing his weapon in a wide arc to throw the girl. When he had done this, she was sent into the air and had released his lance to avoid getting slammed into the ground.
Instead of falling unceremoniously onto the dirt and grass, she merely did a single flip and swung one of her legs in order to regain her control while in the air. This was immediately followed with a graceful landing as if it was perfectly planned ahead of time in the same way that a ballerina would come down from a long jump while on stage.
With them both now a good ten meters apart, they took another battle stance. This time, she was crouched low with both weapons out to her sides. While she was doing this, he took on his own with adopting a more serious posture with both legs planted, his right shoulder and weapon now pointing straight at her.
Even after exchanging blows for the last couple of minutes, the pair were hardly out of breath. With but a small brief respite and their fight, Brex was able to hear his heart pounding even louder than it was when he was still on the move.
He was so focused on her, that he failed to notice the smirk that was beginning to curl on his lips. Still, throughout the whole fight, he had still not gotten a good reading on her through Rory’s senses.
Both of his arms and legs were feeling like they were on fire with everything he was doing. Simply swinging his weapon and dodging would not have done this. It was more due to the fact with how much force he had to apply while constantly defending and attacking with each hit.
He knew that even before they started to exchange blows, that she was going to be trouble. This was made obvious when each one of her attacks felt as if she was striking him with a heavy iron mace. He had no idea if it was due to some magical enchantment, or if she was really this strong to begin with. During one of their exchanges, she had done a downward swing with both weapons and he had blocked with his lance just over his head.
The force that he had encountered had caused his armored feet to dig into the ground a solid four inches or so. He had to try really hard to prevent a grunt from escaping his lips while the bones in both of his arms felt as if they were about to break from the pressure.
He began to think, “If this is what she is like when she's fighting completely normal. Then she must really be a beast when she uses any weapon skills. I'm pretty sure if I could tell what her level is, then I would have to say it was close to mine… NO, maybe, even higher...”
Yet, Brex knowing this, was only getting more excited as he could feel his own blood beginning to heat up from the very notion of facing a strong opponent for the first time. That was when he recalled something about the lore when it came to Roegadyn's.
It had to do with how they were seen as the strongest race when it came to physical abilities due to their large stature. Yet they had an Inborn trait of sorts where they would acknowledge others for their strength. For those that could fight, showing their might would earn a Roegadyn's respect. When it came to the diminutive in stature races. They would earn respect with their craftiness and personal strength of character and conviction.
Suddenly, having a surge of energy after having this realization only spurred Brex into continuing this fight. On the other side of the field, his opponent was showing signs that they themselves were anxious with how their left foot was slowly pivoting on the spot, almost repeatedly as if waiting for something to happen.
It was plain to Brex that this was an outright duel. However, he did not feel the need to introduce himself as one would normally in the situation like this.
Instead, he found himself unable to contain a low, growl of excitement that emanated from his slightly bearded teeth. Thankfully, due to their high rate of movement. Along with it being the dead of night, Brex did not have to fear having his teeth being shown thanks to the ample number of shadows being cast all over by the trees and his helmet.
When he had allowed that noise to escape him, the one in front of him appeared to falter after the foot that they were pivoting on slipped for about a second before they recovered. He could see how their shoulders were now trembling in excitement too, as they took it even lower posture.
But not before taking the circular weapon and placing it on her back. Oddly enough, even with there being no visible way of it being held onto their back, there it was staying in place and not even budging an inch as she crouched down low.
(This is an example of her current fighting stance. )
Brex steadied himself for what he was sure to be a bum rush. Seeing as his opponent was about to take things seriously, he chose to do the same. He had planned on doing a combination of jumping abilities just as she was going to charge.
However, right as she lowered herself to the point that her face could have been touching the grass, did she freeze in place. The tense atmosphere from just a second ago had spontaneously evaporated without any warning on his side.
Brex watched as she straightened up onto her legs. There was the sudden sound of heavy labor breathing due to exhaustion coming from her now. Unsure as to what was happening, Brex did not lower his guard and watched in anticipation of a surprise attack just in case this turned out to be a trick.
She was now balling up her free hand into a shaking fist while arching her shoulders in clear agitation. In one fluid motion, she grabbed onto the weapon on her back and spun in place has to build-up some quick momentum and slashed at the ground between her and himself. This action caused a large amount of dirt and grass to be flung into the air. The amount of force used in it, was enough to create a heavy enough dust cloud that is obstructed her from full view, but for only a single second.
When enough of the debris had scattered. He found that she was nowhere to be seen. From his vantage point alone, he could have witnessed her running to and one of the tree lines or even the flash of a teleportation spell that unicorns were known for. He then considered that she may have used a trick similar to his shadow movement, or perhaps an advanced version that allows one to teleport through the shadows.
He had thought that this might have been another attempt to sneak up on him. So, Brex focused more on Rory’s senses to see if she can pick up on anything. After what seemed like a full minute had gone by, did she finally say, “Master… I'm pretty sure that she's gone this time. When she showed up, I was able to get something. This time however, it's completely gone. As soon as she created that smoke screen with that weapon of hers, all traces of her presence just up and disappeared.”
When he had exhausted all possibilities within his head, Brex gave out a disgruntled groan of annoyance. This was not out his inability to track her, but more for Their dance suddenly being interrupted.
Upon realizing this feeling, he looked straight ahead dumbfoundedly, while blinking several times at this point. He then thought to himself incredulously, “Rory, was I really enjoying that life-or-death fight? I mean, yeah, we weren't that serious... I think. but still, one slip up and one of us could have died. I don't know how to describe it. It's like I... I...”
Rory chimed in and tried to finish his thoughts by saying, “You're beginning to feel worked up at the thought of displaying your dominance. Weren't you? I don't know If you notice it or not, but you may want to look down~.” This was then followed with her giving one of her signature giggles.
With a blank expression, he turned his head down to try to figure out as to what she was saying. It took only a moment before his eyes shot straight ahead again as they went wide from underneath his helmet. His mouth was now hanging open. Inside, he was internally stuttering as he proclaimed, “Rory! A-Are you t-telling me, that I got a hard on from flexing my strength against a f-female??!!”
Rory then made a door appear at the base of the large tree of the clearing and came through. As soon as she did, the door then vanished immediately and she held out both of her hands above her head while leaning back against the tree. Within an instant, did some chains and manacles materialize to clamp down onto her outstretched wrists.
While giving him her most alluring look, she swayed her hips in a suggestive manner as she said. “You know just what it is I'm talking about. Your dominant side made an appearance. Typically, due to your strength alone would mean you're always having to be gentle around others. Nevertheless, just now, you're able to let loose. I'm rather disappointed myself that things didn't progress. I had my money on whether or not things were gonna get very physical with how you're getting turned on.”
Feeling embarrassed, Brex was just about to finish his thought about there being a ball-gag in her mouth to shut her up. But stopped to himself from going down that path again. After closing his eyes for a few seconds and letting out a deep, long sigh before he open them again, Brex simply turned on the spot and started to walk quickly away from the tree.
This only got a cute, annoyed little grunt from the girl before she was instantly next to him again. Right as he was about to get to the tree line, did Brex switch over to his Rogue class. It wouldn't be very practical to walk around in a suit of armor and a long ass weapon such as a lance while moving through the tight, narrow gaps between some of the trees ahead.
After going through one of the larger openings, the Roegadyn found himself compelled to just aimlessly stroll through one of the most dangerous places in the world to be when the sun went down.
If any were there, they would find an extreme odd sight to see one dress has a Butler just going through the Everfree woods like it was some city park, without a care in the world. All the while, he would glance to his surroundings and silently observe the night life of nature.
It had taken only a short time until he had come across a densely packed area of trees where the roots were entangled among others in such a tightly woven fashion, that there was no traces of the dirt or grass underneath to be seen. Brex even found that it was becoming difficult to walk through without brushing his body against something or another.
It didn't help that the dense vegetation above his head was now completely blocking out the moonlight, which left him in total darkness. If it wasn't for Rory’s abilities, he would pretty much be stuck there with how it would have been nearly impossible to navigate through this cage of trees.
He couldn't help but the chuckle out loud when he pictured some random pony wandering in here in the dead of night and couldn't get out because they were constantly banging their heads against some random branch because they couldn't see a thing.
As soon as he thought that, he had lost his concentration and had mistakenly bumped his head against a low branch. When he did this, Rory couldn't help but giggle at him before saying. “You better keep focus there Master. You're not exactly on auto pilot, you have to pay attention.”
Brex was about to make some attempt at a witty comeback when he was bopped on the head by something very small, which then began to roll across the front of his mask. He quickly reached out and grabbed it as it bounced off his chest and brought it up to his face.
At a glance, it appeared to be a small round object, roughly the size of a quarter. Wanting to get a better view of it, he opened his item box and pulled out a water shard and was holding it between his thumb and index finger of his free hand. He then brought it closer to the object in question and found it to be a type of seed that seems to have fallen from one of the trees above due to his carelessness, but moments ago.
After, he glanced towards the ground and knelt down as to use the shard to illuminate the floor. There, among the many roots were already completely dried up and useless seeds that apparently were unable to reach the ground thanks to the overgrown number of roots.
After standing straight up again, Brex brought up the seedling and began to say, “I don't think you're going to grow here. It would seem your siblings have taken a monopoly of the soil here.” He wasn't quite sure as to why, but he decided to hold on to the seed and pocketed it is jacket for safe keeping, along with the water shard.
As soon as he had gotten out of the thick layer of trees, did he finally find himself in another clearing that he had yet to come across. The place was pretty much barren in any grass whatsoever, but there was a small stream of clean water that was passing near the edge.
Brex stepped into the center and started to examine the spot to figure out as to why it was left untouched by the vegetation around. After some investigation, found that there were some odd markings in the dirt that resembled a wolf’s paw. Instantly, he came to the conclusion that a pack of Timberwolves were probably using this as a resting area and due to their nature, they most likely used whatever trees were in this spot in their construction.
In all honesty, Brex had no desire to just go out and destroy these beasts, seeing as they were a part of the cycle of life as it were for this world to begin with. He did find them rather annoying with how they would always come out and attack him in the past, but this place was full of many creatures that were just as dangerous, if not more.
Brex began to wonder if this was a version of Equestria where those Timberwolves were created due to discord, or if they were a part of the natural balance. If they were a part of the second theory, then that might explain as to why things such as a Manticore’s didn't go roaming out so often in search for food. Their numbers must have been kept in check by these predators of the trees.
When he thought about it, he glanced down at his jacket pocket and pulled out both the water shard and the seedling. They both were rolling around in his hand as he played with them nonchalantly, while having a stray thought or two was crossing his mind.
Brex then said underneath his breath, “I think I'm just going to believe that they're part of this world through nature's design. If they're not, then maybe I'll do something about them later. All I know is that they're needed at the moment. As long as they don't go out of control, then I'll leave them be. Now, after saying that, I think I have an idea of what to do with you.” He was obviously referring to the seedling in his hands as he crouched down to his knees.
Brex took his left-hand and began to slowly dig away at the ground until there was a hole that was a good foot deep. As soon as he had done that, he had carefully placed the seedling in the center and was about to cover up the hole, but stopped. With a small smirk, he said to himself, “They do say gardening is therapeutic. Maybe I shouldn't half ass this?”
As soon as he had said those words, he went into his item box yet again and scrolled through the contents until we got to a section that had pictures of brown bags. When he selected one, there was now a bag that was holding nearly five pounds worth, of what appeared to be mulch of some type that fell unceremoniously onto the floor nearby. What he had produced was the basic starting grade when it came to potting soil for a player’s garden.
Afterwards, he poured the contents into the hole and covered up the seed. When that was done, he took the shard and gently placed it on top of the mound and pressed it in a few inches. Within moments, a trickle of water began to erupt and soaked into the soil.
Brex stood all the way up on his feet, with his hands on his hips while he watched all of this going on. With a small smile under his mask, he said in a quiet voice. “I've done all I can for now. The rest is all up to you little one. I have no idea if you're going to be able to grow up big and strong or if you're going to end up as part of one of those wolves.”
He shrugged once before going on to continue with saying, “Maybe one day I'll come by and see how you're growing.” After that, he left the area by walking in to one of the shadows that was on the side of one of the trees that was just a short ways away.
Brex quickly found himself back in his room after exiting the shadow that he had previously left with just earlier that night. Not wanting to make too much noise, he attempted to walk as lately as possible, as to not wake up his sleeping guests that were occupying his bed. Or that was what he was intending on, if it wasn't for the fact that the maids were no longer in the bed as the covers were unceremoniously thrown half hazardly onto the floor. As for the door to his room, that was left wide open.
Seeing as he kept putting off talking to the two until tonight, he felt that it was not a good idea to let things stand as they were. So, he brought up his mini map to see if there were any indications that would show where they could be in the house.
According to all the dots that were being displayed. A majority of them were congregated in multiple rooms. On the top floor, there was but only one dot. While on the middle that he was on, Brex saw that there were multiple dots within a number of the rooms but there was one by itself in another. Brex concluded that the two that were on their own in different rooms, must have been Blaze Caster and other must have been either Fancy Pants or Fleur De Lis, in their room on the top floor.
When he expanded his search to the lower level, he found a set of three dots that were all in the parlor. One of which, appears to be moving back-and-forth in a repetitive fashion. Seeing as they were the only ones that weren't in the bedroom, he figured that they must obviously be awake.
So, he made his way down the steps, but only after he had entered the shadows. He did this because he wanted to find out what was going on, without being spotted as to learn of the situation.
When he had finally gotten to the bottom of the steps did, he hear some hushed voices belonging to a group of three females conversing. Two of which appeared to be rather upset, while the last was attempting to calm them down. Brex was able to discern that they came from the maids that were meant to be in his room, while the other belonged to Fleur De Lis herself.
Brex simply stood at the open archway that led into the parlor from the hallway and listening on their conversation from a good distance. From where he was, he was able to plainly see with only a single light source lit up within the room, that the maids were currently sitting on the couch with their backs towards him, while Fleur De Lis was pacing in front of it as she was apparently biting her thumb with a worried expression.
Fleur De Lis mumbled to herself after finally pulling her hand away from her mouth as she said in a confused tone. Once again, I need you to explain to me again on exactly what happened to the Lord and why was I woken up, I don't understand at all.”
The one with the dark hair was the next to speak as she was apparently holding back a set of sobs, while rubbing at her eyes. “T-The Lord left us... H-He was telling us about something and we thought that we offended him.”
The other one with the pigtails and silver hair was next to speak as she said, “I-It was my fault... I was playing around with it and we ended up-.” At this point, her breath left her and she began to cry silently into her cupped hands that now covered her face.
Fleur De Lis still did not fully understand the situation apparently. She went over and laid a hand on the girl's right shoulder in a reassuring way. She then looked back over to the one who spoke first and nodded for her to continue.
After taking in a few more breaths, the dark-haired Changeling continued on with the explanation. “Our Lord, was making something in his room. He handed one of the items to our sister here and… And when he told us what it was, we just panicked. We instantly assumed that we would get punished and when he came close... I'm so sorry... We fell back in our ways when the hive was taken from our queen and we thought we were going to get hurt.”
She paused for a few seconds as she pulled herself together to continue after wiping her eyes. In a sorrowful tone, she said, “We felt him putting his hands on our heads and we both freaked out. But we-.” That was when the water works were finally released and she covered her face almost immediately as if the next words were too hard to say.
From what Brex had gathered, he didn't have to worry too much about missing out on what was being said about him. Fleur De Lis was apparently in the dark on the details and was in the middle of trying to get answers. This must have meant that the pair had only woken up a short while ago and they had just gotten down here.
Brex couldn't handle the sight of those two crying so much, that he was about to show himself when he heard the one with the silver hair finally speaking up after recovering somewhat. In a trembling tone. She said, “We made him upset. When we panicked, he started to give off an intense stream of anguish. I never felt anything like it before, even among us during that time those months ago. So much self-loathing. All I know is that... It, it was so much that... Oh sister!”
The girl then shook her head. She was apparently trying really hard to continue. After a few more seconds. She finally went on to say, “I don't know what happened to him, he was so sad. I was sure that he was giving up on life with the way his emotions were dropping the way they were. It wasn't like all the times that we couldn't sense him. No, this was more of a pit of despair.”
“It... It hurt so much to see him going through that. We didn't know what to do, so we grabbed onto him and tried to share our love. After a while, he seemed to calm down but we ended up passing out... When we came to, we found a note and we came to get you.”
When she had mentioned the note, Brex looked over and saw how Fleur De Lis was indeed holding the folded piece of paper that he had written on. Fleur De Lis then lifted the hand that was holding the paper and unfolded it. When she did, she began to read out what was written. Once she was done, she folded up again and looked towards the maids and gave them a reassuring smile.”
She then said, “I doubt very much that he’s upset with you. By what's written here, it sounds as if he will be back soon. I'm fairly sure that he just went out for a walk, in order to clear his mind.”
The Roegadyn had a small smile on his face once he heard how things were being handled. Honestly, he was fully expecting there to be some type of incident going on as soon as he showed up if they were to awaken before he got back. But Fleur De Lis had things pretty much well in hand. He wondered if it was due to her decision that they were the only ones there, instead of waking up everyone in the house.
Finally seeing as he had heard enough, Brex went around the door frame into the hallway and exited through a nearby shadow that was being made thanks to the moon light hitting the stairway just right. Once he did, he approached the parlor and entered. When he did this, he caught the attention of all inside.
Brex could see Fleur De Lis giving him a small smile, but he could tell that she herself was quite worried with how there was this look behind her eyes. As for the maids, they quickly got to their hoofs and approached Brex in a panic. As soon as they had gotten within a few feet, they had immediately begun to bow down, while getting on their hands and knees.
They had even gone so far as to even hit their foreheads and horns onto the wooden floor with how fast they were going. Nevertheless, they didn't show any signs of it bothering them and continued with pressing their heads down onto the ground.
Brex immediately turned his head up after looking at the two and towards Fleur De Lis for answers. She had a confused expression of her own and only gave him a weak smile, while shrugging her shoulders. He had wanted to try and console them, but recalled what had had happened before when he attempted to be gentle. Perhaps being more direct and swift would work better.
Seeing them acting like this really sunk it home with how they saw him. So, from behind this mask, Brex took a slow intake of air through his nose and released it quietly through his mouth. When he had finished this, he looked down towards the maids and spoke in an authoritative tone that was just low enough not to be heard anywhere else in the house as he said. “I am not angry, nor do I intend to punish you.”
After allowing that a few seconds to sit in the air. He continued by saying, “What happened up in my room was due to a personal nature. Now, with that being said, what you both did was rather reckless. Take it from me, using a new skill without knowing its effects is quite dangerous. Your lives could have been at risk.”
Fleur De Lis stepped forward and asked with a confused tone, “I'm not sure I follow. What is this about a new skill you mentioned? Brex raised an eyebrow to this and assumed that she had at least gotten that part of the story from them at least. But it would seem that she didn't and was in the dark, more so than he had originally thought.
While letting out a long, drawn-out sigh. He looked back down to the maids and did something he thought he wouldn't ever seeing himself doing when it came to them. He gave a harsh glare from behind his mask before speaking in a harsh tone. “The both of you, stand right now!”
This was enough to cause Fleur De Lis to take an involuntary step back as her eyes went wide and her mouth hung open slightly at hearing at him speaking in such a way. As for the ones on the ground, they quickly scrambled to their hoofs and took an attention stance next to one another, at the same time, letting out a pair of gulps in response.
He then asked, “Do any of the others know about what happened?” There was absolutely nothing from all of those around him and he began to get a little impatient. All Brex wanted to do was to find out if any others were told about what happened and to nip this in the butt before it started to spread.
He leaned in closer to the maids in front of him till he was nearly placing his face between both of theirs as he spoke in a slow, deliberate tone. “Do… Any… Others… Know?” This had elicited a strong intense shudder to travel up along all of the female’s bodies that heard him speaking by the looks of things.
This was when they both began to shake their heads furiously to indicate that they had not told a single soul aside from Fleur De Lis. Upon hearing this, Brex stood straight again and turned his head slightly towards Fleur De Lis and asked, “Is absolutely everything shared among the hive or can there be secrets that are kept from the others?”
Fleur De Lis had her eyes darting from left to right after being put in the spotlight. As soon as her eyes landed on his mask, did she speak in a sort of unsure tone. “Yes, yes. My mother believe that we can all have our own lives, as long as it did not put the rest of the hive in danger. The only time we would know everything about another, is if the situation called for it and our minds would be opened through the hive link.”
As soon as Fleur De Lis had finished that sentence, she began to look a little saddened when she continued with. “That was one reason as to why we were kicked out of the main hive. The one that's in charge now didn't believe in that philosophy and wanted all drones to be under complete control. “
“None were to have their own thoughts, aside from doing what was needed. No new ideas, no personal lives outside of work. So, when it happened, those of us that could, left with our mother to escape the oppression.”
Brex felt bad about bringing up such a subject and really wanted to ask about their history when it came to this. But he had other matters that were needing his current attention that he had to focus on before he got himself distracted.
He then said to Fleur De Lis while gesturing to the maids with his right hands index finger. “These two unlocked a new skill that I believe is not commonly known to Changelings. I will say this, they may have used it unintentionally to aid in my... distress at the time. Though, it was extremely dangerous. Now before you ask what it is, I'll tell you right now.”
“They used a technique where they were use their own energy and transferred a majority of it to myself.” Brex really didn't want to come out and say that he had a panic attack, so he tried to be as vague as possible.
Fleur De Lis took in a sudden gasp as she darted her eyes between the pair of maids, while asking in disbelief. “Is… Is that true? Did you really give him your portion of love? But, that shouldn't even be possible. Yes, the Changelings can offer it to one another in order to feed. This is done with scouts that would go out into the pony’s settlements and bring it back for those that were in the hive that they harvested.”
“To hear that it would be used on another race? I know we're stepping in new territory still with this new way of living, but that should not be possible. This process has never been reversed to give the love to anything that wasn’t one of us.”
Before anything else could be said by Fleur De Lis. Brex stepped in and asked, “What are their names? This apparently made all in the room to start blink several times as they gawked straight at Brex.
Fleur De Lis answered by saying, “Aside from myself and our Queen. It's rare for a Changeling to have a name. Whenever a Changeling goes out public, we assume the name of a pony we've seen before out the streets. Some would even come up with their own for their pony personas. Other than that, we don’t use them. Never really needed to with how we just know who one another are.”
Her eyes drifted towards the others before she said reluctantly. “I'm afraid that they've never been out to gather love for the hive. Those that stay never really get to have a name, or even have the chance to borrow one.”
Brex didn't know how to feel when it came to them having no names. It was the same as objectifying them. Right now, they were simply maids and nothing else in a sense. A part of him was saying that it wasn't fair and they needed to be treated the same as any other. While at the same time, deep down, there was a small part that relished in the concept in some perverted way. Especially with how they were always being suggestive around him.
Inside, he can feel Rory stirring when he began to notice that other part of himself. Pushing that aside, he looked towards the two and asked, “Do you want names?” When they heard this, the maids looked to one another for only a brief moment while showing that they were astonished, before they both nodded repeatedly and giving him hopeful expressions.
When he saw how they were reacting to the simple question of wanting a name. Brex started to think fast on what to call them. He wanted to give them names that were easy for him to remember, yet at the same time, he knew that a normal human name wouldn't do. No doubt it wouldn’t fit with their naming concepts in their world.
After a second, he came up with an idea. Taking into account their identical appearances, other than their hairstyles and the color of their manes. A pair of individuals popped in his head from back in his gaming days.
There was the group of non-player characters that acted as retainers that he had hired to manage his items. He purchased them with real money to help in the game. Among those, were two that he had designed to be a set of twins. Brex had intentionally made their character designs to be mirrored opposites of one another, aside from coloring.
Both being of the Au Ru race, Brex had made one of them with darker skin and silver hair. While the other had light skin, but with black hair. He named the one with a silver hair Rin, which translates in Japanese to something about the cold. As for the one with the dark hair, Brex had wanted to keep the twin thing going, so he went with something else from Chinese that was very similar and wording, which was Lin.
When he thought on it a little more, it seemed almost fitting for these twins in front of him. The only thing left was to present these names and see what their reactions would be. Brex only hoped that they didn't just laugh at his face for making the suggestions.
Brex made sure that he was facing the one with the silver pigtails when he said, “How do you feel about the name… Rin? And as for you, would you care for the name Lin?” The last part was said when he turned towards the one with the shorter dark hair.
Instantly they both began to smile with tears in their eyes as they nodded to the suggestions. Soon, Fleur De Lis asked while from behind Brex. “Those are quite some interesting names you chose. Would they happen to have any specific meaning?”
Brex simply nodded to the question and walked over to the window to stare out through the opening into the city. After a moment went by, he answered in a voice that was filled with melancholy. “Long ago, I had some attendance that would work straight under me... And the both of you reminded me of two of them. They were a set of twins.” Brex allowed a small chuckle to escape his lips.
Afterwards, he went on to continue saying, “They were in fact the very first ones that I hired. Believe it or not, they were my strongest out of them all despite their smaller size. It took a while, but they ended up being as strong as I, at one time. The names Rin and Lin, belong to the both of them.” He then released another sigh before he finished with saying, “I do hope that you don't think me as tasteless for giving you names of those who once served me in the past.”
The now named Rin stepped forward and gave him a small bow before speaking in an excited tone, “Of course not. I see it as an honor. Lin was next to speak when she gave her own thanks by saying, “We will make sure that we don't bring any dishonor to these names you have bestowed upon us.”
Now getting serious. Brex brought his attention back to both Rin and Lin and spoke in a tone that said that there wasn’t any room for discussion. “Rin, Lin. I want to both of you, along with Fleur De Lis, to never speak of what happened tonight in regards to the incident in my room to any others. It is a private matter and I wish to keep it that way. Is that understood?”
Without missing so much as a beat, did the maids bow to give their answers in silence. Fleur De Lis on the other hand, was still looking rather confused. Nevertheless, reluctantly nodded all the same. The Unicorn then said, “I still don't know what had transpired. Although, it would seem that incident has calmed down and no harm has been done.”
She then looked over towards Brex with what could have only been considered a coy smile as she began to say. “I suppose this would mean that you are approving of them both being your permanent attendance? If that’s so, then perhaps you would finally agree to allowing them to go home with you? After all, taking care of a house and watching over Blaze must be quite a daunting task for you to do on your own.”
Brex nervously stuttered within his mind as he thought, “O-Oh shit. I forgot she was trying to push that on me the last time I came to visit. J-Just what is it about the girls around me that keep wanting to shove others down in my pants? Seriously, it begins with Rory, now its Fleur De Lis. I don't really get why it is I am such a magnet. I'm not even one of them! I get the feeling that nothing like this ever happened in my past life. It has to be just this world’s doing...”
Brex replied by saying, “I see your point, but as of right now, I do not believe it would be the right course of action. Where Blaze Caster and I currently reside is not currently equipped for more to move in with us. Furthermore, the location was selected for two main reasons. One being, it was to ensure our privacy, while the other is for the safety of both Blaze Caster and any bystanders during his time needed in training and controlling his abilities.”
This had got both Rin and Lin to look down casted as they lower their heads after hearing the news that they would not be going with him. This didn't escape his notice and Brex quickly added, “Perhaps… later on, when the situation is calm down, I might reconsider it then. Until that time, I would not be against the idea of Rin and Lin being my regularly assigned attendance’s while Blaze Caster and myself are here to visit. That is if they are fine with it.”
This managed to completely turn around their expressions to those of glee as they nodded furiously, along with a set of large smiles on their faces. Fleur De Lis on her side, was giving him a small smile of her own.
Before he ended up getting distracted by something else, he called out to the maids and said, “Now, as for the both of you. You are not to do what you did with any others, unless you make sure that you get they're permission beforehand. That's the reason why you both were out cold after using it on me. Do you understand what I'm saying?” To this, he got a set of nods as they both said in unison, “Of course my Lord, we will do just as you say.”
For some strange reason, Brex was feeling as if something was a little different with how they were saying it this time around with the way they were calling him Lord. But couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
He then went on to continue saying as he was now turning to go back up the steps. “I will be returning to bed; we still have a few hours until the sun comes up.
When he had placed his right hand onto the railing before ascending, he turned and called out once again. Ren, Lynn, you have not had a full night's sleep, I suggest coming along. I wouldn’t want either of you two to feel il tomorrow because of a lack of rest”
There was a hint of rosy tint growing on both of their cheeks as they quickly hurried along to follow. Leaving Fleur De Lis to stand in the middle of the parlor with an all-knowing look on her face, as she gave them a small wave and a smile.
When Brex had returned to his room, he and the maids both climbed into bed as they did the night before and got under the covers. Rin and Lin were now in their nightgowns and snuggling up to him with their arms over his chest and a leg intertwined with one of his as they snuggled up for what few hours were left of the night.
Brex had started to grow accustomed to them being next to him now and was now finding it easier to fall asleep without focusing on doing so, unlike the night before. It didn’t even seem to register to him with how they were clinging to his form more tightly this time around.
As soon as he had closed his eyes, did he fall into his dream realm and found himself standing at the front door to his mentally constructed house. He then turned the knob and went inside, when he did, he found that the place was seemingly different with how the décor was not exactly how he had remembered.
The walls were now of a darker red and floor was covered in some areas with a red rug that nearly reached the walls, with only giving a few inches of space before touching them. There were even a few tapestries hanging down that could be seen on the upper floors that were hanging down from where he stood at the front door.
Most that were shown had depicted the standard flag which was seen in Limsa Lominsa. Which was a ship made of black on a red background. The main room now had an elaborate chandelier that reminded him a little bit of what he saw in the reading room of the manor. But this one was a little bit larger in terms of size and the amount of decorations as it spiraled to a point as it met the center.
While raising an eyebrow, he looked around the room from where he stood and said out loud. “I see someone's been redecorating while I've been away. May I ask what the occasion is?” This got a reply from Rory as she came in through one of the lower side entrances to his left as she strolled on through the doorway with her arms behind her back and swiveling her head to-and-fro as she was glancing about herself. “Master? I thought this was you’re doing? I didn't so much as lift a finger in regards to how everything looks now.”
Brex furrowed his brow as he reached up and scratched the back his head in confusion. He asking in an unsure tone, “Huh... So, wait. If you didn't have a hand in this, then does that mean I was responsible without even realizing it?
Rory then stood right next to him while still looking at the new décor as she answered while tapping her chin in thought. “I believe this started occurring around the time that you were fighting that girl in the woods. The walls were the first to change. Then, right as you were getting to the good bits, the tapestries and the chandelier came into existence. I don't know about you, but I kind of like it. Gives off this intimidating vibe in a small way.”
Letting out a small sigh, Brex slumped his shoulders as he began to go up to the next floor. Rory was hot on his heels as she ran her hands along the railing on the way up. When they got into his room, Rory went behind a dark red, dividing paper wall and started to toss off her usual attire. Only to have them hanging on the top of the divider itself. When she was finished, she stepped out and was now wearing her night time kimono with the front just partially opened to allow some of her chest to show.
Brex himself, had used his mind and sent away his clothing until he was just in his boxers. After sitting down on the bed, he crossed his arms over his knees and watched as Rory was approaching. Brex then opened his arms and allowed her to jump onto his lap to straddle him. Her face was literally being pressed up onto his chest as she rubbed into it and elicited a small coo from the girl.
While doing this, Rory began to ask, “Master, I think you did a pretty good job back there. I mean really. You're pretty crafty. You find out quickly how important it was for them to have their own lives and some secrets on their kind’s past. On top of that, there was the importance about there being rare instances where a Changeling has a name.”
“From there, you gave those two the names Rin and Lin and explained the importance behind them. All of this before getting them to promise in not to tell others of what happened. All the while, taking charge of the situation.”
Rory then released a small giggle before going on to say, “If I didn't know any better, I say whatever happened in the forest managed to rub off on you when it came to your dominant side coming out. Showing that you can take charge. Giving them their own identities. Then to top it all off, you show that you are concerned for their well-being. Crafty, very crafty. Do you know just how turned on I am right now?”
During the entire time that Rory was saying this. She was tracing her left hand's index finger along his abs while looking straight up at his eyes with a longing look in hers. She then lowered her head and turned it to one side while hugging him even tighter.
Brex on the other hand, was internally asking himself so she couldn’t hear it. “Is that what she thought I was doing? By the twelve, I really just did that didn't I? I just went and did the carrot and stick thing. Honestly, I wasn't really even thinking of what I was doing, I was just letting myself go in the moment. This is what I get for saying so much... Things were a lot easier when all I did was say a few words. Well, at least things seem to have calmed down. I have no idea what would have happened if word got out about my breakdown.”
Brex had his arms now wrapping around Rory’s body as he returned the embrace. This earned him a content sigh from the smaller girl. Rory then spoke up and asked, “On a completely different note. What exactly where you going to say to Ryu when you go to see him again? There’s no real guarantee that he would agree to this.”
While having his eyes closed and relishing the feeling of embracing Rory. Brex answered by saying, “Well, like I mentioned to Fancy Pants, I want to see if Ryu is willing to help me out by having access to some of his materials. What I want to focus on, is seeing about making the brewery, Gobbler farm. Perhaps I could look into some of the traps that his dungeon entrances have. During the talks with Fancy Pants, I had another idea for a business and they might come in handy for.”
“Also, from the looks of things, the technology level in this Equestria is nearly identical to what scene in the show. They mostly live before the modern age of earth, while in some areas, they're almost up to par with the sixties or seventies of Earth. I've seen refrigerators, but no microwaves. They still use carriages while some Earth ponies are pulling them around like how you would see in Japan, where they would act as cabs Instead of cars. So, they obviously don't understand the concept of engines, aside from their trains using them.”
“They don't even use airplanes. Instead, they're leading towards hot air balloons. Of course, this is understandable with a third of their population being able to fly without it. I was thinking that while I'm over on his side, I might take a look at their technology level to see if I can learn something.”
“From what I remember from the game league of legends. That society is revolving around technology that's already using a form of electricity. There was that one hero from the game called Blitzcrank, who was a living golem made of metal that used a combination of electricity and steam from what I saw in the gameplay. Maybe he'll let me sneak around and dive into a library or two to pick up some knowledge that I could bring back here to use?”
Rory then perked up as she looked up at him again while asking in an excited tone. “Please tell me you're going to bring television to Equestria.” Brex ended up letting out a small chuckle at hearing that. He then said to her, “Judging from your reaction. I think it might not be a good idea to suddenly throw that out right away. I swear, if I didn't have a way of controlling it, you'd be on the couch watching movies nonstop. You're practically an addict.”
“Also, could you imagine what would happen if I was to somehow introduce gossip television to them?” That was when he began to shiver in place at the very thought of unleashing such evil. Rory only gave him a pouting face as she mumbled, “I am not an addict... I can stop anytime I want.” At the end of that, she gave a annoyed humph! And returned back to snuggling.
She then changed her tone while still keeping up with the body contact as she asked, “Any ideas on who that might have been back there? You know, in the woods. The way she fought gave the impression that she was not just skilled, but had a lot of experience to back it up.”
“Even though some of the movements were a little flashy, I wouldn't exactly call them wasting energy. Being able to alternate swinging her body for that larger weapon to build-up speed for her strikes and switching over to her dagger for quick and effective stabs and slashes. In the beginning, I would have called her out as an assassin… but as time went on, I got a different feeling from her.”
Brex was humming along while Rory was speaking to show that he agreed with her assessment. When she had finished, Brex spoke up and said, “Yeah, if they really were sent to kill me, then it made absolutely no sense to hold back. I'm pretty sure that if she had been completely serious from the start, then that opening move would have gotten me for sure.”
“Although, who's to say that she wasn't an assassin and what happened tonight, was simply a test. You know, to gauge what I was capable of. Now if this was the case, then who might have sent her?” After a few seconds, his eyes opened wide in surprise before they narrowed to show a deep-rooted suspicion. He then said in a low tone, “You don't think that… she's on to me, do you? We were literally right in her room after all.”
Rory pulled away and was now showing an intense rage behind her own eyes as she was now gritting her teeth. She then said, “You really think that bitch sent an assassin after you? If she did…” from that point, Rory was quite literally vibrating with pure, unadulterated anger. Knowing that she was angry however, did not affect Brex. Seeing as he knew that she wouldn’t do anything to harm him and was being protective.
What happened next, was the room itself beginning to warp a little bit and immediately, there was a shape beginning to appear in the middle of the room. At first, it was completely out of phase with how blurry it was. After a few more seconds, it began to solidify until it took on the form of the sun princess herself.
Out of pure instinct, Brex got up while still holding on to Rory and pushed her so that she was behind him as he took on a defensive stance. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. Every part of his being was telling him to protect Rory and had forgotten about his own well-being. His arms were held out slightly to either side and his fingers were curled as if they had claws, ready to be used.
It began to growl from under his breath, before Rory placed a hand onto his left shoulder and gently said. “Master, it's OK, that's not really her, she's not here. That's just something I created out of anger. It's nothing but a construct of our imaginations. We’re safe here remember? We got multiple layers of defense.”
Hearing this had immediately calmed Brex down, as he was on the verge of tackling the Celestia wanna be. He was then hugged from behind tightly as he heard Rory speaking in a gentle tone. I had no idea that was going to happen. Nor did it even cross my mind that you would do such a thing when she was in front of us.”
While still looking at the image in front of him that was just standing there without showing any type of movement or emotions whatsoever. Brex blinked dumbly a few times before turning his eyes to the left before asking, “Do what instead? I don't understand.”
Rory gave out a few giggles. Although Brex could just barely hear a hint of a small sob in one of them. Rory then went on to say, “All this time you've been terrified of her and would have run on the spot if she was to suddenly appear. But instead, your immediate reaction was to get in between the both of us and protect me.”
Brex only looked away with a slight blush on his cheeks as he said underneath his breath. “My body just moved on its own... All I could think of was that she was going to hurt you. Before I knew it, that happened.” When he was saying this, Rory was giving him an inquisitive look over, while raising one of her eyebrows.
Rory released Brex and went around him. Afterwards, she got right up to the image of Celestia and began to encircle her while glancing back at him every few seconds. Because of this, he began to feel more anxiety as time went on and when she got a little closer from time to time, he felt himself trying to resist the urge to run over to grab onto Rory and take her away from the fake Celestia.
He then asked with a bit of agitation in his voice, after seeing her leaning in a little closer to the image. “Could you stop doing that. It’s making me extremely uncomfortable.” That was when Rory finally stepped away and approached him while swaying her hips. Brex was rather confused with her actions until she had finally come up to him and rest at both of her hands on to his bare chest.
While giving him a sultry smile and talking in her sultry voice. She said, “I really don't think you're scared of her hurting you.” Brex was pretty much a loss for words and couldn't really say anything, as his face contorted in confusion even further.
She then went on to say, while encircling him until she was directly behind, as if hiding from the Celestia copy. “You got really upset when I got closer to her. Even without reading your mind, I can still feel it. I'm beginning to think that this whole time, it's not you that you're afraid of being hurt by her. You're really scared of the idea of her hurting me.”
Brex began to feel a sense of dread rushing over his body. Along with an intense wave of goosebumps along his skin. His heart began to quicken and his eyes shrank to pinpricks. He was fully aware that he was having a slight anxiety attack of some sort, but was not breathing heavily or blacking out like usual. No, what Rory had said, triggered a fight or flight response. The very words that she uttered about her being the one that gets hurt by Celestia, echoed through his head.
He closed his eyes and began to feel the world around him shaking. When he opened them again, the image of the room began to warp, as if everything was being stretched and pulled down the drain of a bathtub as both he and Rory were being pulled through the bedroom door.
Before he knew it, he opened his eyes and found himself again at the front door leading to the outside of his imaginary house. Next to him was Rory, who was now fully dressed. He then noticed that he himself was clothed again. But this time, it was in an outfit he had not seen in quite some time.
(Here is a picture of his black gear here.)
Before either of them could say anything. The color wheel next to the door itself began to spin at a frightening rate. As each color went past the indicating pointer, there was a loud click that echoed throughout the house.
Soon, it landed with a sudden stop on the black color section of the wheel and held fast without anything else occurring. Brex slowly turned his now newly masked face towards Rory. At the same time, she did the same to him. And without uttering a single word, she tilted her head a few times towards the door to ask the silent question.
Rather hesitantly. Brex reached for the now ready doorhandle but stop with his finger tips only being a few inches away. He could hear his own breathing becoming much louder as it echoed unusually through the empty house. Glancing over, he looked to see if Rory was ready and saw that she too was looking rather unsteady. She then held on to his other hand and nodded before turning her gaze back to the door.
Seeing as she was with him. Brex went and grasped his hand around the doorknob and began to turn. There was a subtle clink of the door being unlocked. It began to slowly swing open. As soon as the smallest crack had been exposed, there was a blinding white light, that begin to shine through. Brex couldn't stop himself from opening it the rest of the way and this caused everything to go completely white and his senses began to fade.
When any kind of feeling returned to Brex, he had this odd sensation that he had just walked into an open oven. Which was really weird, seeing as he hardly felt anything being hot or cold to him for a quite some time. Slowly the surroundings, which were completely bathed in white light, was beginning to recede.
Within moments, the ground became visible and showed that it was covered in patches of burnt grass and deep holes that were scattered about. Then came the buildings off in the distance. Those were comprised of worn-down stonework. At first, those were hard to make out, but were quickly revealed to be those of the stone walls belonging to the castle of the two sisters.
As the environment became more accessible to his sight, Brex could make out the morning sun that was high in the sky. There was absolutely nothing happening with what he could tell. There wasn't even a single soul, nor was there any sounds from either the wind or the forest nearby. The whole thing gave off the feeling of a scene that was paused in a single moment in time.
Brex then heard a few steps being taken from behind and whirled on the spot to see Rory standing there with a blank expression on her face as she looked around. As she got closer, she began to ask in a somewhat reluctant tone, “Master… Y-You don't suppose this is your memory of that time, do you?”
Brex took another quick glance around and noticed how there were those holes with the nearly reflective glass surface around the edges that could have only been creative due to extreme heat. Without so much as turning in her direction, he answered with, “I believe so.”
As soon as he had sent those words, did the entire place begin to glitch out. Every other moment appeared as if the zone was flipping back-and-forth, to that of an empty area, then to one that was in the middle of an event. The air would be clear one second, then filled with smoke and debris the next. During all of this, Brex could distinctly hear the sound of static from a television set with whatever change that occurred.
There was a sudden, head splitting headache that began to come out of nowhere. It caused Brex to grab onto his head with his left hand out of reflex. Obviously worried by the looks of things, Rory quickly asked him, “Master, what's wrong?!”
While Rory was talking, Brex was beginning to feel other sensations that were beginning to creep into existence all over his body. His right arm began to feel as if it was on fire. Every breath caused his lungs to scream out for water. All over, he felt searing pain, while in others, he couldn't feel anything at all, aside from a hauntingly cold sensation. He was even positive that he began to smell what could have been burning meat on the air. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, but the way it smelt, caused him to nearly vomit in his mouth.
There was suddenly a loud shriek of horror. When he turned towards its direction, he found it to be Rory, who was looking at him with object horror. She was now covering her mouth and tears were beginning to flow from her eyes as she looked upon him. Rory was visibly shaking at this point and when Brex tried to lift his right hand to try and get her to calm down, he found out it was crumbling. The clothing and was slowly beginning to burn away.
His eyes went wide as dinner plates behind his mask as he witnessed his own arm slowly being eaten away by the flames, as his flesh melted and was now turning into black, charred remains. It didn't take long until it progressed further and became ash. It only stopped when it got just passed his elbow. Leaving only a charred, blackened stub with bits of bone that could be visible and poking beyond the chard pits.
Brex wanted to scream right there, but was unable to due to his lungs that we're not responding to his need to vocalize his displeasure. Rory had practically broken down from all of this and was now down on her knees, while slowly shaking her head to show that she did not want to see what was happening to him.
Back in the past, when he started to remember bits and pieces about this event. There was just enough to piece together what had actually happened, up to a certain point. At the time that the event was occurring before. Rory was unavailable due to what Celestia had done to his body, which interrupted their connection. So, even though she was told of what had happened and gotten to see a few of the images. This must have been as bad as seeing it for the first time.
Through clenched teeth, Brex managed to wease out a few words that were mostly garbled due to his damaged lungs. In a way, he vaguely sounded similar to one who was attempting to speak through a respirator with how every breath sounded overly labored. “Rory...*Huff* This already happened...*Huff* Close... Your eyes...*Huff* If… it's too much...”
He paused for a few seconds to recover his breath before continuing. “Need... To finish...*Huff* Need to know...” Rory was holding back the tears as she silently nodded to what he had said. Instead of closing her eyes, she had a look of resolution to show that she was not going to leave him alone and witness what they had both been denied the knowledge of.
As Brex saw this, he began to feel how his body was moving all on its own. His movements were sluggish. It would seem that whenever he attempted to gain control, it only resulted in him slowing it down by a fraction of the original speed. Soon, he found himself standing in a familiar spot that he had gotten from one of the memory fragments.
His left arm was held out to his side, in a welcoming gesture and he began to see how the sky was being filled with another sun being formed. In his mind, Brex began to notice how his thoughts we're beginning to separate with how he can hear himself thinking something else in the back of his mind.
Those background thoughts began to take over his existing ones. Before his current thoughts were taken away, he thought to himself. “Looks like this is take two... Couldn't make this any easier on myself and just show me huh... I have to go and go through the whole thing again... Just my luck.”
From then on, Brex had to go through his past by reliving all over again. He was now completely replaced by his previous self and was having to endure all the pain for yet another time. Not even his resistance to heat or cold matter at all right now, seeing as they were gifts that were bestowed upon him later on.
*Point of view: Rory Mercury*
From Rory’s spot, she watched as the entire set of events played out. From her Master being fully prepared to take the blunt of the next hit. Which consisted of a giant, flaming ball of death that was currently being hurled in his direction from up high in the sky.
There was then the sight of the girl she knew called Shadow Lily, coming into the courtyard and beginning to rush over to her master after seeing him in such a state. This was proceeded with him rushing to her aid when she had finally figured out that there was danger and was unable to get away and covering her face in fear.
Just as the colossal sphere of fire collided with the ground. Rory’s Master had raced across the field and had already placed himself in a position to act as a barrier to protect Shadow Lily. When the wave of power finally struck him, Rory had to resist covering her ears as she beard witness to the sight of him getting hit with not only the searing heat from the blast, but the concussive force that was brought fourth. There were also the haunting screams that she knew would forever be etched into her mind as he screamed in agony at the top of his lungs.
It took everything that Rory had to prevent herself from just running over to his aid. But knew all too well, that it would have done nothing, as this was not a dream, but a memory. This meant that it couldn’t be changed. One of which, that had to be played out to the end.
All that she could do, was hope that whatever was to come next, would have her master walking away from all this without any more scars to trouble him. Also, she strongly hoped that he would mess her up good for what she had put him through.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia* *Location: Princess Celestia's bedchambers*
Right now, Princess Celestia had finally managed to go to bed after a long day of dealing with the nobles that were giving her an annoying earful after her little mishap with neglecting to wake up on time and bringing up the sun. This was after staying up all night before to listen to the music box repeatedly, for what seemed like hundreds of times.
Tonight, she was going to try and get a good night rest in order to catch up on the missed work that was put aside for calming her pony’s fears that a late day had caused. Which was not something that she was looking forward to doing. She honestly wished that her subjects would not overreact two small things such as that. Just as the alabaster mare had fallen asleep, she began to dream of a distant past.
It began with her and her sister as foals. Quickly, it progressed to them being in their teenage years. These were thoughts that had not been seen in her dreams for what seemed to be many, many years. She cherished each and every one of them that came up. Just as Princess Celestia was about to move on to another memory of her sister, did the world begin to crack and the floor beneath her hoofs gave way for her to fall into an empty blackness that stretched out to no end.
The princess of the sun screamed at the top of her lungs at the sudden unforeseen change in scenery. Where she was once in her nightgown, which consisted of a one piece that barely made it past her knees and hanged off her shoulders with thin straps. It was barely able to hide her form underneath with how thin it was. Was now replaced with something that she had not worn and quite a long time and had no desire to pull out of storage.
What she was wearing now, her battle armor that had been stored away and not seen the light of day for nearly hundreds of years. Gone was her usual regalia and dress, only to be replaced with a set of golden armor that covered much of her form and shined in the sun.
Intersecting plates and layered sections allowed for quick movement, while at the same time giving ample protection. Her wings themselves were left free, aside from the stretch of sectional golden plates that went along the base of her wings that were meant both for protection and as a weapon if used correctly in a slashing motion.
The only spots on her body that remained uncovered, was her face, horn and a small area of cleavage to be shown on the chest. In her left hand, she was now holding a long golden spear that was taller than she was when setting the blunt end on the ground. Where the tip should have been, was a flat depiction of a golden sun. There were sharp blades encircling it and a single one that was at least a foot and a half long, that was shooting straight at the top.
When she looked around, Princess Celestia quickly determined where she was, and her face fell. She was at the old castle. Fresh battle scars from what she knew to be her own spells being fired could be seen from where she was high above in the sky. She was so far in fact, that if she was to take her thumb and index finger, she could place them in front of herself and pretend to be squeezing the entire complex between them.
She began to breathe heavily as her eyes went wide and her pupil shrunk to pin prix. She began to speak in a hurried and distraught tone as her eyes began to dart left to right and only stopped when they landed on her weapon in her hand. “No! No, No, No, NOOOO! Not this again! No, not again! Why am I plagued with this nightmare?”
She was now sweating bullets as she now knew of what was to happen. As she tried to wake up, she found that it was near impossible and her body was already beginning to move as if following a script that had been played out so many times by heart.
As her body made the movements to lift her free right hand into the air. A large amount of power was being condensed just above her palm as her horn lit up. Before she was overcome by the dream, she made one final plea before her frantic face turned to that of rage. “No… Not again… I-.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 36: Face, Please Meet My Shield.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Dreamscape* *Time: Real world, unknown. Dream world, 800 years ago*
A blinding white light, was now blanketing all that could be seen after a powerful explosion had occurred. Even with there being such an event, it was still being dwarfed by the screams of a man who was dying, as his voice echoed on the wind.
His clothing was being ripped apart by both the concussive force and the heat that was comparable to that which could flash burn the flesh right off of bones within the time it took a person to blink. Only patches of his clothing remained while the exposed skin was turning black.
Behind him, was a small Earth pony, clad in white and gold armor. She was currently holding her arms up in defense while staring straight ahead at the one acting as her shield. Even with the bright lights, her eyes were still wide enough to show that she was showing fear. Fear not for herself, but for the one she was gazing at.
As the wall of white came ever so closer. Time itself seem to be slowing to a crawl. This progressed until everything had come to a complete standstill and the world turned into a shade of Gray. What should have taken no less than a split second to accomplish, was now being held back.
The figure who is standing with his one arm remaining outstretched, had his mouth wide open and eyes shut tight, while showing an expression of extreme pain. Any sound has ceased and all that remained was a slow almost imperceivable hum that echoed through the scene.
From out of nowhere, the sound of chimes began to grow until it became a chorus made of crystals colliding with one another and a melodious fashion. A set of words echoed among the strange sound and repeated a number of times, with but a small gap in between. Each time, it was said, the voice came out as though it were from an angel. These words were, “Hear... Feel... Think...”
Without hardly any warning at all to be given, Brex had quite literally fell forward and began to stumble on his feet. In an attempt to stay upright, he flailed both of his arms until he found himself pretty much standing on only one leg, with his other legs sticking out behind him and both arms reached out to the side in a comical fashion.
When he noticed his position, his eyes went wide as he turned to the right and saw that he now had his arm returned and began to pull it to himself. Only to begin kissing it in the same way that one would when meeting a long-lost love.
After he was finished, he noted that the world around him had become completely dark and not even the ground was visible. Turning on the spot, Brex tried to gauge what was happening but found nothing at all. Nothing besides seeing the image of himself from only moments ago and still in the same pose with his face still contorted in a scream.
There were then the light crystal chimes coming from behind and when he turned on the spot, he found himself staring straight at a large crystal that was easily twice his size. That was comprised primarily of light blue and white colors as it slowly rotated in the air.
He was just now opening his mouth, but found that the words were stuck in his throat. He couldn't quite place what it was, but something about this crystal seemed oddly familiar to him. A certain name was right on the tip of his tongue, yet for the life of him, he could not go any further than the thought itself.
The same voice from before rang out as it said the following words in the same broken sentence. “Here… Feel… Think.” He soon found himself walking towards the crystal and reaching for it. When is hand's fingertips finally made the slightest of touches, the Roegadyn begin to hear the voice once again, although this time, it sounded far more clear to him.
It came out motherly as it said, “My voice has finally reached thou. For so long has it gone unanswered.” Brex found himself deeply confused and began to ask, “Who are you?” There was then a long stretch of silence that caused him to feel that he had somehow caused the situation to become rather awkward in a way.
The voice soon came back and said, “The passage of time has worked its magic. Does thou not remember my voice?” There was yet another stretch of silence before she spoke again and said, “Not much time remains. I have but a gift for thou. What it will be used for is not my choice.”
When she had finished that last line, a small fragment of the crystal broke away and was now floating mear inches away from his face and was giving off a faint, green and bluish-white glow. While staring up at it, Brex felt the urge to want to hold on to it but decided not too. He then asked, “Can't you tell me your name, who are you? And why are you doing this?”
The large crystal then began to move away at a snail’s pace. During this the voice came again and said, “Thou art the only one on this world who knows my true name. My strength grows weak. As for the last question, it is one that I cannot answer.”
The crystal was now easily over fifty meters away as it was gaining speed during its words. Just before it went out of range to disappear into the darkness, Brex heard it say one last thing as its voice was beginning to echo into the darkness.
“Thou hast a choice. The gift is but a fragment of the past. Time is required to attune to the gift. Forego it's use and make it thine own, or use it now. But in risk losing the power...”
Brex tried to call out, but no matter what he did, he got no further response. Trying to wrap-around what was said, Brex began to pace back and forth on the non-existent ground while still keeping an eye on the shard that remained in place. The way it just hovered there and only moving a few centimeters as it bobbed, gave him the impression that it was waiting for his answer.
After stopping in front of it, he began to say to himself, “OK, so from what I gathered you are some form of power that I can use?” Out of curiosity he was about to poke it but pulled his hand away out of fear of inadvertently tapping into what it had to offer from what the voice said.
He then went on to continue saying, “So, if I don't use you, then you're mine for good later. But if I try to use you right now, then there's a chance that it'll go away?” His eyes shifted between the object and his past form. What had happened only moments before he ended up here began to flood his mind and his eyes went wide with understanding.
Slowly he turned back towards the shard and began to mumble, “Does that voice mean that if I use this now, I can save Shadow Lily?” The image of the young mare’s face flashed into his head for but an instant. The fear she displayed was able to edge itself into his mind permanently and he found himself clutching both of his fists tightly.
While turning his gaze towards the ground, his eyes became hardened as he began to let out a hate filled growl. After, he threw his head back and started to scream at the top of his lungs into the void.
As he did this, the void was instantly blown away to reveal the world again. It was still frozen and tinted blue, but he was able to see everything. Well, everything aside from the girl that was wearing a set of clothing made up of black and red colors, who is standing a short distance away, while looking at him with interest.
He then yelled out, “A CHOICE?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??!! THERE IS NO CHOICE! DO YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT I AM NOT GOING TO USE THIS TO HELP HER??!! I DON’T KNOW WHO THE FUCK YOU ARE, HELL I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHO I EVEN AM! BUT IF YOU THINK I’M JUST GOING TO STAND HERE AND NOT TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE THE ONE CHANCE TO SAVE EVEN ONE SINGLE LIFE! THEN YOU GOT ANOTHER THING COMING!!!!”
He quickly ran over and snatched up the glowing jewel in his right hand. When he increased his grip, the Roegadyn could feel that it shattered, and those pieces broke down into even small parts until it was like sand within the grasp of his fingers. When his hand opened up, he found that the tiny fragments were flowing through his exposed skin and was entering his body.
This was followed with the Roegadyn dashing to his frozen form and taking a long leaping jump at it. This caused himself to quite literally, be pulled into the image and his vision suddenly went black.
An instant later, his eyes snapped open when the world began to move again. He was apparently still in the middle of his screen, but now, instead of it being out of anguish, it was more out of a blood curdling roar as he stared straight at the oncoming wave of power.
From within his very soul, there was a large elaborately decorated wheel that was color coated to represent all of the different Soul Stones. Most of which, were grayed out to the point that one could barely determine its colors. However, two were brightly lit up and at the very end of the color wheel. These were the images of either the Paladin or the Ninja Soul Stones. It was the latter that was at the very top and being pointed towards by a large gold and red colored arrow.
While the Paladin Soul Stone was near the four o'clock position. At first the wheel was completely still. Then it began to jerk in place. It appeared that there were multiple clamps holding the wheel in place and they happen to me evenly spaced around the edges and holding fast.
Soon, there was a stream of blue that was comprised primarily of the crushed crystals from earlier and they were flying toward the stone representing the shield for the Paladin. As the amount of the crystals flew in and were absorbed, the light that it was giving off was getting stronger in direct response.
When it seemed that it was all being deposited within, did the stone begin to show signs of pulsing. A few seconds later, there was the sound of creaking metal and a large wheel began to rock, almost vibrating at a reckless degree. Immediately, cracks began to form on the clamps as blue light shined through the gaps.
One after another, they shattered with a loud boom. With each new one being destroyed; it took less time for the next. When the last one was destroyed, the wheel attempted to turn clockwise but was stopped when the Ninja Stone that was at the very top was caught between the arrow and the wheel, seeing as it was currently equipped and he was technically in the middle of a fight.
The sounds of twisting metal began to fill the air as the wheel contorted as the center tried to spin. This kept going until the straight lines that led to each stone was now curving into a slight spiral. The Ninja Soul Stone wasn't faring any better as the grinding was causing it to splinter. The light that it was emitting before was fading, and when it had completely vanished, the stone shatter and sent pieces of itself into the black void with an all-encompassing sound of glass shattering.
With the wheel now fully free, it rotated quickly until the Paladin Soul Stone was at the very top. Once it was fully situated in place, everything become blanketed with a sudden flood of blue vibrant flames that poured out in all directions.
“Point of view: Third Person*
Outside of Brex. His body was enveloped in the same form of energy that resembled blue flames. It started with them traveling from his chest, out to the rest of his limbs until everything was covered. Once that was done, his eyes began to shine and turn pure white as if showing that he was containing something within his own body that just begged to be let loose.
The tattered and burnt remains of his clothing, were now being replaced by shining threads of light that expanded until they became something different that was hovering just above his form. The objects then clamped themselves down before they started to reveal that it was a form of armor. It was a mix of white, blue and silver in color.
Some sections had solid plating, while others were a mix of chain male and scale male. There were even some bits and pieces in areas that were primarily covered with cloth. No doubt it was meant for decoration purposes more than defense. The more pronounced areas that were covered with mostly plate, where the shoulders, forearms and leggings. There was even a form of head gear that resembled that of a small gold crown going across his forehead.
((((This is a picture of his current gear just without his right arm and sword.)))
Brex was already wielding in his left hand, a shining silver shield that was giving off an aura that made it appear as though there was an overlaying layer that caused the shield to project a few inches more going out from the edge.
The next notable change, was how the color scheme of his hair had reversed. Instead of mostly black, with silver highlights on the ends. It was now a ghostly white that gave off a faint, ghostly glow and the ends were now black instead.
His brows were knitted firmly together as he stared straight ahead. In one motion, he shifted his right leg and slid it till it was just behind him now and brought up his shield to bear.
Within an instant, Brex started using a number of abilities one right after the other, with hardly any time in between. The first set were currently targeted at Shadow Lily. Who was still directly behind him. She was instantly wrapped in what appeared to be a translucent shield that curved along her form. Next, a bubble of green light was encompassing her in a dome that was just a few feet in diameter and a green tether was going straight back to Brex.
The next thing to happen, was his form being surrounded by a ring comprised of hexagon shaped, reflective panels that spun around his body before quickly enclosing and going into him.
This was proceeded with what appeared to be a set of sliding barriers that were slightly curved, coming up from the ground as they were facing through. As soon as the set of five were slid into place, they began to fade away and enter his body in the same way the other ability did.
A golden emblem that took on the shape of an elaborate shield appeared in the air before him, before dispersing.
What Brex had just been using, were a series of protection spells that focus around damage mitigation and the transference of additional damage towards himself, An added measure to assure Shadow Lily's safety.
As for the ones that were directed towards himself. They primarily focused on lowering incoming damage, increasing his blocking chance and the golden symbol was to assure that he was gaining the full attention of his opponent.
Shadow Lily who was watching all of this in disbelief. Seeing Brex suddenly dawning on a set of armor out of nowhere, along with there being so many types of spells suddenly being casted upon herself. This did not end as she bared witness to the one in front of her having a series done to him that was obviously different. What happened next, nearly caused her jaw to drop as she saw that something else was happening.
Brex, while raising up his left arm that held a shield. Suddenly erupted with more lights coming from his back. From this, shot out six blades of light, which then condensed into a solid form that strangely resembled wings. At the same time, the shield was emitting a cone that ran across not only himself, but along the new appendages, creating a barrier that prevented nearly all of the heat from getting past.
The ground that was just outside of this, was being torn apart and turned to black ash, while within they appeared to be perfectly safe.
Back up in the sky, Princess Celestia still had her hand pointed down, with her palm wide open as the left-over energy escaped her grasp that did not get fully funneled into the spell that was just launched.
She had a cold, indifferent expression as she watched as her spell ran its course. Within, she was thankful that she was able to launch such an attack and contain its blast radius to that of within the courtyard. Otherwise, her old home would have been completely destroyed.
As soon as the spell had reached its peak, it stayed that way for a good several seconds before it started to shrink out of existence. Princess Celestia was about to fly down to check on the damages. However, she stopped when she noticed something odd about the ground.
From where she was high up in the sky, there was meant to be a perfect, black circle. But there was a section that was in the shape of a triangle that caused what she saw to resemble that of a pie with a single slice missing. With her face scrunched in confusion, she narrowed her gaze.
It was hard for her to make it out, but there was something there that was giving off a strange light just within the clouds of debris that was kicked up. The next few seconds felt like hours while her vision was being cleared.
As soon as she was able to get a direct line of sight, her eyes went wide, along with her wings flaring out. There was a lump in her throat as she gripped on to her spear more tightly. There was something down there that was fully capable of withstanding her attack. This very notion caused her to start sweating.
Princess Celestia, while not making a move. Thought to herself, “H-How can this be possible? There should be no pony that could take on such a blast. None other than myself or my sister. Also, could my eyes be deceiving me... Are, are those wings I see? There is even this power. It was not there before, I’m sure of it. This is far worse than what I was told. Could it be possible that this truly is a leftover from my sister that I have missed. No, I cannot allow this… This thing to remain to harm my little ponies.”
To have both wings and magic like this. My sister must have attempted in making another Alicorn before her banishment! I must put an end to it now, or it will find some way to bring Nightmare Moon back!”
Back down on the ground, the skill that Brex had been using to shield them with, had run its course. The pulsing aura that was coming off of his shield had dissipated and he had stood straight up again while looking up at the sky.
Nevertheless, the wings that were meant to disappear, were still there. Instead of fully going away, they shrank till they were about two meters each in length. The six wings had condensed themselves even further and began to overlap until they created two solid ones with the swirling pattern in place of feathers.
In a way, it gave off a feeling that they were both incorporeal and crystal like in nature. Visible pulses of light were even traveling along it. Starting from the back and along the wings to the very tips.
From Brex's point of view. His heads-up display that he was always able to see, was fading in-and-out. This included his chat window, mini map, all of the icons that he could select through his mind, were all fading in-and-out.
Without any warning at all, two large pictures appeared side-by-side, right in front of his vision. They were the icons that represented two of his skills. One being the shield bash. This was depicted by a single, round shield. The other was the, Passage of Arms. That one was the same thing that he had just used not a moment ago, which depicted a man with a set of wings jetting out behind.
The pair of symbols began to rotate in place and proceeded to run into one another until they were fully overlapping. There was another bright light that was being produced by this and was nearly strong enough to cause him to close his eyes, but he managed to keep them open so we could witness what was happening.
When the brightness had subsided, he saw that there was a new icon being displayed in the center of his vision. It depicted a man slamming into the ground so fast that he was making a cone of wind. Brex could also barely make out that the figure was holding in front of itself a shield.
Right above it, was a set of words being displayed and text calling it, Holy Shield Crash. Underneath, was a row of texts that were being created. Brex began to read them as quickly as they were made and fully understood how this technique operates within seconds.
Custom class ability list: Holy Shield Crash, Deals Light damage with the potency of 1,500 plus any Damage taken by the User of this skill has accumulated within the last one minute. User launches themselves skyward above their target and with the use of both fused skills, Passage of Arms and Shield Bash. The target is then hit from above and is slammed into the ground with the Users full body weight with the aid of both light magic and non-elemental base damage.
The Roegadyn slowly looked over his shoulder to check on Shadow Lily. When it was apparent that she was just fine and had no injuries, Brex had to sigh in relief within his head. He then returned his attention to the attacker high above. With a voice that seemed to resonate as if going through a chamber of sorts. He spoke to Shadow Lily in the most calming voice that he had ever spoken with while around her. “Take… care.”
Brex took a crouching position while holding his shield ready. He then selected the new skill and felt the sensation of a new set of limbs stretching as they lifted him high into the air. The sound of pulsing energy and the low hum that was being given off by the wings, began to fill the air.
(Play this music, repeat as many times as you feel it's needed."
Inside, Brex thought, “Ouch! These things burn! I can feel the energy inside of them. They're ready to burst, they want to let it out.” The ground itself began to rumble as some of the loose gravel near his feet was tumbling around. The wind itself began to swirl as if being pulled into an unknown source.
Brex was sure that he could have heard something being said by Shadow Lily, but couldn't make it out over the sound of the wind as he shot off into the sky.
Princess Celestia was still lost in her thoughts when she saw Brex coming at her at an astounding speed that she thought was impossible to obtain. In a panic, she swung her spear until it was pointing straight at him and sent a burst of magic with her horn and into the weapon and shot a narrow beam of magic.
Just as the beam was about to strike him head on. Brex maneuver his form with little effort to essentially sidestep the oncoming spell. This created a momentary after image after he did so. While at the same time, not losing any momentum as he was still coming for the Princess.
Taking on a more serious posture, Princess Celestia prepared her weapon and fired yet another volley of spells. It began to seem as if the princess herself was literally raining down small shooting stars to the planet with her being the source with hardly any pause between shots.
Brex was dodging to whatever direction he could, while minimizing how much movement he was adding to each one of his evasions. A number of times he even had to do a barrel roll or a corkscrew to avoid one of her attacks. Only a few managed to strike him, but his shield was easily able to deflect them safely.
When he had gotten a fair amount closer, Princess Celestia began to panic and resorted to unleashing a large amount of magic into one more attack and fired it at nearly point-blank range. Brex knew if he dodged that, it would strike the castle below. He had no idea as to what would have happened to Shadow Lily who is still down there.
Taking the attack head, on Brex brought up his shield once more and braced for impact. When the spell had made contact with a shield, the Roegadyn felt there being a pressure trying to push him back. But it was so minuscule, that it had little effect on his accelerated speed. So, we ended up pushing right through the spell with his body.
On Celestia side, she could not understand how this creature, that was created by her sister, was able to dodge her attacks almost effortlessly. Not even Nightmare Moon could have done such a feat. She had resulted to using something with a little more power behind it, hoping that it would be big enough that it would be impossible to avoid.
She began to feel a smirk coming to her lips when she had finally struck with her powerful spell that had a fair amount more magic than the last blast she had used. But that quickly fell within a few seconds.
One would have thought that it would have been impossible, but Princess Celestia's face, somehow managed to turn paler, as her pupils shrink. Her spell had done absolutely nothing and had been forced to pop like some flimsy bubble.
She was still channeling magic into her beam, but Brex was traveling within it and showing no signs of stopping, much less slowing down. In a desperate attempt to defend herself, she had cut her magic and turned her spear to be held with both hands to guard against what was to come.
When Princess Celestia had stopped using her spell, Brex suddenly felt a burst of speed coming from his wings that propelled him even further than he had expected. Within a split second, he thought to himself, “Did she just power me up even more?” This was just before he slammed his shield into her spear.
When they had collided, it was made evident that the age-old question of which was stronger, The Spear or the Shield, was answered Immediately. The shield of Brex had, hardly felt a thing aside from a small thud. While Princess Celestia’s spear ended up snapping into two bits without showing any signs that had an effect on Brex and the collision had produced defining boom, that rang across the land.
While on the side of Brex, he knew that he suffered no damage, but he definitely heard something that resembled glass beginning to crack that quickly echoed in his head before going away as fast as it came.
Now, back to the fight. The two were now skyrocketing higher and higher into the sky after Princess Celestia was tackled with the shield. Her entire body was pressed up against some type of large, flat surface and the right side of her face was currently pressed rather painfully against it. She was barely able to keep her left eye open as she gazed off in the distance at how the ground was getting further away and a number of clouds were being passed by.
She attempted to move, unfortunately, she found that the pressure that was being pushed on her due to their acceleration, was keeping her pin in place. Her bones were screaming that they were about to be crushed and she had to fight from letting out a pain scream. She didn’t want to give this thing the satisfaction. Even her wings were useless as she couldn't even move them an inch.
Her horn tried to light up, but whenever any type of magic was gathered, it was pushed away and left her body as it was dragged away by the G-force. Similar to watching a candle that's trying to be lit, only to have it being blown away by a gust of wind and snuffed out completely. Inside her head, she was screaming, “JUST HOW FAST ARE WE MOVING??!!”
That was quickly answered when she saw how the blue sky was beginning to turn a little dark. Her left eye went comically wide as she realized that they were not in the shade of some cloud. They were so very high above them. Even though it was meant to be daytime, some stars were beginning to become visible.
From an outsider's point of view, they would have said that Brex had somehow managed to make the shield grow by creating a larger version of itself through magic that was just big enough for the Princess to be laid sprawled against. They had even been traveling so fast up, that they were beginning to enter one of the lower layers of their atmosphere and the sky was beginning to turn dark.
There was even a small trail of light being left behind in the wake of his flight has they glittered and faded after a while. Within just several seconds of colliding with the Princess, the pair of them had already gone beyond 100 Kilometers above sea level. This would be the limit to how far up an aircraft on Earth could travel before its systems failed.
Without any warning, Brex started a long arc until he was now turned back towards the planet. Princess Celestia, who was currently incapacitated, no differently than a bug stuck on a windshield, could do nothing but watch as her vision began to rotate until it was showing the opposite and they were now returning to the world that she thought they were about to leave.
If this was not some type of life-or-death fight in her eyes, then Princess Celestia would have been able to appreciate being able to see the entire world from where they were right then and there. But the thought of her eminent demise was on the forefront of her mind and she was internally screaming.
The wind was screaming past as they went through a cloud. The force of which they did so, caused it to explode so violently that it created a large open space in the sky from its shockwave that ended up clearing all the others out of the way for miles around.
Princess Celestia could just barely make out of the corner of her eye, that they were not heading straight back to the castle. Instead, they were going towards the South. Just outside of the Everfree Forest. As soon as they had cleared it, there was nothing but a rocky land that stretched as far as the eye could see.
They were currently coming at a steep angle and when they collided with the ground, they immediately began to dig a large trench as a slowly got deeper. It was easily close to two miles until they came to a sudden stop and were hundreds of feet under the ground. The force in which that they were crashing, had made a wide ravine that was filled with clouds of debris and rocks.
The shield like projection vanished and when Brex pulled his arm away. He found that the Princess was nowhere to be seen, all that remained, was the perfect shape of his enlarged shield and a slight impression of a person in the stone. A sudden flash of light resounded with a pop from behind him. There was then a golden aura that began to shine brightly.
Princess Celestia had endured crashing through solid Earth and as soon as they had stopped, she quickly used a teleportation spell to disappear and pop up just behind Brex.
Her armor had pretty much been ripped to pieces and a large portion of her form was exposed, with only a few pieces of her golden protection remaining. Her left eye was closed after apparently receiving one too many blows to her head. There was even a little bit of blood that could be seen coming from underneath her mane and running down the side of her head. What was left of her armor, was pretty much bent in odd angles and some jagged ends from where it was torn apart.
One wing seemed to have been messed up to the point that it was somewhat limping and dragging a little on the ground. Both arms were outstretched while she was giving him a death glare. She then funneled pretty much all of her remaining magic through her horn and into her hands. This was something that she hadn't done out of fear of causing collateral damage. But seeing as she had just gone through what she did, she didn't feel that holding back would do any good.
So, as soon as she had appeared behind him, she charged up all of her remaining magic into her hands and released it in one powerful, continuous blast. She had managed to hit him pretty much point blank on the back, right in between the wings.
His form became ingulfed in the light. The rock surface that was on the other side of him was blown apart and she can feel how her magic was borrowing through the ground until it finally erupted on the other end. That was nearly another mile or so away as it shot to the sky until dissipating in the distance.
The blast itself lasted a good ten seconds until she had finally exhausted her entire supply of magic. The very instant the last trickle had left her fingertips, she began to stagger and had to try everything she could to keep from falling onto her knees. She was panting heavily as her vision was becoming more difficult to keep straight. She had even released a few coughs from all of the dust in the air.
She stared directly ahead and saw the destruction her spell it caused. Clouds of dirt were currently kicked up in the air and were slowly dissipating. Within moments, she heard nothing and began to lightly laugh to herself that she had defeated something that her sister had no doubt had a hand in creating to harm her ponies.
She had taken on a more relaxed posture with her shoulders beginning to lower. But her eye went wide when she saw some figure slowly showing itself in the smoke. Her heart began to thump in her chest as the seconds went by.
Soon, it was revealed that it was Brex who was still standing in place and appeared to have not moved an inch, almost as if nothing had even happened. There was a slight golden sheen that shined off his body just before he became fully visible as the last of the clouds of dirt were dispersed.
Brex was quick enough and had used the skill for the Paladin class called, Sanctuary. This skill gives the user the status of being pretty much untouchable for a short amount of time. Only a few attacks would be able to bypass this ability and do damage. Thankfully, Princess Celestia's all-out attack was not one of them.
He began to slowly turn to his left. Before his face could be fully brought in the view, he thrusted it out his shield arm and swung it at such speed, that it caught Princess Celestia unawares as the shield was thrown straight into her gut.
She released a scream of pain as she was struck and some blood came out of her mouth. Her body lurched back with the force and was tossed several feet back, while the shield that was used to attack her, had mysteriously returned back to its user and was now being held in its grasp once again.
Princess Celestia could not bring herself to open her eyes due to the pain that she had just been given. She had used so much magic that her own body's physical limits were no longer being bolstered. So, all she had left was her unusual amount of strength and stamina that was afforded to those of the Alicorn race.
Brex watched as Princess Celestia was slowly trying to get to her hoofs after he had just thrown his shield at her. That was when he heard another series of small tiny cracking sounds emanating within his head. In fact, in his own vision, he began to see a tiny hairline fracture that seemed to follow wherever he turned his head. It was situated in the upper right half of his sight and it was giving off a faint white glow.
He then looked down to his good arm and saw that there were a few cracks that were similar to what was in his vision we're beginning to form on the armor itself. That was when he quickly thought to himself, “Shit! Am I going to self-destruct or something? Gagh!.. T-That... really hurts!”
He was referring to a sudden twinge of pain that started from just within his chest. It took pretty much all his willpower not to show it on the outside that he was beginning to feel as if his body was trying to rip itself apart.
Princess Celestia reached down with her left arm and grabbed on to something that was apparently hidden underneath a section of armor plates on her outer thigh. When she pulled her arm up again, she produced a dagger that was at least half a foot long that seemed to be created using a type of diamond. It glistened in the light and it was easily something that one could see through.
And apparently, a last-ditch effort, she rushed at Brex and while holding onto the dagger's handle with both hands. She tried to plunge it straight at the center of his body while lunging in with her whole body weight.
Not wanting to take any chances, Brex brought his shield up again and easily stopped the blade as it made contact with the center of his shield. This was then followed up with him using the shield bash move and quite literally, bashed his shield into Princess Celestia's body. There was enough strength behind it that it sent her flying yet again until she landed a good eight meters away and had skidded to a stop while on her right side.
The dagger that she was attempting to use to attack with, had shattered into small pieces and were scattered about. Some of which, were so small that they couldn't be distinguished among the rocks as soon as they got nestled in among them.
Princess Celestia got up onto her elbows and looked at him with clear shock evident in her eyes. She began to stutter in such a low volume that it was hard to make out what she was saying. But he did catch a few bits here and there. About how it was not possible to break that blade.
Over with Princess Celestia, she was having a near panic attack. The dagger that she used, had been around for so long that no pony even knew its origins and it was proven to be indestructible. In the past, both she and her sister at tried their hand in doing so, but hardly made even a single scratch. It was apparently created long ago by a race that no longer exists and the material used in its construction could not be found anywhere else.
If that wasn't bad enough, when she needed it most, it was useless and was easily destroyed by a simple shield. A shield that looked the same as either iron or silver, which made it even more unbelievable. She began to think to herself in a rushed thought, “Just who is this? Did Nightmare Moon really create such a beast? How did I not know of its existence? Is it possible it has been growing in strength this whole time and it was hiding? No, I can't allow it to survive! I have to do everything I can for my ponies!”
Seeing that she didn't have much of a choice, Princess Celestia gathered what strength she had in her body and was able to cast just one more spell. This one would allow her body to push past its limits. The only problem was, with her own magic supply nearly depleted, all she could do was draw upon her own life force.
With a sudden burst of speed, she got right up to Brex and threw back her right fist before thrusting it forward to strike him in the chest. She was so focused on her attack that she paid no mind to what the creature's appearance was and solely went on the offensive and added a near endless series of punches to the same area.
Princess Celestia’s arms nearly became a blur as she swung them repeatedly. Each impact caused a noticeable shockwave to appear that was visible to the naked eye. When she had landed at least a good forty to fifty blows, did she finally pause to catch her breath.
The Alicorn simply stood there in shock while breathing heavily. The being that she was attacking had not made any motions at all to defend themselves. In fact, the armor itself seemed to have suffered no apparent scuff marks at all from her relentless assault.
Wanting to go at it again, she channeled a little bit more of the spell and went right back in. Her first punch was obviously the strongest with there seeming to be some sparks covering her arm, but instead of faltering or slowing down, she went at him at a greater pace than previously done.
With Brex, he was actually beginning to enjoy the scene as he felt that the Princess was unable to even do any harm. Instead of retaliating, he just stood there and took the barrage. To the Roegadyn, each of her fists felt no different than getting a slight tap on his body and it hardly even registered. Apparently, whatever was being done to him from within, had strengthened his body to the point that he wondered if not even both of the Princesses would have been able to cause him any pain right now.
What the Princess did next, had pretty much pushed the last of his buttons when she screamed during her second wave of punches. Clearly in a panic induced state, Princess Celestia screamed that the top of her lungs while having eyes that just demanded that she wanted him dead. “JUST DIE! WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE! I WON’T LET YOU HURT MY PONIES! YOU SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN ALLOWED TO BE BORN!”
There was something about her using the words, die and shouldn't have been born, that ended up causing Brex to figuratively see red when looking straight at the princess.
He then lunged forward with the use of his wings and caught Princess Celestia on the other side of the shield as he threw it out Infront of himself. Their momentum had not slowed down and the wings on Brex's back had flared up once more. This time, they shot along the bottom of their dig site and were now heading straight back into the Everfree Forest.
Within the course of a minute, Brex had used Princess Celestia's body as a makeshift plow and was rushing through all of the trees and rocks that were in their path close to the ground. Whenever they had gone through either a large boulder or any of the trees, Brex would hear the princess letting out a pained scream after a loud thud was made.
They had even crossed a river and Brex dived down just below the surface. When they had gone to the other side, the princess was used again to grind along the floor and became covered in its mud. Fortunately for her, a number of trees and other rocks were more than willing to help with scraping some of that mud off as Brex continued on ahead.
Soon, they found themselves exiting the tree line and the castle of the two sisters was within view once more. The pair had bashed their way through a set of castle walls and nearly caused that section to collapse.
By the time Brex stopped, he threw Princess Celestia from his shield and onto the ground. He found them both sitting in the middle of the large crater that was made from Princess Celestia's first, all-out attack.
Seemingly to have lost control and clearly had enough of the princesses talking, the Roegadyn brought his shield up above his head and threw his arm down. Just as he did this, the voice of Shadow Lily came calling out from the edge of the deep hole they were in.
Brex, after hearing her voice, instantly stopped his arm that was in motion. If the girl had waited for even a fraction of a second longer, than it would have been too late. Brex had the shield at an angle where the bottom of it was poised to take off the Princess Celestia's head at the neck. In fact, if the Princess was to move her head by even an inch at that very moment, then the sharpness of the shield would have un-doubtedly cut into her skin with how it was already touching her short fur.
Shadow Lily had managed to yell out, “Please don't go any further! I know what she did is wrong and you have no reason to trust us, but she isn't a bad pony. I'm sure that this is just one big misunderstanding. I know that my Princess would never hurt another innocent being. I know we have hurt you, could you forgive her and let us start over?!”
Over with Princess Celestia. She was in unspeakable pain as every part of her body desperately screamed for medical attention, even her horn felt as though it was about to snap off. She was quite literally used to make a path from the edge of the Everfree Forest to her old home. She was sure one point, a short river was even made.
There were bits of bark embedded into her left-over pieces of armor and some had even gone into her flesh. Rocks, mud and other things from the forest where caked all over her form and her mane was a complete mess. It had even lost its ethereal sheen and was on the ground, motionless at this point.
She was without a doubt, utterly terrified that she was at the mercy of this creature. And when she heard another pony's voice and she looked over, her heart skipped a beat when she saw that it was one of her guards.
Princess Celestia was about to call out to her to run as she started to outstretch her weak hand towards the mare. Her voice was seemingly gone with the amount of pain that she was enduring. However, what she heard from this one mare, had caused her thoughts to come to a sudden stop.
She didn't quite understand why was she being made out to be the one in the wrong. This thought was clearly plastered on her face as she looked dumbfoundedly towards the other mare that was sticking up for her.
Shadow Lily had approached them both and was within a few feet away before she reached out a hand and gently placed it on top of the shield. Her fingers then gripped onto it and began to lightly tug upwards and away from the Princess.
Celestia was even more confused when she felt the item being pulled from her neck. She then thought to herself, “How did she stop it? ... And what is this about hurting another innocent being... Does she truly mean myself? But... But that can't be. If what this mare says is true, then I… I... Oh no… W-What have I done?”
That was when her eyes roamed to the left and saw how there was a small stub where its right arm should have been. On closer inspection, it was noticed that there were some charred, black bits that could just barely be seen.
With Princess Celestia putting it all together, she came to the quick conclusion that she was really the instigator and what she was told about the two guards being taken away was false. She had attacked an innocent creature and not only that, she was responsible for it losing an arm. When this ran through her head, Princess Celestia began to swell up with tears in her eyes. Even the pain she was feeling had been dwarfed by the growing gilt.
Before her thoughts could go any further, she ended up convulsing and coughed up some blood from her mouth. Shadow Lily saw this and immediately crouched down and began to look over the Princess.
Princess Celestia could hear how the mare was mumbling about her condition, but was unable to pay much attention. Her eyes were currently fixated on the being that was standing proudly over her with the sun just above his head. Due to the way that sun was angled, Princess Celestia was unable to get a good look at his face with how it was covered in the shadow of her sun.
However, their eyes were glowing brightly. With the way they appeared, she couldn't help but to think that she was being looked down upon with judgmental eyes. Eyes not filled with anger like how she had expected. But instead, she had this feeling of deep disappointment radiating from them.
To Princess Celestia, having such a look directed directly at her, was worse than anything she could have ever felt, aside from what happened with her sister. She had hurt another living creature that did not deserve it. What had happened to her was simply a course of retaliation and defending themselves. She was the one that attacked without warning.
This revelation was interrupted with another coughing fit that was accompanied by even more blood splattering onto the ground and along her chin. Her once pristine white fur was not only ruined by the fight, but was also stained with her life-giving blood.
Her vision was beginning to get a little blurry at this point. However, just as she felt that she was about to pass out, did her body begin to warm up with a pleasant feeling of warmth. She had blinked a few more times and when her vision was fully restored, she found that her whole body had been miraculously healed as if the fight had never even occurred.
Princess Celestia tried to find the source that would have caused such a thing to happen and found that the one that she was fighting had their shield nowhere to be seen and their left hand was opened towards her. In the center of its hand, was some fading golden specks of light.
She was about to say something, but there was a large number of cracking sounds that began to fill the air. Her ears swiveled as she tried to hold herself up with her elbows. It didn't take long before she zeroed in on its origins and realize that they were coming from the one in front of her.
Visible, white cracks began to spring up all along its form. Some were giving off a pale, white glow. While others were shining like a beacon. She watched as it raised one of its arms up to be brought closer to their face to examine the cracks that were forming on the palm.
Back with Brex, he was not doing so well right now. His body, quite literally felt on the verge of exploding with the amount of pressure building up. Even the aura around his form began to flare erratically now and then. This had even caused Shadow Lily to take a step back in caution.
Shadow Lily then asked, while looking extremely worried, “What's happening, what's wrong with your body?” She was about to reach out and touch one of the spots that was emitting some light. However, Brex quickly took a step back to gain some distance. The mare was taken aback by what he had just done and appeared to be on the verge of crying.
The Roegadyn merely shook his head slowly. While doing this, there was the sounds of even more cracking coming from him as a number of new ones appeared. He then turned around and proceeded to take several more steps away. Once he was far enough, the wings on his back flared up again and he took flight.
Unlike the previous time, there was no sudden acceleration. Instead, it was a gradual rise in speed until he was just high enough to be considered above the clouds.
Princess Celestia, who is still recovering and trying to come to terms with what just happened. Watched in confusion as the apparent winner of their fight was leaving without saying a word. She began to squint her eyes so that she can keep track of it, but all she could see were these apparent chunks of white light that were breaking away from its body.
Suddenly, she felt a powerful surge of magic that was far more than previously given off during their whole fight. The sky began to glow from a single spot. Then, a large ray of light had suddenly expanded. It was comprised of white and blue, which filled everything within sight with its glow. This was soon followed with an ear-splitting boom as it was to signal the start of a rain of white, stars shooting that crossed into the four corners of her vision.
It was apparent that not any of them were going to make it to the ground, as they quickly vanished after a short time. That was when the dream suddenly went white and both Celestia and Brex were released from there forced recruitment of playing out the scene of past events.
Over back in the waking world. Princess Celestia shot up from her bed while letting out a loud scream. Both of her hands were clutching at the bed sheets for all they were worth. Her face was dripping with sweat in her eyes were looking straight ahead and threatening to release the water works. She was breathing heavily with her mouth half open.
Not even a second later, the sounds of knocking echoed into her bedchambers as a guard was half yelling through the door. “My Princess! Are you OK in there?! I heard a scream!”
As she steadied herself, she quickly called out by using her typical, motherly voice. “All is well. It was merely a bad dream, please return to your post.” This earned her a respectful, “As you say my Princess.” Before he went back to guarding her door just on the other side.
After a small amount of silence ran through the room. Princess Celestia found herself cupping her hands over her face as she silently began to weep into them. Through her quiet sobbing she managed to say, “What could the reason be for having such a horrible dream… After all this time? … I-I’m so sorry…”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
After the dream came to an... explosive end. Brex found himself opening his eyes and standing in the main room of his dreamscape house once again. But instead of wearing his dark gear from back then, he was instead back in his boxer's, just like he was before the whole incident had started.
While staring off in a distance with a bewildered look on his face. The Roegadyn had his jaw almost hitting the floor. It appeared that he wanted to say something, anything really. But it was Rory who was the first to speak as she ran in front of him with an excited look on her face as she screamed, “MASTER! YOU REALLY FUCKED THAT BITCH UP!”
Rory was pretty much dancing in place with the way she was so excited about seeing the match. She then went on to describe what he was doing to the Princess and what a thrill it was to watch him plowing the her into the ground.
It would seem that even with the change in location, Rory was still able to keep up and watched everything play out till the very end.
It took a little while, but Brex managed to regain enough of his senses to finally speak up. While arching his right eyebrow, he said out loud. “So, that explains what they meant when they said they had to put me back together again. Geez… I wonder if that would have happened to me if I came to this world in the beginning with all of my Soul Stones? Daddy did say that I was unable to hold any more power back then.”
Still, seeing that Rory was still going on about what she had witnessed. Brex could feel his eyes getting droopy and a sudden wave of fatigue had suddenly come out of nowhere, which made him nearly stumble. Fortunately, Rory picked up on this immediately as soon as he had started to move oddly and rushed over to lend her aid keeping him up right as she got under one of his arms.
While now clutching at his head with his left hand, he was holding on to Rory with the right one while saying. I… I think it's safe to say that dream really took a lot out of me. I really need to get some rest before getting up in the morning...”
Without saying so much as a word, Rory assisted Brex in ascending the steps and into their room. Almost immediately the pair had climbed into bed with Rory snuggling up against Brex as he quickly dozed off into a deeper level of sleep.
When he came to again sometime later, he opened his eyes and found that Rory was still clinging to his form. However, much to his delight she had apparently removed her clothing and was completely in the nude while she was essentially straddling him with how she was laying on top of him from under the covers.
Feeling her chest pressing on to his bear one was beginning to get Brex rather excited. In fact, he could have sworn that Rory was touching him down there with her hands, but from where he laid, Brex could plainly see that they were currently being used to wrap-around his waist.
As he furrowed his brows, he took on an Intense thinking Expression. He then said to himself, “Okay.... If she's not doing that... Then, who? ... ... ... ... OH SHIT!!”
Without so much as a warning for the girl that was laying on top of him. Brex tossed Rory off so that she was landing near the edge of the bed. This earned him a startled welp from the girl as she quickly sat up with propping herself with her arms and gave him an annoyed face that screamed what was that for.
But her expression suddenly changed to that of confusion when she saw Brex jumping out of bed and leaping over the railing onto the floor below and rushing to open the front door. As soon as he had opened it, did his vision go white and he found himself blinking awake out in the real world immediately.
When he had finally gotten his bearings, he glanced down by lifting his head and found that both of the maids that we're sharing his bed were out cold. They were pretty much sleeping in the same way that they were last time. But they both had a hand on his crotch and were absent mindedly stroking his now growing member from just outside of the fabric of his pants.
The site caused him to completely go rigid and with his eyes going comically wide from behind his mask. A bead of sweat began to form on his brow. That was when Rory spoke up in a rather sleepy tone and said, “You know… If this turns out to be a reoccurring thing, we may have to look into training them.”
When Rory had finished saying the words, training them. What was going on below was showing a reaction and he had to try really hard to hold in an annoyed groan at what Rory had just done. He then thought quickly to himself, “I wonder if it's possible for a Roegadyn to end up having blue balls because of all this holding back...?”
This only got him an amused chuckle from the girl as she replied with, “And I keep saying that Master needs to fuck them~.”
After a little bit of back-and-forth banter between himself and the girl in his head. Brex finally got around to using his shadow movement ability to get out of yet, another compromising position. Although, the pair had made a small set of pitiful whimpers once he was away from their touch.
The rest of the morning pretty much went routine as usual, with all of those in the house doing their normal chores. That was until it got closer to lunch time and Brex was back in the library reading another one of the books that was apparently outlawed by the Princess. Brex had even gotten a little bored and began to scribble out a few notes on a blank piece of parchment with a quill he saw on the table.
Seemingly interested in spells that were deemed too dangerous, he was making some subtle corrections and a few changes to the formula to allowed to become more accessible and less volatile to the caster.
Just as he was in the middle of writing something else down, he felt a presence approaching the room and looked over his shoulder to witness Fleur De Lis coming through the door. Within, Brex was mentally cheering that he managed to get something through his own senses, instead of fully relying on Rory's.
He had fully expected her to be saying something along the lines of lunch nearly being ready and that she was coming to get him. However, what she really said next, had stumped the Roegadyn. As she approached, the Unicorn asked, “It’s been on my mind this whole time and I just can't hold it back anymore. But I really want to know what you really look like under there. Do you think I could see what you have hidden behind your mask?”
Brex was currently leaning over the office table within the library while Rory was sitting in one of the chairs when the question was asked. Honestly, he knew that question was gonna come up, but after all this time and not hearing it, it just came crashing down on him like a ton of bricks when he finally heard it.
For as long as he knew, all the females around him had only ever looked at him in terms of being a male. Not once had any of them requested to see his face or even know what his race was. In fact, it was apparently Blaze Caster that showed the most interest in wanting to know what his species is.
So, hearing Fleur De Lis asking, had caused his mind to come to a screeching halt. He really had no idea where this came from all of a sudden, but remained facing the desk while the mare was approaching and was now leaning her tail onto the very same desk at the opposite corner while giving him a look that just begged for an answer.
Brex always found it odd that he wasn't outed as some type of dangerous character with how he didn't show his face. However, he didn't exactly know how to answer the question in his current mental state.
After a few moments of silence, Fleur De Lis then went on to ask, I know it must be something important for you to keep it hidden. We just didn't want to intrude too much on your privacy. But when I heard about you're living conditions with Blaze Caster, along with him saying that he had no idea of what you look like, even with the two of you living together, it got me wondering.”
Just what race do you belong too and what do you look like under that mask? Also, what could the reasons be for not showing those close to you. I had originally thought that it had to do with the herd cults that have been trying to round up stallions. But from our discussion back in the park, you don't seem to have any fear towards them, so I ruled that out.”
“There are also those times that I have noticed you flinching whenever the princess is brought up in any discussions. But with you going to the palace, I doubt that you are in any trouble with her. Otherwise, why would you go to the very place that she resides.”
Inside, Brex was beginning to sweat bullets as he listened to Fleur De Lis checking off reasons one after another for his need to protect his identity. Out of all the mare’s that could have asked him this. It had to be the one that seems to know him the best, aside from Rory to an extent.
Brex then lowered his head slightly, while placing both of his palms onto the table after putting away the quill. He then closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them up again and turning his mask towards Fleur De Lis.
He then said in a low volume, as to keep their conversation to them, and only them. “Allow me to tell you a small story. There was a time when there was this one... Female, that was unlike any others. Her appearance would cause them to question who or what she was. At times, others would just assume it was some type of the deformity. However, it was her true face and among her own kind it was not that uncommon.
“You see, she was of a very rare race that was not normally seen. So, when it came to interacting with others, she would wear a veil to cover up most of her face. Now, tell me. Even if her appearance was already known to the public. What do you believe would have be the point of her wearing a veil now?”
The Unicorn merely looked a little confused while listening to the story. When it was finished, she had a look of concentration as she tapped her chin with her right index finger as her eyes looked up to the ceiling.
After a pause, she tilted her head slightly in his direction. While still facing the ceiling, she began to speak in a cautious tone. As if she was afraid of getting the answer incorrect. “Could it be that she is self-conscious about her looks? Maybe she's tired of being judged?”
Brex then Released a small sigh as he turned around and began to lean against the desk a little himself. While not turning in her direction, he said, “Those are some good answers. Most would assume those would be the right ones. However, in her case, it has to do with wanting acceptance. She doesn't really care about how she looks. But what she focuses on is how others feel uncomfortable around her. Thus is the reason for the veil. She merely wants to be accepted and not trouble others. In a way, it’s for them more so than for herself.”
“Now, as for myself. It would have a great deal to do with how this society reacts to those that they are unaccustomed. So, in a sense, you could say that I wear a mask to be accepted. Just like that woman in a story. He then released another, long sigh before adding, “There may be a day that I feel comfortable enough with removing it. But as of right now, I do not feel comfortable with doing so.”
That was when Brex began to let out a low chuckle as his shoulders began to shake just a little bit before he began to speak again in a rather jovial tone. “Do you know that you're the only mare who has ever asked me that for as long as I can remember? I swear, all the mare’s out there only care about, is whether or not I have a package down there. That says quite a bit about the current culture when it comes to males, now doesn't it?”
This got Fleur De Lis to look down as she turned partly away. He could see how she was holding on to her left elbow. She then spoke nearly in a whisper as she said, “I understand what you mean. With there being a substantial lacking of males, we mare’s tend to take things for granted and only focus on the gender.”
She then released a chuckle of her own as she began to speak in a more, lighter tone. “You really should have seen my reaction to Fancy Pants mentioning that he was in the guard once. I really thought in the beginning that he was like the other males and only thought of keeping themselves out of danger. But here was one that was willing to do the opposite. although he had the wealth to not do so from the beginning.”
Before the conversation could go any further, one of the other maids came in just then and informed them that lunch was ready. They then went and joined the rest.
When the meal was finished and Brex noticed what time it was, he informed everyone that they should all go out to the front lawn because something was about to happen and they would not want to miss it.
Earlier that morning, Brex had created another one of his body doubles and sent it in the direction of the School for Gifted Unicorns. There, it caught sight of Twilight Sparkle in one of the classrooms during the entrance exams. If everything was to follow what happened in the story, then what was about to occur within moments, was going to be quite the spectacle.
When the three Unicorns and the rest of the Changelings were out on the lawn, Brex turned to them and said, “Keep your eye on the skies towards the Northwest. Fancy Pants, while taking out a handkerchief to clean his monocle asked, “Just what is it we're looking out for?” To that, Brex replied with, “Oh, you're going to know it when you see it.”
Within his mind, Brex had linked himself to the body double to gauge when things were going to occur. At this point, Twilight had just come up and stood in front of the judges as a plant pot was placed on a table nearby.
At first, it seemed that things were going exactly the same as the show with how Twilight was having trouble trying to cast a spell while apparently being way too nervous. While with Brex, he was happy to see that she was there at all and taking the test. Considering the state that she was in when they last parted ways.
It had gotten to the point where she was apparently giving up and had gotten close to the window. As if on cue, a Sonic Rainboom was produced and coming from all the way over at Cloudsdale.
When she saw this, it surprised Brex that she wasn't startled like she was meant too, but instead, whirled on the spot and focused on the pot before channeling an explosive amount of magic. In fact, it was so powerful that it caused his body double that was waiting in the shadow realm to disperse when the wave of magic hit it.
Within the span of a few seconds, the following occurred that could be seen by all of those from the Fancy Pants Manor. The sky was filled with the colors of the rainbow caused by Rainbow Dash. The side of one of the buildings not too far away that could be seen just over the rooftops had suddenly erupted. This created a shower of debris as a large purple dragon with green spines could be seen standing just outside of the structure.
However, what was really surprising, was there was this magical wave that washed over pretty much most of Canterlot. This caused all of the outdoor plants to spontaneously bloom as their colors became more vibrant than ever. Even the air itself was riddled with these floating three-dimensional images of flowers and star patterns that were virtually identical to that of Twilight’s cutie mark. In a sense, the capital had become a wonderland of sorts with the lights and flowers blooming all around.
All of those around him were owing at the spectacle. With eyes wide as dinner plates behind his mask, Brex couldn't help but to wonder to himself as he thought, “Well, I sure didn't expect her to do this much. Just what got into that mare?! I know she's supposed to be powerful, but I didn't think she was this strong. And wasn't it supposed to be limited to the classroom?!”
Brex was a little more than worried over how powerful the spell was and if things inside the classroom were somehow escalated. He was about to create a body double while everyone was distracted, but stopped when he saw a figure in white coming out of the castle and making their way quickly over to the school.
He then thought to himself, “Well she's already on her way. Best not send one over now. Besides, she can handle what Twilight did. But still... I wonder what it was that got her to pump out this much juice. I suppose it's just another example as to why this Equestria is different.
After that, everyone pretty much stayed outside for a good twenty minutes and enjoyed the show. The only reason that they didn't stay longer, was how everything began to fade as the spell lost its strength over time.
During this period, the large dragon that had appeared was suddenly gone in a small flash of light. When it seemed that everything was over, everyone, including Brex went inside the manor once again.
No matter what he did for the rest of the day, he would constantly hear one or more of the Changelings commenting on the event. There was even one among them that posed the question as to how he even knew that something like that was even about to happen.
Fancy Pants had even inquired as to how he had predicted It and Brex replied by saying that he had something along the lines of inside knowledge of sorts thanks to a tip. This then got the Unicorn to laugh a little as he went on to mention that it would be nice to have that sort of knowledge when it came to business.
When night came along and they were currently sitting to another dinner. Brex made the announcement that he was going to be leaving in the morning and that Blaze Caster was to remain while he went to go and meet his potential business partner.
Of course, the kid protested saying that he wanted to tag along, but Brex was pretty firm in taking a stance that it would be better for him to socialize more while he was away for a day or two.
When they had gotten to that point. Fancy Pants asked, “Just where is it that you are going? If you're only going to be gone for that long, I suppose it's quite close by am I correct? If that is the case, then I am more than willing to come along as well and meet your friend. I do have an open window of availability right now.”
To this, Brex simply shook his head before saying, “Where I'm going needs to be kept a secret. I do hope that you can understand, but this is a very sensitive subject when it comes to his privacy. Also, I do have means of traveling long distances in a short amount of time. So, attempting to locate him through other means judging by my time frame of absence would not serve any use.”
That was when Blaze Caster jumped in while still having half a mouthful of food. “Yeah! Big bro can get anywhere, anytime he wants.” Internally, Brex scowled at the kid after realizing that he had not told him to keep that little bit a secret. This was obviously something that Brex was going to have to talk to him about later on.
Just then, he snapped his fingers and went into his item box. After reaching into his coat pocket as usual, Brex produced a red version of his link pearl. He then tossed it to Blaze Caster, who caught it with his magical grasp. After the kid brought the item closer to examine, Brex explained to them that it was a communication device that was directly linked to an identical one he had in his possession.
Right after, he then informed Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis, that it would be a good idea to be able to meet up at the desired location to show off where the build site would be. This suggestion got Fancy Pants to recommend staying the night over in the small town called Ponyville that was close by. This way, they can take the train tracks over there when it was time.
Brex was a little skeptical about whether or not a train could just stop in the middle of nowhere, but Fancy Pants had told him that there was a friend of his that was in charge of the railways in that area and borrowing a train would not be a problem.
It was then decided that instead of all of them going, it would simply be the three Unicorns, along with eight Changelings in total. While the meeting would take place, Blaze Caster would remain with a pair of Changelings to keep him safe, while he waited in ponyville for them to return.
Of course, for the task of protecting the kid, Brex had asked for Rin and Lin to be the ones to do so. Which got him some extremely, enthusiastic nods in return. It wasn't until then that Brex began to wonder about their attitudes towards him during that day.
He had this odd feeling that they were far more attentive than normal. Even going so far as being the only ones to even got near him from time to time. He had briefly considered that it may had something to do with them sharing their love, but dismissed it as them taking the rolls as his personal attendance very seriously.
When it was time to take a bath after having dinner. Brex was pretty much accustomed to what was going to happen next and waited a few minutes while in the tub. Then, just as he had predicted, both Rin and Lin came into the bathroom while wearing the same outfits that they did previously. As well as the blind folds. With being ready, the Roegadyn wasn't nearly as flustered as they began to wash his back thanks to there being a towel in reach.
However, there was still this blush on his cheeks as he tried to not look over his shoulder at them. Knowing full well that it would only cause him to have his emotions flare up due to such revealing attire.
It really didn't help him at all with how Rory was egging him into taking them as they were right then and there during the whole bathing scene. Of course, this ended up the same way as last time, with him leaving them behind and ordering them to not remove the blindfolds until he had left the bathroom.
When he had returned to his bedroom, he decided to just jump in the bed and head into the dreamscape right away to have a few words with Rory in private. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out like a light.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: The Dreamscape*
When he opened his eyes again, there was the familiar sight of Rory standing just inside of the door of his mentally constructed house. She was currently standing there with her hands tucked behind her back, while giving him one of her trademarked amused looks.
She then spoke up while giving him a wide smile. “I think you're getting along pretty well with those maids. Not even a hint of freaking out this time around when you were in the bath. I dare say things are progressing quite well. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Before she could go any further, “Brex reached over behind the girl and grabbed on to a piece of her clothing before he started to lift her into the air. She then had a rather shocked expression as she had unintentionally released a “Mew” sound, like one would get when suddenly picking up a small kitten.
She was then brought close to his face after dismissing his usual mask and clothing for more relaxed ones, which consisted of house shoes, blue jeans and a white muscle shirt.
While giving her a flat look, he said, “Rory, we've talked about this. However, I want to discuss something else.” This got Rory to nod quietly as her feet were slowly dangling a few feet off the ground and her arms were pulled in at the front like a set of paws.
He then continued with, “It has something to do with what we saw last night. I have no idea of what I saw was real, or some distorted version.” On that last bit, he had lowered Rory and adopted a worried expression.
After fixing her outfit a little bit and pushing down on the wrinkles. Rory looked up to him and gave him a questioning look as she replied with, “I'm not quite sure what you mean by that.”
As Rory asked that question, Brex had taken in a few more steps within the entry room and conjured up a sofa that could seat up to four people on it. It was decorated with a dark brown type of wood for the framework and the plushy sections and arm rests, were blood red color. Brex then proceeded to plop down on the center, with his arms laying across the top on either side.
Brex then laid the back of his head along the top of the couch and released a long sigh while closing his eyes. When he opened them again, he said, “I'm saying that I can't fully trust the dream, due to the nature of them when you're not in control.”
“A dream is usually made from whatever available information is stored in both the conscious and subconscious mind. Of course, this results in a distorted version that may or may not line completely up with events that one remembers.”
“That means that the things we saw may not have been entirely true. Hell, maybe more than half of that didn't even happen. Besides, I seriously doubt that I did that much to her.”
By this point, Rory had already came over and had skillfully climbed into his lap and snuggled into his chest. Because of this, Brex lifted his head to look down as he asked Rory, “Is there any way you can tell whether or not that dream was altered in any way?”
This earned him a response of the girl shaking her head while speaking in a gentle tone. “Master, I'm afraid I can't say for sure. It was all pretty much out of my control and I was as much of a spectator as you. I have no way of verifying if what was seen was the truth or some elaborate fabrication.”
This got the Roegadyn to release a small groan of annoyance before he said, “Then it's fully possible that I was fully prepared to kill Princess Celestia back then... I was seriously about to use my shield as an improvised guillotine to chop her head off. By the twelve... If it wasn't for Shadow Lily stepping in, then I would have done the deed.”
“Maybe I really was a monster in my old life. It's just that, in a dream… What she said to me during that fight, it just made me snap. Something inside of me just demanded retribution of some sort.”
That was when Rory spoke up as she looked up into his eyes. “Master, you are no monster. Yes, you needed some outside help to regain control. But it was your choice to save the princess from what she had done to herself.”
“She obviously had no magic left and she was tapping into her own life force to strengthen her body in order to fight you. If you hadn't used your Paladin's healing ability on her, then she would have died within a few minutes.”
Brex then reached up to his head with his left hand and place it over his eyes. While letting out what sounded to be another pathetic chuckle, he said, “Back when, this was just a game. I must have killed so many monsters and enemies on the other side. Let's not forget all the bandits.”
“I know I killed more than ten thousand alone because there was that achievement that I had for doing such a thing. Even after you converted my memories of the game to make it seem like it was real for me. It's hard to think that I'll have to do that eventually. Now that I have the strength. There's gonna be a time that I'll have to kill another while I'm in Equestria. Honestly, I don't know if I can really do it.”
Afterwards, Rory spoke up while cupping his face in both of her hands to get his attention. This also ended up getting him to uncover his face. “Master, this isn't like you're old world. This one follows the rules of both the show and the game that you got your body from. There are going to be really bad individuals that are not going to give you a chance.”
“Take that one mare who led the cult that we came across. You got to see first-hand what she was capable of. She was too far gone and would have tried to do it all again if she ever got the chance if we were to allow her to be imprisoned or even tortured to get her to change her ways. Someone like that has no chance of changing.”
“I'm really sorry to say it master. But I feel that you need to grow accustomed to the act of taking another’s life. Otherwise, it is going to only cause more suffering when the time comes and you're not ready to act.”
Brex had just opened his mouth and was about to say something, but Rory took her right hand and placed her index finger over his lips. That was when she continued on with saying, “Now I know that you're worried about losing control of yourself again. Just know that I'm here and I'll do everything I can to help you.”
“Also, please don't worry about me so much. Remember, I'm the one that’s here for you. I know that you are scared of the princess, yes but you are way more scared of the fact that she might do something to me and you need to not think about it.”
“I'm a strong girl and I can handle myself. Remember, you have a way of reviving. So even if she does kill you, you will just come right back. This means I will come back with you.”
“So, how about we talk about something else for now? Like I don't know... How you're gonna ask for Ryu for his help. Along with your apparent fear of that dark elf of his?”
The very mentioning of that woman had caused Brex to involuntarily pull his knees together and adopt a terrified expression that was also laced with a bit of premeditated pain. This led to them discussing a few small other topics before finally retiring to sleep.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Everfree Forest, Southwest corner* *Time: Three in the morning*
A lone figure could be seen from the back while sitting on an overturned log just before a roaring fire. They were at the moment, hunched over while apparently reading a scroll that was unfurled in front of them.
As the roaring flames filled the air with the crackling of embers, the individual could be seen as a pony with short, cut hair that resemble the buzz cut. Unfortunately, it was hard to make out their fur color and tail due to the poor lighting.
But it was plain to see that they are wearing sections of armor on their form that was nearly the color of black obsidian with how it shined from both the light of the flames and the moon above.
A short distance away, laid a crate made of a black material that was partially obscured by some branches laying on the top of it, while pushed up against a very large tree.
After a minute or so of reading this scroll. The pony then threw it into the bonfire. As it quickly burned to ash, the pony then reached down between their legs and grabbed something that was on the floor. When they pulled an arm up, it revealed a shoulder strap bag and open the flap and pulled out a square object wrapped in a black cloth.
After admiring it for a few seconds, the pony proceeded to carefully unwind the wrappings. Once the covering was discarded, it was thrown into the fire as well. The item in question was held up a little more and it revealed it to be a tome of some sort.
It was easily a three, maybe four inches in thickness. There was even a clasp that helped it shut. But what made it so unusual, was the decorations on the bindings and the coverer itself.
Instead of it being a type of fabric, or even leather. Instead, it was decorated with some very extravagant feathers. They were mostly white with some hints of green as it went further along. There was even what appeared to be a face on the front cover that resembled a Human woman. But the eyes were completely pitch black. There were neither an Iris or pupils to be seen, just a solid gaze that was similar to looking at a black pearl.
That was when the pony got up while holding on to both the book and the bag and proceeded to drawing a line on the ground that encircled the flames. While at the same time, placing a large chunk of what appeared to be a bluish crystal at equal intervals as they did so.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Fancy Pants Manor* *Time: Eight in the morning*
When Brex woke up, he found that his usual cuddle bugs were already in bed with him. Apparently, they took it upon themselves to sneak in and crawl under the sheets as he slept. Now, he was pretty much into the practice of immediately escaping their grasp by using the same old trick with going into a shadow.
After having some breakfast with all of them and saying his goodbyes, Brex found himself leaving the manor and heading out of the front gate while wearing his white robes with the blue hood.
(Here's a picture of his current gear. Just add the mask.)
He had already had a short discussion with Blaze Caster about keeping a few things to himself and that was the reason he didn't go straight into the shadows after giving his good byes as the members of the Manor were waving him goodbye.
As he was walking through the city of Canterlot, he began to ask Rory, “So what do you think I should do to pass the time before I head on over with that key that Ryu gave me? I need to eat up at least a day or so before that.”
Brex could hear Rory humming to herself while inside of his head and after a few seconds, he got a reply from her as she said. “Well, I remember you mentioning at one point that you wanted to install a basement in our cottage in the hills.”
There was a sudden gasp that came from her as her voice became more excited as she continued to say, “Oh! We should so turn that into a Sex Dungeon... Oh, I, uh mean, torture dungeon. You know, for whenever we need to, uh... interrogate someone Hehe~.”
Brex really had to resist the urge to hold a couple fingers up to his forehead and slowly shake it after hearing Rory's pathetic attempt at covering up her slip up.
While looking around, he caught sight of only a few stallions out on the streets and they were being escorted by at least two mare's. There were even a few that had up to six, maybe even seven.
Brex was a little taken aback from seeing this, even though he had been around for a while. But this site was still getting to him. It didn't help at all with the random gazes he was getting from some of the other females around as he walked.
He was pretty sure that if it wasn't for his intimidating size being a factor, then he probably would have been tackled by the first one that caught sight of him without a partner.
Finally, having enough with the looks that he was getting, the Roegadyn turned on a street that seemed a little less populated. After about fifty paces or so, it was apparent that this was one of the less traveled areas with how the residents were keeping their distance from one another.
After seeing this, he began to furrow his brow in confusion and took a better look at his surroundings. The street didn't really seem all that different from the others, aside from being less colorful. There were the houses, along with a few shops here and there. But it was one in particular that caught his eye almost immediately as his eyes were about to pass over it.
There was a faint, pink glow from some colored crystals that were lighting up a display window. Just on the other side of the glass, were a couple of mannequins that were wearing some rather provocative outfits that made it quite difficult to pull his sight from.
The one that was currently in the center and right before him, was wearing a tight corset and some fishnet stockings. There were even some decorative black cuffs and a collar that had some shiny stones that seemed to be embedded into the is material. The collar itself even had a small flat piece of metal in the shape of a heart that was dangling from a hoop.
The whole thing was in the colors of black and red. Brex couldn't help but to envision Rory wearing such an outfit almost immediately. That was when Rory immediately spoke up in an excited tone as she screamed. “Oh! Now that I really like. Although, it would need some minor alterations and let in a little, seeing as it's a size or two too big for me.”
Right as he was about to say something to Rory, did the shopkeeper in the store turn In his direction. Not wanting to be spotted by the mare inside, Brex quickly ran towards one of the gaps between the buildings. As soon as he was sure that no one was going to be able to see him, he jumped and fell into the ground as a whole formed.
As soon as he went in, BBrex could feel the sudden change in gravity as he was shot back out again. When his feet felt solid ground again, he blinked a few times and saw that he was now standing within his house that was located on the mountain top.
Rory then asked with a rather annoyed tone, “Master? Why did we have to leave?” This got him to reply by saying, “I don't feel too comfortable in that area. I guess you could say it's sort of like a guy walking into the lingerie section of a store and feeling way out of place. It was just, a little embarrassing...”
Brex could hear the exasperated sighing of the girl in his head as he explained why they left in such a hurry. Brex then went on to say, “I just didn't want to be seen standing in front of that store. It just felt incredibly awkward. Just think about it, a guy all by himself in a place like that? I didn’t want to be seen as some weardo.”
After hearing this, Rory then said, “Master, you really need to do something about your low self-esteem. Honestly, you sound like a teenager. I am sure that you'll gain your self-confidence once you've gone to bed with one of these mare's.” That last bit sounded extremely nonchalant.
Brex ended up letting out a loud groan of annoyance. While practically screaming, he held out both of his arms and said, “Rory! Could you please stop trying to get me to sleep with anything that looks in my direction! Do you know how incredibly frustrating this is? Of course, I find them all attractive. I may not know anything about my current body's physiology without any type of textbooks to read on it. But I'm still a guy!”
“You have no idea what length I would be willing to go through just to be able to hold you in my real arms?” That was when he reached up for his mask and roughly pulled it off and threw it to the far side of his house, where it slammed into the wall before clattering onto the ground.
While holding both of his arms close in front of him, he curled his fingers in a way that showed that he was about to claw at something if he had the long nails to do so. They were then thrown down out of frustration and Brex screamed while looking at a corner of the house that had no furniture. “I need to do something to take my mind off of it!”
This of course, started with him rushing over and tearing out a few of the floorboards with his bare hands to expose the ground underneath the house. This was then followed with Brex spending the next day and a half working on that basement that was mentioned earlier. If one were to be watching, they would say he was excessively going at it with a lot of anger.
Whenever he had started using either one of his sledgehammers or mining picks, it would be paired with a loud war cry whenever he struck at the Earth.
Not once had he exited the hole and threw whatever he didn't need down there into his item box to be disposed of later on. Brex didn't even stop for a break do have anything to eat, or to sleep during this whole time.
Whenever there was some solid rock in the way, he would easily pulverize it into dust. This would of course cause a small tremor that could have been felt on the surface. All the while, he would randomly say lines from some song that he was singing from time to time, although it was with an angry voice.
(Here is the song that he was getting the lyrics from.)
It wasn't until the next day that he had finally climbed out of that hole within his house. The Roegadyn was completely covered and dirt to the point that that he could have been confused for a rock Golem with the way his once white robes, were completely brown and his entire face was caked in mud thanks to the sweat he was building up whenever the dust landed on his skin.
After letting out a few coughs to clear out his lungs, Brex lumbered over to the front door and opened it and quickly slammed it shut the moment he was through the doorway. There was then the sound of something large making a splash as it went into the nearby pond.
This was Brex trying to get washed off after discarding all of his clothing that was apparently useless at the moment. Nearly an hour passed by the time he had gotten out after washing both his body and hair thoroughly of the many types of dirt and rocks.
As soon as he had put on his mysterious Butler attire, Rory began to speak up for the first time since their little discussion the day before. There was a weak chuckle before she began to speak in a cautious tone. “M-Master, I'm really sorry... But... Did you happen to get it out of your system?”
Brex began to slowly breathe in deeply threw his nose and released it through his mouth in a very, drawn out way. This was then followed with him giving a slow nod as he closed his eyes for a few seconds.
While speaking in a flat tone, Brex said, “I would rather not talk about that right now. How about we just put that aside and head over to Ryu's Place.”
Without even waiting for a response, he began to make his way over to the front door of his house and stood in front of it. His hand was held out in front with the palm pointing straight up. After a few seconds, a golden key had appeared and landed in the middle of said palm.
The key was gripped and placed into the keyhole and then turned. Once that was done, Brex took the key out and placed it back into his item box and slowly began to open the door. Instead of his house being on the other side, there was a dark room lit with some torches that could be seen from where he stood.
Right when he was taking his first step inside, did he mumbled to himself, “Let's just hope that things will go easy and I can take a breather. If not, then odds are I am going to need to beat up something to release this excess frustration...”
Right as those words were being spoken, the door was slowly closed behind him and gave off a gentle click when the door handle was released.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 37: His Bark is Worse Than His Bite. Part 1.
Chapter 37: His Bark is Worse Than His Bite. Part 1.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Mountain top home* *Time: Eleven in the morning*
Towards the mountains, just Southwest of Cloudsdale, was the small house built by the hands of Brex himself, that was hidden away in a secluded area on one of the many mountain tops.
The sun was just barely making it over the crest of the hill behind the building. As it rose high in the sky, it began to reveal the handmaid house nestled along the natural stone walls. Along with some shallow pools of water, that were not very far from the house.
For but a few seconds ago, did its owner arrive to his dwellings. Only to disappear within the house after closing the door. Not even a second had passed by before that very same door was flung open once again.
This time, instead of Brex coming out alone, did he have a guest that exited the building along with himself. After taking several steps out into the open, one could hear the Roegadyn letting out a content sigh after breathing in heavily and releasing the breath that he was holding for several seconds.
This was followed with him exclaiming in a loud voice as he held out his arms to either side in a rather dramatic manner. “Finally! I forgot how fresh the air is on my side. No offense to yours Ryu! But there was just way too much going on over there.”
Rory spoke up in his head as he finished with saying, “I’ll say. Master, I was worried that you were going to get sick from that foul air. How could Ponies even live like that? there were times I could see the air…” Brex replied by saying within his mind, “Their used to it. That was probably just another Monday to them.”
As soon as Brex moved out of the doors entrance. It revealed a big, bipedal black wolf. With a black gantlet on his right claw and an outfit style that was looking as if he had just come out a Fallout video game.
Ryu removed the gas mask to reveal that it was covered his long snout and gray short fur covering the rest of his face. The Wolfman then replied with, “None taken, Zaun is not pleasant for most people. Hopefully, it will be better with the new plants that Gar made.” He then asked, “Anyway, you said you wanted my help with some businesses you want on your side?”
After taking in a few more overly exaggerated breaths. Not unlike that of a person who had nearly been drowning out at sea. Brex replied by saying, “Yeah, you remember the character Fancy Pants, right?”
“Well, I'm on good terms with him and we wanna get a number of things going. I was thinking of using your Gobbler Farms and Brewery to make more that nonalcoholic drink of yours. Got word that there is a food shortage across the seas because of the monster attacks and this would be a big hit. Also, the drink would be a big hit as well among the adventurers and those that want to go out drinking, without getting plastered for work.”
“Also, I was considering the idea of making some safe zones, perhaps making them into some underground rest stops and resupply centers that could be scattered about. You know, like a haven for adventurers to stop between traveling and going on quests so they can recover and resupply. Perhaps putting a few traps in there that are like the ones you have in your dungeons would help with deterring monsters from breaking in.”
While saying this, Brex was rubbing his left shoulder while rotating it a few times. He then said in an annoyed tone, “It's been a few days and my shoulder still hurts like hell...”
Ryu heard this and sighed out as he said, “That is what you get for blocking strikes from an ulting Mundo. After shaking his head, he continued with asking, “But all those things can be arranged. Now how is everything else on your end, how long will this take so I know how much time I have to plan?”
After finally giving up on his shoulder. Rex replied while tapping his mask a few times on the chin. “Hmm-mmm. Well from what I already discussed with him; we just need to finalize what you're willing to bring over to help out. We already picked out a location for the farm and I wanted us to meet up there. Now, when it comes to how much time I have left. There is a good eleven years to go, but I want to get these corporations up and running as quickly as possible so I have enough time to teach.”
Ryu started to scratched his chin and as he did this, Brex noticed that his friend’s tail had started to wag a bit. Ryu the said, “Alright, lead the way. God… It's so weird to have such a sensitive nose after a life with my nose always being stuffed up. I can smell everything from the dew on the grass, to the clean forests scent.” The Wolfman then paused before asking, “So, shall we get going or should we stop for a drink?
Brex was now holding out his right hand. Soon a small red orb appeared in it. He then waved it a little as to show to Ryu. Immediately after, he brought it close to his ear and said, “Give me a second. I gave another one of these to Blaze Caster. I'm gonna call him up and tell him we're ready to meet up and to have everyone go ahead and start heading over to the site.”
He then took a few steps away and turned his back on Ryu to start speaking into the link pearl. “Hello, Blaze Caster. It's Gambit, are you there?” There was a good, long several seconds before a young kid's voice came booming out of the pearl. Which caused Brex to hold it out at arm's length, before letting out a small hiss of pain.
After taking a moment to recover, he then brought the item back to his ear and spoke in a strained tone. “Blaze... Please don't scream into it. Simply having it out and speak as if I'm right in front of you. That’s all you need to do.” There was the sound of someone nervously chuckling that came through as the kid then said. “Sorry about that bro. So, does this mean that you're ready to go to the spot?”
Brex then replied by saying, “I got a hold of him. We'll be heading there now. Should see you in the next three hours. Shouldn't take you all too long with It being close to the tracks and all.”
After they exchanged a few more quick words, Brex finally put away the pearl in his item box and turn back to Ryu. He then said out loud, “OK, we got a few hours until we need to catch up. If you want, we can swing by Ponyville really fast and get something to drink. Pinkie Pie shouldn't be there yet, so we should be safe.”
While looking directly at Brex, Ryu then asked, “Did you say Blaze Caster? He wouldn’t happen to be a red Unicorn with an ashen mane that is almost black, with fire as his cutie mark, would it?”
Without showing any signs of it being an odd question. Rex simply answered with a nod of the head before saying, “Sounds just like him. I take it you’ve already met your worlds version too?”
Ryu quickly replied to that by saying, “You could say that, considering that is my pony original character from my old life, then and it might just be a coincidence. It’s not like this one is host to a dragon or some other kind of fire spirit.”
As Brex was listening, his carefree attitude from a moment ago was beginning to melt away as he heard Ryu going on. When it finally got to the part about having something inside of him, did the Roegadyn finally start to show an expression that just said, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
While lifting but a single finger from his left hand, he began to stutter as he said, “H-How... When? What? No, no, no, no. There's just no way that he’s an original character from Earth!”
After seeing this reaction, Ryu sighed "Brex, calm down. In the multiverse, it doesn’t matter if it’s an original character, everything is real in some shape, way and form. I mean, even Cthulhu is real, he sleeps in the void. The multiverse is infinite, meaning everything happens or will happen. Worrying over something so small seems silly.”
Rory chimed in afterwards and added to what Ryu was saying with, “Master, he does have a point. Odds are, we were bound to have a run in with something like that happening if you really think about it.”
Brex slowly lowered his trembling finger and adopted a slouching stance as he released a heavy, tired sigh. He then said in a defeated tone, “I have literally been killed, come back, have been around talking anthromorphic ponies. Have a literal demigoddess persona inside of my head, been to two worlds aside from Earth.”
“Even had a run in with another video game character that tried to do unlicensed surgery on me... Against my will. Why do I keep going back to what is considered normal back home?”
Ryu Replied by saying, “No idea what is normal, but statistical of chance. If you think of it like that, normal is insane. Everything must change, if there was no change, then it would be nothing but misery. The strong would stay strong, the weak would stay weak. But you are in denial of one thing, we are displaced, we are the will of change, be it good or for evil stop, trying to fight it.”
“We have been granted powers far beyond what we had and it is our choices that shape worlds. We must do what we feel is right. For me, this is to drag the monsters of the world to hell and save as many people as I can. I was driven into becoming a nearly heartless monster, but my rage and wraith consumed me to make me who I am today. Now get yourself up and create the world to be better than the last.”
Letting out a small sigh, Brex got back to his standing straight position and looked over towards Ryu before asking. “You know, if you were discord. I would say that you've been opening up a bunch of fortune cookies behind your back to get all that. But you're right. Uh Oh, I just had a thought. That must mean that the pink menace is the only sane one in this world...” This caused the Roegadyn to shutter almost uncontrollably.
Ryu held three fingers up before saying, “Well, three to be exact. Me, Discord and Pinkie, that we know of. I have a saying, blessed by insane, cruse with knowledge. Someone like me understands chaos on a deep level. I'm only ever called insane. But I’m insanely smart.” Ryu smiled at his own joke.
Brex waved his hand tiredly in the general direction of the East before saying, “I don't know about you, however, if I stick around and try to figure out who's insane and who's not, then I'll end up being insane. So, what do you think about checking out pre-Twilight Ponyville? I had one of my body doubles keeping an eye on the place. Surprisingly, it's really boring. But there is a bar. I can get us there in time for happy hour and still meet up with the rest.” Ryu replied to that by saying, “Sweet, hope they have a good whiskey.”
Brex shrugged his shoulders and shook his head before saying, “I still don't get why others like to get drunk. I just hope they have something that doesn't have any alcohol in it. Unlike some of the other stories I've read, this world does have booze.”
He then stepped closer to Ryo and pointed to his right shoulder before saying. “OK, rules of the road. Hands and feet inside the car at all times. No sticking your head out of the window to wag your tongue in the wind.” That bit was clearly pointed towards Ryu, seeing as he was a wolf now. He then went on to continue saying, “Make sure you make contact with me at all times. Count to three and jump!” Ryu grumbled something under his breath before saying, “Fine.”
As soon as he had gotten a reply, “Brex made sure that Ryu had a grasp on his robes and proceeded to count to three. To which they both hopped in place and disappeared into their own shadows without so much as a hint of resistance as they went through the ground.
To them, hardly a second had passed while being in total darkness, until the sensation of them falling in reverse occurred and there was a sudden flash of light overhead as they came emerging out of a new set of shadow holes somewhere else and landed on their feet just as the shadows closed up again.
Brex quickly said under his breath, in an amused tone, “That never gets old.” The pair found themselves immediately on the outskirts of the town, right behind the welcome sign. Brex had chosen that spot so that they were close, yet at the same time, would not be noticed by the residents. Ryu upon seeing where they were, had started rubbing his chin as he said, “Well that was interesting.”
Brex simply nodded before saying, “That's for sure. Just make sure you never do that while moving at high speeds... Especially if you're exiting from a wall. Trust me, it doesn't end well. If at all possible, I'd rather walk into the shadow and do that hop in place move. Rather useful when you wanna be somewhere you've been. That's why I had my doppelgänger's running around the place so I have an almost the limitless supply of exit points.”
Ryu then said in response, “Well, as someone once said, speedy things go in, speedy things come out. Anyway, where is the bar? Oh, and you got the bill, right?”
When hearing the question, Brex reached into his robes left sleeve with his right hand and pulled out what appeared to be a small cloth bag. Afterwards, he tossed it into the air a few inches above his palm. This elicited a few jangling sounds of metal coming from inside.
Brex then said, “I got roughly fifty or so in here right now. As far as I can tell, it's two bits for a large mug of what they call beer. As for the whiskey you're talking about, it’s might be worth four or five bits. You think this is enough to wet your whistle until it's time to go?”
After seeing the bag, Ryu said, “Maybe, but I'm not sure if I can even get drunk any more, thanks to Mundo's passive. I might just process it faster than I can drink it like other people with healing factor. I would give you money for it but I doubt that they will be able to exchange Runeterra money.”
Brex merely shrugged before saying, “Just think of this as a business outing. Besides you're a guest in my world, wouldn't be right to make you pay for things. Even though I haven't had any of my currency converted yet, I still got plenty left over from when I worked for Fancy Pants as a body guard that one time.”
That was when he tossed Ryu the bag of bits and motion for him to follow. But after a few seconds, he stopped and looked over his shoulder and said, “Oh, and you may want to be ready for some screaming. I'm not entirely sure but they don't really get diamond dogs out here much, so it would be good to not seem as threatening as possible.”
“If any guards come running, I'll just flash them my adventurer’s card and vouch for you. That's also one of the things I want to start here in Equestria. I plan on making them more sociably acceptable with other species.” Ryu then said with a wolfish grin, “As long as none of them tries to physical assault me than it will be fine.”
Brex held up his hands in a placating manner as he said in a joking tone. “Hey, just don't go killing OK. Roughing them up is all well and good. Knowing you, you wouldn't do it unless it was called for. Now come on, it's right over there.”
Brex had used his left hand and pointed off in the distance at a small building at the edge of town. It appeared to have been conveniently located for patrons to come and go as they please whenever entering ponyville, or for weary travelers.
The building itself was mostly brown. It looked pretty much like every other building, aside from there being larger windows that were tinted and what appeared to be a single wagon wheel perched above the door for decoration. Right underneath that, the words, Mare's Pit, in bold, gold letters could be seen.
Brex then quickly said, “I know it's a weird name and all, but from what my body double showed me, it's a decent place to have drinks. Also, at this time of day, we shouldn't worry too much about there being a crowd inside.”
Ryu ending up saying, “Oh this is going to be fun with all the stereotypes of male here.” He snickers some before continuing to say, “Hope it’s not a gay bar or I'll have to give you a music box.” Brex quickly slumped his shoulders for a split second as he said under his breath, “Why do I get the feeling that this was a bad idea...” Ryu replied to that by saying, “Well, gender roles here are reversed, so yes, good thing I can't get roofied.”
Brex tilted his head in confusion as to what Ryu was talking about, but shrugged and began walking over to the door. To which the Wolfman followed Brex inside.
When they went through the set of double doors. They found themselves inside of a nearly empty bar that could have held a good hundred ponies inside. Currently, there were only six and total that were scattered about, while enjoying their drinks. Most likely, those on lunch break or getting off of the early schedule.
There was but one mare behind the bar that was cleaning some dishes in a sink on the far wall. Thankfully, the mirror that was right above the sink allowed her to see them coming in and turned around and started giving a big, over the top smile.
Brex initially flinched for but a brief moment before returning to normal. Then he brought himself and Ryu to the counter and sat down near the far-right corner. That was furthest from the door.
As Brex sat down, Rory suddenly said, “Master, you really need to get past your distrust of mare’s. The Changelings, your perfectly fine with. Now we need to get to work on your feelings towards the other’s.”
To this, the Roegadyn had to internally grunt before replying with, “Those of the hive have earned the level of trust I gave them… But I see your point. I have to get used to them. I’ll try with this bartender. Their known for being easy to converse with, right?”
Ryu sat down and took in one good sniff. Then whispered to Brex, “There has not been a guy in here for weeks, so I’m pretty sure this is a gay bar. But here, no one will try to grope us.” He looked over to the bartender and said, “I will take a shot of your strongest whiskey.”
When the mare heard the request, she nearly dropped one of the dishes that she was still holding, but managed to grab onto it before it made it to the ground.
When she stood up again, she gave him a, are you kidding me look. This was then followed with her coming over and standing on the other side of the counter before leaning in. The mare then asked in a rather cautious tone, so as not to get the attention of the rest in the bar.
She then asked, “Are you sure you want something as strong as that? Hun, if you're looking for the courage to ask one of them out, you may as well just wave. There's no need to poison yourself.”
Ryu looked over at her and said, “I just want a strong drink, I drank Ghost Pepper whiskey before, it gave me a pleasant burning of my throat. So, about that drink?”
The mare merely backed off and ducked underneath the table. A few seconds later, after hearing the clanking of glass, did she come back up and was now holding a shot glass and a large bottle of whiskey that that clearly was meant for something else with the amount it was holding.
Ryu then asked while he waited for her to pour the drink. “So, business has been well I take it, to give how many scents are in the bar. Guess you don't have many guys getting a drink here, do you?”
When she heard him saying this, the mare averted her eyes for but a brief moment before returning to her task and giving him his drink. Although her hands were a little unsteady as she did so.
This nearly resulted in her spilling some of the beverage, but thanks to having some experience, she managed to keep it all from coming out of the glass. Her eyes were slowly roaming the room while apparently keeping it from being noticed by the other patrons that were a fair distance away.
She then spoke under her breath, as to keep it a private discussion as she said. “Seeing as you're new around here, you probably haven't heard the word. You see, it's like this... A couple months back there was an incident where a stallion got taken advantage of by some of my patrons. It’s because of that, the stallions pretty much keep away from places like mine.”
Ryu nodded before saying, “Makes sense.” He takes the whole shot in one go and flipped the glass over, not even a drop hit the counter when doing this action. He then went on to say, “But I’m just a bit too hard to be handle like that.”
The mare simply chuckled at that after seeing him take an entire shot. She then said, “Well it looks like you can handle the drink. I suppose what you said earlier wasn't hoggwash after all.” She then gestured over to Brex and asked, “So, same thing for you?”
To which he simply shook his head and said, “I'll take whatever you've got that has no alcohol in it. One of us needs to be the designated driver.”
That only got the mare to tilt their head inquisitively. Soon she then brushed it off and went over to the far end of the counter began to put together a simple drink using some juice and what appear to be some seltzer water.
He then turned towards Ryu and said under his breath, “I wonder how long it will take until that saying makes sense to them? Also, I can see why this place has been empty of males of late.” Ryu replied to that by whispering, “Yea, but that’s a problem. Male, female, doesn't matter. No one should not be taken advantage. When the bartender returns, may i have another?”
Brex looked over at the bottle and motion to it by tilting his head, before saying to Ryu. “You could probably go ahead and just buy that whole bottle. Looks to be a good four liters in there. Think you could finish the whole thing off before we have to go?”
At that point, the one running the bar had returned and had placed down a large glass that was currently fizzing. She then said to Brex, “Here we go Hun.” To which he answered with, “I'm good with this. My friend however, would most likely want the rest of that bottle.”
The Roegadyn then brought out the coin pouch and handed it over to the bartender by placing it onto the counter. She went to go and pick it up and silently gasped when she realized just how heavy it really was.
Before she could say anything, Rex motioned with his finger up to his mask for a shushing gesture as he said. “Just take what's needed and put the rest on a tab. Put it under the name, Gambit. Make sure you hold on to that name, OK? I probably won't be back for a while.”
Ryu grabbed the bottle a took a big swig. Ryu then whispered to Brex, “It is a good brand. I just remembered something that you should look into, Slenderman is cannon, so be careful.”
Brex nearly threw his head back at what Ryu just said. He then asked, “I think I've heard of the guy, but I don't know much about it. And what does that gotta do with what's happening here?” Afterwards, he looked around for a few seconds and spotted a package of straws and got one out and started on his drink with it.
Ryu then said, “Well, the whiskey jogged a memory of him showing up on the episode, Pinkie apple pie.”
The disguised Roegadyn merely scratched the back of his hood as he answered with, “There are some episodes that I have trouble remembering off the top of my head. It seems that whatever Rory did to me, only strengthen my ability to remember things past the point that she did it. Speaking of her, did you already know when we first met, that she was inside of my mind?”
Ryu glanced his way and said, “Yes, I just didn't want to say it because it might send you into a mild panic.” Brex went ahead and took a big gulp through a straw and swallowed it loudly before saying. “Yeah, you right, I would have freaked out then. I was already paranoid as shit at the time.”
Wanting to change the subject, Brex went on to ask, “So, what is it like coming to another world that's pretty much in the stone age compared to the technology of your world? You pretty much got this, bronze, punk, electricity thing going on back there.”
Ryu gave a good chuckle before answering with, “No, that is only in Zaun and Piltover. Everywhere else has low tech levels, like Demacia and Noxus, theirs is medieval. The Freljord is tribal, and Bilgewater is colonial times. A lot of the other countries do that same thing.”
As the two displaced beings were conversing at the end of the bar. One of the tables a fair distance away, had a group of four mares sitting at it. two were Earth ponies with tan brown fur and black manes. At a glance, it could easily be said that they were related to one another.
The third of the group was a Pegasus that was gray in color, with a purple mane and tail. The last of the group, was a white Unicorn, with a light blue mane. The Earth ponies we're wearing what could consider to be biker gear, with how everything they had on was black. Also, quite revealing and tight fitting.
As for the Pegasus, she had on an outfit that was more along the lines of a pair of blue jeans. With some ripped sections around the knees and a white tank top. Obviously meant to allow her to have more mobility.
Now, as for the Unicorn. She was dressed more along the lines of an office worker. One of those black power suits and a very short necktie, just like one would see in an old ninety’s sitcom show.
They had apparently been eyeing the pair since the moment they walked in the bar and had been talking to one another under their breath as their eyes never left the duo. As soon as they saw how Ryu was knocking back the drinks, they all slowly got up out of their chairs and nonchalantly made their way over to them.
As soon as they'd started their approach, Brex stopped what he was doing and quickly swallowed what he had in his mouth. He then elbowed Ryu lightly with his elbow to gain his attention. He then whispered under his breath and said, “Appears we have company heading over.” Ryu looks to Brex and responds with, “Appears we do.” He then sat there and waited for them to engage.”
As soon as the group had made their way over. The Unicorn was the first to speak up as she was now on Ryu's right side, while one of the Earth mares was on his left. “What's a pair of strong looking males like yourself doing in a place like this. And without an escort no less.”
When she had finished speaking, the others were on either side of Brex as well. With the Earth pony on the inside and the Pegasus on his left. All of which giving nods of approval to the blatantly obvious, overused pick up line that needed to be put to rest.
Seemingly rather annoyed. Brex ended up releasing an annoyed sigh and just chose to remain quiet and went back to sipping away at his drink. Without giving so much as a reply to that statement.
Inside, Rory was steaming from how these mare’s were disrespecting her master by implying that he needed and escort out of some misconception that he was weak for being a male. This did not escape Brex as he gently whispered to her with his inner voice, “Its fine Rory. Calm down please. I expected as much from them the moment I caught a good look of them.”
Ryu, after hearing this, replied by saying, “Ladies, you couldn't handle me. But I would rock your world, if any of you could beat me in a drinking contest. But let's make it interesting. He reaches into his coat and pulls out four gold bars. Ryu began to say the next bit with a wolfish smile. “The winner gets everything the loser is carrying. What do you say, you game?”
The Unicorn merely raised an eyebrow while looking over the bars. As for the Pegasus, her eyes couldn't be pulled away from the loot in front of her. If one had been paying attention, they would have seen pictures of dollar signs in her eyes. The Earth mares simply whistled at the sight, while having wide eyes at the amount of goods sitting there.
It was the Unicorn that spoke up next when she talked in a business-like tone. “Will it be the two of you against the four of us, or will it just be yourself? It's all well and good to see a male that's willing to put it out, but I doubt very much you can do it all on your lonesome.”
Brex lifted his left hand and waved it nonchalantly as he said under his breath. “I don't drink.” Afterwards, he gestured with the same hand to go ahead towards Ryu.
The Pegasus mare was the next to speak up when she began to talk in a cocky tone. That was very much similar to a certain blue Pegasus in the future. “Ha! I could do this all by myself ladies. No way this little chump can drink me under-the-table!”
Ryu replied to the Pegasus mare’s boastful attitude by saying, “To make it fair, you all should join in. That would be one gold bar for each of you if you win.” He then looked over to the bartender and said, “Give us the top shelf.”
The bartender mare from behind the counter heard what was going on and quickly gathered up the drinks and lined them up on the counter. Right as she placed the last bottle down, she quickly asked. “Are you sure you fella’s wanna get into this? These girls are a couple of regulars. I don't think I've seen any of them ever walk out of here with so much as a lisp.”
Brex nodded to this. But before things went on, he reached into his robes and pulled out a silver ring and placed it on the counter. He then turned his head to the right so that it was looking straight at the Unicorn mare before he said. “Precaution... no magic.”
Seeming that this wasn’t a problem, Ryu said, “Fine with me.” He took the bars placed them on a table, along with all that he looked to be carrying. This including his shirt, pant, and a number of different weapons. leaving only his boxer briefers on, revealing his rippling muscle mass and gesturing for the girls to do the same.
This action apparently had a strong effect on the four as they began to eye him down like a piece of meat. If one didn't know that there were ponies, they would consider these girls to be carnivores with how they were practically salivating.
Rather reluctantly, the Unicorn grabbed onto the ring that was on the table and started to talk in a condescending tone that just oozed of unjustified superiority. “Fine! I'll use the ring. It wouldn’t do much good anyway. I am a pretty capable caster after all. This little trinket won’t do much.”
Before slipping it onto her horn, she used her own magic to teleport her clothing off of her person and into a neat stack that was neatly placed on a free spot on the counter. This exposed her to be wearing a black, lacey set of under garments.
When she was done with that and the horn ring slipped down to the base. The mare suddenly shuddered almost uncontrollably as her eyes nearly rolled into the back of her head. With a somewhat noticeable, nervous stutter. She said, “OK I-I guess, t-this wasn't a cheap b-bit store knock off... I-It's the real thing. I can't feel my m-magic at all.”
It seemed that the others were taken aback by this and were now shifting their eyes among one another before reluctantly taking off their own clothing until they were all in their undergarments as well.
The Pegasus mare was wearing something that was matching her fur colored completely, so that it at glanced, it appeared that she was completely naked.
The apparent sisters shrugged it off and began to half hazardly discard their clothing into the same pile seeing as they wore pretty much identical Items. Speaking of items, there was also a number of weapons being piled up such as some daggers and throwing knives. Most of which seemed very cheap and shoddily made.
The Earth mare’s were down to what could have been a G-string and bras that barely covered anything more than the nipples with how they were pretty much nothing but black strings going across their chests and down between their legs.
Ryu called out and said, “Alright, let's go.” He then grabbed the drinks and was quickly making a pyramid with the shot glasses. While Brex was watching this. He skillfully moved out of the way so that he was not in the group and sat just out of reach of the obviously, going to be drunken mares and remained silent, as to watch the oncoming train wreck that was going to be on its way.
It was a Unicorn that spoke up and said, “How about you allow us ladies to go first. After all, we don't want you getting ahead of yourself and passing out too soon.” The Earth mare's were the next to say something when they began to pretty much press themselves up against either side of Ryu. “Yeah! let us show you how it's done!”
When it came to the Pegasus, she merely scoffed and crossed her arms as she grumbled before she said. “I told you girls I could have done it all by myself. You’re just going to make it take longer before we can take his stuff and get him in the sack.” This earned her an annoyed slap from one of the two Earth mare’s that was the closest as they also gave her a death glare that screamed that she needed to shut up and start drinking.
Ryu kept on doing more and more shots and he just kept going full speed, even as the mare’s were slowing down after downing so many glasses.
Close to an hour had passed and it was getting to the point that it was difficult to even tell just how many shots they were all doing. All one could see, was them downing one after another and the bar mare having to wash glass after glass just to keep up with the small party.
There were several times that they were trying to get him to lose count by pretending to grab an empty glass and chug it, but was called out by Brex. Even with him not taking part, there was nothing said that he couldn’t act as a referee.
There was even on occasion, where the Unicorn attempted to use some type of magic, but only got a small glow and a fizzle from the tip of a horn due to the magic nullifier ring around the base.
The Earth mare’s were we're trying to keep up by leaning into one another, while the Pegasus was mumbling something about her past escapades under her breath. Which was very hard to understand by the time they had gotten that far. More than half of the bottles were emptied. Yet the girls never gave up.
When seeing their state, he started to say to them while downing another shot, with his speech being flawless. “How are you four doing?”
The Pegasus mare lifted a finger to try and say something, but as soon as she opened her mouth. She froze in place and face planted hard onto the counter. Then, proceeded to slide back with the weight of the rest of her body pulling her down until there was a noticeable thud from the floor below.
The Earth mare’s were pretty much completely out of their element, seeing as they were using one another to stay upright, but their legs gave out simultaneously and they crumpled onto the ground with the their arms and legs getting tangled among one another.
When it came to the Unicorn mare, she was apparently putting on a brave front as she gave him a dubious stare. While blinking with one eye, then the next. Seemingly unable to do so with both at once. She tried to ask something with a slurred voice that sounded as if it required an expert translator to find out what she was saying.
Right as it seemed like she had finally gotten her second wind and she opened her mouth. Did she have to immediately cover it to prevent herself from puking all over the place as she literally passed out on her feet and fell straight back onto the floor.
After seeing this, Brex got to his feet and turned around to the now nearly half-filled bar that was beginning to fill up with spectators. He then took ahold of Ryu’s left arm and raised it high in air and proclaimed. “Have a winner!”
This got a few choruses of cheers, which came from two other stallions that wandered in. The rest of the spectators however, that comprised of the mare’s, only gocked at the two in both abstract horror and disbelief, after watching what just had happened.
Ryu got up and drank another shot before gathered up all of his winnings and proceeded in putting his clothes back on. He then walked over to Brex and said, “Should we get to the meeting?”
The Roegadyn nodded to his friend's suggestion and got up. Before they could leave however, Brex slipped off the magic nullifier ring from the unconscious Unicorn's horn and quickly pocketed it away. Before they left however, he whispered to Ryu, “No way am I gonna lose this. This thing belongs to Luna.”
It took them a moment or so to get past the crowd that was no longer staring at them, but the pile of nearly naked mares on the floor. Just as they got through the front doors, did Brex ask, “So, that is a hangout for only mare’s right? You think they're gonna be fine? I got this feeling that we just left them in a den of lions... Or is that lionesses?”
Ryu started sneering as replied to the question with, “Yes, we did and this will be a lesson they won't forget, and yea, it is. But it is not a gay bar, it is like in olden time were women never when to bars. But in this world, it's males.”
Rory quickly spoke when Ryu was finished and said, “Seems that a music box isnt going to show up on your bed Master. Remember what he said what he would do if it was one?” This got the Roegadyn to internally shiver at the concept of what Ryu might have sent.”
Brex then started to muse to himself as he crossed his left arm over his chest. While resting his right elbow onto its palm to adopting a thinking pose, along with his finger on his chin during the time they made their way out of town and back to the welcome sign.
When they got to it, he turned to Ryu and asked, “So, does drinking even matter to you anymore, seeing as you can't get drunk? Ryu replied by saying, “Well yes, I can still taste it and feel the burn in the back of my throat, I just lost the negatives of drinking.”
Brex lifted his hands to do a shrug as he replied with asking, “I thought getting drunk was the whole point of drinking? I seriously don't understand those that drink something that tastes awful. I haven't touched it myself, but I have a vague memory that I hate it the stuff in my last life.”
The Wolfman responded with, “Yea, not all drinks are created equal, but you can get some good flavors if you know what you are doing.” He then starts pulling out a match. Ryu lit it and put in his mouth, causing a fiery belch to come out.
Taking a sudden step back at the spectacle, Brex takes up a defensive stance with his arms extended straight out in front of him as he quickly said. “Wouh there! I think we better make sure you're not around fire. With how much you drank, I am worried that you'll explode just like one of those floating firebombs!!”
Brex got a reply from Ryu as he said, “Well, I need to burn it off somehow. Don't want to smell like alcohol at a business meeting and with Mundo's healing, I’ll be fine.” He then shrugs it off.
After lowering his arms, Brex replied to that by saying, “Well, just be careful with that, OK? I think I'd rather you smell a little of alcohol, then burnt dog hair... Anyhow, we can get straight to there from here with no problem. Just so happens that I passed by that place after we got done with Titan.” Ryu then asks, “So, where are we heading anyway?”
Brex answered him by saying, “There's an area that hasn't been developed yet. There's a stretch of train tracks that goes past Ponyville and around the West side of the Everfree forest. It's about two hours from ponyville if they were to head South on the tracks. I already had Fancy Pants and his entourage waiting at Ponyville to cut the travel time down. We should get there long before they do.” Ryu simply said, “Sounds good.”
The pair then took another trip through the shadow realm and appeared near a set of train tracks out in the middle of nowhere, with a large tree line of the Everfree forest just behind them. In front, was a very large flatland that was perfect for setting up more than one type of business with how wide and open it appeared to be.
Brex pointed towards the flatlands and said, “This should be good enough for two or three to be started. Hell, we could just dedicate this whole area to making the Gobblers alone and supply enough for pretty much most of the world if we wanted to.”
Ryu then posed a small issue with saying, “Yea, but the problem becomes shipping at that point. Better to spread them out just in case of shipping issues, like the road being attacked by monsters.”
(Here is a map of the area.)
The Roegadyn pointed towards the train tracks. Then his arm would swing to the nearby river for a moment before pointing to the South. As he did this, he said, “I think I pretty much got that covered for this being a hub.”
After taking a moment to let what he was showing to sink in. He continued with, “We got a large river that could run East and West. This will give us a way of transporting it by water to Ponyville, Canterlot and need be, Dodge City. In the other direction, it could bring us to Los Pegasus.”
“Then we have the train tracks that run North and South. They have connections to the roadways. From there on, they passed by other towns. Later on, we plan on building airships to help transport goods by air if needed.”
He then began to turn in place with his arms held out as if trying to gesture to everything. This would be followed with him adding, “With all the places we chose first, this one has the most accessibility and multiple trade routes available. It even has a few natural defenses that would limit incoming and outgoing problems.”
After hearing what Brex had to say. Ryu began to add, “I agree it’s a great location. But that means you will have everything in one location and if any disaster happens, you won't have anything left. I'm just saying we should spread it out through out the world. So, people don't wonder how one place makes this much alone. And it won’t make these paths the only line to these supplies.”
Brex nodded to Ryu’s words. That was when he replied with, “Yeah, I took that into account. Altogether, I have nine ideas in mind. This would be a good place for one or two of them to be. Preferably I would like the Gobbler farm to be here. You know, what they say about livestock. The happier they are, the better they taste. Also, we could have the brewery set up. Seeing as we need you for both of those, I thought it would be a good idea to have them nearby one another.”
Ryu then said, “If they are going to be registered as different businesses it would be weird that they came out of the blue at the same time, at the same location. Unless you plan to doctor the documents or take over a failing business. So it doesn't clue in that anything like that is happening. This is just the prevent people from digging and finding too much proof of conspiracy.”
Brex chuckled to that and pointed over his left shoulder with the thumb towards the train tracks coming from the North. He then said, “Now that's where I have Fancy Pants coming in. With his connections in business know how. We're gonna put together a plan on how to do all that.”
“We're not gonna have them all pop up at once. We're going to shift property around by names on paperwork. By the time we're done and things are sent in the place, everything we want will be built and the paper trail will make it nearly impossible for them to find out just what's going on. I like to consider it as a little test to see just who ends up figuring it out first. I got more than enough bits to start up a few that are going to end up failing, just to be a place holder for the real ones later down the road."
Ryu nodded and replied with, “I see, do you want me to set up a bit now, or do you want me to show off the Gobblers to him?"
Brex answered his question with, “We don't own the plot of land just yet. So, you can go ahead and bring out a Gobbler to show us. Along with one of your barrels of beer. I got plenty of glasses in my inventory to pour it into. I told them that I would ask if you're willing to get in on this action. So, a meet and greet would have been the best way to start things off. Especially seeing as they're coming to see you.”
Ryu replied with, “Sounds good to me.” He then opens the screen from his gantlet and on the other side was Thalya, with a big smile on her face as she says. “Master, what do you need?” Ryu cleared his throat before saying, “I'm going to need two barrels of beer, two succubi and a large table, and Brex, how many chairs do we need?”
The Roegadyn taped his chin with his right hands index finger a few times before he replied with. “There should be eight of them all together. There will be Fancy Pants, his fiancé Fleur. Along with six Changelings that will be acting as their servants and guards.”
Ryu hums a bit to himself as he says, “Hmm, Changelings, interesting.” He turns back the screen and says, “That will be twelve chairs and two gobblers.” The dark elf bows her head on the other side. A portal soon opens next to Ryu. Snotts started pulling out thirteen chairs, two of them of elaborate makes. The table was placed and the two succubi came out with the barrels, placing them on the table.
But Thalya came through the portal as well. She starts rushing over to Ryu and proceeds on planting a kiss on his muzzle. When she was done, she said to him, “You do not leave me there, when you are going to have a party.” Ryu sighed alright. Ryu then sat down at the first elaborate chair, quickly follow by Thaya sitting next to him. The Snotts also brought the requested Gobblers and vanished through the portal as it disappeared.
While the table and chairs were getting set up, Brex had taken an involuntary step back when he saw the dark elf coming out of the portal. When it was time to take a seat, he opted for taking the chair on the far end that was giving him the most distance between himself and her.
This only got the girl in his head to grumble a bit before saying, “Master… She isnt going to kick you in the balls again. Please try to relax. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Wanting to take his mind off of the horrible reminder from their first meeting. Brex brought up his connection to heavens computer and looked up the information of Fancy Pants and found it showing the pony to be a short distance away.
He then looked off towards the train tracks and hummed to himself a few times. After a few moments, he began to say, “I just checked and it looks like they're gonna be here in about five minutes or so. I do hope they don't freak out after seeing your demons. I do suppose that would help with saying that you're not from anywhere around here.”
While in his seat, Ryu said, “During the meeting, since this is business, I will be going with my title of Warden. This good with you, Gambit?” Ryu smiled after saying that bit towards the end.
Brex brought his right hand up and covered his face before shaking it lightly. While letting out a small grumble, he said, “I know I'm a displaced and everything, but knowing someone who has been reading a story that's about me feels weird. At least I know you haven't gotten to the part about me and Rory together. Honestly, I don't really know how I should take it. Knowing that there's others out there that are reading things I do in private.”
During the pause, Ryu said, “I mean, people will read about me. So why should we care. Hell, someone, somewhere wrote about our old lives. The multiverse is weird like that.”
After letting out a long sigh. Brex removes his hand from his mask and talks in a defeated tone while slouching in his chair. “At least you're not the one that has low self-esteem issues and an inferiority complex... Rory's been trying to help me with that. But you can only do so much inside of a person's head. And I'm not willing to let her just go in and rewrite my whole personality.”
This earned the Roegadyn a quick reply from Rory as she said, “Master, I would never do such a think to you. Er… sure I rewrote your memories… But that was an emergency that left me with little time to make a judgment call.”
Ryu rebutted with saying, “Yea, but you are not insane, or have so many different voices in your head that you don't know who is who, and who is you. Then there is having near no emotions except rage. and to top it all off, knowing if I want to save my world, I will need to fight literal gods.”
Brex then points towards Ryu and says, “You got me beat there. If I was thrown in your shoes, I probably would have committed suicide within the first week... No, scratch that, first day.” Ryu then said, “Yep, the amount of time in my old life that I thought of that were many. But enough of past, let’s look to the great futures we can bring to our worlds.”
As soon as Ryu had finished saying those words, the sound of a train whistle could be heard coming from a short distance away. Brex turned his head to the North and spotted a locomotive with just a single passenger car hooked up to the rear speeding its way on the tracks.
He then tilted his head as he looked towards the other displaced across the table and said, “I guess they wanted to get here pretty fast. I was almost positive that there was a lot more cars on the back of that train. Maybe they requested them to be detached to get here at a quicker pace?”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 38: His Bark is Worse Than His Bite. Part 2.
Chapter 38: His Bark is Worse Than His Bite. Part 2.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Open area, West of the Everfree Forest* *Time: Just past Noon*
It didn't take long for the train to come to a stop on the part of the tracks that would have placed it near to them. The passengers disembarked after there was a loud gush of hot air being released as the train was parked. Typically, it would always stop at a station, so this meant there was quite a small drop from exiting. However, it would seem that the train was already configured to have an emergency fold out ramp just underneath the door which was just flipped.
Within moments, a group of maid’s and butler's, all of the mare variety came marching out. This was soon followed with Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis as well, who were bringing up the rear. Brex had to shake his head at seeing how formally dressed they were, seeing as they were out in the middle of a field. Fancy Pants was wearing one of his usual business suits and Fleur De Lis was wearing a sundress and a hat that was similar to the one that she wore the other day while going out.
Ryu sat back in his chair he steeped his hand in the table, while Thalya kept trying to snuggle up to him.
Brex and Ryu were quickly spotted and the small group began to make their way over to them. As soon as they had gotten within twenty meters. Did the group stop in place and the Maid’s and Butler’s all took up a defensive stance while eyeing the succubus demons with weary eyes.
When seeing this, Brex waved his right hand over his head and called out, “Don't worry about them. They belong to my associate over here that I told you about.” When he said this, he was now pointing over to both Ryu and the dark elf Thalya, who was sitting next to him that could still be seen snuggling.
Ryu wave his hand as he said to them, “Please everyone, take a seat, I'm am called Warden. A pleasure to meet you.”
The group cautiously looked at Ryu before their eyes rested on Brex to get some form of affirmation. To this, the Roegadyn in disguise waved his hand in a motion that said come on, along with a nod. This was enough to get them to lower their guard and proceed further.
When they were about five or six feet away from the table. Fancy Pants was the one to come forward to say. “Ah, how nice to finally meet you. I do apologize for our manners. I hope you can understand our weariness when it comes to...” He had let that sentence draw on as he motion towards the pair of Succubi.
After giving a small cough. He continued on with, “Oh, and where are my manners. This is my fiancée, Fleur De Lis and our guards. I do hope that it is not a problem that we brought them along. Can't be too safe while near the Everfree after all, now can we.”
Brex waved off the concern and began to say, “It's alright. Also, you don't need to be so stiff around him. He already knows about Fleur De Lis’s family.”
This caused all an attendance on the side of Fancy Pants, to go wide eyed in shock. It was one of the maids that came forward and ask, “We will respect that the Lord knows who to disclose Information about our hive. If you believe he can be trusted, then we will as well.”
Ryu was the next to speak up and said, “Well, I know about a great deal. But everything needs to eat. I have many mouths to feed as you can see here. I have omnivores, hemovores, animavores, and emotionvores as you can see. Now, he said you were interested in my drink and Gobblers.” One the Succubi carried a Gobbler to the table.” Ryu then asked, “Gambit, do you want to hand the mugs over so the other one can fill it?”
Brex nodded to that and got up from his seat and approached the other Succubi. That was when he slowly waved his hand several inches above the table and a mug would appear where it was previously until it moved on to the next spot. Brex only stopped when he got to fifteen in total.
When he had placed the last one down, did he motion to the servers and said, “Wouldn't be right if they didn't get to have a drink either.” Ryu nodded and said, “That is fine with me. Now everyone, enjoy as we discuss business.”
Fancy Pants was the next to speak up as he asked, “Sir Gambit has already informed us that you have both these... I'm sorry, they're called Gobblers, correct? Are a species of fowl that can reproduce at an accelerated rate compared to chickens and would no doubt prove to be a viable source of meat when it comes to export and import.”
He then began to fix his monocle before continuing with, “Then there's the beverage that could be sold alongside liquor. From what he has said, “It can take on the taste of something you like, while at the same time, preventing you from becoming intoxicated fully. I personally can see that going very well for stallions that don't wish to become…” The Unicorn coughed once before finishing with, “Easy targets as you will say, when going to a bar.”
Ryu chuckled a bit before replying with, “Yes, I can have these facilities up in a matter of days. And as any Changeling will note, they have no emotions. Not even those of even basic survival instinct. So, it will be easier too not have a public outcry and say that they are hurting animals at the farm. People like that make me mad, everything has the right to food.”
Both Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis scrunched up their muzzles in confusion at the word, People. Before they could so much as ask to what that word meant. Brex chimed in and said, “It's a broad term for all. At one time, it was commonly used, but seems to have fallen out of practice. Please, don't pay no mind to it.” He then turned his masked face directly towards Ryu at the end of that.
The Roegadyn then went on to say, “Although, I do see that as something that would come up from time to time. However, with what was just mentioned, that could be debunked with a few simple tests for these nay sayers that would try to cause an uproar.”
Ryu then spoke up in a rather annoyed tone when he said, “Ugh, don't remind me of pony's blatant racism, it runs so deep. That it tells me they have both a superiority complex and an inferiority complex at the same time. You don't see the other races say, every-griffon or every-dragon. I'm about ready to do my job if they keep it up. Anyway, sorry for the rant, I have a problem with racists. But is there anything you want to know about me Fancy, Fleur?”
When the pair was asked that question, they began to look at one another with a questioning look. Then Fleur De Lis was the first to speak up when she asked. “I can see just what it is you mean when it comes to how we phrase that particular saying.” She then released out a small sigh before she continued with, “I too would have to say I have a problem with it myself. Considering we Changelings are not technically ponies.”
She then glanced over at the others that had accompanied herself and her fiancé before going on. “And I do know how the other races don't refer to themselves as such. But hearing you say the word people. I take it that there is more than one type of species from where you are from. If so, then it must mean, with our Lord here knowing of the phrase, would imply that you both hail from the same, if not similar countries?”
Ryu responded to that question with, “Nope, not even close. It’s a term used everywhere that is not the pony lands and that is the problem. The ponies are so insulated, they don't even know that basic info outside in the world.”
“Even crime lords from where I’m from, give them the bare minimum of this respect and ponies. It’s a wonder why none of the other kingdoms would deal with them. But it will take time to fix it, you have to and I do mean having to remove the racists with power. leave them with nothing. I'm going to quote someone here; villainy never knows itself.”
Brex was the next one to speak as he said, “This also brings me to one of the other things I want to start. It refers to helping with this, racist concept of excluding other races. Not just with the terms used in wording, but how we interact with non-ponies. There are Minotaur’s and Griffins all over the place, even if you don't see them that often. In fact, I believe that one reason that this is the case, is due to how they are treated badly.”
All in attendance that were a part of the group with Fancy Pants nodded in agreement. The Unicorn stallion then said, “I hate to say it but... You are quite correct. Sometimes I'm ashamed of being a pony myself with all the bigotry I have witnessed. Relations with other countries have not been good as of late. At one time, when the monsters showed up, we were willing to send aid, but now… We ponies are left to fend for ourselves and it has been difficult.”
That was when he reached over and held onto his fiancée’s hand and clenched it tightly as he went on to say. “Perhaps I'll take on saying people, as a way to at least start the trend among the higher class. Who knows, it might even catch on. The problem however would be the princess, seeing as she always uses that term. But that can be set aside for another day. We have other businesses to talk of. You mention that you can have these structures built within a few days. I'm quite interested in how you can accomplish such a feat.”
Ryu replied with saying, “I have skilled builders that need no food, sleep, or water. They can have the building done in hours and we can have it operating in days. Oh, and it was so funny how Celestia reacted to my gift. Br- Gambit knows what happens if I have to do my job. I hope you are successful.”
Fleur De Lis was the next to speak up when she asked, “Gift? You helped with bringing a gift to the princess?” This was obviously directed to Brex, as she was looking straight at him with newfound interest with what was just mentioned.
Obviously not being ready to be put on the spot the way he had been. Brex ended up answering in a very, unsure tone. “Yes, you remember how I mentioned having business within the castle when I happened to meet Blue Blood? That was what I was there for. You see, it may have been the reason for that late sunrise the other day...”
Ryu had burst out laughing and said, Yea! Tia needs to lighten up. But she got punished for one of her many deeds. I will not say what, but it also let her hear a voice she has not heard in a long time. But is there anything else you wish to know?”
Fancy Pants was the next to speak up as he asked, “Well, I see how the construction will be handled. But what I have to ask is. What compensation and revenue are you interested in. It would be safe to assume that a large amount would go to you. Seeing as, not only are you providing the product, but the structure as well.”
Ryu responded by saying, “Well, bits to me are worthless. I could always use raw materials such as iron, stone, wood. Oh, and magic books would do good for compensation.”
The stallion tapped his chin a few times while adopting a thinking pose. After a moment or two, he replied after snapping his fingers. “I believe such an arrangement could be managed. Now when it comes to the books, are you referring to the knowledge itself or the rarity of the tome? I'm sure that we can come to an arrangement. From what I can see, you most likely are in no need of bits. Just as you have mentioned.”
However, before he could even go on any further, his fiancé was the next to speak up as she asked quickly. “Oh, I have a question. It's obvious that you're a Diamond dog, but could you tell me just what he happens to be?” At the end, she was pointing one of her index fingers towards Brex while giving him an all-knowing smirk. She also went on to say, “I have asked him once yesterday, but he didn't want to tell me.”
Ryu then said, “I could, but I won't. It's his business. but I'm not a Diamond dog. Just like you, I am a mix of races. Thirteen races, to be exact. And I want books with spells, their theories and anything else that’s a given to those magic arts.”
Again, all of them were surprised to hear that what they thought was a Diamond dog, turned out to be something that had a mix with so many other races.
Letting out what could have only have been a relieved sigh. “Brex turned towards the Unicorn mare and said, “I told you before. I will show my face when I feel ready.” He then turned his attention towards Ryu and asked, “And as for you, I would suggest not surprising them too much. I already have worries about their eyes being permanently damaged with how much I do it.” This only caused all of them to begin to blush sheepishly as they averted their eyes from him.
The Wolfman then said, “Then you need to stop holding back information, my friends know what I am. The longer you wait, the harder it will be. I told you how it will go, just talk with her in private. It will go a long way to resolve your issue, I'll even go with you. You need to get closure.”
Brex could only shake his head lightly Before he started to raise his right index finger to motion that he was about to say something. However, fate on the other hand, wanted its chance and barged into the conversation.
From just beyond the trees to the Everfree forest, came an ear-splitting screech that caused the mugs on the table to rattle in place. Even a few of the Changelings ended up covering their ears for some means of protection.
From right above the tops of the trees, came flying out a figure that closely resembled a Griffin. However, it then took on a dive bomb move and exited the tree line and was now speeding towards the group.
As it drew closer, it became apparent that it was no Griffin, but a deformed pony with bird like features such as clawed legs and their front hands having only four digits and sharp, long claws. Much of their body was clothed, but had feathers sticking out through the openings and a pair of large, overly sized wings that had a mix of colors consisting of white and green mixed in.
Ryu quickly draws out Valkyrie, letting off a flurry of shots. Thalya looked pissed at the interruption of her cuddles. She brought her staff to bare as all the shadows all-around came to life. A flood of shadows erupted towards the attacker, but only a few could reach the attacker's height. The Succubi rush over to the Fancy Pants group and used some of their magic to snap them out of the shock of the event.
The apparently deformed pony was attempting to evade a number of the shots being fired, with only a few grazing the feathers. However, one did hit dead in the center of its chest, but instead of inflicting any damage, there was a resounding metal upon metal sound that echoed loudly. But it seemed that the initial impact had caused it to back off and had taken a higher altitude that made it at least three times compared to that of before.
It would seem that the others had finally snapped out of it due to the Succubi's efforts. Fancy Pants was the first to exclaim while pointing at the unknown attacker, “Just what in Equestria is that Monstrosity?!”
Brex was the next to speak up as he pointed towards the train and called out, “All to the train, get inside. Stay away from the windows if you can. Don't want to take the chance of that thing's noise causing them to shatter on your faces!”
He then focused on it and brought up the status bar to see just what it was they were up against. Within a second, the health bar was displayed and showed the following.
Name: Garuda.
Class: Primal.
Level: 20.
Difficulty Level: High.
He then turned towards Ryu and said, “I think that's a primal. I'm getting the name Garuda and its only level twenty. It's obviously weaker compared to the last one.”
When he heard that, Ryu responded with saying, “Oh, that's all? You keep them safe, I got this. Decipher the laws of magic, let the sins of Icarus weigh on your soul, Plummet!” Garuda lost control of her wings. She kept falling to the ground at an accelerated pace. When she hit the ground, she landed on one of her wings and we heard a snapping sound. When Garuda had hit the ground, she was getting swarmed by shadows. The Succubi followed Fancy Pants’s group in the train, being noncombatants.
As the primal was being swarmed. There was a notable build-up of green light that was shining through the gaps. Within seconds, the tendrils of shadows were blasted away. This was quickly accompanied by a storm of half-hazardly aimed feathers.
One of which, had managed to reach all the way back to the tree line and broke a larger tree near its base with the amount of force and speed that it was launched with. The other feathers however, either impacted on dirt, thereby bearing themselves deep underground.
While some just flew in random directions. A few had even impacted on the side of the train car and had board holes clean through, but luckily none of the passengers or the engine were damaged. Brex himself had to pull out one of his daggers to deflect one of the feathers and it had nearly knocked him off his feet. But there were a few that were on a direct path for both Ryu and the dark elf Thalya.
Ryu pulled out a bottle that was recognized as something that the hero Singed would have and he took a big swig. Red, smoky mist started to come off of him. He moved with an insane amount of speed. Then, he brought out a syringe and inserted a needle into his arm and he got even faster.
At this point, one could hear a bone-chilling howl and he was now moving like a blur. Ryu was all of a sudden at the Primal, attacking at such speeds that it was hard to follow with the naked eye. Thalya had a huge magic force that was being cast at the feather coming at her and when they met, it turned to ash. Thalya then started on blasting the Primal with her staff.
It appeared that the combination of high speed, physical attacks from Ryu. Along with Thalya's fiery magic attacks, were wearing down the Primal. As her body was being cut and bashed, what clothing it had, along with a number of feathers were being burned away.
The Primal then let out another ear-piercing screech and swung one of its arms towards the Wolfman and struck him in the side of the head. As soon as it had done this, it spun on the spot and slashed at his guts with its right leg, which had three long, black bird talons coming out of it and manage to draw quite a bit of blood as it passed across his body.
It threw up both of its arms and it's one good wing towards the sky and called forth a mighty gust of wind that began to circle its body and acted as a barrier against the dark elf’s onslaught.
During this time, it appeared that its feathers were beginning to come in rapidly and the broken wing was beginning to straighten out. It didn't go unnoticed with how there was a barely noticeable stream of lights filling the air that were being pulled towards the primal in the direction of the forest, near where that one tree was knocked over.
Ryu kept his assault up, his wounds sealing shut fast. During this, he called out to the elf and gave out an order, “Thalya! Go check out that light!” When she heard that, she rushed over to the forest. What she found was a three meters wide, rectangular crate with a smashed lid that was revealing it to be full of crystals. Thalya then used her magic to remove the tree and pushed the crate into a portal that she had just opened with the use of her magic, cutting off the Primal from the crystal.
Even with Ryu still not relenting and constantly striking over and over again. It appeared that the more vital sections of Garuda’s body, which consisted of the abdomen and chest, were being guarded by a piece of black armor that was on the verge of bursting off with how the Primal was slowly growing in size.
By the time that Thalya had gotten the power source that was feeding the primal out of there, a considerable amount of damage had already been undone. Garuda was now twice her size and was able to stand nearly a foot taller than Ryu.
(Here is the Primals form after healing.)
Name: Garuda.
Class: Primal.
Level: 27.
Difficulty Level: Very High.
The pony like features that were visible before, we're long gone and now stood what could undeniably be the Primal of wind. When this had happened, Brex called out to the pair fighters and said, “Be careful! Now her level raised and she's fully healed. She's at level twenty-seven!”
Ryu grunted out as he said, “Great, then cover your ears! Let my voice, Thunder!” Ryu's voice amplified before he continued with, “let my voice Boom!” Thalya, knowing what he was doing, had already put up a soundproof barrier. Ryu was gathering a huge amount of air into him as he started to howl point-blank at Garuda. I wave of ghostly energy was pushed out of his now howling maw.
Even with fully restoring itself, the Primal was quite literally getting an earful from the Wolfman in front of it. A booming voice that could have put Canterlot's royal one to shame came out. The force not only threw the Garuda back into the air, but had dislodged a number of feathers and even began to crack the hard body armor that it was currently wearing.
Garuda attempted to shield itself with not only its wings, but magic to condense the wind. But those were pushed aside easily with the sudden concussive force being produced.
Within the time it took for that one attack to be launched by Ryu. Only two or three seconds had gone by. Garuda’s form was now vibrating to the intense frequency and had locked up all of its joints. The black and eyes suddenly shot open and within an instant, her entire form erupted, seeing as its body could no longer contain the unwanted vibrations being caused by the destructive howl.
Instead of there being blood, guts and other types of gore like material. The parts simply turned into condensed vapors of Aether and dispersed through the air until there was nothing left.
Ryu's ears were folded and was clearing showing signs of server discomfort as he was now muttering, “Ow!” Thalya popped her bubble a rush over to him, but only touching him enough to be able to get his attention.
All of those who were inside of the train, started to file out when the commotion had ended. Fancy Pants was currently fiddling with his ears when he said, “Oh my! And here I thought the princess had a loud voice. That sure beats her from what I heard the other day.”
The others were in apparently the same shape as they were either picking their ears in an attempt to hear again or flicking them nonstop. Brex was the next to speak when he called out in a loud voice, “What! What's that about priceless beats... No thanks! Not hungry!” As those words escaped his lips, the Roegadyn was slamming the side of his gloved hand on the right side of his head to knock whatever it was messing with his ears loose.
Ryu was pushing into Thalya as she was petting him and his fur was slowly changing from his normal black, to that of a cobalt blue. Small whimpers were currently escaping him.
It took a few moments for Brex to finally regain some of his hearing and heard the distressed sounds coming from his displaced partner. After rushing over, he changed it to his White mage class and this caused his outfit to undergo a shift from his usual yellow attire, to that of his white robes with the red trim.
Immediately, a series of cure spells, along with the Esuna spell for clearing status anomalies was used on Ryu. While in the middle of rendering aid, the others watched what was happening from a respectful distance.
When the series of treatments were completed, Brex asked just above a whisper as to not cause any more discomfort than what was necessary. “OK, that's all I can do. You're fully healed. But I don't know what the damage did to your ears.”
He then turned towards Thalya and said, “Make sure you keep an eye on him. If that hurt us all as badly as it did from just an indirect hit, then I don't want to know what he went through with those sensitive ears of his.”
Thalya kept petting Ryu as she said, “Thanks for healing him, but he is not in control right now, this is Dread.” She has a softer tone than normal and pointing to Ryu. She then went on to say, “This happens when he gets unstable, one of the other personalities will take over for a bit.”
“Dread is sorrow and fear. What helps define Dread is his favorite color is blue and he is nothing more than a scared child like this.” Brex could hear whimpering coming from him as Thalya continued with, “What he needs is to rest.” She opened the portal and was slowly helping Dread into it. The dark elf then finished with, “Come along, he will want to talk when he wakes up. But it is not surprising this happened after what happened in Zaun.”
Brex quickly asked Thalya in a lower volume, as to not get the attention of the others. “What about them, should we bring them along? Their train is beaten up, nevertheless, they can still ride it. It’s just with seeing what just happened, I'm not sure about leaving them alone.”
Thalya responded by saying, “Ryu would not mind. You can give them a tour, whatever you want. I'll let you know when he is back up and ready.” She said all of this while already in the middle of walking through the portal.
While looking over his shoulder, Brex motions with his left arm to approach. All of the Changelings, along with the two Unicorns were gawking at the black spiral portal that was created and the pair that had already gone through.
When they got close enough, Brex began to say, “Everything seems to be OK, for now. However, with the way your train looks, I would very much be opposed to you going back in it right now.” He then gestured towards the portal with his right hand as he continued on with, “That last attack took a lot out of them and he needs to rest. This portal leads straight to his dwelling.”
“It would be a good idea to go there and wait for him to get back on his feet. In fact, you can have the train start heading back right now. I'm sure we can find you another means of getting you all back to Canterlot.”
This got them all to look at one another, clearly unsure as to what to do. Soon their eyes rested on the portal and they slowly nodded. Fancy Pants was the one to speak up as he said, “I do believe that would be a prudent course of action. Our conveyance does seem quite... Unreliable at the present. It does resemble Swiss Cheese more than a functional locomotive now.”
Brex then turned to one of the Changeling maids and asked, “Could you send a message to your sisters that are with Blaze Caster and tell them to hold on and keep an eye on the kid until we get back?” This got him a quick nod from the Changeling before her horn lit up for a few seconds. Afterwards she said, “It has been done my Lord.”
With it seemingly taken care of. He then ushered them all to go through with him being the last to enter. As soon as he had stepped through, he had nearly bumped into Fleur De Lis. Apparently, they had all stopped just a few paces from the portal's entrance and had their mouth nearly hitting the floor, while their eyes were bugging out at the site in front of them.
(Here is a picture of the city.)
With it being underground in all, it wasn't much of a surprise when a portion of the buildings were mostly constructed using stone. But what made it stand out, was how they were lava channels carved out that were zig zagging between some of the buildings and even running along the one's higher up and going down the sides of the tall walls.
Even with this being both a source of heat and a light source, it wasn't as hot as one would think. They were currently standing on an elevated section of the city that allowed a good view of most of it.
From where he was, Brex surveyed what he could and spotted the various sections of the city. On one side, he could spot the area that had both the prison and the labs where the mad scientist that he didn't much care for was currently residing in and working tirelessly for Ryu.
He then scowled in its general direction before turning his attention back towards the group and pointing in some far-off area that was on the other side of the city. As soon as he saw that they were looking at him. He started to say, “There's a lot to see. Any of you have any particular interests?” As soon as he had said those words, he began to bring them towards a set of steps heading down.
Over the course of a few hours. Brex was acting as their tour guide and showing Fancy Pants, Fleur De Lis and other Changelings around. They would check out some of the hotels that were already built and it seemed that they were quite interested with some of the design concepts and utilities offered.
But when it came to the point that they were apparently passing by, what could have been seen as the, Red-light district. It was fun to watch the Changelings having a reaction to what was obviously being emitted from there.
He had to actually stop a few of them from nearly wandering in, out of instinct. It also didn't help when a number of sounds were being produced from just beyond some of the open doors that could be seen through the large open archway that led to that section of the city.
Even Fancy Pants was apparently being hot and bothered and his future wife was picking up on this. Seeing as they were all grown adults, they went in. Purely as a way of determining what was happening in those walls.
It took less than ten minutes before they were all running out and the Roegadyn was practically steaming from his mask's eye holes with how red he was under the collar so the speak.
He could practically hear Rory moaning from the deepest parts of his mind, before she came out and started to speak in a lusty tone. Master~, Do you think we could try out some of those activities later on in your dreams?! They are so interesting! Especially with that one involving straps and a-.”
Her words were interrupted by Brex mentally yelling, “RORY! NOT NOW! WE CAN TALK ABOUT WHIPS AND CHAINS AT SOME OTHER TIME!” This was then emphasized with him in visioning the girl being bound and gagged with duct tape and affixed with a rather large ball gag. Rory was then tossed into a small cage that was within a locked room and had its lights turned off.
The rest of the group was not faring so much better. As they were all pretty much beat red. Brex knew they had things like that in his Equestria, but seeing that much being used so openly, was a little too much for their group to handle all at once.
The next stop was the garden that another displaced had created within Ryu's dungeon. This one was obviously the most eye catching, out of any part of the underground city with how much it stood apart from the rest. There are a great many types of plants that range from small to great. A number of which, Brex was sure were extinct with the way they were looking.
When he had caught sight of a large, yellow plant that was fighting to get up while most of it was sitting on the ground. He had a sudden flashback to a certain movie about a board game. This caused him to avoid it like the plague while keeping an eye out. All the while muttering under his breath just low enough for none of the others to hear. “Just watch out for the purple ones...”
The park was where they spent most of their time. When they had finally gotten enough of that, they wandered around until they found an area that was looking more like a bizarre of types. Brex was rather thankful that they had not run into a single one of the Arachnids or zombies yet. He wasn't quite sure how to explain something that is obviously the main focus of a lot of phobias.
They had seen plenty of the Orc's and Succubi's. There were quite a number of ponies already coming and going as well. The whole thing had a busy vibe with how lively things seemed.
At the Bizarre, they could see stalls filled with meats, furs, food, vegetables, many different fabrics, and magic items of all sorts. An orc came up to Brex and offered a heavy bag of coins that had some words printed on it that said, “For Brex Mith.” While making sure it only showed it to the displaced Roegadyn. it had a note that read, “Ryu just woke up, be ready in about thirty minutes and here is some of our currency, enjoy.”
Brex saw the bag and began to examine its contents. Fleur De Lis, who happened to be among those who saw the exchange asked, “Has there been any word on your friend's condition?”
He then nodded to the question before saying, “Yes, I just received word that he recovered and we can see him in the next thirty minutes. Also, I got some of their currency now, is there anything here you want as a souvenir?”
This got Fancy Pants to immediately speak up with an amused tone as he said, “My good sir, you have no idea what you have just unleashed.” This only earned the stallion a light tap on the shoulder as his fiancé as she gave him a pouting face before saying, “You make it sound as if I'll buy everything that’s not nailed down!”
Fancy Pants then raised one of his eyebrows questionably before the mare shrunk down and started to speak in a weak voice. “It will not be the same as that last time I went to that one boutique...”
In the end, what caught her eye, was a bolt of thread that seemed to almost glitter with how finely made it appeared to be. Seeing as it wouldn't hurt to have some new materials, Brex also bought a few for himself.
It wasn't until they were leaving to head to meet up with Ryu, that he went into his item box window and examined what he had just purchased. From behind his mask, he raised an eyebrow when he saw the text saying it was called, Demonic spider silk. He then started to turn his head in some random directions as he muttered under his breath, just low enough for the others not to hear. “Where are those spiders anyway?”
It took up pretty much the entire thirty minutes to finally get to one of the larger buildings situated at the center of the underground city. When they arrived, they were led in through the front gates and right up to the throne room itself.
Instead of waiting for them to be opened by the guards outside, Brex had gone ahead and did it for himself and stepped inside. Immediately after, the rest of them began to follow and filed into the large room.
The throne room was marbled red walls and floors. There were also black banners with a blood red thresh lanterns that glowed with magic on them. The throne looked like it was made up of a material that resembled black gold.
Ryu was sitting on the throne, with his hand steeped between the armrests, with a smile on his face. The Wolfman then said, “Greetings, allow me to properly introduce myself.” Ryu gave a small bow to the group before continuing to say, “I am Warden of The Dammed. King of monsters. Alas, not the one that is responsible for attacking the planet.”
That statement alone ended up getting the full attention of both the Unicorns and the Changelings present. Some of which, looking a bit more fearful than others.
Brex stepped up to calm the group down before things escalated by saying, “Not all monsters are bad. The ones that attack and are causing us problems are not under his control.” This managed to cool down the group after hearing that they were not on the same page as the others that would constantly attack the ponies.
This got Ryu to add to the conversation by saying, “Yes, I can't control monsters that are unwilling or are feral. So, it leaves me with just a few options. I could march in armies to deal with them, but we all know that the other nations don't like the idea of foreign armies running amok in their lands. It is a massive mess. In all technicality, Changelings are a monster race, but you wouldn't consider yourselves to be monsters, do you?”
A few of the Changelings present, we're looking more than a little appalled by being called monsters. There was one or two that were actually bearing their fangs in rage, even though they were in their pony disguise.
It was Fleur De Lis that spoke up to save the situation and calm her sisters down. While using a professional tone that even Brex had yet to hear from her. She said, “I will not deny that we have been seen as that. Nevertheless, we like to say that we see ourselves to be on the same level as ponies, as well as the other races.”
She had paused for a moment before going on to say, “But I do see your point. We have already seen what is in your city. The large green ones, along with the females with the horns and wings are perfect examples. They are quite nice.”
Ryu then said, “Exactly, that is my point. It's not your race that matters, but the deeds you do and what you are given. The true monsters are the nobles that abuse the less fortunate and the guards that looks the other way, now they are the real monsters. In this city, if you obey my law, you are given the same freedoms and chances that everyone else has. This is the future I wish to see throughout the world.”
“I understand my people for my blood is one and the same as theirs. It was not us who started to call us monsters. But we bare the title to show them we may be monstrous-looking. But we will still be better than those others and show them just who is the real monster here.”
Brex was the next to speak as he said, “Now that we have gotten the pleasantries all taken care of. We can move on to what we were originally talking about, before that little tussle. I do believe that we were about to have a taste test when we got interrupted. But as far as I can see, things are pretty well settled as they are. All that is required are the last small details. Wouldn't you all agree?”
Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis, both nodded in agreement. When Brex saw this, he turned to Ryu and said, “Is there anything that you would like to add before we go into the final details?” Ryu replied with saying, “Not really. But we can do the tasting now if you want? and after that, we can go over the details.”
Fancy Pants looked rather delighted at the idea of finally being able to try some of the drink and happily nodded. After that, they we're all served their own glass when Ryu called over some servants that looked identical to the ones from before.
Each and every one of them were basically grinning from ear to ear after what they were having. Some were rather surprised that each of their interpretations turned out to be different. Some had some more refined tastes, such as Fancy Pants himself, while others were getting the taste of something that was on the other end. Either way, it was the personal favorites for everyone drinking.”
When they were finished, both Fancy Pants and Ryu both ended up shaking hands in sealing the deal.
They all remained for a while longer to enjoy Ryu's hospitality as the discussions went on in regards to their plans. Just over an hour had gone by when it was decided that they would all start heading back through the portal. However, there was a slight snag with the location in which they were going to come out at.
So, it was both Brex and Ryu, who went through first. While the rest had to remain until a new portal could be created. Thankfully, it only took a few minutes after the pair had used the Roegadyn's transport ability to get them near Ponyville once they arrived on the other side. From there, it was a simple matter of locating the hotel that they were all using and finding Blaze Caster, along with the remaining set of maids.
After giving a brief introduction between Ryu and his recently discovered original character. The new portal was opened up and Brex went through to get the others who were waiting on the other side.
Once he had notified them of where the other end was now going to take them. Fancy Pants led the group as they all filed through in an orderly fashion. However, there was a small problem when it came down to the very last of the Changelings.
Just before they were about to go through the portal. A small pebble had apparently dropped nearby and caught her attention after clattering on the stone ground.
With just one foot barely through the event horizon of Ryu’s portal and on to the other side. The Changeling swiveled her head to try and find out where it had come from. Just as she was about to give up on the mystery and go through, she instantly looked up and her eyes went comically wide almost instantly.
When seeing this, Brex wondered just what would have caused the Changeling to have a reaction like this. So, by following her gaze, his eyes began to trace the stone ceilings high above and noticed how there were some moving objects up there that appeared to be in large clusters.
Upon squinting his eyes to focus a little better, he realized almost instantly that those were the Arachnid demons that he had not seen during the entire time there. When he returned his attention back to the Changeling, he found a comical sight.
Brex then thought, “Huh, I suppose that’s the normal reaction when seeing something like that crawling all over the ceiling. Also how did I not notice them up there?” Rory answered that question by saying, “Master, I believe it has something to do with how there’s so many others in this underground city that it was somehow masking their overall presence. Also, they’re at the very edge of my range of detection.”
Her mouth was opening and closing without any sound was coming out. Brex merely rolled his eyes from behind his mask and went up to the Changeling and picked her up in a bridal style and went through the portal together.
Once on the other side, he had gone over to a chair that was within the room and sat her in it. He leaned in a little closer and started to hear some noise coming from her lips. When he did, he heard the words, “Spiders, really, really, really… Big spiders.”
He then patted her on the shoulder and said, “They belong to him as well. They won't harm you.” With this, the Changeling just nodded silently while still looking straight ahead. Fortunately, she did seem a little more calmed down after he had patted her on the shoulder a few more times and got a small smile from the girl.
After getting that small reaction from the changeling Rory couldn’t help to start speaking in a joking tone, “Master you better be careful. I have no doubt that if Rin and Lin were to get word of this, they would be very jealous but you got this close to another Changeling.” This got Brex to ask in a confused tone, “Why in the world would they be jealous?” Afterwards, Rory stayed silent after letting out a drawn-out sigh.
What came next, had pretty much blew by how busy everything got after all meeting up again. Over the course of the following four weeks. Properties were being bought up left and right.
Afterwards, the Roegadyn had taken up Ryu's suggestion about purchasing an abandoned mine to smelt down some of his Gil currency into golden bars. That way, they had some quick capital to use for right now and claim that a fresh vein was found as an excuse for the large influx of gold on the market.
At the moment, it was just a Brewery and the Gobbler farm that were being focused on. With Fancy Pants being the financial guide, they had already started on producing the dummy corporations that would soon go out of business. This was so that that the plots of land or buildings that they had been using, would be available for the real ones on a later date.
It took less than a week for the two different companies that were being provided by Ryu to be up and running. Unfortunately, there was a slight catch at the end on construction. Unlike with Ryu's dungeon, there was no, Dungeon Heart to act as the main source of power that was typically needed to keep Ryu’s creations running. It took a bit of work on both of their ends before the pair of displaced had come up with a work around for the problem.
Thanks to the container of crystals that they found during that last Primal attack. Brex fashioned it into a type of miniature, Heart Stone replacement. In a sense, it was an Aether crystal that was roughly the size of a large, double door refrigerator. Once a structure had been built for it just underneath the ground, a power line was stretched between the two complexes and everything was up and running.
The Gobbler farm was already starting to produce a steady amount of the fowls in the enclosed area thanks to the heater lamps helping with the incubation possess. The lamps somehow had the additional effect of causing the ground to create something that could be consumed by the animals.
As for the Brewery. The fully automated machines were going at full speed. Seemingly as though it was made for the primary purpose to break the laws of physics. The thing would not only toss crates around into a number of trap doors and launch others on spring loaded pads. It somehow was able to make not only the beverage, but also needed no input of anything at all. This meant it did not require any boxes or ingredients.
With Fancy Pants calling in a few favors. There was even a plot of land that was available for later use just over the ocean and near the Griffin territory for when the Gobblers became more well known.
Brex even got some assistance in requesting for Ryu to transport the Changelings that were going to become students over with the use of his portals. It helped that they had been notified ahead of time thanks to the hive connection.
Whenever he wasn't needed. The Roegadyn would either be training the new Changelings in different classes by taking them deep into the Everfree woods. Or be at the manor to see Prince Blue Blood during the few times that he would come over to visit.
Fancy Pants would even frequently visit the castle, just to meet up with the young Prince now and then to check up on the kid and inform Brex as to the current situation there.
This of course, led to Ryu learning of the young Prince’s current predicament. It was safe to say that the Wolfman was not at all happy when he found out about this one particular mare that had made a move at getting to the prince.
It didn't take long until a plan was hatched among all of the males there. With Fancy Pants having connections and frequently heading over to the castle on either personal business or meetings with the Princess. The stallion was able to discover just who this mare really was and where to find her.
So, when the four weeks had come to an end. Everything was pretty much all put together and ready to go. The plan was then set into motion to expose what was being done to Prince Blue Blood.
After going through with saying they're farewells to Ryu. The Wolfman then proceeded to sneaking into the castle and easily evaded all detection by the guards as he made his way to the princess's bedchamber, shortly after the sun had gone down. Once inside, It didn't take too long for Ryu to have to wait, before the princess went to bed.
(Here is a picture of the house on the mountain.)
It was close to a half an hour by the time Brex saw Ryu reappearing at their predetermined meeting spot after executing their mission. The Roegadyn was currently leaning up against the side of his house and just a few steps to the right of his front door.
At the same time, he was tossing something in the air that glinted in the sunlight repeatedly with the use of his thumb in the same fashion that a person would be flipping a coin. After doing this for just a few more times, he caught it in his palm and while holding it between a thumb and index finger in his right hand, he showed it to be the white link pearl that was meant to be his token.
Without removing himself from his leaning position, Brex tilted his head inquisitively before asking, “From the sounds of things, I take it that the Princess got pretty messed up with what we found out? I couldn't see anything of what was happening, so I was going purely off of the sounds coming from this.”
Ryu, who had just fully exited his means of getting around quickly, replied with, “Yeah, everything worked out better than planned. Shall we be off then?”
That was when Brex brought out the golden key once again and used it on his house's front door and opened it for the other displaced to enter before he did. The Roegadyn then said while gesturing with his right hand, "After you."
Brex watched as the Wolfman entered and could be seen approaching a type of dial that was affixed to a wall and gave it a turn. Once that was done, he said, “We are back in my world.”
After hearing that. The Roegadyn stepped inside and started to close the door still connected to his own. He turned and pulled off his mask just enough to lower it and expose his hazel-colored eyes. In a small voice, that was just barely above a whisper. Before he said, “Goodbye. I’ll be back before you know it.” Then the door was closed the rest of the way with a small click that seemed louder than it was meant too.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Private residence, South of Baltimare* *Time: Just passed eight at night*
(Here is picture of the general area.)
About nine miles to the South of Baltimare, was an estate that belongs to a well-known business Pony known only by others as, Big Mama. This was a Unicorn mare was rather on the, larger end of the spectrum. This was due to how she was always into new types of food and continuously hosted extravagant parties for the wealthy and most influential.
She was the president that owned multiple shipping trades that would go in-and-out on the water, along with a few that would go by road on the eastern side of Equestria. In the public's eye, she was an entrepreneur that gained her wealth through expertly handled business transactions and negotiation tactics.
Where she lived, was a large, privately owned estate, that had its own wall surrounding it that was nearly as big as the one that would go around the nearby city itself. There was only one way in or out of the grounds. This was thanks to a fortified gate that would allow two or three carriages to travel through at once.
Tonight, there were many guards situated in key areas around the grounds while there are just as many, if not more within the walls of the three floored mansion that one would believe the princesses themselves to own.
Instead of being made of brick or mortar, the structure appeared to be constructed with the use of magic and marble with how smooth and seamless everything appeared to be. There was even an impressive maze garden that surrounded the building Itself and only a single path for carriages to come right up and encircle a statue with a vague similarity to the princess of the sun, before leaving again.
It would seem that Big Mama, was having a very important guest arriving and was already giving the final orders to one of her servants before they were sent away from behind a very large chair that was facing away. The room itself was decorated with many expensive looking trinkets and statues. Most of which, seem to be made out of mostly gold and rare jewels. When some time had passed, there was the chorus of bells being run lightly through the structure.
Shortly after, the very same servant came back in through the door and quickly announced. “Madam, it would appear that your guest has arrived, shall I show them in?” Big mama replied by speaking in a very, over the top southern tone. “Let us not make them wait. Bring my guest here, but remember what the rules are for any others.”
This got the mare, who was speaking to Big Mama, that was still hidden by the chair, to give a light bow, before she replied with a, “Yes ma'am.” And left. Soon there was the sound of steps being taken from beyond the door and one could hear the voice of the servant on the other side saying something to another.
“The madam is within. But regrettably, this is to be a private get together. I will have to ask that your escort waits outside until called for.” When that was done, a gentle knock came at the door and the servant's voice could be heard saying, “Madam, your guest is here. I will show him in now.”
The door was then opened and who came in, was a stallion wearing a very sharp business suit with silver cufflinks on their sleeves and polished black hoof coverings. Due to how things were being portrayed by the angle of things, everything above their neck line was being obscured from vision. The only physical trait that could be noticed, was the apparently well-kept black tail and that this one was roughly, just over five feet tall.
Big Mama then turned in her chair and revealed herself to be a dark blue Unicorn, with a mane primarily comprised of bright pink and a few streaks of blue running through that was made into a long braid and was going over her right shoulder. Her eyes were a light blue and she was wearing a cocktail dress that left much to be desired in covering the chest area.
On most mare that could be seen around. Such an outfit would have been an eye catcher. But this one was worn by an individual that clearly should not have dawned such an outfit. Seeing as it was already giving the signs that it was about to tear with how large her body frame was.
While giving a very large toothy grin. She held out both of her arms as one would when about to give a hug. She then called out very excitedly, “Welcome, welcome. Thank you so much for accepting my invitation. Please, do have a seat. I find that having these little chats to be more enjoyable when all are comfortable.”
As she was saying this, the one that came in silently, walked into the room further and took a seat in the middle of a curved couch. Once in place, did they begin to cross their right leg over the left and lean back into their seat. This was accompanied by signs that would show that a nod was given to Big Mama.
The toothy grinned from before, became more relaxed. But there was still this small little grin on the edge of the lips as Big Mama kept her gaze on her guest with an almost, predatory glint behind them. She then began to say, “Still, I am very grateful for you to answer so quickly once my messenger got to you!”
Big Mama, then turned her chair to the right. Just enough so that the window could be visible while still having a clear line of sight towards her guest. She then began to lightly tap on the armrest of her chair with her left middle finger a few times. After, she began to speak in a sweet voice.
“I hear that you are not one to dance around the issue and get straight to the point. I admire that in a stallion. I would even say… I even find it attractive. When those last words were said, her eyes began to narrow a little bit, while she was lightly licking her lips for only a second.
She then went on to say, “When I got word that you were suddenly in Baltimare. To say that I was surprised, was an understatement! I do believe we started doing business roughly, close to a year ago. Even then, it was through a proxy if I remember correctly.
What's more, you never attended any of my parties in person. Now if I was the paranoid type, then I would assume that you are avoiding me for some reason. But I could see now that it's most likely, your mare is keeping you out of the public eye, out of fear of losing you.” That last bit, had a small chuckle behind it before she continued.
“But I have to confess something. When I first heard that a stallion had opened up shop and needed a transport business to get their wares around. I was more than skeptical in the beginning. But it would seem that I was proven wrong and I'm glad for that. It's opened up so many more doors for my business.”
This earned Big Mama a light chuckle from the stallion sitting across from her desk. Seeing this reaction made the mare begin to blushing a little bit, before she went on. “Also, thanks to you, I've been able to expand my influence and reach out towards other companies that would otherwise, keep to themselves. Just over the last few months alone, the mergers have been conducted smoothly.”
“With what you bring, along with my shipping network. I dare say we are going to become the richest ponies in Equestria.” This earned her another chuckle from the stallion. In response, the mare was blushing even further than before and was having a bit of trouble with keeping her composure after hearing his voice.
The mare then went on to say, “But still, what brings you here? I don't believe that there were any events that I was aware of that would warrant a personal visit from you.”
In response, the stallion reached into their Jackets breast pocket and pulled out a small card. While carefully holding the corner of it between the tips of his index and middle finger, he flashed it towards Big Mama. After taking a few seconds to look at it from where she was, her eyes went wide for about a second before she adopted a wide smile again.
She then began to laugh a little bit to herself as she covered her mouth with her right hand. While giving him a flirtatious stare down with her eyes. She removed the hand, as she was trying to compose herself once again.
The mare then began to say, “Well, well. Color me surprised! I see that you have eyes and ears everywhere. I had no idea that it got out about my new dealings with the Adventurer's Guild. Is it not wonderful that they are willing to lend more workers? What's more, it will be at a reduced cost to us, seeing as they'll be paid through the Guild as a quest.”
She then brought her left hand up and had the back of it towards her mouth while giving an overly, exaggerated laugh as she continued on. “Ha-ha, Haha-Ha! Sure, there was one hiccup in the beginning, but everything has gone swimmingly since. They're so accommodating that I even got a little something for myself out of the deal.”
Afterwards, she brought her vision back to the stallion that was sitting in the couch and her expression changed to more delight as he lightly began to clap his hands. All the while, still not saying a single word.
Big Mama, was now grinning even bigger than before, which threatened to rip her head open if it got any wider. Her eyes then shifted their gaze down his form while not letting go of her current expression. Soon, this was paired with the mare pursing her lips together for about a second and licking them before giving a slight hum of approval.
She then said, while adopting a husky tone. “You know~, I heard that you were the strong, silent type. But I wonder about that. I'm just thinking out loud here. But if I was to guess... I would have to say that's just a front. You may be the head of your group. However, in the end, you're still a stallion. It's in your nature to be submissive. So, what I think is... That you're looking for a strong, capable mare to lean against. So how about it?”
The stallion uncrossed his legs and had them suggestively parted. He then brought his right hand up close to his head in a motion that suggested he was tapping his chin while in deep thought. Seeing this, Big Mama was practically drooling at the action and at the same time, having eyes filled with anticipation at the favorable response to come.
As her fingers were gently gliding across the fabric of her chair on both armrests. She went on to say, “To every pony else. We can be two very successful partners. But, behind closed doors, we could have a special relationship. You can keep your image of being this strong stallion, while at the same time, indulging in your basic, carnal desires. After all, one can't fight nature. I just know that you would look positively lovely in a collar.”
When she had gotten to the point about the collar. The stallion had partly lowered his raised hand and was now tracing it around the nape of his neck with the tip of his fingers, rather sensually. This caused the mare to release a small sound as she had to swallow a sizable amount of saliva while watching this action.
With her smile changing to that of a devilish smirk. She began to talk and a somewhat different tone than before, which carried a distinct tone of authority. “I can see your rather interested in the prospect. My instincts are never wrong. Honestly, I find it hard to believe that you're even allowed to walk around on your own. Mama's going to have to get a leash on you~.”
The stallion then released a small hum of amusement before slowly getting to his feet and gracefully began to pace around the large desk and approach the large mare from the right side. As he did this, she was going wide eyed at the sudden movement and was now blushing furiously as he placed his thumb and two other fingers on her chin to carefully lift it.
From behind a stallion, one can make out only his hair as it was jet black, with just a few hints of silver on the tips. Big Mama, was apparently getting very excited with the way she was beginning to breathe heavily and her nose was flaring to try and take in the stallion’s scent. She was clearly wanting to say something, but was caught up in a moment when the stallion leaned in closer and was now having his mouth close to her right ear.
He was apparently whispering something into it, as her eyes began to glaze over with lust. But suddenly, they went wide and began to shrink as her voice was caught and being hitched in her throat. Her eyes then quickly darted to the stallion as her right hand tried to reach down underneath the handle of her armrest. Unfortunately, she was stopped when her entire body went rigid as visible sparks of electricity jolted from the stallion's fingertips and into her jaw.
This was accompanied by a sudden sound of, “Zit... Zat... Pizzzzzzzz, Bizzt, Bizzzt.” Big Mama, was jerking in place as her hair began to stand on end for several seconds before the sound stopped and her body ceased with its convulsing. The mare, while still breathing quickly, in short breaths, was staring straight ahead as her body was literally locked up from the apparent, electrical shock that was suddenly delivered.
Seemingly unable to move. The mare attempted to use her horn, but only a few, vague sparks were emitted before snuffing itself out. On the desk, sat a letter opener next to a small stack of already opened letters. It was then picked up by the stallion and held up closer for the mare to see from only several inches away from her face. Within a few seconds, the short blade was now beginning to glow with a green light as it gave off an ethereal flame that danced on the edge.
Even with being unable to move by what was done to her body. Big Mama, tried to struggle, but only managed to twitch her body in random spots as her breath began to quicken and sweat was now visible. There was even a long stream of tears that were beginning to form and run down her eyes. That was when the stallion, with one easy swipe of the wrist, had caused the blade to sever the mare’s horn, mere centimeters from her skull.
The appendage then fell and was caught by his free hand. It showed that it was cleanly cut and cauterized by the intense heat being provided by the letter opener. Close to where the cut was made on the horn, there was a golden band along with a red gem affixed in the center of it.
The horn was then lightly waved very slowly in front of the mare's eyes while the stallion clicked his tongue with each wave as if taunting the mare with the notion that she was now without her magic, permanently. The stallion than began to speak loud enough to be heard, with a tone that was just playful, in away. “There's really no point in needing this to signal with to your friends.”
He then placed the horn into his right hand, along with the letter opener and reached down to where the mare was trying to go just before being shocked. After a few seconds in, along with a harsh pull. The stallion held in front of the mare a small device that looked like it was a single red button with some short, ripped out wires dangling from it.
After carefully putting down both the switch and the knife on the desk, he turned his attention back towards the mare and began to speak in a somewhat carefree tone, that had a slight edge to it. “I gave you a chance, seeing as you were a pony that ‘He’, recommended. However, within a few weeks, a certain matter had got my attention.”
At this point, the stallion was now sitting on the desk while fiddling with the mare's horn before he continued with. “From there, it was only a matter of investigation. One thing led to another and then that led to even, another thing. Long story short, I wanted to cut ties with you for a long time now, but you are so useful. Also, I need to collect more evidence.”
“Oh, in case you're wondering, I'm not talking about you anymore. I was looking into what to do with your other business contacts. How does that old saying go? Cut off one head of the Hydra, another will come to replace it? Well, something along those lines. Thanks to you, I have a list of some very, very, bad ponies to look into. But you are oh so very lucky. Being right at the top of my naughty list! Now doesn’t that just make you feel special?”
“I was gonna let you stick around for another month or so, but recent activities have forced my hand.” That was when he leaned in a little closer and placed his left hand's index finger right on the mare's throat and began to lightly press on it until he got onto the skin right underneath the fur.
The next set of words, were each emphasized with a particularly strong, yet short shock delivered to the mare’s body in a not so pleased tone. “You... Bizzt. Did... Bizzt. Something... Pizzt. That... Bizzt. Makes... Dizzt. Me... Bistzt. Very... Bizt. Very... Bizt. Very... Bizizit. Angry... Bizzizzzizzt!” The mare was silently beginning to foam at the mouth as her eyes rolled almost all the way into the back of her head with each electrical shock. There was even the smell of burnt fur in the air.
Even long after the last electrical shock was sent through into the mare. The large Pony was still fidgeting in place. The stallion then went on to say with a cheery tone, “Now, normally I would take my time... But. That would mean being around you more than I have to. And honestly, I don't see you as something good enough to warrant my time. Oh, and this? In case you're wondering, it's just me letting off some steam.”
“Now, going back to what I said earlier about not needing that thing right there to call on some friends. How about I show you what I meant?” Big Mama, was grabbed by her mane and dragged out of the chair. Without the use of her arms and legs and being in a way, paralyzed. She was dragged all the way across her room and out through the door that was harshly kicked open just then by the stallion.
Seemingly no different than a bag of potatoes, her body was brought down the stairs and had to endure each step hitting the back of her skull with how low she was being carried. Each time, eliciting a small grunt or a whimper of pain that managed to escape her still numb lips.
When they came to a stop and the world began to come into focus once again. The mare's eyes roamed her entrance hall and shrunk into pin prix the instant she realized what she was looking at. There were the dead bodies of at least twenty-three ponies, laying all around in a neat circle and each and every one of them, was missing their head.
Just a little ways away, against one of the far walls, was a stack of the missing heads. All jumbled up as if half hazardly put together without any sense of rhyme or reason, with how a few of them were either on their sides, or even upside down.
The stallion then began to speak as he threw her into the middle of the circular pile of bodies. “In case you're hoping for your big, bad, enforcer to show up, I regrettably inform you, that she is no longer in your services.”
He then released a small chuckle and said, “Just to let you in on something. All those times that I was laughing? It wasn't because of what you were saying. It was more because of what I was being shown. You see, the whole time that you were talking, I was watching all of this unfold in my head.”
The mare, who was currently on her side, had her eyes darting around. It was apparent that she was trying to say something with the way her lips were moving and squeezing out a few syllables. Unfortunately, they only seemed to be randomly made with how her vocal cords were still paralyzed from the direct shock to her neck just moments ago.
While taking a quick look himself. The stallion began to bring his hand up and place it under his chin before humming to himself a few times. He then went on to say, in a confused tone, “Well, I don't see your enforcer here, so you're probably wondering about just where is she?” He then pointed his finger to a door that was nearby before saying, “Oh! Here she comes now!”
The stallion went over and opened the door in question very slowly and revealed the figure of a tall, muscular pony that could be seen coming out of the dark shadows within the hallway that was without any light source. Big Mama, pathetically reached out one of her arms, but it only plopped on the ground after a few seconds of being raised in the air towards the figure.
When the one that was coming had finally gotten into the light. It was shown that they too were without a head and was apparently being carried by another individual standing directly behind it. When this was noticed, the mare on the ground began to shrink as she pulled her arms and legs closer together out of pure fear.
The body was then tossed until it landed right next to Big Mama. This revealed the one behind it to be an Earth Pony mare judging by the curves that were so obviously apparent. Her fur was slightly tanned and the mane and tail were jet black. What stood out the most, was how her eyes were a crimson red that matched very well with the amount of blood splatters littering her clothing that was similar to that of a secretary outfit, with the short mini skirt and button-up top.
In her right hand, she was holding over her shoulder an impressively large axe that was heavily stained in fresh blood. And the other held by its hair, was the head of the formerly known as the head guard to the mansion.
Said head, was then tossed into the circle and it bounced a few times before coming to a slow roll right in front of Big Mama. When it had finally come to complete stop, the two were looking right at each other, directly in the eyes. While the Unicorn was having an expression of horror, the severed Earth pony's head had a manic grin on its face that was just completely out of place for one that was about to lose their head.
That was when the mare with the large axe, approached the stallion and stood by his side and started to wrap her free arm around his and nuzzle into his shoulder rather affectionately in the same way one would a lover. Although the stallion himself did not seem to bother at all with the blood that was now being applied to his once clean suit.
Now giving the Unicorn mare a smile that only an innocent kid would have. He began to speak with a cold and nearly emotionless tone. “Do you happen to remember of a mare by the name of, Cross Pad? If you don't, then allow me to refresh your memory. She was a young Pegasus that once worked for you for a number of years. You could say that she was an invaluable staff member.”
“One day, one of my subordinates had come across a scene, where Cross Pad was in the middle of being forced into a crate that was meant to be shipped off overseas. Now, I wanted to know the full story. We boarded the ship in secrecy and got a good look at all the paperwork that was on board in the captain’s quarters.”
“You could just imagine my surprise when I found out that, not only was the ship being used as a alack market slave dealers transport vessel. But also, the one who owned the ship was none other, than you yourself. Of course, it didn't say the company, but it was under your direct name. I have no idea if that was intentional or just plain stupidity.”
“Once everything was sorted. We proceeded to liberate all of the slaves that were packed away. Well, you could guess that those that were guarding them protested quite adamantly and had to be dealt with.”
“We did find a safe place for the mares to hide for a little while so that word didn't get out about their release. It was quite simple to stage the ship being lost at sea to cover up any tracks. When that little event was done, we looked into more of your actions and started to keep a close eye on every single transaction done on your part.”
“So, here is the kicker! All those illegal business transactions that you've been doing behind my company's back that had anything to do with slavery. You were really dealing through my proxies. Right now, they're all safe and sound and waiting for me to send word that they can go back to their own lives again. Of course, it did cost me quite a bit to acquire them before any other buyers could. But with what I make right now, it's pretty much a drop in the bucket.” At the end of that little speech, the stallion did a light shrug along with a small wicked grin present on the edge of his lips.
At this point, Big Mama was looking at him with disbelief written all over her face. She even tried to say something to him once more, regrettably her vocal cords were still out of it so they mostly sounded like grunts and small squeaks while slowly shaking her head as if to disagree what was being said.
The pair then turned away and we're now making towards the front door. When they did this, Big Mama Began to claw the ground and slowly, but surely was inching her way towards the edge of the dead bodies in the other direction now that they had their backs towards her. As soon as her hand had gotten close enough to grab onto the closest body for more leverage, everything was suddenly erupting in roaring flames.
All of the corpses, along with the Unicorn were now a part of a roaring bonfire that had no effect on anything else around it, except for what was within. Not even the floor itself was showing any signs of being damaged by the heat. The mare was screaming at the top of her lungs for several seconds, until she finally succumbed to the pain and lack of oxygen and perished while half way laying across the ring of corpse’s.
Going back to the pair that were just crossing the threshold. The stallion had his right arm raised just above his head and his fingers poised to show that he had just snapped them. The mare at his side, was not affected by what had just transpired and held tightly onto his left arm as they slowly walked over the lawn and made their way down the cobble road, till they got to the front gate.
When they had arrived, they found that it was wide open and there was already a number of other bodies that were spread about on the road and grass nearby. By the looks of things, they had attempted to take the carriage that they had come in with but there were two individuals standing side-by-side awaiting for them to exit the premises.
They were both female Unicorns that were completely identical in appearance, right down to their height and wearing sets of sunglasses. Along with a black suit and tie. These were the typical glamor spells that were used for guards that worked for V.I.P.’s. As well as the royal guards with how they looked exactly the same among each other.
One of the guards climbed up into the driver's seat of the carriage and grabbed onto a set of straps leading to a large, yellow bird that was standing in place while all secured into a harness on the front of the carriage. The bird itself, was easily two meters tall, with vibrant yellow feathers and short wings.
When the guard had tugged on the straps. The animal had released this adorable little, "Kehweee!" Sound. Of course, this made the driver giggle to themselves upon hearing it. The other guard however, merely shook their head while having a small smile of their own as they opened the door for both the stallion and the axe wielding mare to enter the mode of transportation.
Once inside, the pair sat on the back seat while the one guard was on the front. Although, there was another occupant that was already inside and they were wrapped up in a blanket and sound as if they were snoring away peacefully in the land of dreams.
The angle of things from within the carriage now allowed full view of the stallion's face. Which now exposed him to be an Earth pony, with a gray coat and hazel eyes. While having a serious expression on. He spoke in an authoritative tone when he said, “Send word to the others. We move on our primary targets in the next thirty minutes. I want things done quickly and quietly. I believe we have waited long enough to spring this trap.”
This got a nod from the Unicorn in front of him and a green glow began to appear on their horn. After several seconds had passed, the glow slowly subsided and the Unicorn guard then said. “The message has been sent. All units are in place and the countdown has been started. No complications have come up and the targets are already in our sights.”
The stallion then raised his fist and knocked his knuckles against the side of the carriage door to let the driver outside know that they were ready to leave. As the carriage was going over a nearby hill. A small group was moving through the shadows and rushing over to the dead bodies and collecting them all into one place, before rushing into the main building, where the fire within was beginning to snuff itself out.
The small group required close to an hour before their carriage had even crossed through the checkpoint of the city's barrier wall. They didn't even need to stop once when the guard saw the emblem that was on the side of the carriage itself saying the letters, T H I S. And a circular, silver gear surrounding the letters.
When the carriage was finished navigating through the busy streets, they found themselves stopping right outside of the local, Adventurers Guild Hall. The guard that was within the carriage itself, stood up and opened the door and went back to the one that was still wrapped in a blanket and picked the individual up with little trouble at all and carry them outside.
But right as they were exiting the door, something fell out of the blanket and clattered onto the ground just inside and slid close to the male’s hoofs. The stallion bent over and picked up the item and found it to be a flat plate of some type and turned it over in his hands. When he did, it displayed the letter ‘E’ For the background and the name printed on it was Vapor Trail.
Name: Vapor Trail.
Age: 16.
Level: 8.
Adventuring Guild rank: Rank E.
Race: Pegasus.
Gender: Female.
Class: Conjurer.
Weapon specialty: Wand and small shield.
Student At East Adventurer School: First year.
Knowing that this was a very important item. He got up and exited the carriage and quickly caught up to the guard. That was when another mare came out of the building and went wide eyed at the one that was wrapped up in a blanket. This one was a middle-aged Pegasus with hair of yellow and a very light green mane. She was currently wearing a work apron over what was a long-hemmed dress for those that work behind the counter of the Guild.
Without so much as saying a single word, the Pegasus ran straight up and began to check on the one that was covered and pulled back the blanket. Underneath, was a soundly sleeping Pegasus mare with no marks to speak of that could be seen. The older mare then turned to the stallion and guard and spoke in a trembling voice that was on the verge of crying.
“Did they do anything to my daughter? I was so worried about her. She'd been gone for a few days now. I can't thank you enough for what you did...” It was the guard that replied to the Pegasus mare by saying, “She has no visible injuries. From what we could tell, we got there before she could be treated badly. Thankfully, this will just be a case of being kidnapped and nothing else, so her recovery should not take long. Just make sure that she gets plenty of rest and keep an eye on her for a few days. She is going to need someone to lean on and talk things out with.”
The mother was now openly crying as she hugged her still, unconscious daughter. One could even hear the labored breathing from the younger Pegasus as the mother was going a little too far with the hugs and was restricting her airways. It didn’t take long for the mother to realized what was going on and loosened up on her grip and the daughter returned to steady rate of sleeping.
She attempted to get them both to come inside to show her thanks. But the pair had graciously declined the offer. Giving the excuse that they had somewhere else to be. But not before returning the identification card to the mother to give to her daughter later on after giving a set of silent goodbyes. Afterwards, they both went back into the carriage and it took off once more.
During the ride, the axe wielding mare was snuggling up against the stallion's arm once again and pulling it into her chest while giving out a series of content sighs. At the same time this was going on. The guard that was sitting across was shifting her legs periodically while watching the display of affection, with envious eyes.
When the ride stopped yet again, all of those that were aboard, filed out of it quickly. Where they were now, was an open area with several dome shaped warehouse buildings. Close to a hundred yards away, was a rather impressive and decorative airship that stood out from the rest of the nearby ships that could be seen in the hangers from where they stood.
(Here is a picture of the airship. Final fantasy 10, Fahrenheit picture )
Unlike the other airships, that looked like they were meant for the sea, but were plucked out of the water to only have someone attaching balloons to enable flight. This one was a completely different in its design and clearly implemented a type of propulsion unlike any other. On both sides of the hull, one could see the name, Yuna. These four letters were printed in bold, gold-colored words on top of the white surface areas.
At the moment, it was low to the ground but somehow managed to stay perfectly in place as a long ramp was extended towards the ground. Which led straight up to the left side of the craft. What was interesting, was how there was this subtle hum of its engine, showing that it was indeed running, but there was to no air flow that could be felt being pushed out from being underneath.
On the other side, appear to be a similar type of entrance. This one had a lowered cage of some sort that the carriage was being loaded upon, along with the bird that was attached to the front of it. As they were going up the ramp, they could plainly see the cage being lifted up with thick suspension wires. When it had reached the very top, the metal arms began to retract until they were fully pulled in and the door was shut closed.
As for the ramp, that retracted until it was pulled into the flooring before the hatch itself closed. Inside, there was a short corridor just big enough for two to walk side-by-side and a row of section lights along both sides lighting the way that gave off a good amount of illumination.
When the four got to a corner, they made a left turn and went straight ahead and through a bulkhead that slid straight up as they came close to it. On the other side, displayed what could have been the cockpit and additional stations meant for the pilots. In the center of the room was a glowing, see-through sphere made of light. On its surface, could be seen the world map and several locations were currently highlighted with arrows pointing straight down at them. One icon was a pure, round pulsing orb that appeared to be within the city limits of Baltimare.
Going back to the pilot seats. There was one in the center that seemed to be the main control for navigating the ship. Then, there were two others, one on either side. Towards the right side, near the world map display, was a set of computer consoles with multiple screens attached to a wide desk. Currently, each one of these stations was being crewed by a pony guard that was identical to the pair that was with the stallion.
The mare that was at the computer station saw them all coming in and immediately stopped whatever was she was doing and came straight up to them and gave a short bow. When she raised herself upright again, she quickly said, “My Lord! Everything is fully operational and the ship is ready to launch when you give the word. No abnormalities in the core and the new propulsion system are within acceptable parameters.”
When she was finished speaking, the stallion held out his right hand with the palm facing up and a white mask, with black lines and an attached hood appeared on it. It was then placed on to his face before his body began to expand. One would think that this sudden growth spurt would cause the clothing to rip apart, but that too began to conform to the new size of the stallion wearing them.
The stallion that was barely above five feet tall, was now up to seven feet and eight inches. The once slender arms began to beef up to those with powerful muscles. Of course, this was not only focused in those areas, more of the entire body went through such a change. When all was done, it revealed it to be Brex Mith. A K A. Gambit or The Caretaker.
During his little transformation, all that were present were transfixed during the process and nearly every one of them began to blush upon seeing the increased muscle mass. Even the axe wielding pony was showing signs of arousal with the constant biting of her lower lips and an impatient swishing of her tail.
(Play this music for the take-off. Also a Video for those that want to see that ship take off in the game.)
The now revealed to be Brex, brought his attention back to the guard that had been talking to him and said to her. “Lay in a course for home base. Also, don't worry about taking it easy on the ship. This is a test flight and we want to get all the raw data we can on the ship and the engine performance.”
This got him a very wide smile from the guard as she turned on the spot, towards the front and called out to the pilots that were waiting. “You heard our Lord! We're heading home!” When the word home was mentioned, the others nodded immediately and went straight to work. As for the Changeling that was giving the command, she went back to the computer station and began on typing furiously on the console.
Within seconds, the low hum that was barely noticeable began to rise as the engines powered up beyond their standby power levels. Almost all at once, the crew members on the bridge begin calling out their readings and procedures for the take off.
“Taking engines off of standby mode. Increasing power levels to fifteen percent… No problems. Switching to running mode complete!”
“This is the bridge to all hands. Lift off procedures initiating. Secure all cargo. I repeat, this is the bridge to all hands. Lift off procedures initiating, secure all cargo and report to your designated stations.”
“Laying in a course now. Destination, Badlands. T H I S. Complex. Correcting heading to the port bow. Increasing vertical output to bring the ship to a safe cruising altitude.”
While this was happening, the inside of the ship was undergoing some slight changes to the atmosphere. The once white lights, had now turned into a light shade of blue. The surface that they were all standing on, began to rattle just a slight amount. But not enough to cause any problems with standing for a few seconds after the order was given and the engines were powering up.
The floating orb that was hovering in the center of the room, began to rotate as two rings appeared around it and began to alternate in position. The image of the world spun a few times until it came to a stop and zoom in on the part of Equestria that displayed the Eastern quadrant. From there, it showed the same circular pulsing dot from before and a lit up triangle, with the letters, H Q. Overhead being connected by a dotted line running from one to the next.
(Here is the picture that is shown on the orb.)
Over the course of a few minutes, the airship began to climb higher and higher. Until it broke the cloud lining overhead. From there, it accelerated once more and caused all of those inside to partially brace themselves until they were used to it. The crew members on the bridge all began to call out to one another with status reports to verify that there were no problems to be seen.
“The Yuna, is now at the maximum altitude recommended for safe flying of any Pegasus. Adjusting heading by 0.15. Thrust output is at sixty-seven percent. No problems with controls or read outs here!”
“All readings on hull pressure appear to be stable. No problems in structural integrity. External systems are showing all green on my end!”
“Radar detects no obstacles in our direct flight path. Defensive systems on standby. If anything out there so much as looks at us funny, I'm going to blast it out of the sky!” This earned a stern look from all of those inside of the bridge to the overly enthusiastic one that was dangerously close to all the buttons controlling the weapons. Of course, upon seeing all the glares, the mare gave a weak chuckle and return to her station.
The next to speak up, was the one that was just talking to Brex and she appeared to still be looking at the computer monitors with a scrutinizing gaze. “Intake optimal. Flow conversion within acceptable preset parameters… Core showing no signs of degradation. Artificial Aether current controls are green. Overall thrust capability, At... one hundred, thirty-two percent of estimated predictions! I would have to classify this test of the Aether stream engine to be a complete success!”
The mare then turned around to Brex and exclaim, while having a giddy expression on her face. “I do believe with some application of magic to relieve the extreme inertia that would be produced from high-speed flight. We can easily break the sound barrier if we wanted too by what I'm seeing from these readings! We would have to do some minor adjustments to take into account of the higher than anticipated overall output, but that should be it.”
Brex nodded to the excitable mare before speaking in a truly appreciative tone. “This is all thanks to you and your sisters’ efforts. If it wasn't for all the hours and dedication to the job, this would not have come to pass. With all of your support, it took only a few years and we finally managed to put together a fully functioning working prototype. The fact that we got a better outcome than expected, is proof of all the great work you've done.”
Now looking extremely bashful compared to the excitable one from before. The mare was twiddling her thumbs while looking at the metal floor as steam began to come off of her head due to the praise she was getting. She then began to stutter, while poking her fingers together and not looking at him. “I am, uh... That is, you! Are uh... W-Welcome!”
He then asked, “How long would it take until we arrive?” This was able to break the mare out of her current attitude and went back to her excited one again when she replied with. “Under normal circumstances, the distance that we are going to be traveling would take up to two, maybe three days tops for normal Pegasus to fly. However, factoring in our current output, I say that we can be there within just two hours.”
Brex nodded to this and said, “Thank you for all of your hard work, all of you. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go onto the observatory deck. Call me if anything comes up. If not, then wait until we are about to arrive.” This got him a salute from the mare before he left through the automatic door.
When the bulkhead had closed, all the others that were still on the bridge were silent for a moment before one of them that was acting as the pilot said, “Was any other here expecting him to forget putting on the hood before he changed back so we can finally get a look at his face?” That question was followed by a chorus of sighs coming from all of those that were operating the controls.
It was the one, with the itchy trigger finger that spoke up next when she said, “Honestly, I wouldn't care what he is at this point. He could be a squid face and it wouldn't even make a difference. Especially with everything he’s done all this time. I just wish that he trusted us more…”
This time, it was one of the two that was accompanying him earlier that said, “It's not that he doesn't trust any of us. You weren't there in the beginning when he would hardly even say more than three words at a time to us. Whenever he is out, he goes back to that. It really shows that he trusts us more than you know.”
That was when the one that was speaking, began the shimmer in a green flame, before it went away to reveal a Changeling with silver hair, put into a single ponytail that stretched halfway down her back and wearing a maid outfit with a short skirt and adopting a small smile as she looked towards the door.
The other one then revealed herself in the same way as the first. Instead of the silver hair, she had hers done up neatly in a bun behind the back of her head and it was black in color. She then went to say, “The Lord will tell us when he feels more comfortable with doing so. But I would have to say that he changed somewhat after returning from escorting that partner of his that went by the title of Warden, back home.
“And this is putting aside him bringing back the Mistress when he returned. For that, both I and my sister are very fortunate for what-." The Changelings sentence was cut off when a hand quickly reached up and pinched the mare’s ear and pulled sharply. Although this action looked like it could have been rather painful. The maid neglected to let out any type of sound that would indicating being hurt, aside from looking straight at the one who was doing it to her while being perfectly silent.
The one that had pinched her ear, turned out to be the mare that was still holding onto the large axe in her free hand. While giving an innocent smile, the mare simply said, “Now, now. You know full well that the rules of the house say that nothing in private is to be mentioned in public, even if it with your fellow sisters. That is unless either I or he does so.” This was followed up by a small giggle as she released the ear and covered up her mouth that had just shown a small fang during the time her mouth was open.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex had just exited the bridge and had made his way down a short corridor and went up a flight of stairs. When he got to the next level, he found himself standing on the observatory deck that appeared to be wide enough to host a small party. All around, were rolls of wide windows that offered a full view of the ship from the insides. In the far back, was a rather large door that would slide open towards both sides of the wall to reveal a walkway leading to the top of the ship. Where one could literally stand on the top of the hull.
Brex went over to one of the windows on the left side of the ship, towards the front and leaned on to the railing to look out the window. But was more focused on his reflection, than the outside world.
Within his head, the Roegadyn was beginning to replay what had happened during his trip over to the other world. It started with him becoming an apprentice and taking on the class of ‘Artificer’ from the tabletop role playing game called Dungeons & Dragons. It had taken a little convincing on Ryu's end in convincing him to learn it. Even with the possibility of there being the, World counterbalance effect, that he likes to refer to it as.
Thanks to the stories, Brex came to the conclusion that whenever a displaced comes back from another world, given new powers or weapons from another displaced. Has this type of ripple effect that causes their reality to adjust and make changes according to what the power or item is.
Honestly, he could have refused, but the argument was made that the damage was already done the very moment that he had accepted that scroll of mending awhile back. Even if it was something considered, insignificant at the time. It still had the chance of turning his world into that of the Dungeons & Dragons, to some degree. There was no telling how long it would have taken before things could be noticed and Brex had to be ready.
As it turned out, there were three real ways to level up the Artificer class. One was to be in constant fights and gain experience. The second option was to constantly craft and tinker. The final one was to simply study and learn. Thanks to Ryu, Brex got to go to the Academy and study a number of subjects, while being able to go through the library and read to his heart's content. There were even some out of the school lessons being given by a few of the champions known for in the game called, League of legends.
There were even a few times that the Roegadyn did have to do a few, morally questionable acts that he felt was necessary in the long run. When Brex got to those memories, he shook his head to get past them quickly and move on.
Sometimes, it was hard for Brex to wrap his mind around how it was when he came back. Although a good five and a half months had gone by for him. He had literally only been gone for not even a second on his own world. Knowing that he was going to be gone for a while, Brex had taken the opportunity to write down a small journal of things that were recently occurring, so he wouldn't forget when he stepped through the doorway and back into his Equestria.
Images began to flash before his eyes and superimposed onto his own reflection. They were in a way, snapshots taken in time of the following events.
There was the buying and selling of land, along with having to deal with the legal bureaucracy that nearly made him rip his own hair out. There were those businesses that he knew we're going to be complete flops, but seeing them do so in front of his eyes, really didn't feel all that great. He had the cringe at remembering the one idea about, edible shoes. Oh! and he just couldn't put behind that one idea about, wing warmers for birds. Thank goodness his name wasn’t on anything, or he would just die from embarrassment.
While all of that was being settled with. Brex would take the Changelings out to train them from time to time. Until he was sure they were ready to act as the head mares and teachers for his schools.
Now, when he had everything pretty much set up for his nine ideas. The next question was where the place the buildings meant to further the races of this world in defending themselves. At the start, he had played around with the idea of putting them in one place, but thought otherwise in case there was some type of incident, then the whole thing would go up and smoke.
So, he ended up going down the path of building three distinct schools in different areas across Equestria. They were going to be called the East, West and Central schools of combat. He could have gone with the naming convention of, Sea, Earth and Stars or something. But saw that it was a good opportunity for those to try and use the names for personal gain in some way or another for social status, so we opted for it to relate to its location.
He didn't want to place all of the classes in each one of the three locations. So, he ended up splitting them up and making sure that each had one Healer class and two Tank classes. Along with the only class that can become either a damage dealer or a healer. This depending on how the student progress’s when it came to the, Arcanist. While the rest were evenly spread about.
These beginning tanks were, Gladiators, the base class of the Paladin. Specialize in the handling of all manner of one-handed blades, from daggers to longswords, be they single or double-edged, straight or curved. Tracing their roots to the Coliseum, where the roar of the crowd reigns supreme, these melee combatants have learned to seamlessly flow between attack and defense in a dance that delights the eye. Making use of their skill with the shield, gladiators can also draw the attention and attacks of an enemy upon themselves, thereby protecting their comrades from harm.
(Here is a picture of a Gladiator from the game.)
Arcanist, base class for both the Summoner and Scholar.Adepts of the art of arcanum derive their might from symbols of power born of geometric techniques hailing from across the southern seas. Held within occult grimoires, these symbols lend shape to the arcanist's aether, thereby allowing him to produce myriad powerful spells. Using the selfsame symbols to unlock the latent power contained within gemstones, arcanists are also able to summon forth the familiar known as Carbuncle to carry out their bidding.
(Here is a picture of a Arcanist from the game.)
The second starting tank class was, Marauders, the base class of the Warrior. They are combat specialists whose weapon of choice is the great axe. A fearsome arm long associated with Eorzea's pirates. Their approach to battle is one of brute force, as they rely on pure strength and good steel to crush enemies and sunder weapons. They are highly sought after for their ferocity and intimidating presence, and are often employed to hunt down monsters plaguing the land or to turn the tide of battle between warring nations. Skilled marauders have been known to take on entire packs of slavering beasts and emerge with little more than a few scrapes and bruises.
(Here is a picture of a Marauder from the game.)
The West school had, Conjurer, the base class of the White Mage. Conjury calls upon the elements of earth, wind, and water and concentrates them to a potency at which spells can be weaved. Through practiced meditation on the essences of creation, conjurers draw forth and absorb Aether from their immediate surroundings. A wand or cane made from unworked wood is then utilized to focus the Aether until it manifests as the desired spell. Versed also in magicks that restore and strengthen, conjurers are regarded as accomplished healers.
(Here is a picture of a Conjurer from the game.)
The Rogue, base class of the Ninja. These agile fighters pride themselves on their skills with knives and daggers to make quick work of enemies.
Lurking in the shadows, adhering to no laws but their own, they punish the wicked, pilfering their ill-gotten gains and delivering them to the downtrodden masses. Thought by many to be mere common criminals, some would say they play an unseen hand in maintaining order in the buccaneer's haven of Limsa Lominsa.
(Here is a picture of a Rogue from the game.)
Thaumaturge, the base class of the Black Mage. In the hands of a skilled practitioner, thaumaturgy can be a force of terrifying destruction. At the heart of this school of magic lies the ability to call forth and command the latent Aether within oneself through deep introspection. To then mold that Aether into sorcery, the thaumaturge makes use of a scepter or staff, within which is housed a medium—a natural stone imbued with magical properties. Thus armed, the thaumaturge is capable of wreaking considerable havoc via ruinous spells and curses.
(Here is a picture of a Thaumaturge from the game.)
When it came to central. That one had, Astrologian’s. Ever has man coveted knowledge, and none more so than that of his fate. Focused on healing spells. Thus, did he labor to master the skill of foresight—but initial efforts bore little fruit. That is, until he looked to the stars above, which foretell the coming seasons, and learned to read the heavens.
Though this gift is known today as astrology, the people of Sharalyan saw fit to not only read the stars, but to write their movements as well. By attuning their aetherial energies to that of constellations, they learned to wield magicks with heretofore unseen properties.
Thus was astromancy born—a new form of magick which grants its users power over fate. Employing a star globe and divining deck in their miraculous deeds, fortune always smiles upon these masters of arcana.
(Here is a picture of a Astrologian from the game.)
Brex made sure that the Astrologian was placed there. Due to its close proximity to Canterlot. He had originally planned that it would be a good idea in assisting Lulu with her public relations if there was a healing class that had to do with the constellations was nearby.
Red Mage. On the eastern edge of Abalathia's Spine lies the mountainous region of Gyr Abania. It is in these elevated lands that people took shelter, when a burning star guided them away from the Sixth Umbral Calamity's treacherous floodwaters. The survivors gathered from near and far, and amongst them were refugees of the sorcerous cities of Mhach and Amdapor.
These sworn enemies buried their history for the sake of the future, and cast aside their vestments of black and white. Upon the remnants of their arts a new discipline was built, and the first red mages stepped forward with rapiers in hand to fight back against the rising tides of destruction.
(Here is a picture of a Red Mage from the game.)
Lancer, the base class to the Dragoon. The lancer is a master of polearms—weapons which have evolved from humble hunting tools. In former times, the longspear saw the most widespread use, due in great part to the influence of the proud lancer legions of Ala Mhigo.
The lancer's weaponry has since expanded to include other lethal implements such as the halberd and trident. While it is no easy task to wield a polearm as if it were an extension of one's body, those who master the lancing arts come to be as a raging storm before their enemies, capable of delivering a barrage of devastating thrusts and slashes.
(Here is a picture of a Lancer from the game.)
Now ask for the East school. It had the remaining classes which consisted of.
Pugilist, the base class of the Monk. The path of the pugilist is one of incessant training aimed at mastering the traditional techniques of hand-to-hand combat. Though pugilists command formidable power when unarmed, they are wont to use metal, leather, and bone weaponry to maximize their destructive potential. Their preference for fighting at close quarters makes negotiating distances an absolute necessity. Many among them accomplish this by avoiding burdensome armor, allowing for maximum mobility while they move in for the kill.
(Here is a picture of a Pugilist from the game.)
Archer, base class of the Bard. With a bow in hand and a quiver on his back, the archer strikes at the enemy from afar. In Eorzea, two schools of archery have risen to prominence: that of the longbow sentries of the Elezen military, and that of the shortbow hunters among the Miqo'te.
Archers constantly assess the battlefield in order to determine the most advantageous ground from which to loose their arrows, as well as the nature of the shaft, point, and fletching best suited to their foe. It is said that master archers are capable of showering their targets with a veritable deluge of death well before a counterattack can ever be mounted.
(Here is a picture of a Archer from the game.)
Samurai, Far across the rolling waves, towards the rising sun, there lies the island nation of Hingashi. In the distant past, the realm's great lords vied for supremacy over its sea-girt confines in a long and bloody conflict. And taking to battle in their lieges' names were noble swordsmen whose art was forged in the crucible of war: the samurai.
Eventually, the nation was unified under one banner, and these warriors came to wield their katana not upon fields as part of an army, but upon streets as protectors of the peace.
But as a neglected blade grows dull with rust, so too do men forget their purpose. Amidst waning memories of the old ways, a determined few hold fast to their convictions, hands by katana grips, awaiting the moment for steel to sing.
(Here is a picture of a Samurai from the game.)
Dancer, From the Near Eastern nation of Thavnair comes a troupe of bewitchingly graceful performers. Though certainly elegant and beautiful, their movements also speak of martial discipline─of a pulsing, persistent energy whose rhythm can inspire souls and soothe troubled hearts. Inured to the hardships of the road, these dancers have learned to land throwing weapons with the same exacting precision as their footfalls, removing any who would obstruct the endless beat of the dance.
(Here is a picture of a Dancer from the game.)
To say that it was a massive undertaking, was putting it mildly. But thanks to the help coming from the Changelings and paying workers for the construction, things went fairly well. Even with there being some nuisances here and there in regards to the school board. Apparently, with it technically teaching others something, we had to listen to them.
Brex had to hold in a chuckle when he had to tell them face-to-face, that it was not a school for learning subjects such as math and science, but for self-defense. Fancy Pants had mentioned because of it being called a school or Academy, that the higher up’s wanted to try and get their claws, so to speak. Into them and this was just a pathetic attempt on their part that had no real legal leeway.
Thanks to everything that he had learned while away. The Roegadyn had a vast wealth of knowledge and had put it to rather good use. It took quite a bit of elbow grease, but he had gotten the technology level that he had access to, to a degree that it was capable of creating the very ship that he was on. Although he had only released to the public, things that were not of the military grade so to speak. Brex wanted nothing to do with starting some type of arms race by releasing weapons such as guns all over the place.
This also included two of the job classes that he had not put into the schools. Those being the Gunbreaker and the Mechanist. Those he had kept close to him and only trained those that he felt were trustworthy. Of course, this left out but one job class that was going to be something that would cause quite a bit of stirrer if word about it were to get out right now. This being the, Dark Knight. With how society views anything that resembles dark magic, this would no doubt cause a panic.
His thoughts were broken when he heard Rory speaking in his head. “Master, I don't see why you're not overjoyed with both the ship being finished and finally being able to take down so many black-market dealers, all at the same time.” To that, Brex responded with, “I'm just reminiscing on things. After all, that day is getting closer.”
Rory's voice then went from its usual casual tone, to that of seriousness as she replied to that with saying. “I see what you mean master. Once Nightmare Moon returns, keeping a low profile may not be so easy. Of course, you can always return here immediately after and continue to run things from behind the scenes, just like you have been.”
Brex shook his head lightly before saying, “No. If everything goes just like it tends to do so many of the displaced stories, along with the main plot of the television show. Then I need to be there to make a judgment call on whether or not I’ll go with either my plan A or plan B.” Rory then added at the end of that by saying, “Oh, and don't forget about your others plans that have to do with, C through J.”
To that, the Roegadyn simply chuckled before quickly shooting back. “Now, you know I don't have a backup plan all the way up to letter J… They, only go up to letter E.” Rory then said, “By the way, have you finally decided what you're going to do if everything doesn't go according to the story and you end up meeting Princess Celestia?”
Unlike all the other times that she was mentioned, Brex didn't even so much as flex a finger in response. Instead, he replied in a calm and orderly tone of voice, “If that does happen, then I'll deal with it then. I've had more than enough time to run and hide from that mare. Aside from that, it’s not as if I’ll go out and cause a scene that will have her running. If it takes her some time to realize I’m back, then so be it.”
After a small amount of time, the silence was broken when he continued with, “You know, I don't think I said it enough. So, I'll say it now. If it weren't for you, I don't think I could have gone through any of this. I love you, Rory.”
That was when he heard a set of steps being taken behind him so he turned around and lightly leaned his back against the railing. Standing there, only a few feet away, was the axe wielding mare, just without her weapon in her hand, it was a little ways back and laying on the floor near the steps leading down.
She came closer while swaying her hips and giving him a very alluring stare with her eyes being half lidded. As soon as she was close enough, she jumped into the air and was caught by Brex in a tight embrace and both of them began to make out furiously by pressing their lips upon each other once the mask vanished. Letting out a content set of moans as they deeply kissed one another and only paused for but a second to regain some air before returning to it again.
After nearly a minute of this, they pulled their faces from each other and looked into the other's eyes. During this, a light shimmer was now apparent on the girl's form. The mare that was within his grasp was slowly changing. The tan fur vanished to reveal a slightly tanned skin in its place. The pony ears and tail began to change to something that was more akin to that of a wolf. As for the hoofs, those turned into a set of feet that were wearing a pair of boots.
When the transformation was complete. It showed a girl that looks more along the lines of the cat race from the Final Fantasy game. With raven black hair and a set of scarlet eyes. The girl was holding in her left hand, a black bandana that was just dangling from her fingertips. She gave him a gentle smile before saying, “And I love you too, Master~.”
(Here is a picture of how Rory basically looks like and how tall she would be in comparison to standing next to a member of the Roegadyn race.)
He then chuckled before speaking in a voice that was just full of amusement. “You had a lot of fun today, didn't you?” To that, Rory responded while twirling the bandana between her fingers. “Oh, I might have had some fun there, Master. Although I didn't expect them to plan on making the first move though.”
*Point of view: Rory Mercury* *Location: Second floor of the mansion* *Time: Ten past eight at night*
Rory had just watched her master entering the room that had Big Mama inside while still in disguise. When the doors closed, she found herself alone with the servant mare that had escorted them. Almost immediately after, the servant asked if Rory would like something to drink, seeing as she was going to get some refreshments for the meeting inside.
She of course agreed and followed along until they got into the lower level and went into the kitchen. The room itself was quite large. By the looks of it, it would easily able to house an entire group of chefs to produce a large quantity of food.
As Rory was checking out all of the utensils being hung on racks right above the stoves and countertops. The servant had gone to the far side of the kitchen and had begun putting together a tea set on a silver serving tray. At the moment Rory had her back towards her and was staring intently at a large ladle made of polished silver only a foot away.
To an outsider's point of view, they would have thought she was simply admiring the craftsmanship, but in reality, she was really looking at the reflection being produced off of the polished surface. From what she could tell, a number of the items that were being brought out had come from a single cabinet. But the servant had turned their head to see if she was watching and quickly reached up into another one and pulled out a small bottle and began to quietly add a few drops of its contents into one of the serving cups.
They then replaced the bottle to where it once was and sloshed the liquid around within the cup and poured the excess liquid onto a small napkin before tossed it into the nearby garbage can. That was when Rory thought to herself while pretending not to notice. “Huh... They're putting something on the cup itself. So that they can drink from the same pot and not arouse suspicion. She even went so far as to invite me along and do this while my back was turned. I take it that they've been doing this sort of thing often and have a lot of practice.
That was when she heard her master laughing within her mind due to the constant connection that they both had set up. This was obviously because he had noticed the same thing that she had and found it quite amusing.
She then used the very same connection and looked at her Master's mini map to determine just where all the life signs where within its detection range. It would also seem that he had sensed what she was doing and brought up a display of the map that was shown of the mansion itself.
After getting the relevant information on how everything was laid out, along with the positions of all combat and non-combat personnel, Rory made her move. Without so much as giving any kind of indication that she had moved away from her spot across the kitchen, she had already gotten to the servant and then forced them to turn around thanks to the hand on their neck, that was griped tightly in her vicelike fingers.
They tried to break the hold and strike Rory’s arm repeatedly. But this stopped with a subtle application of excess pressure, which nearly broke the mare's neck. She had then applied a spell that was directed at the one that she was holding. It was apparent that they had noticed it when their eyes went wide and began to look around as they were searching for anything different.
Rory brought her closer until they were nearly touching their snouts together, then she ask in a tone that sounded both sweet and terrifying at the same time. “What were you putting in my Master's cup?” The mare then opened her mouth and blurted out a response in a very weak voice, “I... I was putting in a strong aphrodisiac that… Was also mixed with a mild muscle relaxant.” When she had finished saying this, she immediately went to shut her mouth with her teeth slamming into each other with how fast she did it and gave Rory an extremely startled look.
Rory then went on to ask, “Now if you would be so kind as to tell me where the girl you kidnapped a few days ago is being held? I would be most appreciative.” The mare was then lifted partly off the ground until her hooves had at least a solid inch of air in between. She was trying to prevent herself from saying anything, but succumbed to the spell that was used previously and started to sing as a canary would and spilled everything.
Rory was told about the day that the girl was brought in and everything about where she was kept. From the information, Vapor Trail was being held in the basement that was just beyond one of the doors in the main room.
When the mare was done telling her what she wanted to know. Rory gave another one of her sweet little smiles before saying, “Under different circumstances, I would let you go. Unfortunately, as it would happen, I already have a file that says otherwise. You have been one very, naughty mare. But since you were so forthcoming with your information. How about i do you a favor and make this quick?”
She then proceeded in quickly snapping the mare's neck without any trouble at all with just a single hand and drop the body before leaving the kitchen. Upon going through the door, Rory went for the front entrance and was quickly called out to from a group that was now entering the main room from behind her. They seemed to have come from all over the mansion and congregated there.
There were exactly, six Pegasus, eight Unicorns and nine Earth mares. They were all lined up in and a semicircle around her and the front door. One of the Unicorn mare’s called out in a bossy tone, “Just where da ya think you're headin off too? The Mistress hasn't given ya permission to leave just yet!”
Rory then began to giggle out loud while her back was still turned towards the group. Over the course of a few seconds, her laughter only got a little louder and louder and even her shoulders were now bobbing up-and-down due to the sheer volume. While slightly tilting her head to the right, she turned in that direction until she was fully facing them and quickly kicked her left foot behind and crashing it into the door. This broke the locks and made the heavy wooden door to swing wide open with a loud thud from her hoof.
When she had stood straight up again, Rory had one arm stretched out to her right side, while the other was being held close to her mouth to cover her smile. She then managed to calm down a little and spoke in a sing song voice. “Oh, dear me! I believe you misunderstand my intentions. I wasn't really leaving. Nope, I just wanted to make sure that there was a clean line of sight.”
When the group heard this, they were visibly confused as a number of them were scratching the back of their heads. Others were tilting theirs as if a dog would when hearing something that they didn't understand.
It was the mare that talked to Rory was the next one to react and say, “I don't know what you're on bou’t. But you're not goanna be goin anywhere, so sit still and let our Mistress have a little fun. If you're a good little filly, maybe, just maybe. Then I'm sure she will allow you to have go at your stallion once more before he’s takin away for good.”
Roy's expression became a little sterner, yet her smile still remained. This made the mare stop and look at her with caution. With her voice seemingly echoing, now that the room was quiet. She began to say, “Now this is... Going to be… Fun.” That was when one of the group members raised one of their hands and pointed towards the front door and spoke in a confused tone. “What's that over there?”
From behind Rory, far off in the distance to the point that it could no longer be visible in the darkness. Was a faint, green light. This was then accompanied by a second one, then a third right above the pair. Suddenly, all but one could be seen and that was getting even brighter. A loud ‘swish’ sound could be heard as the green light came closer at a dangerous speed.
Before it got close to the building, the light faded and revealed it to be a large, long object hurtling towards the front entrance. With the very same arm that she had been holding out to her side, she easily caught it without so much as a glance. Her feet began to dig into the floorboards for only a few inches before she stopped. Even with that happening, it seemed as if she was unaffected by catching the object with how her arm didn't even budge.
There was a strong gust of wind that nearly knocked over a couple of the guards that were within the building when the object came through the doorway and they were pretty much gawking at her. Along with slacked jaws after witnessing that amazing catch. One of them had even released an audible gulp and was now shaking in place.
The axe that she was now holding, was easily more than twice her size in height alone and a heart shaped decoration etched into the metal itself near the base of the axe. Rory slowly made her way until she was standing in the center of the main room and was now fully surrounded by the slightly terrified mix of ponies.
By now, they had at least pulled out their weapons that were mainly those of daggers and clubs, but there were a few short-swords in the mix here and there. They had started to move in after Rory had slowly rested her axe over her right shoulder and was waiting for them to try and make a move.
When they had gotten close enough to finally launch an attack, one of them screamed out, “Get her!” Rory quickly gave a smirk before loudly saying enough for them all to hear, “Attention!” in the same way that an officer would be giving out an order to a group of soldiers.
Once that single word had escaped her lips, the air began to feel murky for but a split second and all those in attendance, had lowered their weapons and adopted a standing pose with their arms down at their sides.
All the while, showing expressions of fear as they tried to fight the urge to do what was told to them. A few had even had a scrunched-up look on their face as if trying to move something really heavy and failing. They were all lined up in a good circle and were within six feet of Rory.
Taking her axe, she thrust it between two of the pony's heads. Unfortunately for one of them, the blade was turned towards them and it clearly sliced through their neck. But what happened next began to terrify the others even more as Rory slowly pulled back her weapon and showed to them that their comrades head was still laying on the blade as it was cleanly detached from the body. It was quite literally sitting there the same way something would if put onto a plate to be displayed for all to see.
It was clearly evident that they wanted to say something or call for help, but with being called into ‘Attention’ due to some strange spell that she had used. They were unable to do anything but bear witness to what was to happen.
Rory then proceeded to do the same to a few more before she quickly got bored and cleanly swiped her axe in a full circle and decapitating the rest. In a cruel way of adding insult to injury, she used her weapon as a golf club to knock all of the severed heads into a pile over on the one side of the room.
Afterwards, she headed down the one door leading to the basement. When Rory had gone down a flight of stone steps, she arrived and found a simple wooden door with a latch that was undone and no lock nearby. She checked what her Master was currently displaying on his end and saw that there were just two within the room. One showing a green dot, while the other was red.
When it was opened and she stepped through, she found a small mare who had just entered her teens to be sprawled out on the floor behind a locked cage door. The bars were incorporated into the wall. The red dot that was seen before, was standing between Rory and the cage while we brandishing her own axe which was just under half the size of Rory's.
The one guarding the prisoner, was a large, overly muscular mare from the Earth Ponies. What drew the girl's attention more, were the set of humongous orbs that were hiding behind an iron breast plate. The mare was beginning to say something, but Rory's attention was fully focused on the boobs in front of her so much, that she didn't catch a single word being uttered.
As the seconds went on, the girl was now twitching her right eye in clear annoyance and frustration at what she was looking at. To Rory, all she heard was mumbling sounds that one would have heard from the grown up's when watching a, Charlie Brown show. After giving out a few, almost inaudible grunts she finally snapped.
Rory lifted her axe high above her head without taking her eyes off the mare’s chest and screamed bloody murder as she said. “SHUT YOUR GIANT ASS TITS!!!!” This was accompanied with her swinging down and cleanly Passing through the mare’s body. Starting from the left neckline going down, until it literally went through her chest, stomach and halfway down her right leg and exiting near the outside of the knee.
When her axe had left her opponents body, it continued until it made contact with the stone floor. A sudden crash filled the air and some debris was shot against the walls. Eliciting some cracking sounds as some of the rocks that were kicked up had partially embedded themselves into walls, while others made a few heavy indentations.
The weapon itself was nearly a good quarter of the way into the stone flooring when this was done. With ease, Rory yanked it out and flung off the excess dirt. Once The weapon was given a good once over, she went over to the cage and used it to destroy the lock with just one strike.
Then she went in and grabbed the blanket that was off in a corner, on a small straw bed and used it to wrap up Vapor Trail. Seeing as she wasn't going to wake up anytime soon due to exhaustion or not being properly cared for with food and water, Rory brought her outside and right to the carriage that was waiting on the outskirts of the property. At the time, all of the guards that were meant to protect the mansion had already been delt with by the two Changelings in disguise.
When the mare was safely put inside. Rory rushed back to the manor and went down to the basement after having a wicked idea popping her head. She had taken the body of the head guard and used some of the armor wrappings to hold the pieces together and then and went on to cutting the head off.
Afterwards, she turned it on its back while on the floor and plunged the tip of her axe head into its back and lifted it into the air just enough to make it seem it was on its own two feet. The head that was decapitated, was then grabbed onto with her free hand and she went back up the steps to meet up with her Master and the main target of tonight's event.
( Stop the music here.)
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Back at the present*
Brex have his mask come back and he couldn't help but to laugh while trying to cover the part where the mouth should be when he recalled just what Rory had shouted at that one mare who was in the middle of boasting about her fighting capabilities. Only to be cut off with the girl screaming such a thing out of nowhere, along with a sudden attack that came so quickly that it hadn’t even registered until it was too late.
It seemed that when Rory finally got a body, she had this slight complex when it came to others with abnormally large breasts. Normally, she would be just fine, but in that situation and with that mare being an enemy, the girl didn't really have much restraint and took out some of her anger on the spur of the moment.
Rory saw how he was laughing a bit and began to give him a small pout, before blushing a little bit. She then mumbled to him, “I would appreciate it if you forgot that little bit near the end.” To this, the Roegadyn shook his head and said while having a playful tone. “Not a chance. It's so rare that I get to see you lose it like that. Also, it was so hilarious with what you called her at the end!”
Wanting to move on apparently. Rory went back over and picked up her axe and came back to display it before him. With a wide smirk, she said, “At least this time I didn't break it.” She then tapped on it with her index finger a few times before continuing with, “I really do wish that I wasn't limited to my class level, otherwise I would be using some better equipment. Now I really understand a little more about you trying to hold back your strength out of fear of destroying something by mistake. I think I got the hang of it by now.”
When Rory had finished talking, her weapon began to emit a few metallic ‘clank’ sounds that than grew until it was much more noticeable to the pair. When they turned their attention fully to it, the weapon instantly broke apart into a few pieces. Both, Rory and Brex were now looking at the floor at the busted-up pieces for a few seconds before the girl was now giving a few weak chuckles, while rubbing the back of her head and looking rather embarrassed after being proven wrong only seconds after affirming her control.
They were about to go on, but heard a set of hoof steps coming up the stairway and Rory went back to placing the black bandana from before back around her neck and image of a mare took her place again just as whoever was coming had reached the top of the steps and was now looking at them.
Brex turned and saw that it was Lin. She had quickly apologized for interrupting them both and relayed that they were close to arriving at, H Q. Afterwards, they turned their attention to the window and watched as the craft was now going across a row of mountains that were acting as a natural barrier.
With little effort, the craft began to angle itself downwards until it went below the clouds and displayed a nearly endless sea of sand and scattered rocks. This was the Badlands, which was in a way, an enclosed desert surrounded by solid rocks that stretched on for miles upon miles, for as far as the eye could see. The large rock formations that could be spotted from the window, range from those of the size of a small house, to that of even a skyscraper.
After several more minutes, a small town came to view which was called, Canter Creek. Once they had passed that, it took another ten minutes more of flying until they had reached another large rock formation towards the Southwest part of the Badlands where a large number of mechanical structures was erected. These were protected by a very high wall with towers built into it and space at equal intervals. The whole plot of land that it had taken up, was a good three and a half miles in diameter.
From the outside, it was rather impressive with how elaborately constructed it was made compared to the other types of architects used in Equestria. But Brex knew that this was only the tip of the iceberg so to speak, as a large portion of it was being built under the ground even as he thought this. Brex had ended up modeling everything there to follow the type of theme from Final fantasy ten and the city of, Zanarkand.
(Here is a general picture of what it looks like overhead.)
He still couldn't believe it, even when he saw it right then and there that with the help of the Changelings and hired help from the other races during his time in Equestria, that such a place could have been built in the time frame allotted. When it was apparent that they were getting close to landing, the three went over and down the stairway to get back into the bridge.
When they had come through the bulkhead door, they found that all that were within, were currently busy and giving out commands to one another and in the middle of the final landing sequences.
“Four miles out, adjusting course to come in from the North. Beginning to reduce speed! How are we looking on the confirmation for dock access?”
“Working on it right now. Transmitting verification codes... Codes accepted. Permission has been granted to use dock Three.”
“Bringing weapons off standby and switching over to Deactivated status. I kind of wish something had happened during the flight...”
“We all know you like to blow things up, I'm pretty sure you're going to get that opportunity someday.”
“Engine status optimal. Preparing systems for landing procedures. Attention all hands! We will be docking in two minutes! I repeat! All hands prepare for docking, two minutes!”
From where he stood near the map display in the center of the bridge. Brex could view the mountain that was at the back of what was built and a number of large doors were incorporated into the cliff side. The ship had gradually decreased its speed and was now heading to one that was near the top and the doors had the number Three printed on them.
When they had gotten close enough, they began to open from the middle to expose a lit-up docking bay built inside of the mountain itself that had more than enough space for the ship to enter without any issues.
The engines went from their usual hum, to something that sounded a little more along the lines of giving off this strong gust of wind type of noise, just as the front of the ship began to enter the dock and aiming for some scaffolding that would end up on either side when put into place.
When it had gotten far enough in, it then began to turn to the starboard side and rotated until it was facing the exit once again. When the ship had come to a complete stop, some docking clamps were lowered from the ceiling to the left and right and clamp down onto designated sections of the hull, while another came up from below to rest on the underbelly.
After the docking clamps had been securely fastened, which only took a few seconds to do, there was a subtle release of a hissing sound coming from where they were and the ship began to finally quiet down. The engines went silent and the lights return to the same shade of color that they were before they had taken off from that airship port in Baltimare.
Once the docking procedures were completed and the ship's systems were powered down for further maintenance and adjustments to be taken. Brex, along with Rory and his attendants, Rin and Lin, both made their way out of the airship and down the ramp. At the same time, the carriage along with the large bird were off loaded on the other side.
As soon as the large creature was undone from its straps, it quickly darted off and around the ship and chased down and immediately jumped into the air and literally landed on the Roegadyn.
(here’s a picture of the Chocobo.)
This resulted in both him and the creature, falling onto the ground with a heavy thud. But on his side, there was no signs that he was defending himself in any way and the creature was making a series of excited "KHAWEE, KAWEEE!" Noises as it lowered its head and began to furiously rub it on the side of his.
As it turns out, the creature was called a, Chocobo. It was a creature from the final fantasy game. In fact, this one was his personal mount from the game that he had summoned after a while of waiting. Brex had named his mount, Crystal. In Final Fantasy, Brex would have to use a special treat to call on one of these creatures and needed to feed them every thirty minutes or they would disappear. However, when it came to Crystal. The bird never left once it was summoned by him.
This ended up confusing Brex with how it wasn’t going away like it would when summoning the mechanical versions of mounts. Whenever he called one of them it would just show up out of nowhere after some type of light show and would go away in the same way when he was finished.
When this had happened, the Roegadyn was fearful for Crystal being taken by some deranged rare animal collector, but those were unfounded when he discovered reports about more Chocobo’s being spotted in the wild in recent days. He could still remember when he first called on Crystal and the reactions from the two Changelings upon seeing it. To say that they instantly fell in love with it was an understatement with how they were cooing over how fluffy the feathers felt, along with the, oh, so adorable sounds made.
Once the tackling hug fest was done, Crystal finally climbs off of Brex and stood there patiently waiting for him to get backup. When the Roegadyn had finally gotten back to his feet, there were still a few the birds yellow feathers that had slipped off of Crystal and had gotten stuck on the edges of his mask. Thereby turning it into an improvised version of a tribal elder’s headgear.
Rory was now visibly giggling at the sight and said, “Master, I can safely say that she's trying to get her times worth with you until you go on you're a little trip. We managed to get our hands on a couple of the wild Chocobo’s that have been appearing, but none of them seem to be as intelligent as her. Nor are they nearly as powerful.
At that time, Brex had finally shook off the last of the feathers loose and looked to Crystal while giving her a playful death glare from behind the mask. Which only elicited another one of its ‘Kahwee!’ Sounds before it began to nuzzle its beak against his head yet again.
He then replied to her by saying, “Just be glad I called Crystal and not the Behemoth mount. I can only imagine what kind of a riot that would have caused to have that hulk pulling the carriage.”
After the pleasantries were finished and Crystal was escorted away by one of the Changelings who had been watching over her during the flight. They went over to what appeared to be an oversized elevator that could have easily Have fitted a full-sized truck inside and Brex pulled out from his item box, a golden key that was in the shape of a card, with a few etchings made out at one end.
It was then slipped into a thin slot that was located at the bottom of the control panel for the elevator and turned. Once he had done that, Brex removed the key and placed it back from where he got it, the elevator began to move down after the door was fully closed.
At the beginning, they didn't see much of anything with how the walls were made up of something that resembled glass. What was beyond that, was simply the metal foundations and supports. But after a good several, long seconds or so, that disappeared and showed that they were going down these reinforced poles that were attached to the four corners of the lift.
They had just gone low enough that they had entered a hollowed-out cavern that was filled with many lights far down below. There were even a few along the walls in the far distance and ceiling. This was where the real magic happened when it came to the, Tech Hex Institute of Science. Also widely known more as, T H I S. The world's source of the most advanced technology.
Thanks to his trip over to RuneTerra. Brex got to learn quite a bit when it came to Hex-Tech and Chem-Tech. Along with a few discoveries of his own when he started applying the combination of spells from Dungeons & Dragons, known as the, Detect Magic and Identify. To which he used on the minions that he was able to summon.
Back in the game, a player could collect these things called minions. Which were in a way, consider to be these small Chibi's. They would range from iconic figures of other characters or monsters. As well as machines and other objects. They would typically follow the user around and just be there for esthetics.
But when Brex had used that set of spells that was mentioned earlier, there was a sudden realization that he was able to fully understand the composition of the magic and how to use the enchantments to make it move and act in the same way, if not more.
But it wasn't purely the knowledge on how the magic and innerworkings worked, but the theory behind it which opened a whole new door of science for him to get into. Thus, led to the creation of what is now known to be the most powerful industry known to any on the continent.
Of course, he couldn't do all of this on his own and having just fifty Changelings wasn't going to make too much of an impact. But overtime, other Changelings had come out of hiding once they had come across those from the one, he made friends with. These were carefully screened by the Hive queen, Bellona. Thanks to this, their numbers just kept on growing and now there was close to over a hundred.
There are even a number of citizens from the other races that have joined them after leaving their own homes and countries in search of a better life, due to both the monster attacks and the tyranny conducted by some of the higher up's where they used to live.
It took some adjustments, but Brex had managed to get only those that he felt could be trusted to work here and not have to worry about secrets being stolen thanks to the sensing abilities that the Changelings had.
Now underneath the ground in secrecy, both Changelings and those of the other races live in harmony. They maybe under the ground and everything, but to him, it seemed far better off than what it looks to be on the surface, under the princess's rule.
With them digging, the Changelings found a good suitable underground source of water. Now when it came to food, that was something that Brex stumbled upon by accident once. For whatever reason it could be, whenever he went to go and plant something, it would mysteriously sprout and bear fruit within days. Afterwards, it would continue to produce fruit at an accelerated rate, as long as it was given the proper amount of water, along with the light from the artificial sunlamps.
The lift had passed through a few columns that were jetting out from the wall nearby. For brief moment, one could see groups working on different types of developments.
These would range from them working with mechanical instruments and putting together both small and enormous types of machinery. While in another part, it was visible that they had what could have been seen as a large chemistry set, filled with bright colorful solutions that filled not only small containers and vials, but a few large glass tanks as well.
After passing those, the elevator continued down until it hit the ground floor. Once it did, the doors did not open, but instead, the lights within the elevator changed to a slightly dimmer shade before there was a slight rumble beneath their feet. From there, the elevator began to move once more and Brex could see the ground moving upwards as they went even deeper.
It didn’t take long at all until everything had finally stopped again and the doors opened. Just beyond, was a reception office table, along with a single Changeling that was not in disguise sitting on the other side. At the moment they came in, she was going through some documents and typing onto something that closely resembled an old-style monitor with a keyboard.
When she noticed them coming in, the papers were then quickly organized and placed into a stack as to give her full attention. When Brex approached the desk. He asked, “Has there been any new developments that I should be aware of since my absence?”
The Changeling coughed into her fist once, before putting her hands together in front of her and onto the desk before she answered in a very polite tone. “My Lord, there are a few papers in your office right now in regards to a few requests from the development division that need to have some signatures. Then there’s the matter of finalizing the team management positions.”
She then coughed another time as to show some type of annoyance before saying the next part. “Then there’s the continuous complaints being issued by the Academy of ‘Magic and Science’ from over in Canterlot. No matter how many times the letter has been sent back, they just will not accept that we are a privately owned organization and have no obligation by law to give them full access to our research. Yet, they continuously harass us by sending these letters nearly… Every… Week.”
Brex hummed to the information and couldn’t help but roll his eyes from behind his mask after hearing about those stupid letters again. He was seriously beginning to contemplate about going over there and giving them an earful. But thought otherwise. Ever since they had put out their first big hit of an invention, which was the tape recorder for one. Those bigots from the Academy have been almost relentless in a way, in wanting to claim that they are the higher authority and should have all rights to anything new.
Now when it came to the other items mentioned previously. It was in a way, just some things that needed to be squared away for his unspecified time of absence. These consisted of making sure that things were running smoothly by appointing heads to the different areas within the institute.
Brex then asked, “And what about that other matter that I asked about last week? Has all the preparations been completed?” To this, the mare reached over into the stack of papers and pulled out one. From there, she began to skim it for a second or two before replying with. “Ah yes! As for the reservations, those have been confirmed. But my Lord, are you sure this is what you want to do? I mean we could book you a better place than this.”
To that, Brex shook his head and said, “No, this is what I want. At least for the time being. Now, just to be sure, this is for the event happening in two days, correct?” The Changeling then handed the piece of paper that she was just checking over to him and said, “That is correct my Lord. The reservations are set and the date for check in is, just two days prior to the, Summer Sun Celebration that is to take place in the small town called, Ponyville.”
As Brex was looking at the paperwork, he started to think to Rory through the mental connection that they had and said, “Looks like I get to finally be part of the show. We’re down to the homestretch and just need to make sure that Nightmare Moon is stopped. After that we’ll just have to play it by ear and flow with the punches. Now the real question is, do I stay completely out of sight or should I have a little fun and mess with the characters a bit?”
Without so much as even showing any indications that their conversation was happening Rory was still looking at the document in his hand while standing nearby and replied with her usual mischievous tone. “Master, I think you’re owed a little fun. However, are you positive you don’t want me by your side the whole time? What if something was to happen and you need my help? I would much rather not have to wait here to just fiddle with my thumbs, while you’re out and about with those rude mare’s surrounding you in that town.”
To that the Roegadyn responded with a playful tone of his own as he said, “I’ve fought off hydras, large groups of monsters, and even a delusional doctor. With what I know from the show and other displaced stories, I’m pretty sure I know what to expect… And before you say it, yes, I know not to rely on expectations when it comes to that pink menace.”
His eyes then trailed to the bottom of the paper to show a picture that was used for the promotion of the festival happening in Ponyville. He then said, “Allons-y!”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Ponyville* *Time: Ten in the morning. Just two days before the Summer Sun Celebration*
Just on the outskirts of the town known as Ponyville and oh so very near to the Everfree forest. Sat a charming cottage on a small hill that blended effortlessly with nature itself. The outside had a good number of birdhouses strung up on the nearby trees, along with a couple that were attached to the structure itself. There was even a tiny river running underneath a footbridge only a short distance away from the front door.
Right then, the front door itself was pushed open and what came out, was a white rabbit. Following said rabbit was a Pegasus mare with a yellow color, along with a long pink mane and tail. She was even wearing a modest garden dress that was the color of light green. When she had gotten outside, she locked up her house, aside from a small door that was left open at the very bottom that seemed the perfect size for the rabbit. Once she did this, she turned to the rabbit and spoke in a very gentle tone.
“Now please be good Angel Bunny. I just need to head over to the market and pick up a bag of bird seeds and talk to the mayor about where I need to set up for the birds to sing for the Summer Sun Celebration in a few days.”
This got her a reply from the bunny as it opened its mouth and angrily pointed inside before he closed it and began to rub his tummy. The mare seeing this, lightly giggled before saying, “And of course, I will get you your carrots too. Look after the house while I'm gone.” When she had finished saying that part, she was already walking across the short bridge and on the path leading towards the town. While holding onto a wicker basket in her right arm.
When she had made it into town and was going through the market. A pony called out to her from a nearby stall, “How yah been doing there Fluttershy?” The now identified as Fluttershy turned on the spot and saw that it was an orange-colored mare with blonde mane that was neatly braided and going over her back. This one was wearing a red button-up flannel shirt that was only done halfway up due to how her ample breasts were preventing the rest from continuing. There was even this old style stenson hat sitting on the top of her head.
Fluttershy approached the stall that the mare was watching that was full of apples and began to speak in a whisper as she brushed a small lock of hair out of the front of her face. “Oh, hi there Applejack. Good morning. I'm doing well, just came into town to pick up a few things and talk to the mayor. I-I hear that you've been put in charge of the food. That has to be quite a lot to cook all at once. Are you sure you don't need an extra pair of hands? I don't mind helping... That is, if its OK with you that is…”
Applejack lifts the front of her stetson hat with her right-hand index finger, while giving Fluttershy a wide smile before replying in a confident tone. “Yeah! I got nothing to worry about. Mah families got it all well and good. Maw and Paw, along with Granny has got the cooking down while mah brother and little sis are working on the farm as I speak. There's also the family we got coming in for the celebration that's going to lend a hand. I'm confident that we can make twice the food we were asked for if we really put our minds to it. Thanks for the offer though.”
Their little discussion was interrupted by another voice that was coming from overhead. It was clearly that of a female, but it was a little scratchy as it said, “Make sure you put me on the top of that list to get some of your apple cider.” When the pair on the ground looked up, all they saw was a lone cloud and a small tuft of rainbow styled hair poking out on one end.
Applejack then called out, while holding on to her hat so it didn't fall off when she tilted her head to look up at the cloud. Now listen here Rainbow. If I told you once, I've told you a thousand times. You get it the same time every pony else does. By the way, aren't you supposed to be working on the clouds anyway during the event? We can't have you all liquored up while on the job. Last thin we need is for you to douse the Princess with a rain cloud.”
This got an annoyed groan from the mare on the cloud as she called out, while making some pathetic and distress noises while saying. “But Applejack, you know I can't do much if I'm thirsty.” This got the orange mare to shake her head before calling out to the one on the cloud again and saying.
“Now don't give me that hogwash, we both know full well that the second you get a taste of it, you're going to go down on it all at once again and get smash. If you're not going to be careful about it, one of these days you're going to end up like those mare's that got drunk under the table all those years back.”
Rainbow Dash called out, while making an overly dramatic laugh as she said. Those mares were a bunch of pushovers. To think that they got beaten by some random male in a drinking contest is laughable. You know as well as I do that, they can't hold it. If you ask me, the lying cheat must have used something to win in that game. That’s the only explanation.”
While narrowing her eyes, Applejack held on tightly to her hat and angrily spoke just loud enough for the low hanging cloud with the Pegasus on it to hear. “Now listen here, it doesn't matter if it's a male or a female. Saying such things is just being plain sexist! I know better than any that sort of talk just isnt true. Just look at my Paw and older brother. With enough dedication, they're able to harvest in the farm and work just as well as any mare can.”
“Now that aint an easy task. even for a mare. And let's not forget that the rumor was going around that those four at the bar back then were known for getting stallion's drunk to have their way with them. So, whatever happened to them I think they got it coming. Now you best be holding your tongue when it comes to that subject about how males can't do thins.”
Rainbow Dash released a heavy sigh as she poked her hand out while waving as she began to say. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry about that Applejack. But you just got to face the facts. It's we mare’s that handled all the heavy lifting. And it's the stallion that end up staying home and watching the kids. Your folks are just one of the rare ones. I can count on two fingers of how many stallions are strong.”
Applejack replied to this while raising an eyebrow to Rainbow Dash. “Oh! And what do you got to say about that one fella that works with the Wonder Bolts? What's his name again? Sorin, I think it was. Was it? If I'm not mistaken, he’s a stallion. Just what are you gonna say about that? By your logic, then I guess the only reason is that the Wonder Bolts, is to help with their... urges. Or are yeah going to call it, indoor practice?”
There was a long stretch of silence before Rainbow Dash suddenly began to say quickly, while shooting off and dragging the cloud along with her. “I, uh... Gotta go, to, Uh, take care of something, see yeah, bye!” The last of her words were cut off when she disappeared over one of the many rooftops and leaving a long rainbow-colored trail that slowly dissipated within seconds.
Applejack then released a small snort of annoyance at the retreating Pegasus before returning to Fluttershy with a small grin, while she began to say. “You wanna bet that she's going off to take care of that little fantasy I put in her head?” When hearing the question, Fluttershy began to blush madly as she covered her eyes with both of her hands. She then muttered out, “Oh, my...”
After seeing this, the orange mare started to shake her head lightly before saying. “Now Fluttershy. You're going to have to talk to some stallion eventually. If you can't handle this much, you're gonna have a hard time later on.” This only caused the Pegasus to blush even further upon hearing what was implied and started to let out some squeaky noises as she shook her head violently, while still covering her face that was now giving off some visible steam.
After taking several moments to calm down, Fluttershy excused herself quickly and headed towards the mayor's office. Once she had arrived, she entered and found that the mayor was nowhere to be found and was out and about with checking on the festivities. But thanks to the secretary that was sitting just inside, she was able to get the information she wanted about where to set up the birds to sing, along with when it was time and left the office soon after.
Fluttershy then went on to continue with her shopping before she was to head home, but had a small run in with a white mare while passing by a shop. With the show, all of the figures representing a pony, would be on all fours. But on this one, they were all of silhouettes of mares taking various poses on the outside of the building. Fluttershy had nearly bumped into the pony when she came out of the shop while lifting a few boxes with their magic.
The mare was wearing a very form fitting work suit that consisted of a black short mini skirt and an egg shell, white top. Before they could collide, the Unicorn saw Fluttershy and immediately levitated the boxes higher just at the last second. She then exclaimed, “Oh dear! I'm sorry darling! I did not see that you were there. I do hope that you're not injured.”
Fluttershy had recovered from the little scare and said, “Um, its ok Rarity, I was merely scared for a moment.” Saying that she was fine, was apparently not enough. Seeing as the fashionista was not taking it at face value with how she was circling the Fluttershy, while checking her outfit.
When it was finally settled that everything was fine and Fluttershy had not suffered any misfortune. The Pegasus asked while pointing a finger over towards the still floating boxes. “Rarity, are all of those for the decorations? It looks to be an awful lot.”
The question caused Rarity to lightly laugh as she turned towards her front door and pushed it open to allow a direct line of sight to what was within. Sitting all over the place, where a number of already opened cardboard boxes. All full to the brim with different types of decorations.
Rarity then turned back towards Fluttershy after closing the door again to say, “Oh darling! These are just the beginning. This celebration is the first time that it has been held in Ponyville and I want to make it fabulous~. But I do wish that you would take me up on my offer to make some ensembles for your feathery friends who will be performing.”
Fluttershy quickly shook her head lightly before she replied with. “Oh no, no, no. I appreciate the offer, I really do. But they tend to be more comfortable with going natural. Besides, they're looking forward to showing off the new feathers that came in this year. In a way, it's like their way of putting on their own show.”
Rarity suddenly gasps while her eyes had this hint of understanding behind them as she replied with. “Oh! I had no idea. Far be it for me to pull away from their natural beauty. Well, all the best to luck to you dear. I must be off, fashion waits for no pony!” Rarity then used her magic and brought the boxes close above her head and went straight for the venue that was to be held at the mayor’s office to start on the decorations.
When the fashionista had finally left. Fluttershy found herself going back to her shopping and picked up what she was looking for. It didn't take long before Fluttershy was already leaving the town, but right as she was passing by a tree. Pinkie Pie jumped out in her path and immediately grabbed on to both of her shoulders and started to shake the poor mare frantically while having a dopey grin on her face.
Seemingly OK with the sudden attack, as if it was a normal occurrence for the Pegasus. Fluttershy managed to wheeze out through the constant movement. “P-Pinkie Pie... C-Could you possibly.... S-Stop s-shaking me... Y-You're making me drop... M-My shopping.” Which was not a lie. Considering nearly half of her items had fallen out of her basket and where now scattered about and around her hoofs.
Pinkie Pie immediately stopped and zipped around the Pegasus. Within a single blink of the eye, and a blur of pink, everything was back inside the basket. The pink mare was now visibly vibrating while having a nearly manic grin on her face, while staring straight into Fluttershy’s eyes.
For some strange reason, the Pegasus was apparently fine with how things were in the beginning, was beginning to look both anxious and worried at how excitable the Earth mare was acting right now. While taking in a small nervous gulp, Fluttershy then asked. Pinkie Pie, you don't seem like your normal self. How many cupcakes did you eat this morning?”
Pinkie Pie suddenly froze when hearing this and leaned in as if trying to keep what she was about to say a secret. Even though that there was not a single soul around. The Earth mare then started to whisper into Fluttershy’s left ear. “I'm finally in the book, hehe-hehe!”
This caused Fluttershy to quirk and eyebrow while apparently unable to comprehend just what Pinkie Pie was talking about. She then asked Pinkie Pie, “Um... That's great…. So, uh, what book are you talking about?” The pink mare then grabbed on to both sides of Fluttershy’s face and forced her to look straight into hers. They were now so close, that any movement would have caused their eyes to literally bump into one another with how the situation looked.
Pinkie Pie then whispered again. “The book that's been going on for nearly, four-hundred and sixty thousand words now. Honestly! That author takes forever... I tried going to see him multiple times to get it to speed it up, but he blocked me... ME?! Can you believe it?!”
The pink mare then pulled away to let out a very long and extraordinarily loud gasp. Which was then followed up with her releasing Fluttershy to grab onto her own face in a panic as she screamed out. “Oh no! I gotta start on the blueberry muffins, right now! Sorry! See yeah later, I can't stop and talk anymore, I gotta run! Bye!”
Before Fluttershy could even utter a response, she was enveloped by a pink cloud due to an object that Pinkie Pie had thrown to the ground. The last thing the Pegasus heard was Pinkie Pie shouting very fast. “Ninja smoke bomb!” Along with the mare suddenly wearing an outfit that was nearly all black that covered nearly all of her body. There were some red lines on what was the hood and an overly long red sash that was wrapped around the waist.
So, when the cloud finally dissipated, it left a blinking Fluttershy looking around in bewilderment. She then said, “OK, I um, I'll see you later then. That was odd, even for Pinky. She only gets this excitable when a new friend comes to town.”
*Point of view: Applejack* *Location: Apple family farm*
Applejack had just finished with selling the apples at the stall and had just return home with an empty cart. Passing by the archway that was leading on to their property that said, Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack could make out the silhouettes of both her dad and big brother just at the top of the hill, near the barn. She was just about to call out to them when she stopped in her tracks upon seeing that they were currently standing next to a weird contraption.
From where she stood, it appeared to be something with a seat meant for one Pony the sit inside, while the whole thing was painted yellow and black. It took her a few moments before she recognized it to be something that she had seen in a picture that was in one of the magazines that would be laying on the dining room table just a few weeks back, when it was on the front cover of ‘Farmers Weekly’.
Applejack quickly went to put away the cart and rushed over to her sibling and father and asked as soon as she had gotten within earshot. “What in tarnation is that doing here? Paw, you know we can't afford anythin like that. What do you think Mama and Granny are going to say when they see that thing out in the fields?”
That was when both of the ponies she was just mentioning, had come out of the barn while holding onto a bushel of apples that they were clearly about to bring inside the house. After hearing what Applejack had to say, Granny Smith was the first to speak up.
“Well, I can't say I'm too happy about it myself, but we do need a little help here in there. Sure, getting these apples down has been a tradition in the family. But still, there are just some things that would really help us out a lot.”
It was her mother, Pear Butter that was the next to chime in. “It's quite all right dear. We don't have to worry anything about paying it off. As it turns out, there's this thing going on where they're literally giving these away to some of the farms.”
“Something to do with helping out with the food shortage, thanks to all the monster attacks. All we really have to do is send a letter in every month that details how well it's working and what kind of improvements we feel could be added.”
Applejack turned her head towards the plowing device and spoke rather incredulously. “I really don't know what you're all thinking. No pony just up and give these sort of thins away without there being some strings attached.”
“Where the Apple family. So, we don't need help from others. We can handle everything ourselves. And I can prove it to you too! Why… I can pick apples and clear the field's faster than this thing can even turn itself on!”
Applejack was just about to continue on with her little rant, when she felt a hand on both of her shoulders. Which belonged to her parents. After seeing their small smiles, she ended up clamming her mouth shut to listen to what they were about to say out of instinct. Whenever they gave her those type of looks, she always knew that it was something important.
It was her father, Bright Mac that was the next to speak. “We know full well that you've been doing a lot of work here on the farm. Heck, you do more than any of us. But between your mother and myself, we can't help but feel that you aren't getting the opportunities that you want.”
This only made Applejack to start darting her eyes left and right while beginning to slightly sweat at what they're getting at. Just as she was about to open her mouth to protest, her mother reached around and placed a finger on her lips.
She then went on to say, “We all know that you've been meaning to go to one of those schools that teaches adventurers how to fight. And you can't deny that you've been practicing when you think we're not watching. Did you honestly think that your dad and brother wouldn't notice a tree on the very edge of our property that's been dead, being covered in marks from an axe that was clearly done out of purely striking it and not in an attempt to chop it down?”
The farm mare then lowered her head after her mother removed her finger and began to lightly kick at the dirt as if showing that she was caught in her little act. Pear Butter then went on to say, “Now you're the only one out of your friends who has not even tried to go to one of these schools. Your brother really wanted to go himself, but because of his phobia when it comes to mares. Leaving the farm and going somewhere that's full of them, was too much for him to handle.”
“Now I know that the only reason you haven't gone is because of your responsibilities. But think of it like this, now that we have this machine, our workload has been cut and you can now have some free time to do what you want to do.” Applejack then lightly shook off both of her parent's hands from her shoulders and took a few steps away before turning around to face them.
At the moment, it was her parents, grandmother and older brother present. While her younger sister, Apple Bloom must have still been in school. Applejack then shook her head while looking a little angry before she began to say. “Do any of you all know just what it is you're saying? This would make me to be the odd one out, after my whole family is stuck here working. Not once has a member of the entire Apple Clan left the farm, this would only make me into the black sheep, a disgrace!”
Her rant was cut short when she saw how they were all giving her this weird, knowing smile during her explanation. While looking a little uncomfortable, she raised an eyebrow while tilting her hat as she started to ask. “Just what in tarnation are you all looking at me like that fer?”
It was Granny Smith that was the next to speak up. “Now don't you go worrying about such nonsense. From what I heard, the letter that came along with that contraption said these got sent out to every single one of the Apple Family farms. Also, you know what else I heard? A bunch of your cousins are going to be going to those schools too, now that they got their workloads lightened up.”
Applejack tried to counter what was said with, “Just hold on a pickin minute there. I'm the only one of my age, who hasn’t gone to one of those in this town. If I was to suddenly up and leave, then I'd be all by myself. Also, there is no way that I'm just gonna go and leave that monstrosity to do all the extra heavy lifting. As far as I see, its nothing. It would be better to do things by hand. I'm sorry, but this Apple aint going anywhere.”
It was Bright Mac that spoke up next. “Well, odds are you won't have to leave to get your class’s.” This only caused Applejack to turn towards her dad with a skeptical look, before slowly asking as her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Just what did you do, If you're telling me you went hired a tutor, then you're just a few apples short of a basket. We can't afford something as fancy as that!”
Both Pear Butter and Bright Mac, gave one another a quick glance before they both turned to Applejack and said in perfect unison. “You'll find out.” Then they went back to examining the new piece of equipment without so much as giving any type of additional information as to what they were talking about.
Of course, this only riled up Applejack as she stormed off into the orchard while mumbling to herself about how irresponsible her parents could be at times. But at the same time a small smile began to creep onto the edge of her lips just as she broke the line of sight when going past a couple of the apple trees.
*Point of view: Rarity* *Location: Carousel boutique*
The scene showed nothing but black as the distant sound of steps could be heard approaching. Once they seem to be within a few paces away, did the sound of a click, resound in the dark. Suddenly, a bright light was shined as a door was opened and revealed it to be Rarity standing in a doorway. She had her hands on both sides of her hips while glaring inside of the once dark room before her.
After a few seconds, she then said to herself, “Now where did I put that box of ribbons... I knew I put it somewhere for a rainy day.” She then went in and began to ruffle through what appeared to be stacks of boxes within a small closet. After a time of opening and closing multiple containers, the white mare pulled away and slammed the door shut out of frustration.
Rarity then began to tap her chin a few times while looking up at the ceiling before she appeared to have an idea and rush up the steps that led to the next floor. Once the mare was at a certain door, she Immediately flung it open to reveal an elaborately decorated, purple and white styled room. There was a vanity mirror and a walk-in closet with its door already open. Along with a very large four-poster bed that could have been built just for a princess. The curtains themselves even had embroidery put on them saying the word Rarity and a few identical copies of her cutie mark.
She then went over to her bed and began to ruffle around underneath. Pulling out item after item, until she had found a rather large one that could not have fit under there without destroying it. But it was apparently undamaged. When she opened the lid, she found it to be a box of different colored ribbons and exclaimed while on the verge of nearly clapping. “Ah! Finally! There you are. I've been searching high and low for you.”
She was already halfway turning to leave when something had caught her eye that was coming from underneath the bed. From a cursory glance, it was a type of yellow fabric that seemed to be just a bit faded. As if suddenly in a slight daze, Rarity carefully placed down the box and approached the object while getting down on one knee.
When she had reached for and pulled it out. It was found to be a plushy that she had made when she was still but a filly. The cloth itself could have seen better days. But altogether, it was pretty well preserved for its age. Rarity's eyes softened upon gazing at it and began to brush the white mask with her right hands thumb as to get a little bit of the dust off.
As she was doing this, she began to have a sad expression upon seeing its current state. But that changed to a small smile when she began to say, “It's been quite a while. But I must say, this will just not do. How about when the celebrations over, I will look into fixing you up a little bit. How does that sound to you, darling?”
Afterwards, she dusted it off just a little bit more before placing it on her bed and next to the pillow. Rarity then went back to picking up the box full of ribbons and exited the room. But not before calling out to the plushy as if talking to a customer. “I guarantee to you when I'm done, you will look fabulous! Ta-Ta for now!”
When Rarity got back downstairs, she immediately got to work and lit her horn. The moment that it was powered up with magic, a large number of items within the room where envelop in the same magical hew of color and were levitated into the air. And what could have easily have taken more than an hour to accomplish, Rarity had done within minutes.
Ribbons, scissors, sewing needles with thread. All literally came to life and were zooming from left to right all around Rarity. She then began to dance in place as if listening to a song that only she could hear. While pointing her index fingers to coordinate the efforts of her magic and swishing them about the same way one would when conducting a symphony.
It didn't take long until the movements began to speed up, until everything became a blur. Even with such a hurried pace, not one mistake was being made with Rarity’s shop now turning into a literal whirlwind of activity as she hummed a tune.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Open field between Ponyville and the Everfree Forest*
Right now, out in the middle of the field, was a small group of Ponies setting up a series of fireworks that are meant to go off during the night of the Celebration. One mare was just putting the finishing touches on a large bottle rocket as her teammates were doing the same.
One of them had just called out to the other and requested some assistance. “Hey! Could I get an extra pair of hands over here, I'm having trouble holding on to this one while trying to get this stand to sit right.” The other mare quickly replied by putting down her tools and rushing over to help.
When she did this, her tail had inadvertently brushed up against the table that she was passing by and caused a screwdriver to start rolling across the table. The tool then began to pick up speed thanks to the table itself being slightly slanted because of the uneven ground and then came into contact with a few other items. This ended up causing a small chain of domino effects to occur as a result.
One Round pipe was bumped into, which made it begin to move and that bumped into a half-filled bottle of cola. That bottle was then, knocked over so that the contents were being spilled out over the edge and onto the ground, thereby slowly emptying it. The pipe continued on until it swept across the table and stopped once it hit the large jug of water. Unfortunately, the impact was just enough to cause a small crack to form and it was now slowing draining its contents.
But, before the pipe had come to a stop. It had knocked over one more item which flew off the edge of the table and clattered onto the ground a few times. What had fallen off the table, was a box and on its last tumble, the lid fell off. Because of this, the contents within were thrown about half hazardly and was revealed to be a bunch of match sticks.
Most of which, landed in the puddle of water and soda that was beginning to form underneath the table and ruining them. But it would seem that one of them had landed so that the stick end was jammed between a few small pebbles and was just out of reach of the liquid surrounding it. What's more, was the fact that there was a low hanging fuse belonging to the nearby rocket that was just being worked on right above it.
At the moment, it was underneath a bit of shade. But that was slowly beginning to pull away thanks to the sun moving across the sky. To show that it was from the soda bottle that was perched dangerously on the edge of the table. As the rest of the liquid was being drained until it was low enough to no longer be spilling. The light of the sun was shining through the glass and on to the match. It didn't take long until there was a small simmering smoke beginning to form on the tip on the match stick.
*Point of view: Rainbow Dash* *Location: Rainbow Dash's cloud house*
Rainbow Dash had just exited her front door and was hovering in the air. At the moment, she had this flat stare going off and into space as she was angrily grumbled to herself. “Bucking Applejack... She knew how that was going to affect me. I bet she's just laughing her tail off. Had to go and bring up the Wonder Bolts along with that, Sorin guy. It's a good thing I got back before I messed up my panties too badly. Buck! I really need a good rutting.”
She continued her grumbling for a little while longer before she shook her head and began to do some stretches while she was still flapping in the air. When Rainbow Dash finished, she quickly took off and began to pick up speed as she flew over town. As the blue Pegasus did this, she would dodge and weave between buildings to check out the preparations.
During one of the passes, near one building that appeared to be made out of completely baked goods. Rainbow Dash was sure that she spotted Pinkie Pie, but only for a brief moment as the Earth mare was darting all over the place while hiding behind objects and pulling out a pair of binoculars. The site made Rainbow Dash begin to wonder to herself. “Huh... Don't tell me gummy got out again? I still don’t know how that pet of hers even got into my cloud house the last time.” She was about to go down to see what was up, but ended up turning away and flying off.
After a few seconds of flying, Rainbow Dash turned her head to look at the direction she had just come from and said, “As curious as I am about what Pinky's doing. I'd rather not go near any pony for a little bit, otherwise they'll be able to smell just what I've been up to. Especially Pinky. Don't need her getting overly excited and blurting it out for every pony to hear. I'll head back in a little bit. A good thing about being a Pegasus, Is that I get to air myself out with a few air tricks.”
Rainbow Dash then took off at even faster speeds and was now heading towards the open field just outside of town. As soon as it seemed as if there were no others around to get in her way, The athletic Pegasus began to do one trick after another. They would consist of doing cartwheels and loop-tee-loops, while leaving her iconic rainbow trail behind. Each one becoming riskier than the last one done.
After seemingly warmed up after doing all of those moves. Rainbow Dash ended up flying higher than previously done and look down on the field that was now far below. From what she could see, it was pretty much barren. Except for a few Ponies next to the fireworks that were in the middle of setting up on the far end.
Rainbow then began to hum to herself while judging the distance and had this wicked smile growing on her lips. From where she was, there was a visible, open area on the other side of the setup and thought to herself.
“It's not happening for another two more days. I bet they're just starting. If that's the case, then I probably won't do any damage if I was to try out one of my tricks nearby. Ha! I bet it would even make their day. I'll go into a strong power dive and pull out at the very last moment. Have to make sure I'm at my best. Otherwise, I'll never make it into the Wonder Bolts.”
After doing a few flips in the air. Rainbow Dash got even more altitude as she was just above the clouds. Then, she'd started her dive. The wind was whistling past her ears as her eyes narrowed to prevent them from being Injured by the strong wind pressure that was building up.
Within hardly any time at all, she was about to reach her maximum speed. At a normal flying rate, the distance that she was traveling would have taken a good nine or ten seconds to complete, but she was going to have that shaved it down to a good four seconds, thanks to how much power she was putting into her wings.
She was already a good third of the way through her intended flying distance by the time that she was over the fireworks set up. But suddenly, she began to hear screaming over the howling wind. When her eyes looked down, the blue Pegasus saw that one of the larger fireworks was flying straight at her.
Thanks to the high speed and lack of warning. Rainbow Dash was barely able to turn before the projectile was going to hit her. Unfortunately, instead of going by, it instantly went off and exploded while she was still looking at it when it was only a dozen or so feet away.
The resulting boom had created a strong enough force that it was rattling her insides and the Pegasus’s ears were now ringing so much that not even the howling wind or secondary explosions from the rocket could be heard. What made it worse, was how she was looking straight at it and her vision had turned completely white thanks to the bright flash.
Rainbow Dash released a loud yell of pain when this happened and continued with a hysteric scream of panic. Now that she was both temporarily rendered blind and deaf while still heading straight to the ground. She tried to flap her wings in an attempt to gain control, or to at least sense the wind currents to adjust their angle to pull up right away. But was unable to do so with how her body was still reeling from the force of the explosion. This resulted in her frantically flapping her wings half hazardly while continuing to tumble in the air.
When her vision began to steadily come back. She saw nothing but a wall of green coming straight at her while she was still flipping around like a rag doll. At the very last instant, she yelled out, “WHAAAAAAAAH-HAAAAAA!”
As her mind went into overdrive and knowing full well that this was not going to turn out good. With all her experiences when it came to crash landings, Rainbow Dash knew that she was not going to walk away from this one with just a simple bump. Especially with the current position of all of her limbs.
Rainbow Dash had just closed their eyes and was waiting for the end. But a strong gust of wind that was more powerful than what she was feeling moments ago when she was diving came out of nowhere and slammed into her body. Oddly enough, instead of being hurt by it. Rainbow Dash, through her still closed eyes, could feel the sensation of it washing around and actually wrapping her body in the same way that a blanket would.
Her eyes snapped open and found that she was now only a few feet away from the ground, while completely upside down. This meant that she would have literally have gone head first into the dirt if she had continued.
But what really caught her attention. Was how she was not being suspended by magic like one would when in the grasp of a Unicorn. But instead, she was literally watching the wind spiraling from a point directly underneath her and how it was visible in the form of a miniature tornado. What gained more of her attention, was with how some of it was even going around her limbs and she could see how they were acting as a type of cushion.
Right when she was about to try and get her head around what was happening, all of it suddenly ceased and disappeared. This left Rainbow Dash to plop onto the soft grass underneath with a surprised "Ooofph!" After, she quickly began to turn her head to see if there was any pony around, but her vision was still blurry and her hearing wasn't recovering all that quickly. So, all she got was this annoying ringing.”
By the time that she could see again and begin to hear other sounds. Other than the ringing, she found herself surrounded by a group of Ponies and one of them was wearing a nurse's outfit, while reaching out and checking her for injuries. It took a few minutes before she had recovered enough to answer their questions as to what could be hurting. But instead of answering, she quickly asked the nearest Pony. “Hay! Who helped me out? Haha-Haha, I don't know who you are, but thanks a lot.”
Among the murmurs of the small crowd that were around Rainbow Dash. There wasn't a single Pony to step forward after that remark. She then turned to one of the few Unicorns that were there and tried to ask them.
“You saw what happened, right? Just who was it that used that magic on the wind?” The Unicorn mare only shook her head slowly while trying to form words in her slightly open mouth, while her eyes were darting around and trying to look at the next Unicorn for answers.
While still looking unsure, all of those with horns on their heads only answered by saying things such as. They weren't the one who did it. There was no Unicorn nearby. It happened too fast to do anything and they were too far away. There was no magic glow that could be seen to indicate that a Unicorn was casting any kind of magic to make the wind do such a thing.
As they were all going on. Rainbow Dash started to look more and more confused as to what just happened. With how much time she had while in the weather team, she knew for a fact that whatever was going on with the wind, was not natural. It just doesn't act like that. There was another who was in direct control. But what she couldn't really wrap her mind around, was how they didn't want to be seen doing so. How could any pony not want to claim that they rescued the most awesome flyer, in all of Equestria?
She was brought out of her thoughts when she saw some mare coming forward from out of the crowd. They quickly introduced themselves as the ones who are in charge of setting up the firework display and had no idea how it all happened. One of the fireworks had suddenly been lit due to some fallen equipment and shooting off just as she was coming overhead, showed it to be a complete accident. But they were both still apologizing nonstop about putting her life in danger.
Rainbow only chuckled a little it'll after regaining some of her usual privado and gave them a thumbs up before saying, “Don't worry about it. Something like this can't keep me down. I would have just walked it off anyway.”
This seemed to calm down the crowd as they were now dispersing and returning to whatever activities they were previously occupied with. It was only the nurse who went by the name of, Red Heart by then and she was still giving Rainbow Dash another check, just to be sure she had not missed anything.
After a few more minutes, the Pegasus was ready to just fly out of there and get away from the pesky nurse when she heard her starting to speak. “You're very lucky that you didn't get injured at all. From the description of the events, you could have easily had gotten a concussion... Or even worse. I don't know who did this, but they probably saved your life.”
“I was already nearby and tending to someone's injury while putting up a stall when I caught sight of you being held in the air. Judging from how your body was positioned, if you had kept on going, I have no doubt you would have broken your neck, instantly.”
This caused Rainbow Dash to chuckle nervously as she rubbed the back of her own neck, while envisioning what would have been like if she had kept falling. Nurse Red heart, then continued with saying, “Miss Dash, I know you just recently came back from going to that school and all, but I suggest you take it easy. Even after completing your full three years, I'm not going to start patching you up just because you think you're invincible every other day.”
“I swear, if you intended on crashing into the ground every time you try and do one of your stunts, then you should have gone and studied to be one of those... Uh... I believe you refer to them as... Tanks. At least then, you would be covered in armor.” At this point, Rainbow Dash was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable and really, really wanted to get out of there. Even if it meant having to do some actual work. She was nervously smiling at the nurse as she had to continue to get, yet another lecture from this mare.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
The Roegadyn was at this moment, watching from the Shadow Realm, a good thirty meters away and following the crowd that was going back into the town. While still observing to make sure nothing was wrong, Brex began to think to himself.
“Seriously! Rainbow Dash. Just what are the odds that the instant I come out in the woods and step into the sun, I see that you're going to kill yourself? I'm pretty sure that she was not in a body cast during the show.” He then released a mental sigh as he continued on. “Can't I at least have these two days to relax before the big event happens? Is that, just too much to ask for? Well, I'm just glad that I've managed to level up my wind magic from the book of the Shield Hero to cushion her fall and that she's not hurt.”
“But really? Who in their right minds decides that they're gonna do acrobatic tricks while in a no flying zone? Stupid, reckless girl almost gave me a heart attack!” That was when Brex turned his head and spotted nearby assign with a picture of a Pegasus with their wings out and a red line going through it. These were apparently spaced out all around the fireworks display, yet it appeared that Rainbow Dash had no idea of their existence.
He then reached into his item box and pulled out a small slip of paper and began to look it over as he thought to himself. “Now... Just where is that place again? Let's see… First, I go down that way. Then afterwards, I make a left at the park. Walk past Sugar Cube Corner... And it's on the right side of the street, four buildings down.”
He had suddenly come to a dead stop while looking at the paper and have to take it a double take at what he just said in his head. A cold sweat could be felt on his brow as he thought, “Oh… right... Sugar Cube Corner... Deep breaths, take a deep breaths Brex... You're ready now. You had the last eleven years to get yourself mentally ready for the pink menace. Everything is going to be fine. You've had your body double station in the area and she has yet to sense it at all. She can't find you until you step out of the shadows.”
He had to internally groaned to himself, when he immediately realized that he wasn't going to be able to stay in there forever and would have to come out eventually. If he could, the Roegadyn would have used some type of magic spell to go back to the point where he had to deal with all of the legal paperwork when it came to buying all those properties in the past. He was even beginning to develop a headache, which he was positive that he had not once had since arriving in Equestria. Well, not sense that Spider thing.
He had required a few minutes to pinch the bridge of his nose, after taking off his mask to nurse the headache before putting it back on again and looking at the paper once more to read in his head. “OK, so the place is called, The Flower Trio. Huh? Well doesn't that sound quaint. I'm at least glad they didn't put me in an expensive place.”
“I had considered just going into the Adventurers building and using one of their rooms. But that would run the risk of me having to deal with the receptionist too much. Who knew that word about me would spread about and they would actively try to promote me sometimes?”
That was when he began to think back to a good two years ago. At the time, he already had a decent network of spies thanks to the connections he had built over the years. But he wanted to put in some facetime. This was so that he didn't get rusty and went to, Vanhoover. This was a sea-based town, right on the west edge of Equestria and connected to the, North Luna Ocean.
At the time, he had brought Blaze Caster with him for some, on the site experience at becoming an adventurer. Over the last nine years, the kid had grown quite a bit and developed his fire-based magic and techniques to the point that they had become second nature. It was a bit of a surprise with how he ended up being close to Five feet and Nine inches tall, while at the same time, retaining his slightly thin frame.
Aside from the outfit that he was given when he was little, Brex did not intend for it to happen, but the kid turned out to be a near, perfect pony version of that one character he was thinking about from that fire anime who went by the code name of, Juggernaut. But luckily for the both of them, he didn't develop an intense fear of fire, unlike the one from the show. However, the idea about wearing multiple layers somehow became a thing when he wasn't looking one day and now the kid was literally packing enough fabric on his body to line all the hangers in a clothing shop.
Pretty much his entire body was covered aside from his head, even then he would have this habit of trying to duck his neck down enough so that only the top half of his face could be seen. What's more, was how he was even able to appear bigger than Brex himself. Which was a little offsetting seeing as he was really used to others looking up at him. So, when he had to do it to Blaze Caster, it felt really wrong.
(Here is a picture of the gear that Blaze Caster is currently wearing. Just without the head gear.)
Brex had even used the, Demonic Spider Demon silk and incorporated it into all of his attire. Just so that it would have the added protection. As it turned out, the bolt that they purchased during that one visit to Ryu's place along with fancy pants, had a whole lot of properties that made it perfect to make clothing that was on par with Kevlar vests.
The shop that was selling it was later on found out to have been given orders by Ryu, just sell two wrecks a militarized version of the silk that had some additional properties. As for the ones that were purchased for Fleur De Lis, they were still quite strong which meant that the pair were unknowingly wearing a suit of armor at their daily events.
What's more, the kid even had an astounding level of physical strength when compared to his body frame. So, when Brex asked Blaze Caster on what he would like to learn, the kid replied that he wanted to be able to fight without carrying any weapons. As a result, he became the Roegadyn's personal pupil and started teaching him how to become a monk. Of course, he had to start off with the basic class. But after lending him a few items to boost his experience gain, the time flew by quickly.
This happened to include a Ring, Earring and along with a set of clothing when worn all at once, gives a good boost one's base stats and an additional percentage on experience gained. So altogether, he had a good seventy-five percent gain on getting his levels up faster. This was also supplemented by an extra, three percent whenever he had just eaten some of the food that Brex would prepare for a while.
With this, it didn't take too long at all for Blaze Caster to get up to level thirty. From there, Brex made a copy of his Monk Soul Stone and gave it to him. Before, he had given that to the kid, he had only made them for the head mares that taught at his schools.
Now, as for that time in Vanhoover. They had just gotten done with their mission with clearing out a small group of monsters that moved into a residence, just on the outskirts of the city and were disrupting the flow of trade on a nearby road.
It didn't take long at all for them to be disposed of, with it both of them working together. But during this one, Brex left the majority of it to Blaze Caster to see how he would do. Brex would have only stepped in if it was required. Thankfully, his assistance was not needed. The Unicorn was able to fight very well in both a wide-open area and in an enclosed space once they had gotten to the structure.
Brex got a kick out of it, when he watched how a horde of them had come barreling out of the house when they had arrived. Only to be blown to smithereens when the kid held out his right hand and snapped his fingers. This action caused a number of flames to appear all around him and take on the form of rockets. From there, they began to launch one after another and wiped out a good fourteen monsters.
When it was time to go inside of the structure, Blaze Caster enveloped his fists with flames and began to proceed in opening a can of whoop-ass on anything that got near him. Not a single thing, aside from what he wanted to be hit had taken any type of fire damage. So, they didn't have to worry about any collateral fees. This was a major step up from the beginning, when Blaze Caster would sometimes lose control and have a fireball literally blow up in his face.
Now, the real problem was what happened on the next day after the job was completed and they were about to leave the guild hall that they were staying in. As soon as they had gotten downstairs, they were accosted by a group of mare’s, along with the receptionists that work there. There was even one that he had vaguely remembered seeing from another branch that he had been to before among the crowd.
At the time, Brex was still only an, F Rank Adventurer. While Blaze Caster had already had been promoted to, E Rank. Now, the issue here was apparently with how Brex had neglected to put one of his body doubles downstairs to listen in on everything because they were only there for Just under twenty-four hours. Unfortunately, it seemed that during their time there, a representative from another branch had come over for some official business and had caught word that both, Gambit and Blaze Caster were there and staying just upstairs.
The ones that worked within the building, were informed about how Gambit would always ditch town right when he was going to get a promotion done and it was beginning to catch on as a type of game by then. Just before they had come down, there was the one that ran the message board where the quests would be posted and she was looking towards the sheets of paper. When Brex saw this, he glanced over and noticed that they had added a special, limited time quest. Which stated that they needed hands to be able to give a promotion to an adventurer.
Once the situation had been fully understood. The pair immediately made a run for the front to try and push open the doors. But unfortunately for the structure, they were locked as a precaution to keep them from leaving, but the two running into it, had enough force behind it to break it completely off its hinges and this sent them tumbling out and into the middle of the street.
Being rather surprised by what had just happened, they were trying to regain their bearings and were brought back to reality when they heard the rush of hoofs on wood from all of the mare’s that were frantically beginning to rush out of the doorway. But luck was on their side when they all tried to go at once and ended up getting stuck for a few seconds and this allowed the pair to get back on their feet and start running down the road as if hell's hounds were literally on their asses.
For them, the whole situation lasted a good half hour before they manage to get away with the entire thing turning into a, Benny Hill Chase scene. Brex was almost positive he heard the music playing in the background somewhere, but thought it was just his overactive imagination, or maybe something on Rory’s part.
(Play this music for as long as you feel like you want to listen to it.)
They both have been running down the main street for only a single block before they both turned to look behind them and saw that there was at least two dozen mare’s giving chase after them and this caused the pair to run even faster and dart around a nearby corner that led them onto an adjacent street. However, the crowd was still, hot on their tails.
This progressed further as they continuously made turn after turn and sometimes doubling back when there was a large enough object for the pair to duck behind. Only to see the group immediately turning around and coming back in their direction after figuring out that they had just passed them.
At one point, they ended up in the city park and were currently weaving between the trees, while the mare’s were literally following their exact footsteps and doing the same. When the trees had run out, they found that the mare’s were slowly gaining. Seeing this, the pair picked up the pace with a quick burst of speed before they went around a tall cement wall.
As soon as they were out of sight, the two had stopped at a park bench. Brex reached into a nearby garbage can and pulled out some newspapers and handed one over to Blaze Caster. Immediately they sat down on the bench and unfolded the papers in front of them and Brex used his finger to poke a pair of eye holes to see through. While as for Blaze Caster, he used his flames to burn a set on to his own.
Not even a moment had gone by when they had completed the preparations, when there was a stampede of mare’s trampling by them and the sound that they were making was beginning to grow distant within the few seconds that passed. Which was ironic how the newspapers were barely able to even cover half of the Roegadyn and in Blaze Caster’s case, was only able to cover up everything above the chest.
After, their eyes could be seen through the eye holes blinking a few times. They finally begin to lower the newspapers and looking relieved. But was interrupted by the sound of the mare’s calling out and making the ground quake as they returned. This time however, both of them had their eyes nearly bugging out of their skulls when they saw that the number had literally quadrupled and threw the papers away and started running in opposite direction.
Brex and Blaze Caster had just gone around, yet another corner at some building near the edge of the park and ducked inside. A few seconds later, the pair emerged with each riding a bicycle and went off in some random direction.
The next scene shows them going down the middle of a bike path way in the middle of said park seemingly alone and obviously happy that they had gotten away, with how they were both using the back of their hands to wipe away at their foreheads. They had hardly any time at all to relax when all the mare’s began to step out from behind the surrounding trees and give chase again.
With everything started back up, the parade being led by the two males was once again going between the trees and around the local, park pond. While all of this was going on, there were a few elderly Unicorns just sitting on a nearby bench that was located in the center of the park and was watching all this unfold. One of them was even munching away at a bag of popcorn as the second one was so entranced by the spectacle, that she began to munch on a bag of her own. Instead of popcorn, this was filled with bread crumbs meant for the birds that she had just stopped feeding.
When they were passed by, both of the males had a bicycle each, but on the returning trip, they were now on a single two-person bike and seemingly confused as they were looking down at the bike and to each other repeatedly. On the third pass by. They were now riding on a single unicycle while Blaze Caster was carrying Brex over his head. When it got to the fourth pass. It was the mare’s who were on sports bikes and the two were now sharing a single scooter, while hanging off both the right and left sides and each had a hand on one of the handlebars.
Luckily, this was near the end of the chase and Brex had spotted a good enough shadow in a nearby alley to duck into. Once they had managed to get enough of a distance and get in there. They jumped into the shadow of one of the larger trash bins and disappeared after taking a long leap into the air.
When they had finally come out, they were back in the mountain cabin and had both shot out of the shadow being made from underneath one of the beds and skidded on the floor just a few feet away with their arms stretched out Infront of them. Seemingly out of breath on Blaze Casters end, Brex turned his head while laying sprawled on the wooden floor to see a heavily sweating Unicorn right next to him that was also laying on his stomach.
Brex then heard the kid speaking while trying to wheeze out the following words as he was gasping for more air. “Why... Didn't... We do... That sooner?” To which, Brex replied with, “I blame the power of music.” After seeing the confused look in the kid's eyes, the Roegadyn continued with, “I'll explain it to you later.”
When that little road trip down memory lane had finished playing through. Brex shook his head while laughing within his mind. Ever since that day, he’s had to be more vigilant in finding out what their plans were in regards to him and the advancement of his rank.
Because of this, he was able to avoid at least a handful of times that this was going to happen. Honestly, he didn't see what the point was for trying to force him to go up and rank when he didn't want to. But it seemed that a number of the guild halls were in on it and even communicating with one another to spring the next trap.
Of course, this meant that for the past couple of months afterwards, Brex had been avoiding them. Even now, he only goes to do a quest once in a while and goes right to the board and accepts the quest as quickly as possible before getting out of the building before they even had a chance to realize just who he is.
In fact, it has been close to half a year since he even stepped inside of one and stayed for more than five minutes. But what still help out now and then, was him sending one of his body doubles while they were inside of the shadow realm to look at the boards and see if there were any that he could do off the books.
The only places that he had not been to as Gambit for any work, have to be Canterlot and Ponyville. Even thought to himself, “Gambit hasn't really been making too much of an appearance. I do hope that everything would calmed down eventually and can go in there while I’m staying in Ponyville. If not, I'll just have to give up on it for now. There's no way I'm gonna go and start making another alias.”
After letting out one long and quiet sigh, Brex continued down the road until he passed by Sugar Cube Corner and found the hotel he was going to be staying at. It didn't really stand out all that much among all of the other colorful buildings with how it was only two stories tall and from what could be seen outside, only had three rooms going across with the windows as an indication.
The building itself was colored pink and next to the door, was a small sign that said, No Vacancy. After getting a good look, Brex entered through the front door and found the sight of a whole lot of flowers on both shelves and tables all over the place. From the way they were all organized, it appeared to be more of a flower shop than some hotel.
There was a counter and Brex could see that a Pony was hunched over behind it with how their tail was partially in view. He then coughed into his fist after bringing it up to his mask to let the one there to know that he had come in. When this was done, there was a sudden and loud yell of fright that came from behind the counter and the Pony from behind, shot straight up with wide eyes.
Without so much as looking in his direction, she began to speak in a somewhat frantic tone. “W-Welcome to the Flower Sister's Shop. Where we always have the right occasion for every flower... Oh!! I mean, sorry! I meant to say, we have a flower for every occasion. My name is Lily. How can I... Help... You...”
When she had gotten closer to the end of her little greeting. The mare had just turned to look at Brex and was now slowly tilting her head back to get a good view of him as her words trailed on. With a nervous gulp, she continued. “Is... Is there something that I can help you with?” This was then followed with a nervous rattling of her body and clear signs that she was on the verge of starting a small panic attack.
She was a female Earth pony, with a grayish raspberry coat, light amber mane with pale amber highlights, grayish gold eyes, and a cutie mark of three lilies that could been seen on her right arm sleeve. At the moment she was currently wearing a light green top along with a darker shade apron and a pair of thick gardening gloves. There was even this one flower stuck behind her ear that was a white Lily.
(Here is a picture of the pony Lily, from the show.)
Internally, Brex was mentally slapping himself when he didn't put the facts together about just where he was and began to think. “OK flowers, check. A mare that's named after a flower, check. She also looks as if she will literally die from fright, if even a baby kitten was to meow right now. I just have to stay calm and show her that I am not something to scream over. In every story one of these sisters shows up, it always causes a riot. This situation needs to be diffused before it can go off.”
“I can't just reach over and pat her on the head like I can do with the Changelings whenever they're upset. That would obviously cause her to scream if I reached out for her. Then that also crosses out the possibility of using seduction. I guess that only leaves me with trying to distract her with something she's familiar with.”
The Roegadyn’s eyes quickly zoom in on the flower that was placed right behind her right ear and had an idea. He then tilted his head to motion towards her and spoke with a casual tone. “Flower. Lily correct?” This was apparently enough to get the mare to realize just what he was getting at and began to calm down a little when she replied with. “Uh... Yes, that's a Lily.”
Brex then went on to say, “Lovely on you.” At this point, the mare was now beginning to blush as her body began to finally calm down and was no longer shaking. She had reached up and was now playing with the flower a little, while looking a little bashful before she replied. “I, uh, thanks. A-Are you looking for any particular flower to buy? If you don't see any on display out here, I'm sure we might have something in the back. Just let me know what it is your searching for and I'll do my best to see if we have it in stock.”
Brex merely shook his head lightly before he said, “A reserved room.” Afterwards, he reached into his right arms robe sleeve and produced a small envelope and presented it to Lily to take. At first, it seemed that Lily was a bit confused, but then had a look of realization when she got hold of the letter to open it up and look at the contents.
Lily then folded it and returned it to Brex before saying, “I'm sorry that I didn't know it was you. I was a little taken aback with how large you are. I remember us getting contacted a little over a week ago about reserving a room on the upper floor. My sisters and I live right above the shop. This is the only time that we tried to rent out one of the rooms, seeing as the celebration was being held in our town this year.”
“All of the local taverns and inns are fully booked with Ponies coming in from all over to see the Princess.” She then started to lightly chuckle a little before she continued. “Imagine our surprise when we were asked to put up a stallion that was described to be wearing a mask and would have in their possession a letter that we sent out to make sure that they were the ones coming.”
Can't be all that careful when it comes to Ponies that try to come in the town and pretend to be another just so they can use their name and get a room. Brex replied by nodding his head and saying, “I fully understand.” Lily then gave him a small smile in return and went on. “My sisters and I have already been informed about how you like to keep your privacy. Along with how you're not one for speaking much.”
“Please just give me a moment to put up a sign to give us a few minutes to show you the room.” After Lily got another nod from him, she rushes around the counter and came right up to the front door, where she grabbed onto a sign and flipped it around. But not before messing with some movable clock hands to indicate that she would be gone for around five to ten minutes.
Afterwards, she came back and escorted Brex around the counter and threw an open doorway. From there, they went down a short hall and went up to the next floor. He was then guided to the very end of the hall where there was a single door on the left-hand side that had a name plate nailed onto it, with a picture of a red rose.
When Lily noticed him staring at the name plate, she nervously chuckled before scratching the back of her head as she began to say. “Oh, this is my sister's room. Her name is Rose. You see, there's three of us living here, so we each have a room. We ended up playing a game of rock-paper-scissors, to see who would be moving out of their room in order to take in a guest. The other sister that I haven't mentioned yet is called Daisy. Rose is currently sharing a room with her.”
She then opened the door to let Brex look through and saw that it was decorated in the theme that would most suit a person with the name of Rose, with how there was pink and red everywhere. He then heard the mare begin to say rather bashfully. “We were informed that you were taller than normal. But I hope the bed is big enough for you.”
When he heard this, Brex got a good look at the bed and saw that it was just large enough for him to fit inside of, if he were to pull his legs in and sleep on his side. This would at least give him a few inches of leeway before falling out of the bed itself.
He then went in and began to search the rest of the room from where he stood with his eyes. While Lily was still in the doorway and he had his back towards her, he skillfully went in fully and begin to cast the ‘Detect Magic’ spell without her seeing him do it. Once the invisible wave of magic had enveloped everything and there were no signs of anything that was remotely considered to be an eavesdropping device. He turned back to the mare and said, “It is perfect.”
Lily then was seen letting out a heavy breath that she was apparently holding and looks far more relieved. She then began to say, “Well, I guess I'll leave you alone to get yourself settled in. I'll introduce you to my sister's later tonight when we're all home. I’m sorry to say it, but we don't have a spare key right now. So, if you plan on going out, could you please come back before the store closes. I'm really sorry. It's just that, we're not used to having a room rented out and this is both our business and home. So, we just wanted to-.”
She was clearly getting a little uncomfortable with having to explain herself. But was cut off when Brex lifted his left hand and began to say, “For your safety.” This got a weak smile from the mare as she gave him a subtle nod as to show that was exactly what she was trying to get at.
Lily then said rather hurriedly, “Oh! I uh, I'm so sorry, but I really need to get back to the shop. We close around seven-thirty.” When she was finished, she quickly ran off down the hallway and right out of sight when she descended the stairs.
That was when he began to hear Rory speaking to him from within his head. “Master, you may have to walk on eggshells when it comes to the ponies that live in this house. From the memories I saw from you, they could faint at the littlest things.” Brex then replied with, “Yeah. It's fortunate that I only have to be here for a few days. But, if I do end up on deciding to stay in Ponyville, than I might have to look for more permanent lodgings.”
He could hear Rory beginning to hum before she went on to say, “If all else fails, you could do the default option and try to get a room over at Twilight's library. Isn't that what most displaced humans end up doing?” Brex internally grumbled to himself before replying in an agitated tone. “I would rather bite off and consume my own right foot before I do that. No way am I gonna have that egghead in the same building as me while my eyes are closed.”
“Do you know just how many stories have had her breaking into the room to steal samples to conduct tests. Not to mention, she had that secret laboratory underneath the library that she would take some of them into by force. I swear, if I get strapped to a table by her...” The very thought of something like that happening to him, was beginning to cause Brex to develop a pit in his stomach as he bawled both of his hands into tightly packed fists that were now shaking with rage.
Rory then replied while using a calming tone in her voice. “Shush... It's going to be OK, please calm down Master. I know that you don't like being the one that gets taken advantage of. After all, you're a pure Dom at heart now. But now that I think about it. I'm remarkably surprised at how well you're able to keep your cool and continue on with the act when we were dealing with Big Mama.”
“I could have sworn that you would have completely lost your cool when she had gotten to that collar and leash comment. If I was there in the room when she had said that, my axe would have been through her neck before she even knew what was happening.”
Brex replied to that with, “Well, you're typically the one that has a cooler head. But I have no doubt that if either Rin or Lin had been able to hear that comment. Then Big Mama Would have been torn to shreds with their bare teeth.” This got a wicked chuckle from Rory as she then said, “Oh yeah, no doubt. I dare say those two are nearly as protective of you as I am.”
“I could perfectly recall what they were doing on the day that we informed them about your trip over to Ponyville for the celebration.” Brex quickly shot back with a flat tone. “Well, whose idea was it to go ahead and tell them that the princess attacked me out of nowhere one day?! We even had to take away their weapons and lock them in their rooms for a few days, just for them to cool down enough to not go and assassinate her on the spot.”
Rory then chuckled before replying. “Well, you can't say that you don't find it hot that those two are willing to do such a thing for you. I would even go so far as to say that the two of them would be willing to kill their own Queen if you were to give the order. And I do believe it's all thanks to our combined efforts in their training.”
Brex quickly interrupted her by saying, “Rory, could you please not remind me of that right now. Especially when you're not with me.” His inner voice then began to grow a little cold as he continued with. “You remember the last time you got me sexually frustrated when you weren't with me. Don't you?”
There was nothing but silence for a few seconds, before he heard Rory beginning to make these small, sexual whimpers in his head before she quickly shot back. “Master! Why did you have to remind me about that? I'm coming over there right now!”
Brex then made his voice very loud and stern when he replied to that by saying, “Rory Mercury! You made your bed, now sleep in it! You are not to come to Ponyville under any circumstances, other than what I told you about.” Rory began to whimper a little bit, but Brex could tell that they were not from being upset. These were from a completely different reason and that he knew full well of it.
He then said to Rory, while seemingly unamused. “You know you make it a little difficult to give you a stern talking to when all you're gonna do is get turned on by it. Anyway, I got to go and check on a few things, then I'll be going to sleep. We can talk then.” This only earned him a few more of those aroused whimpers before she went silent on the connection.
Brex couldn't help but to sigh heavily as he was now rubbing on the mask where his nose should be as if it would literally have an effect on his face underneath. He had just turned around to get a closer look at the bed to see how well he could sleep in it, but stopped in his tracks when there was something there that clearly wasn't a few minutes ago.
Sitting smack dab on the middle of the covers, was a small box approximately half a foot in diameter and with a pink bow on top that is attached to a tiny card. Now beginning to feel his right eye beginning to twitch a little bit. He approached the box and grabbed onto both sides with his hands and lifted it carefully. When he did this, it revealed a large, blueberry muffin with a single lit candle on top. While still holding onto the lid itself, his eyes slowly turned to the card and saw what was written on it.
The whole thing was written in cursive, so the letters were unbroken. But for some strange reason, the ink that was used, was somehow turning into different shades of color like a rainbow. The words written were the following.
“Welcome to Ponyville! I hope we can become super, best, amazing friends ever!”
“P S. Congratulations on reaching, Chapter Forty.”
“P P S. Don't worry about everything that is said starting from the first, P S Ruining everything. I won't remember anything starting from that point on.”
“P P P S. Your writer is making it way too long for us to finally meet. Do you know how long it's been since I made an appearance?”
Brex felt his right eye beginning to twitch a little more as the next thought ran through his head. “I wonder if it's going to be really all that bad if I was to let Nightmare Moon win? I mean, I could just turn around right now and go and hide with my Changelings deep underground.”
He was about to put the lid down, but saw that the writing had completely changed and had just one line left on the card. Which said, “Please don't hide underground with your cuddle bugs. I'm not scary. I promise!” This got Brex to internally begin to think in a very scared tone. “By the twelve! She's in my head...”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 41: Who Needs a Pen, When I Got This?
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Flower sister's shop* *Time: Five-thirty in the morning*
Brex had just woken up a little earlier than normal after having a night with Rory and his dreams. Thankfully, even after getting her own body, the two of them still shared a connection. The only difference now, was how he couldn't imagine things being done to her anymore. Such as putting a gag in her mouth for whenever she got too flirtatious. But that didn't mean he couldn't do the same thing as usual when they were both asleep and sharing his dreamscape.
But as for tonight, he didn't do anything sexual with her. Seeing as he was in another pony's bed and he didn't want to leave any traces behind that can be found out later. Especially when it came to how good a sense of smell these ponies had. Also, it would have been just plain rude to do something like that.
While trying to be careful, the Roegadyn got out of the bed and opened the door into the hallway and stuck his head out. While at the same time, looking at as mini map to check just where the sisters of the house would be. Once it was discovered that they were still in their rooms and their dots were stationary, he made his way over to the door leading into the bathroom and went in.
Once there, he locked the door and looked at himself in a mirror after removing his mask. Once he was looking at himself in the mirror, he then began to grumble internally and started to think. “I'm so glad I'm a video game character. Otherwise, I think my ears would have suffered some physical damage after last night... Seriously! Who screams right into someone’s face like that? It's scary to think of what that would have been like if she had a voice amplification spell added on. probably would have given Ryu a run for his money.”
He then started to think about the events of last night after returning from exploring the town in person. Just as he was asked to do, Brex had returned a little before seven-thirty at night. Right as he had opened the door and came in, there was a mare who he had not met yet and she was standing on his side of the counter, with her back turned towards him.
It took a few seconds for her to realize that he had entered and when she turned around and saw his large figure only a few feet away, she then suddenly released an ear-piercing scream as she grabbed onto the side of her face and fainted on the spot. Brex could have sworn that at the very end before she had lost consciousness, the mare had muttered, “Oh the horror...”
Brex could do nothing but stand there in disbelief while slightly tilting his head towards the right and blinking slowly as his mind tried to process what just happened. If it wasn't for having already felt an indirect hit from the Wolfman's howl from the past, then he would not have been partially conditioned to be able to resist such a scream this time around.
At the time, the shop had nearly half of its lights turned off with how they were going to close soon. So, it took a little bit of time before Brex was able to get a good look at who this pony was after his eyes readjusted from coming in from outside.
The mare that was currently laying on the ground, with her one arm up and covering her eyes as if she was play acting, but could make out the partly open eyes. She was an Earth pony with a pale-yellow coat, raspberry mane with light raspberry streaks, chartreuse green eyes, and a cutie mark of a rose. From the looks of things, she was wearing a summer dress that was a slightly lighter shade of red compared to her hairstyle. That was even this one spot near the hips where her cutie mark was printed on.
(Here is a pony picture of, Rose.)
After taking in everything, he instantly was able to identify her as the pony called Rose without even having to bring up her status bar. Only a few seconds had passed since the scream and Brex could hear someone coming in from the back while in a rush. Brex just stood there and waited patiently. While keeping a respectful distance from the fainted Rose. It was out of a sense of wanting to not be accused of something.
The one that came in next, was another pony he had yet to come across. But since he knew that this was one belonging to three pony sisters, then it was safe to assume that this one was, Daisy. In a way, she was wearing the same type of dress that Rose was. The only difference being, was that the color was closer to a shade of white and it had a hint of yellow. She was an Earth pony with a pale magenta coat, lime mane, emerald green eyes, and a cutie mark of two daisies.
(Here is a picture of the pony, Daisy.)
Once the new mare had discovered the scene inside of the shop, she quickly ran over to the nearest flower pot and was fully ready to hurl it straight at Brex. Fortunately for him, the third member of the family had rushed in and could quickly tell what was about to happen and pulled the flower pot from her still conscious sister's hands. From there, Lily started to explain how Brex was the one that they were waiting for and was going to stay with them.
Even with it being told to her, Daisy was still giving Brex the stink eye as she was still upset about finding her sister Rose on the ground and was apparently still suspicious of him. This continued on until Rose finally woke up and the situation was explained about how she fainted upon seeing him. Of course, this didn't exactly go as smoothly as Brex had hoped. This was thanks to Rose seeing him and ended up screaming herself back into unconsciousness for the second time.
It seemed that Lily was a little fed up with the whole screaming and fainting routine with how she was pinching the bridge of her muzzle when it happened again and was giving her sister the, are you kidding me look. Now seeing a pattern. Brex just went back up to the room that he was going to be staying in and locked himself inside to wait for everything to be smoothed out.
He didn't really feel much for staying in there all night, so the Roegadyn created another one of his body double’s and had it stay in the room while he used his shadow traveling ability and got himself to appear in the castle of the two sisters that was located in the middle of the Everfree Forest. While there, he spent a couple of hours to survey the ruins so that if it came down to it, he wouldn't be caught by surprise if there was anything new added, or if the structure was more unstable than what was shown on the television show.
Luckily enough, there was only a few monsters inside that were a low level and he quickly dispatched them all. Over the last eleven years, Brex had only come to this castle a handful of times. On each one of those visits, Brex would clear it out and do some slight maintenance on the castle structure. But made sure it wasn't too noticeable that it was being done, so the place still looked like it was a mess.
However, he never once went back up to Princess Luna's room. Instead, he would go pretty much everywhere else. This included the basement that led to the library. Along with the courtyard where he had his run in, with the solar princess. It would seem that the flowers back then weren't completely destroyed during that blast of magic. During his first visit, he found a small patch of them growing and collected some seeds from the flowers and place them into his item box, where they would be safely kept.
Which was quite easy thanks to his high leveled Botanist class. Whenever he did come by the castle. He would always make sure to tend to the flowers and cut away any plants that would hinder their growth. Brex had even gone through the trouble of using his alchemy skills to create an organic pesticide that would deter bugs from eating them.
As for the Roegadyn, He wasn't exactly sure as to why he would go so far as to do this, but figured that it had something to do with his past life. Perhaps he was one of those people that picked Luna to be the best pony or something like that.
Ironically enough, she was portrayed to be the less likely one of the two sisters to go after a displaced. Perhaps deep down, he was hoping that she would be that way as well in this reality. During the time that he was at the castle, he would periodically receive information from his body double that he left at the flower shop.
These would be status reports on what was happening. It seemed that what was going on downstairs had finally been talked about among the three and they had come to the door to apologize to him. The body double reassured them through the closed door that there were no hard feelings and that he was tired from his trip and just wanted to go to sleep. They persisted with saying that they were making dinner and that a plate would be put out for him. But the body double responded with how he had already eaten while out.
Brex was very thankful that these weren't simply illusions or magical constructs that would only have a physical form. Even more that they didn’t require him to remotely control them at all times. In a way, they were a complete copy, right down to his memories and abilities, but to a lesser degree. Right now, he was capable of having up to sixteen of them out at a time. What surprised Brex more, was with how they were becoming much more resilient as the time went on.
In the past, they weren't able to do much and were suited mainly used for stealth operations to gather information, along a small workforce to do the non-combat-oriented tasks. A strong enough hit would cause their bodies to disperse and return into the shadow’s. But now, they're able to take on quite a bit more punishment before that was to happen. If Brex had to make a comparison. Then he would say that a single one of his copies was approximately a tenth of his overall strength. Which would mean that they were set around level seven.
Brex had experimented on a few occasions to see how well it would be to keep a constant connection among them would work out, when it came to doing tasks or gathering information. Unlike the ‘Shadow Clone Technique’ that was used by so many other displaced, the body double did not transfer its new experiences over once it was sent away. Instead, they would condense their memories and send them over to him for short bursts while still active. This was similar to getting a download, from a personal standpoint.
If he had to give it a type of comparison. Then the experience would be no different to a scene, where a boss would be in a room and one of his workers would be setting up a power-point presentation on a white screen for him to see. The relevant information would be there, but it's not the same as the first-hand account for him.
Now, when it came to the constant connection part. That would literally overload his mind if he had too many going at once. This would break the connection altogether eventually. In the end, this was no better than trying to multitask something all by yourself. So, he gave up on that idea and decided to only use that option as a way to gain real time information from just one or two body doubles.
Before Brex left the castle, he went over to the throne room, where the elements of harmony were supposed to be hidden and started to examine the floor that was meant to open up. After using his, Identify and Detect Magic spells. Brex could see within his mind's eye, a multi layered, wire picture display of the internal mechanisms. Along with the magic spells that would be required to activate them.
He then started to think to himself. “What I really don't get is, why didn't Nightmare Moon just come straight here and remove the elements before the new owners would show up? Also, it's really odd how all of their trials that were set up by Nightmare Moon herself, would turn out to be something that would test their needed trait for each one of the elements.”
“Did she do that on purpose. Or was it to test them in order to find out, whether or not they were the real ones, just so that she can get rid of them? Also, there's the possibility of why didn't she just destroy them to begin with instead of waiting until they all got to the castle. Being Nightmare Moon, she would not have been able to utilize their power. So, they would have been worthless to her.”
“Now, if it were me. I would definitely try to get rid of these before they could become an issue.” He then started the tap as chin, while pacing back-and-forth, while still in the throne room. After a few minutes of this, he came to a stop and started to think once again.
“Thinking about it more, it could have something to do with her ego. She had just disposed of Celestia. Made a large declaration of her comeback, in place of her sister's scheduled appearance. Being sealed away would have meant that she would have very little information to go off of. But thanks to her eves-dropping on Twilight when they found a book talking about the Elements of Harmony and where to find them. She rushed off to the castle while leaving some traps behind.”
“But that still brings me back to the question as to why she picked those specific traps to begin with. Something... just doesn't add up. Honestly, if she hadn't done all of that during her rush back to the castle, then Twilight would never have figured it out the correlation of each element to all of the ponies that were present.”
“Also, that brings me back to their time frame. Nightmare Moon would have had plenty of time to get this open and deal with the Elements. Instead, she waited until they found them and teleported them and Twilight away when the rest left her alone to try and figure the mystery of the final Element. She obviously had more than enough power to take all of those ponies in their current States. So why did she want to single out Twilight?”
“Sure, she has a lot of magic. But that doesn't make her stand out too much. Of course, Nightmare Moon could have easily had overheard Twilight mentioning that she was the student of Celestia. That could have been a factor and why she was singled out. Perhaps as a way to torment her older sister by saying how she took out the young student of her sister?”
Brex quickly grabbed on to both sides of his head and began to shake it furiously for a few seconds before letting it go. After letting out a small grunt of annoyance with himself. He started to say out loud. “Ghaw! I'm over thinking things again! I gotta stop doing that!” He was about to leave when he stopped after moving a few paces away to look back towards the trap door.
After humming to himself, he then snapped his fingers and said, “I know what's missing here. In the show, they were already displayed. But they're still hidden right now. What's more is that Nightmare Moon can get at them easily, since she already knows exactly where they are from the last time they were used.” He then went back over to the trap door and then started to use some of his own magic to start the mechanisms that were just underneath the flooring.
Over the course of several seconds. There was the sound of mechanical gears grinding against one another as the floor slowly opened up and the displays that were holding on to the stones, were now brought into full view and locked in place as they spun around until they were encircling the center piece. From what he could tell. A good portion of it was corroded away due to lack of maintenance and there was some vegetation that was gumming up some of the moving parts.
Once he was positive everything was pretty much where it should be. The Roegadyn transported himself back to the flower sisters’ room and dismissed his body double immediately. The rest of the night was pretty much uneventful and he went off to his dreamscape to have some talks with Rory about what was to happen in the coming days.
Now that little memory was finished, Brex was turning on the faucet and splashing some water on to his exposed face in order to help in wakening himself up more. When that was done, Brex opened the door after unlocking it and found himself nearly running into one of the sisters. She was apparently reaching for the doorknob when he had come out and released a startled welp when the two had nearly collided.
It turned out to be Rose and she had what looked to be a towel hanging off of her right forearm and a toothbrush being held in the other. What caught his attention immediately after seeing those, was how the mare was wearing a nearly see through, red nightgown that went just past her knees and was just standing there stunned. Thinking that things are going to escalate just like in all comedies he remembered. Brex immediately spoke, while carefully moving around her to head to the stairs. “I'm, going out.”
After that little run in with the mare that apparently must hate him by now. The Roegadyn went downstairs and exited the shop. While he made sure that the sign was not flipped to open when he quickly exited and stepped out onto the sidewalk. After turning to his right, Brex began to go down the street and towards the center of town while silently cursing his luck as to how he can't go just one single day without something happening.
He then heard Rory beginning to speak to him. “Master, you're not about to make a rash decision over what just happened. Are you? At least she didn't scream this time. I would call that an improvement over last night’s reaction.” Brex released a heavy sigh without replying and continued on the street. Clearly not wanting to get into it with Rory right now.
The sun still had a good five minutes until it came up from what was shown on the clock on the upper right corner of his vision. Rory then spoke up again. But this time in a worried voice. “Master... What's wrong? I can't help you unless you tell me what it is. I can't sense what you're going through unlike before. So, throw me a bone here.”
After a little bit more of walking, Brex found himself passing Sugar Cube Corner and giving it a sideways glance as he did so. A few more minutes passed before he finally broke down and went to sit on a public bench that was located just outside of a shop called, ‘Quills and Sofas.’
Typically, something like that would cause him to go into a rant, but instead, he stayed silent. This went on for a little while before Rory then went on to ask after a period of silence. “Master, it's been a while since I've seen you like this and it's getting me worried. You're doing that deep thinking without me again aren't you?” Again, nothing but silence. Instead of saying anything. The Roegadyn just stared towards the East as the color of the sky began to change to an orange hue as the sun was coming close to rising.
Lately, it would seem that the princess has been making the sunrise and setting, a little more showy than normal. In the past, whenever the process was done, it would be pretty quick. Because of this, Brex had been getting up and sitting wherever he could in recent weeks to watch the event happening. To him it was reminding him of earth to some degree with how normal it seemed.
Just as the rays of the sun began to peek over the mountains and hit the buildings nearby. Brex finally spoke up within his mind and there was a hint of melancholy behind his tone. “I suppose you could say that I am having a sort of... Pre performance jitters.” After letting out a long sigh, he leaned back into his seat and placed both of his hands on to his knees as he threw his head back to look straight up at the sky.
He then went on to continued. “I've been in the shadows for most of my life here. Jumping from one town to the next. Through Fancy Pants, I was able to get everything off the ground, and then some. Not only that. I even got to meet the Changelings and develop a strong bond with them. A lot of the stuff that requires a face to do, is usually done through one of the Changelings that would step in for me and say that they're my assistant.”
“Now that we're literally on the pilot episode, so to speak. I'm just getting some anxiety about being out there. These Ponies are so skittish about everything and always jump to the wrong possible conclusions from what I've seen. We still have a couple of them over at HQ that over react to certain situations. Seriously! A pony works around a Changeling knowingly for a month and is suddenly told in a random conversation that they used to suck out love from their victims and they suddenly go running and jumping inside of a trash can for protection.”
“Seriously, the key phrase, used to, was in the sentence. As in, past tense! Now I'm in one of the most xenophobic towns on the television show, aside from Canterlot. Most of the places I end up going to are way more tolerant due to their diversity. As far as I know, this place is completely made up of ponies and there's only one donkey. I'm gonna stick out like a sore thumb.”
Rory then chimed in and said, “Well Master, you could always use that spell to change your appearance again. But I guess you would have to spend time to recover on your valuable spell slots to re-apply it every hour. If you really think about it, you can only use it so many times before you end up needing the rest and recover your magic again.”
Dungeons and Dragons Spell: Alter Self.
2nd Level, Transmutation.
Range/Area: Self.
Components: Verbal or Gesturing activation.
Duration: Concentration, up to one hour.
You assume a different form. When you cast the spell, choose one of the following options, the effects of which last for the duration of the spell. While the spell lasts, you can end one option as an action to gain the benefits of a different one.
Change Appearance. You transform your appearance. You decide what you look like, including your height, weight, facial features, sound of your voice, hair length, coloration, and distinguishing characteristics, if any. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your statistics change. You also can't appear as a creature of a different size than you, and your basic shape stays the same; if you're bipedal, you can't use this spell to become quadrupedal, for instance. At any time for the duration of the spell, you can use your action to change your appearance in this way again.
Thankfully, through some rigorous self-training, Brex was able to get past the whole size problem when altering his body with this spell. But as a result, whenever he did that type of alteration, it would cut down the spells duration time down to a mere twenty minutes. Moreover, with his current artificer level, Brex only had three spell slots available to use level two spells, before he needed to take a rest to recover them.
Brex then replied with, “Yeah... It's kind of a waste. Especially if I really need to use something on the spur-of-the-moment and I end up finding out that it's all used up just to keep my identity a secret. But still, a guy wearing something to cover up his body would stand out no matter what. More so, if they're over seven and a half feet tall.
“It's just... After seeing the reaction from Rose back in their house. It's a real wake-up call about how odd I am with covering up my face when I'm around civilians. It's completely different when you go into a Guild Hall. At least some of them have helmets and their own kind of masks. So, you don't end up seeming like the odd one out.”
“Now that I'm here in ponyville, I'll need to get used to others treating me differently again. I've been around the Changeling so much that I'm more comfortable with them than anything else from this world. Even hiding my emotions has become as effortless as breathing. I don't even need to think about it anymore and it just happens.”
“Staying over there was my idea of keeping a low profile. I just thought that perhaps, playing the part of a tourist would make things easier on me.” Now, the Roegadyn's shoulders were beginning to sag as he melted a little into a seat before going on.
“It looks like that bit me hard in the ass... Maybe I should just give them the rest of the money that they're owed and just camp out in the forest. It's really my fault. It's not like they can get another border all of a sudden. Oh well, may as well do my rounds and check on how things are going. Twilight is due to show up tomorrow morning and I need to make sure that it's as close to the show as possible. Now, the question is, where should I-.”
His thoughts were broken, when he began to feel a presence entering his detection range. Whoever it was, they were running pretty quickly judging by the speed. He then thought to himself while not moving. “OK, so who is this? Judging by the speed, they're obviously running, so they're on foot. Rainbow Dash would never stay on the ground for more than she needs to, in order to get that task done and would much rather fly than run. So this leaves her out to do one of those classic, without any warning attacks on the displaced character.”
“There's no way it's Applejack, because she's supposed to be at the farm right around this time. As for Rarity, there's no way in Tartarus that she's going to run around this early in the morning. Knowing how vain she can be, she would rather spend a couple of hours putting makeup on and styling her hair. So, I doubt she would even show up until closer to eight. Now if it was Pinkie Pie, she would have been here as soon as I picked her up. As for Fluttershy, I'm pretty sure she would most likely be busy taking care of her animals for the next hour or two before she did anything else. Wow, just listen to myself, I sound like a stalker.”
He then opened his eyes and glanced over to the mini map and saw the dot heading towards him. However, the weird thing about it, was how it was fluctuating between green and yellow, which was new to him. This of course, piqued his curiosity as he raised an eyebrow questionably.
That was when he heard a familiar voice quickly calling out to him through labored breathing. “Thank… Celestia… That I… Found you! I just wanted to tell you… That we're not that sort of mare’s!” This obviously caught Brex unawares as to what exactly Rose was getting at and opted to stay quiet and hear everything out.
After taking several breaths to finally be able to speak properly, she went on. “I swear, I did not know you were in there. I don't want you to think that we just invite stallions over to use a room so that we can pull a stunt like that, so that we can get one to stay with us. We're not that type of mare's. Please, believe what I'm telling you.”
It took a moment before everything clicked and he heard Rory speaking up. “It looks like she's scared that you'll think of them as a set of blackmailers that would cause an incident to happen and force the males to be theirs, or they would most likely spread rumors about how we got to see them naked or in this case, in their nightgowns.”
Honestly, he didn't even think of it that way. Brex was actually believing that they would try to say things about him and try to convince others that Gambit the adventure, was some type of sexual deviant that would go after innocent girls in their house.
Without so much as saying anything, he went into his item box and selected one of the empty pouch icon’s and began to transfer a number of bits into it. This only took a few seconds before he reached into his arm sleeve and pulled it out and placed it on the edge of the bench. When he had done this, he said, “As agreed on.”
What he had just placed down, was the agreed upon amount for staying, plus a few for tips. Even though there was a down payment made for the reservations, Brex didn't want to leave without at least giving them what was agreed upon. He could see that Rose was looking back-and-forth between the pouch and himself with a questioning gaze, that soon evolved to one of panic as she slowly began to shake her head.”
She quickly grabbed it off of the bench and tried to shove it back into his gloved hand, while her eyes darted around to see if there was any that could be seeing this play out. Rose then went on to speak in a hushed whisper. “You can't leave now! You still have another day. Lily and Daisy don't know yet. It'll be like it never happened. Please, don't leave because of me. My sister's will be so angry.”
While still having the pouch in his open hand. Brex then asked, “Why would they?” When he had asked the question, Rose started to look a little more nervous and was now holding on to her right elbow while lightly kicking at the road and turning her eyes to her hoofs. He then heard her swallowing a lump in her throat before she began to quietly speak.
“I... Well to say, we may have told others that we're putting up a stallion at our place. It just sort of slipped out. And you see... If it gets out that we ended up chasing one away, then...” Upon seeing what the girl was getting at, Brex slowly nodded before replying. “Your reputation.”
Rose quickly nodded along before she continued. “If word gets out that you did something like that. Then it can really hurt our chances of getting our own stallion to like us. It was one thing with those mare’s out there that would hunt down the stallions and secret. But ever since that trial that happened in Canterlot a while back, the stallions have been more withdrawn and keeping their guard up.”
Brex then immediately realized what she was talking about and nodded to it, while thinking to himself. “She must be talking about what Ryu and I did. I would have been surprised if that didn't shake up quite a few when word got out about what that mare did. From what I understand, a lot of the stallions have been keeping their guard up way more than ever. I'm pretty sure. Even had to be the reason that there were so many males signing up for the schools.”
When Brex was finished with his internal thoughts, he had released a small sigh and said, “Fine. I'll stay.” When hearing this, Brex was worried for the mare’s health when he heard her neck snapping when she suddenly looked up at him with an astonished look on her face. Afterwards, he got up and was slowly beginning to walk away when he heard Rose calling out.
“What, wait! Just like that? You're not mad? Are you at least suspicious of us? Aren't you afraid that something like this might happen again?” This got Brex to pause mid-step and without turning in her direction, he lifted his right hand that was now empty after putting away the pouch full of gold and was now beginning to expose one finger after another has he responded. “Yes. No. No. No.”
The way that he had replied, clearly stumped Rose for a few seconds before she realized what he was doing and gave him a small smile and response, before she ran up and was now right next to him. She then quickly asked him, “I take it you've never been here before, are you about to go sightseeing?” This earned her a slow shake of the head before he replied with, “Passed through once.”
Rose then asked, “Oh, and just how long ago was that? I'm pretty sure I would have spotted you. Seeing as you're so tall. Especially when it comes to that mask you're wearing.” Brex replied with, “Remember Sonic Boom?” This made the mare scrunch up her muzzle for a brief instant while she was clearly thinking hard on what he had just said.
She then quickly responded as soon as she appeared to have come up with an idea. “Ah... You're talking about that Sonic Rainboom that happened around ten or eleven years ago. You must have been a colt back then. I was in school when that happened. No doubt that's the reason as to why I didn't see you back then. So, how about I make up for what happened earlier and act as your tour guide for a while?”
This got Rory to speak up with a suspicious tone in her voice. “She may sound innocent, but I get the feeling she's trying to put a move on you Master. But still, it would help with your cover story. This way, it won't seem suspicious that you're wandering around on your own. Having a mare at your side would deter quite a few of the others from trying to make a move as well. Just make sure you're careful about making any unnecessary judgment calls and actions around her. Otherwise, she may take it the wrong way.”
Apparently seeing the logic in having Rose showing him around. The Roegadyn nodded and gestured with his right hand to lead the way as he said, “In your care.” This got the mare to close her eyes while giving him the biggest smile he had seen on her yet, while almost visibly vibrating on this spot.
From there, she began to lead him around town and pointing out various buildings. At the same time, also throwing in a few, gossip worthy tidbits here and there. After nearly an hour of slowly strolling around, they had been able to cover at least a good half of the town by that point and Rose was beginning to look a little tired and glancing at him and appearing to be rather confused.
The pair had just stopped right in front of a cafe that Brex was positive he saw on the show a few times. No, he was definitely positive, seeing as there was that one table in particular, that Twilight sat at during the episode called, The Ticket Master. Where Rainbow Dash was trying to earn a favor with keeping the rain off of her alone. He was brought out of his distracting thoughts, when he heard Rose speaking in an exhausted tone.
“Are you... In any way, related... To Applejack? Because, I find it really hard to believe you're not... The least bit tired after all of this walking.” This earned her a shake of the head as he replied with, “No blood relatives.”
He then motioned towards the cafe and asked, “Take a break?” It would seem that Rose was somewhat in thought and had to shake her head before she quickly nodded to his question and the pair then began to go into the fenced in area and sat at a free table outside.
What surprised Brex next, was how the same snobbish waiter that was on the show, was the one that came up to their table and gave them their menus before leaving. He was positive with how the gender thing was going on in this world, that the waiter was going to be replaced with a mare.
After he had recovered from this little shock, the Roegadyn glanced over the given menu to see what they had to offer. Just as he had figured. It was mainly focused on the diet of a pony. There wasn't even anything on it that would be remotely consider to be tailored to any other species.
He then thought to himself, rather annoyed. “These are just some elitist ponies. There's nothing on here that would make another member of a visiting race to feel welcome. I can understand if they don't add any type of meat to the menu, but still... They are ill-prepared for any that can’t eat flowers and hay. So glad that I didn’t bring Rory with me. Otherwise, she would starve.”
His rant was cut off from continuing any further, when the waiter came back and was now holding onto a notepad and quill. At the same time, eyeing them both suspiciously in the same way one would do when they wanted to say that you are not important enough to eat here.
Appearing to be unaffected or perhaps she didn’t notice, Rose ordered a daffodil sandwich and a cup of tea. As for Brex, he ordered a small spinach and cheese omelet, along with a glass of water. After the waiter had left, the atmosphere began to feel a little awkward with how silent it was between the two of them.
Thankfully, the silence was broken by another voice calling out to Rose from over by the street. Brex was able to register the voice immediately and had to stop himself from having any type of visible reaction when it turned out to be Rarity. “Yoohoo! Rose! Just the pony I wanted to see! I just wanted to ask you something in regards to the delivery of flowers that I'm going to use inside of the celebration hall.”
After that point, she began to ask Rose a number of questions. But Brex was internally screaming in his head, while this was all going on. “Oh shit! Why did it have to be Rarity out of all of the main six? She is literally the only one of the whole bunch that's ever seen me in person. Not to mention, she is the biggest town gossip that’s ever lived.”
“OK, Twilight has seen me too, but I was using the Caretaker persona back then. The only difference between then and now, when it came to this pony, is that my robes are a different color. Please, oh please! Let her have forgotten about me!”
“Oh, she must have forgotten about me by now, it's been over a decade and she was just a little kid at the time. I should be safe, so long as she doesn’t notice me.” As the two were talking, the food had finally arrived and that gave Rose the opportunity to break off their little chat.
When the waiter was approaching, his hoof tripped over a small rock in his path and began to stumble forward and into their group. Unfortunately, in his possession, was a full tray of food and beverages and they were on a direct course for Rarity, with how the stallion had inadvertently thrown his arms in front of himself for protection.
The sudden commotion had caught the attention of all those nearby, including the fashionista. Who instantly turned on the spot and had a look of outright horror growing on her face. Rose was currently bringing her hands up to her mouth as she made a big, “O” shape with her lips, as her eyes got comically wide.
As the stallion's arms were fully outstretched and the tray was beginning to tilt forward. The contents were now shifting. Brex concentrated and began to internally chant a spell at a speed, that verbally doing so, wouldn’t have been possible.
“By my name, decipher the laws of nature. Wind!” When that was finished, a strong gust of wind was now starting to accumulate out of nowhere and shot straight up from right between the stallion and Rarity.
The apron that the stallion was wearing, was thrown up and into his face as his entire form was literally caught and pushed upright thanks to the force, until he was back onto his hoofs, along with the tray of food. Once everything had died down, the stallion's mane was a complete mess and had been swirled into a style that was reminiscent to a, soft served, ice cream cone.
Rarity quickly started to pat herself all over, while checking her hair after summoning a small hand mirror with her magic. Once she discovered that she was just fine and her mane was not messed with, in the same way as the waiter, she had released a relieved chuckle and immediately excused herself right after that, to continue with the preparations.
Brex sighed within his mind out of relief that the whole incident had distracted Rarity enough to not pay him much mind. He then thought to himself. “Just what I would expect from a prim and proper, snobby girl like rarity. The instant her appearance is put in a jeopardy, she drops all common knowledge when it comes to regular interactions. Didn’t so much as acknowledge my existence. I bet she's gonna be running straight back to her home and rush in front a bunch of mirrors to check every inch of her body.”
His thoughts were brought back to the moment, when he heard Rose beginning to munch on her sandwich and asking between bites. “You better start eating your food now before it gets cold. Although, it might be already with that freak windstorm that came out of nowhere. You know something like that happened yesterday too? I heard from the grapevine, that Rainbow Dash was about to have a really bad crash when one of those windstorms caught her just before hitting the ground.”
“She was even asking all of the Unicorns for the one that was controlling it. But the word is, that none of them did anything and it was just a lucky accident.” Brex responded to that with nodding his head and saying, “Very fortunate, indeed.” He then proceeded to eat the omelet and got a good glimpse at the slightly, alarmed expression as Rose tried to inform him that he was still wearing his mask when the piece of egg was sucked through the wood at the very moment it made contact with it.
While still having her mouth partly hanging open and her right hands index finger, still pointing straight at his face. She began to speak with a bewildered tone. “Just... How do you? But that's not? Why not just take-?” Brex lifted up his free, left-hand and raised up two fingers, one after the other, as he answered. “Magic. Personal reasons.”
Rose nodded to this and went back to eating her sandwich, while still watching the spectacle in front of her. When it got to the point where Brex was now drinking all of the water in one go from the glass. He heard her saying, “I don't think I've seen anything like that. Do you ever take that mask off for anything?”
Instead of replying, Brex slowly brought down the now empty glass and got out of his chair before placing a set of bits on the table for payment. When Rose saw this, she instantly got up and began to go into her pouch, that she had hanging on her hips as she hurriedly spoke to him. “Oh, you don't need to do that! I got it covered.”
He quickly shook his own head towards that and the mare gave him a look, that just said that she didn't believe what she was seeing and raising one of her eyebrows in response. She then went on to say, “But, but a stallion never pays for a meal when he’s out with a mare.” When hearing this, the Roegadyn Ask, “Why is that?”
Rose was apparently stumped when asked that question, with how she was scrunching her face while seeming to be in deep thought. She was about to say something, when she was interrupted by the sound of another pony at a nearby table and they were complaining quite loudly. There was even another voice that followed immediately after as the two were conversing back and forth.
The first one was very angry and had this way of speaking that just screamed, that they were from the upper echelon of Canterlot’s, hi society. While the other, belonged to a mare that had something similar to what one would hear from a proper lady, but was slightly panicked by the sound of things.
“You call this a proper breakfast?! Was I not perfectly clear when I instructed you on what I wanted and how it was to be served to me?! I cannot even fathom how a mare such as yourself, can even be employed in such an establishment, when simple instructions are well beyond your understanding.”
“I'm dreadfully sorry ma'am. Please allow me to bring it back to the kitchen and we can correct the issue. Again, please accept my apology I will have a talk with the cook. I’m sure that there was a simple mistake and this can be taken care of quickly.”
“I doubt very much, that the cook is the one at fault here. It was your responsibility to take down the orders and convey them to the chef. Furthermore, you should have taken a time to correct any errors before it was even brought over to my table! From what I see, this is entirely your fault! I shall have a few stern words with the manager of this establishment and see that a, mud-pony, such as yourself is released from employment Immediately!”
“P-Please ma'am, there's no need to do such a-.” This was when there was a sudden crash of plates on the ground. Along with a small shriek from the one that was just speaking. This had the effect of drawing the attention of Brex and he turned around immediately. What he ended up seeing, caused his blood to approach the boiling point as his eyes narrow dangerously sharp at the scene in front of him.
Right there, between the tables. Was a mare on the ground and currently covering her face out of fear. While at the same time, her right leg was fully extended and there was a trickle of blood coming from a wound near her hoof. Nearby, was a broken plate with some food scattered about and it was apparent that one of the pieces, had some red markings along the edges after cutting her leg.
Right in front of her, still sitting in her chair and not even bothering to look upset in the least in regards to the injured mare. Was a rather plump Pony, wearing some expensive looking clothing and a thick set of pearl necklaces going around her neck. There was even this dirty little sneer creeping on to her lips as she watched as the mare on the ground was slowly beginning to release silent whimpers.
Brex rushed over and placed himself between the pair to kneel down and began to examine the wound. From what he could tell from a glance, it went quite deep as it ripped open the stockings and the blood was not showing any signs of slowing down. There was a pretty high chance that some tenants may have been severed and the poor mare would not be able to stand on that leg if action was not taken.
The entitled mare behind him began the spout nonsense that he was paying no attention too as he pulled out a set a vial’s from out from his sleeve. From there, he uncorked them both and poured the first one over the wound, which was a cure disease potion as a precaution. Then the high heal potion was administered, as it was poured directly over the wound and one could tell that it was working quite fast with how the flesh was mending within seconds.
Ignoring the snobby mare that just wouldn't stop talking, was apparently something that she didn't take kindly too. Because something soon shattered against the back of his head and some liquid was beginning to drip off the edge of his hood. But Brex paid it no mind and was fully focused on the mare’s injuries and making sure that everything was healing well.
However, something else began to strike his back, it was similar to the last one, but felt just a little bigger. Still, the Roegadyn paid no attention to it and asked in a monotoned tone. “Feel any pain?” Which got him a quiet response between sniffles. “N-No, I feel no pain. T-Thank you very much.”
This was when he finally heard the mare screaming at the top of her lungs. “I WILL NOT BE IGNORED, BY SOME DIRTY PEASENT!!” At the end of that sentence, he could feel that his robes were being grabbed at the center of his back. Finally having enough of this nonsense, Brex began to stand at an agonizingly slow rate.
*Point of view: Rose* *Time: A moment earlier*
Rose was simply in shock after following the one that she was giving a tour of the town and saw the large gash going through the mare's leg. The overly dressed one, who had started this whole thing, was still yelling and directing all of her comments towards Gambit. Who was currently ignoring all of the verbal abuse.
Rose had to contain a shriek when she saw the high-class mare throwing a glass against the back of Gambit's head and splattering its contents all over his clothing. This was almost immediately followed with another plate of food, which broke on contact and was completely smeared on the lower part of his back now.
After a few more seconds, she watched as he got to his feet after the mare had grabbed on to his robes and had begun to yank furiously. Only to be left with no other option than to let go after she was no longer able to hold on without being dragged off her hoofs with how tall he was after standing.
Rose could tell that she was immediately going to fire off another set of complaints, but stopped when she realized just how much taller Gambit was compared to her. This caused the mare to shrink and back up a few paces. By this time, a set of two bodyguards wearing some flashy gear had showed up and were now standing at either side of her and were now giving Gambit their death glares, while hovering their hands over their swords that were still in their sheaths.
The cocky mare then started to speak far too loud for what was meant to be a private conversation. “You broke my nail. Some pony! Any pony! Call the town guards, I'm being assaulted!” Rose was completely appalled and had brought her hand up to her mouth out of pure shock as to what this mare was going on about. She saw the whole thing and it was completely the snobbish one's fault and Gambit hadn't done even a single thing.
But before she could call everything out on what was wrong, the pair of bodyguards that accompanied the mare had pulled out their swords while standing in front of Gambit. She then heard the two speaking to one another, as a set of identical, malicious smiles formed on their lips. “Did you hear that?” “He hurt our boss.” “Oh, I do believe I heard it as well.” “It would seem that it has come down to self-defense and we are fully obligated to protect our employer.”
As soon as Rose fully processed what was being said, her eyes shot wide open. But before she can say or do anything at all. The bodyguards leaped into action and swung their swords in a wide arc directly towards Gambit. All Rose could see, was the flash of their metal as they came across. But instead of the sickening sound of flesh being torn open, along with blood spilling forth. The air ring with a set of metallic clanks, as the pair of bodyguards were now falling back onto their tails while looking straight ahead dumbfoundedly.
Not understanding what was happening. Rose glanced back over to Gambit and saw that he had an object in his left hand and immediately assumed it to be a dagger that he had hidden in his sleeve, with the way it was glinting with the sunlight reflecting off its surface. After a moment, Rose got a better look at it and her mind froze when it registered to her, that he had defended himself with a large serving spoon that came off of one of the plates that had been thrown against him earlier.
Rose was brought back to reality, when he heard Gambit saying, “Form... Power... Awful.” When the bodyguards heard this, they got back to their hoofs and began to attack repeatedly once they got to either side of Gambit. Not once did he even shift his stance while defending against their assault. Once one blade was countered and the next was coming at his other side. Gambit would effortlessly toss the spoon over to his other hand and perry the blade. He would then repeat this process whenever he needed it on either side of his body.
The bodyguards were apparently putting their entire body weight into each of their slashes but were easily blocked and thrown back hard enough, that they nearly stumbled a number of times. By the time they were both looking really worn out and were having some trouble with even lifting their blades. There was a set of shouts coming from the crowd that was beginning to form. Soon out came a group of town guards that rushed in and pulled their blades out of their sheaths.
One of the female town guards quickly shouted, “OK! That's enough, break it up! Lower your weapons you two! And as for you... Uh... Put away your... Huh?... Spoon?!” It would seem that one of the bodyguards was pretty full of themselves and she called out, while still pointing the blade at Gambit. “This one showed up out of nowhere and tried to kill our employer. We're only doing our jobs, so stay out of this!”
The guard then called out to them again, but in a far louder voice. “The both of you are the only ones that have a weapon out. Besides, what do you think the stallion over there is gonna do with the spoon? Spill your tea by stirring the sugar and milk into it too hard?!” But it would seem that they were not heeding the town guard’s words and preparing their swords for another go.
The guards that were surrounding them, readied their blades to intervene, but the pair of swords that were being wielded by the bodyguards suddenly snapped and the tips of their blades sank into the ground in front of them. To say that every pair of eyes that was not hidden behind a mask, were now bugging out. As they could plainly see that the swords had not a single scratch long the blades. Aside from the section that was horribly bent and disfigured where it broke off. Which was only a few inches away from the handguard of the weapons.
That was when Gambit began to speak in a nonchalant tone. While flipping the spoon around a few times to get a better look at it. “Good quality utensils.” It was the annoying mare from before that quickly screamed out while pointing at Gambit. “Arrest this ruffian! Can you not see that he has a deadly weapon and is out to kill me! No doubt hired by one of my competitors. I demand that you lock him up and throw away the keys for all of the hateful remarks that were spewed from his lips at me and threatening my life!”
Rose can see how the mare’s lips were curling into a deep, devious grin as all the lies were spewing out from her. All the while, the bodyguards were glancing at the spoon and the mask on Gambit's face repeatedly a number of times before bringing them back down to the remains of their swords as the color on their faces drained.
The town guard that has been speaking throughout the altercation, called out to Gambit while pointing her sword at him. “Sir! I don't know who you are, but you clearly are a threat! I order you by the name of Princess Celestia, to lower your weapon and submit!” As soon as Rose heard those demands. There was a sudden cold breeze that filled the air that made her begin to shiver and wished that she had a coat.
However, it was quickly evident that she was not the only one that was getting this feeling, as all those present, began to show signs of being cold as well. Gambit merely responded with just two words, that ended up causing the egotistical mare to go pale, just at the sound of them. “Scarlet… Prize.”
Rose looked around and saw that the four guards were now visibly nervous as they look to one another. Soon, they all slowly began to lower their pointed weapons and away from Gambit. Now using a lower volume compared to before, the lead guard then said, “What we have here is a case of assault and defense. Seeing as we don't know the details, then we'll have no choice but to bring you in for questioning.” This was clearly being pointed at Gambit, before the guard went on. As for you, I'm going to have to ask that you stay in your hotel until this is all sorted out.”
Rose was now visibly angry, as she bawled her fists at seeing the unjust treatment. Just because one of them turned out to be some noble snob. Gambit was going to be taken in, while she gets to rest comfortably in some hotel. All because of the lies she said.
Right as she had taken a single step forward to voice her opinion. Another one came out of the crowd that she had recognized due to the southern accent. “I saw the whole thin! Not a word of what she's been saying, is a lick of the truth. She injured that poor mare down there on the ground. This fella just showed up and began to treat her wounds.”
“Then this one here, starts to throw all of her food and plates onto his back for not paying attention to anyth'in she was sayin to him!! She was holding on to his clothing when he was getting up and then started to scream that she broke a nail. Then use the excuse to say that he was attacking her and sicked her goons on him. If any deserve to go to jail, it's that lying snake in the grass and those two with her!”
This was quickly Followed with a chorus of whispers among the crowd, that was now lining the walkways outside of the cafe. There was then the following being said among them. “Applejack is right! She was the one who started the whole thing. Yeah, she even threw all those dishes when she was being ignored when he was tending to the dear. They’re the ones who drew their weapons and attacked. That's right! They went and claimed self-defense and pulled out their weapons for an excuse, I heard everything!”
This just kept on going on and on, with each Pony beginning to gain more courage after the next and calling out what they seen. As this went on, the stuck-up mare was getting angrier by the moment and was now clutching at her pearl necklace and grinding her teeth. Which were visibly showing. She seemed to have enough of it and took a single step forward, while jabbing one of her fingers into the breastplate of the guard that was in charge and started screaming in her face.
“Don't tell me that you're honestly going to believe these worthless peasants over an important Pony such as myself, over the common rabble. Are you?!” The guard then said to the mare. “It would seem that there are quite a number of witnesses that seem to be contradicting everything that you gave in your statement. Unlike those in Canterlot, we follow the rules here in Ponyville. Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you and your bodyguards to come along with us for further questioning.”
The posh mare, literally exploded while still trying to push into the guard. “If you don't do as I tell you, I'll make sure that you lose your post. I have the princess's ear and I can assure you, that you will pay for this indignity!” This only earned the mare a raised eyebrow from the guard, as she calmly replied.
“Ah yes. And as for one of her laws, she will be getting a written testimony from both myself, as well as the multiple witnesses here. Along with your self conduct, during this whole investigation. Now, I wonder just how well the princess would take it, once she finds out that a noble has been throwing their title around and assaulting the... Hmm, I believe you called them peasants and the rabble, if I’m not mistaken. Not to mention, that you are physically assaulting an official town guard… As we speak.”
The mare’s eyes began to twitch erratically, as she pulled her hand back and was now looking around at the group of ponies that were slowly growing in size. Rose could see how she was now visibly sweating with all the angry stairs that were directed straight at her and had finally relented and was escorted along with her two bodyguards, towards the local barracks. One of the town guards was currently assisting the mayor that had been injured and was now asking her questions as to what had transpired.
But not before receiving an apology from the lead guard about not being able to interfere sooner, before the incident had escalated and thanked him for stepping in once it was discovered that the mare on the ground was given first aid. During all the commotion, while the guards were leaving and dispersal of bystanders. Rose was sure that she could hear Applejack calling out to them. But felt her right hand being grabbed onto by Gambit and was quickly led away through the crowd.
Once they had gotten onto the street again, they began to walk for a few minutes at a high pace before Gambit finally slowed down and release their hand. By then, Rose was pretty much out of breath with how fast they were going. When she got her arm back, she turned to Gambit and asked quickly. “Do you care to tell me what that was all about? Just how were you able to do all of that? And with a spoon?! Also, the one who spoke out in your defense was trying to call out to us and we ended up running off.”
Once Rose was done asking all those questions. She could see how the stallion was slightly lowering their head and giving out a heavy sigh. After a few more seconds, she then heard him replying in a somewhat tired tone. “Too much attention.” Rose just stood there, while with a confused expression as she attempted to process what he had meant by that. She then heard off in the distance, some mare's talking as they were walking as a group, right around the corner.
“I'm telling you, that was a stallion. I just know it! He was so big and he was able to take out those bodyguards all by himself. And with a spoon no less! I bet you that he’s an adventurer! He has to be!”
“Oh no doubt about it. I know that he was wearing some loose fit clothing, but you have to admit that he must have some strong upper body strength for arms as thick as those! I could just imagine what it would be like to have them wrapped around me.”
“But could you believe that he ran off with Rose when everything was calming down? You all don't think that he’s the stallion that they were having over and using one of their rooms, do you? Just how in Tartarus, did she get her mitts on a stallion like that?”
“I haven't seen that stallion around, that’s for sure. He must be here for the celebration. Where do you think he came from? None of the males around here can do anything like that. I’ll bet you ten bits, that he’s from outside of the country.”
“Who cares where he came from. What I'm most interested in, is getting him to stay. How about we all keep an eye out for him and find out what we can and come up with a plan? You just know that rose and her sisters are going to try and do something and we need to beat them to the punch!”
The conversation between all of the mare in that group continued on as their voices faded after turning and heading down a different path than she and Gambit were on. All the while, she was keeping an eye on him and noticing how he was beginning to shift his body while pressing up against one of the buildings. This was obviously an attempt to seem less noticeable until the mare's had all passed by.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex was exceedingly uncomfortable, with how much focus was being placed on him now. At least he knew back when he was with the hive, they were respectful enough not to gossip about him or to make a move. Or at least he thought, since he had not heard any within earshot. But out in the world again by himself, was getting to the Roegadyn.
That was when he began to think to himself again, while in a flat, inner voice. “I knew to expect something along these lines, when it came to their conceptions towards the males. But I just don't see why they treat us like candy. They're seriously trying to come up with a plan to take me as their own already, and I only just showed up. By the seven hells, they know nothing about me.”
“Am I really gonna be able to stay in Ponyville if things are gonna be like this? Maybe I should go with what Rory told me and just get this done and go back. All these mare’s ever care about, is getting a stallion for themselves. Males are nothing but a trophy to these girls now. Maybe I should just show my face. Then maybe, just maybe, they would get repulsed and just leave me alone. This is Ponyville after all. Anything different immediately gets shunned, if not run out of town with pitchforks and a sneak attack from Rainbow Dash.”
Before his internal monologue could go any further. He heard Rose coming up next to him and was now leaning up against the wall also, before she started to talk. “I take it you don't do very well with having the mare’s talk about you behind your back. You know, other stallions would be eating this all up and be basking in all of the attention. They would even go so far as to use this as a good opportunity to add more to their herd.”
There was a short pause, before she continued after getting off of the wall and standing in front of him. “One of them mentioned something about the Guild. Is it true that you're an adventurer? None of the stallions here in Poneyville are a member. But I have heard gossip about them joining more often, in recent years in other towns. Did you happen to go to one of those schools that opened up a little over seven or eight years ago?”
“I didn't go myself, but I know of a number of other girls who have. So, just which school were you a student of?” As the mare was going on, Brex couldn't help but to have a few thoughts in his head. “Maybe having her be my guide was not such a good idea after all. She's beginning to ask me too many questions. I could have already scoped out this entire town and including Sweet Apple Acres, if I was on my own. But I suppose, I would not have been there to treat that girl's wounds, if I had been on my own.”
“We should really just finish with the tour and I can go off on my own afterwards.” That was when he finally responded to Rose. “I prefer privacy.” After saying those words, Brex pushed himself off of the wall and started taking a few steps, while calling over his right shoulder towards her. “Still more, correct?” This got a strained reply from Rose as she slowly, yet reluctantly nodded and caught right Back up to him.
Soon after, Rose was back to showing them around Ponyville once again. When the town itself was finished, they both headed in the direction of the local apple farm. However, along the way, Brex noticed something off in the distance, that there was a structure being built near to the Everfree forest, on the Southwest end of town. It was a fair distance away from the town itself and very big.
Whatever it could have been, was safely hidden away under some frameworks that were erected around it and covered with a white tarp. There was even a thick brick wall surrounding it that was just tall enough, that Brex couldn't even look over to see what the landscape was like. This was thanks to the whole structure being on a slightly elevated section of land.
Brex remembered seeing the structure starting to be put together several months ago, but didn't think too much on it. Rose however, saw how he was turning his head in its general direction and quickly started to explain. “I don't really know what to tell you about that. There hasn't been any real gossip about who owns that place. They started building there close to half a year ago. But if you ask me, I think it has something to do with those new schools or maybe they're doing something to raise the defense when it comes to the monsters inside of the Everfree forest. How much do you want to bet it's a new barracks to hold a contingency of guards?”
Brex really wasn't all too sure about what to think about it. But he did ask Rory once to look into it for him and she replied a short time later that it wasn't anything to be concerned about. Just something that the town really needed. So, after hearing what Rose thought about it, he began to wonder that it might just be what she suspected it to become. Perhaps the Princess was cracking down on the defense of the towns and left it at that.
The rest of the stroll, down the beaten path towards the apple farm went quite smoothly as the pair simply watched the scenery. The peace and quiet, along with Rose no longer asking any more questions was beginning to relax the Roegadyn as time went on. Although, he still felt her eyes drifting towards him once in a while, but that wasn't much of a problem.
As soon as they went over a small hill and had arrived at the very top. Both Brex and Rose were able to see the entirety of the Sweet Apple Acres farm. To say that it was quite a large field just couldn't do it Justice. No matter how many times he ended up coming over for a quick visit or had one of his body doubles send him a mental report. He just couldn't get over how amazed he was that Applejack and Big Mac, were able to handle working with so much on the show.
He could hear how Rose was telling him a little bit about the place, but everything was what he had already known. But without seeming rude, he stood there silently while taking it in. What she said at one point, did catch his interest. “You've probably already tried their apples before. But have you been able to get any of those, Mirror Apples? I don't know too much about them. Several years back, they just started selling these strange apples during the winter one year.”
“Which I found to be quite strange, that they would have any fresh apples to sell around that time of the season. I asked Applejack about it one time. She told me it was a kind of Apple that only grew and bared fruit during the winter cold season. And I have to tell you, that they are so good. I don't know how It was possible, but they lived up to their name with how their skin would be able to reflect so easily whenever you held it close to your face. You wouldn't believe how many Ponies from Canterlot came down once word got out about them.”
Brex had to hold in his amusement when he began to recall how much both Rin and Lin, adored those apples. Thanks to the item box keeping everything fresh and the periodic visits to pick up a few bushels of them. He was hard pressed to go a single day without one of them asking if they could have another. Brex had even commissioned some of the scientists to put together an underground greenhouse with a refrigeration system, just to be able to grow them in a large enough quantity for those over at the institute to have.
After thinking about that. Brex finally replied to Rose. “They're quite delicious.” Rose quickly replied to that by asking, “Oh? You mentioned that you haven't been here for a while. So just how did you get your hands on some?” To which he simply said, “A close acquaintance.” This caused Rose to hum to herself, while looking at him quite suspiciously before she returned back to her normal attitude, as she was speaking again.
“Suppose I would have seen you during those times, when they went on sale. if you were the one to get them. Even with it snowing, the lines went around the corner whenever Applejack opens up her stall and announced that she was selling the Mirror Apples. You should have seen a resident rainbow Pegasus after getting a swig of the stuff when it was made into some hard cider. Haha-Haha! Apple Jack had to literally hog-tie her from trying to take the rest. I swear, that mare will do just about anything, for just a taste of that stuff.”
Brex couldn't help but to ask rose, “She's an alcoholic?” This got a somewhat strained smile from Rose as she brought her hand up while, tilting it from side to side, before reluctantly answering. “Well... I wouldn't say she's an alcoholic, per say. It's just, she likes to drink sometimes. And of course, when she does, she has a hard time controlling herself.” Rose then began to chuckle, while covering her mouth as she found herself using one of her hands to study herbody on a knee as she went on to continue.
“Don't tell any pony that I said this. But one time, Rainbow Dash got so tipsy from drinking at a party that Pinkie Pie through. She was so out of it that she kept saying she was fine flying home on her own. We would have protested if she had managed to get out of the building that is. Poor thing was flying into a close window repeatedly. What made it hilarious, was how she didn't even remember flying into it, just a few seconds earlier and just kept doing it until she finally passed out.”
Brex thought to himself, “This was during one of Pinky pie's parties? No wonder I didn't see it. Made sure to keep my body doubles away from her as much as possible, so they didn't go into any of her parties. Kind of wish I was able to see it that time though. But still... To get that wasted can't be good for the mare. This must have been going on for a few years now since the ponies develop a lot quicker than a human does. This has a result of them lowering the drinking age down to sixteen.”
Brex could hear Rose speaking again. “There's something I've been meaning to ask you.” This caught his attention and he replied with motioning his hand towards her to continue. While seemingly nervous, she then asked, “Why did you come to Ponyville by yourself? I mean, it’s just that I can clearly smell that you've been with a female. So, I was just wondering why did you not bring her along with you?”
The question had clearly caused Brex to go blank in his mind, with how sudden this particular subject came up out of nowhere. He then began to think, “Oh crap! I completely forgot about their strong sense of smell. She must be picking up on Rory. And here I was positive that I managed to get that all off of me. I even used that one spell to clean everything really well before coming here.”
The spell that Brex was referring too. Was called, Prestidigitation. It had a number of effects, but not really meant for combat. It was more for everyday utility. In this case, it had the desired effect of being used to clean oneself of any dirt or grime. Without the need for water or any kind of cleaning agent when it came to both objects or one’s self. In a way, it was the magic version of a wet-wipe, except it really gets it all off.
Another added bonus was how this was considered a, Cantrip. Which meant that it could be used repeatedly without consuming any spell slots. It would take a little bit of time with how it would only work in patched areas. But eventually, one could clean their own whole body with it.
Dungeons and Dragons spell: Prestidigitation. This spell is a minor magical trick that novice spellcasters use for practice. You create one of the following six magical effects within range:
First Effect. You create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor.
Second Effect. You instantaneously light or snuff out a candle, a torch, or a small campfire.
Third Effect. You instantaneously clean or soil an object no larger than one cubic foot.
Forth Effect. You chill, warm, or flavor up to one cubic foot of nonliving material for one hour.
Fifth Effect. You make a color, a small mark, or a symbol appear on an object or a surface for one hour.
Sixth Effect. You create a nonmagical trinket or an illusory image that can fit in your hand and that lasts until the end of your next turn.
He then continued with his thoughts. “OK, just run a quick checklist. Pants... Check. Robes... Check. Underwear... Double check. Boots and gloves?... Check. What's left? Oh Rory, you didn't?” That was when he heard the girl giggling in his head before she spoke. “I honestly didn't think you would notice, Master. I mean, you're so used to being around me that I guess you went nose-blind to it.”
Brex immediately shot back to her by yelling within his head. “Why the seven hells? Rory, what the fuck did you do to my mask! That's literally the only thing I did not use that spell on! I know for a fact, that I removed it the last time we were in bed together. How and when, did you get around to getting your cent on that?”
Rory then replied to that while using her usual mischievous tone. Master? Did you really think I was going to let you go to a town, full of females and not make sure that I laid claim to you? The night before you left, we were snuggling in bed. I grabbed your mask and placed it between my legs to rub on my-.”
The Roegadyn then snapped back at her by yelling while trying to not alert Rose, who was just a few feet away. “Rory! I know your kinky and all. But to use my mask to masturbate with when I’m asleep right next to you, shows that you need to control yourself!” This got her to giggle some more before replying with, “Oh Master. Teehee~. I suppose I needed to be tied up again. It’s been a while sense our last session. If I don’t get trained now and again, then I’m bound to slip up. Rory’s been a very bad girl and needs to be… Punished~.”
He then quickly straightened up himself while taking some deep breaths before speaking to Rose in his usual tone. “It's personal.” This only got Rose the pout at him and cross her arms before she spoke up again. “Why do I get the feeling that is going to be your answer for a lot of questions?” To which, got Brex to say, “Because you're smart.” Then, he immediately started to walk quickly back to town and left Rose just standing there with a bewildered look on her face as she tried to form some words, before finally noticing that he had left her behind and started to give chase.
*Point of view: Rarity* *Location: Carousel boutique* *Time: Nine at night*
After a long day of working on both preparations and getting a few more outfits done for her, already expecting clients. The fashion designer had just put away her sewing supplies to be ready for use on the following day and had entered her room, once she had finished taking a bath and getting herself, all cleaned up.
As soon as she had gone to her bed and sat on the edge. Her eyes shifted over towards her pillow and caught sight of the plushy that was laid there earlier that day. Right now, Rarity was wearing a silk nightgown that was pure white, with a purple trim and was hanging off of her shoulders with these thin straps. As the back was completely exposed until it got near her tail.
While holding on to the item in both hands. Her eyes began to soften as she tried to recall her past around the time that she had made it. She was able to recall, bits and pieces in regards to being taken away from her parents, right in the middle of their trip to visit a sick family member. How she woke up in a daze inside of a cage, while some fight had just taken place.
There was a vague imprint of a tall figure wearing a faded, yellow set of robes and a mask. Along with using a bow and arrow, to fight off some vicious creature. But the one thing that she could not allow herself to forget. Had to do with how the stallion had fought when It came to the use of his weapon.
In the beginning, it was awe inspiring with how precise each shot was to take out all of those icicles in mid-flight. Then, there was that mysterious technique that allowed just one single arrow, to split up into many. Now if that that wasn't enough, then it had to do with the arrows that split off, being controlled while in the air and had created a type of, barrier of arrows to stop the oncoming flurry of attacks, being launched at not only herself, but the other ponies around her.
It was all because of what she saw that day, that she had been able to devote her abilities into refining them in such a degree, that she could do so much more than a normal Unicorn can possibly even imagine, with the level of control she had with her levitation. For the average Unicorn when using a levitation spell, would only be capable of moving up to four items at a time and that was if they were talented in doing so. Otherwise, it would only be two or three at most.
Rarity was now caressing the edge of the fabric, with the fingertips on her right hand, when she had an odd thought. “Perhaps, you would look better in, white and blue? Hmmm-Hmm. Yes, yes. I can see it now. Change the yellow to white. Then the brown can be blue. Maybe throw in some gray or a hint of silver here and there. Perhaps I could... Hold on-.”
That was when she began to scrunch her muzzle, while staring straight at the toy with a questioning gaze. After a moment of this, her head began to rise and was now looking straight ahead at the wall in front of her, without so much as blinking. That was when she began to slowly say, “Now, just why in Equestria, would I think about changing your color scheme. Especially after all this time?”
*Point of view: Applejack* *Location: Sweet Apple acres, the main house*
The entire Apple clan was just getting ready for bed after finishing up their late meal. This was due to them fiddling with the new farm equipment for longer than they had realized. Applejack at that moment, was coming out of the kitchen after helping out with the dishes and saw big Mac, already halfway up the stairs, so she called out to him. “Off the bed there, big brother?” In response, the larger pony looked down to her from the railing and gave her a solid, “Eeyup!” Before proceeding to head the rest of the way upstairs to hit the sack.
She was about to head up the stairs herself and head to her own room. But when she got onto the second step, she began to recall what happened earlier that day. At first, it was going to look like any other, with her selling apples in the market. But then, she heard that a noble was screaming at some pony and immediately abandoned her cart to try and put it in to the ruckus before it got out of hand.
Needless to say, Applejack was taken aback, while watching the stallion that was wearing the white robes, effortlessly defending himself against a pair of armed ponies, with just a single soup spoon. Again, when he eventually broke their weapons. She had tried to go over to talk to the stallion. But thanks to the others around, they had slipped away. Although she was positive that the one that was with him, had to have been Rose and promised herself that she would talk to the mare later on about it.
Now, when she had gotten home and it was dinner time. The orange mare began to tell her family about what she saw. Of course, Apple Bloom was jumping in her chair, while at the same time, trying to swing her own spoon around and was quickly reprimanded by Granny Smith to not play around at the table. Especially after the little girl had accidentally flung what was already on the spoon into the elder Mare's face. That ended up to be a generous dollop of apple sauce. To which Granny Smith, licked off her own nose.
Applejack had expected that her parents would be surprised by the news. However, they seemed rather unfazed by the news. Aside from them giving her another one of those small smiles and looking at one another, before returning to their meal. The only thing she got out of them, was how her dad said, “Seems to me, some fella lent a quick hand as he was passing through.”
When she was finished with thinking that over. The farm mare, was already in her bedroom and had gotten under the covers and turned off the light. Before she closed her eyes, she had turned away from the window and was now staring across from a room. Soon her eyes laid on to a small object, that was nestled between her dresser and a bookshelf. That had a few nick knacks placed within. The object in question, was a small hatchet that could easily let it rest and one of her hands. Although, when she was little, she was just small enough to need both when swinging it.
Just as Applejack's eyes began to close and she was ready to go to sleep. She began to mumble just under her breath, while half yawning. Just a fella... lending a hand... Why... Does that sound... Familiar” As soon as Applejack had fallen asleep, without knowing that she had done so, she had reached up and had placed a few of her fingers on the back of her head, as she dozed off into dreamland.
*Point of view: Fluttershy* *Location: Fluttershy house, Edge of town*
The yellow Pegasus had just finished feeding her daytime animals and was halfway through with working on the breakfast meant for the nocturnal ones. While at the same time, making sure that all the critters that had been up during the day, were all nestled in their beds.
Right as she had gotten to the second floor of her house, that had a nest of bats right underneath the roof covering, outside of the windows. She was just about to open said window to give them some fruit for their breakfast, when she stopped moving her hand just a few inches away from the latch.
Right there, on one of the lower left-hand sections of the glass window. Was a tiny, green and white speck of light that was hovering near the glass itself. There had been a little bit of dust accumulating on the edge of the window sill and that was being carefully blown around, thanks to the wind that this small light was giving off.
Fluttershy had knelt down and place the fruit that was within a small basket onto the floor and looked and Inquisitively towards the light. She then began to speak in her usual, sweet voice, that she only used while in the company of her animals. “This is quite a surprise. Aren't you usually at the other window facing the East? I hope you don't mind me asking, but why are you over here? Especially after all these years?”
The faint light that it was giving off, began to pulse a few times before returning back to its normal glow in response. Afterwards, Fluttershy tilted her head before saying, “I just wish I could understand you in the same way that I do with my animal friends. Could it be, that there's danger over in town?” This ended up getting her nothing. Then she asked, “Do you have a friend that's in town right now?” That time, she got a response with it blinking a few more times, before going back to normal once again.
Seeing this made the timid Pegasus giggle a little bit, before she replied with some excitement in her voice. “Yay! Isn't that just great? I do hope I get to meet your friend sometime.” That was when the ball of light began to pulse once more, before it zoomed around Fluttershy and ducked into her mane. This elicited a few more giggles from the mare, before it exited and quickly flew off somewhere else in their house.
*Point of view: Rainbow Dash* *Location: Sugar Cube Corner*
Rainbow Dash was currently hovering inside of the kitchen, located in the back of the shop. At the moment, she was wearing a pair of ripped blue jeans and a white tank top with the words, “I'm awesome.” Printed on the front. While at the same time in the background, there were some bags of ingredients being tossed back-and-forth cross the kitchen.
Over the chorus of utensils mixing, clanking and the sound of a small egg timer going off. The blue Pegasus was talking while crossing her arms and having a pouting face on. While at the same time, staring out of the window at the night sky. “I just know that freak windstorm yesterday was the work of a unicorn. I was even asking any in town if they knew about one that can use wind magic. But I got zilch, nodda, bubcus! There is not a single Unicorn in this town, that can use wind magic at all. And there's no way it was a coincidence after what I heard about today.”
“Pretty much every pony in town knows about what happened thanks to Rarity. She went on and on about how her mane had miraculously escaped being destroyed when this freakishly strong wind came out of nowhere and kept some food from being spilled on her. BUCK! I really hate when I owe a pony a favor. Especially, when they do something like this. I just don't get why they won't fess up?! Say, Pinky? You don't think it's one of my many fans that are too scared to approach me, do you? I must be too awesome for them to think that they're worthy to come near me! That's gotta be it!”
Now Rainbow's voice was beginning to get a little irritated as she continued. “Pinky! Are you even listening to a word I say?! Also, what are you doing, aren't you finished with all the baking for tomorrow's stock for the shop? Is all of that stuff to make blueberry muffins? Then there's all this cheese. Don't tell me you're gonna try and make another cheesecake again, are you? The last time you did, it was over eight hoofs tall and it fell over the instant you put that cherry on top.”
There was then, a bubbly voice that came out of pretty much nowhere and at the same time, everywhere thanks to how fast the mare was moving. “Oh Dashy! Don't be silly. These are the help to make the extra, extra, cheesy quesadillas. As for the muffins, those are to make up for a lot of birthdays that got missed.”
Now scratching the side of her head, Rainbow Dash then asked, “Missed birthdays? Pinky, you're the only one around here that can remember every single pony's birthday. Even when they themselves forget about it. Just who is it you’re doing all of this for anyhow?”
That was when Pinkie Pie popped up from behind Rainbow Dash and turned her around, while holding on to her shoulders as they were still several feet off the ground. Apparently, Pinkie Pie had suddenly gotten a ladder out of nowhere and was perched, right on the top step and looking straight into the Pegasus mare's eyes.
Now literally close enough that they can feel the other one's breath. Rainbow Dash was beginning to blush with how close they were, when Pinkie Pie began to whisper in her right ear after leaning in. “I don't know who. But I know that, someone... Really, is in need of some parties. I also need to make sure that everything is perfect or they might run away!” This whole-time that Pinkie Pie was whispering so low that she was nearly pressing her lips onto Rainbow Dash’s ear. It was causing the blue mare to turn the shade of red.
Before she was able to utter her next words. Pinkie Pie had already gotten away and was already back to baking. Now seemingly shocked from what had just happened. Rainbow Dash began to mutter. “What does she mean by... Someone?” Unfortunately, her train of thought was lost, when she instantly remembered the feeling of Pinkie Pie whispering into her ear. That ended up causing her wings to lock up and she ended up falling to the ground with a heavy thud.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 42: Is This Considered an After Party? Part 1.
Chapter 42: Is This Considered an After Party? Part 1.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia* *Time: Nine in the morning* *Location: Canterlot castle*
The sun is now, more than a third of the way across the sky. The birds are chirping happily. The palace staff are all working diligently. The citizens down below are busy on the streets and byways. The Princess is up in her room, looking over at all. All the while, biting her nails as her eyes darted to-and-fro, with a heavy bead of sweat on her brow, as she paced nervously within the room and just a few feet away from the window.
She was wearing her regular regalia, consisting of white and gold ornamental jewelry, that was placed directly over her white dress. During this time of the day, she would be at her best before day court, Princess Celestia would have been seen as the picture-perfect symbol of beauty. However, in her current state, she was anything but that. This was due to her constantly biting away at her nails, along with both her mane and tail, were a complete mess. With parts slightly sticking out. There were even these heavy bags under her eyes that showed that she had trouble sleeping recently.
As she continued her pacing, her hooves were beginning to create a noticeable groove, as she muttered to herself and stealing a few quick glances out of the window and towards the Everfree Forest. “Nightmare Moon is going to be free tomorrow. You got this Tia. You've had all these years to prepare yourself. All you have to do, is rely on Twilight to make some friends and unlock the elements of harmony. Either the elements are going to lock her away again or free her from the Nightmare. Either way, it's up to Twilight.”
Her eyes then drifted over to the picture frame and the music box on the edge of her nightstand. Quietly, she said to herself, “Am I really doing the right thing? Will she be OK out there without me to help guide her? What… What if she meets a sea dragon or gets caught by a manticore? She has yet to master her teleportation spells fully! What if she ends up falling off a cliff?! That mare's always been a little clumsy when it comes to watching her surroundings whenever she gets too focused. Was it really right of me not to tell her about Nightmare Moon and just send her off to that town?”
That was when she started to shake her head and pace even quicker, while continuing. “No! I can't think that way. I trust her. She knows what to do, she's a smart mare. Besides, she has spike with her. Even if he’s still young, Spike is quite mature for his age. I dare say, if he wasn't with her at all times, then I would be fearful of Twilight walking into the pond on a regular basis. Oh Twilight... I do hope that you are better than I and can avoid the same mistakes...”
After those words, she began to use her magic on the vanity mirror and all of the brushes sitting on it, to tidy herself up. Once she was presentable for court, she made her way towards the door and opened it. However, before she went through, she took another look towards the nightstand and started to briefly think to herself. “If I'd only pay attention all those years ago. Then I might have been able to avoid those mistakes.”
After those words were spoken and a door was halfway being closed behind her. Princess Celestia had a small look of concentration as she slowly tapped her chin before she went on to say to herself. “Now, if I’m not mistaken, I have an appointment to talk to some pony from the royal Institute of Magic and Science.” She then let out a small side before continuing. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this is in regards to, ‘T H I S.’ not even myself has been allowed to even enter their premises thanks to the land being privately owned.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Town square* *Time: Eleven-thirty in the morning*
Brex was currently sitting on one of the empty benches that was surrounding the mayor's office. While in the shadow realm. Nearby, was a small group of females that were whispering to themselves as they glanced around. “Can you believe that not a single pony has spotted the stallion from yesterday? We even went to the Flower sister's shop and they said that he had left earlier in the day. Just how hard is it to find a stallion that's over seven and a half feet tall and wearing a mask inside of Ponyville?”
“Yeah. I like, asked my sister and she hasn't seen hide nor hair of him. You don't think, he up and left town, do you? I mean, it’s bad enough with all the competition here in town, but we even got the whole Apple clan sitting at Sweet Apple Acres. Once word gets to them, then we're gonna have a whole lot more out here, trying to get their mitts on him.”
“Oh, I'm pretty sure they already know about it. After all, Applejack was there to see the whole thing happening. Seeing as her dad and brother are the way they are, I wouldn't be surprised if she was hunting him down too. You know, keep the whole gene pool of strong stallions going.”
“Oh my. You don't think she’d goes so far as to lasso the stallion and drag him home, do you? She could be rather brutish at times whenever she gets her mind set on something. Anyways, let's get back to the streets. He's gotta be around here someplace. Wait, did any of you check the Adventures Guild, to see if he’s in there? Let's go over right now. Maybe we can get the jump on him!”
After that, the group began to talk to each other some more as they left earshot. Brex then began to mumble to himself, just low enough to make sure that none could hear him if they were close by. “I really get the feeling that they've gotten worse over the last decade. Sure, there were those really aggressive ones in some of the big cities.”
“But I didn't think it'd be like that in a small town like this. By the seven hells... If there like this on a normal day... What the fuck are they going to do while they're in the middle of their heat season?” This thought caused a bone chilling sensation to run up his spine as he pulled his arms in and grabbed on to both of his elbows, as he adopted a blank stare behind his mask.
He then went on to think, “Let's see. My body double showed me that Twilight just left the castle a little while ago. So, if they're taking a flying chariot just like in the show, then Twilight should arrive anytime. Now, the current question is, how should I go about, how I do things today? I could always do the whole, tag along with Twilight, while she goes around and does the whole checking on the festivity’s routine.”
“But then, I'd run the risk of her asking too many questions and figuring out who I am. Hmm... I could always shadow them and watch as things progress. That way, I can get a good feel for how these versions of the main six are, without having to worry about them acting differently when seeing me. Oh well, I guess I'll just go back with the whole play it by ear plan. By the way. Rory, how's it looking on your end? Any complications that I should know about?”
He then heard Rory replying. “Nope. We got it all handled over on our end, Master.” This got Brex to say, “Whatever happens, I need you to stick to the plan.” That was when he heard Rory asking, “By the way Master. Isn't there supposed to be a party going on at the library for Twilight? Are you going to be attending?”
Brex began to grumble as he said, “Rory, you know how I am when it comes to large parties. Also, if I was to go in, I'd be pretty much trapped with so many of the females of this town that are already stalking me. But really, I understand that girls are sometimes attracted to the mysterious guy’s vibe. But this is just ridiculous!”
“I bet you if I did take off this mask of mine and show them what I was, they'd suddenly leave me alone.” During this self-defamation of character. Brex was looking straight ahead at another pair of mare’s that he had seen, only twenty minutes ago and it appeared that they were still on the search for him. Which was plainly obvious with the way they were passing all of the stalls and had their eyes roaming, as they continue to walk.
Rory was now giggling a little bit at this point and was now beginning to speak in her joking tone. “Come now Master! You can't honestly tell me that you're not enjoying the attention from all of these females, even just a little bit. This is pretty much every hot blooded, straight male, wet dream. I really do wish that you would take advantage of it at times.”
Brex had just now, started to rub his gloved hand down his face, while speaking in a defeated tone. “Rory, there are times where I really don't understand you. I get that you are made up of my preferences in all. But I don't really think it's normal that my girlfriend would keep trying to push other girls on me. I mean, isnt Rin and Lin enough? I still can't believe that you managed to talk me into including the both of them.” That was when he caught sight of a approaching object in the sky.
*Point of view: Twilight Sparkle* *Location: Ponyville* *Time: Eleven-fifty-seven, In the morning*
Twilight was in the back of an open top carriage, being pulled along by a set of Pegasus guards and was right about the land, while she was still in mid-sentence. “And I'm telling you again Spike. I will check on the preparations for the celebration and complete my royal duties. But the fate of Equestria, does not rest on me making friends!” Afterwards, she exited the carriage and thanked the guards. Who then immediately took off, to return to Canterlot.
The mare that took a few short steps, was hey Unicorn with the fur coloring of Pale, light grayish mulberry. Her mane and tail were a dark sapphire blue and moderate purple. There were these streaks of brilliant raspberry. At the moment she was wearing something similar to an, all girls private school uniform. Very similar to the outfit she would have had, when passing through the magic mirror.
As for spike. He was the adopted brother of Twilight Sparkle. The dragon appeared to be slightly human like in form compared to his original shape in the television show. By comparison he was nearly a foot and a half shorter than Twilight herself. Considering what his age was that was quite tall.
At the moment spike was wearing a set of dark blue, blue jeans and a green undershirt. Over that, was a purple zip-up hoodie. Just like how it is with all the ponies he had no foot coverings, which exposed a set of clawed feet.
(Here is a picture of Spike and Twilight.)
From there, things pretty much didn't go as Twilight had expected, with each encounter seemingly as stressful as the last. First, there was that weird run-in with that mare with the puffy pink hair, that suddenly started to let out startled gasp. Before quickly running away in a big hurry, right as spike got her to attempt a greeting.
The next thing that happened, was when she went to go and check on the food preparations and visited a farm called, Sweet Apple Acres. That was where she met an orange mare that almost tore her arm off, with the overly enthusiastic handshake. Then, proceeded to not take no for an answer and introduce her to the entire Apple clan by name. Even when she tried to get away and say that she had things to do, she was pretty much strong armed by the cutest little filly she had ever seen, giving her the puppy eyes.
By the time she had gotten out of there. She was on the verge of dragging her own belly on the dirt with the use of all of her limbs with how full she felt. It didn't help much when she was literally blindsided by a blue mare with a rainbow styled color scheme and being pushed into the mud.
Seemingly sorry with what happened, this one tried to help Twilight out and rushed off to get a cloud. This was then followed with her getting completely drenched right through or clothing. Of course, she ended up with a very messed up mane during the whole, washing and drying process being provided by the Pegasus after the mud incident.
She had soon found out that the one in charge for clearing the clouds, was not doing her job and constantly talking about the Wonder Bolts. In order to get the task done, Twilight had to carefully choose her words in order to steer the not so helpful Pegasus into doing her job and was stunned at the speed in which it was completed in.
The next part on the list that needed to be checked on, was the decorations. Twilight and Spike headed straight for the celebration spot, that was to be the large building situated in the center of town, where the mayor resides. Upon entering, she was awestruck by how well everything looked and it seemed that her dragon brother, was equally enthusiastic as well. But soon found out that it was not for that, but instead, his eyes were fully glued to the white mare with a purple mane, that was in charge.
Twilight was barely able to get out a few words, before the mare suddenly started ushering her across town and into her store as soon as she got a good look at the messed-up hair that Twilight had. She didn't know exactly how much time passed or how it even happened. But she was already in the middle of trying out different types of clothing, that seemed to come and go in a flash as the white mare continued to go on about, what would look great on her.
Twilight had been reduced to going down to just her panties and bra, by the time she was being fitted into a corset and was having the air squeezed out of her, as the chords were being pulled tightly. But thankfully, she managed to wheeze out a response to one of the mare’s, many, many questions and told her that she was from Canterlot. This was apparently enough to get the mare to finally let go and go on a short rant about how great it is there. Before rushing off after realizing that something wasn't quite right about the jewelry that she was trying to put on Twilight.
As soon as the mare was out of line of sight. Twilight quickly rushed over after tearing the corset off and made a bee-line to the front door. After quickly grabbing onto her clothing, using her magic to get it back on by the time she'd gone outside. Along with muttering something about getting out of there, before her coat is dyed a different color. She even had to use her magic to levitate her younger brother out of there. His arms just dangled there limply, as he looked back towards the way they came.
Twilight was still running pretty quickly, as she made her way out of town and on to their next destination. Which was on the very edge of Ponyville, by the looks of the address on the paperwork that her brother was holding.
Spike had informed her that the next pony to see, was to be in charge of the music. Once she had gotten a good distance away from the rest of the buildings and down the beaten path. Twilight began to hear a melodious chorus of bird songs just over the next hill. There, she found a yellow Pegasus, that was hovering several feet off the ground, while talking to a row of birds stretched out on a tree with very little leaves on it.
When twilight approached and tried to introduce herself. The young mare had shot straight up in the air, after letting out a startled yep. Before slowly coming down for a landing and was now holding her chest as she was trying to calm herself from a apparently, near heart attack moment.
Although, when the introductions had started up once more and Twilight gave her name. The mare was whispering so low, that no matter how many times the Unicorn asked. She was unable to get her name and eventually gave up and awkwardly walked away after telling her to keep up the good work and looking awkward with how the chat was going.
But, as soon as she had turned her back, she was suddenly stopped when she heard the Pegasus talking in a louder volume. As if a switch had been completely flipped around, the Pegasus had rushed over and was enthusiastically, talking to spike and asking him a cornucopia of questions regarding him and what it was like to be a dragon.
Seeing as Twilight really wanted to get back to the library to work on doing as much research as possible to determine how to stop the, “Mare in the moon.” She had tried to get away from the mare, but was unable to do so by the time they had gotten back to the library and had made a pathetic excuse that she needed to get Spike to bed as if he was some type of small baby. She even went so far as to cause him to get a bump on his head, to disorientate the dragon to make it more convincible to the Pegasus when she used her magic to trip the dragon.
By this time, the sun had already gone down and the street lamps were turning on. So, when Twilight had finally entered the library after closing the door on Fluttershy, the entire room within, was pitch black and Twilight was already speaking to Spike about what she needed to do and how she couldn't be bothered to talk to all of the crazy ponies of this town. Of course, as the show goes, all the lights suddenly turned on and there was a loud, unified shout of, “Welcome to Ponyville!” From a countless number of ponies that were all inside of the library.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: In the rafters of the Ceremony Hall. Far, far away from the party*
At the moment, his large figure was sitting at a point, where it was intersecting with a couple of wooden beams, so that he was well out of sight, along with still having his full body weight supported. Currently, he was equipped with some cloth type gear. Which allowed him to be quite comfortable and even had his arms and legs in a pose as they were crossed, so that he would appear to be in a meditative position.
Even with his eyes closed. He had a small smile that was creeping onto his face, as he began to think to himself. “Oh, that Pinkie Pie. I really can't tell if she didn't get that hint about libraries being quiet or if she was just playing it off. “Uh-oh, Twilight just went over to the punch bowl... Seriously? The girl doesn't deserve to have a welcome party and then accidentally do this... Wikes! Wohyee! Her hair and mare really did turn fiery! I guess that's just another one of those cartoon logic’s, throwing itself in the road.”
That was when he heard Rory speaking in his mind. “Master, if you wanted to go to the party, you may as well do it in person. No need to send in a proxy. You didn't even use one of your body doubles.” What Rory was referring to. Was how Brex had summoned one of his Minions and use one of the, Dungeons & Dragons, Feats that is called, Gaze of Two Minds. This allows him to see and hear everything that a willing target does. Typically, this would require it to be another person. But it seems to work on his summoned minions, seeing as they are from him, in a way.
Honestly Brex was very grateful to have chosen to be an artificer. The class allowed him to be quite versatile along with playing with his strengths when coming to learning and building. He even went and got the feat called, Eldritch Adept. This of course, allowed him to tap into, Gaze of Two Minds.
Dungeons & Dragons, Feats. Gaze of Two Minds.
You can use your action to touch a willing humanoid and perceive through its senses until the end of your next turn. As long as the creature is on the same plane of existence as you, you can use your action on subsequent turns to maintain this connection, extending the duration until the end of your next turn. While perceiving through the other creature’s senses, you benefit from any special senses possessed by that creature, and you are blinded and deafened to your own surroundings.
Of course, he had to pick a reasonably safe location to do so. Seeing as the spell would render him blind and death when it was activated. Thankfully enough, he was still able to sense things around him, due to his trained extra senses and situational awareness that Rory helped him develop over the years.
Right now, one of his minions was currently inside of the library and high on one of the bookshelves, far out of sight from any of the ponies in the party. What he ended up using was, a living book called, Page sixty-three. The description for this one, is as follows. “Though unable to read the arcane script penned in blood across this forbidden tome discovered in the Great Gubal Library, you sense much power in the words. Or it could simply be the fact that the book follows you.”
Brex chuckled to himself when he was skimming through his list to pick one out and thought this one would be the perfect chameleon to throw into a library full of rowdy ponies. And of course, with the only one there that was interested in books more than any being upstairs, it was easily the best minion to choose when silently listening, while in plain sight.
(Here is a picture of the minion here.)
After that. He continued to keep an eye on the events, while directing his minion from spot to spot, in order to avoid the pink menace. Who was currently looking around at random locations as if on the search for something. After some time, he ended up moving his minion down to the lower levels and was now keeping it behind a potted plant, that was near a random group of ponies.
Because of the nonstop chatter around, it was difficult to separate their voices. But eventually, Brex managed to catch on to one of them. “I'm tellin yeah just what I saw. That was no normal stallion!” Hearing that, instantly made Brex roll his eyes in both his own head and those of his minion when hearing this. Which was no easy feat seeing as it had no real eyes to begin with.
The Roegadyn was really beginning to be annoyed with how they just, will not stop talking about him in this town. He then began to think, “There has to be some other things that they could think about. The weather? Maybe what you do on your time off? Your hair? ANYTHING!!! I don't care anymore! I'll even settle on you all talking about… property taxes.”
He was about to make his minion move on to another part of the party, but stopped upon hearing what was said next. “Something just doesn't add up, or I'll start eating oranges if I'm wrong. I know I aint a part of the Adventurer's Guild and all. But now that I start thinking about it… Hay! I know! Rainbow, weren't you yapping about those trading cards of yours last month?”
Next up, was undeniably the voice of Rainbow Dash. “Huh? Um, yeah. Why do you ask Applejack? You weren't all that interested in them before when I was talking to you about them.” Applejack was the next to speak as she could be seen tapping her hoof next to the minion, that was only a foot away. From where it was, all he could see was everything below the knees.
“Wasn't there this one character that stood out that you were yammering about? What was his name again? You said something about how worthless the card looked. Also, you complained about how it should never have even been printed to begin with.”
After a few seconds of silence, Brex could hear Rainbow Dash exclaiming. “Ah, I know who you're talking about. That card always gets thrown out from what I hear. No pony in the right minds even holds on to that thing for more than a few minutes and just looks for it immediately and throws it into the nearest trash-can whenever a pack is opened up.”
Now For once, Brex was beginning to be interested in what these ponies finally had to say after a full day of gossiping about him. He had no idea that there was something like trading cards in Equestria. What was said next, only caused his curiosity to crumble and his mind to go blank as Rainbow Dash, continued to talk.
“Yeah, I remember who you're talking about. He's that worthless Adventurer that popped up a decade ago. Poor schmuck must not know what he’s doing, If he hasn't gotten even one rank up after all this time. It's common knowledge that any pony could go up to rank E, at the end of the first month. No matter what they do, as long as they don't end up costing a pony their life from botching up a quest. Seriously! The guy started off as level ten and every pony thought that he was gonna become some big shot too.”
“In the end, he still only a rank F looser, along with how his stats haven't changed at all. He's gotta be the most useless stallion I've ever heard of. I bet you that he even somehow managed to cheat on that level scoring that the tablet shows, to get such a high number when you register. I don't even remember what his name is. Whenever I start to see the beginning of this picture, I immediately throw it over my shoulder!”
“Also, they keep making a mistake with how is age never changes whenever they release a new pack. I bet he hasn't even been doing much at all, so they're just reusing the same information over and over from back then as some sort of joke. But really, if I was that stallion, I'd crawl down in a hole and die! Even if he’s a male, I bet no mare’s gonna want to have kids with him out of fear of having some, ultra-weaklings in the family.”
With each sentence that the blue Pegasus released from her lips. Was sending this odd, pang of discomfort that ran throughout his body. In a way, it was similar to comparing his body to a large bell, being struck by a mallet. That was when he started to think to himself, in a very dejected tone. “I know that I wanted to not have any exposure. But hearing it, really doesn't make it any better.”
That was when he heard Rory beginning to talk within his mind. But instead of her usual tone. This one was heavily laced with malice. “Master... It's not too late to find a replacement for the Element of Loyalty... I would so very much enjoy it, if you gave me permission to come over there and have a... Private. Discussion with this, Rainbow Dash. I can make sure that it is a very… lengthy one at that.”
Brex merely shook both his real body's head and the one of his minion when he replied back. “It's fine. No need to get upset about this small issue. After all, everyone's entitled to their own opinion.” Now, Brex could literally feel the anger with how Rory was growling through the connection, before she started to speak in a strained voice. “Master, please don't say that this is a small issue or that it doesn't matter. As soon as we're done with what's happening there, I'm heading straight to where those damn cards are made at and-.”
That was when the Roegadyn raised his internal voice to scold Rory. “You will do no such thing! Now, I know that you're upset and you have a thing against me putting myself down. But the reality is, this is how the world sees Gambit and it's my own doing. This has been orchestrated and I'm going to go through with it. If there are those out there that are going to make fun of my Adventurer persona. Then so be it. I only created the character so that I can gather information and walk about, while having an identity to use and pass-through checkpoints.”
Anyhow, I don't think there is anything useful for me to listen to anyway. Twilight's already up in her room and nothing's really going to happen until the celebration starts later tonight. I'll just call back my minion and take a little rest while I'm here in the rafters.” Before the connection faded, he heard her saying, “If that's what you want Master, then I won't argue about it anymore.”
After that, the minion did just what Brex wanted and went behind a large object that was within the room and disappeared in a small flash of light that went unnoticed by any of the room’s occupants.
*Point of view: Rarity*
From where she stood. Rarity could tell how Applejack was very close to doing something very unladylike to Rainbow Dash, whenever the Pegasus kept going on about this, silly old trading card. That was when she stepped in and said, “Oh come now dear! It's just not very polite to talk about some pony in such a manner. You have to keep in mind, that this is a stallion. They all can't be expected to be the same as Applejack's family. I for one, applaud his very tenacity to even do such an act as even Registering. After all, they all can't be heroes such as those told in the old stories.”
After she had said those words, she immediately began to wish that she hadn't upon seeing Applejack currently sending daggers in her way. For a brief instant, she had this image of the farm mare rushing at her so fast, that the both of them might have gone through the wall. That was when she started to think, “Oh dear! I really, as they say, stepped in it this time. Applejack has always been on the side of the stallions. Perhaps I should have reworded my previous statement from earlier.”
Either Rainbow Dash was incapable of reading the situation or was intentionally going after Applejack. The Pegasus just continued on. “You can't be serious Rare’s. This guy's got no business carrying one of those name plates. I mean, the guy is obviously afraid of showing his face with how he always has it covered up with a mask.” This was when Rarity commented with, “Oh, I am sure that this gentle-stallion, is probably just shy is all. Can't fault him for that.”
Rainbow Dash only continued further with, “Oh, and just look at that equipment of his. The guy wasn't even a Unicorn and he was wearing robes. He should have been wearing some heavy plated armor with how big he was. I mean, this guy looked like he was taller than even Celestia in the picture.”
“I bet you that was even doctored too. There's also with how some of his stats aren't even written down. These cards always show the name, age and the race of whoever's on them. But on his, it only says that his race is, “Restricted.” Now something is really off he asked me. You must also be a real coward with how he wears mostly yellow and some brown on the hood. You can't even see an inch of fur on his body, with how he’s all covered up.”
As the Pegasus continued on, Rarity was slowly beginning to form an image in her head from the, crass description. She then started to think to herself. “Hmm-Hmm... So, the stallion is taller than the princess. Obviously very muscular from how Rainbow spoke of him. He's mostly covered up and where's mostly, Yellow... And... Brown? Along with always wearing a mask?”
With every thread of information, she was beginning to stitch together the image in her mind. The fashionista was beginning to feel quite odd. Out of nowhere, she had this brief, flash of wanting to strike Rainbow Dash in the muzzle, as hard as she could. But somehow managed to bury that down under her ladylike training, as her outwardly expression became blank.
It took her a few seconds to regain her composure and was now showing a slightly strained smile, as she turned back towards Rainbow Dash before speaking, as her right eye twitched, but once. “Pardon me dear. But you mentioned a mask, did you not? You wouldn't happen to remember how it appeared on that picture of yours, do you?” Inside of Rarity's mind, she was literally praying to Celestia that what was about to be said, would not lineup.
Rainbow Dash was now scratching the right side of her head, as she looked straight up at the ceiling in thought. Before she answered Rarity, without so much as looking in her direction. “Let me see. I think it was something really stupid. Now, was it a clown mask? Nah! I'm pretty sure that it was black-and-white. There were these round eye holes, but you couldn't see to his eyes through them. The black lines swirled around and it looked like some type of animal. Oh, that's right! Right on the forehead was a purple stone, stuck right on the middle of the forehead!”
Rarity had suddenly felt an oncoming dizzy spell coming on, but fought through it in order to ask her next questions. “You, wouldn't happen to have one of these cards anywhere for me to look at, would you? Or perhaps tell me where I can find one myself?” That was when Rainbow Dash said, “Sorry Rare’s. Like I said, I don't keep those. And I doubt you'd be able to find them in any of the card packs anymore. Last I saw one, was over close to two years ago.”
Rarity was now fighting to keep her composure as she then asked, “And you are positive that you do not recall his name? Not even in the slightest?” To which got her a very quick shake of the head from the blue Pegasus. Before she responded with, “Sorry again Rare’s. The guy really, really, wasn't all that popular. I don't really know what the reason was and I don't care. This just means that there's another slot open for a better one to take when I go to open another pack for my collection.”
Again, Rarity just stared at Rainbow Dash, without showing it on the outside, that anything was wrong. However, within, it was a whole different story. The prim and proper Rarity. Wanted nothing more than the grab the nearest, biggest object she could find and smash it over Rainbow Dash's head. But with it being Fluttershy, who has been quiet this whole time, she couldn't bring herself to do so. Now if it was pinkie pie, then the pink mare might have some fun if she was thrown. Perhaps not so much upon impact with the blue mare that had started to bring up these strong urges.
She then heard the blue Pegasus asking, “You've never been very interested in those cards before. Why do both you and Applejack wanna start asking about them now?” Rarity quickly answered while reaching for a cup of fruit punch to drink. “Oh, it's nothing my dear, don't think anything about it. But I would like to be informed as to why Applejack had brought it up to begin with myself.”
Applejack was now taking off her hat and slightly fanning herself, before putting it back on as she answered. “Well, it has to do with how that noble got arrested Yesterday. You see the one that defended the cafe worker that got injured. Turned out to be a really big fella and he was wearing a set of robes, along with a mask that sounds a lot like the one that Rainbow Dash mentioned. Although his color of clothing was not right. He was mostly wearing white, with blue on his hood and shoulders. And I think there may have been some silver coloring on some of the parts. I also couldn't see anything about him with how his whole body had some type of clothing on every bit.”
“You have to be there to believe it. This stallion literally broke two sets of swords, with nothing but a spoon. That's what I meant about the whole thing seeming weird. I don't know if this is the same fella, or perhaps they know one another by going off of how they both have the same mask. Because there's no way that a level ten did that.”
It was Fluttershy that managed to gain their attention after trying to speak for the last several seconds, due to how her timid nature made her voice so hard to hear. “Um.. You could always ask him. I mean... If, that's OK with you.” In the beginning, Fluttershy had a voice that could be heard over the background music and chatting of the other ponies. But began to lose its strength quickly and by the end of her suggestion, she had already retreated behind her pink mane and only her right eye could be seen, poking between the strands of hair.
Applejack released a tired sigh, as she slowly shook her head before she answered that question. “That's a good idea there sugar cube. I wanted to do just that this whole day. While I was making my deliveries, I kept both an eye and an ear out. Didn't catch hide nor hair of the guy. I even heard that a lot of the girls in town haven't even seen him as well. It's almost like the stallion just up and vanished.”
“I started to think that he just stayed inside at the Flower Sister's Shop, or the part up top where they live in. But that idea ran into a dead end when I heard some ponies talking about how one of them ended up sneaking inside of their shop to go looking for him and found nothing. She went so far as to talk about how she even got into the room that he’s staying in and started to smell the bed he slept in, to see if she could get a good feel on his scent. I gotta say, some of them are really desperate these days. Almost scary if you ask me.”
“I think the fella's been hiding from all the attention he’s been getting. Why else wouldn't he stick around after the incident. I even got asked a bunch of times if it was a member of mah family. But I know for a fact that each and every one of them was at the farm. The farm mare then lightly chuckled to herself, while having a smile, as she playfully said, “A small part of me was hoping it was my big brother finally coming out of his shell.”
Before Applejack could go on, Pinkie pie suddenly came up from behind the group and had stretched her arms far enough to grab onto the mare on either end of the line and pulled them all in close, to the point that they were nearly knocking heads into one another. The pink mare then said, just above a whisper. “Have ya girl seen the other party guest anywhere?”
This only earned her four sets of eyes that were giving her the confused look, before she continued, along with rolling her own eyes. “I didn't just throw this party for Twilight.” Still not getting any kind of response from the group, she then released an exasperated sigh that was way too loud before she went on. “Come on! You know who I'm talking about. He's big, Tall, Muscular and always keeps himself covered and has a severe mistrust of females. I've been keeping an eye out during the whole party and I still don't see him.”
It was Rarity who began to ask in a slow voice. While attempting to protect her mane from getting messed up in their current position. “Pinky, darling. Would you mind running that last bit by me once more?” This got Pinkie Pie to repeat how he was big, tall and always was covered up. But seem to stop right there and didn’t repeat the part about females. This only got the fashionista to get a little irritated before moving on.
“I suppose we shall see him sooner or later. The night is still young.” Right now, Rarity was containing her excitement that this mystery might be cleared up. However, what she thought she heard Pinkie Pie saying about having a severe mistrust of females was nagging at her mind. But played it off as mishearing.
Soon those thoughts were dashed when she heard Pinkie Pie saying the next part. “Oh! That’s right! He never got an invitation. I already knew that Twilight was going to be coming here. But I really did try to find him to give him his. I checked everywhere. Literally went to every single room in town. “By the way Rarity, really like the plushy on your bed!”
This got the white mare to laugh out, while having a heavy blush on her face as she said, “Pinkie Pie! You do not go into another lady’s room without permission!” Rainbow Dash, was the next to speak, when she started to scratch at the side of her head with a very confused expression. “Hold on! Even Pinkie Pie can't catch this guy?! Even she can find me when I use my hide skill!”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Celebration Hall* *Time: Five, fifty-five in the morning*
Brex was quickly woken up when he began to sense the presence of many individuals coming into the building and saw that it was nearly time for the sun to come up. Wanting to be cautious about the event that was soon to start. The Roegadyn switched to his Rogue class and activated his hide skill. This was then followed by slipping into the Shadow Realm, for an extra added layer of stealth, while still high in the rafters.
He then began to ask Rory through the mental connection. “Are all the preparations done?” Immediately, he then heard Rory saying, “All units are on standby at their designated Positions. We even had some of our operatives within the towns, as well as the bunkers notified about the possibility of increased monster activity. I really do hope you're just being overly paranoid about this Master. But if your hunch is correct, then with the extended night time hours, the monsters might end up going nuts. Especially when it comes to the nocturnal ones.”
Brex was worried with eternal night coming. That he had a contingency plan put into action. This consisting of pre issued orders to be followed, in case the worst should happen. Even his headquarters within the badlands was put on high alert by now. The monsters that are typically active during the day, would not stay quiet and the ones that would be awake during the night. would most likely be added to their numbers. This in turn, would cause a catastrophe all over If not managed Properly.
Over the course of the next few minutes, he watched the celebration hall slowly filling up with ponies, that we're all eagerly awaiting to see their princess. One by one, he mentally counted each of the main six as they came into view and took on their expected positions. Rarity was waiting nearby to reveal their princess with a pull of the rope. While at the same time, Fluttershy was on standby, with their arms slightly raised to give the signal to her feathered friends to begin their song.
Of course, there was also Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who were near the snack table. He was sure that he did see Pinkie Pie At one point or another, but lost track of the pink pony. This in turn, caused the Roegadyn to feel a little anxious with not knowing where the pink menace was. Then his eyes rested on the purple mare who had just come in with a sleepy looking Spike in tow. Just as expected, Twilight wasn't looking all that well, with how she kept shifting her gaze back-and-forth from everything in the room, to that of the window.
From there, the next course of events went pretty much how they would in the story. There was the whole fanfare and revealing of an empty spot that was meant to be occupied by their sun princess. Then came the sudden appearance of Nightmare Moon and her little speech that started off with the iconic words, “Oh, my beloved subjects. It's been so long since I've seen your precious, sun loving faces.”
(Here is a picture of Nightmare Moon.)
Then everything went as Brex expected. Mayor mare, ordered for the guards to arrest Nightmare Moon. But were struck with a single lightning bolt to each of them, which rendered them all unconscious and sprawled across the wooden floor.
Afterwards, Nightmare Moon disappeared into a swirling vortex and rushed out of the doorway and into the night sky. Rainbow Dash tried to give chase, but immediately gave up once the mare vanished into the darkness. Brex also saw how Twilight was rushing out of there and heading straight for the Golden Oaks Library. While carrying an unconscious spike laying on her back and his head resting on her shoulder after getting scared senseless by everything, coupled together with his lack of rest from the all-night party.
The blue Pegasus saw this as well and tailed after the purple mare and this caught the attention of the other, future element wielders, who then also ran after them. While still using the hide skill at the same time as staying inside of the shadow realm, Brex followed them and stood near one of the windows, that was connected to the main room on a higher level, just to make sure it wasn't the same one that Nightmare Moon was going to use during her eve's dropping.
He got to see when he had arrived, it was just after Twilight was being accused of being a spy by Rainbow Dash and was pulled by the tail rather sharply by Applejack. From there, he got to listen in while sitting on the railing as they found the book referring to the elements of harmony and Twilight began to read it aloud to the others.
Twilight spoke of where the elements of harmony would reside, which was in the castle of the two sisters, within the Everfree Forest. But just as she was about to close the book and put it down. Pinkie Pie immediately grabbed it and was showing Twilight that there was another page. When seeing this, the Unicorn immediately said the following.
“I didn't know there was another page. Let me see! Hmm-Hmm... It says here, that Princess Celestia had commissioned another means that could be used as a counter measure when it came to the return of, The Mare in The Moon... If all six of the elements cannot be brought together.”
“Then there is another means of stopping her, that had been placed within a small set of ruins to the North East of where the elements are meant to be kept. Where the forest ends and there is nothing but rocks. Located at the very center and the deepest section of land, sits a tomb that can only be revealed under the light of a full moon. When the sun does not rise on the appointed hour… This must mean that it could only be used, when the night is longer than normal. Like right now!”
From within the shadow realm, Brex was giving a devilish smirk, because he was the one who added that extra page in the book, soon after meeting Lily after checking in for the room. Leaning away from the window, he was able to look down and saw the shadowy form of Nightmare Moon and it was apparently shifting around erratically before it zoomed off towards the Everfree forest. As soon as she was long gone, he had to hold a hand up to his mask as he tried to contain his laughter.
That was when he heard Rory. “Master, do you think this is really going to work? It's not like she's going to give up on the Elements of Harmony. She already knows that they are a serious threat and she will go after them. What is the point of even adding that extra information in the book anyway?”
Brex then replied by saying, “Ha-Ha, it’s quite simple. The forest in this world, has monsters in it that would no doubt try to get in these girl’s path. I'm just making sure that Nightmare Moon is distracted. And at the same time, she and I can have a little one on one chat.”
Knowing her ego. She will most likely assume that her little traps are going to stop these girls, or at least delay them. This will give her plenty of time to go searching for this new threat. Nothing scares a villain more than the unknown messing up their plots. She's going to be under the assumption that she knows exactly where the Elements of Harmony are and how long it would take these mare’s to get to it.”
“So, after hearing about how Celestia had a counter measure put in place. She would instantly come to the conclusion that a second force would be heading towards it right now. Of course, not having an exact location in mind. She's gonna spend more time trying to find it. Which means that's going to be her top priority, because she can always zoom back to the castle when she feels like she needs to.”
Rory hummed for a few seconds before she began to speak. “And I take it that my Master is going to be the one that meets up with her, out in the middle of nowhere. She's going to be really pissed off when she finds out that she's been tricked.” Brex chuckled to this before saying, “I know, I know. Because I really want her to get angry. Well, I better get going. Can't be late for my little date.” Near the end, his internal voice was beginning to have a slight edge to it.
*Point of view: Twilight Sparkle* *Time: Twenty minutes later* *Location: Entrance to the Everfree forest*
Upon getting all of the relevant information. Twilight made sure that Spike was safely tucked away in bed, before grabbing all of her things and heading towards the forest. What she hadn't counted on. Was that the rest of the ponies that were in the library, had already left to collect their own gear and were already awaiting her arrival. But just as she got there, she caught the conversation between Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
“Thanks for going over to the farm and grabbing mah gear for me, Rainbow. Would have takin me too long to get there and back, especially with how dark things are.” The Pegasus ended up puffing out her chest in acknowledgement for the praise. Rainbow Dash then said, “forget about it. But are you sure you should be using all that? Out of all of us, you're the only one that never went to a combat school.”
This ended up getting a cold glare pointed directly at the Pegasus, when Applejack replied while holding onto a hefty axe in both of her hands. “Rainbow... I've been working on a farm and holding an axe for as long as I can stand on my two hoofs. I don't need to go to any fancy schools to be able to swing this baby around.” Seeing the way that Applejack was looking at her, caused the blue Pegasus to back off while flapping her wings and giving a nervous chuckle, before turning towards the forest
Twilight quickly spoke up loud enough for them all to hear. “Girls, you really shouldn't be here. I could take care of this all by myself.” Of course, as soon as she had said those words. The others began to give their reasons as to why she shouldn't be going in all alone. Starting with Applejack as she said, “Sugar cube, I know you mean well. But you can't go in there without another pony with you and there aint no way that I'm going to just let a friend go in there by themselves.”
Rarity was the next one to chime in. “I dare say it would be quite unladylike to stand idly by while such a catastrophe was to occur and not lend a helping hand.” Pinkie pie was the next to come up while holding on to Fluttershy. Pinky Pie was appearing to be excited. The yellow Pegasus however, was trying to wiggle free as her eyes were clearly locked onto her cottage that was only a short distance away and giving off a small, scared whimper.
“Yeah! let's go get that mean old meanie. Isn't that right Fluttershy?” That was when there was a loud, “Eep!” From the Pegasus before she reluctantly replied in a near whisper. “I... I uh. I think we'll be… OK if we stick together... If, that's OK with all of you...”
The yellow Pegasus was immediately released as pinkie pie jumped in place and ran closer to the entrance. When she got there, she began to point at it enthusiastically while screaming far too loud than what was needed for how far away all the rest were. “Come on, let's go already! I got a box of muffins that need to be delivered before they go stale!!”
Now scrunching her muzzle in confusion. Twilight turned towards the other ponies while giving them a, “Care to explain to me what she's talking about”, look. To which, only got her mixed reactions, consisting of shaking of their heads, shrugs or a type of apologetic smile, with just a hint of a wince behind it. Once that was taken care of the six started making their way into the woods.
But as they went in. Twilight couldn’t help but to take note on just what class they all were. This was based on the gear that she could see. She herself as a Thaumaturge. She wore a set of robes and carried a tall staff, with a purple jewel that was affixed onto the top and held in place with some gold-colored bands.
When it came to Rarity. That one had taken her a moment to figure out. This was due to how she wasn’t wearing any red. But instead, she had on a white and purple mix and had on her right belt hip, the rapier weapon that are used by the Red Mage class.
As for Applejack, she wore some gear that had a mix of cloth and metal bits. There was also a large, one-sided axe that was hanging off of her back. She was sure that this was something that the Marauder class would be using. However, she was sure that she had heard mention that Applejack had not attended any of the fighting schools.
Now as for the one called Rainbow Dash. She had on some light weight clothing and a set of short daggers on either side of her waist. Judging from that, then Twilight assumed that she was the rogue of this party. She would, without a doubt, be able to handle some high-speed attacks with the mix of Rogue skills and that flying of hers.
For the party mare of the group. Pinkie Pie was dressed in a similar level of protective clothing as Rainbow Dash. But there were no weapons that she could see. However, she did catch for a brief instant, the sight of an arrow pouch on her back. She just didn’t know where the bow was. So, by going off of deductive reasoning, then Pinkie Pie must have been an Archer.
For the last of the group. There was the yellow Pegasus by the name of, Fluttershy. She had on some robes that looked slightly different to her own. As for the weapon. She had this one book attached to her by a holster. If Twilight had to guess. Then she must have been an Arcanist. The one class that could branch off later on as both a damage dealer and a healer. But judging from the mare’s personality. It was most likely that she would focus more on being a healer.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Rambling rock Ridge. On the other side of the Everfree forest* *Time: Nearly an hour after the girls entered the forest*
Right now, Brex was sitting on top of one of the tallest pieces of stone littering the wide-open area known as, Rumbling Rock Ridge. Which also coincidentally was where Rarity was, upon receiving her cutie mark. Where there were jagged spires of rock spread about and was widely known to be a good source of naturally occurring gemstones.
While still using a combination of hiding and staying in the shadow realm, Brex had been swinging his legs as he laid his hand onto his right arm, that was being propped up by its elbow. All the while, with a very dull expression behind his mask as his free hand was tapping on his other knee. He had just then released another board sigh for the umpteenth time. That was when he started to say to himself in a whisper, “Just how long is it gonna take for that woman to show up? It's a very big location and It's not that hard to find the center. Maybe I should have added a small map?”
He was just about to feel the coming, of another sigh, when he began to send something entering his detection range. Whatever it was, it was coming in from high above and apparently from the southwest by the feel of it too. It didn’t take long until he managed to pick it up as a fast moving red dot on his mini map. Soon after, which confirmed its altitude with how there was an arrow pointing upwards right next to it. That was when he started to grumble to himself, “And I thought girls were the ones who came early to a date? Oh, hold on. I guess that would be reversed here.”
When he had just finished with that thought, a black blur, with a dark glittering blue trail of light had just landed quite a distance away with a loud bang as it collided with the ground. This had caused quite a number of the nearby rock formations to come crumbling down and added to the cloud of dirt that was shot into the air by such an act. But the time it had all cleared away, Brex was finally able to catch sight of Nightmare Moon, who is just standing there on her hoofs. While turning her head quickly, as to get a gauge on her current location.
Using this opportunity, along with the great vantage point that he was currently sitting on. He brought up Nightmare Moon’s Information. From there he got the usual.
Name Nightmare Moon.
Age: 1,219 years old.
Level: 60.
Race: Alicorn.
Gender: Female.
Class: Great Sword Master.
Weapons specialty: Great sword.
Titles: Lunar Princess, Black Shadow of the battlefield, Princess of Dreams, Mare in the Moon. Lost Princess and-.
Brex saw all of this and thought to himself while reading. “To think that my skill for this has evolved to where I could even see their age when I look. Well, at least now I know that they haven't been around forever and they were probably only in charge for about two-hundred years or so, before they had that falling out. Hmmm... But this last bit here at the end of the titles section... She also seems to have a De-buff on her right now that says that a good portion of her strength has been diverted somewhere else. One guess as to where it's all going."
That was when he called out to Rory with the mental connection. “Rory, looks like we may have to change things up a little bit with our plans. Skip plan “A”. We're going right over to plan “B”. Right now.” This got him a reply of, “Of course, Master.” Before the connection wet silent.
As soon as Nightmare Moon had been able to get a good look around, Brex could hear a disgruntled scream of annoyance as she released a powerful spell in some random direction due to frustration. From there, it struck another rock formation, reducing it to nothing but small pieces of debris after a violent explosion. This was also followed with her screaming the following.
“Where is it? Where could she have hidden it? We know that we heard right; it has to be here! Leave it to her to find something else out there that could possibly do us harm. What could it possibly be? Nothing is stronger than the Elements of the Harmony! The tomb is meant to show itself on this night. that is what the little mare said. There is no way that any pony has got to it in such a short amount of time! Ghraahhhh!”
There was yet another powerful blast sent at the ground nearby, where Brex was currently hiding, which nearly blew him off with the concussive force that was radiating with pure magic. Just because he was in the Shadow Realm it didn't mean that he was untouchable when it came to pure magic and Brex was really feeling it.
Feeling that it was a good time as any to start his little play. The Roegadyn slipped out of the Shadow Realm after falling off the edge of the high spot he was perched on and re-enter the shadows just as his body was about to make contact with the side of the pillar of rock during the fall. From there, he popped out of the ground a short way away and immediately switched over to his, Dark Knight Class that had not seen use in quite some time.
Now clad in his dark and foreboding armor, along with his massively long sword, that was taller than himself when including the handle. He slowly began to make his way over to the clearly frustrated, self-proclaimed ruler of the night. As soon as he had gotten within a hundred meters of her, did she finally notice his presence. When she did, she straightened herself up and calmed down as to clearly show that she was in control.
Nightmare Moon then called out, using what he considered to be a slightly downgraded version of the royal voice. “Just who are thee? Were thou sent for that infernal artifact?” There was a moment of silence before Brex ended up chuckling from behind his helmet after hearing the question. But thanks to the gear covering his head, the laugh came out eerily and hollow at the same time. In a way, it was on par with hearing a voice from the darkness. “Haah-Hahaha. Haaaaa-Haaaa. Hahhaaaaahaaaa~.”
Afterwards, Brex reached behind his head using his right arm and gripped onto the handle of his great sword. The weapon was then pulled off of his back and swung to his right side while fully extended. From there, he turned his helmet in the same direction. Nightmare Moon had clearly thought that he was about to attack as she called forth her own two-handed blade. But seeing that he was making no movements, she looked in the general direction of where he was gesturing towards and her eyes went wide at what she saw.
At the end of the clearing. About two hundred meters away, was a rock wall that had a carving edged into it, that was depicting what could have been none other than, Princess Celestia. But upon seeing it, Nightmare Moon did not get angry. Instead, Brex distinctly heard her giving a loud snort of laughter, which she had to quickly cover up by looking away from it and back at him. The reason that Nightmare Moon had done such a thing, was because the drawing was very detailed with the head and there was a exaggerated set of oversized mustache on the sun princesses face.
Brex could see her lowering her weapon, but still keeping her guard up while eyeing him suspiciously from afar as she spoke in her regal voice. “We know not of who thou are. Although, from what we see, it is quite promising that thou are not with her. Now answer us this, who are thee and why are thou here?”
Instead of giving her a verbal reply, the Roegadyn approached her slowly, as he rested his large weapon over his right shoulder. At first, the mare was unbothered by the approach. But as he got closer, she was visibly put on edge with how the grip on her weapon was getting tighter as the fingers coiled around the handle, as soon as he had gotten within several meters of her due to the silence.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: The other side*
(Here is a picture of the place now.)
Instead of the usual sea of gold and a large table sitting in the middle of it all. There was instead, a replica of the house that was meant for the characters, known as the Simpsons. There was even the small background music that came from the opening intro of the show. But after about thirty seconds of it playing. A very grumpy voice, that clearly came from an older gentleman, could be heard screaming from within the building. “Why did I ever let you talk me into installing that horrible song when you ask me to build this place?! It’s been playing non-stop for the last five days!!!!!”
Afterwards, there was a pair of laughter coming from a duo, that clearly came from a set of children. One of which, broke off and spoke in a condescending tone. “Don't have a cow, Man!” As soon as the little boy's voice ended, it was then proceeded by another. Which belong to a small girl. “Now, now! We had a diplomatic vote on what venue we were going to have our little viewing party on what's happening over there today.”
This was quickly followed with banter going back and forth between the elderly man's voice and young boy. “It's just that... We all look so differently from one another. Also, all the bright colors here are doing no good for this body's eyes. I think I'm developing what the mortals call, a headache!” “Don't look at me, Man! It wasn't me who went with someone with a bald head!” “Bald head?! I am not completely bald! Besides, this coming from a kid where I can't even tell the difference between your hair and your skin. If you're going to call another person bald, then you should look at a mirror! Your head looks like somebody took an oversized meat tenderizing hammer and hit you far too hard over the head with it!”
Afterwards, there was a chorus of crashing sounds as the entire structure began to rattle. After a few minutes of this, the kid could be heard screaming at the top of his lungs after making some type of triumphant laugh. “Ha-ha-ha! Eat my shorts!” But before anything else could be said. The young kid began to let out a gurgled cry, before two figures came crashing out of the front window and onto the fabricated lawn. This showed it to be a tall man that got to his feet and he was currently holding on to a yellow character with spiky hair being choked in his massive hands.
(Here is a picture of the man and the kids.)
After several more seconds of trying to choke the smaller cartoon character, without it apparently really doing much harm. Another voice came from inside the building that belonged to the small girl earlier. This one sticking their head halfway out of the window and showing that they must have had some type of connection to the one being strangled with how their hair was in the shape of an oddly formed starfish. “Hey! Enough playing around you two. Get back in here! It's about to start! Don't make me call Uncle to break you both up!”
Once that was said. The two that were outside, instantly froze and the pose that they were in upon hearing it. While turning their heads in the others direction and without so much as moving even a muscle aside from their eyes. They looked towards one another slowly and blinked only a couple of times before the one who still had their neck in a vice like grip manage to wheeze out a barely intelligible sentence. “I don't... know about you... But I rather like this body. Truce?” This in turn the got reply of, “Truce.” From the larger man, who then released his grip. As a result, the kid fell to the ground with a heavy thud, while rubbing at his neck.
The small boy then said, “You know, to be able to do that to this character. You really should have gone with picking the dad.” This only elicited an aggravated grown from the other guy as he covered his eyes with his right hand as he replied. “I know that we're all related already. But thinking like that just makes my head hurt.”
He then snapped his fingers and produced within his hand, a set of sunglasses and place them over his eyes. When he did this, he released a content sigh of relief. Only a moment later, could they all hear a fourth voice, screaming out in old man's voice. “Who took my sunglasses?! Don't make me pull out a, Ka-Me-Ha-Me-Ha, and shove it up your ass!!!” This ended up getting a loud laugh from the kid as he said, “That's awesome!”
The girl who was looking out of the window, started to shake her head with her eyes closed as if she was over the antics of what she was watching. However, before she pulled her head back in, she called out to the two outside again. “You'd better be on your best behavior when Mom gets here. You know how she can get. She won't even give you a warning about calling Uncle.”
For some strange reason, this caused the pair to go extremely pale. The once yellow that was all over the cartoonist character child, had turned to a deep gray at the mention of Mother calling the one known as Uncle. As for the older guy. He was now sweating bullets and appeared to be on the verge of throwing up from the anxiety that he was now showing.
As soon as they had both gone inside. All the damages that could be seen from the lawn were instantly fixed when all the pieces flew back in place and mended themselves in the same way that rewinding time would have done. But once that was finished, there was the sound of some other individual approaching the house slowly, as a shadow was beginning to show itself and coming onto the lawn.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 43: Is This Considered an After Party? Part 2.
Chapter 43: Is This Considered an After Party? Part 2.
*Point of view: Nightmare Moon* *Location: Rambling Rock Ridge*
(Here is a picture of it on the map.)
Nightmare Moon was beginning to feel more than a little agitated with the odd mannerisms of the one before herself. Judging from the way the laughter sounded. She was positive that she was dealing with a male. What she found strange was how this was the first one that she had encountered upon coming back that had not shuttered at the very moment she came into his sight.
What’s more, was how peculiar to have a stallion that was built to be so large. She would under any other circumstances, not tolerate such behavior being directed towards her, but felt an odd sensation when looking at him. Upon closer inspection, she had gotten a better look at the armor he was dawning and found that she was admiring it for its craftsmanship. Almost instantly, Nightmare Moon took a quick liking to the dark, foreboding aesthetics. More so when it came to the helmet with the flat plate and how the eyes were clearly protected without any gaps to be seen. Clearly it was made for war.
But as the stallion drew closer, she couldn’t help herself but to feel uneasy as she gripped onto her weapon tightly out of reflex. Her thoughts were broken when she realized what she was there for. That was when she quickly called out. While shifting her gaze into a glare. “Tell us now! What does thou know about the artifact? Clearly thou are not here to use it on us and judging from the armor worn, thou are not one of her loyal guards. We dare say the design fares more towards that of our own.”
She was about to continue, but as soon as she had mentioned that small part about being one of her sisters’ guards, the air suddenly felt extremely humid as a rush of hot air filled the area. Nightmare Moon quickly determined that this was no mere coincidence and began to search for the source. Only to find that it was coming from the one that was standing across from herself. But as soon as she did, the heat died down and was replaced with a small burst of frigid air before it returned to normal once again.
That was when she began to hear the stallion talking. At first, Nightmare Moon had expected a tone of reverence or perhaps that of fear, due to her intimidating nature. But instead, it was that of a simmering rage that was strangely intertwined with a cold sensation behind each word that was spoken. “I… Do not… Serve… Her!” when she had heard him say the word, “Her.” There was this inexplicable feeling of dread washing over her body and the hairs on the back of her neck were now standing on end.
The stallion then continued. “There is no artifact. No army. No secret plan. Just me. Do you realize just how long I have been setting this date of ours up for?” This was when Nightmare Moon’s mind had froze upon hearing that this was a date. She had instantly gone from that of a weary warrior, to that of complete bewilderment and surprise. Only to end up with her eyes going comically wide, along with a slight blush to appear on her cheeks right underneath her helmet.
Clearly unsure as to what to do now. She had taken a single step back with her left leg and brought up her weapon in front of herself, before adopting a serious expression. She then angrily said, “What nonsense are thee prattling on about?” The stallion in front of her then took his sword off of his shoulder and had taken his own battle stance in response to her own.
As soon as he had brought his blade up, his body moved in a flash and both of their weapons collided. The sudden movement had nearly caught her off guard, but due to the many years of combat experience, she was able to withstand the attack and now had their blades locked into one another, as a set of green eyes were staring into a pair that were completely hidden from view, with only several inches in between as she released a heavy grunt of exertion from the strength that was placed behind the block.
Before she could think of an effective countermeasure, due to the surprising level of strength being wielded by the one that she was locked in combat with. She heard him saying in a low, growling tone, that left her imagination swimming with something other than that of battle. “I have waited for hundreds, upon hundreds of years to finally be face to face with you. You have no idea how many nights I’ve stared up at that moon, waiting for you to come back.”
This of course, caused her to blush to deepen as he went on. Unfortunately, she was distracted by this and he had pulled his blade free and took a massive wide sweep with it. This in turn left her to try and block. But the force behind that next strike was seemingly stronger than the one previously used and had thrown her off her hooves for several feet before gaining a good foothold on the ground once more to come to a skidding stop.
Now fully confused as to why the actions are contradicting those of his words, she then called out to him while being prepared for another attack. “If we were to take what is said to be true. Then why does thee attack me?” She was only answered with him leaping at her once more with his weapon held high. Normally this would have been easy to dodge, but at the rate at which he did so, left her with no time aside from bringing her own sword up and blocking the attack. This time, she felt her hooves digging into the ground as her arms strained against this third swing.
Nightmare Moon was about to retaliate, but was caught off guard when he suddenly kicked her straight in the stomach with his large, metal clad boot. Which sent her flying a few more meters as her body flailed before hitting the ground and skidding to a stop once again. Afterwards, she quickly got back up to her hoofs, while keeping her weapon up with her right hand and her left was holding at the spot that she was just struck at with utter disbelief for how much power was displayed.
She then started to think to herself, “How is it he this strong? Have the stallions really become this powerful over our thousand years of banishment?” As if reading those thoughts, the stallion replied in a cold tone. “I’m guessing you are also wanting to know as to why I’m so strong? How it is that I’m able to do this to you? I’ll make you a deal. You got two options to take in order to find out those answers. Either you kill me and rip this helmet straight off of my head. Or you guess exactly what my race is.”
Clearly confused as to what was being said, it didn’t take long before it clicked that he mentioned his race. She then started to think, “Could it be that the one before us is not a pony?” That was when she began to speak while readying her weapon and giving him a devilish smirk. “Very well. We have time before required to return to our royal duties. For so long has our sword not had a good opportunity to test its sharpness. HAVE AT THEE!”
With that proclamation delivered. The battle between the two finally took place for real. Nightmare Moon leapt forward with the use of her wings. Thereby closing the distance within an instant and swung downwards in the same way that her opponent had. Instead of blocking it in a similar fashion. The male before her, sidestepped it and used his blade to guide hers away while at the same time and producing a shower of sparks in doing so. Then he proceeded in bringing up his other arm and striking her in the gut once more. This caused her to release a sharp scream of pain after taking the same blunt force trauma in one spot, twice already.
Instead of being launched back. She pressed forward and swung her left leg at his side in order to get a good hit. But her leg was caught when he had brought both his elbow and knee on that side of his body up and struck the very leg she was attacking and sending a strong jolt of pain as the bones right there, were on the verge of breaking. Once she was released, she stumbled back but ended up taking a knee down to the ground as she could no longer support herself with the other after suddenly receiving such an injury.
She had let out another grunt of pain and was now gritting her teeth. While one eye was slightly closed and she was now giving him an unamused stare. But what surprised the Alicorn the most, was how this male was not taking the initiative and was simply waiting for her to get back to her hooves. After taking a moment to recover, she stood back up and readied for another attempt. All the while finding it preposterous that there could be a being other than her sister that could be giving her this much trouble.
She had hoped that with her showing weakness would have been enough to throw him off. So, while taking a few moments to get herself back to her hoofs. The dark mare kept it hidden that she was drawing on a good portion of her magic without having it revealed. When it had gotten to the point at which it could no longer be kept hidden. Nightmare Moon released a glowing blue orb that shot straight for the armored one before her.
She had actually thought that he was caught unawares with how he had not made any effort to get out of the way. Just as the orb I was about to make contact. She saw how is left arm had moved so quickly that it left a blurred impression behind it, as it was raised to cross over his chest and was immediately swung at the magic spell.
(This is the move that was used. Only replace the beam with a orb of magic.)
To her, time has slowed down with what she saw next. When the metal arm guard had made contact with her attack. The body of light began to bend as it was being forced away until it was practically launched upwards and off to his left hand side. From there it continued to travel in a long arc, until it has reached far enough that it was just barely out of view and collided with the ground and produced a brilliant flash of light.
When that had faded. There was a substantially large spire of Jagged ice, that had exploded from where the spell had landed. As for him. His entire left-arm starting from the fingertips and all the way to his elbow, was encased in solid ice. A smirk was beginning to grow on her lips, but it faded twice as fast when she saw him lately flexing his arm and everything that was in casing it had crumpled easily.
Nightmare Moon knew that the amount of magic she had poured into that one sneak attack, had been more than sufficiently capable of completely freezing her sister in place and would have taken her days of constant magic usage to break free. Even just having the arm itself getting grazed would have made it impossible to use for quite some time. But to have her ice shrugged off no differently then common snow, was just too much.
Deciding that holding back would not be advantageous and she needed to get back to the Elements soon. Nightmare Moon tapped into her magic and enclosed not only her body, but her blade as well with a faint dark blue aura that was not too dissimilar to that of her flowing mane. With a battle cry, she leapt at him once more but just before getting to him. She used her wings to adjust her heading and came around him to attack from behind after using a fake out move at the last instant, along with a short-range teleportation spell.
As soon as she had completed the spell and was meant to be directly behind him, she was immediately punched right in the face by an already prepared fist that had been pulled back during the brief moment that she was transitioning from one spot to the next. This ended up causing her head to be sharply thrown back, along with her body until she landed on her wings. When she got up again, she was giving him another stare down. But this time, there was a small trickle of blood coming from her nose which she immediately realized was bleeding and her expression turned to that of both fear and disbelief for but a moment.
She then charged her horn and sent a magic blast straight at him from only a few yards away while screaming, “HOW DARE THEE DRAW THE BLOOD OF A ROYAL!!” Just before the blast had been fully released, she saw how he had brought his sword up and was now perfectly horizontal in front of him and had placed a second hand onto the flat side of the blade to brace for impact. There was also this transparent dome that completely surrounded his body that only showed itself for a brief instant. However, during that brief instant, Nightmare Moon could see that there was a very complex set of runes and diagrams along its surface.
When the magic struck, she had expected him to be at least sent flying if not mortally injured. Instead, he managed to hold his ground and the magic was being resisted to a degree that the ground near his legs had barely been disturbed. The spell had been going for a few seconds before it dissipated and she found that there were some small wisps of smoke coming off of his form. Along with the ground behind him being carved away for a good distance.
Nightmare Moon had this brief thought that he may only be showing a strong front but had to have taken a decent amount of damage, had ran through her head. Although, this form of hopeful thinking evaporated once he readjusted his stance so that his blade was held at his side fully extended while being held with both hands. This was followed with him doing a wide arc and a reddish form of energy began to radiate from the blade as it was swung. When this was done. A large slash appeared in the air and was rapidly approaching.
She had attempted to try and get away from it by using a teleportation spell, but was not quick enough and had suffered a blow right as her body vanished in a flash of light. When Nightmare Moon reappeared again, she quickly dropped to her knees and was now holding onto her left shoulder that now had a good portion of its armor sliced open.
Thankfully, no blood had been spilt. Now breathing quickly, she examined herself while she could. While still trying to keep him in her peripheral vision. It was very hard for her to comprehend the fact that he was able to destroy a section of her armor which not even her sister could damage in the past with just one attack that appeared to have not required any charge up time before the slash was used.
She then started to think to herself as she slowly got to her hoofs again and was now taking a cautious stance in case another one of those attacks was to be used. “This armor of ours is made out of the rare metal called star metal. It is meant to be the toughest there is, as well as indestructible. Has there always been a beast such as him around? How has my sister kept it in check if it has this much power? Is he under a curse? No, we don’t sense any type of control on him. Did my sister use a bribe? If so, then how? Maybe we could strike a deal. NO! No! We will not share our kingdom with another, not again, not after what she had done!”
Now filled with anger, she resumed her assault in tried using a set of teleportation spells, one right after another in an attempt to disorientate her enemy. She closed the distance by getting right up to his face and then appeared again and again at different angles. Just as she had made her last teleportation. Which was right above his head and the blade was already in mid motion as she was doing so during each one of her uses of the spell. Meaning that there was sufficient momentum for a heavy strike.
But just like before, another type of barrier had appeared around the stallion without him so much as looking in her direction. Which caused her blade to be repelled with a sudden flash of dark light. The rebound was so powerful that it caused her to nearly lose her grip on her weapon as it was now thrown towards her right side and only her one arm was still on the handle now.
This was immediately followed with her opponent swinging their blade starting from down below in another wide arc, straight up and over their body. The end of their large blade appeared to have cut the very air itself, thereby producing a kind of dark rip in reality, as it made a strong impact with her chest plate.
Nightmare Moon released a scream of pain as a good section of her armor had been ripped to pieces due to this attack. The force of which was strong enough to also send her flying and she had to use her wings, along with her magic, to steady herself in the air. Now seething with anger, Nightmare Moon was about to curse, him but was distracted by a cool breeze from her chest.
When she had looked down, her eyes went comically wide as her entire chest region, from her neck and all the way down past her stomach was completely exposed, now that the armor had been completely destroyed there and the mare was now showing off her breasts in full view.
Seemingly forgotten was the battle. When Nightmare Moon attempted to cover herself with her free arm by placing it just underneath her breasts to act as an improvised bra. At the moment, she was easily a couple hundred feet in the air, so it came as a complete surprise when she finally brought her attention away from her current predicament and found that he was no longer on the ground.
When this was noticed, she tried to find him, only for a second later for her to feel a surge of magic from behind and just above. When she turned her helmet just enough to look in that split second. She caught a glimpse of how he was directly behind her while in the air.
If that wasn’t enough to cause her to lose focus, there was also the fact that a piece of his leg was just now exiting her own shadow on the side of her wings that was away from the light of her own moon. For only an instant, she was able to comprehend that this stallion had the ability to travel through shadows just as she could, but had done so without losing his physical form.
She then tried to turn to attack him with her weapon, but felt him striking her in the center of her wings with what could have been his fist. In turn, this caused her wings to lock up with how the nerves had been partially numbed from the blunt force created from his punch and it sent her hurtling down towards the ground once more.
The reunion with the rocky floor, was not at all pleasant for Nightmare Moon as the first collision was strong enough to cause her to make a small crater due to the combination of falling and the added force produced from being struck from behind. Once the dust had been scattered about all came down again. She could see from where she laid. Nightmare Moon found that she was now sprawled on the ground and the right side of her face was partially imbedded into the dirt.
With a grunt of exertion, she rolled over so that she was laying flat on her back and rubbing the dirt from her face. While looking straight up into the night sky with a blurred vision, the mare was breathing heavily while her entire body was wracked with an unfamiliar amount of pain. She knew that not even her sister was capable of hitting this hard without the use of magic. Not even the body strengthening magic that they both knew, would have been able to produce this level of results.
Her vision was now beginning to finally clear. But by now, it was too late. For when she did, she was met with the site of her opponent crashing down upon her with his weapon held in both hands and its tip pointing straight down at her head. She wanted to turn into a mist and escape but there was no time and she tightly closed her eyes, waiting for the end. That was when she felt the rumble of the ground that signified him crashing and the sound of a blade striking its target with a metallic shing.
Thinking that it made a clean cut. She did not feel anything happening and resigned to her fate of being killed shortly after being released from her long sentence of imprisonment. A lone tear ran down the side of her face when she came to this conclusion. Without so much as knowing that her current thoughts or being said aloud in a whisper. She muttered, “Is it truly our destiny to constantly lose everything?”
Fully expecting that the pain that she was feeling would soon disappear. She then went silent and remained perfectly still for it all to finally end and was now beginning to embrace the idea of resting. However, after a few seconds had passed, with the sense of confusion building, with how she was still breathing and the pain from before was still present. Nightmare Moon slowly opened her eyes.
When she did, she was face to face with the towering giant of a male clad in black armor. From the position he was in, he was clearly straddling her while still holding onto his one blade that was turned with its edge going towards her neck with barely a hairs breath in between it and her flesh.
She was about to say something, but the sword was yanked from the ground and her neck was grabbed onto with his free hand. While on the verge of choking. He stood up while dragging her into the air and tossed her from the small crater that she had created so that she’d landed a short distance away. As she was recovering and getting to her hands and knees, she heard a metallic clank that had landed nearby. When she looked over, she saw that it was her weapon from before and it appeared that it was tossed back to her to use once more.
She then heard him speaking in a very low tone that just radiated anger. “Is this your resolve? Is this all it takes to bring you down? Did you not nearly defeat your sister? She threw much more at me. Has all that time of being locked away caused you to become weaker than she is? Or could it be that you used up quite a bit of your strength in capturing your sister right after returning from the moon? It must take a lot of power to hold another being such as an Alicorn. If you were to release her, then you can fight me at your full strength.”
“Of course, you could always try to run.” His tone then shifted to one that was becoming more excited… No. It was more… Manic and deranged. It had even sent goosebumps throughout her entire body. “Go ahead, dive into the shadows! Take to the sky! Call forth your Minions! Lay your traps as you run! Do it! Do it now! But I have you marked! Haha-HAHAHAHA! I will know everything you do! I will know where you go! You are my prey! And I do not intend to let what I have been searching for, to go so easily!”
“I have tracked down those who have earned my attention from one end of Equestria to the other. I do not need to rest. I do not need to worry about sustenance. I have traveled through many types of environments. Be it blistering cold of the highest mountain. Be it the heart of a volcano. I have walked through the most toxic environments you can scarcely imagine. You could even try going to the deepest reaches of the sea itself, heck! Go ahead and hide on the moon, I’ll be there. No matter where you go, I will always be on your tail! Your ever-present shadow that will never relent, never lose sight, never give up!”
At first, Nightmare Moon was deeply offended. But as she heard him going on, a cold sense of dread began to creep in. He said that she was marked. He knew that she can go into the shadows. There was even the part about summoning minions. Of course, this was something that would not have been too hard to find out.
But when it came to his deductions in regards to her power and holding her sister, that was completely correct. There was also that part about him saying that her sister fought him and with much more power. If he was able to withstand her sister doing so much without some sort of a handicap, then what was she going to do with nearly half of her power being used to imprison Celestia?
Sure, she may have been able to catch her sister off guard, but it was taking a substantial amount of magic to prevent any escape from the prison that Celestia now resided in. At the moment, she was barely using two-thirds of her total strength because of that. What scared her the most, was how he knew all of this. Clearly there was no escape if what he said was to be true.
After slowly picking up her sword again, Nightmare Moon stared straight at him with cold eyes as streams of tears began to flow from them. Now speaking in a broken voice, she said, “Can’t we have anything? Haven’t we been owed anything? She took everything from us! Always has, always will! Why does thou stand in our way, from what thee just said, then she an enemy as well, is she not? Why not join us and we can rule this land together? She’s caused thee much pain as well, so why not?”
Her response was him closing the distance after a strong push from the ground and Nightmare Moon was forced to block yet again. Unlike before, there was pretty much no respite as each blow was followed up with another and then another. But as this was going on, the one in front of her spoke in a loud angry voice after each attack.
“Are you seriously still trying to take over?!” A strong strike, sent her stumbling back. “You gotta be kidding me?!” A left swing came at her side next, which collided with her sword. Sending much more sparks than the last time these two weapons connected. “Your sister took everything from you, so you think it’s right to try and do the same, even if it means putting the lives of your own kind at risk in doing so?!” He had gone in and used the end of his swords handle to strike her in the gut. This caused some blood to come out along with some spit as her mouth was now hanging partly open and her eyes nearly bulging out.
“Eternal night? That’s your answer?!” After sidestepping, he got behind and grabbed onto her hair that was coming out from under her helmet and roughly pulled on it hard enough to pick her off of the ground and swung her over his own head, only to be slammed down hard. As a result, the helmed was thrown off and clattered a distance away.
“Do you not even know what would happen without the sun? Crops would die, the land would grow cold!” Without letting go after the sudden slamming, he then rotated while swinging her around himself before releasing the hair, in order to throw her against one of the stone pillars nearby.
“The creatures that run from the sun would go rampant at all times. The creatures that would sleep at night, would end up mingling with those of the night without there being daytime to keep them separated! The world would be overrun and the death toll would reach the clouds!” Nightmare Moon had released another shriek of pain after bouncing off the stone wall.
She quickly flared her wings to try and get to the sky in order to get away. But there was a sudden flash of red coming from behind, between the space of her body and the stone wall that she had collided with only a moment ago. This was proceeded with how she saw a great number of red spikes coming into her vision from the direction of the flash. A few of which ended up hitting her wings and causing a serious wound to her right outer thigh. Without a doubt, she knew immediately that she could not fly with the new series of cuts along her wings.
“Do you even know what the status of your world is right now when it comes to the monster attacks?!” By this point, the Alicorn was nearly exhausted from the screaming when she was roughly grabbed by her arm near the wrist, where she had her weapon gripped. The grip he used tightened and she could plainly hear the screeching of the metal guards on her arm beginning to warp from the pressure that was being exerted.
This was then preceded with the feeling that her bones were about to snap. All she wanted right now, was for but a moment without any new pain to come forth so that she can catch her breath. Nightmare Moon attempted to pull her arm free from his. But it was no different than being locked in a vice. Each attempt only caused her even more pain.
“Did you even once think to consider that your actions would end up with not only the ponies, but also the other races of this world, to be put in jeopardy through your selfish actions and a need for revenge?! All you’re doing is giving your people a slow death!” Out of desperation, Nightmare Moon attempted to use her magic to create some shadow monsters to attack so that she can get away.
As soon as her black veil began to spread out from underneath them and started to take on some forms. There was a sudden wave of red that was washing over the ground along with her magic. Then there were a multitude of serrated blades that were eerily identical to that of blood, instantly coming forth and shredding her darkness into nothingness. A few of which came dangerously close to her own form as one blade came to a dead stop, mere inches from curving into her right eye.
This shock was enough, that she had lost the concentration to lose the grip on her weapon which was held in the grasp of the arm he was beginning to break. Now speaking through tears. Nightmare Moon managed to say, while in between sobs. “T-Thou knows anything about us! H-How dare thee preach to us in such a way! It’s all her fault! If only she-.”
Before she could continue, he had loosened his grip enough that it was no longer causing any more damage. His weapon was then dropped. Thereby freeing his other hand and that one grabbed onto her neck and brought her in closer. She was pretty much immobilized and unable to turn her head away as he began to change from the angry screaming from before to that, of having a low, cold, slow tone.
“Your ponies feared you because they didn’t understand. They feared you because they knew how strong you were in comparison to themselves. They had no idea how much you did to protect them. The way that you would go into their dreams and slay their nightmares each and every night and not getting so much as a thank you, for they would forget when waking up the following morning.”
“You did this without so much as another being nearby to even talk too. While your sister stayed in the daylight and received praise for everything. Even if she had nothing to do with it. You anguished in the night while being isolated. You went to war while she stayed perfectly safe on the throne because you were the stronger one of the two.”
“Yes, I know all about that. Even with her being your sister. A fellow Alicorn, you felt alone. Being the only two Alicorns in the world, meant that all of those around you would end up dying. But the only constant thing that kept you going was knowing that your sister would always be there. But even then, you felt alone because of how much they looked up to her and how little time she gave to you. No matter how much you did. You didn’t get as much praise as she did for doing something such as raising the sun, which was her duty to begin with.”
“You could have changed all of this yourself; did you know that? You know that the ponies go to sleep when the sun goes down because they have to be ready to work the next day. You could have easily have proposed to have some night time activities to be scheduled. That way, there would be some ponies awake when you are. Night court would have even been possible back then and you would have been able to talk to your subjects. Did it even occur to you that there are those out there who work better at night due to their personal preference?”
“Then there could have been the nighttime life, but no, you did nothing of the sort. If you were to do any type of research before taking the throne back, then you would have known that everything has changed. Those very same ideas I just said to you are right now being enacted. This meant you could have reconciled with your sister and worked together. But no! Instead, you allowed a grudge from so long ago to fester and grow into this!”
“And don’t think I don’t know anything about holding a grudge. I’m not perfect, your sister did something to me that I did not deserve. I was nearly blown up with your old castle and she did not so much, as to even show her face!”
“Did I come back and try to attack her or take any vengeance? No! It took me a while but I managed to get past it. I’m not saying that I have fully forgiven her! Your sister locked you away, in a deep sleep while inside of the moon. Unlike me, she did not try to kill you! Even now, her deepest wish, is to have you back!”
In an attempt to defy his words, Nightmare Moon stared daggers at him through flowing tears well screaming. “Don’t give us those baseless lies! Our sister would like nothing more for us, than to finally disappear. The only reason we were in the moon was because we were too powerful. Otherwise, she would have killed us back then!”
He then responded to her with, “Then tell me this! if that’s all true. Then why is it that the ones that are going for the Elements of Harmony, are not of her trained soldiers. But instead, are everyday individuals? They were given no special training. They were not instructed to kill you. All your sister wanted was for you to come back.”
“You wouldn’t know about this, but I helped to deliver a music box to her. On that, is a set of voices that are from both you and her, singing a duet for a lullaby. I don’t intend on telling you how I got it but I will tell you this. Ever since it was delivered, she plays it every night and cries herself asleep after regretting her actions from so long ago and wanting you to return!”
“She knew you were coming back tonight. You did not catch her off guard. Did you not find that odd at all? If she really hated you, then she would have fought back and made you weaker so that the Elements of Harmony could be brought together to stop you for good.” That was when he fully released her and she was thrown to the ground. From there, he simply stood silently while watching her every move with the moon high above in the sky and directly overhead.
Nightmare Moon began to think over what he said as it echoed through her mind. She then began to mutter in a broken voice, that just showed that she couldn’t believe what she was hearing and was having trouble in coming to terms with all of it. “No, no, no! Thou are fooled by honeyed words, lies! Our sister is not like that at all! She’s cold and manipulative! All she cares about is all of the attention and showing that she knows everything and can do absolutely no wrong. She jumps to conclusions and loses her temper too easily! She doesn’t listen to what others have to say and if any pony says otherwise, they are harshly punished…”
After several moments of silence, the male in front of her began to speak again. However, unlike the other times, this one had a slight tone of sorrow behind it. “She is still, all you have. No matter what, your sisters. She does love you. No matter how much time passes, no matter how many others die from battle, illness, accidents or old age. You will always have your sister by your side. As Alicorns, you will live for a very long time. Don’t you think it would be worth it to finally set aside all of this misunderstanding and get back to what you both love?”
“Unlike me, you are not the only one of your kind on this world. Be with her and finally be happy. Don’t let this go on any further. You have no idea what it will be like, if you lose that now.” All she could do was to stare at him with unblinking eyes, as that last line registered. While trying to steady herself, she tried to ask him, “Did thou just say that, are the only one of you're kind. Has… Has one of the races gone extinct since my long absence?”
To this, he shook his head before replying in a monotone voice. “No. I would very much doubt that you would even know of the name. So, trust me when I say this. If you regret anything, anything at all, in what you have done, then don’t let that lingering regret becomes something that will destroy you from within. A thousand years, is a very long time when you are without your little sister. You might be surprised with how much she has changed.”
Nightmare moon had just then crumbled down to her knees. While hanging her head low. Her right arm was hanging limply as she brought her left hand up to her face and was now openly crying into it. Through heavy sobbing she started to say, “Why? W-Why are… Thou saying all of this to us?! If what is said to be true, then why are thee here and not allowing our sisters plan to run its course! Also, thou are using dark magic just as we are. Why is thee not corrupted in the same way?”
She wasn’t looking in his direction, but she was able to hear him nonetheless. “Dark magic is just another type. I know for a fact that both you and your sister can use it. If that type of magic does corrupt another? Then why hasn’t your sister succumbed to its effects? It is basically a mindset. Those of the past who did use dark magic, were already bad to begin with.”
“By that logic, then only evil uses it. Are you telling me there aren’t any evil out there that use fire or lightning or even light when doing evil deeds? Has there never been one that used fire to burn another to death? Have you not once witnessed lightning being cast by a Unicorn and taking the life of another living thing? Don’t you even think that having magic aligned with light attributes means that you are not evil when using it to burn the eyes from a victim or to throw a spear a pure light energy through someone’s skull. Both you and your sister need to re-examine your values and put aside these prejudice thoughts.”
Just as he was about to say something else, there was a low rumble that could be felt from underneath. In turn she looked up to try and find out what was making them. But where they were, was a complete flat land, with only a few rock spires here and there. Nevertheless, the rumbling continued to grow. At this point, Nightmare Moon attempted to get onto her hooves but stumbled back down onto one knee when the rumbling turned into a full-on earthquake.
Then, there was a sudden explosion, roughly sixty meters away, that sent up a large cloud of dust and debris that rained all around them in the form of boulders that crashed down. The explosion was also accompanied by a series of high pitch roars that caused the very air itself to vibrate with its sheer volume. When the cloud of dust had cleared and Nightmare Moon could see well enough. What came into view was the dark silhouette that appeared to be a creature on four legs and three long necks that were raised up high into the air.
(Here is a picture of the hydra they are facing.)
Assuming it to be a hydra, she got back to her hoofs and gripped onto the fallen sword in her left-hand. But when she got a better view of it. Her eyes went wide upon seeing a hydra with orange and brown scales. Normally they would be green or brown, so an orange one was unheard of to her. What’s more was the way that the scales themselves were growing. On a hydra, they’re meant to be slick and amphibious with webbed feet and spines. This one however looked more along the lines of a dragon with how the chest area appear to have a naturally grown armor plating.
The heads themselves did resemble what they should in a way. However, they seemed more heavily armored as well. The next part that was really weird, was the way there were some glowing sections on not only the chest area but underneath the necks, near the heads. Before her observations could go any further. One of the three heads on the right side opened its mouth and that sent a large wave of flames that was hurtling towards them both.
Even with the flames nowhere near them yet. The rush of hot air could be felt on her face. She had wanted to get away but was too badly hurt to do so. Expecting to get hit full on by it. Nightmare Moon brought her arm up and tried to use her own blade as a makeshift shield to protect her vital points.
But before the flames could even reach them, the one that she was just fighting with held out his left palm and a surge of purple light shot forth. The moment the light had left him, there was a sudden gust of strong winds being produced along with it as it traveled and collided with the swirling wall of flames.
As a result, there was an explosion of dark colors as the fire was blown away easily. From what Nightmare Moon could see from where she laid, the ground for meters in front of the creature leading up to the point in which the flames were stopped had turned to molten lava as it made a cone in front of it.
It was clear to her that if that had managed to make contact with either of them, then it would be safe to assume that there wouldn’t be anything left. There would be no bones and their armor would have turned into puddles of melted metal within moments with how badly the ground had been altered in that few seconds of intense exposure to the heat. This was clearly an unknown monster to her. Even if she was at her best condition like that at the start of the fight, then this would be difficult for even her to handle.
But her thoughts were broken when she watched the one beside her standing in between them both after taking a few steps forward. Then he heard him talking in an aggravated tone. “I don’t have time for an annoyance such as you.” Those words seem to have registered in some way to the monster as the numerus lines of lights along its body and necks, began to shine even brighter. There was even this low grumble being emitted from it as its chest began to expand.
The ground nearby its feet, could be seen giving off a mirage that would have been only possible if the air itself was super-heated. The parts of its neck that were not glowing earlier, were beginning to change and were now giving off a faint glow of their own. After a few seconds of this, it then lunged all three of its heads forward and erupted an enormous flood of flames that vastly eclipsed the one previously done. Already an even greater distance than the last, she was already feeling its effects far worse as the air was already becoming extremely hot to the point that her lungs were beginning to burn from even the smallest intake through her nose.
He then stepped forward a few more feet before his body were encased by a small amount of light as hundreds of thousands of small threads went across his armor as well as his weapon. Within a split second later, his armors outline took on a new form and revealed it to have a completely different kind of style this time around as with how there was a sudden flip on the theme.
Gone was the black and foreboding. Replaced with black, white, silver and blue. There were even some bits and pieces of gold here and there. But what drew her eyes the most was the silver shield now on his back, that was of a very exquisite kite design. In the center, was an oddly shaped cross that slightly resembled a Trident, or perhaps a golden bird soaring down. And for the first time, she got to see the back of his head that had been completely protected until now. Which was covered with a jet-black mane, that fell over his back end between the armor and the shield.
Reaching over with both of his arms, he managed to pull off the shield and draw the equally decorated sword from its sheath and took on a battle stance. When doing this both of the tools began to emit an ethereal wave of energy that extended outwards. As the shield gave this impression that it was larger in the scope in which it was guarding. The sword did something similar as the wave gave a similar impression that the blade had both a wider and longer reach.
What he said and did next, would forever be burned into her mind. In a loud battle cry, he shouted towards the beast. “If she couldn’t kill me by throwing the fucking sun at my face! Then what’s a pathetic matchstick like you going to do?!!!!”
He then held up his shield before himself, while taking the sword in his right hand and jammed it into the ground directly behind and placed his back leg up against it for support. From there, the aura that was being given off by the shield, had grown in intensity. But within a split second later, she was able to feel an incredible surge of power being built up from him, as the shield was now giving off a wider cone of light that became a half dome that was directly in front of them both, with him as the center.
(Here is a picture of the Skill in use.)
As the event continued, a set of lights appeared on his back and extended outwards and had taken on the form as six wings. These rested on either side of her as they went out. On closer inspection, they were not in fact real wings, but incredibly dense magic that took on the form of crystalline facsimiles that gave her the impression that she was looking at the aurora lights that were known to be in the beautiful regions of the frozen wastelands up to the north.
Nightmare Moon had been completely entranced by the sight. That she had even failed to notice until it was too late that the flames had already reached them both. However, even with the roaring lights being emitted by them washing over the barrier that was being created. Nightmare Moon could no longer feel the heat from it. Now confused, she then looked towards the ground where the barrier ended. There, she could see that the floor itself had turned into a river of molten lava. While on the inside, the ground had remained undisturbed.
She even saw how the pillar of ice that she had made before, was already halfway melted due to the strength of that fiery blast that was so easily repelled by the one that she had been fighting all this time. As soon as the attack had completely gone by, the wings that were produced before, vanished along with the barrier after the one in front of her pulled the sword out of the ground. Just before he made any other move. She heard him yelling after a moment of silence. “MY TURN!”
He then rushed forward and was running along the molten rock and splashing it around with each step. Nightmare Moon thought he had completely lost his mind due to the strain of keeping up the defensive spell that obviously required a substantial amount of magic to maintain. But immediately thought otherwise when it appeared that the environment had little to no effect after witnessing him running to the point, that he was now halfway between them and the catastrophic monster that could have easily had taken her out if that had hit her directly.
As soon as he had gotten within range. The beast readied another one of its breath attacks using it’s left head. But before it could release that. The shield was thrown and it collided on the side of its face and ricocheted until it struck the other two in succession before returning back to its owner. The force of which that was used in such a throw had created a resounding echo upon each impact. Along with violently knocking each of the heads around as they were now completely dazed by the way their eyes were rolling in their sockets.
With the sudden breath attack being momentarily stunned, he closed the gap even further and jumped into the air after producing a strong shockwave from kicking off of the ground. In doing so, that caused a small wave of lava to spill outwards from where he last stood.
Once he was high in the air and right above it. He raised his sword up and brought it down to point towards the monster as if giving a signal. From there a shower of golden blades came forth after a magic circle had appeared overhead and rained down on the beast. Instead of dissipating upon contact, they stayed deeply lodged into its flesh showing them to be an exact copy of the weapon that he had in his hand. But they were made of pure gold that radiated light.
What’s more was how the flesh around them, was not healing as it normally would when dealing with a hydra and its blood was constantly spilling forth, while there was a constant, sickening sizzle that filled the air, that was being loudly emitted from each one of the deeply entrenched blades of light.
By the time this strange spell was done, he was now falling and readying his blade. One of the heads attempted to get him in mid fall, but was bashed in the face hard enough with the shield that it literally knocked it back and was now laying limp off to the right side of its body. In return, it gave a good opening and the blade that was readied before and stabbed it in the main part of the body, right between the sections of the neck of the middle and the head that he had momentarily stunned.
Afterwards, he leaped back a few feet and pulled back his blade while keeping the tip pointed straight at the monster. When he had done this a silver light began to run across the blade until the tip itself was sparking with a mixture of blue and silver light. It was then thrusted forward and had the effect of stabbing right through the base of the neck for the head that was on the opposite side of the one that was stunned.
While the blade was still clearly energized with some magic. The long weapon was then twisted until the edge was pointed towards the side and it was roughly pulled in that direction until it finally left the monster’s flesh.
This ended up with the result of that very same neck being more than halfway severed and hanging by a lump of flesh has a strong stream of its blood spilled forth and splattered onto not only the ground but the male’s armor as well. At that point he was now standing directly in the center of the crosshairs belonging to the middle head, as it looked down at him menacingly.
During the time that the two heads were being dealt with. The middle one however, was not ideally sitting by and had already completed its preparations for another breath attack all by itself after it had recovered from that shield throw earlier and was clearly wanting to launch it at point blank range onto its attacker that had been dealing one blow after another.
A sense of dread filled Nightmare Moon’s mind as she saw how there was no way of getting out of there before another one of those fire attacks was released. She had honestly believed that the male must have used up all of his magic by now and was doing everything he could through physical means.
Yet again, her expectations were broken, when she saw how he was not backing down. Instead, he readied his blade another time by spinning it in his hand as it made a quick arc until it was pointing directly behind his body. Just like the second attack before, this one was enveloped in another aura. This time however, it was pure white in color, as well as the density had caused the blade to appear as though it had tripled in size.
From all the way from where she was, she heard him screaming one last thing, as he swung his arm downwards and the blade began to cut along the ground at his feet until it came up in front and began to slice through the chest plate of the monster as it continued until the blade was now pointing straight above his form and directed to the star filled sky.
“Royal Authority!” As his weapon made the motion, the energy that was produced extended outwards and this had the result of causing it to be long enough that it could cut cleanly through the entire body of the monster. Not only did it go from the chest all the way back to the tip of its tail, but it had the effect of traveling up the neck itself and had cleanly split the head in half. There was not a single point at which the blade had been slowed down by either the tough looking natural armor of its skin or the bones within, as it passed through.
However, just before the head had managed to separate into two pieces, she could clearly see how the eyes were sporadically rolling around until they had managed to find where he was. The yellow glow that they had from before, was being slowly replaced with red at this point.
Nightmare Moon remembered from her past as Luna, that this was a clear sign of the creature attempting to use a petrification spell through its eyes. Thankfully enough, it had completely lost the rest of its strength so the light began to die down until it returned to its once yellow glow. But even then, that too faded until there was nothing but a dull brown as the two halves fell away from each other and fell into the river of lava that it had created around its own body.
The last thing that Nightmare Moon saw of that creature. Was the last of its flesh slowly submerging and the surrounding air being filled with the sickening stench of cooked meat, that quickly turned to that of something burning beyond recognition. As her nose scrunched up and she couldn't help but the cover it with both of her hands, before she was brought to the point of throwing up right there.
Due to being locked up for such an extended amount of time. She was no longer accustomed to the odd smells of such a thing and the new senses were forcing her to clench her eyes shut as an added measure to help in dulling the nauseous feeling before it progressed. She then thought back to when she made her appearance within that building and how there was that table full of confections. From there, she had to contain a groan as she had to thank her past self for not indulging in anything there before making that appearance. Which meant that she had nothing in her stomach that had to be discharged.
By the time that she had begun to recover. The sound of steps could be heard approaching, along with the undeniable sounds that would have come from stepping in a form of liquid. When she had looked up, she saw that he was only a few paces away and was apparently turning his helmet as to take in his surroundings. However, with how the night sky was being distorted by all the fluctuating waves of heat, she was unable to get a good amount of light to be able to see his face. Finally understanding that she had been fully focused on the monster, she too sat up and started to look around.
Nightmare Moon’s eyes suddenly went wide as pretty much the entire landscape had been turned into a layer of molten lava. Most of which was still glowing red and flowing from one part to another. She then realized that with everything being the way it was, then why was she not suffocating due to the toxic fumes which would have been given off by such an environment. Seemingly aware of her puzzlement, she then heard him speaking in what she thought to be a tender tone compared to all the other times.
“As much as I would like to continue with keeping this bubble of wind constantly going. I believe I would be neglectful in my civic duties if I was to leave things as they were.” With that said, he brought up his free hand after putting his shield away and pointed the open palm straight towards the sky. From there, Nightmare Moon Could feel a buildup of power flowing from the ground and up through his body. Just as it began to accumulate on the palm of his outstretched gloved hand. She heard him call out in a booming voice. “By my name. Deciphered the laws of nature! Squall!”
From there, a sudden gust of wind was created and the very air itself began to fill with what appeared to be billions of water droplets. Over the course of a few seconds, these accumulated just above. Where the water then turned into a sphere. The sphere was then shot towards the heavens and disappeared into the night sky when it got far enough away. This in turn had the added effect of causing everything to get much darker and even she herself was having trouble seeing even just passed her own nose. Afterwards, there was nothing but silence for several seconds. Seeing as nothing was happening, Nightmare Moon was beginning to become impatient.
Just as she was about to open her mouth to ask about what he had been trying to do. The sky began to fill with clouds and her stars were slowly becoming shrouded from view. Almost immediately, there was a heavy downpour that rained all around them and she was able to see the water droplets hitting and running down the edge of a transparent dome. She had thought it was merely a type of magical barrier, but with the way that the water was being splashed about, showed it to be nothing but pure air that was rotating at a high rate of velocity.
Over the course of a few minutes. She watched in awe as the entire range was cooling down thanks to the rain. The burning lights that were being emitted from the still hot lava was reflecting off of the water droplets that had started to flow into thin lines. There, they had been cascading in a spiraling motion along the dome that had been acting as their protection. Due to this, it gave the appearance of the water taking on the identity of the lava itself as it gave off an entrancing display.
As the sizzling heat was dying down with each droplet of water, Nightmare Moons Shoulders began to sag as she began to watch the spectacle before her. In a trembling voice, she tried to speak, just loud enough to be heard over the rain. “W-We were unaware that our subjects had progressed our magic to such an extent. Such a feat would have required a legion of Unicorns to do so. Along with a lengthy time required for the spell to be cast. Much has truly changed since our absence...”
She then heard the male speaking again, while looking straight at her. “What do you plan to do now?” The question only surprised the mare, as she looked towards him with a dumbfounded expression and was unable to give a reply as she looked slightly away. She then heard him say, “Are you going to continue fighting, run away, perhaps try your hand at making a deal or even surrender? Personally... I would prefer the fifth option.”
Inside of Nightmare Moons mind, she was going through each of the options and weighing their possibilities of success. In her current state, she knew that she would be no match. If she tried to run and he was not lying about being able to find her, then that would do no good. She had briefly considered the option of trying to make a deal. But judging from his attitude, along with the way he can fight and use magic that she was unaware of. Then there was a good chance that she would have nothing to really offer. She was currently beaten and did not have control of the Elements or that of Equestria itself. So that meant offering those was off the table.
But the very idea of surrendering only made her stomach turn in almost the same way that the smell earlier had done. Of course, she knew that this would be the only real option that she had at this time and she knew it. Although, when he said something about a fifth option. Her interest was piqued and she turned towards him and asked in a skeptical tone. “Pray tell, just what would this other option be for which you speak of?”
Without any warning at all, he knelt down and brought his face within a mear few inches of her own and began to speak just low enough that she herself had to concentrate on listening over the still falling rain. Even with him this close she still couldn't make out his facial features all that well and her eyes went almost comically wide when hearing of his proposal.
*Point of view: Twilight Sparkle* *Location: Castle of the two sisters* *Time: Twenty minutes later*
(Here is a picture of the throne room.)
Twilight was currently standing within the throne room of the dilapidated castle that was located near the center of the forest. Those that were accompanying her, had left to go outside in order to give her some breathing room to figure out the mystery behind the Elements of Harmony. She had been using one spell after another for the last ten minutes after finally finding them and placing them onto the ground. The Unicorn had been attempting to get them to unlock their secrets, but with little to no result.
So, after exhausting pretty much every spell that she could think of in her head. Along with those that were contained in the few books that she kept in a small pouch at her side. The Unicorn was no closer to understanding and was about to give up. But that was until a swirling black mist filled with stars appeared around and were primarily focused on the stones that contained the Elements. From there, they all were levitated into the air and out of surprise, Twilight had rushed head first and into the spiraling vortex. Only to be roughly deposited in another room in some new location when the unknown, swirling mist had finally dissipated.
From that point, things rapidly began to escalate. Nightmare moon appeared, although she was no longer wearing her battle armor from during that appearance inside of Ponyville. But instead, a flowing dark blue dress. They ended up having their small banter with one another and twilight charge Nightmare Moon in an attempt to get to the stones, that were now on the far side of the room after getting blasted away from them by Nightmare Moon herself, just earlier during the conversation. Only to do a fake out move and teleport directly behind the dark mare and alongside the Elements of Harmony once more.
Twilight had attempted to try and send pure energy into the stones in a last-ditch effort to finally bring out their power. Unfortunately, that too proved to be a fruitless attempt after the stones levitated for a few moments along with some random sparks of energy were coursing between them all. Only to fade as the stones then fell one by one to the stone floor. Along with a heavily breathing twilight, who was now crumpled down onto her hands and knees.
With the Unicorn now seemingly giving up. Nightmare Moon teleported right next to the Elements and slammed her hoof onto the ground while emitting a small wave of energy that coursed over them. Which then shattered them immediately. The dark mare then went on with another one of her rants about how the night shall never end.
Only to have Twilight, bringing her attention to the stairway leading down, after hearing a series of voices echoing from beyond her view. The first voice she recognized, belonged to Applejack, as she called out to the others who were obviously following along due to the number of hoofs hitting the stone steps. That was when she had this glimmer in her eyes as she began to connect the dots.
Just as all the other girls came into the room. Twilight turned towards Nightmare Moon and started to call out. She began to tell the dark mare, that she was wrong and the Elements were not destroyed. In fact, they lived on, in the very ponies that were standing right in that room.
One after another, Twilight explains how Applejack represented the Element of Honesty when she reassured her when she was full of doubt. Then there was Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with compassion when none of the others had even considered the idea when faced with a dangerous creature. For she represents the Element of Kindness.
Pinkie Pie, who vanquished the fear by giggling in the face of danger. She represents the Element of Laughter. Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift. Represents the Element of Generosity. And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own desires. Represents the Element of Loyalty.
Now looking to be panicked. Nightmare Moon tried to argue, that they did not have the sixth element yet. But only to have Twilight rebuttal that remark with an overwhelming amount of confidence in her voice as she revealed the final element to be that of the Magic of Friendship.
During the speech as each one of the girls was called forth and reveal to be a representation of each one of the virtues required. The remnants of the Elements of Harmony, began to levitate and congregate around each of the mare’s in the order that they had been called on. Once the very last Element had been discovered, did the final one appear in a flash of light above Twilight herself.
While all the rest turned into a set of necklaces that took on the form of each of their cutie marks. Twilights turned into that of a tiara with a large star with the same number of points as hers. Finally, the moment had come and the girls began to give off their own an aura of lights as they were now beginning to be lifted off the ground. Just as Twilight was about to say her final words before unleashing the power that they were looking for to save their world. Nightmare Moon started to clap her hands together while loudly calling out with a tone of voice that was very much unlike the one, she was using before.
Instead of that of the tyrannical kind that was ever present. This one was that of relief. Which in turn, cause all the girls in the room to freeze with a look of confusion on their faces. Even Pinkie Pie had produced a sound that was similar to that of a car hitting their breaks to come to a skidding halt while still in the air. ‘Tis about time you figured how to use those! We would have believed that the secret would have been discovered long before our return. Does thou have any idea how difficult it is to hold one's strength back??”
That was when Rainbow Dash started to shake her head quickly before pointing straight at Nightmare Moon With an accusatory finger as she yelled out angrily. “Hay! You're not weaseling your way out of this! Now shut up and let us blast you!” With that loud declaration, the other girls were brought back from their stupor and readied themselves once again. But only to be stopped a second time when they saw how Nightmare Moon, was now rolling her eyes before waving her right hand in a gesture that signified to wait.
The dark mare then said, “Oh we fully intend on you to... How you say, ‘blast me.’ However, I want to bring back your Princess and have a word with her.” This of course had the effect of stopping them along with half of the group tilting their heads in confusion. The only one that didn't seem weirded out at all, was Pinkie for some strange reason. Who just stayed there while floating in the air and had somehow brought out a tub of popcorn. What's more, she even had what appeared to be a large ice pack, held in the crook of her left elbow.
Nightmare Moon, then slowly walked over until she was in a position to have a clear line of sight with the moon high above that had the silhouette of a unicorn's head. After a few seconds of lighting up her horn. There was a flash of light that appeared near the girls, who were still halfway levitating in the air. But that too immediately stopped and all of them fell to the floor with a series of thuds and Whelps, when Twilight broke the connection after seeing Princess Celestia, who was now standing right there before her and looking to be unharmed.
As most were nursing a set of now bruised bottoms. Twilight had immediately rushed over and nearly tackled Celestia with a hug. Of course, the princess returned this Expression of affection with giving her own hug, along with enveloping the small unicorn in her wings.
Princess Celestia then began to speak in her motherly tone, while at the same time, looking towards all of the mare’s that were in her view. “I knew that you could-.” But she was interrupted by a set of hoofs tapping from the now apparently, Impatient Nightmare Moon. When Princess Celestia turned around. She came face-to-face with her turned sister and immediately took on a defensive stance with her wings flared out to protect twilight. While at the same time looking both, very nervous and confused, as her eyes darted between the Elements of Harmony and the other Alicorn in the room.
Nightmare Moon then placed both of her hands on her hips and began to roll her eyes once again. She then said in an exasperated tone. “Lower thou guard. For thee have won. They will soon use the Elements on myself. However, we have something to say before that is done...” When she had gotten near the end of that sentence. There was this small chill that was emanating from those words alone.
That was when she immediately rushed up and grabbed onto the section of the solar princess's dress, near the neck line and pulled her in close. That was when she began to speak just loud enough for all of them to hear. “We have but a missive to deliver to you.” Nightmare Moon, then raised her right hand back. It was then swung at Princess Celestia's face with enough force, that as it passed across her cheeks, The mare’s eyes were nearly popping out of her sockets. There was also this loud yelp of pain That came from her lips. Almost immediately, the white color from where she was struck, was now turning beat red.
When the action was finished. Nightmare Moon Then said, “That is for locking us up in the moon for a thousand years! As soon as she had said those words. The very hand that she had used before, had come back with a vengeance and struck the other set of cheeks with the back of her palm on a return trip. Of course, without saying it. Princess Celestia had also released another loud cry of pain. Upon the completion of the second hit. Nightmare Moon had released her sister before speaking again.
“That one is for throwing a sun into his face! To think you would be so irresponsible as to attack another innocent creature in such a manner! Well, we should not expect that thou has changed all that much! Thou were always a brute when are in one of those foul moods! Also, he sends his regards and will be paying you a visit... Soon! We expect that thou will be groveling before him and asking for his forgiveness if thou know what's possibly in store for thee!” That was when her voice began to become a little quieter. But was still able to be heard. “We know that we would, if too, were in such a predicament...”
During all of this. All of the ponies that were present, had their jaws dropping at the sight of their princess, having been literally bitch slapped right in front of all of them. Rainbow had lost her cool and was frantically trying to get at Nightmare Moon, after seeing Princess Celestia getting struck the first time around. But was stopped by Applejack who had a firm grip on her tail in the same way as she did back in town. All the while, the blue Pegasus was screaming. “No one hits the princess!”
In an attempt to keep the Pegasus from jumping into a fight, she called out to the mare with a struggling tone in her voice. “Whoa! Hold on there partner! I get the feelin that we need to sit this one out for a spell!” She even had to resort to using her own acts with her free hand that was not holding on to Rainbow to act as an anchor by swinging it hard enough to get it stuck into the stone floor. Now when it came to Twilight. All she could do was to stand there as stiff as a board and her mouth opening and closing in the same way a largemouth bass would when trying to breathe out of water.
At that point, Princess Celestia was now holding on to both sides of her now beginning to swell face. While at the same time looking at Nightmare Moon with an extremely shocked expression that clearly showed that she was not expecting this to happen. The white Alicorn was clearly going to protest what had occurred. But as soon as her mouth opened, the mare’s eyes turned into the smallest dots a Pony could ever make and this caused the words to form in her mouth to come out completely unintelligible and had the same expression as her student.
“What?... Face?... Sun?... Visit?” Princess Celestia was now shaking in pure fear as her eyes darted from left to right as if scanning every nook and cranny of the old throne room for another presence. Seemingly uncharacteristic for the Alicorn, who had sculpted a perfect image of herself for so many years. She quickly rushed up to Nightmare Moon in a panic and grabbed on to both of the mare’s shoulders. Seemingly to forget by her actions about just who it was she was near to.
Twilight just couldn't believe her eyes. The ruler of all of Equestria. The one who was a second mother to her and she looked up to for everything. Was right now the picture image of a filly, who had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar and was about to get a spanking from their mother. With how she was acting right before the one that had not only kidnapped her, but wanted to rule over a world of endless night. What Princess Celestia said next, only cemented her thoughts on the matter.
“J-Just what does he look like? P-Please! I need to know!” Obviously now being greatly annoyed. Nightmare Moon shoved the alabaster mare off of herself and took a step back to gain some distance before replying in a hotty tone, that showed that she was enjoying the site. “He's big. Very powerful. There was even something in regards to a music box. So, we get the feeling that he hates thee almost as much as we do, if not more by the way he talked. Now if you will excuse us. We are going to have them hit us with the Elements of Harmony before he comes back. He may have healed our wounds, but no way in Tartarus that we are going to be here for when he does decide to see thou.”
With that, Nightmare Moon turned around on the spot and proceeded towards the center of the old throne room. Once she had arrived, she faced the six mare's and took on a pose with her right arm stretched down, while the left was resting on her hips. After a few seconds of nothing happening. The dark mare began to tap her right hoof impatiently, before calling out in a rushed tone. “Well? We did just what he asked and delivered the missive. Unleash the power before he finds out that we are still here! There's no way we are going to have thee make him think we went back on our word!”
Once those words were spoken. Twilight could hear her mentor speaking in a tone that resembled her usual way of speech. However, there was an underlying layer of trembling laced throughout the whole thing. “Please… Twilight. Use the Elements on her so that we can put all this trouble behind us.” From there, they did their duties and brought down the power that was stored within the Elements of Harmony. After the rainbow colors and the bright flash subsided. Both she and the others that were next to her, were slowly getting up after feeling an intense wave of fatigue washing over them.
Afterwards, once they had recovered. All the other girls began to examine each other's new necklaces and admire their work of art. More so when it came to Rarity. Once they had gotten past all of that. There was the sound of Princess Celestia walking towards the spot that once had Nightmare Moon standing and found that there was a smaller mare now laying on the ground Instead.
She looked as though she could have been only around eighteen years of age. But what threw her off, was how this one was endowed with both a pair of wings and a horn. As her princess approached. She heard her mentor speaking in a gentle tone. “Twilight, I sent you to Ponyville to learn the magic of friendship and so you did. But I feel that there is another, that is also deserving of it as well. My dear sister, will you accept my friendship? I have missed you so much over these long years. I wish for us to be a family once more and to rule together.”
The one on the ground was fearful at first and tried to muster as much strength as they could to try to inch away. But as soon as Princess Celestia had spoken those words. The mare had ceased her activities and started to cry deeply. She then got to her hoofs, rather shakely and gave a surprise hug while burying the side of her face into the taller one's chest. The blue mare then uttered in a broken-up sentence between sobs. “W-We have missed thee so much dear sister! We are so very sorry for what we have done! Could you ever forgive us!”
The next thing to happen was for all in the room to scream out in unison. “What!! She's your sister!!” This was immediately followed with Pinkie screaming at nearly the top of her lungs only after finally finishing the last of her popcorn, that she had been eating throughout this whole thing. “We gotta throw a party! Also, here you go princess. You're gonna need this.” What Pinkie was referring to, was the bag of ice that she had been holding on to for the swelling on the princess's face from the pair of hard slaps that she took earlier.
So, after a while of allowing the swelling to finally go down. Along with the newly found out to be Princess Luna that was trying to assist whenever she could. Although, she didn't have enough magic to do pretty much anything at all at the moment. They had eventually got back to Ponyville and continued with the festivities. But this was after explaining the situation and how Nightmare Moon was defeated. Thanks to the brave six Ponies that were standing near the Princess.
Of course, this all led to the part where Twilight thought that she was going to need to return to Canterlot, now that her need to be there had been fulfilled. However, to her surprise, she got to stay under the new orders of learning the magic of friendship and sending in her reports in regards to the subject back to Celestia.
Although, during the festivities and talking with her new friends. The mare had caught for but a brief moment a figure that was standing all on its own near a tree, that was located on the very edge of the party area that was being held outside. From what she could tell, that they were easily over seven hoofs tall. Perhaps, closer to eight. Whoever it was, they had a very big build and was wearing mostly white. But as soon as those thoughts went to her head as she was taking in exactly what she was looking at. A vague memory started to peek out from the description, but she was having a hard time in placing it.
She was going to try and put some more thought into it with how much it was bugging her. Unfortunately for Twilight, she was distracted with her new friends coming up to discuss about the living arrangements and if there was any need for their help to get it ready for not only herself but spite to live in comfortably. When she had gotten a chance to look at the tree once more. The one that was standing there could no longer be seen and there were no traces at all as to where they had gone too.
It would seem that Fluttershy had noticed how Twilight was looking off towards an area where there was no pony and quickly asked in her usual volume, that required one to really try hard at listening. “Um... Twilight, do you see something over there?” While asking, the yellow Pegasus was also glancing towards the tree.
While looking rather confused herself. Twilight reluctantly answered with. “I just saw some stallion over there wearing white and blue by the tree, but I don't see them anymore.” That was when Rainbow Dash jumped into the conversation while hovering right overhead and taking a look at the tree herself. “It's probably that mystery stallion that Applejack's been going on about. He's pretty much what every Pony in town ever gossips over. Ten new bit says that he’s eating all the attention up! Must have gone running under the bed as soon as Nightmare Moon showed her face earlier in town.”
Upon hearing this. Fluttershy brought both of her hands up to her face before saying, “Oh my... The poor thing must be terrified.” Applejack was the next to speak up, as she was now standing on the left side of Twilight. “I doubt that fella's scared of anything from what I saw.” From there, it was Rarity that began to inform her about what they had all been told about the incident from Applejack.
*Point of view: Applejack*
The farm mare pretty much zoned out the words coming from the fashion pony while turning her head from the tree that they were all just looking at, back to that of the Everfree forest. She then started to think about what they had gone through, while making their way into the dense forest.
She recalled the landslide. Then came the other things such as the sea serpent, Manticore, Scary trees and also that weird fog that was keeping Rainbow Dash held up for so long when fixing the bridge. During the whole way, what really stood out almost constantly. Was how they were following a well-made, beaten path.
No matter how much she looked at it, the only explanation would have been that it was being traveled on, what could have been a daily basis for quite some time with how the ground was so compacted the way it was. If it wasn't done so, then she was pretty sure that it would have taken them longer to find the castle. Or even worse, their group could have gotten aimlessly lost.
She had even had this weird feeling that something was off with how they had not encountered any monsters during the whole trip, aside from the manticore and that one sea dragon that was in the river. At the very least, she had expected a pack or two of Timberwolves to show up. However, there were no signs of them to be seen.
That was when another thought popped in the farmer's head and she turned towards Pinkie, who was not far away and was inhaling what she was pretty sure was the fifth plate of cupcakes. Hey Pinkie? Didn't cha say you had to deliver some muffins earlier?” This got her a smile so wide, that at she could easily see that there was over a dozen cupcakes stuffed in her cheeks.
After taking a moment to swallow the entire load at once, the pink mare bounced right over as if she had not eaten enough goods to cause her to be stuck on the ground until her stomach had settled. Applejack then heard Pinkie saying, “Oh that? I delivered them while everyone was talking about Twilight's new place.” This only got a confused, “Huh?” From the farm mare Before she went on. “He was standing over there by the tree only a moment ago.”
Applejack removed her hat and began to scratch along the side of her right ear before she asked Pinkie something that should have occurred to her earlier. “Pinkie... You know every pony that's in this town. What is the fella's name that you delivered those pastries too?” The pink mare suddenly had a serious face on, as she was looking straight at Applejack. But the next answer that came out of the mare’s mouth, only caused Applejack to look at her with even more confusion. This was thanks to the serious nature, in which the party mare was now speaking with.
“Applejack... If it was any other, then I would tell you in a heartbeat. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. I really, really would. But I will not jeopardize my new friendship by doing something that I know that my new friend will not like. If you want to know his name you have to get it straight from him yourself.”
That was when she got extremely close and Applejack didn't know exactly how it was possible. But somehow, her eyes were being pushed into her head as Pinkie’s apparently were nearly leaving her own with how they were almost pressing their lips against one another. Pinkie then said, “I have been waiting for far too long to be friends with him. So, don’t... Ruin... This... For... Me!” This in turn, got Applejack to take a single slow step back and nod her head slowly as soon as her face was safely out of range of bumping into the pink mare’s.
Almost like how someone can flip a light switch and turn the room from dark to light. Pinkie’s whole vibe had suddenly switched back to her cheery one, when she caught sight of something large moving through the crowd. This ended up getting her to bounce in place as she ran towards it while screaming, “Woohoo! They brought out the construction golem for the kids to play on! I'm next! I'm next!”
The Golem in question, that pinkie was just talking about. Was one that belonged to the local construction crews that had been invented a handful of years back. This one in particular, was among the early models and Ponyville was chosen to try it out as a test, to see how well the product would work in the real field. Needless to say, it was a big hit and helped quite a lot. This one in particular was over four meters tall and was constructed in a way, that made it resemble a brick house that was made of clay.
Applejack didn't know too much about it. But she did recognize the insignia of the products makers on the outside left leg near the knee. It was the exact same company that they had just gotten their free tractor from, over at her farm. Right there, printed within a silver gear icon, was the letters, T H I S. But it didn't take long until she heard another excited squeak from right next to her. This one turned out to be from Twilight and she was practically sparkling in the eyes as she was looking at the Golem, while speaking at a speed that would rival with that of pinkie.
“By Celestia! You have one of the original mass-produced models here in ponyville??!!! Did you know Just how lucky you all are to have one of these?! It may not look like much and it’s the standard model with no extra features. But they're incredibly sturdy. I just have to get a closer look at it! Oh, I wonder if the ones that own it right now will allow me to tinker with it?! Best day ever!!!!” Yet again, the purple Unicorn was now imitating Pinkie and had zoomed over fast enough to leave a cloud impression in her place that lasted a few seconds before clearing away.
(Here is a picture of what the Golem looks like.)
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: A few minutes ago*
Brex was currently standing with his body partially leaning against the tree while looking over the crowd. There was the music being played on the stage after the whole appearance of their princess. Along with the surprising introduction of the long-lost sister and co-ruler. Then there were all the ponies that were playing about and conversing with one another while enjoying the drinks and food being provided.
As his site was roaming from place to place. It landed on a group of ponies consisting of Twilight And all of her friends. He had caught her glimpsing in his way and just as she had turned to answer something being said by others apparently. A pink blur zoomed across the front of his mask. This of course almost caused him to jump out of his skin, when his mind instantly associated it with Pinkie Pie.
But after immediately checking his surroundings to find that she was nowhere to be found. But what he did find, was a large white box with a note taped to the very top of it. Seemingly weary of it. The Roegadyn carefully reached and plucked the note off and began to read it to himself.
Dear Gambit.
You missed the party last night but I saved you some of the blueberry muffins. Don't worry about me telling the others about you. I won't even tell them your name. When you are feeling up to having a party, let me know. I promise it won't be a big one and will be only for a small group if that's what you want. Also, I wasn't quite sure what to call you so I went with your adventurer's name when writing this.
Sincerely, your future friend.
Within his mind. Brex was not entirely sure as to how he should be feeling about this. Half of his rational brain was screaming that he needed to get out of there and run for the hills, with how much that girl seems to know. While on the other side, He was strangely feeling at ease and the idea that there would be another out there that knew his secret and was apparently keeping it to themselves for his sake. In the end, he resolved to seeing how this would play out.
Afterwards, Brex reached down and picked up the box and took a quick glance inside and found that it was Indeed full of blueberry muffins and the smell was starting to make him hungry. Since it had been over a day from when he had that omelet over at the café with rose. He started to make his way back towards the flower shop, with the box under his left arm.
As the sounds of the party were becoming lighter as he went further away and the number of ponies that could be seen had dropped to none. He held out his right hand. From there, an item from the item box appeared within his grasp. It had the appearance of a piece of marble like stone, that was at first glance pure white. But after a few seconds, there was a shifting rainbow set of colors flowing over the surface. Just pass those colors however, was another set that was darker in the way that it was lightly pulsing.
After a few seconds of staring at it. He placed it back into his item box and continued on his way. All the while, lately humming a certain lullaby that had been coming and going over the past decade.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia* *Time: A few hours later* *Location: Castle within Canterlot*
After partaking in the celebration in Ponyville, Celestia and her younger sister Luna both came back to their new home. At the moment, Luna was currently resting to recover her magic. Along as to recover what little strength she had left after such a grueling experience.
As soon as she had made sure that her sister was comfortable in her new room, Princess Celestia Immediately rushed back to her own and made sure that both her door and balcony was locked shut and the curtains were closed. She then swiftly ran into her closet and pulled out a small chest and placed it on the writing desk that was within her room. From there, she opened the lid and pulled out a single candle Inlaid it on the edge of the desk and grabbed a blank piece of parchment and began to write furiously on it.
After a few moments of doing this, she immediately sparked her horn to life and lit the candle after she had started to levitate it. Once the flame was going hot. The parchment itself was rolled up and a wax seal showing the sun was stamped onto a ribbon wrapped around it. When the preparations were completed, it was then held so that the flame was licking at the edge of the paper.
This of course lit it a flame. But instead of a slow burn like one would expect. It instantly went up in a puff of smoke and appear to be getting pulled into a point in space, that was right above her head. It was no bigger than a needle could fit through and disappeared when the last of the smoke had passed through. When the act was done, the remains of the single candle immediately began to get eaten away by the flame, as the wick used up the rest of the wax within moments until there was nothing left.
Once the message had been sent. The Princess slumped into the chair that was right next to her and was now leaning forward and covering her face with both of her hands as they rested their elbows on to her knees. In a slightly defeated tone that she barely managed to get past her hands. Princess Celestia said the following as one would when asking for advice to anyone that would listen.
“I only just had to deal with one of my many mistakes. Yet I was only just notified that I have another that is going to be visiting me... if he is capable of making a being such as Nightmare Moon, to show such a reaction and to allow herself to be purged from Luna. Then what should I expect to happen. I still can't get over what was worse back then. Was it the beating that I had suffered through or was it that gaze that I received... After all this time I have yet to gain his name, not even the two Royal Guards that served me back then would disclose it.”
“All that is left is to wait for my dear sister to awaken and ask her for any additional details. For such a long time I had believed him to have been long since dead. Has he been around this whole time or did he just recently come back? If it was possible for him to return from the dead, then how was it done? If he had not truly died, then how has he kept himself alive all this time? Could he be an immortal just as my sister and I are?”
After a few seconds of silence, the alabaster Alicorn immediately shot up with her head and look towards the picture frame that was on the nightstand. Now looking rather flustered as she spoke in an embarrassed tone. If it truly was he who was the one to deliver the box, then... That was when her eyes drifted across the surface of the table until it rested on the picture frame that was sitting on top and facing towards the bed. Instantly, another groan escapes the princess as she buried her face into her hands once again and a hint of a flushed face could be seen between the fingers. She also spoke in an embarrassed tone. “He… He must have seen it…”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: The other side*
Within the cartoonish house. There was a group of individuals crowded around and on a couch That was originally meant for three or four individuals to fit. But had been expanded to set a larger group all at once. The small television that was present within the show known as The Simpsons. Had also been replaced with a seventy-five-inch, flat screen high-definition television set. It had right at that moment shown the princess in her current state from within her bed chambers.
But the picture itself had come to a sudden freeze as a set of texts appeared over the image that said, “Connection lost.” This of course, got the following to be said all at the same time. “Yuck! lovey-dovey stuff?! Show more things getting smashed. I want more violence. Come on man! He really should have dragged that fight out more. At least destroy a mountain!”
“Speak for yourself brother. You're not interested in anything, unless there is a bunch of death and violence going on. I on the other hand, enjoy these little moments. I just can’t wait to see what happens next.”
“The both of you need to know that a story has to have a balance, just like when crafting. If he did nothing but the lovey-dovey stuff or fighting. Then it would get boring fast. But I did like how he got through to that girl. Although, the hair pulling may have been a little much.”
“I for one, think that his execution can be rather brutish at times. But it does seem rather effective. Although, I don't see the meaning of him calling out that last skill move, when he killed the three-headed Hydra. Could have sworn I told him not to call those out. There was also the chanting he released in order to make that rain come down. I believe he requires a refresher course.”
“Oh, give me a break! It's obvious that he did all that stuff to be cool. What's the use of doing an epic strike when you can't say something to go along with it? Besides I think he was holding back quite a bit during that fight. That other thing of his wasn't even pulled out. It did make me happy when he went so far as to heal her up afterwards.”
“Hoo-Hoohooo! The kid sure has come a long way since we last spoke. I knew that he could be a little crafty, but to have that monster already captured and set up to explode through the ground when he needed to show off his strength. Now that was a stroke of genius. It still surprises me that he was able to keep it down there for a few days. well, I can't really feel bad for it though, it was terrorizing a village when he came across it. Good thing that Rory was down there keeping it under control until it was time to be released.”
As all of the commotion had calmed down after everyone had given their opinions on what they were watching. All in attendance were slowly bringing their attention to the last member on the couch, who had yet to say a word. This one being a female with long black hair and wearing an outfit that was mostly blue. There were even these red pants, white boots, a red sash and arm guards being worn. All in all, it was pretty much something that one would see in an old-style martial arts anime character.
Right now, she had an indifferent expression while still staring at the frozen picture on the screen. But soon it changed to that of a small smile while closing her eyes and giving a subtle nod of approval. This small gesture ended up having the effect of causing all of those around, to release a relieved expression. Along with a set of sighs upon seeing the female’s reaction.
She then turned to the other character that came from the same anime that her form was taken from, which turned out to be an elderly man wearing sunglasses and a purple tortoise shell on his back. That was when she asked, “Did you already know that this was how it was going to turn out?” The man who is known as Daddy, quickly replied by shaking his head and bringing up both of his hands in a shrugging gesture while speaking. “As much as I'd like to take credit for the boy's actions. I'm afraid to say that its all pretty much out of my hands.”
That was when he stepped away from the couch after getting off and approached the television. As soon as he had gotten to it, he reached over and grabbed on to the remote and started to click a few buttons while pointing the small device at the screen. This action had caused it to change to a number of different images. These depicting both familiar and strange locations. Seemingly getting annoyed that it was not as easy to get to the channel he wanted.
Daddy had started to press the buttons a lot faster which caused the images to change in the blink of an eye. It was unknown if he had been paying attention. But for the briefest of seconds. The screen had shown a dark landscape and an equally black glowing purple sun in the background. Within the shot was also a pair of black robed individuals with each wearing a black and a red mask, that was currently walking through a structure that had rows upon rows of pillars. As for the slightly shorter one with the red mask, they were currently looking at a necklace that was being held in front of their face while closely behind the taller one of the pair.
During all of this. Daddy was getting increasingly agitated until he had finally found what he was looking for. What was shown on the screen, resembled what could have been a television channel guide that one would bring up when wanting to see what was going to be shown on cable. There was a list and a number selection that went from channel one, and immediately leading to the symbol which represented infinity.
He then started to scroll down until he got to a particular number, that had the half hour time slot and the name, M L P. Brex Mith. He then used the remote as a pointer and directed the woman's gaze to a section of the description for the show. That was when he said, “Take a look at this mom. Right here at the bottom that says that the show is live. Unlike the one above and below, this is the only one that says that. It's been like this since the day he appeared in the forest.”
“The instant he stepped foot in that world in his new body, everything in regards to that place has gone off the predetermined path. Even those of that world have changed too. some even have branching paths. So, I have no idea just what's going to happen to the kid or that world. However, I do know this!” That was when he used the remote to skip ahead. There, the display said the exact same thing but mostly blank on the episode details. After a few moments of clicking, he stopped after so many had passed to indicate that some time had been skipped and he pointed at one block in particular.
That was when he started to speak in an excited tone. “Before the boy came. This is where it all ended. when I say it all ended, I mean all, as in everything living being on the planet. But look at this now. It's still going. Everything beyond this point is completely blank as one solid line. Which means I have no idea how much longer this time line will keep on going. It's safe to say that it was a good idea to bring him over by making that request to the Merchants.”
The now identified Mom, who is still on the couch. Had both her arms and legs crossed while giving him a dubious stare down. After a few more seconds of silence and allowing Daddy to figuratively sweat bullets. Mom finally released a sigh before saying in a defeated tone. “Fine, he passes... For now. Just make sure that you don't get directly involved with him anymore than what’s allowed. Also, if there are to be any type of interference. Then it needs to be talked with and voted as a majority. So, no more going off on your own and doing things behind my back, anymore. This also goes for the two of you!”
That last bit had been clearly directed with her eyes as she went between Daddy and the two other girls in the room, that had been hiding around the door frame and poking their heads to see what was happening. These being, both Little Light and Little Moon. Who are now giving a nervous smile while ducking away out of view.
Daddy then brought both of his hands up and began to rub them together, while giving his own little smile, before he began to ask something. But was immediately stopped when Mom brought up her right hand and bawled it into a fist. Seeing this, Daddy immediately began to look fearful as all the hairs on his body were now sticking out like porcupine spines as he jumped in place. Of course, this only meant that it had to be his mustache and beard.
Daddy then blurted out in a panic, while also showing that he was spitting in all the commotion. “Please don't hurt me! Please don't hurt me!” He had even gone so far as to crouch down and pull his shell over himself as an added measure of protection. While pulling his entire body underneath. He had stuck out his left arm and snapped his fingers in order to summon a World War Two helmet and pulled it underneath. Most likely to place on his head for even more protection.
But when nothing happened for a good solid minute. Daddy lifted the shell to find that the one called Mom, was giving him a bemused smirk while holding something in her open palm. The item in question did not seem to have a true physical form. As it was more of a conglomerate of ever shifting, miniature stars that seem to change in the amount of brightness each one had. Once in a while, a thin strand of light would connect them only to disappear and form new ones with another. In a way it was close to what one would picture if they were to connect the lines in the constellations, but those very stars would continuously change to the next one after a few seconds.
Mom then said, while giving a flat stare along with another one of those crooked smiles that one would see when they just played a joke and gotten away with it. “I'm rather busy with other areas. Could I count on you to send this to him when you feel that the time is right?” This had clearly confused Daddy as he immediately got to his feet and approached to see what exactly was being given to him to relay.
That was when Daddy was now scrunching up his face while looking at it even more intently than before. However, after a few seconds of this. He had a puzzled expression while looking at Mom, before he asked the following question while scratching the side of his head. “Are you saying you're finally going to give the kid one of your blessings?” Mom only shook her head before she answered. “No. I think he still has a while to go before he earns my blessing. But I will give him a small gift. Let's just say that... this is a small reward for his efforts.”
Mom then looked around the room before she began to speak in a somewhat confused tone of her own. “I do wish that the others were able to attend as well but they were far too busy from what I heard. Of course, there's one in particular that I did want to have a few words with, but didn't see this as a worthwhile event to attend. Although it may have been for the better good of all present. Especially for that kid, of yours. I may not be fully invested in him just yet. But even I would not wish him to be dragged off to the Coliseum.”
This ended up causing Daddy to rub his face down so hard with his right hand that it ended up stretching it a few inches, before it pop back in place once he had let go. He then released another grown of annoyance before saying in a weak voice. “There's always one battle nut in every family isn't there? And I used to think that Bart was bad. It had completely slipped my mind.”
Mom had instantly look confused when the name Bart had come up, but had a look of realization when she saw the kid from before. He was running around with a pair of scissors and what appeared to be a tuft of black hair in the other hand through the window leading to the front lawn. Immediately after seeing this. there was a man's voice that could be heard before the tall older looking male came into view who was screaming at the top of his lungs.
The kid had literally stopped after getting a good distance away on the lawn and proceeded to tear off his own pants and throw them in the face of the older man. As a result, this only caused him to rip them off of his face and throw them onto the ground before giving a death glare to the small child. The man then snapped his fingers and produced a type of flying machine that came into existence after a bright flash of light.
(Here is a picture of the ship that was summoned.)
After snapping his fingers another time, he was now in the pilot seat and was now shooting a set of on-board machine guns, that was leaving a trail of broken up lawn and leading straight to the kid. All the while, screaming out thanks to an onboard speaker system. “You little brat! I'll teach you not to snip off someone's beard when they're not looking!” If one was able to get a good view. Then they would see that all of the hair had been taken off of his face around the chin and left him with the facial hair on the sides that resembled that of Wolverine from the X-Men. The last thing that could be heard over the gun fire. Was the kid screaming in utter horror. “Ay Caramba! Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 44: Catching Up Among Sisters.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Princess Celestia’s bed chambers within the castle at Canterlot* *Time: Nine in the morning. The day after the summer sun celebration*
Princess Celestia had already given the order to have todays scheduled day court to be canceled for an important personal matter that is in need of her undivided attention. Once she had returned to the castle the day before. The captain of the guard, who was a very talented shield magic using unicorn was summoned to the Throne room immediately after they had arrived back from Ponyville. The Unicorn in question, went by the name of Shining Armor and was the elder brother to her personal student, Twilight Sparkle.
At the time. Celestia had her younger sister, who was still in a weakened state by her side when he had entered the room through the large double doors that required a Unicorn to help open them with how heavy they were. It didn't take more than a moment for him to noticed the other one in the room aside from his Princess. But without breaking his professional attitude, He gave a salute, seeing as the Princess he served was not bothered by the close proximity of another.
However, He did have to try really hard in doing so, with how Princess Celestia had wrapped one of her wings around this new pony. While standing at the base of the steps leading up to the throne. Princess Celestia, while still not turning her full attention away from the one beside her spoke to him in her usual calm and motherly tone.
“Captain Shining Armor. Please have the word sent out to all the staff, as well as those within the guard that my sister has finally returned to us. Furthermore, I will have day court be put on hold until the day after tomorrow. I have much that needs to be discussed and I would very much like time to reconnect with my long-lost sister, Princess Luna.”
Hearing this caused the male Unicorn to literally drop his jaw in shock of the sudden news. After taking a moment to blink several times. He quickly re-composed himself and gave a light bow. But before he left the room to execute his orders, he gave Princess Luna her own before saying, “I’m happy to hear that you are back my princess. I shall do everything in my power to ensure that none shall interrupt the both of you.”
When Shining Armor had left the room and the doors were closed. It was now just the two princesses together within the throne room. From there, Celestia began to talk to Luna who was unfortunately very tired due to the whole ordeal with just having Nightmare Moon removed after a thousand years. Thankfully, Celestia saw this and quickly teleported them both to the new bedroom that would be going to Luna. Over the course of a decade, it had been painstakingly decorated in a way, that Celestia knew would have been the style that her sister would have liked.
While keeping everything a secret, the sun princess had been doing it all on her own when she had those very few down times. So, it had taken a while for her to have it completed. Very much in the opposite direction of her own bedroom. This one was made with the nighttime theme. The walls were blue and most of the objects were black or at least a very dark shade of blue and silver. But what stood out the most, was how the bed was shaped close to that of a crescent moon and had this one light fixture hanging on the top while the bottom sections of it made it appear that the moon was resting on top of a cloud.
She had originally wanted to show this off to her sister and to hear her thoughts on it with how much work she had put into doing everything on her own. But knew that that was not really all that important at the moment and that Luna really needed a comfortable place to rest. So as soon as she had tucked her away in bed. Celestia laid next to her sister while draping a wing over the younger one’s form and waiting for Luna to finally fall asleep in her arms.
Now returning to the present. Celestia was now waiting in her room for Luna to make her way over from her own chambers. She already had set up a tea set on the table and had been pacing around while trying to get her thoughts in order. She had appeared to be extremely nervous with how she kept bringing up her hands to begin biting on her nails in nervousness. But had to stop herself every time when it became noticed that she was doing so.
She was also muttering to herself in a low volume, as she was saying the following. “Hi Luna, long time no see... No... Greetings Princess Luna, I am so glad that.... No, no, no! Why is this so hard. After all this time, why am I so nervous about the way I greet her. I'll just act like my normal self!” However, as soon as she had said that. The doors had a knock coming from them and the voice of Luna could be heard asking for permission to come in.
Upon hearing this, Celestia called out and had to catch herself when her voice had this small cracking tone to it. “Please dear sister, come in.” But as soon as Luna had entered and the door was closed, did she get nearly tackled by a sudden rush of wind, when Celestia came barreling at her and picked her up into a bone crushing hug. All the while rubbing the side of her cheeks against her little sisters and giving out these excitable, “Coos” While doing so. But on Luna’s side. She was now struggling to breathe with how much force was being used on the hug. Along with her current weakened state that was not lending any type of help.
Thankfully, Luna had managed to wheeze out the following words. “Dear… Sister. For as much as we love thou’s company... We are more in favor of air at this time...” Which immediately got the older sister to lighten up on the hug and looking extremely embarrassed at her own childish actions. Afterwards, they both sat down at either side of a small table and began to get their drinks ready as Celestia used her magic to levitate everything around and into their cups.
After a few moments of silence and sipping. It was Luna who broke It by asking. “As much as we would like to catch up on current events. Might thee start with who that possibly was that we had the unfortunate timing of meeting, when was still not in our right mind? From what we have gathered. Mayhap’s were in one of those legendary moods that led into earn his scorn, dear sister?”
When the question was asked. Celestia was in mid-sip of her tea and had nearly had a violent reaction to the subject. Which resulted in her spilling some of the tea while trying to keep the rest from coming out of her mouth. But with little success. Upon seeing this, Luna began to narrow her eyes in suspicion. While waiting for a reply as Celestia summoned a cloth to quickly wipe up the residue that was now on the table.
The alabaster Alicorn was clearly flustered with how her eyes kept roaming over the table as if trying to find something to aid her in some fashion, but to no avail. While giving a weak smile and a slight wince to one of her eyes. Celestia released a small, yet weak chuckle as she brought herself back to how she was a few moments ago.
She had then, released a small sigh while looking down at the table with a dreary expression Being plastered on her face. I am afraid that I have been holding this for quite some time. During the last eight-hundred years, only two others have known about the incident. But of course, I am the only one left that knows the truth now. There was yet another heavy sigh that escaped her lips, before she continued while slowly using her magic to stir her cup of tea.
“From what you already know, I take it that you have surmised that this occurred roughly two hundred years after your banishment. At the time we had just recently completed this new palace and was literally on the day of its celebration that it had all occurred. I had just returned to the throne room after speaking to our subjects when a pony was rushed inside. Along with a nurse and another at his side.”
“The one who was being accompanied, was a Unicorn stallion by the name of Break Down. This Pony was a leader of a small group that was meant to patrol within the edge of the Everfree forest. I had recognized him due to a report that was given only a few days beforehand. Apparently, they had the misfortune of running into a swamp Hydra that had given chase. However due to unforeseen circumstances that eluded us at the time. They had managed to escape with only a few bumps and bruises.”
“As for the Hydra that was mentioned. It was found slain with its three brains being completely destroyed with the use of a cleanly made cut that was going through each of their skulls. I did not even think it was possible to even kill a Hydra in such a fashion, with how they are able to regenerate from almost any wound. But it would seem that making such a clean strike, without taking off the head completely was able to bypass the healing process with all three of the brains being destroyed simultaneously.”
“We did use a few spells to identify just how it was done and it was quickly discovered, that there were trace amounts of brain matter that had belong to one of the other heads that had been mixed into the other two. Which led us to believe that it was a single strike that made contact and managed to cut through them in just one motion.”
This news ended up causing Luna to nearly drop her own cup of tea as she was beginning to bring it back up for another sip. In a disbelieving and shocked tone. She then asked, “Are thee quite sure of this? If we are not mistaken, then is a Hydras head not as strong as Diamond? Which would make such a procedure to be nigh impossible? We have even ourselves cut off many a Hydra’s heads. Yet they always grew straight back. To think such a method of dealing with them was available and none has attempted to do so in the past, just boggles the mind.”
Celestia could not help but nod as she said, “Indeed my dear sister. I do recall that we ourselves have cut off a section of their heads. But to only have it completely regenerate within minutes. The one that did this must have either have been incredibly lucky or equally as skilled to accomplish such a feat. But I see that we had managed to have gone off topic.”
Break Down was apparently heavily injured with the many bruises and cuts that could be seen on his face along with how his right ear had been badly hurt. It was apparent that he was trying to say something but was unable to at the time. The other who had accompanied him, was his father who I knew to be Beat Down, had stepped forward and started to speak on his son’s behalf. All the while, his son was being tended to with healing magic from the nurse.
“Your highness, I have dire news! My son, who had been assigned to lead a trio into the Everfree, to continue their patrols were suddenly ambushed by some unknown creature! From what my son told me, it had a tendency to stay in the shadows and chase them all the way back towards the old Castle. From there, they ran and attempted to escape but his other two comrades were slowly being picked off and had been getting drag the way.”
Beat Down was clearly beginning to be distraught when he continued to say how his son had tried to rescue them and tracked the beast further into the castle. But unfortunately, breakdown was too late and found their mangled corpses that had been left in the middle of one of the hallways, with the limb being mostly torn clean off and blood spilled all over the floor.
“When I had asked him how his son was able to get away. He had informed me that the creature was led to a section of the castle that was falling apart and had caused a small cave-in to distract it, while trying to get away. They had left the day before and Break Down had been struggling to get through the Everfree forest for the entire night. In doing so, dodging many beasts and fighting his way through what he could to deliver the news and only just arrived at the castle a short time ago.”
“I already had prior knowledge of the many deeds that his father performed from during the war with the Griffins that came up only a short time earlier. Back then, I had no need to disregard his words and immediately took them as fact. But upon hearing about the fate of two of my loyal guards and what had been done to their bodies, had filled me with much rage. Feeling as though I had heard enough, I took it upon myself to immediately find my battle armor and soared straight towards the old castle without so much as saying another word to my guard captains or servants.”
Celestia then closed her eyes as her head began to lower and her voice had turned weaker. “That was my first mistake of that fateful day. Now that I think on it more. If I had put forth some small effort into learning what had happened instead of allowing my emotions to dictate my actions, then I would have been able at that time, notice the discrepancies within the story that I was told by both Beat Down and his son.”
“The first being, the fact that I already knew that the group that had gone out, had only just been discharged after having an encounter with the Hydra only a few days before. After having such an ordeal, it would have been unwise to send them back into the field with only two days off to recover. The regulations that I personally oversaw would have given them a full week at the least to recover from both the mental and physical trauma it would have caused to go against such a beast.”
“The next item that ought to have caught my attention, should have been the part about him fighting his way through the Everfree. It was true that his armor and injuries were numerous. But not many were truly serious. If anything, they looked worse than they truly were. Furthermore, was in the way his gear had been damaged. If it was caused by a creature from the Everfree and if he did in fact travel through it in the middle of the night. Then why were so many of the damages so cleanly made?”
“There wasn't even much dirt to be seen as most of it was freshly polished. Some of the sections that had been clearly struck did not even line up with the injuries on the pony very well. Looking back at it more, it was obvious that it had been removed and then placed back on after the damages were caused. Later on, it was found out that most of the dirt that was around the damaged sections came from a type of soil that was common within the city of Canterlot and not that of the Everfree forest.”
“As for the very last discrepancy in the story. I had been outside at the only entrance that one would have needed to go through if they had been coming from outside of the city for a few hours. If Break Down had in fact come through as his father said, then there would have been a commotion that I would have been able to see. Yet there was no such occurrence.”
Luna then said, while looking at her sister with just one eye open and sipping at her tea. “Thee were always one to lose focus on the small details once all riled up. We do so hope that thou would have kick that unruly habit. But yes, we do see what thou mean when you explain it in such a way. In our day, the unscrupulous ones would have put more effort into their lies but please, continue.”
Celestia had winced upon being reminded about how she was like all of those years ago. She also knew full well that Luna would not have been deceived so easily if she were in that very same situation and would have seen through the lies almost immediately. She then went on to continue her story while seemingly more uncomfortable as it went on.
That was when Celestia explained to Luna about how she flew over the forest and when she had gotten close enough to the castle, she used a spell on herself that allowed one to detect any type of life within the structure.
But of course, this meant that she was only able to sense what was within the walls and there was only one living creature inside. At the time, she was still enraged by what she had heard only a short time ago and without even considering the possibility of confronting whoever it was that she picked up on her scan. Celestia had instead, gone with a pre-emptive strike in tried to kill whoever it was with a finely condensed beam of magic that was capable of melting through rock.
At this point, Luna was scowling at her older sister from the other side of the table while holding her teacup just a mear inch away from her mouth. Luna then began to speak in an emotionless tone. “Allow us to presume that the one that was attacked was him, correct?” Of course, this got a very slow, yet reluctant nod from Celestia before Luna asked her to continue. While slowly resuming in sipping on her tea once again.
The story had then progressed from her point of view about how the first attack did not kill him and she was trying to take him out with a series of other spells. Only to have near misses, as he kept on dodging while on the ground as she herself was high in the sky and well over a mile away and using magic to increase her sight. Although she did end up shortening the distance due to the constant missing from where she was.
After a while of constantly firing spell after spell that was being channeled through her spears tip. She managed to change up the way she was launching them and it finally struck at her target. Once she had found out that he was no longer able to move and still filled with a righteous rage that made her blind to everything aside from wanting to take revenge.
Celestia had use a combination of spells to launch a large fireball that would be contained within a self-made shield. This was to prevent the castle from being destroyed, while at the same time, focusing all of the power in one place. All to make sure that her foe would be completely annihilated. At the time, all she wanted to do was to erase whatever it was down there from existence. Celestia did not even want to permit the existence of its ash to remain.
From there, she began to go into more details about what happened next. Luna's eyes went completely wide and she too had ended up spitting some of the tea. Unfortunately for her, some of it had ended up going into her nose upon hearing what happened to her sister. The way that her spell which was meant to destroy armies, having been completely resisted was inconceivable to her mind. She was even positive that if her sister had used that on her while still as Nightmare Moon, then even she herself could not have walked away from such a blast.
Then there was the whole experience with him taking flight and avoiding so many spells that should have been impossible to dodge at such speeds. Luna had even gone completely still when hearing the part about how her sister was literally brought to the edge of the sky within a matter of seconds and crash down just outside of the forest. The younger Alicorn remembered that in the past. She had tried to fly as far as she could in order to get close to her very stars. But even she was unable to get that far up. Much less so to accomplish such a feat in a short span of time.
At first, Luna had a hard time in believing the scope of what was being told. But her older sister had summoned onto the table a map of the region and pointed out something that nearly caused her mind to freeze. Right there on the piece of parchment, was a huge difference in the terrain compared to a thousand years ago.
(Here is the map of the place called Ghastly Gorge, that was made from their fight over eight hundred years ago.)
According to it, there was a place called Ghastly Gorge. It would seem that this change to the map had been caused by a combination of both the fall and the sudden release of nearly every magic particle from her sister in order to kill her opponent. Judging by the scope that was being displayed on the drawing. Luna had no choice but to believe that her sister had in fact pulled every ounce of magic into a strong, single attack to create something that had gouged out the world to such a degree.
Now when it got to the point where she explained how he had withstood it without so much as a scratch. The lunar princess was pretty much ready to believe whatever was said when it came to the strength of this individual and was no longer going to question any of it. If her own fight with him was any indication as to what he was capable of, then what was being said had to be taken seriously.
That was when Luna began to mumble to herself almost incoherently. Even her hand, that was holding on to her cup, was shaking almost uncontrollably. Because of this, the liquid inside was dripping off the edge of it and was now spilling onto the table. “H-He… He… He was just toying with us... So, when it was mentioned that he could follow us to the moon. That was not an exaggeration. Please go on, we wish to hear the rest.”
Celestia had gone on and told Luna about having almost no more magic left and had to resort to using her own life force to fuel a body enhancement spell in order to keep on going. The alabaster mare had even managed to appear as though she had gone pale even through her white fur as she recalled the words that were said on her part.
Things such as, “JUST DIE! WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE! I WON’T LET YOU HURT MY PONIES! YOU SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN ALLOWED TO BE BORN!” Upon hearing this, Luna couldn’t help but to slowly shake her head while trying to recompose herself as she spoke in a disapproving tone. “Not even we could see Nightmare Moon talking in such a way to another.”
This of course, led to being struck by his shield after the dagger she had pulled out had been destroyed. To which got Luna to show that she had to contain a scream as she replied to that. “Sister! That dagger is meant to be indestructible! Even our armor would have been nothing but wet parchment if it was to be put up to that weapon! The two of us could not even put a single blemish on the blade, how can that even be possible?”
Luna then brought her hand up to the bridge of her nose in order to pinch it before motioning for the story to recommence. But not before saying, “We cannot wait to hear of what is to come, after saying such things to one such as him. For not even we are sure that Nightmare Moon would have been able to survive what we believe would come next if we were in thou’s place. How were you not royally fornicated?”
Those last words had caught Celestia completely off guard right as she had a full mouth of tea and had spewed at all over her smaller sister's face as a result. This was also followed with a heavy coughing fit for a few minutes before Celestia looked towards her sister who had just used a spell to dry and clean herself off before Speaking. “Sister! Language!” As a reply, Luna only scowled at her big sister before saying, “If our math is correct, then we are over a thousand years old now. Furthermore, we are not in public so we can say it as much as we please. Fornicate, fornicate, fornicate.”
Now releasing a weak groan of annoyance and shaking her head. Celestia then continued, but not before saying, “Your language aside. What you just said was absolutely correct. I was in a way, royally... You know… What you just said.” The next part of the story went into some murky details due to that was when she was used as a battering ram and created an improvised path through the forest. This of course, went on until they were all the way back to their castle, along with creating a new doorway in the process that went right through the castle wall and found herself starting at where it all began.
The tale then came to a decisive end upon revealing that one of her guards was still alive and had returned to their old castle. Unfortunately, it seemed that when she had launched that last fireball attack and tried to kill him. The mare was within close proximity and would have died if it was not for what he had done and produce those wings of his to shield her from being burned alive.
What's more, was the fact that the guard had even pleaded to spare her own life and was immediately granted the wish. When that had happened, Celestia had started to explain to Luna about how she had finally realized that she was in the wrong and deeply regretted that she had ended up taking away his right arm. She even explained the circumstances in which he disappeared after exhibiting signs that his body was undergoing a manner of magical overload. Witch was apparent, with there being these many cracks quickly beginning to form on his body and armor and eliciting a series of crystalline fracturing sounds.
He then quickly took off and went High into the clouds and exploded and produced a series of shooting stars to race across the heavens. When Celestia had gone pass the part of the story that mentioned the apparent death of this male. Luna had a look of contemplation on her face as she began to tap lightly on the table with her free hand, while finishing the last of her tea.
That was when Luna began to say slowly as she was still putting her thoughts together. “We would dare say to have that type of reaction at the end, would imply that there was a substantial amount of energy remaining that he could have unleashed upon thee. It would be prudent to surmise that he was holding back as well during the fight. But we must ask as to what became of those two nobles that sent you on such a chase? Furthermore, was there any information that was uncovered about who that was?”
Celestia had just turned towards her balcony windows and started to say slowly as if she was reliving the scene while telling it. “I had met up with the other guard that was reported missing and was debrief on what had transpired during their time there. They came as a group of three along with Break Down and had split up to check out the castle for any would-be Thieves.
The mare guards were locked inside of the underground library after a spell had been tripped once they had entered by an outside force. Which they immediately determined to have been their group leader, Break Down. Once within, they attempted to find another exit. Regrettably, they were attacked by a massive monster that apparently had made a nest inside, but was saved by this male when it had them cornered when they were deep into the records.
Not once had he revealed his identity with how every inch of his body had been covered in a type of black outfit and a white mask. After easily defeating the monster and getting them outside. It was discovered that it was getting too late to make their way through the forest. So instead, they stay the night with in the castle. Along with the stallion.
This was when Luna interjected while seemingly a little overly excited at this point. “We suppose thee are about to tell us that he took the spoils of war and laid claim to their bodies as a form of payment?” She was even giving a sly smirk at the end of that. Celestia quickly coughed into her fist, while showing a heavy blush before saying to Luna. “Please sister, allow me to finish! But no, he did no such thing. In fact, they informed me that he was quite the gentle-stallion and made no such indications of doing what you had implied.”
“They were given their privacy and even provided food and water. He even shared some wild strawberries that he had gotten from the Everfree.” Upon hearing the part about the strawberries. Luna’s eye’s shot wide before she sat up from her chair while slamming both of her hands onto the table and looking straight at her older sister. She then began to speak in a surprise tone. “Sister! Are thou telling us that he proposed to the both of them right then and there?! They must have bedded him after that!”
Celestia quickly began to wave both of her hands in an attempt to push what was being said away as she replied very hurriedly. “Luna! Please calm yourself! If you remember correctly, that practice had gone out of style during our parents’ time. It was no longer being practiced anymore. So, no. This was not a marriage proposal! But.... uh... they did persuade him into at least sharing the bed to sleep and only to sleep. He seemed quite adamant about no funny business happening.”
That only got Luna to tilt her head in confusion before replying. “We don't quite understand what thou mean by this... Funny business. Are thee telling us, that a male was in bed with a pair of females and nothing transpired?” Her voice suddenly turned to that of abstract horror when she said the next line in a way, that just screamed that it was the end of the world to her. “P-Please do not tell us that... H-He is into others... of the same gender, are thou?! Oh, ‘tis such a waste!”
Celestia only could shake her head an exhaustion before she began to explain. “I do not believe that is the case, especially after what I was informed about next.” This of course had caught Luna's attention once more as she sat down and was eagerly listening. “Mind you, this is only a working theory that was put together, thanks to a number of different bits and pieces being used during their brief time with him.”
“They surmised that due to his ability to easily move in the dark, the aversion towards talking to them all that much and the apparent strong denial when asked to come back to Canterlot. Gave rise to a few speculations. It was their opinion that he may have been foal-napped and brought to the city to become... A... Slave to one of the noble mare's that reside within the walls.”
“He had even told them that he had thought to me as, “dangerous for him.” For that I am ashamed to say that it was completely true in the end. They even believe that he had managed to escape and was hiding in the old castle when he was found. They even believe that he was the one that save them from the Hydra only a few days prior after witnessing him in using a form of magic that summoned a weapon to be thrown.”
Upon hearing this, Luna was visibly fuming as her teeth were now clearly grinding from anger. In a low, nearly murderous tone, she began to speak very slowly. “Dear sister, if we are not mistaken. ‘Twas that archaic practice not band during our time among our ponies?” This just got a subtle nod from her older sister before she continued. “We do hope that this was looked into very thoroughly, once light was shown on it.”
Again, she got another nod from her sister. After seeing that. She began to calm down a little bit before asking, “Is there anything else that you found out?” There was only silence which caused Luna to narrow her eyes upon Celestia. Who was now looking in random directions while trying to avoid direct eye contact and sweating up a storm. Luna then asked one more time in a slightly sterner voice. “Dear sister. Please tell us just what was found out...”
Celestia had just taken in a quick inhale of air as to blurt the next thing out as quickly as possible. “It had somehow gotten to a point that he said that he was a Duke!” When Celestia had set those words. Luna had gone completely still and was quite literally a statue for a good number of seconds before her right eye began to slowly twitch while staring directly at her older sister. Princess Celestia was beginning to feel very worried with how her sister was continuing with this strange reaction. At some point, she was sure that she was beginning to hear a type of sound that resembled the plucking at a guitars strings. This would happen with each time that the younger princess’s eye was twitching.
Luna, after a few minutes of this had finally calm down and was taking some deep breaths, before speaking. “Just… what was the outcome of the war?” Celestia then replied in a relieved tone. “We were fortunate that nothing had occurred. I never once heard of any talk about a missing Prince whenever the delegates would convene. For all I know, his absence could have been kept a secret or perhaps he was from a land that we have no relations with.”
Luna than asked while looking rather relieved herself at the answer. “We had just realized that after all this time of talking, not once was his name spoken.” Her sense of relief had diminished when she saw how sad her older sister appeared when the question was asked. Celestia replied to that with, “I am afraid I don't know. As it turned out, he did tell the two guards but he had them promise not to tell any others. Especially myself. As it would appear that he had a severe mistrust of me in particular.”
Luna had closed her eyes once again and began to voice her thoughts out loud. “Could it be that he was conditioned to think along those lines, by the one that had held him captive? That is if the speculation of being a captive is true. Thou’s name could have been used as a form of threat. Thereby giving the impression that his kidnapping was legal. We can go back to that topic another time. Please, inform us as to what happened next. The tale of what was to come to the two nobles has yet to be told.”
After giving a quick nod, Celestia did so. She had gone on to explain that once all the facts had been found out. She and the two guards returned to Canterlot and exposed the attempted murder of the guards that were in Break Down’s care. A formal inquiry was then issued and even more heinous acts were brought up after an investigation had been on the way. As it turned out, that entire family had some skeletons in their closet that were too heinous to overlook. Bribery, Extortion, Blackmail and Abuse. They even had a hand in the underground slave organization that was nestled under Canterlot itself.
This spark turned into a bonfire as more and more nobles were brought into the light due to all of their back-alley activities. The Earth mare who was a part of the two I was talking about, was put in charge of rounding up and searching all of those that were under suspicion. Safe to say that a good portion of the nobles were cast out and lost their titles, along with most of their belongings and bits.
Celestia then had this mischievous smirk on her lips as she added the next bit. “It became widely known as the great Shadow Purge. This of course was named after the pony that led the charge who went by the name of Shadow Lily.” Luna then asked in a monotoned voice. “Please tell me that you banished them straight to Tartarus.”
The elder sister released a tired sigh before slowly shaking her head. Without so much as looking directly at Luna. She began to say, “I'm afraid that I was not in the right mindset at the time to make such a drastic decision. They were merely banished and lost everything they had. Especially after what I had inadvertently caused back at our old castle.”
Seemingly accepting what was said. Luna nodded before asking her next question. “It would seem that the one that we had encountered, had managed to regain his right arm. Under other circumstances we would have assumed it was due to some magic. But after hearing the full story and how he met his demise, we believe that some other force is at work. The question now is, how long has he been back for and what has he been doing for all of this time.”
It was Celestia who spoke next. “I for one have no clue. It would have been one thing if he really was an Alicorn just like the both of us. But with the lack of a horn, then I would seriously doubt it. Now sister. I have told you everything I could. I believe it is time that you regale me on exactly what transpired between the both of you upon your return.”
It had taken some time for Luna to explain their interactions while out in that rocky area. When it was on the part about the extra page saying that Celestia had come up with another counter measure. The elder sister was very perplexed and explained how that Was clearly not in the book and would have to contact Twilight to see the copy she had in her possession in order to examine.
However, when it got to the bit about how he kept referring to their meeting out there as a date. The alabaster mare had a small hint of blush on her cheeks along with her sister. When the subject about how he had thoroughly thrashed Nightmare Moon came. Celestia was completely awestruck with how easily Luna made the whole thing seem in regards to a One-sided fight between an ant and a Timber Wolf by comparison.
The description of what he was wearing was completely unrelated to how she remembered him in the past and commented on it. But Luna quickly added that later on, his look would change and ask her older sister to wait until that part of the story. She had even gotten extremely flustered upon hearing him telling Nightmare Moon about how she was crying when listening to the music box. She had even been holding her face, in an attempt to cover herself from the embarrassment.
Celestia had even began to draw tears from her eyes as she had to contain herself when hearing the part about him explaining to Nightmare Moon about how her plans would cause so much trouble. Which was then followed with him explaining as to how she could have done things differently. Instead of going through with the whole plan for eternal night. Celestia knew that in the past, those ideas may not have seemed very worthwhile. However, they were a thing in this day and age. She herself would even hear how some of the castle staff would enjoy the night life.
When Luna had got to the part where he mentioned about being the last of his race, along with how she would not even know of what his was called. Only brought confusion to Celestia. Of course, this immediately evolved once her eyes went wide after thinking the words through and she ended up slamming her head into the table while covering herself with her forearms. This was followed by her speaking in a muffled and deeply remorseful voice.
“He said he was the last of his race... That meant, if he had really died back then. Then I would have been personally responsible for ending a species. Just one more to write down on my list of mistakes. You were right about what you said about me to him Luna. Back then I really was hot blooded. Never really thought things through all that much. Please Luna... While I can still keep going. Tell me the rest of what happened.”
Just as she was asked to do. Luna did go on to tell of how the fight had progressed further along and the sudden interruption of a Hydra that was of a species that she had no prior knowledge of. The description given had clearly stumped Celestia as she herself explained that such a beast was unknown to her as well. But had relayed that such an occurrence was not unheard of with how the monsters in recent years have been coming with far more variety in recent days.
Luna went on to say how he had changed his armor and weapons when defending them both from the fiery breath attack that was launched from the Hydra. Then followed with the immediate disposal of the creature with a series of spells and use of weapon skills that she was unaware of existing. Which included the use of the shield when thrown and the numerous weapons strikes that were admitting a series of lights when implemented.
The description of how he had managed to keep up a barrier, had caused Celestia to shoot her head up When it came to the part about the wings and the shield. She had even caused Luna to pause while she used her magic to quickly levitate the picture frame near her bed over to show her sister.
As soon as Luna had gotten a good look at it, she turned to Celestia and explain that it looked pretty much exactly how he was that night. Even the shield was drawn the same way. Right down to the smallest details with the symbol in the center. When everything was confirmed. Celestia had slumped into the back of her chair while bringing her hands up to the sides of her face. All the while muttering out loud in a whisper. “So, it really is him... Not only that... He's capable of using dark magic without being corrupted?”
Celestia wanted to know more, but unfortunately the story was rapidly coming to an end. The last thing that Luna was able to remember before appearing inside of the castle after the Elements of Harmony were used on her. Was how he had summoned a heavy rain to cool off the ground around them after killing the beast.
It appeared that everything between that point and having Nightmare Moon expunged from her being had turned into a complete haze and she was unable to recall anything new. She than had a small smirk before adding the next part. “Putting aside. There is the matter of the delivery of a particular box that had been mentioned, for which we are quite interested in seeing. May we hear the song that is kept within? One must know what could be capable of causing our dear older sister to go to bed with weeping tears in her eyes.”
(Here is the song that played from the music box.)
Celestia then replied, while having a slight blush on her cheeks after hearing the part about her crying. “Of course. This is it right here.” That was when Celestia used her magic and levitated over the item and placed it in the center of the table and open the lid to allow the music to play. As the gentle melody filled the room. The two voices sprang to life and Luna’s eyes went wide with disbelief, upon hearing not only her sister's voice but that of her own. It was quite clear that she wanted to say something but was more focused on listening to the entire song from start to end.
Once the last of the notes were struck, the music box was carefully closed thanks to Celestia and the two sat there in silence as they both could tell that the other required a few moments to recover from the emotional backlash of hearing their troubles put into musical form. Once they had fully re-composed themselves once more and had also finished with the last of the tissues. Luna immediately asked Her older sister as to how such an item could have been created along with having their own voices used. For a thousand years ago, there was no method of recording once voice.
When Celestia had informed Luna that she had no idea as to how their voices were used without them being the ones to do so. Aside from the one that was supposedly the source. Although the elder sister was now Reluctant in talking about the subject with how her hands were steeped together almost to the point that Luna feared that she was about to draw blood or even break her own bones the fingers if it continued.
However, after a few moments of this. Celestia finally took in a heavy amount of air to ready herself before she began to tell the next part. “Luna, what I am about to tell you happened a little over eleven years ago and it's still fresh to me. But first, I should inform you that I have a nephew. But before you jump to conclusions, he is not related to me by blood.
Even without that being the case, I still see him as a family member and will be rather hard to explain what had happened. So, I must ask that you hold your tongue and refrain from asking any questions until the end.” This got a subtle nod from Luna as she sat down in her chair and ready for what she was expecting to be a hard story to hear by the way she was giving her elder sister a serious look.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia* *Location: Canterlot castle. Inside of her bedchambers* *Time: Over eleven and a half years ago*
Celestia had just finished with the last of the nobles that came in for day court. Which meant it was another day of listening to whiny little self-entitled ponies that always complain about the smallest things and can't seem to think for themselves. At least this is what she normally felt by the end of the day anyway.
She had just finished with the rotation of the sun and moon and was nearly back to her bedchambers after finishing her dinner. Her usual routine would consist of her staying up for a little while. But due to recent days she had been running herself ragged with very little sleep and was now looking forward to just going right to bed and sleeping for twelve hours straight.
A couple of weeks ago she had found a music box sitting in the center of her bed after coming from one of the hospitals located within the city after feeling a mysterious pulse of energy. At first, she ruined her sleep scheduled by listening to it over and over again. It had taken a little while for her to refrain from doing so again and had managed to get it down to one or two times a night that she would play the song. Though, in the past couple of days she had been feeling a little uneasy.
Especially when it came to these weird rumors that she had been hearing randomly around the castle when those around thought that she wasn't within range of hearing them. These rumors that she had heard were all focused around her nephew, Prince Blue Blood. They would mostly be revolved around him being seen as a delinquent Prince who would use his authority for selfish gains. She didn't show it on the outside. But Celestia was beginning to wonder just where she had gone wrong and how could he have turned out to be like this. Of course, these brought back the thoughts of her sister.
As a result, Celestia began to listen to the song more again until she finally fell asleep around midnight for the past few days. The alabaster Alicorn didn't want to jump to conclusions and repeat the same mistakes that she had done with her younger sister and was trying to figure out how she could fix this and not lose her nephew. This was what she was thinking about when she finally came to her room and saw the pair of guards that were alert just outside. After getting a set of salutes, she entered for a good night’s rest so that she could have a clear head for what was to happen in the morning.
Once she was inside of her own bedchambers, Princess Celestia immediately had her shoulders hanging low, along with trying to hold in a very loud yawn. She obviously had a long day at work with how tired she immediately looked at the very instant that the door behind was shut. But before anything could be done about her clothing. She started to sense another within her private chambers.
Before Celestia could locate just who it could be. She started to hear a noise that was coming from the other side of the room before she heard another speaking in a gruff voice with a subtle hint of a southern accent. “Hello Princess. How did you enjoy the music box?” Right there. Sitting at her writing desk and facing the door, was a being that resembled a large black Diamond dog and he was wearing an odd type of armor that had parts that she didn’t quite recognize.
(This is a picture of Ryu.)
Celestia practically jumped out of her golden hoof slippers when she heard his voice. Seemingly out of reflex, her horn had lit up with a bright flash and she had conjured a light-based construct that resembled a short sword and was fully primed to throw it straight towards the uninvited intruder with just a single thought.
However, she stopped just before the blade was let loose into the air. With what was at first a look of apprehension, had quickly turned into that of confusion from going over what was just said. That was when she thought to herself. “Wait?! He knows about the box? How did he manage to… Hold on Tia… just calm down and listen to what he has to say.” With it evident in her voice, she began to speak in a deliberately slow and methodical tone. “Did you just mention something in regards to a… music box?”
The Diamond dog then said, “Yes, in fact the one that I made with both Luna's and your voices beautifully recreated in it. Calm down, I just came here to talk in private. Would you like some tea to calm your nerves?” She then saw him pulling out a ceramic jug and an extra cup out of seemingly nowhere. But she did sense something that felt similar yet at the same time, not the same to a personal magic item storage spell. She instantly thought to herself. “How can a Diamond dog use magic?”
(Here is a picture of the ceramic jug that is being used.)
From there, he started pouring its contents into the cup and offering it to Celestia by placing it onto the half of the desk that was close to her. She did notice something odd with his claws though. They seemed to be thinner, not suited for digging at all. More for slicing from a glance. She also couldn’t help but to mentally point out how his face was elongated, with thin muscles and a set of sharp, pointed ears. From below, just under the desk, she could see a long bushier tail resting on the ground. The Diamond dogs she knew of, had more broader and flattened faces. Thicker claws, floppy ears. As for the tails, those were either very short or long and thin.
Celestia glanced towards the magical construct carefully while watching the Diamond dog during his little speech. But did not move from her spot as she began to speak. “I must apologize. Due to my line of work, I make it a point not to sit down at the discussion table, unless I know the names of those present. More so when being offered a drink from a stranger that so happens to be in a mare’s chambers after dark.” Inside, she was thinking, “I’m no filly either. How many times have I been served, only to have it drugged? Oh, thank you mother for teaching me this spell.”
When she had finished. Her horn then began to light up a little bit, as she went on to say, “I do hope that it is not a problem, that I do a quick scan of that tea you are offering?” Seeming unfazed. She could hear him saying, “Not a problem. One bit as a royal myself, I know the stresses of the job. Oh, and before I forget I am called, Warden. A pleasure to meet you.”
Celestia then began to have an aura surrounding the teacup on the table that was obviously meant for her. While conducting her detailed scan with her magic, she went on to speak in her diplomatic tone of voice. “It is plainly obvious that you know already of who I am. It would be rather redundant for me to give my own name and title. However, seeing as my intruder is being so cordial. Then I shall do so in kind. I am Princess Celestia. Ruler of Equestria.”
She was trying to hide it. But she was literally ready to scream if she was forced to hear all of those titles again before she got any sleep. Why did they have to announce them… Every… Single… Time… That she had to speak to a noble within her day court once they had been let in through those massive doors. Celestia was inches away from making a royal decree to ban the use of titles while in her presence.
She than gave a small sigh before continuing. “Do forgive me for not going into the other titles. Those are typically reserved for more formal situations and if I must say, can get rather tedious to hear being repeated. Now, you just mentioned that you knew of the hardships of being a ruler. As well as your name of, Warden was it? Is that your true name or is it a title?” At that time, the spell had run its course and the princess began to approach the desk after getting a negative on anything weird with the tea.
The now identified, Warden. Started to take a drink before speaking in his gruff voice. “It is my title. For whenever I conduct business, for there are a great many things we must know from each other. Like, I want to know why is your, "Color Guard" Is not getting better training to deal with the rampant monster attacks. And if you know that Primal’s are appearing. If you know what they even are that is. I've had to fight two since I got here about two years ago, give or take.”
Princess Celestia's eyes twitched for but a second when she heard him calling her, Royal Guards such a thing. Then she began to wear a small smile when it was referred to their lack of strength. In her mind. Celestia was mentally screaming. “They are not color guards. they protect me.” From there, her internal voice had instantly changed to one of acceptance. “Just who am I kidding. They really are… These days we haven’t had the need to go to war, so they ended up getting soft.”
It was when the term, Primal came up. That her usual princess-mask began to crack. A small lump was beginning to form in the back of her throat as she attempted to keep things from being too noticeable. Especially when she had to fight the urge from allowing her wings to become ruffled as she went on. “Huh? What!? Did he say… Primals!? How in the Tartarus does he even know of what those monsters are called? I was sure that all of their records had been sealed!”
That was when she approached the desk and Warden, who was on the other side and used her magic to summon a chair to pop into existence as to sit on the other side. After reaching for the tea and taking a gentle sip. She laid it down again and began to speak in a voice that was a little bit more tense than normal.
“I take it you are referring to my Royal guard. I will have to admit that, they are not the strongest force. However, they do give it their all. Furthermore, their training has been thoroughly researched and approved by the squad captain's. This is to ensure that both of the genders who wish to enlist, will have their safety be the top priority.” This was when she tilted her head forward just a little bit, as she stared directly at the one sitting in her personal chair. Princess Celestia then went on to continue saying, “What do you mean by Primals?”
The Diamond Dog had just taken a sip of his tea before replying. “I know you know what I mean. You can't hide yourself behind your mask, from one of the Warden's of Tartarus. And keeping them safe is commendable. But it is why they are weak. You only can get so strong from tests and training. They need combat experience. But I do admit you have one promising recruit, being Shining Armor. Oh, what I could teach someone like that. He would be a fine dark mage and before you say anything, I know you are one too. One can sense their own, after all.”
Thanks to her hand still holding on to the handle of the teacup. She had inadvertently caused it to spill a few drops when she heard him talking about dark magic. Especially when it was directed towards implying that she was a practitioner as well.
While sitting up a little straighter. The princess narrowed her gaze a little, while speaking in a flat tone. “We all know that dark magic is forbidden. It's widely known to corrupt its users. Now taking in your statement, would it be right to assume that you are calling me corrupted?”
He merely replied as his sights were set on her. “No, not at all. That is actually false. It is not what corrupts the user. It is themselves that corrupt. They don't know how to deal with their own darkness, which swallows them whole. But someone like you and your sister both knows how to do it. She fell to an outside influence that wormed in. I believe the Sparkle family has that potential. Especially your new student.”
While not taking her eyes off of him. Celestia went to take another sip. When she was in the middle of putting it back down again. She went on to ask, “It would seem that most of the pieces are on your side. To know so much about subjects that not many would even hear whispers of. Now, when it comes to my new protege... I must ask what are your intentions? This does not pertain only to what you just said. But also in regards to the music box that randomly appeared in my room.”
“Judging from the amount of power you have. I find it rather hard to believe that you are truly a Diamond Dog. What you have inside eluded me until I came to sit down. Now after saying that, I can tell that you are not the one who was here that dropped my gift. So that begs the question, just who was it that's snuck into my room all those weeks ago?”
He narrowed his eyes after being asked the question and responded with. “A friend of mine. That is all you need to know for now. As for my intentions for your protégé, nothing. You have already planned for her to become the Element of Magic to help cleanse your sister. But this brings me to my next point. Why have you let corruption run rampant in the nobles again?”
Princess Celestia's eyes went wide for a second, before she began to express a slightly shocked expression. This soon morphed to that of a scowl as she released the teacup after placing it back down onto the desk.
She then began to speak in a slightly defensive tone. “I do not know what you have heard. However, I will admit that the nobles can be rather... Boastful at times. As well as childlike when it comes to getting their way. But to outright say that they're corrupted is going a bit far. Has one of them done something to offend you to bring up such an accusation?”
After letting out a small chuckle, he then said, “Not me, but you.” A portal had suddenly opened up to reveal a certain mare. Bound and gagged as she fell through and into the room. As he began to speak once more, he closed the portal with what she considered a thought, seeing as he made no gestures to do so. “This little noble tried to rape your nephew a few weeks ago when you were gone. Give her a scan to see that there are no memory spells or compulsions that have been implanted on her.”
Princess Celestia released a gasp when the mare had suddenly come out of a portal. She had just gotten up from her chair and was in the middle of going over to lend her aid. But stopped in her tracks about halfway across the room when she heard what he had just said.
Her eyes went wide as dinner plates as she slowly turned towards him. Within seconds, the look of shock had turned into a simmering rage. While bearing her clenched teeth. Celestia managed to say very slowly and methodically. “I... Must have misheard you.” While only getting him to answer in a slow voice so that the words would sink in. “You in fact did not. She tried to rape him.”
While still trying to hold herself back and regain even just a smidge of her political mask. She slowly straightened up again and spoke in the same tone as previously used. “I personally do not believe that such a heinous act would be committed by one of my ponies. Much less so for miss Scarlet Prize, who is currently tied up in my room.”
“But nonetheless, I will humor your suggestion. If not only to expedite in finding the truth.” The princess then started to run a number of spells with her horn lighting up on the bound pony on the floor. Within not even a full minute, the princess was done and turned back towards her guest. She then went on to say, “I detect nothing abnormal about her. Do you care to explain why I had to do such a thing?”
Warden then made his way over to the mare and was now looking dead into her eyes before he picked her up and spoke. “Scarlet Prize, look into my eyes.” As she did, her eyes immediately glazed over. He then removed the gag from her mouth before giving an order to her. “Now tell Celestia all the crimes you have committed that are against the laws of Equestria.” He then released her and the mare fell back onto the floor.
Celestia just stood there as she witnessed this Diamond Dog seemingly use a form of magic on Scarlet Prize. Who was just dropped onto the floor with a loud thud. What was surprising, was how the mare was hardly fazed at all with the rough treatment.
Without so much as trying to get up or make herself more comfortable. The mare just stayed in place, with her head laying on the floor. Along with an elated expression, while her eyes looked straight ahead and slowly blinked now and then. Scarlett price then started to speak in a strangely aroused voice. “When I was still in Magic School... I bullied another mare so much, that she committed suicide during my second year.”
“After that, I got grounded for wanting to go out one night when I turned twenty-one after coming home too late the night before while drunk by my father. So, I framed him by making every pony believe that he raped me. It was so easy to fool them all. Even my mother. He soon died in prison no more than a month later, by an Inmate that heard about it. “
“Next, I joined a group for a while that had a few mare's and a stallion kept in their basement. We had a lot of fun. That was until the stallion gave out after getting an overdose on the aphrodisiacs. He was a lot more fun to play with while I was cramming them down his throat. I do wish he had lasted just a little longer. Was a real let down, if only he went for another minute at least.”
“A while after that. I embezzled money that was meant to go to a local orphanage. But when a news reporter got too close. I paid some thugs to get rid of her. It was very amusing, the way they burned her alive, along with that building of brats. Afterwards I made sure that a new building was not going to be built and pocketed the rest of the bits after giving some excuses. I finally got to have that swimming pool that the Princess didn’t pay for because of that.”
“Everything was quiet for a time... But then I saw Prince Blue Blood. He was still only five or six at the time. I knew he was going to grow up quite well. So, I started a long-term plan to discredit the boy. It was easy to pay off some of the staff. When it came to the body guards, most accepted the money. While others required a little more incentive. Promising a go with the Prince when he came of age, was quite enticing for the lot of them.”
“It was always fun to see how he would try to go to the Princess for help, but she didn't believe him thanks to all the false testimonies. At one point, I had to dip into the treasury funds to continue bribing them off, so I could continue with my delightful little plan.”
“I thought that I had finally broken his spirit that day. He actually believed all the things I said about how the stallions shouldn't have any power. So, when the Princess suddenly up and left almost a month ago out of the blue, I saw it as an opportunity to make my move on the Prince.”
“I made sure that there were no servants or guards in the part of the castle he was in and stopped him in the hallway. Just in case anything was to go wrong, I brought another noble with me to collaborate anything that I said. The look in his eyes, as he was resigned to letting me take him away almost caused my body to have an orgasm right there in the middle of the hallway. Oh, it was such an amazing feeling.”
“But some… Stallion! Came out of nowhere and ruined my plan. The next thing I knew, I was inside of a broom closet. Since then, I have tried again and again at least three other times. But some maid, along with another noble stallion, just kept interrupting.”
While she was confessing all of these past crimes and the ones that she was about to try and commit. The mare was sounding more ecstatic. As if regaling others of her past deeds, was a drug to her and she just couldn’t get enough of it. Celestia could see how Scarlet Prize was even drowning in the delight of obeying the command to confess her crimes.
She could see how he was tilting his head and showing an interested expression as he started to speak in a slightly surprised tone and sipping at his tea. “Hmm, a bigger list than I thought. Do you need a moment Celestia? Because when me and my friends investigated, we found a great deal of evidence on a lot of nobles.”
To say that Celestia was out of it, was a complete understatement. At first, during the confession. She was calm and collected as she tried to be an impartial judge. But as time went on. Her mask had been crumbling away and she began to adopt a look of horror. This soon turned to that of resignation.
She remembered the incident in regarding this mare's father and that she was the one who was at the head of the judging and found him as guilty and sentenced him to prison. When it came up to the orphanage. It was something that had plagued her for quite some time, as to how such a horrendous act could have been committed in her very own city that she was protecting.
Now, when it got to the part about the plans that Scarlet Prize had in store for her young nephew. That was when she nearly lost it as she was forced to stand there and listen as this noble was telling her all of the dirty secrets that had been hidden under her very nose.
Complete and utter disgust was all she felt when the mare informed her of her feelings towards her nephew, which was still a child at the time. Then she began to feel an intense pain of guilt when she recalled all the times that Blue Blood would come to her on the verge of tears. Saying things that sounded impossible, only to force him away and disregard his words... No. His pleading for help. The anger from before was completely dwarfed by that of letting her own family down for the second time.
It was only when it got to the point, where the mare had said that she was stopped by some stallion during the day that she had left, when there was a huge magical serge in the middle of the city. Because of that, she had some sense of relief that Blue Blood had been saved from Scarlet Prize. Without so much as looking at the mare anymore, out of fear of forcing the little criminal to spontaneously combust. She turned her back on the mare and faced her guest once again.
After taking a few steady breaths. She began to speak in a strained voice, as her shoulders trembled with a mix of anger and self-loathing. “And… You say that there are others out there that are the same as her?” Inside she was screaming over and over about how it was not fair that after all this time. The ponies that she had looked after, were capable of betraying her trust to such a degree. She wished now, more than ever. That her sister Luna was there by her side.
That was when she heard him speaking again. “Many more. I've hunted many monsters like her. The worst monster, is one with influence, power, and knowledge. The best way to deal with this, is to have a public trial to show them this monster. Along with the confession. And give her the harshest punishment possible. This is to show them they have been found and we are hunting.”
“If I have to come back and deal with it. It will take weeks to get the blood off the streets. I don't wanna have to do my job to gather the dammed.” Afterwards, he placed a magic scroll on the desk and said, “This is her confession. Oh, and do make sure to tell them, their evils woke a devil.” And he disappeared into darkness and from both her sight and magical senses. leaving behind a new music box and a container of candles that looked just like the one that was with the first box. Even the jug that the tea was poured from had been left behind.
Back to the present, Celestia was now looking towards her sister while trying to hold back a set of her own tears after talking about how she had found out the truth. After a few moments, the older sister had her eyes closed as she continued. “With Scarlet Prize and the many deeds that came to light, I didn’t listen to the new box for what I believe to be several days. Once I felt myself to be ready to hear what was on it, I brought it back out and played it for myself. Here, I’ll get it and you can hear what was recorded as well.”
That was when she used her magic to pull from the far end of the room, a music box that was similar to the first that was sitting on a shelf full of books. From there it was placed on the table and Celestia slowly opened it and sat back to see her sister’s reactions. But just before what was within had started, Celestia looked towards Luna to quickly say. “I must warn you dear sister. This in no lullaby unlike the first."
When it was finished. Celestia looked towards to younger sister and saw that the blue mare was sitting there with a stern gaze completely fixed onto the box. Along with a steely gaze that showed just how much she was thinking hard on what was heard. From an outsider’s point of view, one would think that the younger Princess was angry. But to Celestia on the other hand. She was able to tell that Luna was very worried. The biggest sign was how Luna was constantly rubbing her right hands thumb and middle fingers nails onto one another. That was always a clear way of seeing that her little was in a nervous state.
Celestia, after waiting a few moments to allow it all to sink in for Luna. Took in a deep breath to steady herself before speaking. It wasn’t until I played it, that a book appeared. It went on to explaining a country that went by the name of Demacia. There, the ones in power would send out their troops to hunt down the mages and how this, Sylas had ended up how he is. At first, I thought it to be a simple made-up story. Though the idea had flown out of my mind when I saw that there was a part that said that the book was based on a true story. Luna, I can lend you the book when you feel the need to have a look for yourself.”
"I for one, believe this to be a cautionary tale to warn us as to the long-lasting effects of the nobles using their power to such a degree, that it would bring about such an event. To even consider that such things could happen, here is just unthinkable… Or so I would have thought, if it was not for Scarlet Prize that is."
Luna on her part, seemed abnormally calm while her eyes were shut at the other side of the table. After a few moments, Luna finally spoke without a hint of any type of emotion in her voice. “Putting aside this, disturbing tale. We would be most grateful if thee would allow us to go over this tome that was mentioned. As for other matters. Pray tell, what was the punishment administered? Could it be that she was executed in this very room that we are in now? If so, then we must commend your maids on the immaculate job that they have performed in cleaning up after the remains.”
Celestia shook her head in the negative, while closing her eyes for a moment before replying. “No, I didn't kill her right there. But I would be lying if I said I didn't have to try very hard and not doing so. To think that she was doing all of this to my nephew just because of his gender. I really did think that Canterlot was different. I had made laws for protecting the stallions and not only have the nobles broken that. But they even went so far as to go after my own family. After that I found it difficult to fully trust my guards anymore and conducted more thorough background searches.”
“As for the noble. I immediately had her locked away and put into the deepest part of the dungeons to await the trial that was going to be two days later. Such a blatant act of disregard to my authority as well as the many crimes had to be made public for all to know. The scroll that was left to me, was enchanted to read out loud the confessions made by Scarlet Prize as she spoke that night.”
Thanks to all of the evidence. The trial that was held went quickly and judgment was given. Due to the many crimes, she had perpetrated. Along with the embezzlement of the Royal Treasury and all of the acts directed towards my nephew. Celestia had no choice but to enact the harshest punishment that she could come up with.
Scarlet Prize Was to be banished to Tartarus. A world beyond a sealed gate that had a fortress built around it. Celestia had once used a spell to peer through the gate at only one time, when it was open for but a moment to see what lay beyond the threshold. Because of the way it was created one could not see what was on the other side without stepping through and once they did, it was impossible to come back. As far as any knew, it was a one-way trip.
What Celestia saw for just a few seconds was a world of darkness. The sky itself was plastered with a dreadful black and purple glow. What trees that could be seen, were dead or otherwise petrified. The ground itself Was nearly pure black to the point that it was possible that one could not see the difference between the ground itself and a hole only a foot away. It even had its own sun but instead of giving off the golden rays this one was the complete opposite. Where it bathed everything with the rays it touched in a dark neon purple color.
But what made it all so terrifying among the weird landscape. Was how it was crawling with monsters that only appeared to get even worse the further one got from the gate. She had even gotten a glimpse of one that appeared to be a floating baby with a long tail that was apparently fighting another monster by throwing ice shards at it. The other beast was a giant flying creature that had a massive eyeball which took up most of its form and there were these long sickly thin, arms and legs that dangled underneath as it flew with its large bat-like wings.
(This is a picture of both the Eye monster and Baby monster that Celestia saw.)
For Celestia, it had been centuries before she had last even contemplated the idea of using this banishment as a form of punishment. Back when she was with Luna. They didn't even consider the option of throwing discord into such a place. For all of the deeds that the spirit of chaos had conducted during his reign in the past. They were nowhere near close enough for such a fate.
After hearing about the trial. Luna Gave a firm nod of agreement to the decision. She then asked, “Dear sister, we recall the same about how fruit does not fall too far from the tree. Did thou also by chance look into the family that this mare belonged to? We dare say that such heinous acts being perpetrated, could not have gone unnoticed by those in the family so easily.”
When Luna had asked the question. Celestia turned a light shade of green after a few seconds of having a thinking expression. The younger sister noticed this immediately and was about to ask what was wrong, but Celestia had beat her to it and started to recall just what had happened In regards to the noble’s household. When a set of Royal guards and investigators were sent out. They found a gruesome scene that was already awaiting them. The mansion in which nearly all of the members of the noble family resided in, had turned into a bloodbath.
Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary but as soon as the guards got past the front gate and stone outer wall of the property. They found the body of a pony who had been skewered right through they're chest and facing towards the ground, while on the top of a metal fence that had some sharpened points on it. It was unfortunate that there was a new guard on duty that day and was not prepared for such a sight and ended up emptying their stomachs in a nearby bush.
Before going inside, they went around the property for a quick sweep to make sure that none would escape and found another body at the bottom of a pool that was in the back of the property. It was easy to tell that these deaths were no accident and had occurred more than twenty-four hours before the guards had arrived. Shortly after, more bodies were discovered within the building. All of which in varying states and locations. fourteen to be exact.
However, nearby each of the corpses, was a single brown envelope file with some paperwork within. These being detailed accounts of the wrong doings of the pony who died nearby. They would either have a list or detailed documents that would implicate them. Along with a few photos here and there. Going off of what was seen. Their main crimes had lined up in a strange way to how they had died.
In regards to the pony that was at the bottom of the pool. It showed that her biggest crime was getting others into massive debts that was impossible to get out from. These were not limited to targets such as businesses, but private citizens as well. All of which were done through illegal means such as coercion and falsifying documents.
When it came to the pony that died on the fence just outside of the front door. The file near to her body, revealed her to be the chauffeur and had a record of speeding through the streets at night. But it seemed that she was tasked with the job of fencing any ill-begotten game that the rest of the house members were involved in from their victims. From there Celestia told Luna that if she wished to know more details than she would have to look up the records for herself, as the Elder of the two was becoming more disturbed as she went on.
That was when Luna chimed in while having a concentrated look in her eyes. “Hmm. Ah, we see. Each death is a result of their misdeeds. The pool is a visual representation of drowning in one's debt. As for the one that died outside by the front door. Was more of a play on words. For one that would fence goods, would end up dead on a metal fence in the end. Were there perhaps any witnesses?” Celestia then nodded and said, “Yes there are five in total. Their statements are also within the records, but it would seem that they were spared. They were one noble and four of the servants.”
Before she continued Princess Celestia’s horn lit up for but a moment and conjured a rolled-up piece of parchment and placed it on top of the table and began done roll it with her hands. As she was doing this, she looked up towards Luna and began to speak just as it had been fully flattened. Through their testimonies and a sketch artist this is what we came up with. When Luna had finally got a good look at it. Her face had gone stiff as if looking at a ghost as she began to say, “’Twas this really what was seen that night?” As a response, her elder sister nodded slowly while rolling the picture back up again and sending it away with magic before continuing.
(This is what the survivors say the one that attacked the household looked like.)
“There is just one other matter that I must tell you. The bodies of the family and servants that were there… They disappeared from both the manor and in the mortuary after a day had passed after finding out about the slaughter. Before you ask. No, they were not taken. A few of them were right before some guards and doctors when it occurred. From what they said that they saw. Was not very enjoyable to watch and each one described the same in their own words.”
“The bodies had started to rapidly melt away, starting with their fur turning gray or white and falling out into clumps. Then the skin rotted and turned into melted piles of flesh as that too fell from the body. As soon as that finished. The rest of it had a similar fate as the bones became visible when the rest also went through the prosses of melting away. Many even threw up as the organs popped and liquefied along with the bones being the last to go. All that was left, was pools of red liquid and even that evaporated and scattered into the air. Not a single trace was left to find when this process was completed.”
It would seem that Luna had another question to ask, but was interrupted by a small slash in what seemed to be the fabric of reality, just overhead of her older sister which a wisp of black smoke came bellowing through. From there it quickly pulled itself together and formed into a rolled-up piece of parchment and fell right into Celestia's lap. There was a sudden look of realization before it was quickly picked up and opened. As Luna watched her sister quickly going over what was written down, she got a good glance at the wax to seal that was depicting a lantern and wonder just who it was from.
After a few more moments she suddenly heard her older sister letting out a cry of anguish as she fell back into her chair and had this look on her face that just said, that she had given up on life. She wasn't quite sure of it but she was almost positive that she was able to see what could have been Celestia's soul trying to detach itself from her as it left her mouth.
After this Luna had waited a good minute for her sister to recover. But it would appear that it was not to come true for quite some time. So out of an intense feeling of intrigued. Luna used her magic to pull the parchment that was being tightly held in her sisters left hand and started to read it out loud for herself after seeing a crest of a lantern.
Dear Princess Celestia.
He is an old friend of mine. You don't have to worry about him killing your innocent little ponies. By the way, you need to work on that racist tone of yours. You talk like ponies are your only subjects. Faust would not be happy with you if she knew. Anyway, he will be my son-in-law one day. So, you might want to mend bridges with him, and next time I have a day off, I will be visiting. Hopefully not on Warden Business. If this is all you wish to know, I bid you ado.
Sincerely, Warden Blood.
Once the younger sister was done with reading. She quickly looked towards her sister and said in a very loud voice so that it could be heard over whatever mental state that Celestia was in. “Sister, we dare say that thou have done what the young ones would say. Stepped in a steaming pile of manure. We would suggest that this bridge is to be mended forthwith. Now that we know of his existence. It is doubtful that all will stay quiet for much longer.” Luna then turned her attention towards the balcony and asked herself in a curious tone, while lifting one of her eyebrows. “Just what are thou's next move?”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Ponyville* *Time: Eleven in the morning*
Brex was currently coming down from the second floor of the building that was owned by the trio of flower sisters. As per their standing agreement he was to check out by noon today and had been enjoying the feeling of not really having anything to do after spending all night cleaning up any evidence. This meant getting rid of anything that would show that he had planned that Hydra showing up out there in the middle of nowhere by destroying the underground holding facility that was hastily made only a few short days before nightmare Moon's return.
Oddly enough, there was something weird that just kept happening while Brex was trying to sleep in his current room. At random times during the past hour or two, Brex would suddenly awaken from his deep sleep from a rather powerful sneeze that would cause his body to just jolt up in bed. Although, one of them just happened when he was rolling on his side and it was powerful enough, that it caused him to be shot off the edge of the bed and crashed onto the floor.
Luckily, he didn't have any trouble to falling right back into dreamland. The only bad part, was that it would accrue so many times. He had even asked himself if he was coming down with a cold. Not once had he even gotten sick after having a game character body. He had even wondered if he had pushed himself too hard the day before with Nightmare Moon and just shrugged it off.
Of course, he also ended up spending a little time with Rory before that little task was started but had to return her back to HQ with his shadow traveling abilities. Due to all of this activity, he had only return around six in the morning and had at least gotten a good five hours of sleep. Just as he had left the last step at the bottom of the stairs, he headed towards the doorway that was leading into the shop, after already checking his mini map to find three dots down there.
When he had gone through the archway and could see the sunlight coming through the windows. He heard what sounded to be Lily talking to another customer. “Just wait right here. I'm sure we got another bag of sunflower seeds in the back.” This drew his eyes to the counter area and he had caught a glimpse of the pony going into a side door. But what he had not expected was the other two that were waiting for Lily to return. Which happened to be a set of Pegasus mare’s. One being yellow with a pink mane and the second was blue along with a rainbow styled mane.
Brex quickly recognized them both as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash and they were staring straight at him as both of their necks were straining to pull back, so that their heads could tilt far enough to take in his full height due to how close they were. That was when Rainbow suddenly flew into the air and attempted a dive bomb while screaming out. “IT’S A MONSTER!”
Within the Split Second it took for Rainbow to start to close in. Brex had just resigned himself and immediately had these words going through his head, while his eyes resembled those of half-filled fish bowls. “Can't I go just one single day without an incident? Also, I SO FUCKING CALLED IT WHEN IT CAME TO RAINBOW DASH!”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: The other side. Within Little Light’s personal Room*
(Here is a picture of how it looks over there right now.)
The one that was currently standing right behind the teacher’s desk and in front of the chalkboard, was Little Light herself and she was currently in the middle of fiddling with a few glowing objects of different colors, all neatly lined up into rows. From a glance they could have been mistaken for fist-sized snow globes, that gave off a distinct color as whatever was inside was swirling around and giving off these random strong bursts of light.
All of those in the room consisted of Little Light, Daddy, Little Moon, Honey lemon, Bart and Lisa Simpson, Jet from Cowboy Bebop and last but not least, the one known as mom. Who chose the character from Dragon Ball just as Daddy.
(Here are the pictures of all those on the other side that are there now.)
All of them had already taken a seat in different areas the classroom. Daddy and Little Moon were sitting next to one another. Then there was Bart and Lisa. Honey lemon was snuggling up again mom while having an excited expression while bouncing in her chair with a dopy grin. As for Jet he was sitting halfway towards the back in the middle row and had his leg on the table while crossed and leaning back into his chair until it was nearly far enough to fall over.
There was then a chime of a class bell ringing. Little Light had just brought out her crop and lately tapped on her table in order to gain the attention of all of her apparent students. It was Bart that raised his hand first wildly before calling out rather annoyed. “Hey! I know I'm a kid and all with this form. But it doesn't mean I have to go to school!” Lisa then shook her head before giving Bart a slap in the back of his. The small girl then said, “Don't you remember that you were the one that asked about his abilities over there?” Little Lights about to give us a brief explanation on some of the skills that were used during that fight with Nightmare Moon.”
As Bart was rubbing the back of his head, he slowly replied, but only after giving a groan of pain first. “Oh, now I remember.” This was when Little Light tapped her table yet again, but a bit more loudly. Once she was sure that the entire classroom had quieted down and had their undivided attention squarely on her. Little Light picked up one of the orbs on the far-left side of the table and brought it up for all to see. This one was mostly bloody red, along with some orange lights here and there.
The orb was then tossed over her shoulder and when it collided with the chalkboard. The inanimate object immediately sprang to life after shaking violently and produced a number of other boards going to both sides and another three going across the top, making a total of six. The blond-haired woman then cleared her voice before giving her lecture.
“Hello class, for today we are going to have a brief introduction to the skills that were displayed during the fight with Nightmare Moon and Brex. Unfortunately, our time is short because of the window of connection. So, we're going to only do a quick review on the Dark Knight. Everyone, if you will please direct your attention to the top center screen.
(Here is a general picture of The Dark Knight.)
“As you can see, the Dark Knight is covered from nearly head to toe with thick, dark armor. Mostly those of a pattern that closely resemble dragon scales or sharp edges. What is the defining trait when meeting one of them, is how their armor is always meant for full on intimidation and they always carry a very large two-handed weapon.”
“Their skills mostly consist of them drawing on the darker aspects of Aether and some would even say that they tap into the ambient energy from the void itself. But it has not been fully confirmed. Don't ask me to look into it because I'm way too busy. Also, at one point or another, they would even have to consume some of their own blood in order to conduct some of their abilities. Fortunately, that had been phased out for only Magic and what they refer to as a Blood Gauge that builds up during the fight.”
“Moreover, those who practice the art of the Dark Knight. Have to battle with their inner demons in order to unlock their full potential. What might surprise most of you, is that even though they are called the Dark Knight, they do not draw most of their strength from negative emotions. Instead, it is from their deep seeded need to protect another that they care for that gives them their ferocity to even continue fighting, even after death for a short amount of time. The stronger ones can even recover from their death-like state, if they were to siphon enough health from their enemies within a time limit.”
“Now, with that brief little introduction out of the way. How about we get back to pointing out the moves and what their effects were during the fight, hmm?” With a single snap of a finger. The other boards lit up and began to display the skills that were used in a series of snapshots before she continued. “Please direct your attention to the first screen on the upper left-hand corner. As you can see, there are three attack motions that he was in the middle of making. I'll have you know that throughout the whole fight, he was continuously going through these three special skills during each one of his strikes in order to produce a weapon combo.”
“A weapon combo occurs when specific skills are used within a certain time limit, one after another to create a chain and this will lead to the weapons skills additional effect to kick in. So, whenever the two clashed together, whether it was from a direct hit or a block and parry from his attack. Rex was on a steady pace of gaining both hit point and Mana. Back in the game world, where this class originated from. It would just happen. But here in Equestria, he was quite literally leeching off both of these from her, which was making her weaker. While at the same time, keeping him at full strength.”
“If you will all draw your attention to the screen on the far right. There you will see him launching that long-range blade attack which caught Nightmare Moon unawares and tore off a piece of her shoulder armor. That move was typically required to launch at a straight line in order to hit multiple opponents up to a certain distance. Its sister counterpart does pretty much the same, but it's meant for a single target that is within melee range. Both of which requiring Mana in order to use.”
“I should take this opportunity to also explain that much of the Dark Knight skills are very dependent on using a large quantity of their magic reserves, which is why they had those close-range attack skills to replenish their resources at a constant pace.”
“As for the screen on the far bottom left, you will see Nightmare Moon firing a continuous blast of magic and Rex currently has his arms up while holding his weapon as a shield. That was when he activated a momentary ability that gave him a substantial boost for his Magical Resistance.” This got Bart to raise his hand and call out before he was even called upon. “Wait! So, he’s kind of like them anti-magic knights?”
“Little Light shook her head in a negative before she continued. “No, the Dark Knight class is not as you say, an anti-magic knight. But as all tank classes have, they are afforded a few skills that can interrupt a magic spell or even a special skill from being utilized through a form of interrupting or stunning actions.”
“Now, as for the bottom center. You will see how he exits through her shadow while they are still airborne. As you all know, Brex is capable of throwing himself into a shadow and appearing anywhere he's been. Of course, he can appear anywhere in that vicinity if he happens to already know exactly where he will come out that has a solid surface. When a shadow is required however, that is mostly to enter the shadow realm. In this case however, he used the shadow travel skill of his, in the way for the intimidation factor if my guess was right.”
Moving onto the last screen, you will see how Nightmare Moon had nearly lost her weapon after a rebound from colliding into a barrier that had been placed only seconds before by Brex. That unique skill only afforded to the Dark Knight, is capable of blocking up to a certain amount of damage, equal to a percentage of the user’s full health. Because of the amount of force that was used during that attack. She had inadvertently in a sense, pop the bubble. There by activating a secondary ability.”
“In a sense, it used that stored up attack power that was blocked and energized Brex with additional energy to bypass the need for Mana and had used it for the sister ability that I mentioned earlier. Of course, with it being a single target move, it did far more damage than the one previously thrown and it ended with much more of her gear being destroyed. This brings us to the final ability afforded to the Dark Knight class that was used that night.”
“This being a concentrated blast of dark energy that was launched from the palm. This was meant for a single target as well. Also, this one was a skill that did not use any magic to do so with it being a cooldown skill. However, with the rules of the game world no longer being firmly entrench. Brex was able funnel a good portion of his current energy along with it and this caused the attack to have the required amount power to counter the incoming flames.”
That was when the school bell went off again and Lisa was quickly waving her hand frantically. When Little Light saw this, she called out to Lisa and the girl began to quickly ask a question. “Wait! hold on! You forgot to other spells that he used. I already know that didn't come from the Paladin class! What was with that wind barrier and that rainstorm he brought down?”
Little Light was currently collecting all of the little baubles and had call the one from before to reappear once the screens had turn back to a regular, single chalkboard. The teacher then said, “Now we will have to cover on another class because that is from something else other than those of the Dark Knight. And as you have already pointed out, are not from the Paladin. We will get to those in all good time.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 45: Does This Count as Assault?
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Flowers Sisters Flower Shop* *Time: Just after Eleven thirty in the morning*
Right now, a blue Pegasus, that was known to Brex as Rainbow Dash. Was currently doing a rapid dive-bomb onto the Roegadyn after immediately soaring as high as she could before nearly hitting the roof of the shop. Of course, this was literally a split second after she had finish calling out that Brex was a monster. Today, she was wearing a set of jogging clothing with a white undershirt and a blue hoodie, along with a pair of tight black pants that showed off her form.
Her arms were fully extended out to the front of her body and clearly showing that she was going to try and push whoever was in her way with a full body tackle and down onto the floor with everything that she had. Just as she was going to make contact with her palms only a centimeter away from the blue sections of his shoulders. Brex had immediately shifted his body weight in order to fall backwards right at the very instant that Rainbow had touched him with just the tips of her fingers.
As a result, the pair fell back until they landed on the floor with a heavy thud, but managed to avoid colliding with either the counter or any of the potted plants that were on display only a few feet away. Of course, with not only the large body size of the Roegadyn, coupled together with that of Rainbow and her added speed. There was a resounding crash that nearly knocked over a few of the flower pots nearby and caused a few of the ones that were hanging by chains on the ceiling to sway.
Without missing a Beat Rainbow had gotten her body situated so that she was straddling his waist while still gripping tightly onto the collar of his hood. After about a second or so of her trying to shake his body enough to cause a normal person to slam the back of their head into the floor repeatedly and having no such luck. She quickly resorted to throwing her right fist back and primed it to slam a good solid punch right into his mask covered face.
But while she was doing all of this, she was screaming loudly while giving a death glare down to the one that was underneath. “Ha-Ha! I caught you now Monster! Did you really think you could get past my highly trained senses and attack Lily in her own shop? Fat Chance! I knew you were here the whole time! Fluttershy, quick! Go and get the town guard! Tell ‘em I got one of those monsters that snuck into town! You better tell them to get here fast too, otherwise there won't be anything left of it by the time I'm done!”
Upon hearing the request from rainbow. Fluttershy quickly nodded while apparently being scared out of her mind as to what was going on and had rushed off to the front door after taking to the air, just as rainbow was about to throw the punch that she had been getting ready to use. However just before Fluttershy could even get to the doorknob. The door itself was opened in another familiar voice came into the room. This belonging to a cheerful sounding Applejack.
“Howdy there! I just figured I'd stop by to see if you got another-.” The orange mare had the words caught in her throat on seeing what was going on. From where she stood in the doorway, she could plainly see that Fluttershy, who was only a foot or so away was looking extremely panicked by the way she was looking back and forth between Applejack and further into the shop.
While at the same time, her friend Rainbow was on the wooden floor near the end of the counter and was currently on top of something very large. Along with a fist that was halfway pulled back, as it was clearly stopped in mid throw from her sudden arrival.
Seeing to have already figured out just who would had come in. Rainbow then called over her shoulder while looking at Applejack. “Great timing A J! Give me a hand here in tying up this monster I just caught!” Hearing the word monster. Applejack leaped into action and quickly approached while reaching onto her hip that had a length of rope coiled on a clip that was attached to the belt she sported. But just as she had gotten over to her friend, she had just then got a good look at who was underneath and froze in mid motion of taking the rope into both of her hands.
Clearly the farmer had identified that this was the stallion that she and so many others had been looking around over the past two days. Rainbow immediately caught on to the hesitation on her friend's help and while still grabbing on to her apparent prisoner. She quickly called to Applejack again in a rather annoyed voice. “What's keeping you up? This thing put up an epic fight before I took it down so we better get it taken care of before it gets a second wind and goes after Lily again.”
That was when there was a new voice that came out from deeper within the shop. After letting out a startled gasp and the sound of a bag falling to the ground. The two Pegasus and the orange earth pony turned to see Lily standing there while holding both of her hands up to her face in real horror. Rainbow was about to say something but was stopped when they all heard what Lily said next in a panic and in the middle of approaching quickly.
“By Celestia! What are you all doing to Mister Gambit! Gambit, Gambit! Please say something. Quickly we need to get a nurse! Please! Mister Gambit, say something, anything. Oh no, oh no! How in Equestria did this happen?!” As Lily went on and on while shifting from one hoof to another with her expressions only becoming more manic as time continued. Rainbow was devolving from her triumphant attitude that she was displaying earlier and was now looking a little unsure as to what was going on.”
After a few more seconds of this, the blue Pegasus slowly brought her eyes down and was now looking at the motionless body before her. Her eyes then began to go wide upon repeating what she was just hearing from Lily, along with a noticeable gulp from the back of her throat. “Mister... Gambit?” In one instant motion, Rainbow had kicked off of the ground and was now hovering several feet above where she was just at, while quickly muttering. “Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! I-I just attacked a S-Stallion!!!” This was also accompanied by a weak voice that obviously came from Fluttershy. “Oh my... Is... Is he okay? I haven't seen him move at all sense…”
The next that could be heard speaking, was Applejack as she stared straight at Rainbow while holding her hat at an awkward angle and giving her the, are you kidding me look. “Yah caught a Monster, eh?” After that point. Both Rainbow and Fluttershy told them exactly what happened, even though Rainbow was attempting to make it sound like they had gotten into an altercation but finally relented and told the truth after some nasty glares from Applejack.
To which, got the farm mare to say, “Ok! let me get this here straight. You and Fluttershy came in here to get something and ended up getting spooked when this fella came out of the back room. After getting a hesitant nod from the pair she went on to continue. “So, you Rainbow decided it was a good idea to do a flying tackle and slam him into the floor and immediately climb on top of him to try and mare handle the poor fella. Also, if it wasn't for me coming in, you would have struck him in the face by now.”
There was another slow nod from the blue Pegasus before Applejack continued further. “Then, you went and asked me to help tie the stallion up before you even realized just what you even took down. Yeah, didn’t even take the time to notice just what it was you were even sitting on. Really Rainbow! Assaulting a stallion is against the law and you nearly turned me into one of your accomplices!”
After that, the farm mare and the blue Pegasus began to argue with one another about how nearsighted Rainbow could get. While at the same time, both Lily and Fluttershy were really confused as to how it had got turned into an argument and attempted to pull the two ponies apart.
Over back to Brex, who was still laying on the floor. He was currently listening and watching as the fight progressed further and further from what started as name-calling, to progress to the verge of throwing punches at one another. Going back to the moment that Rainbow had tackled him. Brex had suddenly moved his body to make it appear that his falling was due to being attacked by the dive bomb. Even the fall itself had hardly even registered to him and decided to just play possum to see how things would turn out.
Of course, he wasn't doing nothing. But instead, was running scenarios through his head. He started to think of what it would have been like if he had retaliated in even the slightest degree or even avoided the attack all together. He had no doubt that the whole thing would have escalated even further and there was a high degree of possibility that there would have been some collateral damage as a result. Judging from the personality in the show, along with all of those detailed accounts of first encounters for the displaced. Rainbow Dash would not have listened to a single word he had said and would have continued attacking him nonetheless.
This would have of course, led to getting the rest of the town involved along with the other Element bearers. One after another, they would join in and help Rainbow without so much as asking a question as to what was going on. What he knew for sure, was that no matter what action he would have taken, whether it was to fight back or to run. The same outcome would have occurred with a probability greater than eighty-five percent from what he had figured out.
Obviously, there was always the option of disappearing into a shadow that was directly underneath his body if the worst scenario should come up and they didn't calm down. Brex did find it a shirring that Applejack was very cool-headed and figured that it was due to her seeing him during that incident back at the café. So at least he had some form of street cred that painted him in a positive light. Otherwise, she might have tried to hogtie him already.
But as soon as the fist fight was beginning to become a real thing. Brex started to get to his feet after first pushing his upper half up with both of his arms. As soon as he had fully gotten up. He silently went over to Lilly who had not noticed him along with the others and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. When she had turned around, she was startled to see that he was back on his legs and instantly began to ask him a barrage of questions in relations to his physical health.
Eventually, all of Lily's words had drawn the others attention away from one another and towards the both of them. Applejack was currently pulling on one of Rainbows wings. While at the same time, the Pegasus was holding on to the farmer's hat while dangling it above her head right as they froze in place while looking at Brex. Then, without so much as even acknowledging the other's presence within the store. He reached into his left arm sleeve and pulled out the same bag that he was about to give to Rose the other day and handed it over to Lily.
Lily then asked him in a worried tone. “Oh! I see you were coming down to check out. Honestly, we didn't really get to see you around all that much. We had all completely forgotten about it. But are you sure you’re, okay? Does anything hurt? Here, let’s look. Just take off-.” Lily's words came to an abrupt halt when she reached up suddenly for his mask and found that it didn't budge even an inch when she tried to pull it off of his face.
When she tried to pull on it a second time. Brex immediately reached up and gently gripped on to the hand that she was reaching up with and pulled it away slowly. Brex then said to her in a whisper that the others could just barely make out. “Concern is… Appreciated.” After he had released her hand. She did ask him while still seemingly worried. “If you're fine, then I'm glad. But are you planning on going back home now that the celebration is finally over?”
To this, he shook his head slowly before replying. “Extending my stay.” Lily nodded after hearing what he had just said before she added. “I see. Now that all the tourists have gone away. Then the other places to rent a room will have some vacancies. But still, I really do think you should check yourself with a doctor. I was all the way in the back and even I heard that big thud from all the way back there.”
Brex simply motioned that he was fine with a wave of his hand and began to make his way through the front door. At the same time, walking around the three ponies that were still there. Not once did he turn his head in their direction and exited the flower shop and began to walk down the road going to the right.
Back with all of the girls. Both the blue and orange mare's were still frozen in place while their eyes were currently locked on the doorway that had been left open. As for Fluttershy, she went up to Lily and began to speak in a somewhat worried voice. “I hope that he's not too mad at us. We're really sorry for the trouble.” Lily had turned towards Fluttershy and gave her a small smile that quickly turned to a frown upon turning her focus back towards the two mare’s that had finally released one another before she spoke in a disappointed tone.
“Mister Gambit had booked a room that we advertised to make some extra money on the side. Seeing as all of the hotels and taverns were full because of the coming up celebration. The poor guy doesn't really say much, but I can tell that he was really bothered by what happened. As for you Fluttershy, you don't really have anything to apologize for. But I do think that theirs a pony in here that really should.”
That last sentence was clearly pointed towards Rainbow, with how the Earth mare's eyes were solely locked onto the blue Pegasus's reddish orbs. The one in question, instantly gave a small gulp while scratching the back of her head. However, it quickly changed to another attitude when she got back onto her hooves after landing and began to talk in a condescending tone and crossing her arms as a pout slowly formed on the mare’s lips.
“Hey! Don't look at me like that! It's not my fault that the dude snuck up on the both of us. Who in their right minds comes out from the back door only to scare a couple of customers anyway? What was he even doing up there to begin with?! I was only trying to protect you seeing as every pony knows that it's only the three of you that lives here.”
“For all I knew, he was trying to rob yeah. Ha! You should really be praising me for being such a quick thinker!” It became quite obvious to the rest of them, that she had not paid any attention to what was being said earlier and they were all now giving her the, what are you fucking talking about look. Well, all aside from Fluttershy, who just looked rather confused as to what she was hearing with how one ear was up and the other was more than half way down.
It was Applejack who was the one that spoke up next, while swatting the back of Rainbows head with her hat and then putting it right back on. “Didn't cha hear a dang thing she said while speaking to that fella? Also, almost every pony knows in this town that they were renting out their room to a stallion. What's more, he was the one that all the other girls have been chatting about.”
Rainbow obviously had a confused expression as she was listening to this and tilting her head ever so slightly. As soon as Applejack had finished telling her about just who he was and why he was even there. The blue Pegasus suddenly started to have a laughing fit, while pointing towards the door as she started to speak between heavy chuckles and grabbing at her side with the one free hand.
“WHAT! That oversized weakling?! He's the one that they've all been fawning over? You’ve got to be kidding me, right? I literally just took him down in one easy hit. Didn't even give me much of a fight at all. I bet I even knocked him out for a moment with how he didn't even move a single muscle after I had him slammed into the floor!” That was when there was some loud tapping coming from near to her left which happened to be Applejack and she wasn't looking all that very happy. She then started to say in a voice that was clearly meant to imitate that of Rainbow Dash. “This thing put up an epic fight before I took it down.” Applejack's voice went back to normal before going on.
“Weren't those your very words? Seriously Rainbow! Do you even realize what you just did? You assaulted a male. It would have been one thing if it was in self-defense or if he really was trying to rob them. But you went and attacked him without any warning or just cause. Just because he walked into the room! And if what you said was true about him not moving after you tackled him and he had been knocked out, then you better hope he's really okay! Because, if he goes and reports this to the guards, then that's going to be some real jail time for yah. Oh, and just in case you're wondering. If I'm asked about what I know, then you best don't plan on me lying!”
Right now, Rainbow was really looking worried with how her eyes kept darting towards the floor that they had been laying on when she had tackled him and back towards the front door that had been left open. Now speaking in an unsure tone, Rainbow started to ask Applejack. “But, but, it's not like I-I... Uh oh... H-Hold on! We save the Princess. Doesn't that count for anything? I mean, we're celebrities now, right? This ain't no biggie.”
All Rainbow could get from the three other ponies in the room was a unified set of head shakes before Applejack spoke up again. “Yeah, really aren't getting it there partner. We may have done that and stopped Nightmare Moon and all. But this is still going to label you as a stallion beater. There’re some pretty strict laws when it comes to the safety of them, you know that, right? Also, it’s really goanna hurt your chances of getting with a stallion if you end up with that sort of mark on your record. You'd be lucky if they allowed you to get within five hoofs of any of them, much less to join one of those herds.”
At first, Rainbow was trying to show a brave front. But with each point that Applejack was making. The blue Pegasus was showing that her wings were starting to slowly sag lower and lower, until the tips of her wings were now nearly hitting the floor with how straight down they were by the end. Even the color was beginning to slowly drain from her face, as her eyes went wide from the implications of what her future would end up becoming. But what Applejack said next, was the final nail in the coffin and it ended up breaking Rainbows resolve into a thousand pieces.
“Do yeah even think that the group that you've been pining for all this time, would even allow a stallion beater to be in their ranks?” That was when she suddenly had a full-blown panic and shot her wings out and took to the air in order to fly through the front door and leaving nothing but a blur of rainbows. All the while quickly screaming out. “I need to be someplace right now! See yeah later!”
As soon as the Pegasus left. Applejack had taken her hat off and was now scratching the top of her head in confusion as she turned to Fluttershy to ask a question. “Say, Fluttershy. Did Rainbow really get him as easily as she said?” From there, Fluttershy tried to tell her just what she had seen from the moment they came in and all the way up till Applejack came into the scene. After putting her hat back on, Applejack then said while crossing her arms and having a skeptical look on her face. “Even if Rainbow did do one of her flying tackles, I doubt very much that she was able to bring such a big fella down so easily. Something just doesn't feel right here.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: A few minutes after leaving the Flour Sisters Shop*
As soon as he had gotten out onto the street, he was immediately preoccupied while walking and trying to calm down Rory. Who was just fuming through the mental connection. Brex was positive that if he had not given her the direct order not to come to Ponyville and rip off every one of Rainbows feathers out one by one, then the girl would have already been in the act of doing so at this very moment. It was becoming more and more obvious that Rory was beginning to develop an aversion to the blue Pegasus. Thanks to this incident, along with the bad-mouthing that was overheard from the party.
She was currently in the middle of another sentence that was describing in more vivid details as to what she would be doing to Rainbow right now. But Brex was distracted by sensing an object moving at high speeds and it was heading in his direction from where he had come walking from. He had considered the idea of trying to hide, but thought otherwise, so he remained at his current pace and was quickly caught up by the one that he had fully expected it to be.
As soon as Rainbow had zoomed right past and quickly turned around to be hovering just several feet in front of him and just off of the ground. Rory started to talk with in his head, with a tone that clearly said that she wanted nothing more than to cause some extreme, bodily harm to the mare. “Oh, is the bitch coming to apologize at last? Master, I suggest not letting her off the hook too easily. From what I know about her personality, she's not the type to learn her lesson unless it's administered through some form of extreme humiliation or bodily harm. Personally, I would prefer the second option.” This got him to reply by saying, “I doubt very much that this is going to be an apology, but it's sure nice to think about it though.”
Brex could easily tell that she was nervous at first but covered it with her usual bravado and struck a pose with her fists resting on both of her hips, while puffing out her chest in the same way one would when taking a picture of an athlete, that had just won first prize. “Hey, you're not busy now, right? How about you and me have a quick chat!” The Roegadyn seriously didn't feel all that up to talking to such an aggravating Pony at the moment. So, he just ended up shrugging her off with not even acknowledging her presents and walked around the still floating Pegasus.
It took a few seconds before he heard her giving a confused sound before it was a rush of wind and the Pegasus was now right in front of him once more. This time, seemingly annoyed as she was now giving him the stink eye. Rainbow was just about to say something, when he made a perfect ninety degree turn to the left while in mid-step and began to walk down a back alley that was right between what appeared to be a barber shop and a general goods store.
After going more than halfway inside and just past a few dumpsters. He had just gone in far enough that if any bystanders were to come by, then they would have a hard time in noticing that he was even there. Of course, seeing as Rainbow was not one to give up so easily, she immediately followed him in as well. He then turned around on the spot and was now facing the blue mare. But the action had caught her unawares with the sudden motion and she was nearly about to run right into him thanks to the abrupt stop he had done and was now looking at him with a surprised expression after finding that her face was only a few inches away from his mask.
She then backed away a few feet and had landed with a thud from just dropping from the air as her wings were pulled in quickly. She even had this cocky expression on her face before she started to speak. “Oh… I see how it is. You just wanted to get me all to yourself. That’s why you led us down here. Oh well, I can't really blame you, I’m just that awesome.” Brex was rolling his eyes from behind his mask after personally witnessing this pony’s self-delusions first-hand. The next thing to happen, was Rainbow beginning to say something to him. Only to quickly go back and forth between herself and Brex on the responses.
“Say, I really need to talk to you about what just happened back at the shop!”
“Nothing happened… Bye.”
“Huh? What? Wait, hold up! What are you talking about, didn’t you hit your head or... Oh, uh…? Right. I did that didn’t-.”
“Won't say anything.”
“Could you wait for just a second, I just wanted to-.”
“Save your reputation.”
“Huh? What?! No. No, that's not what I... I just wanted to see if-.”
“Hospital not required.”
“Huh?”
“Going now... Bye.”
Brex had made the motion that he was about to walk around her like he did earlier. However, Rainbow didn't look as if she was about to let that happen again and quickly sidestepped so that she was blocking his path. She was even beginning to look agitated with how she was pretty much giving him the stink eye and bawling up both of her hands into fists, while they were down at her sides.
Even her wings were partially flared up. That was when she brought up her right hand and began to repeatedly poke him just below the chest with nearly every word that she was about to say. While nearly bringing her voice loud enough that it could be heard from all the way down to the street.
“Hey! I'm trying to talk to you here! Now shut up and bucking listen to what I have to say like a good stallion!” When Brex heard that, he had complied and just remained perfectly still without saying so much as a word for the next several seconds. Rainbow’s apparent anger from before, was quickly subsiding and she had withdrawn her hand after noticing that she was pressing into him just a little too hard with her finger. Brex could see that she was doing this small breathing exercise to psych herself up for some reason, before she started to speak again.
“Look, I just wanted to know... I mean, you look like you... Uh… I mean… T-That uh, was a pretty great tackle, no wait, I mean... Gerrrrrrr... You shouldn't have come out of there like... You look really suspicious wearing... You can't blame me for calling you a-. You know, this whole thing wouldn't have happened if you were with your-. What's a stallion doing all by himself anyway? If you'd only had your mare’s around. Then none of this would have even happened! Y-Yeah, that's right, it's all your fault! I didn't do anything wrong. Got that!”
During her whole jumbled speech. The blue Pegasus kept interrupting herself whenever she brought her finger up to make a point. Only to immediately retract it whenever she came to a sudden halt in one of her many sentences. But when it got to the point where she was talking about why he wasn't with his mare’s.
Rainbow was picking up momentum and regaining her confidence to the point that she had crossed her arms and was looking rather triumphant in finally making a point. Although to Brex, he knew full well that she was trying to come up with an apology but due to her nature, the very act of admitting that she was wrong, was appearing to be physically causing her pain so she ended up falling back onto her cocky self.
So, instead of fighting what can't be changed in a single day. Brex just stood there and remained completely silent as per the norm. Apparently during the next several long moments, Rainbow was beginning to show signs of cracks forming in her posture. The wings that were slightly raised to show that she was angry, were slowly inching down as the seconds passed. The once steely gaze that she was giving him was now beginning to soften. While also having a hard time with keeping eye contact as he could see her pupils slowly drifting before pulling themselves back to his mask.
The fists from before, began to unclench and the shaking that was fueled by anger was replaced gradually by something else completely. But the biggest giveaway was how her ears that were pointed up and going in his direction, had gradually started to drop and were nearly down at the sides of her head. When nearly a minute had passed, the end result was Rainbow resembling a beaten puppy that wanted nothing more than to be anywhere else but there.
Brex could even see how she was fighting the urge to do that thing that ponies do where they paw at the ground with one of their hooves when they feel the need to make themselves feel emotionally better. At one point or another, Brex had even come up with a theory that this was their fight or flight impulse that is trying to kick in and doing such an act, was giving them the same feeling of being able to run away.
After giving the mare a few more seconds of the silent treatment. Brex finally started to walk out of the alleyway and leaving behind an empty shell of Rainbow, who hadn't even made any motions to stop him anymore. Before he had just rounded the corner of the alley. Brex took a quick glance and he was able to see the pathetic sight of the blue Pegasus that was just staring straight at the floor.
When he had gotten a fair distance away and was now on the streets walking among the rest of the ponies. His mind was brought out of how he was thinking about the way that the mare's were looking in his direction by the sound of Rory's voice. “Master, just what did you do to Rainbow Dash? Did you release your killing intent or was it a spell that I was unaware of being activated?”
Brex then replied in a menacing, yet also playful inner tone. “Oh, I most certainly used a spell all right. She wanted me to shut up and I gave her exactly that. I just thought that if the rules here were reversed, then why shouldn't I take advantage of a few of those?” After a few seconds of silence, along with clearly sensing Rory's confusion.
He then went on to say, “I simply gave her the iconic silent treatment. You know. The one where you just constantly stare at them without moving a muscle until they start to see that they've angered you to the point that they end up going over what they said in their own heads to figure out just what had happened to put them in that situation.”
“It also helps with how I'm wearing this mask and that I'm so much bigger than her. So, I have no doubt that it added to the intimidation factor of that little trick.” He then heard Rory saying, “You know, it's when you do little things like this, that I wonder just how far you could go if you were to ever turn evil.” Brex then replied in a mocking, villainous tone. “Hey! When have I ever said I was the hero? You're talking to a guy that could do some serious damage to all of Equestria if I really felt like doing so.”
This got an equally fake villainous laugh from Rory as she began to speak. “All beware my most powerful Master! For he can ruin the lives of so many if he ever so truly wishes!” After dropping the fake voice and returning to her usual playful one, she then continued. “Well Master, putting aside future possible plans of conquest. Just what would your plans for today happen to be? You're not staying in that room anymore. So, where are you going to sleep now? Go rent another room in one of the few hotels?”
Brex had to resist giving a shrug with his real body as he answered so he didn’t seem odd to any of the on-lookers. “I think for now, I'm just going to camp out in the Everfree. At least until these mare’s start to fucking calm down. I really didn't get a chance to talk with Daisy much. But both Lily and Rose said that a pony did sneak into the upper floor’s just to find me.”
“It might not be such a good idea to stay within the town limits when I sleep for the next few weeks. Beyond that, we'll just have to see how everything goes. Also, don't worry, I'll keep coming back now and then to see you all.” That last part earned him a relieved sigh from the other end of the connection and he ended up chuckling to himself just under his breath from hearing Rory’s reactions.
Brex then started to look around from where he stood and noted that he wasn't all that far from where Pinkie Pie works. He then started to think. “If she literally smells pastries all the time. Then how is she not gotten sick of it? I know I like things like pizza, but even I would grow tired of it after a while of being around it constantly. Now, what to do, what to do? Twilight is still getting used to the library.”
“So, putting myself in her life right now wouldn't really be all that nice. I already got to meet up with three of the mane six already and I really don't want to meet up with Rarity just yet. The longer I avoid her, the better. She has this attention to details, that it isnt something I want to chance in causing something to happen until I get myself settled here at Ponyville.”
“Besides, in a bunch of the stories, she ends up falling for the displaced character. There is absolutely no way in the Seven Hells, that I'm going to end up breaking Spikes heart by having her swooning over me! I know there's a one, in a billion chance that, that will happen to me. But I'm still not going to do that to him. Who knows, maybe in this reality they do get together. Hmm... Maybe I can push all of them to like him and make one of those Spike harems that I remember reading. Is he even old enough for that? I’ll keep that on the back burner. I’ll try to help with Rarity and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. He deserves that much.”
“Eh! Who am I kidding! My own love life is a complete mess. Especially with my girlfriend trying to play matchmaker.” There was then, a small giggle that he knew came from Rory after hearing that thought of his. After a few seconds passed. Brex suddenly remembered that there was one in town that he had completely forgotten to go and see. In a reluctant tone that just showed how thrilled he was to go, he thought. “I really, REALLY! Just hope that it doesn't turn out like it did the last time I came by.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Ponyville General Hospital* *Time: One-fifteen in the afternoon*
Right now, Brex had just walked through the front sliding open doors of the General Hospital for Ponyville and immediately made his way over to the reception counter. There, the Earth pony nurse who was manning the front, had immediately recognized him as soon as he had come through the door by the expression on her face. She was already holding down a button that was connected to an intercom and calling another on the other end before he even had a chance to say anything to her.
As soon as he had come to a complete stop while standing on the other side of the reception desk. He heard the mare saying, “Would you care to take a seat? The nurse will be right with you as soon as she's done with her current task, which shouldn't be all that long.”
After giving her a quick nod and a small thank you. The Roegadyn had gone over and sat in one of the many empty chairs in the lobby. After about fifteen to twenty minutes had gone by. He was finally approached by a nurse who had just come through a set of double doors and immediately led the way towards the examination rooms on the next floor up and down to the very end of the hallway.
She was an earth mare with a white coat, pink mane and tail, blue eyes, and a cutie mark of a medical cross with a heart in each corner. She had the familiar white gown that all nurses were known for, which included the short mini skirt and white stockings that stop short of the skirt. Along with one of those small hats that also has her cutie mark printed on it.
(Here is a pony picture of nurse from the show.)
Once they had gone into the room, the door was immediately locked as soon as Brex had entered with the nurse following closely behind. The nurse then spoke loudly in a young, yet authoritative tone. “Do you have any idea just how long it's been since your last physical?” Immediately afterwards, they both glanced to the door that had a tinted window that allowed one to tell if there was someone standing on either side of it. But not clear enough to see what was happening beyond it by a few feet.
After a few seconds of listening for any beyond the door. The pair then turned towards one another and started to silently laugh together. It was the nurse that was the first to speak after the laughing fit had completely left their system.
“I do so apologize for that my Lord. But I do have a reputation that I need to keep intact while here. With me not being a Unicorn to cast any healing Magic. It can be quite troublesome to keep the station of head nurse when you're only an earth pony.” Brex quickly responded to that, while at the same time waving his right hand and a dismissive manor. “It's quite alright.”
“That may have been in the past but now that the schools have been opened up, even Earth ponies can cast healing spells if they were to focus on that particular class. But to do so, for so many years while taking on the disguise of an earth pony must not have been an easy task for you.” This got him a subtle nod from the nurse as she pulled up a set of stools for them to sit on. She then spoke while showing a flash of emotion across her face for but a brief instant, that showed that she was thinking of something unpleasant.
“It's really all thanks to the one that I ended up replacing if I'm going to tell you the truth. Still… It was very unfortunate that she was unable to reach Ponyville when she was transferred. I know this really isn't something I should say, but it was a good opportunity for me to assume her identity.” From behind his mask. Brex would have been seen giving a murderous scowl towards the wall right behind Red Heart, as the thought of what he had found out when he and Ryu conducted their investigation of the Prize Noble household.
Close to a little over twelve years ago. The real nurse Red Heart, who was only known as red heart at the time with her being a filly. Had only just learned her cutie mark after helping a random Pony that she saw on the street who had gotten injured by an accident involving a random wagon that was speeding through the streets when the sun was about to go down. The poor thing was only doing what was right. But Brex had learned later on, that the one that got injured was being targeted by that noble family and intentionally planned on getting that pony injured so that their business would go under.
When she had administered first-aid, that was when Red Heart got her cutie mark and had plans on going to medical school. But unfortunately for her, that family didn't take very kindly with having their plans ruined by some random mare on the street that just so happened to have some medical supplies on hand, due to her coming back home after getting them at the local store just before the incident occurred.
Afterwards, Red Heart ended up having a string of incidents happening in her life which involved her mother passing away due to an unforeseen illness that had not been treated in time. Then, there was also the difficult year's during the medical training with how there was a constant problem with paperwork going missing and a few of the other students giving her a harder time than the rest. Finally, when she graduated and was about to enter her first job at the hospital that was located in the center of Canterlot.
She was suddenly told that there was a mistake and that she was not qualified to work there. But instead, was to be transferred to the General Hospital at Ponyville. She even had been notified that if she didn't get there right away then she was going to lose the position. She even tried to argue that she should have been given notice about this beforehand.
It would seem that the Prize family had orchestrated everything that had been happening to her and purposely set up the situation where they made it seem like to every other person, that she was notified but was neglectful in checking her letters. Which were purposely withheld.
Because of this. She had next to no preparation time and very little savings. The mare even had to drop everything immediately to pack up and catch the train down the mountain in order to get there in time to keep the job. But it would seem that they were one step ahead and caused an incident which delayed the train and this forced her to try and go on hoof to get there. In the end she never made it and was killed by a pack of monsters while on the road when she had gotten close to the Everfree forest.
Brex really wanted to punch himself in the face as hard as he could after realizing that even with the Prize family being gone. They had already put in the motion, a plan to ruin that mare’s life without him even knowing it was going on thanks to some of their side business partners. The nurse Red Heart in front of him right now, was really a Changeling who had been living in Ponyville for a while under an assumed identity of a pony from a city on the other side of Equestria, that had been stationed there for home repair work.
As it just so happened. There was an incident involving a construction accident where she had been able to avoid getting killed. However, by doing so, she had no way of explaining how she escaped when a building that was under construction had fallen on her after so many witnesses had seen it happening. Back then, she was also in the disguise of an earth pony so she couldn't say that she was able to use magic in her escape. That was when she came across the real nurse Red Heart, who was at the side of the road and on the threshold of death while the Changeling was leaving the town.
The Changeling did try her very best to use whatever magic she could at the time, in order to heal the earth pony. Unfortunately, at the time. She was running dangerously low on magic herself due to the sudden departure along with protecting herself from that accident. This also meant that the Changeling didn't have the strength to send a message through the hive connection. She had even used up so much of her own magic, that she ended up reverting to her natural state. Surprisingly enough, nurse Red Heart was unaffected by the site by what the Changeling had told Brex later on.
But before the Pony had passed on. Red Heart began to tell the Changeling about her life and even asked as to what species she was. Seeing as there was no point in keeping a secret from one that was soon to pass on. The Changeling and Red Heart began to talk as well as also exchanging questions and answers. Once the real nurse Red Heart had a good grasp as to what a Changeling was and the circumstances in which they met. She then asked something that surprised the Changeling immediately.
This turning out to be her giving permission to have her identity be used by the Changeling under the condition that she returns to Ponyville and does what she can to help as many as she could. Of course, as soon as Brex had found out about the death of nurse Red Heart. He was greatly saddened. However, upon hearing about what it happened. He immediately went into action and track down all of those who were apart of the plan to ruin the girl's life and expose all of their wrong doings. Safe to say, he had a hard time with controlling himself.
Those that were but a small part of the plan, had not known of the full outcome and were only a tiny cog within a larger machine. Those small fries were now in jail for taking those small tasks. But when it came to the ones that new the whole plan. They weren’t so lucky and had a private meeting with Brex after being taken. It was safe to say that they weren’t seen again and no more lives would be ruined through their selfish decision’s.
Brex really did want to try to use the resurrection spells afforded to his healing classes on nurse Red Heart. But over the years of conducting a few experiments on those that he found to be too far gone for redemption. The Roegadyn found that he had ended up becoming a little sadistic when it came to those that poked the figurative bee hive. It was also found that there were indeed some limitations to the use of them. First of all. The spell had no effect on those who have been dead for a certain amount of time. Then there was the condition in which their body was in.
If a good portion of them remained then the spell would work. Now if say, there was only a single arm or head, then the spell would not take any effect. Lastly, being of course the number of times one can be Resurrected in correlation to the negative buff that would take away twenty-five percent of their total stat numbers. He could in theory, revive a person indefinitely if he was to wait for the revived marker to wear off before casting it too many times to hit one hundred percent.
In nurse Red Hearts case, she had been long dead before he had received word about her condition. Even if he had been told about it, he was busy and would not have been able to get there in time. As he was going over what it happened in his head. He had suddenly felt a hand gently resting on his right shoulder and this caused him to come right back to the present. Only to see the current Red Heart looking at him with some genuine concern.
That was when she started to say, “My Lord. I may not be able to sense your feelings. But I've been around as a nurse long enough to tell when another is suffering. Whether it be through emotional, physical pain or through visual observations alone. I'm sorry about bringing up the past. I'm sure that if she knew what you had done after learning about her death, then it would have been more than enough.” This ended up getting her a slow nod as he said, “And I'm sure that everything you're doing in her name, is giving her far more comfort than I ever could.”
As to change the subject on hand. Brex then began to ask, “So, what is this I've been hearing about you turning down the position of a doctor only to remain as the head nurse?” This got Red Heart to pull away and sit back onto her chair while giving him a small giggle as she replied.
“Oh, I may be a nurse and everything, but I'm not too good when it comes to the more specialized areas. Thanks to being a Conjurer, I can fix most of the common ailments along with healing the light injuries. So, I'm content with that. It just makes more sense to let the ones that have the experience to handle the more difficult problems.”
That was when Brex started to think about how she couldn't use the revival type spells like he could. There was also the substantial difference in strength when it came to what they were capable of doing when put up against his game version of spells and physical abilities. For them, the revival spells don’t work on one who is fully dead. But instead, it stabilized their condition while leaving them dangerously weak and in need of additional aid. Where his spells would clearly be strong enough to even regenerate limbs that had been recently lost in battle.
Where they were only a fraction of the strength. He knew at most; Red Heart would be able to nearly mend a completely broken bone to far enough where an injury that would take close to half a year to heal, would be brought down to just a month or even a few weeks. He was quite happy that as long as the emergency response team had a competent healer that was able to constantly cast one healing spell after another. Then a critically wounded being would be kept stable until they reach the hospital to receive full treatment. Intern, the mortality rates from both monster and non-monster related attacks have plummeted greatly.
This was also due to the assistance being given by the, Apothecary Medicinal Traders. That he had put together with the knowledge of medicines and potions from his game world. Now and every party nearly all the members would carry around a few health potions as well as some other ones meant for dealing with status ailments. This causing the first aid kit to become substantially more effective with how injuries can be taken care of quickly instead of simply bandaging them up if they didn't end up having a Healer in the party, or if theirs was the one that had been incapacitated.
That was when he began to ask Red Heart something. “Also, in regards to that one matter that I asked you to look in on. Has there been any progress?” This only got him a short head shake from the mare when she said, “I'm afraid we've hit a small roadblock. We needed to get a sample but getting it has not been easy to say the least. We still have a few other options to try out before we'll need to ask for your help.” Brex released a heavy sigh, while shaking his head at hearing what was happening with his request. After a few seconds of looking down, he raised his head to look back at Red Heart before he began to ask another question.
“I remember you being the one that was looking after that Pegasus that nearly crashed a few days ago out in the field next to the fireworks display set up. She didn't end up getting a head injury, did she?” After hearing this. Red Heart immediately had a look of confusion as she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow inquisitively as she answered. “I don't think so. Why? Has she been acting odd that you've noticed?” This got her a quick response of, “Never mind.”
Afterwards the pair went on to discuss a few other matters that took close to half an hour to complete. But as soon as they were finished, he was standing from his chair. When he had fully stood up and had taken a few steps towards the door to leave. There was a painfully obvious attempt to get his attention through the means of a very loud cough. When he turned around, he saw how Red Heart was standing there with a clipboard in hand while giving him a mischievous look. That was when Brex began to mutter inside of his head. “I… Knew… It.”
She then began to walk up to him while swaying her hips in an alluring fashion, as she began to speak in a slow, sultry tone. “My Lord~. Don't you think it's about time we had that physical of yours. You don't have to worry about the others getting jealous about me being able to see what you look like under there. After all, I do have doctor-patient confidentiality. Moreover, it would be a great honor to be your personal physician.”
On the outside, Brex was apparently calm as a cucumber and had no reaction. But on the inside, he was almost screaming the following. “I knew it! I just knew she was going to pull that stunt again! At least she's not already trying to take off my robes. I can't really tell if this is just her usual base instincts due to being a Changeling or if it has something to do with her personal nature when it comes to caring for others. Heck! It could just be her curiosity in using this as an excuse to finally look under my mask. Out of all the Changelings I've ever met, she's the only one who's ever been this forward about it towards me.”
But before she could get any closer to try anything else. The Roegadyn had used the Prestidigitation spell and created an odor that closely resembled that of their Queen and released it into the room. Within a few seconds, he saw how she was sniffing the air and had a look of panic as she began to frantically turn to find its source. All the while speaking as if she was a kid that was in trouble. “It's! It's not what it looks like! I just wanted to make sure that the Lord-.”
But before she can go on any further with the weak attempt at an excuse and had her back currently turned to him. The bed sheet on a nearby small bed had been grabbed by him and toss so that it would land over the Changeling in disguise. Once it had fully fallen over her and there was a startled whelp coming from underneath that sheet. Brex had immediately hopped in place to escape by traveling through the Shadows.
As soon as he had popped out of the ground, he found himself to be in a familiar clearing that he had not been too for quite some time. Even with a few of the things around him having changed over the course of the last decade. He still recognized it to be the exact spot in which he had first awoke into this new world. That was when he sat on the exact spot and laid on his back that he was sure had to be where he opened his eyes for the first time and looked straight up at the sky that only had a few clouds in it.
After a few moments of this he had released a relieved sigh as he practically melted into the grass with how relaxed he began to feel. He was just about to close his eyes to enjoy the feeling. But quickly shot up into a seated position after hearing a faint resulting echo that resembled that of cracking glass. Brex tried to find out if there was anything nearby but nothing showed up on any of his methods of detection. So, after a couple of seconds, he merely shrugged before laying back down again and only thought of it as a figment of his imagination.
From that point on. Brex went on to make that area, his home away from home while camping near Ponyville. Of course, he would constantly go back and forth between the forest and HQ. During the night, he would be over and spending time with Rory more often awake than actually sleeping. So, whenever the day came, he would pop back up to his campsite and make his way through the woods until he had gotten to the edge to see how the town was doing before teleporting to a place that he could see was clear of sight from any of the residents.
This pretty much went on for at least the next three weeks and all of the females were beginning to get used to his presence and weren't acting like horny college girls that got so drunk that they'd even fuck a fire hydrant if someone was to put a wig on top of it.
Brex would still have some close run-ins when it came to the main six while walking around. There were a few occasions that he nearly gave in to his curiosity about the building that was being erected but kept telling himself that it was none of his business. All he knew, was that they were constantly shipping in new building materials and whatever it was that they were building, they really didn't want others to see until it was finished.
He would on occasion bump into the flower sisters and they would ask him as to where he was staying but always kept the answer vague. That was until one day that Rose was showing no signs of giving up after finding out that he was not staying at any of the Inns or hotels in town. Honestly, it surprised him a little bit with how she became so familiar with him over the course of nearly a month. She would even ask if he was eating all right. This was because of a small rumor that had been spreading due to the mare’s that kept an eye on him now and then.
Without any real need to have anything to eat or drink. Brex had neglected to go into any of the diners much less a grocery store for supplies. So that was the reason why Rose was so adamant about knowing about where he was staying. Brex knew that he couldn't really lie and say that he was staying in one place in particular within the town so he went ahead and told her the truth about camping in the woods. At first, she was confused and asked as to why he would travel so far back and forth every day from the Whitetail Woods. But Brex explained that he was actually talking about the Everfree.
It was safe to say, that she had a conniption at the very prospect of him staying in there. She even went through the whole song and dance about explaining why it was so unnatural in those woods and that it was far too dangerous to simply camp out at every night. She would go on and on about talking about the clouds moving on their own and the animals not needing any care. Then there were the plants that grew without control. Brex had to resist laughing out loud and repeating a line about how he was scarier than anything that they would see while in those woods. But he had this sudden urge to stop, because he knew what was going to happen next if that line was to be said and he didn’t want to see an exploding Rose.
When this whole conversation had happened. He was already on his third week of camping, but when the fourth came to a close. Rose had finally had enough and had fully confronted Brex about his living arrangements when he had seen her coming out of one of the hotels while he was walking down the street like he normally does. It was purely a coincidence when the two bumped into one another and Rose immediately grabbed onto his right arm in a vice-like grip using both of hers and try to drag them into the building that she had just exited.
After a few seconds it was clearly obvious that Rose had overestimated her Earth Pony strength when she found that she was beginning to sink into the ground, thanks to her hoofs grinding away as she tried to pull him along with very little results to show. She even resorted to screaming the following loud enough for any Pony within two or three blocks to hear clearly. “Just get in this hotel with me!!”
Before she had done that. There were the normal sounds of others being busy. But then the entire place had become so dead silent, that one could hear a single tumble weed being as loud as a set of drums being struck when blown around by the wind. When Rose finally noticed what she had done, she literally started to turn into the same shade as her darkest hair color out of embarrassment before she screamed out loud again. “It's nothing like that! Get your minds out of the gutter!”
After Rolling his eyes, Brex finally relented and walked inside while Rose was trying to recover from the bouts of embarrassment as the rest of the residents around were clearly whispering to each other in plain view of them both. Brex didn't really have to literally be able to hear the whispers or turn around to see that it was being done thanks to the chat window on the bottom left-hand corner of his View. He did happen to read some of the following being whispered within what he thought to be fifty yards from where he stood.
“Hay! Did you hear that? How straightforward of Rose…”
“What did you expect, she's the only one that he really talks to in town. Of course, the two of them are obviously involved.”
“Hold on, you can't be serious?! If they really were, then why did he move out of their place instead of staying there?”
“Do you think they had an argument and he left?”
“No, no. I heard from the other sister that he was only staying there for two days because all of the other rooms were taken back when we had all of those tourists for the summer sun celebration and the princess came by.”
“Oh, so that would explain as to why I didn't smell him in her room anymore last week. I thought that the scent was getting weaker. Was thinking that they just were washing the sheets better every time.”
“Did you really go sneaking back in there again? Really sis? Why did mother ever agree to let you go to the school and trained to be a Rogue. Just what do you think is going to happen when mom finds out you've been using it to stock a stallion?”
“Ha! Shows what you know! I bet you that she would be really proud that I'd go so far as to get myself a Stallion.”
“Just don't count on me to bail you out of jail when that backfires on you...”
Luckily, he was able to stop the flood of texts from filling up his chat window with an endless stream by going through the doorway and closing it behind him after Rose followed him in. As Rose was standing next to him and trying to regain her normal color. Brex began to think about one of the whispers that he did happen read in regards to his scent slowly going away from her room. After a few seconds of going over it in his head, he finally figured out that the mare must have been referring to the bed that he had slept on.
However, something just didn't really add up to him. From what he got, then his smell should have been washed out almost immediately if not nearly all gone once, they cleaned up after he left. This was when he started to think. “So, wait... Has she been sleeping on the sheets this whole time and has not once washed them? It would be a good idea if I didn't look into this. If anything, she's acting more like a sister than most of those male starved monsters in town. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that this was Fleur De Lis and disguise. But of course, she can't change her appearance and my senses aren't going off to say that Rose is a Changeling either.”
While those thoughts were going through his head. She had finally recovered and started to lead him up to the counter where a desk worker was currently standing and was apparently waiting for them to finally approach after coming in. This one was a male Earth Pony that was a light shade of tan coloring for his fur and a black mane that was trimmed a little shorter than he would normally see on any of the stallions he had managed to bump into and was comb to be parted down the middle. He looked to be around thirty years old and gave off a familiar vibe that he had a hard time and placing.
In a cheery tone. He quickly reached out and grabbed onto the Roegadyn's right hand and began to give it a firm handshake before introducing himself. “Ah this is the fella that you've been telling me about Rose. You must be Mister Gambit. You can call me Young Geezer.” Without so much as even thinking, Brex couldn't stop himself from blurting out his question upon hearing the stallion’s name. “Relation, Old Geezer?”
Apparently saying that old Pony's name that popped into his head from long ago during his first quest, had lit a light bulb in the stallion’s head with the way his expression changed to that of instant recognition. After letting out a loud laugh and holding on to the top of his head with his left hand for a moment. The one known as Young Geezer then said, “Hey, you must know my granddad. He used to run an apartment up until a few years ago but now he's gone and retired. I hear one of his tenants was hired to run the place in his sted afterwards.”
“Hmm... I have a real bad memory when it comes to names. I know that it was a mare that lived with their mother at that place for a while. I was pretty sure that it was green and red something. I'll get back to you about that when I finally remember what it was. Anyhow, Rose here came to me and had this weird idea about renting out a room under some very odd conditions.”
Rose had just stepped between Brex and Young Geezer and had both of her arms crossed while giving the Roegadyn a stern look, as well as a mischievous little smile before she started to speak in a matter-of-fact tone that left little room for negotiations by the sound of it. “I'm not going to let you camp out in that dangerous forest any more, do you hear me?! So, here's how it's going to go down. Either you start living in town and rent a room someplace or I’ll be the one to rent this room for you and you're going to have to live with the guilt that I'm paying for something I'm not using and it will be all your fault.”
Brex heard exactly what she said and figured it out immediately but was having a hard time with processing just what was going on all the same. Within his mind he began to think the following in rapid succession. “Hold on just a moment. Is she really just now trying to Blackmail me? Me?! Me, the man who power slammed their solar princess down from orbit. Me, the one who quite literally beat the shit out of Nightmare Moon?! Me who managed to fend off a sex crazed girlfriend on a regular basis to get work done from time to time?”
“I've even been living out there for so long now after coming to Ponyville, that I've even started treating that one Manticore that the girls ran into when getting to the Elements as a house cat that likes to sleep where I camp after I inserted my dominance over it when the overgrown cat had tried to get me in my sleep one night. Even though they are seemingly mindless, Timberwolves I've learned, tend to stay away from me by just smelling my scent on the wind alone.”
“And she really has the nerve to try and blackmail me in a way that would cause my sense of guilt to follow along with what she wanted?!” After those thoughts not even a second had gone by before he felt Rory jumping into the connection and imitating a voice that without a doubt, was from a cartoon character about a little blue monster from space and utter just one, single word. “EEH!” There was just a moment of silence within his mind before he quickly responded to that. “Wow, you can be really persuasive at times.” Before the connection felt like it had been broken. He could hear Rory giving another one of her small giggles.
Now, while all that was going on in his head, only a few seconds had passed in the real world and Rose was still looking for an answer as the hotels manager was looking over her shoulder at the same time with an expression of apprehension. At the same time, his eyes were going back and forth between both of them as to hear what the answer was going to be.
Without even giving Rose a straight reply. He had walked around her and right up to the counter and drop a small bag that was filled with bits. He then spoke in a flat tone. “Very well.” Even with him fully facing the stallion. Brex was able to catch a glimpse of Rose pretty much prancing and place out of joy of winning the argument with little effort. Of course, this didn't last too long as Rose had seemingly caught sight of the clock with in the entrance room and release the loud gasp before quickly exclaiming and allowed voice. “Is it really that late? I really need to get back to my work!”
She had then turned on her heels and darted out of the door and onto the street. Thereby leaving behind a bewildered Young Geezer and a somewhat confused Brex. That was when he started to ask himself from within his mind. “I really can't tell exactly what her motives are. Is she just doing this out of a sense of keeping a male safe or does she have a thing for me? No matter how I look at it, I get the same feeling from her that I do from Fleur De Lis.”
“Oh well, I guess if I'm staying here at night, then I won't be able to play around with fluffy so much anymore. Although, I will miss his purring. Thanks to his body being so large, it felt like getting a massage from one of those electric chairs when he was curled up around me and sleeping. Now what I really won’t miss, is waking up to him pulling my arm sleeve into his mouth and suckling on the whole thing. It can get really annoying to spend twenty minutes trying to get the smell of Manticore fur and drool off these robes. Makes me wonder if he was taken away from his mother too early to get past the hole weaning thing.”
Putting all of that aside. Brex completed his registration after writing the name Gambit on the books and paid with what was in the small pouch for up to a full month. The place that Rose had chosen for him wasn't one of those five-star style establishments with the gaudy details and artwork that just screamed that only the rich stay here. This was one of the ones that would be seen as in the center of the rating scale where it was quite clean and at the same time had that comfortable feeling like you were already at home. From what he could tell, there was probably a grand total of ten rooms all together.”
Just as it turns out, the place was exactly how Brex would have liked it to be if he had wanted to stay somewhere. Even with running so many businesses and raking in the bits like there was no tomorrow. Along with being looked up to like some kind of Big Shot. The Roegadyn didn't really feel completely comfortable with all of it. Once the keys were handed over, Young Geezer told him that he would be on the third floor and inside of room 304. Once everything was said and done, he waved goodbye as he wanted to go back out into town to take care of a few more things.
Nearly an hour had gone by since leaving the hotel and Brex got to see a number of things while roaming around trying to keep a low profile. He would make it a point to taking the not so heavily congested street, such as the one where most of the stalls would be set up. There happened to be a small bit of construction that was being done on one of the smaller buildings. That was when he got to have a good look at the construction Golem that was carrying a large amount of building materials that was laid on top of a long board and being carried with both of its hands on either side.
Afterwards, it would assist and holding up the sections of wall or a beam that would be going across for a ceiling in place while the workers went to work at attaching the parts together. From behind his mask, he couldn't help but to have a broad smile as he could hear the construction workers giving clear and brief commands to the Golem as to what it was needed to do. Clearly, they had been using it for quite some time with how they were able to get it to complete such exact motions, when the wrong word could cause it to fumble around and end up making a mess.
This model in particular he knew full well, seeing as it was the first full-scale Prototype that he had created a number of years ago. This was after first discovering the combination of using the Spells known as Detect Magic and Identify. During the observation, Brex was taking a stroll through memory lane of the time that he spent while in that other world his friend Ryu was from.
*Point of view: Brex Mith *Time: Three and a half weeks after crossing over* *Location: Piltover, over in Ryu's world*
For Brex. It has been a number of weeks after returning with Ryu. During that time, he had assisted here and there with the cleanup of the city and immediately started his classes over at the Academy. Thanks to his friends help, the Roegadyn got to go to a number of classes that were being hosted by some of the the League of Legends heroes, along with sitting in on a number of lectures. One of which being given by professor Heimerdinger himself.
When he wasn't expected to do any assignment. The Roegadyn would bury himself under countless texts inside of the library that had enough books to make even Twilight Sparkle stand there at the doorway with both a slack jaw and some drool dripping onto the floor if she had seen it. Well… Since he was in another world and had met their Twilight. He actually did get to see it once but only for a moment because she had gone there before.”
Ryu himself had even given a few lessons whenever he had the time and these consisted of focusing on the aspects of Dungeons and Dragons. With the Academy teaching him everything about Hextech. Brex ended up getting taught about Chemtech by a particular scientist that he wanted nothing more than to rip the guy’s eyes out after finding out about everything he had done. But held himself back knowing that Ryu had full control over him now.
At the moment, he was sitting inside of a pretty big room that was meant for only him to use. Inside was a bed made for his size and a number of shelves that contained some borrowed books and materials that were meant for drawing up schematics. There was even a few of his early inventions that he had been putting together after taking on the Artificer class. A few of which, integrated Dungeons & Dragons, Hextech and Chemtech into their designs.
Brex had just finished all of his studying thanks to his accelerated rate of reading and retaining of knowledge. If one had to measure everything that he had learned, then it was on the same level that a student would have to stay at the Academy for a good three to five years to fully understand that all. It really paid off that Brex didn’t need to eat or sleep and was at it pretty much twenty-four seven.
He even shuttered right there when recalling what he had gone through when they needed to get some materials that were at the bottom of the thin body of water along Piltover. This was where it connected the two oceans. Both he and Ryu were on a boat that was manned by a handful of sailors and had stopped in an area where they knew that it was at its deepest point.
Sense what they were looking for wasn't too hard to locate once you got down far enough. He had volunteered to go down seeing as he had the ability to breathe underwater thanks to a blessing, he got during the main quest line of his game where he helped a race of beast tribe people and was given the ability to go into the water without any trouble.
But had been immediately told by Ryu about the dangers of what's underneath the sea. Taking him at his word. Brex was going to stay on the boat while letting the professionals do their work. Unfortunately, by the time they had gotten out into the middle of the peninsula. Brex was beginning to feel a sense of uneasiness that made his stomach churn while looking at just how far away he was from shore and knowing just how deep it was underneath the boat.
After feeling the urge to want to get as far away from the water as possible during this little outing. He had started to make his way up on a set of steps that would lead him to the upper parts of the ship, where the wheel was located along with the captain that was running the boat. However, just as he was about to step onto the next-to-last step going up. His foot slipped on some oily fluid. This caused him to slip and begin falling down the set of steps.
On the way down, his body began to tumble and twist, along with making a series of odd sound that seemed quite comical at the time as he struck the steps in a number of ways down. Upon finally hitting the deck, he had taken one last bounce and ended up falling over a section of the ship that had no guard railing and landed into the water. Of course, he was pretty sure he did hear Ryu’s voice as he said, “WELL, SHIT!”
(Play this for a sense of how the others on the boat must have seen Brex falling down the steps.)
Brex was in a completely daze due to the multiple head impacts that he had suffered through thanks to a dozen steps or so and by the time that his mind had caught up to what was going on, he was already sinking pretty deep into the water. At that time, he quickly asked himself during his little vacation to Davy Jones Locker. “Huh? Wha…? Why do I have the urge to want to speak as if I have a Jamaican accent? Also, where am I and why is it so dark? Did I get knocked out or something, how long has it been?”
Before his thoughts could go any further, he suddenly heard this weird type of noise that reminded him of a whale in a way. But it gave off more of a grumbling hum more than the majestic sounds that he remembered hearing of whales off of the internet back on Earth. The sound had got him to turn his head towards the direction it was coming from and immediately discovered that the light was coming from the surface of the water high above.
But what he saw directly between him and the surface, turned out to be a large aquatic creature with teeth that were over four times his size, that was swaying its body and had begun to make its way at him. Once his brain had processed everything he was seeing and hearing. He began to scream as loudly as he could while flailing his arms about aimlessly for a few seconds before immediately summoning one of his mounts. Which turned out to be the Cruise Chaser mount and had it transform into his flight mode and he gripped onto it as it's zoomed towards the surface and narrowly avoided the large creature on the way up.
(Here is a picture of Sea monster and the Cruse Chaser mount.)
Due to its massive size. It took far longer than he anticipated to travel along the length of its upper dorsal fin and passed the rest of its body, before finally bursting from the surface of the water. Even after getting out of danger, Brex kept having his mount going higher and higher as he clung to it so tightly, that he was sure he was beginning to bend a few of the metal parts in his grip. All the while, stuttering to himself in broken sentences as he clenched his eyes shut from behind his mask. “FANGS… MOUTH. BIG, WET. VERY… VERY, BIG… FISH! N-NO FISH HAS ANY BUSINESS TO BE THAT BIG!!!
Later on, when he had succeeded in calming himself down and returned. He had found that the sea monster hunters had already caught it and was in the middle of bringing it on to shore with the use of a number of battleships that were modified for taking on these sorts of creatures. It was because of that day, that he realized that he had a fear that must have come from his old life, which happened to be, Thalassophobia. He literally had a phobia when it came to large bodies of water, including the enormous creatures that dwell in its depths.
It had been nearly several days sense that had happened and was currently back in his given room. Brex had just finished with reliving that little scare and was now clutching at both of his elbows while hunched over. At the same time, still repeating the same words that he said back then. After taking a few more moments to recover. Brex went back to looking over his current spread out papers of numerus schematics. Some of which, were randomly put together devices while a few were mainly focused on ship designs that didn't involve touching the water at all.
But over the course of the last couple of days, he was hitting one roadblock after another. The current airships that they had right now, didn't have the right type of propulsion system that would have been required for larger ships he had in mind to be kept in the air. Unless they wanted to heavily rely on gas or hot air.
In doing so, would have put an enormous strain on the supplies that would have been needed. So, after a little bit, his frustration had grown to the point that he ended up grabbing onto a few random pieces of parchment and threw them over his head after giving a quick glance for not even a second and screaming that they weren't right or it was all wrong.
Thanks to this being his personal quarters, the door was securely locked in the same way that he had fortify that one door at the Adventurer's guild over where High Road and Low Road worked at. Which meant that he was in his relaxing clothing and without his mask on. So, after having his little bout of frustration. Brex was leaning the top half of his body over his desk, while his lower half was still seated in his chair.
As the left side of his face was firmly pressed down onto one of the schematics. Brex was looking straight ahead along the desk. He felt that a momentary distraction would be the best cure for his overtaxed mind. Seeing as he didn't really have the will to move. Brex mentally brought up his menu options and selected the minion tab. Up until then, he never really even looked at it, much less opened it up. Seeing as it was a purely cosmetic option in the game, Brex didn't really see any merit and using it other than for personal entertainment.
Due to how he was currently feeling completely rundown. Brex didn't feel much like searching through the many minions that he had collected and went right for hitting the randomize icon that would automatically summon any that he had in his whole collection. That was when there was a sudden poof of smoke that appeared on the end of his desk right where he was looking at. An instant later, the smoke screen vanished and it revealed a nearly foot and a half tall version of a rock Golem that he had gotten from doing a special event in the game where they had a Dragon Quest crossover.
(Here is a picture of the minion that he summoned.)
For a little while, he just stayed motionless as the minion walked back and forth across the wide table top. In the game, it was just to simply follow the player around and maybe make a few motions with its body, but that was pretty much it. Once when it came very close to a random pencil that Brex was using a short while ago. He noticed how it pulled its leg back just before stepping right on top of it, which would have caused the miniature Golem to slip and fall. This had piqued his interest and seeing the way it avoided an obstacle, made him begin to wonder to himself, what it would be like if it could pick up that pencil.
Just to be silly, he went and asked it if it could do that for him and to his surprise, it looked towards the pencil and immediately went right on over to pick it up and held it over his shoulder like one would see a person holding a two-by-four piece of wood. Of course, this caused him to start blinking repeatedly after seeing this action and proceeded to give it one order after another to test out just how well it could follow them all. Back then, he had hardly no idea of how much time he had lost while playing around with this minion toy.
But as a result, he had found out that it was capable of so much more than back in the game. Just like his own spells and abilities. Of course, it had its own limitations and was only able to follow the most basic of commands one at a time. Whenever he had attempted to give it a series to follow. The Rock Golem would just stop and place until he gave it a single order once more. Out of wanting to know more about what it could do and its reasoning abilities.
The Roegadyn had even gone through the trouble of setting up a number of objects that he grabbed from within the room and placed them on the ground to make a type of miniature maze that was barely as tall as itself and ordered it to go from one end and exit from the other.
At the end of his test, he found that it had the ability to circumnavigate the easy maze. But on one section of it, he had made it so that there were two paths to take that would still take it to the end. At the beginning of one of them, Brex placed a bunch of round balls that acted as a trap and saw how the Golem had taken the path with least resistance. This meant that it not only was capable of avoiding immediate dangers, but was also able to show some forethought to a degree when completing a given task.
Because of all that. Brex found himself putting aside his need to finish his current task for now and went full-on into looking into his minions a little further. One after another, they were brought out and he tested their abilities to take his commands, their way of moving around and reactions toward certain obstacles in their path. He even got the idea to try and use his Identify spell that he had recently gotten a hold of, after leveling his Artificer class on one of the summoned minions.
This revealed that they were classified under a completely different branch of magic that didn't have a name. Because in his head, all he got was a set of question marks. That was when he decided to refer to them as, Aetheral Constructs. When he did that, the question marks had immediately turn into those very same words. That was when he began to see an image in his head of a red leather-bound book. Right as the cover had been opened, it showed that there were no pages attached to the books binding.
He was quite confused as to how this happened, yet he got no other information after using the identify spell a second time. But there was this strong feeling that there was something hidden just underneath that he really had to get. So, out of desperation, he tried to cast two Spells at the same time. Those consisting of Identify and Detect Magic. When he did these two in tandem.
It in the sense, cause a type of magical sonar pulse to go through the object that he was trying to identify. This ended up making the image of the item in question being within a perfect cube that was just bigger than its dimensions and it began to be sliced apart. This revealing layers of information right through to its core.
This caused a wave of exhilaration to flood his mind as he watched as each one of the pages were carefully put into order within the new books bindings that he had created in his mind. Once the spell had ran its course over the span of a minute, he pulled his hand away and found that he knew everything there was when it came to not only how the magic itself and creating the form that it was added to. But in addition, had a greater understanding that he knew that he could improve upon it himself.
Because of what he had discovered. Brex used this new combination of spells on each one of the minions and discovered various ways of implementing Aether in different forms and even how to construct the machinery which would work with them. This even included anything to do with a particular minion he would call out. After a while, he even got to the ones that were meant for flying and when he looked over the toy ship minion that all players eventually got. The Roegadyn had finally learned just what he was missing when it came to the project that he had been working on for so long.
It felt as though everything was missing a particular part, which held it all together and this one toy ship literally had the linchpin that he'd been searching for. So, during his off time, when not working on something important. Brex would do some personal research into his minions and come up with various ways of using them outside of their intended purposes.
*Point of view: Brex Mith *Location: Ponyville* *Time: The Present*
Brex was right now watching the large Golem picking up some equipment and hoisting it up to the next floor through an open wall that had been removed. It had taken a few years to finally get down how to create a larger version of the Golem, who was currently working right in front of him. The very first fully working model that he had created for practical use. He even had some help from the hero that created Blitzcrank, who is called Victor. Thanks to the classes that he had him as a teacher for and implemented some of the mechanical designs into his Golems.
It was safe to say, that if he wasn't wearing a mask then. It would be obvious to any that was walking by that alone tear was cascading down the right side of his face. This was a result of pride for not only figuring out how to make a Golem just like those and anime through a decent amount of hard work on his side. But also because of how he was able to see his very first real creation out in the world and doing such a great job along with appearing to be as good as new as the day it was brought into the town.
It was obvious that the ones who were using his creation, were taking great care of it and he wasn't sure if this was feeling was due to one or the other, perhaps a combination of both. That was just when one of the workers on the second floor had slipped near the edge and had started to fall. But as soon as a startled cry for help had escaped their mouth, they were swiftly caught by a set of two large hands that quickly moved underneath and caught the mare only after dropping down a few feet.
After seeing how his creation had immediately sprung into action in order to protect another from harm, was just what he needed to see to make his day. Even after all these years, the core programming was still intact. One of the underlined directives was to ensure the safety of the towns citizens when it was possible. Even if it meant disregarding a direct order. Of course, that didn't apply to him because each one of the Golems that he and made was programmed with the number one rule to obey any and all orders that he was to give. That also included Rory herself with the second highest authority.
When he had left the construction area, he found himself wandering towards the General Store and began to think to himself. “Now that I got some time and I don't have to wander all the way back to the Forest. I think I'll head on in there and see if they have any of those trading cards for me to look at. Would be interesting to know just how they scale the ranking system here in Equestria for the adventurers.”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: The other side. Little Lights room*
Just like before, everything started with the ringing of a class fell and Little Light had come into the classroom through one of the side doors and takes a quick look over to see that all of those from before had returned. The only difference this time however, was how a few of them had brought along something to keep themselves preoccupied until the class started by the looks of it.
Little Moon was busy playing away at some handheld game and muttering something about running out of balls and wanting to be the Master. As for Daddy, he had out a book but Little Light knew that it was just ploy with how it was currently upside down thanks to how she saw the cover. Then there's also judging at the way he has a slight blush on his cheeks and having one of those manic grins that could only imply that it was no doubt a dirty magazine in disguise.
The only other difference, was how she saw Mother at a seat that was just a few rows back and glancing over at Daddy, while giving him a sideways death glare. All of this only causing Little Light to shake her head and move one of her hands up to show that needed a moment to nurse a small headache. Once she had sufficient time to recover, she started to call the class to order. But it appeared that Daddy didn't hear it and was still reading away. That is if one could call it reading, when all they're doing is staring straight ahead at their book and drooling.
Apparently having more than enough, Mother stood from where she was and brought both of her hands together and blasted a fluorescent white and blue beam of energy and disintegrated what was within Daddy's hands after a small flash upon impact. To which startled the old man and caused him to fall out of his chair with a thud. Only to bring himself back up while crawling onto the table with both of his hands frantically and trying to pull the ashes back together. As he was doing this, he was screaming bloody murder along with a stream of tears. “No-no-no-no-no-no-no! T-That was a limited edition! H-How could you! You heartless woman!”
Mother seemingly quite proud of herself, crossed their arms and sat back down with a triumphant grin plastered on her face and remain silent to enjoy her victory. All that Little Light could do, was shake her head in resignation before calling out to the class. “Settle down everybody and you too Daddy. You know better than to bring something like that to class. Now would anyone like to remind the rest of us as to where we left off?”
The one to speak next was Lisa when she stood up and began to methodically list out the following. Last time, we went over a brief description of what a Dark Knight class is, along with an explanation on some of the spells and skills. You still haven't gotten around to telling us about the Paladin or about either of those two unrelated spells that I mentioned before.”
Little Light gave a curt nod to Lisa before she opened up one of the drawers to her desk and pulled out an orb that was much like the one from before, but of a different color. This one comprising mostly of a sea color light blue, with some lighter shades of blue held Within. This one was then tossed towards the chalkboard behind Little Light and it produce the same effects as last time and depicted a series of events stopped in time for each one of the corresponding spells and abilities that was to be brought up today.
After clearing her voice, she used her crop and pointed towards the first of the screens. Starting on the top left side, before she started to speak in her now usual teaching tone. “Okay class, what we see here is a defensive ability given to the Paladin class. When it was back in the game World. This one was only capable of shielding the rest of the party members who stood behind user for a certain percentage of oncoming damage. However, as you can see now, that it has taken on a real form, Brex has effectively made it into a full damage reducing shield where he himself is taking on the responsibility of shielding others completely.
“The duration is up to ten seconds long, but does have a long cool down time that has been stretched to five minutes. So, he is unable to use it back-to-back. Now as for the reason I started with this skill, instead of giving you a rundown of a Paladin is to have this be an example as to what they are about.”
“Paladin as one might think by the name, are the iconic symbols one would picture when a tank is brought into one's mind. Out of all the tank classes within the game that Brex is from, they are the only one that actually use a shield. While all of that class are able to draw the attention of their opponents and survived long enough to be healed even through heavy damages being sustained. The Paladin is the only one who prioritizes a good portion of their abilities towards protecting their allies. While at the same time, making their own bodies nearly indestructible for short bursts of time.”
“On the next panel, you will see that he is mid motion of throwing his shield while charging at the Hydra.” This was when Jet pointed towards the picture and called out in a joking tone. “Wait! Not only are Paladins the goody-two-shoes of the tanks. But they also pull off a Captain America move too? Next thing you're going to tell us, is that they used to be in the Boy Scouts and they can use holy magic.”
Little Light gave a not so enthusiastic cough before she continued after the interruption. “No, I won't say that a Paladin had to go and be a Boy Scout. But yes, they do use holy or in other words, light-based magic. They are capable of using they're holy magic to do a number of different things. One of which I will describe after I'm finished with this skill known as the shield throw.”
“This skill is used on a single target, but seeing as the Hydra with its multiple heads count as one. It was easily something that the shield could take full advantage of and that explains how it was able to hit every one of the heads on a single throw. What's more is that no matter what, the shield will always return to the user immediately. This way, no matter, what the Paladin is pretty much never without their offhand weapon.”
“Going on to the next screen. This is when he is currently in midair and has implemented another skill, which is a type of area of effect attack. Upon doing initial damage, it has the added benefit of causing a damage over time effect or you could say, a bleed out for a short duration. After some analysis of the fight, I came to the conclusion that it also had the added benefit of stunting this particular hydra’s ability to regenerate, because of the constant damage it was inflicting.”
When little light was done with that picture, she swung around her riding crop until it was pointing to the fourth screen. This one clearly shows that Brex had just slammed his shield into the side of one of the hydras faces. What made it quite funny however in this shot, was how the eyes of said Hydra we're bugging out like a cartoon character's would from the sudden strike. Of course, this got most of those in the audience to start laughing. Which in turn got Little Light to turn to them with a strange look of confusion, before she turned around and saw what was on the screen.
It wasn't until after a few seconds had passed, that all the laughter began to die down and left just one that was easily identified to be Bart. Said kid was on the ground behind his desk and could be heard rolling as he knocked over his own chair and was now repeatedly bumping into Lisa's.
Little Light on the other hand, was in a foul mood by the way she was now pinching the bridge of her nose and obviously trying to hold back from doing something to the kid. Even though the hand that was holding onto the crop was squeezing hard enough that it was beginning to create that leathery sound of the material creaking in her grip.
What she did and said next had cause all sound within the room to completely cut out and for Bart to climb back into his chair to assume a perfect little angel pose with his hands together and a cartoonish halo to appear over his head. Although he seemed fine, the yellow cartoon character was clearly showing a bead of sweat on the right side of his forehead as he tried to stay perfectly still.
“That's strike one Bart… If you continue, then I wouldn't mind giving you a private lesson on what I learned from my last boyfriend.” As she was saying that, Little Light was giving him a straight face that had this slight hint of a smile that could just barely be perceived. Along with a dead gaze that could freeze even the flames of hell themselves.
With everything going back to the way it was, aside from the now terrified troublemaker and the messed-up picture on the board. Little Light went on with her lesson. “Putting aside the newly added artwork, you can see that this looks like a common shield being used as a weapon move. It is in fact the skill that is primarily focused for stunning an opponent up to a set number of seconds.”
“For Brex, he is capable of using it to its full degree and can extend this up to a grand total of thirty seconds. This depending on how effective it is on what is struck. You would also be interested in knowing that the size of the shield doesn't really have that much of an importance on its overall performance either.”
“Whether it be a full-body kite shield, which could hide a fully grown earth pony or even something the size of a pot lid, just roughly bigger than the size of one's fist would have the same outcome if used for this technique by the Paladin. But please keep in mind that throwing the shield and bashing it against an opponent are two completely different things. Now on to the final set.”
On the last part of the pictures, one could see three images. Starting from the top and going down in freeze frame motion shots. It slowly illustrates what was being done for these. Little Light motion from one to the next as she began to speak. “As you can see, I am putting these three weapons skills together because they are the Paladins weapon combos.”
“Once the first strike was made. The second technique that was used in order to cut most of the second head off, had the added ability to restore the user's Mana. But taking Dark Knight from earlier into account, this also drains the Mana from its opponent now that it has become a real move.”
“The third and final strike of the combo was the technique that he called out as, Royal Authority. Which just so happens to be an evolved weapon skill from an earlier version that he had learned at a lower level. Now this finishing move did have an additional skill, but Brex had no current need for it, instead it was the raw power being built up that gave him what was needed to land the last strike needed to fell the beast.”
This time it was mother who raised her hand and this caught the attention of all of those in the classroom including Little Light, who just stood there Frozen out of shock. Taking it as a cue to go ahead and speak with how they were all staring at her. Mother asked, “You mentioned raw power. I take it that all of these methods of attacking have a measuring system to know just how strong something is?” After hearing the question, Little Lights eyes were pretty much sparkling before she waved her crop towards the images and returned everything back to normal.
The very moment she got the orb to return to her hands and placed it away, she immediately started to answer Mother's question with a great deal of enthusiasm. “Oh yes, yes! I should have gone over that at the very beginning, shouldn't I? Back in the game world, all actions that are taken against an enemy or an ally are measured for their damage and potency. The only reason why they are referred to by these two methods of labeling, is because damage is for causing harm and potency refers to the power of Healing.”
“Let's take as an example, the Cure spell. This is a single target healing spell has a cure potency of five hundred. Now, as a character levels up, the description of said spell will not have that number go up or down. instead, it is an indication of its overall effectiveness. While there may be some others that have special conditions where the potency is only two hundred and fifty. Now, keep in mind that as a character grows stronger, their HP or Health Points are going to go up substantially and could easily reach up to around three thousand or higher.”
“If one was to go off with the description for the spell. Then it would be reasonable to think that the healing spell would have to be used the grand total of six times to completely heal another that has such a high amount of Hit Points. But that's not entirely the case. Just because it says five hundred, it doesn't mean that you're going to heal for that number every time. It depends on the level of the caster. So, if you were to have two individuals who are the same level. With one being a tank and the other one as the healer, then your spell would only have to be administered two or three times to get the job done.”
“This of course, brings me back to before when I mentioned the raw power of that last strike for the weapon combo. Let's see, when he immediately used that third technique. Its base damage output was two hundred and twenty. Using the same technique at the right time for the weapon combo with boost the base damage up to four hundred, which is nearly double.” When Little Light was finished, any could see how Mother had a thinking expression before hearing her bringing forth another question.
“What I would really like to know now, is just how strong is he compared to say… A very fit human being from Earth?” This was accompanied by a small chorus of cheers from all of the others in their seats. It was Jet who is next to speak. “Hey there Little Light! We get that these skills have these effects and all. But all we are getting are these numbers.”
“For those of us who don't play video games all that much. It'd be a lot easier if you just gave us something simple to do as a comparison, just like Mother said. Let's put what he can do up against what would be thought as a normal for weight lifter for strength or how fast is he compared to a gold medal Olympic runner. At least you can tell us how many times stronger he is to a normal Pony from that world he's on now, right?”
Little Light stood there in silence while blinking slowly for about a few seconds after hearing the question, before she had a wide smile on her face. The very moment that she had opened her mouth and was about to give a reply. The bell for the class started to ring and she had a devilish smirk before letting out for the rest to hear. “You're going to have to wait till next time. Make sure you're not late for class...” This earned her a few boos and groans before what was seen went dark.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 46: Let's see. Card... Card... Card... A Ticket?!
Chapter 46: Let's See. Card… Card… Card... A Ticket?!
*Point of view: Spike the Dragon* *Location: Ponyville General Store* *Time: One fifteen in the afternoon*
Spike was at this very moment inside of the General store for Ponyville, on an errand by Twilight to pick up some supplies for back home at the library. This was because they wouldn't have been able to deal with it in the morning, with how they were meant to go over to Applejack's farm to help out with harvesting some of their crops. Sure, the young dragon was glad that his older sister I was able to make some friends, although, he really wished that he wasn't dragged along everywhere at any time, especially when it was supposed to be his day off.
The only thing that made it worse, was how Twilight had promised to help only earlier that day. Which meant it was a last-minute change in plans and he had to immediately rush out to do the shopping a day early and all on his own. Honestly, he didn't really mind doing the chores, but Spike had noticed that whenever he would be around Ponyville on his own, he would always get some weird looks from the ponies around.
Even today, when he came inside of the store. He was immediately able to see just how the owner behind the counter was keeping her eyes locked on him whenever he roamed from one aisle to the next as he went through his list to check off the groceries he grabbed. At first, he thought it was just because they didn't know him and only showing up recently. But close to a month has gone by and it just hasn’t changed at all.
There were even a few occasions where he felt the scales on the back of his neck giving him the sensation that they were about to stand on end, whenever he was without Twilight or the other girls and there was a bunch of the ponies nearby. It wasn't like he was oblivious to the fact about how males are perceived in Pony society, with how he was so well-educated when they were back up in Canterlot. But what he was getting from the ponies was not anything along those lines, but he just couldn't place exactly what it was.
Right as he had gotten to the section of the shelves that had the bread, he had to take a moment to find the one that was one hundred percent made of hay. That was when he cursed his anatomy when it came to how is dietary needs were not fully met down here in Ponyville. With their hardly being anything, gemstone related in the food section. Sure, he had a decent supply that he had brought with him, but even he knew that much will eventually run out.
That was when he finally found the right kind of bread that Twilight wanted and placed it into a shopping bag. But before he was to go to the counter, he wanted to check out the back side of the store where they had some of the trading card packs and see if there was anything new. Aside from Twilight, none inside of Ponyville knew that he was an avid collector of the Adventurer’s trading cards. Not even her new friends showed any interest in pretty much whatever he said or did. Spike was quite all right with that. Especially after seeing how crazy their shenanigans tend to get them in trouble.
Although, he was pretty sure that Rainbow did collect them herself. It was too bad that he never really did get much of an opportunity to talk to the Pegasus about them. Seeing as how she would always be gone before he even got a chance to even say hi. While he was thinking about such things. The young dragon had nearly bumped into another while rounding the corner. Quickly, he began to apologize before he even had a good look at who it was. Woops! Sorry about that, I didn't mean to bump into yeah.”
The voice that replied, turned out to be that of a male, which surprised Spike quite a lot. Considering how he had barely had any contact with the male population of Ponyville. “No harm done.” After recovering from the shock, Spike looked up and saw that it was a very, very big pony that was standing in front of him, while wearing a hood and mask. Which he found very odd seeing as such a thing would not have been permitted within a store. thanks to their face being covered, the store clerk would immediately see them as a thief.
But when he began to look around, he couldn’t help but to notice that the guy wasn't even drawing any attention to himself as he stood directly in front of the rack of trading cards without moving. That was when Spike peaked around and saw how he was apparently staring at the part that displayed the starting packs. Which consisted of ten random cards a piece within each one.
With being an avid collector himself. Spike knew that these things came out only a few years after the combat schools were opened. Each one of the ponies that were printed on them, were assigned one of the classes that they intended to become from each of those Institutions. The ones in front, were divided up into four distinct categories. Starting from the left, there were the Tanks. Next the Healers and last were the close and long ranged Fighters. Which meant that you would only get the Class type depending on the card pack that was selected.
The stallion however, had yet to make a move during the time that Spike was examining the rack of cards and immediately came to the conclusion that he was a newbie with the way that his mask was slightly tilted towards where the starting packs and boxes were put. Thinking that this might be a good opportunity to at least talk to another Pony about something that he liked. He made sure that his presence was known by coughing into his left fist that would not be used in hold his basket.
When he noticed that the stallion was partly turning towards him with just his head. Spike then started to speak in an almost reluctant tone at the start. “Are you new to, Heroes for hire?” This earned him a subtle nod which got his gaming side to rear its head and egged him on to continue the conversation.
“Would you happen to already know the rules?” This time he got a shake of the head and this was followed with the stallion asking, “Could you explain?” Spike quickly look down to his other hand and saw how he had those groceries at really needed to get back to the library. But quickly shrugged, thinking that it would only take a few minutes.
“Well... The game setting is this. In a nutshell. Each player has a deck of fifty cards in total. No more and no less. There's a game board with two sides. One side being the heroes while the other side has to be occupied by monsters. Each character can be equipped with two items along with battle armor depending on both their class and level.”
“The monsters are all based off of what is already been recorded to be seen out in the wild. Most of which don't use armor or weapons like an Adventurer character can but they do have their own special gear and items to use. There are even some cards that affect the battle that you can play. Now those would require more explanation.”
“The objective is to either take out all of your opponent’s pieces or managed to get past them and strike the player three times. Oh! And one more thing! No matter what you do, you have to flip a coin in order to see if your action succeeds or fails.”
That was when he saw the stallion bringing his left hand across to hold on to his elbow while the other rested on the bottom of his mask to show that he was in a thinking gesture. After a second or two, Spike could have sworn that he heard him mumbling something just underneath his breath. “Hmm… Sounds to be a mix of Magic the gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh and Final Fantasy that's been all pulled into one if I was to take a guess.”
Spike wasn't all that sure but he was positive that out of all of that, his ears picked up the word Fantasy very distinctly. Whereas the ponies had a good sense of smell, Spike on the other hand had an extremely good sense of hearing. Which of course really paid off when he needed to hear Twilight calling for his assistance from anywhere back at the castle.
Seeing as this would be a good opportunity to introduce himself, he stepped up a little more so that he could be seen better and move the basket into his left hand while extending is right for a quick handshake. “By the way my name is Spike, what's yours?” The stallion slowly reached out and grabbed onto his hand and began to give it a light shake while replying in a casual tone. “The names Gambit. Nice to meet you Spike.”
After the handshake was finished, he heard him also asking, “Have any recommendations?” As soon as he had heard that, Spike immediately went on to point out the differences between the packs and what was most likely going to be found when opening the beginner ones. The whole explanation nearly lasted close to a good ten minutes before there was an annoyed cough that was made painfully loud and clear by the mare who was running the front desk.
The young dragon immediately blushed upon realizing how long they had been standing in the store and said his goodbyes to Gambit as he was heading over to the front desk in order to pay for the groceries. As soon as he had paid up and was in the middle of bagging everything for himself.
A few seconds later, the stallion that he was talking to before had come up to the counter as well and was paying for a handful of packs, which happened to be the very ones that he himself had pointed out just earlier. Spike wouldn’t have said it, but to see another taking his advice about anything, even when it came to something as small as a card game had made him a little happy.
With the big guy’s items being easier to put in a bag. The both of them ended up leaving pretty much at the same time. Spike had wanted to talk to him a little more about the card game, but knew that he was going to end up being very late if he didn't go now. But just before he did, he managed to muster up the courage and quickly asked the stallion a quick question.
“You know, if you're interested, then why don't you come by and we can possibly play a round of cards over at the library tomorrow? That's if you got nothing to do. It gets easier to learn the game if you play it with another that knows what they're doing and can explain the rules and how everything works as the game goes on.”
The stallion looked towards his bag before turning back to Spike to give a nod as he was holding up the bag full of cards while saying, “Cool. How does after lunch sound?” To which got Spike to swiftly give him a thumbs up before running off. As he did so, Spike would wave goodbye and calling out to him. “Okay then! I'll see you at the library after lunch time. We should be all done by then!”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
The Roegadyn watched as he saw Spike rushing off to probably where Twilight was and having a small smile on his face from behind his mask. Within his mind, Brex was currently thinking. “I didn't exactly think I was going to run into him already just by going to the store. Also, I only intended to buy just one of these to see what was inside, but I ended up getting so caught up in the moment and ended up with enough for nearly two full decks. I don't know if it's just simply the fact that I'm a gamer or maybe I was a card player back in the day. Oh well, I suppose I'll head back to that new hotel room and open these up and see what's in store.”
Afterwards, Brex made his way back to his hotel room, the Roegadyn did just what he said he was going to do. After a bit of time, he currently had a pile of trading cards belonging to the game called, Heroes for Hire. He then picked up a few and began to examine the way that they were made and found that the two that he picked up where obviously equipment cards that had a picture of the standard gear one could get when buying them from a vendor that sells armor and weapons, just like those from his game.
The one currently held in his left-hand look like a simple, brown round buckle shield. As for the one in his right-hand, that looked to be a naturally curved wooden staff that has a white gem of some sort place near the top. After going through the details written, he found that these were meant to be placed alongside a corresponding Adventurer and they had the effect of adding certain stat buff to the user whether it be for attack, defense or perhaps a special effect that could be used only once in a single game. The next card he picked up from the pile had caused him to instantly begin to laugh upon seeing just who it was.
Right there, standing with a beaten up wooden and metal band shield. Was a Diamond Dog he had met a long time ago. It would seem that they even use the same picture from right after their first meeting and the shield itself was a complete wreck from when that one ice shard that was launched from that Imp, had torn right through it. Right there, at the top where the name was printed, he could see the letters spelling out, Einstein.
Just like with Steel Will. Brex had paid him a visit now and then the check up on how that city has been doing. In fact, the last thing he heard was how the Dog was being scouted for a position within the City Guard. But preferred being free for the guild and to work as a private investigator. Brex had to contain another bout of laughter when he remembered the catch phrase that Einstein was considering to use for his office. “None can dig dirt up better than me!” For Brex, it had been at least been a handful of months since they last spoke to one another. Even though he still goes to Baltimare every month.
Which reminded him that he was due to go within the next four days again That was when his good mood had went flying out of the window and he began to recall what happened the last time he had gone for a visit. How he had gone to the usual spot and saw no sign of the Vapor Trail that would always meet with him around noon to just say hello and have a small chat. How he had found out that she was kidnapped by not some two-bit gang. But by someone that he himself knew of. One that he really should have taken care of much earlier.
For as soon as he had learned of exactly what was going on. The Roegadyn had immediately rushed back to HQ and went into his private chambers without so much as informing any others. While within, he had vented all of his rage. Because of this, everything within the room was completely smashed to bits and or turned to cinders within a matter of minutes. If it wasn’t smashed with him slamming his fist into it. Or kicked so hard that it was sent flying across several meters and utterly broken into several parts upon colliding with the far wall.
Then it had to do with him swinging his arms so that his bear finger nails had clawed right through. The finishing touch, would be from his temper causing the room itself to spike to high, that it had not only turned everything to ash. The walls themselves had heated up that they were glowing hot. The very floor at his feet that was made up of stone, was softening into a state resembling that of lava.
He had no idea if it was his roars of anger or perhaps the shaking he was causing while destroying everything with his bare hands. But as soon as he knew that he vented enough to where he was no longer going to accidentally lash out at the nearest person to walk right up to him. Then the Roegadyn switched to his Black Mage class and used a wide area ice spell to stabilize the room before leaving.
When the door to his chambers was open on his way out. Brex had already found Rory, along with Rin and Lin who were standing there waiting. For the first time in his life, they looked utterly terrified when they saw him standing there with his room covered in ash. Along with the walls that had been partially destroyed with his fists having that had been ramming up against them. There are even a few claw marks left in the stone from where he swung his arm and his bare fingers carved away at it. That was when he finally ordered for the operation to be moved up a full month and that they were going to pay Big Mama a visit… Immediately.
After Brex was finished with going through that day’s events through his head. He had to take a good long, several seconds to calm down enough and was now sitting on the edge of his bed while looking out through the window. Although he was still breathing heavily. That was when he heard Rory speaking through the connection with her voice sounding a little worried. “Master” I know I didn't say this back then… But… That may have been the first time that I've ever seen you truly that angry. It took me a little while during the trip over there to calm down both Rin and Lin you know.”
“You weren't really controlling your emotions so they were able to feel everything once those doors were opened... No, it was long before they were opened. I was with them and I was sure that they had a reaction the very instant you came back.” That was when Rory's tone became a little lighter as she started to joke with what she was going to say next. “When we had finished discussing what was going to be our roles and you were off doing your own thing for a few minutes. Lin had asked me if it was okay to let her go on ahead and just kill everyone inside of the mansion all by herself in order to save you the trouble. Hehe-hee.”
“Those two seeing you in such a state really got to them that day. It wasn’t that they were scared of you. Not at all. They reacted to the thought of what could have caused the one they serve to be so upset. As much as I'd like to be there with you, I'm not sure how much longer I can keep the two of them from sneaking out of here and flying all the way over on their own.”
“Just earlier today, I saw them in the training room and I'll tell you this... If something isn't done soon. Then we're going to run out of training dummies really fast and they may resort to hurting someone else if they have nothing to take their frustrations out on. I swear, without you around to serve, they're getting more antsy than a bulldog that's been left home alone too long. Sooner or later, you're going to come home and find that everything has been chewed to bits. Oh, and I’m not kidding about the chewed to bits part. I really did see that Lin is having trouble with not showing some fangs while in her pony form.”
“Anyway, putting aside for the time being about your overzealous maid’s current state. Do you mind bringing that card up again so I can get a good look?” After hearing the request, Brex gave a light shrug before going over to take hold of the card of Einstein again. Now taking the time to go over the card’s details with one another. The pair began to talk back and forth about what they were seeing was printed on the card.
“Master, judging by how he's grayed just a tiny bit around the muzzle, I'd say that this picture was taken close to 5 or 6 years ago. I also did some research on these after hearing about them the other day. Would you care to know what was discovered?”
“It'd be nice to have some background when I go over to see Spike tomorrow, so sure. Still, I find it rather hard to believe that I haven't heard a thing about them until coming here. I guess I’ve just been too preoccupied.”
“Very well Master. Hmm… Now let's see. The company is well known for making toys for all ages. Mostly focused on the younger generation. It wasn't until the class system was put into effect among the Guild halls thanks to the schools that you built. that it became popular with using the terms that came from Final Fantasy online. Thanks to the steady increase in the effectiveness of repelling both the monsters and completing quests. It's safe to say that a great many Adventurers have grown in popularity over the last several years.”
“Hmm-Hmm. And because of that, the toy makers for that company decided to make a deal with the adventurers Guild in order to get their hands on some of the records to be used on the text that's been printed on these cards I take it. It looks like they not only put the person's name, but the basic information that any other can see when glancing at their identification plates. These consisting of their Name, Age, Race, Gender, Weapon Specialty and their current level at the time that this card was printed for. Hmm… I suppose this all effects the characters over all usefulness in the game too.”
“That's right Master. It would even show that it lists a few of the most worthwhile accomplishment they had earned. Also, the same person can have multiple cards that are redone as time goes by. This is when the stats are updated along with their newest accomplishments from between the old card and the new one. It would even seem that these perform two different roles when it comes to the collectors. One of course going towards playing the game where they pretend to be that certain adventurer while the other half merely collect them for the stats. You could say that it's not too dissimilar to baseball cards back on Earth.”
“Okay, then now here's a question that I know that you were obviously going to answer with a yes, but I feel as though I have to ask it anyway. You looked into the card regarding myself, didn't you? So, go on ahead and tell me what there is.”
“Well Master, the thing is… It would seem that your card has been discontinued due to a multitude of complaints from the consumers. Because of this, they haven't printed a new one in over, one year and nine months. Do you remember when you had to start dodging those aggressive mare’s that tried to capture you in order to give you a new rank? As it turns out, it was the toy company that issued the quest to begin with.”
Rory paused for a moment before continuing. “Due to the rules of the adventurer Guild. All ranked “F” members don't qualify to have their accomplishment put on record for others to go over. It was safe to say that your card was essentially blank. Which would leave others to think that you did absolutely nothing.”
“As a result, this caused a small backlash among some of the buyers of the product. Saying that it was unfair for a stallion to be left at such a rank and believe that it was because of his gender. Safe to say that this plan of theirs backfired and they went ahead and discontinued the card all together. They even went so far as to strike your name off of the list of candidates.”
After hearing this. The Roegadyn placed the card back down on the table and went over to his bed and sat on the edge. After a few seconds of silence, he brought his left hand up to his forehead and began to lightly chuckle as he fell back and flopped onto the bed itself. Brex’s laughter began to grow after a few more seconds of lying there. “Haa-Haa! Well, isn't that just something! I guess that finally explains why they were acting so weird. Is it safe to assume that silly quest has been removed from the guild halls and I can go back now without having to worry about them jumping me the second they realize who I am?”
To which Rory replied with her usual, carefree tone. “I'm pretty sure that you don't have to worry about that anymore. Besides, Master hasn’t even been anywhere near here as Gambit when it came to the Adventurers Guild Hall. I dare say you might be able to go back to playing around in there like you once did in the past. There's also the predicament you would be in when it came to the Public's eye if you were not to have a steady income now that you're renting a hotel room instead of continuing with your camping trips into the Forest.”
After hearing what Rory had to say. Brex immediately nodded in agreement before responding in his inner voice that now sounded lighter. “Yeah, that's a good idea! As much as I have like all this down time and just wandering around, having all of this free time can get boring fast. At least this will give me something to do. Speaking of doing... How about I take the rest of today off and leave a body double behind here in this room and I pay you and the girls a visit right now? It's still early in the afternoon. This means that you can have me for almost a day and a half before I have to come back.”
Sounding to be completely overjoyed on the other end. Rory quickly responded with her voice making some slight squeeze sounds and excitement. “Master! I love you so much! I'll see you soon. That's right, need to tell Rin and Lin right now. Hmm... now where did I put that riding crop? Oops never mind, I think Rin still has it. Anyway, I'll see you soon! Bye!”
Once the connection had been cut, Brex could do nothing but lay there and cover his eyes with his left hand while muttering under his breath. “I swear. If it's not killing, then sex is all she thinks about. But still... I've been here for about a month and she hasn't hounded me too much about coming to Ponyville. I wonder if she's up to something? Rory does tend to get into some mischief whenever she's bored. Once I was away for only a week and a half. I came back she had added a door to my room that led to a private Sex Dungeon over back at HQ.”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Time: Eleven thirty in the morning, the next day* *Location: Sweet Apple Acres*
Walking through the orchard, just happen to be two ponies and a young dragon that each all carrying a basket of apples while talking to one another. Well, at least two of them had a basket of apples. The third however, had just eaten the last that was inside of theirs. That was when the familiar voice of Applejack could be heard over the light breeze that ran across the orchard. “Thanks a lot for all of your help Twilight. With you lending a hand, I'm sure to beat Big Mac and win that bet of ours. Whoo-whee, can't wait to have a go at using that tractor.”
“Apple Bloom's been pestering me non-stop to show her how to drive it. My brother was going to be the one to teach her. But between you and me, Apple Bloom's got him wrapped around her finger with those puppy dog eyes of hers and I ain't going to let her run through the barn. It was either this or bet that the loser would have to wear Granny Smiths girdle and go down Stirrup Street at noon. That is if he wasn’t how he is with the mare’s. Even I ain't that cruel to do something like that to my own kin. Maybe if that brother of mine didn't have so much of an issue, then I would have.”
While looking over her shoulder towards Spike, who is at the back of the line. Twilight replied in her usual upbeat tone. “I actually had some fun. Having that new tractor must be making life a lot easier on the entire family.” Applejack was just about to say something while tipping her hat and giving a smile, when they both heard a loud rumbling sound that was coming from Spikes stomach.
The young dragon then looked into his basket and found that there were no more apples to be found. As a result, Spike found himself giving the two mare’s a weak little chuckle before he started to speak. “Hee-Hee Heee… Sorry about that girls. I really didn't expect us to be going at it for so long and we did miss brunch time. While lightly shaking her head and giving her brother a bemused smile. Twilight spoke as she was pointing towards his basket. “How can you still be hungry after having all of those? Almost every time I've turned around you've had a new apple in your claws.”
The young dragon merely shrugged as he started to casually say, “I did work up an appetite for a growing dragon. Also, we've been at this since morning and I thought we would have been done by now. Can't really blame me.” Spike was about to say something else, but then he started to give out a large belch, which startled Twilight and caused Applejack to take a step back while fanning her hat towards Spike ahead of time, as she spoke in a loud, startled voice. “Woooouheeeee! Spike! Don't you know any manners? You’re in the presence of ladies here!”
Applejack was about to say something else but was interrupted by another large belch that came from the young dragon and this one was accompanied by a swirl of green and purple flames that pulled itself together to reveal a rolled-up scroll in the air. It then fell to the ground right in the middle of their group.
Immediately after, Spike had this look of relief crossing his face as he started to rub at his belly a little bit as he spoke. “I know this is a very fast way to send messages to you Twilight, but maybe the Princess should look into some other means of telling you something?”
Twilight quickly replied by saying in a dismissive tone. “It's not all that bad. I'm sure that you're just exaggerating.” This earned Twilight a firm head shake from the young dragon as he gave her a serious look while replying to that statement. “Twilight, I was eating breakfast one time with you and she sent a letter that caused me to completely burn up my meal.”
“Tell me what do you think is going to happen if I should ever get together with a girl and that happens in mid kiss?” Twilight gave him a light chuckle to show that she thought he was joking. But upon seeing his serious face, had made her turn into a strained smile and she immediately went after the scroll as a form of distraction to get out of the awkward moment. Of course, Spike didn’t miss what she had done and dismissed it to see what was sent by the Princess.
As soon as the piece of rolled up paper was undone once the ribbon was taken off. A pair of golden tickets had slipped loose and fluttered to the grass. Twilight had then reached down to pick them up and also started to read the letter. She had gone onto inform both Applejack and Spike that the two included tickets that came along with the letter, were for the Grand Galloping Gala that was to be held in three months from now. Of course, Spike immediately stuck one of his clawed fingers into his mouth and made a gagging motion upon hearing about it and voiced his opinions about not wanting to go.
Applejack on the other hand, immediately thought of it as an opportunity to boost her business sales by trying to get the Nobles there to buy some apple products. Of course, this is all during a quick little song that she had pulled out of nowhere. As soon as the song was finished. Rainbow had made her entrance after zooming down from overhead.
Applejack had outright accused Rainbow of spying, because she had come out of nowhere, even after getting out of helping Applejack by making an excuse about being busy. That was when Rainbow pointed out that she was in fact napping in the very trees that were being worked on. There was even a set of pillows and blanket set up there in the branches to be seen upon closer inspection.
This of course, got turned into a competition between the two as to who would get the second ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala. This was only after Rainbow had voice her need to use it as an opportunity to show off to the Wonderbolts that would be performing at the Gala. As a result, Twilight couldn't make up her mind and made up an excuse to leave after her stomach had chosen that moment to make itself heard. Saying to them that she couldn't make a decision right then, especially on an empty stomach.
What none of them had noticed. Was how, there was in the orchard, a tall figure who was half hidden behind one of the many apple trees. Their form mostly being shrouded in the shade and it had just turned their hood in the direction of the town. Only to have it disappear into the shadow of the tree were it was hiding under.
Of course, things like what had happened at Applejacks just kept on happening afterwards when Twilight would end up run into one of her friends after another. Pinkie Pie wanted to go because it was seen as the biggest party in the world and she really, really, really! Wanted to go!
Rarity had this image in her head that if she was to go, then she would meet her imaginary Prince charming and have a happily ever after wedding pretty much on the same day and accused Twilight of standing in her way of finding love. For Fluttershy, the Pegasus only wanted to see the rare animals that were within the royal palaces garden and saw going to the Gala as a good way to get there and the party itself was the last thing on her mind.
From there, it pretty much went the same way as it did in the show. With only some small minor changes. And that small change happened to be a large, two and a half meter, tall person that was in the background for pretty much most of it whenever something happened within town. For example, during the scene that Rainbow was keeping the rain off of Twilight when she was at that one café.
This figure in a set of white and blue robes was in the background, having something to drink outside. He was already holding a large umbrella, that was already opened up overhead just before the rain had started coming down and all of the ponies ran inside. They even got a glimpse of watching as Rainbow had closed the gap in the clouds after Twilight had told her not to give her any special treatment. Of course, after a few seconds of being completely soaked, Twilight had been yanked away by Rarity and pulled into the mare’s Carousel Boutique.
When it had come time to get out of Rarity's shop. Applejack was already waiting for her outside with a literal wagon full of Apple baked goods. But while Twilight was momentarily being distracted by the confections and Applejack practically shoving them in her face in order to get in her good graces after clearly remembering that Twilight said that she was hungry earlier.
The large figure in white and blue from before, was right at that moment coming around the corner and as he was passing by the pair of ponies all nonchalant. He had waived one of his hands dismissively and caused one of the apple fritters to levitate into his open hand and disappeared around the other side of the building. But of course, not without sending a couple of bits into the pouch that was hanging off of Applejacks hips without the farm mare even realizing any of this happening.
When Twilight was finished with Applejack trying to win her over through her own stomach. She had retreated back to the treehouse library, but only to find that the whole place was currently overrun by small animals. Any other in that position, would just think that there was an infestation but it was plainly obvious that something else was happening, with how they were all either carrying something from one spot to another, or using some type of cleaning implement.
While some books were being dusted, there was a group of squirrels and other type of animals that could climb trees up in the rafters just dusting up there and cleaning off the windows with the use of their very fluffy tails and some rags. There was even this small white bunny over on the table that was currently holding a pair of wooden spoons and tossing what looked to be a salad, while at the same time, wearing a tiny white chef's hat.
Twilight was able to immediately tie all of these things together once she heard a gentle humming coming that was from above the doorway that came from Fluttershy. Who was currently dusting away with a large feather duster in her right hand.
From there, Fluttershy started to say that she was doing some spring cleaning for Twilight, but the Unicorn had pointed out to the mare, that it was still summer. Even with the white bunny giving some not so subtle hints as to what Fluttershy should say, the mare had ended up misinterpreting them and had ended up openly admitted that it was all for the tickets.
She had almost fallen for it and was about to take a bite out of the salad that was being offered by the bunny, when her resolved kicked in and she immediately told Fluttershy that she was not accepting any more favors and wanted to be left alone to make the decision about the tickets herself.
So as soon as she had gotten Fluttershy nearly out of the now open door. There was a sudden boom of music and confetti flowing right into her house as Pinkie Pie began to start a short song about throwing a party for Twilight and getting the tickets to go to the Galloping Gala. Which by the end of it, was immediately pointed out by Twilight, that it was in no way subtle and at least Pinkie was willing to be completely upfront with her intentions once they were outside.
Of course, this ended up being something that she really shouldn't have done when pointing out the obvious while in front of a bunch of other town’s ponies. Because by doing so, she had inadvertently let it slip to the rest of them, that she had an extra ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala. This ended up turning into a big scene within seconds, as ponies began to gather around and asking about it and getting confirmations from other ponies and Pinkie that were already there about the situation.
So, for the rest of the day. Twilight and Spike had been making a run for it while being chased by pretty much most of the town as they ran back and forth down the streets and over the bridge. Due to the commotion and all of the focus being placed on Twilight. Not a single individual had noticed the same mysterious person from those other times, just sitting on a bench that had a perfect view of the entire chase going on. They even had a tub of popcorn and a sixty-ounce cup of soda. Along with a swirly crazy styled straw in their grasp, that wrote out the words, Go-Go-Go. And clearly enjoying the amusing show in front of them.
If there was any nearby, then they would have been able to hear him talking in a playful tone as a piece of popcorn was tossed into the air and disappeared as soon as it had made contact with the mask as his head was tilted back. “Now that I've had a chance to experience this on both sides. I can safely say that I prefer to be the spectator. Yum, these taste really good. I've been eating a bit more than normal today. It's a good thing I don't have to worry about gaining weight.”
“Also, does that music always play when a chase scene is going on in this world? If so, where exactly does it come from and can the ponies hear it? Back when this happened with me and Blaze Caster, he said that he didn't notice the music.” This was followed up with him taking the end of the straw and placing it against his mask and this elicited a large slurping sound as the liquid flowed through the twisty sections of the long straw and into his hidden mouth.
After Twilight had ducked, weaved and disguised herself for the next couple of hours. She was finally cornered by a group of gossiping mare’s that were all closing in when she had tried to go in behind some buildings. Only to be trapped in a pincer attack from both ends. Out of desperation, Twilight was huddling together with Spike as her horn began to charge with a large amount of magic. In the next moment, the two was gone after a small flash of light that was accompanied by a resounding pop only a second later.
Back over at the Golden Oaks Library. There was a loud flash before both Twilight and Spike reappeared in the middle of the main room. Whereas Twilight was currently nursing her head after showing how woozy she was after suddenly using such a spell. Spike however, was not looking so good with how some of his clothing had some scuff marks and there was even a part on his shoulder that was still sizzling with a bit of smoke for a few seconds after reappearing.
After taking a few seconds to recover and finding out that Twilight had inadvertently used a teleportation spell. The Unicorn immediately called out the Spike to start closing up and locking all of the windows and doors. After nearly a minute of the pair running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off in an attempt to close everything up before they were found out. They only had a second to relax before Twilight looked over Spiked shoulder to only see that her group of friends where all together on the upper floor and looking down at her from the railing.
Obviously, this had the effect of triggering Twilight into having a full-blown panic attack as she pointed at them and started to scream in horror. “NOOOOO!” It seemed that they had noticed the way she was acting and immediately tried to calm her down after showing that they were not there to earn her any more favors. One by one starting with Applejack, they had said that they were sorry for putting her on the spot and were giving up on asking for the ticket and to just give it to another to have.
Although. when it got to Rainbow Dash. She had immediately gone back to her cocky attitude and was doing a fist bump, while hovering in the air once she realized that she was the last one and it meant that she could get the ticket. But as soon as the other Ponies were giving her a look. The blue Pegasus retracted her fist bump and gave a nervous chuckle before saying pretty much what the others were and didn't want to go anymore.
This ended up leading Twilight to ask Spike to take down a letter as she started to say that she couldn't make up her mind. And if she couldn't bring all of her friends, then she wasn't going to go at all. But before her friends could protest to this, she had already enclosed the two tickets and had Spike burn it in order to have it travel straight to Princess Celestia.
Twilight had started to reassure her friends that she had made the right decision, when there was a quick reply from her teacher in the form of another letter that said that she should have asked in the first place, which contained another set of tickets for all of them to go. As soon as they were done with their mini celebration and we're about to make a move to go out to eat. Spike had noticed that they were not alone in the room for the first time and called out to whoever it was and this caught the attention of the mare’s who looked in the same direction with confusion.
“Gambit, is that you?” After Spike was sure as to who it was, he continued. “Oh man! I'm so sorry. With everything that was happening, I completely forgot that you were going to come over today. You weren't here the waiting for me all day, were you?” The one that was being spoken to, turned out to be the very same one who had been occasionally wandering by throughout the entire escapade for the golden tickets and had his back turned towards them, while near the end of the room and holding onto a book that was still open.
He had partly turned his head to indicate that he had acknowledged to being called. But had not gone far enough to show his face as he replied, while using his free hand to do a dismissal type of wave. “No, kept entertained.” Twilight was clearly confused as to who this was and how they got into the library after everything had been locked up. Her friends were one thing, with them being on the second floor. However, he was literally in plain view on the same floor. So, she didn't know how she had missed him as she ran around to lock up.
Spike was clearly relieved in seeing that as his new acquaintance wasn't upset that he was stood up by him. As for Pinkie, she was currently giggling into her hands while looking at the rest of the ponies in the room. Rarity was just standing there while her eyes were roaming over his choice of clothing with a passive gaze. While at the same time, giving off this feeling that she was deep in thought.
Now when it came to the next three, there were obviously some mixed reactions. Fluttershy had immediately ducked behind Rarity out of shock. The yellow Pegasus was just poking her head around the mare’s form and keeping half of her face hidden with her hair.
Rainbow on the other hand, had taken to the sky in a defensive posture and had been glaring at Gambit. But seemed to have immediately changed to that of surprise and discomfort, after a few seconds of having a look of realization on her face. Before quickly landing and slightly looking away as she was now holding onto her left elbow.
Applejack had immediately noticed the change in behavior in Rainbow and was now looking from the mare and over to the stallion with a questioning look behind her eyes, as she lifted her right eyebrow slowly. Afterwards, Applejack began to say, “How did we all miss a big fella like you just sitting there?” This only got her a light shrug from his shoulders, as he turned his head back to the book in front of himself, while still keeping his back towards all of the girls.
The farm mare was about to ask another question, when she was cut off with hearing him talking again. “Over six hours.” Clearly sensing that they were all quite confused as to what he just said, because of the long silence. He went on to say in a monotone voice, that gave this sense of deep disappointment. “It took you all six hours figure out just what it was you were doing to Twilight. Also, it took six hours for Twilight herself to finally send that letter for additional tickets that she was not going to be able to go because she couldn’t make a choice among her friends.”
“Both princesses were saved by all of you. Do you really think that it would be strange for her to not invite you all to a party that she's holding after what you all did? She knows her own student’s personality, so I doubt very much that this was not something she had expected. How else could you explain the fact that she got right back to you so quickly and had those tickets ready at the same time? I don't know about her, but personally… I would give you a C. Perhaps a C plus if I was to be generous. Now, if this wasn't a test. Then I would say it was a gross oversight on her part.”
During the time that he was saying all of this. The five mare’s who were trying to get the tickets, were looking a bit more ashamed with themselves than they were earlier. Rarity was currently biting on the edge of her lower lip out of embarrassment and looking away. While Applejack was clearly showing a crooked smile and trying to cover her head with her hat. Fluttershy was somehow looking even smaller, while hiding behind Rarity and the party mare was looking a little deflated, but still had some of her hair doing that poofy thing.
Rainbow on the other hand, had recovered from the weird way she was acting from before and was already in the air, ready to do another dive bomb like back at the shop. She had then started to fly directly at the back of his head. But came to a screeching stop when she heard him saying three small words. “That type huh?” As soon as those words were said. There were two sets of reactions in the room. The one side that consisted of Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie and Spike. Clearly having no idea as to what that meant.
But Rainbow, Applejack and Fluttershy all were looking at one another with wide eyes, that just said that they knew exactly what he meant by those words. But the mood was quickly changed when Twilight gave a small shriek while grabbing onto the sides of her head, due to her finally registering what he had said near the end about getting graded with a C. Of course, this was paired with her beginning to hyperventilate as her eyes shrank in fear.
With Twilight screaming the way she was. Pretty much everyone in the library had been fully focused on her with the sudden noise she had made. Thanks to this, Brex got to his feet and had already put the book back where he had found it before approaching Twilight from behind.
From there, he leaned in close enough so that only she was able to hear him as he began to whisper a few inches from the left side of her head, in a slight British accent. At the same time, using his left hand to pat the top of her head in a slow, calming gesture. “Twilight... Please relax. You are a good student and your teacher knows it better than anyone. Just focus on slowing down you’re breathing and everything will be fine.”
But to everyone's surprise there that saw this. They got to see Twilight immediately coming down from a panic attack and was now breathing normally again. At the same time, leaning into the head padding almost subconsciously. Her eyes had mostly closed and her cheeks had a slight blush as she was giving off a light hum of approval.
This had progressed for a few more seconds. At that time, Brex had to pull his hand away once he noticed how Twilight had dropped her ticket due to both of her arms going completely slack and he was sure that he caught a glimpse of some drool beginning to come out from her mouth. Even the end of her tail that was near to the floor, was slightly swaying by then.
Within his mind, Brex began to wander to himself. “Didn't expect this to work so well on her. The accent must have really done the trick. I wonder if it has something to do with her personality and wanting to have approval from her second mother and teachers. Hmm… I guess it would make sense that she has a codependency issue. I wonder if it physically hurts her not to be given any praise. If I'm not careful about this, I'll be asked for head pats by all the ponies.”
Clearly wanting to make good use of the stunned expressions all around. Brex made his way over to the front door. But not before passing Spike and saying in a nonchalant tone. “Sorry that we couldn't hang out today. Maybe another time? Oh, by the way. I got too many of these and I don't know what to do with them. I don't mind if you want to take them off my hands. Otherwise, I just might go and end up throwing them away somewhere.”
That was when he reached into his arm sleeve and pulled out a sizable bag and presented it to spike. The opening to the bag had not been fully closed and the kid was able to right away see the glistening colors reflecting the light of the room just within the bag itself. Spike knew right away that it could only come from gemstones. His eyes went wide in disbelief as he started to eye the many types of gems. There were even a couple of diamonds that he could pick out quickly.
Just the top layer alone showed them all to be pretty much flawless and not a single crack could be seen on any of them. Some would range from the size of a marble and all the way up to that of being slightly bigger than a golf ball. He knew instantly that this would pretty much double his supply of gems and these looked way better than the ones that came with him from the castle. Because of this all he could do was to dumbly nod, while trying to contain a river of drool from dribbling from the edges of his mouth.
With that out of the way, Brex finally got out through the front door. But before he closed it, he ducked his head back in one more time before speaking in a loud enough voice that even the dazed Twilight and Spike could hear. “Make sure you feed the little Egghead. I been hearing her stomach growling all day long!” Then he pulled his head away from the doorway and close it the very instant that he was clear of the opening.
Inside, all of Twilight's friends were just processing everything that they saw and heard within the last few moments. It was Fluttershy who was the first to speak when she went over to Twilight, who still had her eyes closed and was in a weird type of giddy trance. The yellow Pegasus started to lightly poke at the side of the Unicorns left cheek until, Twilight had finally broken free from whatever weird state she was in. This was followed with her quickly blinking and turning her head from side to side and seemingly very confused as to what is going on.
Twilight had even begun to ask in a rapid-fire questioning tornado. “Huh? What? Who? When? Why? Where? How?!” That was when Applejack came up to them and asked, “Just what tarnation got into you Twilight? One sec, you look to be needing a paper bag to breathe in. Then you turn into putty faster than mah daddy does when mother says that she has his birthday gift waiting upstairs.” After scratching the side of her head, Twilight turned over to where Spike was and remembered how familiar the two of them were and began to ask a series of questions back and forth between her and him.
“Spike, just who was that stallion just now? I remember you called him by name earlier.”
“Oh him? Yeah, his name is Gambit. I met him yesterday when I went out to the store just after Applejack came by the library to ask for some help for this morning.”
“Fine. Tell me Spike, why was he even here to begin with?”
“Well, while out. I saw him standing in front of the Heroes for Higher trading card section. He seemed pretty interested in them so I gave him a quick overview of what the game is. One thing led to another and we were going to play a few rounds here in the library after we got done helping with Applejack in the farm. But thanks for the whole Galloping Gala ticket craziness going on, that really didn't happen and I guess he might have been here for a bit.”
“Spike… I appreciate that you're finally making some friends after moving to Ponyville. But do you really think it's wise to invite a random stranger to our home? At least tell me about it in advance. What if I wasn’t decent and he walked in on me doing… I don’t know, anything!”
“Twilight, you do realize that we live in the public library, right? I don't know what you want to do about keeping others out when this place is meant to be opened to all of ponyville. Besides, during the whole time we've been here, I haven't seen a single pony come in to check out a book. Also, he can't be all that bad if he's into the trading cards like me. Gambit even said he was just going to end up throwing these out, so he went and let me have 'em.” That was when he showed Twilight the bag of gems that almost blinded her with how they reflected the light so perfectly.
During the time that Twilight was blinking repeatedly to try and regain her vision. Rarity had already quickly gotten up next to spike in order to look at the gems that had instantly caught her eye. The fashionista was just about to make a comment about them, but stopped just as her mouth opened to show that she was in deep thought. Although after a few seconds, the white mare started to shake her head of whatever she was thinking about and went back to admiring the sack full of gems again.
Applejack was the next to chime in. “I think I seen the fella here and there. He was staying over at Rose’s place during the summer sun celebration because all of the hotels were completely booked. For nearly a month, no pony knew where he was staying. But I heard while talking to one of my customers, that he's got a room now in one of those smaller hotels. I think it might be the one that's run by that stallion called, Young Geezer. But you want to know what the odd thing that I've been hearing? Is that I heard that Rose literally dragged him there and was screaming some nonsense about not allowing him to camp out anymore.”
That was when her attitude changed and was now staring straight at Rainbow before she began to talk again in a serious tone, that just said that the truth better be told or something was going to happen. “Now Rainbow… Don’t you go thinking that I didn’t see how you were acting when he was about. Also, I never seen you back down in mid tackle like that before. So, did you ever get around to actually apologizing to the poor fella?”
The question had clearly got to Rainbow as she was darting her eyes from left to right. At the same time, trying to keep herself from looking directly at Applejack’s own. This obviously peaked all of the mare’s attention and now all eyes were on Rainbow. Even Spike was doing the same as he was tilting his head slightly in confusion. Normally, Rainbow would love being the center of attention. But right now, she wished that she could go invisible. Unfortunately, she was not in the right frame of mind to use her hide skill at that moment.
After watching them, the mare was clearly struggling to say any words that were clearly absent during the time that she was moving her mouth. Applejack had released a heavy sigh and was now lazily dropping her head in disappointment. At the same time, she was mumbling to herself and only a few words that could be heard were something like. “Out of all the irresponsible things... Your darn lucky he didn't press charges.”
Suddenly, the farm mare’s head shot up and she had this burning rage behind her eyes as she asked the next question very slowly. “Here I thought that you went to apologize. For your own good I hope you didn't go and start at threatening the poor fella to keep his yep shut, did you?”
In response, Rainbow held out both of her hands and frantically waved them in a dismissive manner, while exclaiming loudly in a panic. “O-Of course not! Do you really think I go around attacking a stallion and then threatening him to keep his mouth shut?! Just what do you take me for, an idiot? Besides we ran into him, it was a complete accident. If you were to go around and tell others that I did such a thing, it would be the end of me and the Wonderbolts wouldn't dare touch me with a fifty-hoof long lightning rod.”
Now looking very concerned herself, as to where the conversation was going. Rarity entered the chat and asked in a very unsure and drawn-out tone. “Pardon me dears… But could a pony please explain just what it is you are both implying? I may have misheard, but it sounded as though you were saying that our Rainbow had assaulted a stallion and you think that she was covering it up.”
Upon hearing Rarities question, both Twilight and Spike went to cover their mouths as a loud gasp was beginning to escape their lips. As for Pinkie Pie however, her eyes drifted towards the door that Brex had just exited a little while ago before she brought her attention back to Rainbow.
For by the briefest of instances, the pink mare had all of her hair going instantly flat and she had this piercing gaze that was completely zoned in on the blue Pegasus. But due to what was going on among the rest of the group, none of them had even noticed how she had popped a few of her knuckles while making a fist with her right hand, before her usual appearance came back and she was all cheery once again.
Back over with Twilight, she had gotten over her shock and had run right up to Rainbow and was now grabbing onto both of the mare’s shoulders and shaking her violently. While beginning to go on a Panic rant. “R-Rainbow! Do you have any idea how much trouble you could be if word of this was to get out about this? The law specifically states that we're not allowed to assault a stallion, unless they do something that warrants it in the first place.”
Otherwise, it's jail time and it gets put on your permanent record that you're a stallion beater. The law states that any Pony who has that on the record has to notify all in town about it and you know how hard it is to get into a herd once that happens? It's not just hard, it's impossible! I was in Canterlot during that one trial over a decade ago. Celestia really cracked down on the law when it comes to their safety. I had never seen her that angry in my life!”
“Now I want you to tell me exactly what happened and what was the situation like. I need you to go into every single bit of detail. And I mean everything from the moment you saw him, until the end of the encounter. If something like this should ever get to court. Then it won't matter whether we prove your innocence or not. We mare’s already out number the stallions by Eleven to One. Even hearing that you were accused would hurt your chances with them!”
Rainbow had quickly pulled Twilight's arms off of her shoulders and took a hasty step back as to get some distance, before loudly yelling out in frustration. “You don't think I don't know that! I did really try to go and apologize to the guy, but it just came out all wrong! He knew right away that I was just doing it so that my reputation wouldn't be hurt and even told me that he was fine. I don't know what happened and I ended up saying some things that I think I shouldn't have!”
Clearly using a tone that display just how much she was dreading in asking. Applejack slowly approached Rainbow while slightly leaning in. “Land Sakes! Just what did you let out of that mouth of yours before thinking this time?” Rainbows wings immediately went slack as she went over to the nearby couch and plopped in the center before going on about what just happened during that whole day in regards to Gambit to the girls and Spike.
To say that a number of them weren't very happy with what they heard, just wasn't doing it justice. Obviously, there were mixed feelings where one part of the spectrum was Fluttershy trying to cover her ears. Twilight, Spike and Rarity were looking at Rainbow like a fish out of water. Pinkie Pie just stood there silently which was very concerning to a few of those in the room that knew her for a long time.
Now when it came to Applejack, now she was beyond angry. Especially with the mistreatment and stereotypes aimed at stallions. What she heard coming from her friend was almost too much to bear hearing for the farm mare. But she displayed how level-headed she could be by taking in a few deep breaths, before speaking in a calming tone that was hiding a simmering rage behind it.
“Rainbow, I know that there are times that you can get a little heated in the moment… and I'm willing to let this one slide. But as Granny Smith as my witness, if I ever hear you say something like that to another stallion while within earshot! I will and this is a promise, I will buck you so hard straight from here with just one kick that you will be visiting your parents by the time you land all the way back in Cloudsdale.” In order to send this promise clearly to Rainbow. The orange mare slammed her right hoof onto the ground and this caused the whole tree itself to give a strong shutter from the impact.
On rainbows part upon seeing this, her eyes went comically wide as she was now nodding her head so fast, that one could have sworn they heard something bumping around inside as she replied with a quick. “Yes ma'am!” Fluttershy had come out from where she was hiding and had approached Rainbow as soon as Applejack was finished with her. The yellow Pegasus then just started to say to Rainbow, while lightly patting the mare on the back.
“Um... I was there too. If you want, I can go with you and we can apologize together... That is if it's okay with you?” Instead of getting a clear answer, all Fluttershy was able to gather from Rainbows grumbling response what's a not so clear, thank you. At the very moment there was a lull of silence in the treehouse after that. All the mare’s and the one dragon had nearly jumped in place from being startled by a very loud and angry growling sound that had just come out of nowhere.
A few seconds later, it came again and all of their ears began to swivel in order to find just where he was coming from. Only to see that it was Twilight stomach and she was giving them a very embarrassed toothy smile. Along with a weak laugh as she said, “Sorry girls, I really need to eat. A mare can really work up an appetite from running around till sundown.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex was currently enjoying the nights warm breeze that came from summer and had his gaze turned towards the sky as he admired both the moon and the constellations. Most of the residents of Ponyville were already in doors as only a few were out and about on the streets. As the light poles slowly began to turn on down the row of streets one by one. Brex found himself absent-mindedly opening the connection with Rory.
“Rory, Twilight got her tickets today. That must mean that they're about to come flooding in this year within the next couple of days, right?” He then heard a small chuckle on the other end as Rory replied. “Oh, no doubt about it Master. You've been getting them for the last seven years now. Out of all of them, you're going to receive the usual four tickets. Each one specifically sent to the president of a company. I'll have to say, that it's been a waste to throw all of them out every time. You didn't even bother to send a stand in and just ignored the invitations all together.”
Brex had just turned onto a street corner and was now on a direct path to his hotel and had a small look of concentration underneath his mask before speaking through the connection. “Now, if I'm correct. Then a ticket would go to the head of Tech Hex Institute of Technology, Apothecary Medical Traders, Endless Enlightenment and Cross-species Bridge. Ha-Haha... I'd really like to see her reaction when she finds out that she's been sending them all to the same person.”
At the end of that, Rory was giving a light hum before replying. “Master, would it be right for me to assume that we are going to be attending this year's Grand Galloping Gala?” Giving his own little chuckle, Brex reply to that immediately in a cheery tone. “That's absolutely correct! Make sure you tell Rin and Lin about it. Because all four of those tickets this year are going to get used. Also, don't forget about picking out a dress for each of you. The next time I come by I'll see what I have in storage so that we can have something that matches.”
Suddenly, there was a loud squeal that came through the connection right as it was terminated, that nearly caused Brex to stop in place in order to bring both of his hands up to cover his ears out of reflex.
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Time: Seven at night* *Location: Canterlot castle*
Luna was currently leaving her bedroom after getting a good night sleep and was heading over to the dining room to meet her older sister Celestia before she was to go off to bed. Although the two missed each other very much, the sisters couldn't be with one another at all times with the way Luna was more of a nocturnal sort of individual.
However, over the course of the last month, the younger princess had been regaining her strength and was now fully capable of going into the dream world to start on doing the patrols that she was so accustomed to before her banishment and couldn’t wait to tell the good news to Celestia.
Even with regaining this much power, her physical appearance had only shifted enough to look as if she was close to hitting nineteen years of age when compared to others. Not even her ethereal mane had recovered yet, so it was still in the short style that she had, when she had awoken within the castle of the two sisters.
Luna was very happy that her sister would try to stay up as much as possible to spend time and help with the adjustments to the modern era... But at the same time, it made Luna feel quite guilty that it was because of this, that Celestia could not get a good night sleep and must have been affecting her daily duties with how she was noticeably getting more tired upon each meeting.
In the beginning, the two would meet up around this time and would be with one another until midnight so that Celestia can get at least a good six hours of sleep in. As of late, they've been dropping down until at most, it would go as long as nine and even when doing that. Her sister would just be nodding off, even in the middle of a sentence by that time. However, tonight Luna was going to have a few words in order to fix this problem once she had gotten to the dining room.
The journey from her bedroom all the way there, would have taken a good ten or fifteen minutes to do. Luckily, she had cut it down to just five, once she was sure that she was within range to try a teleportation spell. When she did, the blue mare found that she was actually standing not only there after a flash of light, but she was also standing atop the table itself and Celestia was looking at her with blinking eyes while appearing to have been looking over a few papers.
Even though Celestia seemed quite surprised, she still put on a joking tone when she looked up at Luna. At the same time, arching her right eyebrow in amusement. “Well, good morning, dear sister. It's rather fortunate that our food has yet to arrive. Otherwise, you just might at this very moment be standing ankle-deep in our soup.”
Being rather amused at the joke herself, Luna had just extended her wings outwards and gave them a good flap or two in order to help in getting her down off of the table. Once her hoofs were firmly on the stone flooring, she quickly went over to her elder sister and gave her an affectionate hug as a wing was draped over the alabaster Alicorn.
As the two were embracing, Luna began to lately hum from enjoying the contact for a few moments before breaking the connection and was now walking around the table to her own chair while beginning to speak. “Dear sister. We-.” Luna had for a brief second paused in mid-sentence, before resuming again after a small cough. “I am overjoyed to inform that we-. I mean I, have regained enough Magic. Dream walking is now possible. Also, it has come to my attention that your health might be an issue from all the late evenings.”
This caused Celestia to arch and eyebrow while looking extremely confused as to what was said and Luna caught on to this before continuing. “Sister, you have been staying up far longer than you should and have so many duties that you have been keeping track of and with very little sleep. I feel that I should really get up a couple hours earlier before the sun goes down in order to spend some time with you or possibly get more familiar with our... people.”
The confused look from before had faded from Celestia's eyes and had adopted that of one who was deeply moved after hearing her younger sister’s concern. But only to return almost as quickly upon hearing the word, “People” being used. As Celestia started to speak, one of the side doors had open and a number of servants came into the dining room and were now putting together the dishes and left as soon as everything was set after nearly a minute had passed.
Once they left, Celestia went on to speak what was on her mind before the interruption. “Luna, I believe this is the first that I've heard you say that word. Did you happen to hear the term people, from any of the castle staff recently? It is not something I'm very familiar with but I'm quite sure it has been said in court on a few occasions.” Luna had just about brought some fruit up to her mouth with a fork and had stopped mere inches away to look up at her older sister wow giving it some thought. After a few moments of humming, Luna gave it a slight shrug before popping the food in her mouth and speaking between every few chews.
“We don't believe we have. Oh! I uh, am I mean, I don't believe I have. 'Twas a slip of the tongue perhaps. Must be from learning the common tongue. By the way, is our nephew by chance going to join us tonight for our meal? I find his company quite enjoyable and has been of great assistance in learning about this day and age. So much has to be caught up upon in order to ingratiate ourselves among our Pe-Ponies. Oh dear, I almost said it again. Perhaps I have heard it being said and have just forgotten about where and when.”
Celestia was currently giving her little sister a flat look while carefully sipping on some soup after witnessing how Luna was eating at the table before she spoke up. “Luna. I know it's just us here, but could you maybe have a little self-control. I can do such a feat as switching back and forth on eating habits but you on the other hand have been away for quite some time. If not careful, you could end up doing this very same act in front of a dignitary without even realizing it until it was too late.”
This earned her a roll of the eyes from Luna before she continued. “Now putting aside the table etiquette. I would deeply appreciate it if we can make our meetings a little earlier as it would greatly help me out. As for that term, I am positive that it has been used quite often but not in talking directly with myself.” After giving it a few seconds of tapping her left index finger onto her chin. The alabaster mare suddenly had a look of realization on her face before speaking again.
“Ah! I do recall that Sir Fancy Pants has been using that word quite often. There have even been a few of the other Nobles who I have caught saying it as well on a few occasions now that I think about it more. Perhaps during our next meeting I'll enquire as to its full meaning. As for Blue Blood. No, I’m afraid that he won't be dining with us today. I hear that he is quite tired after the training session with the guards late in the afternoon yesterday. Feels almost as though we were in the past after seeing both my nephew and our current Captain Shining Armor displaying such strength.”
“You wouldn't believe the strange rumors I have heard in court where there has been an accusation about the both of them taking performance-enhancing drugs. Sure, these days it’s extremely rare to see a stallion outperforming a mare when it comes to physical labor, but to make such outlandish assumptions is nothing short of saying that it’s going quite far.”
Luna had just finished her fruit and was now working on her next dish when she paused and began to ask her older sister a question while having a dubious look in her eyes, that said that she couldn't believe what she was hearing. “Sister, is it really that rare for a stallion to be strong in this day? After recalling the lessons in recent weeks, I understand that the numbers between the males and the females are quite vast and because of this, they should be protected more. But for them to diminish in such a drastic way...”
“To say that is hard for us to fathom cannot justly put words to it. Also, I have met the captain a number of times and I do not see how others could even say that he would be taking such an underhanded concoction in order to be strong. I have even asked questions to my night guard and they tell me that he is an extremely capable captain.”
“As for our nephew, I find dependable as well. Considering his age in comparison to Captain Shining Armor. As eager as I am to hearing what he has to teach me, the young stallion is the same way towards us and ask quite a few in regards to how the males acted a thousand years ago. Is his attitude due to your upbringing? If not, then you are quite lucky that he did not turn out like most of our.... Uh, Ponies. Forgive us, we almost said that term again. Honestly, I have no idea why it keeps popping into my head. Perhaps I should take a small break from all of the lessons for a day or two in order to let one's mind process it all.”
Luna then saw how her older sister had a sullied expression when she got near the end. But before she can ask what was wrong, Celestia was the first one to speak. “I'm afraid I can't take too much of the credit when it comes towards the way that Blue Blood is. I really let him down. After catching Scarlet Prize, our relationship was rather strained for quite a while and had nearly lost all of his trust. It took a little over a year after that for him to begin to warm up to me again. Now that I think on it more. I do believe he got better after coming into more regular contact with Fancy Pants and that wife of his. On occasion he would even go to their place for a couple of hours once in a while.”
“I had asked him once if he was by chance the noble stallion that helped Blue Blood just as Scarlet Prize mentioned in her confession. Instead, he just played it off as randomly being at the right place at the right time and acted as if it were nothing. If he had said yes and requested a reward then at the time, I would not have been able to bring myself to deny it. Why are there only so few Nobles that are capable of living up to the title while many are seen in such a bad light?”
Once she was sure that her sister was done. Luna began to say, “Perhaps you should inform me of when he next has a meeting. From what I have been hearing from you. I would very much like to be able to meet him. There has been quite a lot to consider. If he is but half of what you say, then I have no doubt that this Fancy Pants has played a great role and mending your connection with our nephew.” When the word mending was used, Luna could plainly see for but a brief second a flinch coming from her sister and this brought back memories of that letter from their first tea time together.
This was quickly followed with Celestia emitting a small wine as she lowered her head enough that she had used both of her arms to prop it up with her elbows. Luna then slowly asked, “We take it that there has been no mentioning of his whereabouts yet?” This got her a reply from the alabaster mare with a very weak voice.
“No… there hasn't been any reports. How can there be no information about a strong, capable male anywhere in Equestria that fits his size and build? Also, what did he mean by he will come and visit me soon? How long is soon to him anyway? Does he mean within the next week, a month? What if he’s a long-lived species like us? Maybe we won't see him for another eight hundred years for all we know!”
As Celestia was going on. her voice was turning a little more hysterical by the second until she had caught herself looking straight at Luna with panic showing in her eyes when she had finished. Also, when that moment had happened. Luna had just moved on to the next part of her meal and was about to take a bite from a piece of chocolate cake. But had to stop with her teeth just barely touching it on her fork, while looking at her older sister with wide eyes after witnessing her in such a state.
After lowering the fork of the delicious dark confection back down onto the plate. Luna slowly chose the next words before putting them in order in the most articulate way possible to get her point across without seeming too pushy. “'Tis time that we put the new speech lessons to the test. It is to our knowledge that the best words of advice that could be given in such a situation would be best put into those of this generation. We would also request that we be pardoned for anything that might sound presumptuous or possibly out of line. For we are about to attempt to put it in a way that we believe it is meant to be said.”
While giving Luna and unimpressed look that just scream that she was over it and wanted it to just be done. Celestia said flatly, “Luna, could you stop trying to beat around the bush and just tell me what it is that you wish to say and I promise I won't get mad.” After getting the confirmation. Luna gave her sister a curt nod before straightening up and closing her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again. From there, she gave Celestia a stern look like a ruler would when addressing their people. But instead of coming out as one would expect, Celestia got the following instead.
“Sister. What can we say but, you have royally bucked yourself up so bad that you need to go and find him and beg for his mercy! And I mean show just how badly you are sorry for your actions. Go down on your hands and knees and kiss the very ground he walks on in beg for forgiveness. Because, after we heard the vulgarity before behind his words when he called out to that Hydra, then it is safe to say that he is pissed off. You're going to have to get down and show just how badly you feel on this issue and aggressively take into your mouth his-.”
Before Luna could go any further with that sentence. Celestia had shot up from her chair and screamed in nearly the same amount of volume that the Canterlot voice was known for, out of both surprise and embarrassment as to exactly what her sister was implying. “LUUUUUUUUUUUNA! Exactly what are you learning in these lessons of yours!!!”
On Luna side of the table, the sudden scream had nearly knocked her off of her chair. Unfortunately for the chocolate cake, it was not so fortunate and had slid off and onto the floor. Her eyes were slowly blinking as they were shot completely open. Even her short mane had taken a few seconds to come back from being blown straight from the amount of power that Celestia had used when calling out her name.
After shaking her head a few times to get the ringing out of her ears. Luna answered with. “Most of that was taken from what one would hear when using an amplification spell to listen in on the city from our bedroom late at night. One could learn quite a lot from listening to the night life going on in the streets.” She then had a thoughtful expression before adding. “It does make one wonder what kind of dreams we will end up seeing tonight.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 47: Where Is This?
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Location: Dream Realm* *Time: Just after midnight*
For what seemed like a millennium. Luna was now finally free to be able to do what she wanted after being imprisoned and stuck inside of the castle with nothing to do, but to take those modern-day lessons whenever Celestia was far too tired to stay awake. But for the last four hours, the Princess of Dreams was living up to her title and was exploring the Dream Realm. Where all those who slept were connected to whenever they're minds became more active and creating their own dream bubbles, that she could see floating around in a seemingly endless expanse of stars that she floated within now.
From what she had come across thus far, was strictly on the mundane and consisted of daily troubles or recollections of what that pony had been up to that day before laying down for bed. But it would seem that that was only at the beginning and as time went on Luna started to understand a little more of how her subjects thought more deeply when it came to their more carnal desires. Most of which seemingly from the females. Whereas the males that had these sorts of dreams, felt more than often close to that of a nightmare.
Now, while on the topic of nightmares. Luna had to deal with a couple concerning Nightmare Moon in quite a few of the residents from Ponyville. Which wasn't all that too surprising with that being where she made her declaration of returning to take over all of Equestria and promises of an eternal night. Luna did recall that there were a few of the guards that she did end up striking with lightning while still being under the influence and made it a point to remember to pay them a visit to see how they're doing.
But right now, Luna was staring at a dream orb that belong to one of the Element bearers. The only way she knew this was due to the voice that came from it that she was able to quickly connect with the blue Pegasus that was at the castle after she had been freed from Nightmare Moon. From the looks of it, the Element of Loyalty was in the middle of having a mild nightmare. From all the years that Luna recalled the varying states of the dream bubbles to determine the severity of the nightmare, she could tell that this was one that she didn't really need to, as they say. Poke her figurative nose in.
Although, this was one of the ponies that was responsible for regaining her place next to her sister. So, Luna went right ahead and jumped into the dream bubble in order to lend a hand. Once she had entered, everything went black for a few seconds as she penetrated its membrane that divided the ponies dream from that of the rest of the Dream Realm. In a sense, it was much like a very thick cloud of smoke that one could literally feel pushing back that was acting as a barrier.
When Luna had fully penetrated into the Element of Loyalties dream. The world came to a sudden flash as everything came into focus. Once there was nothing but a haze, was now becoming more tangible as unidentifiable masses became sharper until Luna could tell that she was within a shop of some type that had a number of flower pots littering the windows and a number of shelves.
Her observations had been derailed after hearing the sound of a distraught Pony close by and when she turned her head in that direction, she found that it was the one called Rainbow Dash and she was currently standing alongside a body that was laying on the floor and it appeared to be motionless. Seeing as her presence would not be known until directly interacting with said Pony, she went for closely examining the situation while walking around slowly to take in the site. From a cursory glance, it was a parent that Rainbow Dash was freaking out over the one that was on the floor.
The individual on the floor was quite large and was wearing a white and blue set of robes and wearing a mask that all together hid his identity quite effectively. They were easily big enough to be considered a Minotaur with how their body structure was resembling theirs. But without the large horns being present. She had then turned her attention back over to Rainbow Dash after hearing the mare beginning to say something that came out as a weak and pathetic chuckle at first.
“Haha… Okay! Come on, we all know you're just fine. Haha-haha… V-Very funny! Now come on, it's been long enough. We all know you're just going to stand up like it's nothing... H-Hey, I'm really going to punch you if you don't get on your hooves right now. Hey! I know you can hear me. I-I said get up already.” Luna could see that the blue Pegasus was getting more and more distraught with the way she was beginning to breathe more quickly and her eyes darted along his form. Along with the tone of her words were becoming less and less sure before Rainbow Dash went on.
“L-Look, if this is all a joke to get back at me for hitting you before. Then I'm really sorry, okay! I'm sorry I didn't say it the last time I saw you. I really shouldn't have jump to conclusions and slammed into you like that, I'm really sorry okay! Come on, how about I help and get cha to the hospital. I-I know you didn't go last time.” This got Luna to raise an eyebrow in interest from what she had gathered just now. It seemed that the Element of Loyalty had hurt another recently and this was most likely a dream that was being caused by a guilt-ridden mind.
The lunar princess was just about to think on it a little further when she suddenly heard Rainbow Dash screaming. When Luna had looked, the scene before her was that of the mare hunched down and was looking at both of her hand in abstract horror. At that very instant, Luna could tell that the dream was going up another notch as it became a real nightmare by the feel of that atmosphere. Back to the scene, what Rainbow Dash was freaking out over, was how both of her hands were now dripping with a red liquid that was very much like blood and there was a large amount of it too.
When Luna had turned her attention back to the body on the ground, she could tell that the same liquid was flowing from the back of the head that was laying down and it was beginning to flow outwards, until almost the whole floor had been covered. Rainbow had even attempted while in her panic state, to use her hands in a pathetic attempt of sloshing the blood back towards the body as though it would do any good. But all it did, was to get her arms completely covered in it, which began to die her fur a shade of crimson as it soaked in. All the while frantically chanting. “No, no-no-no.”
Having seen more than enough. Princess Luna brought her magic to bear and used it to dispel the whole dream after releasing a wide burst of her magic from her horn. Thereby erasing absolutely everything, which meant the body, the blood and even the shop had gone into nothingness. Which only left Rainbow Dash, still crouched and hunched over with an expression that just said that she had seen the most horrible thing in her life, while breathing heavily and on the edge of crying.
While trying to sound as gentle as possible, yet at the same time regal. Luna approached the still distraught mare and quickly got her attention. “Fear not miss Rainbow Dash; this is all but a dream. Thee are not covered in blood so we must ask that thee calms oneself down.” After a few moments, Rainbow Dash turned to Luna and ask while seemingly confused. “P-Princess Luna? Why are you here? Wait, where is even here? What's going on, wasn't I just-.”
But Rainbow Dash was stopped from asking any more questions by Luna holding up her right hand to ask that she wait. The dark mare then started to say, while coming closer to Rainbow Dash and putting a hand on her shoulder. “We... I mean, I found your dream bubble while patrolling our ponies’ dreams. In the past before my banishment, I would do this nightly in order to dispel the nightmares that plagued my subjects. You, miss Rainbow Dash. The bearer of the Element of Loyalty, was in the middle of having a nightmare and I intervened.”
“Now, I must ask, as this one in particular been occurring regularly? Most dreams are not as vivid has that one, unless it is taken from a real event in your life.” When she had asked this, Luna was able to tell that Rainbow Dash was becoming more nervous with the way she was no longer looking straight at her. Seeing as the mare was not going to be telling her anything soon. Luna came up with a devilish idea after giving a slight hum and had just turned her back on Rainbow Dash and began to slowly walk away as she spoke.
“I can see that you are not comfortable with talking with myself. That I can understand, especially with my past. Perhaps if I was to go and grab my sister and bring her here, then you would be more comfortable with-.” Luna had expected to be interrupted in some way, but what Rainbow Dash did, ended up doing, had thrown through her for a loop.
The very instant that Princess Celestia was hinted towards. The blue Pegasus had immediately taken to the air and tackled Luna till she was laying on her back. While at the same time, Rainbow Dash was almost half screaming. “Please don't tell her! I don't want to be thrown in jail and I don't want to be marked as a stallion beater! Please! I'll tell you everything!”
As Luna lay there, she was staring back up at the Pegasus with a not so amused look in her eyes as she began to speak very slowly. “Very well, we will not get our dear sister for this. But, please get off before you go into the details.” By this time the mare had realized that she was sitting one of the princesses, she had a slight blush on her cheeks before quickly jumping off while apologizing.
Once they were both back on their hooves. Luna used her magic to manipulate the surrounding dream into creating a grassy field, along with a small table and two chairs for the two to sit at. From there, Rainbow Dash went into explaining why she was having the dream to begin with. Starting with what happened at the flower shop and when she had chase down the stallion that she had assaulted and talked in the alley.
Only to be put in her place by getting the dreaded silent treatment that all stallions were known for giving when really angry. The story only ended after she had gotten to the part where she and her friends were all in the public library and had just gotten some tickets for the grand Galloping gala, where she saw the stallion and almost lost her cool and did the same thing again after hearing his remarks towards Celestia.
During all of this, Luna was keeping herself quiet as to listen to the whole story before making any kind of judgment. Sure, she was upset upon hearing that one of those who saved her from Nightmare Moon, was so careless as to attack another without so much as a real cause. But for it to be a male, only made Luna realize just how severe this situation was. She had only been back for a month and even she has gotten a good look at the laws and immediately saw that there was quite a bit written in regards to the safety of the opposite gender. These being personally made by her sister.
It made perfect sense now with the way that rainbow had reacted upon saying that she was going to get her older sister to come and talk to her about the dream. With the increasing rareness of them and their strange weakness when it came to physical activities, Luna was sure that Celestia would not have taken this so easily. Especially her sister from the past. No doubt back then, that this Pegasus would have been beheaded already on her past sister’s order.
Now, when the story had gotten to the point that they were in the library of Ponyville. Luna was taken aback by what was said about her sister and the tickets apparently being called out as a test for the young Twilight Sparkle. But out of curiosity, Luna asked Rainbow Dash if it was okay for her to use some of her magic on the dream in order to recreate what was seen and the Pegasus quickly agreed upon it seeing as it would be easier than having to explain it all.
From there, Luna lit her horn and the green landscape, along with the table had vanished only to be replaced with a perfect recreation from start to end of what happened in the Golden Oaks Library. As Luna and Rainbow Dash stood there watching side by side, they got to see the dream re-creations of all of them, including that of rainbow Dash herself re-enacting the whole scene before them both.
Luna couldn't help herself but to walk up and encircle the stallion wearing the white and blue robes as he got up from the chair he was sitting at after making his words known. With her extremely critical gaze completely fixated on him, she had paused the spell in order to take in his physique. After a few seconds of this, she resumed the spell once again and bared witness to how he had calmed the purple Unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle, after whispering into her ear. Which caused the mare to become like that of putty as he gently patted her on the head. The lunar princess was not about to admit this openly, but she had felt a small twinge of the feeling known as envy when witnessing this act.
From there, the memory continued until the discussion between all of them in concern to the stallion had concluded. All of the dream constructs were dismissed only to leave Luna and Rainbow Dash standing in the library. As for the lunar princess, she was not looking all that happy with the Pegasus. Seemingly picking up on this, Rainbow Dash was looking away while approaching one of the chairs to sit in and most likely awaiting some type of judgment to be laid down upon her. This being evident with how she was covering her face with both of her hands, while staying completely silent.
As Luna was giving Rainbow Dash a very stern look. She cleared her voice and came a little closer before speaking. “Miss Rainbow Dash. Bearer of the Element of Loyalty. By law this should be reported to my sister… But seeing as I found this through my own Realm along with the fact that you are clearly troubled by what it happened, I do not see a need to relay this unfortunate series of events to Celestia.” This had gotten the mare to look up at her with surprise along with a smile that was quickly forming on her lips. However, that rapidly faded upon what was said next.
“Still, the fact that you did do so and have not even given a proper apology, leaves me to believe that something needs to be done. It is our belief that these nightmares will continue to haunt your dreams until this guilt has been laid to rest. Therefore, we will no longer be helping if such a dream should come forth again. If you wish them to stop, then you're going to need to do it on your own. And for you to be able to do so would require making amends with this stallion. If not, then we can guarantee that the nightmare will only get worse.”
It was clear that the blue Pegasus wanted to say something to Luna, but couldn't because Luna had immediately jumped out of the dream before she could do so and landed back in the sea of stars that she was just in earlier. As she stood there, Luna couldn't help but to think over just what she is seen in regards to the male In Rainbow Dash’s dream. Putting aside his build, there was just something about his attitude and the way he spoke when referring to her older sister that was strangely pulling at her thoughts.
So, as to wanting to find out more about who this is. Luna went and focused all of her attention on the dreams that came from Ponyville. When she had done this, she immediately felt that there was another nightmare that was in progress and made her way over to another one of the dream bubbles. But instead of going right into it. She used her hands and place them together while pressing into it and parted it to make a small window to see what was happening within.
When she had done so, she was given the sight of a mare that seems to be on the ground and currently clutching at her now bleeding leg. Before was a horrific sight of a deform Pony wearing some outlandish and oversized jewelry that had some plates of food in their hand that were being thrown towards the mare and yelling in a language. Whatever was being said by the creature, seemed quite unrecognizable. But Luna surmised that with it being a distorted nightmare being the cause of not understanding anything that was being said by it.
Luna was just about to jump inside in order to dispel all of this, when the same stallion that was within Rainbow Dash’s dream came into focus and stood between the mare and the deformed Pony. From that point on, the distorted image became clearer as everything went back to looking as it would in real life. The monster that was hurling dishes had turned into what Luna could easily tell was some arrogant Noble and the unrecognizable speech patterns turned to those of brash and insensitive insults being hurled at both the mare and the stallion as he tended to her wounds.
Things quickly progressed after a number of plates were thrown against the stallions back and a glass was shattered over his head. But even through all of that, Luna could see that he had not taken his attention away from the mare’s injured leg until the bleeding had stopped after some potions were administered directly to the wound.
It wasn't until after that, that Luna got to watch how the stallion had fended off a pair of bodyguards that clearly wanted to do him harm without so much as showing any type of backing down. She even had to question whether or not, this was really a dream or a replayed memory when the assailant’s weapons were pretty much destroyed by a single dining utensil. But when the town guards were called in and it seems like the stallion was about to be pulled away, while the noble was to be left alone. Everything seemed to do a flip once he had mentioned the recognizable name of, Scarlet Prize..
Of course, this immediately caught Luna's attention as she was not going to easily forget that name after what her sister had informed her about. Luna recalled that on that day, once that little meeting had concluded. Luna had gone down to the archives and looked up what she could about the case and when she had an opportunity, went over to her sister to ask about how the sentencing had gone. Only to be informed by Celestia that to the public, Scarlet Prize had been banished to Tartarus. but in reality, she had been taken away without any pony noticing by some unknown means, while in mid transport to the gate leading there.
Upon hearing this, Luna became distraught and immediately wanted to go looking for the mare but was stopped by her sister when she told her that when it happened, she had gotten personally involved and try to find Scarlet Prize herself. Only to sense a familiar magical signature that belong to the one known as Warden and assumed that he had taken her away. So, judging from what was told about him, then Luna was sure that that evil mare was definitely being punished and allowed the matter to go.
At the end of the dream for the random Pony from that town. It showed how the individual had run off along with another Pony as it came to an end. Now seemingly more curious than ever about the stallion. Luna attempted to use her magic on the Dream Realm in order to find his dream bubble, but no matter how hard she tried, no results came from the effort that was put into it.
In the beginning, Luna just assumed that he was not a sleep. But she did keep on trying regardless and had taken a little while and she was sure that she was not going to be able to find him tonight. But seeing as there was just a few more hours left before the sun was to come up, Luna went ahead and started to look for any more nightmares that could use her help and just went ahead with casting the metaphorical line out into the darkness.
When she did this, her magic had almost instantly had caught on to a dream bubble and instead of bringing it towards her. The spell had somehow backfired and she was being roughly pulled along towards where it was instead. All the while screaming as she nearly collided with a number of other dream bubbles along the way. Not once could she ever recall this spell ever doing such a thing to her in the past. By the time she had come to a stop, she had run face-first into the bubble that her magic had clung to but instead of going in, Luna had this pain running through her face as one would when hitting a solid object.
Luna had closed her eyes tightly and was now rubbing at her head after letting out a pained grunt. Once the pain had subsided, she had opened her eyes again and found that what she was looking at was a dream bubble that was clearly larger than any normal Pony should have any business having. But what made it stand out even more, was the way the outside felt. It seemed to be calm, yet at the same time. It gave off this same feeling that a very bad nightmare would.
Just wanting to know who this was from; the mare reached forward towards the bubble’s outer layer and try to park the cloudy surface to see what was within. However, no matter how hard she tried, it resisted her will and was even pushing her back a little while doing so. After one try and then another, Princess Luna was adding more and more magic in order to at least peek inside. Even with the increased pressure, Luna found that the dream was resisting her in an unnatural way. During one of these attempts, Luna was grunting as she started to talk to herself.
“For one's mind to be so difficult to breach, even when they're asleep, must show how mentally strong they are. For only I thought that my sister was capable of such a feat. We do not wish to cause any undue harm to the mind that this belongs to, but we cannot allow a nightmare of this magnitude to continue! All I can do is pray that whoever this is, will forgive us for what we are about to do!” When Luna had finished saying those words, her horn became lit up again and a bluish aura began to cover her body. This starting from her head all the way down to her fingertips and hooves.
She then pressed even harder into the spongy like material covering the bubble and when she felt that she had finally pushed in more than a few inches. Luna had let out a startled scream when the outer layer suddenly started the coil around both of her arms until they were pretty much all the way up to her shoulders. While trying to pull away, her wings flared but more of the substance had shot out and began to wrap them up as if reacting to the motion. She had then started to scream out.
“Unhand us! Do you not know who it is you are-. Mhimph! Himmmmph! Humph! Mmmmmmph!” Her words had been cut off when her mouth was covered by what was running up her arms and before she could do anything else, her horn itself was completely enclosed. Thereby making the aura around her body vanish. Once that had been done, she felt that her whole body was being pulled towards the bubble and within a blink of an eye, she had been sucked inside and brought to a world of nothing but pure, unending black.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Within his Dreamscape house*
Right now, Brex was sitting up in his bed with Rory lying next to him while giving a puzzled look. After a few seconds of this, Rory's eyes went wide and she too sat up in the same way as her master, this causing the covers to come flying off with how quickly she did it to reveal that she was completely naked, before she turned towards him and asked in a surprise tone. “Master! Did you feel that? I think someone just tripped up and fell into our fake dream world.” In response, the Roegadyn quickly nodded before jumping out of bed and imagining his clothes back on his body again.
From there, Rory too dawned her clothing, which was a simple light purple nighttime kimono and the pair made their way down to the bottom floor and stood several paces from the door leading out of the dream house. Rory then stepped forward and waved her right hand and caused a number of large, transparent screens to appear one after another that blanketed not only the door, but the entire wall it was fixed to with multiple images from different angles. Each having a stone city with bridges connecting one area to the next, while out on the edge of the ocean.
From there, the pair began to scan each one of the windows until they found something that showed it to be pointing towards the sky and there was a dark object currently falling towards the center of the fabricated dream. Within a few seconds, the camera followed it and zoomed in to reveal that it was an unconscious Luna and she had just collided with the edge of one of the spires. Thereby clipping it and coming to a stop after landing near the large rotating crystal at the Central Plaza.
While not taking his eyes off of the image, Brex quickly asked Rory in a somewhat worried tone, while having a pained expression after seeing the tumble. “Rory if I'm not mistaken, didn't we make it so that she could get in without having to put too much force into it? It looks as though she may have put everything she had into doing so if she's in that state.”
Once he had turned and looked fully at the small girl, he saw that she was scratching the back of her head and giving a small, apologetic smile as she replied. “Well Master, I suppose it would have to do with how she's still recovering. This was set up a long time ago and it was under the assumption that she would be at full strength after all.”
After letting out a long and drawn-out sigh, Brex slowly shook his head at the obvious lack of foresight on adjusting the dream’s defenses and returned his gaze over to the screen while talking to Rory. “Well, we can't do anything about that now. What’s done is done. How about we see what she does and act accordingly. I honestly thought that she wouldn't be doing this for a little while longer and we are nowhere near Ponyville right now for her to be able to zoom in on me, so who knows what happened.”
*Point of view: Princess Luna*
The lunar princess was currently lying face down, with her arms and legs randomly placed at awkward angles. After a few minutes of this, she suddenly shot up onto her elbows and released a loud cry the pain as she partly turned her head to the right in order to look at her wing. Right where it was meant to bend at the joint, it had suffered a hard hit upon falling into the dream and Luna was sure that she was going to have some trouble in using it until it was healed up.
But her eyes went wide only a moment later when she started to think to herself in disbelief as she continued to still be staring at the wing. “How is this even possible” This is but a dream. I shouldn’t be able to feel pain to that from the real world.” She had started to sit up and placed her legs in a sideways, cross-legged position and reached up for her injured appendage. Only to pull her hand away after letting out a small hiss of pain before continuing her thoughts.
“This should not be possible. Perhaps if I was to...” Before that thought could be finished, she had started to light up her horn in order to cast a healing spell on to her wound. But when she attempted to do so, all she got was a small spark of energy before her horn fizzled out and the pain in her wing intensified three folds. That was when she realized that she must have used a little too much of her magic in finding the dream and getting inside. This meaning that she needed some time to recover and casting a healing spell now while weakened would only cause more harm than good.
The very thought of simply trying to wake up and attempt to do so on another night to investigate this weird phenomenon had crossed your mind. Although her stubbornness won out and caused her to stay and begin to look from where she sat as to find out just what the dream was about. From the outside, she had expected there to be a dark and gloomy atmosphere. But all that was present, was a somewhat foggy day where one could just barely make out the visible outline of where the sun was located in the sky.
(Here is a picture of where she is now.)
She was currently in an open space area, where in one direction had a large opening that went into a tall rock spire and she could see the lights within from right behind herself. Off to her left and right, was a set of walkways where the first went to what appeared to be a slightly lower elevation, while the second went off to a higher area instead. As for directly ahead. That one appeared that it was entering a covered area with a similar opening not too far in that was like the one on her end and she was sure that she could see a number of stalls set up along either side of the walls.
But what was right in the center of the spot that she was in, was an elevated platform with a pedestal in the center and right above that, was a pointed diamond of some type that was extremely large, along with a number of smaller ones orbiting it, as it spun slowly in place. It was of a brilliant blue and there were these golden bands in different sections that seemed to be both decorative and had a function of holding it in place in. There was even a set of rings that orbited the larger crystal at a slightly faster rate than it itself was rotating.
Once she felt that the pain in her right wing had diminished and it was no longer a constant issue. Luna got herself onto her to hooves and began to explorer this dream in an effort to find whoever it was that made it. First, she attempted to go straight ahead and around the crystal to go through what appears to be a market with the stalls upon closer inspection. She was able to make out what seemed to be a market board of some type and strange stand that held a single ringing bell on the top.
The stands themselves had a few items that could be seen that appear to be on one side, mostly gear comprised from cloth all the way up to pieces of metal that she herself remember seeing on a number of the guards in the castle. The other side appeared to be one for general goods. There also appear to be a type of information booth halfway going down on her right side but she could not make out any of the strange writing that was displayed on anything within view.
But what really caught her attention, was how there was not a single soul in sight. Yet she was able to hear something akin to a background noise of commerce all around. Luna had concluded that this must have been some type of incomplete dream, or perhaps an echo that the dreamer vaguely remembers. As she went further and exited on the other side, Luna found that it led to another open area and directly ahead was another enclosed tunnel just like the one she had gone through.
Seemingly thinking that it would make little difference to change one's course, she pressed straight ahead again and found that it came to a quick stop after witnessing what appeared to be a set of tables and railings that were meant to keep individuals from crossing before they conversed with whoever was supposed to be behind a desk. From where she stood just beyond that, was an airship of an unknown style that had a vague resemblance to some of the ships that she remembers seeing outside of her window before the sun would go down. The only weird part about it, was how there was a single large inflatable balloon and there was a strange picture printed on it that had the symbol of a black ship on a dark red background.
(Here is a picture of what she see's now.)
Now that she thought about it more, she recalled seeing the same image on some random tapestries placed along the tunnel that the stalls were set up at. Luna had come to the conclusion that it was some type of Insignia to represent where she was and this was obviously some type of seaboard trading outpost or perhaps a city from what she had seen so far. Something that she would have to talk to her sister about upon waking up no doubt. Luna had hoped that Celestia might know about the ship design.
She was just about to turn away, when she saw that there was a large door that was open just to the right of the airship booth. From what she could tell, it led into a large room full of books and another set of desks that were side by side. Thinking that it was pretty much going to be a dead-end. Luna was in the middle of turning her head in the direction of where she came from, when there was a sudden flash of light blue that came into the corner of her vision for but a brief moment. But when she ran after it into that section with the books, Luna was unable to find any trace of it.
Now that she was inside, she had found another walkway going at a curve in a downward angle that was off to the right side of the door she had just gone through. Wanting to find out if whatever she saw had gone down there, Luna went to investigate. Only to find another room that was quite big and appeared to have some training dummies set off to one side, while a majority of the center of the room had gone a few feet lower to indicate a type of training ground that could have easily had a small group comfortably using it without getting in another’s way.
From there, she went on to explore the strange city that she found herself in by going onto the lower floors until she had finally gotten to where it appeared that a set of docks. There she saw up on one side meant for larger ships and other was no doubt for smaller personal vessels such as fishers and possibly ferry boats to use.
But what she did note down, was how there were these miniature versions of the large crystal that she saw in key places that were sparkling with an ethereal glow as they spun in place. However, no matter where she went, she would still hear the strange background noises. But was unable to make out a single word that was said. Even though they got a bit louder whenever she got close to any of the shops or a path that would cross with another.
After wandering around some more and heading back into the upper floors. Luna found what appear to be a meeting place with three exits and a bunch of tables with some food and drinks laying on top. Luna found that she was getting a little tired with walking around by then and had taken a seat to get a better look at her surroundings as she caught her breath.
From what she could tell, this whole place had a ship at sea theme going on. If it wasn't made into the structures of stone, then it was built out of a very sturdy type of wood by the looks of it all. The most prominent colors that could be seen for decoration was that a red, gold and black. Along with the very same ship symbol that she had seen in a number of places.
There were even a few times that she herself had forgotten that it was a dream with how real the light of the sun felt on her body and the sea breeze hitting her from the water while she was on the lower decks. But no matter where she was, there was still no traces to be found of the dreamer. Which was extremely odd on its own, seeing as in normal situations, the dream would only manifest while in close proximity or even in the direct line of sight of the one who made it.
Seeing as the city was no longer going to give her any type of clues after searching for this long. Luna got up and made her way towards the exit leading to another open area and found herself and what appeared to be an outdoors plaza much like the first. Although this one being far larger. Along with some planted trees, which made it appear as though it was a small park of some type. There was even a stretched bridge leading towards another building that displayed through the open doors what could have been a tavern, with how the drinks were fully on display.
Knowing full well that drinking anything within a dream was pointless. Luna decided to keep going straight and as she was making her way across the park. She could even see off in the distance, that be on another small set of bridges leaving to a spire of rocks and what appeared to be a set of anvils that made her think it was an armory. Upon narrowing her gaze in that section, she was able to spot would appear to be a picture of a helmet and an anvil displayed on plaques overhead just above the bridge on a wide display board.
(Here is a picture.)
This made Luna have a sense of Deja vu when it came to how old styled everything felt. Especially compared to the modern-day of Equestria that she is currently learning about. For but a brief instant, she had a flashback of back before she was banished, when everything seems so much simpler.
But during those thoughts, she had failed to notice that she was already crossing over what appeared to be a bridge leading to the mainland. But just has she had gotten to the halfway marker. Luna had come to a sudden stop when her face met something hard that she did not see and this created a sudden thud that made her fall onto her rump and elicited a not so ladylike scream in response.
After tending to her wounded pride and possibly bruised bottom, she got back up and approached the spot that she was at and gingerly held out her left hand. Only to find it touching something that felt similar to a stone wall that was not giving any leeway at all as she tried to push. After letting out a grunt of annoyance, she turned towards the city and started to speak in a somewhat agitated tone under her breath.
“Would seem that this is the edge. Yet not once have I seen the dreamer. This is quite irregular to say the least. If only I was at my full strength, then mayhaps this would be so much easier to accomplish.”
But that was when she caught in the corner of her eye, something that was moving inside of one of the trees on the far side of the park area. Whatever it was, it was in the middle of rustling a bunch of the branches and a couple of leaves had fallen down. So, before it got away, the lunar princess quickly ran towards the tree while being mindful of her dress out of fear of not tripping.
When she arrived, Luna found that there was a slight bluish glow coming from between the branches. She had gotten a little closer to the point that she was nearly directly underneath the tree, when whatever it was had launched at her and began to zip all around her body as it was making its way quickly towards the ground and running back to where she had taken that short rest at.
During that brief instant however, Luna was flailing her arms from the sudden surprise and when she caught side of it running away, she was sure that it was a glowing blue fox, or possibly a squirrel of some kind. It was even leaving a mysterious trail of glowing dust that quickly faded as it went along the ground.
After giving a small growl of annoyance, she gave chase and had to dodge and weave around tables as it continued to go straight ahead, past that area and across a long stone bridge connecting to a tower on the far end that branched off to the left halfway across to a smaller one that she could barely see thanks to the fog.
When the strange creature had gotten to the fork in the path. It had taken that left turn and scurried into the tower through one of the open archways with Luna hot on its tail only a few seconds behind. All the while, cursing the fact that she wasn't able to use her wings to catch it any quicker and was forced to run the entire way.
(Here is a Picture.)
When Luna had arrived, she found that there was a number of cooking stations that were lit ablaze and a number of pots and pans that were empty and ready to be used. She was brought out of her observations when she heard what could have been the scurrying of little feet across a stone floor right off to her left side and on the lower-level half the small balcony that overlooked the kitchen. When Luna turned her attention there, she saw that there was another doorway leading onto a patio just beyond.
As she narrowed her eyes and gave out a small huff of annoyance. The lunar princess picked up the hem of her dress and made a quick dash down the steps and out the door way. But only to come to a sudden halt after taking a few steps out to find that there were a few tables set and that one of them was currently occupied by a large being that was sitting on the other side of the table and currently facing her. However, their face was fully obscured by them holding on to a large book that they were apparently in the middle of reading.
(Here is a picture of his current gear.)
While she was taking in his appearance, the creature from before had come out from underneath the table and ran up along the side of the chair that the unknown individual was sitting at. It then rested itself upon wrapping around the back of his shoulders on either side with its tail draped over the left and the head resting comfortably on his right shoulder. The creature was apparently looking at the book that was being held and only after, gave a small cute little sound as it yawned after finding a place to rest.
(Here is a Picture of the creature that Luna was running after.)
After several long moments of nothing happening. Luna thought that she had gone completely unnoticed and had started to slowly circle around to the left side of the table. While giving it a wide berth. When she was about a third of the way around, she heard a male's voice after first hearing him coughing for about a second as he kept the book close to his face. What came out was obviously a very flat and emotionless tone.
“Did Faust not bestow the knowledge that staring is quite impolite? It causes one to wonder just what she had taught her children. Please, would you be so kind as to take a seat and join me?” What he had just said, had caused Luna to give him a pair of wide eyes as she dumbly nodded while taking the seat directly across from him in the only other seat provided at his table.
Once she had she had a few moments to gather her thoughts again. Luna cautiously began to ask, while raising an eyebrow. “Just who are thou and how does thee know our mother's maiden name?” In response, the one in front of her began to talk in a tone that was lighter in comparison to the last.
“As for your first inquiry. That will have to be left unanswered, as I feel that you are not privileged to know just yet. For the second I will say this... I have yet to personally meet her, but I have heard quite a number of stories. Stories of which I am unable to confirm or deny seeing as she's not around.
“Now, how about we dispense with the pleasantries and move on to answering your next set of questions that I have no doubt you have ready to use after being in my dreams for so long. Also, might I add that with morning fast-approaching, we will have very little time. So, with the current circumstances. I will limit you to only ask four questions.”
Luna had taken in what he had just said and even though she was feeling a little irritated with the way she was being addressed. She knew quite well from her internal clock that morning was fast approaching as well and she did only have a little time before she had to wake to help her sister with switching out the Sun and the Moon. Luna then started to think very carefully on as to what she should ask and began to go over the facts in her head that she already knew so far.
From what she could tell, she was sitting next to a very large stallion and the way he spoke seems oddly familiar to her. But as soon as that thought crossed her mind. Her eyes immediately shot open again and she pointed her finger towards him while halfway standing up from her chair before speaking. “It's you! The one that we fought last month? I'm in your dream?!”
Even with her loudly speaking, there was no evident reaction. Not even a slight flinch before he slowly turned a page in his book without so much as looking at her still, as he answered in a matter-of-fact tone. “Yes, that was undoubtedly myself. Also yes, this is my dream. Now that counts as two of your four questions. Do you really think you should be using them for such easy things that you could figure out for yourself just by simply taking the time to think carefully?”
This had caused Luna to immediately plop down in her seat and slap both of her hands over her mouth. While having a dumbstruck expression on her face that she had made such an obvious blunder. Inside, she was mentally cursing herself for losing her focus so easily and had to hold back from exploding on whoever this was, otherwise she might lose the chance to have important and also very few questions left to be answered.
Seeing that he was quick to pick up on anything that sounded like a real question and in order to not waste her chances. Luna began to speak while being mindful of how she worded anything she said. “We would ask what you are, but seeing as you neglectful it to answer the question as to who you are. Then it would be right to presume that would be off the table as well. Therefore, my next question is this… What has thee been up too sense your meeting with my sister all those years ago?”
There was a slight hum of approval to come from him, before he began to speak in a curiously appreciative tone, that had cause Luna to feel this sense of pride upon hearing it. “Interesting, very interesting. You know your sister really needs to give you more credit. That analytical mind of yours hasn't dulled even after your many years of imprisonment. To put forth an inquiry that could possibly reveal so much, also there's the fact that you're the only one who has ever asked me what I've been doing in all these years… Very well!”
“Let us start off with, I died... Then I found myself in another world. From there, I spent the last eight hundred years or so doing nothing but learning and fighting in order to regain my strength. There wasn't a single time that I stopped in order to sleep during my time there. It was non-stop battles with strong opponents that put me to my very limit. There are days that I literally had to put myself back together. I was put up against those that one would only see in both dreams and nightmares, only to repeat it over and over again.”
“Then I was able to return to Equestria close to twelve years ago. From there, I did some traveling, made a few connections. Helped a few here and there. Also had a hand at some building projects to pass the days and nights away. Then I waited for the day that you were predestined to return and patiently sat out in the middle of nowhere for you to show up and from that point on... Well, you know the rest.”
Luna was silently taking it all in and as he was talking, she began to think to herself in disbelief as her imagination took hold. “He said that he died and appeared in another world. Only to fight for the last eight hundred years straight?! The things he went up against where stuff of nightmares? How could any living being possibly function without sleep for more than a few days, much less eight hundred straight?! Just what kind of environment could it have been to cause him to have sleepless nights? Was it someplace that he was not safe and was forced to flee almost non-stop in order to stay alive?”
“Then he said he was able to come back and instead of going after my sister for obviously being the cause of him being in such a predicament. He instead, went traveling and helped our ponies? How is it possible that my sister hasn't heard of him if he's been around for over a decade? Oh Tia, just what have you been doing all this time not to have noticed his return? I may have been asleep, but he's been constantly tortured...”
“I can't even understand why he hasn't gone after my sister the very moment he returned. Is it possible that what he said that he had a while to get over it during the fight with Nightmare Moon… That he was referring to those long years? I can't even imagine what kind of state I would be in if I was forced to endure that for so long... Oh? It appears that I broke that speech pattern of mine! I did not even realize it. Come on Luna, Focus! You need to focus! I just have one more question left and I need to think of it carefully.”
“Okay, so his name and race are something that he won't tell me, but what happens if I ask where he's from? Will he dodge the question then? Do I ask him what his future plans are? No, he might keep it vague and then I won't really know anything... I could always ask him what his plans are for my sister when they meet. Hmmm... How about...”
Luna then narrowed her eyes for but a moment, while taking in his Image before she started to take in a deep breath to calm herself down in order to ask her question. “My last question is... May you permit me to come and visit you again in your dreams?” This had obviously had a reaction as he was in mid motion to turning a page. Only for his hand to come to a dead stop for several seconds. Luna had begun to wonder during that time if she had overstepped her bounds, but was surprised upon what happened next.
From pretty much out of nowhere. Luna heard him beginning to chuckle. Which turned into a roaring laugh as he was obviously having a hard time with keeping the book up to cover his face. During this, his free hand that had let go of the page was lightly padding on the table as if trying to help him stable himself during the bout of laughter. After a good long moment or two of him calming down. Luna could hear him taking in a deep breath before, letting out a relieved sigh as he began to speak in what she took as a excited tone.
“Not once, but twice in a row you managed to surprise me! First, getting a question that allowed you to get so many little tidbits and answers in one go. But to ask me for permission to return in order to glimpse more in a future date and time it's just... Just brilliant! I had honestly expected you to ask where I came from or possibly my plans for your sister for when I came to visit. But of course, I would have answered those truthfully. But I like this so much better!”
Inside Luna was mentally cheering after receiving such praise. But at the same time, was also screaming at herself upon finding out that he wasn't really going to sidestep those answers and she could have gotten them right away if she had just gone through with them in the first place.
Before she can go any further, Luna started to hear a female's voice being carried on the wind as it blew through her hair. At first, she wasn't able to make out the words with the way it came as a whisper, but after the third time around. Luna could plainly hear that whoever it was, was attempting to wake him up from the real world. “Time to get up. Come on now, we got things to do today…”
It appeared that whoever this was, might have had a strong connection with him with how easily it was able to get through the Dream Realm, without having to be too loud. Because of this, the bright lights that came from the sun and a few of the indoor light fixtures began to grow in intensity and everything was becoming more blurred. From where she sat in the patio, the structures off in the distance. Along with the shoreline and sea were beginning to recede to only have a blanket of white to replace it.
When the only thing that remained was the patio itself, along with a few of the tables that had remained as they were slowly beginning to vanish into a white nothingness that was slowly approaching. Luna could hear him beginning to say one last thing as it faded into an echo and the dream came to a complete end. “Be careful, the next time you enter my dream… Wouldn't want my favorite princess to get injured just after opening the door.”
When the last words could be heard, Luna found herself blinking as she floated in the void known as the Dream Realm and begin to say to herself in a whisper. While having a slight blush on her cheeks. “W-We are his... Favored Princess?” This of course brought a small smile to her lips before she snapped herself out of whatever state she was in and slapped both of her cheeks at the same time with her hands in order to get her to focus once more.
This brought her to have a serious look, while sporting a shared set of red cheeks as she lit her horn once more to exit the Dream Realm so that she can help with the switching between the Moon and the Sun. As well as to inform her older sister as to what she had discovered tonight. There was even this stray thought about rubbing in what he had just said to her at the end. Just to see what kind of a reaction Celestia would give.
So, once Luna had awakened and had gone through the mourning process that has been going on for the last month. Luna found herself in the dining room for some breakfast with her sister and just as the pancakes we're being placed onto the table and all of the staff had exited. She has gone straight to informing Celestia about what had transpired, from beginning to end during her time in the Dream Realm.
Although, she did leave out everything regarding Rainbow Dash’s apparent altercation with a stallion. She had only just hope that the mare would make things right with him, for her own sake at least. What she had told the blue Pegasus was no lie. With Luna no longer giving aid to that particular nightmare, the only way to stop it was to take care of the source in the waking world.
But what had been bothering her from the moment that she had gotten up from her bed. Was the fact that her wing had this dulled sense of pain right at the very spot that she had injured herself while within this unknown being’s dream. With seeing as it wasn't that much and it was easily forgettable. Luna neglected to mention that as well, thinking it was just a phantom pain from what she had gone through back there. What the lunar princess didn't know, was that if she had another to take a look at it. Then they would have easily seen that the joint had some slight bruising.
On Celestia's part, she looked rather conflicted with hearing that her sister had not only talked to the strange male, but had done so all by herself thanks to the somewhat crooked smile and worried look that she was attempting to hide from Luna as she was hearing the story. That was when the older sister began to speak in a reluctant tone.
“If we are to take what was said, it would appear that he did die back then... And you say that he spent all that time fighting for his life after waking up in another world?” She had gotten a firm nod from her younger sister before going on. “I cannot help but think that my attacking was a direct result in his suffering... You're sure that he said he spent every moment awake?” This also got another nod from Luna as Celestia lowered her head and placed her left elbow on the table while using that arm to help proper head up as her fingers went across to cover her eyes.
Luna could hear her sister beginning to breathe a little heavily before asking the next question, in a somewhat shaky breath. “Luna… Is it possible, that he may have been lying when he told you this?” Luna had given a heavy sigh before she slowly shook her head and answered. “I am afraid not dear sister. It is very difficult for one to lie while inside of their own dream and if one could, then it would reflect upon their surroundings. There were no such fluctuations that I could tell. From what was witness, he had been completely truthful, albeit somewhat vague.”
A few seconds later. Luna could see how Celestia's shoulders were beginning to drop along with a few shutters through her feathers as she brought her hand that was free to push away her plate of pancakes. Celestia then got up from her seat a little slowly, while heading over to the door. But before Luna can ask what was wrong, she was stopped when she heard her older sister beginning to speak in a rather dejected tone.
“You may have my pancakes sister if you wish... I-I don't really have much of an appetite this morning. There's also some extra paperwork that I need to get through before the Day Court begins. If you don't mind, I'm going to head back up to my room and get ready... Same time tonight for dinner...”
Not wanting to see her older sister in such a state. Luna quickly got up from her chair and approached Celestia from behind and placed a hand onto her left shoulder to get her attention before speaking. “Sister! Mayhaps when I find him again, you would like to accompany me? My magic is not as strong as it should be and I could use some assistance in order to locate his dream bubble again. This would also be an opportunity for the two of you to open a type of dialogue with one another before he comes to the castle. It is apparent that your mental health is at risk with how much you worrying about him meeting with you.”
Celestia's eyes went wide before she averted her gaze from her little sister as she placed her own hand upon the one that was on her shoulder. It took a few seconds before she started to speak again, while still not looking towards Luna. “There are times that I feel that I am nothing but a hypocrite. I always try to look out for the stallions and constantly revise the law so that it doesn't get taken advantage by those that constantly seek for even the smallest of loopholes.”
“Yet, I cause the one who has not done anything wrong to me to suffer to such a degree... I tried to kill him with my own hands and he… He was within his full right to defend himself and when he had the opportunity... Then you tell me that he didn't just come back to life after all these centuries. But was sent to a hellish world! And to top it all off, when he does show himself again... H-He… H-Help to get my little sister back?! Yeah! I am terrified of what he must think of me!”
By this point, Celestia had turned around and was now openly weeping as she hugged onto Luna with her face buried in her neck. The younger sister found herself lightly stroking the back of her older sister's head, now attempting to comfort her. After a small amount of time had gone by and Celestia was now looking much calmer. Luna went on to assure her that she would not be alone and that the two of them would be together through the whole thing as a formal apology was made.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Back at HQ, inside of his private chambers*
While completely naked and cross-legged on his bed. the Roegadyn had his eyes closed as Rory was currently having some fun and taking his member into her mouth and bobbing her head up and down. All the while, wearing no clothing for herself as one hand was holding on to The Roegadyn’s cock and the other was pulling her hair off to the side and behind her left ear to keep it out of the way. This was accompanied with a series of slurping sounds as her head bobbed up and down.
After a few long moments of sucking on his nine-inch member. The girl had put nearly half of it into her mouth and was bulging her throat, before pulling away and releasing a very loud and wet pop from her mouth as she gasped for air. As a thick coating of drool connected her lips to the tip. She was looking up at him with a pair of bedroom eyes and a wicked grin as she began to talk in a very sensual tone after licking those lips of hers clean. “Well Master, how does it feel to get a blowjob your while spying on those princesses?”
What she was referring to, was how Brex had his body double back at the castle where the sister's resided, had summoned a minion that was of a small yellow bird. Through his ability to see and hear everything from its point of view. The bird was sitting on the edge of the window that was partly open for their dining room and had seen and heard everything that was said during their morning meal.
Of course, thanks to their connection, she was able to listen in on everything as well and even though the spell was currently in effect. He could still hear her voice in his mind while currently deaf and blind. It wasn't until a few seconds had passed before he opened his eyes and looked down towards Rory, who is still giving him the same look from before as he replied in a slightly growling tone to indicate he was getting worked up again thanks to her efforts.
“You know Rory. When a guy gets turned on while spying, it's usually when it's after seeing something really arousing happening before him. So, I'm not quite sure what the term is when getting sexually turned on in this situation.” This only got a small giggle from the girl before she went back down on his member and took a good third of it into her mouth. While swirling that small tongue of hers on the underside to elicit a guttural moan of approval from the Roegadyn. After a second or two of this, she pulled away and giving a loud pop before she replied after licking her lips again.
“Hmmmm... Honestly, I don't really care about what the term is Master. It just feels like forever since I've been able to be with you for an entire day and I really want to take advantage of it. She then quickly crawled up using her hands and knees and positioned herself so that she was hanging around his neck and plunged her body down in order to get his cock to spear through her dripping wet lips down below in one quick motion.
As Brex grunted out another one of his gruff moans from the pleasure of the sudden warm and tightness of Rory's body around his cock. He got to watch the extremely ecstatic expression on Rory's face as her mouth was hanging so wide after letting out a silent scream that one would think that she had unhinged it at some point with how her tongue was hanging limply as her eyes glazed over, while looking straight up at the ceiling.
One good thing about having an astounding level of self-healing, was the fact that for Rory, no matter how much she did it with him. She would always return to a virgin state. Which meant that every time was the first for her and she was clearly loving it by the way her body was convulsing right now. No matter how many times or how long they would go at it, Rory always had this tight feeling whenever he went back in.
At the same time, there was a pair of pitiful muffled noises that were coming from directly behind and onto either side of him that consisted of, “Mimph! Mmmmph!” Looking over his shoulder, Brex could see that it was both of his personal maids. All dressed up in black, full-body latex suits. They had both of their arms placed flat on either side of their body with the palms on their hips and legs that had been placed into gloves that rendered their hands useless. Also being kept perfectly straight thanks to over a dozen sets of straps locked the cross their body's.
The outfits appear to be completely seamless and the only things that said otherwise, where the posture collars keeping their neck straight, a set of black latex blindfolds, the holes meant for their noses to breathe through and the set of ball gag that were either that of a black or silver color in their mouths. Of course, the whole thing wouldn’t be completely effective if it wasn’t for the two wearing a matching set of inhibitor rings that were right now placed snugly at the base of their horns.
Funny thing that he found out with the Changelings, was that if one was to use these rings on them while in their disguise. Then they would be pretty much locked into the form. As the set were moaning loudly into their gags. Brex could see how they were tugging lately at the chains that were attached to their collars and leading to the bed frame, while bucking their hips as they attempted to arch their backs.
As Rory recovered from the sudden rush of euphoria that she had put herself through. She had begun to bounce herself up and down on his member hard enough, that it was going so far as to show a bulge as it reached the deepest parts of her body. As she did this, Rory was letting out some feral sounds as her ears folded it back and her tail was swishing quite violently. She even had this grin that bared her fangs That couldn't contain all the drool that was escaping the edge of her lips as she was seeming to be falling into a frenzy.
Brex couldn't help but to get into it as well thanks to the sight and grabbed onto her hips and assisted in plunging the girl as hard as he could onto his member. This elicited a number of things to occur at pretty much all at once, from all that were present within the room.
Brex and Rory releasing a pair of feral growls at one another while breathing heavily. The pair of Changelings that were currently bound, had picked up in their frantic attempts at bucking their hips even faster in practically the exact same rhythm that Rory was going and letting out their own shared set of muffled groans of pleasure. This was of course, was between screams behind their gags while thrashing heavily in their bondage to get free. Every few seconds, one could hear the sound becoming more like a form of hysteric begging from the two.
After a while. Brex finally released his load into Rory’s body and this got her to let out an ear-piercing scream before going completely limp and falling backwards onto the bed. Even though she was semi-conscious and had done this. His member not completely exited her body thanks to its length and he crawled on top of Rory to hold down her arms by the wrists.
This was also followed with him shifting his knees so that they would be forcing her legs to lift up enough to almost be able to be placed behind her head to allow better access before continuing their act, even with Rory completely out of it along with a dopey grin on her face throughout all of this.
Over the course of the next couple of hours, Rory would come back to reality only to be overwhelmed with the fact that Brex had not once pulled from her body. The Roegadyn had been coming inside of her so much, that the bed itself had been completely drenched with the mixing of their juices by the time he was satisfied. When it all started, it was around three in the afternoon and it was already approaching nine the next day.
As for the two tightly bound up Changelings. They were still being held fast in their restraints but their movements had gone from full of energy, that of weakly wiggling in their bond and breathing heavily through their nose holes. There are even some sounds that similar to worn out moans coming from just beyond their gags that resembled a mix of grunts and muffled, yet exhausted attempts to speak.
Once Rory had fully recovered again and was now laying on top of Brex. While he himself had laid down between the two Changelings. He could see how she was eyeing them as they were still in their bonds with a devilish grin on her face before speaking. “Master, I do think that they've learned their lesson by now.” As she laid there with her chest pressing up against his own. She reached over to both of the girls and traced her slender fingers along the parts of the suits that cover their crotch areas and lightly pressed into the material with her middle and index fingers.
Just got a pair of muffled screams from them as Brex witnessed them bucking harder into her hands as Rory continued. “They can’t hear or see anything thanks to the gear. Yet their senses when it comes to emotions can be used in quite a number of interesting ways.”
“It's a good thing we're far enough from the rest while in here, that they can't feel this. But these two… Oh, I can't even imagine what they're going through… Ha! Wait, I can! He-Hehe. I do think that this is one of your better punishments for acting up. It's quite a pity that no matter how much they can feel from just the two of us going at it, it will never be enough to push them over the edge. Must be the worst feeling there is. Although, from what I been hearing, it might also be the best when it comes to these two.”
She then removed her hands and began to play with the small nubs that showed underneath the latex, where their nipples would be and began to play with one in each of her hands and got another set of screams and muffled pleadings from the girls as she went on. “I do believe close to eighteen hours of edging should be enough to get the point across that they need to start behaving. It must feel like going through hell to feel the same sensations that I am and still not be able to experience the full effect.”
After giving them both a stern pinch on a nipple for a few seconds. She released them and reached up to pull the ball gags from their mouths and left them down so they were hanging just below their chins. Once she had done this, they both took in a heavy amount of air and began to breathe out heavily as they both began to speak the following. While sounding as if they were both crying and worn out as though they were running nonstop for what could have been miles upon miles. Starting with Lin.
“P-Please! Please… F-Forgive us! We didn't mean too! We just missed our master so much and we couldn't handle it anymore! It was just too much! Please-please let us finally cum! I'm going to go insane! Mistress, please let us finally cum! I can't stand it anymore; we've been waiting so long! I can still feel the sensation of Master being inside of me from sensing so much fucking!”
As for Rin. She was crying while her tongue was hanging out of the side of her mouth as a set of nearly unintelligible words came spilling out. “C-Cock! Cock! P-Please… Need-please! Need to Cum! Mistress! Master! P-Please… N-Need too! Rin will be good! Rin will be a good-good girl for M-Master and Mistress! Can feel sister! Can feel Mistress! Please, please! P-Please do anything to Rin! Just let Rin come once! Just let Rin cum! Cum!”
Brex nearly rolled his eyes playfully before looking down at Rory, before saying in a joking tone. “Rory I'm pretty sure they've had enough punishment for one round. Just look at poor Rin here. She's doing that talking in the third person thing again. Do you remember the last time you went a little too far with her training? It took over a week before she stopped doing that.”
Rory then started way up and rubbed her body along his until she had gotten close enough to give him a little peck on the lips before she playfully replied. “Well Master… I don't see you letting them finish. So that must mean that you're into doing this as much as I am. And lets not forget that this was your idea after all.”
He then gave her a devilish smile before glancing to his left and right at the two Changelings who are begging continuously. When he brought his eyes back to Rory. He saw that she had a surprise expression on her face as her eyes went wide for but a brief moment, before she had her grin on her face and began to say with a wide smile. “Oh! It would seem that Master is ready to go again down there. Does this mean we get to have another round? Please, oh Please say that's a yes~.”
That was when he grabbed onto her with both hands and turned over so that he was on top again. This in turn, got her to let out a loud and excited squeal of joy before he started to say in a husky, growling voice. “I have almost an hour left until I intended to go back to Ponyville and check out the Adventurer's Guild. Besides, I don't think they've learned enough... When I'm done, I'll touch that nerve of theirs and send them the rest of the way over. Who knows, if we're lucky, they might be out of it for a few days to give you a chance to relax without their antics starting back up so soon.”
With this, Brex and Rory went back at it again. But this time, with much more enthusiasm. Even with the two Changelings still bound. However, they were without their gags as they pleaded for mercy without end. But to the girl’s dismay, all this did was cause the two going at it to become even more excited.
Which ended up with both Rin and Lin being brought near the breaking point before being finally released nearly an hour later. Only to show the pair completely out of it as their bodies continuously spasmed on their own and their eyes were clearly rolling in the back of their heads once Brex had pinched that nerve cluster near their necks. This sending them into a near catatonic state that clearly looked as though it would last for a good, few days.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 48: A Working Roegadyn.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Ponyville, just outside of the adventurer's guild* *Time: Ten in the morning*
Brex was currently looking at today's newspaper and had just gone over a section that said that it was scheduled for the next few days to be a warm set of summer days, with only a few scattered clouds here and there. Normally, he wouldn't be going through one of these. But it was placed right outside of his door when he returned and it seemed that all the rooms had them for the guests. So, he went ahead and started going through it and found that it was pretty normal when it came to a newspaper of a small town, where the articles mainly consist of every day events.
Although, the Roegadyn did happen to find it a nice distraction from all the staring he would normally get as he walked through the town and he worked on a few of the crossword puzzles in his head. It was quite enjoyable for a bit, that was until he realized that a majority of the answers refer to Princess Celestia. So, even though he tried his best to power on through, he just couldn't bring the entire puzzle down and had to forgo it for the weather report instead.
Brex had just folded the newspaper a few times and slipped it into his left arm sleeve to deposit it inside of his item box to read in the future just as he had gotten to the doorway that led into the adventurer’s hall. Unlike most of the towns and cities, the one in Ponyville was a bit small considering that it was always up to some type of trouble in the show. Brex just assumed that it was due to how quiet it’s all been.
The whole thing was about roughly the size of a small store, with only two floors and from the look of it on the outside, one would think that there was either too small rooms or perhaps just one large one on the second floor. Even the job posting board itself was right outside of the door, instead of being inside like all the others that he had come across. As he approached, he leaned in to get a better look at what was available and saw that there were only three available quests, as there were some remanences of small tattered bits of paper where some thumbtacks were still placed, showing that others have already been taken down.
Out of these were a single rank “D”. Along with two that were for rank “F”. The higher-ranked requested a small monster extermination that needed to be done in the White Tail Woods. Obviously, Brex would have wanted to go for that one. However, his current ranking just wouldn't allow him to do it, so unless he joined another group that was on the same level as the quest itself or even just one rank below if they had the recommended number of party members.
The first, one of the rank “F” quests happened to be one that required some help with manual labor at one of the shops for a couple of hours. Which entailed some heavy lifting from what was noted. The last one that was on the board, was a request for additional hands in doing some yard work and gardening for the town. What details were written on this one, mainly consisted of mowing and some light landscaping when it came to beautifying the town to give it a summer feeling for any of the festivities that they were planning on doing in the next few months.
Brex began to think to himself, while scratching the back of his hood as he eyed the two ranked “F” quests. “What to pick, what to pick... I haven't really done any gardening for quite a while. However, that might take all day. I suppose I can try and do the one for that shop first and if I can kick that out quickly enough, I might be able to tackle this other one before it's too late. It's really too bad I can't do that other one though. Honestly, I'm surprised that there's not that many monster related quests up here. Oh well, even if there was, I'm too low of a rank to take those anyway. I guess it's the shop one it is.”
As he finished with that thought and had just pulled off the quest regarding the shop that needed a spare set of hands. He heard Rory's voice speaking up after first giving a small yawn. “Good morning, Master. Hmm, I see that you're already at it.” This got her a mental chuckle from Brex as he replied right as he had opened the door to step inside of the building. “Well look who's up. And here I was thinking you were going to be out of it for a good while with how long we were at it yesterday and this morning.”
This got a playful chuckle as well from Rory as she began to say, “Oh you know better than that Master. I'm nothing like the others. Just give me a few short hours and I'm right back up. Although, as for the others. I don't think they'll be up and about anytime soon. They're both here with me right now and one of them is still talking in their sleep in the third person. One guess as to who I’m referring too.”
Brex had just made his way past a few small tables and was now a foot or so from the counter that no one was standing behind at the moment, when he replied in an apologetic tone, while wincing behind his mask a little. “Yeah, you don't think that we may have gone a little far this time, do you?” This got him a firm, yet playful tone from Rory as she answered. “Of course not Master… If anything, I believe we were still too light on them. Last night was us just teaching them how to handle being patient. It's not like we did them any physical harm. In fact, the only marks are from the way they kept on struggling against their bonds if anything.”
Brex had been looking from where he stood at the counter for any signs of the one that’s meant to be running the front desk and found a bell and gave it a single ring as he replied to Rory. “Anyhow, just make sure you're looking after the both of them. Also, I'm going to need you to keep an eye on the research team. Especially those working on the chemicals. The last thing I want to hear, is that a section of the labs had to be closed off for quarantine… Again.”
He then heard Rory saying, “I don’t think that you have to worry about that too much. Those scientists must have learned they're lesson the last time. Who would have thought that a group of them were trying to come up with a way to get more stallions to be produced when having sex through the use of some drugs? Only to find out that the compound became airborne. From there, all of the females present in that lab found that they could not get turned on by anything for a few days.”
“You just had to see their faces when they found that it had worn off. All seven of them were nothing but zombies until it did. Although, both of the stallions that were in that group were able to breathe a little easier, knowing that they weren't being eyed like candy half the time. But I did hear that the two of them are working on that very same compound to turn it into some type of mare repellent for the extreme cases of heat season.”
After hearing this, Brex could not resist letting out a small shutter through his body as he thought about what he has seen over the course of his time in Equestria. Especially when it came to how crazy these ponies could get during those times. He was more than thankful that every town and city had their own timed heat season among all the mare’s so it wasn't an around-the-clock problem.
It was at about that point, that a mare had come out of the back room after hearing the bell being rung and Brex had to cut the conversation short with Rory. The mare that came out instantly stood in front of him, while giving a wide smile that all front desk workers were known for. But Brex could instantly tell who this Pony was with how they looked.
She was a Unicorn mare with a magic mint coat, brilliant cyan mane and tail with a white streak. She had these sunglow eyes. On the one arm sleeve of the uniform near the shoulder, was a picture of her cutie mark that showed a lyre on a light green background.
(Here is a picture of Lyra from the show.)
She then began to say, while craning her neck back just a bit to look up towards his mask. “Hello there sir, my name is Lyra. Pleasure to meet you. Are you here to put up a job request?” By now, it had become a full-on reflex whenever he came inside one of these places, that they would instantly assume that he was there to put one up on the board. Rather than taking on a quest for himself. So, the Roegadyn did an eye roll from behind his mask before replying, as he also brought out his identification plate to show the mare.
“Taking this Quest.” That was when he placed the paper on the counter. From there, he slid it towards her and turned it around so that it was upright for the mare to read. After, she had leaned in to get a good look at what was written. She hummed to herself for but a moment before reaching down and taking out a small booklet before going through the pages until she had found something.
That was when the mare looked up at him before saying, “Ah! Here we are! Oh?! I forgot about this one. Bon Bon did say that she needed an extra set of hands and I was going to be filling in for a few days over here at the guild. Didn’t think that she would go so far as to post this on the board.”
Brex already knew that in this reality, the pair known as Lyra and Bon Bon were a couple and the mint green Unicorn helped out at the candy shop that the other one owned from time to time. So, hearing this didn't really surprised Brex much at all. Also, out of curiosity. Brex had done a little digging and found that Bon Bon did have a second identity in this Equestria under the name of Lemon Drop. She was a secret agent that worked under Celestia. Although the Roegadyn was pretty sure that Lyra didn't know anything about this and only knew her as Bon Bon.
His thoughts were broken when he heard Lyra speaking up again, as she looked over the book for more details that was not written on the flyer that had been posted out front. “This is a job that my mare friend posted for our candy shop. Well... It's more like hers, I just help out. Here's the rest of the information regarding what needs to be done and along with the address. Just make sure you take it easy and don't have her over work you.”
“Also, when the task is completed make sure you get her signature and bring it right back here so that way, I can mark it off as completed. Oh, one last thing. I may have said to take it easy, but you better not slack off either when you do this. Its not only your reputation that’s on the line, but the Guild too.” When she had said this, the mare had shifted her expression only slightly to one of a person that clearly didn’t think he could do this job.
Choosing to ignore this, Brex looked over the piece of paper that he was handed and gave her a quick nod before picking up his identification plate and exiting the Adventurers building. According to the additional info. Bon Bon has some new supplies for making her treats coming in and can't carry them herself due to needing to be in the shop at the same time.
Seeing as the items were meant for her baking purposes, keeping them outside for too long would not be good, so she couldn't wait on her usual help this time around. There was also a scheduled time the show up at the shop if any was to take the quest and it appeared that it was only twenty minutes away from the displayed time on his game clock on the upper right-hand corner of his view.
By the time he had arrived at Bon Bon’s candy shop. There was still several minutes left for the cut off time when he had started to knock on the front door. The window that was a part of the door had a closed sign, with some clock hands indicating that the shop would be open at eleven, which was only a few minutes away. After a few seconds had gone by, Brex could hear someone coming towards the door and calling out. “Just hold on, we're about to open.”
Brex knocked again, while making sure that his voice was just loud enough to be heard on the other side. “From Adventurers Guild.” This of course, got the one inside to hurriedly make their way over towards the door and opened it by yanking at it hard. Only to take a step back after noticing that whoever was on the other side, turned out to be Brex and he was almost taking up the entire doorway with how his body stood.
The mare in front of him was an Earth pony with a beige coat, pigment blue mane with a rose-pink streak, cerulean eyes, and a cutie mark of three objects that appeared to be candys that are individually wrapped. She was wearing a colorful striped outfit of white, pink and light blue that went quite well with her hair coloring.
She had been standing there for a few seconds while holding onto the door with her right hand and blinking several times over, before she had finally noticed that she was staring at him and had relaxed enough to ask the following question. While seemingly trying to hide the fact that she was a little more than nervous. “Are you really from the guild for that job I posted?”
Brex already had the piece of paper in his left hand and brought it up in order to pinch the paper in his thumb and index finger to allow the mare to see what was written, without having to get any closer. Once the mare had gotten a good look and was sure that he had been sent by the Guild. Her attitude had changed to that a of a professional business owner and began to explain what was needed to be done.
She was to watch the shop and continue on in the kitchen. As for Brex, he had to wait outside in the back for a delivery wagon to show up and wait as the goods were offload into a loading area. From there, Brex had to carry them into the shop and place them where Bon Bon had already indicated beforehand. From what he could tell, was that these were a monthly delivery. Meaning that they came in bulk. So, not only were they large, but quite heavy to begin with. But this mattered very little to the Roegadyn.
Once the delivery had arrived and the two Earth mare’s that were on the wagon had started to offload the goods. Brex watched from a short distance away as the mare’s had gotten done with two out of eight containers. However, the pair was having a hard time with how heavy everything was, along with trying to get it down safely from the back end while parked behind the building. After a little bit of watching this, he realized just how long it would have taken for a normal person to do. Seeing as the Earth Ponies were supposed to have the most amount of physical strength and even this pair were struggling.
After finally having enough of watching them being stressed on the third package. Brex approach the side of the wagon and reached over from the left side. Thanks to it being uncovered, he carefully grabbed onto the large wooden box and hoisted it up and over head. From there, he carried it over and near the back door and placed it carefully on the cement slab nearby.
When he came back again for the fourth container. He ignored the blank stares from the two mare’s who are currently staring straight at the box that he had just taken care of. Only to slowly blink as they watched him take the next one that was marked for Bon bon’s shop off and do the same without even making any sounds of effort.
The rest of it only took a few more minutes and when he was finished placing the eighth and final package down. Brex turned and he saw that the two mare’s we're just standing next to the cart with mirrored blank expressions as they whispered the following to one another, without so much as looking at the other, while their eyes stayed glued to the stack of box’s.
“Did he just… Move those?”
“I-I think he did…”
“But… Those are all roughly two hundred and fifty pounds, right?”
“N-No… T-That was our last delivery. These are three hundred and eighty pounds apiece.”
“But still… H-How can one stallion pick them up and move them around as easily? They may as well be beach balls and he hasn't shown any signs of being tired...”
“I heard that the Apple clan has a family in this town. Maybe he's a part of them?”
“D-Do you think he's already been spoken for?”
“Don't even bother. I'm pretty sure that I smelt a female on him when he was passing by with one of the items.”
“Uh oh, he's looking at us! We need to snap out of it.”
“Sorry, I can't. I'm thinking about how big his muscles must be underneath those cloths.”
Thinking that nothing would get done unless he made the first move. Brex approached the pair and motioned with his hand to indicate that he was holding onto an imaginary quill and writing in the air. As they were staring blankly at his gesture, one of them had finally figured out what he meant and scrambled for the notepad that had the billing receipt for the delivery. Brex had taken the paperwork inside. But soon returned with a very confused looking Bon Bon, who clearly didn't believe that the work was already finished.
However, when she had stepped out and saw that the entire wagon had been emptied out and all the boxes were sitting at the back side of her building, she could do nothing but blankly nod before signing the paperwork. From there, she showed him just where they should be placed inside of the basement, where all the supplies were kept. There was a set of double doors that allowed one to swing both open at once in order to allow large items to go through without much trouble at all.
He could see that she was going for what appeared to be an old-style pallet jack. But seeing as it would be a lot quicker for him to do it by hand. Brex had already picked one of the boxes up and was closely following Bon Bon inside. But by the time that she realized that he had already gone past her as she was fiddling with the equipment, her eyes shot open when she saw how he was carefully placing one of the containers along the corner wall with very little effort.
She had attempted to lift a finger in order to say something. But had held her tongue when she saw how he was already on the second, then the third box. while holding them under both of his arms. What should have taken maybe an hour or two from start to end to complete, had taken less than twenty-five minutes for Brex to complete the entire task from unloading and placing them in their proper locations underneath the shop.
As he was showing the paperwork that he needed to get signed by Bon Bon in order to return to the Adventurers Guild. The Roegadyn have to snap his fingers a few times in order to get the mare’s attention as she was clearly trying to figure out what was going on. Bon Bon then shook her head and looked at the piece of paper. She then began to sign while still staring at all that was done. Afterwards, asking him in a mixture of confusion and concern in her voice.
“Um... I really didn't expect this. Those must have been really heavy, are you sure you’re, okay?” This she only got a mild shrug from Brex as he replied. “Only a little.” The mare had given him a dubious stair before she resumed her usual attitude as a store owner and signed away at his own paperwork and thank him for all the assistance.
Afterwards, he quickly returned to the guild and submitted the paperwork. Which caught Lyra completely off-guard with how fast he had returned. All the while, grumbling to herself about how Bon Bon must have not told her about it being an easy delivery. Brex had deduced that Lyra had somehow managed to get out of doing that work by orchestrating a need for her to fill in at the guild and was clearly upset about using her get out of work free card on something that was supposedly easy in her mind.
Seeing as it was barely noon. Brex went ahead and grab the second rank “F” job and made his way towards the mayor's office in the center of town. Once Brex had arrived, he found half-a-dozen ponies all wearing yellow vests. Along with gardening gloves and equipment all lined up and receiving their orders for today. Of course, when he showed them the paperwork. A number of them had scoffed and said things that where along the lines of how he can't possibly be of any use, or he should have just stayed out of the way and if he wanted to do some gardening, that he should have done so in his own backyard.
While at the same time, a few of the others were looking uncomfortable upon hearing what was being said and attempted to stay out of it by gaining just a few feet of distance from the ones that were making a fuss. By the end of it all, the one that was in charge said that they needed all the hands they can get and one stallion helping wasn't going to hurt.
Just hearing this only made the Roegadyn to roll his eyes once again. It wasn't until a few minutes later, that Brex was informed that the reason why they required some help today. This was how there was this one dead tree that needed to be taken away and a little extra muscle were in desperate need when getting the roots out of the ground.
Apparently, there was this one tree that had gotten sick and needed to be replaced. They had also requested the aid from the Apple family, but heard that the two parents we're out of town and the eldest of the three siblings had gotten injured recently. This meant that the only one capable of working the farm right now was Applejack and couldn’t work on this with them.
Of course, upon hearing this, Brex went stiff as he began to recall what happens shortly after Big Mac got himself hurt and Applejack was the only one that could do the harvesting. Inside, he was groaning to himself and mentally ordered his body double that was keeping an eye on the farm, to sit back and only interfere or send a message if things got out of hand and to allow this important lesson to play through. All the while, making a mental note to himself to pay nurse Red Heart of visit and have her prepare for a lot of patience that might be coming in soon from food poisoning.
Afterwards, they got to work at doing some trimming and grass cutting. When they finally got to the part with the tree. Brex could see that it was taller than most of the two-story houses that were nearby and the trunk itself was wide enough that he could barely get his arms to go all the way around. It was quite impressive for a pine tree, but a good portion of it was dead and rotting away that he could see from most of the branches being completely barren.
As Brex was examining the tree and the surrounding area, which was pretty open and plenty far from any of the buildings. He can hear a number of the ponies talking to one another about what they are going to do. One had said that they could cut away a good portion of it and chop it down near the base. They had wanted the construction Golem to help with pulling it out by the roots. But unfortunately, another member had pointed out that the Golem was currently being used for another assignment on the other side of town and that they would not have been able to get permission to use it before the day was up.
Wanting to get things done and over with. The Roegadyn approach the one who was in charge and was clearly racking their brains as to how to attack this tree situation. Brex asked, “Does method matter?” The group leader turned to him for a moment before turning towards the tree once more before saying, while giving out an exhausted sigh.
“No, we just have to get it out of here. As long as it doesn't cause any damage to the surrounding buildings, then I'm pretty much up for anything. Well… Aside from burning it. Can't take the chances of whatever killed it to spread to nearby trees. There's already a disposal site that’s already set up. We just need to get it over there.”
After giving it a few seconds to go over and his head. Brex then said to the mare. “Please stand back.” She had given him a very confused look after raising an eyebrow and was clearly about the say something, when he had moved past her and approached the tree. He avoiding the other ponies that were still arguing as to what they're going to do.
Just as he had gotten to the base of the tree. Brex went into his menu options and after going into his character window, had switched over to using his harvesting class. From there, he summoned his level seventy hatchet and began to take a few swings at the base of the tree.
After swinging at for eight times, he found that he was nearly halfway through and carved out a good section of it. From there, he went to the other side and began to slowly chop away until the tree had lost enough of its mass to begin to topple in the direction that he had first chop the way at. Which turn out to be an open area with nothing nearby that could get damaged.
But before anyone can say or do anything after seeing this. Brex had already begun the chop away at the tree to break it up into three parts and removed a number of the branches and tossed them into a pile. Once that was done, he grabbed onto one of the sections and began to lift it until it was being placed on his back and he was partially hunched over in order to keep it from going anywhere and turned towards the leader that he was talking to before. Without showing so much as a hint of trouble, he asked in a board tone. “Where is site?”
After getting the general directions which would lead him outside of Ponyville and towards the South Westside. Brex carry the large log that was easily the size of a four-door pickup truck and made his way through a few of the streets. Only to be gawked at by every pony that he ended up passing.
He was even sure that he had caught a few of them rubbing their eyes after seeing him. Only to return to doing it again and even one of them had rushed off to a shop that was selling eyeglasses. When that one had return, they rush right back into said shop to apparently get a refund. Because when Brex saw the pony again, she was no longer wearing them.
Once he had arrived to the disposal site. He turned and went back for the next log, only to find that the other workers were carrying the smaller branches on his way back. He did happen to wince behind his mask upon noticing the deep foot prints that he made thanks to his combined weight with the wood on his back from walking on the road. He had gone back and took care of the final pieces within the next half hour with how slowly he had to walk while loaded up. Now, when it came to the last part which involved the tree roots, that was going to be a little tricky.
Not only was it large to begin with, but it was easy to assume that the roots we're pretty entrenched. He was thinking about doing some digging to loosen up the dirt. So, he switched over to his White Mage class and approached the base of the stump and placed both of his hands onto the dirt before channeling one of his Earth attack spells underground. When he had done this, a few of the ponies that were within five meters of him, had stumbled for just a moment after the ground gave off a sudden rumble.
Thanks to this, the hard ground and clay underneath had been turned to pretty much soft sand thanks to the Stone spell that he had used to pretty much break apart the ground underneath the surface. Afterwards he switched over to his Monk class and pulled out from his inventory box, a long stretch of black rope that gave off a metallic shine as the sunlight went across it.
This one in particular, was a dropped item that he had gotten during the game. It was called, Garlean Fiber. A lightweight material which was extremely strong. He remembered getting these as he was farming next to a military facility and taking quite a number of their large machines down in order to collect some of these components for crafting purposes.
Using what he had brought out. He wrapped it around the base of the stump until he had it nice and tight and began to pull at the lines after getting a few paces away. With them wrapped around his right arm to prevent slipping and gripping on with both hands. The stump started to shift and place as it slowly was being dragged out.
As he was doing this, the other ponies. Along with a few bystanders were watching from a safe distance with half of them rubbing their eyes as they witnessed the stump nearly halfway out, along with most of its roots as it came sifting through the sand like ground with only him being the one to do all of this.
After a few minutes of this, Brex had stop pulling to find that it had completely left the ground and was now laying on its side with enough roots sticking out that it would have made it seem like the whole process would have taken close to a couple of days of nonstop work to get it all out if they were to do this job normally.
But before any of them could say anything about what they witnessed. He had gone back and gently placed both of his hands on to the soft dirt once he had gone back to his White Mage class and used the same spell from before. But instead, it was used to condense the pieces into stone pillars that shot up from the ground. In which he grabbed onto and tossed into a neat organized pile just a short distance away.
Typically, this would count as an offensive spell for the class would summoning Earth to strike at their target. But in this case, Brex was using it in a way that was more of a construction orientated Style. He then turned towards the group of ponies that he was working with and approached the leader. Brex then asked the following. “Hole is ready. Where is the new tree?” After working out a few unintelligible noises from her mouth. The mare dumbly pointed to the Northwest before replying as she kept her eyes focused on the stack of rocks that had been turned into neat bricks right next to a newly made hole.
“W-We have a pony going up to the White Tail Woods in order to get a sapling, along with a few Adventurers. But they're not back yet. I believe the mare’s name is Wood Cutter. Umm... Now I just don't know what we should be doing thanks to you already taking care of pretty much everything. After hearing this, Brex gave them a small nod before turning his direction to where the mare had pointed. He then said, as he began to walk toward the White Tail Woods. “I'll help her.”
Brex could clearly hear that the mare had wanted to protest. But choose to ignore her as he begins to go into a light jog on the outskirts of the town. After a few moments, Brex had started to internally chant a few spells. First, there was a minor boost in his speed as he went into a full-on sprint. This was also accompanied by what could be seen as visible wind being pulled towards his body and enveloping it in a light sheen before dispersing.
The next thing that happened, was how his body began to emit a faint aura before his legs picked up even more speed that they became nearly a blur and the sudden bursts of increased acceleration cause both of his arms to be held low and out at his sides like one would see in a Naruto anime when running at top speed and focused all of his energy into his legs.
Because of this, he had originally gone from nearly sixty kilometers an hour on foot in the beginning. With the total doubling with each additional effect. The Roegadyn had reached up to a speed of around two hundred and forty kilometers, which roughly puts it to just over a hundred and forty-nine miles an hour.
With how far the White Tail Woods were from Ponyville. it would have taken well over two hours to get there and the same to return. But at the rate at which Brex was moving on his feet and leaving a heavy dust trail behind him while becoming pretty much a white blur to any watching. The whole trip was taken down to a roughly around fifteen minutes in order to reach the woods.
What Brex have used was a combination of the following. The Sprint skill which grants an additional boost to a player’s speed. While in the game, this would only give a handful of seconds maybe twenty percent to the total run speed to the player. However, for Brex it was quite a bit higher and he could keep it almost continuously thanks to his nearly limitless stamina. The other two effects were his manipulation with two of the spells that came from the book of The Shield Hero.
Both being a movement enhancement spells where one would be used by a human and another that only a monster could use. Luckily in his case, he was not restricted to a single element and could freely use anything that he was able to read in that book. So, monster abilities were not out of the norm. Especially when he had the Blue Mage Soul Stone in reserve. This allows him to do something similar by copying a monster's ability once he had beaten them and seen the move in action used at least once during the fight.
In the past, Brex had gotten the spell known as Quick from low to medium. But now he had unlocked the High version. If Brex was to use the skills for their intended purposes for a quick burst of speed, instead of going for a more lasting effect. Then there would be no doubt that he would be going much faster than he was at this very moment. Brex had already arrived to the tree line leading into the woods, but had not seen hide nor hair of this Wood Cutter pony that was supposed to be on their way with the tree sapling.
While standing at the outskirts. He began to hum to himself as he was glancing all around from where he stood for any traces, but still he found nothing from either direction along the outside. When he went to investigate the trail a little more closely. From that, he did find that there were some freshly made wagon tracks, along with four sets of hooves.
But they were only heading in one direction and that was into the woods. Meaning that she had not made her way back out yet. Unless she took another path, which he very much doubted. After giving a light shrug. The Roegadyn started jogging into the woods through the open path before himself.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Whitetail Woods* *Time: Five minutes ago*
Within the White Tail Woods, everything seemed calm and serene as the wind lightly blows through the green leaves of the many trees. That was until a group that was comprised of four ponies ran by as one of them was pulling a cart along with a small sapling riding in the back as they were clearly in a hurry with how they had just now pushed past the number of tree branches in their way.
They were clearly nearing their limit with the way they all had been breathing heavy while looking over their shoulders every few seconds and avoiding anything on the ground that would otherwise trip them up. But soon the sounds of heavily rustling branches following in their wake. There were even a few similar sounds coming from up in the many trees in the same direction as well.
Soon, what came bursting from the bushes, was a swarm of large insectoid creatures crawling around on six limbs, along with long bulbous tail with a stinger on the tip. The creatures were even giving off this high-pitch hissing sound as they fumbled across the forest floor and into one another as they continue to give chase. A few of which would open their mandibles and shoot a thick stream of webbing.
(Here is a picture of what is chasing them.)
Only to miss the group by the narrowest of margins and coat a nearby tree in their path with the sticky substance that seemed to pretty much harden within moments after landing. The trees that had a branch snared would show that the limb was being bent as the webbing had set in to show that it would contract once the target was caught.
After a small amount of running later. the mare’s came to a clearing and stopped in their tracks upon seeing another group of the same insectoids looming between the trees just up ahead. With another loud series of hissing coming from behind, they turned and found that the rest had already managed to catch up and were already in the process of encircling their group and closing off any visible escape routes.
Although one of the ponies within the group was in fact a Pegasus. They were pretty much grounded with the way their wings appeared to have been gummed up previously by the same webbing that the insect creatures had been spat out during the chase.
The same Pegasus then called out, while taking up a defensive position after pulling out a set of dual wielding daggers and standing near one of her comrades that was a yellow Pegasus. “Fluttershy! Make sure you hang back get ready with some of those healing spells of yours. looks like we're going to need them after all.”
The one that had spoken turned out to be Rainbow. but thanks to her current gear, it was hard to see the blue fur and rainbow mane underneath with how she was wearing mostly black and a hood that only exposed her face, tail and wings.
The second of the group now identified as Fluttershy, had a step backwards until she was nearly pressing up against the cart. Said cart was being pulled by an earth mare that was mostly green in color and her main was that of a light amber color. She wore a pair of overalls, along with a checkered brown shirt that had a picture of a cutting axe that was embroidered on to her right shoulder.
The last member could be identified as Applejack. She was wearing the same outfit that she did while accompanying the rest of the Mane Six into the Everfree Forest during the Nightmare incident. Albeit a little worn down with how some of her gear had been scratched up already and she was clearly out of breath as she was holding her large axe in both hands. While not taking her eyes off of the insects, Applejack called over her shoulder.
“Hey Rainbow! Do you think you can fly yet?” This got her a hurried reply as Rainbow was in the middle of throwing one of her knives at an insect that had gotten a little too close. Only to have it fall out of the wound after a few seconds of it landing with only the tip going perhaps an inch in.
“If I could, then I wouldn't be here on the ground, now would I? I’d cut this damn stuff off my wings, but they're so tight and they're restricting my wings so much that I can't even get at them. If that one hadn't snuck up on us, then these guys would be belly up right now. Besides, I know you're good with that axe and everything, but with how tangled up my wings are right now, I wouldn't even chance in letting you have go at it.”
Applejack had just repelled two of them by taking a wide swing with her axe. The motion having caused one to back off. As for the second, that wasn't so lucky and had one of its front legs chopped at the halfway point and getting a loud hiss of pain from the creature. The farm mare then said as she readied her axe to block another attack by one of their long stinger tails. “Wasn't this supposed to be a rank “D” quest? We were told that there were nowhere near this many.”
Fluttershy had released a loud welp as she duck just in time to avoid getting hit with some webbing that stuck to the side of the cart, before she started speaking just barely loud enough for the others to hear. “A lot of the smaller ones have some discoloration. I think they might be hatchlings. I can tell that more than half of them are slightly smaller than the rest. They must have tripled their numbers recently.”
That was when one of the creatures had snuck up on Fluttershy, by climbing over the cart and had attempted to jump on her when she let out a scream and held up the book in her hands in an attempt to defend herself. The bindings had flung themselves open and a number of the pages fluttered across until coming to a sudden stop with some strange lines that were written across the paper.
When she did this. There was a spark of blue light and in that moment. Blinding colors came and a small creature had collided with the insectoid. This causing it to veer off course and causing to fall a few paces away from Fluttershy and rolling onto its legs again after giving out another loud hiss. What had interrupted the creatures attack, was a small fox-like amalgamation of light that condensed itself and now had a solid form and revealed to be a fluorescent green version of the carbuncle that the Arcanist class could summon.
The green carbuncle then rapidly approached as it darted across the grass and gave it a powerful headbutt after lunging forward, sending the creature to the edge along with the rest. Only to turn around and stand in front of Fluttershy to act as a protector while it's three tails were lifted into the air in an intimidating gesture as the front end was partially crouched down.
It was the mare that was sitting inside of the cart that called out next and sounding very panicked. “I'm so sorry! I swear on Celestia’s name that when I came out here and spotted those creatures, that there was not nearly this many and reported everything I saw to the guild. I didn't think trying to get a tree back to town was going to end up like this!”
Applejack had just taken a downward swing, only to miss the nimble insect before calling over her shoulder. This ain't your fault miss! I doubt that any Pony would know that they would multiply this quickly.” She had just taken another swing only to miss once again before she added. “If these things weren't so darn quick, then I could cut them up into pieces.”
Rainbow was the next to speak, as she had jumped onto one of them and attempted to dig one of her daggers into its hard carapace. Only to receive a grunt of annoyance after watching her blades barely making a scratch before jumping away. “Hey! At least you can kill them if you hit! The dang things are almost too hard for me to get my weapons to dig in. If I could fly, that way I could get the added power to dig my daggers past their stupid armor. I’d have them down and out in ten seconds flat.”
Over with the very scared Fluttershy. She had opened her book up again and held out her other hand to fire off a magic spell at one of the insectoids. But the spell ended up only to wash over their bodies with doing barely any damage that could be seen. The Pegasus then went and started to have some tears in her eyes as she began to whimper out. “I-If my level was higher… Than I’d be able to be of help, but it's just that I don't really like to hurt others.”
Applejack called over her shoulder once more as she got closer to the group to help in protecting Fluttershy. “It's no ponies fault Fluttershy. None of us knew that this was going to happen. All we got to do is get past this and report it to the guild. If it goes on like this, then Ponyville might get overrun by these if they keep on breeding like some pack of rabbits.”
The mentioning of rabbits had caused Fluttershy's eyes to shoot open as she began to look extremally panicked compared to before as she screamed out. “Oh no! If they make it all the way there and then to my place! Angel Bunny is going to be killed by them. Along with all my little friends in the cottage. I-I just cannot bear the thought of my little friends being eaten.” The yellow Pegasus seem to have gotten some courage, but lost it when she was spooked by one of the nearby insectoids giving out another one of those hisses, only to make her cower once again.
It was just Applejack, Rainbow and Fluttershy that were up against a pack of nineteen monsters. With every counter-attack. The encirclement had gotten tighter until there was hardly any elbow room between the three mare’s as their attackers drew so close that they could smell the rancid breath from their fanged maws. The three adventures got ready for one last push to break their line in an attempt to make a run for it, along with the pony that came along for the quest.
(Play this for the song that's being heard. ENGLISH Naruto Shippuden Opening 3. “Blue Bird”.)
But all in attendance came to a sudden stop as the four mares were looking up and at random directions towards the tree line that surrounded them, as the creatures did something similar with how they kept turning their bodies slightly and random position and halting their advance. From where they couldn't pinpoint it, they began to hear an odd sound that quickly turned into music and a voice began to pierce through the woods that seemed completely out of place in their current situation with how strangely upbeat it sounded.
But without any warning, an object came flying down from directly overhead and had narrowly missing Rainbows wing before hitting the forest floor with a heavy thud before a tearing sound was made. Which alerted all of those present to its existence. The blue Pegasus, having panicked on how she thought that she was almost hit, released a loud scream and this caused her wings to flare out from the webbing that was keeping them trapped. This of course surprised the mare as she began to flap them rapidly in order to get the rest of the goop off, which did so quite easily.
This action ended up gaining the attention of the monsters once more and one of them came jumping at Rainbow. only for her to instinctually swing one of her blades in a reverse grip and dig most of the weapon into its skull, thereby killing it instantly, as the limbs went limp. This got a large grin to form on the Pegasus face as she yelled out in victory. “Oh yeah baby, the dash is back!”
She then took to the sky and began a series of dive-bomb maneuvers where she would hack and slash at multiple targets as she went by and dispatching them quickly. This leaving bodies falling one after another within seconds apart.
When it came to Applejack. She had taken the opportunity from Rainbow's attacks to move in and found that she was able to hit the insects so much quicker than she normally would have. Which resulted in her missing hardly any of them unlike earlier. As a result, the farm mare was easily slicing and dicing her way and even taking out two or perhaps three on rare occasions with one big swing of her weapon. The strikes being able to cut them cleanly in two without much issue.
For Fluttershy, she had stepped back up and had motioned her hand to give an order to her summoned carbuncle. Which it then shot across the field at blinding speed to leave a trail of light and as it came close to doing a head butt. It would launch itself into the air and go into a corkscrew maneuver. By doing this, it had the effect of pretty much drilling right through whatever it came across, leaving a large hole and a still standing insect corpse that crumpled down after a few seconds later.
The whole scene had done a full flip when it came to who had the advantage now, with the way the mare’s were tearing through their enemies. All the while doing this within the time span of the song being played in the background, along with the unknown singer. It wasn't until the final insect was taken down, that the song came to its end and there was nothing but silence afterwards on the wind. The last that could be heard after a few seconds, was this one detached leg that had its tip stabbed into the ground and had fallen over after a light breeze had come by.
Applejack was currently surveying the area to see if they had missed any more. In the meantime, Rainbow was hovering in the air while doing multiple fist bumps and patting herself on the metaphorical back. When it came to Fluttershy, she was already holding onto her carbuncle and relentlessly examining for any injuries on it after constantly running itself through the monsters.
Applejack, who is standing proud. Had just then began to stumble for but a second while shaking her head as if trying to get back to her senses. At the same time, the other two were going through a similar effect as the adrenaline-fueled junkie Pony known as Rainbow, had come down and was looking very tired in the same way as a kid would when coming down from a sugar high and holding onto her own head. She then started to let out a small moan after suddenly getting tired.
Fluttershy had ended up crumbling down and was now sitting next to the wagon and laying up against one of its large wheels. The yellow mare had her hair looking messed up and a little dizzy for a moment as she was still clutching onto her summoned companion. Back with Applejack, she began to speak in a tone that was a mixture of surprise and exhaustion.
“Whoa nelly! What in tarnation was that all about?” She was then clutching at the air with her free hand that wasn't holding on to her axe to flex her fingers before she went on. “I don't really know about y'all, but I feel like how I do sometimes when Pinkie starts playing at her party's. But way more intense. Had myself a whole lot of energy and now I'm just completely plum tuckered out…”
It was the mare that was inside of the cart that came out and was looking all about at the carnage left behind and gave out a loud whistle as her eyes went wide. The mare then said in a very excited tone of voice. “Wow! I had no idea that you were able to handle all of them just like that! I guess it really is true that the title of Element bearers of Harmony isn't just for show!”
“Now I don't know about you all, but as much as I'd like to see you take on all the monsters in the world. I would rather much be out of here and have an expedition group come out here and check the place before I come any ware near again to get another load of trees. This one right here will be more than enough till that’s all taken care of”.
Applejack, upon hearing this. Began to look towards the tree line and was clearly about to call out with how she had brought her left hand up to cup the side of her mouth to help in directing her voice. But was brought out of it before she could say anything by Fluttershy. Who had immediately nodding her head and speaking in a scared voice. “I-I would very much like to be back home right now. I really need my Angel Bunny... If... If that's okay with all of you?”
Upon getting all their things together. They began to move the cart again in making their way towards the beaten path to get out of the White Tail Woods. As they were leaving the clearing off to the South End and passed a couple of trees. There was a large figure standing on one leg upon one of the branches at the very top of one of the tallest trees and looking in their direction. In his right hand, he was holding what appeared to be an electric guitar.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
As he was glancing over and through the trees by using his combination of sensing abilities to keep track of the group of ponies. Brex brought up the item in his hand. Which turned out to be a black electric guitar with flames painted around the edges. He then sent it back into his item box after giving out a small chuckle and reaching up with his right hand towards his mask that was slightly lifted up to expose his mouth. Only to pull it back down and cover it up again.
He then started to jump down from branch to branch, while speaking under his breath in a somewhat amused tone. “I'm glad I didn't have to jump in after all. All those girls needed was a little boost thanks to my Bard skills. A simple application of skills to boost their critical hit chance and an increase in hitting accuracy, was the perfect combination for that situation.” That was when his tone turned a little serious as he continued on.
“But still... Those creatures were all around level seven and a few of them were even level twelve. I don't know why it is, but for some reason the monsters that I've been seeing around Ponyville seem to be mirroring some of the ones that would be placed around the key cities in the game in some way.”
“Oh well, I guess I should be happy that I haven't seen any traces of any of those Beastmen tribes that show up in the game. That would make things complicated. He then slapped his hand over his mask face before saying in a surprised, yet casual tone. “Oh wait… If I really think about it. Then there really are beast tribes if you think of the ponies and Griffin's in that way. Nah... I better not think of it like that, otherwise I might get in trouble. I doubt very much they'd like to be referred to as beasts.”
Once he had finished that last part. Brex had landed on the ground and was swiftly making his way through the thick amount of trees. At the same time, making sure to keep a good distance from the mare’s so that they didn't notice his presence. Brex was keeping an eye out for any more dangers that might suddenly pop up as he did this.
When he was sure that they were nearing the edge and out of the woods by traveling on the path. Brex quickly rushed out and made it a few minutes back onto the road and turned on the spot to casually walk towards the forest once again to make it appear that he'd only just arrived right as the girls came out.
Right as they saw him, Applejack had a questioning look on her face while the other two were looking a little nervous as they seemed to be sure as to who he was. As soon as he had gotten close enough. He called out to the mare that was pulling the cart in his usual, monotone voice.
“You Wood Cutter?” To which got him a quick nod from the mare before he went on. “Trees pulled out.” This only got the mare to have a slack jaw before she pointed towards the general direction of Ponyville before speaking. “Wait, hold up! That big tree over there is already done?” He then gave her a slow nod before pointing towards the tree that was sitting inside of the cart as he began to speak again. “Is that it?”
When she had nodded to that. He came up and gently took hold of the handles for the cart while guiding her away from them. This was before he said, “You seem tired.” Wood Cutter was clearly about the protest, but when she saw how easily he was able to lift the front end up without showing much effort. She reluctantly went ahead with allowing him to pull the cart as they headed towards town.
All the while Applejack was taking the lead in the formation on the road. She would occasionally glance back at him for only a second or two before returning her gaze to the front. Wood Cutter was walking along on the right side of the cart and the other two were taking up the rear. Brex kept his site straight ahead. But on occasion, he would turn his head just enough to get a good sight of them now and then to get a look at their current stats.
Name: Applejack.
Age: 20.
Level: 10.
Race: Earth Pony.
Gender: Female.
Class: No Class.
Weapons specialty: Two-handed Axe.
Name: Rainbow Dash.
Age: 18.
Level: 11.
Race: Pegasus.
Gender: Female.
Class: Rogue.
Weapons specialty: Daggers.
Name: Fluttershy.
Age: 19.
Level: 8.
Race: Pegasus.
Gender: Female.
Class: Arcanist.
Weapons specialty: Grimoire.
When Brex was finished, he began to think to himself. “Well, I guess I can't be too surprised that they're only that high, but still... If things aren't done soon, they might not be able to handle what might show up next if the events continue to line up alongside with that of the show. The one that I'm most worried about right now is Applejack. Her base level may be pretty good but she hasn't really taken up the class of Marauder because she didn’t go to the schools.”
“Maybe I should consider giving her a few lessons... After all, it's not like I can continuously hold their hands and bail their asses out of trouble every time that they get into some mess. That would just make me an arrogant, wanna be hero. And as I keep telling Rory whenever it comes up, I have never once considered myself as one. If they don't start shaping up and fast, then by the time Queen Chrysalis or Tirek comes around, then they're going to be toast.”
After releasing in internal sigh, he continued. “As much as I like fighting in all, I don't plan on stunning their growth by stepping in every single time things get a little too hard for them. The last thing I want to do, is turn them into a bunch of pansies just like Celestia's been doing with the whole holding back so-called forbidden knowledge because some pony didn't get it right the first time, they were making it when it comes to combat.”
After Brex had these thoughts, a while had passed and they arrived back at Ponyville without there being any type of incidents occurring along the way. Once Wood Cutter had met up with the others that were waiting to plant the new tree. Brex went straight to work and hauled it out of the cart and placed it into the hole that he had made before leaving.
From there, he took the massive bricks of Earth that he created and place them so that they were surrounding the tree itself before using his Earth abilities after switching back to his White Mage class once again. From there, he caused them to crumble, thereby filling the rest of the hole easily and effectively without doing any harm to the sapling in the process.
When all was said and done. Brex got his paperwork signed by the leader of the group of workers and immediately turned away to head towards the guild. But bumped into Applejack, Rainbow and Fluttershy after getting out of earshot of the other ponies. Apparently, they had accepted the third quest that he was unable to go for and Wood Cutter was the one who issued it and had just got theirs signed off on and were heading over to the guild as well.
The Roegadyn try to pay them no mind and walked around them without so much as even acknowledging their presence. However, he heard Applejack calling out to him after he had gotten only a few feet away. “Hold up, we're heading there too, so why not go together?” Brex had turned his hood slightly to the right and gave a half-hearted shrug before moving on and continuing his way at a slow enough pace to allow the three ponies to catch up.
Brex had expected to get some type of interrogation started as soon as they have gotten close. But instead, what he got was an uncomfortable silence as the three walk next to him with Rainbow and Fluttershy on his left. As for Applejack, she was on his right and were quite close during the walk. To everyone else thanks to his mask and hood, they would have expected his vision to be somewhat narrowed. But to him, his vision was as good as if he had nothing on his head to begin with.
So, because of this, he was able to catch on the very edge of his vision, that Applejack was sending some signals with her eyes over to Rainbow and getting a very light shake of the head to indicate that she was not agreeing with whatever was being sent in her way. After several more moments of silence and getting fed up with the eyeball usage on both sides of his body. He had rolled his eyes before speaking in a somewhat flat tone. “Disclose your intentions...”
Upon hearing this, all three of them suddenly flinched due to how unexpectedly his voice came out of nowhere and Applejack was beginning to look a little nervous with how she was already showing signs of darting her eyes around, while giving a crooked smile while she replied. “I... Uh, that is, we I mean... It's just that we... Uh... We know every pony in town and you've been here for a while. Even if its late, just thought that it would be the neighborly thing to do and introduce ourselves.”
“My name is Applejack and I work at Sweet Apple Acres. I’m sure you heard of it, it’s the big farm outside of town. She then pointed over to the others before continuing. This here is Fluttershy and I believe you already know Rainbow Dash.” This earned her a slight nod and a hum as each name was given to show that he heard her. Applejack went silent for a little bit as her eyes roamed between him and the other two, while having this expected look on her face over the course of the next several seconds.
She then began to speak in a somewhat unsure tone. “So... Umm. Aren't you going to introduce yourself as well?” Brex then turn to her for but a moment. As he was still walking and he turned his gaze back to the front and spoke in an emotionless tone that had a small trace of sarcasm woven into it.
“As dictated by customs, I am not meant to disclose anything personal without being first accompanied and given the go ahead by one or more of my herd mare’s. After all, I am just some male that's walking on the streets alone and is currently surrounded on both sides by some random mare’s I have no connections too. Wouldn’t want to get taken advantage of or attacked, now would we?”
From what he was able to see. Applejack had a look of realization, before it turned into panic as she adjusted her position in order to be giving him an extra foot of space. Now shaking her head frantically before she spoke. “Whoa there partner! it's nothing of the sort, believe me! We aren’t those types of mare’s!” She was clearly going to continue but Brex interrupted her by using the same tone as before. “Then is it normal to take up flanking positions on either side of a male here in Ponyville out of a need to protect them just because they're alone on the street? Because I was led to believe that we are not permitted to be out and about on our own.”
The farm mare had a hurtful look on her face for but a brief instant. Then she went and shot a death glare over in Rainbows directions and this caused the blue Pegasus to instantly flinch upon getting it. That was when Applejack began to converse back and forth with Brex as they said the following.
“He-HEHE. Uh... Look. I heard what rainbow had said to you after that fiasco happened at the flower shop and I could tell you that she's really sorry for it. Isn't that right Rainbow?” This of course got the Pegasus to look down towards the road while giving a weak nod.
“Oh, she made it quite clear as to what position we all play in this society. The males are meant to be weak and feeble. We're not even allowed to go out of the house without being escorted by a female member of their family or one from the herd. Otherwise, we will be assaulted or even taken advantage of by other mare’s hoping to get their mitts on a stallion for themselves. I've seen and heard it all from my travels. I have already told Miss Dash, that I was fine and have not made a report during this whole time. Honestly, I don't care whether she's sorry or not at this point.”
“Now, as for Miss Dash. I can already guess what type of personality that she has just from our first meeting. Hot headed, thinks extremely highly of herself. Has a strong need to prove that she's the best at everything, which is most likely due to parental guidance in forcing her to be good at sports or something along those lines.”
“There's also the simple fact that she has the characteristics of one who will not except it when they are wrong when they themselves know it fully just to save face. Because of all that, she is quick to jump to conclusions and will use brute force in order to resolve a situation.”
“Hey now! Don't you think you're taking things a bit too far there? You've hardly known her for more than a few minutes after all. I don't think it's fair to-.”
“Then what about back at the library? Did she not make it clear that she was going to attack me again? Even while my back was turned on her? Although I may have talked ill of your princess, she still went with the option of Brute Force before I got her to stop.”
“Uh... I… T-That may be, but you can't really blame her for acting like that after the things you said in there. Now, can you?”
“Is that so? Then tell me this. If what I said was not true, then why has Miss Dash been looking away this whole time, while you try to not only defend her. But to initiate the whole apology from the beginning on her behalf. You yourself have also been sending her signals during the entire conversation as we've been walking, only to get nothing from her? This is because I have her pegged and she knows it better than anyone.”
Applejack was taken aback as she had her eyes darting between him and Rainbow. As her expression kept switching back and forth between being deeply offended and conflicted about what position she should be in. After a few more seconds of this, the farm mare was about to say something else after she had switched out to that of a stern look, but was cut off by what he said next.
“However, … We all have our flaws and I do not blame her for hers. It's reasonable for Miss Dash to assume that I was up to no good. Especially after coming out from that back door while in the shop. She had no idea that I was there to begin with. In regards to the back alley, she was trying to apologize. But her stubborn nature would not allow her to show weakness. More so when in front of a stallion, so she ended up saying those remarks.”
“Then, back at the library, I will admit that I may have overstepped it, but I was only giving my opinion and she did in fact stop before any type of escalation had occurred, even though I was the one who did so upon making those claims.”
He then turned his head slightly towards Rainbow. Who had just begun to raise her head and was now slightly looking in his direction as he continued. “I know that Miss Dash is not that type of mare. And because of this, I am not too proud to say that I am sorry for both my words and actions. Whether she chooses to accept it or not, is up to only her.”
“Even with all the negative things that I just mentioned. I can tell that she does care for her friends in her own way and is a good Pony that works very hard at whatever task that she puts her mind on till the very end. She just happens to be the type that can lose sight of it now and then. But she will always be loyal to her friends.
“Now Applejack, Miss Dash and to you as well Fluttershy. If you'll excuse me. I want to get this turned in and be on my way. So, I'll see you another time.” With that being said. Brex picked up his speed and quickly gained some distance as he made his way towards the guild building and left the three behind.
*Point of view: Third Person*
As Brex got further away. Applejack was looking at his backside and giving him a confused look before returning it towards Rainbow and Fluttershy. The blue Pegasus was right now staring straight at the male that had just walked away. While having a half open mouth and wide eyes that were filled with a little bit of moisture.
The farm mare I was about to say something, but Rainbow had beaten her to the punch as beginning to speak in a low-volume voice. “What the buck...?” But after a few seconds to return to her normal speaking volume. She had a face that said that she was both extremely angry, yet confused.
“What the buck is his deal?! First, he points out all my flaws and all of sudden does a complete turnaround and starts to say all these nice things about me? Just what in Celestia's name am I supposed to think about the guy?!” This of course, ended with her crossing her arms and giving a slight pout in the general direction that he had gone.
As Applejack pulled off for hat in order to scratch the back of her left ear, they all heard Fluttershy finally speaking up in her usual, quiet voice. “He may have seemed scary. But I don't think he's a bad Pony either. Umm... B-By the way, are all the stallions like that?”
This got a quick head shake from Rainbow, as she threw up her arms in clear frustration. While replying in an over-the-top tone. “Of course not! I've seen a number of stallions and not once have I even seen one talk like that before. They've always been soft-spoken or too skittish to even say anything on their own. I've even seen one being bad mouth to by his heard mare’s and he just stood there and took it without saying a word back even though he was clearly upset.”
Fluttershy then started to hide half of her face behind her hair, as she began to say in a confused tone. “B-But he really doesn't seem all that weak to me. He pulled that cart for nearly two hours and even planted the tree that we had brought back to town. Also, we can’t forget about those large stone pillars that he broke up afterwards.”
It was Applejack that was the next one to speak, after placing her hat back on straight and having a thoughtful expression on her face. “Yeah, she's right and he even used some magic on the ground back there too. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a horn. So that crosses him out as a Unicorn.”
“The only other explanation, is that he went to one of those schools and his current class lets him work with the Earth. He could even be an earth pony just like me. Either way, it seems that what Pinkie said about his views towards the mare’s might be right with the way he's acting towards us. Eh! He just might be what Ponyville needs to break that awful stereotype about the males.”
“Although, I wish that he had at least told us his name. Even if we knew it already. But still...” She then looked over at Rainbow before continuing. “He may have said that you are off the hook. But I still believe that you need to properly apologize to him Rainbow.”
Applejack then took out the paper that was signed just earlier by Wood Cutter and gave it a light wave before she began to speak again. “Anyhow, we better get this here turned in so I can head back to the farm. Big Mac should be done at the hospital and back at the house by now. Got to get a good night's rest if I'm going to tackle the farm while he's laid out for the next week.”
Afterwards, when the three mare’s got inside of the guild building. They had caught the tail end of something that the receptionist that they knew to be Lyra saying something. Which caused Applejack’s hair's to instantly stand on end for but a moment, with how accusing the mare’s tone was sounding. “You completed two major tasks and under a short amount of time? You can't have me believe you really did your job right. Are you sure you didn't just talk the mare’s into signing the paperwork for you and just half-assed everything?”
“I'm sorry, but I'm standing in for another that's out sick. So, just to make sure that I don't get in trouble. I'm going to have to hold off on giving you your reward until I check in with both of the clients. And don't you think that you're going to be able to get away with trying to pull the wool over my eyes. The one you went to earlier today, just happens to be my mare friend. You can count on me asking her what happened when I go back home tonight.” That was when Gambit gave a firm head nod before speaking in a tone that just said that he didn't care either way. “Okay, back tomorrow.”
When finished giving that response. He had turned around and walked past the three that just came in without so much as saying a word an exited the building. Once the doors were closed, Applejack came up to the desk, while holding onto her sheet and after slamming it onto the table. She then gave Lyra an angry glare just as she was about to speak. “Lyra, do you mind telling me just what all that was about?” When Applejack had said those words. She quickly glanced over with her eyes at the door before returning them back to Lyra.
The mint green Unicorn gave a light chuckle of amusement before she waved it off before answering with a light laugh. “Oh, that stallion tried to pull a fast one on me. Hey! You all listen to this! That guy there goes by the name Gambit. He's a rank “F” Adventurer. He came in here around ten or eleven this morning and took a job to help out Bon Bon at the shop with some deliveries that were supposed to go into the basement.”
“I've taking care of those myself and I know for a fact that it takes hours to do that sort of thing, even with magic. But get this, that guy came back in an hour after leaving, saying that he finished it. Then he took another one that was posted by that group that fixes up the trees and cut the grass all over town. There was even this one dying tree that they were going to dig up and there's no way that they could have gotten all that done and planted another one before it got close to sundown. We still got at least another hour and a half tilt then.”
“When my shift is over, I'm going to send this over to the next mare and she's going to do a checkup and contact the ponies that posted the quest for the details. The signatures will be shown to them and we'll have evidence that he's trying to conduct some type of fraud and we can get him kicked out of the guild. Oh, by Celestia! It's going to be so sweet to see his reaction when we destroy that plate of his when we kick him out of the adventurer's guild for good.”
Applejack just raised an eyebrow, before she calmly said to Lyra in a slow and deliberate tone to make sure that what was said would be properly heard by the Unicorn. “Lyra, I think I should tell you that we were all there when they planted the new tree. From what I saw on the way back, all the work is done all over town. I would even say that they did a far better job than normal on this time around.”
After hearing this, the Unicorn looked a little nervous before she recovered her attitude from before. As she lately laughed it off before replying. “Well, I'm pretty sure that it was because they were trying to show off to a stallion no Doubt. I still say he was off to the side and doing pretty much nothing as all the mare’s went and sweat it up a storm.”
“Applejack you're just going to have to admit it. When it comes to the stallions, your family is the only exception. They're all lazy and care about nothing unless it has to do with what they can get for how they look or the bits. Besides, did you even see him? I can only think of one reason for him to be all covered up that much and it has to be that he is just butt ugly!”
Applejack had seemed to have had enough and just as she was reaching up with her hand over the counter to grab onto the collar of the mare’s shirt. She was pretty much pushed to the side a little, as Rainbow came barreling forward and had Lyra in a choke hold with both of her hands. This had pretty much caused the other mare’s to stare at Rainbow in disbelief as the blue Pegasus was clearly angry with the way her face was scrunched up into a deep scowl. She was also beginning to speak in a threatening tone.
“Lyra, you better take-.” Rainbow had caught herself and released Lyra from the hold and taken a few breaths before continuing. “Lyra, I know your feelings towards the stallions and how you prefer mare’s. But still, don't you think that what you said back there was not something you should really be saying while wearing that uniform? What do you think's going to happen if it’s found out that he really did complete those quests?”
After fixing her shirt a little bit. The Unicorn gave a halfhearted shrug before casually saying, “Ha! Then I guess I'll be wrong and that's the end of that. Oh, and if you're expecting me to apologize then don't count on it. After all, I'm only doing my job and preventing our hard-earned bits from being taken by some shady swindlers.”
Applejack stepped back into the conversation immediately after hearing Lyra's words and gave her a flat stare. “Just hold on a picking minute. Are you telling us, that you're not even going to bother apologizing to the stallion after what you said even if things turned out to be true?”
Lyra only scoffed before she went back to looking at some paperwork that was on the table. Apparently, this was something she was doing before everything start it up before she spoke again. “Hey, it's up to you girls to take what I said any way you want. I was only telling the truth. I got no reason to say that I'm sorry about anything.” The Unicorn then turned her sights back on to Rainbow for about a moment before returning her attention back to the book as she spoke up again.
“Besides, here I thought you and I were on the same page on this Rainbow. Ever since we were small, we both agreed on our views when it came to them. Don't tell me you forgot about how we picked on that one colt soon after you moved here from Cloudsdale a couple of years back? HAHAHA! That was pretty funny. Did you happen to get his name by the way? Because I don't remember it at all.”
All Eyes, aside from Lyra. Were now firmly set on Rainbow, as she shrunk in place while holding onto her right elbow. There was even a loud gasp that came from Fluttershy as she slowly shook her head, while still staring at the blue Pegasus. To fight back, Rainbow began to stutter for a moment but then picked up momentum. “T-That, that was a long time ago. I've grown up a lot since then, okay!”
Lyra began to laugh a little bit as she slammed the papers on the table to help in keeping herself upright. Once she had calmed down enough to talk properly. She began to say, “Come on! Do you honestly think I'm going to believe that? Miss Rainbow Dash, the self-proclaimed fastest flyer and all-around best athlete. Is defending a bunch of no-account weakling stallions that can't even lift anything bigger than a small shopping bag?! You and I both know that they're good for only one thing and even their messing that up. It's their own fault that there's so few of them and you all know it!”
When Lyra had finished saying that last line. There was a sense of dread that filled the room as every mare there, had turned their gaze towards Applejack. The normally green eyes had but for a brief instant, had a glimmer of dark-red before returning to normal as she looked as if she was about to climb over to skin the Unicorn alive. Lyra had this expression that she had just called down Celestia's wrath with how she was shaking in place right then and there.
The farm mare then said, in a cold voice as she slowly tapped on the piece of paper that she had put down before hard enough, that there was this creaking sound of wood every time her finger made contact with the table. “Just… Pay… Us the bits we earned... Also, check the notes that she put down about the monsters. There were way more of those than previously thought, so you better tally it up right...”
After several long minutes. The girls had walked outside and as the doors closed, Applejack couldn't help with the stomp the ground hard enough. That it caused a small fissure to be seen just underneath her hoof. Her eyes were even switching somewhat erratically, before she took in a deep breath to return to her normal state. She then said, “That mare is lucky that she's wearing that uniform. Otherwise, I would have so punched her lights out back there.”
“GAaah! I've known her for a long time and I know this is all because of her bucking mother! Whenever we were at school and I saw that mare, she was always bad-mouthing the stallions and I guess it just rubbed off on her daughter Lyra way too much. It's because of mare’s like her and her mother, that my brother can't even leave the farm without having problems.”
Applejack was brought out of her rant by Fluttershy. Who gently tapped her on the right shoulder to gain her attention. This also had the added benefit of getting Rainbow to look over as well when the yellow Pegasus began to speak. “Um... Girls... Do you happen to remember what Lyra had said earlier about Gambit? His rank is only at “F”. This reminded me about what you all were talked about during Twilight's welcome to Ponyville party. You, uh... Don't think that he might be the same one? It's just that, how many ranked “F” are there that fits his description?”
Rainbow was the next one to speak after giving out a few light chuckles and putting her left arm over Fluttershy to bring her in for a half hug as they were facing Applejack. “Come on Fluttershy! Do you really think that could possibly be the same Pony? I mean, he started over ten years ago and by going off of his voice, I doubt that he's in his thirties. Sure, he might be a little older than us, but nowhere near that old. This has to be some other Pony that just started.”
Applejack released the heavy sigh before saying, “Yeah, as much as I hate to say it. Rainbow has a point there. Anyhow, I best be heading home. Got a lot of work to start tomorrow. I'll see y'all around girls!” Afterwards, they all said their goodbyes and parted ways to their respective houses.
As for Lyra, when her shift had ended and she returned home. She immediately voiced her opinion about Gambit to her mare friend Bon Bon. What the Unicorn had expected was to hear Bon Bon saying how useless the stallion was. But was floored when hearing exactly what was seen being done.
She had even tried to argue with her mare friend, that what the stallion had done could not have been possible. That is unless there was a spell involved. But Bon Bon immediately squashed those hopes when the earth mare pointed out that there was no type of magic being used and that he didn't even have a horn to begin with. Bon Bon even stomped out any type of response to refute this, by pointing out how she was living with a Unicorn like Lyra. So that even she was aware of when magic was ever used around herself thanks to seeing it on a daily basis.”
Even with Lyra's current point of view when it came to the males was not a hundred percent on the same page as Bon Bon’s own. As a result of hearing Lyra's bad-mouthing. The Earth mare told her that she had better clean up her act or she might not be able to keep that position over at the guild building. Also, pointing out that if that was to happen, then the Unicorn would be free to help out whenever there was another big delivery.
Of course, the very idea of having to lift so many big containers had made the Unicorn shuttered at the dreadful thought of lugging those around. Knowing full well, that even her magic was barely strong enough to lift one and even then, it was at a crawl to move it.
Even as they went off to bed that night. Lyra couldn't help but the grumble to herself on occasion about there was no way that the stallion could have done what her mare friend had said. Unfortunately for her, this earned the cold shoulder from Bon Bon and the two didn't get to have any night time activities before sleeping that night. which only further infuriated the Unicorn until she had passed out for the night.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 49: A Very Cold Welcome. Part 1.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Ponyville* *Time: One week later*
Brex was currently sitting on a park bench and enjoying his afternoon that had turned slightly cooler thanks to a number of clouds that had been placed in the sky. All thanks to the Pegasus weather team that was currently still flying overhead and putting the finishing touches on their work.
Over the course of the last several days. Brex had been going to the Adventurer's guild and accepted a number of quests on a regular basis. It didn't really matter what it was, but he got it done none the less. These consisting mostly of clean-up work or even some light repairs. There was even a few that were of a gathering quest to find medicinal herbs in the Everfree Forest. which turned out to be less than a five-minute walk in to find what he was looking for. All thanks to his harvesting class and its ability to cause spots that had what he needed to sparkle from a distance.
Aside from doing these tasks and getting quite a few angry glares from Lyra for the first few days. Everything went pretty much as he had expected. Brex had gone over to visit Vapor Trail and found that she had pretty much recovered from the whole ordeal concerning that pony called Big Mama. She was as chipper as she normally was around him.
The only problem now for the young mare. Was that she had to deal with how her mother was being a little overprotective and didn't let her out of the house for over a week. And even then, she herself had posted a quest to hire a temporary bodyguard to make sure that her daughter had made it to and from school until only just recently.
Brex and even paid a visit to Einstein at his office on the fourth floor of an old-style office building. While there, went ahead and asked for the old dog to sign his trading card, thinking it would be a nice gift for Spike. Just as he had remembered, the Diamond Dog had set up a detective agency and even turned down a number of offers to join the city guard.
Apparently, once they had taken care of that kidnapping ring all those years ago, he had been showing up on their radar and would even show up to him for assistance on a number of cases. Which meant he was doing pretty well for himself.
He also bumped into the two twin Griffins Linda and Greta. Who were graduates of one of the combat schools that he had place near that city. They had also taken up the positions of assistant teachers when it came to helping the new students in learning how to be Archers. Even with their busy schedule, the two were always free to help out Einstein whenever there was a difficult case that required an additional member or two to get things done.
When Brex had returned to Ponyville afterwards, he was able to catch the tail wind of what he liked to call, Hurricane Applejack after appearing in town to watch as the three Flower Sister's got trampled by a stampeding herd of bunnies that she had scared into a frenzy. He really felt the urge to help out, but knew that the farm mare was going to be far too stubborn to listen to a single thing he said. Especially if she didn't even listen to her close friends. So, there was no chance that he would get through to her.
But still, this was a learning experience that she needed to go through on her own. Although, it didn't mean that the rest of the town had to suffer too much just to teach one mare a lesson. That was why he went ahead and already informed nurse Red Heart to stock up on medicine ahead of time. At least this way, they would recover so much quicker after eating those poisoned confections that she tried to help Pinkie in making, while in a delirious sleep-deprived state.
When all was said and done. Applejack had finally reached her limit. Only to realize that only half of the orchard was done. The mare finally relented in letting her friends help afterwards. Brex and wondered why it was that her mom and dad weren't around during the Apple bucking season. So, to get some answers, he snuck onto the property while wearing his level fifty Warrior gear that he used during his first encounter with the Apple family and got to have a small chat with Granny Smith as Applejack was busy out in the fields. It also helped that Apple Bloom was still in school.
It had taken a moment for Granny Smith to remember who he was, thanks to it being a while and her vision not being as good as it used to be. Thankfully enough, Brex was already wearing some armor so the vicious striking with the old mare’s cane didn't do any harm at all. He was a little sorry about how banged-up it looked afterwards. As Granny Smith was informing him about the parents being away to help out another apple farm that had a full-blown epidemic where they couldn't harvest anything at all for at least a week. Brex had gone straight to work and using his wood crafting skills and fashion her a brand-new walking stick.
He even went so far as to put near the handle, a single Link Pearl for emergency purposes. This was because after getting a good look at her. The Roegadyn remembered something from his old world. Where the elderly had some type of pendant that they wore to signal that they had fallen and the Roegadyn didn't want Granny Smith to end up being alone if something should occur.
Now back to the present. Brex had just put both of his arms along the top of the bench and was partly leaning back so that his mask covered face was now staring straight up into the blue sky. Just after taking in a long breath of the fresh air, did he hear someone approaching from directly in front. When he tilted his head forward, he caught sight of Rose who was apparently in a somewhat crouched position to indicate that the mare was trying to sneak up on him.
Once she had realized that she was found out. Rose stood up straight after fixing her outfit. Which was essentially her usual red dress and casually walked over to sit down on the bench next to his left-hand side. When she did this, Brex return to leaning back and hanging his head over the backside of the bench. After a few seconds of silence, he heard Rose beginning to speak in her usual upbeat and casual tone.
“Just so you know, I'm pretty sure that you're the reason why we're still in business after the... Uh... What did you call it again?” Brex replied without moving a single muscle while doing so. “Ponyville… Bunny… Apocalypse.” The mare had given a nervous chuckle while saying, “Yeah, that was really not a fun day for any of us.”
“Anyway, I'm talking about how all of our products mysteriously got replaced outside of our house overnight. I could have sworn I saw some pony that was quite large lurking around in the middle of the night from my window. Then the next morning, poof! We had a big portion of our stock back. I even heard that Carrot Top and the others that got effected were able to recover as well.”
Brex only gave her a weak shrug before she continued on. “It's become a pretty well-known fact around Ponyville, that you have a green thumb and pretty much everything that you plant ends up growing quite well. It really makes one wonder what exactly is your Cutie Mark.” There was a few more seconds of silence before Rose became impatient and jump to the next subject.
“Anyways putting that aside. You've been here in Ponyville for a while now, so I was just wondering if that mare friend of yours is going to show up soon.” This caused Brex to give a small chuckle while slightly turning his head in her direction before speaking in a jovial tone. “Always with me.” After hearing that, all Rose could do was to give one of those exhausted sighs before laying back and chuckling in a defeated tone. “Fine. Go ahead and be cryptic. Not like I care!”
Brex couldn't help but to slowly arch and eyebrow while he still had his head slightly tilted in the direction of rose. He could plainly see that the mare was puffing her cheeks and her face was beginning to change colors to a darker shade, before she finally blurted out in a half yelling voice as she stood up from the bench.
“Okay! Fine! I do care! Are you happy now?! I'm just getting worried because you've been here by yourself for so long and it just ain't right. Doesn't she worry about your safety? I mean... Yeah, yeah! You're tough and all, but still... I just would be able to rest a little easier if you at least had her here with you.” By the end of that, she was playfully kicking a small stone near her hoofs.
He then brought his hands back from the top of the bench and leaned forward. From behind his mask, Brex began to have a thoughtful expression as he looked towards Rose and then in the direction of Canterlot, before returning it to the mare once more. He then started to speak after giving a short nod. “Hmmmm... Maybe you're right.” This had got a shocked expression from the mare and at the same time, Brex could hear Rory exclaiming loudly in his head and seeming confused.
“Master! Are you serious? Are you saying that I could finally be there with you? But wait. Weren't you waiting until the Gala for me to make an appearance? It's just that I'm not ready yet!” This caused Brex to feel as though he was missing something as he arched an eyebrow to this before replying. “And just what do you mean by… You're not ready for this? I thought you would be ecstatic?” Rory replied to that, while sounding as though trying to come up with something to say. “Ummm… It's just that, I wasn't expecting it. That's all.”
Brex narrowed his eyes for an instant before letting it go to turn back to the outside world. He then got up from his seat and proceeded to lightly pat Rose on the top of the head. This of course seemed unexpected to the pony. As she froze in place upon initial contact. But after a few times of moving his large hand, the mare began to go into a semi like trance as a dopey smile began to creep onto her face. Along with her ears partly flattening and that tail of hers to start twitching in the same way that Twilight’s did back at the library when he did it for her.
After getting a very delighted hum of approval from Rose. Brex stopped and spoke in a joking tone. “You're a good girl.” That was when Rose dumbly nodded before she immediately shook her head to get out of whatever state she was and gave him a very confused look as she began to say in a somewhat unsure tone. “W-What in the hey was that?! I-I-I don't think you should do that again. It felt... Odd. Not odd in a bad way, but in a good way. I sort of blanked out there for a little bit and all I remember was you saying I was a good girl.” At the end, she had a light blush.
After tilting his head. He was quickly going over what just happened and came up with a theory about this phenomenon. When he did this sort of thing with Blaze Caster. The kid would just calm down. However, it appears that whenever Brex does this with the opposite gender. They tend to become extremely docile as though there were some common house pet.
As he looked at Rose, Brex couldn't help but to have a scene play out his head, where he would be asleep in bed, only to be woken up by Rose who had just jumping on top of the covers and immediately began demanding a head pat. While calling him Onii-chan.
Afterwards, Brex said his goodbyes to Rose as they parted. She needing to go back to work and him heading back to the guild building in order to see if there were any new quests that got posted on the board outside. As he was walking through the streets, he couldn't help but to notice the number of eyes that were firmly planted on him and a few of the ponies gossiping to one another as he passed by.
It seemed that he had become fairly well-known with the number of these quests he had been doing over the past week alone. Thanks to his mechanical know how, because of him equipping the mechanist Soul Stone and the time that he was involved in construction, whether it be for the schools or back at HQ. Brex was fairly adept at doing random home repair work. Whether it be repairing a wall, a roof or even plumbing. He was ready for all of these quests.
Although the Roegadyn did see one posted for some repair work needing done over at Rarity's Boutique. Of course, Brex disregarded that one with wanting to still keep some distance from the Fashionista. To him, it was fine if he ran into her and the rest of those girls while out and about. But the idea of being alone and pulling off one of those cheesy repairman scenes and getting her to somehow make a move on him. Just didn't sit well in his mind. Especially with wanting to make sure that Spike had a chance with gaining her attention.
It also didn't help that he only thought about this scenario because of the way the mare's would act whenever he did those jobs in or around their house for the repairs he had done so far. Either they would be off sitting somewhere nearby and stealing glances at him now and then in a somewhat creepy way. Or the mare's would try to do a more direct approach when trying to get close to him and using some very cheesy pickup line that he could only assume to come from a late night porn channel right from cable. He ended up being very grateful that none of them owned a pool, because he did not want to play the pool boy.
Brex was only a few minutes away from his current destination, when he caught sight of a commotion in the middle of the street. Which ended up causing his eyes to go wide from behind his mask as he said under his breath in an irritated tone. “Is this seriously going to become a weekly thing until the Gala? I swear… It just feels as though every time I turn around, the next episode of the show starts up.”
Right there, screaming at Fluttershy. Was a very angry Griffin that he identified easily as Gilda. Brex hadn't seen her for quite a number of years. But even without checking the status bar over her head, he could instantly tell that this was the same Griffin from back when she was kidnapped alongside Rarity. Already knowing full well about how this girl’s antics. Brex really wanted to step in and make himself known. But chose to stay back and watch from a fair distance just in case he was needed. There was no guarantee that this wouldn’t turn bloody.
(Here is a picture of Gilda.)
All the while saying in his internal voice, that turned out to be a little nervous. “Okay, just stay back. You're fast enough to interfere if it gets too far. I know this is Fluttershy and my need to protect her it strong. But she really can't have me jumping in all the time.” But when he saw how aggressive Gilda was getting and the way that Fluttershy was beginning to cry. The Roegadyn had to redouble his efforts. “Must... Not... Help... Must... Resist... Urge... Must stay my... Ground!” As he was saying this in his head. His right eye would twitch with every word.
Luckily it didn't escalate any further than having Gilda dish out some insults and going on to roaring in Fluttershy's face, which caused her to run away. The Griffin then remarked about how Ponies were lame and quickly took off into the air. When she did however, Brex got to hear a number of the ponies nearby that were murmuring to one another and he was able to catch them talking about how she was causing some trouble. Which of course included scaring Granny Smith half to death and stealing from the vendors that she went by.
From there, Brex continued to keep an eye on things from a safe distance so that he wouldn't be noticed that easily by Gilda, Rainbow or Pinkie. But he was pretty sure that the party pony must have known he was there. Especially with how that pony seems to know what's going on and pops up anywhere on a regular basis. Although, he found it odd that she had not approached him ever sense giving him that box of muffins.
Sometime later, Brex was outside of Sugar Cube Corner, just before the sun was to go down in the next twenty minutes and could hear the ruckus going on from within the building. Currently leaning against a Lamppost to the right side of the doorway, the Roegadyn glanced towards the entrance every few moments and was lightly humming to himself. During the waiting, he would turn his attention to watching as the sun got closer to the end of its descent. There wasn’t even another soul out and about on the streets.
It didn't take long until he heard the unmistakable sound of an enraged female Griffin yelling from just beyond the doorway and a few minutes later, came bursting out was a very angry Gilda that was looking over her shoulder with a set of piercing eyes, along with their feathers looking a bit ruffled. She had just unfurled her wings and had gone halfway down to jump that was strong enough to allow her to take off from where she was, when Brex called out to her in a monotone voice.
“Hello Gilda. I've heard quite a number of stories concerning you today. Why are you in such a hurry?” The young Griffin turned her head in his direction and started to speak in a very angry voice that threatened that she was going to do bodily harm if not left alone. “What do you want dweeb! I'm not in the mood so get lost!” Thanks to the sun getting close to setting over the hills behind him, it obviously made it difficult for Gilda to get a good look at him for a few seconds with her eyes needing time to get used to the change in lighting.
However, once she had a few seconds to let this happen. Her eyes went wide and her beak fell open as she inadvertently stumbled before taking a shaky step back. She then began to mouth something silently while lifting a shaky talon to point at him. This was before she immediately turned on the spot and jumped into the air after giving a mighty flap of her wings in the other direction from himself.
Brex immediately rolled his eyes from behind his mask as he held up in his right to show that there was something sitting in the middle of his palm. The object appeared to be a small piece of vine or possibly a root from a plant. Afterwards, he then closed his fingers so that it was completely covering the item in a way that one would hold onto a handle of an object.
Brex quickly swung his arm back before having it go over his head and then forward with it. There was a small flash of green light appeared within the gap near his thumb. From that came out in a flash, what appeared to be a long stretching vine with a few thorns along its length and it was quickly approaching Gilda who had only gotten a few meters away by this point. As the mysterious vine got to Gilda, it quickly intertwined itself around her legs and bound them together starting from the ankles and all the way up.
It then made its way as it grew longer so that it was just far enough before it expanded outwards around her body and got a hold of her wings to pin them up against her back. That was proceeded with it going along with her arms so that they we're now crossed over one another just underneath her breasts. Continuing on, it went until it went twice around her neck and then ended up on wrapping around her beak and snapping it shut just as she was about to make a loud squawking noise. Once that had happened, the Griffin’s eyes went comically wide.
Once she realized just what had happened, Gilda began to immediately fight at her bonds as her eyes were shut tightly in mid-air. Of course, this came to an abrupt end upon the length of vine being pulled sharply until all the slack was gone and Gilda was pulled towards the Earth, only to be caught by Brex in a bridal style as he looks straight ahead and somehow giving off this impression that he was not amused, even with his face fully covered.
Gilda protested to this treatment as her body squirm as she was still being held in both of his arms as she gave him a death glare and tried to say something while apparently gagged, thanks to her mouth being forced closed against her will. But her resistance quickly died when she went completely rigid after seeing his head slowly turning until it was looking straight at hers and a bead of sweat began to form on her brow within moments.
From there, he started to walk towards the Everfree forest while carrying Gilda that was now thrown over his right shoulder so that her ass was sticking up and forward. Brex was using his right arm to hold onto her legs. By the time that they had entered said Forest, Gilda had gone slack in his care and was no better than a sack of potatoes that was being carried. A sack of potatoes with an attitude.
Once the pair had gone in a fair distance that Brex knew that no pony would go in and see them. He had swung Gilda forward and after catching her again in both arms. Placed onto the ground and against a nearby tree, so that her back was laying against it. When he had stepped back a few feet, he can see how the Griffin was still giving him the death glare.
Albeit that changed to a look of surprise when Brex turned around and went over to a large Boulder that was roughly a meter and a half in diameter. More than half of it in the ground and yanked it free without much trouble and brought it over to use as a chair for himself to sit in front of Gilda. Thanks to it, he was in a position where he was sitting so that he was clearing looking down from a much higher elevation.
Once Brex had sat down, the silent staring game between the two started and lasted a good ten minutes before Gilda finally broke eye contact with a grunt and tried to turn her head away. Unfortunately for her, with the vine currently wrapped around her neck, this made it very hard to do so and Gilda was forced to look straight ahead at him after trying to fight it for a few seconds and giving out a heavy huff of irritation through her nostrils.
She then released a pathetic growl while trying to wiggle free but to no avail. Brex watched all of this happening and decided to just remain silent to allow the teenager to wear herself out. Which turned out to be quite surprising with how she was going on for the next fifteen minutes straight. Only to fall over a few times and he had to get up the proper back up right on to the side of the tree to resume her efforts once again.
After the fifteen minutes was up. Brex rolled is eyes from behind his mask before giving out an annoyed huff of his own before speaking in a neutral tone. “How about we start this again… Hi Gilda. How are you doing? It's been some time since we last saw each other, hasn't it?” This earned him another death glare, along with a series of federal grunts from behind her beak.
He then released another heavy sigh before going on as he lightly tapped the boulder that he was sitting on with his left hands palm, before continuing with the one-sided chat. “Well, I can tell you that I'm doing quite well. You know how things are with me, I go here, I go there, I'm usually pretty busy.” Brex had shrugged a little bit at the end, along with his tone becoming somewhat playful before returning to what it was before.
“Oh, also I paid your aunts a visit just recently... They're doing quite well for themselves also if you're interested in knowing. However, there's just one small thing that I'm confused about. They said that you just finished your final year in learning how to be a Lancer and had headed back to the Griffin Empire to find a place in society so that you can be with your own kind. Well, that's what you said anyway, when you told them that you were going.”
“They even saw you off on the boat. So, unless you could do something like… Hmm, I don't know... Travel from place to place through some magical means, then I don't think you really went back to your Homeland. Seeing as you're quite literally tied up in a neat little package right here in front of my face.” Gilda thrashed about a little more while giving out a series of grunts that suggested all she wanted to do was scream in frustration, rather than speak to him.
That was when Brex changed his voice to be playful, yet at the same time there was this underline threat woven into what he was about to say next. “I have already voiced my opinion when it comes to the upbringing of children. More so when it comes to discipline... You see, I don't believe in the barbaric practice of causing pain through the act of beating their child or even simply spanking them.”
“It's not much of a learning prospect to associate doing things with pain from your parents or caregivers by my standards. All that does is to instill the way of thinking that violence is considered right and this only makes the kid lean towards it as an option to use right away for anything that they don’t like.”
“There are however… Creative means in which to teach a lesson. For example, keep them from something that they want. If they don't do as they're told, then this type of consequence well occur due to their choices and this will teach them that their actions have consequences and that they need to think over what they have done. Of course, there is always the option of using reverse psychology. But let's put that aside for now and jump onto the topic that I'm getting too. Shall we?”
By now Gilda had ceased her struggling and was now intently listening as she had raised her right eyebrow as to what was the main focus. But soon, she found her eyes roaming around as to look for a way out, with what he was about to say next. As Brex slowly began to get off of the boulder that he was on and walked around to the back side so that he was facing both it and Gilda.
“You see Gilda... I have this pet peeve about violence towards children and their mistreatment. He-HeHeh... You could say it's a button that really, really, should have been labeled, do not touch. But we both know that you're eighteen now and of course, in Griffin Society you have been an adult send to turn sixteen.”
“But from where I'm from, that number is eighteen to be seen as an adult. So, now you are an adult to me. By common sense, that would make you not a child anymore. Thereby you should be able to make rational decisions on your actions and can figure out what their consequences are and take responsibility.”
“Now, just think about what you been doing today and then… And then! Consider that I might have heard about it all. For one, did you know that aside from the pink pony that's been around you, any other earth pony that falls from the height that a cloud is on, would normally suffer injuries when their balloon or their flying machine has been damaged? Did it not once occur to you that they might get seriously hurt or even break their neck if they had fallen in the wrong way?”
“Of course, you being new and all, you wouldn't know that Pinkie Pie can survive such a thing quite easily. But really, did it really not occur to you at all, that you might have killed another today? Oh, and let's also talk about the theft that you perpetrated only moments after nearly scaring an elderly mare half to death?! Did it even once occur to you that you could have given her a heart attack? That would have counted as murder… Don’t think that saying it was just a joke will hold up once you’re on trial.”
During this little chat, Gilda who had been staring daggers at him, was slowly beginning to crumble away at her tough-girl image. She was beginning to look more like a beaten puppy as her head was slightly lowering. Even her eyes were brought to the grass cover ground with each thing that Brex had mentioned. But when he had gotten to the part about causing that one older ponies’ death. Just because she wanted to give them a good scare, had caused the Griffins eyes to shoot wide as she look to him with disbelief for a moment, before looking away.
Brex then continued. “These ponies don't really know much of anything that isn't pony related and you should not be all that surprised that you're the first one that any of them have ever met. So, I am not going to put it all on you. But still, the way you acted while here in Ponyville was completely unacceptable. And before I take that thing off of your mouth and you start going on about how Griffin's act in their culture and their rite of passage, or about how they need to show their dominance.”
“I want you to think about this. You are still young; you have a lot of energy and I know that you have so much that you want to prove. But that doesn't mean you can act like a stuck-up jerk. All that's going to do, is going to get you a lonely, empty life and I don't want that for the niece of my friends.”
“So, seeing that you are an adult, yet you can't make rational decisions without resorting to violence. Along with the fact that your aunts have already given me permission to make sure you stay in line if I should ever see you doing something that I believe is unacceptable. Even after becoming an adult. Then I will enforce my right to discipline you. Hmm, you know what that means, right? Now that you're an adult, you are not protected thanks to my code of conduct towards children anymore.”
Brex, upon completing what he was saying. Had slowly raised his left hand so that it was nearly high enough to his shoulder and off to the side with the palm pointing slightly downwards. Then he said the next part in a cold tone. “You have two options and I'm going to allow you to pick. Either you do exactly as I say until I feel that your punishment has been concluded and learned your lesson… Or I give you a series of grown-up spankings right here over my knee?”
Brex then swung down at nearly a blinding speed that left an afterimage of his arm as it struck the side of the rock that he was only just sitting on a moment ago. Upon contact, there was a resounding crash as is hand created a strong gust of air that got displaced and the top half of the large rock had suddenly within a split-second, produced a set of many cracks that ran across its surface before those pieces were blasted several yards away.
As for Gilda. She had gone completely rigid and completely still as a statue after her eyes shot open and her Iris’s has turned into tiny little dots, as she look straight at the remaining pieces of the rock that was right in front of her only a second ago. After dusting is hands off a little bit of the dust that had been created by such an impact. The Roegadyn step over the remaining piece and made his way over to Gilda. There, he crouched after leaning over her so that he was directly in front of her.
Afterwards he undid the vine that was tightly wrapped around her beak and after it came off, he asked in an upbeat tone. “So, what will it be? Will you take the punishment for as long as I think you need it, or…? Are you going to allow me to give you ten of those and you can be on your merry way? How about it? You better make up your mind fast. Because if you don't, then I'm going to go along with option number two. Tick! Tock! Tick! Tock! Offers going once… Going twice and... It's go-.”
Gilda was in a complete stupor and had not moved the direction of her eyes. Even after Brex had stood in front of her as if she could look straight at him and at the rock. But had come back once he had started doing that clockwork sound affect. Gilda then exclaimed in a loud and frightened voice. “Okay! Okay! I'll take the punishment! I'll take the punishment! I don't care what it is or how long it’s going to take! Just don't do that to me! I'll die ten times over!!!”
Brex then went from his scary version of a joking tone, to that of a genuinely friendly one, as he replied to Gilda’s answer and held both of his arms out and gave her a big bear hug. Which clearly unnerve the Griffin. “Oh that's great! I wouldn't want to keep reviving you from death just to continue on with it. It would have gotten old fast. Anyhow, let's get you out of this and head back to town. You're going to be staying in my room tonight!”
After saying that, he grabbed onto the vine and easily broke them apart with just his thumb and index fingers pulling with both hands. He clearly heard Gilda giving a very confused response after a few seconds of doing this. Which he was pretty sure was because of the part about bringing her back to life. But dismissed it as he motioned for her to follow him back through the trees that he had taken to get to that spot in the woods.
Along the way, Brex explained to Gilda that he was going to have her stay with him in Ponyville for the time being. Of course, he was going to notify her aunts as to the arrangement. The plan is that she is to do whatever he says and go with him on quests that require more than one party member to do to accept.
Seeing as it was quite late now and he didn't want to bother the guy who ran the inn he was staying at. Brex was going to wait till the morning to get a room for Gilda to use for herself. For the time being, she would use his bed and he would just fall asleep on either the ground or the chair in the room.
Of course, Gilda grumbled about the arrangements and call him out as a pervert for saying that they would be in the same room together. She even went so far as to say that by Griffin customs, said she was to do whatever he said after capturing her. Then she was by their law, his property and commented that slavery was against the law in Equestria so that she could try and get out of the punishment.
Brex quickly shot back with that she was not a slave and that she did make the choice on her own. But before he rested his eyes, he muttered out loud just enough that he knew that Gilda could barely hear from the bed. “I'm sorry but, you don't deserve to be my slave...” To his surprise, he heard a disgruntled growl from Gilda before one of the two pillows had made a sudden collision with his face. Right after, he could hear Gilda pulling the blankets over to cover herself up.
During the few moments that Brex was beginning to fall asleep. He began to think to himself. “Oh, that's weird if I didn't know any better. I'd say that she was upset that I turned her down. Eh! it's probably just my imagination after being with Rory for so long. The girls even got me thinking of lewd things at random times now.”
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Time: Nine at night* *Location: Dream Realm*
Within a sea of stars, being surrounded by many dream bubbles that were mostly obscured from vision as to the contents within. There was one of the bubbles that was giving off a dark aura only a moment ago and had slowly reverted to looking like the rest. This was before a large flash of light appeared next to it and there stood Luna, that currently had a heavy blush forming on her cheeks.
She then began to say in a somewhat out of breath voice, while also glancing back at the bubble next to her. “That is the third time that I have had to deal with such a dream. It has only been but a single hour from when I started this night’s patrol. How is it possible that nearly all of the stallions who have been dreaming, all have a similar theme where they see the females as monsters? The only stallions that have been seen having a normal or even a great dream, seem to be focused on than learning how to fight so that they can be able to fend for themselves.”
“Mayhaps I should speak with her later upon this revelation and the two of us may endeavor to shine a light on to this mystery.” That was when Luna had lit up once more and had this concentrating expression on her face before continuing. “It has been many days sense last, I have come across is dream bubble. Both methods of searching for not only his dream signature, but for any powerful nightmares have yielded no results. Ghaa! How is it possible that I cannot find him? The only plausible cause would be that he has not slept during any of these nights.”
“But I know for sure that he either is within the town called Ponyville where Twilight Sparkle reside along with the element bearers thanks to the many dreams that show him wearing that white and blue attire.” Luna then began to pace as her hooves tapped against an invisible floor while going on. “'Twas it such a grand idea to not inform my dear sister that he might reside in such a town? No! It would not do any good for her to know he is there. Especially in her current state. We can't chance something happening before they meet in a dream first.”
It wasn’t until recently, that she had been able to go over what she knew of him. This combined with what she was able to put together from seeing what was shown as she went on with her duties. At the time, she had this fascination about the stallion that Rainbow Dash was having that nightmare about. But soon after looking through any dreams pertaining to him, she realized that he and the one she had been searching to talk with, were one and the same.
The princess of the night was about to go on, when her horn gave a sharp tug that made her head go back. This caused Luna to have a look of shock on her face as her body was being pulled backwards. This caused her face to fall instantly upon saying the following in a disbelieving tone. “As the young ones say... Buck me!”
This was then company with her screaming at the top of her lungs as she blindly flew backwards with her glowing horn leading the way. Unlike before, where she had narrowly avoided the other dream bubbles thanks to some last-second maneuvering with her body. This time however, she ended up flying through a couple of them which her screaming had inadvertently woken up the dreamer as she saw everything pop as she went through them all.
For the briefest of moments, Luna caught the sight of a few scenes that consisted of one being what she thought to be a land of candy and laughter. The next was of a place that was full of animals. The last one that she could get a good look at. Appeared to be a kindergarten class and a purple pony was sitting in a corner with a tall white cone hat upon their head. As for any others, they came by too quickly to really notice any of their details.
Just like before, when Luna got into contact with his dream bubble. There was a sound that now resembled what one would hear when a bird decides to fly into one's bedroom window. This was then immediately followed with Luna's sliding down till she landed on her butt in a crumpled heap thanks to the back of her head making the collision and there was a series of tiny constellations buzzing in her view. With a set of half crossed eyes and a wobbly tone. Luna attempted to point at these stars as she spoke. “Hey! That is not where I had put thou. Return to whence I placed you this instant!”
After shaking her head to send away the headache that she had just received. Luna looked up and saw the large dream bubble that she had been searching for. But her eyes went wide when she realized that she was pressing right up against it. Out of fear of what happened the last time that she had pressed herself into it. Luna had gotten herself away by backpedaling, while her rump was grinding on the invisible floor until she was at least a good several meters away before giving out a relieved sigh.
She then made it a point to memorize where in the dream realm that he was at and found that it was in the cluster of bubbles belonging to the citizens of Ponyville this time around. This causing her to arch and eyebrow in confusion as to why it would be back there but thanked her lucky stars that it wasn't so far this time. Otherwise, this collision would have been a far more painful one.
With it being such a long flight before, Luna had expected him to be far away from there. Even if she did conclude that had had spent time in Ponyville. There was no way to tell by the dreams involving him, that would show her just when they occurred. For all she knew, they could have been from events from weeks or months in the past. So, she thought he might not even be there anymore.
She then hurriedly used her magic to bring herself over to her sister’s bubble and began to hit on the side of it with her right fist and getting a loud thud to ring through. Under normal circumstances, Luna could have just entered her Celestia’s dream. However, with the lack of power at the current time. All she could do was to send the signal that they had agreed upon to allow Luna to show that they needed to talk.
After a few seconds, Luna could feel the defenses of her sister's mind dropping and she quickly pushed her horn into the bubble and caused it to produce a strong light that was coming from a single point. From there, a small wisp began to bellow out. Once there was a sufficient amount of it floating in the air, it began to take the form of Celestia who was giving Luna a not so amused stare down before speaking.
“Luna… I do hope that this is good. Because I was in the middle of an eating contest with the best bakers in all of Equestria! Right as you began pounding away, I was just inches from taking a bite out of that Fillydelphia Cheesecake!”
Luna crossed her arms and returned the same look towards her older sister before saying in a matter-of-fact tone. “Sister, do you not remember why we came up with that way of getting you out with my magic being so low? I have finally located his bubble and we must go while we still have time. It has been over a week and this is the first that he has gone to slumber. Quickly, take my hand and let us be on our way!”
Celestia look utterly shocked as she took a hold of Luna's extended left hand and they both disappeared with a blinding flash of magic that came from the end of her horn. Once their site had returned Luna and Celestia were now standing before the large bubble covered in the dark spongy material. Just as she tried to move forward. Luna felt herself being stopped with the hand that Celestia was holding onto and when she looked over her shoulder, Luna caught the sight of her older sister having a look of trepidation crossing her face.
She then released Celestia's hand and with using both of hers, she cupped her older sisters face and forced her to look directly into hers. Luna then said, “Dear sister, we must go in. Time within goes at a much faster pace. An hour and there will be really three in the outside world. In my current state I do not have the magic to extend the time within to give us all that we need. It is either now or we try for another night and I do not know of when he will be back.”
While looking into Luna's eyes. The alabaster mare regained her composure and gave a solid nod and the two of them face the bubble once more. Celestia began to pour some of her magic into Luna for her to get them in. Soon, the outer layer of the bubble began to pulse with the same light that came off of Luna's horn. Then the spongy like material that covered the surface was now moving in a way that showed it was creating a path that was just large enough for a pony to go through.
As the both of them approached and had gotten only a few feet away. Luna's eyes went wide when a section of the material had lunged forward past her so quickly that there was no time to react and had wrapped around Celestia’s neck. That was when Luna came to a realization that she had gotten permission, yet her older sister had not been given such an invitation. It was plainly visible that Celestia was in pain and probably could not breathe with the way she was gasping and trying to claw at whatever was wrapped tightly around her windpipe.
As Luna was attempting to pull it off with her bare hands. Her ears swiveled towards the bubble after hearing some shifting noises. When her eyes were turned to see what it was, she had caught the sight of what she could only assume was the outer defenses taking a section of itself that was made straight and then bent in a way that it created a type of corkscrew that one would commonly be used to open a bottle of wine and it was already in the midst of rotating as it was slowly making its way for Celestia's head.
No matter what was done, whether it be through physical means or magic, whatever it was that was holding her sister in place was, not giving up and felt stronger than iron. When the instrument of death had shortened the distance and was only a few hoofs away. Luna placed herself directly in its path, while still pressed up against Celestia and just as it was about to make contact with her forehead, did it stop in place.
Just as Luna began to comprehend what had just happened. The weapon had gone up in a puff of smoke. Along with the part that was holding on to her sister. Celestia had crumbled down and was now gasping for air as she held onto her neck with both of her hands in an attempted to massage away the pain. As the alabaster Alicorn was giving off a few coughs to clear her Airways. Luna began to speak in a rushed, apologizing tone as she looked over her older sister.
“Dear Sister how do you fare?! We did not expect such an aggressive defense to be in place. I swear, 'twas not this aggressive last I came here!” Celestia had released another coughing fit before shakely getting back to her hoofs and replied. “Thank you... For getting me out of there. I tried to use my magic, but it was blocked. Ouch! Give me a moment to heal this. my neck really hurts.” Celestia had gone and lit up her horn and an aura enveloped around her neck. After a few seconds and it fading, she had a look of astonishment while glancing back at Luna. Celestia then said, “I can't fully heal it!”
Looking to be in utter shock, Luna went and tried to use her own magic but found that it was capable of healing the wound, but not completely. Which left a very faded bruise mark around her older sister's neck when done. Celestia appear to be in much better shape as she lightly placed her finger on to the mark and began to trace it while letting out a small groan of pain. The younger sister had an apologetic look on her face as she began to explain.
“I went through a similar ordeal on my previous visit. Although, I lacked the magic to heal the wound. I know I have enough now, but it will not heal past a certain degree. The reason eludes me as to how we can even get injured in such a way. Mayhaps turning back now would be the best course of action for you. I shall be the one to converse with him and you can go back to your dream of eating cakes.”
This got Luna a stern glare from her older sister as she witnessed Celestia going past and getting closer to the dream bubble. Out of panic, Luna tried to reach out in order to grab onto her sister, but was not quick enough. Thankfully, whatever was protecting him from Celestia, did not react this time around and allowed her to make contact with the surface without any trouble. Celestia then turn and said with a small smile. “It would seem that you have vouched for my entrance.”
Luna quickly joined her sister at the edge of the bubble and began to use her magic to get them both inside. but while she did this, she began to think about the words that were uttered during the end of their last meeting, about being careful to not to get hurt when opening the door on coming into his dreams. She had no idea if that was a warning to what just transpired, or if there was something else waiting on the other side.
While going through, Luna had to hold on to her sister's hand due to how something was apparently attempting to force Celestia to turn around and they were in complete darkness as they walked forward. The whole event felt as though it went on for more than a minute before there was a glimmer of light up ahead. While pressing forward, the light was getting closer and brighter with every step. This went on until everything turned blinding white and the pair had no choice but to shut their eyes due to the blinding intensity.
Once they were able to finally open their eyes once again. Luna found herself standing next to her older sister, while inside of what appeared to be a small cave. Along with a set of torches going around in a circle and in the center was an unknown monument with strange symbols that were carved into the stone. What's more, were the strange floating yellow creatures with a tail and a pair of wings floating around that gave Luna the creeps and by judging the reaction on Celestia, they were having the same effect on her as well with how she was keeping a wary eye on them.
But their attention was torn away when they heard a set of hastily made steps coming from the entrance of the cave. The one coming in could be seen wearing a set of heavy armor that could easily be identified as something made of bronze or possibly copper. Pretty much every inch was covered in chainmail. The only sections that were visible, was their face. When the individual had gotten closer. Luna noticed how their facial area was being strangely obscured to make it nearly impossible for her to see just what they're face looked.
It was pretty much no different than one waking up with blurry eyes and couldn't focus on anything very well. She then attempted to use her magic on the dream in order to clear this up. But it had little to no effect as the image only showed that it cleared up a little, before it snapped back to its original state once she had given even an iota of slack in her magic.
So, by the end of it. Luna had to give up on seeing their face and was resigned to watch the events play out along with her sister. Who happened to be at that moment staring at who had just come in with a blank look in her eyes and a partly open mouth that Luna had to resist the urge to use her index finger to help in closing it.
The figure then approached them and this startled Celestia into going into a slightly shuttering state. Luna had to grab onto Celestia’s shoulders and push her out of the path of the one coming so that they were a few feet out of the way. As soon as she had done this, they had barely missed him by a few inches while on his way towards the monument in the caves center. Luna turned her face to Celestia and began to explain what she felt was happening.
“Sister, I do believe this is a dream of something that happened in his past. That must be him right now, for the moment he is unable see us right as we are. So long as we do not interfere with anything that happens or make direct physical contact with any that are within his line of sight, then the dream will go unobstructed and our presence will be unknown.”
After being informed as to what was happening. Celestia had taken a heavy breath of air and placed a hand on to her chest to show that she was using a type of meditation to ease herself back into getting a hold of her emotions. Now turning their attention fully on to him, they could see that his gaze was firmly set on the strange texts. It was only a moment later that they began to hear a voice coming from the entrance of the cave.
Luna instantly identified it to be coming from a female. However, the language being spoken aloud was one that she was unfamiliar with. It didn't take long for them to wait to see that it was a girl judging from the figure who was wearing a set of blue pants and a white tunic. There was also a strange contraption that was hanging down from her neck. On her hips, was what appeared to be a small branch of some type that could easily be taken off of a loop that kept it in place. But what made it strange, was how the entire figure was mostly shrouded in darkness wherever there should have been sections where the body was exposed.
Moreover, Luna was able to see a pair of long ears that were roughly three or four inches long and a long thin tail hanging from behind that clearly did not come from a pony. As the girl came inside, she approached the male and started to talk more. Judging from the speech pattern, Luna surmised that she may have been reciting something. Mostly likely a type of rhyme. During all of this he appeared to not have taken his attention away from her.
Luna was just about to try and ask her older sister to lend her some magic in order to cast a spell that would allow the languages spoken within the dream to be understood. They were interrupted by the ground quaking and a set of heavy steps approaching from the cave entrance.
What she and her sister saw coming down the slope that led into the cave. Appeared to be a large bulbous creature that had an enormous mouth and rows of teeth that could be seen. It had these thin, long arms that flailed about and some growths on its back that seemed similar to plants growing.
(Can play this clip from the game for what was written.)
From there, they witness the battle as the two within the cave joined forces to combat it. The girl would use the piece of branch that she had in her possession and appeared to be casting magic through it as a medium at the large monster. While avoiding its long arms that continuously attempted to slam down on to her. Along with not letting it gobble her up in its oversized maw.
As for the one who made the dream, he had pulled off from his back, what appeared to be a two-handed axe that on first glance, could have been made out of the same type of material as his armor. As the battle progressed. The yellow creatures that they saw before became hostile and joined in. But they were quickly dispatched with ease thanks to the axe cutting through them one after another until there was nothing but the large monster left. After a bit of fighting on both their parts, the pair came out victorious with the creature collapsing and lying dead on the cave floor.
There was a somewhat large blue crystal laying on the ground just a short way from the monster and both she and her sister watched as he approached it upon catching sight of it. Upon getting near, it began to float into the air and was guided until it floated towards him. Once it was close enough that it was hovering between both of his hands, did everything slowly turn white and all three found themselves within a dark void much like the one when they first entered through.
A few seconds of this. There was this odd hum before a glowing ring appeared on the ground which expanded until it became a complex magical rune. It was set up with six empty circular parts at the end of a six-pointed array that surrounded him. The crystal in his hand began to shine as one of the empty spaces erupted in the same color and shot a blast of light into the empty abyss overhead and exploding to shower down sparks.
There was another flash of light before everything went black once more along with the runes going missing. Suddenly, a voice came out that startled both Luna and Celestia, as they were quickly looking to and fro to find its source. Only to come up empty. What was also surprising about it, was the way that they could both understand the words being said as it came out smooth as though hearing it from a mother. “Hear... Feel... Think...”
The next thing to happen, was a roaring sound to be heard at some far-off distance and they caught the sight of shooting stars plummeting past them from all around. They had just turned their sights upwards and saw a burning vortex that was expelling said falling stars at random intervals. This was yet again followed by the dream turning pure white and both of the sisters had to cover their eyes in order to be ready for what was to come next.
From there, the scene played out as a voice began to speak from the darkness. “Crystal bearer… I am Hydaelyn. All made one. A Light there once was that shone throughout this realm… Yet it hath sense grown dim. And as it hath faltered, so hath Darkness risen up in its stead. Presaging and end to Life. For the sake of all I beseech thee; deliver us from this fate! The power to banish darkness dwelleth within the crystals of Light. Journey forth and lay claim to them. By thee deeds shell the crystals reveal themselves to thee. Only believe, for the light liveth within thy heart. Go now, my child, and shine thy Light on all creation.”
Both Luna and Celestia took great effort to hear what was said and while doing that, they saw the following happening. At first, it was but a loan crystal that came forward. It was nearly his size. Then was accompanied by a row of others that floated along. It didn't take much time until an enormous one came floating up from below only to be encircled by the smaller ones as it's light began to illuminate the area.
Off some ways away, they spotted another who is in the same state as him that quickly took flight towards the large Crystal. This was then immediately followed by another who looked to be of the same build as himself as they came to fly by much closer than the first as they passed. Things quickly progressed and the one that the two sisters were following took flight and was joined by an ever-growing multitude of others while soaring around the large crystalline object. Only to have the scene end upon watching him soaring for a light high above as he soared along its shining surface.
(Play this if you want to see the scene in the game.)
As the dream refocused on to another that was beginning to form. Luna grabbed onto Celestia's hand and gave her a puzzled look during the moment that was given to them to think upon what they had seen. She then said, “Sister, does any of what we have witness remind you of anything in particular?”
Celestia's eyes looked a little worried as she brought her right hand up to her mouth to partly cover it for a few seconds before she released her lips and began to say in an unsure tone. “That stone… It looked a lot like how the elements once resembled... You don't suppose that?” There was a slight pause before Luna attempted to finish that thought. “That he may have a connection to the Elements of Harmony?”
“But this cannot be true, can it? For we found them at the Tree of Harmony! And we were certain that there was none other there. Once they were uncovered and used on Discord, we made sure that they were locked away in the throne room. From there, the elements were found by your student and her close friends. I doubt that they were ever removed and then placed back during my banishment. Is it possible that this was seen from before we ourselves found them all those years ago? After all, there were six spots. Which is the same number of elements.”
Celestia had to quickly step in and held onto both of Luna's upper arms to get her to focus before she spoke. Please little sister, we need to keep a firm head. There's no guarantee that what we saw was one of the elements. It could have been any type of random crystal. There are many out there in the world after all.” Celestia then released her sister while having a thoughtful expression on her face before going on.
“But the way that they fought that monster at the beginning of the dream. It appeared so much like what the new recruits have been learning... I'm pretty sure that number of the moves that were done with the axe were from what I believe is known as the Marauder class. Now, as for the girl with the wand. I am certain that those were both healing and attack spells from the Conjurer class. Could it be possible... Does he know of where those teachers could have come from?”
The dream so far, was still in the middle of transitioning. So, Luna quickly asked while they still had time. “Sister, you mentioned, Marauder and Conjurer just now. Are you saying that he is some type of Outlaw?” Celestia quickly shook her head before she answered. “No, no! Not that kind of Marauder. Have you already been notified of the Western, Central and Eastern schools of combat?” Luna had an expression that show that she was thinking it over before giving a quick nod to her older sister.
Celestia then went on. “As of recent years, quite a few of the castle guards have undergone training in these institutions before applying for positions here at the castle. As well as other guard posts all around Equestria. A large portion of the Adventures these days, have undergone training there as well. The Marauder is a fighting class that is among those that are specialized in front-line combat and gaining the attention of the enemy in order to keep their comrades out of danger. I believe the common term for this category is... Tank, from what I hear.”
“Luna, maybe when we are done here, I can go into more details on how they were established?” Luna quickly nodded the show her agreement just as the dream finally came into focus once more. The next thing they knew, was that they had suddenly dropped from a small height and their legs were nearly up to their knees in snow. They were being pelted with heavy ridged wind that was able to get right through their fur and prick at the skin with how cold it was.
Celestia quickly lit her horn and produced an orb of light that was just within reach right over their heads to illuminate where they were. But all they got was a few measly hoofs in all directions due to how thick the snow storm that they were in was coming. They both had to squint their eyes just enough to see one another even though they were close enough to hold hands. Beyond what the light could touch, was nothing but a dark night as it made it nearly impossible to tell just where they were.
While chattering her teeth due to the severity of how cold it was. Celestia pulled Luna close and wrapped her wings around her younger sister. While trying to speak over the howling wind. “Luna! I did not think that going into a dream would feel this real! I'm trying to use my spell to give us some more light and to stave off the cold. But it's not working very well here!” The younger one who was being shielded had spoke up in a loud enough voice to be heard as well. “Sister, I am in need of more of your magic to supplement my own!”
Luna could just barely make out that Celestia had given a nod before feeling a rush of magic being poured into her. From there, she concentrated as hard as she could and sent out a wave that became a transparent wall that took on the shape of a dome in order to push back the harsh elements. Unfortunately, it only gave them maybe a couple of meters of free space until it had reached its maximum size. But by then, the two sisters already had a good amount of ice clinging to both their clothing and wings.
Luna then gave out a quick shiver as Celestia released her wings in order for them to try and step out of the snow. Once their legs have been pulled free. It was found that no matter what they did, they would sink into several inches in the snow. But we're thankful that they were not stuck in place. Although Luna was very concerned with how she was already beginning to feel numb on the lower part just underneath the ankle and saw how Celestia had a concerned look of her own while looking at herself.
Luna was about to attempt to call out as best as she could in order to be heard by the dream’s owner. However, before her voice could have left her lips, there was a sudden roar coming from behind them and when they turned around, they had only a moment to jump away from one another as a large white creature came barreling through where they once stood and continued its way until it had gone far enough that it had left the barrier and disappeared into the storm just outside of it.
The both of them had quickly scurried onto their legs again and got back-to-back in a defensive posture as Luna summoned her long sword and Celestia brought out her spear. Celestia called over her shoulder while still keeping an eye in front of herself. “I didn't get a good look at what it was, did you?” Luna quickly replied with, “Afraid not. It moved surprisingly well in the snow and all I could tell, was that it was covered in white fur and far bigger than a Manticore.”
“But please be on your guard. From what has been transpiring, I can safely say that we cannot take this is a dream, for we may not come out of this unscathed.” Their chat was interrupted with a bellowing roar coming from the storm before the same creature came charging at them once again.
(Here is a picture of the beast that is attacking them.)
This time, Celestia pointed her spear at it and sent a strong jolt of magic into the tip and fired it directly into the beast’s face. It did some damage by drawing blood, along with the sudden flash of yellow that illuminated it so that the two princesses could see that it had a set of long black horns and what could clearly be sharp teeth meant for devouring other creatures.
Unlike before were just kept on charging through. This time around once it had gotten close enough, it had lunged after taking a good leap into the air. It came crashing down just as the two separated once again. Celestia was currently on its left side and had started attacking with her spear. She would swing it to use the long-bladed tip to cut then. Would she would alternate to stabbing motion to cause as much damage as possible just underneath where she had assumed where the rib cage should have been and was trying for the heart.
At the same time, Luna was keeping its attention on her by firing a few magic shots directly into its face, along with swinging her great sword to defend herself from its other arm that was swinging a set of long sharp claws. After a few seconds of this, the creature would whip its body around as it turned. This made its long tail swing fast enough to slam into the side of Celestia and getting a welp of pain from the mare. This sending her near the edge of the barrier and seeming to be out of the fight. Only to leave Luna to be a sole focus for the moment.
Currently, the spell that was keeping away the storm had Luna place that the center and seeing that Celestia was currently down, the lunar princess could not risk moving too far or she might lose track once the edge of the barrier had left Celestia outside. As a result, Luna had to stay within close combat only to barely dodge the wide swing of its arm in order to get around and stay as close as possible to her sister without also getting her in danger.
Although this seems like a desperate situation. Luna could not help but to crack a smile as the adrenalin that she had long forgotten after her imprisonment was beginning to revitalize her warrior’s spirit. But right as she was sure that she had dodged another one of its wide swipes of his arm.
She was immediately blindsided with the way it lunged forward again and whipped its head so that one of its long black horns was able to strike her in the gut and sending her flying towards Celestia in the same way one would with hitting a ball with a bat. This had got her to let out a loud yelp from the pain and had to cough after taking in so much of the cold air into her lungs.
With Luna now on one knee and Celestia directly behind her. The creature dug into the snow and came barreling at the two of them. Out of desperation, Luna funneled as much magic as she could into her sword and held it in front of herself while pointed sideways and caught the tips of both of its horns that had hit directly onto the side of the blade. The strength in which the two had made contact had caused the horns to partially be embedded be at just the tips so that there was little chance of slipping along the blade with how hard they were pressing up against one another
The lunar princess grunted as her body began to buckle along with how she can sense that her summoned dream sword was beginning to break under the strain from holding back the beast that was obviously more than five times her own size. Its face was so close that Luna had trouble trying to breathe with how rotten the breath was and could even feel a couple of drops of blood from the wound that her sister had cause to its face earlier to be dripping onto her leg that was outstretched in front.
That was when Celestia’s spear came shooting right past her head and missing by mere inches as it went through the gap between her arm and her sword in order to stab it directly into the forehead of the beast. Once the spearhead had gone at least several inches into its skull. The shaking that was being produced from fighting back, had begun to die down along the blade and Celestia push along with Luna in order to get it to fall away from them as it was currently leaning in their direction.
After some work, they had managed to get it to fall on its right side and Celestia yanked her spear free and Luna had to dismiss her own weapon seeing as it was pretty much just a hunk of metal with some hairline cracks that can be seen along the weapons edge. There were obvious indentations from where the horns have gotten partially stuck into the metal. This was then followed with Celestia and Luna going back and forth as they tried to recover from the unexpected fight.
“Luna! Please tell me that you are not hurt! Do you recognize with this is, because I do not.”
“Do not worry, for I am well. As for that, I am afraid not sister. During my many days of being on the battlefield, I have not once come across such a creature. It would be safe to say with the way that it is equipped for cold weather, then it must come from this environment and not some random dream construct.”
“Please Luna, say that you did not have to go through such an ordeal when you were last here?”
“I know nothing of the sort. All was quite tame compared to this. I am unsure if this is just a dream or perhaps a memory of his. I spent quite sometime walking around a deserted city and did not once see him until it was nearly daytime. I'm not sure if we will be able to find him now thanks to this snow storm that we are in the middle of. Unlike others, his dream appears to be quite large.”
“Has it always been this difficult for you to find the dreamer Luna?”
“I can safely say that this is quite irregular. When entering a dream, I could immediately find the one that belongs to and even if they're not within my sight, I could still sense them through my magic. Regrettably this is not the case. It is reasonable to believe that we could be walking aimlessly through here all night and not come across him if my previous visit was any indication.”
Celestia was just opening her mouth to respond, when the two of them froze upon hearing a howl that resembled the one that was given off by what they had just fought. Luna had summoned another blade and they both took up a position where they were standing side-by-side yet again and facing where the noise had come from. Fully ready to do battle once more.
However, they quickly lost their composure when they noticed that it was not a single continuous howl. But instead, it was a series of them overlapping one another to indicate that there was more than one coming at them. The two quickly glanced into the eyes of the other before giving a quick nod. Which was immediately followed with the two of them dismissing their weapons and running as fast as they could in the opposite direction while leaving their hoofprints in their wake. They even managed to kick up a cloud of white powder behind with how fast they were going.
For the next several minutes, the two sisters were running further through this thick snow while being chased down by a pack of unknown monsters that were hot on their heels just beyond the view of the barrier. Along the way, Celestia had discussed it with Luna and lower the brightness of her orb of light. This was so that they could still see the ground at their hoofs, but to make it harder for their pursuers to see the light that was being emitted by the spell in order to help in their chances of eluding them all.
Luna was beginning to feel the cold getting to her even though the barrier was still up and even her lungs felt like they were being burned from the inside with the cold air she was being forced to rapidly breathe in in order to fuel her body with oxygen to move. During this whole time, she kept trying to comprehend why it was that this dream followed so many of the real-world rules such as needing to even breath in the first place.
Typically, whenever she went into a pony’s dreams, whatever the environment was, she could overcome it once she had set her mind on the fact that it was all not real. She had walk through a pony’s dream that was full of fire and was underwater on a few occasions. Yet she didn't feel any different than walking without it being warm at all or having to hold one's breath. But here, Luna felt the cold and the way that her movements would make the ice crumble underneath her hoof. No matter how hard she tried to say that it was a dream in her mind, everything else said that this was in the real world.
Because of all the evidence laid out. Luna could only think that this was not some random dream, but had to be something that he himself had lived through at one point and these memories were strongly ingrained into his mind in order to be so vivid here. Her thoughts came to a sudden stop, when she felt that the spell that she used to keep her barrier up was nearing its limit and could break at any moment. They kept on running as fast as they could for the next few minutes before they lost their cover and have to feel the full force of the elements once more.
Even the dim orb of light that they are using to illuminate their steps had turned out to be pretty much useless with how they could barely even tell where it was before Celestia had to let go of the spell. This meant that the two of them had to rely heavily on making the way on their own. Luna knew for sure that in order for her sister to make something bright enough to work with all this snow blowing in the air, would be enough to be found quicker by whatever was chasing them and what they could only assume to be a pack.
Only moments later did Luna take a step and feel the ground shifting underneath. This was then followed immediately afterwards, with the clear sign of something breaking and both of them lunging forward as the ground gave out from underneath their hoofs. This led them to fall for an unspecified amount and Luna could plainly see the side of a cliff rushing by as they continue to plummet. Even both of them screaming at the top of their lungs was barely heard over the rushing wind that was crashing against the wall nearby.
When they finally found ground once more. Both of them had hit a thick mound of freshly made powder of snow and had to quickly dig themselves out. Otherwise, the two would have suffered hypothermia thanks to how frigid their bodies felt. Luna herself was positive that if her natural color wasn't dark blue already, then she would have turned into it with how cold she felt all the way down to her bones as they shivered in place. They even tried to get close to one another for any type of warmth. Even just a few degrees warmer than the outside air that she had gotten from coming close to her older sister, felt as though it was burning her skin through her fur and clothing.
Where they were now, was someplace where the wind was no longer blowing as hard and visibility was good up to about fifteen meters out. There was even this slight glow that caught their attention at the edge of their vision that was directly ahead and both of them looked at one another thinking that they may have found what they are looking for and began to slowly trudge on as their legs kicked against the thick layer of snow.
Closing the distance, they went from fifteen, then to ten. Just a bit more and they had made it almost to five meters, before they started to get a good look at what it was that was glowing. What they had found, turned out to be a very tall flower giving off a fluorescent glow in the darkness. Luna felt captivated by what kind of plant life could possibly live in such an environment and to give off such a vibrant color. She had just pulled herself away from Celestia who is giving it a curious look from what she could tell.
The blue Alicorn reach forward with her left hand to try and touch it. But just as she had gotten within a meter of it, the plant suddenly began to move and the top part where the flower was, had expose the other side that had a set of fanged mandibles that clearly should not belong to a plant. There was this oozing sap that dripped from the opening and fell onto the ice. From there, it gave off a noticeable sizzle that could be easily heard.
(Here is a picture of the plant they came across.)
The next set of events happened within but a few seconds. The plant immediately sent itself at Luna. Who was stunned from the sudden revelation and was clearly not ready for a response. As for Celestia, she may have been surprised herself, but had shown signs that she was holding up her right hand to cast a spell. But with the rate things were going, she would not have been able the cast an effective attack thanks to how quickly the plant move and the relative distance between it and Luna.
As for the plant itself. The leaves had open wide to show that they were partially expanding to indicate that it was ready to wrap around Luna's whole head as the mouth drew open and exposed nearly ten sets of fangs that would be coming down from all directions around the Alicorns face once she had been snared.
Time had essentially slow down for Luna, as her heightened senses kicked in due to the intense dread that she was force to go through. She could see clearly as the plant drew closer, inch by inch and she could even witness how the disturbing mouth opened so that it would have completely taken over her vision once it had clamped on. All of her thoughts were completely blank. In fact, all the noise around her head had gone totally silent. Even the scream from her sister became muted as the only thing that registered to her hearing, was the quickening thump of her heart racing as it went at an agonizingly slow pace.
But then, time began to speed up from her point of view, when the creature came to a sudden stop right before pulling away and was letting out a loud gargled hiss as it was thrown back and its entire form was slammed onto the ice. The plant thrashed on the ground in an attempt to get up. But was silenced when a glowing, heavy axe could be seen coming out of nowhere and cutting the main flower part, which was the head in half while being halfway buried into the snow underneath as it cut through. A viscous fluid that gave off the same type of glow that they were seeing could be seen gushing with a few spurts once this was done, and the axe was roughly pulled free.
What stood only a few paces from Luna now and looming over the remains of whatever was trying to kill her just now. Could not have been any other than the one that they were trying to find this whole time and he was dressed from head to hoof and armor. Along with the helmet that covered up his head. It had a set of long horns protruding from the top that strongly resemble that of a Minotaur.
There was this shabby black shroud that was wrapped around his neck as a makeshift scarf that covered up everything below what she assumed to be where the nose was and was draped over his back. At the same time, covering his left shoulder and that side of his body as the right was fully exposed. Showing his red armor and the large two-handed axe that was being held tightly in his grip. There was even a little bit of the leftover juices from the plant still dripping off the edge as it fell onto the snow. This leaving a fluorescent glow to show through as it was staining the snow.
(Here is a picture of his current gear set.)
Luna was just about to say something to him for saving her as she began to take a single step forward. However, she found herself stopping upon getting this sense of dread washing over her body as she observed the way his helmet was slightly turned to her right. Her eyes went wide as she turned her head in that direction after realizing that he was staring straight at her older sister. Who still had her hand outstretched with a blank look on her face that made it very hard to tell what she was thinking right there and then.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 50: A Very Cold Welcome. Part 2.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia* *Location: The Dream Realm* *Time: Unspecified*
(Here is a picture of where they are now.)
The wind was howling outside of the two doorways leading out of the makeshift cabin that appeared to be meant for storage or fishing purposes. Just out of one of the doors could be seen a completely frozen lake. There also could be seen a large, hulking figure’s vague shadow currently slowing crossing said lake in the distance, that was being shrouded thanks to the storm.
Inside, Celestia's ears swiveled upon hearing every little sound that could be produced from both the flickering flame of the oil fuel lamp that was enclosed in a glass cylinder that was sitting to one side of a square table meant for a single individual to use. Along with how the roof and walls were being pelted with snow. Even the subtle creaking of the wood from the slightest shift in movement by those within or even with the way the harsh wind was shifting the wooden structure had caught her every attention.
Of course, this really only applied to how they kept shifting the way they were facing. But in regards to her eyes, they were firmly locked onto the large being in heavy armor sitting a short distance away. To her right was Luna, who was sitting in a small chair. As for Celestia herself. She was forced to use a barrel as her seat. When it came to the one in armor, he had pulled over a heavy crate and was now situated on top and had not moved a single muscle after placing his right arm onto the table in front of him and had his helmet turn straight at herself.
What made it all unsettling, was that they've been at this for a good several minutes and he had yet to move even once after sitting down. Not only that, but she had yet to hear him say a single word during their entire encounter. Strangely enough, Luna was just sitting there and had not said a word and on occasion, caught Luna glancing over at herself and giving some eye gestures and a slight tilt of the head to try and get her to say something... Anything.
But all Celestia could do was to stare blankly once in a while at the large axe that was sitting on his back. Whenever she did that though there would be a quick flash going across her mind that comprised of Roars and splattering of limbs that only lasted for not even a second, before she blinked herself free and returned her sight back to his helmet.
She had this inexplicable lump at the back of her throat that threatened to cause her to choke whenever she tried to muster the courage to say a word. Although, all that did, was make her back down and continue on with this silent scene further. Thanks to the helmets faceplate being lowered and the dark black rag of a cloak obscuring the lower part of it, it made things rather hard for Celestia to gauge anything. Especially with how she could not see his eyes through the holes for the eyes meant for him to look through, which only gave the impression that she was staring into nothing but shadows.
All that went through her mind as she thought to herself was, “What he must think of me? Was he angry? Was he disappointed? Why does he not speak? Should I be the first to start talking? Why does he seem so intimidating?” She had stared down Dragon Lord Torch during their meeting and barely felt that she was in danger.
Right now though, she didn't know what she was feeling. She began to imagine as to what kind of expression was underneath that helmet and every new vision set goosebumps to crawl across her entire form and she even had to try very hard as to not let her wings ruffle at each time this happened.
What she had not expected, was how heated up she was beginning to feel. Especially when it came to her lower region. She had gone so long with always being given so much respect by her citizens. Even those that she was not on good terms with would show the minimum of hospitality.
But as for this situation, she was not getting anything aside from being allowed to come into this shack and take a seat. At least it was better than being out there. Celestia was grateful that they were indoors. There were still a few feathers that had some snow clinging on to them and were in the middle of thawing.
Whenever her mind would ended up drifting to this, her legs would begin to shift ever-so-slightly and she prayed to her mother that neither he, nor her little sister Luna had caught on to this. She then started to think to herself. “Celestia! Just what is going through your head? Are you getting turned on by being treated in this way? Why, won't he just say anything to me? Luna mentioned that he forgave me somewhat.”
“The question is, just how much? Luna also said that the way we both came in was a lot more hostile tonight. Is it possible that his mind sensed me before we entered and it lashed out knowing it was me in response? The mind is complicated. No telling if it was a deliberate act or his subconscious being the one that lashed out towards me.”
Celestia was just about to run through another series of what if scenarios when her mind was brought back to the present when Luna gave a small annoyed huff before speaking. “As much as I would love to watch the scenery outside... I would like to apologize first about bringing my sister along for my return. I know that you gave me permission. But I feel that it would be counterproductive if that water was not clear between the both yourself and my older sister.”
“Perhaps it would release the tension if we had something to call you by. Perhaps we-.” Celestia noticed how Lunas eyes had opened wide when her sentence had been cut short. Then Luna's gaze shifted slightly towards her before slowly starting up again. “I was unaware you were able to do that. But I do not believe that my sister has-.” Celestia arch one of her eyebrows as she looked over inquisitively at her sister, who had stopped once again. Only to receive a small apologetic smile has Luna turned her attention towards her before speaking again.
“Sister... He is speaking directly to me and is under the impression that you already have a name for him.” Celestia was clearly confused by that statement, as she turned her attention to him before quickly bringing it back to Luna as the younger sister went on. “He informs me that you gave him the name of... Monster. From back when you both met back at our old castle.”
Celestia scrunched her muzzle in order to think of what name Luna was referring to. When the incident ran across her mind in an instant and stopped at the very moment that she had called him a monster. Because of this, she couldn't stop her mind from replaying the rest of what she had said along with that word and began to look extremely guilty as her ears instantly fell down at the sides of her head.
Celestia then mustered up the courage to finally say something after a few seconds had passed, but it came in a slightly shaky voice. “I truly regret what I said to you then. At the time I was told that a monster had attacked my guards and rushed to save them. I was only looking out for my little ponies.”
She then flinched when she saw his hand that was laying on the table, reach for an object that she hadn't noticed before which turned out to be a kind of knife and jammed the tip straight down onto the middle of the table. Then he pulled the blade towards himself in order to make a long-gouged line that went on for several inches. This was before taking the dagger and sticking it somewhere else with the blade partly in the table to make so that the handle was standing up in the air.
She also saw how Luna had also flinched as well. But only after his act was done and she was looking towards Celestia while having a strange smile. Luna then spoke in a cautious tone. “He said that was strike one. Two more and he's going to force us to leave. He uh, also implied that we only care about the ponies and think of any other race that is in our lands to be of second-class citizens or none at all.”
Celestia appeared to be extremely confused as her muzzle scrunched up before she began to speak again. “I-I'm sorry, but I don't know what I said that would have given you that sort of impression. I care about the well-being of every pony-.” The alabaster mare was interrupted again when he had grabbed onto the knife and harshly dug out a second line before placing it near where he had taken it from.
This was preceded with Luna leaning sideways so that she was closer as she said, “Dear Sister, I believe the problem is that you're using the term “Pony” and that appears to be what is setting him off in this manner. He also says that's strike two. I suggest you think carefully on your choice of words.”
Celestia was now darting her eyes left to right as she began to sweat even, though it was still cold all around while trying to rack her brain. Then she started to think to herself as her eyes drifted towards the two tally marks that were carved into the wooden table. “All I said was my pony’s and every... Pony... Oh dear.” Celestia’s mind began to turn the gears as she replayed conversations from throughout her life when the word Pony was thrown into selecting an individual or a group.
Among those memories, she did happen to recall how on occasion there was a non-Pony present and most of which did not look very happy. Even if it was the smallest of details that changed their body movements or facial expressions. That was when she brought her attention back to him and swallowed the lump in her throat as she started to speak. At the same time, putting on her most diplomatic facade that she could muster under the current circumstances.
“I do apologize if what I say offends you. It is simply a saying that I do not discriminate among the other races, I assure you. It is a phrase that I do, but I do not believe it is something to be so upset over. After all, I don't really see the harm in-.” She knew that she had somehow bucked up when he immediately went for the dagger. This time, he plunged it down so hard that it actually went through the table and created a solid line that could be seen going clean across and only stopped to release the handle once finished, which left it near the very edge.
From there, everything around them began to rumble quite violently and there was the sound of a thunderstorm coming from outside as bright flashes were seeing through the doorways and the nearby window. There was also how the darkness from outside was steadily creeping in along the floor where there was obviously light that should have been able to stave it off. But it moved as though it were a river of pure black as it approached.
As the rumbling continue, there were fractures appearing in the wooden walls that showed that the structure itself was ready to be ripped apart due to the sheer magnitude of the earthquake that was only getting stronger by the second. Celestia was clearly scared with all of this going on. She caught in the corner of her eye that Luna was staring straight at him and was practically leaning back in her chair with her ears fully pulled straight back and her eyes becoming as wide as dinner plates.
When she had brought her attention back over to him, she saw that within the sockets of the helmet meant for the eyes. There were now a pair of glowing red orbs that were beginning to shine through. His helmet had been sharply turned towards Luna for a few seconds and afterwards, the younger of the sisters was frantically nodding fast enough that Celestia was quite literally seeing an afterimage of the head bobbing motion before Luna's horn erupted with a quick flash of magic.
When the light subsided. Celestia found herself standing next to her sister while back again in the dream realm and standing a fair distance from the large dream bubble that they were just within. After a few seconds of staring at said bubble, she turned her head to ask Luna what had happened. Only to catch the sight of her younger sister almost hyperventilating while her eyes were transfixed straight ahead as if still seeing something terrifying right before her.
Celestia tried to comfort her little sister afterwards, but it took a couple of minutes before Luna began to look like her normal self. All the while, stealing a glance or two back at the dream bubble that was once again shrouded in that dangerous cover that they had to contend with. After which, she began to tell Celestia what had happened during the conversation that she had missed out on as they conversed back and forth.
“Sister, I suggest not using any wording that would discriminate. For it seems to be what they say these days to be, a major pet peeve of his.”
“Please Luna, tell me everything that he said.”
“I am not entirely comfortable with that. Would you much rather that I paraphrase it instead?”
“Luna, I really need to know. Tell me exactly what he said, word for word. Otherwise, I will be unsure as to the severity of the situation. Don't sugar coat it for me.”
“Very well, you are a grown mare after all. I will remind you that a few of his word choices do seem a little off, although they sound close enough to our own that it quite easy to determine their meaning.”
“Luna you're beating around the bush again...”
“Fine, fine. don't blame me if you do not like what is repeated this night. When I inquired as to what we should call him by, his response was… Oh! She knows what to call me. She was very insistent on what it is! To her, I'm nothing but a monster! Something that needs to be exterminated, something that does not deserve to live! Those were her very words that she yelled straight into my face when she tried to murder me! I don't fucking care what she calls me! She could go ahead and say that I'm a monster, a beast and abomination. In fact, I find it insulting that she had even forgotten that herself!”
“When you talked about protecting our ponies. He said… Your ponies your ponies! I see how it is, you preach about love and tolerance and friendship. But all you really fucking care about is your perfect, can’t do anything wrong ponies! Open your eyes! There are others that live on your land beside the ponies that you are so loving towards. What of the other races? The Griffin, the Minotaurs, the Buffaloes, the donkeys.
There are so many others out there and they called it their home. Are they nothing but second-class citizens that you just tolerate? Maybe you don't even see them as Citizens at all?! They're just baggage, trash that are unwelcome. Isn't that right?”
“Now sister, as you said the phrase. You were looking out for every pony. His response was… There we go again! I cannot believe how racist the ruler of this land is? It's always Pony this or pony that! I see how it is, you think that you're all better than all the other races. We can use magic, we can fly, we can have great strength for our size. We have two that can move the sun and moon! The rest are nothing!”
Luna was looking really nervous for the next part. “The last one was not very pleasant. Are you sure you don't want me to possibly condense it? it is rather long…”
“Please Luna, this is the last one. Just tell me what he said already, I'm getting a picture now as to what type of male he is.”
“Very well. At the end he said this... You don't see the harm in you talking like that?! You are the fucking ruler of these lands! Do you not realize how much heartache and suffering you have put others through because of what you say on a daily basis?! All your subjects listen to every word you say, every syllable, every nuance of every single word and gesture and they integrated into their daily lives!”
“Because Of YOU! The term every Pony and any Pony are used even when a non-Pony is involved! You may not think that is much, but there are lasting repercussions that comes forth from this way of thinking. This implants into your precious…. Little ponies, that they are above everything and can treat any other non-Pony race however they want! And it all because of what you instilled into them from birth!”
“There are those of the other races that get persecuted each and every day by your ponies. They are treated as second-class citizens and given only the bad jobs and even worse pay! Your ponies are so ignorant and self-entitled, that when anything goes wrong and they see a Minotaur or a griffin, there instantly blamed!”
“Do you know how many times I've seen your guards going around and profiling others, just because they’re not a pony?! I am clearly up and into the triple digits from what my own eyes have seen! It's not only you that, you are seen as a racist by the others around the world. Because of you, every single Pony across the land has become the most arrogant, racist bigots I have ever had the misfortune of coming across!”
“If either of you had ever come down from that Ivory pedestal that you so proudly sit upon. Then you would see that the homeless and destitute are comprised of over ninety percent non- ponies. And don't get me started on the whole bit where your tender little innocent ponies go around in persecuting others. Knowing full well that because of what you say, they believe that they can get away with anything as long as their hate crimes are pointed towards anything that does not have anything to do with the three tribes!”
“I cannot stand to look at your face anymore! I want you out! I want you out right now! Luna, you are free to return whenever you feel like it and I will make sure that you are brought straight to me. However, if you decide to bring this overgrown… Horse! into my mind again, she had better pick her words carefully! Because by the twelve as my witness, I will not be fully accountable for my actions if she should ever press me too hard again! I am utterly disappointed in her ability to foresee such a simple-minded mistake! NOW! Take her away or I might finish what her guard prevented me from doing from so back then!”
Over with Celestia, she could plainly play this scene from just a while ago and putting those words behind the silent fury that she witnessed. With each new telling, her eyes began to water as her gaze was brought down to her hoofs. After a few seconds of trying to recompose herself. The alabaster mare had turned her gaze towards Luna. Who now wore a hurt expression that was much like her own, before she spoke in a sorrowful tone.
“I... I never really put much thought into how even saying certain words would affect my subjects. I really only chose the phrase when I wanted to comfort them with how uneasy it all became after your banishment. They were all scared when the moon didn't go down and we had that fight. Not once did it ever occur to me that it would bring on such a mindset to our ponies. Even now, it is apparent that it had indeed affected those around myself now that I think back on those instances.”
“I really did try to help all of those that live in Equestria. Just how long have I been seen as a racist?” Celestia immediately got a hug from Luna as she could feel a hand moving along the back of her head and giving a calming gesture. Which had an immediate effect on the older sister. Luna spoke as she continued with the stroking. “Shusssh... You are not a racist. This is an outcome that was not foreseen and we could still fix this. Perhaps you remember mentioning a Sir fancy pants that attend your court?”
“I inquired as to him from my night guard and I was informed that he is on great terms with all and has been socially accepted among the races that he had been conducting business dealings with. From what I understand, Sir Fancy Pants would use phrases such as everyone and everybody. We can talk to him and possibly gain some aid in correcting the damage that has been done. He apparently is well-liked and has many connections. I can’t personally think of none other that could help us with this issue in regards to one’s personal image.”
“Now come now, let me bring you back to your dream. You still need a good night's sleep and there but a few hours left.” Celestia weekly nodded to this and allowed Luna to use her magic to send her back into her own dream bubble. Once Celestia was sent back to her own dream, she found that there was a sudden pain around her neck and this caused the mare to quickly wake up from her dream with a sudden welp.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia* *Location: Celestia's bedchambers* *Time: Four in the morning*
The solar princess had been soundly sleeping in her bed. Body mostly covered in a big silk white blanket. But she had suddenly shot up and into a sitting position. From there, she had thrown off the blankets in order to grasp at her neck with both of her hands in panic. At the same time, she was having a panicked expression crossing her face. As she took in a deep breath. Celestia’s mane was a mess and some sweat could be seen running down her face.
She had thrown her legs over the edge of her bed and gotten up in order to get to her dresser. Which had a large vanity mirror and used her magic to turn on the lights in her room. Once she did that, she leaned in and lifted her chin and had to hold in a loud gasp as her eyes turned into pinpricks upon seeing a very noticeable bruise going all the way around her neck in the same place that she was assaulted by that tendril that was protecting the bubble. It was a solid, unbroken line that might have been confused from a distance for a choker accessory.
The injury was quickly enveloped and her golden aura after charging her horn for a healing spell. After a few seconds, her eyes went wide with disbelief once she realized that it was having no effect at all. It was just as it was back in the dream, were Luna could not heal it past a certain point and Celestia had this look of dread on her face as she began to put the pieces together.
If that weird drill appendage had made it to her head, then odds were that Celestia might have died in her sleep. What's more, she had no idea if this was a direct result of trying to break in when she was not wanted, or was it possible that any injury sustained while entering his mind and any damage would have the result of transferring to her true form that was in the waking world. She then wondered what would have happened if that monster had managed to get to Luna before it was pulled away at the last moment.
Then Celestia had another scenario running through her mind that she just could not stop. It was about the dream that she would get on occasion. Where she and him were locked in battle. What would have happened if she had gone in and was caught by the same dream and played her role as she always had. Except, through his anger towards her, his version could have been changed. thereby causing his shield to decapitate her instead of stopping.
She then started to speak in but a whisper that was filled with Dread, while looking at the bruise Mark around her neck. “What would become of myself if he should ever learn how to dream walk and enter my own? It would be entirely possible with a mind that is capable of inflicting this type of wound on the physical realm.”
With this sudden realization being brought forth. Celestia return to her bed and laid down over the covers only to stare blankly at the underside of her beds overhead cover. She then began to absent-mindedly bring her left hands index finger to trace along the mark on her neck. This was then followed with her eyes going slightly unfocused and her breath quicken. Along with the rate of her heart speeding up.
Without much warning, the hand that was lightly touching the bruise mark had moved up so that she was lightly gripping around her own neck. At the same time, her free right-hand had snaked its way over and was now lightly fondling her right breast through her silk white nightgown. She then lit her horn and envelop the entire room with a sound cancelling spell before a series of light moans that began to escape her lips, as she started to talk to herself in a aroused tone that was short of breath.
“He, he was he was so angry with me.... Oouh... Why-why is my body heating up?!” Celestia began to let out a small gasp as her hand gripped a little tighter on the mark. In response, the mare began to shift her hips so that her thighs were rubbing up against each other as she shifted her position from left to right. In doing so. For bedsheets began to shift and become disheveled. Some light moans began to escape as she bit down onto her lower lip and was forced to breathe a little heavier through her nose.
The image of him sitting on that crate had flashed in front of her minds eyes and she remembered the way she felt during that time. The way she began to feel warm down there and even a slight tingle. This of course, brought back the sensation from then and Celestia was now lightly bucking her hips into the air, as her fingers went to work on her neck and right breast even harder. This eliciting a loud moan to escape her lips as her mouth opened up slightly before biting down again to stifle any sounds from escaping.
As Celestia’s fingers went to work at aggressively squeezing her breast. Her thumb and index finger were already starting to lightly pinch at her nipple, that was now fully erect and practically poking through her nightgown. This eliciting another chorus of moans from Celestia and was paired with her gasping for air every few seconds. From this she could feel her lower lips getting very wet, this thanks to the shifting of her thighs as she continued.
Within her mind, she couldn’t help but to say the following to herself. “He looks down on me. There's a male out there that looks down on me! Aaah! A male that is fully capable of causing me pain! A real male that wouldn’t even think twice to reprimand me! Oh! Yes... Yes! Oh my... W-What I wouldn't give to hear his voice from back when he was angry! He even called me a Horse! I have never been called that before! Does he truly see me as some dirty tramp! S-Some Hussie?! OooOOhhhh! YES!”
That had apparently been enough of a mental image for Celestia to buck her hips in a frantic motion and bear her teeth. She was also letting out a scream that filled the room. This alone would have instantly called in the guards that were standing just outside, that is if it was not for the spell that she had already placed ahead of time.
Celestia was already drenched in sweat and her wings unknown to her were painfully outstretched and had practically gone over the edge of the bed on both sides of her body. Her breathing had quickened into short bursts as she was getting air to rush pastor teeth. Even the grip of her left hand who had her fingers wrapped around her neck had grown stronger. This in turn had caused her breathing to be more forced as she was literally preventing her own body from getting much needed oxygen. Her face was flushed and turning red. However, it was hard to notice if it was from lack of air or a combination of that and her aroused state.
During this, her eyes we're looking upwards and had this twisted smile and a heavy amount of drool that could be seen coming from the right side of her mouth. Clearly showing that Celestia was going through some sort of personal, mind-blowing experience. The rest of her body arch as her back lifted off the bed. After losing control, she didn't even notice how her fingers that were playing with her nipple, were now pulling so hard that it was completely stretch to its limit and she had already torn her nightgown in the process.
Down below, where her attire would normally have stopped just above the knee. Had shifted up to expose her white panties that had completely been soaked through with her juices. What's more, was the amount of fluids still leaking from the edge of her panties that was dribbling onto her bed and creating a large wet stain that had grown. There was yet another scream that came from her lips while her hips were in the air and legs straining to keep her up.
With a series of almost imperceivable jerking motions, her panties began to dribble as a few spurts of her mare juices had forced their way after hitting the insides of the fabric. When this had happened to her body, she became completely frozen for a few seconds, while her legs from the underside were carrying what had it come out towards the end of her legs and staining more of her bed sheets.
The room had a deafening echo as Celestia screamed at nearly the top of her lungs during this event. Which was quite impressive with the way she was gripping herself with her left hand and a very little amount of oxygen that she had managed to get into her lungs beforehand.
As soon as that was done, her body had finally given out and allowed her the fall back onto the bedspread and creating not only the puff sound upon landing on a soft mattress but also hey perceivable impact against something wet and soggy that had accumulated underneath. The hands that were busily playing with her body, had finally release their grip and fallen at her sides to allow Celestia to breathe without any obstruction.
With her body spent, Celestia weekly turned her head in order to look at the night stand that had that picture that she drew. With a tired grin and a set of heavily flushed cheeks that were covered in sweat. She tried to focus on the picture as her mind was quickly going blank from the exhaustion and lack of proper sleep. However, just as her eyes closed and her consciousness was finally going down for the count. She weakly spoke under her breath that was ragged and had hardly any strength present. “L-Lulu... Find him again… soon.”
If she were to still be awake and looking towards the window, Celestia might have noticed a pair of gleaming white eyes belonging to a small baby bat that was currently hanging upside down and peeking into a room from the window. It had just then unfolded its swings and took flight in order to dive down to a lower section of the palace without making a sound.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: His room in Ponyville* *Time: Six in the morning*
Brex, while still sitting in the chair. He was blinking his eyes slowly awake after spending the rest of the night venting his anger, by changing that dream into one where he was going through a dungeon and just going to town with slaughtering everything that he came across. But by the time he had to wake up, he had luckily worked out everything that was bothering him so that it was not going to affect this day and the plans he had in store.
However, before he could even get up. The Roegadyn had received a mental download from his double that was stationed back at the castle in Canterlot. As soon as it all came in, his eyes went so comically wide that he was sure that if they had gotten any bigger, than his mask might have been pushed off of his face. He even had to contain a loud gasp of disbelief as to not wake up Gilda who is still in his bed on the other end of the room.
Inside his mind, he pretty much screamed the following. WAIT! WHAT?! Celestia! Celestia! Is a… No-No-No! That can't be right! NO! She can't be… NO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO, HELL NO! I am not having this! No way, no how! Why is she... Oh by the Twelve... She's a… She’s a fucking HORNY masochistic princess! And she's targeting me! I swear! Something or someone has to be setting this up, because this... This does not happen! Yeah, sure she has a hot body and all, but I'm not interested in her as a partner!”
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Canterlot: Within Princess Luna's Bedchambers*
Luna had just woken up and threw off her covers to get out of her bed and had headed right into her private bathroom. After taking a good look at herself in the mirror. She leaned in and turned on the faucet in order to splashed some of the cold water onto her face to help with getting her to stay awake. She had to head to the dining room to meet up with her sister for the usual get-together.
Even if Luna was within the dream realm and helping the ponies. It did not mean that she was actually asleep herself. This meant that even though the younger of the sisters was in bed for nearly the entire night, she was wide awake and required normal sleep afterwards. Which she took during the day. This explaining why she was only active during the night time and was always found asleep for a good portion of the day.
After blinking her eyes a few times. Luna looked into the mirror once again and brought forth the image in her mind's eye of the plant that nearly took her face while within the dream world. She then had a distant expression as she replayed the events that transpired shortly afterwards in vivid detail.
Right after she had been saved and the axe had been pulled free from the corpse. Luna found that her sister was primed to launch one of her spells with the way her body was positioned and quickly stepped between the two of them in order to block the line of sight. As she did this, she quickly called out to her older sister in a frantic tone that was still shaky from the scare from but a moment ago. “Sister please! He is the one we are here to meet! Stay your magic! I assure you that he is not here to harm us!”
Celestia clearly had a look of contemplation as she was slowly lowered her outstretched hand that had a faint yellow glow which was beginning to grow dim. Although her eyes were still transfixed on to the one that was standing behind Luna. When she returned her gaze back towards him, she saw how he was facing is helmet towards her and lifting his axe in order to gesture towards her older sister.
Seeing what he was getting at, Luna tried to make herself look bigger by standing straight as she could and began to speak in a diplomatic tone. “I brought my older sister, Princess Celestia in order to reconcile the serious grievances between yourself and her.” Luna then heard a low growl that echoed from behind his metal helmet, before he spoke just loud enough that she was sure that her sister would not have been able to hear it from the distance she was currently at.
“I invited you... What gives you the right to bring others into my mind. Especially her! Don't think that just because you have the title of princess, that it means you can do whatever you wish. I am not one of your subjects that will snivel and cower at the drop of a hat whenever one of its rulers decide that they want to go off and do whatever they want. I am not one to graciously allow either of you to do so while kissing the very ground you walk on. Did you honestly believe I would be comfortable with this seeing that you have betrayed my trust so soon? I expected that you would not pull such an act. But at least not for a little while longer. But it would seem that I am grossly mistaken as to whom I give my trust too.”
As Luna heard him speaking, she was beginning to get some chills that were running down her spine that had nothing to do with how cold it was. With every word, his voice would get lower and Luna was almost sure that he was beginning to radiate a form of aura that comprised of both red and black that was just barely visible. She was almost positive that his eyes were also glowing red from behind the helmet as well and were gaining intensity. Shewas clearly hurt by the words concerning his trust towards herself.
There was then a series of howl's that were coming from above that caught the attention of both her and her sister, as they looked where they had been walking from. When they did, Luna's eyes went wide upon catching the site of a handful of those creatures that were chasing them. They were right now in the act of scaling down the side of the cliff.
They did this by either jumping from one small ledge to another, or allowing their bodies to drop a short distance before digging their clawed hands into the side of the rock face to slow their descent. Only to continue this process until they had finally arrived at the very bottom and making a cloud of snow when their large bodies landed.
One of them who was the closest and had already landed on a ledge. Pushed off and was in mid-fall to land directly onto her sister. But before either she or Celestia can do anything. The creature was hit in the center of its forehead by a large axe that had enough power behind its throw that it sent the monster flying back a good several meters. Only to land in the snow for its white furred body to disappear into the environment and leaving nothing but the axe to be seen from where they stood thanks to the glow it gave off in contrast to the white all around it.
As Luna was still looking where the creature was laying, she heard from directly behind her, the voice of the male growling an animalistic fury as he slowly passing by her as he spoke. “Good... A Distraction! Should help me in calming down before I do something that I just might regret later.” The cloak that was covering his left side have been thrown over so that it was now hanging off of his back, as to allow his arm its complete freedom in movement.
After walking several meters towards the beasts that had all congregated near the base of the cliff side. He reached down and retrieved his axe from the skull of the one he had just slain. There was a lull of silence that lasted a few seconds before both she and Celestia had to fold their ears down while covering them with their hands after he had released a booming deafening roar that was filled with unbridled rage.
This in turn, had the effect of visibly shaking up the pack of creatures as a few of them took a defensive posture by slightly leaning forward. While Luna caught a number of them taking a hesitant step back. She herself had the furs on her whole body now bristling from hearing such an outburst. It even caused her to hold her own breath for an instant.
There was even one of those beasts who nearly went so far as to bow their head. But this only lasted for a split second before regaining its composure. It was the one in the back which seemed larger than the rest by a few hoofs, that gave a challenging roar of its own in which to rally the rest into charging all at once.
The odd aura that she had perceived moments ago, had come into a full eruption as his entire body became engulfed in the colors and she could see how he flexed both his arms out and sent another roar straight up into the sky. To Luna, this was obviously a sign from both sides that the carnage was to begin by two alpha’s.
(Here is a Picture of how Brex looks while he is angry as a Warrior.)
He raced forward with showing little resistance from his legs plowing through the deep snow and came across the first to meet him within a few seconds. Unfortunately for the creature, it had tried to swing down at him with a diagonal strike with its left arm. Only to have him sidestep it to be on the outside and spun his body so that his axe would come around and take off the arm that was used to launch that attack at the shoulder.
Before the arm had even fully separated by this move. The axe had stopped before reaching the ground and the blade was shifted towards the side and brought forcibly up again to slice along where its stomach was and gouging a deep cut until the weapon had completely left its flesh and sent trails of blood to smear to stain the white ground. Some of it had even covered his left leg from the knee and down and had instantly become frozen over the metal.
The beast had let out a feral growl just before it turned into a pitiful whimper that lasted only as long as it took for its body to hit the ground and become motionless. The next one to come try to attack, had come from behind him. But was easily dispatched after he had jumped into the air after first turning on the spot to deliver a full-on head-splitting chop with his full body added to the powerful attack as it came down.
The force of which not only allowed the heavy looking axe to bury itself pass the large skull, but had only stopped once it had gone just further than the neck on to the main body itself. But it had the added effect of bringing the whole body down so hard, that it literally caused a shock wave to blast away a good portion of snow to reveal a rocky ground that spanned a couple of meters around the dead body.
There was yet another surge of this red aura just as he had pulled his axe free from the bloody body and gave another one of those roars before somehow jumping several meters in front at a blinding pace to deliver another skull splitting attack. Thereby bringing down a third with just a single hit and making yet another crash with the power behind it.
It was clearly seen by Luna that three were coming at him from not only behind, but from either side of him right then. But as soon as they had gotten within range of his long weapon, they were turned into mincemeat by him going into an accelerated spin that allowed his axe to do a complete three hundred sixty-degree arc around his form for a total of three times before coming to an end.
Only to finish with him taking another strike with his axe going towards the ground and sending a powerful shockwave in all directions. Once this final attack had struck, the three monster’s bodies were sent tumbling back and during this, it was plainly seen that a number of arms and legs had been severed along with their bodies receiving beep gouges that are going from left to right. One of them had even lost their head as it when far enough to disappear over a mound of snow.
Luna had to take a quick step back in order to avoid any of the parts hitting the ground and coming to a sudden stop after rolling a few times. Once it had, it was easily identified as one of the other monster’s heads after losing one of its horns. But her attention was pulled back towards the fight, when the last monster gave one of the biggest roars that she had heard so far. Which turned out to be the leader of the pack that was staying towards the rear and watching all of this unfold.
It then lunged forward and began to zigzag between the bodies as it closed the gap between itself and him and just as it got close enough. It had taken a strong swipe with its right arm and struck the axe which had just then been brought up the block.
There was a resounding clash between Steel and Claw that echoed through the area they were in from this. From there, the fight continued with the creature using different parts of its body as a completely spun in place to go into a furious, almost unending onslaught.
These attacks would either be blocked or parried by using the handle of his weapon or even the blade the come into direct contact with the claws or horns. The male would shift his legs to reposition himself in order the take on the blows as to not be knocked over. At times, there would be a sudden spark between the clashing metal and natural weapons that belonged to the both of them.
After close to nearly two minutes had gone by. Luna could tell that the beast was covered in cuts that were running all over its form. The arms, the legs, the Torso. Even the tail showed signs that they had nearly been cut through thanks to the amount of blood leaking from the wounds. The once pure white fur it at the start, was virtually turned completely crimson and the creature looked more like a beast out of Tartarus by this point than one that belongs in this frozen land in Luna's eyes.
As for the one with the axe. Not much had changed aside from the cloak gaining a few rips in the fabric and some of the armor being more than a little scuffed up from the combination of impacts with a tail and other limbs. Along with a few barely noticeable scratch marks that had grazed the surface in a few areas. The weapon however, was so heavily coated in the frozen blood that had stuck to it, that not only the blade had been doused. But most of the handle could be seen in the same state.
They were now a good ten meters apart and the hulking beast had lowered itself into a crouching position. Both of its hind legs and forearms we're firmly dug into the snow as its mouth was slowly dripping blood onto the snow underneath its body. In response, she could see that the male had swung his weapon behind and onto his back with his right arm and affixed it in place and had taken a ready stance with his right leg shifted back and both arms outstretched to show that he was provoking the creature into doing its obvious charge.
With another feral roar it begins its rush. The strength of its arms and legs was enough to raise not only snow, but the rocks that its claws were dug into from just the act of running at full speed. Its horns in prime position to run through whatever was in its path thanks to how it tilted its head.
A few small mounds of snow and rocks were easily plowed through and as it got close. Its horns were grabbed onto by both of his hands. With a noticeable loud grunt of exertion, they both kept moving in the direction that the creature was going for several meters before they came to a grinding stop as both of his legs made two sets of deep skid marks in the snow.
Luna could distinctly hear the creaking of metal and the non-stop growling’s from the beast as the two were caught in a stalemate in terms of strength. Neither one was giving the other any leeway that she could tell. One of the horns had been positioned where if it had kept on going the way it was, then it would have gone right through his chest plate.
As for the other Horn, it was firmly grasped in his right arm. After a few seconds of this, she heard him giving a loud grunt of exertion as his right arm appeared to be pushing at the horn he was grabbing on, until it had snapped off near the base with a loud sickening crack. The younger princess gave his expression that showed that it was rather disturbing. From there, Luna had absentmindedly brought her right hand up to touch her horn almost instantly.
Thanks to this sudden change in the way that it was being held back. The other horn had drifted off course and had just barely missed his left shoulders armor. But within that instant, he had used the very same horn that had broken off and was still in his strong grip, to swung up from underneath and rammed a tip into its head from just below the jaw. From what she could tell from where she stood. The horn itself was easily the length of her own arm.
Once it had gone in by at least several inches, he shifted his grip on the still intact horn so that he was now literally using it to keep the monsters head in place, thanks to it now being held under his left arm. Afterwards, he had released the horn that he had used as a weapon and made a fist with his hand in order to punch with its heavy gauntlet at the flat end that had snapped off. This made it so that this act had sent it deeper into its skull with a heavy crack that was emanated upon doing so.
Immediately, the beast went silent as its body movements had come to an abrupt halt. But it didn't stop there, as he continued to punch the horn until it went deeper and deeper until it had protruded from its skull at the top of its head near the back. With another grunt, he pretty much tossed the body to the floor and gave off a deafening roar of his own as he flung both of his arms apart and threw his helmet back.
This had the effect of making Luna’s hairs stand on end, along with holding her breath out of instinct to not be noticed. Once it had all settled down, he wordlessly brought them to the structure where they ended up having that little chat. Before Luna had to pull the both of them out after her older sister had upset him to the point of yelling into her mind.
Now coming back from her recollection. Luna bent down and splashed another handful of cold water across their face before she proceeded on continuing with her preparation for meeting her sister. All the while, going through her head as to how to get her older sister to be able to show just how remorseful she was towards him for their next meeting.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia* *Location: Dining room* *Time: Seven in the morning*
Celestia had just sat down at the large table and right in front of a plate of pancakes when Luna arrived in the dining room after using her usual teleportation spell to shorten the distance. The two of them had started off with their usual daily discussions about what was going to be happening that day. This being in regards to Day Court and other special events in the near future. Once those were out of the way. Luna immediately went straight into the topic that was mostly on her mind seeing as she had not shown too much interest until that moment.
“Sister, I believe there are few topics that I wish to inquire upon. First being that of the schools that was previously mentioned last night by you yourself. After all, was it not your suggestion that we should reconvene on that subject? I for one do not know that much from a part that they were established close to eight years ago and that there are three of them in total. I am quite interested in knowing how they were brought into being.”
Celestia gave a curt nod before wiping some of the crumbs from her breakfast off of her mouth before answering. “I suppose it would be best if I started at the very beginning. Roughly over a year before they were built. I was approached by a group comprised of both Pony, Griffin, Minotaur and even a young Dragon. All of which upon first glance, wore a colored robe that covered most of their bodies that would only leave their heads exposed when they came to Day Court.”
“I was told beforehand that a group had petition for an audience and had been waiting for nearly a month. There was thirteen in all. Though their own words, they had established that they came from somewhere outside of Equestria, but when I press the matter on where are they originated from, all they would say was that it was not on any currently known maps that we had in our possession. Of course, It was understandable that there were portions of our world that had yet to be explored. Because of this, I believed it was not entirely out of the realm of possibility and heard them out.”
“When I asked as to why they wished for an audience. I expected for a request for asylum perhaps. Instead, the monster attacks were brought up almost immediately and they informed me that they knew forms of combat, which could be taught to the other races in both, in and around Equestria in order to repel the threat more successfully. It was obvious to say that I was skeptical as to what they could possibly teach us when I had my trained guards.”
“They then surprised me by putting forth the proposal of a mock combat exercise between themselves and a number of my own elite guards in order to prove how effective their skills are. When I asked why they wanted to do such an act. Their response was, that showing would be far more effective than simply discussing what they could do.”
“Luna, what I need you to know, is that at the time, the monster reports have been getting more disturbing. As not only were they getting bigger and their sighting numbers becoming more frequent. The strength in which they possessed had been drastically increasing in certain areas and even a random monster would have appeared now and then that would be able to overwhelm the town guards that were stationed in the area. As a result, the casualties were becoming greater.”
“Well, you see... My current captain of the guard at the time. Who is now retired had taken great offense to such an outlandish statement and immediately took them up on their offer. While I myself was... Not quite as convinced. It was then quickly decided afterwards that they would hold this mock battle within the guards training ground, where they would have ample space and that I would reside as the judge.”
*Point of view: Princess Celestia* *Location: Castle guards training ground* *Time: Nine years ago*
Towards the back of the castle where they had an enclosed area with an open roof to allow the flyers to easily conduct their aerial maneuvers. The ground was tightly packed with dirt and along the edges, there could be seeing equipment set aside in certain parts. As for the center, it was completely cleared of any of obstruction.
The field that was to be used for the mock battle was easily eighty meters across to form a circle. On the northern part of the wall, roughly ten meters from the ground going up, was a balcony where Princess Celestia sat on a large chair. There she would over see it all from her current vantage point.
The sun was nearly at its peak with it being close to noon and there was some slight overcast that gave a few shadows to loom over some parts of the arena. On one side stood in a neat row, thirteen combatants dressed in robes consisting of three distinct of varying colors.
These colors being that of blue, green and red. Each one of the members wore a mask that only shrouded around their eyes and stop right at their noses. Or in the case of the Griffins, on the upper part of their beaks. Of the Blues, there were two and the greens had a total of three. Now, as for the Reds. There was a total of eight of them in a solid line.
As for the side representing the Royal Guards. All of which were 13 mare’s and a majority of them were Unicorns, while only four or Earth ponies and two consisted of Pegasus. The captain of the guards, who was a Unicorn mare by the name of, Far Cry. Was standing between the two groups and Celestia could tell that she was not taking this all that seriously with the condescending smirk that she could easily see thanks to the spell to enhance her eyesight in order to properly gauge their clash.
That was when one of the Blue robed ones came forward and had taken a few steps from the rest. She appeared to be a green toned Pegasus with a silver mane. The wings were protruding through some wide slits in the back of her robes. She then called out loud enough for all to hear. “I don't think you understand what we're here for Captain! We told your princess that we are better than you. I strongly suggest that you get more on your side before we start. Otherwise, this will be ending without much of a demonstration on our part.”
Captain Far Cry, had immediately turned on the spot in order to face the one who was clearly mocking them and shouted loud enough that if any other Pony was to try it, then their voice would instantly go raw from attempting to imitate.
“How dare you! We are the Royal Guard and we are the best of the best! We protect both the Princess and these lands! We are superior to any military force in the world! We don't know where you came from, but I'm sure it's from some ragtag country if it isn't even worthy of being on any of our maps. Of course, that's if we even believe a word of what you say!”
Celestia rose from her chair and addressed her captain. “Captain Far Cry. They did mention that they believe themselves to be stronger than my current guard. Why not honor their request and bolster your numbers? Captain Far Cry immediately responded to this with a shocked expression, as she had to contain an outburst that clearly was going to be something offensive but caught herself in time. However, Celestia did catch this but didn’t say anything as she kept her usual stoneface.
After releasing a huff of annoyance. The captain grumbled to herself loudly before motioning towards one of the open gates. Where there was stationed a group of guards that were watching what was going on. From there, five more joined to make a total of eighteen on the guard’s side. Once this was done, the guard captain called out to the robed beings, while using a condescending tone.
“There! I added more just as you requested. I still say that this is overkill for a bunch of mercenaries that came knocking at our door. Can't even imagine why you would even come to our country to begin with, other than to take advantage of our generosity.” The one that spoke up on the visitor’s side could be seen giving a light shrug as she was raising both of their arms in a, whatever gesture, before responding in a flat tone that just said that they didn't really care.
“You have already miss judge the strength of your opponents before anything has even been shown. It would appear being sent here is an action that is most needed for your country as well as the others that you are allied with.”
“It makes one wonder, about just how many of your battles have been lost due to incompetence and the pure lack of common sense. I have heard from my teacher, a saying that has stuck with me. One that I believe you yourself, should learn if you are going to continue with leading others. You can never defeat another, if you know not how to defeat yourself.”
The captain had a screwed-up expression before she called out in an agitated tone. “What does that even mean when it comes to this?!” She was immediately answered with, “We already know how the guard’s fight. Now tell me, do you know exactly what your limitations are and where are you are lacking?
Clearly getting extremely frustrated at this. The captain immediately gave a signal for his troops to get into formation. This being a standard half circle where they would be able to have a focused line-of-sight upon the thirteen that they were fighting, while being evenly spaced out with two meters in-between.
Thanks to Celestia's heightened senses, due to some spells being used on top of one another. She was able to not only perceive all withing the arena as a hawk could, but could also hear and sense it all as though she was standing right in the middle of it. She then had to quirk and eyebrow upon what she managed to hear coming from the one who was speaking this whole time.
While giving a defeated sigh, the Pegasus slightly turned her head to the others that came with her before speaking. “We are not being taken seriously. Going all out on them would prove nothing. We will be using the standard dungeon group formation.”
“If they had not gone with such a small group, then we all might have had a go. So, it'll just be myself, one Healer and two damage dealers for this. Max gear will not be required. Only what you can hold in your hands, that understood?” This got a nod from all of those in line and the next to happen, was one of the Green robes, which turned out to be a Minotaur and two Reds comprised of the young Dragon and an Earth pony, had come forth.
What caught Celestia's attention, was how they had pulled out from underneath their robes their weapons, but they didn't quite go with what she had expected. With a curious expression, she gazed upon the Blue who was carrying a buckle shield and a short sword. Celestia had never heard of a Pegasus being on the front lines to use a shield before. This was due to them being lighter on their feet but not the best at taking heavy hits.
When it came to the Minotaur wearing Green robes, he was fairly big. Not as tall as Celestia, but close. She had thought him to be using a large weapon. Instead, what she got was him pulling out from his sleeve a branch with a few leaves still on it and holding it in front of himself. While his other hand was hovering near it.
When it came to the first of the Reds. This one being the Earth pony mare with a red tone and a blonde Mane. She pulled out from underneath her robes, her own small square shield made of wood that seemed as though it was not going to offer much protection and a wand that was barely the length of her elbow to her fingertips. The wand was held in the same manner as the green robe Minotaur.
When it came to the only Dragon in their group. She was green and color, with gold spines that could be seen protruding from the back of her head in a pair of short horns. From what Celestia could tell, she had a pair of wings but they were folded in and clearly not being prepped for use of flight.
She already had her weapon on display as it was hanging off of her back and was that of a longbow and a set of arrows that were ready to be used in their quiver. Celestia knew that dragons were known for their strength and speed, along with their fire breath. But not once has she ever heard of one using a bow and arrow.
The Captain, along with the other Royal Guard, seem to be mirroring her thoughts, although they were much more loudly when doing so. “Hey girls! Take a look at what they got going on for their side! OK, you five cadets need to take a note! This is exactly what you should not do when you assign weaponry. They got a Pegasus working the front lines with a shield. They also got a Earth Pony and a Minotaur fighting with sticks. But the biggest mistake of all, is giving a bow and arrow to a dragon! Every Pony knows that there are the heavy hitters!”
“Let's get this farce over with! The Princess has better things to do with her time! Hear this! No need to go all out! Do whatever it is you all want to do, just make sure that they go down!” Afterwards, the lined-up group had pretty much broken down with each of them doing their own thing, while recklessly charging in thanks to their captain’s order.
With them clearly not taking this exercise seriously. Celestia had to contain herself from showing how disappointed she felt towards her Guard Captain. Even she herself had doubts as to how well the robed fighters would handle themselves with their current gear setup. But even she knew that taking it too lightly, would end up with a pony getting bit in the tail if not careful.
However, her worries were completely founded upon what happened next. The set of guards that were in heavy armor and using a mix of sword and shield, along with some Spears. Had rushed the Pegasus that was standing in front of their small group.
She has not even made any attempts at all into raising the items in either hand as they were just laying straight down when the group had finally reached her. The only thing the mare did, was to shift her right leg back for a more stable stance in response to the angle of the attacks that were coming.
Without missing a beat, Celestia saw how her body quickly shined with a gold light as it covered her form completely just as the first weapon, which turned out to be a spear, was about to make contact with her chest. But right as it did. Celestia could see how the one holding the Spears handle had come to a jerking stop. This was followed with the spear itself snapped off just a few inches from where the blade was set at the end.
The next attacks came from the rest. Who had just caught up and swung their weapons which their swords from varying angles. Only to have a similar result with the spear as a shower of sparks were emitted and there was a resounding metallic clang from multiple blades that echoed into the air.
They were then quickly dispatched with a series of sword techniques that Celestia did not think would have been possible to pull off so quickly. These being a mix of single target swings and wide arc, which had the Pegasus doing a spin in place and sending all the guards that were within range flying and remained unconscious, if not banged up on the dirt covered ground after landing.
The next one that ended up catching Celestia’s eye. Was the Dragon who had already launched a flurry of arrows by firing them all at once. As a result, the Dragon archer had already pinned down a few guards. And when she meant pinned down, she actually meant literally as the arrows had missed vital points and has gone through their armor and stuck themselves into the floor.
There was even one of the guard mare’s, who was receiving arrow after arrow. Only to have each and every one of them chipping away at sections of her armor until the plating had fallen off of her body once the last of the straps were cut by the fast-moving projectiles.
This revealing her to not be within her usual assigned undergarments when wearing the gear. But instead, she was sporting a set of blue lacy undergarments of the more stimulating nature. Once that was done, the mare in question had immediately dropped their weapons and scurried out of the training area. Obviously to find something else to wear.
Celestia tried desperately to contain her laughter as she looked forward to the next spectacle. This one being a group of four of her guards charging together in an attempt to rush the one Minotaur in the Green robes. After about a second or two of what she could only describe as channeling magic. He was now radiating a type of light off of the branch that he was holding. Celestia then could see a nearly imperceptible bolt of magic that was hurtling towards the group of oncoming guards.
Once it had made contact with the one in front, there was a brief burst of magic that washed over the group of four and before they even took a single extra step forward, they found themselves already crumpled onto the ground and loudly snoring logs. It seemed that the Guard Captain had saw that and started screaming at them to get up or they would have been punished with doing a thousand laps around the castle. Much to her dismay, that did nothing to stir them awake.
When Celestia had turned her sights over to the last member. The alabaster alicorn had nearly dropped her jaw upon witnessing an eruption of fire that had just sent two of her guards flying a good distance, before they landed on the ground and toppled over a few times before finally coming to a stop.
The rest that was still in combat, had gotten close to where there are just a few paces away from being able to strike at the one who launched the fireball a second before. But they were stopped in their tracks when they were instantly caught in a block of ice that came out from just underneath their hoofs in the time it took one to blink.
Luckily enough, they weren't completely incased, but their limbs were locked up right as their weapons came within a few inches of reaching their mark. Although, it was clearly evident with the way that their teeth were chattering away so loudly, that they were pretty much giving up and wanted nothing more than to be in front of a roaring fire right now.
The full match from start to finish, had barely lasted for even a full minute until all of her guards were either incapacitated, knocked out or made to run for the nearest locker room. While sitting in her chair and halfway in a position to show that she was about to stand on her legs. Celestia was almost slack jawed at witnessing all of this.
She knew full well that all of the guards that were selected for this mock battle, were in truth her best. But to be taken out in such a way, only made them appear to be no better than a fresh batch of recruits that could have only started that very day. While all eighteen were down for the count. Not even a single one of the four members had even been touched. Aside from the Pegasus who didn’t even show a single scratch. More so that they made it appear as though they had put little effort into doing so.
As for Captain Far Cry. She was completely beside herself and had crumpled down onto her knee. She even had this blank expression that said that she had clocked out within her own mind at what she just witnessed. All that talk about being the best of the best. Then having this done, must have been a heavy blow to the mare’s ego.
It had taken a few moments for Celestia to recover and declare the visitors as the victors of the mock battle. She was just about to call for a medic team in order to see to her guard’s injuries. But was interrupted when she saw that the Minotaur that was wearing the green robes, had stepped forth and was now in the center of the sprawled-out guards on the arena.
He then began to radiate a pulsing light that washed over them all and Celestia was again astonished when they all began to either wake up from whatever spell they were put under. Along with those that had received injuries, only to appear as though they had received none in the first place only moments after the odd magic was cast.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Dining room* *Time: Back in the present*
Luna has been sitting silently as she was listening to the recounts of the thirteen that came to visit her sister that day. She was clearly enthralled after hearing about how they fought and was intrigued in the manner in which they did so. After taking a moment to go over what she could in her mind. Luna then looked back to her older sister before asking a few questions that came to mind.
“And you said that an Earth Pony use the magic to make a large fiery explosion and right after, they froze some guards... Are you absolutely sure of that?” After getting a quick nod from Celestia. She then went on to her next question. “I can't help but to point out how much of a contradiction each one of those races are when it came to how they conducted themselves during the battle. Do you suppose there was a reason for such a formation when it came to the weapons they used?”
Celestia had just taken a sip of her drink and had set it down, while having a thoughtful expression before she answered. “I believe I did inquire as to that once. I was told that it was to prove a point about how it does not matter what race one is. There are techniques which allows even an Earth Pony to cast magic. Also, those that allow one to do physical feats which would otherwise be seen as impossible to do. Such as allowing a Pegasus to become a living fortress and repel so many of our trained guards with ease.”
Luna then began to hum herself as her expression turn slightly serious. After a few seconds of this. She looked towards her older sister before beginning to speak and a cautious tone. “I still cannot fathom that one who is not a unicorn, could even be capable of using magic. It does undo the very notion that one must have a horn in order to use such abilities. Pray tell, how did you react to learning of this?”
Her older sister then released a long sigh, before she had this tired expression on her face. She then answered by saying, “I could tell you this Luna... I was worried. I was so very worried. At first, I didn't know if they were a threat or possibly an unknown cult that got their hands on magical artifacts. The nobles upon catching wind of it began to accuse them. Using the excuse of teaching as a way to brainwash those of the working class into overthrowing them.”
“At first, I did not accept their plans on opening any of their schools for a while and told them that I would have to think it over carefully. To my surprise, they left without much effort and went out into Equestria. I of course had them placed under constant surveillance as they made their way from one town to the next. I had assumed that they would spread word of their ideas and try to recruit as many followers as they could. But to my surprise, all they did was protect the town's and lend assistance in everyday matters.”
“Not once did any of my spies that I had ordered to tail them, send me any documents that they said even a single word about the schools. And yes, there was an uproar among our citizens about the discovery of magic that any race was capable of using.”
“There were even cases where a representative from one of the places that they had gone to help coming to the castle for Day Court. The pony had questions as to why it was that the guards were being outdone so easily. Also, why the ones that were meant to protect them, were not trained in the same way of fighting off the monsters.”
“This would keep on continuing until I would end up getting at least one every day from various locations, all of which asking pretty much the same. Even those that were against them being in Equestria would end up dwindling in numbers. At one time, I had finally reached my decision and sent a messenger. The request was that they return to the castle, in order to discuss their plans.”
Luna had let out a curious hum before she started to speak. “I take it that once they returned. They were not so willing to give up their secrets and wished to keep the schools in order to train a personal army perhaps? Such skills most likely being well guarded from outsiders.” This got a firm head shake from Celestia as she answered that question. “Oh no! Quite the opposite in fact.”
“We had a private meeting that went fairly long and they gave me quite a bit to think over. As it turns out, we Unicorns use the energy within our bodies to produce our spells. However, whether it be for magic or to use those weapons skills of theirs. They use something that they referred to as Aether.”
“In essence, they believe it to be the building blocks as they refer to. That make up both energy and matter. Due to their training and using such a force, they are capable of doing so much. They appear to have a number of sources in which each of their teachings tap into such power.”
“I had thought about them simply telling us how to do it so we can teach our own. But they were very adamant about what would happen if taking the principles of which they just told me about and just forcing it on to another without proper training from those who have done so already. It would be the same as a filly tapping into an unknown power that would overwhelm their body and could do serious harm or even lead to one’s death, if not guided properly.”
Luna was now tapping her chin and giving Celestia a dubious look. Then asked, “Hmm… Well then, how much of the treasury was diverted in order to build these institutions?” This got an awkward smile from Celestia, before she went back and took another bite of her breakfast before answering.
“Now that's the curious part. It would appear that they have some financial backing, thanks to their many deeds from traveling it would seem. That and they said they had enough money saved up to fund it themselves. Honestly, both I and also my financial advisors could not seem to figure out just where they got the accumulated income to be able to build not just one, but all three. Even now, there's been some talk about some of the earlier students going overseas an opening up their own in the Griffin Empire. As well as over on the Zebra lands.”
The little sister who was in the middle of eating another bite of her food. Had nearly choked and had to hit her chest with her left fist a few times to clear her throat and spit out what got stuck. She then stared up at Celestia with wide eyes, filled with disbelief. After letting out a few more coughs. Luna loudly explained, while partially standing up from her chair in clear surprise.
“Are you implying that they had enough Bits to do all of that on their own? I remember being told that the one that is near to us, is nearly the size of our own castle itself! But-But... We must be covering the costs somehow, right? Oh, dear sister… Please don't tell me that we were funding their operation or that they are asking an exorbitant amount of bits from our citizen for entrance fees. And please do not shake your head again, because even I, from my thousand years of banishment could easily tell keeping such facilities to be kept open, would be a major drain on capitol.”
All Celestia could do, was to give a tired sigh before slightly leaning onto her right hand. That had an elbow on the table and gave Luna a flat look before replying. “Luna, do you happen to know what are the biggest businesses that are currently running in Equestria right now? If you don't, then let me.”
“For one, there is the company known as, Tech Hex Institute of Science. There have been great strides in technology within the past decade because of that company’s many contributions to not only Equestria, but to the other countries overseas. They happened to be one of the biggest sources of revenue for the schools through its donations.”
“They're the ones who introduced the Radio. Along with the Golems that are used in both Construction and Defense of our towns and cities. We even have a few of them on the castle grounds and I know for a fact, that one has been outfitted for training purposes by the guard’s request in order to get them used to fighting large opponents.”
“There is even been this marvelous invention called a microwave that has made life so much more convenient when heating up food at one's home. Even the Airships have greatly improved in their designs. But those are just a few of the many items that came from them.”
The point is, that none have to pay for attending these schools. There's even room and board along with meals included. Safety guidelines are strictly enforced and no one student has more privileges than the next. I so wished that you could have seen it Luna. You have no idea just how many of the Nobles came up to me during Day Court to complain on how their sons and daughters were not getting the proper treatment or the special privileges that they believe that they should have when attending these institutions.”
Celestia then gave off a small laugh while covering her mouth, before going on. “Between you and me. I think that it was a good opportunity to teach the young ones the meaning of hard work and not relying on their titles. Sure, there were some that dropped out due to bad conduct. But those that stayed have changed for the better I believe.”
Luna was now back to eating her food. But had put aside the parts that she had coughed up and was looking at them with a critical eye, as if daring it to cause her harm once more like some pouting child. When Celestia had noticed this, she quickly had a small smirk growing on her lips as she closed her eyes to take another bite of her food. Before she started to casually say the next part.
“By the way Luna, did you happen to know that there is this one combat class in particular, that has to deal with the stars?” This had immediately caught the younger sister's attention as she was clearly excited by this, when her ears shot straight up and was now fixated on Celestia with laser focus. Having clearly been getting the, please tell me everything you know look, from her little sister. Celestia then went on.
“One of them is called the, Astrologian. if I am correct, then I believe it is a healing job that uses a combination of divination, cards, and the stars to heal and support their allies. Well, that is what I remember them saying that was. Also, listen to this. Out of all of them, only one of the schools teaches this class and it just so happens to be the one that is just a short flight from here.”
As she was going on. She could plainly see that her younger sister’s eyes were beginning to sparkle at what was being said. There was even this brief instant at the very end where she was positive, she was going to need to have a spell ready in order to hold her sister down with the way she was pretty much vibrating in her seat.
As for the proverbial icing on the cake. Celestia continued. “You know Luna, they don't have classes only during the day. They even hold them during the night. Perhaps, when you feel up to it, you may want to drop by and inspect it for yourself. We even have a few of our castle staff who have taken on to learning how to be one of these Astrologian’s. Perhaps you might want to ask them for more details, hmmm?”
By then, Luna’s mind was racing with thoughts of finishing her meal and asking one of her night guards if they knew of any of the ponies who had taken the course to becoming a Astrologian. But before she returned to her meal. Celestia began to think to herself. “If I didn't know any better, then one might presume that this was all orchestrated for my sister, in regards to this one in particular being taught so close to the castle.”
*Point of view: Third person* *Location: Hotel room in Ponyville*
The mound of ruffled up bed sheets had just started to shift on the bed. Soon popped out a single long foot that resembled a feline. From there, a set of claws were partially extended as it was clearly giving a good stretch before there was a grumble from underneath the covers and Gilda’s head poked out, while looking extremely groggy with only one eye partly open and her feathers disheveled from the way she slept.
Just a few paces away from her bed, was Brex sitting at a table, while looking down at something. Gilda had just shaken her head a few times and had brought up her left hand and ran it down her face in order to wipe away the drowsiness, before glancing over in his direction.
At first, she seemed rather confused, but after a few moments of blinking. She had let out a not so amused huff from her nose before throwing the covers off with enough strength that they were now laying on the floor as half of it was going over the edge of the bed itself.
The Griffin had just landed with both feet onto the floor and hadn't even taken a single step, before she heard Brex calling out in a flat tone without even turning his mask towards her. “Gilda, we don't own this place, we are only renting. How would you like it if a total stranger was to roughly handle your belongings in the same way that you just did? Now go and at least make sure that is not on the floor. Once you're ready to go, we will be heading down to the front desk and getting you your own room to stay in.”
Gilda was clearly upset with the way that she was balling her hands into a set of fists and giving a deep scowl to the Roegadyn. But the attitude quickly came to an end when he turned his mask extremely slowly towards her, while changing his tone to that of wicked playfulness.
“Please don't tell me that the little birdie has already forgotten about the promise we made last night? Who knows, I might just drag you outside in the middle of the street when they have all the fruit stalls set up and give you a light spanking in front of all those... Hmmm... Now what did you call them? Ahh! That's right, you referred to them as “Lame ponies.” Just imagine what your reputation would be like while you're forced to live here for a while with that looming over your head”.
Gilda was clearly giving it a long moment to think things through. As her face had managed to turn nearly red through her feathers. This was before letting out a feral growl as she relented and went back over to pick up the blanket and threw it on top of the bed.
She then turned to Brex as she came closer to see just what he was looking at. “Just what is it that an oversized dweeb like yourself is doing right now?” When she had finished speaking, she was standing right next to him and leaning in somewhat. Her hands resting on both of her hips and having a very perplexed look on her face as she slightly tilted her head to one side.
Brex had returned his attention to the table and gave a light shrug as he had placed what looked to be a large version of a playing card of sorts down alongside another to make a complete set of three going across, while three down. He then started to speak as he slowly turned one card over after another. “Oh, nothing much. I just thought I'd change up how I do things today sense I got a little bored. Since you still needed time to get ready, I went ahead and gave this a quick whirl. Have you ever heard of tarot card readings?”
Gilded quickly shook head and gave off this impression that she didn't really care what he was talking about. The Griffin then turned on the spot and was heading towards the bathroom, while speaking in a condescending tone. “I have no idea what it is you're talking about, but I'm pretty sure it's something really stupid. So just leave me out of it! Don’t want the dorkiness you got to rub off on me! Also, you better not let me catch you peaking on me in here!”
“Sheesh! Not only am I stuck in this deadbeat town and have to take orders from you! Now I got to listen to nonsense!” When she was nearly about to close the door behind herself once she had gone inside of the bathroom. Gilda heard him saying the following and this caught her attention immediately as she left the door just partly cracked open to hear him.
“Oh well, it's not for everyone. It's just a fun way to pass the time. Who doesn't want to try their hand at learning what's going to happen in the future? Hmm... let's see what's going to happen today?”
He had just hummed to himself a few more times as the sound of cards we're shifting on the wooden table as he flipped one after another. After a few seconds of this, he then continued in an amused tone. “I don’t think that the stars must not be lined up too well for me today. I doubt very much that this is going to be happening. Hmm… Maybe I did it wrong?”
After that, Gilda slowly closed the door the rest of the way in order to not let it be known that she was eavesdropping. She then gave a small snort of annoying before she took a few steps in and started to undress in order to give herself a quick shower. However, just as she was getting in and the water that had already started up in filling the tub. The Griffin had accidentally slipped on a small bit of water that had splashed onto the tiled floor near the tubs edge.
As a result, she went tumbling forward and she attempted to grab onto the shower curtain to stabilize her fall. But it began to detach from the rings thanks to her weight and ripped a portion as she pulled them loose. Thanks to this, Gilda ended up doing an odd spin as her limbs flailed in a clumsy manner.
By the time she had landed butt first into the tub that had been nearly a quarter of the way full of water. The young female Griffin had been partly wrapped up with her arms trapped by some of the shower curtain and her left leg was being strung up as her claws had ripped into what was left that was still attached to the shower railing.
After clearly hearing the commotion. Brex rushed into the bathroom and as soon as he had taken a step inside, he got to have a good view of Gilda in her current state. What's more was how she was in a position that her privates down below were in full view just that she had regained her bearings.
After seeing the young Griffin in such a compromising state. Brex slowly turned away while giving out a small huff of annoyance and closed the door on his way out. But not before saying loud enough for Gilda to hear. “I guess the reading was correct. I was going to end up seeing an unexpected sight as a result of an unlikely series of events in the near future.”
Gilda on the other hand. Who was still in her current state, had not moved even a single feather as her eyes or comically wide. There was then a sudden loud scream that came from her mouth as she quickly tore herself free in order to cover herself with both her arms and wings. While doing this, she had a heavy blush that was exploding across her cheeks and clearing fighting back tears that were a mixture of extreme anger and embarrassment.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 51: Friendship, HURTS!
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Just outside of their hotel* *Time: Eight in the morning*
After the little scene that Gilda was caught in after falling in the tub. The young Griffin had stayed inside of the bathroom for nearly an hour while getting cleaned up and Brex had to wait during the entire time until she was done. Clearly after knowing her aunts, Brex knew how to spot that she had not bathed in at least a few days thanks to the way her feathers looked.
Once she was finally out, Brex could hear the Griffin still grumbling to herself in regards to the incident. However, what made itself more known to the Roegadyn, was her stomach being much louder than her building anger. Luckily for Gilda, Brex always had some food tucked away in his item box and brought out something that he knew that the young Griffin could eat.
The meal consisted of roasted potatoes and steamed carrots that were nicely chopped up, along with some brown gravy drizzled on top. There was even a boneless breast piece from a gobbler that had been roasted and glazed with honey and herbs. Alongside of it, it came with a large mug of fresh orange juice. All of which pretty much appeared out of thin air when Brex had taken it out of his item box once he had waved his hand just over the table that he was sitting at.
Brex could clearly see that Gilda wanted to ask where it had come from. But her hunger had won out and she furiously dug into the food that was still in the exact same condition as the moment he had stored it away. This meaning that it was still piping hot. As soon as she had gotten at least halfway through with stuffing herself and was in the middle of taking a long swig of the orange juice, did Brex finally get around to speaking while having a somewhat shocked expression behind his mask from watching the way Gilda was attacking his food.
“Hmm… suppose you have been rather busy with traveling to eat properly as of late. This got Gilda to slow down drastically as she gave him a shifty look, before mumbling past a mouth full of food. “I get by just fine. The last thing I need is for an oversized dweed like you to worry about me.”
After hearing that, Brex slowly shook his head while releasing a heavy sigh before going on. “Gilda, just to make sure that you know this, but... Ponyville isnt exactly capable of feeding those who cannot focus on the dietary requirements that the ponies are accustomed to. In other words, you're not going to be able to get much and ways of meat. Well, more like any at all, unless you plan to go hunting.”
Gilda had just swallowed another bite before she replied in a snarky tone. “If that's all, then I'll just run into the forest and kill something. You know, I probably won’t even have to go that far. On my way in, I saw a bunch of animals near the edge of town. They were around some big mound of dirt that was mostly covered in grass. There was even a small river that went by it, so I could probably get the fish too.”
There were a few seconds of silence before Brex spoke up again. However, this time it was with a more serious tone. “Gilda, that is where Fluttershy lives. And the animals you saw are her friends and she takes care of them all. So, I strongly suggest that you do not go after them.” This got a small scoff from Gilda and Brex redoubled his efforts by shifting his voice to a lower tone.
“I'm serious Gilda. If you so much as look at those animals with hungry eyes, then I'd have no choice but to come up with a very humiliating punishment that will make sure that you can't go out without hearing your name being said in gossip for many years to come. In fact, I will make it a personal mission to come up with one where it will travel far and wide. It will become stuff of legends. Even those from throughout the Griffin Empire will know the name of Gilda! The mothers will tell their young chicks about the atrocities that were inflicted upon said Griffin in order to scare them into being good little birdies.”
Gilda’s feathers began to bristle as her eyes when comically wide for but a brief moment, before she went back to eating silently and giving a quick nod as response to his threat as she went back to finishing her food. All the while, still shifting her gaze back to him and returning it to her meal whenever she thought that he would notice.
Once the dishes were put away, they quickly proceeded to checking in with the front desk to book another room for Gilda to use for herself. Brex could clearly tell how acting as though nothing had even happened was beginning to eat away at Gilda as she would continuously send him her patented death glare. But to only turn at the last second when she saw him tilting is mask towards her when she did so.
To say that Young Geezer was surprised when he saw Brex coming down with a female Griffin, was an understatement with how he had his jaw dropping as they approached the counter in plain view. Brex had put down a payment for the room next door after informing that he would be funding for the both of them. Afterwards, they were finally out of the building and Brex was leading the way to the adventurers building that was close to a ten minute walk away at a leisurely pace.
But as they went through the town, he noticed how his usual attention was being fully pulled away by Gilda who was giving off this smug attitude of hers. It was clearly evident that it was not because that she was a Griffin and that they had hardly seen any if none at all since she arrived. Instead, Brex could see in his chat log on the bottom left-hand corner of his vision, that they were gossiping about what happened during the party and it was not all that favorable.
Just from their words alone, he was able to tell that it went pretty much the same way as it did from the show and Gilda really did end up exploding on Applejack and making a complete fool of herself. Brex did think that Gilda was a bit of a jerk, but to be publicly humiliated in such a way while trying to re-connect with her old friend was going a little too far, even by his standards.
For one thing, he didn't appreciate the fact that Pinkie had gone so far as to use one of those joy buzzers on Gilda that night. Here in Equestria, it wasn't such a toy where one would turn a spring ahead of time and it would just make a sound when the button was pressed when two shook hands.
Nope, on this world it really did give an electrical shock. As it turned out, Griffin's really don't do well with electricity. In fact, because of their resilience and natural magic running through their own bodies. The ponies can resist such things as getting struck by lightning and surviving with little trouble. Unlike with a human, such an event would easily lead to their death instantly.
For Gilda, getting shocked by a toy buzzer by a pony, was the equivalent of getting a full-on taser shock from a police officer back on Earth. Brex had actually gone into a little research on how resilient these Ponies are compared to humans and found out that this toy alone that was sold in joke shops was capable of rendering a griffin paralyzed, if not knocked out if used on them. So, he was quite impressed when Gilda was able to walk it off. He was also sure that when he found all this out in the past. He made certain to send a letter to the ones who made it to put a warning label for such an event when selling their products in the future.
Meaning that, Pinkie was using a very old product or the manufacturers neglected to go with his warning. Either way, Brex was going to make sure that one of his representative’s goes to that manufacturer in order to make an inquiry. Honestly, he had no idea how it is that these ponies can make something that could easily bring up a lawsuit with poor business practices and liability issues.
Back to the present. The two of them made it to the guild building and Gilda went and request to have her info be transferred from the last place that she took a job at through the guild. To his surprise, Gilda was already ranked “E” and the current mare that was running the front desk who was not Lyra, had informed Gilda that she was close to another promotion. Gilda was obviously acting all tough and merely waved it off like it was nothing at all. However, Brex could clearly tell by the subtle twitch of her beak that she was trying to hold in a grin at hearing the news.
Thanks to a form of magic, all of the guilds were connected through the Ley lines that ran across the land. Whenever the information was needed, it would take close to a half an hour before it all travel through the magic network and was received once the initial request was made and returned to update the info the current hall that the adventurer was at.
The only reason why Celestia and most of the world still relied on mail and Spike’s way of sending letters, was because of the way that these Ley lines were set up and that they could not handle everyday uses for every single individual like some cell tower for phones. So instead, they were dedicated to such things as the military and emergency responses. The Adventurer's Guild being with the ladder.
Honestly, Brex did think about requesting for all of his records from every single Guild building that he took a quest from. But decided to start completely from scratch. Besides, at the rate the way things are going now, he'll end up getting his first promotion in a few weeks anyway and was all right with waiting. Rex had no intentions of skipping out this time around.
After Gilda had gotten her plate all set up with the branch that was stationed up in Ponyville. They immediately grabbed onto a quest that involved going on a patrol along the outer edge of the Ever Free in order to keep an eye out for any stray creatures or monsters that might wander out. Their options when encountering them, was to either immediately report it the town or if possible, take care of the matters themselves.
Depending on if it was a monster, then anything that was left behind could be used as proof to receive some extra rewards. Now, if it was just some random animal. Then depending on what it was, they could either turn it around or slay it. Which Gilda was fully for with how insistent she became when saying how she wanted to deal with whatever came out of that forest. More so if it was something that she could cook up.
They had barely made it out of the guild building before the doors were quickly swung open and the one who came in turned out to be the one and only Rainbow. From there, it quickly dawned on Brex that this was not going to turn into a civil conversation as soon as he saw the two giving each other a stare down.
By the way things were going, Brex could tell that Rainbow had not even noticed his presence as her focus was solely on Gilda. The same could be said for the Griffin as well. It was clear to the Roegadyn, that the fur on the back of Gilda’s neck was standing on end and her paw’s gripped the floor for good traction.
Brex did manage to break them from their current state by walking past Rainbow and calling over his shoulder just loud enough that the two could hear him over their own massive egos. “Gilda we are going, now!” After a few seconds, the Griffin finally relented and brushed past Rainbow while giving a huff. This in turn ruffled Rainbows feathers enough that she whirled on the spot and was about to hit Gilda from behind with her right fist that was pulled back suddenly. But there was this flash from an object that went whizzing by Gilda's legs and embedding itself in the floor, had stopped Rainbow’s attempt at doing a sneak attack.
It turned out to be a single large playing card that had what would appear to be a picture of a tree on one side and a star pattern on the other. The corner of the card was stuck into the wooden flooring right between the two. This had caused the Pegasus to shoot her wings out and take a quick step back out of shock and Gilda to quickly turn around to find out what it happened. It didn't take her long to notice the object that was right between them and glanced back over at Brex with an arched eye brow that just told him, did you really just throw that?”
When she did this, Rainbow had caught on and followed Gilda’s gaze and mirrored the Griffon’s expression as they both saw him with his left hand out and hovering a few inches above it was a weird contraption that was a series of rotating rings going in different directions and an assortment of cards with the faces pointing inwards as it was circling it in an orbiting pattern. As for his right hand it was already fully extended to show that he was the one who threw it.
(Here is a picture of Brex with the star globe weapon that the Astrologian uses.)
In the same playful tone that he used to intimidate Gilda a number of times with. He spoke to them both as he turned his gaze towards Gilda. At the same time, the card on the ground began to vibrate before it dislodged itself and shot into his open hand and was placed among the others that were currently rotating in the air. “Gilda, we… Are… Going! leave your lover's spat for when you're not on the clock. As for you, Miss Dash... I know that you are a Rogue. But still, to attack another member of your Association from behind while within the confines of the Guild building is just disgraceful.”
Afterwards, Brex turned and left the building along with Gilda in tow. He also caught a quick glimpse as soon as the door was beginning to close of Rainbow having her ears being slightly lowered. After several minutes of the two going through town and making their way towards the forest. Gilda finally spoke up after a long stretch of awkward silence. “Hey, you didn't have to butt in. I had it fully under control. I’m not some hatchling.”
To which, got Brex to respond in a strange happy-go-lucky tone, that was clearly laced here and there with a minor amount of sarcasm. “Oh… I know how well you would have taken that situation. You bump into her, she retaliates, then you retaliate in return to her retaliation and the next thing I know, I have to bail you both out of a mess. And in case you're wondering I am not going to ask you why you came looking for Miss Dash in particular out of all the places in Equestria for you to head for.”
“However, I'm going to say this... It would be better if you were to talk this out before your relationship falls apart completely. Because I believe that you still have time to salvage it. Now I don't care if you're going to deny what I say. Nor does your relationship with one another have anything to do with me. The only problem is, that I don't want you to suddenly break out into a fight whenever you see one another. Also, if things get too heated up between you two then I will have no choice but to strap both of you down to the back of two chairs that are stuck together and leave you in a room for a couple of hours.”
As Brex was saying this. Gilda was clearly getting angry that he was butting into her business. But when she heard the part about getting locked in a room together along with Rainbow. She had this look of doubt, that easily shifted to worry. As she could plainly be seen with the gears turning in her head about whether or not he would actually do such a thing. In the end she merely gave him a silent nod before resuming their walk once more.
*Point of view: Twilight Sparkle* *Location: Golden Oaks Library. AKA, home of Twilight Sparkle* *Time: Ten in the morning*
Twilight was currently wearing her usual school girl attire that she was commonly known for seeing as she has multiple copies of the same outfit and wore them on a daily basis. Much to the dismay of Rarity, who is there and in the middle of trying to convince Twilight into getting some more choices in her wardrobe with how she was still going on with the conversation.
“But Twilight dear, you really need to expand on your choices. You're in Ponyville now, you're not in class anymore. Live a little and express yourself. I just cannot bear to see one of my best friends wearing the same outfit day in and day out! It just hurts me so much inside. That part just screams Rarity, you must help your dear friend!”
Close by while still working on cleaning up the kitchen after having their breakfast. Was Spike with his claws quickly going at a set of dishes in the sink full of soapy water. While his head was turned enough so that he can clearly get a view of Rarity through the small window dividing the kitchen from the main part of the library where the two Ponies were having their discussions in.
That was when Twilight gave a long sigh to show that she had finally had enough. Before turning towards Rarity who had a set of red rim glasses that were already placed on her face and a stretch of measuring tape in one hand. “Rarity, I really appreciate that you're so concerned. But honestly, I'm just fine with my look. Also, I already have another set of clothing that I could change into.”
Rarity then went close to the couch and pretended to almost faint with her hand held over her eye in a dramatic fashion as she began to speak as if she was completely drained of life. But darling! The only other thing that you wear is your robes for being a Thaumaturge. Mind you I have no problems with it, but you hardly ever take it out of the closet. It wouldn't hurt for me to take a look at a few of your extras and make some slight alterations, right?”
Twilight who had clearly wanted this to end by this point and just wanted to get past this conversation and get on with her day of reading. Had gone over and pulled out a book from one of the nearby bookshelves and said to Rarity. “Okay, okay! I'll give you two of my spare sets of clothing. But I really don't like them being flashy. If anything, I want them to be the same, okay.”
Rarity looked up towards Twilight and raised an eyebrow as she was clearly giving it some further thought. But before the wight Unicorn could say anything else to Twilight on the subject. The window had suddenly got itself flung open after something had tried to crash through. That something happened to be blue with a streak of multi colors behind it, before crashing into the other end of the couch that Rarity wasn't on and as a result. This ended up pushing it over and making the white mare scream in clear panic, as her legs were stuck dangling in mid-air after the couch had fully toppled over and the back was now laying on the ground.
Upon hearing the ruckus. Spike rushed in from the kitchen while wearing a pink apron and saw how Twilight had this flat look on her face while staring at the couch. As a result, the young dragon turned his gaze there. Because of the placement of the couch having its back towards the kitchen door. Spike was able to see how the short black mini skirt that Rarity was wearing had been pushed up and was now exposing her lacey black panties. As a result, he ended up going stiff as a board before falling over and making the same sound as a large two-by-four of wood would when clattering onto the ground.
Rarity then screamed out while giving out a few lady-like grunts of exertion as she tried to get off of the couch and stand on her two legs. This was followed with her turning on the Pegasus to complain. “Rainbow! You must watch where you're going! You better hope that my mane isn't a complete wreck by that little stunt of yours!” As she was doing this. Rainbow had managed to scurry around so that she had climbed over the front end of the couch and was now dangling over it with her arms hanging. Clearly looking dazed, it took her a few seconds before she started to speak.
When Rainbow had finally regained her ability to talk in a coherent fashion, along with seeing straight once again. She instantly yelled out while having a shocked expression on her face. “It's Gilda! She's still in town and with Gambit! I just saw them a little while ago over at the Guild. I asked the front desk why they were there. They both took a patrol job for the border. You know, over near Fluttershy's place!”
Upon hearing this. Twilight had this not so quite convinced look on her face as she carefully asked Rainbow. “Okaaaaaay then. Now what is the problem with that? They're just doing a patrol near town, right? I don't really see what the issue is aside from Gilda still being in Ponyville after that party incident. Besides they probably know one another since they're both from out of town.
Rainbow then retorted when she threw her arms up into the air while still laying across the front of the couch. “That's the whole problem! This is Gilda we're talking about! She is the toughest flyer besides myself and she can get really intense! There's no telling what she's putting Gambit through right now! I tailed them and they're already making their rounds. After I was sure they weren’t going to wonder off, I came straight here. So far nothing has happened, but there's just no telling just what kind of scheme she has cooked up for him!”
“Also, listen to this. While I saw them inside the guild. Gambit through a card at the floor to stop me and Gilda from fighting. He had this weird doohickey floating over his hand and when he put it away it folded up into this weird, round disc on his back. Gambit was not at the party last night. He must not know what went down. I bet you that she told him a bunch of lies. It has to be some trick just to get back at us!”
After Rarity was done fixing her hair, that had been slightly messed up with the use of a number of brushes in the grip of her magic. The white Unicorn jumped into the conversation while having a slightly skeptical tone to her voice. “Come now dear! Do you honestly believe that your old friend Gilda would really go so far as to drag another into her plot of revenge?”
Twilight was the next to speak when she had a thoughtful expression while tapping one of her fingers onto her chin. “Hmm. I do find it rather odd that she still in town. After apologizing to Pinkie about accusing her of being overly suspicious and seeing the Griffin's true nature. I honestly thought she left for good after the both of you had that fight last night.”
Rainbow replied to this after taking to the air and zooming close to the door and pointing a finger at it. “Twilight, I came to try and find you so that the two of us could keep an eye on them. I already met up with Pinkie and she's waiting for us to catch up. Honestly, I really have no idea how that mare even has a pair of binoculars hidden in a random bush that she was standing next to when I asked her for help.”
Both Twilight and Rarity gave Rainbow a reluctant sigh as the purple Unicorn gathered up her gear and Rarity did the finishing touches on her makeup and mane for going out in public. As they all left the library. Not a single one of them had even give it a second thought as to the unconscious Spike. Who just so happened to have a slight nosebleed, along with a dopey expression on his face that said he had his lifelong dream fulfilled and was ready to pass on to the next life with absolutely no regrets.
A short time later. Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow had caught sight of Gambit who was with Gilda nearby. However, they did not find hide nor pink hair of Pinkie for a few moments, before they were all pulled in mysteriously in a link, into a nearby bush so quickly that they had no idea what had even happened until they were already kneeling down in the bushes and somehow wearing some weird outfits that made them blend in with a shrubbery.
All of them even had this green helmet and some black makeup smeared across their cheeks and noses. Which Rarity quickly got rid of after having to hold in a shriek of horror upon looking in a hand mirror that she had pulled from her magical storage.
Once they'd gotten their bearings and had given Pinkie a few words about personal space and throwing her friends in the bushes. All three of the ponies were given their own sets of binoculars by pinky, who had immediately, shushed them. Once this was done, all four sets of eyes could be seen poking out through some of the leaves and zooming in on what was happening a fair distance away.
From what Twilight could see from her current vantage point. Was the sight of Gambit and Gilda currently contending with what she knew to be Earth Sprites? This being clearly documented in one of the books that she had immediately brought out and was cross-referencing he floating rocks with the orange large gem at the center of their form.
As this was going on. Pinkie had brought out a strange object that was on a black stick and had it oddly shaped bowl with a stick coming out of the center and was now pointing it at the pair. A few seconds later, all the ponies could hear what was being said from all the way where the pair where at. This caused the three to give the pink pony a set of confused looks before they shook their heads to return to the spying.
That was when Twilight began to hear the voice of Gambit. “Gilda! You're projecting your moves again! I know this is an easy target because it stays in place a lot. But you still can use it for practice in refining your movements.” A heavy grunt could be heard coming from Gilda before she answered him in an aggravated tone. “I don't see you doing much! I can't help it if this one's stronger than the rest!”
Gambit then spoke up again. “Oh come on. This makes what, your third? I already took out its buddies. Sure, that one's stronger, but only by one level. All you have to do is admit that you need some assistance and I can take it out for you!”
This was followed by a loud scream of annoyance that they can hear from all the way where they were without the help of the device. Unfortunately for all the girls, because of Gilda being so loud. There was a loud reverb that came through the device. Which nearly caused Pinkie and Rainbow. Who was the closest to it, to shake their ears in order to clear up their hearing.
Once that little incident had passed by, Twilight could clearly hear Gilda and Gambit conversing back and forth as the Griffin continued attacking the stone opponent that she was still up against with her spear.
“You make it sound so easy! I'm the one who has to go close up in attack and you just got to throw those silly cards of yours and cast some spells from a distance. I'm clearly the one that's putting a lot more effort into this.”
“And I told you before that this could be considered as on-the-job training. You really need to clean up your stance. Because I know for a fact that you have all the skills that are needed to take that out without any effort if you were to fully focus on it.”
Gilda, after a few moments had passed. Had brought down the Earth Sprite after landing a final hit to core crystal and it began to stutter as its form fell apart and crumbled onto the ground. Only a moment later did it phase through the ground and leaving an earth shard behind that gave off a faint orange glow. Gilda on the other hand, looked a little winded as she used her spear to help hold her up right and her wings were partially drooping.
Twilight had raised an eyebrow and slowly turned her attention towards Rainbow before asking the blue Pegasus a question in a rather skeptical tone. “Rainbow… If I didn't know any better, I'd say that he's the one who seems to be ordering her around. From the way you talked about your old friend Gilda. I thought that she might be threatening him. Although it looks as though she's the one having to listen to him instead.”
Rainbow on the other hand, had clearly zoned out for a second and needed to shake her head before replying to Twilight as she kept her eyes glued onto the binoculars and staring straight at the pair. “I… But she… And he! I-I don't understand... Gilda had a hard time with listening to the teachers back in flight school and had a chip on her shoulder for as long as I knew her. Not only that, she always got hostile whenever a male was to talk to her. This is not the Gilda that I know.”
Pinkie was the next to speak in a very rushed voice that made it hard to understand, as it flew by the three ponies next to her. “He could be trying to raise her level by getting her to fight trash mobs. She is a Lancer and he seems to be playing as a Healer to back her up! Oh! Do you think he'll let us join his group and queue up for a dungeon on the group finder! Of course, he would have to play at the set maximum level cap.”
Twilight, Rainbow and Rarity we're now blankly looking at Pinkie as though she had grown a second head before each of them gave a light shake to playoff what she was saying something that only Pinkie knows about and continued on watching. During all of this, the pink mare had a dopey grin while gazing through her binoculars. Not even a second later, did she excitedly point and half scream out in excitement. “Oh lookie! More buddies came to play!”
Twilight and the others immediately brought back their spying gears to their eyes and let out a collective gasp as three more of the Earth Sprites came out from the tree line and we're already casting Stones spells in order to launch bits of themselves at the two. Twilight had this urge to jump out of the bushes in order to protect Gambit that was clearly in danger. But had been stopped by Pinkie who managed to reach far enough to grab onto her shoulder and hold her down.
While clearly showing panic on her face. Twilight half screamed out to her friend. “Pinkie! What in Celestia’s name do you think you're doing?! We need to get out there right now!” To everyone's surprise. The pink mare seemed oddly calm as she gestured for them to watch.
As they did, one could see an object coming off of Gambits back that appeared to be mostly silver or perhaps white has it began to release sections of itself in order to go into a multitude of rotations within one another. This was instantly proceeded with a number of small thin objects coming out of the holster that was hanging from one side of his hips to end up floating in an orbiting pattern around said device.
She then heard his voice coming from the device that Pinkie was holding. What Twilight had expected to be panic or even worry. Was instead, that of a stallion’s voice that seemed way to calm for his situation. “Would appear that we got a few more that we missed Gilda. How about you take a breather and let me handle this?” In response, Gilda half-heartedly laughed before saying, “Hey! Don't mind me. I'm perfectly fine if you end up in a ditch and dead somewhere! Go nuts.”
From there. Twilight got a glimpse of him grabbing a random card from the rotating set that had immediately picked up blinding speed just beforehand. Afterwards, he presented the card before himself before tossing it forward into the air. It had barely gone a few paces ahead before it instantly did a loop before coming right back to him.
Once it had collided with his form, there was a shower of sparks before said sparks condensed themselves into a new card and join the rest that were around his device. However, Gambit was now giving off this aura of increased magic power that she could just barely feel from where she was at.
From what Twilight knew. He was clearly and Astrologian with the weapon he was using. The purple Unicorn had gone to the school near the capitol and it was the one that exclusively had that class as the primary healer to be taught there. From what was just said, it appeared that Gambit was going to take on the three all by himself as Gilda sat back. Of course, this did not sit well with Twilight as she knew that the Astrologian, was not exactly the best at combat when it came to head on fighting, but was instead meant for support purposes.
She was certain upon reading about the class. There was mention that the use of cards that would be drawn in combat to give a boost to another was something that only one who was level thirty to do. Which instantly brought up a question in her mind. “Hold on! I don't know of any Pony that is a high enough level to be able to use that technique aside from the head teachers. Is he really stronger than what we all believe him to be?”
Her internal questions were derailed when she saw how he held up the orbiting device in his left hand until it was high above his head. Afterwards, three bursts of light came from it and zoomed for the oncoming threat. At first nothing happened to the Earth Sprites, but they started to have an odd sense to their movement patterns as parts of the rock that was used to cover their forms, began to chip Away. Twilight immediately identified that as the spell called, Combust. it being a level four attack spell, that deals un-aspected elemental damage over time to a target.
Afterwards, he launched a few attacks spells until they were pretty much blown to pieces once numerous cracks formed along the center crystal that could be seen during the intervals of the outer pieces floating off of it. When all was said and done. The rewards were quickly gathered up by Gambit before going over to Gilda, who still looked as though she still required a little bit longer to rest. But soon was covered in a glow that mirrored what was coming off of the circular device that was hovering just over his outstretched left hand and the Griffin was able to get back onto her feet with hardly any sign that she was winded a moment before at all.
From within the bush, Pinkie was now holding onto a small flag with the letter “G” printed on it and was quietly cheering. Over with Twilight, she pretty much had her mouth hanging as she slowly mouthed all of the different reasons as for why and how Gambit should not have been able to take all of those Earth Sprites out so easily. Rarity was eyeing Gambit from top to bottom with a curious look, at the same time without saying anything whatsoever.
The last of the group which was obviously Rainbow had a slack jaw. She had even brought up her right hand and was pointing between where the fight had just happened and Gambit repeatedly as if stuck in some type of loop for several seconds. At the end of which, she instantly lost it and zoomed out of the bush in order to confront the pair that were currently conversing with one another and landed right between them after kicking up some dirt from the sudden stop.
The Pegasus then began to yell, while poking her right hands index finger into what could have been assumed to be his stomach repeatedly as she spoke in an angry voice that had a mixture of confusion thrown into it. “Hey, something doesn't add up here! There is no way, no how, that you could have done that without some help! You couldn’t have been able to do that much damage in a short amount of time! After all, you're only a newbie that’s still rank F.”
By this point, Twilight and the rest had come out of hiding and caught up to Rainbow. Once they did, they were only a few paces away. Twilight had released a startled gasp when she saw how Rainbows wrists had been grabbed as she had just poked him another time and she was hoisted into the air in a way that had her now dangling by her one arm. Afterwards, she was brought up close enough that her face was near his mask.
For as long as Twilight new. It was very uncharacteristic for a male to exhibit this type of behavior when confronted. Witch meant that she had no idea how to go about with what she should think about what was happening, as her eyes darted between Gambit and her multicolored friend.
She then heard him speaking in a not so amused tone. “Miss Dash... I would like to request that you do not touch me without my permission... Ever again. I have done nothing to you to warrant such an act. Now, if you and your friends would be so kind as to stop spying on us, then my student and myself can get back to our work. Incase you haven’t gotten it, then I’ll say it plainly. I knew you were there the whole time after Pinkie pulled the three of you into the bush.”
Rainbow was then lowered until she was on her hooves once more, before Twilight began to ask numerous questions to Brex. “How can you be an Astrologian? I never saw you on campus while going between any of my lectures. Also, you used an advanced skill that only those of a high-level can gain access to when you use that card to strengthen your magic. How is it possible you can do what only the head mare for that class is capable of? Could you have been among the original students that graduated several years ago?”
She then heard him releasing a heavy sigh, before he turned his form directly towards her and this caused Twilight to feel herself shrinking down as she now got his full attention. He then said in a matter a fact tone. “Just leave us alone.”
Twilight was taken aback by the blunt way he had said it and just as she was about to open her mouth again, she had been interrupted by Gilda. This from the Griffin getting into her face after first sliding in between the both of them. Oddly enough, the Griffin seemed far more agitated than when she was squabbling with him earlier as she began to talk to Twilight.
“He said that you need to leave! You Ponies are always sticking your noses into others business. And I see you are here with the pink one is well! Not only that! I even got Rainbow who won't stop stalking me!” This had clearly caused Rainbow become agitated as well when she was called out as a stalker. But what was said next had the added effect of making the Pegasus freeze in place.
“To think that the great and almighty Rainbow Dash, would get so jealous in less than a day after she destroyed our friendship and that I'm hanging out with another instead. Or is it that you're angry that I'm around a strong male and you're still single?!” That was when Rainbow had this look of astonishment on her face, that quickly evolve into pure anger as she was capable of turning her blue for face to nearly crimson and had gone straight to jump at Gilda with her whole body in a flash of motion.
This resulted in the two tumbling along the grass as they rolled like a log. Twilight saw that Gambit had not made a single move towards stopping any of this and just stood there with both of his arms crossed in front of himself. She and the other two girls were just about to jump in to pull them apart, but was stopped when she heard Gambit speaking out as he suddenly appeared in front of them with how quickly he moved to block their advance before speaking. “They need this!”
Twilight had glanced over to her other friends, who were looking not so sure about what was just told to them. Rarity instantly had a cringe on her face after watching Gilda do something to Rainbow only a few seconds into their scuffle. Pinky was flinching as her face contorted to mirror that of sympathy and pain during the exchange.
She herself was about to light up her horn to cast a quick teleportation spell to get around Gambit but was stopped when he said something else. “You're learning about friendship, right? There are many forms of it. Perhaps you should take this opportunity to study the aspects of this one in particular.”
To Twilight, one of her new friends was currently rolling on the ground while being struck and striking back at the Griffin. But the words he had spoken just now, rang through her head and the scholar part of her mind was really into the idea of learning something new. Also, with how he was standing in her way, she didn't want to take the chance of causing him any undue harm, so she relented for the time being to watch what was to happen.
Over with rainbow and Gilda. They had been clawing at one another and causing a few small scratches and a number of bruises along their forms as they kept switching positions as they rolled over one another. Even some of their clothing had some small rips in them, but Gilda at the time had some armor so she was better protected compared to Rainbow. They ended up taking turns and speaking whenever one had managed to roll on top of the other to pin them down and the following was said to one another, starting with rainbow.
“You really think that I'm jealous that you went ahead and bullied some random Pony you met on the street after making a fool of yourself at that party. Only to go and make a comment about me being single!”
“Well, it's true isn't it dweeb? Why don't you just go ahead and get with one of your Pony girlfriends over there already? Besides, we all know how you feel about the males? You've always hated them. So, there's no way you're ever going to get into any of those fancy herds of yours!”
“You don't know anything bird brain! I was just blind because we were friends and I know now that you're nothing but a fat jerk! As soon as you get here, you end up making trouble! Stealing and scaring Fluttershy.”
“That was only because of that stupid mare that kept getting in our way when I was trying to reconnect with you! She just would not take a hint and kept sticking her nose in where she's not wanted!”
“Don't you dare call Pinkie a stupid mare! Sure, she doesn't take a hint very well, but it doesn't mean you should make her fall from the sky! Would you have even apologized if she ended up getting hurt?! She even went through all the trouble of trying to throw that party for you!”
“Oh, you going to bring up that again?! Did you even know that one of her gags is something that should never be used on a Griffin? Even as a joke, it goes way over the line.”
“What in the buck are you even talking about? The only thing I could see that could been seen as the most dangerous part with any of the gags that you end up tripping up, was the one with the hot sauce!”
“HAAA! Shows how much you know about your friend, huh! Do you know that Griffin's get hurt easily by electricity?! You're lucky that I'm tough! If that Joy buzzer of hers was any stronger, then I would have been out cold last night or at worst, have to go to the hospital!”
“Oh yeah, right! Very convenient and I suppose when I heard about you giving Granny Smith a scare, was just a harmless prank!”
“Gerrrrr! I thought about that and I'm going to apologize to the old coot the next time I see her! But it doesn't change the fact that even though we were friends for so many years, you didn't even know the simple fact that us Griffins can be killed with lightning! Not only that, I came to see you and what do I get! I get this sudden party sprung on me where I’m made the fool with one prank after another!”
“That's all your fault! Pinkie was only trying to make you feel welcome! It's your own fault for not being able to take a joke! How was I to know that you would spring them all?!”
“Again, you don't know anything about Griffin's! Do you know how many of us are in Equestria! Do you have any idea of the stereotypes that we have to live with! I'd be lucky to see another Griffin aside from my aunt's just one time out of a thousand of you ponies!!”
“What does that have to do with anything that's happening here?! You're just some selfish jerk that comes to Ponyville, messes with my friends and shows off that there just some self-centered... typical Griffin!”
At that point, Gilda had managed to put her feet just under Rainbows stomach and had kicked her off so that she landed a few paces away and Gilda herself had gotten up and was crouched down onto one knee, while breathing heavily. Some of her gear had quite a few scuff marks and she clearly had her right eye beginning to swell from getting punched by Rainbow in the middle of the scuffle.
A good portion of her clothing and gear had been smeared with the remains of grass as their bodies rolled around in it and she had this extremely hurt expression as her mouth was partially hanging open while staring at Rainbow without blinking even once.
As for rainbow, she had gotten back to her hooves quickly but soon collapsed so that she was on both her hands and knees, while giving Gilda an angry stare down that quickly morphed into one of shock as well. Gilded then started to speak in a hollow tone as she tilted her head down enough that her eyes were no longer visible thanks to the feathers now covering them from View.
All the while, breathing heavily between sentences. “I… I knew that you were one of those mare’s that hate stallions... Huff. But since we were friends... Huff. I had no idea that you were a racist pony too. A typical Griffin, am I? That's how you most likely saw me for as long as we've known each other, isn't it?”
She had taken a deep breath of air to finally recover enough to speak normally, but still had a cold edge to her words. “You have no idea because you're surrounded by your own kind wherever you turn. I on the other hand, have to put up with racial discrimination. You were the only one who even took the time to make friends with me back when we were back in flight School. Ever since we had to go our separate ways, I've been pretty much isolated. I only know of about five other Griffins within a few day's flight from where my aunts stay in that City.”
“I came here because I was lonely and I wanted to see my best friend! But now I know the truth! You never really saw me as one, did you? Ha-Ha-Ha! Oh, this is the best prank of all! You really got me this time Rainbow. Queen of the pranksters!”
“No wonder that the other countries hate Equestria! You and your Pony puns whenever you speak! Do you know how it feels to be separated just by the way you talk to one another and expecting us to fall in line as if nothing was wrong? I finally had enough all of it and told my aunt that I was going back to the Griffin Empire just so I didn't have to feel any of this ever again!”
“But instead, I flew off of the ship when it was halfway crossing the ocean and kept on flying for days just to get back to land. Only to come straight here because I needed to see my best friend... A friend who I just found out, never took our friendship seriously! You know what, I'm done! All I ever hear from you ponies is friendship this and friendship that! It only counts when the ones your making friends with is a pony too, right? I missed that fine print.”
Gilda was pretty much turning red as she now slammed her knuckles into the ground and created a large thud to echo as her gaze turned towards Gambit before she continued with obvious tears that were beginning to make her purple mascara to run down her face. “And you! You said that I needed to make things right. That I needed to fix our friendship! But I don't see a friendship that's salvageable anymore!”
Twilight had taken a hesitant step back after hearing all that Gilda and rainbow had said to one another and had a hurt expression of her own as she looked towards the ground. It dawned on her how they would always use the words “Every Pony” and “Any Pony” all the time. But hearing this straight from Gilda, who is not one of their own species, had really clicked as to the severity of talking in such a way. Even the part about Equestria being hated, really struck a sour note for Twilight.
She even began to think of all the times that she was within the Castle and overheard Celestia talking in the same way and began to wonder if her teacher and mentor, had any idea of this going on. Twilight thoughts were broken when her eyes drifted over and she saw that her other two friends were in a similar state. But then her attention was pulled from them when she heard Rainbow beginning to speak. Unlike before, where it was full of anger. This time her Pegasus friend was sounding more remorseful than anything else.
“Say, Gilda. I... I didn't really mean that last part. I was just really angry and it was the first thing that came to mind.” Gilda had snapback but not before giving a quick snort of annoyance. “It doesn't excuse the fact that you still said it. I just didn't like the idea that I got replaced without being told at all.”
Twilight could quickly see that the argument was beginning to simmer down by now, but she saw Gambit approaching, after giving out a long and drawn-out sigh. He had gotten closer to the both. He then reached down with a hand for each and gripped onto the back of their shirts so that when they were lifted and pretty much stuck there and dangling with all their limbs as he brought them close to one another and just a couple of hooves off the ground.
He then started to speak in an emotionless tone to each as he turned his head to the one he was speaking to. The first of which being Gilda, who had this unamused look on her face as she stared back at him. “Gilda, I don't have all day for this. I allowed you both to get this out of your system, so now we're going to move on and get straight to the point. If I don't nip this in the butt now, then we're going to be here all day.”
“Gilda, you felt lonely and at the same time, scared to go back to your home country. Then you ended up remembering about Miss Dash and how well you connected with her. Now after you arrived, you found out she made some new friends and you felt betrayed. As a result, you lean towards lashing out due to not being able to control your emotions after receiving such a shock. Is this right?” The Griffin looked away and started pouting, which got her to be shaken a little bit before she turned back to him and gave him a quick nod before returning to pouting once again.
Going over to Rainbow. He then said, “You saw yourself as a friend of Gilda, yet you barely know anything about her race or even her culture from what I can tell. For one, you did not react when she got electrocuted by Pinkie, other than seeing it as a pure joke and laughing It Off. Do you also happen to know that Griffins see friendship and loyalty as something that they hold above all else? And not only that, you are the bearer of loyalty yourself. Why did you not go after her after she left the party last night? The least you could have done was to get closure instead of leaving it as it is. Don't you think so?”
Just got a small knob that was barely perceivable from Rainbow. But it seemed that Gambit had caught it and moved on. “I will not say who is right or who is wrong. You both made mistakes and I can clearly see by the way you two fought that you both regret what was said last night at that party. Gilda, you've been practically living around these ponies for most of your life now, so you should understand how they are.”
“As for you miss Dash. I do hope that you are not one of those that believe that the whole concept of forgiving cannot be extend to beyond that of ponies. You are both friends who had a fight. The next logical step is for both of you to say sorry and work on repairing what you have before it's gone for good.” Rainbow was looking very confrontational with how she was crossing her arms and attempting to spin her body so that she was facing away with the small amount of slack that was coming off of her shirt that she was hanging off from.
For Gilda, the Griffin was attempting to wiggle enough so that she would slip out of both her shirt and armor to get away, but was having very little luck. Which wasn’t going to go very well with the way that they were resisting his efforts. Twilight was shocked at what she heard next in a loud voice that just said he had enough. “Okay! You know what! That's it! I'm done with both of you! I tried I really tried, but I will no longer be your lover's counselor anymore! Just tell each other you officially break off your long-distance dating or kiss and make up, your choice!!”
This had the immediate effect of getting a loud squawk of surprise from Gilda as she froze in place and was now giving Gambit a thousand-yard stare. When it came to Rainbow, she had completely turned a shade of pink that took most of her body as she was now slowly twisting back into place so that she was facing them both. It hadn't even been a full second once the two had locked eyes on each other after taking them off of Gambit. That was when both of their wings had instantly shot out, along with having a blush to be seen on both of their cheeks as they tried to look away.
Gilda then began to stammer out a question as her voice was clearly having a hard time coming out. “How… How would you even know such a thing?! I didn't tell anyone! Not even my aunt or Einstein!” Gambit had released an exasperated sigh and had tilted his head back while replying in a tired tone that had just a hint of mischief behind it.
“So, it wasn't really all that hard to find out when I came to visit one day. I just so happen to catch the post being delivered and because I was well-known as an acquaintance of Einstein and I was already on my way up, I was given that day’s letters and I brought it with me. It just so happens, on the very top of the stack was a letter addressed to you Gilda and the return postage was labeled for a Rainbow Dash.”
“It also didn't take much for me to figure out that it was a complete secret with how you immediately went for the stack of letters and ran off when you thought no one was looking after I came in and had sat it down on the counter.”
“There was also the way that you were giggling from in your room and before coming to dinner that night, I saw that you were recovering from a small blush.” By then, Gilda had raised her left hand and was covering her eyes out of shame as wisps of steam came off of her head with the way she was heating up after being called out on their relationship.
Rainbow wasn't doing much better and was in pretty much the same state by then. She was even giving off the small pathetic wine that was almost so high-pitched, that it was nearly unheard. As for the rest that were present. Not only was Twilight completely in shock with how she felt. Her jaw had nearly unhinged itself with the way it fell. But she could clearly see how the others were reacting from the edge of her vision.
Pinkie was visibly vibrating in place, while having this manic grin that just said she wanted to scream something about parties, along with trying to contain a squeal of her own. As for Rarity, she was already sobbing into a handkerchief and had somehow pulled out of nowhere a fainting couch that she knew had to have been from her boutique.
All the while sobbing from underneath her breath about how romantic the scene was, but it could have been better with a more appropriate atmosphere and possibly some dresses on the two while not being held in the air like a couple of stray kittens.
It was just a few seconds later that Gilda and Rainbow had been unceremoniously dropped from the height that they were at and had landed with a set of thuds and letting out their own shared version of a pained screams, once their butts had landed on the grass underneath.
This was then followed with Gambit beginning to make his way back to town and calling over his right shoulder as he walked in a very loud voice. “Honestly, I don't care anymore if you're going to rip each other to shreds or make out here in the middle of the field! I'm taking our droppings from those kills and turning them in for our quest to be completed. You can stay out tonight if you want Gilda, just make sure you're back in the hotel by six in the morning! Because if you're not, then you really don't want to know what I have in store next!”
After sometime later, three to be exact. Twilight had finally gotten home and close the door behind herself. Only to lean against it and slide down until she was on the ground and giving a very tired sigh of relief. It had been quiet within the library for a few seconds before she began to hear something from deeper within that caused her left ear to twitch and turn to get a better read on the sound. She had this look of confusion as she got onto her legs and made her way in just passed the area that would normally be used for the library and had entered the kitchen.
What she found, caused her to freeze in place as she had dropped her bag of books that she had on hand ever since they went to go find Gilda earlier that day. Right there, standing in her kitchen, alongside her little adopted brother was Gambit and they were in the middle of finishing what she could only assume was making dinner. As her brain attempted to comprehend as to why he was in her kitchen. Twilight had started to hear the two talking in a casual way.
As Spike was busy with making a salad. He started to speak without looking towards Gambit. “Hey, sorry again that you had to help me out. I had no idea that the game was going to go on for so long that I lost track of what time it was. Twilight always wants this to be done right on time and she always gets a little hangry when she's had a long day.”
Gambit himself, had just pulled something out of the oven which gave off a very unique aroma when he had sat it onto the counter before replying. “Yeah, I didn't think it was going to get so heated that we go into stalemate for so long before you beat me. It just shows that even after doing some reading up on the game, there's still a few tricks that I didn't think about. Besides, you wanted to learn how to make this cheesecake and this was a good opportunity.”
Twilight, finally shook herself free from her stupor before she went to grab onto her bag that was on the floor, before slamming it onto the counter where there was no food currently placed and yelled out in clearly a frustrated tone. “You! Why did you suddenly leave like that?! Do you have any idea what kind of a situation you left us with? We were all out there for hours trying to clean up that mess.”
The Gambit leaned against the refrigerator and crossed his arms before asking in a joking tone. “Is my apprentice currently in one piece, or is she spending the night with Miss Dash?” This had caught the attention of Spike as he quickly spun on the spot to listen in on what was being said in the kitchen. As for Twilight, she had somehow got caught up in his tone of voice and honestly answered as if it was no different than talking about the weather. “Those two, it looks like they're going to talk things over and take it slow... Hey! hold on there, don't distract me like that!”
This ended up earning her a light chuckle from him before he commented in a matter-of-fact tone as he pushed himself away from the refrigerator to stand normally with his arms at his sides. “I find that distracting you is a good way to get you to calm down in order to have a proper conversation.” After hearing this, she tilted her head and was now scratching the back of her left ear in clear confusion before responding after having a moment to recover.
“Wha... Don't talk as though you know me! Also, why are you even in my house? Don't you know it's against the law to enter someone's private residence without first getting their permission!” Twilight then saw how he was slowly turning his head toward Spike and after a few seconds, it dawned on her that her brother must have let him in. After shaking her head to clear her thoughts and bring her right hand up to pinch the base of her muzzle, she began to start up again.
“Okay, okay. Putting aside what you did for those two. I got a few questions for you mister! How in Equestria are you able to use such a high-level technique like the one you use at the beginning of the fight with those Earth Sprites?”
“I remember hearing that the trick you used was a level thirty skill. The only Pony that's capable of even using it, is the head mare that runs the section of the school that teaches that class. Just who are you anyway? You're always wearing that mask and you hardly say anything to any Pony, aside from a few words. And when you do talk, you're always so rude!”
There was a long stretch of Silence among herself, Spike and Gambit. Before he started to talk in a flat tone as the two of them began to exchange words. “I suppose if you're only going to include ponies in your analysis, judging from the wording you just used. Then yes, no pony is strong enough to use such a high-level skill. Don't you believe it would be prudent to add into those calculations to the other races in the world as well?”
“I don't understand what you mean by that, of course I added Every pony to my calculations!”
“That is just it, you added every Pony. With the emphasis on, Pony. Did you not pay attention to a word that Gilda let out during that little discussion about how racist the ponies are, especially when using those phrases? You may want to have a few words with your teacher, because I'm pretty sure that by now she's beginning to see just what Gilda is getting at.”
“Why are you bringing Princess Celestia into this? She has nothing to do with it!”
“Oh, she has a big part to play in it, I guarantee it. Anyway, shouldn't you be getting on that follow up letter of yours in regards to that friendship report you sent just last night?”
“Wait! Hold on! How do you know about my friendship reports?”
“It's pretty well-known that you're the student to Celestia and you've been caught on occasion writing these out. Well, I suppose it's more along the lines of others hearing you talking about the report as your brother transcribes them for you. Seriously, you can't even write your own letters yourself and you have to make Spike do it when he's clearly busy with other jobs such as cleaning up your mess here at home.”
“What?! Keep my little brother out of this! He's only lending a hand. There's nothing wrong with it? Now stop trying to change the subject!”
That was when Spike interrupted them and with a small smile, he used his arms to give a display towards the dinner that was made. He then said, “Twilight, you haven't really eaten much today, have you? You always get cranky when you're hungry. Now, why don't we go ahead and sit down and eat this before it gets cold.”
Twilight clearly wanted to say something with the way her eye was twitching. But relented and gave out a heavy sigh before she went over to the nearby chair and plopped into it and was now looking at what was displayed. As she did this, she heard Gambit calling out to spike and what seemed to be a normal friendly tone, that she was clearly unaccustomed to hearing from him.
“I'll take a rain check there Spike. There's some things that I need to take care of and I don't believe I am very welcome in this library at the moment. I've been in a library where the books will literally rip your face off for just opening the front cover and that feels a little more friendly than what I'm getting here. But do tell me how everything turned out with the cheesecake. I'll come back when the purple angry Unicorn has calm down. Oh, and by the way, I left something on the table in the front room for you. See yeah later!”
With that, Twilight watched as he exited through the back door that was connected to the kitchen. She then turned to spike, who had already taken his seat and loaded up his first plate with a bit of pretty much everything. She then released a groan of annoyance before speaking with a very tired voice. “I honestly cannot understand that stallion at all! From what I've heard, he barely says anything at all and he's been all over town. But then, he gets really chatty but what comes out of him is so infuriating. I've met stallions back in the castle and they're nothing like him.”
“By the way Spike. You both have been together off and on ever since that day that we got the tickets. What do you do anyway? I never even see him and the only way I know that he's even been inside the library, was because you mentioned it to me.” Spike was already more than halfway done with his current plate before he swallowed what clearly could not have been able to go down his neck, unless assisted through cartoon law.
After giving a light shrug, Spike began to talk while he started munching on smaller portions of food. “Eh! Not a lot really. We pretty much talked about random subjects. Aside from that, we pretty much read comics and play that card game of mine.”
“I've been teaching him how to play it and, in the beginning, I was winning almost all the matches, but lately he's been getting better. I never really got a chance to play with many others back at the castle and... Gambits pretty much the only guy friend that I know here in Ponyville. I used to play all the time back at the castle along with Blue Blood. But he's been busy with training lately and that cut into our guy time.”
“Anyways, he's either around when you head out with the other girls, or up in your room doing some intense studying so you dont even notice that he's here. While hearing this, she had just started to tap her chin and having a thoughtful expression before she asked another question. “Spike, what can you tell me about Gambit? It might help me with understanding him better.”
As Spike was eating, he gave a quick shrug before he spoke. “Well, I do know that he mentioned that he didn't come from Equestria. Let's see what else... Hmmm. I know that he's pretty good with tools after he helped out with replacing that one window that Rainbow busted a few days ago when she came in.”
“By the way, she has broken a grand total of four of our windows since we've moved in. Anyhow, going back to Gambit. I know that he's a rank “F” Adventurer and I asked him how long he's been at it, but he seemed to dodge the question a lot. Oh, and one more thing! He is an amazing cook. Have you tried the cheesecake he made, I am positive that it tastes exactly like the one that Celestia had brought over from Fillydelphia a few months back for my birthday party.”
Twilight was internally grumbling to herself as she began to think within her head. “Well thanks a lot Spike… That tells me a lot.” She then had an idea, which prompted her to ask the following. “Say, do you happen to know what kind of pony he even is? I don't see a pair of wings or any type of lump on the back of his clothing that would show that he's keeping them covered. Obviously, I can't see a horn on his head. But he could be concealing it somehow. It's entirely possible that he's an Earth Pony that learned how to cast magic spells such as those from the combat schools.”
Spike had just finished eating his last bite and was leaning back due to his swollen belly, that he looked as though he was about to fall over with how far he was going. After releasing a satisfied belch, which caused Twilight's ears to fold back and to give him a slightly disturbed look. The young dragon began to say, “I don't know what I could tell you Twilight. He's never once taken off his mask. So, I got nothing there. Although, I can tell you what he said when I asked about it. “Hmmm, now what was it he said again? Ah! I got it! He only wishes to show his face to those that he truly trusts right now. Also, there's only ever been one that has seen his face in this world.”
“Well Twilight, if that's all you need to know. I'll take care of the dishes. But first, I'm going to see what he left for me out in the front room!” When Spike had said that, the dragon had hop down and began to waddle over through the kitchen door as he clutched onto his full belly. As soon as he was out of the kitchen, Twilight began to hum to herself while absent-mindedly picking up a fork and eating some of the salad provided as her thoughts began to race.
“Okay Twilight, you just need to put what you know together. From his own words, Gambit is born outside of Equestria and none aside from one other has been allowed to see his face. Hmm… That could suggest that he either has a checkered past or all this talk about him distrusting females is the root of the cause.”
“He's apparently good at not only cooking, but repair work as well. Not only that, he is a accomplish Astrologian. Especially when he was able to take out that many Earth Spirits without much trouble at all. That could only mean that he is a self-reliant male. Not only that, he must have some experience when it comes to battle and to keep his cool. Then there's the part where he does not seem to show much respect. Especially when it comes to the princess.”
“Could he be a spy from another country? No, I don't think so. If he was, then he would definitely be keeping out of sight, instead of being out in the open. But then there's Gilda. I was there after she left the party and judging from what Rainbow said about her, makes it very suspicious as to why she seems to be listening to Gambit. All of this seems really weird... Maybe I should send that letter to the Princess after all. I could even throw in what I know about this Gambit and see if she knows anything about him or how I should proceed.”
Twilight thoughts were rudely interrupted when Spike came running through the kitchen door and had skidded to a stop after tripping over one of his clawed feet. Afterwards, the young dragon got back up and waved what appeared to be one of those trading cards in front of Twilight before he started to speak in a excited voice. “Twilight! Twilight! You won't believe what Gambit gave me!”
The purple Unicorn leaned in slightly and squinted her eyes as to take in exactly what it was. She then began to say out loud what she was reading on it. “Einstein, Rank “D” Adventurer.” She then turned to spike after leaning sideways a little so that the card was no longer blocking her view of him, before speaking in a rather confused tone. “Okay... Um, that's nice and all. As I recall, do you not have that card already?”
Spike immediately answered back, after shaking his head quickly. “No Twilight! You got to look closer! Yeah, I have the card, but not one that's been signed by Einstein himself!” Twilight gave a not so sure hum as she examined it.
Obviously seeing this, Spike went on. “Twilight, don't you remember that these cards have an enchantment on them? The makers made it so that any type of autograph made on these, would disappear after a few moments if it was not made by the one that the card has on it. It's a fail-safe to prevent others from trying to forge signatures to make them more valuable.”
Spike was pretty much dancing in place as he went on. “I can't believe Gambit knows Einstein! He became pretty well-known after stopping that kidnapping ring all the way back in Baltimare that used that carnival as a front. Hold on one second!” After that, Spike had rushed back out, only to return after a minute and displayed another pair of cards and held them up for Twilight to look at as he started to talk again. “These two Griffins work with him on occasion.”
Twilight was beginning to feel like she was in a lighter mood again after seeing her little brother in such a state. But she couldn't help but roll her eyes in a playful way before she glanced at the cards. It hadn't even taken a moment before her eyes began to narrow more than before as she took in the forms of pair of Griffin's that were obviously twins and the only way to tell them apart, were their eye colors alone. But all the while, she couldn't help but to think that they were almost the same in terms of style when it came to how Gilda looked.
That was when she began to go over the events from earlier that day. First being the way that Gilda, who was supposed to be extremely aggressive, had pretty much allowed a male like Gambit to talk down to her without really fighting back.
Then there was that little story in regards to what he knew about her in terms of the relationship with Rainbow, which was obviously something from years back. After a bit it was pretty easy for Twilight to put it together that Gambit had been in Baltimare at one point or another if he knew this Einstein character.
Afterwards, Twilight asks spike in helping to write a letter to Princess Celestia. In it, she had written down what she had learned that day when it came to her friend Rainbow Dash and the old friend that she thought had left, but only to reconcile afterwards after getting some issues pulled into the light.
She had even put in her inquiries and whatever relevant details that she knew about Gambit. Which turned out to be pretty much everything that she could think of. Of course, she did omit the part about him bad talking about her because she didn't want to get him deliberately in trouble out of fear of the Princess sending him to the moon.
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Location: the throne room* *Time: Six-thirty, just a few minutes before the letter from Twilight arrives*
For once, Luna had woken up a little earlier and had come to the throne room in order to meet up with her sister, so that the two of them can walk together on the way to have their evening meal. Celestia just finished with the last of the submitted paperwork by the last of her subjects that came in for a meeting with her. The only ones in the throne room at the moment, were Luna, Celestia and four of the day guards that were stationed at the far wall and on either side of the main door way that was closed for the time being.
Celestia currently had a scroll that was being levitated in front of herself and enveloped and the golden aura that was commonly known to others to be unique to her own. Said scroll had just gone through the process of being rolled up and tied with a red ribbon and set onto a small table situated on the right side of the throne, that had a good twenty of them stacked up neatly.
Luna was currently on the other side and awaiting patiently, while glancing over her older sister's left shoulder to see just what she was reading. From what Luna could surmise from the document, it was a petition made by what she could only presume to be the mayor of a small town in regards to getting a bunker built close by in case of emergency and as a rest stop to allow traveling Adventures to have a reason to go to their town and boost their tourism.
At one point or another, Luna had heard about such bunkers that were considered a safe haven for both travelers and the ones who defend their lands. They would be built underground and would not only have a means of giving a place for rest, but also offered provision that can be bought and sold along those that enter.
It was in fact one of her night guards who regaled her with how they have used one such facilities in their travels to Canterlot, in order to become one of Luna's night guards. It was said that the entrance was guarded by not ponies. But by a set of large metal Golems that would tirelessly act as sentinels to deter any would-be threats from entering. There was even a sophisticated defense system that was put in place in case anything should happen to slip past the first line of defense on the outer perimeter.
Luna even had to contain her own giggle when she found out what the company was called, that came up with such an idea. Which happened to be, “Always Away Foxholes.” After being told about that other company, who produce the Golems, Luna now began to wonder if they both were connected in one way or another. Although, she knows that a number of others have put them to use, so she ended up with putting that in the back of her mind.
Celestia only a moment later, had just gotten up from her chair and dismissed her day guards, seeing as it was time for the ones that were under Luna's command to take the night shift. Afterwards, all four of the guards gave a quick bow and exited the throne room. There was a set of almost imperceivable swishing sounds that came from right above and where the shadows were being cast along the ceiling and in the guard’s place, took a set of ponies that were wearing a set of dark armor comprised of purple, silver and black.
What made them all stand out even further, was how they have these leathery bat-like wings and piercing yellow eyes with slits in them. This was also along with how they had visible fangs that were easily seen from whenever they came into contact with any source of light that was shining through the now darkening halls. These being the Thestrals. These were the fourth race of ponies who had strong characteristics to that of bats.
The Thestrals are very secretive and only live in one area as a colony known as, Hollow Shades, which is located on the eastern side of Equestria. Just nestled near a mountain range and completely surrounded by trees, these ponies kept to themselves, especially after Nightmare Moon came to be.
In the beginning, they were persecuted before their appearance and had to retreat to safety. Thereby fading into history and forgotten to the point that they were regarded as nothing but myth. But since the return of their lunar princess, the race has finally come out of hiding and immediately made their way to the castle to be employed as her personal guards due to their loyalty that had not waned over the past millennia.
Out of the four that were in plain view. One had a short spear and two had a set of dual wielding blades that had a slight curve and were just a few inches longer than a standard long knife. The last of them, had on their back, nestled right over their wings what appeared to be a round flat disk and on their left outer thigh, was a long rectangular object that was holding a set of tarot size cards that were placed into various slots.
Luna had given them a curt nod and got a quick salute in response before she turned her attention back to her older sister, who had a look of amusement on her face that clearly showed that she was impressed with how swiftly the guards had taken their place without so much as making a single sound.
As the two princesses had reached the very bottom of the steps that led up to the throne, did Celestia get an unexpected flash of light from just above her head. This was immediately followed with a scroll falling into Celestia's outstretched right hand. Luna gave it a quick curious glance before shifting her gaze over to her sister, who now had a look of confusion crossing her face as it was opened up.
As the scroll was being fully unfurled and being examined. Celestia then began to speak. “I do wonder as to what this is about? While Twilight is usually so punctual with sending her friendship reports but once a week, I know that I did receive one only just yesterday.” After hearing this, Luna was also reading along as fast as she could in order to determine what could have brought about a sudden change in her sister's pupil when it came to the regards of sending a letter that was clearly not foreseen for another handful of nights.
It wasn't until she had gotten at least halfway through, that her eyes had suddenly shot open and had a bead of sweat come from her brow before stealing quick glances at her sister between reading each sentence. Inside her mind, Luna was rapidly beginning to panic at what was written and was clearly describing the very one that both she and her sister had been trying to locate. But now it would seem that a name was now available. Luna then began to think to herself, while half screaming in her head. “OH, THIS IS NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD AT ALL!”
*Point of view: Third Person *Location: On the outskirts of town, towards the North East* *Time: The next day, Eleven-thirty at night*
On the very edge of Ponyville, there is a simple one-story house that look no different than any other around. The lawn and the building itself were not kept in what one would consider to be as Immaculate condition, nor was it run down with signs of neglect. It was purely a place that no one would really pay much attention to it all.
The moonlit sky had a few patches of clouds overhead thanks to the weather team scheduling a light shower to occur later on in the night. Oddly enough, this was due to a last-minute change and plans that were given to the head of the weather team that very day. One of which clouds was positioned so that it gave ample shading to this very house from the moonlight as two figures came towards the door in opposite directions of the street. Both wearing their own cloaks as one was in green, while the other was in pure black.
Without so much as acknowledging the others presence, the two arrived at the front door at the same moment and the one with the green coverings began to knock in a distinct pattern with a light tap of their gloved lefthand. After several long moments of silence, the door was carefully opened but no bigger than an inch before two light brown envelopes were pushed through the space. Once this was done, the two standing outside both took a single envelope for themselves and immediately turned around and left as the door was quickly shut without making any kind of noise.
As the one wearing green made their way deeper into town and disappeared after turning a corner. The one in black had disappeared right after walking into the shadow that was produced between the light being emitted by a set of street lamps. This was then accompanied by an unexpected light breeze to blow away some nearby leaves into the light of one of the street lamps.
A short time later the one that had gone into town, arrive at a random house and entered through the front door after unlocking it. They had gone into what appear to be the kitchen and turned on one of the lights. The sound of paper could be heard shuffling before it was dropped onto the table and the light was turned off and a figure could be heard walking away. However, within the brief moment before the light was turned off again. One could have seen that on the very first line of the paperwork, there was a word highlighted larger than the rest. This being that of, Gambit.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 52: Goth Comes To Town.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Ponyville, inside of his hotel room* *Time: Five days later*
Brex had just gotten back to his room after having a sleepless night after going back to HQ and spending some time with Rory. Since the last time that he had got to meet Luna and Celestia. Brex have not gone to sleep then and has been pretty busy during the night in order to get his preparations ready for what was soon to come. In fact, just that very evening, the Roegadyn had just put the finishing touches on his latest project within his personal laboratory that was isolated from the rest of the underground compound. Of course, that was only after first giving some attention to his girlfriend and two attentive maids.
Right now, he was at this very moment going over his attire and using a spell in order to get rid of a patch of oil that was staining his left upper arm sleeve and a portion of his chest. As he was doing that, Brex would mumble to himself in a slightly agitated tone. “How many times do I need to keep saying to that girl that she needs to calm the fuck down? I said I just needed another five more minutes, but she ends up busting down the door and to giving me a tackling hug when I'm in the middle of something that required my full attention.”
“The girl should count herself as being really lucky that she didn't do that a few seconds earlier. Otherwise, there might have been a big explosion! I swear! I seriously cannot tell if that's just a real personality trait of hers or if that's something I did to her after getting that body. Because she always gets way too excited whenever I get back for the night. If I was still in the middle of funneling energy into that device, them I am pretty sure it would not have turned out very good for either of us.”
That was when he had finished his cleaning preparations and went over to the one window for his room and opened it up in order to stick his head through to see just what was going on in the town this morning. Once he did and had a few moments to do so, he pulled his head back inside and shrugged to himself as he began to speak out loud again. “I guess this might be another one of those easy days. I wonder if I'm going to keep running into that mare again?”
What Brex was referring to, was the one known as Bon Bon. Ever since the day that Gilda and Rainbow started to patch up their friendship again. He had noticed how Bon Bon would be around town more than usual instead of running her candy shop. Honestly, he didn't really understand if these ponies knew much when it came to being inconspicuous, but the mare didn't make it too difficult to spot her whereabouts.
Even on occasion during the night, whenever he was out and about on any late-night quests or personal errands. He would pick up on his radar someone who was watching from the shadows with far more efficiency than Bon Bon could ever hope to accomplish with her current skills. When he had gotten close enough, he was able to use one of the spells from The Dungeons & Dragons list to give him night vision. That couple together with his other abilities, gave Brex a good view of the nighttime watcher he apparently had tailing him.
He had to contain a smirk at the time when he saw that it was a Thestral that was clearly in a leather type of stealth armor that was in the same style in which Luna's Night Guards were mostly dressed up in. Honestly, he didn't think it was going to take the pair of rulers this long to track him down with all the small little ripples he was creating.
That wasn't the only thing that happened over the course of the handful of days that passed. Only two days ago did he have to contend with, The Great and Powerful Trixie! Who made an appearance in town to put on a show. Yet again, it went pretty much the same way as in the story with only some minor alterations here and there. Of course, Brex wanted to do some tampering to see if the event could be altered. But he decided to let things go and only butt in when it was truly necessary.
He knew how Spike was going to keep pushing Twilight. Saying that she was the best and of course the purple Unicorn was going to see herself as the target of resentment if she was to go along with showing off her powers and place herself in the same category as Trixie. Brex thought about trying to convince Spike about the importance of how one shouldn't boast so much but thought that this was a learning experience for the Dragon. So, he really didn't try to change that part.
But when it came to how Trixie had been hackled by all of Twilight's friends during the show. Brex witnessed how things were just a little more serious when it came to Trixie's counter tricks. For example, the way that Applejack was tied up, had been done in a way where the ropes had been tied and such a way that she was pretty much in a turtle style rope bondage setup that insinuated the way her breasts were pressing against her shirt.
Along with the fibers digging into her crotch as they went between the legs. As for the apple that was meant to be placed in her mouth at the end. It had been run through so when it was placed in the mare’s mouth, it was tied so it wouldn’t be coming out all that easily.
When it came to Rainbow, instead of coming to a sliding stop at the end of the Rainbow-colored tornado that she was thrown into. She had instead hit the ground with a heavy thud and was pretty much knocked out from the impact. Now, as for Rarity, Brex thought that she had the worst of it.
Not only had her hair been turned green and style to look as though it was a literal rat’s nest. But Trixie had somehow managed to get a hold of an actual rat and thrown it in there so that it was sticking its head out right as all of the other ponies we're looking straight at Rarity. This of course, sent the Unicorn running for her house in tears and scramming that she cannot possibly be seen in such a dreadful state.
Of course, when it came to the part where Spike was trying to get Twilight to stand up the light-blue show Unicorn. She had made a hasty retreat after making an excuse about laundry calling. But not until she tried her hand at playing down her magical strength as the rest were turning towards her after hearing Spike talking so highly of Twilight’s skills and pleading to show the mare up.”
Later on, when the two small children who were avid fans of Trixie, went ahead and lured a large bear that was easily bigger than one of the regular size two-story buildings into town. Brex was within the Shadow Realm within moments as soon as the chaos started and he was sure that whoever was tailing him during the night, had been effectively distracted by the ensuing screams of terror.
Unlike in the show, where the only real damage done to the town was when the bear had intentionally bit off a roof of some random building. Here, there was quite a bit more damage as it made its way through and between the buildings as it batted its front hind legs into whatever was even close to getting in its path.
This meant object such as a wagon, street lamps, fire hydrants and mailboxes had been tossed into the side of the nearby buildings. Most of which were superficial and could easily be fixed later, but at least a few had broken windows or their front doors were smashed in. There was even one mailbox that had gotten stuck inside of a tree after getting launched a fair ways away.
Seeing that last one, made Brex shake his head in sympathy as he quickly thought about how much trouble the mail mare Ditsy Doo, was going to have in delivering the mail tomorrow. The Roegadyn followed closely so that he could give assistance in reducing the damage by switching over to his Scholar class and equipping his level seventy gear and grimoire that has been glamoured into his usual outfit and a common looking book that any would find laying around.
Trixie, while being pampered to her need to show off because of the two young kids who kept believing in her lies about slaying in Ursa Major. Unsteadily stepped forward while wearing her magician's outfit. This time around she had even summoned from what Brex assumed to be her dimensional storage a long white staff with a star being held within a crescent moon on the very top.
(Here is a picture of Trixie.)
But as the giant star bear had gotten closer to the Unicorn and the two colts. The children had flipped out and ran screaming after hearing it giving a roar, only to leave Trixie alone. Just as the Ursa was getting close, the blue Unicorn went and lost her privado and turned around to run. Instead, she ended up tripping on a part of her outfit that was low enough so that her hoof had stepped on it by mistake as she turned her body. Because of this, she had hit the floor with a heavy thud and released her grip on her staff, which tumbled several feet away.
She was at this moment, right next to her wagon and it was only a few seconds from getting crushed with her along with it, as the bear had gotten onto its hind legs in order to drop its full body weight onto the mode of transportation. That was when Brex stepped out of The Shadow Realm on the other side of the street where he was shrouded in the shadows, thanks to the moon being at just the right angle in the sky. He had flung his book open in his left hand and began to channel a spell that was directed at Trixie’s general position.
The spell in question, had fired out of the pages of the grimoire and made its way in an instant over to the mare that was frozen on the ground in fear. There was then a shower of yellow and green sparks that emitted from the point of impact and from there, a bubble of sorts had expanded quickly enough that it not only encompassed the Unicorn performer, but the wagon as well.
Which happened to be just in time to intercept the heavy attack coming from the bear as it slammed into the barrier that was created. At the point in which it made contact, there was a large four-pointed diamond that intersected in the middle as they came together to signify that it had blocked the incoming damage to those within.
What Brex had used, was a single target spell known to the Scholar, that not only heals the target, but also gives them a protective field at intercepts all incoming damage that is equal to a certain amount, depending on how much power was put into the healing that would have been received. Brex had put a lot more of his magic, into this which allowed it to become large enough to protect not only the Unicorn, but her possessions as well.
At the time, Trixie had covered her head in fear of getting mortally injured, so he was pretty sure that she had not even noticed the barrier being put up and just left it at that. Seeing as it would fade over time. Afterwards, he sat back and watched as Twilight finally arrived at the scene and used her own magic to subdue the large bear by creating music with the wind and giving it milk through a small water tower to be used as a bottle, thanks to her levitation.
He even had to contain a loud whistle from being impressed with the way she was able to pick up such a large object, along with the bear and send it all the way back into its cave within the Ever Free Forest without so much as jostling it awake.
Of course, it was later on found out once they had all gotten together, that what attacked them was not in Ursa Major. But an Ursa Minor, which was just a small baby by comparison to that of a fully grown adult. Pretty much every one of them had their jaws dropping while Twilight was oblivious by the way she kept on going on about what she had learned while reading up on them, thanks to Trixie’s bragging.
As for Trixie herself, even though her wagon was not destroyed. She still vowed that she would return to prove that she was the most powerful Unicorn there is. But it seemed like she had left on slightly better terms this time around, seeing as she didn't use a smoke bomb and run immediately after. But instead, took her wagon and left. Albeit still rather hastily.
But before Trixie left Ponyville, Brex had already placed an icon above her head so that he would be able to pick her up quickly if she were to come in range of his mini map. It also helped that now that he had met her in person, he could now use Heaven's computer to locate her current whereabouts whenever he felt like it.
The Roegadyn even made it a point to find Gilda and have her tell Rainbow that she and her friends need to stop any rumors from escaping Ponyville that would implicate Trixie as the cause of their town being attacked. Especially when it was in fact the doing of two small children that brought the Ursa Minor in due to a misunderstanding.
This way, the traveling performer would still have work and not be banned from any other towns and make a living, instead of putting everything she had into getting back at Twilight and her friends. Hopefully, this will either remove her as a major threat or just down grade her to a normal rivel that won’t take the town hostage.
It took a little work on Gilda’s part. But she got around to telling Brex that the message was sent. Although she did seem rather confused as to why he wanted her to do that, but he ended up brushing It off when she asked. Afterwards, he sensed that his two observers were back to action during the course of the next couple of days.
It was pretty much clockwork with Bon Bon keeping an eye on him from nearly sunup to sundown. As for the Thestral, that obviously came from Luna. That one would do the same from the moment the sun went down and then till it came back up again. Keeping him in their sights whenever possible from in the crowds, to that of the shadows.
The only time that Brex really had any personal time to himself from either of them, was whenever he brought Gilda into the Ever Free Forest for any quests or training exercises that were conducted by him as her teacher. Taking into account her current class and level, he judged that the Griffin needed to work on a number of factors when it came to actual combat in regards to going up against a strong opponent.
Now as for the present time. The both of them were back at it again after taking a thirty-minute jog into the Ever Free to their usual sparing spot. This was so that they wouldn’t have to worry around getting others involved with the sight of a male getting attacked by a female.
It was something that he had found nestled near one of the smaller mountains that had some water running through a tiny stream. The terrain had a good mix of rough and flat areas that was roughly fifty meters wide. There was even a formation of rocks that came up and over portion of it from above that made it fairly well hidden from any that could be flying high above.
There was then a loud scream that came from Gilda as she swung down with her spear and produced a loud metal upon stone ringing sound that echoed through the nearby trees. She had quickly wiped her brow due to the heavy sweating she was going through, even though she was wearing a white tank top and her usual cut up shorts. At the same time, only a few meters away in front of her, stood Brex while taking on a victory pose with his legs being partly spread and both of his fists sitting on his hips.
As Gilda was breathing heavily and staring daggers at him, which was standard at this point. She called out as she was trying to take in a heavy breath of fresh air. “And you said you're going to be taking it easy on me? I seriously doubt that… Jerk! I still can't understand how you're able to move so fast when you’re that big of a target.”
Brex gave a small chuckle while turning his back on her as he spoke. However, he spoke in an odd pattern that made Gilda tilt her head in confusion, along with giving an unamused stare. “Skills be polished, you must! Do not think you will hit, just do!”
Afterwards, Brex return to his normal way of speaking as he went on. “You got the basics down pretty good if I must say. Hmmm… Although, you need to make it your own. Every person is different and if you follow the uniform style of fighting, then you're no different than any other. For example, one fighter might be double jointed while another is not. One might be right-handed, while another is left-handed. One might want to be defensive, while the next is more of an in-your-face type that won’t mind getting hurt.”
“Gilda… I quite literally went through the trouble of restricting my overall strength to something closer to your own level. If I'm being frank, the speed in which I'm using right now causes me real discomfort in a way. It's no different than me running in waist deep in muddy water.”
“So, hear me when I say this. If you were to be fighting me at my full strength, then you wouldn't even have time to blink those pretty little eyes of yours before it was all over.” Hearing this only made Gilda roll her eyes and disbelief, while giving a quick scoff before they went at it once again with Gilda lunging at him with the use of her wings to gain some altitude.
During each one of her attacks, she would use a number of strikes that would alternate between stabbing and wide sweeps. There are even a few fake out where she would twirl it around her body. As Gilda did this, Brex would effortlessly dodge each one of the incoming moves with as little movement possible on his part. Gilda's weapon would come within mere inches and slicing away at his robes, but she would only hit nothing but air for the most part.
With each attack, Brex would call out something that Gilda needed to work on and made sure that the comments were loud enough that he was pretty much barking them with an amused voice. “Nope, try again! You used too much force on that one! No-no, you used too much speed this time, don't sacrifice your accuracy for that! Good, good. just make sure you follow through when doing that!”
“Be mindful of projecting your movements, you don't want your opponents to dodge your attacks too easily due to your weapon size giving away your attack pattern. Only telegraph as a form of deception. Careful about too much power, you don't want the backlash from your strike to cause you to lose your grip! That's better, but pace yourself.”
“There are going to be times where your opponent is going to try and outlast you! Gilda, don't let me set the pace of the fight, take control. learn to make your opponent dance to your rhythm, don't give them a chance to read the moment, change it up once in a while!”
Nearly a half hour had passed from then and Gilda was completely out of air with the way she was using her spear to hold up her body. With legs shaking and her grip barely being strong enough to prevent herself from sliding down her own spear.
Brex had gotten around to calling it quits for the day and they were just packing up their things. Well, the only one that was really packing up with Gilda and Brex had switched over to his White Mage class and fix the rocky terrain with a careful application of his stone attack spells so that it was flat once again.
As Gilda was putting the last of her stuff away. Brex had opened up his options tab and selected his level sink section and raised it from level fifteen all the way back up to seventy. Gilda was only a few levels lower, but thanks to his years of extensive fighting, paired along with her inexperience, was the only reason he was able to avoid her attacks in the way he was. As he was thinking about what to do next. Brex had received a message from Rory. In her usual upbeat attitude, the two conversed with one another within his head while keeping an eye on Gilda.
“Oh master~. I'll be arriving in Ponyville soon. The conductor just announced it as the next stop. I see that you're just now finishing up with Gilda’s training a bit early this time. Are you positive that you wish me to come now, instead of when he agreed upon years ago? We still have some time before I get to Ponyville to call this off and go with our original plan of waiting until the gala.”
“No, no. As convenient as it is to visit you every night. I do miss how we would spend our days together and felt that now is as good a time as any. By the way, how's that disguise working out for you?”
“Master, you don't have anything to worry about. Unlike yourself, I already have a pair of ears and a tail. So, as long as I keep my pony form as close as possible to my own, then there won't be any issues if I end up bumping into others.”
“What about when you going to combat. Did you and the girls work out that little hiccup where the illusion would get dispelled once the fighting starts?”
“I got plenty of help from Rin and Lin thanks to their Changeling magic being added to it. The illusion is pretty much physically stable. But as far as the time limit goes for reapplying, that's apparently something that we can't overcome right now. It also helps that my form is close enough to the form I want, that it doesn’t put much of a strain on the magic. Although it still bugs me after all this time to walk around in boots. Whenever I look at my feet and see these hooves. It always seems to mess up the way I walk for some reason.”
“Well then, all you need to do is not look at your feet and you'll be just fine. I wish I could just bring you straight here, but it would seem really suspicious if a hot young girl like you were to suddenly appear in town. Which is exactly why you're taking the train from Canterlot.”
“Hehe-Hehe-Hehe! Spending a few days with Fleur was actually pretty fun. The other two are staying up there for now at the manor. It's been quite some time since I got to have a girl’s day out. A little shopping, some coffee at an outdoor café.”
“I suppose it doesn't count when you're underground, even with the shops we got there back at HQ. Anyway, I should be back in town within the next forty minutes or so. Of course, that's if we don't get distracted by anything being stupid enough to attack us on the way.”
“Master, I doubt anything that could put two brain neurons together would take the chance of going after you while in there. They all pretty much know you're sent by now. Even the Timberwolves and Hydras know to steer clear of you. Even if you do appear to me a tempting target with Gilda there, I doubt they would do anything with you around. But still, it's rather inconvenient to have to keep holding back the knowledge from others that you have the ability to teleport. The only ones that know that you can do this are Rin, Lin and myself.”
“But I feel as though I can let you know that ever since I stepped out of Fancy Pants manor. I've been getting a lot more attention from the ponies on the streets, as well as those on the train. Even more so than normal.”
Brex gave a mental chuckle as he replied. “Well, can you blame them for looking? I got a smoking hot girlfriend who can literally rip monsters to shreds with her bare hands. Don't you remember in the beginning, how you would get invitations from not only the stallions, but the mare’s to join their herds?”
“Please Master, don't remind me of those times... It was all well and fun in the beginning, but a few of them turned into a real problem. It wasn't until that time that I understood what both you and Fleur went through when you kept getting all that attention. It can get rather annoying.”
“Well Rory, all that I ask is that you do not tar and feather Rainbow when you get there. And I'm not talking about just that either. No cutting off limbs or plucking each and every one of her primary feathers out. No attempting to poison, stabs, smash or otherwise cause any bodily harm that would result in permanent damage through the body and or mind.”
“But Master! Are you sure I can't rough her up, even a little bit? I mean, she'll be fine after some healing spells were applied afterwards.” This got Rory a stretch of silence before she continued. “Okay, okay. I promise I won't do anything like that Master. Oh, looks like the train is about to pull up to the station. I'll see you soon!”
*Point of view: Rarity* *Location: Ponyville, Outdoor Café*
Rarity was at this moment, enjoying some tea after going out for a short break. She had been quite busy with extra orders. After just taking another small sip from her cup and placing it back down again onto the saucer provided. The fashionista had her eyes glued onto a magazine that featured the super model wearing a nice cocktail dress, known as Fleur De Lis on the front cover.
After several pages of reading into the magazine. She had come to a stop and was completely transfixed on a photo that contained the celebrity, along with an unknown Earth Pony wearing an outfit that she just could not stop herself from admiring and the beverage being forgotten.
The picture on the page was taken by one of the paparazzi and showing the pair to be sitting at a table for an outside diner. From under her breath, Rarity was mumbling to herself as she took in every detail that she could of the black and red fashionable outfit that the Earth Pony mare was wearing. There was even this adorable head ornament that lined up with her ears.
Although she had an inquisitive look that crossed her face when her attention was briefly drawn towards the object that was laying nearby that was covered in a purple cloth. Whatever it was, turned out to be flat and wide at one end and quickly turned into a long thin piece for most of it.
It only took less than a second before her attention was brought back to the girl, but it all came to an end when she heard Twilight calling out to all the ponies while standing on one of the short Bridges that was not far from where she sat. She informed them all about there being a Dragon that was producing a thick layer of black smoke that was just then creeping along the sky.
Rather reluctantly, Rarity had to put up a closed for the day sign on her shops front door after getting home. A short time later, she and her friends gathered together in order to head towards the mountain that the smoke was coming from. The white mare had packed a good assortment of traveling attire before double-checking the rapier that was slipped into its harness that was on her left hip.
There was even a small object that could barely be held in her grip, that was comprised of a blue gem in the center that was of the same color as her cutie mark. This was the second half of her weaponry. Which would float nearby and attach to the hilt of her sword in order to cast the long-range spells that she had in her possession as a Red Mage.
The group had barely made it out of town and were heading towards a tall mountain off in the distance because Twilight had been issued a command by Princess Celestia to see the Dragon and persuade it to leave their lands. But at the moment, all Rarity could think about was the mound of gold and precious gems that such a creature could possibly have in its lair. This led to a number of daydreams which consisted of Rarity holding up a diamond that was easily twice her size in her magical grip.
Rarity could just vaguely hear something going on between Twilight and Fluttershy while the purple Unicorn was going over their plans before finally leaving Ponyville. But before things could go much further, there was a voice that she did not recognize coming from the direction of the town. “Isnt this very interesting. I'm not even here for more than five minutes and there's already talks about there being a Dragon problem? Now there's no way I'm going to be left out of something as fun as this!”
Not only did Rarity turn to see who was talking, but so did all of those present. It only took a second before Rarity's eyes shot open and she had the hold in a gasp of surprise upon the site of the very mare that she had just been studying from her magazine only earlier. She was even wearing the exact same outfit and carrying the item that was in the picture. Only now, it was without its covering to reveal a stylish axe that was painted purple.
(Here is a picture of Rory along with her signature outfit and weapon. Just picture her with darker skin and as an anthro pony, with a black mane and tail.)
But before she could say anything. Rainbow had zipped over while slightly hovering off the ground to get into the mare’s face before talking in an accusatory tone. “I don't know who you think you are, but you should leave this to the professionals! We don't need some pony who isn't even old enough to even be holding onto a knife to come along with this out of the blue.
For Rarity, she didn't know much of anything in regards to this mare, aside from a small amount that was written in the article. Saying that she was randomly seen with Fleur De Lis only a few days ago in Canterlot. But due to her look and the style of her clothing, the mare has been getting a lot of attention just from that one photo alone.
But from Rarities point of view. She could not have been older than seventeen. This of course caused her to become somewhat worried and was just about to step into the conversation in an attempt to word out what Rainbow was saying in a better way.
However, just as Rarity had come forward and was about to open her mouth. The mare had pulled out from her pocket, what was undeniably a Adventures plate and held it between her thumb and index finger so that it was facing towards the group to be easily seen.
Name: Rory Mercury.
Age: Classified.
Level: Classified.
Race: Classified.
Gender: Female.
Class: Marauder.
weapon specialty: Great axe.
Adventuring Guild Rank: Rank D.
Applejack could be heard giving a long whistle before she spoke in an impressed tone and also tilting the front of her hat up slightly. “Well, I'll be! To think we got a rank “D” in our town! I don't know about the rest of y'all, but she's got me beat.” Rainbow had crossed her arms and gave a quick harrumph as she turned herself away, that easily showed off how much she was feeling annoyed.
As Twilight was leaning in to get a good look at the plate. Pinkie was jumping in place, but had not said much of anything due to the pink Pony covering her mouth and obviously hiding a grin. Twilight pulled away after a few seconds and was giving Rory a hard stare down and lifting an eyebrow before speaking. “Okay then Miss Mercury.” The purple Unicorn was quickly interrupted when Rory had spoken up. “I would prefer it if you would just call me Rory if it's all the same.”
Twilight had coughed into her right hand before going on with what she was about to say before. “I can't help but notice that a lot of the information is not showing up. I think you might have a defective plate on your hands. Anyhow, I don't think you should be coming along since this is an assignment given to us straight from Princess Celestia herself.
Twilight had placed a hand over her chest and had her eyes closed the show that she was proud to be given the assignment. Due to this, Rarity was the only one to catch the smallest of eye twitches to come from Rory when Princess Celestia’s name was mentioned. This of course was filed away in the back of her mind for the future.
The new pony then started whirling the axe in her fingers a few times without showing that it wasn’t all that heavy for her, before letting it rest on her right shoulder and giving them a confidence smirk. Then she spoke in a playful tone that had the effect of sending a chill to run up Rarity’s spine. “Oh, but I must insist. You're about to go against a fully grown Dragon judging by how much smoke there is. I’m honestly surprised that you would be sent alone, considering your current abilities.
“Would I be right to assume that the rest of your force is waiting just up ahead for you to rendezvous with?” This got a heavy silence from the group as they were all looking towards one another before glancing at Twilight for any answers.
The purple Unicorn then took a step forward in an attempt to look more confident before she replied. “Uh, no. It's just us. We're more than enough for this assignment. After all, we have the resident expert on animals in our group. With her, we will know exactly how to handle a Dragon.”
This had got Rory to give her a questionable look over, before giving a slight shrug. She then said, “It is always better to have more than you need, rather than not having it when the time comes. An extra weapon would be rather useful in case your first plan fails. But I promise I will not interfere unless I am needed. Twilight was scratching her chin and after a few moments, she relented and allowed Rory to join them as they went into the forest and in the direction of the tall mountain that a good amount of the smoke was spewing forth from.
When they had finally got into the base of the mountain and began their climb. The rate at which they were progressing had slowed down drastically, when Fluttershy was unable to fly due to the scare she had gotten from the Dragon’s roar that could be heard from high above. After getting across a small cliff that led to another ledge and coming to another section. They were informed by Twilight that this area was marked down on the map as an avalanche zone and that’s when things got a little dicey for them.
That was because not soon after, one had occurred and Rarity was nearly crushed by one of the larger boulders that came rolling down the side. But was saved at the last second by Rory, who had swung her axe from below and striking it. This caused it to be cut in half and the separate pieces to fall on either side of Rarity and continue down the mountain.
From there, it was another short walk until they were to finally get to the mouth of the cave where the smoke was coming out from. but during that time, Rarity began to talk with Rory now that they seem to have a moment of peace. “I am dreadfully sorry dear, but with all the commotion, I was neglectful in introducing myself. My name is Rarity. I am the proprietor of Carousel Boutique and I can't help but to admire your dress. Never have I seen such a design! Might I enquire as to where you came across such an ensemble?”
Rory gave a quick chuckle to the question, before replying. “I got this from my... Uh… Dear lover. This is a recreation of something that he saw quite some long time ago. My weapon was also made by him as well. Although I must confess that I have a habit of breaking these quite easily, so he's gotten quite adept at their creation thanks to the practice.”
Rarity was pretty much hanging off of every word as her eyes began to sparkle, while getting a closer look at the pattern and stitching. However, when Rory had gotten to the end, the white Unicorn could sense the hesitation at the beginning when she talked of her lover.
There was also this astonished expression, before Rarity replied in a disbelieving tone. “Pardon me my dear. But did you just say somewhere in there, that the one who made these is a stallion? I can quite understand making clothing, but to forge an axe... Is that not a dangerous profession?”
Rory gave another playful laugh as she picked up speed so that she was now in front of Rarity and walking backwards so that she was facing her. The axe-wielding mare then said, “Oh, you don't have to worry about my Mas-... My lover. He is extremely talented when it comes to crafting. I can proudly say that every outfit that I own is one that he himself has personally made for me.”
Rarity was clearly more excited at this point and began to release a barrage of questions on to Rory as to just who this stallion is. Along with trying to gleam any information incase she herself has ever heard of him. But no matter what happened, Rory was keeping the more important bits of information closely guarded. She would do this either from switching words around or sidestepping the question with one of her own that had anything to do with fashion.
Unfortunately for Rarity’s interrogation, the girl’s tactics were working extremely well. So well in fact, that she couldn't even get much at all by the time they had arrived and Twilight was beginning to go over the plan. At which point, Rory had walked away from the group and was sitting on top of a large rock that was at least four meters high after taking a single leap onto it without much trouble.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex had separated from Gilda after they had gotten back to ponyville, by giving a half-assed excuse about leaving an important item back at the campsite where they were just training and needed to go back before an animal got their paws onto it.
In reality, he had been getting regular updates from Rory and had caught up to them as they had gotten near the top of the mountain and watched as they got ready to go in for the first time with Twilight and Fluttershy. Thanks to their link, Rory had joined him and was now sitting near his legs, while watching from the top of the rock that they were both currently on.
Using their connection, the two began to converse with one another starting off with Brex. “I'm very proud of you Rory. You see, you don't always have to solve everything with physical violence. Otherwise, Rainbow wouldn't be here right now. There was this small part in the back of my head that said you might have chopped her head off the moment you met.”
“Well master.... I would be lying if I said everything was fine. Most of the trip up here was me imagining just what I could do to that Pegasus. One example is going over what I know about their anatomy and trying to come up with the number of how many times I can break her bones only a few inches apart. This also includes the total number that’s within her wings.”
Brex had released a mental sigh before going on. “Still, you did a great job in curbing your tendencies. But as for Twilight, she did two things today that really ticked me off...”
“Oh, is that so Master? Let me guess. Would it have to do with how she doesn't listen to Fluttershy when it comes to how scared she is of the Dragon and that whole comment about having an animal expert on hand, when dealing with a Dragon. When her own brother is one as well?”
“You know me so well. That would be a yes on both parts. I'm friends with Spike and she went and called him a wild animal with what she said before. Honestly, I can't really tell whether or not he took offense to it or was just oblivious. It's whenever she gets this inconsiderate that makes me want to bitch slap her to get some common sense. Anyhow, I was beginning to wonder when the Dragonshy episode was about the startup.”
“I'm going to hang back on this one. So far, this world is following the show close enough. So, our presence might not even be needed here and Fluttershy well gain some courage after her friends get hurt and talk the Dragon down after a little tussle.”
“And what if Fluttershy can't do that Master? Will I be able to have some fun with it?”
“Feel free to do whatever you want to the Dragon if it turns out to be hostile and the girls can't get it under control, but until then I suggest not interfering.” Rory then gave a barely noticeable slow nod as confirmation, as they both watched as Twilight being the only one to walk in through the mouth of the cave.”
*Point of view: Third person* *Time: Two minutes later*
Brex had just given out a long yawn that he had to stifle with his mouth in order to not be heard by the others below. Rory gave a small smile upon hearing it right next to her, as she remained sitting on the rock and looking down at the group that was patiently waiting for the past few minutes.
There was then a large rumble that was accompanied by a Dragon's roar that caused the number of rocks along the side of the entrance to come falling down. Some of them happened to be the size of a person and had nearly hit Rainbow and Applejack.
But they managed to avoid it easily. This was followed with Twilight rushing out while screaming at the top of her lungs. But what really caught all of their attention, was how she was being followed by these strange bat-like creatures that had a set of arms and legs that were overall, just barely a third at most the size of a pony.
(Here is a picture of what is attacking Twilight.)
They were giving off a slight glow whenever they flapped their wings and it produced a noticeable burst of hot air. One had even shot a small fireball after opening its mouth for Twilight but miss buy a few inches as she outran where it was falling. There was another that took a deep breath and let loose a wave of fire that went out in a cone. Thankfully it came up short from hitting the swiftly running mare.
By now, she had finally got together with her friends and they took up their battle positions. However, Fluttershy was far too scared and was cowering behind one of the boulders at the very end of the area they were in, that was just large enough for a fight to occur.
Over with Rory. The girl had an awestruck expression as she carefully eyed the creatures flying about. Which were a grand total of six. For the briefest instants, her eyes went wide as she looked towards Brex and then back towards the fight as he quickly muttered. “Those are definitely not from Final Fantasy!”
Twilight launched her own fireball spell after pointing her staff in the direction of one of them, but it shrugged It off quite easily after the impact. It was just about to launch a fire attack of its own right back at Twilight in retaliation, but got an arrow shot into its skull from the back thanks to a well-timed shot from Pinkie.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to bring down one of those creatures, as it flailed about for but a moment, before writing itself with its wings and fired its attack back towards where the arrow had come from. Pinky had to jump out of the way and do a roll on the ground before getting herself back onto her left knee and taking another shot with their arrow. Which then finished off the target after getting it in the chest.
It had instantly gone limp and the wings were no longer flapping to keep it in the air. As soon as it hit the ground from the height it was at, the fiery creature had exploded upon contact and created a small crater. This was followed with it launching some molten magma a few feet away from itself. After seeing what the result was from killing them, Twilight frantically called out loud enough for all of her friends to hear. “OH, MY CELESTIA!!! They're made of lava! Girls! Don't let them touch you and don't be anywhere near them when they die!”
Having seen it for herself. Pinkie added to that by yelling in her usual cheery voice and bouncing around. “Yeah! They're like overfilled water balloons. But not without the water or the balloon. Instead, they have lava, very, very, hot lava! I don't know why anyone would want water balloons full of lava. That just sounds like a really bad idea.”
“Like, how would they even fill up the balloons without them popping?! Also, even if they could fill up the water balloons with lava, then it would be like playing hot potatoes! I don't think any would want to play a game that you can get really hurt like that!”
Oddly enough, with all the ramblings that she was doing. It had the effect of causing all of those present, to just stopped in place to look at her with strained faces. This also included the creatures that were now tilting their heads, while being stationary in place while in midair.
Seeing as all the girls had their own varying degrees of which they were used to the pink pony’s antics. It didn't take long before Rarity and Rainbow to snap free from their stupor and immediately went towards attacking the now stationary monsters.
As rainbow zoomed past and launched slash after slash to do damage to one or even both of their wings, the Pegasus had taken nearly half of them out. Some were already dead before hitting the ground. While others were finished thanks to the concussive force in which they landed on to the stone ground.
Rarity on the other hand, was casting a combination of non-elemental and lightning spells with the use of her weapon as a focal point, thanks to the gem that hooked onto the handle. As for the ones that were closer to the ground, the white mare used another skill that allowed her to close the gap to do a quick thrust and continue on with one of her melee skills which dispatch two, before jumping away in time to avoid the explosions.
The last one was clearly panicking, as it attempted to turn back in order to re-enter the cave. But was stopped when Applejack had snuck up on it and took it out with a clean sweep of her axe. Due to her close proximity of its death, she was not fast enough to avoid the impending explosion and was partly covered with lava that began to heat up the parts of her armor that had some on it. As a result, Applejack frantically went to work and threw off most of her protective gear to get away from being badly burnt.
The five of them began to cheer loudly at their victory, but this only lasted a few seconds before a bright light was being given off from the mouth of the cave. This was soon accompanied by the sound of roaring flames coming closer. As soon as they had all figured out what was coming, the entire group made a dive for either the sides or straight down onto the ground in order to evade the torrent of flames that erupted and pretty much covered the battle area that they were in for a few seconds.
Rarity was luckily able to avoid getting burned, but was now hurriedly dusting herself off after running out of the way. Rainbow had flown up and off to the side and was now patting herself due to a small bit of flame licking away near the tip of her tail. The rest look pretty beaten up with how they were completely covered in soot but appeared to have received no real damage.
When it came to Pinky, she had suddenly screamed and horror as she stood over the remains of what appeared to be a costume comprised of a birthday present, balloons and webbed flippers that were more than halfway burnt. Which was pretty weird because she didn't have them in view during their whole trip up the mountain in the first place. Brex, who was still in the shadows, clearly identified them as the get up that she was intending to use just like in the television show.
Pinkie did not have much time to mourn the loss of her party costume, due to a large red scale claw with four digits exiting the mouth of the cave on one side, only to be joined by another from the other side. This was then followed with a Dragon's head exiting that had a mouth big enough to swallow an entire person and just one bite. The sudden sight of the Dragon coming out, had made all of those present besides Rory and the one who was clearly hiding from view behind the rocks to pretty much fall over one another from panic.
The Dragon had let out another roar that was strong enough to knock the ponies into a nearby rock face. Clearly being stunned as they were pretty much tangled in each other's limbs. The group was now no longer in a position to put up much of a fight. Brex then gave Rory the command to intervene, in which she gladly had a devilish smirk on her face as a reaction.
Back with the group. Fluttershy had seen what it happened to them and was already up in the Dragon's face and giving it a stern talking-to. In the beginning, they all thought that she was really to get through to it. But as it turned out, the Dragon was not all that particularly weak against the yellow Pegasus and snorted a strong gust of hot air at her, which caused the mare to fall to the ground while coughing from the smoke.
The Dragon then got up onto its hind legs and exhibited signs that it was taking in a lung full of air in order to produce another one of its powerful breath attacks. Thanks to their current predicament, they were not going to be able to untangle themselves to get out of the way in time.
But Rory at jump high into the air and attack the Dragon’s face with her axe. This gave off a loud clang as the metal collided with the tough scales that was lining its head. But it did have the result of canceling its breath attack due to how hard Rory had struck with her large weapon.
She wasn't even halfway down from her fall, before she was struck with the backhand of its left arm in blind retaliation. This sent her flying at a much faster rate, but she had righted herself in the air with a well-timed flip and made a skidding stop along the ground as soon as her legs had touched down. There was some dirt rubbed onto her face that she had wiped off with her left hand, before gripping on to her axe with both once more to take on an aggressive stance to show that she was ready for another round.
By this point the others had freed themselves and were looking at Rory with dropped jaws that threatened to hit the ground. Even Rainbow seemed to have forgotten to flap her wings and dropped a foot or two before regaining her flying capabilities due to the shock of watching the girl taking a hit like that and not seeming phased.
Over with Brex who is watching all this unfurl from the shadow realm. he had this look of disbelief behind his own mask. But it was not because of what Rory had accomplished. No, it was for the simple fact that when he had brought up the information regarding the Dragon.
The whole screen had changed to something that he just couldn't believe. Instead of showing the usual text box or simply the health bar, along with the name of whoever he was checking. He instead got one that was designed to appear as though it had come from a Dungeons and Dragon's book.
(Here is a picture of the Dragon they are facing.)
He then quietly said to himself, while looking over the information displayed. “So, it says this is a large monster. I think he's a bit bigger than he’s supposed to be. It says that he’s a young Dragon. But he looks more like an adult dragon instead. I guess he's just big for his age.” After taking a quick glance at Rory, he continued with his musings. “She should be strong enough to be able to take this one on by herself. Although, I am worried with not getting an exact level on it.”
The fight then continued with Rory running towards the Dragon at full force and delivering swipe after swipe with her large axe. Although many of her blows barely grazed the scales and elicited a number of sparks to shower onto the field of battle. There were however a number that had gotten through its natural defenses and produced a myriad of gouges that it's dark blood would escape from.
The Red Dragon would thrash about wildly by using not only its fanged mouth to eat her whole, but its front power arms to try and swipe at Rory with claws that could cut into stone with ease. But it also used its tail to randomly sweep across the battlefield and even slammed down whenever Rory tried to get behind to avoid most of its razor-sharp appendages.
As this was going on, Twilight and her friends could do nothing but watch from what they believed was a safe distance. Among them was Fluttershy, who was clearly about to have a heart attack. What did surprise the others, was how Rainbow was holding onto Fluttershy and shaking like a leaf herself after every roar that escaped the dragon. The Pegasus had even made this scared sheep sound before falling over after a particularly loud one.
Whenever Rory seemed to have taken any damage at all, it would spontaneously begin to regenerate to leave not even a scar in its place even while in the midst of battle. Her movements were extremely hard to follow with the naked eye with how she was jumping from one rock spire to the next, that was being created due to the Dragon slamming into the ground and sending debris or large pieces of rock to come shooting out around where it's tail or claws had struck.
At one point, Rory had used one of its tail attacks to jump on to the appendage and run up along until she was pretty much on its back. She was just about to take a good swing at the base of the wings to cut them off, when the Dragon had suddenly started to roll on the ground. Which ended up throwing Rory off of its back and against the wall of the mountain as a result.
When that had happened. Brex could plainly here Rory giving a pained scream from being thrown off in such a way, that it made him take a single step forward before stopping in his tracks. From behind his mask, Brex had this look of fury that was slowly beginning to creep onto his face after hearing his girlfriend suffering such an injury, that could have killed any other. After letting out a grunt of annoyance, he closed his hands into fists and this created a few bones popping, thanks to the pressure he was creating due to his building anger.
The Dragon then unfurled its wings and took to the sky after giving a strong flap that pretty much knocked over all of the girls. Rory, who had gotten back up, ended up needing to stab the bottom of her axe handle into the ground in order to keep herself in place until the Dragon was fully airborne.
From there, the battle went on as the Dragon made numerous passes and launching a strong breath of fire that carved a solid line into the ground. There were even some rocks that got slung around because of this that had some glowing red parts to show that it was nearly turned into lava due to the extreme heat that was produced by the Dragon's breath.
Unlike before, Rory wasn't having much luck and doing any more damage to the Dragon, with the way it was staying in the air and she had no way of getting to it. Brex upon realizing the situation, had sent a message through their connection for just a moment, before the girl had a small smirk on her lips.
Just after the Dragon had done another pass. Rory spoke up loudly as she yelled to the Dragon after situating herself so that she was standing with her back towards the opening of the cave. “You're pretty good for a Copper Dragon!”
Saying such a thing, had obviously gotten a strong response from said Dragon. It had stopped in mid dive with the use of its strong wings and roared in a voice that was comparable to that of what the Royals would use. Most of the girls even had to cover their ears due to the volume. As for Brex, he was containing his mirth, while lightly giggling behind his mask after hearing the insult.
“You dare to insult me in such a fashion young welp! For I am a Red Dragon! NOT A COPPER DRAGON!! Such an insult cannot be allowed to pass! I shall feast from your body. All will know that my wrath is eternal! I will search out every town, every village within my domain and raise it to the ground with my flames! You shall be an example for what is to come for them all! I shall kill all ponies this day and sleep on a bed of their bones!”
From within the shadow Realm, all Brex did was to stand there and lifting both of his hands and moving them to like a set of sock puppet’s, along with bobbing left to right in a mocking gesture and timed it to be in line with the Dragon's own words. Between him and Rory, they had this quick conversation with one another as the Dragon went on with it’s over the top monologue
“Master, how did you know that was going to make it do that?”
“Oh, that's really easy! He's a Red Dragon, so they're extremely prideful and arrogant. They also have the shortest fuse that any living creature could have. Honestly, the best way to tick off a red Dragon like that, is to either insult him or take his items from right in front of his face.”
“Okay I understand that. But would you like to explain why you had me call him a copper Dragon?”
“That's simple Rory. The Red Dragon is a part of the Chromatic tribe of Dragon's in the D and D world. They want nothing more than to see the destruction of all and have themselves at the top of the food chain if you were to simplify it. Now, a Copper Dragon is from the Metallic tribe and they're pretty much the polar opposite from the Chromatics.”
“When it comes to the Copper Dragons, they're really hard to distinguish at a glance between it and a Red Dragon if you don't know what you're looking for and you could imagine how much this upsets a Red Dragon to be compared to them.”
Their little conversation had come to an abrupt end, when the Dragon was finished talking and was now making a straight on dive for Rory. Just before it had gotten to her, the Dragon had opened its mouth to try and swallow her whole. Seeing this, she jumped up and hooked her axe so that she would be thrown over its head and began to run along it's spine until she had gone across the length of its body and landed on to the ground outside. At the same time, she surprisingly looking ever so graceful while doing so.
However, when she was doing this, the Dragon ended up crashing into his cave as its hole form disappeared into the mouth of the opening. Because of that, there was a huge crash that shook the entire mountain and nearly caused a few of the ponies to stumble as a result.
Brex, who is still up on the rock, had to adjust his stance to prevent from slipping off. A huge dust cloud came pouring out of the cave not even a second later and the ground started to send cracks that were heading straight for where Rory was standing at an astounding rate.
This was then followed with it giving way and falling into an empty section of the mountain that was located directly below. Clearly not expecting such an outcome, Rory was caught up in the situation and had started to plummet into the darkness.
The girls had all saw this happening and had let out a collective gasp as most of them ran towards the edge to try and peek down to see if she was okay. Unfortunately for them, the cave below was so deep that they were unable to even tell when it ended. Even the large Dragon couldn't even be seen from where they stood.
In response to this, Brex had jumped down from his vantage point and ran past the girls before leaping into the darkness below without being noticed. As Brex was falling, he began to take note at just how long of a drop this was and counted the seconds. By the time his senses had alerted him that the ground was coming up fast and only had a second or two to brace himself. The Roegadyn had quickly gone over in his head about what he knew about falling speed.
“Okay let's see! Factoring in air resistance, the average fall speed for a human upon achieving terminal velocity. Which is one hundred and eighteen miles per hour! Now taking into account how long I've been traveling! Then I must be... What the fuck! Did we really go through the whole mountain and are now underground?! I'd have to guess we're nearly two hundred and eighty meters down from the base of the mountain!”
Right as he had collided with the ground, there was a large boom that came from his feet making an impact. This was then proceeded with it echoing off of the walls that indicated that they were inside of an underground chasm. Brex had to take a quick knee to recover from the sudden stop and could feel his body screaming in pain from every nerve. Just like in the game, fall damage couldn’t kill a player that was at full health. Instead, it would bring them to as low as one percent. In this case, he had the blessing from Daddy, so he didn’t take so much.
Unfortunately, thanks to the rough terrain, it was hard for Brex to be able to get a fix on everything. This was only further being complicated with how dark it was that he could not even see his own nose. It had taken several long moments until he could stand on his two legs and take in his surroundings.
After concentrating on his senses, the Roegadyn was able to use his situational awareness to give him a mental picture of the environment to a certain distance away from his body. He had even called out to Rory with their mental connection, but got nothing back other than silence.
This was the first time ever this had happened with how Rory never missed an opportunity to talk to him. But still, he wasn't too worried about her being dead, thanks to being able to feel out the connection that was still established. Which meant that she was most likely unconscious.
A few seconds later, the sound of rumbling rocks could be heard after there was a roar coming from none other than the Dragon itself, from within the darkness. A number of boulders must have been flung with the way that they were falling from above Brex, who only had a split second thanks to his limited detection range upon picking up their approach to get out of the way.
The Dragon then spoke in a very angry tone of voice that said retribution was an order. “I will take much joy in ending your life for this indignity! Show yourself!” The cave suddenly had a bright orange and red flame erupting from above to indicate that the Dragon was standing on its hind legs with its mouth blazing as it began to build.
After letting out another Roar, it had shot its flames until it had collided with the far wall, which was easily around ninety meters away and gave off a dim light thanks to the superheated rocks that were now formed from the Dragons attack.
It then yelled out as its form that was partially illuminated and thrashed about with both its wings and tail. Thereby sending the debris that came down along with them to shoot in random directions and come crashing into others. Some of which were nearly as big as a military tank as they came down.
As the Dragon was doing all of this. Brex was running around in search of Rory, as well as dodging the many debris. At one point, he had even gone and casted the night vision spell on himself. But even that had a limit to the distance that he could see and even after close to a minute of running around, he did not find Rory anywhere.
There was yet another fiery blast that had gone towards the other end of the cavern. Apparently, the Dragon was attempting to either hit Rory by chance or to give him some more light in which to continue his hate-filled search. Brex was just about to continue with searching where the Dragon currently had its back towards, but notice the way that it suddenly got quiet after a few seconds after making that last fire breath.
The Dragon was currently looking in some far-off direction and had not made any more aggressive movements for but a moment, before it began to walk on all fours in a predator, stacking it pray fashion. It was even giving off these small growls that echoed in an ominous way as its tail dragged on the ground.
The Dragon had stopped after taking a few long strides, this thanks to its large bodies size. It then craned its neck down so that it was nearing the cave floor and began to produce a light from its mouth that was clearly starting to build up for a far more powerful flame. It also gave off a menacing chuckle while doing so, that sent a chill the run-up the Roegadyn's spine.
Right there on the cave floor and laying on her right side. Turned out to be Rory and her clothing was pretty beat up with half of her skirt being torn off and her right shoulder being completely exposed. No doubt she had just recovered thanks to her auto healing, otherwise there might have been a large wound right there. Her weapon was halfway stuck into the ground by its bladed end, being only five meters or so away.
Brex used a mental connection once more and screamed in his mind as loud as he could to get her to reply. “Rory! You need to get up now, he found you!” However, there was no response from either her body making a move or the connection.
He then attempted once more. “Rory! No more playing around!” Again, this got nothing, so he tried once more, but with a slightly different tactic. “Rory, this is your Master speaking! I swear, if you do not get up right now, then I will not let you have sex with me for a whole month and I'll make sure you watch me doing it with our maids!!”
At this point, the Dragon had already reached down with its right claw and picked up Rory’s body before tossing her into the air so that she would fall into his open mouth. Almost as though someone had flipped the light switch, Rory had reacted to what Brex had said and immediately woken up with a startled expression. Which was right in time for her to grasp the situation and positioned herself with a well-timed twist of her body, so that her legs were pressing between the gaps of the Dragon's teeth on its lower jaw.
She had also brought up her left arm and had it bent at the elbow so that two sets of the teeth would collide with it and her other arm was underneath to brace it for support near the wrist. The Dragon was clearly trying to bite down on her but due to her strong unnatural strength, the girl was able to wedge his mouth open as its head thrashed about to dislodge her. Even with the heavy grunts that was escaping her lips, there was also this background noise of creaking that could be heard.
She then screamed as loudly as she could, along with beginning to give off this nearly imperceivable pulse of energy that went along with her voice for just one single word. “RELEASE!” The Dragon upon hearing that, had its eyes going wide as the slitted golden pupils close until they were nothing but tiny lines. from there, the Dragon eased up on its pressure just enough for Rory to push yourself out from between the teeth and began to fall until she landed on the ground with a light thud.
But while she was still in mid-air, she was frantically yelling through the mental link in a panic tone, that just said that she was about to lose her mind. “Master! Y-You wouldn't do that to me. Would you??!!! I only took a short nap! Please, oh please don't be so mean!”
Back with the Dragon, the eyes return to normal as it quickly slammed its jaw closed. Only to find that his prey was no longer within his mouth. As it went to look for Rory, the girl had ample time to get ahold of her axe and had jumped up high to land one of the taller pieces of debris in order to launch herself at the Dragon's head once more as it was facing away. The axe itself, was aimed directly in a spot on the back of the skull where it met the neck in order to get past at a weak point that she had noticed during their battle earlier outside.
Unfortunately for Rory, for a soon as she had gotten close enough that she can literally taste the Dragon blood on her lips. It had spun its head around so that the axe’s blade had ended up striking the hard section of its skull. This in turn, along with the amount of strength that Rory had put into the strike, was way more than enough to cause the weapon to shatter and rain down not only sparks.
But the many pieces that were scattered about and reflecting the light of the flames that were still lit within the cave. The last thing that Rory said before the Dragon swiped her out of the air with the use of its left claw was, “Oooh Fuuuuuuuuuck!”
Rory not only slammed into one of the rocks during her trip given by the Dragon. She had also shattered it and had gone through another, then another before coming to a halt after colliding with the fourth, only to slide and crumple down onto the rocky floor.
She had multiple cuts that were bleeding profusely and quite a bit of her clothing had been ripped off. This meaning she had hardly anything left of her old outfit, which left her with red lace panties and bra that was showing that the left strap for the shoulder had snapped off and was close to falling lower to show off her breast.
After Rolling onto her back and breathing heavily. Rory was barely able to keep her eyes open while staring straight up and using the connection to talk to Brex in a tired tone. “My… apologies Master. I believe I’ve finally hit my limit. Just promise me you'll fuck him up good...”
The Dragon had gotten down onto all fours and flared its wings. It then opened its mouth once again to show that it was building up its flames once more. However, unlike the rest, it was taking its time and even its body was starting to give off a faint glow to show that the heat within was building to a much higher degree than any of the previous fire attacks that had been revealed.
When the attack was released. It had outstretched its neck fully and the jaw was now opened wide. Instead of either a fireball or it shooting a jet of flame straight ahead of itself. The entire area in front of it, in a cone had been engulfed in flames that was so powerful that they not only scorched the Earth, but had been blasted all around till it covered every foot of the chasm that they are within and essentially turning it into a living representation of hell itself.
Nearly one side of their fighting area was now turning into puddles of molten rock and creating an out-cove in the process. The rocks melted down quickly and the far wall was now glowing orange and red. From there, it slowly ran down and joined the pooling mass of molten rock that was quickly growing.
Back on the surface and at the very top of the mountain, the girls had been listening to the fight down below and the numerous roars and crashing noises that echoed through the deep hole. But just then, they all had to jump away to take a safe position after noticing a bright orange light coming from the bottom and that is was quickly approaching. They had just barely jumped far enough to escape a raging geyser of fire that nearly singed the tips of their tails after turning to run.
Fluttershy was the furthest away due to how scared she was. It was because of this that she didn't feel the full force from the flames. Although it was enough to cause her to stumble and land on her butt. This had the result of jostling the Grimoire that she had securely fastened to a holder on her right hip. The book then fell onto its spine and opened to one of the many random pages that were written with him.
When that have happened, there was a small flash of light to indicate the summoning of a carbuncle. This being the unique green one that she had previously summon during the fight with the bugs and it immediately ran for the whole and jump within right as the flame ended.
Fluttershy was the only one to notice this going on as the rest of her friends were still in the middle of recovering and getting the dust out of their eyes after quickly getting away from the hole just moments before.
She was just about to get up to give chase, but ended up stumbling until she was now sitting back down with her knee’s underneath and a somewhat blank expression for about a moment as her eyes shifted between their normal color to that od green. Over with the green carbuncle that had dived into the hole. It was showing no worries as it adjusted its body to traverse the drop so that it did not collide with anything that was poking out along the walls down.
Even the thick black smoke that was following through the whole mountain as though it was some oversized chimney, had little to no effect on the creature as it shined a green glow that produced a strong wind barrier to protect it as the smoke got more heavier along with the increase in temperature.
It didn't take much time for it to enter the underground cavern and float down onto one of the taller rock formations that was the farthest away from the Dragon, as it was clearly seen through the flames that pretty much covered everything within sight. But just beyond where the Dragon was facing. Just happened to be a bright green and yellow light that stood out from everything else and this called the summons over. It then made its way closer in order to get a better view of the situation.
After a few seconds of jumping from one rock to the next, while avoiding the small rivers of lava. It had finally made it to a position to the far left of the Dragon and got a good look of a patch of ground that was in the shape of a perfect circle and had not been touched at all by the river of lava that was now surrounding it.
As the Carbuncles eyes reflected a shade of blue for a moment before returning to their usual black. It showed a reflection of two within a strange barrier made up of green energy that spanned the entire area that was untouched by anything.
The smallest was no doubt Rory, but the second was that of Brex while wearing his usual attire. Held within his left hand was a book similar to a Grimoire. Right next to him, was another small creature floating nearby that had a pair of butterfly wings and took on the shape of a small person that was covered in purple and yellow lines.
Both of which, also had another personal barrier that could be seen with a four-pointed diamond design that could be shown on the surface in the general direction of the Dragon. After a few seconds had passed, the diamond patterns faded to only leave a vague glow to show that a shield was still up.
It took a few seconds for the barrier to finally drop and allowed a better view of those within it. The reflection in the Carbuncle's eyes showed how he had turned around and pointed his right hand straight at Rory and she was enveloped in a glow that was similar to that of the magic that protected them.
A few seconds had passed and Rory could be seen getting back up and onto her legs and making the motion of dusting herself off and examining the current state of her clothing and giving an angry gesture of stomping the ground.
This was immediately preceded with an outfit appearing within his arms that was similar in design to what she was wearing before it had gotten destroyed. Some words were apparently exchanged between them both that could not be heard from where the Carbuncle was and watched as Rory soon after jumped to an unknown location away from Brex by using the still visible rocks that were above the lava as stepping stones. There were still the signs of the protection still being in effect as it kept her from being harmed by the heat that was radiating from the lava’s surface.
Going back over to the Roegadyn. He slowly turned towards the Dragon after sending Rory away to get redressed. That was when he started to talk to himself. “I'm all well and good when it comes to Rory being in a fight... And yes, she tends to get a little bloody at times... However, she always comes out on top... But you… You on another hand, ooh you just had to go and cross the line now, didn't you? If I hadn’t stepped in, then there would have been nothing left of her just now.”
His tone began to turn a little darker as he went on. “You could have killed her for good just now... I thought I was fine with her going into this fight, but I realized now that even that has a limit. I can clearly see that you are stronger than Nightmare Moon... Now having Rory fight you on her own was a mistake on my part and I will own up to it later. But as for you... You really hurt Rory today. There's a part of me that just wants to kill you here and now and as quickly as possible.”
That was when his mannerisms began to turn into something that was a little more manic, as he continued to speak. There was even this chilling laugh that escaped his lips. “Hahaha… But lucky you! You're most likely the strongest thing I've had to come across here in Equestria! Bravo, bravo! Where else am I going to find a perfect opportunity to conduct this little test... Oh I so very much hope that you don't die quickly!
“HAAHAAAAA-HAHAAAA-HAAAA! Anyone or anything that tries to take Rory away from me better have their affairs in order! Because the light of day will never be seen again by them!” If it wasn't for the mask covering his face, then it would be very easy for any who saw him to see a toothy smile that stretched from ear to ear as he gazed at the Dragon with pure killing intent. All the while, he was slightly giggling with anticipation for what was about to happen.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 53: I’m Not A Child.
The underground cavern that seemed more than big enough for the entire city of Canterlot to fit within, held one large Red Dragon that was standing on all fours in the center and facing off against Brex. Who is halfway between it and the far wall that was still melting due to the intense blast from his very large adversary. At the same time, more than a quarter of the area had been turned to either molten lava or glowing red-hot Earth, aside from a perfect circle where Brex now stood.
The air itself being illuminated by the scattering of flames and glowing burning hot rock, was being partially obscured due to the fluctuation in the heat, which gave quite a bit of haze. Even through all of this, the Dragon could easily be made out with how big its body size clashed with that of the boulders near its feet, that were no better than pebbles to it. There were sections that displayed the scales being chipped away and a few cut marks where the weapon of Rory had managed to get in between its natural hardened armor.
The crackling heat and roaring flames that surrounded them was easily dwarfed with the constant growling that the large Red Dragon was making as it curled its mouth into a snarl and bearing its razor-sharp teeth that were easily as long as a person's entire arm.
Due to there being no sunlight from above, it was easy to lose track of the back of the Dragon with the way the shadows were being formed from the light underneath. Which only would have made any normal person to be wary and be far more focused to try and tell exactly where each part of the monster's limbs could be or a sneak attack could be an end.
As for Brex, thanks to his in-game memories being altered so that they were as real as anything else. He was easily able to recall a time where he had to venture within an active volcano. So, this much was quite tame in comparison when seeing that back then. While in the game, he was quite literally surrounded by molten rock. Meaning that what was currently all around, was essentially no better than a puddle to the Roegadyn.
The Dragon, without giving any type of warning as to what it was about to do, leap forward without even bracing its legs and quickly closed the gap between them both. The speed in which it did so would have surprised any other, especially when it came to its sheer size.
As it did this, it's body would contort to give it a reptilian movement pattern in order to mislead its target as to what direction it would be coming at. At the very last moment, the dragon had twisted its head so that it could clamp its jaws around Brex from the left and right.
Its body was still in motion when the jaws had closed, however the Dragon quickly noticed that there was nothing there and not even a split second had gone by before its right eye was suddenly struck by three fast-moving lights that were the size of golf balls comprised of a bright neon blue light.
This had distracted the still in motion Dragon enough, that it had failed to stop itself in time before colliding into the small out cove and getting covered along its back side and a portion of the wings near the base, with the molten rock that it itself had created.
The dragon had released a bellowing roar that lasted several seconds as it flailed its body in order to get free from the hole, along with shaking off the molten rock. Its rage was apparent with how some flames were blasting out from both its mouth and nostrils during all of this, until it seems satisfied with its current state. Afterwards, it began to look around for the one that had obviously gotten away and launched that sneak attack. Which now had its right eye damaged enough that it had to keep it closed for the time being.
It was then struck again by a sudden attack, but this time it came from right underneath it's jaw. This turned out to be Brex, who had just given it a rising uppercut with his right fist. This had the effect of slamming the Dragon's jaw shut with such force that it had actually broken off one, if not two of its teeth and causing its head to snap upwards and elicited a guttural roar.
This allowing a good view of the Roegadyn, who is now still in mid-air and wearing what appeared to be a heavy set of futuristic armor that was comprised of mostly white or gray colored metal that covered him from head to foot. The entire thing had overall increased his size to that of over a foot and a half, which made him more than nine feet tall now.
(Here is a picture of the armor he is wearing right now.)
While still in the air and falling, the Dragon had recovered quickly and tried to snap its jaws onto Brex, but he had dodged the attack by the skin of his teeth by somehow leaping out of the way while kicking against the air with enough force to send him flying.
When he had done this, his form had gone straight up a good twenty meters or so and when he held out his right arm and hand wide open. Right after, a square shaped rod that was less than a meter long had appeared and as soon as he had gripped on to it, the item had extended until it was nearly as long as his body and a blade had been produced at the top that was nearly two and a half feet long.
His armored form had done a backflip and kicked off of something that was clearly not there to begin with and rocketed down at the Dragon at high speed and passed by its head. This had left a long gouge to form only a second later and some blood to squirt fourth. The new wound had cut along the side of its head where the bad eye was and had gone from the base of one of the horns and all the way down to the bottom of its jaw.
After doing this, he had landed near the base between its front claws that it was using to help hold itself up on all fours and quickly jumped back several dozen meters to a safe distance and landed again to a skidding halt after going nearly half a foot into the lava and splashing it about.
During that, the Dragon ended up roaring again, but this time it was not out of frustration or anger. It was clearly from that of experiencing great discomfort with the way it was throwing its head from side to side in a pathetic attempt to get rid of the pain in some way.
Over with Brex, he was staring down the dragon from behind his helmet that had the eye sections glowing with the same neon blue light that appeared before and had damaged the Dragons right eye. In fact, sections of its body were exhibiting lines that were similar in a type of circuitry pattern. This was more apparent where the joints were located.
From behind his helmet, one could hear him speaking in a voice that was obviously coming through some type of an external speaker system, with how there was this slight hint of artificial noise behind it. “I really must thank you for your participation in this beta test of mine. It's one thing to conduct these type of trial runs under simulated conditions. Although, nothing beats that of real-world scenarios. Now make sure you don't go easy on me! I completely expect you to try and destroy this armor to your utmost capabilities!”
“Your sacrifice today will ensure some very promising data for me to go over.” The Dragon having zeroed in on him, thanks to the talking had turned its head enough that its good left eye was staring directly at him. From there, its form began to give off this orange glow that lasted for only a second before the armor that Brex was wearing had begun to give off the same yellow light that soon ran across his entire body.
When everything had undergone this change. The Dragon began to give off a wicked laugh that was loud enough that the cave system. This had even caused the inside of the cave to begin to rumble and a few rocks had fallen from above and landed nearby that were easily the size of a three-story house. This had gone on for several seconds before it turned its attention back to Brex. Only to see that he had not moved at all. In response, the Dragon had lost its mirth and had gone completely silent as it sharpened its gaze.
This turned into a raised eyebrow, or at least equivalent with the way the scales began to contort and went wide upon hearing what was said next from the one in armor before it. Brex had begun to release a loud sigh of what could have only have been relief and slowly adjusting the shoulders to get comfortable as he spoke.
“Hmmmm-hmmmmm... OhhOoohhhh! That actually feels pretty good! I think I heard of something called a warm sand bath that you could get at some saunas. I wonder if this is what it feels like. Oh! This feels soooooooo good.” There was even this small appreciative growl of some kind that came from the helmet before he continued. “You know, it's quite a shame that you're going to die today... Ohhhh Yeah, that's the stuff! I would have actually paid you to come by and warm up my bath water. Oh well, I'll just track down another Copper Dragon.”
Being called a Copper Dragon had caused it to go from bewilderment, to pure frustration. Yet again, as it outstretched its neck. From there, it began to yell with such force that it blew a number of the flames that were behind Brex away. “I AM A RED DRAGON!!!!”
It was only further infuriated when it got the response of, “Hey, don't need to pretend to be something you're not. Seriously, don't you have any pride? For a Metallic Dragon this really is going too far, seeing as the Monochromatic ones are your enemies! Or is it that you're constantly being confused for them that you just given up and started to call yourself a Red Dragon? I’m actually starting to feel sorry for you.”
The Dragon began to flail its body almost erratically after unfurling its wings and trying to take a leap at Brex as it screamed out again. “You insolent whelp! I shall not be satisfied with your death. No! After I have consumed you, I will lay waste to this entire continent!” Brex had easily dodged it by taking another leap at the last second and had used the same move as Rory and ran along its form until it had completely passed by and crashed into the many rocks that were littering the ground.
This however had not stopped the dragon, as it got back to its four limbs and swung its tail as a whip at where Brex was now standing as it continued. I AM A RED DRAGON! A… RED… DRAGON! NOT A COPPER DRAGON! I am not some pathetic ground dwelling Copper Dragon! I am of a superior breed, to not only all life, but to that of the Dragons as well! We are the destroyers! We are the conquerors! We are-.”
By then, Brex had already leaped out of the way of the large tail and had run up its length and was now standing on the tip of the Dragon’s nose and staring down at him. With the spear in his left-hand, Brex had lifted his left arm and was using his fingers to do the gesture of imitating someone talking, while bobbing his head from left to right and a overly exaggerated mocking gesture.
The Dragon had pulled its head back quickly enough that Brex was now left in the air and was starting to fall. In that moment and then opened its mouth wide and the glowing heat from the flames contained within was already showing to be coming up through its throat. Brex had responded to this by outstretching his left arm and clenched his hand into a fist. The large protruding object that was only on that arm, had a cylinder pointed forward. From there, the end had opened as a panel slip open at the end.
The inside had shown three long cylinders held inside and being surrounded by half a dozen gold-colored rings. Each of them with runes etched onto the insides. A number of which, instantly began to spin and this caused the three thinner cylinders within to rotate and give off a blue glow. This was immediately proceeded with it releasing a multitude of quick shots of light that were aimed directly into the throat of the Dragon as the building flames began to reach the end of its neck.
The device while launching, would seem like an endless stream of magic and sounding very similar to that of a Gatling gun. As the shots made their way into the throat of the Dragon, there was a violent explosion upon the two opposing forces colliding with one another.
The force that was produced from such a clash, was capable of launching Brex backwards in the air. This was also accompanied by a thick cloud that blocked all vision until his form had exited it. Almost immediately after, a large claw came shooting from the smoke and Brex had to twist his body while getting his spear in position. It had barely grazed his armor and tore off a small chunk on the left shoulder plate as it passed.
During this brief instant, the spear was swung so that it had cut into the gap between two of its fingers and slice the backside of its claw. At first, the bladed end had scratched a few of the scales but managed to get past them after getting nearly halfway through the swing and drew a stream of blood that sprayed onto his helmet and coded much of the faceplate.
As the appendage continued on its path, it re-entered the smoke screen and was followed up with its tail coming out to show that the dragon had done all this and turning its own large frame. Due to the speed in which it was coming at him and still recovering from his last counter attack. Brex was unable to avoid this one and was slammed just as his back was turned.
He was then launched to the far end of the cavern and had skipped along the rocky terrain a short distance before coming near to the other wall. He would have made it all the way if it wasn't for one of the large stones that was blocking his path. Thanks to the rate he was traveling at the time, Brex made a body size indentation upon impact which broke off a few more of the smaller pieces of his gear.
The armor plating on his upper back was severely warped from the tail strike and it really didn't do him much of a favor during the multiple collisions for his sudden, and abrupt stop with the current rock that was giving him trouble with himself getting loose. Once Brex peeled himself off and turned to where the Dragon should be. The Roegadyn was blindsided with the Red Dragon taking another sweep of its tail, after apparently giving chase as he was sent flying from the previous swing.
This time, the trip consisted of Brex being pinned and roughly pushed along the rocky wall, thanks to the tail that was firmly pressing down on his armored body. This got a shower of sparks to be produced, along with a number of scraps to be torn off and expose a few of the inner workings as the jagged stones pelted his form.
Even the right side of his helmet was being slowly broken away but just before some of his face could be revealed, the limb had reached its full length and let up on the constant pressure, which allowed Brex to be freed after several seconds of the ordeal had passed.
After Brex fell from his current height and tumbled a few times. He had gotten back to his feet once again and got a quick look at his current condition. Even though he had technically taken no physical harm aside from a few bumps here and there while within the confines of his protective armor. The gear itself was clearly not in the same position.
Brex used a second to open up his character menu. On there, it displayed his current class and items equipped. It showed him to be his level Seventy Dragoon class. Alongside that, there was the added text that said, Subclass: Artificer level Seven. Normally, on this screen there should only have been one set of items that could be worn on the body which consisted of the head, chest, pants, boots and gloves. Alongside of those, are the accessories which included earrings, the necklace, one bracelet and two rings.
Although it was different now because of the added subclass ability given to him from taking on the Artificer from Dungeons & Dragons. This had to do with the specialized armor that his subclass was able to create which went over his existing armor. This meant there was an additional five slots that was currently showing what he was wearing for all to see at this moment.
From there he could tell that a number of his gear had suffered from a dramatic drop in durability. A few of the sections still look pretty good with over ninety percent. While others were all the way down to just above that of fifty percent. Brex really couldn't tell what his back could have looked like at the moment, but he could pretty much surmise that another heavy hit like the last one would easily be able to scrape the rest of it off.
There was also one more thing that was added to this list. Right next to the slot that displayed his current weapon which was a spear. Was also an icon that looked just like the weapon that was affixed to his left gauntlet. Brex couldn't help but to display his displeasure and seeing the current durability on it.
“Shit! Firing at that close a range really the number on it. I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the spell rings were damaged inside of the chamber. I wonder if that trick will still work if I was to use it now? Note to self, don’t do that again.”
His self-examination was cut short when he heard the Dragon preparing itself. Without wanting to give it any more time, Brex quickly did an internal set of chanting to increase his movement speed. Once that was done, the armored Roegadyn raced across the battlefield and zigzagging between the obstacles. Soon, he found himself facing the Dragon and was about to close in after rushing past a thick patch of black smoke that was in his path.
Just as Brex was about to take a sweep with his Lance. The lava that was pretty much everywhere by now, had suddenly erupted right in front of him and this made him back off with a long jump that put him about twenty meters back.
What appeared before Brex now, had caused his eyes to go wide when he caught sight of at least fifty of those fiery creatures that first appeared and were dispatched by the girls up top. They had all pretty much made a defensive perimeter between the dragon and himself and were already in the middle of their preparations for launching a simultaneous fire attack in his direction.
From where he was, Brex started to dodge their attacks one after another that seemed to come endlessly as they were alternating to keep it as a steady, ongoing rain of fire. However, no matter how much he managed to move around the Dragon, the small army would change their position to act as a constant barrier against him and position themselves in order to keep a clear line of sight to be broken from his opponent. Who was just standing there and clearly looking amused at the spectacle.
Whether it be from jumping from one place to the next and ricocheting off of the debris. Brex just couldn't seem to get any closer. He would use the Dragoons weapon throwing ability to take out a few here and there as his spear would return after each throw. There was even the skill that allowed him to jump to do a full stabbing motion with his spear in both arms and returning to his previous location. But no matter what he did, they would simply reform their ranks with additional numbers that would come shooting out from the lava.
It had even progressed to a point where Brex had to go in for melee attacks and get swarmed by them because of his positioning within the cave system that didn't allow him to straif any further and had to backtrack. After a couple minutes of this going on, over half of the creatures had switched from long range attacks to that of a Kamikaze tactic, as they would fly in and try to grab onto him so that their bodies could just explode.
Although Brex was clearly cleaving them with a simple strike, it was due to their sheer numbers that they were able to get a hold of him and inflict some substantial damage to his armor after so many explosions had occurred. This of course was able to destroy the rest of the armor plating on his damaged shoulder and most of his gear was brought down to just below forty percent of its total durability.
Luckily for Brex, the damage had not affected the internal working, which had some hydraulics added into the construction for some additional strength. But at the rate things were going it was only a matter of time until one of them got a lucky shot and damaged that system as well. Seeing that this was not getting him anywhere. Brex had maneuvered himself between some large pieces of rock in order to lure the smaller monsters into chasing him now that their line of sight was broken.
Luckily his plan had worked and they were more than eager to give chase. As they began flooding into the smaller pathways that were created from everything that had been done to the environment. Brex was waiting and had been jumping off of walls after getting a good foothold and running his spear through one after another. There was a number of times that due to their close proximity, that he was able to get multiple targets in just one sweep.
Once he had dealt with his hot-headed pursuers. He quickly returned to the open area and found that the Dragon was staring straight at him and was beginning to give off a faint red glow that ran across his entire form. Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that a form of energy was seeping like a mist onto the ground and flowing straight into the lava, where it would be pulled to the location that the creatures were coming out of to replenish their numbers.
Now that it was plainly obvious that this was going to be an endless fight if something wasn't done soon. The Roegadyn got behind a boulder that was clearly the size of a fully grown elephant and grabbed on to it after placing the spear away after retracting it to a smaller state and placing it on his back. As his fingers were digging in. Some splinters could be seen going out from the point in which he grabbed on to it by a good several feet.
It can easily be heard the amount of exertion that he was putting into it, as he strained his muscles along with the added strength that was bestowed thanks to the hydraulics. After a few seconds of this going on. The large mass finally began to move as it was ripped out of the ground by a few feet. Brex then started to give a menacing growl as he began to turn in place in order to spin the object around himself to gain sufficient momentum. It was then released at the point where it would end up flying straight at the Dragon.
Of course, by this point the large flock of creatures had been fully respond and had been situated between both him and the Dragon. They all had started to scream as they resumed their long-range attacks hoping to destroy the boulder as it came hurtling towards them. But due to its size and apparent density, that plan was not going well for them. It also seemed that they were reluctant to move from their position seeing as they would just be re-spawned immediately after their death.
Thanks to their constant barrages and loud screams, it made it difficult for not only them, but the dragon is well to notice that Brex had used his Dragoon skill of using a leaping attack and had quickly close the gap between him and the back of the boulder that was still in mid-flight.
Just before he had completely caught up with it, Brex had pulled from his back the spear and extended it back to its full length and gripped onto it with both of his hands before bringing it around in order to do a wide swing with all his might that was place behind it. Just as he did this, the Roegadyn yelled loud enough to be heard over all the commotion. “YOU ALL WANT TO HUG SO BADLY?! THEN HUG THIS!!!”
He then swung his spear so fast, that it had become nothing but a blur along with his arms. But during the split second as it got halfway into its arc. The silhouette of the spear which was a single straight rod had started to glow with a white light and contorted so that past the halfway point it had begun to expand.
By the time there was a small explosion of light to signify the switching of weapons had been completed, the spear had been completely switched out with not another of its own, but instead and oversized dark gray hammer that easily dwarfed Brex himself. There were even these three jet engine protrusions on the back side that gave off a red explosion to assist in its current momentum after giving a large bang immediately after being summoned.
(Here is a picture of the hammer. Only the head is far bigger.)
The hammer then struck the backside of the boulder and gave it an astounding burst of speed thanks to a strong shockwave that was generated upon impact. From there it nearly doubled, if not tripled its original flight speed. Because of this, the flying monsters had no way of getting out of its path even if they wanted to and were completely destroyed as it went through their entire formation.
It even was able to strike the Dragon squarely in its chest and sent it flying a good several hundred meters until it crashed against the cave wall that it had at that moment, it's back turned towards. A number of scales could be seen flying off from the impact and there was even some blood that had escaped the Dragons mouth from this attack. Brex wasn’t too sure but he could have sworn that its eyes were bugging out, out of either the impact or perhaps surprise.
This was immediately followed with the Dragon giving off yet another pained roar that shook the cave. It then caused this to happen once again after slamming into the wall. But this was followed with a third that had been nearly eclipsed by a collective explosion, due to the remains of the monsters that were clearly splattered all along the projectile that Brex had just used.
Over with Brex, he had landed in time to watch this all go on as his feet were standing in a shallow puddle of lava. Which only had him sink down a few inches. The hammer however, had been switched back to his other weapon before he had even landed and was already in a fighting position.
The ensuing explosion caused quite a bit of debris to come crashing down from above. Because of this, the area had been blanketed in heavy portions of dirt scattering about and creating a solid screen that was able to block anyone's vision beyond a few feet. Although, he could still hear the dragon giving off a series of growls that echoed through the entire cavern. This made it quite difficult for Brex to pin down exactly where it was, because of the way it was bouncing off of everything to create an echoing effect.
Brex had turned his head back and forth to try and pin down the source of the sound but his senses kicked in right as something had burst fourth from the cloud at a blinding speed. This being the Dragon's head. During that split second before it had gotten to Brex. It was plain to see that it had suffered some damage as some fresh cuts could be seen along the scales. Because of how fast it was going and the way it surprised the Roegadyn, he was unable to avoid it in time and had been forced and held to the ground after being crashed into.
Brex was currently in the following position as he grunted with the exertion of keeping himself from being devoured alive. The Dragon was pretty much now hunched over and bearing its full weight as it tried to take Brex into its mouth. His body had been pushed into the lava to the point that it was nearly enough that it began to cover parts of his body. Especially his back and hips as his chest was nearly submerged.
He was currently using both of his legs to push down on the lower jaw while the arms were doing the same with the upper half. It was clearly evident that with the position that they were in, that it was not going to give up even if it meant getting a mouthful of molten lava along with him with how hard it was going down with its jaws. Brex could feel that with all the weight being added to his own, it was only a matter of time before he was completely submerged.
Within his personal vision he had kept to one side the window that displayed is current gear condition and saw that a number of them had turned yellow and then red, to indicate that they were at their limit and had reached below fifteen percent of their durability. His armor could clearly be seen warping and breaking apart at the seams as it continued to fight against the Dragon.
After a few seconds of this, Brex could feel that the hydraulics within the suit, had finally given out due to the combination of stress and heat. Which meant he no longer had the benefit of an extra one fifth to his overall strength.
As the Dragon's jaw began to close ever so slightly due to the loss of his mechanical enhancements. His opponent could be heard chuckling from the back of his throat from sensing the change of his soon to be meal. But the Dragon was rudely interrupted when he began to hear a very loud and oddly amused laughter coming from below himself.
Brex had started to laugh so much, that he was literally throwing his head back enough that the top of his helmet was beginning to dip into the lava, before he brought it back up to stare directly into the Dragon’s throat with his glowing neon blue helmet eyes. Said eyes were already beginning to flicker due to the accumulated damage. This was also followed with him talking with the same level of excitement.
“Hahaha! Oh yeah! That's what I've been talking about! This is exactly what I needed to test my prototype! Mixing in some heat-resistant components to give it some resistance into the alloy seems to work quite well, although it does have a fixed limit. I'll have to look into that a little more. After all, I can't have my equipment going out on me before I even feel the burn.”
“The hydraulics could use some more tweaking as well, maybe I can squeeze out a little more on the next draw-ups. Now, as for the overall structure. The durability could use some work as well, but it held up pretty good considering it was a first generation. Hmmm, let's see what else... Oh yeah! I almost completely forgot about this one! how stupid of me! HaHa-Haha! I can be so forgetful at times!”
When Brex was in the middle of his little monologue. He had carefully removed his left arm away from the upper jaw and had positioned it so that it was pointing into the Dragons throat. From within the arm mounted device, the multiple rings began to rotate slowly and were giving off a light hum as the three rods were beginning to rotate in place. They quickly picked up the rate at which they spun until they were pretty much a blur with the way that they were going around in a circle inside after a few short seconds.
As for the golden rings that were housed within, those picked up speed as well. But every other one was rotating in the opposite direction. The ruins that were etched in on the inside and outside of the bands were now giving off a brighter glow and multiple streams of electricity and connecting all the pieces as they were randomly shooting from one part to the next.
The light hum that was produced, only got louder and louder until it could be heard over the last bit that Brex was saying, before the outer casing for the weapon had unlocked itself and shot off to expose the inner workings of the strange device.
Brex then said loudly, as a shower of electricity that was coursing along his arm and even connecting with small threads that were obviously hitting the inside of the dragon's mouth. “One of three things are going to happen here! First, nothing will happen. Second, something will go horribly wrong and I'll lose my arm! Lastly, you're going to have a new breathing hole to use!”
Before the Dragon had even had a chance to completely register what was going on. The weapon had picked up even more speed and the amount of noise it was creating had increased several folds. Brex then yelled one last thing before the weapon was fired. “IMPROVISED, SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!!!!”
The weapon had fired a very condensed stream of energy that was no thicker than a strand of hair as it punctured right through the Dragon as it attempted to move its head. As Time slowed down to nearly a crawl, one could see how the beam of light grew until it became a couple of inches wide in diameter and was followed by a second rotating beam that went around the main one in a corkscrew pattern.
which caused the area being affected to grow outwards from the initial point of contact. As for the lava underneath his body. The amount of energy being given off had forced it to be pushed away and exposing the solid ground underneath.
There was hardly any resistance at all as the flesh was torn and then disintegrated almost at the same time as a blinding blue light was produced from this attack. On the other side of the Dragon. The beam had continued on and illuminated most of the underground cavern as it traveled until it had hit the wall and going at an angle.
From there, it pretty much ended up drilling straight through the bedrock and exiting the Mountainside and going off to the sky. This had lasted a good, few seconds until the energy had died down to reveal a clean circular hole that was easily four or perhaps five meters wide that made a direct path to the surface.
Back with the girls on the top of the mountain. They had just caught a glimpse of the light show that was shooting high into the air and dispersing a couple of clouds in the process. As they were all pretty much gawking at the site, Pinkie was holding up her hand to act as a visor to help and blocking the Sun from messing with her view of the light show. The pink pony even began to whistle as she raised an eyebrow before asking a question to herself. “I hope that wasn’t trademarked...”
Back with Twilight, the mare was pretty much slack-jawed as her expression showed that she didn't understand just what it was that she was looking at. There were even a few stray hairs that had poked out as she was mumbling to herself almost incoherently. However, there were a few phrases that had managed to be put together.
“How is... But that's not! That-That has just as much power as the Princess! Just who did-.” While all the rest were clearly dumbstruck and had nothing else to say. Fluttershy was the only one who was not paying attention to it. This being clear, with her still looking in the direction of the large hole.
In fact, during this whole time. Fluttershy had barely even moved a muscle aside from slowly blinking as her eyes, that were shifting from their usual color ever so often. But oddly enough to no one's notice, she would have one shocked expression after another. Even now, her eyes are going comically wide as her breath hitched in her throat.
Back down below, Brex had been released from the Dragon’s grip and in the middle of getting back onto his feet after pulling loose from the remaining bits of lava. Which was now partially coating his backside. His right arm looked pretty bad with the way that the weapon itself was pretty much turned into scrap metal.
Pretty much all of the rings had been broken apart and the few that still remained, had sizable chunks missing. It was safe to say that this made them useless at this point. The sets of rods had either melted or twisted so that they were no longer in a straight line.
As for the front of the chamber. That oddly remained somewhat intact after the casing was jettisoned during the firing process. That one had been slightly twisted and still glowing as it was slowly melting into the rest of the gauntlet.
The rest of it wasn't faring all that well either. Severe scorch marks could be seen in a blast pattern to show that it was running up the length of his arm. There are even a few random sparks of blue lightning going up and down to length of it. This caused the rest of the sections along the armor that were normally lit up, to be flickering in random succession.
The improvised special beam cannon, had also triggered sections of the caves ceiling to come crashing down and this created another set of thick dust clouds to settle in. Because of this, all that Brex could see, was vague outlines of the debris around and the subtle glow that was giving off of the lava background. Even the sunlight that was pouring through the large hole was barely visible thanks to all of that.
After another jolt of electricity had coursed over his body right then. Brex began to speak in a strained voice that would only spike whenever another one shot through him. “I don't know if that should be counted as, Ouch! As a success or a failure, Ouch! I'm really, really, Ouch! Fuck! That hurts! I'm really lucky that didn't go off back at HQ... Storing spells for future use in glyphs may need some more alterations before it becomes, Ouch! Fuck! More viable…”
“Creating that Special Beam Cannon by fusing a number of different spells together really was a blast! Hahaha.” Brex was slowly rotating his left shoulder, while giving out a grunt of pain before he continued. “The recoil it's going to be a problem if I don't do something about that. I guess there's no point of me wearing this anymore. Pretty much all of it is on the verge of falling off.”
After saying that. The Roegadyn was covered in the usual threads of blue and white until the amalgamation of colors had shrunk down to reveal him in his usual white and blue robe attire. There was even this simple looking spear placed on his back. But in reality, it was his level seventy weapon for the Dragoon.
It had been glamoured to be no different than any other bronze spear one might find in any weapons shop. After lately dusting off his clothing from the still falling dust and smoke that was in the middle of clearing. Brex turned his head slightly towards the left and called out in a joking tone.
“Just how long are you going to continue playing possum over there? I can hear you breathing.” What Brex said was in no way a lie, seeing as the Dragon was still breathing quite heavily, but there was a slight growl, mixed with a gurgling sound. It also didn't help the Dragon with hiding thanks to the red marker still showing it there on his mini map. After internally chanting a wind spell in his mind, there was a sudden strong gust of wind that blew the excess dirt particles away and out of the newly formed hole.
This revealed the dragon who was currently staggering onto all four of its limbs. The most notable feature to draw attention however, turned out to be the fact that it lost its lower jaw and there was a gaping hole off to the lower right part of its skull. Brex could even see a portion of the spine that connected the head to the neck where the flesh was both torn and burnt away from what he had done.
From behind this mask, Brex raised his right eyebrow in clear interest, while lightly shrugging his shoulders before speaking in a jovial tone. “Just great, seems that the aiming needs to be corrected too. I wonder if the alignment got knocked around during our little fight. The housing will need to be reinforced against such a design flaw.”
His musings were interrupted when he heard the Dragon beginning to give out a series of growls, gurgles and other hard to explain noises as it staggered to get up right. Brex had responded to this by giving a long yawn while bringing his hand up to his mask to show that he was trying to cover it up, but doing so rather poorly. After that, he turned his back on the Dragon and was now walking away slowly. As he did this, he called out over his shoulder in a rather bored tone.
“I'm honestly glad that you survived. I got a lot that I need to go over in my head and honestly, you're not worth my time anymore. Heck, I was holding back a lot of my skills during that fight so I could focus on what my suit can do.” This had clearly upset the Dragon, as it tried to roar at him. Instead, all it was able to do, was to cause a large amount of blood to come spewing out of where's missing jaw was. It's staggering quickly became long strides as it attempted to chase after him.
Brex clearly knew that this was going on behind him as he raised his right hand and extended a single finger to point straight up as he said something under his breath. “Did you happen to forget someone?” From right above the Dragon's head, there was a gleam of light that reflected the sunlight that was coming through the hole and it was coming at a frightening speed.
Up above in the higher areas of the cave, was still a thick layer of smoke and what came out of it was Rory. She was now holding a new axe in her hands and she had this murderous look in her now brightly glowing red eyes.
The scene comes to a complete stop and all the events begin to rewind at a frightening pace. Everything from the blast and the fight had gone by in a matter of seconds until everything stopped and began to go at normal speed at the point in which both Brex and Rory were within the barrier. He had just produced a new set of clothing and was in the middle of handing them over to her.
As Rory stood there while holding the fresh set of clothing in her arms. She heard her master saying the following. “Look towards the Dragon. Off to the right of him and about thirty meters, there is a small boulder that I stuck a new axe into. Make your way over to get it and then get as high as you can and wait for my signal.”
After that, Rory had given a quick nod and had made her way to a safer location to get dressed. The axe was easily retrieved and she had to go from one spot to another to evade the crossfire from both her master and the Dragon. She had even taken out a few of the smaller monsters that strayed too close to her as she kept to the shadows. When it got to the point in which she saw him being pinned to the lava. Rory had to give it her all in order to not jump in and follow her master's orders.
After that beam of light was shot. Rory started to make her way up the side of the cave by swinging her axe to dig into the hanging stalactites and swung herself from one to the next, until she had gotten as high as she possibly could. At the same time, keeping the area in which her master and the Dragon where in, within range of her senses. As soon as the overgrown lizard had started to make its way towards him after taking a face full of magical laser. Brex had sent a mental signal to Rory to finish him off. “Rory, it’s your turn!”
This of course brings it all back to the present. Rory had kicked off of the ceiling with all her might. During her swift descent, the girl had activated a number of abilities one after another to stack their accumulated effects. One of which contributed to her red glowing eyes. Along with the dark aura that was radiating off of her form, thanks to the warrior class.
Her weapon began to shine with a multitude of bright colors signify that it was layered with one damage increasing spell after another from the Dungeons & Dragons version of the Paladin class, that she had gotten from Ryu while they were both in his world in the past.
Right as Rory made it down to the Dragon and passing the last of the smoke. She gave off this menacing, feminine roar of her own that seemed way too loud for her to have produced and swung her now glowing axe as she passed right by the base of its long neck that had been left completely exposed.
Thanks to the sharp edge, along with the speed and magic added to it. There was the immediate effect of cutting right through the already beaten-up scales quite easily, as a number of them were cut away when the weapon went into its flesh. The magic had caused it to also extend the area of effect, so that instead of cutting away at only that section, Rory was able to cut clean through the entire neck, thereby decapitating it in a single blow.
By the time she had already passed by and landed on one of the few rocks right underneath its frame. The limb was already in the middle of separating from the rest of the body, as it showered its life-giving blood. Not wanting to get her brand-new outfit dirty after just receiving it, she quickly got out of the way and caught up to her Master.
The two turned around to watch as the blood landed on the surrounding river of lava, only to evaporate the very instant it all came into contact. As for the neck and head, well… Whatever was left of the head anyway. That had gone into the river and was now slowly beginning to sink until nearly half of it had disappeared. Oddly enough, even with it dead, the scales around the head alone showed them to be completely resisting the heat. Because of this, Brex went over quickly and plucked a few and placed them into his item box.
As for the rest of the headless body, the legs gave out and it simply plopped down with a resounding crash that shook the place for the final time. The legs were sprawled out, the wings were draped over and slowly being roasted as they laid on top of the molten rock. Rory, who had just calmed down from her raging effect. Was now looking at him with her normal red eyes and giving him a cheeky expression, as she nodded her head in the direction of the carcass. She then spoke in a joking tone. “Hay Master, are you feeling up to trying some Dragon meat?”
(Stop the music here.)
This got a subtle head shake from Brex. Before he replied with, “Honestly, I don't really want to eat the meat of another sentient creature such as a Dragon. After all, I am friends with Spike and now it would just seem completely wrong.” Rory gave a small hum before her expression turned a little sour as she spoke again. “I see your point on this Master. In a way, it's no different than saying I want to eat Pony meat, then turning around and wanting to being friends with them.”
“And by the way. Nice move with the giant hammer! Really, I had no idea you even had one of those tucked away. But hold on, didn't you have the Dragoon Soul Stone equipped? they only use lances.” This earned Rory a small chuckle from Brex as he answered her. “Oh that? You can thank my subclass. I don't really use it much, so I'm not too surprised that you forgot about it. I made sure that when I leveled up my Artificer, that I grabbed the feat that gave me a weapon specialty with two-handed blunt weapons.”
“With that, now I can pretty much pull out a two-handed hammer no matter what class I'm currently equipped as, because my Artificer is constantly on. It's pretty much the same way with you being a Warrior from Final Fantasy, as well as a Paladin from Dungeons & Dragons being your subclass. This also means that you're not restricted to purely using your great axe all the time. Why not try out a sword and shield once in a while?”
This got a playful pout from the girl, as she brought her bloodied axe’s head closer to her face and began to lovingly rub her cheeks against it. Surprisingly enough, none of the dried substance had rubbed off and onto her face. She then gave him a shifty glance before speaking. “But I love my axe. Master did make it just for me. How could I possibly reject your love and forsake such a treasure?”
As the two were continuing with their conversing. Neither one showed any signs that they knew about the green Carbuncle that was hiding under some rubble and sticking its head out enough, just to be able to keep them in its sights. After a few more seconds had gone by, said Carbuncle began to disintegrate as the particles slowly broke off from its form, until there was nothing left behind.
*Point of view: Rory Mercury* *Time: One hour later*
Back on the very top of the mountain, where the girls were all still eagerly awaiting. Rainbow had to be pretty much restrained because she wanted to dive down into the hole. But her friends didn't want her to go in alone. As for Fluttershy, her eyes began to blink rapidly as her expression returned to normal.
But after a few moments had passed by, she had fully regained her senses and had this look of extreme nervousness. While taking a quick glance over at the hole and began to mutter to herself in such a low volume that it was even quieter than when she normally spoke. “Oh my... Was that a dream? It-It was so scary.”
Nearly half an hour had passed and the girls were finally beginning to lose it with all the waiting, that they were just about to try and climb down the hole after getting some climbing gear ready by using whatever they had on hand. Which turned out to be very little. But just as Rainbow was hurrying Applejack along, who had just begun to climb in. They were surprised by hearing Rory's playful voice coming from the path that they had taken to walk up the side of the mountain.
“What are yeah all about to do? If you're planning on going spelunking, you're going to need a whole lot more rope than that to reach the bottom.” From that, the girls pretty much all surrounded Rory and were asking question after question as to how she was and what happened after the fall.
The girl had carefully explained that after falling down into the hole, she and the Dragon continued their fight and she eventually came out on top. She did happen to mention that her clothing had gotten pretty messed up and she had to change into a spare set. They didn’t buy it at first, but Rory showed them a small bag that could fit in the palm on her hand.
From there, she reached in and pulled out a juicy red apple that was clearly bigger than the bag itself and started to munch away at it. This of course, had caused Rarity to faint when hearing about the outfit, but not before pulling out of whatever special space that she kept it in, which happened to be the famous fainting couch for her to fall on with an exaggerated thud.
Of course, Rainbow was extremely skeptical when it came to the whole story, but after confirming it through Applejack, that not a word was a lie. The rainbow Pegasus had to relent and immediately crossed her arms and clear defiance as to her not being able to actually get into the fight.
Afterwards, they all went down the mountain and as soon as they got to the bottom, the ponies all released a unified shriek of horror once they had gotten around a bend in the path and were less than a few paces away from the skull of the Dragon that had been clearly cut near the base of where the neck and the head would have connected to one another.
Twilight, who was currently getting squished in a group hug right then, that was comprised of violently shaking ponies. There was even a scared sheep sound that came from somewhere within the bundle. She soon popped her head out and had to try really hard to speak clearly enough to be heard. “What?! What is that doing here and what happened to it?!”
Rory had strolled right up next to it and casually leaned against the side that was mostly intact with her elbow. Afterwards, the girl gave a small laugh before replying with a smirk on her lips. “Huh? What do you mean by, what's it doing here? I'm bringing it back so that I have proof, of course.”
“Oh, and that reminds me! Twilight, I'm not going to be as thoughtless, as to bring this skull all the way into town, unless something is done beforehand. It might be best if you go in before me and make sure that little Dragon of yours doesn't see this when I carry it to the guild building. I know he's going to find out eventually that there's a dragon killer in Ponyville, but seeing the evidence is going to be too much of an impact, compared to that of simply being told. You get what I mean, right?”
Twilight could do nothing but to slowly nod as she was giving an audible gulp in response. What surprised the girls on their trip back even more, was how Rory was able to carry the large skull after stabbing her axe into the forehead and holding it as though it was a piece of meat on a skewer and resting the handle over her left shoulder. Not only did she show absolutely no signs of it being a bother whatsoever by doing this, but she was even humming a light tune to herself and having a joyous expression plastered all over her face.
Once they had made it to the very outskirts of the town. Twilight made sure to follow what Rory had suggested about Spike and tracked him down in the library in order to keep him there as the rest went over to the Adventurers Guild, along with the remains of the Dragon in tow. Suffice it to say, the group was drawing a great deal of attention on an epic scale, with the way the rest of the citizens would freeze in place and their eyes would go as wide as comically allowed, before it could be considered a medical emergency as they walked down the streets.
Rarity was pretty much keeping her distance from the Dragon's skull, out of it being both grotesque and the fear of anything getting on her outfit. This meant that the two couldn't converse as they did before about fashion. Which was clearly bothering the mare with how she was constantly backing off whenever she got a bit too close. As for Applejack and Rainbow, they were sticking pretty close and were not at all bothered by the time that they had pretty much got back.
Pinkie was her usual ball of energy and bouncing around the group. The pink pony had even joined along with Rory's humming at one point or another and hadn't stopped for quite some time. When it came to Fluttershy, she had immediately excused herself as soon as they had gotten close enough to see her Cottage on their way into town. As she was saying goodbye to all of them and had gotten to Rory being the last to do so with. The yellow Pegasus had completely clammed up and made a break for it after giving a small squeak.
In response, Rory merely shrugged as Applejack stepped up and told her that it was because of her fear of large Dragons and holding something over her back was the most likely reason that Rory had not been given a proper goodbye. The girl had just waved it off and continued on with the others until they had made it to the guild building and stood outside with the skull now laying upside down so that the remains didn't mess up the street. In the meantime, the rest of them were waiting for Twilight to return from meeting with Spike.
It had taken some time before the purple Unicorn had come back, due to her having to explain to Spike about some things and to give him warning in regards to what Rory was carrying back with them. Twilight then said as she was catching her breath. “I'm so sorry about the wait girls. You know, I'm really surprised at how well Spike took the news. Sure, he was really shaken up but after a little bit, but he seems fine. He's waiting at the library for me to come back.”
Rory chuckled a little bit before speaking up. “Well, well. It would seem that this Spike character is pretty mature for his age. Maybe it would have been okay to let him see this.” That was when she lightly kicked the remains with her left leg, which was currently disguised as a hoof, because of her Pony form being what they all saw.
Upon hearing that statement, Twilight had pretty much gone as far as to shrieking as her eyes went wide and she threw her arms in front of herself to wave frantically as she spoke in a hurried tone. “No-no-no-no! It was a good call on your part to send me ahead! There's no way I'm exposing my little brother to this!”
After exchanging a few words with one another. Twilight had gone into the building and came out with the representative, who was currently running the front desk that day. This turning out to be Lyra once more and as soon as she has gotten through the main entrance and just finished talking to Twilight.
The green mare had turned her attention forward and had let out a startled scream that drew the eyes of any on the streets, before ducking back through the doors at the site of the skull that was currently looking in her direction with its one good eye that was devoid of life.
When Lyra had come back out after a good five minutes of getting calmed down by both Twilight and Rarity. The mare asked in a shaky voice. “J-Just, just what did you do to it?! Why is it missing nearly half of its head and why is the bottom jaw is missing?!!!” Rory who is currently still leaning up against it, had just given another one of her shrugged shoulders, while giving a, I don't really care attitude as she spoke.”
“Oh? Nothing much, I killed and cut its head off to bring in as proof. It was not a very nice Dragon, nope! It even made some rude references to my Mast-, I my lover.” That was when Rory changed her carefree expression, to that of someone that should not be taken lately as she went on. Any who say ill of him, will suffer the same fate. Insulting him while in my presence is the worst possible insult imaginable…”
The air began to feel very thick and heavy while Rory had said this. But as soon as the last words had left her lips, did it all suddenly go back to normal, which shocked all the girls that were present. This including any bystanders that were within a city block on the streets. This was made apparent with them all looking straight at her with fear-stricken eyes and nodding furiously. Some of which had their furs standing on end so much, that they even puffed up some.
Lyra was pretty much frozen in place because of what Rory had just done and needed a few pokes from Twilight, who is standing next to her to regain her senses. When she did, the Unicorn had shaken her head and immediately went on to speak in a rather shaky tone, while keeping a wary eye on Rory.
“I-I'll m-make sure to report this so that a team can come in and pick that up. We really don't have the s-space. Also, even if this was an order issued by the princess and not by us, all of you will be given credit and the points will be added to your current rankings, along with a large reward.”
Twilight made sure that all present were given credit, along with Fluttershy. Who was currently not there to do so for herself. So, once everything was said and done. The girls were walking along the busy street, towards the center of town. Twilight began to walk closer to Rory, before asking her a question. “Um... You know, with the rush of the mission and everything. I never really got to ask just as to what was it that brought you to Ponyville? We don't get a lot of visitors here, unless it's for a celebration. I don't think we have anything scheduled for quite a while.”
Rarity was the next to enter the conversation, as she stepped up on the other side of Rory. “Oh, please! You must regale us; I am just dyeing to know as well! A pony that knows a well-known supermodel such as Fleur De Lis and to be able to bumps elbows with the high class of Canterlot, must have an important reason for coming all the way down to our quaint little Ponyville.”
This had obviously caught Rory by surprise, as she raised an eyebrow to this before she replied. “And, just how do you know about me to such an extent Rarity?” Rarity then used her magic and took out of her storage space, what appeared to be a magazine that had been opened halfway through and levitated it in front of Rory's face. It clearly showed it to be the picture of her and Fleur De Lis at a cafe. She then snatched it out of mid-air and began to quickly read over the article mentioning herself, before handing it back over to Rarity.
Rory then gave out a loud sigh, while her shoulders began to slump a little bit for a moment, before she began to speak again. “I guess this would explain the extra sets of eyes I've been getting these past few days... It is rather fortunate that my Mas-. Err, my lover isn't the jealous type to go after any that happened to look at me.”
Rarity had given the girl a sideways glance with narrowed eyes for a moment after catching that obvious and strange slip of the tongue. But chose not to say anything and return to her normal expression only a moment later.
The girl then went on to speak again, after giving a cheery smile. “Rarity, if you are insinuating that I am a part of the noble class of Canterlot, then it would be best that you correct that way of thinking. Yes, I do happen to know Fleur. But we happen to go back a long way. As for this picture, this was obviously taken only yesterday, so I'm very surprised that it has already made its way to Ponyville in such a short amount of time. Ha! I guess what they say is true after all. Gossip really does travel at 186,282 miles per second.”
That last bit in regards to the long stretch of numbers, had the immediate effect of causing the ponies that were with her, to stop dead in their tracks as she continues to walking several pieces ahead of them, before they rushed to be at the same pace as her again. Rory had noticed this and had a small smirk on her lips.
Applejack was clearly confused and was scratching the right side of her head, right behind the ear after lifting up her hat slightly off of her head. Rainbow had this look on her face that said that her brain had been fried at some point and was just blankly looking at Rory for a simple answer to be given. As for Rarity, she played it off and was giving a small giggle, but was clearly unawares as to the meaning of the numbers with how she had this look on her face that just said she was trying really hard to wrap her mind around it.
Pinkie was completely oblivious to this and was still bouncing around. Only to disappear and reappear behind random objects within view. As for Twilight, she had at one point or another, pulled out a notepad and was using her magic to quickly scribble into it while mouthing out the numbers. After seeing all of this, Rory had brought her free hand up to her mouth in order to stifle a small giggle before going on to explain.
“I feel that I must apologize. It's one of his jokes that I recall him using once and I couldn't help but to take the opportunity to use it for myself. It means the speed of light. That is if you observe it in a complete vacuum environment and have the proper instruments to register the speed right down to the millisecond.” In response, she got even more severe reactions from all of them and Twilight was busy writing down everything so fast on the notepad, that it was beginning to give off some smoke due to the friction being created by the quill.
Rory couldn't help but the comment on this when she pointed towards the floating object. “Twilight, how are you writing with a quill without dipping it in ink every few seconds?” Twilight blinked a few times and excitedly replied.
“Oh this? It's a small enchantment that I came up with that lets me store ink within the quill itself. This is thanks to a modified storage spell. Getting the ink to come out to write is the easy part. Now getting it in there to begin with, now that's the tricky bit. You would not believe how messy my bedroom got until I finally got that spell down.”
Rory then gave her a very toothy smile, as she had this slightly mischievous look, before replying to what Twilight had just said. “Oh, trust me! I can tell you that I know quite a bit about making a mess in the bedroom. The last time that my lover and I were together, the bed sheets were pretty much a lost cause and we ended up throwing them out once we were done.”
This had obviously caught them all off guard, as Twilight began to stammer out a stream of unintelligible, broken words. Along with turning a very dark shade of purple and pink. The others were pretty much in the same situation. However, when it came to Pinkie, she was just standing there and giggling up a storm as her hands came up to cover her mouth.
Rory then continued, after giving them a few seconds to recover. “Honestly, I can't even remember most of the night now that I look back. Passing out repeatedly after getting overly stimulated can really do a number to a girl.” By then, Rory was holding her free hand to her mouth and having a full-on giggle fit with her eyes closed.
Applejack was pretty much causing a windstorm with the way she was fanning her hat to help with the growing heat on her cheeks. Rainbow was the next to speak up as she flew in front of Rory, while having her fists resting on her hips and giving her a stare down that clearly showed that she didn't really believe a word that was just said. “Hey! You can't really be serious, can you? I never heard of a stallion doing that for a mare. Those guys aren't really known for their stamina. We would be lucky if they even go past a minute.”
Rory then lowered her hand and gave a devilish smirk, before getting very close to Rainbow's face. She then went on to talk in an extremely, sultry voice that could have easily sent any male within range to hear it, to get turned on within seconds.
“Te-hee~ You have no idea~. He has more stamina than you can believe... Whenever I would wake up after passing out, the first thing I would see, would be him still going at. There would be times that I would be completely spent and had hardly any strength left. Only for him to hold me in his strong arms so that he could keep using my body as he pleased.”
“And don't get me started on whenever he gets in the mood. He could become a real animal. Just remembering the growls that he would give off...” That was when she reached down and pressed her hand onto the front of her skirt and gave off a shutter that ran up her entire form. There was even this noticeable moan that came from Rory’s lips.
As a result of this action, Rainbows body went and had gone completely rigid. Her wings locked up in mid flap. This led to her falling pretty much face first onto the ground right before Rory's feet with a heavy thud. Afterwards, the Pegasus rolled over and was having trouble with getting her wings to fold in on themselves.
Rarity had summoned a hand fan and unfolded it to use on herself, as she wiped the bead of sweat that was accumulating on her forehead, before speaking in a somewhat out of breath tone. “Dear me! He does sound to be quite a stallion! I really do not wish to sound rude, but I myself find it rather difficult to believe that a stallion is capable of going for such extended period of time. It must have been a thrilling ten minutes.”
Rory then quickly replied to that in a casual way. “What? I do believe there has been a misunderstanding, come now. That doesn’t even count as a quickie for us. I'm talking about the night that we went nineteen hours straight.” After Rory had said that. One could hear all sound coming to a stop and a cricket could be heard in the background.
This got a collective shout from every one of them, including Pinkie, who was clearly shocked beyond belief. “WHAAAAT! NINETEEN HOUR'S???!!!! HE COULD GO FOR THAT LONG???!!!” Thanks to their sheer combined volume, it pretty much echoed throughout the entire town and the group ended up getting quite a few looks from the other residents from down the street or from inside of buildings that had their windows open. Clearly, they didn't really understand what they were yelling about.
Rory had quickly stabbed the bladed part of her axe into the ground and use both of her hands to cover her ears after immediately realizing that they were about to scream only a fraction of a second beforehand. After blinking a few times and shaking her ears to clear up her hearing once again, Rory was just about to say more on the subject, but her voice was caught in her throat when she began to twitch her ears in response to something on the wind.
The girl then grabbed onto her weapon and began to take a few steps forward before she spoke in a very happy voice. “Hmmmmm, and speaking of my lover... I do believe I hear him now.” Rory had begun to walk in a seemingly random direction between a set of buildings to enter an alleyway that connected to another street on the other end. Twilight and the others took a few seconds to realize that she was leaving and quickly gave chase once they recovered.
As soon as they had exited the alleyway, Rory made a quick left turn and was now heading in the direction of Ponyville’s park. While walking through town, the girl could be seen tilting her head up slightly and giving a light sniff once in a while. As she did this, she made a small comment now and then. Which consisted of, “His scent is pretty much everywhere in town. Although, I don't think he's been inside of that building at all.” The one that Rory was mentioning, turned out to be Sugar Cube Corner.
Pinkie had a somewhat hurt expression before she started to talk after brightening up quickly. “Yeah, but I'm hoping he will soon!” Applejack just then turned towards Pinkie before asking her a question that was clearly on the others minds. “Are you saying you know who the fella is that Rory's been going on about?” In response, the pink mare made the motion of zipping her lips. Surprisingly enough, there was also the noticeable sound effect of it being done as well, as to signify to the rest that she wasn't about to say another word.
They even ended up passing Rarities shop. Which the white mare was really insistent on pointing out. While going by the shop, Rory made it clear to them, that her lover had not even been on the sidewalk for the building, because there was not even a trace of his smell to indicate that he had ever done so. Twilight jumped in and said, “I've heard of mare’s that have a heightened sense of smell, but this is clearly going way above even that.”
Applejack came in next as well before saying, “I’m with Twilight on this one. With how easily you're picking up his scent, I bet you'd give Winonaa run for her bit's. Also, didn't you just say a minute ago that you heard him? I sure didn’t hear any stallion calling.” Rory spoke over her left shoulder as she was still keeping her eyes straight ahead. “I can hear him playing music. It's definitely him because it's one of his favorites.”
Applejack relented and gave a slight shrug as they all followed Rory until she eventually entered the park and was making her way over to the far end, where there was a large tree all by itself. Nearby, less than several yards away, was the end of a single park bench that could just barely be seen on the other side.
It took a moment before they realized that it was being used. The one sitting there was playing a guitar and producing a strange melody that none of the girls aside from Rory were accustomed to hearing. This was made apparent by the way that their ears were swiveling to pick up the music better.
(This is the song that could be heard by the girls.)
Rarity took the opportunity to inch closer to Applejack and whispered just low enough, so that she was the only one that could hear. “My, oh my~. Not only is he supposedly good in the bedroom, but is a musician as well?” Applejack replied in the same low volume. “It's not exactly the town and country that I'm used to listening to, but I have ta say, it's pretty good. I wonder if he knows how to play some of the songs I know?”
They had just gotten up to the tree and was now circling around it. But as soon as they had done that, did everyone but Rory come to a screeching halt to see that it was the one that they all knew as Gambit to be the one sitting there. Rory was pretty much ignoring the wide eyes as she sauntered over to him, just as he was about to get to the end of the song.
When the last note was struck, the instrument was carefully lifted off of his lap and laid onto the bench towards his right side. Rory had apparently taken this as her cue to go the rest of the way and stand before him. She then clearly said the following with an ecstatic look on her face. “Did my Master miss me?” This was immediately followed with her jumping into his lap and throwing her leg around to straddle him, while giving his mask a quick kiss on the spot where his mouth should be.
Upon seeing this. All the girls made a collective gasp, before also saying loud enough that it was pretty much a loud scream. “MASTER???!!!!!!” Applejack was the first one to step forward out of the group, after coming to her senses and asking in an unsure voice. “When you say Master, you mean that he taught you how to fight, right?” Rory had adjusted her way of sitting so that she was mostly laying against his left side and partially turned enough so she could look at the girls better.
She then replied to Applejack after snuggling up against him tighter and giving the farm girl a sultry stare down. “He-he~. It's far more than that Applejack. Master is my lover. In the strictest sense, I belong to him in both mind, body and soul. Truly, I believe from the bottom of my heart that I exist for him and him alone. The mare then continued after a moment of silence with her next question. “And just what in tarnation do you mean by all of that?”
Rory had brought up a hand and began to lightly run it across the chest of the one that she was currently sitting on. Who had incidentally not made a single move or even a sound during the entire exchange. She then spoke after giving a light hum of delight. “Exactly that~. My master is my Master and he is everything to me. I would do whatever he commands of me.” She had given another one of her giggles and glanced over at his mask, before returning her site to look straight into Applejack's eyes as she went on.
“All that my Master would have to do, is to give me but a single command and I would follow it to the letter without hesitation. If he were to wish for me to strip down completely nude and walk on my hands and knees as a common animal and be paraded through the streets of Ponyville, then I would be more than happy to do so~.”
This got a series of responses to come from all of the girls. Which consisted of, “Oh my!” “No bucking way!” “My word!” “Land sakes!” “Oh! Oh, let's make that into a party theme!” Five guesses as to who said that last one. Applejack had been completely surrounded by the other girls as they look towards her with unmoving eyes for some form of confirmation. While looking deeply disturbed and nearly beat red from the top of her head and going down to the end of her hoofs. Applejack responded to them with, “Ah... Girls, she ain't lying!”
The scene was finally broken when Brex spoke up after they all had time to settle down. Instead of his usual combination of either no real emotion or possibly agitation. His speech came out more loving compared than any of what the ponies had ever heard coming from his lips. “Now, now... There are things you should say and things that you shouldn't say while in public. You are clearly causing them some discomfort.”
After hearing this, Rory cozied up to him some more by pressing her chest into his body and gave a small playful whimper. This soon evolved into a small pout as she continued to trace her index finger along his chest while speaking. “I'm sorry Master, but it's been so long... Maybe tonight, you should re-educate me once more~. Perhaps we could break out the red ball-gag again? After all, it always does the trick in shutting me up quite nicely~.”
Quite literally taken aback by the straightforwardness of Rory's flirtations, Rainbow had taken several steps forward and had this angry expression on her face as she pointed an accusatory finger at Brex, before yelling out. “Hey bub! Just what do you think you're doing?! What's going on here is nothing but a crime, plain and simple! I don’t know what kind of trick it is you used to her to make her think this way, but she's clearly underaged! I should have trusted my guts from the very beginning, you're just some sicko that goes after little girls!”
Rainbow was just about to pick up more steam, but stopped in her tracks upon noticing how Rory was staring straight into her eyes. The flirtatious and pretty much carefree Rory that she had been known so far, had been completely replaced with a mare, that clearly wanted to kill her right on the spot. Rainbow could actually feel a part of her dyeing, just by looking into Rory’s eyes and had to take a step back out of pure fear.
The feeling that was produced from the time when the Dragon was roaring, was nothing in comparison to what was happening right now for the blue Pegasus. The girl was just about to get up off of Brex, but he had swung his right arm around and pulled her in nice and tight. Which distracted the girl for just a moment before returning her glare back at Rainbow.
However, it was far less powerful than it was just a moment ago. She was even sure that it wasn't her imagination that the girl had somehow changed the color of her lipstick to that of a dark shade of purple, before returning to its pink shade.
Brex then spoke in his usual monotone voice while addressing the blue Pegasus and the others. “You are quite mistaken. I can see that it would be quite difficult for you all to understand this, but it needs to be cleared up now. Rory is not as young as you all believe her to be. I will not be divulging her true age, because that would just be plane rude.”
“But she is clearly older than you, miss Dash. Simply put, my Rory here has a youthful figure that many would be quite envious of. I already have two examples in mind in regards to both of your rulers, especially when it comes to one's appearance and age being a contradiction. The princess of the sun has been on the throne for over a thousand years after all.”
Afterwards, the Roegadyn got up after gesturing for Rory to get off of himself first and the two excuse themselves and headed in the direction that all the girls knew to be where he stayed. It took several moments after they left for them to come to terms of what they just saw and heard and looked at each other with varying states of expressions. However, when it came to Rainbow, she was pretty much frozen in place. But she had a distant look as she kept on staring at the still walking pair.
The Pegasus was brought out of her current state, when Applejack nudged her with her elbow, before giving out a reluctance sigh as she spoke. “Rainbow… You really need to stop with the jumping before the carriage when it comes to that fella! It might be a good idea to start talking to that Gilda to find out a few things about him, before you go around and causing a fuss over a misunderstanding like the one you just had.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
He and Rory were already halfway through town and heading towards his hotel building. During this time, Rory went ahead and opened up the connection in order to talk privately with him. At the same time, holding on to his right arm and pressing herself tightly against it.
“Master, I'm surprised that you didn't react to that absurd accusation of hers. I know more than any about how you feel towards the treatment of kids and that was just crossing the line. I can't believe that some still think I'm that young. Especially when I've gained several inches in my height compared to the story version of Rory Mercury.”
Brex replied to that, while giving a mental sigh. “Honestly, I'm just going to believe that Rainbow is going to come up with whatever reason she can, just to get under my skin. But do you think that it's weird that I commend her for stepping up like that when she thought I really was a pedophile? At least I know now that she has a good sense when it comes to the young ones and that she's willing to stand up for their rights.”
Rory gave a small growl through the connection when she started to speak. “Master, you really need to stop with going so easy when it comes to that Rainbow Dash. Sure, she's a member of the Element bearers, but even that has a limit to the free passes one could get. Anyway, I know there's no use in arguing with you on this subject, so let's move on to something else. Do you think when we get back to your room, you can take a look at my arm?”
The Roegadyn gave a subtle nod and hummed for a few seconds before glancing down at her exposed arm that currently had the glamor from the bandana covering what was really there thanks to the illusion. He then said, “Yeah, no problem. I can tell just from the way you're holding yourself against me, that there's definitely something going on with it.”
“You did just use it to block a number of teeth from clamping down on you back underneath the mountain after all. Also, I believe you got hurt quite badly a couple of times. Am I right to assume that you need to be topped off again?”
Brex could clearly see that Rory was glancing up at him with a small smile and licking her lips at the same time. He then released an outward sigh before lightly shaking his head and speeding up their walk to the hotel. He then muttered under his breath, “It hasn't even been a week and you're already needing it again. You're really lucky that I love you this much.”
Rory gave out a quick giggle before she asked her next question. “By the way Master, I saw that last attack that you shot through the Dragon with. I take it that the spell storing system of yours seems to be working okay for your purposes?” This got a light head shake from Brex as he replied to that. “It's still going to need quite a bit of refining to get what I want out of using it in the future.”
“It's a good way to get around some of my limitations on how many times I can use certain spells, as well as combining them to create some interesting effects. The real issue is coming up with a more reliable means of storing and activation, without them burning out the way they did. If it wasn't for my body's resilience, then I'm pretty sure that my arm would have been made useless at the end there. By the way, I see you haven't had any real issues with keeping your disguise in place. Even with being with those girls for so long.”
Rory answered that as giving a small giggle through the connection. “Oh that? It was quite easy to do actually. There are so many trees back and forth, that all I needed was a second or two while breaking line of sight with them to reapply the illusion. Speaking of which, we should hurry up Master. I believe I have only a few minutes left until I need to do it again.”
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Location: Canterlot castle, within the throne room* *Time: Six at night*
Princess Luna was currently pacing from within one of the shadows that lined the throne room, as her sister was dealing with the last of her day court duties. As she did this, the dark Alicorn was looking more worried by the second as time went on. Even without her full corporeal body being present. As she was within this state, it was quite clear with how her eyes showed that she was dreading today's report that was scheduled to come in at any moment.
Over recent days, her older sister Celestia had been getting more impatient and it took a considerable amount of effort to convince her not to go down to Ponyville just yet. Especially now that they knew of his location. Just then, she noticed that the last of the citizens had exited and the day court guards had already gone through the exchanging process with her own night guards.
At which time, she exited the shadows and took on her real form and went over to Celestia. Who was still sitting in her chair and glancing at the side door that was off to the left, with trepidation clearly plastered on her face. Even the peace of parchment in her possession wasn’t even looked over before it was placed with the rest.
Luna, upon standing next to her sister, had placed a hand onto her right shoulder and gave a reassuring smile before speaking. “Dear sister, please, you must calm yourself. I know that you want nothing more than to talk to him once again. But a face-to-face meeting, especially after what happened before, is not one that I would advise.”
This had earned her an exhausted sigh from Celestia, as she leaned back into her chair and took a few deep breaths of air to steady herself. After a few seconds of this, she looked up towards Luna before speaking. “I know, I know Luna. I am simply worked up because you have not been able to locate his dream for a few days now. Perhaps what you said before about him not needing to rest as much to be the cause. Otherwise, then I would have no doubt that you would have been able to find him with ease.”
Luna couldn't help but the show a small wince to be crossing her face, as her mind went back to the two instances that she had to go through when coming across his dream and absent-mindedly began to reach up and rub the spot of her head that had a hard run in with his dream bubble on the last attempt. She then said to Celestia, in a rather reluctant tone. “Mayhaps my location spell, while within the dream Realm could use some minor alterations...”
Luna's words were cut short when the side door was swiftly opened and one of her Thestrals came into the throne room, while bearing a note in their right hand and approached the princesses, before bowing down at the foot of the steps. Luna was just about to grab it with her magic, but was too slow when it was enveloped in her sister's golden aura and pretty much ripped out of the guard’s hand.
It was then brought up to the both of them and unfurled after the ribbon had been pretty much vaporized by a small bolt of magic from her older sister, that was too eager to take the time to simply slip it off. The remains could be seen fluttering to the carpeted floor as ashes.
The younger sister couldn't help but the raise an eyebrow at the way Celestia was acting. Ever since their last encounter with him, Celestia would keep her usual appearance. But whenever it came to these reports, she became no different than a small foal that just wouldn't listen when their birthday came around and would tear into their gift as soon as they found it.
There were even on occasions, that she could have sworn that she had smelled something sweet, that resembled frosting that was coming from her sister that wasn't her usual scent. But Luna played it off as something that stuck to her with all the cakes that she would be known to eat.
Unfortunately, she had been distracted long enough, that Celestia had already gone through the entire report and had dropped it with a blank expression on her face. Clearly confused as to what would have caused this to happen. Luna used her magic and grabbed on to the sheet of paper before it had fallen into the floor and brought it up to look at for herself. After going over the usual details, Luna instantly saw that there were some tidbits here and there as to his disappearance for some time, before coming back near the end of the day.
However, it was at the very end that made her stumble in place and she had to read it once more to make sure that her eyes weren't playing any tricks. In the report, it stated that Gambit ended up meeting a mare by the name of, Rory Mercury. It was also clearly stated that the two of them were in a very intimate relationship. It even stated that the two of them were seen entering the hotel that he was using and holding arms during their entire walk there after leaving Twilight in her group.
After a few seconds had gone by, the temperature of the room began to spike just a few degrees and this brought Luna's attention towards her older sister. What she had seen, caused Luna to be startled for a moment before she had to keep herself from taking a step back, after witnessing the expression on Celestia's face. There was this small burning ember of fury that could be seen just beyond the mask of tranquility that she would normally have on.
Celestia then muttered just low enough that Luna had to try very hard in order to hear. “Who… Is… This... Rory Mercury? Luna, could you possibly have your agents look into her for me? If you don't mind, I'm going to go straight to bed tonight... It could be that I am just very tired and an extra couple of hours of sleep might do me some good. The cooks can send some to my chambers.”
Luna gave a small nod as she watched her sister get up from her chair and take a few steps forward, before using her horn to teleport to where she assumed to be her bedroom. Having letting out a relieved sigh, the younger sister went to go sit down on the chair so that she can go over the report again. But as soon as her posterior had come into contact with a seat. She had let out a loud Yelp. This was after there was a small sizzling sound and she stood up to look at what had cause her such pain.
To her surprise, the padding on the chair had been completely burned through and exposed the marble underneath, that was slightly glowing from heat. She then had this worried expression that crossed her face as she looked towards the window and off into the night. Luna then started to think to herself. “Please, please be asleep tonight... There are many topics that we must discuss and some are quite urgent and cannot be put off.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 54: Confessions And Secrets.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Nine fifteen at night* *Location: Ponyville, inside the hotel room of Brex.
A few hours had come and gone and Brex was at this moment, packing some small, strange tools into a metal case that was sitting on the nightstand situated on the left side of the bed. Glancing over to his right shoulder he could see Rory passed out as her chest slowly raised and fell. After a long day such as this one, the girl looking quite comfortable as her lower half was the only thing covered with the sheets. As for everything else above the hips, those were fully exposed for all to see under the dim light next to the bed.
Brex made sure that the mental connection was currently cut off so that he didn't wake her up by mistake with his random thoughts. After giving a mental sigh from within his mind, he went on to think the following while looking over to Rory. “I know that she's strong and all, but what I had her do was just plain reckless. If that axe hadn’t broken, then she might have been able to finish the fight.”
If that shield of mine was only a second too late, there would have been nothing left for me to revive her with.” After placing the case back into his item box. Brex looked towards his right gloved hand and noticed how it was slightly shaking, before grabbing on to it by the wrist before going on with these thoughts.
“It happened again... I thought I had gotten over this. The notion of killing another is no longer an issue for me but... Why do I get the sense of deeply enjoying the idea of causing others pain whenever I get really upset? By to twelve, I haven't changed much at all. First it was the spider, then it was back at-.” His current thoughts had come to a halt as he began to recall to eleven years ago. Back when he was in Ryu's world for a time.
Back then, Brex still had a major issue with taking another's life and asked for some assistance in that regard from his fellow displaced human friend. There was some chatting that had taken place between himself and Ryu and in the end, they came up with a solution. With a few strings pulled by Ryu. Brex was brought to a Maximum-Security prison of sorts. Where only the most heinous crimes would get one to be incarcerated within. Well, that was putting it nicely. It was hell on earth. A one-way street to death.
All of the inmates were of different races, but what they had in common was the atrocities marked under their files. It was safe to say that with the current living conditions afforded to them, the average life expectancy upon going in was quite short. It was because of this very fact, that Brex was brought to such a place and given the opportunity to get over his fears of taking a life by being placed in a rather unique situation.
It was proposed by Ryu to the inmates, that they had a chance to be released under the condition that if they could kill Brex in a one-on-one fight within a set arena, then they would go free. The plan was to get the Roegadyn the much-needed experience to survive and the cruel reality that he would no doubt have to come across and going into a breakdown after each and every kill, was not going to do him any favors in the long run.
The memory then shifted to him standing within a small room that had two doorways. Each leading out into another area. One would lead him back into the prison, while the door on the opposite end would go directly into the arena. That being where his opponent was waiting for him already. At the time, Brex was still wearing his yellow version of cloth gear and equipping the Monk Soul Stone.
Due to his size and overall strength, it was already decided that he would go in unarmed. But as for his opponents, they would be free to use any handheld weapon that they wished. Of course, this rule would only be in effect, as long as it was not a firearm.
Now, the lineups for this were not completely random as Ryu already informed Brex that a number of the already chosen inmates were known for specific crimes. Out of all the inmates that went for the deal. Five were chosen. These being a Mage Seeker, a Slaver, a Crime Boss, a Serial Killer, and a Corrupt Exertive.
The Mage Seeker gave him some trouble and lasted awhile, seeing as they had real combat experience. As for the rest, they didn’t give him much trouble. The rest did attempt to go at him with cheep tricks, along with trying to bribe him into throwing the fight with either money or other goods and favors. The Serial Killer wasn’t all that good with a straight up fight. Turned out he was the hid in the dark types and sucked when their targets were ready for them.
What really ended up getting the brunt of his anger out of the group. Turned out to be the Slaver. That was when Brex got into doing it nice and slow. Drawing out the fight as much as he could. Causing the most amount of pain, while keeping him alive. In the beginning, it was somewhat difficult, but by the end of it all. Brex came out of there by the end of the day, all covered in blood that soaked into his clothing.
These weren't completely random fights to him. Before every one of them, Brex would get a folder detailing the exact listing of their crimes. Along with descriptions and pictures of what was discovered at the crime scenes. Because of this, saying that he had more than enough to go into action was putting it mildly. This was the reason for what he did to the Slaver.
He did something that Brex couldn’t ignore. It was one thing to enslave another, if there was a good reason or another. Especially as a form of punishment for a crime. But this one captured and sold children. It didn’t matter if they were homeless or from a city park in daytime. The file went into so much details, it nearly made Brex throw up when he was nearly half way through reading before their fight.
Back to the present. Brex was still blankly looking at his hand and giving out a small shutter at his next thought. “I really don't know what's more terrifying. Whether taking a life is pretty much no different to me now than taking a left or right at a fork in a road. Or perhaps the rush I get with knowing that I'm clearly enjoying the aspect of torturing one that I think is deserving of it.”
He had just then had a quick flashback to hearing his own voice laughing back when he was up against that large Spider on the bridge in the old castle. He then snapped himself from that memory, by clenching his fist tightly and shaking his head. After letting out a quiet sigh from behind his mask, Brex made his way over to the bed and laid next to Rory. Who had instantly draped her arm over him and began to snuggle, while still out cold. Brex contributed this to a reflex of hers after so long together.
Since Rory was asleep and he didn't want to leave her side. Brex went ahead and placed himself into a deep sleep, which only took a few seconds to accomplish and reopened their connection. After what seemed like a moment of silence and shadows being all about after closing his eyes. He soon found himself at the front of his mentally constructed house once the lights came into view. The sight showed an endless stream of stars in the background to act as the night sky.
Upon coming inside. Brex had fully expected Rory to be jumping at him. Instead, he found that the entryway was completely vacant. So, he took a quick look around on the floor before going up to the second and finding Rory already asleep in bed. Not wanting to wake her up, seeing as she really tuckered herself out. He had closed the door silently and went down to the lower level, while quietly speaking to himself and having a small smile from behind his mask.
“She may have a seemingly Immortal body and an accelerated healing process that could stand in the same category as Wolverine, but she could still be mentally exhausted. Well, since I'll be with her tomorrow, I think I'll just let her sleep for tonight. Also, since I'm asleep again myself, there's no doubt that Luna's going to try and track me down. Now the real question is, exactly what am I going to set up the dream to be?”
Brex had wandered close to the door and waved his hand in the same way Rory would. By the time he had fully waived his arm in front of himself. Everything within view had been covered up by a multitude of digital screen. These varying in both size and shape. Some of which were completely blank. While others had texts running up and down and if you were even doing something that was similar to what one would see when watching one of those Matrix movies.
His finger had brought itself close to one of the screens and began to make a swiping motion to make the options that were displayed to move over one after another. This would cause a number of the images to be seen in his vision to alternate between large cities, small towns and random field locations that he knew of from Final Fantasy online.
Among these, were Limsa Lominsa, the frozen lands that he had met up with Celestia and Luna at the same time in. While passing by the second, Brex gave and annoyed huff and narrowed his gaze. He then asked himself while absent-mindedly looking at the rest of the selections. “Perhaps I should pick some place a little more casual if she's going to show up.”
“Hmmmm... Probably should not pick the hot springs or the seaside resort. Wouldn't want to give the wrong impression. Also, I have no desire to disrobe in front of her if she should try and push the subject of taking a dip.”
“Definitely going to need to pick some place that's not dangerous this time around. Maybe I shouldn't have let Rory pick the last stage of the dream after showing them a few things from back when I first started. Although, she really did give them a good scare by throwing them near a spawning spot for those monsters. Then there's the part where they didn't fly while falling off of that cliff. Really didn't understand why they didn't use their wings right then and there. Eh, they must have just been too scared to think straight.”
After a few more seconds of this going on. Brex had come to a stop after seeing an image that seemingly clicked with him and stopped his finger in mid-motion. After a moment, the Roegadyn gave a firm nod and tapped the image with the end of his finger. From there, the rest of the screens began to change and depicted the city of Kugane.
More specifically, the residential area in the Northwestern section, where the Inn is located at. The place required one to go up a few steps. Also, if one was to stand outside of it, then they would get a pretty good view of not only the city itself, but the sea that was all along the west side.
Once this was all done loading up. Brex had turned on the spot and was about to go up into his bedroom in order to lay next to Rory's sleeping form for some relaxing time. But a small alarm had gone off from the monitors. Which caught his attention right over his shoulder.
After getting a good look at it, Brex gave a light shrug before commenting to himself in a half-hearted tone. “Wow. the dream hasn't even been up for more than two seconds and she's already beginning to knock at my bubble. Well, I guess I may as well be there to meet her.” He then reached over and tapped on a few of the screens before his form began to slowly fade from sight.
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Location: Within the dream of Brex*
The princess of the night came into view after walking out of a thick mist, that was situated between two rows of buildings on either side. As soon as she had gotten out and into the open. The blue Alicorn quickly took in the sight, while having a worried expression. After seeming to be in no immediate danger, did Luna finally begin to relax and let out a small sigh once she had identified that she was not in some dangerous wilderness.
(This is what Luna see's now after entering his dream. Just take away the people.)
From behind, she can still see the way that she came in, as it was being completely shrouded. As for up ahead, she could see a structure that was at the top of a set of steps. It being at twice the height of the ones beside her now.
Seeing as there was no other way, aside from the set path ahead of herself. Luna went ahead and followed it. As she got closer and began to climb the steps, the rest of the dream slowly came into view and she had barely gotten halfway up, before she stopped in mid-step and giving an awestruck expression upon seeing the style in which the current scene was set in.
During her entire life-time, Luna had not seen such intricate designs being implemented throughout an entire city such as the one before herself. Even the railings that she could see lining the steps were brightly colored red, along with an interesting design that was carved into the wood. While still absent-mindedly walking the steps higher and higher, Luna tried to think to herself as to where this could have originated from. Unfortunately, she came up with nothing.
After a little bit, she was led past an area that was obviously roped off and gave the faint smell of water that was distinctly different from the sea air that she had been picking up. Beyond that, up ahead she could see a set of doors for an extravagant building and approached. But just as she had gotten up to them, she noticed that as she pressed her hand up against the door, that it did not budge at all.
After several seconds of attempting to push and or pull on the circular handle that were barely big enough room to get a proper grip with her hands. Luna heard from beyond them, a familiar voice that called out just loud enough to be heard.
“Those slide open to the sides. Try parting them from the middle.” The blue alicorn had developed a slight blush, while glancing from side to side and did as she was instructed. Once that little obstacle was taken care of, she then found herself walking into a large singular room that was decorated in a style that she was clearly unfamiliar with.
After a moment of looking over the room. Her attention was brought away from the decorations and towards the center of the room when she heard him speaking once again. Only to find that he was sitting with his legs underneath, while wearing a new attire that she quickly guessed was in some way related to where she was in terms of fashion.
(Here is a picture of Brex waiting in the room.)
(Here is a picture of what he is wearing now. Only that the mask has a black cloth attached to the edge and goes down to cover the opening of the chest, so you can't see anything of the head. As for the fingerless gloves, those have been covered.)
Not surprisingly, Luna couldn't tear her eyes away from the odd mask he was wearing this time around. She even had to contain a small giggle as she needed to get accustomed to it, before she began to approach and stop after taking a few steps. Her eyes then wandered around for anything to sit on, but found nothing but the mat underneath her hoofs. On one side of the room, a cushion could be seen. But on a quick glance, she could tell that he was not using one and thought that it must serve a different purpose.
She then heard him say, “Ceremony may not be followed. Please, use your magic over the dreams and conjure whatever you feel comfortable sitting in. Your sister is not with you, so I assume this is quite urgent. If that is the case, then let us dispense with the pleasantries.” As he was saying those words, she can see him gesturing with his left hand towards the spot in front of him before returning it to cross over his lap.
Luna was halfway through lighting up her horn, before she stopped and took on the same position as him and crossed her legs. Although, instead in a more ladylike fashion so that she wasn't exposing herself below. After clearing her throat, she looked straight into his mask before getting serious and beginning with the talk.
“First off, it is good to see that you are well. Locating you is not as difficult as once believe. However, it has been a few nights since then. Do you truly not rest at the end of each day? It makes one wonder if this is a normal occurrence, or out of necessity.”
He had given out a quick sigh before replying. “I would rather not play with the notion that you care for my well-being. Am I not simply one who is unknown to you and is believed to be a threat? Why else would you continuously use the dream to converse in safety?”
Luna had realized that near the end of that, she had involuntarily held their breath before answering him rather unsurely. “It cannot be denied that you're still unknown to myself and my sister. However, we do not see you as a threat. It may not be believed, but I as sincere as to wanting to know of your wellbeing. If taking what you said about being in our land for so long to be at face value. Then ample opportunity must have crossed your path to do harm to our citizen's.”
There was a small stretch of silence that allowed the ambient sounds from outside to be heard before he spoke up again. “I sense the distinct impression that the word, citizens was forced. Truth be told, I had expected a certain another phrase to come out of your lips.”
Luna had quickly cleared her throat and spoke, while trying to sit up straight in her current sitting position on the floor. “Your words from before have prompted us to changing our speech patterns. This is not such a daunting task for myself, whereas my sister will require some time to, as they say, kick a hold habit.”
“Now, on to the other topic at hand. I wish to ask you a few questions in regards to your future plans, also to clear up any misunderstandings.” Luna had received a subtle nod, along with a gesture with his arm to continue. “Is there any merit in the rumor saying that you are a royalty? I do apologize if this is rather out of the blue. It is that, this is an issue that has been plaguing my sister's mind after hearing from a set of guards in the distant past who mentioned you were a, Duke.”
Without showing so much has a muscle twitch, aside from the moving section of the cloth for his mask. He spoke in a somewhat melancholy tone for just an instant, before turning back to a normal one. “A Duke I see... I feel as though a lifetime or two has passed. Once there was a time that I was referred to such a title.”
“Now it only brings the taste of ash to my mouth. It is one that I do not desired, nor do I believe I am worthy of. Is but one title among many others that I have chosen to forget. Whether it be a Prince, a Duke, a viscount, or even that of a simple farmer. It all means nothing to me.”
Luna had raised an eyebrow to this, before thinking to herself. “It is clear to see that he cares little for them. However, why would one not claim and use such an advantageous tool. And all this talk of titles meaning nothing... With all the power at his disposal, why has he not attempted to display his capabilities?”
“Why does he choose to remain in Ponyville and continue to do odd jobs? No, I can't ask such questions. But, what would his reaction be if found out there are spies that have him in their sights? Would it not be worse not to be informed under controlled circumstances? If not delt with properly, he may take it in the worse possible way.”
She was brought back from her inner thoughts, when she heard him speaking again. “Quite troubled I take it. Is it possible that this is all a ploy to keep me distracted within this meeting, because you have an assassin who has located my whereabouts and have hopes of them dispatching my life while I still remain in a deep slumber?”
Luna had pretty much jumped out of her skin after hearing the thought-up insinuation. Now pretty much in a panic, she held up both of her arms and in placating gesture and began to stammer out a reply. But she came to a quick stop when she noticed him beginning to vibrate around the shoulders. This was before a small laugh could be heard from behind his mask.
Now seeing that this was merely a joke on his part. Luna gave him a heavy pout before crossing her arms and partly looking away. It had taken less than a few seconds before she realized what she was doing and quickly adopted a more formal way of sitting, while having a slight redness to her cheeks that was slowly beginning to fade.
He then continued while giving a slightly amused tone in his voice. “Please, do pardon the crude joke. Although, I would be lying if I did not come close to experiencing such a deed for myself. There have been quite a few times where I would check into a room during my travels. But only to find that I had some unexpected visitors in the late hours. Although, I very much doubt that I would have been privileged to have such incidents, if I were of the female persuasion. If you get as to my meaning.”
Luna's ears flat when she heard that and he began to consider some of the nightmares that she needed to step into that came from the stallions. There were quite a few that she could recall in the last week alone, that involve them being attacked in their sleep by one or more mare’s.
She had honestly been surprised when she learned about the decline of males, as well as their treatment. Even with so many laws out there that pertain to their well-being, it is easy to determine that many do not follow them whenever it was inconvenient. This was enough to make her give out a snort of annoyance, but she managed to contain it.
Luna then took in a deep breath to ask her next question. But not first apologizing for the actions of her kind. “I feel that I must apologize for any wrongdoing that my citizens have conducted towards you. I cannot see any reason to excuse their actions. With that, could you honestly say that you harbor no ill will towards either myself, my sister or those that live in this land?”
He had gotten up and walked towards the one window that exposed an oddly made garden of sorts, that had some water trickling into a bamboo shoot that would tip and pour itself out every once in a while. After a bit, he replied without so much as looking in her Direction. “I am... I want to say that I am one for forgiving. I want to say that I am kind. I want to say that I do not hold any ill will, nor will I do any harm. But... I am no saint, nor am I anything that could be seen as a Hero.”
“I cannot see myself as anything that has a definite label. I merely wish to survive and everything I say and do is in order to reach that singular goal. Yes, I have limits, yet at the same time, it is quite easy for others to push me over it. Would you believe me if I said that I have never once taken the life of a sentient being? If you were too, then you are a fool. Now my question to you is this. From what I have told you, would you strike me down if such an opportunity were to extend itself?”
The dark Alicorn was taken aback by his words and had a deep in thought expression on her face, as she contemplated on both the response and the question. Over the course of the last couple of days. The two princesses had sent orders out to conduct a wide-scale investigation on to the one known as Gambit, after receiving that letter from Twilight that described him in much detail.
Apparently, over the last decade. He has been popping up pretty much everywhere in Equestria. Not only that, there had been rumors of him going overseas onto the other continents. All the reported locations pretty much relayed the same story over and over again. Gambit would show up, take a number of quest and simply vanish or run away whenever a promotion was an order from the Guild to raise his ranking from that of “F” up to “E”.
After doing some more digging. It was soon found that wherever he ended up, there was a good chance of a big issue being resolved. Foal-napping rings, drug dealers, missing cases, along with monster attacks would be dealt with in record time. However, they were reported to have been resolved by other individuals.
But after doing some more detailed investigations. There had been evidence that a second party was involved. In fact, there had been cases where dead bodies would be found. It did take a little while into the investigation case to determine that they were the main culprits that had done such things to warrant them a banishment to Tartarus.
Luna could safely say that she would in fact take a blade to his throat if she was simply told that he had killed. But that was not the case, seeing as she knew more of the facts. After seeing the long list that came with the bodies of their many deeds. Even Luna found herself doubting whether or not that she would have been capable of keeping her blade and it's sheath if faced with them.
Although, the way he phrased it when it came to how he saw himself. Luna couldn't help but to see a powerful contradiction between it and his actions. When she was done going over the evidence in her mind. She went back to looking at him and found that he had yet to move it all. She then took a steady lung full of air to recompose herself, before she gave her own reply.
“If you were truly a threat? then yes, I would. I would take your life without a second thought. That being said, I for one do not see you as such a being.” She had paused for a moment before she managed to push herself forward even further. “Do you recall what you said before in regards to how you believe that I broke your trust when bringing my sister into your dream?”
This has gotten a small nod from him, as he kept his back towards her. In return, Luna had swallowed a lump in her throat and was clearly becoming more unsettled by the second. She then quickly thought to herself in a small panic. “Oh, by mother's name, I can't believe I'm going to do this!”
Luna then steeled herself to say what was the come next, in hopes of getting it done with, like one would ripping off a Band-Aid. A horrible nasty Band-Aid that clung to all of a Pony's hair and would completely rip them all out in the process if removed...
“Gambit... Both my sister and myself know where you live! We also know about the one called Rory Mercury!” Luna had said all of that and quickly brought her arms up in a shielding jester to protect their face in case some retaliation was in order. However, after several long seconds, there was a silence that creep along, until it became a full minute. Luna had not felt any type of pain and began to lower her arms at an agonizingly slow pace and had opened her right eye to gauge his reaction.
She then heard him as he spoke somewhat casually. Which surprised Luna for but a moment. “Is that so? And is that all?” Clearly confused to the reaction. Luna was pretty much at a loss for words, which gave him a few seconds before going on.
“Well? I'm still waiting for the rest of your threat. You just said that you know of both her and myself. I'm waiting to hear your demands. There must be conditions and rules that you wish for me to follow. Typically, when a conversation is started with such a phrase. Then it's only logical that it would progress in this manner. It's safe to say that I have been around long enough to hear this a handful times easily.”
Luna was more surprised than anything to hear such conclusions be given so easily. She had quickly begun to stammer out a response, as she shook her head repeatedly. “Oh, please. No, you misunderstand my meaning. I'm merely I wish to inform you that we know as to show that we do not want to...” Luna had released a tired sigh before she began to talk normally once again. “I apologize for betraying your trust and this is my attempt to make amends. A gesture of goodwill if you may.”
He then said, while partly turning his head in her direction so that only the edge of his mask could be seen. “Judging by the timing. It would only be right to assume that the only reason that you know of Rory, is because of today's incident in regards to the Dragon. After all, Twilight Sparkle was there and she has a direct line to your sister. What surprises me the most, is that it took so long for my whereabouts to be found.”
His tone of voice then changed to that of a hint of mirth before turning away. “Although, if I were to make an educated guess. Then you at the very least, should have already known my location. After all, you do look into the dreams of ponies. So, the odds are that gave an indication in regards to myself from them.”
“There's also the possibility that you can tell where a pony is in relation to the Dream Realm. It also causes one to wonder on one more. If that was the case, then you would have already known of my whereabouts from our last encounter. Seeing as I was in Ponyville at the time.”
The blue Alicorn had gotten up and taken a few steps, so that she was on his left side and gazing out into the outside world through the window, before releasing a small sigh and speaking again. “Yes, that would be true. I have known of where you reside for some time now. But I assure you that it my sister had no clue as to your whereabouts until nearly a week ago. Then there was what we heard from-.”
He had quickly interrupted her by saying, “You have nothing to explain. I knew quite well that being in close proximity or having any relations with Twilight Sparkle, would no doubt make its way towards your sister. After all, Rory did make quite a scene right in front of her. So, now that we've taken care of that little part of our chat. Let us move on. In your own words, what are your plans for me? At least those that you are willing to disclose. Heh, I would be fine with a flat out lie.”
Luna felt a sting of sorts when she was unable to say anything about the spies. It seemed that he believed that all they knew was from Twilight. It was true that only a little while after getting the report back in the throne room, Luna had gone to check in on her older sister and found that she was in the middle of going through a letter that her protege had sent, while inside of her older sister's bed Chambers. Inside was pretty much what was mentioned within the earlier report. But the more pressing question that was given to her, needed her full attention and so she responded.
“As previously stated, you are not seen as a threat and if truth be told. I very much doubt that we could do much to hinder your movement. As for my older sister, I can tell you this much. We know that simply saying that we are sorry for the past transgressions would be nowhere near enough. If it were possible, we would like to meet you face to face. Instead of going through with our current means of communication.”
“Although, if we take into account what had transpired before, then it might be best to have a few sessions with the three of us, before such an act could be considered in the future. Would it be possible for me to retrieve my sister so that we might start this evening?”
Luna had yet to hear any type of response, other than a small hum that escaped his mask for several seconds before he spoke. “I have no real interest in talking to her directly. At least not as of right now. If you are willing to accept that as a rule and act as the mediator, then I will permit it. I'll allow her a pass.” Luna had a very relieved expression as she brought her hand up to her chest to let out of breath that she was holding on. But she went momentarily ridged upon what he said next.
“However, be fair warned. Unlike yourself, she is on thin ice and must tread carefully. You were very lucky to get out before witnessing what my dream became after my outburst. So, hear me when I say this. I have had much practice when it comes to manipulating my own dream. So, I can think of a handful of places within my memories that neither one of you would find very pleasing if I sense that there is something amiss...”
Luna had noticed the way he was now facing his mask towards her and had given a subtle nod before taking a step back to light up her horn to cast a spell to exit his dream. But just as she was in the middle of leaving. She heard him say one last thing. “I best not find you rummaging in my mind while here. I am aware of that magic and if any can use it, then it would be the both of you.”
When Luna had gotten out. She had this look of contemplation as she thought to herself. “Even I would not take the chance to use such a spell with his mind. I do hope that my sister comes to the same conclusion.” There was a short pause before she started to shake her head before continuing. “Of course, she wouldn’t make the mistake.”
Luna, after a few seconds to reassure herself, used her magic once again to bring herself before her sister’s dream. When she arrived, she used the same knocking rhythm as before and the princess of the night was able to bring out Celestia and quickly informed her as to the little meeting that she had just come from. This also included what was discussed and the rules in which she was allowed to bring her older sister to meet him once more.
Although, she could plainly see that Celestia was rather disappointed with the conditions. The younger sister couldn't help but notice how Celestia was more excited than nervous. When Luna turned around to face the direction in which Gambit dream bubble originated from, she did happen to see for just an instant at the corner of her eye, how her older sister was lightly biting at the bottom of her lip, before the flash of magic had occurred that would teleport them both.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia*
After following her sister, Celestia was allowed to enter the dream without any fuss at all and arrived right at the strangely decorated room that had a figure standing near the window with their back towards them both. Although he wasn't wearing the heavy armor that she was accustomed to see so far. His large frame made it easy for her to identify him at a glance.
Celestia had even brought her left hand up to her neck and absent-minded began to touch the spot where the long since healed bruise once was. From that point, the two did the following as they spoke to one another. Celestia was the first to speak and Luna would reply upon his behalf. Of course, depending on the length of what was said, would affect the delay on Luna's part. But she did this well and they had hardly any trouble.
“Gambit, first off. I want to let you know that I have thought hard and long on what was discussed. I do believe that you were correct in your analysis and that I have unknowingly caused harm to a great many through my thoughtless actions. Not once has it ever occurred that my subjects would read into my actions and such a drastic way. It will take time to see a noticeable change and I am grateful that it was brought to my intention.”
“He says, I am glad that you can see and also admit that you could be wrong at times. Admitting that one is at fault, could be seen as a form of weakness to others. However, as for myself, it is a sign that a leader is capable of learning and is willing to better themselves. I for one have made plenty of mistakes and own up to them. Taking responsibility is not a quality to be looked down upon.”
“Now, in regards to another topic. Luna, I feel comfortable with calling me by name. You on the other hand, I certainly do not. Hearing you say it aloud has me feeling nothing but disgust towards it. In fact, don't call me by anything. But if you must, then I would prefer you did use the first name you gave me. Is that understood?”
“I-I, but I can't possibly call you that...” Celestia had taking a few seconds before letting out a sigh of defeat before she went on. “Very well... With that out of the way. I would like to start to make amends. My sister has already informed me that we know you are in Ponyville and are acquainted with my student. It has also come to our attention as to what your current living arrangements are. If you would like, I could make arrangements for-.”
Luna had quickly placed a hand onto Celestia's right shoulder, before she spoke up. “He just said, I don't need your charity. If what is going through your mind is giving me bits or even a place to stay. Then it would be pointless. You would only be diving into your nations treasury to do so. I will not be the reason that there is a shortage of funds that are required for more important matters. I'm where I am now because I want to be here.”
“Well, huh… Is there anything I can do for you, that you will accept? If monetary gain or a residence will not suffice. Then perhaps I can give you a title? You were once among the noble class, correct? After all, you did save my sister.”
“The very least I can do, is make it known that you are a part of it and give you the title of knight. There's also the matter of how you mentioned that you're the last of your kind. We can scour our library and make requests of the other kingdoms to go in search of any documents that could lead us to finding more of those, such as yourself.”
By the end of what celestial was saying. He had moved from his spot and gone towards the exit and with using both of his hands, it was slit wide open to reveal that nothing laid beyond but a sea of stars. From there, he took a single step and Celestia believed he was going to fall and had outstretched her hand. But to her surprise, his foot had come into contact with something that she couldn't see and he continued walking away in a brisk pace.
Both she and her sister made to follow and were only a few paces behind as they entered the weird environment that was reminiscent to the Dream Realm. That was when Luna went back to relaying his words. “The title of a knight? To be a noble? I really have no such desire to have any of it. So many other titles are already under my belt and I care not for them at all. Some of which give off the air of accomplishment. While some are completely mundane or possibly utterly ludicrous. You wish to see just a few of those I have?”
After that, he had raised his right hand and did a half-assed wave before bringing it down. Not even a full second had gone by after he had done this, when some random words began to appear up ahead and float by as they continued to walked forward. These beings such as, Archmage, A Life of Adventure, Mastering the Land, Mastering The Hand, The Exterminator, The Liberator, Nidhogg Slayer, The Assimilator, Provider of the Realm, Cavalier, Dungeon Master, Defender of Eorzea, The Oathkeeper, The Mythril Heart, The gambler and so, so many more that would come floating by.
Celestia was clearly attempting to read them all as fast as she could along with Luna. As they gawked that a few of them through surprise. While looking rather confused at some others. A few of which Celestia could tell that they had within to text an odd word or two that could have been the name of a place. But no matter how hard she tried, not one of them stood out as anything recognizable for a location that she knew of.
She could then hear him continuing after a stretch of silence. “As Luna has already stated. Neither of you are going to put restrictions on me, nor will you be able to enforce them. I assure you attempting to do so will only bring nothing but suffering do all those involved. But I will make one promise in regards to this. A promise that should never be forgotten.”
“No matter what the wrongdoings are that are directed towards myself or others in my care. All will be repaid more than ten times over. Just so that it is clear, I am not making a threat, this will be a fact, an undeniable rule of nature if you will. Keep this in mind. An army, you can anticipate.”
“This is due to food, provisions, equipment, rest and travel distance. These and many other factors can be used in anticipating another's move. But what happens if you have to deal with only a single individual? Especially one of my skills? Skills that you have yet to see fully displayed?”
“Both of you have already seen me when I am in a fight. I have been under your very nose’s for more than a decade and the only reason you know of my existence right now, is because I allowed it. My point is this... I may not throw the first punch, but as the twelve as my witness. I will make bloody sure that I am the one to deliver the last blow.”
“As for the other offer of yours. I will decline. As I have told Nightmare Moon. I am the last of my kind and I can guarantee that the name of my race is not only unknown to either of you. But to the rest of the world. There are no records anywhere on this world. It had been some time and I have come to terms with this knowledge.”
Luna, who was relaying all of this. Was looking as pale as a bed sheet, as she was stealing a quick glance over at Celestia, who was also beginning the show that she was disturbed by what was said in one way or another. Unlike with Luna, who was obviously scared.
Celestia on the other hand was trying her best to keep her princess mask up. Even though there was a bead of sweat that was began to build on her brow and run down the right side of her face, until it dripped off of her chin and ran down and between her breasts and into her dress.
The alabaster mare was holding herself together as best as she could, but a growing heat was beginning to build between her legs. Along with that, her eyes became unfocused for a moment as she had this far off stair and her cheeks began to be flushed red.
She even had this sensation that she was short of breath and had to increase her air intake, while not making it too noticeable to the others. Once she had realized that she was instinctually trying to smell the air for his scent, did Celestia finally come back to her senses. Although, try as she might, the sensation down below was still eating way at her.
That was when Luna spoke up and began to ask her own question to him. “Might I inquire as to who this Miss Rory Mercury is and what exactly is her relation to you? From what we have been given, the two of you are quite intimate. Then there is the display of her fighting prowess when engaging the Dragon just earlier this day. Young Twilight Sparkle made the assumption that she might be on par with the instructors within the combat schools. Could she hail from where they originate from?”
At the end of that, Celestia jumped in and added her own list of questions as well before hearing a reply first. albeit rather more excitedly than what was to be expected. “Where is she from how? How long have you known each other? How far has your relationship progressed? If it had gone far enough for you to be in a herd with her, then is she the head mare?!”
This had obviously caused him to stop in his tracks and Luna to give her older sister the, “What the fuck look, with her eyes pretty much bugging out and jaw dropping. Upon seeing this, Celestia coughed into a right hand and took on her usual outer demeanor, that she was well known for in court to hide her true feelings from being easily detected. Although, by now it was clearly too late.
In an attempt to cover for what she had just blurted out from the spur of the moment. She then said, “What I mean is… It would be rather unthinkable for a male who is as powerful as yourself be single after all this time. No doubt you have already taken a number of wives into your herd and I only wondered if she was the head mare, that is all.” After saying such a thing. Celestia's blush only grew as she watched him weaving his left arm off to the side.
From there, a simple brown door with a brass handle had slowly come into vision. Luna had taken a hold of Celestia's right hand and began to motion towards the door as she spoke rather hurriedly. “That would be our cue to leave dear sister! As for you Gambit, I wish you a restful evening and I look forward to our next meeting.”
The very moment that the pair had walk through the door, they quickly found themselves out in the middle of the Dream Realm and the large bubble belonging to the one that they were just speaking to was just a little over seven meters away.
Not even a full second had gone by before Luna hurriedly turned onto her older sister and took a hold of both shoulders in a tight grip, before yelling out in a hysteric tone. Along with what could have been a small blush that was forming on her cheeks. “JUST WHAT IN MOTHER’S NAME HAS GOTTEN INTO YOU?!”
Celestia, who had just been grabbed was clearly startled by the act. Was now looking towards Luna now that her princess mask had been finally removed. But instead of her usual calm demeanor, Luna got the see an expression that was completely foreign to her and nearly caused smaller mare to release her grip. Right there, was Celestia and she had this fish out of water appearance and could clearly be seen having trouble putting her thoughts into words.
Celestia's eyes were completely wide and her mouth was opening and closing repeatedly, yet nothing was coming out. During all of this, she would even glance towards the bubble and then back at her sister with flashes of embarrassment and panic that could be seen in her eyes. Luna had taken this chance and started to shake her sister a little bit and after several seconds of doing so, did Celestia finally seem to come back to her senses, all be it a little dazed, along with her mane being messed up by the sudden jerking motion.
The alabaster mare starting to breathe heavily and it didn't take long before it was on the verge of a panic attack, as she grabbed onto her sister's hands and pulled them off. She then also began to pace back and forth. As she that, was biting onto her right hands thumb nail.
Luna could do nothing else but to stand there with an awestruck expression. As she washed her sister doing something that was completely uncharacteristic for her. But after a moment, she reached out her right hand in order to try and gain her older sister's attention, before speaking up again and starting the following conversation back and forth between the two.
“I believe that you are unwell sister. Mayhaps it was a mistake on my part to bring you this night. I do recall that you were not feeling well and had gone to bed without having our usual dinner. It is known that one condition in the waking world can have an affect their mind in the dream. This should have been an issue to escape my sight. In my attempt to find him, your health was neglected.”
“Luna! I have no idea as to what came over me! I-I, the words just wouldn't stop coming out! Once you begin speaking that mare's name, then I just couldn't stop from blurting out all of those questions! My body was out of my control.”
“That may be so sister, although what came from you was more of personal nature, rather than anything else. You even inquired as to whether or not they were in a herd together or if she was even the head mare. Then there was also the way you were sniffing the air. Don't even think that I did not notice such a move.”
“But Luna! I honestly, have no clue what has come over me in there! Just look at this! My hands! My hands are sweaty! I can't even recall when last I had sweaty palms! It must have been centuries.”
“Please, try to steady yourself and explain to me as to exactly what you are going through. I sensed nothing from his dream that could have caused such a reaction. Most likely, this is a case of anxiety on your part. It might be prudent for you to take some time before we do this again.”
“NO! I must see him! NO! I need to see him! Don’t take this away from me!!!” By then, Celestia had rushed up and was pretty much pressing her face up against Luna’s. At the same time, having a much deeper reddish hue on her cheeks and evidently sweating up a storm. Luna could now feel her older sister's heavy breathing on her own skin with how close they were together. There was even that faint smell of vanilla cake frosting that she was fairly sure had not been there before.”
(Here is a picture that is close to how Celestia now looks like before Luna.)
Luna then took a hesitant step back with a shocked look on her face, as she eyed her sister up and down wearily. From there, Luna started to taking her sister's appearance in order to make a quick mental list of what was currently afflicting her. Celestia was not standing in the same dignified manner that she always did so. Next up, what is the clearly seen sweat covering her face and a heavy quick breathing. The last of anything physical that Luna could tell, was the heavily flushed cheeks.
Next came where the odd behavioral patterns. Signs of there being a lack of focus. There was also the anxiety and unpredictable mood swings. The last being her sudden outburst when suggesting that she not see him again for a short respite. From there, it quickly dawned on Luna as she looked between the dream bubble and her older sister several times with only her eyes being the only part of her body that could be seen moving.
After this display. Luna then turned back towards her sister and swallowed a lump in her throat before asking the next question rather hesitantly. “S-Sister. I, uh, know that this is a rather sudden question to bring up. But... When did you last have relations of a personal nature?”
Luna could tell that her older sister was quite surprised with the way she froze on the spot before replying after a moment of silence. “Luna, I don't believe this is the right time… Or place to have such a discussion.” Of course, Luna was not going to let this go and pressed even further as she approached Celestia and gave her a cold stare down. Which ended up causing her older sister to shrink a little.”
Celestia then gave a small wince as she continued. “If you I mean that of friends, that yes. I have indeed had personal friends over the years. I do not see the connection here.” Luna was now getting even closer to where her muzzle was almost in direct contact with her older sisters.
This in turn, cause Celestia's eyes to go cross as she was looking at the tip of her younger sister's nose before breaking down after a couple of seconds and looking away. She then replied after giving a tired sigh. “I… I have not been with another, if extreme intimacy is what you are referring to.”
Luna had backed off and was now standing normally again, while raising a single eyebrow towards her older sister, before speaking up. “Obviously, it's been quite a while for you. What has it been, one hundred, two hundred perhaps? I will just come out and say it. Dear sister, how long has it been since last you were been rutted silly?”
Celestia turned her gaze back to her younger sister and had slapped both of her hands in front of her own mouth in order to contain a loud gasp. “Luna! Please! You need to stop with all this eavesdropping on the city at night! We are princesses, such words should not be coming from our lips! Just what would our subjects think of us if they ever caught wind?”
Luna on the other hand, had not been deterred and was just tapping or hoof irritably, while crossing her arms. After giving her head a light shake to show some disappointment towards her older sister, did Luna speak up again. “Come now dear sister. None shall hear us here. Now make haste and answer the question!”
Celestia had turned partly away and was glancing over her right shoulder towards Luna, before she began to say something that was barely heard. The blue alicorn merely tilted her head to show that she didn't quite get what was said. This had caused Celestia to look rather pitiful before she spoke up again. However, this time it was just loud enough to be heard.
“I… Have never been with another... Okay?” This had left Luna at a loss of words as her jaw drop so quickly, that one might have been able to hear a microscopic tiny sonic boom to occur. She then used her right-hand to point disbelievingly at her sister, as the other one was currently preoccupied with pulling her jaw back up again.
Once her cognitive functions had returned once more, did Luna throw out her arms and exclaim and a volume that was near that of the Canterlot voice. “ART THOU ADMITTING TO BEEING A STILL VIRGIN?! WE PROTEST TO SUCH A PROCLAMATION!”
She had instantly realized that she was falling back into her old tongue and began to do a small breathing exercise in order to calm herself down before speaking again. She then spoke in a rather exhausted tone.
“Dear sister, I can understand that we were quite busy back in the day and courting was not as simple as it is these days from what I gather. But none the less, how could you have gone the last thousand years during my absence to not have been rutted at least one time? You cannot possibly be saying that you have not once felt the need down there. We are over one thousand and two hundred years old. How is it even conceivable to even having this conversation?”
Celestia had let out a small wine before she turned around to show that she was pouting and showing off an even redder blush due to her growing embarrassment as she replied. “Luna, you must understand. Taking care of Equestria has been a full-time job. There has been very little time and opportunities to develop such a bond with another. And of course, there has been occasions where I do get this itch to which you are suggesting and... Take care of such matters on my own...”
Luna had just smacked herself in the forehead and was now speaking from behind her hand, while sounding a little muffled as she did so. Sister, are you leading me to believe that not only have you never been with another, but instead, for the last thousand years… YOU HAVE BEEN ONLY USING A TOY?!!”
The alabaster Alicorn was pretty much trying to fight some tears on the edge of her eyes, as she quickly attempted to snap back with a retort of her own, in an attempt to defend herself. “I-I have been quite busy! And what of yourself? Last time I checked, you have not been with another yourself! I will have you know that I am quite knowledgeable when it comes to these matters compared to you.”
“In fact, I only just frequented one of those shops close to... ... ... Er... Ah ha! It was only sixty years ago I believe. You have no idea just how difficult it was to disguise myself and enter such an establishment. Even conversing with that sales mare at the time was nerve-wracking to say the least.”
“But I'm rather confident that I managed to stand my ground and purchased the first item I saw. Of course, I never did return, but a preservation spell and good cleaning has kept that toy in excellent condition after all these years.” By the end of that, Celestia was actually looking quite proud of herself and had this small smile as her eyes were closed.
Back over to Luna. The mare was giving her older sister a flat stare. While also slowly tapping our hoof again. She then spoke in a rather emotionless tone that displayed her displeasure. “Well, excuse us dear sister! Unlike yourself, I have been locked away in the moon for the last millennia. While in a deep sleep I might add.” This response had caused Celestia to flinch and quickly turn into giving an apologetic smile before Luna went on.
“I wasn't even conscious during the imprisonment. It is not as if I had a choice in the matter. My body hasn't even caught up with me yet. Still, I don't even appear to be in my twenties. Whenever I ask for a drink, the servants pause before they realize just who I am and accommodate my order for even a small glass of wine.”
Luna's tone then shifted to that of mischievousness as she began to speak again. There was even this hint of some misguided superiority that was mixed into it. “I for one may not have left the castle since my return. But thanks to my dream walking, much has been discovered. And I must say, our subjects can, and have some rather detailed dreams to say the least.”
“I had even done some research on my own and discovered that these sex shops as they're called, have undergone drastic changes over the years. Which makes me wonder just how little do you know of the current trends.”
Celestia, who is looking deeply disturbed right now. Had covered her face in order hide just how red she was turning. There was even this small amount of whimpering coming from behind her hands as she spoke out in a defeated tone of voice. “Luna, can we please move on from this? It's very embarrassing to speak of. Please, for the love of our mother, get to the point already.”
Luna had just given herself a facepalm that echoed throughout the Dream Realm before she removed her hand. Only to show a glowing red imprint to be left behind. Luna then spoke up at first in a low whisper, before she was loud enough to be heard clearly. “C-Could it be that… He's right, perhaps I truly am the smart one...”
“Sister, how can you not tell? It is so bad that it is even affecting the way you think! Dear sister, you want him so badly that you're pretty much kick-starting your mating season!” Hearing this, had caused Celestia's hands to drop far enough to show her eyes that were as wide as possible. The older sister then exclaimed as she was clearly panicking. “No, of course not! I just can't be! I'm simply nervous, y-yes, t-that's right!”
Luna raised an eyebrow and gave her older sister a skeptical look, before giving a half-hearted shrug in response before she spoke. “If you truly mean that, then there is nothing to speak of further on. But of course, if that turns to be a lie, then I do hope you can keep yourself under control. Just remember what our mother told us... Come now sister, we shall return you back to where you belong before the morning comes. And with that, Luna went right to lighting her horn and the two disappeared in a small flash of blue light.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
After making an exit for the co-rulers. The dream went darker and Brex released a small sigh of relieved before conjuring up a chair with but a thought, that was just big enough for him to sit on. From there, he began to hunch over while resting his elbows onto his knees and clasping his hands together.
His hand then went up and roughly pulled off his mask, along with the rest of the fabric to expose his head and threw the items onto the floor on the left side of his chair. Afterwards, the Roegadyn leaning back into it, to look straight up as his head rest on the back of the seat.
He then spoke out into the darkness. “I can sense that you are there.” A long stretch of silence went on before he continued. “Fine, be that way. No skin off my back.” That was when Brex stood up from his chair, that vanished as soon as he was no longer making contact with it and gave his hand a quick wave.
This caused the starry void change once more. After a wave rippled across everything, did the environment turn to that of Limsa Lominsa. Except this time, it was during the night and the sky was completely clear of any type of obstruction. When that was done, he himself began to fade.
When it all came back into focus. Brex found himself not at the main room of his dream house, but already inside of his chambers with Rory still in the bed. After a quick thought, his clothes were removed to only leave him in his boxers and he gingerly climbed back in underneath the covers to be next to Rory. Once he had done that, she had made the same motions as in the real world and snuggled up right against him and held on tightly with her right arm after rolling over.
Just before he was able to put himself into a deeper state of sleep, Brex started to hear Rory's voice. “Hmm, I take it the meeting went well? That got a light chuckle before Brex replied as he lay there with his eyes closed and facing towards the ceiling. “I had no idea you were even awake. I suppose you felt both times that my mind was infiltrated by Luna.” Brex could feel Rory giving a nod as she pressed herself into his side and prompted him to continue.
“I think it went pretty well. At least as good as I expected anyway. Could you believe that this Celestia tried to play the same ploy that hooked many other displaced? No way am I going to turn into their lap dog. Stupid meetings that really don't involve me or sending me off to take care of one of their foes because I am labeled as their defender is not going to roll.”
“Eh! I even gave them an ultimatum about not messing with me. Hopefully this will keep them both at arm's length. Not to mention, that glorified flashlight might just get the hint and leave me out of her fantasies. Who knows what that mare might try to do if left un-checked.”
“I even danced around so they wouldn't suspect that their spies have already been discovered. You can always count on Twilight to go and tattletale to her mentor about every little problem.” This got a weak chuckle from a still drowsy Rory as she spoke. “Oh? I already know about all that. One I’m here, I'm pretty much able to see and hear all in the dream that you make. But when I asked about your meeting, I really meant that other one.”
Brex had shifted his arm to go around Rory's form and pull her in more as he got comfortable as he reply to her question. “It's the same old, same old again. Forcing a conversation wouldn't be too hard. Although, I'd much rather have things move at their own pace. So long as the rest of my mental defenses are still up, then it's not much of an issue.”
Rory only snuggled deeper before asking one more question. “What are the odds that those two are going to end up telling the other girls about who you are? What if your threat leads to the elements being used?” Brex had let out a tired yawn before replying in a sleepy tone of voice. “Uuuh, I'd say it's pretty much right down the middle. Celestia from what I remember, has always been one to withhold knowledge unless it was truly needed.”
“Such examples would be not telling everyone who Nightmare Moon really. Not to mention, keeping the use of dark magic a secret and only showing it to Twilight so that she can get past some of the magical defense when the Crystal Empire comes back. Oh, and let's not forget the whole plan to turn Twilight into an Alicorn.”
Brex had given out another yawn, as his eyes began to close and muttered one last thing. “I've already changed what's going to happen down the road with my interference here and there. Just how much more... Will stay... On the storyline?” That was when he finally fell asleep and Rory whisper to herself just low enough to not disturb his rest, as she slowly opened her eyes halfway.
“Master, you need not worry. I will do whatever it takes to make you happy, whatever… It takes.” When she had finished, Rory was beginning to close her eyes for the night. But just before she had done so, a faint red glow could be seen coming from them that lasted for less than an instant and going back to their normal red.
*Point of view: Fluttershy *Location: Fluttershy's Cottage* *Time: Just after midnight*
The yellow Pegasus was right now at in her kitchen and sitting at the table with a single crystal overhead light to eliminate the entire room with its soft glow. She was wearing a pink bathrobe with her cutie mark embroidered onto the right shoulder and her main was tied into a high ponytail instead of being down like it normally was in public.
The reason that Fluttershy had not been asleep right then and there, was due to her having trouble with relaxing that evening. Angel Bunny could be seen through the doorway inside of his little basket within the living room and all of the daytime animals were all fast asleep. Of course, with her way with wanting to take care of any animal, no matter what it is. The yellow Pegasus was not left alone, thanks to the night time ones still being up and about.
There was even this one small Fruit Bat that was within the kitchen, hanging along one of the pieces of wood that was meant to help in supporting the ceiling and the upper floor. The Fruit Bat was then given a small alarmed when a tiny gust of wind blew by. That was accompanied by a familiar green glowing dot. It then made its way across the room without making so much as a single sound before stopping right as it got to the middle of the table, in plain sight of Fluttershy and hovered there just a few inches off of the polished wooden surface.
From there it could be seen that she was holding onto a tinny mug of hot tea with one of those strings hanging off the edge that would be attached to a bag. She then looked up and noticed the green glowing dot and gave a small giggle, before offering her free left-hand to it. Once this gesture was done, did the light pretty much leap into the center of her palm and gave off a series of low intensified glows.
She then began to speak in her usual soft tone. As she took a quick sip of her tea before placing the mug down. “I will be fine. Just a little shaken up is all. That adult Dragon really is scary. Not at all like little Spike. Didn't really think that I had it in me to even stand up to a Dragon before. But I really do hope that I won't have to do anything of the sort ever again. But you really had me worried after you jumped into that dark hole.”
When Fluttershy had mentioned that last bit. The light had flown off of her hand and landed on an object that was on the kitchen counter just a little way from Fluttershy. When she saw this, the Pegasus stood up from her chair and left her tea on the table in order to walk over and place her hand onto the object. Which turned out to be her hand written grimoire.
The book was picked up and held at the binding in the middle of her hand and the clasp holding it shut had undone itself in order to display a set of pages with runic markings and other such geometric signs. A similar green light soon emerged from the center of the two pages and out came flying the green Carbuncle. Once it had used up its sufficient momentum upon exiting the book The Creature had landed on top of Fluttershy's head and gripped on with its legs before giving her a series of nuzzles.
This had caused Fluttershy to let out more of her soft giggles from being tickled by such an act. Afterwards she extracted the Carbuncle from her head and held it in her arms before returning to the table and sitting down so that it was on her lap and facing towards her. The Carbuncle then tilted his head. Because of its pretty much non-changing expression aside from the eyes, the gesture came off as pure cuteness incarnate and Fluttershy ended up giving it a tight hug in response.
It had already been several seconds and the hug had not been released, before Fluttershy begin to speak in both a weak and worried tone. “Oh dear... What should I do? That was mister Gambit, it couldn’t have been any other, right? He must be really powerful to save Rory from being cooked alive. I had no idea he was the same as me. The healing spell I know, but that shield... I don't believe I've seen it in any of the textbooks. There was even that small summoned creature flying next to his head. That was definitely not a Carbuncle.”
“What do I do? Should I tell Twilight and others?” That was when she began to shake her head and had this more worried expression appearing on her face before she continued. “No, he hasn't done anything wrong. Yes, a Dragon was killed. But he was going to-. I don't want there to be a fight because of me.”
She had fully turned her attention over to the Carbuncle again and held it up between her arms by placing her hands under its front limbs. This was done so she could lift it up to stare into its face as she asked the next question. “But if he is like me, then where did all those weapons and armor come from? Magical storage should not be able to change a pony’s outfit or even switch it to whatever that suit of armor was. Even I know that much.”
She had placed the summoned creature back onto the table and began to silently sip at her for a few moments in order to gather her thoughts before she spoke up again. “Could it be that Gambit is a multi-class user? There were a few students that tried to do more than one set.”
“Are stallions really this strong? Rory and Gambit don't really seem like bad ponies... It was really rude of me to not properly say goodbye to Rory. What do you think? Should I tell Twilight and the rest?” In response, the Carbuncle just gave a silent yawn before curling up on the table. Seeing this had the effect of making Fluttershy yawn as well and she had to cover her mouth in the process.
After watching the summoned form for some time. The yellow Pegasus quickly went to finishing up her tea after feeling better from talking to her little friend and went off to bed on the second floor. It didn't take long before the magic of sleep took hold and Fluttershy was out like a light and fully at peace.
As for the Carbuncle it had not disappeared. Instead, it snuggled up right up next to Fluttershy's head after curling itself up and closing its own eyes. With all the lights turned off, there was a gentle green glow that not only filled the room with its light. But also had this oddly calming aura that was wafting through the air. There was even this small voice that could barely be made out. One that seemed to be coming from a small child. “Protect Fluttershy… As Promised…”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Tech Hex Institute of science. AKA HQ* *Time: Five in the morning*
The sun had not even come out yet, but the moon was nearing the edge of the sky. Out in the middle of Badlands. The days were usually quite warm compared to the rest of Equestria. But at this time of the morning, it was considered to be the perfect temperature. It was because of this, that many would wake up at this time to start their day.
One of these beings was in fact a single Changeling that looked identical to any other while not in their disguised form. At the moment the only thing that could possibly cause her to stand out from among any of the others, was thanks to her current attire.
The clothing she had was particularly vibrant in color as it stood out to what most would be wearing on both inside and out of the compound. As others that stayed at HQ would wear darker colors. She on the other hand wore mostly yellow, green and brown. There was even this small cap on the top of her head that had a weird logo with a cartoonist drawing that vaguely resembled a Chocobo's head.
There was even a large pouch that was hanging across her chest with the strap. It was up against her left hip and brandishing the same logo. All in all, the girl had a style reminiscent to a cowgirl. She just exited from a small house that was sharing a spot that was oddly distinct from the surrounding area. Where the atmosphere was comprised of a technological theme. Right now, she was in the center of a patch of green and filled with plants.
Whereas the land could be easily described as barren and dry, with sparse patches of any real vegetation to be seen, other than the occasional cactus. This was pretty much a Garden of Eden with the number of trees and its lush grass. One could even make out a reasonably sized garden filled with a number of assorted vegetables. Which included carrots and some leafy greens that could be described as resembling a type of cabbage.
Not even more than a minute's walk away from where she stood at her front door, was a large stable filled with multiple mounds of straw. All of which were protected by a canopy that would shield them from the harsh sun and any type of rain. Within each one of these, was a very large bird like creature. Most of which with their heads tucked underneath one of their wings and giving off a chorus of light chirps as they snored.
The Changeling made her way into the stables. She would end up checking on each one of the creatures, making sure to take down any notes on their current condition. As well as the feed that was available. However, as she had gone past the last one. The Changeling took a quick glance over at a set of large wooden doors that was partly open. There was then had a playful smile on her lips while walking over to it.
After reaching forward with her right hand and pushing on the door so that it would swing in words. It was revealed to contain one of the very same straw nests as those from outside. Yet there was no creature to be found resting within it. Clearly looking more than a little confused. The Changeling walked inside until she was standing in the middle of the room and began to spin on the spot in order to try and find the missing occupant.
After a few moments of nothing coming up. She started to scratch the side of her head before giving a slight pout. Then after stomping the ground in a comical fashion. The Changeling cupped her hands around her mouth and started to yell. “Crystal! Crystal! This ain't no time to be playing around! You know I need your help with wrangling the rest of them out of bed!”
After getting no response. Changeling immediately started looking all over again, but did not find even a single feather that was attached to the bird. However, what she did end up finding only caused doubt to creep in and even more worries. On one side of the room, held a rack containing a number of saddles and other assorted equipment meant to be placed on to the one she was looking for.
Unfortunately, it was pretty much ransacked and random articles were thrown all over half hazardly. This making it nearly impossible at a first glance to determine whether or not there was anything missing from all of it.
She could soon be seen rushing outside. From there, she ran all over the place in order to find Crystal, but only to discover that a portion of the fencing had been pretty much obliterated. After giving you a quick inspection. It was found out that it was destroyed from within thanks to the splintering along the edges of the fence, as well as the numerous debris piles that were scattered about on the outside.
Upon realizing what was going on, along with the disappearance of Crystal. The Changeling dropped to her knees as her legs gave out and began to spread apart. Her dark skin managed to go deathly pale within seconds as she mouthed the next set of words in a very low and terrified voice.
“The Lord... He… He's going to have my head; I just know it...” She then changed to that of determination when she snapped back onto her legs and began to rush off towards the exit while talking to herself. “I just need to get her back before he finds out! She can't have gotten far, right? I hope she is ok. I’m in charge of her wellbeing by the Lord himself, I can’t let him down! She must be scared to death by being along out there.”
Somewhere else within the desert at the same time this was going on for the Changeling. A large object came crashing onto the ground with a heavy enough thud from the dark sky, that it had displaced a good portion of sand. By the time the obstruction had cleared. What could be seen was a large, bulbous worm. On it were random jagged spikes protruding from its body and laying there motionless. Its entire form was easily that of ten or eleven meters long and three across.
Its flesh showed signs of it being hit repeatedly with enough impact that it caused a clear imprint of what could be considered as a footprint. One belonging to a creature with one large toe going back and three separating in the front. There are even multiple deep gashes, most of which coming in sets of three running along one another.
What's more, was the fact that there was not just this one creature alone. But at least half a dozen or so were strewn about and in varying states. But the only real factor that had them all in the same boat. Was that each and every one of them were dead.
From Beyond the corpses. There was a fading dust cloud to indicate that something was running at high speeds through the desert sands and it was obviously being deterred very little. There was even this faint sound that echoed on the desert night wind that gave off the impression of a type of howl. This howl consisted of a loud, “Kahweeeeeeh!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 55: A Little Too Close.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Ponyville* *Time: Four in the afternoon. Three days after the Dragon incident*
For the last couple of days not much have been going on. There were no monster attacks, no dire emergencies. Not even a random, out of nowhere visitor to cause any problems whatsoever. However, the skies were filled with groups of Pegasi, along with the clouds they were hauling to slowly block out the sun over Ponyville. The streets were pretty much empty, even with it only being that time of the day.
After a gentle breeze blew by, the sound of a bell could be heard coming from a door that was just opened. Stepping through said door that it was attached to, happened to be Sugar Cube Corner and none other than Rory Mercury, while still in her Pony form. The girl had a cheery smile as she was holding on to a brown paper bag with the shops name printed on it. From behind her, could be heard Pinkie Pie calling out in her usual upbeat voice. “Thanks for coming Rory. I'll see you next time! Let me know if Gambit likes those!”
Rory had already turned and was halfway closing the door on her way out and reply to the mare with a smile. “Oh, don't worry about that. What you make here is always delicious. I'll see you later Pinkie. With that, she closed the door the rest of the way, this eliciting another ring of the bell that was hung on the inside. She then looked towards the right side of the door and saw that her oversized axe was still propped up against the side of the building and completely covered up with a purple cloth.
Once she had retrieved her weapon. Rory began to walk through the town on her way to the hotel that was on the other end of Ponyville. However, she stopped in her tracks and had a thoughtful expression, before she turned around and went in the opposite direction instead. She had taken an opportunity to place the paper bag into the much smaller pouch attached to her hip after fumbling with the weapon.
Which turned out to be pretty easy. This was thanks to it being a, Bag of Holding from Dungeons & Dragons. Meaning that it could contain a lot more than one would think and simply holding the appropriate item near the opening would allow said object to be pulled inside without much effort.
The only real drawback however, was that her axe was far too big to be able to placed it inside. Because of that being the reason, Rory had left her weapon outside of Sugar Cube Corner in the first place. Of course, she really didn't need to worry about it being stolen with the way her Master had intentionally forged it to be much heavier than one would expect upon looking at it.
Now as for why Rory was not with her Master. This was due to an incident that happened earlier that day back over at HQ. After receiving a message through one of the link shells given to a Changeling on site. Her Master had to rush off to take care of a situation in regards to an experiment that needed his expertise. More so with it being one that he was greatly invested in.
Rory had intended to join him, but was told otherwise. This due to it being strange if the both of them were to suddenly disappear. From what she could understand, he would not be coming back for several hours, if not all day long. As for her, going to Pinkie’s workplace. She ended up developing a sweet tooth and tried the place out and found that she absolutely loved their confections. Especially when it came to the jelly filled raspberry donuts. She ended up having fun with sucking the filling out before eating the rest.
So, today was pretty much a day off and instead of going back to the hotel. Rory opted for going for a stroll this afternoon. After some time of wandering around, the wind began to pick up and the rain came down slowly, only to soon turn into that of a heavy downpour. Any other Pony that was outside of the time, had already run back into their home. But when it came to Rory, she was fully enjoying the feeling of the rain hitting her skin and just kept on walking as though there was nothing wrong.
She wasn't even deterred once as her clothing began to cling to her body and started to accentuate her curves. She then began to say under her breath, along with a smile. “It's really a shame that my Master did not come to a world where they go without clothing. What I said the other day about being paraded nude on the streets would have been a lot of fun to try out.”
Being fully immersed into the fantasy. Rory was quite surprised when she heard her name being called out from a short distance away. She had turned and found it to be Applejack standing outside of what she easily identified as the Golden Oaks Library. Apparently, she was in the midst of cleaning herself off with the water hose that was still in her hands.
Once Rory had gotten close enough, she could hear Applejack speaking up over the rain. “Don't go tell me yeah got stuck out here in the rain? Also, where’s Gambit? You two are pretty much two peas in a pod. Can't see one of you without the other nearby, so this is a mite strange.” Rory gave a head shake, which cause the rainwater that was caught in her hair to splatter while she replied to Applejack.
“My Master is out of town and he won't be back till some time tomorrow. So, I'm pretty much on my own today.” Applejack was about to say something else, but the rain began to pick up momentum and she quickly gestured towards the library's door as she yelled over the noise. “We best be getting inside before it gets even worse, we can talk in there!”
Rory gave a quick nod and the two of them made their way into the library and shut the door behind them just as some heavy winds tried to get through the doorway. Applejack had taken only a few steps inside before she came to a sudden stop and was clearly angry at what she saw. Right there, was Twilight and Rarity sitting cross-legged on a rug and both of them were applying some green mush to each other's faces and giggling ever so often.
From that point on, Rory had this look of understanding that was slowly creeping onto her face as she eyed the situation. Of course, as Applejack had the full attention of the two others due to the argument she was having with Rarity. That look of understanding had gone unnoticed before it began to slowly morph to that of a very mischievous one, then back to normal before any of the other girls even realized the change.
It turned out to be Twilight to be the first one to react towards Rory's presence and dropped the book that was being held in her magical grasp. Twilight then spoke out as she quickly approached Rory with a confused expression. “Don't telling me you got caught in the rain too? Oh no, you're just completely soaked right through to the bone!”
Rarity was the next to be right next to Twilight and immediately began to make a fuss about the wet clothing. “You must change out of those immediately or you will catch your death of cold! Twilight, you do happen to have some extra towels I presume. Would it be much trouble if I retrieved them for Rory to dry off with?” Twilight had given a light shake of her head as she answered. “No problem at all, I got some extras up in the closet on the second floor it's right next to the bathroom.”
That was when Twilight began to tap her chin before speaking up again with an apologetic tone. “Oh wait, I forgot that I had Spike put them somewhere else. The towels are in the downstairs closet.” After hearing this, Rory took a quick glance at herself before speaking up. “I suppose dripping everywhere would not be very good now would it, so I'll take you up on the offer.”
That was when she went over to one side of the room and carefully placed her axe down so that it wouldn't cause any damage and immediately went to grabbing onto a few of the buttons to undo her clothing. Seeing this, the other girls quickly developed some shades of pink to cross their cheeks and Rarity was the first one to step forward to interrupt Rory from getting undressed. “Please Rory Dear! It would be best to do that in the bathroom, don't you agree?”
Rory merely tilted her head to the right and relinquished her hold on the one button she was in the middle of undoing, before giving a light shrug and making her way up to the second floor. As she was nearly halfway up the stairs. She said, “I really don't see what the big deal is. We're all girls here. I'll be waiting in the bathroom.”
Once she was up and out of sight. The other three were glancing among each other before Applejack was the first to speak to break the silence. “Well, I'll be saying this, that girl doesn't get bothered by much, now does she? Hmm, I guess I really shouldn't be saying that. We do know of one thing that does.”
Rarity chimed in as she began to make for the closet that contained the towels. “As much as I would rather not admit it. I do believe that Applejack has a point. If you all happened to recall, Rory does have a tender spot when it comes to Mister Gambit after all.”
Applejack gave Rarity a mocking grin before replying. “Mister huh? I think you mean, Master Gambit. Am I really the only one who's noticed that she doesn't call him by name? I've seen them around town a few times and not once has she ever said, Gambit. Don't any of y'all find that just a little odd?” This time it was Twilight who came into the conversation. “Hmmm. I think Applejack does have a point. I have only ever heard that term being used while I was inside of the castle.”
After a few seconds, Twilight's eyes began to widen as a look of realization kicked in. She then slammed her palm onto the side of her head lightly, before saying in a disbelieving voice. “Girls? You don't think he has any connections to nobility, do you?” Applejack scrunched up her face before answering back.
“Are you talking about Gambit? If you are, then I'm pretty sure that ain't right. From what I seen, he ain't the type to be all posh and stuck up. A far cry to another stuck up pony that I won't mention.” When Applejack had said that. A quick dart of her eyes was made in Rarity’s direction.
Rarity had just gotten a stack of towels in her hands and gave a quick scoff towards Applejack for the remark. Although it seemed that Twilight had not picked up on the slightest of what just happened between the two. As Rarity was making her way towards the bottom of the steps to head on up. She then said to Applejack, “If truth be told dear. I honestly do not have a proper understanding of him in order to give an accurate assumption.”
After all he's always covered in those garbs of his. Not once have we had an opportunity to have a conversation either. Then there's the relationship with Rory, who obviously has the modeling potential to shine. Not to mention, her connections with Fleur De Lis.” By then, she was near the top of the steps and paused only long enough to say the following bit, while having a sultry expression. “For all we know, they happen to have a very active lifestyle when it comes to role play.”
When Rarity had disappeared from their site. Applejack turned towards Twilight and the both of them ended up with a heavy set of blushes once again. This sparked the following conversation that went back and forth between the two, starting with Applejack. Who had just taken off her hat to fan herself before talking.
“Uh, Twilight? About what Rarity just said just now. Do you recall when Rory spoke about a ball gag?”
“Oh, I do. Why would she even have one of those? Does it have anything to do with this... Role play talk?”
“Hmmmm... Twilight? Before I answer that. Just how much do you know about sex?”
“S-s-Sex?! Huh, w-what?! I uh! I know that it is a physical response between two individuals that approach one another in order to produce an offspring or possibly as a form of intimate bonding. I know that I have a book around here that gives a detailed illustration of the reproductive process.”
“Twilight, what I meant is, what do you know personally about it... What I'm trying to say is, do you know what S&M is?” When Applejack had said that last bit, the farm mare was turning redder than the very same apples she grew on their family’s orchard.”
All the purple unicorn could do, was to stand there with a blank expression as she blinked several times. This was soon accompanied with her tilting her head and giving the appearance of a confused pet. Then she replied in the most innocent and confused voice that caused Applejack to slightly flinch.
“I don't believe I follow. Is S&M an acronym? Oh, oh! Hold on, I think I have a book around here that might be able to help me! Now I know I saw one around here. It was labeled, most commonly used acronyms. Now where is it, maybe it's in the encyclopedia section?”
However, before Applejack could stop Twilight from going into full-on research mode. Rarity had managed to zoom down the stairway without making any type of noise and grabbing onto two of them in order to usher the entire group into the kitchen in one nonstop sprint.
Applejack clearly protested to this and wrenched Rarity’s arm away that was used to cover her mouth. Fully intending to give her an earful. The farm mare took in a heavy amount of air. But yet again, her mouth was clamped shut by Rarity.
Who instantly brought a finger to her own lips and created a shushing motion after first taking that hand from Twilights and putting it back right away. This in turn, got a small grunt of annoyance from Applejack as her eyes narrowed for a moment. Before rolling them to show that she was going to play along, rather reluctantly.
When it was clear that nothing was going to be said. Rarity released her hands from both of the mouths of her friends and started to speak in a whisper. All the while, taking a few quick glances towards the doorway, that had a clean line of sight to the bottom of the stairs. “Girls you're not going to believe what I just found out!”
The scene then changes to that of a few minutes earlier, just after Rarity climbed the stairs with the towels in hand. The fashionista was currently beginning to give off a small hum of delight over the very notion of being able to spend some time and chat with Rory.
Just yesterday, she attempted to invite her over for some tea, but something or another would just get in the way at every opportunity. She even had this impression that Gambit was intentionally avoiding them with how they would always slip from view whenever there was a crowd of ponies around or the occasional wagon that would pass by right between them.
Rarity had just gotten to the door for the bathroom by the time she was done reminiscing about her many failed attempts to socialize with the supposedly high-society, yet very lewd Pony. She was just about to reach for the door handle when she noticed that it was not completely closed and there was just barely enough space to poke the tip of her pinky finger through. The light coming from within shined through said gap rather easily to indicate that there was no obstruction on the other side.
Not wanting to seem rude at all, she was going to knock on the door, instead of simply opening it. But her hands stopped only a few inches away once the voice of Rory could be heard. “I do hope that my Master is not upset that these got all wet. Oh well, all I can do is say that I'm sorry and make it up to him. I could try wearing the white garter belt and stockings tomorrow night. Perhaps going nude would be the best option? Could always try a new lipstick color.”
There was a small pause before Rory continued. However, by this point, Rarity's interest was piqued so much so, that her instincts to get some juicy gossip had caused the mare to lean in so that she could secretly look through the gap in the door. In her mind, she wanted to get a glimpse at the outfit, as well as to make sure that she could hear every juicy detail all the better.
When she did this, the mare was met by the sight of Rory, who had already gone through and completely disrobe. Aside from the black choker around her neck. It was black in color and was made in a way that there was a rose and thorn pattern within the fabric, that allowed it the be almost seen through.
Her mane and tail were flat due to the rain water causing it to lay down flat. She was even going from one pose to another in the mirror that were obviously sexual in nature. One would have the girl drawing attention to her tale while another would go towards the B cup breasts that were being slightly lifted as she pulled her arms in front of her in order to squeeze them from the sides. Rarity had to swallow a lump in her throat as she began to blush at the sight.
After Rory had struck another pose by lifting both of her arms up and bending at the elbows so that she was holding on to the back of her neck and slightly pushing her chest out. Then she said, “I could always get Master to do me while I look like this. It just might spur him into taking others later on in the future.”
That last comment had caused Rarity to raise an eyebrow questionably. The fashionista was just about to try and come up with some plausible explanations within her mind, before she saw something that caused even that to come to a screeching stop and left her jaw dropping. She even had to cover her mouth as to not be discovered.
The choker around her neck gave off a small glow and this was followed by it producing a shimmering effect that ran across the rest of Rory's body. Once this was completed. What was seeing now was no longer a pony, but instead a girl with similar features standing in Rory's place.
The differences where the facial features missing from a pony, as well as the tail having a slightly different texture to it. The ears even changed to become slightly sharper than that of a pony. As for the rest of her body was now nearly furless. However, it retained the same color as the fur she had just a moment before.
The one in front of her had struck another pose and gave a toothy smile to expose a set of fangs before going back to looking herself over in the mirror. However, just as she had turned at a certain angle that her face could no longer be seen from looking directly at her or even in the mirror’s reflection. Rory had taken a shifty glance over at the door to the bathroom she was in and produced a wicked smile that lasted for the briefest of instances.
Soon after, she turned towards the mirror so that her face could be seen again from the doorway and said one last thing while tapping at the choker on her neck. “I really would rather not have to use this. If only Master could trust that these ponies won't turn into a vicious mob just from knowing of my appearance.”
That was when her entire form shifted back to that of the pony persona that Rarity was familiarize with seeing. However, instead of fright, Rarity started to feel a knot in her stomach after witnessing the sorrowful expression being expressed on the girl.
There was even this loan teardrop that ran down the side of Rory's face. Of course, that soon turned to confusion once she started to tap her chin and say out loud the next bit. “Hmmm. I wonder what's taking Rarity so long to come with those towels?”
Right then, the mare had gone into a full-blown panic and straightened up and stealthily made her way down the hallway a few steps, before turning around and coming towards the bathroom once again. At the same time, she would deliberately make her hoof steps loud enough so she was positive they would be perceived by Rory. Once she had knocked on the door, Rarity had pretended that nothing was wrong and handed over the towels before quickly excusing herself in order to go downstairs.
Going back to the present. Twilight and Applejack had just finished listening to what transpired upstairs and looked positively shocked to the point that they were pretty much statues. Twilight was the next one to speak, as she slowly began to recover control over her mouth and had to steady herself by placing a shaky left hand onto the counter.
Twilight’s eyes were darting back and forth as she was clearly trying to come up with a plan in her head. She then started to say in a rather reluctant tone. “From what... From what Rarity described. I have no doubt that she's a previously undiscovered species. Ears and a tail, but no body fur? I-I have no clue what should I do. Wait, I know. I could send a letter to Celestia, she'll know exactly what to do in this situation! She must have a clue as to her species.”
Applejack was already in the motion of reaching for Twilight, who had just summoned out of her pocket dimension a notepad, when Rarity had already beaten her to the punch and snatched the floating item out of the air. This act had clearly shocked not only Twilight, but the farm mare as well with the sudden movement.
Rarity held the notepad tightly to her chest with both arms, while giving Twilight a stern stare down before she spoke. “Twilight, darling. Perhaps that is not the best course of action. You don't know just who it is that's standing in there.” Twilight had opened her mouth to give a rebuttal. However, Rarity shushed her by placing a finger on her lips before going on. “What we have here, is a girl who's afraid to show her true self because of-.”
Rarity had cut herself off before giving out a tired sigh, as she lowered her hand from Twilight's lips. It was Applejack that attempted to finish what she was obviously about to say. “Because of how narrow-minded we all can be?”
Twilight then chimed in, after immediately coming up with what they were trying to convey. “This could have something to do with what Gilda mentioned. Remember? How other countries view Equestria. Obviously, she's from a foreign land that we know absolutely nothing about. It would also explain a little as to how she's so attached to Gambit if one thinks about it.”
Both the fashionista and the farm mare both had a look of contemplation before giving a solid nod in response to what Twilight proposed. Twilight then continued, although now, she was a little more confident.
“She's unawares as to us knowing about her real appearance. It would be better not to say anything about it to her. Just pretend this never even happened. Go on as we normally would and hope that she feels that she could eventually trust us to know her secret. If she should even suspect that we found out, then she and Gambit might just leave Ponyville altogether.”
Rarity then said, “Shouldn't we at least inform Pinkie, Rainbow and Fluttershy? Oh, and let's not forget little Spike.” Applejack gave a small hum before she threw her opinion in, as she slowly scratched behind her left ear. Well… Seeing as Spike took the news about the dead Dragon well enough. I think that would be a good idea. But I reckon we should be careful about how we break it to da rest of the girls.”
Rarity quickly nodded to this, before she responded. “Excellent idea darling. Fluttershy will need to be told very carefully, as to not scare her to death. For Rainbow, umm. We may need your lasso to keep her under control if you will. Just in case you know, for a lack of a better words, flies off the handle. Pinkie, we will just have to make sure as to that she doesn't turn this into a party.”
Applejack had this look of realization that was clearly noticed by the other two, as she started to talk slowly to show that she herself was beginning to put something together. “Speaking of parties. Do either of you remember there being a welcome to Ponyville party for either of them?”
It took a moment for Rarity to get on to what Applejack had just said and had her eyes going wide. As for Twilight, she was even more confused than before as she raised a finger in order to ask a question. “What's Pinkie not throwing a party for either of them, have to do with right now?”
Twilight saw how Rarity had placed a hand onto her shoulder before clarifying things for the Unicorn. “It's just that, Pinkie always throws a party for just about any occasion. Birthdays, Holidays, you name it, she knows them all. Now, welcome parties are a must for that mare. For all the years that I've known that pony, this is really weird, even for her. It would be as though you yourself just one day had no real interest in reading any books.”
Applejack started to speak as she tapped her chin. “Y'all know something. I do recall Pinkie making a big fuss about me not getting in her way, so that she could be friends with Gambit. She had this really serious look about her and it was a might scary. Come to think of it. I asked her about what his name was before Rainbow had that little run in with him at the flower shop and she refused to tell me. Either she's keeping secrets or Pinkie’s just being Pinkie again.”
Right then, there was a feminine voice that ended up causing all the girls to jump in place. “What's all of this about Pinkie being Pinkie?” When the girls realized that it was Rory, their sights were instantly glued on to her when it was revealed that she was now wearing a purple kimono, with a large yet simple light blue floral pattern at the end of the sleeve’s. The girl’s head was slightly tilted off to the right.
It was easy to see that she had just finished tying the waistband to the outfit she was now wearing. Around her neck was the same choker that Rarity had described and below that was her chest being partially exposed, until it came near where her breasts should be. It took a bit, but Twilight managed to stammer out a response. “Ah, oh, uh we! We-we we're just reminiscing about how random Pinkie can be and this is just what we all end up calling it.”
By the time Twilight was done. Rarity had pretty much forgotten whatever was being said just earlier and rushed right up to Rory in order to examine the new outfit she was wearing with much enthusiasm. This got Rory to raise an eyebrow and asked while Rarity kept on lifting the hem of her kimono in order to examine the stitch work, without even giving any type of warning to Rory as she did so.
“I get it that she's a dress designer and all, but this is bordering on the scary. I might even say her dedication to her craft might be on par with my need for sex.” On that last quip, Rory had covered her mouth with the end of the sleeve, that was just long enough to conceal her hand. Which gave off this air of elegance that momentarily stunned not only Rarity, but the others as well. Before the white mare got back to what she was just doing.
Afterwards, Twilight got around to explaining as to how Rarity and Applejack were pretty much in the same situation as her, with getting stuck out in the rain and with the weather being the way it was, there was no chance of getting back to their houses. So, because of this, the three of them were going to use this opportunity to have themselves a slumber party. Rory was a little hesitant at first, but after some encouragement from the other two. She ended up enjoying herself, even with the constant bickering between Applejack and Rarity.
Unknowingly to the rest of them. Rory pretty much guess what was to happen, thanks to her Master's memories on the episode that had this very event going on. Even the bit where the tree fell through the window was a sight to behold for Rory.
Of course, with her strength that would have taken little effort to clear out, but she made sure to stay to the side in order to let the two bickering ponies to settle their differences. As it turned out, this wasn’t too hard at all. This being thanks to the constant fighting to even remember that she was even there in the first place.
When the night time catastrophe was averted and peace was restored to the slumber party after the two mare’s made up. That was when it really got fun. It hadn't been until the very end, where Twilight was writing another one of her friendship reports, that Rory realized that she had been giggling so much more than normal. Although, during the entire time, she would still have her mind being drawn towards that of what her Master might be doing.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Tech Hex Institute of science. Research and development department*
There was a sudden crash and a chorus of metallic sounds being made from multiple falling objects that were constantly being made in a room with flickering lights. Suddenly, an aluminum chair could be seen flying across from one end of the laboratory to the next as it went over tables and colliding with a glass cabinet. Thereby shattering its protective cover and spilling the contents everywhere.
There were also half a dozen voices being called out all at once. All of which being in varying states of panic. A few were making whimpers, while others were completely in a panic. What was said, mostly consisted of the following within the next few seconds.
“Someone help me! It hurts, it hurts so bad!”
“Quit your blubbering, that's just a paper cut!”
“But it still hurts, I can see my blood!!!”
“Forget that, run for your life!”
“Nooooooo! They're going to destroy the research! Please take my life, but leave my research alone!”
“Just who's bright idea was it to turn them all on at once?!”
“Look out, they found the office supplies!”
“Leave me, save yourself!”
“Okay, can I have your sandwich too?”
“On second thought, don't leave me behind. And no, you can't have my sandwich! I knew it! It’s been you that’s been stealing my lunch, hasn’t it?”
This pretty much went on for a few minutes, until it finally came to an end after hearing various objects being crushed, due to a mighty impact with a blunt weapon. Afterwards, the voice of Brex could be heard. Unlike his usual tone, this one was rather agitated and at the same time exhausted. “I step out to borrow a screwdriver in the next room for one minute and I find Armageddon happening! What part of don't, touch anything until I come back, did you all not understand?”
What could be seen now that the chaos has finished and the emergency lights that were slowly being brought back online. Was the sight of five Ponies and a single Changeling. All of which that were wearing white lab coats and black gloves. It took less than a second for them all to point unanimously at a single one who was being propped up by a fellow researcher.
The pony then had an apologetic smile, as she lifted her index finger, that had just barely a drop of blood to be seen on the tip. She then said, “I'm really sorry, I got a papercut and… I guess I freaked out a little. I forgot to put on my glove again.”
Another one who turned out to be a stallion, was fixing their glasses. Which had a single lens cracked diagonally across the one meant for his left eye. Spoke up in clear agitation and along with a hint of an accent that suggested that he might be German.
“Aaaak! Freaked out! Freaked out! I've seen a pony get an amputation for their hoof without any sedatives make less of an outburst! You're flailing about done gone and turn them all on before the final adjustments were completed!”
Brex was currently placing a finger onto the side of his head, in order to massage away what could have been a headache. He then reached out with his free hand and placed it on the shoulder of the one who was just yelling, and when he had gotten his attention. Brex had finally calmed down enough to talk in a reassuring voice.
“It was only an accident and we should be thankful that none of you are gravely injured. Now, if you will Professor Gear Turner. Let us take a break and make sure to get you and all of your staff checked out in the Infirmary. We'll come back in a few hours and clean up this mess and see what can be salvaged. That would be a better use of our time and energy. Now wouldn’t you agree?”
The pony quickly fixed his glasses after Brex removed his hand and gave him a full-on salute with nearly hitting his own head with his hand. It didn't take him long to get the rest of them out of the room and to make things even more strange. Was how he got them all to march perfectly in tune with their arms and legs being completely straight as they walked as if they were simple robots, that just so happened to have no joints for the knees and elbows to bend those limbs.
As soon as the group of ponies were through the door and by the sounds of it, already halfway down the hallway before going around the corner. Brex had made his way over to one of the chairs and plopped right into it. While giving a heavy and drawn-out sigh. But it took less than a second before he ended up shifting in place and giving off these grunts of annoyance.
His right arm went and tried to fish underneath his butt. When it came out again, one could see a twisted amalgamation of tiny gears that were pretty much warped so much so, that it was unrecognizable. The whole thing could easily fit in the palm of his hand. After reaching over with his other hand for a nearby magnifying glass. He could see a number of the still barely made out smooth surfaces displayed, were these tiny markings that were consistent with magical symbols.
He was just about to try and identify exactly what was in his hand, but the subtle jerk of his palm had caused it to come apart and the bits went in between his fingers and onto the floor. This was followed with a long stretch of silence before Brex gave off an extended growl of annoyance, before he started to say something to himself. “This is going to become an all-nighter; I just know it... I hope Rory is keeping herself occupied without causing too much trouble.”
He had just snapped his fingers before continuing. “I can make it up to her by taking us both to that one tavern. There should still be some gold bits left in that bag I left behind. Or could it be possible that Ryu ended up using all of it up in that drinking game with the three mare’s the last time I was there? Well, all I can hope for is that my name is remembered.” Brex then turned to the mess and created two body doubles of himself, so that all three could get to work on cleaning up the lab before any of the others could come back.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Ponyville* *Time: Seven in the morning*
Not wanting things to get suspicious with him suddenly appearing in town. Especially after having Rory be ready with the excuse that he had left. The Roegadyn came out of a shadow that was hidden away among a cluster of small trees for the road leading in and out of Ponyville.
As he was walking back into town and passing the welcoming sign. Brex was still clearly annoyed with the way he was grumbling to himself from behind his mask. “Not once... Not twice... But three times that we kept on having an accident in that lab alone.”
“After the first time, I thought we were going to catch up on our work. But Noooooo~. If it wasn't for the professor trying to do things all on his own whenever I had my back turned, then it probably would be done already! I'm going to recommend that he gets a full health examination, including an eye exam. Just how easy is it for him to get two connector ports mixed up with the plus and minus symbols that were clearly labeled? They were even color coded with blue and red for crying out loud.”
Brex then looked towards the tall building in the center of town from where he currently stood, that was just a little way in to Ponyville. He was just about to call out to Rory with the mental connection, when he was interrupted by someone calling his name from one of the stalls. When he turned to see just who it was, it was instantly found out to be the one and only Rose.
“Morning Gambit! This just has to be a first. Your mare friend isn't hanging off your arm this morning. Seeing as you can't see one of you without the other, it kind of makes one think that there's something wrong.” Rose was wearing her usual red going out outfit, along with a basket filled with some fresh produce. There were even a few eggs in the basket, so Brex believed she was getting ingredients for breakfast most likely.
From what Brex understood. Rose was pretty much the, go-to girl when it came to getting supplies or making deliveries. Lily would mostly be in charge of the inside workings of the store and customer relations. Now, when it came to Daisy. Brex understood that the mare mostly worked in the back, due to her strong tendencies to overreact. And when Brex says that she overreacts. What he really means is that she has a very short temper, which wasn't really good for customers that couldn't make up their minds quickly enough for the mare’s taste.
Brex gave a quick shake of the head as he glanced over at the rest of the stalls for a second, before turning his full attention back to Rose to give a reply. “Just got back. Left town for business.” Rose quickly gave a dramatic and over the top reaction to that, by holding her hand up to her forehead and pretending to almost faint. This was quickly followed up with her returning to her usual upbeat self and giving him a playful smile as she spoke up.
“Darn it all. And here I thought I could scoop you up when you're at your lowest to cheer you up. Oh well, back to the market I go. There's got to be a decent stallion around here somewhere! Hey Gambit, you wouldn't happen to know of any, would you?” In response, Brex gave a light chuckle and began to pat her on the head before he started to talk. “I'll keep an eye out for you. Thanks for looking out for me.”
Rose had gone into another one of those trances. A small smile creeped on after she at first was surprised. And there was this low hum as her ears began to move to the sides in order to give his hand some more freedom. Even Rose’s eyes were closing halfway as they became unfocused.
This of course, only lasted a couple of seconds before she managed to gather the willpower to playfully bat his hand away and give him a look that just convey, that he wasn't playing fair. This was only broken when she had this slightly shocked expression, before she spoke out hurriedly. “Oh yeah, I bet you haven't heard yet! Word down the grapevine says that Gilda is going to be starting on the weather team at the start of next month.”
Brex had tilted his head slightly and this prompted Rose to continue. “Yep! As it turns out. The weather team didn't have enough ponies to get the storm ready last night in time, so they are branching out for a few more flyers that are looking to get some part-time work in. The word is, that Rainbow Dash put in a good word for her. So, if Gilda lives up to expectations, then she can have a full-time gig later on.”
Brex quickly thought to himself upon hearing that. “Huh? Well good for her. It's not like I train her from dawn till dusk. She does spend a lot of time with Rainbow, so this works out with their relationship. But hold on there. I could have sworn that Gilda wanted to make biscuits or something like that. Maybe later tonight I'll ask Rory to help go through those memories a little bit to see if I'm wrong. I could always ask Gilda, but I gave her a couple of days off. Wouldn't want to interrupt her if the two of them are up to something.”
Now as for the outside world. Brex gave a subtle nod to what Rose had just told him. The mare then continued. “You know what Gambit? It's good that Rory finally got to joining you here in Ponyville. Ever since she arrived, you seem a little less on edge. Even got past saying only a few words at a time to me. I can say without a doubt, that she is a positive influence on you.”
Back inside of his head. Brex was awkwardly laughing while at the same time, giving a slight wince towards the words that Rose just used. He then had this abstract image of Rory and him standing on a mountain of bleached white skulls. Princess Celestia would probably be locked inside of a stockade, as Rory whipped her nonstop and complaining about what she had done to her master.
As for him, he would be sitting on a golden throne on top of said pile of skulls, with countless females chained together and worshiping his feet. All the doing of Rory because she would think that this would please him.
He then said to Rose in the most convincing voice he was able to muster, and at the same time, very thankful that he currently had a mask on to hide his crooked face. “That's right. Rory is a great influence and I don't know what I do without her.” He then whispered the next bit. “It's a good thing I can keep her under control.” Rose had responded with a loud huh sound, before Brex spoke up again to cover his mistake. “Oh, I said. It's a good thing she's around to keep me on the ball.”
Brex then continued with; “I'm going to look for her now, I'll see you later Rose.” With that, the two said they're goodbyes and Brex made his way deeper into town. As for Rose, she went back to her shopping after immediately spotting a vendor that had just what she was looking for and made a break for it before whatever she was going at was sold out.
*Point of view: Gilda*
The Griffin had just flown through a cloud, thereby dispersing it to allow some sunlight to pass onto the town below. Along with her, was Rainbow doing the same to another cloud of her own. After continuing to clear the skies for a few minutes more. The pair had stopped when there was just one left and decided to take a break by sitting on it together.
Rainbow had just stretched her arms and got a satisfying pop to be emitted, before having a look of relief crossing her face. Afterwards, she fell back and plopped into the cloud before speaking up. “Feels a lot like we're back at flight school, doesn't it?” Gilda replied after giving an amused snort and doing pretty much the same thing as Rainbow and laying down next to her. “I guess it does. Only difference now is there's no annoying teachers.”
From the position Gilda was in. It wasn't possible for her to notice the expression on Rainbows face, as she looked a little worried at the moment that Gilda said the word, teacher. The Pegasus then propped her upper half up, while pushing with her elbows to look at the Griffin and began to ask her a question. “Say, Gilda. There's something I've been meaning to ask you. It's uh, about Gambit.”
Gilda's eyes went wide for a moment and there was this flash of worry, before she went back to her usual cocky attitude. After giving a quick scoff, Gilda replied in her usual, trying to act tough attitude. “Why do you have to go and bring that oversized dweeb up? I don't have to see him for a few days, which means I can skip out on that Tartarus training of his! Heh, fine. What do you want to know?”
Rainbow then started the conversation between the two of them, that would go back and forth. Consisting of the following. All the while, Rainbow would look a little uncomfortable with bringing them all up. On Gilda's part, she would look a little worried from time to time.
“I may have made a bad impression and I just want to know, what kind of a stallion he is.”
“What? Rainbow Dash? My Rainbow Dash, is interested in a male? And it has to be him?! Now I know I've taken a few too many knocks to the head from him. And you're asking me what kind of a stallion he is? Between you and me, I doubt he's even a pony at all. Believe you me. There's no pony on this world that acts the way he does.”
“Gilda, it's not what you think. I really went a little overboard when we met. Whenever I'm around him, it always gets a little awkward. He said that he's over it, but a part of me is still not convinced. He calls every pony else by their names. But whenever he says mine, all I get is, Miss Dash! It's obvious that the guy hasn't forgiven me completely.”
“You're definitely going to know if you crossed the line with him. Trust me, you don't want to be on the receiving end of one of his punishments. I swear, he can arm wrestle two minotaur’s at the same time with what I've seen him do.”
“That's what I mean! The both of you have obviously known each other for years now. Like... What's up with him teaching you how to fight with a spear, when he has that doohickey on his back? A Caster shouldn't be giving advice to a kick-ass babe like you!”
“A kick-ass babe huh? You may want to be careful there... Miss Dash. Keep flattering me like that and we're going to have to worry about there being enough cloud cover up here to keep things hidden. You're not going to believe this, but he can do more than those card tricks. Do you remember in my letters when I talked about my two aunts?”
“Hmmm. Oh yeah, I remember you mentioning them. They were learning how to use bows and arrows, right?”
“That's right. Their assistant teachers over at the Eastern School of Combat. They're almost as strong as the headmare’s there. The thing is, Gambit was the one who first taught them how to fire an arrow.”
“Wait, WHAT!!! But, but those two are practically legends. I don't think there's another out there that could beat their long-distance shooting record. Are you really telling me that Gambit taught them? No way, no how! Even if what you're saying is true, then he probably just gave them some pointers and everything is all on them.”
“Oh, you have no idea how much he trained the both of them. There are some days that they came back when the sun had already come down. Their feathers were completely a mess and they look no better than zombies. Once in a while, in the middle of the night. I'd hear one or both of them talking in our native language while they're asleep. They would say phrases that I didn't even think could come out of a Griffin's mouth. Most of it was gibberish. But they would always say Gambit's name and give off a whimper.”
“Oh right~. Come on! That was a long time ago. We were still kids so you probably heard them wrong. Sure, he looks big, but I doubt he has enough stamina to train them that hard.”
“Not enough stamina, is it? Wasn't it just you that told me yesterday about how Rory talked about how long they can get it on? I've seen her in action. You better believe it when I say if a male can keep up with her, then he may as well be an Alicorn or something silly like that.”
“Huh? How long ago did you first meet Rory? She must have been a small foal back then. I still don't believe it. Even after Applejack said it was true when it came to her being older than me.”
“I met Rory close to maybe, nine or ten years ago. She looks exactly the same as she did back then too. I’m not lying.”
“You've got to be bucking kidding! She can't possibly look exactly the same after nine years. Even if she looks to be sixteen or something. How can she still look the same age after all these years? Hold up, then what about Gambit?”
“What about the dweeb?”
“Is he the same as Rory? I mean, does he seem older than back then?”
“I really can't answer that.”
“Why the hay not?”
“Because he's never taken off his cloak or mask around me. I don't think he's done that for my aunt's or even Einstein either. He's been wearing that same white and blue robe for as long as I can remember. Hmm, but I think at one time he did wear one that was mostly yellow and brown at the top.”
“Yellow and brown? Well, the white and blue obviously looks better on him than that. Also, don't you dare tell Rarity I said that. The last thing I need is for her to look into it too much and try and get me to try on some of those stuffy dresses.”
“Yeah, I wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like what she makes. I'll really sock her in the nose if she comes in anywhere near me with anything frilly. Anyway, Gambit used to wear yellow and brown. When I first saw him, he was using a bow and arrow and fighting a stupid monster. I never said anything in our letters. But at the time, I was kidnapped along with some other kids. My two aunts and Einstein came to rescue us, but we're caught in a trap.”
“It ended up being Gambit who killed the monster and took all the other kids back home. My aunts ended up asking him to help teach them how to use a bow and arrow after that. He even gave Einstein a few pointers on how to fight too.”
“Huh? Isn't Einstein that Diamond dog with the sword and shield? Whoa, whoa, you need to slow down. Gambit can use Magic, Shoot a bow and arrow and fight with a shield and sword? But he's just a stallion! Yeah, I get he's strong I guess, but there's no way he can do that. If it was true, then how come he's an unknown?”
“I'm in the dark as much as you are. All I know is, he would come by on the same day every month and pay us a visit whenever I was with my aunts. The two of them couldn't even speak equestrian very well. It was actually Gambit that helped them with that little problem. I had no idea at the time that he was fluent in our lands tongue. Up until then, Einstein was always doing the go between whenever they needed to talk to anyone in town.”
“Anyone? Don't you mean any-.”
“Rainbow, we had a discussion about that already, don't you remember... Or do you need me to give you another black eye to jog your memory?”
“No, no. I remember and besides weren't you the one that got the black eye? And again, I'm sorry. It's going to take some time to get used to that phrase. What were the odds that Princess Celestia would make an announcement about that in the papers the very next morning?”
“I'd say it was a long time coming. It's sure to catch on in the big cities, but here in Ponyville, I don't think it's going to stick anytime soon. This place is practically filled with nothing but ponies. Oh, and don't get me started on the lack of food either.”
“Food? We got the best hey Burgers and Fries anywhere around. Not to mention, Sugar Cube Corner. The market is also open almost all week long. Just what else could you need?”
“Ah! Hello? What do you think this is on my face? Just what do you think is on the end of my fingers? And do you see this tail of mine, that you're always infatuated with? I'm a griffin, we need protein. That means I need to eat meat. Hurrg... If it wasn't for Gambit having a supply on hand, then I'd have to spend more time hunting in the forest. Most of what I need is deeper inside. Yeah, even gave me a Stern talking to keep away from those animals at that Fluttershy is place.”
“Urgh! The more I hear, the more I feel worse! Just what am I going to do now?”
“Okay Rainbow, I know where this is leading. You did something again didn't you? Just fess up already.”
“Oh I, well... It's just that. I may have accused him... Again. And at the same time, I probably pissed off Rory too.”
“Hold on! You accused Gambit and Rory... Got angry? Oh, horse feathers. The one, and only absolute rule you should follow is to never bad mouth Gambit when Rory is within earshot. I remember one time where this Pony tried to insult Gambit. Rory was there and she broke that mare's hand in several places without batting an eye. What did you say this time?”
“Uaaaaahhhhhhh.... I uh, thought Rory was still a minor and he was taking advantage of her. Sooooo, I ended up calling him out on it.”
“YOU DID WHAT?!! Rainbow! You're lucky to still be alive! There's something you should really know about Gambit. Out of all the things in this world that could possibly get him angry more than anything, aside from something happening to Rory. Would have to be the mistreatment of children. He doesn't even believe in punishment through physical beating or yelling. Whenever I acted up, he never once raised a finger to me. But if you're an adult, he will not hesitate. So, you saying something like that to him probably did a number.”
“Oh, buck me seven ways to Sunday... Why do I keep putting my hoof in my mouth whenever it involves him? Gilda, you know him. You got any advice? I’’ take anything at this point!”
“I can't really see you doing anything. Besides, if that dweeb hasn't taken any action now, then you're probably fine. But now that Rory's here, I'd watch what I say and do from now on if I were you. That girl can really lose her mind and go all crazy. I’m pretty sure that even if she was going up against one of your rulers, that she’d even attack Celestia, if that Princess said anything bad about him.”
“Just great… Maybe I should try talking to Rose or Twilight on this.”
“What's those two got to do with this?”
“Well, Rose is often seeing speaking with him and they both talk normally to one another. It might just be my imagination, but I think she's gotten a little peppier since Gambit came to town. Once I was flying by the market a while back, I saw him patting her head.”
“Hold on. You just said you saw him Patty her head? That dweeb... It's safe to say that mare’s a goner. Here's a word of warning. Don't let him catch you off guard when he does that. Trust me, it's embarrassing. I won’t go into any details, just trust me, OK?”
“Embarrassing? Oooh~. I remember now. Twilight completely spaced out when he did that to her. She was pretty much a drooling mess. No way am I letting that happen to me. It would just destroy my image.”
“Putting aside, the weird power that the oversized weave has. I think I get the picture with this Rose, but what's your other friend got to do with it?”
“It's like this. I sometimes hear Twilight mentioning that Gambit hangs out with Spike now and then. She might know a thing or two.”
Gilda had released a small grunt of annoyance and in one swift motion, rolled her body so that she was now on top of Rainbow. With the way Gilda was holding herself up on her hands and knees. Rainbow's arms and legs were pinned straight down. Rainbow was now heavily blushing as Gilda leaned in with a predatory gaze before saying, “I think that's way more than enough of talking about the dweeb.”
From there, she leaned in close to Rainbows right ear and started to whisper something into it. In response. Rainbow's wings popped out to their full length. All that the blue Pegasus could do was to slowly nod with a crooked smile on her face.
Gilda quickly reached over with her right hand and pulled a part of the cloud over them both so that they were hidden from view. The only things that could be heard was the ruffling of clothing being harshly pulled off and some light moaning from a pair of females from inside of the cloud that seems to slightly contort, thanks to the movement within.
*Point of view: Third person* *Location: Dodge City*
Dodge City was a place considered to have a wild west theme. The land may have had a few more areas of vegetation compared to the badlands. But a reasonably sized town that was just a little bigger than Ponyville had been erected. Most of the buildings were quite small. Although, there were a few that looked quite modern when compared to the rest.
Towards the South side of Dodge City. Was a highway road that stretched towards the South and into the Badlands, while in the other direction, it went Westward. Just a few miles away from the protective wall, there was a small wagon train heading towards the West that could not have left more than twenty minutes prior. The group of Ponies, along with a couple of Griffins and a single Minotaur, were either walking alongside the wagons or pulling them along.
They were just getting to the beginning of a row of small hills that needed to be passed by on the left side. That was when a single basilisk came lumbering out of some rocky crevices. It had let out a loud hiss as it came barreling towards them at full speed. Thanks to the way it did this, it was easy to assume that the monster was going to ram directly into the lead wagon with its whole body. The creature was three and a half meters tall and the distance it covered with each step could easily have outdone anyone there if they were to try and run.
(Here is a picture of the monster.)
The mare who was pulling the cart, alongside of another. Became so panicked, that they were unable to get themselves free from the harnesses that were keeping them a fixed to their cargo. They had just grabbed on to each other and let out a shared scream just as the creature was within striking distance.
The ground gave subtle quakes as to each time its legs had hit the ground thanks to its weight. The mouth was already opened and bearing its fangs and ready to taste the first Pony. But before it could even touch the mare's that were literally staring down its throat. The beast was blindsided by something passing by so quickly, that it made nothing but a blur and a partial outline of itself as it collided with its form and continued on without even slowing down at all.
Pretty much in slow motion before the two mare’s… Was the site of the monsters eyes going comically wide and clearly showing both disbelief and extreme pain, as it was literally sent flying in over the hills so that it was clear on the other side. It had even released some spittle in the process that landed on the mare’s clothing with how close it was when this all occurred.
The only thing that could be heard from the sudden silence from everyone there and before the loud crash that the creature obviously produced upon landing in the distance. Was that of a loud, yet adorable sound, that was in the direction of the dust trail going towards the West and was already beginning to fade in the distance. “Kahweeeeeeeh!”
The two mare were quickly gathered around by the rest of those that were a part of the wagon train only moments after. As they were still hanging on to one another and blankly staring where the beast was just moments ago. One of them was in the middle of wiping off the foul-smelling spit from her shirt, while asking the other one a question in a confused voice. “I was watching… And I still didn't see what happened... Are you thinking what I'm thinking?”
The other mare replied in the straightest voice possible, while blinking slowly. “I don't know. Were you thinking, Oh My Celestia, Oh My Celestia, Oh My Celestia. I almost got my head bit off by a monster... If so, then yes. Also, next time, don't volunteer us to be the front.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Seven thirty-five in the morning*
Brex had been wandering around town to take his time as he made his way towards the Golden Oaks Library. This was after getting in touch with Rory to find out that she had been there for the sleepover episode.
It had only taken a few minutes to have Rory convey the events that happened while he was at HQ. But when she had gotten to the point of the story, where she had intentionally allowed Rarity to catch her in her normal form, did he nearly have a heart attack and clutched onto his chest. Thoughts flooded his mind about getting Rory out of there as quickly as possible.
It had taken some time for Rory to calm him down in order to explain her reasoning for doing so. To make a long story short. Rory was deeply concerned with the rate things were moving and made a calculated risk in order to see just what these girls would do.
So, when Rory had gotten those towels and Rarity excused herself to go downstairs again. The girl quickly dried herself off within a few seconds and stealthily made her way downstairs herself and stood around the doorway from the kitchen, in order to eavesdrop on their conversation.
As it stands. Rory had been constantly attempting to convince him to finally show himself for what he really is, but came out with very little to show for it. Not even Fancy Pants, Fleur De Lis or Queen Bellona, had the chance to see his face, even after all this time. As for Rin and Lin. Even with Rory convincing him to allow them to join in their activities. They were pretty much in the dark as well with constantly needing to wear some type of eye cover when his body was exposed at all.
At one time or another, Brex had even contemplated taking off his mask for those two so he had inquired as to whether or not they were bothered with not knowing their Lord's face. The two ended up surprising him when they said that they were perfectly fine with the current arrangement. In fact, they seemed all for it considering the facts. Brex asked them again as to why they were fine with it and their response was quite unusual to say the least.
According to them. It had to do with their ability to sense emotions. Thanks to their inability to feel his. The two of them got to experience something that they were completely unaccustomed to. In other words. Serving him was a complete turn on to them with how exotic it felt to be completely in the dark. So, when it came to him covering up his face that only added to the mystery. All that they knew of his form was from direct touch.
It was because of this simple fact or rather unusual fact. That Brex could see back then, how Rory was quite upset with the idea of losing two supporters in her plans to get him to open up. Now with putting that aside.
Brex was more than deeply relieved with the outcome of Rory's little bet. In fact, he was a little relieved to say the least for Rory. He did try his very best to hide this from the girl, but he had been feeling guilty that she had to hide herself for so long and maybe this was something that really needed to be done before now.
Another five minutes or so had gone by, when he finally made it to the front door of the library. Another reason for him not going straight to her was also having to do with Rory's spending some quality time with Twilight, Rarity and Applejack for breakfast.
Rory did try to get him to arrive sooner so that he can be there as well and maybe do some flirting in front of them. But Brex refused, seeing as he felt that he shouldn't be there to interrupt their fun and opted for arriving only now as they were about to go back to their own homes.
That was when the door was open from inside and Applejack, along with Rarity were exiting together. The two just happen to be so into their conversation with Twilight, who is still in the house to be able to look ahead of themselves, that the pair had run right into Gambit after taking only a few steps outside.
Whether it be by fortune… Or miss fortune. The following happened as a result. As they collided with him. The two Ponies started to stumble back. But due to them being so shocked at the sudden Impact. The way they stumbled made the two tangle their legs into one another. There was a shared set of feminine yells before they ended up trying to stand up straight. But because of the way their legs were currently situated, both Rarity and Applejack ended up falling forward once again and onto their knees.
Seemingly out of reflex to prevent themselves from being hurt as they fell. Their arms had instinctively reached out so that they were both holding around and just under his waist. This in turn, led to the fashionista and the farm mare to press their faces firmly into his crotch with their eyes closed tightly and giving a startled grunt.
Without even looking down and staying perfectly still after all of this. Brex could plainly feel the both of them nuzzling against his package. Even though there were layers of cloth in between. It also didn't help in the least, that his earlier reminiscing. Especially with his two maids before coming to the door, had had the effect of causing him to get rather... Invigorated down there. But he did end up flinching slightly from behind his mask, after clearly hearing what could have been heavy sniffing from down below.
Their arms were also beginning to tightly clench at his robes as they did this for a good few seconds. Before Brex spoke up rather casually for the situation. While still looking towards the doorway that had Twilight in a frozen state of shock and Rory directly behind the Unicorn. Who was giving a playful smirk and crossing her arms in a triumphant pose. Which clearly showed that she was either loving this or had somehow planned it.
“Good morning, Miss Rarity. Good morning, Miss Applejack. It would appear that you are not quite awake just yet. I heard that a storm was set up for last night. Clearly, the two of you have not gotten enough sleep.” Almost immediately, there was the pair down below giving their own variations of gasps, as they quickly got back onto their legs and brushed themselves off of any dirt.
As they were doing that. Brex could see them both trying to speak up, but every syllable kept getting caught in their throat. So, it just came out as complete gibberish as the two of them look towards him and back at one another to try and get some support, but failing miserably.
Rarity was trying to stand up straight. But her legs kept trying to cross themselves as her right hand kept playing with one of the top buttons on her white blouse nervously. She had quickly stammered out, while trying to walk away backwards at first at a Brisk pace.
“I, it's, we, you, huh! Y-Yes v-very much so! Couldn't get a wink of sleep at all! I'll j-just be heading back home and-. That was when Rarity began to stumble before quickly writing herself up again before she finished. “I-I must get going, I shall see you all later darlings, Tata!” And with that, she was off faster than Pinkie Pie being told that there's a cupcake eating contest down the road. Oddly enough her hair was slightly messed up due to all of this yet she didn’t take the time to check herself as she left.
Pretty much at the same time this was happening. Applejack was in the same state. While having a heavy blush that would say that Big Mac couldn't be considered to be red in color if compared. The farm mare was holding onto her hat with her right-hand after taking it off and the left was currently running itself through her not yet braided hair repeatedly.
She had given an overly exaggerated chuckle, while watching Rarity trying to make a getaway. Applejack had managed to put the hat back on and leave her hair alone, only for her to absent-mindedly grab onto the white button-up work shirt she had on in order to try to make it cover more of the cleavage that she was normally showing off. Although, in her haste, she had mistakenly undone one of them to show even more of her cleavage. This giving a quick glimpse at the yellow bra that she was sporting.
Once she had realized her current situation. The orange mare made a break for it while screaming over her left shoulder in an out of breath fashion. “S-Sorry! I can't stay and chat, but I think I hear Big Mac calling me! I'm really late for my chores!” It was easily caught on by Brex with the way her face contorted for a moment as she said those words, just like she normally does when trying to tell a lie on the show.
Over with Twilight she had just placed a hand onto her forehead and was now lightly shaking her head. Along with a clear blush underneath her palm, that could be seen from witnessing such an embarrassing scene. She then said in an apologetic tone. “A-Are you okay over there Gambit? You did just get bumped into by two mare's and one of them was Applejack. She’s the strongest out of all of us when it comes to strength.”
Brex ended up tilting his head to the left, just slightly enough to show that he was confused in some way or another, before replying in his usual way. “What, that? I've been hit with a lot worse. As for Applejack, she’s as light as a flower.”
“But seriously, it's not a good idea to go outside when you're still half asleep. Especially if you're so tired that you'll end up clinging onto whatever you can. I'm not entirely sure, but I think they were just about to take a nap while still holding on to me as well. Must have gotten confused and thought they were still in their beds I presume.”
Twilight's eyes were quickly shifting from left to right. She also gave an embarrassed smile as she replied. “Oh yeah! Uh, that's right. They were very, very tired. Can you believe a tree fell through one of the library's windows when we were going to sleep?” That was when Rory stepped alongside of Twilight. With her left arm, Rory placed it behind the Unicorn so that it was now on the opposite shoulder and pulling the mare in closer. Rory then started to speak while Twilight was surprised by the sudden motion.
“That's right Master. This big old tree branch came crashing right into Twilight's bedroom right as the wind got really bad. Luckily, there was no water damage. But the window frame did get pretty banged up. There's just no telling what might happen the next time it rains. All those books might get damaged by some slow moisture leakage if it's not checked out and proper repairs are made.”
Upon hearing about the supposed future destruction of her books. The purple Unicorn had started to hyperventilate and mumble to herself of what sounded like a list of book titles. As this was going on. Brex narrowed his eyes towards Rory before opening up the connection and speaking to her with a slow and accusatory tone. “Rory… I can see where this is heading.”
Rory answered with her voice being that a pure innocence. “Oh, come now Master. No need to be like that. I am merely suggesting that this is an opportunity to fix the damage before any of the books you like to read end up getting destroyed. Besides, you're here anyway and it would be better than getting called back later on.”
“Also, you can get the task done pretty quick from what I could tell from earlier. I doubt very much that this would take more than ten or fifteen minutes at the most. Besides, I know you are itching to mess with Twilight and this would be a good opportunity to do so. You can’t say that you’re not thinking of it now and then.”
From behind is mask. Brex was giving Rory a stern look, but it soon turned into one of contemplation. Only a few seconds later, did Brex finally release a small sigh before lately shaking his head and giving a shrugging gesture, that completely went unawares to Twilight that was still in the middle of freaking out.
He then brought his attention back to the mare and spoke just loud enough that Twilight could hear over her own ramblings. “Twilight, could you please show me to where this happened. Maybe I could do something about some of the damage to the library.”
This ended up snaping Twilight out of whatever nonsense she was currently saying and adopted a hopeful smile and a set of stars filling her eyes that glittered so much, that Brex wondered if it was meant to happen or only an effect that he could perceive.
Without showing much forethought at all. The purple Unicorn had already rushed right up and taking a hold of his right hand to pull him inside as quickly as she could. Brex knowing that she wouldn't be able to move him very easily. Had already moved along and was guided straight to her room on the upper floor. But along the way, as they were passing Rory. The Roegadyn easily caught a glimpse of the girl giving him a small smile before following closely behind.
Once they were inside of Twilight's surprisingly big room. Brex went straight to work with going over the window frame, as well as the floorboards where the tree must have fallen, due to the scratch marks made. He knelt down right in front of the damaged frame and placed his right hand onto it. Soon there was a small fluorescent white light that shined from underneath his palm. This lasted a solid minute before he pulled it away to reveal it to be as good as new, before going on to the next one that happened to be a small crack in the glass.
As he was doing this. He could hear Twilight only a few feet away and saying the following, while apparently making some notes by the sound of the quill scratching on parchment that he was able to pick up with his hearing. “Just how is he doing that? I clearly see no horn for the channeling, but he's casting a Unicorn spell... Hmm, no. I don't think it's a spell that I know. It feels different to a simple repair spell. Rory, is Gambit using a magic item?”
Rory responded to the question in a hush, as to not be too loud and break his concentration. “My Master is not using a magical item to do any of this. You could say it's a unique spell that he and only a few others know of how to use. This one right here is called, Mend. It allows one to repair a small tear or broken seam in an object that is about twelve inches in diameter or less. Just think a broken chain, glass and other such objects. It could be used as many times as one wants, but it does take a full minute to take effect. It's counted as one of the lower-level spells and it's quite useful to have on hand.”
Twilight caught on and followed Rory's example and brought her voice down in order to ask her next question as she kept her eyes on Gambit. “Just what do you mean by, that’s a lower-level spell? I can already tell that it's far different from what I looked up in the Canterlot library. Which happens to be classified as a mid to high tier and only those who have progressed high enough could even hope to cast it. I was unaware that the Astrologian’s even had such a spell in their arsenal. No wonder they were only taught near Canterlot.”
Rory gave a small giggle before saying, “I believe you're mistaken. This has nothing to do with the Astrologian.” Twilight, could be heard stammering for a moment, before raising her voice slightly as she replied to that. But I thought it was believed that a non-Unicorn could only use magic that was from the schools. Are you telling me that this also extends to other types of magic as well? Can you tell me just who it was that taught Gambit how to do all of this?”
Rory had obviously made a sound to suggest that she may have just shrugged and gave out a small hum, before answering the mare. “I'm sorry Twilight, but I believe I might be overstepping my bounds by telling you even this much about it already. You're just going to have to ask him yourself.”
From then on, as Brex was fixing the minor damages that were caused by last night's storm. Twilight would essentially be hovering around him and trying to ask multiple questions. These ranging from the specifics of the Mend spell, that he was using, as well as any type of clue for where it came from and who might have taught it to him. But during the several minutes that he had to go through in order to finish up.
Brex would either ignore Twilight or give some half-assed answer. Which only irritated the Unicorn as she kept trying to come up with one guess right after another. There would be speculations as to special classes being taught that was not made public to the other students. Possibly what he knew was from some unpublished works. There was even a long rant as she tried to compare it to that of the fixing spell that the Unicorns could do.
As all of this was going on, He would grumble through the connection and Rory would just stand there with an amused look on her face. When he had finished. He called out to Rory while still standing in the middle of Twilight's room and trying to spot any other damages he can work on. Which ended up with the two of them going back and forth.
“Rory, could you check downstairs? I believe the book that I was reading before might be on the shelf directly below Twilight’s window.”
“Hold on just a moment Master. I'll take a look... ... ... Hmm, nope! I don't think I see anything down here! What was it you were reading anyway?”
“Never mind then. If you don't see any water damage, then we're all finished up here.”
“Oh, come on Master. I'm really curious as to what it was. Please~.”
“Fine! Sheesh! It should be on the second shelf down. Go thirteen books starting from the left. The book is white, with a gold trim.”
“One... Two... Ten, ah ha! Here we go, thirteen! Huh? Master? Why would you be reading this? You're the one that-.”
“Never mind. I think we're all done now. let's get going.”
Brex turned to Twilight as he made his way for the stairs and said, “Consider this as thanks for letting Rory stay the night. I know that you hardly know her, but thanks none the same.” To that, Twilight just gave him a big smile and walk them both out of her house. Of course, As she did that, she was thanking him for his help repeatedly. No doubt for saving the literary works from mold and other such horrible parel.
Once they had gotten outside and Twilight closed the door. Brex stood there for a moment and slowly turned his head towards Rory. Who was standing at his left side before he spoke in a slow and deliberate tone. One that just said that he was suspecting her of something. “Rory... I know I said I'm not going to be actively hiding anymore, but do you have to try and bring up things in front of Twilight so much?”
Rory had jumped up against his body and gave him a big hug as she giggled out a response. “Master, you know that everything I do is for your benefit. Besides, now Twilight has an interest in something that you yourself have written.”
Brex had given a slight tilt of the head, that Rory had obviously picked up on before she elaborated. “You know that she's trying to figure out just who you really are. Not only are you using magic right in front of her that she previously never knew about, but she's also going to look into what you are reading in her library. Oh! By the way. I’m also surprised that you were able to handle that so well when those two were all over you back there.”
He ended up replying to that after first letting out a small huff. “Well… After waking up in the morning to find not only you under my sheets, but those other two along with you. I can safely say that I’ve come to be accustomed to both the sight and feeling of such a situation by now. Not to say I wasn’t caught off guard by it. Although, I do hope they don’t act all weird about it later on.”
Rory was clearly about to go on. But Brex had roughly grabbed onto her by the waist and threw her over his back, so that he was holding on to both of her legs with his left arm and started to make his way in the direction of the hotel. Rory had given out a startled yelp of surprise, which instantly turned into an excited giggling fit and lightly kicking her legs, as she was dangling there and holding on to her large axe. She then said, “Oh my, am I about to get punished, Tee-Hee~.”
*Point of view: Twilight Sparkle*
Right after escorting Gambit and Rory out of the library. Twilight had immediately gone up to the second floor and right in front of a window that just barely was able to get the two in her sights, as they we're making their way deeper into town. The Unicorn even had a slight blush upon seeing Rory being carried away and hearing the excited sounds the mare was giving off from all the way up where she was watching from.
As soon as site was lost of the pair. Twilight immediately went back downstairs in a full sprint after recalling the directions that Gambit gave in order to locate that one particular book. The last words that Rory was saying, had rang in her mind and this piqued her curiosity to where she couldn't concentrate on doing anything else. At least, not until she found it so that she could discover what exactly it could have been for some small insight into the mind of the strange stallion.
At the bookshelf in question. She began to count from the left side and one row down from the top. It had only taken a few seconds until she had located the white book and pulled it out from between its brothers and sisters and gave the cover a quick glance. Twilight had a look of confusion as she slightly tilted her head and began to silently say the title to herself.
She then said out loud. “I don't believe I've gotten around to reading you yet. Who was it that wrote this anyway?” As her eyes drifted down. The bottom of the book would come into view and all that would be seen were the initials, B. M. Twilight did not recognize the author, seeing as simply putting only the initials of a Pony's name was not normally used in publicizing a book. A few seconds had gone by before Twilight had taken it under her right arm and made her way into the kitchen.
*Point of view: Third person* *Location: Canterlot Castle. Throne Room* *Time: Ten in the morning*
The sun could be seen with completely clear skies through one of the open windows of the throne room. The inside was pretty much busy as usual with how there were groups of Nobles with one another. All of them discussing their plans and going over possible ways to give their petitions to the one running Day Court.
Among them, were a few of the regular citizens and one pony that was easily identified thanks to their mustache and one monocle that they wore. This Pony was even wearing a very stylish, yet simple gray suit and holding within his arms a thick brown folder with some colorful designs printed on the outside. Said designs were comprised primarily of gold, yellow and some green colors.
Right now, there was a pony currently with Celestia's attention at the bottom of the stairs, trying to give a proposal to the best of her ability. Fancy Pants had a habit of attending Day Court once in a while. Even if he had nothing to say to the Princess, just so he can hear some of what was going on in the city. But honestly, it was more to keep tabs on the more troublesome members of the noble faction. However, today it seemed that he had some legitimate business this time around with Celestia.
Back to the one who is giving their current presentation. It was clear that they were attempting to come up with funds from the Royal Treasury, to start up a business involving mining rights. But from what could be heard so far. It was no better than a suicidal and desperate act, seeing as it was one targeted towards locating valuable resources near the heart of the Everfree.
Celestia, who was sitting at her throne. Was holding onto her usual diplomatic mask that she had grown so much accustomed to wearing while in front of her subjects and was listening intently. As soon as the pony had gotten to the end and was about to make their finishing statement. The pony took in a deep breath and said, “Your highness. I do realize that the Everfree forest is quite dangerous but, uh… What could be found there, without Ray the Whisk. I mean! It would outweigh the risk.”
“Yes, we will need to pay quite a hefty sum to get the proper security. As well as the funds to ship the equipment. But in the long run it will be to our advantage. Canterlot was not built in a day as they say. I am certain that going for such a Gambit, would meet with your approval.” Fancy Pants had been carefully watching the Princess at the time to gauge her response to such a ludicrous and highly costly venture.
But, as soon as the pony had mentioned the word, Gambit. There was the smallest of cracks that could be seen and Princess Celestia's left hand was starting to grip at the throne’s armrest a little tighter. This was apparent, with the way that her fingers were slightly bending from the pressure.
Fancy Pants wasn't too sure about this either, but he could have sworn that for the briefest of instances. The Princess might have begun to turn a light shade of pink and her eyes became slightly blank as they looked off in the distance.
Until his turn came up. Fancy Pants would continue to watch one Noble after another coming up to Celestia, as well as the common folk with their smaller, yet equally important request. But ever since that preposterous mining endeavor was given. Fancy Pants would sniff the air every now and then and think to himself the following. “Since when did anyone sneak a cake into the throne room? And does my nose deceive me, I detect the aroma of vanilla?”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 56: Pinkie Pays A Visit.
*Point of view: Pinkie Pie* *Location: Sugar Cube Corner. Pinkie Pie's room* *Time: Nine in the morning. Two days later*
As per the norm, the day is clear and-. Hey! Stop pushing all those buttons and get out of here! Yes, yes! I'm writing your bit now, okay? Just calm down! What?! Of course not! Hey! Get away from that computer! Hi everyone it's Pinkie, your adorable party pony saying hello! I am oh so super-duper funnerificly happy that I get to finally have my own point of view! Okay, Pinkie that's enough. Give me back that! Oh, please! Can't I say some more? No! I need to get back at the story now. So please, just hand me back the laptop! No! Not until you say I can do more!
Pinkie, you do realize you pressed the button for the microphone, right? It's been typing everything we're saying and I’m sure that you're saying plenty as it is! Oh, so that's what that little button does! In that case, I hope you all enjoy this episode! It's not an episode Pinkie, it's a chapter. Now give it back to me this instant! Okay fine, at least make it so it's funnier this time. It is my chapter debut first person point of view after all!
Okay folks. I got the computer back from Pinkie. Hopefully the fourth wall patch I put up will help. I'm not going to bother getting rid of the last two hundred and something words that came from that and let's just continue. Already feeling a headache coming on. Now where was I again... Oh right.
The pink ball of energy, which can pretty much destroy time and space... As well as getting in the way of the writer... Was just finishing up with another set of cupcakes that were coming out of the oven and getting the frosting ready to be put on. As soon as she had completed putting on some decorations, with one being white and purple with the frosting swirl on top to imitate Rarities mane, as well as another that was orange in color, with a yellow swirl coming down to look like Applejack's braided hair.
Pinkie Pie began to say to herself quite excitedly. “I really do hope the girls like these! I don't know why it is that I haven't seen either of them for the last couple of days. Could it be that they got sick while cleaning up the trees before the storm hit? Although, I'm pretty sure I did see Rarity, but she was rushing home so fast that I couldn't even say hi. Hmm, come to think of it. She looked a little off somehow.”
She had just packed up the two cupcakes in a carry box, before sticking her head through the doorway leading into the shop as she spoke out. “Okay Miss’s Cake. I'm going to go and visit my friends now and see how they're doing!” That got a response from the mare on the other side of the doorway. “Okay Pinkie, I'll see you during lunch rush, make sure you're not late.”
And with that out of the way. The pink mare went over to the back door and opened it. But instead of simply walking through. She took her body and ended up squishing herself down quite a bit, before bouncing right out as though she were a slinky. As soon as she had gone through, her hand could be seen stretching longer than it should have been able to back inside in order to grab onto the handle and slammed the door shut.
Before anyone… Or even the writer could understand as to how. The pink mare was already at Rarity's Carousel Boutique and pounding away at the door. Even though it was clearly evident that she was striking a door with how it shook. There was hardly any sound being made. That was until she got to the last one, which gave a simple three knocks after she had finished for a few seconds.
From inside. She heard Rarity's voice coming through as she sang out her greetings. “Come on in, the Shop's open~. Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is Chic and Magnifique! Just one moment. I shall be with you shortly~.” Pinkie had zipped across the store after quickly coming inside, so that she could stand right next to Rarity. Who had just finished putting a dress onto a hanger with some others.
When the fashionista had turned around and found Pinkie pretty much an inch from her face, along with a big smile. Rarity had ended up screaming and jumping backwards right into the rack and knocking it over with a loud *Pomf* sound. The pink mare couldn't help but to hold a hand up to her mouth and give out a giggle fit from watching Rarity struggling to get free and giving out one unladylike grunt after another while doing so.
After a few seconds of this, Pinkie bent over and reached into the pile with her free hand and began to fish around for Rarity. At the same time, sticking out her tongue and looking towards the ceiling. After a few seconds of her arm clearly moving a lot of fabric, did Pinkie’s expression change to that of excitement, as she yanked hard and got Rarity out and right onto her hoofs. The white mare was clearly dazed with her eyes having trouble with stopping the spinning for a few seconds, before she shook her head a few times.
She then popped into view, a number of brushes and spray canisters and began to work at her now disheveled hair. While looking at Pinkie with some mild irritation before speaking out. “Pinkie, darling. How many times must I remind you not to sneak up on me. Don't you know it's rude?” The pink mare just stood there without breaking from her smile after hearing that.
Rarity then released a small huff just as the rest of her magic had finished with fixing up her mane once again. This getting a content sigh of relief to come from the mare before she went on. “Darling, it is very nice to see you and all today. But what do I owe for this surprise visit?” Pinkie had just started to hold up the box, but stopped halfway as her eyes finally noticed how the shop appeared.
The white mare always had some dresses out on display for the customers to view. However, this was the first time that it looked more of that of a warehouse than anything. Instead of there being just five or six racks that were filled with dresses. There was more than twenty or maybe even thirty of them. Anything and everything that could possibly be used to place a coat hanger onto was occupied. This meant the furniture along with the rods used for the window curtains.
As she was taking this all in. Pinkie said rather worriedly, “Rarity, did you get some really big orders?” Rarity, after putting away the brushes back into her magic storage. Gave Pinkie a confused look, before she found the pink mare's eyes glued to all of the outfits.
She then said hurriedly, “W-What, oh wait! Ah yes, you mean those! A big order? Ummmm.... Oh yes, yes of course yes! I had a sudden order come in from a dear friend out of... Uh town! That's why I've been in my shop for a couple of days now. I am oh so very busy! She was going to throw a party and she requested outfits for all her friends!”
Pinkie had gone over to one of the dresses and poked at it a few times before calling over her shoulder. “I can't believe you made so many Rarity! Did you even get a wink of sleep?” The mare replied to that, while wincing a little and that turning into a nervous chuckle. “Nothing to worry yourself about my dear. It was quite fortuitous that I happen to come across quite a bit of extra pep in my step if you will. A lot of energy to burn. Sorry the change of subject and all, but was there any particular reason for the visit? Could you be looking for a new ensemble?”
The pink mare only shook her head before bringing up the box in front of Rarity. Pinky then spoke in her usual happy voice. “Oh, I was just worried. Neither you or Applejack have been scene in town. Yesterday I went to go and buy some apples and saw Applejack's Dad running the stall. I could have sworn that it was one of the days that she runs it.
Rarity's eyes went wide before shifting from left to right nervously. After taking out a handkerchief from her pocket. She began to dab it on her forehead as she answered Pinky. “I suppose she's been rather busy herself. She is a farm. They’re after all, always up at the crack of dawn and busy-busy-busy, hehe-hehe~.” Her nervous smile only grew as pinky drew closer and was narrowing her gaze in suspicion.
It had only taken a few moments before Rarity snapped under the pressure of Pinkies gaze and fell onto her tail, with her hooves spread towards the sides and her knees together. She then began to give out a pathetic little whimper as she looked straight up and closed her eyes to let the streams come out. Through the crying, she gave an over-the-top and melodramatic speech.
“Pinkie Pie! You have no idea what troubles I have gone through! I was besieged by awful thoughts! Me, me! Of all Ponies! Almost succumbing to my most basic desires! I had no choice but to stay in my shop or I would just ruin my reputation!”
“My work was all that could keep me from acting them out! Wah-Haaaa! I don't know what could have possibly come over me! It was just a little accident and it triggered some primal need inside! Pinkie! I'm no better than a wild animal! Wahaaaa-Whaaaaah!”
“In order to quell these urges, all of my time and energy has been put towards my creations! In the last forty-eight hours alone, nearly three hundred dresses were made! I have even more in the back and I can't find anywhere to put them! There are enough to supply dresses to every pony going to the gala. Literally every idea in my head has been used up! If I didn't keep my hands busy, I-I do not know what my base are urges would have compelled me to do!”
Pinkie was actually looking quite disturbed at seeing Rarity in such an emotional state. As much as anyone else would think, not even she was capable of going that long with just partying. So, making a dress must have completely worn-out Rarity for sure. At least this was what went through her mind. Pinkie then asked, “Do you want to talk about, uh… It?”
Rarity finally released a water works once again after hearing her friend asking that and glomped Pinky before regaling her with the tale. Well, that's what Rarity would say if she was in her right mind, but it mostly came out as gibberish. Even so, Pinkie was able to put what was said together to come up with a picture of what happened.
Rarity and Applejack were staying at Twilight's place during the storm. Along with Rory, who just happened to be coming by and getting caught in it herself. The story then went on to the morning, where they were just about to leave. However, right as the two of them were opening the door. They could hear Rory asking something to Twilight. Which then prompted the Unicorn to say a few words to the both of them as they were stepping over the threshold.
From there, it pretty much went spiraling out of control. Both she and Applejack ended up bumping into Gambit who was on the other side and got all tangled up. Out of instinct upon falling forward. Rarity had reached out and grabbed on to the nearest object, which just so happed to end up being the waist of Gambit himself.
She could also vaguely feel the additional set of arms that were most likely that of Applejack doing pretty much the same. What's more, was the part where she had unintentionally pressed her face up against his crotch area and felt a hard, yet at the same time soft, long object that was just underneath the fabric and it was pressing right up against her muzzle quite firmly.
Almost instantly, the odd aroma that came seeping through, had struck her to her core and lost control of her body to a degree, that she did not want to be removed and ended up taking a deep breath. That one single inhale from the nose, became one and then another, then another.
Each one causing the mare to go hazy in the mind. Pin pricks could be felt going along her skin in a way that she could practically count each out with how every one of them was so intense. The sensation was accompanied by her body heating up at a rapid pace that was unlike anything she had ever experienced.
This was until the voice of Gambit could be heard asking a question. That turned out to be what was needed to knock her to her senses and she quickly pushed herself away and tried to get out of there before the familiar pull of heat season could take hold.
Once she had made it back to her house. Rarity was filled with one thought after another and she had almost succumbed to them. Most of them consisting of the large stallion and speculations on what must be shrouded by the coverings he had on. Instead of rushing right out to find Gambit. She instead, dove into her work and used every ounce of willpower she could muster to direct all of that energy into doing so.
It wasn't until around the time that Pinkie had shown up, that she was finally able to calm down and was beginning to feel a little delirious from the lack of sleep. So, of course the site of Pinkie had scared her enough to fall over. But that ended up making it possible for her to get that last little ounce of energy to wake her up from the sudden rush of excitement.
At the end of the story. Rarity was feeling the effects of sleep loss and was nearly dozing off. This led to her nearly falling face first into the couch that was half covered with dresses, but managed to keep her eyes awake long enough to head towards the stairs that would lead to her bedroom on the second floor.
As she was doing this. the mare weakly look towards Pinkie before saying the following after letting out a yawn. “Pinkie… I do feel a lot better now and I would be more than appreciative if you could put that cupcake in the fridge for me. I am just... Going to lie down for a while and get some much-needed beauty sleep.”
Pinky gave a mock salute and hurried off to deposit the sweet confection and rushed out of the front door within the time it took for Rarity to Blink. Normally, it would have been really fast, but because of the way she was so tired. That one blink of the eye ended up taking about three seconds long.
Pinkie had only taken a few steps out the door before she turned around and opened it up once more to call inside. “I'll let the girls know you're probably not going to be able to do anything until tomorrow and go ahead over to Sweet Apple Acres and check up on-.”
The pink mare’s sentence stopped as soon as she noticed that Rarity had only gotten halfway up the stairs and was already rolled herself up in a couple of the dresses in order to make a makeshift bed. Before leaving, Pinkie couldn't help but to squeee at the precious site and immediately comment.
“Aww! She looks just like a butterfly. A butterfly inside of a cocoon made of dresses.” Somehow, in her sleep deprived state. Rarity had batted a hand in Pinkie’s direction and mumbled something that sounded vaguely like, “I'm not a Bug! They're… So icky...”
After finally leaving Rarity's place for real this time. Pinkie raced towards Applejack's farm and made a dust trail while passing underneath the archway that said, Sweet Apple Acres. During this, Pinkie was pretty much making the same sound that a car would, when revving up its engine. She continued at this pace and within a few more seconds, Pinkie passed by a few of the section of the farm that grew a few other fruits and vegetables aside from apples. Which included corn, cabbage, watermelon and tomatoes.
The pink mare only stopped in her tracks when she got to their front door and had given it a few knocks before waiting patiently for someone to answer. During this time, Pinkie was looking down at her stomach and rubbing it with her free hand that was not carrying the box and giving a slight pout. She then said, “I better get back to the shop soon. If I don't get more sweets in me soon, than I'm going to end up getting slow.”
Her stomach released a rather loud growl of hunger and her eyes were instantly glued to the box in her hand, before returning it to her stomach and giving it a stern look before replying to its action. “Nah-uh mister! No way, no how are you going to have Applejacks cupcake! I get the feeling that she's going to need it a lot more than you or I do.”
When Pinkie was finished with talking to her hungry stomach. The porch door was opened to reveal that it was Granny Smith and she was squinting her eyes for a few seconds, before a look of realization came across her features. She then gave Pinkie a warming smile and ushered her in. As Granny Smith was doing this. She said, “I suppose you youngins have been worried about our Applejack? I honestly can't blame y'all. These last two days have been one thing after another with that girl.”
Pinkie couldn't help but to roll her eyes and give a wide smile as she replied. “I just got back from seeing Rarity. And if Applejack's in the same boat, then I can guess what's been happening.” The older mare slowly raised an eyebrow, before she made her way over to one of the soft armchairs in the living room to sit down. As soon as she was fully situated and rested her cane up against one of the small tables next to it. Granny Smith started back up again after shaking her head.
“I have no Inkling as to what could have started this. I have heard of mare’s spontaneously going into heat. But in all my years, it's never been close to being this bad. More so on account of it only lasting a few days, instead of the full week.”
Pinkie had come over and sat down on the larger couch that was nearby granny. When she did this. The elderly mare than said, “When she came home the other day, I didn't think much of it aside from merely being late and wanting to catch up on some chores. You know, the normal who-ha!”
“But that Applejack just went plum loco! As soon as she was finished with doing her own work, did she go and tackle what was meant for the rest of the family. She was possessed I tell you! She went right for plowing the field and picking the produce. Without taking a single break.”
“Even a lot of the things we had around here and there that needed fix'n, got taken out one after another. She was about to harvest the crops that weren't even ready yet by the time we all figured something was up with her. It took all of us to get her to the ground when she tried to fight us on telling her to stop.”
“Yeah, we're all grateful that she's able to get so much work done in record time. But she was just going way too far. Sure, she fixed the roof. Although, it wasn't until after she made a bunch of new holes because she wasn't able to control her strength. Sure, Applejack has gone through her own season before. But this was just way too much. My son was just about to go and fetch the doctor too. I told him not too and that we just needed to keep Applejack away from any others until she went through with whatever it was that's gotten into her.”
Pinky was sitting and listening to all of this, while wincing every once in a while. She then gave Granny Smith a smile before showing the box again as she spoke. “Well? How do you think she's doing now? If now's not a good time, then I could always just leave the cupcake and come back.” To that, Granny Smith gave her a smile of her own before saying, “There won't be any need for you to go right now youngin. The poor thing calmed down quite a while ago. So I think everything is passed by now.”
Granny Smith reached into one of her coat pockets that was hidden underneath her shawl and produced a brass key and handed it over to Pinky. Once it was passed along. Granny Smith spoke as she leaned back into her chair to obviously take a nap with the way she was yawning and getting more comfortable. “I think I'll just rest my old bones here and you can go ahead and let her out. She'll do the rest of the explaining in my stead. That's of course if she's even up that is. I know you're one of her best friends, so I think I can trust you to keep this just between us.”
As she was looking at the key in her hands. Pinkie couldn't help but to tilt her head and give a confused wine in response to Granny Smith's words. She quickly recovered and was now smiling her usual way once again and bound herself up the stairs. She was able to quickly discern which room was Applejack, because of the few times she did come over for a visit. One room obviously belonged to Applejack's parents. Seeing as the door was open when she walked by and she could see a large two-person bed in there.
The Next Room looked pretty old style, even compared to the rest of the house. Which led Pinkie to believe that this one was for Granny Smith. That of course was really easy, seeing as there was an old-style record player with one of those microphones that a pony could literally fit their whole head inside of. Nothing like those that are out now.
When she had passed the third room. It was plain to see that it had a small bed and a number of toys littering the floor from the bed to the door. However, when she came across the one that should have been for Big Mac. The door was shut tight and there was a sign depicting a mare and a red line and a circle overlapping it. With the way it was all messy, it was clear that it was hastily drawn on long ago. There was even two more that said the words. “No mares allowed” and the other saying, “Go away!”
Honestly, this had brought a frown to Pinkie’s face as she came closer to it and touched the sign that showed the drawing of a mare. She could vividly remember a time when she would usually see Big Mac on the farm after she had moved into Ponyville only a few years ago. The very instant he had noticed her presence, did he run into the house after dropping the shovel in his hands.
Try as she might. Any attempts to try and cheer up, or even associate with Big Mac would come to a crashing failure with every one of them. Once she even tried to throw a normal party for him and invited as many Ponies as possible. But he was a no-show and just hid away somewhere on the farm. Which took Pinkie a while to locate him hiding in the rafters of the barn and wrapped up in a quilted blanket.
Ever since she could remember. Big Mac would only attend the party if it was only his family. Not even she herself or her other friends could get within twenty paces without the stallion getting nervous and running off. Pinkie could barely even remember the last time she had a chance to speak with him by this point. Although, she did happen to recall Applejack speaking a little on why he was the way he was towards mare’s.
Apparently, it had to do with him being bullied by all the adult and little filly's in class back when he was still going to the same school that Apple Bloom was going to right now. All the details weren't given, but there must have been some big event that scarred Big Mac so bad that he couldn't stand being around any mare that wasn’t his mom or sisters. It wasn’t even clear if he was fine with the extended family members either.
Pinkie sat down the box and gave herself a quick slap on to both cheeks with her hands to snap herself out of feeling gloomy. Then, after grabbing the box yet again, she made her way over to the next closed door that was at the end of the hallway and right before getting to the bathroom.
She had gotten a key ready to put in the lock, but as soon as her hand had even come into contact with the keyhole. Did the door swing freely open. Her eyes drifted down to the key in her hands as she began to wonder what was the meaning of even having it and simply shrugged before going inside by skipping along. The very moment that Pinkie came into the room. She had instantly let out a loud scream as she yelled happily. “Up in adam Applejack! It's me Pinkie! And I brought... You... a cupcake?”
Pinkie’s voice had died down at the same time her eyes went comically wide at what she was looking at on the bed. Right there, was undeniably Applejack. However, her current condition was not exactly what she had expected in the least. Her loud entrance at the beginning had the effect of waking Applejack up.
But instead of simply yelling for the sudden noise or saying good morning. All Pinkie got were a string of muffled sounds that were emanating from behind a cloth gag that was apparently stuffed into Applejack's mouth and tied in place with one of her bandanas. The mare’s mouth was wrenched so wide that the amount used might have been quite a lot.
Applejack was looking straight at Pinky with wide unbelieving eyes, that quickly shifted towards the window in the opposite direction as she remained silent. What the farm mare was currently wearing. Couldn't have been anything other than an old-style straitjacket with an equally old-style padlock placed across her chest.
The sleeves themselves were locked in place thanks to the lock and Pinkie immediately came to the understanding that the key was meant for that. There happen to also be some small metal loops along the jacket that had some rope leading to the corners and underneath the bed to keep her securely in place so that no amount of thrashing would get her off of it.
The pink mare’s eyes roamed around the room and found that there were a few objects that were clearly dented and scuffed up. While one of the lamps had been smashed against the far wall. Also, the dresser that was in the direction of the foot of her bed had a number of the drawers slightly open.
Even the mirror on top even had a crack in it to show that something had indeed crashed into the piece of furniture at one point or another. Most likely a recent event due to there being some small bits of glass shards on the counter right below it.
Pinkie had let out a long and drawn-out whistle to show her astonishment at the site before calling out to Applejack and bouncing right over with the key in hand. “Wowie!! I've thrown a few parties around the heat season last year, but I don't think I've seen any get this rowdy! Hold on just a second, I'll get you out of there in two shakes of my tail! I got to say that I'd give this probably one of the top five spots on the craziest heat season aftermath’s list.”
Once the padlock had been undone and Pinkie gave assistance in getting Applejack’s arms that were still wrapped up in them through the loops. Did Applejack finally get out of the restricting straitjacket and reach up to her mouth to pull the gag out. Applejack then threw it over her bed and onto the floor as she opened and closed her mouth repeatedly to get some feeling back into her jaws by the looks of it.
The farm mare started to say something as she was scratching the back of her neck and looking rather nervous. “Say Pinkie… Do you think we can keep this just between us? I'd rather not have the whole town talking about me being in a straitjacket.” Pinkie couldn't help but to giggle up a storm as she brought up both of her hands to cover her mouth.
Once it had died down. Pinkie said, “Oh shucks! No need to be embarrassed Applejack. After all, we're all grown adults and we all have our own kinks. If it makes you feel any better, I'll tell you one of mine. I'll give you a little hint. it has to do with whipped cream.” The very last part was said to Applejack in a whisper, as Pinkies eyes were darting left to right to see if anyone else was within earshot to hear it.
Applejack looked a little confused as to what her friend was getting at in the beginning. After a second or two, Applejack then looked a bit disturbed at the same time as she replied. “Uh... Yeah, sure. Thanks for that Pinkie.” Applejack who was now only in a pair of panties and a sleeveless work shirt. She then gave out a heavy sigh before getting back to her hooves rather shakily and making for the dresser to go in search for something to wear that wasn’t dirty and heavily soaked in her own sweat.
After Applejack had gotten fully dressed and was in the middle of braiding her hair, did she speak out to Pinkie once again. “Hay Pinkie. Just so you know, that thing there is for emergency cases. It's not like I use that every heat season, just so you know. I guess I must have really been out of it yesterday if they had to break that out of the chest in the attic. Most of it was pretty much a blur. Hmm, I can remember getting some work done and then my family trying to get me to calm down.”
“Then my vision became a little blurry and I could have sworn I saw something big and red in front of me before I... Oh! Oh no! I-I think I may have hurt Big Mac!!!” A set of tears began to build up behind Applejack's eyes as she was frantically trying to finish getting dressed the rest of the way in order to rush out to obviously find her big brother.
The mare hadn't even made it halfway across her room before her path was blocked by a wall of red muscle belonging to none other than Big Mac himself. Who is now standing in the doorway. Upon seeing her older brother. The orange mare instantly went in for a hug but this ended up causing Big Mac to let out a strained grunt of pain, which made Applejack release him instantly after letting out a gasp of her own.
The mare quickly brought her hands up to her mouth to cover up a small Sob before she reached up to try and touch the area that she was previously making contact with a tender touch. She then started to say while looking up at his face for any indication as to find the problem and then towards his chest area. “Big Mac, I am so, so very sorry! How bad is it? I’m the one that sent you flying and right into my dresser, wasn’t I?”
The large stallion gave Applejack a pained smile as he didn't say a word and simply reaching down in order to pull up the front of his plaid shirt. On the way up, it exposed a solid six pack and right as it got past his abs to expose the rib cage. Both Applejack and Pinkie released a set of loud gasps at the site of two large hoof prints that were clearly bruising his chest area due to a solid two-legged kick.
Applejack reached up and traced her fingers along both of the solid bruising spots before pulling her hand away and looking back up to her brother's face, before asking her questions and looking quite worried while doing so. “Big Mac, does that hurt? I mean yes, it should. But are you going to be okay?” This had gotten Applejack a set of "Eeyup’s" from her brother as he lowered the shirt back down.
The mare then continued. “Again, I'm really sorry Big Mac. I have no idea what drove me to do all that. You know I would never want to hurt you, right? Please don't say that you are scared of me now. This has gotten a "Eeyup" to the first question and a solid nope to the second, from her big brother. Which instantly calmed the mare down significantly as she brought a hand to her chest and let out a relieved sigh.
However, what Big Mac then said afterwards. Had stunned Pinkie because she had hardly ever heard of him saying more than one word at a time. “Little sis, who is this Gambit fella you've been calling out nonstop before the family got you back in the house?”
In response to that, Applejack looked quite confused for a few seconds, before her eyes went wide and a heavy blush could be seen creeping onto her face. This was immediately followed with her face being covered with both of her hands as her eyes peeked through the gaps in her fingers and screaming out the following. “Why me! This is going to be so awkward!”
At that exact instant. Out in the middle of the Everfree forest was Gambit. Rory was a short distance away and taking a little nap against a tree. At the same time, Gilda had her spear tip jammed into the ground and was in the middle of balancing herself on one hand on the very end of the spears handle. Aside from trying to keep herself steady while doing so at the command of Brex.
The Griffin's wings were bound tightly. Thereby rendering them absolutely useless in case she should fall. Everything was dead quiet and Gilda was doing a pretty good job so far. Well, that was until Brex ended up letting out a loud sneeze, which caused Gilda to lose her focus and eventually scream out as she falls to the ground with a heavy thud.
Now back over at Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie was off and watching Applejack and her older brother doing their little thing. After a little bit, she got bored and laid on the bed so that her head was laying off the edge and watching Applejack from an upside-down perspective before blurting out the next bit.
“Applejack, how about I throw you a party? I'm sure that would cheer you up! We can invite all our friends, including Gambit and Rory. I bet it would be loads of fun. There will be cake and streamers and balloons. We can also throw in some adult-themed-party-games too.” The last bit was said pretty quickly, so Applejack couldn't pick up on it right away.
However, the farm mare had an intense reaction when Gambit's name was said and she hurriedly pushed herself past her older brother and ran out the door and into the hallway. As Applejack was doing this, she called out frantically. “I haven't showered in days; I'll see you later Pinkie!”
That was immediately followed with the slamming of the bathroom door. Which was strong enough to practically shake the entire house and cause some of the broken pieces of the dressing mirror to come falling down and onto the floor nearby.
Having been left alone with Big Mac. Pinkie’s eyes slowly turned in his direction. Just as soon as her mouth had opened to say anything at all. The large stallion gave her a terrified expression as he ran straight out of the room so fast, that it could have broken the sound barrier if it was just a few miles quicker. But just as he was leaving the room, Pinkie was able to hear him saying in a loud and powerful voice. “NOOOOOOOOPE!!!”
All Pinkie could do. Was to lay there with her head upside down and hanging off the edge of the bed and giving a small playful pout before confidently saying out loud. “I swear! I am going to throw you a party one day even if it kills me!” After a few more seconds of silence. The mare eventually got off the bed and left the package containing the Applejack likeness on the mare’s bed before heading downstairs with a skip in her step and humming a tune.
Once she had said her goodbyes to the sleeping Granny Smith and was out the front door. Pinkie’s stomach began to rumble once again. This time however, it resembled not only the sound, but the pure ferocity of a wild manticore's roar. It was even able to shake the pebbles near her hoofs. She then began to say to it as she tried to console her rumbling stomach. “Okay-okay! I heard you. I'm going back to the shop now. Just wait a bit longer.”
She had just taken a look towards the direction of Ponyville and tapped her chin slowly, while at the same time, having a thoughtful expression. After giving a small hum. She then said, “Just great. It's going to take too long to get back on hoof. Got no choice but to use a shortcut.” And with that, Pinkie reached over towards the right, as if grabbing for something that wasn't there and roughly pulling her hand. This went until there was the sound of paper being moved around and the entire scene behind her turning to that of the kitchen of Sugar Cube Corner.
It just so happened that at that very moment. Miss’s Cake was in there and had her back facing in the direction of Pinkie before turning around. The mare then gave a startled gasp and threw the mixing bowl that was in her hands in the air and Pinky had to jump up and grab on to it before the contents spilled everywhere. As for Miss’s Cake, she was hunched over with one hand on the counter and another holding at her chest to show that she nearly had a heart attack from the sudden appearance of Pinkie.
That was when time began to go to a crawl, until finally coming to a complete stop. Everything turned into a shade of gray, then to black and white as the only one that was still moving and still colored at the same time was Pinkie. The mare looking rather confused and turning her head left and right, until a set of texts began to appear in mid-air right in front of her face. Which said the following as they came into existence.
“Okay, are you happy now? You got to have your point of view. That was both fun and painful to write on my end. There has to be a logical reason for things happening and what you do is just... Okay, never mind. We are moving on! Now, no more breaking the fourth wall and coming into my room for a while. Do you get that?”
“Okay then. Now get back in position before I start things up again.” This got a quick nod from the mare, that elicited a rattling sound to emanate from her head and a big dopey grin as she got back to the exact spot and took on where her arms and legs should have been at the point of everything stopping.
“Point of view: Brex Mith* “Location: Everfree Woods, training site*
Gilda was back at doing the balancing act on top of her spear and Rory had also continued with her sleeping after first laughing at Gilda’s misfortune just a short while ago. Although, right now Brex was turning his head randomly from left to right and scratching the back of his hood.
This ended up catching the attention of Gilda, as she called out in a not so amused tone. “What's got you all worked up dweep?” Brex responded to that in an unsure tone as he continued to survey his surroundings. “Maybe I should get some more sleep. I could have sworn that everything went black and white for a few seconds there.”
Gilda scoffed at that, as she closed her eyes and said, “Ha! I can believe that, trust me. I'm the one who has to use a room next door to you and those walls aren't exactly thick.” That was when the voice of Rory could be heard after giving one of her signature giggles. “You're more than welcome to join us!”
This ended up having the effect of causing Gilda to lose her concentration as she released a loud squawk of surprise by what Rory had just offered. The result ended with the Griffin falling once again on her face. Only to start giving a death glare at Rory, along with reddened cheeks. As for the girl in pony form, she just shrugged and went back to napping again.
When Brex saw this. All the Roegadyn could do was to lightly shake his head in mock disappointment. Of course, this was both because of the fact that Gilda was having trouble with concentrating with even the smallest disturbances around and Rory's attempts to grow his harem at any chance that crossed her path. At the same time, Gilda was nursing the bump on her head.
Brex began to wonder to himself, as to how Applejack and Rarity were doing, seeing as he has not seen them in town for a few days. Sure, he had a body double keeping an eye on the town in general and the one at Sweet Apple Acres. Yet not once has there been any reports of anything suspicious happening that warranted his doubles to send any sort of message his way.
So, with his worries temporarily put away. The Roegadyn continued with training Gilda for another hour or so until it was getting close to lunch time and they packed up their things. After a little bit of walking through the forest. The three were just about to exit the tree line, when Brex noticed something odd about the town from where they were standing at the top of a slope.
He then opened up the connection to silently communicate back and forth with Rory, as they all continued at their current pace. All the while, keeping an eye out and Gilda seemingly unaware of the current situation.
“Rory, is it me or is there something amiss in town?”
“Hmm, I'm getting that too Master.”
“Where is everybody? Even from this far away, it should be possible to see some movement, but the town looks utterly deserted for mid-day.”
“Master, if we were to follow the current pattern, then I believe that we just walked into another one of the episodes.”
“Yeah, I agree with that. It seems to occur every few days. Does this town ever get a holiday from the weirdness? Let's see, we just had the Dragon and the sleepover. Which means that we should be on... uh-oh!”
“Master?”
“Rory, I don't think we should get directly involved in this one.”
“But Master, why not?”
“This is the episode with Zecora. I'm really interested in meeting her myself, but I'm not willing to chance it when there's poison joke involved.”
“But Master, haven't we've been inside of the Everfree forest countless times? If we came across the poison joke. Then it would be simple to avoid it.”
“I'd rather not take that chance Rory. Especially when it's a major part of the story for this episode. No way am I going to allow myself to go through some radical changes. Those dang flowers always cause the displaced to change the way they look, or even worse. Their personalities would do a complete flip or become totally twisted. Also, I'm definitely not keen on the idea of going through the whole gender swapping trope.”
“But master. I'm pretty sure that if that were to happen then it wouldn't change anything between us. Also, I bet you'd be one sexy female Roegadyn. It would be pretty interesting really. I would be getting dominated by an amazon in a way.”
“Rory, are you envisioning me as a female right now?”
“I'm sorry Master, it just popped in there. Perhaps tonight you can use that shapeshifting spell and possibly give me a chance to see it in person?”
“Oh come on! You know my views on personally cross-dressing. I'm okay with it if others want to try that as a lifestyle, but I'm not into doing it myself! Geez, this is just like when you tried to convince me into impersonating the solar princess so I could sneak into the castle that one time.”
By then, they had reached the middle of town and just spotted Twilight right down the street and getting pulled into Sugar Cube Corner, along with Spike in tow. Gilda saw this and grumbled to herself. “Don't tell me that these Ponies are so scared of us that they're hiding? We've been here for how long now and they still haven't fully gotten used to us?”
Brex was just about to mention something to Gilda, in order to keep her out of all of this. But Rory spoke up first. I seriously doubt that we're as imposing as you believe us to be to have this kind of reaction. Why don't you go on ahead and find out what the problem could be? Master in myself will head over to the guild and see if they can fill us in? perhaps this is a new quest.”
The Griffin gave a half-assed shrug, before replying to that in her usual snarky tone. “Fine, whatever! That better not be an excuse for the both of you to find somewhere to get it on in the middle of the day. At least while I'm in there, I can go ahead and grab myself a snack.” And with that, Gilda left Brex and Rory and headed over to Sugar Cube Corner after giving a few quick flaps of her wings, so that she was at the door within seconds.
From where he stood. Brex watched as Gilda was about to knock on the door with her fist. But the upper half was opened so quickly that the Griffin was pulled in at such a frightening pace that a few feathers were lost. But not even a second later had passed by before it was open again and Pinkie’s arm could be seen plucking the feathers out of the air as they were falling and slamming it shut for the final time.
Rory leaned in a little closer and spoke with her mouth to Brex in a hushed whisper, while not taking her eyes off the door to the building. “Master? You don't suppose that she'd be able to pull the both of us in as well if we were to approach too close to that door, do you?”
From behind his mask. Brex was giving an expression that just said that he wasn't all that sure. Before replying to Rory. “I'm honestly not going to chance it. That girl is quite literally the physical embodiment of cartoon physics. And I'd rather not be pulled through such a small opening.” To that, the girl gave a slow nod before they silently made their way towards an alley that could get a clear view of the town square.
Brex didn't really see a need to go into the shadows or to switch his class in order to use the hide skill. But it didn't take him very long to notice a figure standing in the middle of the road, just a short distance from where all the Ponies and Gilda were hiding. Once that person had pulled down their hood and exposed their striped mohawk. It was clear that this was undeniably Zecora.
Also, from the brief instant that there was a small gap in the cloak to expose the rest of her form underneath. He was able to get a glance at what appeared to be a belt that had a number of potions being held by loops. Not to mention very little when it came to actual clothing.
From there, the following occurred. She would kick at the ground while looking at the hole that she was beginning to form, before covering it up only a moment later once she was finished with her inspections. Then, after taking a good glance at the empty town. Did the Zebra leave and head towards the Everfree forest without uttering a single word and her head was now slightly down casted.
It didn't take long at all from that point to spot Apple Bloom, who was sneaking out from around Sugar Cube Corner to follow Zecora from a distance until they were both fully out of sight. This was followed up with the rest of the girls, aside from Gilda who stayed inside to come rushing out and giving chase after most likely finding out that Apple Bloom was no longer there. It was obvious that they came to the stupid conclusion that she was kidnapped, even though the supposed guilty party was being watched by them the whole time.
Not wanting to be left out in the dark as to what was going to happen in the forest. Brex went ahead and produced another one of his minions from his list and sent it to keep an eye on the girls. Once that was done, he and Rory used his shadow traveling ability and entered their hotel room so that he can open up the link between himself and the summoned creature.
Of course, Rory was standing by and keeping a vigilant watch on his currently defenseless form. Nonetheless, thanks to their link, she was able to know what the situation was through the connection they shared and watched it all play out in real time.
*Point of view: Third Person*
Inside of the forest. The six ponies could be seen making their way with Applejack being the one leading the way and looking pretty angry to boot. Next up was Rainbow, then Twilight. Rarity came after that due to her having an aversion to the dirt and falling behind just a little bit. Fluttershy was all the way in the rear and looking as timid as usual.
Now as for the party Pony. She was pretty much popping up everywhere and skipping about with hardly a care in the world. Although she would keep up the hype about Zecora being an evil enchantress now and then, which only caused Applejack to become more infuriated towards the Zebra and scared Fluttershy further into taking shorter steps and look over her shoulder much more frequently.
Fluttershy had only just turned away from the group and gave out a small “Eep!” After seeing some plants that had their leaves randomly shaped to look like a face, with a big toothy mouth. The poor mare was just about the cover her eyes and just stay in place. But the sight of something blue had crossed her vision, which was able to distract her for just long enough that she was able to zoom in on it.
(Here is a picture of what Fluttershy is currently looking at.)
This turning out to be a tiny, blue butterfly that gave off a faint iridescent glow along its wing patterns. After a few seconds of it flapping its wings in front of her. The butterfly went over to the set of flowers that had previously scared Fluttershy and landed on a spot where it nose should have been. Then when it's wings slowly began to move. It created the image of it having a weird mustache that just wouldn't stay still and this caused Fluttershy to momentarily forget her fears and let out a small giggle at the sight.
It then took off and floated in the air just a little way in front of her, so that she was able to notice her friends were already beginning to move away. Once it was realized that she was about to be left behind, did Fluttershy get back to giving chase so that she was not left alone in the scary Forest.
When she had caught up to the rest of the girls and was now at the back of the group. She had released a relieved sigh before going back to her usual timid nature and keeping a wary eye about for any threats that could possibly sneak up on her out of the bushes.
Although, whenever she was on the verge of being scared by one thing or another. Which consisted of either a plant life or simply the sounds of nature that was completely out of the Ponies control. The same butterfly would fly in, in order to distract her and to eventually land on the side of her head so it could find a perch. After this occurred a few times, it would just stay there instead of flying around again and this gave the image of the yellow Pegasus wearing a hair clip off to the right side of her hair and towards the front a little.
Rarity had at one point during their trek in the woods, finally noticed Fluttershy's new accessory and was obviously compelled to comment on it. “My word! Fluttershy! I must say that is a truly fabulous clip, and so cute on your mane! How could I have not notice you were wearing it before now?” Fluttershy became a bit more timid, as she lightly blushed before saying to Rarity, “Uh, ummm. This isn't an accessory Rarity. This is a real butterfly that I just happen to meet and I think he's taking a little rest.”
Rarity's eyes went wide for a moment, before she turned them into a critical gaze as she leaned in a little to inspect what she had originally thought to be a hair clip accessory. It only took a few seconds before she realized that Fluttershy was right, once the wings began to move slightly all on their own when there was no wind to be felt.
The fashionista had instinctively given a grossed look, before recomposing herself as she spoke. “Oh my. Well, I must say for a... B-Bug. The wings do look quite lovely. Perhaps I might use the design in a few of my dresses in the future. Of course, with it being this late in the year, it would have to be for my new spring line for after the new year.”
But before the two could go on. The group finally came across the Zebra they were looking for. Who was currently standing alone and just between some trees a fair ways up ahead of them. There was a small clearing that was comprised with a large amount of these blue flowers and the girls ended up trampling straight into the center of them in order to catch up to the Zebra that was still walking away from them.
Luckily enough, as soon as they had passed through the flower bed, did they find Apple Bloom and Applejack began to give her a one-sided talk. While also disregarding everything that the small pony was attempting to say. This led to the older sister to grab on to Apple Bloom and carrier over her shoulder as though she were a sack of potatoes to angrily go back the way they just came.
Of course, as they were going through the bed of flowers for the second time. Zecora had obviously heard the ruckus and turned around and yelled out towards the girls. “Beware, beware you Pony folk, those leaves of blue are no joke!” This was proceeded with the girls giving their own versions of booze and remarks about keeping those curses to herself and left right away.
Back over with Gambit. Who is currently sitting on the bed and Rory being next to him. Spoke up in a very disappointed tone, as his eyes were still shut. “In what way does that sound like a curse? No matter how you slice it, it’s clearly a word of caution.”
“This is one reason why I was afraid of them knowing who you are Rory. You're a completely different species to them, yet a Zebra who is close to a pony as they can get, is already getting the cold shoulder and treated as a pariah for doing absolutely nothing wrong.”
“This is why I thought that their educational system was sorely lacking if they hardly know anything that’s not from within their lands. I just hope that the next generation are a little more tolerant.” A second later, he started to open his eyes and look over towards Rory as he continued. “I went ahead and gave my minion the command to stay by Fluttershy and only return once they were safely out of the forest.”
Rory, who was kicking her legs lightly from the edge of the bed. Started to talk while having a thoughtful expression on her face. “So? What's your plan Master? I take it you're not exactly going to go out and whip them up the antidote, or go right over and explain to them their faults?”
Brex just through his legs over and laid back in the bed, while placing both of his hands behind his head and on the pillow before answering. “Unless things get way out of hand, then I doubt I’m needed it at all. Why else would I send something to keep an eye on them? This is a big lesson that they really need to learn the hard way. Besides, this is good material to use in an argument if one should ever come up. One thing that I’ve learned since coming here, is that guilt tripping these mare’s is always a critical hit to their psyche.”
And with that, the two did exactly what was said and stayed out of it. Brex and Rory would go around town and do the odd job here and there, after Brex would go into the Guild in order to grab a quest. Of course, Rory wanted to be in on it, but was told to wait outside by him. As it turns out. There was a certain rule for the adventurers that explicitly prohibit those of so many ranks higher than the posted Quest from being able to accept them. That is unless there were certain conditions met to do so.
This was something that was implemented a few years back, when the Nobles would hire those that were veterans to take them along and complete their quests without actually doing any of the work for themselves. This meant that with all the current ones available. Rory was pretty much out of the running for being able to take any, much less go and be a teammate for her Master.
Although, whenever it came time to turn in said quests. Rory was still asked to stay outside during the process. Which took much longer than needed thanks to Lyra being the one that was on duty that day. As Brex was dealing with the usual antics of the female supremacy viewpoints of Lyra. The girl outside was pretty much fuming and giving off this killing aura that would cause the residents of the town to give a wide birth around the guild building.
Even after the first day that Gambit had officially started working at the Guild for Ponyville. Lyra would always give him a hard time whenever she worked the counter and would delay the payment process. There would be times where Brex wouldn't get any money until the next day. In worst case scenarios, when the Unicorn was on duty. It would go for multiple days or close to half a week before it was accepted as being completed to be turned in.
But no matter what happened. Brex wouldn't really bat much of an eye, which was mostly contributed to him already having all the bits he needed and this was just something of a hobby. But for Rory, each day was another nail in the coffin. Both figuratively and literally for the Unicorn in Rory's eyes.
Although there was one silver lining that Rory was looking forward to. Whenever it was another mare that was running the front desk. Her master was always given the proper respect. There was even talk of him getting his promotion within the next two or three days. Of course, this got Rory to perk up seeing as her Master had never done it before and it was quite an occasion to her eyes.
The rest of the day went pretty quickly and when it came back to going to their hotel room. They had found out that Gilda had slipped a note under the door that informed them that she was going to spend the night at Rainbow's place and that she would be back in the morning.
Which ended up giving the idea that the two of them were going to be getting it on and this brought Rory to jump onto Brex in order to hurry them both to bed. Although, one might say that the pair had pretty much no sleep at all until the morning. Even though Brex required no real sleep to function the next day. The girl sleeping next to him for the next hour did require some. So, they stopped their activities a full hour before needing to get up for Rory to get her one hour of rest in order to pop up like a daisy once again.
During the next morning. Brex was looking out of his window and he was sure that he had seen a figure coming out of Rarity's boutique right before all the other residents were going to come out and set up their shops along the street. After a bit of tracking with his eyes it was safe to say that this individual was heading straight for the town library.
Just like the day before. Brex got on the bed and summoned his butterfly minion and sent it out through the cracked window in order to watch the events play out. When said butterfly landed on the windowsill of the first floor for the library. He was greeted by the site of the six ponies that were standing within the home of Twilight and Spike.
All of which sporting the apparent effects of the poison joke. Well, that is aside from Fluttershy. Although, it became painfully obvious the moment she opened her mouth and had this very deep masculine tone coming out. But as soon as Fluttershy had done that, Brex could hear through the connection that Rory was having a giggling fit and could actually feel the bed rocking next to his body most likely from thrashing about.
Brex had shot back through the connection by saying, “Rory! I'm disappointed in you. Out of all the ponies, I would think that you would have the most sympathy for Fluttershy, seeing as she has done absolutely nothing wrong. This instantly got a response from Rory, that sounded as though she was both laughing and crying at the same time. “I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I know I shouldn't be laughing! B-But that voice! I know it's exactly the way it is in your memories, but it just couldn’t prepare me enough for that!”
The scene moved on to the girls that were immediately blaming Zecora for putting a curse on them. Although, Twilight was having none of it and went through quite a number of books in her library to try and find anything that had a reference to their symptoms. The purple Unicorn ended up giving up all hope as she had gotten down to the last book that he had not even been considered to be open up after Spike had said out the title. Which happened to be, “Supernatural.”
The scene then changed to awhile later, as the group of Ponies finally got to Zecora's place and attempted to ram the door so that they can get inside. Emphasis on the word attempted. Because as soon as Applejack, who was shrunken due to the poison joke. Who was riding on top of Rainbow Dash's head got near the door. Did the tree limbs come to life and react in blinding speed to snatch up the Pegasus. At the same time, as Applejack fell off. A smaller branch would come in and that too caught her while in mid fall.
The pair had let out a startled yelp as well, as the others upon seeing what had just transpired. Along with the rest of the branches making their way to snatch up the other Ponies. There was a low rumble that sounded vaguely like a low roar as one of the large masks on Zecora’s tree began to morph into a scowl with the way that it broke into segmented pieces and shifted around just enough to make the expression.
(Here is a picture that closely resembles how the tree that Zecora lives in appears to look like.)
As this was happening. The blue butterfly was a short distance away and Brex couldn't help but to exclaim from the other end of the connection. “What the fuck! Since when is Zecora’s tree a Treant?!” The Roegadyn was just about to send away the minion, in order to jump into his shadow so that he could be there within a moment to help the girls out. But he was interrupted by doing so when Zecora came bursting through the front door, along with a panicked expression.
Upon noticing the situation. She threw up her arms and yelled out as loud as possible over the screaming mares. “No-no! Stay your anger, for we not know for what reason they are here!” And with that, the girls were lowered just enough so that they're hoofs were just barely a few inches off the ground. From there, they were brought before Zecora. Who now had a deep frown. The Zebra then said, “I have a good guess as to why you have come. My door is always open, but unruly guests are not quite welcome.”
This eventually progressed as Applejack and the rest started to make accusations straight to Zecora’s face. But no matter how much the Zebra tried to deny it. The others were just not willing to listen. That was of course only until Apple Bloom appeared on the path behind the group of girls and called out to them. Eventually everything worked out as their illness was explained to be a reaction to a plant that they had been exposed to the day before when giving chase after the smaller of the sisters.
What also surprised Brex, while watching all of this. Was that Zecora was not rhyming at all times, which went easier with explaining the situation when a number of them had a hard time and deciphering exactly what her meaning was whenever she spoke. But right as they were going to leave so they could head over to Ponyville, in order to get the last ingredient for the antidote that was within the flower sister’s shop.
Zecora was gathering the potion that was nearly completed for the cure and was exiting her house as the rest of the girls were waiting at the edge of the clearing. Just as she had started the process of securing her house up. She was slightly turning her head to the left and shifting her eyes as far as they could go over the rest of the way.
There could be seen a blue butterfly that was currently sitting on of one of the branch leaves belonging to her home and near the door and it was slowly batting its wings as she spoke to it. Her voice was just above a whisper and a hint of amusement, so that it wouldn’t be heard by the others.
“For there to be another who can communicate with nature to such a degree. That they could see through the eyes and ears of others is quite a sight to behold. I was unaware that another shaman resided so near to me. Perhaps one day you would consider a visit my humble abode. After all, not many know of my tree.”
From the other end. Brex spoke through the connection with the butterfly that had obviously not made any real sound. “I was unaware that you could have heard me back then.” Zecora covered up a laugh as she finished with the last of her locking preparations and responded. “I did for sure. Your voice could have carried over hills, seeing as it was heard far louder than the group of girls.”
The butterfly took flight and headed towards the branches above. But before it went out of sight. Brex said, “I am no Shaman. All the same, I look forward to paying you a visit. Farewell for now. I am sure that we will see one another soon. Oh, and before I forget. Thank you for assisting them and learning a valuable lesson.” And with that it, the butterfly was long gone.
But before turning around so that she could join the rest of the girls so they could make their way over to Ponyville. Zecora whispered under her breath just one last thing. “Oh, for that I cannot wait. To have such skills cannot be any other but fate. Even if you were to denounce being a Shaman. For now, I wonder how well I can hide my anticipation.” And with that, Zecora gave us a small lick of the lips. At the same time, having a sultry stare aimed to where the one she was talking to had fled.
Now, over in the hotel room where Brex was. He just opened his eyes once again and started to speak as he raised an eyebrow in clear interest. “Well, that's something I wish I had known earlier. And it hadn't even crossed my mind that a Shaman who communes with nature could pick up my signals that are going to one of my minions.” He then looked down with an amused look while adding to that.
“By the way Rory. I'm starting to think this is a bit of a fetish for you, or is it just plain fun?” What Brex was referring to, was how he had been sitting on the edge of the bed. Rory at one point or another after the small scare from seeing Zecora’s home having an anti-theft system in the form of a hollowed out, yet still alive tree that is commonly known as a Treant. Managed to remove his pants and undergarments. This was followed by her shifting her body so that she was now underneath his robe in order to give him a very enthusiastic blowjob.
After a few seconds of there being some deliberately loud slurping sounds. Rory eventually pulled off of his member and gave a loud pop, before using one of her hands to lift up the covering to expose herself. Her face was pretty much pressing up against the side of his cock, while smearing herself with her own drool that was coating it.
The hand that was not busy with holding a cloth, was still lightly stroking him as she gave him a sultry response in the form of a long and very slow lick before speaking in a hungry tone. “I can't help it if I find it hot to be able to do this when you're talking with someone in secret. I guess you could say it’s a game. Hmm. The best way I could describe it would be… If you were to be playing a video game and I came up and started to give you a blowjob. I win if I can distract you enough to lose or stop playing, Tee-Hee~”
Her expression became quite lewd after that, as she kissed the head of his now pulsing member before going on. “You know Master... I've been entertaining the idea of giving you service from underneath a random table. Especially when it's in public.” Brex gave her a small smirk before replying to that. “I honestly can't tell if you're a full-on exhibitionist or you like being one of those hidden exhibitionists instead. First the walking around nude bit, then the hiding under the table. Make up your mind.”
Rory reached up and tapped onto her choker to release the spell, so that she was now in her real form. Afterwards, she gave him another long lick. Starting from the base of his balls and going up the underside of his long cock, until she had gotten to the very tip before talking and looking as if she was drunk on something. “Master~. Who says I can't be both?”
But before anything else could happen. There was a loud series of knocks being given to their door and the voice of Gilda could be heard yelling from the other side. Judging from the tone, she was not too happy at all. “Can you two please! Stop having SEX for just one minute? If you haven't noticed, weren't we supposed to go training before I start my shift later!!!”
Rory went from that of drunken lust. To that of unbridled rage, as she released Brex and turned her attention towards the front door as she was still on her knees right between his own legs. She then said in a very cold voice, that was just barely above a whisper as her teeth were fully exposed and clearly grinding against one another. “Master… How about we train her how to be... A patient little birdie?”
After hearing that. Brex couldn't help but to have a flashback to the last time that they had to give such a lesson to his maids. This caused Brex to have a panicked expression and quickly grabbed on to Rory by the head with both of his hands. The sudden motion ended up surprising the girl enough that all the anger had suddenly vanished and she was opening her mouth to say something to him.
But that turned out to be the wrong move on her part, as he turned her towards himself and plunged his dick right into her mouth with one rough thrust. From there, he pulled her in until her lips reached the base of his cock. Which meant he was all the way down and into her throat and elicited a muffled gagging sound to come from the girl.
With how tight she was, along with the size of his member that was being jammed inside. Rory was clearly unable to breathe as she was about to struggle. But after a second of this, she had given into it completely and had this glassy-eyed expression as her arms went limp.
She was even moving her tongue in order to taste him better and this shot a jolt of pleasure up the Roegadyn's spine and all the way up to the tips of his hair. While trying to contain a grunt of pleasure that could have been heard from beyond the door. Brex spoke up loud enough for Gilda on the other side. At the same time, trying to sound as normal as possible, considering the circumstances. “Give us…Uh, a few minutes. We'll be right there!”
It could be heard that Gilda was walking away from the door and yelling back as she did so. “All right! You got five minutes! Just five minutes! I swear, it's like that mare’s in a constant state of heat!” At the very moment that it appeared that they were left alone once again. Brex pulled himself out of Rory's throat. Which left her mouth hanging wide open and gasping for air, now that the airway was clear.
Brex was going to say something to her as a form of apology. But was surprised when Rory went right for launching herself forward and clutching onto his waist in order to plunge him back down as far as she could take him in one go.
This turning out to be the entire length, so that she was in the same position as a second earlier. Only this time, it was Rory who was holding it in. It had taken some considerable effort to get Rory to stop, but in response. She gave the following proposal while in the middle of cleaning herself up.
“Master, do you think we could try out some form of blindfold training for her? You can give her instructions in the same way you normally do. But you could continue with where we left off while she's doing that. All Brex could do, was to shake his head and give a small smile before saying his response.
“I bet this is because we can't go all out, isn't it?” This got a small pout from Rory, as she brought both of her hands in front of herself to give the most pathetic gesture that she could possibly get from such a pose and gave a small nod. Also, for good measure, she had thrown into the mix a quivering bottom lip as well.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Ponyville, Spa* *Time: Eleven in the morning. Two hours after Zecora came to Ponyville*
Zecora just exited the front doors to the establishment for Ponyville's spa, that was run by the twin Ponies with the reversing colors of their fur and mane’s known as Aloe and Lotus. After administering the potion to give the six Ponies a bath that would cure them of Poison Joke.
The Zebra ended up staying for a while to chat with Twilight and Apple Bloom, who were interested in her work for some time with one set of questions after another. As well as the co-owners in regards to possibly selling some of her natural potions and tonics to be used in their spa treatments.
The other Ponies already left some time ago and she was finishing up with some of the details with Aloe and Lotus and was ready to head back home. Although now, it seems that Ponyville was no longer a ghost town as many of the residents were walking to and fro along the streets. This was a stark contrast to how all of her previous visits turned out and it was a breath of fresh air for the Zebra to see some life.
After exiting the spa and walking on the roads a little bit, that turned into a beaten path that led towards the forest. Zecora was just about to reach the first set of trees where she would usually enter and exit from. When she felt this odd sensation that was beginning to wash over her being and this compelled her to take a glance to her right side after coming to a stop in mid step.
About a quarter mile away, coming out of the same forest that she herself was about to enter in order to go home. Were two females that could be made coming out. One was identified easily as a Griffin. She was holding a spear in one hand.
The other was a tan earth pony, wearing a very peculiar garb that stood out even among the other Ponies in the town that she just came from. The mare was even wielding a large axe in just one hand, that looked to be far too big for her to hold comfortably. Although seems to have no problems whatsoever if the way she walked was an indication.
But what really caught her attention. Was the slightest of glows coming from her, that radiated a soft red light. Being a Shaman and training herself. Zecora was able to sense the spiritual power from others. This was thanks to the diligent practice that allowed one to see that which could not be seen.
The energy that she was perceiving from this mare, did not give off the feeling of negative emotions that would be associated with such a color. But all the same, it was far stronger and it stood out as a torch would in a dark cave. Especially with how it flickered and danced in the same elegance.
Zecora had a small smile that was slowly beginning to creep onto her face as she considered that idea, it would be more fruitful to visit Ponyville more often. Perhaps this one would even know the Shaman that she had spoken to back at her place. Already taking the offered opportunity to memorize the girls features. Zecora was just about to turn back towards her home, but as soon as her eyes had drifted away for even a fraction of a second.
There was a sudden weight in the air that caused this eerie feeling. Whatever it was, gave the impression that she was about to be crushed. Of course, Zecora knew that it was simply in her head and turn back to where she was previously looking.
Once she did. The Zebra was almost brought down to her knees out of instinct, upon catching the sight of a large being wearing robes of mostly white and blue. Along with boots and gloves that covered every inch. What's more, was the tribal mask that was not too dissimilar to those of her home that was currently being worn over his face.
If what he wore, coupled together with his size were not enough to draw her eyes. It was surely the amount of spiritual energy that was being exuded from every pore of his body as a vibrant river of multicolor. This shot at least a couple of meters up and above his body. Before dissipating into the air to create a swirling pillar of sorts. There were sections that displayed the purest of each color and yet, they were beginning to meld with the next almost seamlessly to show that there was hardly any clashing.
Yet, at the same time. Zecora could not help but to have this wrenching feeling that what she was seeing now was not the full scope. After fumbling for something within her satchel. She produced a small brown gourd with a cork on the top. Which she pulled off without regards as to where she dropped the small item. The opening was then brought to her lips and the contents inside were quickly guzzled down before she looked straight back at the figure.
Hardly any time had passed before the container was then dropped, as her hands began to shake and become sweaty. Her eyes became slightly unfocused and her brow was sweating profusely. The female Zebra’s breathing became heavy and long, as her own breath could be seen coming out of her mouth with a labored huff.
This time however, her eyes went wide and she couldn't stop herself from getting on to her knees and she was already halfway down to putting her head on the grass before she managed to pause in motion to show that she had regained some semblance of control.
What she had drunk, was used in her tribe’s meditation rituals and was meant to open one's awareness beyond that of normal perception, albeit for a short time. Now, the pillar of light was shooting far higher. Even heights far above that of the tallest tree or the clock tower in the center of Ponyville by far.
Her vision began to go hazy as images poured forth to obscure everything else. They were obviously that of the one in robes and wearing various clothing. There were different types of items being held in one or both arms that would change out repeatedly, along with the colors shifting in kind.
But throughout the whole thing. The form was left hazy so it was nearly impossible to get any defining features other than it was obviously a male with a very strong build and long hair that came near the bottom of his back. There were even these overlapping images.
Each one situated in the center of his chest, that would depict various shapes and symbols that were glowing in the center of them. A number of which were completely foreign to her, yet there was one that stood out among them all for the fleeting of moments that burned strongly into her memory.
It was white in color. Oval in shape, much like an egg. In the center, was a large white dot and a half circle around that on the lower right side, that had a long line attached to the base and going down. Before the vision faded as the potion wore off.
Zecora ended up muttering at barely a whisper, the following words in disbelief and reverence as her whole body shook in both excitement and fear. “No, you are no Shaman as you say, but far more renowned, ... By the ancestors as my guide, a true mage of white has been found.”
*Point of view: third person* *Location: Appleloosa. To the north east*
Out in the middle of the desert, where the sun was nearly two-thirds of the way across the sky. There was a gathering of small tents made up of colorful patterns of triangles and squares that were adorning the cloth being used in their construction.
At the outer edge of the settlement. Stood a small group comprised of three adults and one young lady. All of which, belonging to the Buffalo tribe. This was apparent with their powerful muscles that could be seen under the fur and small horns protruding from their heads.
The males would wear a type of vest that had various patterns put on them and necklaces with colored beads strung through. They even wore short pants that had some decent wear and tear on them. Especially on the ends, as they came down just above the knees. And just below those, were some hooves that were freshly caked on with dirt due to them constantly running through the desert.
Two of the adults were young males of equal build, except one had long hair. While the other was nearly shaved down to the skin for their heads. The third adult looked a fair bit larger and imposing with the way he was crossing his arms. He even had a strong stone face that one would believe required a metaphorical wrecking ball in order to change from a glance. As for the youngest out of them all. This was a female of their tribe and she was looking rather unamused at the sight before her right now.
Now, as for the two young adults. They were pretty much butting heads and scraping their horns against one another in a clear display of dominance. As they growled and bared their teeth to one another. The long haired one yelled out, while spraying his spit all over the other's face. “I should be the one to wed our princess! For I am the swiftest of our clan!”
The short-haired one responded in kind and coated the other males face. “No! I am the swiftest! It will be I that weds the princess!” This only continued as they dug their hoofs into the reddish-brown ground for as much leverage as possible.
This got them to be at the point in which they were both leaning in so far, that the gap between their bodies resemble that of a pyramid. In fact, if either one of them were to slip right there. Then the pair would quickly fall face first with how they were in need of the other one’s support. But clearly this had not crossed their minds at all, because of how much further they were going into their argument.
The female could only shake her head in clear annoyance and pinched the bridge of her nose, while saying just under her breath. “And here I thought we were Buffaloes... Not Bulls...” Of course, this went completely unnoticed by the pair. But the larger one raised an eyebrow as he was glancing over to the smaller one, before replying in a deep voice. “Hmmm-hmm. Youth always brings arrogance. We can only pray that they gain humility.”
The argument had grown to the point that they had reached out to one another and locked their fingers so they were now in a pushing match. While not leaving their current leaning position. The long-haired Buffalo then yelled out. “No creature on these planes can outrun me.”
To that, the short-haired Buffalo ended up replying in the exact same words in kind. As these two were going on. It became more evident with how their faces were pretty much touching one another, that they could have been twins if not for the way they cut their hair.
The female had rolled her eyes at this and was turning to go somewhere else after clearly having her fill of stupid boys. But stopped as her vision caught sight of something just to the right of the two squabbling buffaloes. As she was intently staring and using her hand as a visor to block the Sun. The bigger one had caught on and was tracking her vision and doing the same.
Whatever it was, it could be seen coming from the direction that the sun was going to be setting within the next few hours, so it was partially blinding their vision. Although, whatever was being the cause, was far too small thanks to its current position compared to theirs. But the huge dust cloud it was creating was making it quite easy spot to begin with.
The long-haired one then pulled away and other mirrored the action, before taking a running stance side by side. Clearly what the female and the bigger Buffalo were looking at went completely unnoticed by them, as they crouched down lower and placed both of their palms onto the ground. Then, in perfect unison. The pair yelled out the following before taking off. “I shall prove to be the fast one by making it to that cliffside before you! Ready… Set, go!”
And with that they were off. As a set of dirt trails were being kicked with each stride of their powerful legs. It didn't take much time until they were both going at a top speed of sixty kilometers an hour. Which of course, was far faster than a human could ever sprint. The distance that they were going would have taken them nearly a minute to reach from start to finish.
Although the object which was previously being observed had already caught up to the female and older Buffalo and passed by them. This ended up displacing so much dirt, along with a powerful stream of air that it had completely messed up both of their clothing and elicited is set of coughing fits from the two as they continued to watch just where it was going.
Within six to seven seconds, the unknown creature had already crossed the halfway marker for the self-imposed race that the other younger males had set up, which took them a good thirty seconds to get up to. At the very moment that they all had gotten to the same point. The faster of the three had passed right between the other two and as a result.
The following shockwave that was created, ended up pushing them apart and the Buffaloes were forced to go tumbling as a set of logs would, while still trying to look at what had caused this incident to happen in the first place with wide spinning eyes.
By the time they had stopped rolling and were pushing themselves up onto their elbows to look ahead. The creature was already so far, that the dust cloud had completely obscured its form from either of their sights. Aside from it clearly being slightly taller as themselves and having a pair of legs that left deep indentations in the desert floor. The only other indication as to what it was, could only be the sound it made as it echoed across the plains. “Kahweeeeeeeh! Kahweeeeeeeh!”
Still clearly blinking in slow astonishment. Both the long-haired and the short-haired Buffalo turned towards one another slowly, before the one with the short hair spoke first. “Okay! I'm the second fastest. You can be the third! The comment had clearly infuriated the other as he yelled out, while getting onto his hoofs and taking a defensive stance.
“No! I'll be the second fastest and you can be the third!” In the end, the two went right back to what they were doing and budding heads so hard that it sounded as though a pair of rocks were being struck together repeatedly. This went on until they ended up with their horns getting locked together and yet they still persisted.
Back with the others, who had been left behind. The female had given herself a facepalm before turning away and going somewhere else. At the same time, grumbling to herself incoherently. When it came to the other one. He just stood there unmoving, with his arms crossed and his face showing no change in emotion as he had his attention fully on the two off in the distance that could be heard arguing with how loud they were being.
He then released a heavy sigh, before he started to talk as his eyes drifted towards the sky. “I see that the gods have answered my prayers and sent an emissary to grant my wish…. But it would seem that even the gods have their limits when it comes to the power of stupidity.” That was when his eyes began to slowly shift to take in if any were watching him and found that he was left completely alone.
Taking this as a clear sign. The elder Buffalo then mirrored exactly what the younger female had done earlier and gave himself a facepalm that was so powerful, that it was as loud as thunder. A few seconds later, he can hear the girl calling out from a distance behind himself. “Father, we may want to get back. It sounds as though there might be a storm coming.”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Everfree Forest. Private training ground* *Time: Nine-thirty in the morning. One day after the Bridal Gossip episode*
As of right now, Brex is in the middle of giving Gilda another one of his training sessions. This time it happened to consist of utilizing training dummies. Along with Gilda needing to switch out her weapon with that of a simple smooth staff and headgear that was simply a piece of cloth that would go over her eyes.
As for the training dummies in question. These consisted of wooden poles that were jammed into the ground and an arm that went out a couple of feet. On the end, was a piece of rope that was hanging down and attached to a punching bag full of sand.
Luckily, it was a windy day in the forest thanks to it not being under the strict management of the ponies. It was because of this, that the swinging objects could move freely so they did not require any external tampering by Brex as he was giving instructions.
During all of this, Rory was on the far end of the camp and tied securely to a tree. This all being thanks to some of that one wire Brex used once before in order to haul that tree stump out of the ground when doing that landscaping job for the town all those weeks back. As for the reason that she was in this current situation. It was due to her antics in trying to go through with the plan she mentioned only the day before.
What made it more amusing, was how she was gagged and giving off these sensual moans as she was displaying her enjoyment and being treated in such a way. Although this was quite a problem when it came to Gilda however. As if the training was hard enough on its own, the constant noises from Rory were only serving to throw her off even more as one of the punching bags swung behind and into her back. Only to cause the Griffin to fall over.
As Gilda rolled over to sit on to her tail. The blindfold was roughly pulled off before she gave Brex a harsh glare before screaming out in anger. “Just what is this meant to even teach me?! This is going to be what! The second time this has happened?” Brex responded to this as he remained standing, with his arms crossed and only a few paces away to be clear of the dummies that were still swinging all over the place.
“This is to help in getting that situation awareness going. Being a griffin gives you the eyes that could see better than any other species out there. Then there's your wings that could sense the most subtle of changes in the wind pressure around. But the rest of your senses are in a lack of a better word... Pathetic.”
“Well, what we need to do is cut off your sense of sight so you can focus on everything else. Heck! You should be thankful that your wings aren't bound up at the moment. This way you can use that to help your other senses to adjust at a much quicker rate. Sharpen your hearing to not only pick up the sound, but to determine exactly where it is. Your sense of touch is not restricted to the feeling of pain or the sensation of something touching you.”
“You got clawed feet with pads underneath. That means you should be able to have a better sense of the vibrations along the ground then that of those Ponies. Your sense of smell and taste can also be used to determining what's nearby. Especially if the object gives off a certain odor into the air when it is trying to hide and hide the sounds it makes.”
“And lastly. Do not forget your mind. Do you not recall when you were watching me set up the dummies ahead of time before the blindfold was put on? Take what you saw and make a mental map of your surroundings and always keep track of where you are in that. Gilda, remember that you are a Griffin, a natural born hunter. Tap into those instincts of yours. Take hold of them, control them. But make sure that they do not control you. Do not blindly follow your instincts, they are merely there to guide you when your other senses cannot pick up the slack.”
Gilda got on to her legs and barged right up to Gambit in a huff and started to poke one of her talons into his chest. She then took the blindfold and shoved it into his right hand after pulling it free from his crossed arm position before she said, “How about this! If it's so easy, then why don't you show me how it's done! Mister know it all King of the Dweebs!”
Gilda then had a victorious smirk on her face, as she stepped back and jammed the pole into the ground so that it was standing on its own before taking her own position that mirrored his own from only moments ago. However, that smirk fell quickly upon what he did and said next.
Taking the cloth into his hands. Brex carefully tied it so it was covering up the mask holes and turned around so that he can walk a dozen paces away, before turning around in Gilda's direction with his arms down at his sides. He then said, in a matter-of-fact tone. “Fine, now here are the rules. This will go on for no less than five minutes. You are allowed to use any an all tactics you can come up with, including weapon skills.”
“Furthermore, you can strike me with that pole as hard as you can, in any way you want. You can even fly if you believe it will give you an advantage. All you have to do is to land a direct hit. And when I say that, I mean a solid hit. Not one where you only hit my clothing. Pretend this is a real fight and don't hold back at all. Strike as though you were intending to do me bodily harm or even to kill! Hell! Treat each one as a death blow.”
“On my part, I will avoid and periodically launch my own counter attacks. Although, when I do that. I will pull my punch at the last possible second so that it does not strike. You win once you hit. Even then if there is still time remaining, the exercise will continue and you are allowed to strike me as many times as you can get in without any repercussions from myself or Rory. No more counter attacks will come. Now doesn't that sound like a good way to relieve some of your pent-up anger towards me?” At the end. His voice turned almost cynical.
Gilda's expression went from concern, to that of determination before grabbing onto her weapon and giving it a quick whirl before yelling out her response. “F-Fine! But don't blame me if you end up getting really hurt!” But she ended up whispering the next part was just low enough that Brex was unable to pick it up. However, the chat window which was still something he can see while being blindfolded, was showing it to him. “You better be telling the truth about this… Otherwise I'm going to get it from Rainbow afterwards...”
Gilda took a moment before taking a strong flap of her wings to shoot herself forward. This was done in order to thrust the end of the staff so that it would hit his left shoulder. This resulted in Brex stepping only half a foot in the opposite direction. Followed with shifting his upper half so that it would twist just enough, that the weapon would pass right by.
In an attempt to get a hit in before her momentum carried her beyond his form. The Griffins left leg kicked out so she could try and strike him in the side of the head. Although, in one fluid motion. He managed to duck his head so that her leg would pass over and returned it to its previous position when the limb was clearly gone, without so much as to missing a beat.
Too bad for the Griffin, that leg sweep had messed up her flight pattern, so she needed just a little extra time to get herself reorientated after coming to a stop in the air just several paces behind him. By the time she was now facing Brex once again, she was met with a solid fist coming straight for her face and only stopping an inch or so away from making a solid strike.
Although with the force that was placed into his swing. Gilda could easily feel the rush of air hitting her face to indicate that if it had struck. Then it would have done some real damage to her beak. In that instant. Gilda’s eyes went wide and nearly released a squawk of surprise. There was even an audible hitch in her breathing, that even Brex could pick up.
This ended up causing the Griffin to back off and take a defensive stance out of surprise at the counter attack. She even took a second to give a quick glance at his face and saw that the blindfold was still intact out of suspicion of it not being on just right.
From then on, the rest of the time consisted of Gilda using various means of attack patterns, which had her on the ground and in the air at random intervals. There was even one attack pattern that she used which consisted of throwing her staff in the same way she would with a spear and giving chase as soon as it left her grip. All the while, watching him dodging it as though he knew what she was about to do ahead of time.
This of course, turned out to be a mistake. As he grabbed it in midair and swung it around so that it was in both of his hands and the tip was pointed straight at her neck just as she had come to a stop once she realized her mistake. Only after this was done, did he toss it back to her so that she can grab it again and continue their little game.
Although, Brex was slightly confused as to how she was sounding as though she was breathing quite heavily. After so many days of training together. He knew that it would take a whole lot more than this to get the Griffin to become this winded. But the Roegadyn just contributed it to the shrinking time limit that was getting to her.
When the two of them were down to the final minute. Gilda was breathing quite a bit more heavily. As she struggled to stay on her feet after constantly going at him with what he thought to be everything she had. Only to end up with a small scare after another whenever he launched one of those unorthodox counter moves. Each one would come at her, just as an attack of hers failed or her eye’s lost sight of him for just a fraction of a second.
So, out of clear desperation. Gilda simply came at him, while whirling her staff and doing random strikes at his legs. Although Brex would just dance around them and move only what was needed of his form. This consisting of sidestepping, ducking, bending over at odd angles and doing a backflip or two, so that he would end up with his body upside down and balancing on just one of his arms.
Of course, Gilda tried to take advantage of those times as well, but Brex ended up going into a weird type of spin. This move would end up with him making it impossible for her to get near. As his body twirled from one limb to another for support and the momentum would carry him into the next segment of the strange spin even more. Even any attempt at attacking him in this state would only result in her weapon getting kicked away and nearly knocked out of her arms completely a few times.
Eventually, this would lead to him sliding on the ground. Only to come to a stop with one leg stretched out straight. As the other was now bent so that the end of the leg would be on the floor and knee sticking up. As for his arms. One would be on his hip and his head would be propped up with the other one, as the elbow was touching the ground. Of course, this greatly confused the Griffin as to how he was so nimble and more so when it came to pulling off that last set of actions to end up in such a pose.
When Brex got back onto his feet. He opened his mouth and called out to Gilda, that there was only fifteen seconds remaining. She had grown increasingly agitated and launched herself at him. Fully intending to ram right in to his body out of pure desperation. But instead of getting out of the way. Brex did something else that Gilda had not expected at all.
Right as she had gotten closer, he had quickly knocked the weapon out of her hands with his left arm and maneuvered himself so that he could grab her from behind after doing a half circle step at the last possible instant. Without wasting any time at all, he had reached around and pinned her wings against her back along with her arms after getting her in a bear hug and locking his fingers onto one another. This completely stopped her momentum after shifting one of his legs forward to brace himself.
Not even a second had gone by, before she felt her body lunging backwards until the whole world was upside down and the ground was coming straight for her head. Brex made sure that he was gripping near her waist while doing this and lifted the girl before arching his back to go into the move.
This ended up getting a loud squawk of panic from Gilda, just before her head was about to hit the grass. Although, before that could even happen. Brex already shifted his other leg, so that it was behind him a little more and this gave the Roegadyn the ability to stop the German Suplex, that he was conducting from being fully executed on the girl.
Gilda's eyes were as wide as dinner plates as she was breathing heavily and staring straight down to where she was about to collide. After a second or two holding this pose. Brex spoke out in an amused tone, while the front of his mask was pressing firmly into the base of her wings.
“If I had let that go all the way, then the back of your head, shoulders and pretty much most of your upper body would have been pretty messed up. It is never a good idea to rush your opponent like that unless you know for certain that it's going to make contact.”
After a few seconds of this and nothing coming from Gilda. Aside from some shuttering, especially from around the wing sections that was pressing into him. Brex then continued to say, “I would suggest you calm yourself down Gilda. Otherwise, I won't be able to return to an upright position and put you down properly. Judging by the way your wings are tensing up. I'm pretty sure that I gave you too much of a scare and I apologize. Got a bit too caught up in the moment.”
Gilda quickly answered that, while slightly stuttering for a second. Before returning to her usual way of speaking. “I’m-I'm not scared! J-Just frustrated that I didn't get to hit you that's all! Now I know I'm your slave and all, but don't you think you're going a little overboard with the touchy feeling! Geez! No idea you were such a humongous perv!”
As Gilda was saying this. Her face would be flushed red, along with the feathers around her neck being slightly ruffled. But due to the blind fold he was wearing. The Roegadyn was left unaware of the sight, as he was shifting his body to swing the female Griffin to the front of himself. Thereby pressing his mask into the base of her wings constantly and eliciting a set of small gasps from Gilda that she tried very hard to contain.
It took a few more seconds, but Brex managed to place Gilda back down and released her before giving an annoyed Huff and placing his fists on either side of his waist to answer. “And I've told you before that you are not my slave. Keep in mind that I am not a Griffin, nor have I verbally accepted this arrangement as such. Don't go throwing your Griffin customs at me so casually. Remember this is a form of punishment for what you did.”
Gilda only crossed her arms before turning her back on him as she started to ask her questions in an angry tone. “I still don't understand how you can even move like that. All those weird spins and flips. And not to mention that last move you used on me. Also, you had the blindfold on the entire time! There's no way you could have been able to do the things you did unless you were cheating!”
Brex only shook his head slowly before answering that, while having a small smirk from behind his mask. “That would be my mind's eye. Or in other words, a person's Situational Awareness. It's a trick that both Rory and myself have developed over the years.” That was when he reached up and slipped the blindfold off of his head, before turning to his right. That happened to be in the opposite direction of Gilda.
Afterwards, he called out just loud enough to be heard over a small distance. “It allows one to not only to fight when they can't see who or what their up against. But to also tell if another is spying on them!” Even during this, Rory who is still bound up against the tree, was already shifting her gaze in the same direction that Brex was right now looking in, before he even spoken up.
There was a small rustling of leaves that was coming from beyond some bushes, before someone in a brown cloak, slowly stepped out and into the open. As they were reaching for the hood to pull it off. It was clear to see a set of golden rings on one arm while the head was slowly being exposed. The voice of Zecora could be heard. “For just how long have you known it to be me, for I was as both silent and still as any tree?”
Brex had started to pat some of the dirt that had gotten on to his clothing, thanks to a few of his dodging tactics as he replied. “Oh, I have my ways, that’s for sure.” What Brex wasn't going to say, was how he had already placed a marker on Zecora, while he was conversing with her through the butterfly minion. Although, there were some other signs that gave her away, which he was going to have fun with telling her right now.
“It was already known that you were following us from Ponyville. It does make me wonder just how long you might have been waiting in the forest for us to enter today. Then there was the time that I was securing Rory up. You have some pretty good experience when it comes to not making too much noise with those accessories of yours on.”
“Still, I was still able to pick them up fairly easily. Here’s a little tip. Use some tape or cloth to keep them from shifting. You have bands on your upper left arm. The right one has them at the wrist. Also, I know your right-handed. Hmm. Really makes one wonder what you were doing in those bush’s while I was busy with Rory.”
“Not to mention the way the wind was blowing. Ended up in lending some help as well to give you away. With the way that hill over there gives my training ground some cover. The wind moves around quite erratically in here. It made it quite easy for me to pick up your smell. I've been in this forest quite often and I know where some of the plants grow. Even memorize a few of their scents. There was one in particular that I picked up that I know does not grow anywhere near here.”
Brex could hear Zecora saying something as her hood came completely down. Although, there was this background noise of a different set of words being said, that indicated to him that she was speaking her native tongue. Oddly enough, it came up in his chat window to display it to have a striking resemblance to something from earth, known as Swahili.
These consisting of the Zebra saying. “Sneaking up on a mage of white was quite foolish on my part. I just hope that he will be able to listen to my story, as well as my request and know that it is true and from the heart.”
Clearly, Gilda was quite confused due to the way she was lifting an eyebrow and looking between the Zebra and himself. But her jaw dropped soon after, when she heard him speaking again. But clearly, she could not understand with the way Brex was using the translation function he had in order to communicate with Zecora in her own language. “Mage wa nyeupe, huh? Itabidi niseme, ndiyo kwanza nimesikia ikiitwa hivyo.” In translation, it came out as the following. “A mage of white, huh? I'll have to say, that's the first that I've heard of it being called that.”
“Being as I've never shown those powers before you. Then it begs the question as to how you know. But seeing as you are at least somewhat remorseful for trying to sneak up on me. I'll listen to what's troubling you, as well as this request of yours.” He then gestured towards Gilda with his left thumb before continuing. “I suggest we both speak in a language that she can at least understand. Also. if you could lighten up on the rhyming for her benefit, then I would appreciate it.”
Zecora’s eyes went wide from clear surprise from hearing him in her own language. Before they quickly turn to that of understanding, along with a small smile as she started to talk. “Very well, if that is what you wish. Zecora approached Brex and only stopped once she had gotten to about five paces away and immediately dropped onto her knees and gave a low bow. She was essentially touching the grass with her forehead and started to talk without lifting her head as Brex lifted an eyebrow questionably at the act from behind his mask.
“First, please allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Zecora, daughter of our village leader. I have come here in order to ask a great favor from the Mage in White. For many years, the land that my tribe settled on, has been slowly dying. Every year the rain comes less and our groundwater grows thin. It matters not what we do, but even that causes sickness.”
“Our crops yield less food as the seasons goes on. Strife and malice have grown rampant and reaches far and wide with no end in sight. Peaceful families would one day be normal as they can be and the next, found to be violent and ripping one another apart, without any real rhyme or reason in sight.”
“I ask that you lend us your aid. Many of my sisters and brothers are long gone and those that cannot make the journey have no other course than to remain as a few of us go out into the world. Just as them, my task is to learn as much as possible. In hopes that a solution might be found. Powerful Shamans are what we seek, but it is already known that alone may not be enough. What we require above all else, is a Mage of White. One with this symbol carved into their very soul.”
Zecora went ahead and taken that opportunity to grab on to a small rock, in order to dig away at the ground so that a large enough drawing could be seen. After a few seconds of her digging away and pulling her hand so that it was no longer blocking his vision. The Roegadyn's eyes instantly shot open upon seeing a crudely made drawing of his White Mage soul stone. Along with the picture that came with it, that resembled a staff with a single point at the top being half encircled.
Brex had approached Zecora, who had already placed her head down so that she was no longer able to look at him and place a hand onto her shoulder, in order to help guide her into a more comfortable sitting position. As Brex was about to speak, he found himself unable to let any words out upon seeing the sight of her silently crying, as she made a pleading look with her eyes that were now looking right into his own.
Of course, the real reason that he had such a reaction, was because of this character always being portrayed as a strong female. One that hardly ever showed any weakness. A person that was ready to lend help and always made sure to keep others at ease. This was evident in both the show and in so many of the displaced stories that he remembered from his old life.
From behind his mask. Brex couldn't help but to deeply frown as his thoughts began to swim wildly. One thought had him speaking in an English accent, that was clearly confused and frustrated all at once. “What’s with those eyes?! How do they do that? its like they just inflate! Is it a natural defense mechanism?” After, his mind continued with other thoughts. One part of him spoke out against having to help Zecora. Seeing as he would have to leave Ponyville and would need to go all the way to the other side of the ocean.
Moreover, was the fact that he not gone there yet and had no means of instantaneously traveling there. Yes, he could always call in for the Yuna to come and pick him up, but he wanted to hold off on using the ship for the moment. This meaning he would have to go with the conventional rout. Which would take quite a bit of time. Especially with the Gala being close to two months away.
Also, was how he would end up leaving Ponyville and the Element bearers to be pretty much defenseless if a threat should arise like the last one that was clearly beyond their means of dealing with. Sure, he did have body doubles in place, but they were nowhere near strong enough to do what was needed. As it currently stands, they were at pretty much the same level of strength when compared to a regular person in terms of levels.
As for the other side of his internal argument. It was all for helping Zecora because it was without a doubt the right thing to do, no matter how cheesy it sounded in his head. The girl had quite literally thrown herself at his feet in order to deliver this request and would have been incredibly rude to deny it. Not to mention, if he could do any good at all to help them or at least to lessen their burdens, then there was no real reason not to.
While this was going on, he had left Zecora and untied Rory so that she could be more active in this discussion. At least from an outsider's point of view. Plus, it would just seem really weird to leave Rory tied up and squirming like a beast. This is when he started to talk with Rory through the mental connection and the two of them ended up going back and forth with the following.
“My options aren't exactly limited. But I'd have to make a judgment call on this. What are your thoughts? Either I stay and out right refuse, or go with playing the Garry Sue card?”
“Master, you do know I can hear your thoughts pretty well from before you started talking to me, right? It's pretty clear that you really want to help her, but there are all these reasons that you're trying really hard to come up with so that you can stay here.”
“Rory, how many times do I have to keep repeating the same line over and over again. I'm beginning to think I should just bring a record player and have it continuously saying the words on a loop. I'm not a hero! I'm just a guy who doesn't remember much about himself and is in the body of a video game character. For all I know, I was a sleaze bag. I'm not about to go globetrotting just for the sake of doing what's right.”
“Please Master! You can't keep using the excuse that you're only in this to survive. If that was the case, then you would have already taken over Equestria and militarized the whole continent. Not to mention, dethroned both Celestia and Luna. Don't think I haven't already seen or heard those thoughts of yours when it comes to countermeasures against the two of them.”
“But even so Rory. I can't exactly leave them on their own. Case in point, Nightmare Moon would have most likely have killed the Element bearers or at least seriously wound them. And Applejack's little fiasco with the food poisoning? I took a good look at that stuff and I'm pretty sure it would have done a lot worse than simply making all of those pony’s sick. So, I'm really glad that I had nurse Red Heart put in that order for medicine ahead of time.”
“Then there's Trixie who literally, almost got squished along with her stage wagon. You were even there when it came to the Dragon part. Fluttershy was not going to be able to affect a young adult Red Dragon that's practically meant for another world that is not all about sunshine and rainbows. They would already be six piles of smelly shit in its cave around now.”
“Besides that. What are we going to do if I do go on this and I don't get back before the Gala? I'm pretty sure that Zecora’s going to be taking me to wherever it is I need to go and if she's not here, then there's no one that can help when Apple Bloom ends up playing and messes around with trying to give herself a cutie mark? Zecora is the one that knows how to fix that situation.”
“Master, there's a very simple solution that you're just not seeing here.”
“And exactly what is it? I guess I could call Blaze Caster and have him stick around Ponyville for a while, but he's busy on his end. Then there's also the teachers I set up in the schools. But they're busy contending with their students. So that's out of the question. I don't want to tip my hand just yet and reveal my connections to call in a security detail from HQ to watch the girls! I just-.”
“Master! Please calm down! The answer for which I am speaking of is standing right in front of you.”
“Huh, what?!”
“Exactly what I said. I will stay in Ponyville and watch over things as you are gone. As for the time frame, I believe getting the Yuna and coming up with an excuse as to why you're able to ride it would be the best course of action. Instead of taking weeks, if not months to cross the sea. The unit can easily get you there within days. There will be plenty of time to do whatever you need to do and come back with plenty of time to spare.”
“But-But, why are you saying that you're going to stay?!”
“Come now Master? This won't be the first time that we’ve been apart for a while. Besides, you could always sneak away and pop up here for a little visit once in a while. And of course, I promise I will behave myself while you're gone. Although, I do have one thing that I must ask that you do for me. And that's to bring your maids along for the ride as well.”
“Okay, okay! I can understand your reasoning for staying. Seeing as you're really strong. But why should I bring Rin and Lin along with me?”
“Master, even though I'm a part of you and was originally created by your memories and thoughts. There are times at even I am surprised at how much I know when it comes to girls compared to yourself. We've been training them for a while now and they've gotten pretty good. This would be a great opportunity to spend some time with them as well. Besides, I worry about you and having an extra set of eyes that we both trust to tag along with you on this trip. Going alone is not a good idea.”
“After all, it's been quite a while since they've been able to attend to your needs, other than those brief times that you come over in the middle of the night. Honestly Master, there's no other option other than pulling Blaze Caster off of his current job. Besides, we all know how much you like to play-.”
“Rory! If you so much as finish that sentence... I swear! I will come up with the most horrible punishment imaginable for you to go through. And it will last for a full month after this is all done! Is that clear!”
"... ... ..."
“Good, I thought so! Fine, I'll take them along with me. But I just hope there are better behaved. I don't know if it's their personalities or what we did. But those two can be rather... I'm not entirely sure as to what word to use to describe them.”
“I would call them enthusiastic. The go-to and get things done type. Self-starters and are always good at keeping an eye on the details.”
“Rory? It sounds more like you’re trying to set them up for a job interview just now. I would mostly consider them as being… Fanatical, sometimes way too eager to please. Real snippy at anyone or anything when it comes to what could possibly get me upset. Do you remember when we last took them with us anywhere? We brought them on a mission and some random mare on the street just stuck her nose up at me. Those two tried to kill her later that evening when we had our eyes off of them.”
“Really! It's a good thing we caught on before it was too late. At least you were able to hold back when Rainbow accused me of being a pedophile! Rainbow's head would already be rolling on the ground before a single second would have gone by after she completed that sentence.”
“Please Master! You worry too much. It's been a while since that incident and we've made sure the train them a little better. Besides, all we have to do is remind them of the last time they were disciplined and that will pretty much snap them back in place. Tee-Hee~.”
Brex had let out a heavy sigh and then turned his attention from Rory, towards that of Zecora. Who was still sitting there during the discussion that only lasted several seconds in the outside world. The female Zebra looked at the two of them for a moment. Before there was a look of realization that quickly crossed her face, as she pointed it out. “Is it possible that the two of you have the ability to communicate without the use of words?”
Gilda, who was standing just a short ways away. Gave out one of her signature scoffs, before replying to that statement. “Yeah right! Those two do this all the time. They just been around each other so long that they can pretty much communicate with only their eyes. I doubt they can actually talk to one another through their thoughts.”
Gilda then laughed before continuing. “Now don't tell me the two of you believe all this nonsense? Didn't she only just start going to Ponyville recently? How are we to know that she's really telling the truth about her people needing help? It could just be a trick to get a male to come back home with her.” When She finished. The Griffin was looking away and slowly scratching the back of her neck rather awkwardly.
Without even looking towards Gilda to see this and keeping his gaze on Zecora. Brex gestured with his head towards the Zebra and Rory got the hint to move closer. She then pointed her right hand towards the girl on the ground and chanted something under her breath.
This was instantly followed with a seemingly, undetectable wave that washed over a set area to form a semitransparent bubble that disappeared after a few seconds. Of course, with Zecora being the center of the spell, she was obviously caught in its effects. but Gilda was within the range that was specified as well. Although she looked to be unaware as to what was going on. Unlike Zecora who is looking around curiously.
The next thing to happen, was Brex asking a question. Which the Zebra started to answer without any hesitation on her part. “Are you telling the truth about what is happening on your lands?” Without a hint of trying to resist. Zecora answered with a determined yes.
As for Gilda, she ended up standing there with her arms crossed and giving a glare before saying, “That proves nothing.” Brex merely turned his attention over towards Rory, who now had this unsettling grin on her face. Before she called towards Gilda and started a back-and-forth question and answer series.
“Ok then, how about this? So, Gilda. When was the last time you got it on with Rainbow and where?”
“I don't see that it's any of your business, but it was last night. It was in her place. First in the living room and afterwards, we moved to her bed… Huh?! Hold on! Why did I just tell you all that? Yes, we did get it on! NO, wait, I'm trying to say we didn't! But we sure did! Ghawwww! What’s happening?!?!?!:
“Hmmm, ok then. How about this one. Gilda, just what is your honest opinion of my Master?”
“He's a, he's a... He's definitely not a dweeb! Also, I think that-. Mymph, nnngh! Muummph!” At this point. Gilda was clearly panicking from the way her eyes appeared. She had even slapped both of her hands across her beak in order to keep it shut, as she was clearly trying to say something for all to hear.
But even though the words were trying to get out, they only came as muffled noises that no one there could make out due to her actions. There was even a heavy blush that was coming across her cheeks that threatened to change her entire coloring. This wasn’t just limited to the white feathered area’s either.
Brex spoke up to this after putting a hand on Rory's left shoulder. Okay that's more than enough for a demonstration Rory. Please cancel the spell. It isnt nice to tease Gilda in such a way. You could have at least picked a question that wouldn't embarrass her this much.”
“Besides, I already know she doesn't think of me as a dweeb. She’s a good girl once you get to know her.” Gilda was still trying to say stuff about him. But as soon as Rory had canceled the spell, did the Griffin finally let out a huff of annoyance through her nose. Before she allowed herself to talk once more. “No one mentioned you could make others tell the truth! That's just not fair and you know it! And you! Don’t go calling me a, g-good girl!”
Brex gave out a small sigh, before gesturing for Zecora to stand up. This was done by him reaching for her hand after leaning down enough to reach it. From then on, the two began to discuss the details a little further. While at the same time, Gilda was let go for the day, as training was cut short. This of course gave her the excuse to head on out so that she can meet up with Rainbow before having to rush off to her part-time job.
About an hour had gone by for Brex, Rory and Zecora. As they were sitting inside of her house and around a tiny table. On said table, was an unfurled map of Zebrabwe. The plan was that they would head out in the morning the day after tomorrow. That at least gave him some time to get his affairs in order, as well as the needed supplies.
If truth be told. Brex could probably leave right then and there, if he was to go alone. But the time frame was an excuse to not divulge his ability to travel quickly. Zecora was led to believe that it would take that long for two more traveling companions to meet up with them and head towards the western part of the continent. Along with making the traveling arrangements.
From that location. They would get on a air ship and sail across the sea to check out the situation that the Zebra had filled them in on. This also gave Zecora a bit of time to whip up a sizable batch of the oils and tonics that she had previously promised to the spa sisters, so that they would have enough to last until they came back. Which meant that she was going to be busy pretty much all night long. But assured Brex and Rory that she would be ready to go at the appointed time.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Ponyville* *Time: Three-thirty in the afternoon*
After having the extended talks with Zecora were finished in regards to the situation and traveling plans. Brex eventually got back to town and upon entering their hotel room, he started to use one of his Link Pearl’s to make the suitable preparations. One call was made to HQ to have some transportation brought up. Even with it being on such short notice, Brex got the feeling that it would not have been a problem if he wanted to leave that very moment by the way the Changeling on the other end sounded.
Next up was the direct line with his maids back in Canterlot. Once everything was properly explained to the both of them. The two sounded as though they were about to make their way right then and there to Ponyville, even if it meant flying in broad daylight. To prevent this, Brex gave them the explicit order not to draw attention to themselves and that he would go and pick them up when it was time. All they needed to do, was to rest up and pack for a long trip.
Brex even made a stop over at the flower sisters place in order to give Rose a heads up that he would be out of town for what would most likely be about a month and a half. But he did leave out a bunch of stuff and just played it off as a business trip. Of course, her sisters were there as well and each one was giving various types of reactions. Daisy, who he had barely any interactions with at all. Just gave him a shifty glare before turning to that of neutrality. Which was pretty normal for the mare, so he didn't take much offense to it at all.
With Lily, she was a little concerned. But after a little bit of convincing that he would eventually come back had calmed the mare down a little and wished him good luck on his travels. Even though the two of them hadn't seen each other very much since the Summer Sun celebration. Lily still doted on him even if just a little bit. It kind of seemed that the incident with Rainbow had sparked a protective Instinct in the mare. At least she wasn't being all weird about it. She had even asked him questions as to where he was going and if he had the proper clothing for the trip.
When it came to Rose, who was the one he went to go and see initially. Unsurprisingly took it the worst as she ended up giving him a hug after everything was explained. She ended up crying a little bit and asking over and over again if he was going to come back the Ponyville. Which he promised multiple times. To the Roegadyn, it became painfully obvious from the way rose was crying and pretty much smearing her snot onto his clothing, he was definitely going to need a moment or two once he got out of that shop to use that cleaning spell on himself.
But after a little bit, it started to get a bit uncomfortable for both him and the rest in the room. So Brex went ahead and invited Rose and her sisters if they were interested, in going to the local bar later that night for a small farewell party of sorts. Rose was all for it and so was Lily. Although when it came to the last third of the sisters, it had taken a little bit of effort to convince Daisy into coming as well. Even though he didn’t know her well enough. He could pretty much see a small smile that crossed her lips at the idea of going out with her family for an activity, that doesn’t have anything to do with work
Although, once Brex mentioned the get together. There was this sudden jolt that ran up his spine that he was not ready for and his senses went wild for barely a second as it faded. He even noticed how Rory's fur was standing on end at the same time, which clearly indicated that she had the same type of response as himself and wondered if something was about to happen later.
After the visit at the shop was concluded. Brex and Rory doubled back to their hotel so that the one running the place, known as Young Geezer was let in on him being gone for a while. But Rory was going to stay in his room so it was all paid in full up front. This of course also included Gilda's tab as well, seeing as he didn't really give her much of a choice on where she was living and she didn't have a lot of money to her name just yet.
And speaking of Gilda. During his little talk on the Link Pearl. An order was given so that when the supply train containing a delivery of the Gobblers were to head to Canterlot, before getting sent off in different directions along their train stations. There would be some dropped off and delivered directly to Gilda's door.
Even though she was technically an adult and already had a part-time job. He didn't really feel right about leaving her without having a somewhat steady meat supply. This was because otherwise, she would end up going into the forest by herself and he was a little worried about something happening while away in another country.
Now, the next bit was when things got just a little bit interesting to say the least. After taking care of the previous items. Brex, along with Rory. Went into the Guild Hall. Normally, he would be seen as someone who would go in on a daily basis, in order to take the available quests. And it was because of that very reason, that there were quite a few regularly posted ones by Ponies who appreciated his work. So, in a long story short. Brex had reoccurring customers in a way and these ponies preferred his assistance.
Seeing as he was about to be gone for some time. Brex originally intended to go in, in order to make sure that the quest givers were notified. Instead of being disappointed when he doesn't show up. But as soon as he had come in, he was pretty much blindsided by one of the friendly mare’s that was running the counter.
Apparently, they were going to choose that day to give Gambit, his other identity a promotion. Brex had seen this a number of times when it came to others whenever he was in the guild buildings ever so often. However, even if this is his first time being promoted, the way to did it here was quite different from what was expected.
Instead of simply taking the Adventurer into the back and go through the whole song and dance of re-issuing their status plate. Brex found that there was a banner with the words, “Congratulations Gambit.” What's more, was the fact that Applejack and Fluttershy were inside as well and sitting at one of the tables. After having a quick glance, he could tell that they were in the middle of dividing up their bits from what was most likely them completing a quest.
Although what struck him as odd, was the way the two of them were acting once they caught sight of both him and Rory. Fluttershy looked way more nervous than normal. Even to the point that she was literally giving the impression that she was shrinking into her chair. As for Applejack, who was sitting on the other side of the table. Her eyes went wide before turning away so that her face couldn't be seen. She even went through the trouble of reaching up and tilting her hat so that it was blocking more of her head.
After seeing that kind of reaction. Brex began to think to himself. “I've never had any real encounters with Fluttershy, aside from when I started doing quests in town. As for Applejack. Hmm... I suppose she's still a little embarrassed about that fumble. I should probably expect the same from Rarity if I happen to see her again. On earth they probably would have been labeled as a pervert and arrested after such a scene, although I had no control over it to begin with. I wonder if it’s the complete opposite and they fear that I’m thinking of them in such a way?”
His thoughts were taken away from that subject, when he heard the mare coming up to him from behind the counter. She happened to be a shade of green, just a little darker than Lyra. But clearly with a completely different personality. The mare was just about the say something to him, but was interrupted by Lyra herself that was coming through the back door leading into the office and walking backwards with a cardboard box being held tightly in her arms.
The mare was pretty much screaming up a storm as she banged the box against the frame of the doorway and turned around before slamming it onto the desk, so that she could bring her attention back to whoever was inside of the office that she had just come from. “You got no right in firing me! I broke no rules! And if you think I'm going to take this lying down from a stallion, then you better think twice! I'll make sure to complain to the higher-ups about this misuse of power!”
Brex raised an eyebrow to this and look towards his mini-map to see who was in the room. From where all the dots were located. It showed six within the Guild Hall entrance and three more within the office. After a few seconds, Lyra could be seen backing away as the occupants were coming out an into view.
The first one who exited, was the town mayor, that went by the name of Mayor Mare. She was an Earth Pony. Moderate phthalo blue for the eyes. Her mane was that of a light cornflower bluish gray, with a lighter streak going through it. Pale, light grayish amber the rest of her fur was that of a pale, light grayish amber. At the moment she could plainly be seen wearing a stereotypical businesswoman suit that was both functional and stylish to show her position in town.
And between anyone there, including Lyra. She was easily the most riled Pony out of all of them with the way she was scowling at the mint mare. Mayor Mare then approached Lyra, who is now on the other side of the counter and slammed both of her hands onto the wooden surface before leaning in to yell out her own reply.
“Now see here little missy! I'm not sure if you're simply ignoring what was said or you have a hearing problem. Do you even realize just who it is you're yelling at? There's pretty much no other Pony that's higher up on the chain than Sir Fancy Pants!” Mayor Mare then turned around after giving a heavy huff of annoyance, so that she was back to her usual calm demeanor that Brex had seen around town now and then, so that she could talk to whoever was still in the office.
There came a voice that instantly registered to Brex, as they came out with another by their side. “I dare say madam, you are quite uncouth. As the receptionist here, you are the face of the guild and are expected to conduct yourself with a particular code of conduct. It is sufficed to say that your services will no longer be needed and considering your outburst, I have made a proper decision. Furthermore, I would under normal circumstances, say that we are appreciative of all you have done in this branch, but in light of recent activities. That would definitely not be the case here.”
The one who stepped through first, was none other than Sir Fancy Pants himself. Fleur De Lis was being guided right behind him as they held hands. Lyra was looking a little nervous now and was attempting to stand her ground, even though her voice was still shaky and apparently the situation was just beginning to catch up to her brain by the looks of it. “I-It's like I said already, I didn't do anything wrong.”
Mayor Mare was crossing her arms and giving a small glare towards Lyra, as Fleur De Lis was doing the same. As for fancy pants. The stallion was standing there unmoved as he calmly took off his monocle and wiped it with a cloth that was tucked away in his lapel.
After breathing onto it a few times to get some condensation to assist with the cleaning. The handkerchief was placed back into his pocket, as the monocle was set where it belonged in front of his right eye. This was then followed by a subtle raise of an eyebrow, which clearly sent the message for the Mint mare to go on.
“I keep up the records. As well as the rewards. It's not like I'm embezzling the company or any such nonsense as that. So, tell me exactly what did I do wrong that's worth getting fired over!” By this point, everyone that was there had their eyes glued to Sir Fancy Pants, this including Applejack and Fluttershy that was at the far table. But it would also seem that the ruckus had called in a few other bystanders that were partially sticking their head through the door to see what was happening inside of the building.
Fancy Pants slowly paced around the counter, by going the long ways, so that he had ample time to give his reaction. While having that professional businessman attitude going on that showed that he had hardly any real emotions that could be used to read his thoughts. He spoke in a slow and deliberate tone, that would leave no mistake in what he was about to say next.
“Miss Lyra Heartstrings... What you have done is utterly inexcusable. Yes, you are kind, courteous and helpful to others. Yet you seem to have a particular disdain for a certain, let’s say… Group. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been looking into your conduct. It has come to the attention of not only myself, but the other board members that organize and run the Adventurers Guild of your actions.”
“Under normal circumstances, my present company would not be required. However, this case involves a dear friend of mine. Which felicitated my personal involvement.” When the stallion had gotten to that part about a friend. His eyes were clearly shifting to look directly at Brex, just before going back to the Pony in front of him, right as he finished going around the end of the counter and was now walking straight at her in an agonizingly slow pace before continuing.
“I will now retell your offenses, since you have oh so conveniently forgotten them already. Honestly, you should have just left with your dignity intact. But since it has been drawn out, then there is no course but to let your misdeeds be known publicly by those present today.” Lyra's eyes had shot open before she whirled around on the spot to finally notice that it was not the four of them there alone and began to clearly panic, as she shook on the spot and quickly motioned for the stallion to stop with her head shaking furiously.
“Miss Lyra Heartstrings. You have been found guilty of the following charges. Withholding earnings that are to be issued upon the completion of a quest, once the conditions have been plainly accomplished or a signature from the quest giver has been retrieved.
“Falsifying reports so that payment would either be diminished, due to claiming that the conditions were not fully met or putting false statements that would result in nearly a week of withholding earnings to individuals that work for this organization. Just how are we meant to keep those that are willing to do the job from simply up and leaving after such a severe level of mistrust to be shown as thanks for good work.”
Lyra tried to argue with Fancy Pants with them going back and forth as the stallion Drew closer. Brex couldn't help but to raise both of his eyebrows at the imposing nature Fancy Pants was giving off right now. The calm and collected Pony he knew was pretty much replaced with a brick wall, that gave the impression that it was about to fall on you, if you so much as looked at it funny. Well at this point, it was pretty much more of a spiked wall that was slowly coming at you in one of those cheesy dungeon traps one would see on a Saturday morning cartoon show.
“L-Like I said, I did absolutely nothing wrong I tell you!”
“I see Miss. Then why don't you tell me exactly what you were up to?”
“I-I was just trying to make sure that we weren't getting swindled by some random Pony off the streets. I merely stayed on the side of caution.”
“Well Miss. I can certainly see the merit in that argument. However, it would have more weight if it was a one-time occurrence. For as long as a particular male... No, what I should say is, for as long as the only male in Ponyville has been coming to this office. You have not once given him his reward on time and would come up with one excuse after another to write down on the report. All in order to delay his payment time and time again.”
“I didn't do such a deed! Sure, his rewards may have been delayed a little, but I had good grounds to do so. Mayor Mare, please believe me!”
“I am the one asking questions, it would do you some good to remember that. Oh, and is that so? How about we take a look at some of these shall we? It just so happens that I happen to have a few of the copies here in my possession. How about we all go through them in chronological order. Of course, we won't be reading them all due to the numbers. There are quite a few and I rather not take up the time of everybody here.”
“First being, the completion of two quests, along with written testimony of his deeds. I can also see that there were some notes written by the quest giver, but they seem to be scratched out. We took the liberty of reaching out to them and they do recall exactly what they wrote originally. They would say, the adventurer known as Gambit received positive reviews and even a pay increase, due to how much work he did when compared to the original reward.”
“Another is several days after. Upon completing a quest that required him to do some repairs to the local schoolhouse. You stated here on these notes, that a building inspector was required to go to the site and determine that it was up to building code. This would be understandable, if it were not for some additional records that we found tucked away in a separate folder that was clearly unmarked.”
“On it, it showed that an inspector did indeed go there that very day and returned to state that the work was done perfectly and no problems could be found. However, on the official records, it's a whole other story and he was unable to receive the full amount due to, insufficient capabilities. A number of facilities were made completely unsafe for the foals and colts. This falsified report even led to the school being closed for an entire day for another inspector to show up and have it cleared for use.”
“Oh, and let's see right here. I do recall there was an incident involving an Ursa Minor. Carpenters were stretched fairly thin and Gambit lent a hand as well in that time. Here we see quite a lot of scratch marks with a quill to cover up multiple testimonies. Now, I wonder why that is... It would be one thing if this was a clerical error due to the guild for one reason or another, however each and every one of these clerical errors was under your watch.”
“Care to explain why it is that you not only doctored the paperwork, but continuously postpone or dwindle down my friends pay? Furthermore, while you are at this. Do please, also regale us as to your reason for shifting the follow up investigations onto your other staff members. I can only see two possibilities for that second question. One would be your attempt at covering up this grievous misconduct, by not having your face seen so frequently. Or it could possibly be due to a lack of motivation when it comes to your job.”
Mayor Mare and Fleur De Lis had not changed their expressions, that were of that of stern disappointment towards Lyra. But as for the rest of the onlookers, that was another story. Whispers began to go from one Pony to the next, along with some shifty eyes and pointing fingers from just beyond the door that led outside. Fluttershy had her eyes going wide at hearing the mistreatment. From the corner of his eye, Brex had just barely seen a small spark of anger coming from the yellow Pegasus that sent a cold chill through his very being.
Applejack was already on her legs and was just about to walk straight up to Lyra. But it appeared that her left hand was gripping onto the edge of the table tightly, as if a part of her was trying to keep something from happening. What's more, was the way Applejack was beginning to snarl and bear her teeth towards the mint mare that was in the crosshairs of everyone there.
Even Rory, who is standing next to him. Was looking pretty pissed off and that was calling it mildly. At the same time, there was this hint of a satisfied smirk that was just barely breaking past even that. Brex was just about to open a link to ask Rory about this, but she had beat him to the punch. “I'll explain it all to you later Master. In case you're wondering, I was the one that tipped them off. But even I had not realized that she went and gone this far with the harassment!”
After that, his attention was brought back to Lyra. Who was visibly shaking from both fear and a mix of anger, as she darted her eyes to everyone there. After seemingly having enough, her mind clearly started to crack as she lashed out by yelling at the top of her lungs and looking quite hysterical while doing so. “You really want to know why? Are you sure are you really sure that a weak stallion should be hearing this?! Fine, fine! I'll tell you!”
By now, she was pretty much beginning to foam at the mouth, as she had this deranged look in her eyes as she pointed towards Fancy Pants and then to Brex before continuing. “It's because you're males! If it wasn't clear, then let me spit it into your ears! Stallions are good for nothing, except getting mare’s pregnant! They're only use in life is that and that alone! Just look at our population! we got so many mare’s and so few stallions. They can't even be competent enough to get the gender ratio balanced!”
“They're nothing but weak, spineless, undependable pieces of garbage! In my honest opinion if they were not required to keep our species from going extinct. Then I'd be all for the idea of exterminating each and every one of those retched fools from this world of ours! The females are far more competent and deserving of life. It's plain to any Pony that has two good eyes that evolution wants the males to all die out! There is no other explanation!!!”
“We have the two princesses after all. Yes! We have that Prince Blue Blood, but he's not really a Prince at all. I'm sure that there's a spell out in the world that will get us mare’s pregnant and we can do away with all of them!!! WORTHLESS GOOD FOR NOTHINGS, they're all WORTHLESS!!!”
Everyone who heard that confession was completely stunned, including Brex. What Lyra had just said was pretty much what the cult would say when he had rescued Blaze Caster, except this time around. It was far more radical to back then. Instead of just capturing them and using them as a tool for breeding. It seemed that to Lyra's point of view, the stallions were no longer needed. But as this was going on. Lyra had taken the opportunity to move closer during her rant and just as she had finished with what she wanted to say.
The mare had reached into one of her pockets and swiftly pulled out a dagger and lunged at Fancy Pants with it being held in both of her hands. Brex was too far away to do anything, with how close the two of them were and had feared for his friend’s life. As the world appear to slow down in his eyes. The Roegadyn could see the three-inch-long blade going towards his rib cage and right for where his heart was located.
But just as the tip of Lyra's weapon had finally made contact with his suit. There was a metallic shing, as the blade was stopped and the additional force behind the stabbing motion was now causing it to slide along the materials surface.
Seemingly to have come out of his shock state. Fancy Pants went on pure instinct and without even looking fully at Lyra, had grabbed on to one of the arms that held the dagger and contorted his body so that he was able to do a judo flip with the mare. This resulted in Lyra being slammed with her back first into the wooden floor with a hard thud. This managed to cause her body to bounce once and to force the mare to release some spit from her mouth before clearly being knocked out by the collision.
Once Fancy Pants had disarmed her and tossed the dagger a short distance away. Lyra was quickly taken into custody and some manacles were slapped onto her wrists after being pulled behind her unconscious back. There was even a magical inhibitor ring that was placed onto her horn that showed a tiny Keyhole to be used in order to release the clamps inside the mechanism that would keep it in place.
Brex went straight up to Fancy Pants, along with Fleur De Lis and began to examine the spot that he should have been stabbed at. After taking a moment to go over the material. It was discovered that there was just this small crease along the fabric that could be seen that obviously came from the tip of the dagger.
As it was trying to penetrate, the blade ended up failing miserably. It was then that Brex realized the suit looked familiar to him. As it turned out, this was one of the few outfits that was made using the Demonic Spider Silk they had retrieved, while visiting Ryu's place that one time after that strange Garuda attack.
After patting himself down and seeing what they were looking at. Fancy Pants released a loud laugh as he looked towards his wife and spoke with sweat running down his face and still breathing hard from the excitement. “Well, my dear! It would seem that it would make sense as to why our tailor took so long to make our outfits with those bolts of silk. It feels no different than what one would expect, but perhaps this fabric is on par to that of bendable steel. Who says fashion can’t save your life! Hahaha!”
Fleur De Lis did not look amused at all with that little quip and kept on checking if there was anything else amiss. She even went so far as to undo his suits jacket and undershirt. Although in her haste, she was pretty frantic to the point, that Brex thought she was going to rip the buttons off is clothing. Once his bare chest was exposed and she had patted him down to check for any bruising. She finally satisfied when finding nothing there at all and released a heavy sigh of relief.
Brex looked over his shoulder to watch as Lyra's unconscious body was being carried away through the front door. In his mind, he began to think to himself with a worried tone. “Was Lyra really like this to begin with? I knew how she was against the opposite gender, but this is way too much. Also, the way she just snapped like that was really odd in itself. Sure, she was always a little crazy, but not this crazy. Hmmm, at least I don't think she was.”
After about a half hour of the guards getting written testimonies from all of those that were witnesses. Fancy Pants asked one of them as to what was going to happen to Lyra. In response, the guard quickly answered that after stating the facts of not only doctoring the books for the Adventurers Guild and attempted murder.
Then the odds of Lyra not getting out of going to jail was pretty much at zero. She might even end up in a psychiatric hospital with how erratic she showed herself to be during the premeditated assault. What made it even worse, was how it was aimed towards a stallion. Which in their country was a serious offense, even if it was not life threatening to begin with.
While this was going on. Brex was having a frown from behind his mask, as he looked over the scene. He then thought back to Zecora and began to think the following in a melancholy, inner tone of voice. “It would seem that the stars are lining up for me to stay away from Ponyville for a little while. I'm sure it will just be awkward for everyone here if I stuck around. Not really sure as to why, but aside from Rory. I don't really have much of a reason to be here. Now do I?”
Rory quickly spoke up through the connection after hearing this in clear defiance. “Please Master, don't go down that road again. It wasn't your fault. She was obviously messed up before we even got here and if it was another male that tried to join the Adventurers Guild here, then she would most likely have done the same regardless. Besides, don't we have a little drinking party to get to?”
Brex couldn't help but the shake his head in the outside world for but the slightest of movements, before responding. “Is this really a time for me to do this? I don't know about you, but wouldn't this situation put a damper on any festivities? I don't know about you. I at least don't want to be in here at the moment.”
And with that, Brex attempted to turn around and take a few steps towards the door, before he heard the voice of Applejack from off to the side. “Where do you think y'all going there Gambit? Aren't you forgetting that you still got a promotion that needs to be getting done? Hearing what Lyra did was just plain wrong! I guess I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. but it doesn't mean you still can't get what's coming to you after all the hard work you gone and put in. Now, is it?”
Brex really wasn't feeling in the mood for the whole song and dance to fight back with her. So, he approached the counter and took out his plate and just chucked it onto it, without really showing much care for the formalities. He then gestured with a nod to the peace of metal with his head before saying, “Fine, I guess I've waited long enough.” What Gambit had said was clearly able to confuse both Applejack and Fluttershy, as they either scratch the back of their ear or tilted their head and confusion.
Fancy Pants however, had this broad smile as he came over to Brex and placed his right hand onto the Roegadyn’s left shoulder. The stallion then said, “It's about time old chap. What's it been, eleven years now? I don't know about you. But that is a very long time to go without getting any kind of recognition.”
With a quick glance towards Mayor Mare from Fancy Pants. Who is now on the other side of the counter and waiting for him. The plate was picked up by her and moved over so that it could be placed onto a familiar object that originally created it.
Upon seeing this. Brex just released an exhausted sigh before going through the motion of placing both of his hands onto the device. However, before it had a chance to activate. He began to think to himself as to how he should adjust his levels, so that it would be displayed a certain way on to his new plate. Still not wanting to put his full power on there just yet. Brex opted for a number that he felt might be appropriate for ten or eleven years of being an adventurer.
With all eyes glued on him. That was easily more than a dozen ponies by this point. Brex mentally went into his character window and selected the level sync option tab. From there, he dropped from his standard level fifty setting out of seventy. To that of level thirty-five just to be safe. However, there was a feeling that was coming through the link with Rory and when he turned his eyes just enough to get her into his peripheral vision. The girl was giving him a serious pout and lightly shaking her head in clear disapproval.
Brex then narrowed his eyes at her and gave a week growl of annoyance, that was more playful than anything else. Rory only made her gaze sharper in his direction. From that little push from the girl. Brex went ahead and boosted the number up to forty instead, right as the device was beginning to light up. Just like before, there was a faint glow appearing underneath the plate. The symbols that were engraved into the metal were beginning to undergo a change and shift into a semi liquid state in those sections.
Brex could recall the faint glow from the first time he had registered all those years ago, but this go around was quite different than what happened then. Mayor Mare’s eyes were going wide as the light only grew an intensity. Soon, some barely noticeable beams of yellow and white light were shining off of both of the items and hitting the ceiling. There was even this odd melodious sound that accompanied the near blinding spectacle.
It was plain to see that the background showing the letter “F”, was beginning to fade and the texts printed were lighting up as well in response. Although when it came to the information on Brex. All of it was being jumbled around before returning back to saying the word classified. However, it was different when it came to the displayed level of the plate’s owner.
The number began to change slowly, as it morphed from one to the next and Mayor Mare was reading them out as they came. Level twelve… Level thirteen… Level fourteen… Level eighteen… Level twenty-two… Level twenty-nine?” As time went on. Within the next several seconds, the rate at which the numbers climbed had increased dramatically until it began to finally slow down once it hit Level thirty-five.
But by then, the mare was holding on to the table with both hands and screaming out the numbers as they went by. What made it even more ludicrous to the Roegadyn, was how it was now going at an agonizingly slow crawl as it continued on. There was even a loud gong of sorts as each number fully morphed from one to the next.
By then, Brex had to resist the urge to hold up his arm in order to block the light and was just squinting from behind his mask, as he screamed the following in his head. “Okay! This is just getting ridiculous! Who the fuck went into the graphic settings and turned the god rays all the way up to Max?! Someone's going to end up going blind here! And what's with all the special effects and music! This is just too much! And you why do you have to keep calling out the numbers like that?! I doubt that's standard protocol! What happened to personal info being protected!!!”
Mayor Mare would only get louder and louder, as the next set of numbers came up. “Level thirty-six… Level thirty-seven… Level thirty-eight… Level thirty-nine… Level forty?!?!?!” As soon as the last change had occurred. The items gave out a loud sound that was comparable to a heavy anvil being struck by a giant. Even the mare’s main was blown back by the shockwave being made, which Brex did not really understand.
The plate show that it was no longer going to go up anymore. The lights suddenly died down and the room was back to how it normally was. Although, when Brex looked around. All he could see was a room full of Ponies that were clearly not there to begin with and their eyes were bugging out of their skulls.
Well, that is aside from Rory, who had a small grin on her face. He then said to Rory through the link in a panicked voice. “I knew I should have just put down thirty-five instead of forty! And by the name of the twelve, just what was with all of those special effects about?!”
Rory sounded just as confused, as she replied through the connection. “I can safely say that I had no clue that would happen. It probably has to do with how there was a drastic increase from the time that this was done over at Baltimare. I've been an Adventurer for a while and my level has been going up little by little as per your instructions.” The discussion between the two of them was abruptly cut off when Mayor Mare finally spoke up after a long stretch of awkward silence.
“I-I uh, never. But! How does...” She had given herself a quick shake before going on again. “I have never seen such a drastic spike in a Ponies level! Also, it's safe to say you are now one of the top strongest Adventurers on record according to this.” Applejack had rushed up alongside the rest that were beginning to crowd the table in order to even get a glimpse of the plate. Upon seeing the commotion, Brex reached down and picked up his plate in order to give it a once-over and saw that there was another change that he did not expect to be there.
Instead of going from rank “F” to that of rank “E”. The background had something else, which caused him to speak aloud, in a disbelieving tone. “I believe there is a mistake here. One line is missing and it is curved.” Fancy Pants was the next to speak up in a rather amused tone of voice after looking at it as well from his left side.
“That my good sir, would be the letter “D”. I took the liberty of using my authority to transfer all of your records over to this branch upon your rank up ceremony. You did accompany a few upper rank parties over the years and that did add to your points. Under normal procedures, this wouldn't be enough to rank you as a “D” Adventurer. Although, with the multitude of rank “E” quests under your belt. That more than made up for it when it came to the points.”
He then gave a small laugh, as he gestured with his head to Rory as he continued. “Besides, it would not do at all for there to be such a big gap between you and your lover. Now the two of you will be able to accompany one another on your quests.” Upon hearing this, Brex immediately jolted his head from Fancy Pants and towards that of Rory. Before speaking in a slightly suspicious tone. “Why do I get the feeling that the two of you were in on this whole scheme from the beginning?”
To that, the stallion looked away, while humming a tune and Rory was sticking out her tongue and lightly tapping on the side of her head with her right fist to indicate that she was caught. Fleur De Lis chimed into the conversation, by placing herself between Brex and her husband. And with glee in her voice, she called out to the three of them. “You are going to be leaving tomorrow and this is a big occasion! We were informed that there would be a get together. Let us be on our way, for the night is young!”
She then leaned herself closer to Brex and motion with her left hands index finger to lean in himself, so that she could talk to him over the murmuring crowd around. Once he had done so. She began to speak close to the edge of his mask.
“Don't worry about Rin or Lin. They're both still up in Canterlot and getting their things ready. As for Lyra, my husband took this as a good opportunity to come down and take care of the problem personally. I'm pretty sure that you already suspected, but the mare seems quite unhinged. I dare say she's either a member or has been severely influenced by that Herd Cult’s teachings.”
Brex responded in kind and kept his voice just slow enough that only Fleur De Lis could hear it. “I take it that one of your sisters will be monitoring Lyra from now on?” The mare simply gave him a curt nod, before returning back to her husband. And with that out of the way. Brex, Rory, Fleur and Fancy Pants push their way past the crowd that was not only within the Guild Hall. But just outside of the door so that they can make their way to where they had intended to drink before Brex headed out in the morning.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Close to Ghastly Gorge* *Time: Five fifteen in the afternoon*
Just to the east of Ghastly Gorge, was a set of tracks going east and west. Said tracks were covered on both sides by some tall hills. Each were a good eight to thirteen meters tall. With a sparse number of high trees along the tops. One of said trees, apparently fell down and right over the train tracks which was currently blocking a train that had come to a stop several dozens of meters before coming to it. Along with a few smaller ones as well.
The vehicle was comprised of the engine and four cars behind it. One seemed to be a passenger car. While the other two were clearly meant for transporting cargo. On the side of one of the two, could be seen with a stamp with the picture of a Cherry in vibrant colors on it for the sliding doors.
A number of workers had already stepped out of the train and were surveying the obstruction. Most of which were Ponies and a couple of Donkeys in the mix. They had varying tools going from hammers to pickaxes and a few handheld hatchets. They were already hard at work with trying to chop up the large tree that had fallen over, that was clearly over two meters wide and stretched the length of the gap between the two hills.
One mare came out of the passenger car, wearing a salmon pink colored saloon style dress and her red mane was done up in a very extravagant set of rolls. The mare quickly made her way over to one of the earth Ponies who was wearing a striped cap and overalls with a concerned look on her face, as she called out to him in a southern drawl. “My word, is this going to take all that much longer? The other passengers are getting a little antsy.”
The conductor was a male Earth Pony, that appeared to be close to his middle age. He was already going a little bald. Which was quickly made obvious when he took off his hat in order to tilt it towards the mare, before placing it back on his head while responding to her. “You don't got nothing to fret about Miss. The rest of us will get it cleared as soon as we can. The only problem is on account of it being so dang big. Sure, we got the hands, as well as the tools. It's going to take us a while longer. Unfortunately, our tools are just a bit too small for the job.”
That was when he pointed towards two mare’s that had a two-person metal saw being gripped between the both of them and was already on top of the tree and trying to cut away at it. The mare was looking quite relieved upon hearing this and was about to turn around to tell the passengers. But was stopped when she heard a set of screams as she turned around again. The mare’s who were meant to be on top fell off, thankfully they received no injuries after being caught by the others below who were ready to react in time.
The downside was that the large saw that they had was broken in half and a piece of it had been lodged into the wood. The stallion took off his hat and threw it onto the ground before giving it a good stomp, as he spoke out in clear defeat. “Just our luck! That was the only one we had that could get the, job done quick enough. I dare say this is going to take at least a day, maybe more to do it with the rest of the tools we have on hand.”
After that, the crew kept on going as best they could. Unfortunately, they barely managed to get in a decent amount of progress with what they were capable of using on the obstruction. The sun had eventually gone down and it became too dark to work effectively. This was on account of them not having sufficient light sources to set up. So, the crew had no choice but to stop and wait until the morning to finish their work.
Back on the train. It was at least an hour after the sun had already gone down and the conductor was making his way through the train cars, after first starting at the back end. Once the cargo was double checked and secured, he had gone into the passenger car from the back entrance and saw the mare he was speaking to earlier.
She was currently sitting at a table and having a small cup of tea, while looking out through the window. The stallion approached her and stood at the edge of the table so that she had plenty of space before gaining her attention, thanks to his reflection that she could obviously see from the glass. As she turned around to give him her full attention. The conductor lowered his head before saying to her. “I'm a might sorry for the delay Miss Jubilee.”
The mare just shook her head and gave him a gentle smile, before motioning with her free hand that was not holding on to her cup, to take a seat across from her. The older stallion graciously took the chance to sit down. But at the very moment that he had done so, he had released a very long and satisfied sigh of relief. Which caused the mare to giggle a little. She then said to him. “I suppose it will be quite some time before we can get moving, even after the sun goes up, I take it?”
The stallion removed this hat and placed it on top of the table, before giving her a nod. As he looked out towards the window and into the darkness of night. He said to her, “That's about right Miss Jubilee. Even with the saw not breaking. I doubt we would have gotten it out of the way before the sun came down. Without it, we probably won't be hitting the rails again until nine or even eleven tomorrow morning. We don't even have enough lanterns to go about and work on it throughout the night. So, there's no choice but to wait until light comes up again.”
Jubilee soon followed his gaze and looked out through the window for herself. Everything seemed peaceful, even though they were stuck there for the moment. Jubilee released a sigh just as she was about to take a sip of her now cooling tea. But at the exact moment the rim of her cup came into contact with her lips. There was a sudden flash of yellow and perhaps a hint of red that went right by the window, that was illuminated by the lights within the passenger car.
This had also caught the attention of the conductor, as he quickly stood up out of shock and nearly hit his head on the luggage rack overhead. But before either of them could make another move. All the passengers and workers for the train, gave a collective scream after hearing a loud crashing sound that was emanating from the front.
The conductor ran down the center of the aisle and was taking a step outside of the train right as there was another crashing sound. This time however, it was accompanied by a set of rumbling, which almost made him fall off the last step. But was caught by Miss Jubilee at the last second and pulled back by his suspenders.
Soon after, the two of them. A long with a number of the passengers and workers all came out and were now at the front of the train and carrying all the lanterns they could get their hands on to see what could have caused the noise they heard. What they did come across, had left them all flabbergasted after seeing the railway cleared and two halves of the large tree were laying a good ways from the tracks.
One of the workers came close to one of the trees and found an indentation that was clearly not there before turning in for the night. From what they can tell, it was the size of a Pony's head. Yet there was an impression that was rather close to that of a Griffin's head, or at least that was the best they could come up with. Considering there was a pointed end in the shape of a beak.
On further examination. They found that the tree had been destroyed with what appeared to be a single blow in the area that they were already working on cutting away. The force of which was not only capable of splitting it in half, but had sent the pieces tumbling several yards away as a result.
Seeing that they can now move ahead again. Everyone began to make their way back to the train in order to get the boiler warmed up. Although, one of the younger mares that was in charge of the train. Had stumbled after their hoof slipped into a small hole next to the tracks.
Fortunately, she was helped right away by a couple of the passengers and thanks to the light that one of them was holding. They were able to see what had caught her leg. One of the passengers looked at it and tilted their head before bringing their attention to the nearest Pony and asked, “Did any of you happen to spot a wild Chocobo around?”
All of those with an ear shot look towards one another, before shaking their heads to indicate that they had not. The passenger quickly shrugged and thought nothing more of it upon getting back into the train. It was either out of not really caring and just wanting to get to their destination. Or possibly with how dark it was, but if any of them had taken a good look at the entire scene. Then one of them might have realized that the footprint was that of a single leg of a Chocobo.
What's more, was how it was situated only a few paces from where the tree had originated from. And, an even more observant person would have also realized that the footprint was turned around to show that it was facing away from the obstruction. There was also the unmistakable sound that a Chocobo would make that was coming up ahead. Although very faint. But it was a little off with the way it came off as… Woozy. “KahWeeEe... WeEe! Weh…”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Old Geezers Hotel* *Time: Ten-thirty at night*
A door was roughly opened after the sound of rattling keys were made through the keyhole. This allowed some light to come in from the hallway and illuminate a small room that was perfectly identical to that of Brex's own. Standing right there inside doorway, was Gilda and the Griffin. Who was not looking all that great with the way she was slouching.
Her usual well-kept wings were slightly droopy and instead of her typically around the clock cocky attitude, which was displayed with her always walking as if she was ready for a fight at any time and any place. The girl was pretty much trudging with her paws lightly grazing the carpet with each step at an agonizingly slow pace.
Once she was finally inside of her hotel room and the door was fully closed after using the bare minimal effort. Gilda flipped one of the light switches on the wall, which turned on a couple of lamps that were situated around the room and made her way over to the bed and just plopped right into it with a heavy Puff.
This was also accompanied by a groan of discomfort from the female Griffin, as she rolled off of her stomach so that she was eventually laying on her back. With her arms, legs and wings now pretty much taking up the entire bed, even though she was laying in it sideways. She gave off a heavy sigh that lacked any real energy behind it with how it just droned on.
Her left arm was slowly draped over her head, so that she was pretty much covering the upper part of her face with her forearm. If one was accustomed to being around this one species. Then they could easily tell that her beak was clenched shut and nearly trembling. There was even a low teardrop that ran down the side of her face that could just barely be seen from underneath her arm. As for the free one, she was now tightly clinching the bedsheets between her fingers.
After a little while of this. Gilda began to sluggishly mutter to herself from just under her breath, as she continued to try and hide her face under her arm. “Stupid-stupid-stupid-stupid... Stupid dweeb! Stupid dweeb, stupid Rory! Damn that Zebra to Tartarus! Why did all of this have to happen now?!”
Gilda’s voice began to build up as it gradually became frustrated. “And why didn't he bother to even ask for me to come along to? Ghaaaaaah!” After that small cry of anger was giving out. Gilda quickly rolled off of the bed and back onto her legs, before reaching over for one of the lamps and picking it up to make the motion of throwing it at the wall that divided her room from the two that she was only just talking of.
Yet, just as she was about to throw it with all her strength, did Gilda stop herself right as her arm was already about to throw it after pulling her arm all the way back. This was when the voice of Gambit started to echo in her mind, from one of their training sessions. “Gilda, you're letting your anger dictate your actions far too much to see just what affects they would have on not only you, but those around you as well.”
“Lashing out maybe the first impulse that you feel to go on, but you need to take a moment to think it out carefully. Otherwise, you may end up doing something you might deeply regret. You're a smart girl, I know it and you know it as well. Just take a deep breath and control that anger. It does not rule you; it is you who must be in control of it instead.”
Gilda's face was partly obscured with the way her head was slightly tilted down so that her eyes were now being overshadowed. Her full expression couldn't be made out other than that of her beak showing a twisted frown. At the same time, the arm that was still primed to use the lamp as a weapon, was shaking violently as her fingers trembled as they gripped even harder.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a solid minute. The Griffin lowered the arm and carefully placed the lamp back onto the nightstand that she took it from with a small clatter being made as she did so. Before staggering over and plopping down onto her butt and crouching forward as she was now on the edge of the bed, with her head hanging low.
She then began to lately sob as she now had her elbows down on her knees to prop her head up, while both of her hands were covering her face. As she was doing this, she would barely make a sound as she said the following so low, that one would literally need to have their ear pressed right next to her mouth in order to pick up any of it.
“It's… It’s all your fault... Why?! Why do you have to be so fucking nice to me... Why did she have to come along before me? And what's up with that damn song at the bar. That was definitely not some happy go lucky pony shit from her! He also doesn’t normally sound that happy… Its not happening the way I expected it would… I'm so, so sorry Rainbow, but we may have no other way but to change our plans. Gilda’s tone quickly shifted to determination as she said the next line. “This is our only chance.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 58: Rory! I’m Sleeping Where Now?
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Canterlot* *Time: Eleven forty-five in the morning. The day of the trip*
Canterlot was currently having one of its usual Immaculate days with hardly a cloud in the sky over the city, which allowed Princess Celestia's, oh so special sunlight to bathe everything in its radiance. All the Ponies around were all dressed up in either some over-the-top flashy outfit or what a servant would be found in. All of which, were happily smiling under the sun and going about with smiles on their muzzles. Although, Brex wasn't really feeling that at all, as he scowled from under his mask upon getting off the train, that just so happened to have recently arrived in the city.
It was easy for him to see through the fake smiles of these overly emotional beings, as to what they truly felt as he watched them walking by him in the full train station. It was obviously the ones with money that were truly happy and the ones that were playing the part of eager attendance or staff workers, were merely putting it on as a facade so that they could stay in the good graces of those that held power.
From where he stood near the benches, just several meters from the train. Brex could plainly see how obnoxious the nobles were with their silly demands and subtle hints towards those of the lower class that said that they were far more important. But he had to rain it all in because of the two Changelings that were standing on either side of him, along with holding onto a set of bags that could be wheeled around by them.
If they were to just get so much of a whiff of his displeasure towards the city. Then there was no telling what these two would end up doing if it meant they could alleviate him of such a negative emotion. Now, as for the reason he and is two attractive personal attendees were waiting in place. This was due to Zecora needing to check in with whoever was in charge of baggage, so that she could retrieve her personal belongings. As it turned out. The Zebra ended up bringing quite a bit more than they all had originally anticipated, so they had to pay for the space in the cargo car.
While attempting to keep his mind as calm as possible, considering the atmosphere. Brex went through a mental checklist of what they planned to do while in Canterlot. After leaving Ponyville on the first train going out at six thirty in the morning with Zecora to meet up with Rin and Lin. The four of them would make their way to the airship platforms that was located on the Southwestern side of the city. Of course, with the train station being on the south part. Then the walk over shouldn’t really take that long at all to get there.
From there, the ship would take them over to Las Pegasus and transfer to another airship that would head over the sea for a direct flight path to Zebrabwa. Of course, the second ship would end up being the Yuna. However, Brex had no intention of having that ship show up at Canterlot quite yet, so he told them to go on head to the second stop, as per his instructions only two days prior.
Under any normal circumstances, a normal airship would not have been able to make that type of a trek all the way from HQ in such a limited time span. But the Yuna was no ordinary ship by any means and was scheduled to arrive shortly before they did. Brex had even played with the idea of having Crystal coming along. Although, in the end, he wasn't too sure on how well she would handle a long-distance trip. She was also required back at HQ when dealing with the new Chocobo's that would be brought in. So, in the end he decided against it.
If it ever came down to it, Brex could just whistle and she would be summoned to his side in an instant. His musings came to a halt, when Zecora came into view and she was hauling behind herself, what was nothing less than a small wagon full of supplies. Some of which were giving off a particularly strong mixture of aromas that even had the instant effect of warding off quite a few of the nobles that were unfortunate enough to be within a few paces.
Now that they were all gathered together, Brex began to examine them quickly as his eyes roamed from one to the next. Zecora was wearing the same dark brown cloak that she normally would wear when going in and out of the Everfree Forest. So it was difficult to see what she probably had on her person underneath that. Although, she did have the hood pulled back to expose her face.
As for his two maids. They were of course, wearing nothing else but made outfits that had the skirts stopping right at the knees. No doubt it was essentially modeled after a French maid’s uniform, but nowhere near as skimpy if it were to be compared to those that required much less fabric. Long white gloves and matching stockings were worn, along with black chokers. The hoofs had covering that gave off a black shine with heels to complete the look.
Rin had her mane tied and its usual silver ponytail, that came nearly halfway down her back and this joyous expression on her face, as she had her eyes closed and beaming with a smile. As for her sister Lin. She was pretty much the opposite with how she looked quite serious with her duties, but was still happy none the same with just a small smile creeping on to her lips. Her hair was jet black and also tied in the same fashion. With all of that, the two of them were easily seen as twin gray Unicorns.
When it came to their personalities however. The two were pretty much the same as night and day. As Rin was all happy and bubbly for the most part. Her sister Lin was the more serious of the two. Although, when it came to their protective instincts in regarding Brex, they were pretty much a pair of devils. If one was to try and come up with a close enough comparison, then there was no other way to put it.
As the silver-haired Rin would casually mention dismemberment as though it was nothing serious at all. Along with a nearly endless amount of energy, which made it rather difficult for her to stand still for too long. The dark-haired Lin, would always give this intimidating aura and a sharp look with her eyes that could easily send the lesser fighters to run for the hills.
Unlike her sister. Lin was fully capable of restraining herself and would be so focused on her work, that she would even stand perfectly still at the side of her Lord for hours on end, without even twitching a single muscle if Brex didn't give a specific order to relax. And that was not a joke. Once he was so into some paperwork, that he looked up after several hours and found that she had not budged at all after coming in and serving him the very same papers.
Back with Zecora, she immediately spoke up as soon as she made sure that all of her belongings were still intact. “I do apologize for the wait, but the pony I spoke to, was rather irate. I'm sorry to say that most of my mixtures and brews could not be left at home alone. Or the effects later on, could be unknown.” While Zecora was saying this, she was gesturing towards the baggage clerk that was dealing with some other customers that could not have their things as carry-on items.
Brex gave a nod to this and gestured towards the other two with his head and began to introduce them. “Zecora, these are the ones I mentioned who will be traveling along with us. This is Rin and beside her, is her sister Lin.” As soon as their names were called. The Changelings in disguise started to give Zecora a small bow with their heads, before straightening themselves up and speaking in perfect unison as they stood right next to one another.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Zecora. We are the Lord's personal attendees and we look forward to being allowed to accompany him on such a long journey.” The elaborate way of introduction was now drawing some attention to Brex. By calling him their Lord, had the effect of calling the eyes of many who are within earshot. Most of those eyes, belonging to mare’s.
As a result, Brex had to try really, really hard as to not to give himself a facepalm at the situation and quickly gestured with his left hand in the general direction of the exit, before speaking rather hurriedly to the three girls. “Zecora, I suggest that we make our way towards the airship platforms now, rather than later. After all, time is required to load your small wagon into their cargo hold before the scheduled departure time.”
A short time passed and they were traveling through the busy streets of Canterlot and along the outer perimeter. Which meant that they could see the outer most walls from where they were, as it was in plain view between some of the larger buildings they passed. Mostly made of Brick and mortar. It would have been seen as any other large wall, but Brex Already knew that it had some heavy-duty reinforcing spells that were woven into the structure.
Brex couldn't help but to wonder as to why they would even put such a wall to begin with when they had a good section of the city protruding away from the mountain itself. Sure, it would have been wise to put some type of small railing in order to keep accidents from occurring with people falling off the edge, but what they had was a little too much with how it was easily three stories tall.
Of course, there were a few sections that allowed the residents to go to a small observation deck in order to look down from how high they were from ground level. Then there were the airship docks. Which utilized a combination of hot air balloons and the magic to keep the platforms from falling off, due to the number of individuals coming and going. As well as cargo being put on and taken off of the docked airships.
Although, the group was more than halfway through the crowds. It was painfully obvious that up ahead was about to become much more congested and Brex realized that this would be a problem for Zecora and her small wagon straight away. He then looked towards the upper right corner of his vision, to the clock that was displayed right above the mini-map and saw that it was getting pretty close to when the ship was supposed to leave. That turned out to be in about twenty minutes.
After looking around from his tall vantage point. Brex could see before the others could, that there was no way that they were going to make it through the crowd at the rate they were going. So, he instantly turned and began to grab on to Zecora’s cart, before saying to her over the crowds noise. “Zecora, please leave this to me.”
As soon as those words exited his lips. The wagon was instantly lifted, as Zecora had no other choice but to let go of the handle and watch as the entire thing. Along with all of her supplies, were now over his head and being supported by both arms. Of course, this had caused an odd shadow to form across some of the ponies that now had the light of the sun blocked and looked and his direction after a few seconds of looking around. Only to have their jaws dropping so fast that there should have been a cartoon sound effect to go along with it.
With their little problem of not having enough room to move seemingly fixed. The group of four made their way through the rest of the crowd. Only to get the same reaction from each new pony while doing so. At one point or another, on-lookers even started to part from one another in order to give him and the three girls a clear path down the street.
Although, there was one small snag as they got really close to their destination, that caused Brex to roll his eyes from behind his mask. This being in the form of a Royal Day Guard, that rushed up to them when they were only a few dozen paces away from the gate upon catching sight of them approaching. The guard mare happened to look like any other, thanks to the enchantment in the armor. Although, it did not hide what tribe she was from with how the horn could be seen protruding from the helmet.
She was giving the others at his side a harsh glare and without taking her eyes off of them, the guard would point towards Brex, before she started to angrily call out. “What is the meaning of this?! Don't you know that the law prohibits you from forcing a stallion to do menial labor that exceeds a certain degree of difficulty?” Brex could only raise an eyebrow as he was not too sure about hearing such a law, unless it was recently added within the last few months.
The mare in armor then continued on, as she lowered her arm in order to grasp on to the hilt of her sword with one hand and the other coming close to grabbing onto the handle. “You will be detained for questioning! Any resistance will be met with force!” During this, the two maids seemed utterly unfazed by either the words or the aggressive action being displayed by the guard. However, when it came to Zecora, it was a whole other matter altogether.
During the moment that the guard mentioned the law and being detained. The female Zebra was looking utterly terrified. As she was clearly beginning to show signs that she wanted to turn and run, if going by her body language was an indication. So, in response. Brex took one of his arms off of the carriage after first placing the other in a spot that allowed it to be balanced quite easily.
He then walked slowly so that he was placing himself between the guard and the rest and began to lean down ever so slowly. While keeping the wagon above his head with his arm that was just barely bent due to the way he was leaning in. On the guard’s part, she was now looking visibly shaken, as the hand that was going for the hilt was inching away while watching this happen in front of her eyes.
Brex continued leaning in further and further, until his mask was barely more than two inches away from the mare’s nose. After keeping this position for a few seconds, the guard began to show signs of breaking, thanks to the small amount of sweat that was beginning to build on her face. This was followed with Brex now speaking in a low gravelly voice, that was a strange mixture of irritation and one who was pretty much at their limit of keeping calm.
“I appreciate the diligence you are showing to the law... But I would have you know that I am not being forced to do anything that I don't want to do. And as you can see, this is hardly much of a problem for me to lift.” To emphasize his point, Brex lowered his arm slightly before bringing it back into place, without so much as grunting before continuing.
“I personally have kept up on the law for quite a while. Although… This is one that I have yet to hear. If you don't mind, could you please tell me as to when it was implemented then it would be very much appreciated.” The guard was beginning to show signs that she was about to start to stutter, but pulled herself together before answering him. “S-Sir, I believe it was put into effect close to a week ago.”
Brex gave her a slight hum before asking another question. Although his tone was a little lighter this time around. “My associates, along with myself have been out of Canterlot until just today. So, this new law was unknown to us.” That was when he leaned in just a little more so that they were pretty much touching face to mask and his voice began to turn a little husky. Then as he went on, Brex would use a new tone that was more erotic in nature.
“This is what happened. Our airship is due to disembark very soon and the streets were just too small for us to squeeze this here wagon through the crowd. And to make sure that we quickly got to where we need to be, so that I could put this big heavy load down again. We instead get stopped by you and I am forced to carry this a little longer than I had anticipated.”
“So, you could just imagine how much of a strain it must be on my muscles to carry such a HEAVY object. I dare say that I might be working up quite a sweat and will most likely require a shower in order to clean it all off.” Brex could tell that the mare was being affected in one way or another with how the sweating was beginning to become more evident. Along with a hitch in her breathing when he mentioned the Heavy bit.
There were also her eyes that was looking down towards the ground and slowly going up, as she was trying to take in his entire form that was still shrouded thanks to the clothing he had on. Only to stop after getting to his arm that was being pressed underneath the wagon right above his head. Her years clearly twitched back a little after that, along with her lips that were now quivering.
There was a slight tint of pink hue that could now be seen on the gray cheeks, that not even the illusion magic that was placed on the armor was able to keep from showing through. The guard then swallowed a lump in her throat. Without so much as even glancing down. Brex could tell that she was beginning to press her thighs closer together. Even the way she stood, showed that she was beginning to lose that stiff outer appearance that all the guards were known to have as she attempted to reply with her breath now being heavy, only to come out as nothing.
Now that Brex had her where he wanted her. He went in for the figurative kill with his next line that came just above a whisper, as he maneuvered his mask so that he was closer to her left ear and the hood of his robes was just barely brushing against her cheeks. “Although, I would like to get all cleaned up by running some water over myself. I don't believe the airship has a shower on board. As you can see, that leaves me with nothing else than to use a set of wet cloths to do the job.”
The mare was pretty much all locked up by now, with how her fur was visibly standing on end and she was also shuttering. Without so much as losing balance and carefully maneuvering himself so that he was standing on to her left side now, so that she can have a good view of the girls that came with him. Once this was done, he went in and said the following that obviously did a critical hit on the guard.
“I might even require the assistance of my companions here in order to reach those... Hard… To reach places.” Brex carefully emphasize the importance of the word, hard. When he spoke it. This caused the mare till almost hunch over as she was visibly vibrating even more to the point that her armor was beginning to rattle. From where he stood, Brex could see that her eyes were clearly darting from each of the three and shrinking into pinpricks, before she hurriedly called out in a strained voice that was very much laced with a growing need.
“I see! I-I can sympathize with not knowing the new laws! Y-You are free to go! Please do hurry in placing that H-Heavy… Load down, as it might strain your… M-Muscles a little too much if you keep this up! I have other important matters that require my attention. Good day!”
And with that, the mare began to walk away at a brisk pace, that only sped up upon reaching a few meters away and would turn into a sprint towards the nearest restroom that was on the other side of the crowd. From his higher perspective, Brex could see the guard becoming more anxious, as well as frantic as the many Ponies were making it even more difficult to get to her destination.
Brex then heard Rory threw the connection, as she was giving out a small snicker. “My oh my, Master! I can tell you've gotten a whole lot better with influencing these girls~.” In response, he quickly shot back in a nonchalant inner tone. “I'm not that much of a talker, you know that, right Rory? Honestly, it's really easy to mess with these mare’s when they're always thinking of what could go in them. All I have to do is put any idea in their head and they can run away with it thanks to them always being so dang horny.”
After talking to Rory. Brex turned his eyes towards his companions and saw how his maids were licking their lips and giving him the bedroom eyes. Which caused Brex to blush from underneath his mask. With them being Changelings, it was easy for Brex to determine that they felt everything that was coming off of that mare and it was beginning to affect them as well. As for Zecora. She was looking both confused and slightly flustered after averting her eyes from him for a few seconds, before she turned to look at him again as to make a remark.
“Truth be told, I feared of being put in the hold. To have such a disastrous effect on a mare. With that silver tongue, it does make one wonder if there are any out there that would have a prayer.” As he was placing Zecora’s belongings back down so that it was all resting on the wheel’s axles.
He casually replied with, “I don't usually make that a habit, although in this situation. I thought it best to make it quick and not cause too much of a commotion.” From behind his mask, Brex just couldn’t help himself from giving a small grin while answering her with a rhyme of his own. In turn, the Zebra gave him a small smile of her own.
Afterwards, they finally got to the airship and found it to be one of the larger varieties. It wasn't as if Brex was expecting a small craft or some type of luxury Cruiser. But this one was pretty close to being a floating oil tanker due to its overall size and shape. There were multiple balloons with thick cables hanging down to attach to both the deck and the sides of the ship. On the outer hull, about halfway down. He could see more that went from near the front and going to about two thirds of the way back.
The frame and overall aesthetics, were pretty much based off of sailing ships as most of them typically did. However, even before boarding, Brex did spot a few bits here and there that stood out to him almost instantly. Along all of the balloons, there were bindings of some type that glowed with a faint blue light to indicate that there was some electrical component, if not magical to be running through them in pulses.
Within his mind. Brex started to recall that he himself had devised this very concept a while back. In fact, he was sure it was during his time of being a guard for Sir Fancy Pants. There was a meeting where he gave his opinion when it came to the next generation of airships to Fancy Pants himself and as a result, Brex gave the notion of reinforcing the balloons, as well as installing a monitoring system that would alert to any type of malfunction or leakage. Not to mention, taking away the use of gas that would explode if there was to be an incident.
Those bindings not only gave off a magical field to act as an invisible shield. But had the added effect of sending an extra layer right into the balloon itself, that would cause the air within to be trapped inside of invisible pockets should the outer layer be punctured. The concept was not completely foolproof, as trying to do something like that would put an enormous strain on both the mechanism and the amount of power required to hold it.
At the very least, they would have ample warning and time to make any emergency stops or possibly repair it in route. With this world being so reliant on magic. Brex was sure that the idea might have been plausible and tossed it out there. But was surprised when he got word of it actually being applied to the ships that were now in service.
As for the propulsion system that would be in charge of moving such a behemoth. It was pretty much covered in dual bladed sets of propellers. Most of which were situated on the back half of the ship. As the larger ones replaced back, Brex could spot a number of smaller ones starting around and were presumably required to make the subtle slow movements in order to get it situated into its dock properly.
As he was still taking it all in. Brex did have his eyes lock onto a set of texts that were painted on the side that said the words, “Big Mama Imports”. Of course, upon seeing that, the Roegadyn started to feel his anger spiking for a moment. Along with his left eye that was beginning to twitch a few times before calming down. He then said to Zecora, as he pointed towards a group of ponies that had some crates being put into a sling, so the cargo could be hoisted up and into their hold right above.
“Zecora, go ahead and talk to them. All you need to do is mention that you're with Gambit and they'll take care of you. We'll wait for you over at the check-in desk that's right in front of the boarding platform.” After checking where he was pointing at, she nodded and went off to do as he said. As soon as the Zebra was well outside of earshot. Brex turned his attention towards Rin and asked, “Just how many happen to work for us on board?”
After giving a big smile. The silver haired Pony replied in a cheery tone of voice. “My Lord! Approximately four changelings and thirty-seven others are on board out of the total sixty-five that are required to run its daily activities. These include the Captain, the first mate and all of the key officers on board. As per your instructions, we have also taken the liberty of sprinkling a few in the lower job areas in case there should be any rumors starting that would otherwise be unknown to those higher up in the chain of command.”
Lin was the next one to speak up, as she stepped forward to be next to her sister. Along with her eyes being closed and standing up a bit straighter by comparison. “My Lord! As my sister has stated, those are the typical numbers. Although, this does not take into account the passengers. Thanks to an exact tally from one of our sisters that just so happens to be running the entrance. There are twenty-eight passengers, not including my Lord, us and Miss Zecora.” Lin’s eyes flashed for a moment before she continued. “Oh! My deepest apologies my Lord, make that an even thirty passengers now. Some last-minute tickets were just bought.”
He then lowered his voice just to be sure that they couldn't be heard if anyone was trying to listen in on their conversation. “By the way, how is the sister who is taking big momma's place right now?” Lin's expression was broken for merely an instant, as she had this deep cringe crossing her face before returning back to her stoic nature. This time, it was Rin that spoke up in her sister’s place. “Well... Uh… She has requested permission to alter her form. Perhaps even as far as to give the impression that Big Mama is going on a diet.”
Brex began to think of his interactions with the mare and ended up mirroring Lin’s reaction from behind his mask, before replying in a tone that clearly conveyed that he was sorry. “I believe that would be a marvelous idea. Although, it would have to be gradual. But as for the usual parties that she ends up throwing. I suggest that they be altered. It would probably cause a red flag to pop up if she were to suddenly stop having them. How about having it moved to the city and inviting the less fortunate to partake.”
“Lin was the next one to speak up, as she opened her eyes and showed a smile to the proposal. “Yes, yes. I can see it. Not only would it help with that company's reputation. But it just might pull in some extra workers off the streets. There have been reports now and then in response to a lack of employees as of late. Although, a majority of those that we saved from being sold overseas have already joined the now reformed company once the circumstances were explained to them.”
“We still have more ships than we do of those that are able to pilot them. Of course, this is all thanks to our Lord with the many inventions that have been constructed, including our other business ventures. Suffice to say that the trading industry has taken a big boom as of late is not enough to fully convey the scope properly.”
After hearing the praise from Lin. Brex began to feel a little bad that they thought of him in that regard, since he was just copying ideas that he remembered from his old life. It wasn't like he was actively creating one new invention after another through just plain imagination. Make something here, make something there. Throw in some tweaks with there being magic around and bobs our uncle, you’re the goose that laid the golden eggs.
But really, he knew that it was all the work of the Changelings. As well as the others that ended up working under him that put in the most effort. All he really did was to throw an idea out there with the best explanation he was able to come up with ahead of time and the researchers figured out the rest. Sure, there were some parts here and there that he contributed to, but it didn't really amount to anything that he thought would give him this type of image. In reality, he was feeling a bit guilty.
When Zecora came back after getting her belongings put away and was ready to be brought into the cargo hold of the ship. The four of them went and got their tickets and soon after, boarded their new temporary residence for the next few days. Once onboard, they were greeted by a pony that Brex had no idea was going to be there. This being a Pegasus mare that went by the name of Cross Pad. She was a white mare with a red mane and tail.
She wore a uniform that was similar to those that worked on the ship. Although, Brex couldn’t help but to notice it was more along the lines of a secretary or probably that of a cruise director. Right now, she had her mane tied up into a neat bun, along with a quill that was stabbed right through so it was holding it all together. On her left breast pocket for her uniform, was an embroidered symbol of a notepad with a number of check marks along the left side and a few markings to indicate some writing.
Her entire outfit was pretty professional, although when it came to the skirt. It was barely low enough that if she had any need to bend over even a bit, then there was a very good chance that her underpants could be seen from clear across the deck. If that didn't call for the attention of others. Then it would also have to be how her uniform was tightly hugging her form and accentuating her C-cup breasts that were just barely being contained.
Once the mare got around to noticing them all exiting the plank and beginning to spread out amongst themselves to take in just how big the deck was from where they stood. The mare quickly made herself known after running up while in her Pony version of high heels and stopping right in front of Brex. She then gave a slight bow before straightening herself up and pulling her skirt down at the front, then the back in order to cover up whatever she could while having a blush.
Before Brex could say anything at all, he heard Rory through the connection once more. This time she seemed to be humming to herself as if she were judging something. “Hmmm... hmm... Nice, very nice! I see she went and put it on just like I asked. This will make the trip more entertaining.”
All Brex could do, was to give a quick response. “Rory, don't tell me your-.” But his sentence was cut short as Cross Pad came up and gave him a hug around the waist, while at the same time, pressing her face into his stomach without so much as a warning.
As she did that, she would release a squeal and Brex was pretty much stunned by the sudden display. But even though he had his arms partially out in order to make sure he didn't accidentally make any sudden movements. He could still catch at the edge of his vision just how the rest were reacting to this. Rin was pretty much pouting with her cheeks being puffed up and was now crossing her arms.
As for her sister. Lin was looking as stiff as a board and slowly narrowing her eyes without changing the rest of her facial expressions. Although, Brex could have sworn he saw an after image of something behind her that resembled a demon's face mask, with two protruding red tusks coming out from the bottom lips. Although as soon as he blinked, it was long gone. However, she didn't look be all that phased as she watched and waited. Inside his head, Brex said in a scared tone. “Oh Fuck! Lin can get scary! It wasn’t aimed at me, but that nearly made me shit myself!”
But after a few seconds of this. Cross Pad finally got around to releasing her grip and took a step back before giving him a beaming smile, that could have put Pinkie to shame before she started to speak. “Miss Rory told me what you did and I can't thank you enough. I do hope that my attire is to your liking. My instructions were to have this on during your entire trip and to see to your every need, if any should come up.”
Brex was now looking a little bit more relaxed as he lowered his arms and took on his usual standing pose. He then said to her while slightly tilting his head. “Miss Cross Pad. I am unsure as to what you were told. But I do appreciate your help. Although, I was under the assumption that you were more of a desk worker and was more at home with doing the numbers in the books. An airship was not a position I would have ever thought to see you on for work.”
The Pegasus released a heavy sigh before her expression softened a little closer to that of normal as she replied to that. “Yes, that is true. Under the guidance of the counselors that helped all of us that were... Well, you know. Some time off from doing that would do me some good. So instead, I was stationed on this boat. It's not as if I do any real labor, but I do have an important job of managing the paperwork when it comes to the export that comes and goes on the ship. There are even times that I would be involved in the bartering process, which is quite exciting if I must say.”
The Roegadyn gave a quick nod to that and motion towards the rest of his group with his right hand and suggested that they should be shown their rooms so all can get settled in. Of course, Cross Pad was all too eager to do so and brought them to an area of the ship where the passengers would end up staying. Brex had expected that they would end up in the regular second class, or possibly the third-class bunks. But they were placed in two rooms in the first-class section.
Of course, it was really easy to tell what class they were in, with how everything was decorated. The second, along with the third-class areas seemed quite normal. But as soon as they crossed the threshold in the hallway that led to where they were staying. It suddenly felt as though they were on a completely different ship.
The wood on the floors and walls were practically sparkling thanks to the finish that was used to make them shine. The railings look to be made of a metal, close to that of gold but was possibly brass that was highly polished. Even the light fixtures looked as though they would cost a pony an entire month salary just for one crystal holder.
As for the rooms themselves, they were right next to the Captain's cabin that was at the very end of the hallway. As the Captain that was at the center door, Brex was given the room on the left side and Zecora took the one on the right. As for his maids. It became pretty obvious that they were going to stay in his room, which meant Zecora was going to be all on her own. But Brex wasn't going to complain about that, seeing as it was for the best.
By then, Zecora had entered her room after being given a key. At the same, time Brex, along with Rin and Lin went into his own room to see what it was like inside. To his surprise, it looked more than a small cabin on a ship. Instead, it gave off this feeling as though he was in some type of top floor penthouse.
From where he stood, there were clearly two big windows that pretty much took up most of the wall on the far side that was away from the door. He was pretty sure that there was nothing of the sort that that could be seen from the outside, so figured it was most likely a very advanced spell that would allow them to look outside, without there actually being the need for a real window.
There was even a bed that was big enough to hold more than six or seven Ponies if they were to share it and still have enough room to spread their limbs around without kicking the one next to them. It even had curtains that would come down from the ceiling to conceal whoever was inside. The sheets, along with the curtains were both a velvet red and when he went over to touch it. Brex was able to instantly tell that it was probably one of the best thread counts available out there.
There was even a personal bathroom with everything one could want. Not only was there a counter with two sinks, but there was even one of those seats next to the toilet that would spray water right onto your butt in order to clean it out. However, for the life of him. Brex couldn't come up with what the name of it was called at the moment. If that wasn't even enough. He could spot on the far end of the bathroom, what could have been nothing else but a jacuzzi. It was clearly big enough to be used in one of those rap videos back on Earth.
Within his head. Brex was utterly astonished and also screaming. “Just how much would it have cost me to pay for these rooms if I wasn't in control of this company! Also, how could they possibly fit this much on this one ship?! This is supposed to be a cargo ship, not a luxury cruise liner, right?!”
Rory responded to that in his head. “It can't really be helped Master. You did say you wanted to avoid any unwanted attention for this trip. It was decided among those who were in charge of the scheduled deliveries that we would just use whatever was available on such short notice. If we were to have one of the other ships to be diverted off its intended course, then that would of course have the result of draw the eyes of others.
Brex quickly shot back hurriedly through the connection by saying, “But still! Why am I in a room that looks like it's meant for the Princesses? It fucking looks like you have to be royalty to even breathe the same air in this room!” There was a slight pause before Rory spoke up again, although she sounded rather reluctant to do so.
“This ship was built several years ago... So... Um ... ... Its original purpose was to...” Rory took another long pause, before finally saying the rest of it out in one quick breath. “You are actually in a room that was built as the exclusive suite for Princess Celestia for whenever she would ever have a need for it!”
On his end. Brex was now completely silent. This went on for several long seconds as he remained completely motionless while standing in the middle of the bathroom. Off on the wall, where a large mirror was situated over the sink, one could see steam beginning to waft out of every crevice of his clothing that allowed any airflow to move in and then out again.
Over to the toilet. The water inside of the bowl was beginning to slowly come to a boil, as bubbles were now constantly flowing to the surface over time. Brex was clearly unaware as to how his left eye was beginning to shine brightly with a mix of orange and red and depicting the image of a sun in the center of the black area for the eye hole of his mask.
Brex closed his eyes after a few seconds of this and breathe very slowly in through his nose and then out again with his mouth in order to calm himself down. As he was doing this, the temperature in both his body, as well as the room itself was dropping back to normal levels, along with the glowing symbol of the sun fading from his masks eye hole. Now that he was back to his old self and no longer about the turn into an erupting volcano that could possibly blow a hole in the side of the ship.
He exited the bathroom and found that the girls had already unpacked their bags and place them into some of the drawers located near the bed. Not only that, they were already standing at attention and waiting for him before he had come out.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Ponyville, at the Golden Oaks Library* *Time: Twelve-fifteen in the afternoon*
Inside of the Golden Oaks Library was Spike, who was in the middle of his daily chores that mostly consisted of dusting and cleaning up after Twilight on a regular basis, on top of everyday tasks such as cooking and sending letters to the Princess. Or perhaps in the strictest sense, one would essentially call him a go to helper.
The young dragon was just about to come down from a sliding ladder that was attached to the bookshelves and quickly gave an exaggerated sigh as soon as his clawed feet came into contact with the wooden floor. Without so much as turning around and still reorganizing a few books that was out of place. Spike spoke out rather disappointedly. “I wish he had at least come and said goodbye to me.”
A female's voice could be heard coming from a short distance away that turned out to be that of Rory and she was sounding a little apologetic. “Yeah, I know that he's sorry about that too, but with how the night went. It wouldn't have worked out too well. With it getting late and you already off to bed. There really wasn't much of an option. And with it being such an extended trip and all. We have to get a few things in order on such short notice.”
As Spike was continuing with his activities. The two of them would converse back and forth, while Rory laid across the couch and with a magazine in her hands that was being held over her head.
“So, where did you say he was going again?”
“I believe it's called Zebrabwa. it would take a little too long to go there by land, so he'll be taking an airship from Canterlot and from there, that would drop them off at Los Pegasus. Then he would get onto another one that would go over the South Luna Sea for a straight shot over.”
“Hmmmm. I do recall the name from one of Twilight's books. Although there wasn't a whole lot on it though. So, I only really remember it's general area. After hearing about Zecora, I did a little bit of light reading while everyone was out. That place is where the Zebras come from and there are quite a few other species that are only found there as well. There are the Cats, which have their own tribes just like the Ponies. Not to mention Rhinos, Elephants and some sentient Crocodiles. And that's just the name of a few.”
“Spike, when you say Cats and Crocodiles. Are you talking about the ones over here that are animals or truly sentient and walk on two legs and talk?”
“I think it's pretty much a mix. There are the animal types they’re just like Rarity’s cat and Applejacks dog that’s named Winona. But there's also the kind that are like you and me. Some are for lack of better words… Dumb as a rock while the rest are just Ponies, Dragons and Griffins as an example.”
“What of their culture, can you tell me anything about that?”
“Uh… I'm really sorry Rory but I have no clue. Like I said, there isn't a whole lot. It seems that there was a conflict a couple of decades ago and trade between the country and ours is not what you would say to be on the best of terms. I know from what I've picked up in the castle that we do have Ponies going over there and coming back, but it's not the same the other way around and they keep pretty much to themselves. Although, I do know they have a king.”
“Oh, is that so? Let me guess, their King is a lion. Isn't he?”
“Huh, how do you know that?”
“Just call it a lucky guess. There is an old saying that says that the Lions are the king of the animal kingdom or other such nonsense and I just use that as a basis. So, I take it you haven't even met the king, huh? All this talk about the castle made me wonder if you did.”
“Nope, not even once. I do hear that he comes to the Grand Galloping Gala whenever it comes up, but I've never been to it myself. I have no idea as to what he even looks like. But I have heard that he keeps himself surrounded by a bunch of lionesses at all times.”
“So, the king is surrounded by a pride huh. I suppose they have their own version of Herds over there. Anyhow, let's put that aside. Master was concerned that you might be lonely without him around. So how about you show me how to play that card game of yours?”
“What, REALLY?! Uh I mean… I guess I could. I am busy most of the time. You’re probably the same.”
“Of course. Although, whenever I'm not busy myself, the two of us could hang out as well.”
And just like that, the chores were done at lightning pace as Spike was overly energetic from the idea of being able to play his favorite card game with someone else. Spike had even brought out his collection of cards in order to start putting together a kind of, beginners set for the two of them so the basics could be taught to Rory.
All the while, the girl would watch him and even giggle to herself every now and then as she saw how he was so happy. As one small box after another was brought down from upstairs. Rory watched as they started to pile up on the main table until there was at least seven or eight of them in total that could have held on to maybe two hundred cards in each of the boxes.
Upon closer inspection, Rory could see that they were labeled for organization purposes. Instead of writing down their types. They were instead marked for chronological order of release dates. This prompted a question to the young dragon as to how he was able to keep it all straight in his head so he could find what he wanted. Upon hearing the question. Spike gave a nervous chuckle before scratching the spines on the back of his head with his right hand before answering.
“Oh uh, well. Can you promise me you won't laugh?” After giving a firm nod that showed that she was not taking it lightly. Spike reluctantly continued. “I've been a fan of these from the first day that I heard about them being released. Not only have I gotten them memorized to where I can literally tell you anything you want to know based on if a small description. But I could reach in there with my eyes closed and grab the card I'm looking for due to how much I got them memorized.”
Upon hearing this, Rory needed a moment to grasp the meaning fully. And when she did, her eyes went wide before they laid on the boxes and then slowly to that of the rest of the books in the library before returning to Spike once again. She then said, while raising an eyebrow questionably. “Spike, if you're telling me the truth. Then does that mean you also memorized everything in this library?”
The young Dragon waved his hand in front of him in a placating gesture, before replying in a joking tone. “Hahaha, of course not! You would literally have to be a super genius to do that. I can only really do that with these cards.” That was when Rory had this small glint in her eye as she leaned forward and gave Spike a small grin.
After that for a good while, Rory went and started to test Spike on his knowledge by calling out certain characteristics and some names of Adventures that she recalled from her Master's memories or even her own over the course of the last decade to see just how well Spike could back up his claim.
To her surprise, Spike was able to answer every one of them and even had a card to go along with what he was saying, as he effortlessly popped the lids off of the boxes. In one motion he would pull out the Adventurers respective card with every one of Rory's attempts to trip him up. Eventually, it got to the point where Rory had even brought herself up and was astonished that Spike had four copies of Rory that spanned over the course of several years.
As she got to look at the cards. She was capable of spotting some differences when it came to the pictures. Not only was each pose different, but the picture even showed her current acts at the time. Which came in different styles and colors that had subtle changes between them. Upon intently gazing at the first released copy. Rory recognized the weapon in the picture as being the first one made for her upon coming back to this world by her Master.”
At the time Rory was not only leveling her warrior class but also the paladin from dungeons and Dragons being her subclass. Even with her body being so powerful she was restricted to only using items that corresponded to her current level. That meant that they were not really strong enough to handle her full strength. As an end result, Rory would have to go through weapon after weapon on a regular basis with how they would constantly snap whenever she put too much force into using them.
Judging from the image on the card. It must have been taken almost immediately after she registered at the Guild. Any normal person would have questioned as to how they got it but, she already knew from the first interface she had with those level checking devices.
Not only did they register a person's stats and general information. But it also used a type of magic to take a selfie if one would call it for their files. It was kind of like getting a biometric scan so that a three-dimensional image could be brought up. Luckily for both master and herself. The image only showed what others could see from the outside so they’re appearance was kept hidden due to their clothing.
One was taken from when she started as rank “F” and then another upon entering rank “E”. As for the last two. The first was of course upon reaching rank “D” and the final must have been taken only a few months ago once she was notified that she was at the halfway marker for going up again. Apparently, once you hit rank “D”. They have it broken down into an upper and lower section of that letter and this would continue the higher one goes.
Once Rory was done with examining them. They were handed back to spike, who carefully placed them back in their proper place. The young Dragon was just about to place one of the boxes back onto the stack when the front door was pretty much kicked open by Rainbow, who was in the middle of talking to someone else quite loudly by the sounds of it.
Unfortunately, the sudden crashing of the library's door from hitting the wall from the force used in opening it, had caused him to stumble and spill the contents he was currently holding all over the floor. Rainbow stumbled a little upon hearing the small crash of tiny cards and turned on the spot to catch witness to the mess. She then scratched the back of her head while slightly wincing as she apologized. “Whoa! Take a tumble there little guy? Sorry about that, I had no idea you were still in here.”
Without so much as looking up at the mare. Spike went straight to picking up his things while replying to Rainbow with a hint of irritation in his voice, that he was trying very careful to hide but otherwise he sounded normal. “It's fine Rainbow, I really should get used to this by now...” However, unknown to any of them. One of the cards had slipped quite a bit further away from the others and was now underneath the corner of the sofa and only a small corner of it was sticking out to be seen if anyone was to look down at that area.
As for the one that was coming in behind of Rainbow. It turned out to not only be Twilight, but the rest of her friends as well, who were beginning to file in one after another. It also seemed as though Twilight was the only one who was not taking notice of the situation and was continuing with what they were just talking about before they even entered the library in the first place.
“And I'm telling you Rainbow! There's no way that it could be possible for Gambit to be doing all of those things that Gilda said and for Rory to be-. Uh... Uh oh hi there Rory! I had no idea you were here.” Clearly the purple Unicorn was quite flustered upon seeing the girl that she was in the middle of talking about, only to be sitting in her library and looking straight at her with a raised eyebrow. Along with giving Twilight this. Please, do continue look.
Of course, with that little signal, she did just that. “Hello there Rory... Hehe-Hehe~. Uh yeah, Rainbow was just filling us in on what Gilda mentioned about you and Gambit. Apparently the two of you have known her for quite a while and she said that you haven't aged a day since then. But I just got finished with explaining as to how that can't possibly be true and there has to be a logical explanation.”
Rory gave her a small smirk, as her eyes began to narrow slightly before she spoke with a slight hint of amusement in her voice. “Would you care to explain why it's so impossible?” With that, the rest of the Ponies in the room. Including Spike, now directing their full attention to the Unicorn as she was looking rather flustered and looking from one friend to another before returning it back to Rory as she replied.
“Well, it's just that, huh... Even for a Pony that lives for quite a long time. We don't keep our youthful image for too long. And even then, there are subtle changes up until we hit a certain age and then it slows down before speeding up again. This normally happens when we hit around twenty-three or even thirty and we continue with this cycle until roughly in our sixties. But in consideration of your youthful body, then I really doubt that you've reached the age of twenty-three for that to happen.”
Rory gave a slight hum before she said, “Oh I get it. Well, I'm pretty sure that number set doesn't really apply to me. After all, I'm clearly older than any of you here.” Applejack was the next one to speak as she raised her own eyebrow, before asking Rory a question. “And just how old are we talking about here?” Rory paused as her eyes drifted to the ceiling and she began to lightly touch her chin with one of her knuckles, before answering after a couple of seconds.
“Hmmm… I don't really feel like telling my exact age, at least for now anyway. Just going to have to trust me that I am older than any of you and keep it at that.” Applejack couldn't help but to give her a flat stair before she asked her next question, as if it was just hanging on the tip of her tongue and was waiting for any opportunity to pop out.
“Okay then, if you're going to be like that. Then what about Gambit, how old is he? Judging from his voice, he can't be older than twenty-five or so.” This had gotten the other girls to zoom in on Rory even more intently than they were when it came to Twilight. The girl merely shrugged, while half closing her eyes for a moment during the action before giving them a genuine smile to casually saying the next bit.
“As for my Master? I couldn’t even tell you even if I wanted to.” This got a confused look from the mare’s before she continued. “It's not that I don't want to. It's that I don't really know for sure. Honestly, I doubt he even knows for sure himself. All I can really say is that he is older than I am by far. Anyway, mind explaining as to why there are all of these sudden questions about our age?”
The farm mare looked over towards Fluttershy, who was standing near the back of the group. Said Pegasus noticed this and ducked behind Rarity after going wide-eyed for only a moment. After letting out a small sigh, Applejack returned her gaze back to Rory again and said, “Well, it's on account of the music the two of you sang last night at the bar.” After getting a clearly puzzled look from Rory, the farm mare continued after looking a little guilty by looking to the ground and using her hoof to trace a small circle.
“After the incident with Lyra and his promotion. Fluttershy and I both followed you to the Mare's Pit, and we got to hear the music being sung.” That was when the rest of the girls, which consisted of Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity and Pinkie Pie began to barrage the orange mare with a multitude of questions. Over with Rory, she was leaning back into the chair and watching the show while at the same time, going over last night's events in her head and having a small smile that was beginning to form as she slowly closed her eyes.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Ponyville, the Mare's Pit* *Time: The day before, soon after going to the Adventurers Guild*
Brex, along with Rory, Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis. Entered the bar and took one of the booths that was surrounded by a half circular set of cushioned seating which was arranged in a way so that they could face the stage while enjoying their drinks and or meals. The two married lovebirds were sitting side by side over to the left and Brex and Rory were on the right, with her being on the Outer Edge.
Off at another table nearby, could be seen the flower sisters and they were already starting on some drinks. The eldest of the sisters who was Lily. Was already on her second drink and munching away at some peanuts. Rose was right at the moment sipping away at a rainbow-colored drink that had one of those small umbrellas sticking out of it. When it came to Daisy. Brex could see what appeared to be a small shot glass and what he could recognize as a large bottle of whiskey sitting nearby so it was within arm’s length.
As usual, Brex never really touched real alcohol, so the closest he ever got was the Brew that was being produced at Renegade Brewery. Of course, he did feel the slight buzz, but in no way did it actually get them tipsy. So at least he was able to seem as though he belonged there. It was all pretty casual with the four of them chatting amongst themselves, but making sure not to be too loud to be heard over everything else that was being said and done as the entire bar, as it was pretty much half filled with patrons.
From what he recalled from back then. The bar had gone under some recent renovations and went from one that was pretty close to being an old-style Saloon. To that of a popular hangout for not only the older generation, but some of the younger ones. This was made apparent when they got to look at the menu and saw that there was a kid section, which meant that this was not exclusively for adults.
From going off of some of the memories concerning Earth. Brex would have to say that the bar was pretty much a cross between a local diner and possibly a steakhouse. Although it was pretty clear that there was not a single ounce of anything on the menu that could be seen as meat in any way. But he was glad that there were options that he knew that Rory could eat on the list. Even with her taking on the image of a pony, the girl couldn't digest things such as hey and flowers.”
They pretty much spent the next two hours there and during that time. Brex got to see how Fancy Pants was beginning to loosen up as his somewhat laid back prim and proper way of doing things, was slowly fading with each drink he had. In the beginning, the stallion started off with some regular drinks. But halfway through, he switched out to the non-alcoholic brew in order to enjoy the taste and not end up passing out. Which turned out to be one drink which consisted of ingredients that was comparable to a regular Long Island Iced Tea and several of the Brew afterwards.
When it came to Fleur De lis. The mare was pretty much taking it down glass after glass, as though no matter what type of alcohol she had was no stronger than water. During the time that Brex knew this Pony. He had found out a few things and one of them being that she had quite a history when it came to going to parties.
Holding her liquor was something that she herself trained to do. Even with the society being completely reversed when it came to how the females and males were treated. It didn't mean that she was not going to be taken advantage of if she wasn’t prepared. After all, she is a very beautiful model.
Now, when it came to Rory on the other hand. The girl was pretty much drinking them faster than the waitress was able to bring them over to their table. So, in the end, they ended up ordering whole bottles to be brought over. Which Brex was really confused as to where she was putting it all. Unlike him, she needed sustenance and of course this meant bathroom runs.
However, she was able to hold it quite easily as if there was a parallel pocket dimension that all this was inside of until she was ready to go. With that being said, Brex couldn't even remember the last time he even needed a restroom to begin with, unless it was simply to get in a shower and to take care of some hygiene. Although, this didn't stop Rory from having some fun and putting on the image of being drunk just for the heck of it.
This was done by Rory giving an expression that she was tipsy and showing a light blush, as she would snuggle up against Rex and hold on to his arm to convey that she required him to help in keeping her upright. The girl would use pretty much any opportunity to get as close as possible so that she could rub herself onto him and on a few occasions, that her hand would even snake its way under his clothing in order to try and find his, not so little package underneath. Once or twice, she would grab onto his hand and try to place it between her legs so that he would have an opportunity to tease her.
Of course, with Fleur De Lis sitting right there less than a few feet away. the mare was able to pick up on Rory’s lust. With her currently being intoxicated and picking up on what was going on. The Unicorn would try to do the same with fancy pants on occasion which got the stallion to blush up a storm as he was trying really hard for them not to be noticed as she took his hand and tried to emulate Rory’s actions after seeing how much fun the girl was having.
On the other side of the bar. At a table meant for two, the pair known as Applejack and Fluttershy were sitting across from one another and having their own drinks, while keeping an eye on Gambit from a respectful distance. The farm mare was having some extra hard apple cider and Fluttershy was sipping on a small fruity drink that obviously had little alcohol in it, along with a small glass of water nearby in order to keep herself hydrated to help in keeping her from succumbing to the effects of alcohol so easily.
As Applejack was keeping her eyes on the group of four. She leaned in slightly so that she could be heard by Fluttershy over the crowds. “I can hardly believe that Gambit is level forty! Can you?” Fluttershy was in the middle of taking a sip through a red straw, when she heard this and instantly began to have a small coughing fit that lasted a second or two, before her gaze shifted towards Gambit and then back down to the table as she replied.
“I-I don't know... Is that a really high number? After all, I'm not even in the double digits yet.” Applejack was clearly surprised with the mixture of facial expressions she gave to the yellow Pegasus, before she answered. “It's a really big deal Fluttershy. The head mares at the schools from what I've heard are at level forty themselves. And I even heard that the Princesses are in the fifties or sixties if the rumors are true!”
Fluttershy was now playing with the straw with her right hands index finger and thumb. While hunching over the drink as if it was some type of life raft for the situation, before she answered back with that very soft voice of hers that was just barely made out by Applejack. “I don't find it all that hard to believe.” She then started to shrink into her chair a little bit, before saying the next part. “He can be pretty scary... Especially when he gets into fights.”
Applejack's face scrunched up for a moment as she tried to register what Fluttershy was saying before asking her next question, as she tilted her head in confusion. “When did you get to see him getting into a fight?” In response, Fluttershy's eyes began to roam around quickly as she pulled in her drink even tighter and was mumbling a few words to herself that couldn't be made out. However, there were a few times that her gaze would end up stopping as soon as it came across the table that Brex was sitting at.
Applejack was just about to try and press the subject, when the two of them were distracted by what happened next. Apparently, Rory had gotten up from her chair and somehow made it to the side of the stage and was talking to one of the staff members, who pointed at what appeared to be a karaoke machine.
There was a pair of speakers at either side of the stage that was big enough for maybe a small group of ponies to stand on at one time and still have plenty of elbow room. Right at the center and on top of a pedestal that was just high enough that one's hand could easily rest on it while they stood.
This just happened to be a unique round crystal that was enchanted to allow whoever touched it, to sync up with the strange effects of the world that would spontaneously cause music to fill the air when enough ponies would come together to sing. After talking to the staff member for a few more seconds. Rory approached the center of the stage and was about to place her hand onto the crystal before she pointed to the crowd and directly at Brex, who was still sitting at the table.
The girl started to speak loud enough to be heard by everyone there and in a tone of voice that was showing she was having a blast. It was even hard to tell whether or not she was actually tipsy or in a really good mood when she said the following. “Hello everyone! My name is Rory Mercury and I'm going to sing a song for the one I love tonight. And it just so happens it's one of his favorite songs that he heard when he was younger and took the time to teach it to me!”
Over with Brex. He had his hand slightly raised as if reaching for Rory, before slowly bringing it to his mask and giving a light shake of the head. Before lowering it back down to watch what was about to happen. Rory then proceeded to place her hand onto the crystal and this got the effect of a light glow to be emitted as the rest of the Tavern grew a little dimmer and the spotlights were turned on to illuminate the stage. After a few more seconds, everything went quiet as the song began to start and came out of the speakers for all to hear.
(Here is the song if anyone wants to hear it. Final Fantasy X-2. One thousand words.)
I know that you're hiding things.
Using gentle words to shelter me.
Your words were like a dream.
But dreams could never fool me.
Not that easily~.
Rory had brought up her hands to her chest and looked down with her eyes closed for a moment, before lifting back up and looking towards Brex with pleading eyes.
I acted so distant then.
Didn't say goodbye before you left.
But I was listening.
You'll fight your battles far from me.
Far too easily~.
This was when she looked towards the past. Everything began to show up as crude brush drawings upon a yellowish paper background. A past where her Master was completely alone in the old castle on the day that he truly needed her to be there for him. The image started to go hazy with the site of his mangled form after taking so many injuries. From there, the memory quickly caused her to shed a tear in response, which ran down the side of her left cheek and fell to the floor.
"Save your tears 'cause I'll come back"
I could hear that you whispered as you walked through that door.
But still I swore.
To hide the pain, when I turn back the pages.
Shouting might have been the answer.
What if I cried my eyes out and begged you not to depart.
But now I'm not afraid to say what's in my heart~.
The memory quickly changed yet again after being blown away like dust in the wind. Only to show that he and she were both standing tall, while being side by side. They're forms facing a bright light that was causing them to appear as nothing but black silhouettes. As for the crowd, they saw her expression shifting from that of sorrow into determination, with her right hand now balling into a fist.
Though a thousand words~.
Have never been spoken.
They'll fly to you.
Crossing over the time.
And distance holding you, suspended on silver wings.
And a thousand words.
One thousand confessions.
Will cradle you.
Making all of the pain you feel seem far away.
They'll hold you forever~.
Her attention was fully focused on Brex and thanks to this, all of those in attendance were following their gaze until they were locked on him as well. One of the spotlights on the ceiling had even turned so that the stage and his table were both illuminated for the performance. Rory threw out her hands to both of her sides, before her right hand motioned in his direction as the song went into a small guitar solo. She was even giving him this comforting smile as another teardrop fell to the floor. Although this one was clearly not made of sorrow.
The dream isn't over yet.
Though I often say I can't forget.
I still relive that day.
You've been there with me all the way.
I still hear you say~.
Rory brought her hands back in closer, so that she could cover her heart. Her thoughts went back to when he returned after eight hundred years and told her the story of what it was like in the other world and that he seemed so relieved that she was there upon his arrival.
"Wait for me, I'll write you letters"
I could see how you stammered with your eyes to the floor.
But still I swore.
To hide the doubt when I turn back the pages.
Anger might have been the answer.
What if I'd hung my head and said that I couldn't wait.
But now I'm strong enough to know it's not too late~.
The images in her mind quickly shifted from one to the next in rapid succession. Each one of them displaying fragments as time went by for the both of them. The way her Master would hide and not show his true self out of fear. No matter where he went or what he did, he always felt so alone even if he were to be surrounded by others.
No one else to have intimate relations with or to open up his thoughts too. Constantly closing himself away from any of those who would even attempt to come near. All of the times that he would have self-doubt and even Rory was unable to get him to feel accepted enough to show who and what he truly is.
After a few more of these scenes went by, it then showed Ryu while he was in his wolf form, for there to be many large pieces of equipment that littering the background. Most covered in valves and steam exiting them. Many of which consisted of vats containing liquid and one glass container with a vague outline of a person deep in its murky water. Where the lights would illuminate one area and also left others dark. In this scene, her master would be slaving away tirelessly on one task or another that had his full attention.
He would be jotting notes down and making diagrams on a large chalkboard, as papers went flying at the same time and covering everything in a blanket with the multitude of concepts. As though they were leaves being blown around by a heavy wind. Only to be erased and redone over and over, as he displayed his frustrations. Then it would go and fade into darkness when the final piece of paper flew by and displayed a new scene. This one being of him and herself standing side by side and holding hands, as they walk slowly into a bright light and their forms shrink and faded away through a doorway.
Cause a thousand words.
Call out through the ages.
They'll fly to you.
Even though I can't see.
I know they're reaching you, suspended on silver wings.
Oh a thousand words.
One thousand embraces.
Will cradle you.
Making all of your weary days seem far away.
They'll hold you forever~.
The memory quickly shifts again and this time, it was of them being together. Her master was laughing as the two of them went on adventures together, one after another, each one of them at different locations. Be it either a battle, traveling from one place to the next or doing the most mundane activities that others would take for granted. They were both so happy and smiling in her mind. And in these images of hers, he was without his mask and giving her a joyous expression that she rarely got to see of him when it was not just them together alone.
Oh a thousand words (a thousand words).
Have never been spoken (Oh yeah).
They'll fly to you.
They'll carry you home (Carry you home).
And back into my arms.
Suspended on silver wings (On silver wings).
And a thousand words (Oh).
Call out through the ages (Call through the ages).
They'll cradle you (Oh yeah).
Making all of the lonely years to only days (Only days).
They'll hold you forever.
Oh, a thousand words~.
When the song finally came to an end, as the entire bar laid in perfect silence when the final note was struck. The lights of the stage where the only ones that were fully Illuminating the spot in which Rory stood. As she was giving Brex a genuine smile, over the course of the next few seconds there was hardly a sound being made by the crowd. That was until it became a roaring chorus of applause that was strong enough to shake the very air, as well as the ground thanks in part to the stomping of hoofs.
At one point or another during the song that Rory was singing. Gilda entered the bar herself and was standing along one of the walls that was the furthest away from the stage. As well as positioning herself so that most of her form was being obstructed by one of the support beams for the building. Which made it pretty obvious that she was trying to keep herself from being noticed.
From there, the crowd called for an encore, but instead of doing so right then and there. Rory jumped off of the stage in order to land between a couple of tables that had enough space for her to do so and rushed up to Brex and pulled him straight onto the stage. All the while, he was obviously unsure as to what was going on and also trying really hard not to bump into any of the other bar patrons along the way.
Once on-stage. Brex was made to lean down so that Rory can whisper into his ear. After doing so, a few seconds went by and this got him to wave his hands in a placating gesture to indicate that he was not up for whatever it was she said. It took a little bit of effort on Rory's part and the chanting of do it do it from the crowd to get him to relent. Brex placed his right hand onto the orb and began to think of the song that they wanted for background music. Which turned out to be the duet from the animated movie known as, Shrek Two.
(Here is the song that Brex and Rory sang. Just skip the small parts at the start and end that aren’t for the song itself.)
As the music played. The two of them would dance and sing with one another in time with the beat of the song. Brex had even changed his voice in order to perfectly mimic that of Shrek's own for this. One move after another was done in order to mirror their partners actions.
At one time, Rory was spun in place and even dipped low to the ground. When it got to the parts of the song that required the harmonica to be heard quite clearly. The larger of the pair pulled out a harmonica from his sleeve and brought it to his mask. Which was surprisingly able to play right through it.
With the rest of the onlookers that were present. Many were getting into the tune and even got out of their seats as to dance with their respective partners. Even a few of the male patrons that were there that night, were swept up due to the harmony magic in the air and tossed in their own voices to act as the background singers for some sections of the music being produced from the speakers.
Even Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis joined as well. The mare herself being quite intoxicated in letting loose with how she danced and hanged onto her stallion. There were even a few times that the Unicorn would even go as far as to do a few provocative moves when getting really close to the Fancy Pants.
There were a few times that she would give him a very messy kiss whenever she could get close enough to his lips. Of course, this would always cause Fancy Pants to blush up a storm, but nonetheless he would reciprocate her advances by kissing her back with just as much vigor, if not more.
Over at the table that had two of the six element bearers sitting. They were already swept away and currently enjoying themselves as well. Applejack with vigorously tap her hoof and bob her head to the tune, as Fluttershy was lightly humming to it and giving a small smile as she looked across the crowd that we're having a good time and full of energy.
When it was time for the very last note to be struck. Everyone there gave their own versions of cheering. Brex and Rory gave a bow to that, while holding on to the other's hand before getting off the stage together. Although, as they were making their way back to their friends. Rory did catch site of a familiar Griffin, right as she was clearly leaving the bar in a hurry from the corner of her eye. She was even sure that Gilda’s eyes were solely locked onto her Master up until the door fully closed behind her after pushing past a few Ponies.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Golden Oaks Library* *Time: Present time*
Now as for back in the present. As the rest of the girls were currently preoccupied with getting the full version of the story from the orange earth pony and yellow Pegasus. Rory took the window of opportunity to swiftly make an exit after saying goodbye to Spike and made a swift retreat, before she was even noticed to be gone by the time that most of the craziness had died down.
Over with Rarity, who was being fairly polite as to not push herself into the group of ponies in order to get her questions answered. Although, she did happen to see the Rory leaving, but was unable to get a word over the noise of Pinkie, who was trying to get Applejack to sound out the song that was used.
Quickly perceiving that something was poking out from under the edge of the couch, she went on over to pick it up with her magic, seeing as she couldn't stand the place being a mess if she could help it. When she brought it up to her face. It was found out to be one of the trading cards that Spike had in his possession when they all came in. Just as she was about to hand it straight back to the young Dragon.
The white Unicorn stopped just before doing so and narrowed her eyes, as it was brought closer to her face. With a quick glance around the library. She was able to quickly discern that no one was paying any attention to her. With the figurative coast being clear, and without looking guilty in the lease.
The card then vanished with hardly a single indication that it was even there to begin with and Rarity quickly got back into her previous position. All the while, Rarity would have this look of extreme contemplation as her eyes drifted towards the door that Rory only recently escaped through.
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Location: Canterlot, in Luna’s Bed Chambers* *Time: Four-thirty in the afternoon*
Princess Luna was at this moment, getting herself ready after waking up just a little earlier than normal and in the middle of finishing the last of what would be her morning preparations, before she would start to walk about the castle. As usual, she was wearing her blue attire. Consisting of a blue dress, with her silver and black regalia.
While still looking at her full-length mirror that was right next to her bed. Her carefree expression turned somewhat serious, before she stopped what she was doing and turned towards one of the shadows of her bedroom. Which had a dark curtain next to it, as to block out the sunlight that would come in from the balcony.
She called out after taking a more regal stance. “Time for the shift in guards has not come up. What do you have to report?” From out of the shadows, stepped a mare with bat-like wings and wearing mostly leather and dark cloths. Her face was fully obscured with a hood that not only covered her head, but most of her face as well. So that only her yellow eyes were revealed. After taking a knee and lowering her head. A scroll was carefully pulled out from one of the pockets and presented to Luna without so much as saying a single word.
Once Luna took the scroll and her magic and placed it into her own hands. It was unfurled after the bindings were slipped off. She was taking her time to go over the message in great detail, before slowly lowering it down and showing a look of worry on her face before placing the scroll down on a nearby table and addressing her visitor directly.
“It would seem that my sister's spy will be otherwise preoccupied for the near future... It falls upon you to take on the task and see it through. With what has been reported so far, it is safe to say that a nocturnal surveillance unit will turn up very little. Gambit is not active at night and stays indoors until the sun comes up again. And when he does, he doesn’t do much aside from going to the park at night to look up at the stars.” This brought a small smile onto the Princess’s lips before she returned to her serious one once again so that she could continue.
“However, I do know that you are far better equipped when it comes to secretly gathering information. Please shift your responsibilities to keeping an eye on Gambit during the daytime hours and use the night to sleep. Request any items and funding that is deemed necessary in order to follow him to wherever it is he is heading for.”
“With the most likely increasing distance, the usual method of sending reports will no longer be as reliable and henceforth, all reports will be done through the Dream Realm. At set times, you will be ready to relay all you have uncovered so that I and perhaps my sister, could witness the events transpiring from your point of view. Is that understood?”
After giving a silent nod to Luna. She gave permission for the Thestral to leave after motioning towards the shadows with her head. With that, the mare leaped into the shadow that she came from without any hesitation. Once she was gone, Luna went to a more relaxed stance for a few seconds, before even that turned into a more depressing one. As her shoulders began to slouch and she couldn't help but to bring herself over to the bed in order to sit down.
After a few seconds of this, Luna's head began to lower as her hair obscured most of her face after flowing down off of her shoulders. She then said in a slightly disbelieving tone, that was also laced with some regret. “How could we have possibly missed a cult member that was so close to our capital... I'm so sorry for special agent Lemon Drops to have her own mare-friend to be a criminal.”
In the report. It was pretty obvious with the way it was shakily drawn up, that their daytime spy was quite shaken upon hearing the news of Lyra being detained after attempting to murder a stallion. More so, when it was completely uncalled for and in front of a large group of witnesses. After the details of the incident were relayed over to special agent Lemon Drops.
The mare began to investigate Lyra’s home and found a few items that were being tucked away inside of the house that the mare lived in. These items indicated that she was a fanatical member of the herd cult, that she already had a chance to read about in some of the disturbing reports across Equestria. There are even a few documents in there that implicated her own mother as one of the members as well.
But even with this going on. Luna couldn't help but to wonder why it was that Gambit would leave Ponyville so abruptly. She feared that they may have been the cause of his leaving. Maybe the attack of this Lyra was the reason. If it was any other stallion, then the notion of seeing such an incident would surely cause them to be fearful and run.
But deep down, Luna knew there was a reason for this decision aside from the attack. If he was able to send threats to both of the rulers, then this much wouldn’t have cause him to even bat an eye. But there was one last thing in the report that mentioned Gambit was boarding a train for Canterlot, along with a Zebra mare earlier this day. This caused Luna to let out an annoyed huff at the thought of missing the chance to see him in person, but being asleep until now was her own undoing.
*Point of view: Fluttershy* *Location: Fluttershy's house* *Time Five-twenty in the afternoon*
Fluttershy was just in the middle of getting ready to give the last set of dinner to the daytime critters right outside of her house. Which happened to be feeding a couple of squirrels and a skunk some nuts and berries. When that was done, Fluttershy packed up the bag that was holding on to the food and was about to fly off into her house. But was stopped by a couple of birds that swooped in and began to chirp wildly, while flying around her in order to get her attention.
After a few seconds of this going on. The Pegasus had a look of fright on her face, before zipping past the small flock of birds and disappearing into her house. Only to re-appear a few seconds later, along with a bag that had a strap going across her chest and a red symbol of a cross that was printed over the flap covering. The birds that were conversing with Fluttershy before getting the equipment. Quickly caught up and were now trying to lead her to somewhere to the south end of Ponyville.
After following them as quickly as she could, which meant that she was flying pretty close to the ground, yet much faster than normal. Fluttershy came to one of the less traveled roads leading into Ponyville and found a large creature that was laying down at the side of the path. When she had gotten closer, she could see that it was still breathing, although quite labored. As its chest raised and fell with each breath. The yellow feathers could be seen getting slightly ruffled.
Right as she landed, Fluttershy quickly got right to giving the creature an examination and was talking in her tender voice. At first, she was frantic, but became more relaxed upon finding out that there were no visible injuries such as cuts and signs of being attacked.
“The rest of you were right to come and find me. Oh my gosh! Everything is going to be okay, you're safe now, just rest. I had no idea that there was a nest of Chocobo's anywhere nearby Ponyville. Did you get separated from your flock? Hold on, you got a saddle on. Oh, I see you lost your owner. Let me take you to my cottage and we'll see about finding them. There, there.”
The Chocobo, who was aware of Fluttershy's presents, was slightly shifting as its short wings were weakly flapping. As for its legs, they could be seen attempting to move in a way to suggest that she was trying to get up, but had little to no energy left.
There was even some slight discoloration around her right eye to show that something had struck it recently and Fluttershy took note of this. After, she reached into her medical bag and took out what she needed to render first aid, before trying to take the Chocobo back to her place to recover.
Although, during all of this. Fluttershy couldn't help but to notice the strange insignia that was on the side of the riding harness, which had a saddlebag underneath. It depicted a curved black boat, with rowing oars situated underneath. All of it being on top of a red background. There were even some armored sections on the saddle to indicate that it was meant for protection, for both the bird and its rider.
On one of these metal bits, Fluttershy pulled off a stretch of white fabric that looked quite expensive, yet there was quite a bit of dirt smeared on it. She started to wonder if this was from the clothing of the rider, although her attention was easily pulled back to the large bird and pocketed it away.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 59: Seeing Red? How About Yellow?
*Point of view: Daddy* *Location: Unknown* *Time: Unknown*
Absolutely nothing could be seen or heard, that could possibly indicate as to where the current scene was. Especially with it being completely shrouded in a thick gray mist that comprised pretty much everything. This including the entire ground. But an elderly male's voice soon came through loud and clear as he was plainly agitated.
This turning out to be that of Daddy from just before he took on the form of Master Roshi of the anime called Dragon Ball. So, instead of his usual goofy tone of voice. This time it came much rougher and commanding as it boomed. Which was a very different contrast to how he is in his other form.
“How could they have possibly learnt of my plans? So careful I was when making contact with the Merchants! Only to have a puppet sent in to assassinate not only the Merchant, but the boy as well. If only my movements weren't so restricted!” The air began to rumble after hearing the voice giving a low growl that echoed from nowhere, yet at the same time, from every direction to show his great displeasure.
After a few seconds of this, the voice died down to a more manageable level before it continued in a solemn tone of voice. “To think after every misfortune that has come across his way, that he would even go as far as to throw his life into the fray just to help that girl that was about to send him into another world.”
That was when a number of colored lights began to appear one after another high above the ground. Before they all slowly lowered and began converging on one another so that they were now forming a semicircle, which was comprised of over a dozen sources.
Among these, were also a number of items comprising of a single bracelet, a large leather-bound book, an old style dark blue telephone with the circular dial system. There was even a singular curved horn that was long and white. The last item of these, being a box with a lid that was floating nearby. What could be seen inside was a few pieces of paper and what appeared to be a container of sorts with a shimmering silver liquid that could be seen through one of the see-through panels on the side, just before the lid was placed back on top.
The voice of Daddy then said the following, while it seemed to converge on one spot so that it was now moving from place to place and giving a quick sigh. “The boy can't possibly handle these in his current state. There is no choice but to hold on to a majority until the time is right. For now, he should have these at least. I only hope that he survives long enough to receive the rest. How I detest the feeling of being so helpless… If only I could do more.”
Two of the glowing lights came forth so that they were now leaving the others. And as the image zoomed in on those. It was plain to see that one had the drawing of a shield, as the other had one that resembled that of a four-pointed throwing star and a circle with three sharp lines going out. In a bright flash of white and gold, these were gone without a trace before the voice spoke up again.
“If I only known sooner. Then maybe, I could have spared you from that heartache... Curse the one that blocked my vision for so long!” From there, the voice could be heard speaking more words, but they were becoming so muddled that they were completely unrecognizable as everything began to go dark. The last thing that could be seen, were the items themselves before those also started to grow dim. Only to be replaced with another person's voice that was beginning to echo in the background as it was getting louder and louder.
*Point of view: Daddy* *Location: The other side* *Time: The present*
“Daddy… Daddy! Daddy!!! Daddy!!!!!!!!! Come on, wake up already you old fart! Don't make me get Mother in here to destroy another one of your magazines!” And with, that everything was blanketed in white from a sudden bright light from above. Daddy, who is laying on his back on the couch, ended up bouncing right off of it and fell face first onto the carpeted floor.
At the same time, he was releasing the most masculine war cry that no one ever bore witness to. Which turned out to be him pretty much imitating that of a whaling cat that got its tail stepped on with the way he was floundering about and screaming and saying gibberish for a few seconds before they started to make sense.
“No! No! That heartless harpy! Don't you dare touch my babies! Do you know how hard it took me to find them? How much blood, sweat and tears I ended up shedding in order to build my collection?! I would rather die than let you murder one of them again!” It took him a few seconds before his vision was fully cleared after waking up so abruptly. Only to catch the sight of one of his children standing overhead and giving him an unamused stare, as he laid there almost motionless now and giving a weak chuckle as he spoke up and waving at her.
“Oh! Hey there Little Moon!” The girl only frowned at him before she stood up straight with her hands placed onto her hips and giving him an unamused look before responding to that. “Just how long are you going to wait until you give Mother's gift to him? It's been over a month now!” Daddy turned over to grab onto the edge of the couch to get himself onto his feet and brushed himself off, before glancing at the end table and seeing the odd, see-through orb with the shifting stars inside, before answering his daughter.
“Eh? Ah that? I just want to find out what it is before I do that. This is Mother we're talking about. Even we don't know what she can be up to! For all we know, it could turn him into a blank slate again. It could possibly change his personality. It could even send them to another world where Equus is ruled by Discord! By the Seven hell’s, he could even be reunited with-.”
Daddy had stopped himself in mid-sentence and started to give an overly exaggerated cough as a form of distraction. Along with him hitting his chest repeatedly with the side of his fist to drive the point home, before continuing as if nothing had even been said after the Discord topic. Of course, Little Moon was now tapping her foot and giving him the death glare, before her characters thick accent kicked in. “Okay Daddy, spill it! You know something about his past, don't you? Neither you or Little Light is telling me anything about him from back when he was on Earth!”
“I see Brex as a little brother... Err... Okay... Mabey more of a little brother, that's in a big body. So, would that make him? A little big brother or a big-little brother?” Clearly getting agitated even with herself. Little Moon shook her head quickly before getting back on the original topic. “Come on, give me anything! I hate being in the dark like this!”
Daddy already went over and grabbed onto the orb and was examining it some more by bringing it up to his eyes and lifting his glasses slightly with the other hand, as he replied to Little Moon. “I'm really sorry, but we can't really say much about him. It's up to the kid to recall it on his own.” Little Moon rushed up and grabbed on to Daddy by the scruff of his collar when she heard that and was now shaking him above her own head.
This got a very loud scared shriek from the man, as his eyes were beginning to spin with the sudden motion that his daughter was making with his own body that was now high in the air. A number of items began to fall out of his clothing one after another, which consisted of the following as they made clattering sounds on the carpeted floor.
“His extra pair of glasses, the orb he was examining, a few dirty magazines of different variations of holidays, his walking stick, a few hammers and chisels, three toy frogs that managed to land right next to one another so that they were sitting up straight and making the sounds in order that resembled an old jingle for a beer commercial.
There were also few more magazines. These obviously not from Earth, as the models weren't even by pedal and the words were extremely complex with their lettering. These mostly of species that ranged greatly in color and a few even had multiple limbs.
Little Moon continued to shake Daddy some more and a few more items began to spill from underneath his jacket. A miniaturized version of a golden double-headed axe, some wind-up chattering teeth, a rubber duck, some crazy googly eyes sunglasses and a bazooka with some letters that spelled out “Party time!” Little Moon stopped to look down and soon gave Daddy a look straight into his slowly stopping eyes that were swirling around. Without even looking down and sounding as though he was about to throw up. Daddy tried to reply.
“I can explain a lot of those. As for the eyeglasses, I do not know where those came from, but as for the Bazooka, I have a permit!” Little Moon got even more angrier as she let go with one of her arms and began to twirl Daddy around until he was nothing but a blur in the air, before letting go and sending him flying through the large television and the wall on the other side until he was sliding face first across the grass on the front lawn. As he was flying, Daddy was screaming before his mouth was full of grass and dirt after coming to a stop.
All the while, she was screaming at the top of her lungs and closing her eyes. Which showed her to be having quite a fit. “Why won't you tell me anything about my big little brother! I hate you Daddy!” Little Moon then stomped off to another part of the house while also yelling out some random curse words in a number of languages from Earth. None of them being nice in the least.
As Daddy was laying there and weakly holding up his arm, as if trying to plead with his daughter to not be too angry. Another person's head slowly came poking out of the side of the hole and towards the right from within the house.
This turning out to be the one that was using the character from Cowboy Bebop, known as Jet and he was not looking all that great with the way he was rubbing his face with his hand going down and squinting at the damage between his fingers. He then called out to Daddy with a tone that just said that he was completely over what was happening. “You're going to have to say something to her sooner or later... I'm getting really sick and tired of fixing this place up if she's going to end up doing this sort of stuff to you on a daily basis. Even I have my limits.”
Daddy spat out the dirt before he got himself out of the ground and went back into the house through the front door. Only to find that Jet was already at work with using his power to fix everything that was just broken. Once the final cracks had disappeared, both he and Daddy plopped right down on the couch, before the smaller one of the two spoke up. “I have absolutely no idea on what I'm supposed to say to her. You know what her aspect is, right? There's no possible way I can tell her about his past.”
Jet just taken out a carton of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and was about to light it, when it was knocked out of his hand by Daddy, who was now wielding his walking stick and giving him a stern look. So instead, Jet brought out a piece of gum and threw it into his mouth, before replying to the old man's words and sitting back into the chair with his arms crossed behind his head. “I know that you and Little Light know quite a bit about him. But the rest of us are pretty much in the dark the same as her. Knowing you, it's probably a good reason. But still, this is starting to get old fast.
“Eventually it's all going to get a lot more awkward now that Mother is about to move back in with us.” Daddy ended up flinching at the sound of Mother being mentioned and started to sweat quite profusely, while twiddling his fingers in front of himself and trying not to look as nervous as he felt. Jet then continued. “You know she's going to get really upset if she sees Little Moon in such a state, you know that right?”
Daddy released a long sigh, as he leaned forward and used his elbows to support himself on his knees before speaking in a worn-out tone. “Yeah, yeah. I get you there. It's just been so long since all of us stayed under one... This isn't really a roof, right? More like a realm? I've kind of forgotten what we're going with.” Jet answered while giving an exhausted sigh of his own.
“How many times do I have to explain it? Where inside of a pocket dimension that's being held by our incorporeal energy fields. If you want to think of it in terms that you can understand easily, then we're in another universe that is… Hmm, I want to say point, zero-zero-zero seven seconds out of sync with all of the other realities.” Daddy had a pondering expression as he tapped his chin before exclaiming. “Ah! I see! So we're kind of like in a gated community!”
Jets eyes just drooped as his facial expressions fell, before replying to that in a sarcastic tone which was laid on pretty thick, as he looked straight ahead with a thousand-mile stare. “Yeah... We're like living in a gated community... Anyway, we should get back on the topic of little Moon. Something should at least be thrown out there so she feels a little better. How about you at least run it past me and we can figure out if it's okay to tell her?”
Daddy was looking a little hesitant at first, but after glancing towards the section of the house that he knew that Little Moon had stormed off towards. He finally relented and began to whisper into Jets left ear. After several seconds had gone by, the pair slowly pulled away from one another and looked straight ahead. There was an awkward silence before the larger one of the two spoke up in a hushed tone. “I can see why you would be a little hesitant about saying even that much.”
After letting out another long sigh, Jet continued. “We've been around a long time and we've seen and heard pretty much everything. This is the same for each one of us and that includes Little Moon. I guess the real problem is… How attached she's gotten to the kid. That will be the biggest factor.” He then released yet another sigh, before his voice got a little lighter. “Think of it on the bright side, at least it's better for him now and a good portion of that is thanks to Little Moon herself.”
“What I'm trying to say is... I wouldn't tell her as much as what you did for me, but you could throw in a little here and there. She's a big girl after all. It's not like she will intentionally break our laws and go straight to Earth just so that she could-.” Jets voice was stopped by Daddy slapping a hand over his mouth without any sort of warning at such a speed, that it caused the air to blow around the room.
The man was just looking down at the smaller person with a very unamused look, that soon turned into confusion after seeing the terrified expression on Daddy's face as he was looking at something that was on the other side of the two of them. This was followed after a long stretch of silence by the voice of Little Moon, and she was giving the both of them a cold lifeless stare down that made them flinch. “You’ll tell him, but not me? Spill it! Or I will make sure I spill you all over this floor!”
Either it was an optical illusion or Little Moon was changing her size. But the both of them were now looking up at a far larger version of the girl and she dwarfed them in size to where they were pretty much no bigger than action figures by comparison. In her right hand, appeared a sizable frying pan and it was already giving off a glowing blue light as it was lightly being swing into her free hand repeatedly to show she was ready for a fight.
Daddy was practically huddled behind Jet and was now using him as a makeshift barricade, while poking his eye over the guy's shoulder and quickly stuttering in a response to the threat. “We're going to need Little Light to be here for this part...” As for Jet, he was clearly looking towards the front door before his eyes shifted to look at the other two in his room. This was followed with him saying just under his breath and in a terrified tone. “I'm not really needed for this, right?”
Little Moon gave the smallest of nods to him before he bolted for the door and leaving a smoky outline of his body that was still in a sitting pose. Daddy held out his left hand as to try and catch him while falling over and was screaming out. Only for the two to exchange the next set of words.
“COME BACK HERE YOU COWARD!”
“Hey this is between you and her!”
“It's your fault this happened, come back and take responsibility!”
“No thanks! I'm a builder not a fighter and she scares the shit out of me! I didn't even think I could shit! Why?! Oh why, did I not build a toilet in this place, now I got to do that before I crap my pants! Why did we pick living forms?!”
When Jet made it out of the house and slammed the door behind himself. All that remained was a terrified Daddy, who is trying to inch away from his daughter that was clearly getting her frying pan for use, obviously for something other than cooking. It didn't take long before the shadow showing the outline of Little Moon could be seen slowly creeping over Daddy, as he gave her a pathetic little smile before saying, “I guess we should go find Little Light now... Hoho-Hooo... Why me? Aren't the old supposed to get treated with respect?”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Aboard the airship that is heading to Las Pegasus* *Time: Six-fifteen at night*
Brex was currently laying down in his bed after accepting that it was originally placed there for Princess Celestia. Alongside of him, were his two maids that were laying nearly naked against him as they wore nothing but their lingerie. Which consisted of one wearing a light-colored bra and panties. As the other one wore darker colors of nearly black to match both of their hair colors.
Not much really happened after getting situated in their room. Although Brex really needed to calm himself a little so he just went to go lie down on the mattress. Without so much is giving any type of order, his maids undress themselves and climbed in as well so that they were in their current position with their eyes closed and resting peacefully. While his eyes from behind his mask we're still open and staring straight up at the ceiling for some time.
With a slow glance over to each of them. He began to think to himself. “They really haven't had much time with me as of late now, have they? These leisurely moments are quite enjoyable when there's not some big emergency happening.” While doing this, his eyes went back to them and as their forms were being taken in. The right hand of Lin moved to his crotch and began to lightly rub along the area and also giving an absent-minded hum of appreciation even though the fabric was keeping them apart.
The motion ended up causing Brex to get a little heated down there as his member was now showing signs of coming to life with the continued stroking across the fibers with the Changelings gentle touching. Although, before anything else could happen. There was a light knock that was coming through their door.
Which had the effect of causing Lin to stop and to pick up her head by a few inches in order to glance at the door with an unamused look on her face. Afterwards, she laid her head so that it was up against Brex as she casually said, “My Lord, It's Zecora.”
In the past, Brex would immediately follow that up with a question as to how she knew, but over their time together. Brex discovered that both Rin and Lin were able to discern a person's identity through detecting their emotions, this was possible even if they were divided by a wall. So, in this case, a simple door was hardly anything. Soon, Zecora’s voice came through not even a second later to prove Lin's prediction.
“I hope that I am not disturbing. I do believe that it is time for them to serve the evening meal and thought perhaps we can all go as one.” Brex called out to her without even making any effort to move a muscle. “Give us a few minutes and we'll meet you there, or you could just wait outside the door.” This was followed with a short pause before He heard her replying. “I do not mind at all, so I shall wait.”
And with that, Rin rolled off to the left as Lin did the same towards the right side of the bed in order to get dressed again. Although, they seemed rather reluctant with how slow they were going and it felt as though the two of them were trying to give him a type of reverse strip tease show. Especially with the way they were slowly pulling up their stockings and bending over to show their tails.
Of course, this was working on him pretty well and he wished they could have continued with the snuggling. As for Brex, he looked down to his robes and wondered if he should try to wear something else, but thought otherwise for the time being and left it as it was.
When the door to his room was finally opened by Rin. Brex was met by the sight of Zecora, who was standing in the middle of the hallway and she was wearing her usual attire. Although the front was now partly open instead of fully closed up to reveal her wearing a loincloth that acted as a mini skirt.
He was even able to see that the top was fairly close to a bikini and was made of the same material. What caught his attention was how there was some bone buttons being used but a few were undone and made it perfectly obvious that the zebra was intentionally trying to show her cleavage a little more.
Which ended up showing off that she had a pair of D-cup breasts that threatened to fall out if she were to undo just one more of the buttons. It looked to have been made from a fur pelt belonging to a creature with white and black stripes. Brex could easily tell that it was not from a zebra, but that of a creature with long fur.
Instead of her usual mohawk hairstyle. Zecora had actually combed it into something else. On a Second glance, Brex could tell that it was more than that. Especially with the way she was smelling a little different. He assumed that it was from the shampoos provided in the bathroom so she must have taken a bath with them during the time they were apart. Even if he himself had not used them, Brex could have easily smelled them during his short time of examining the one in his room. As the scent from their bottles filled the air easily.
Now that he looked back on it. Brex didn't really remember seeing anything that look like a fully functional bathroom at Zecora’s, aside from a small room that he remembered seeing to have a toilet. That was when he came to the conclusion that Zecora must have normally bathed in the river.
From behind his mask, Brex couldn't help but to think back to his beginnings in the Ever Free Forest. At the time, he did very much the same thing to get clean. He quickly started to talk to Zecora after stepping out of the room and with his two maid’s right on his heels.
“I take it you took full advantage of what was offered in the bathrooms? With how you have your hair down, you remind me of another that I knew. We're ready to go if you are.” What Brex said was not a lie, especially with the way she reminded him so much of the character from, Oh My Goddess, known as Urd.
If she had a tan skin similar to that of Rory and more human-like features. Then he probably would have easily mistaken her for another displaced that came as that character. Zecora gave a curt nod before giving her reply. Although, there was a slight blush on her cheeks while doing so.
“And just who would I be reminding you of? If you don't mind me being a little personal. I only ask out of pure curiosity, since my current hairstyle has forced you to recall.” Brex and the rest of them began to walk down the corridor as he took a few seconds to think about what he was going to say. Afterwards, he replied with the following, although he would keep a few things out. There wasn't any real need to emphasize the girl’s curves and voluptuous breasts.
“Her name is Urd. A tall and dark bronze female with back-length silvery gray hair. She has waist-length hair strands hanging in the front with part of it framing her face from the front on the left side. While a part on her hairline reveals her forehead and brown eyes.”
“She would be quite tall and was known to have a fondness for brewing potions. She has two younger sisters and is known to have a tendency to stick her nose into the love life of one of them. Urd could be rather blunt and often takes things to the extreme without thinking too much ahead of what she was originally aiming for, but she's still a good girl at heart.”
As he was saying all of this, both of his maids would look towards him, while trying to keep their faces pointing straight ahead so that they could focus on what he was saying. This was obviously a topic that he had not brought up before, so it was drawing their interest with it being new to the both of them as well. As for Zecora, her expression began to soften as her eyes drifted lower towards the ground and showing a small smile before she replied.
“It seems that you know this one quite well. Was she a former lover of yours? Perhaps that your heart still dwells?” Brex shook his head before answering with a small laugh at the beginning. “Oh no, nothing of the sort. I can guarantee that she did not even know of my existence.”
“More of it being a story passed down. I myself have never met this girl but with the way the story was told, her image was pretty easy to come up with in one’s mind.” There was no way he was going to say that he had memories of himself watching that show at least a dozen times over.
The scene of the four moves on to them being in the dining area where many others were currently gathered. But thanks to the size of the ship and how it was constructed, the area was quite spacious so there were plenty of round tables that could easily have sat six people at each one.
Along the walls, there were crystal-type torches that was keeping the place pretty well-lit, along with a couple of chandeliers that went down the middle of the ceiling as the whole room was shaped more along the lines of a rectangle. From a glance, he could tell that the seating capacity was roughly one-hundred and fifty ponies. Which was soon confirmed easily with there being a plaque that indicated it on one of the walls.
Zecora, along with his maids. All ordered salads with various types of vegetables thrown in. But as for Brex, he had nothing. When the orders were first put in, Zecora was curious as to why he was not getting anything to eat and try to persuade him into placing an order of his own. But in the end, he just simply waved It off and change the subject back to what they were in the middle of talking about. That just so happened to be about the person that Brex was mentioning only a while ago.
Making sure to line up certain parts of the story with this world. He explained it to be about a young male that was going to school. First, he was quite short and didn't have all that many friends, except for a group that he was a part of that were into old types of technology and was inspired to come up with his own. Although, it turned out that his luck wasn't really all that great. As one unfortunate accident after another would occur, which would send his life into a downward spiral of depression.
Or at least that's what it would have turned out to be, if it wasn't for a very unlikely series of events to happen. One day, when he had practically given up and was on the verge of going back home. He had gotten a mysterious message in the form of a scroll that was just lying on his desk. On it with some writing that mysteriously began to appear on the paper as though it was being written in real time for him to see.
At first, the kid thought that it was some type of prank, with the one on the other end trying to explain themselves to be from a help office and that he was selected to be the next one that they were to lend assistance to. The kid then went over to grab a nearby quill in order to write his response, hoping that it would go through to whoever was on the other side in order to call their bluff and say that it was a scam and he didn’t want anything to do with it all.
The writing that appeared next, conveyed that they were truly what they were saying to be and notified him that a representative would soon arrive in order to grant him one desire. He was even more suspicious of this and was about to go and make sure that his door was locked out of fear of something happening to him.
But before he was even able to do so. The scroll began to give off a light and it was slowly filling the room with a warm glow that only got brighter and brighter over the course of several seconds. There was also another light source similar to the first and that one was coming from a mirror within his room.
Out of it came a female that was clothed and a flowing dress that was comprised of blue and white fabrics that could have flowed easily with the slightest bit of wind. Along most of her body, one could see various types of jewelry made of gold and silver that glistened as she came out of the mirror head first. Clearly frightened, the kid tried to get away. But was frozen in place as he watched her landing on to the floor only a few paces away.
From that point on, Brex began to explain as she introduced herself as a Goddess and that due to his horrible misfortune, he was granted the chance to have his heart's most wanted desire granted. The self-proclaimed Goddess even explained as to what he could wish for, which was literally anything at all. Whether it would be being popular with the females, or even have all the riches in the world.
There was even mention of him possibly him ruling the entire world himself and become a king or wishing for its utter destruction. All he was to do, was to just say the words. Of course, the Goddess told him that they would not have chosen one for the wish if they new he would go for the last option. For they saw him as a gentle soul and was worthy of the opportunity.
In the end, the kid was awestruck by this goddess’s beauty and her sweet nature. Which conveyed such purity and kindness, that without even realizing it, he had given his wish. Upon hearing it, the Goddess was startled and before she could say a word, there was a radiant light that came off of her body before going dim after several seconds went by. As soon as the light had died down completely, did she go back to the scroll and start to write down something.
All the while, the kid was very confused as to what occurred. But was soon told by her, that his wish was heard and granted by her superiors. He then asked what exactly was the wish that was granted. The Goddess approached him and with a gentle smile as she looked into his eyes and told him that his wish to be with her forever, was approved.
So, from then on, he began to live with the Goddess and although his luck turned for the better. The boy would continue to have one adventure after another that would literally be dropped on his doorstep. All the while, learning about his feelings and growing ever so closer with the Goddess. Even the Goddess herself, who was new to it all. Was developing feelings for him as well.
Brex also went on to add at the end that the character that Zecora reminded him of, turned out to be the Goddesses older sister that soon came into the mix later on in their long story and had a habit of poking her nose into their love life. All in order to progress their romance. However, her methods would go into the extremes and would end up completely out of hand. Only to end up in one failure after another.
By the end of the tale. Not only was the three at his table fully immersed and now wanting to know what was to happen next. There were even a few calls from some of the nearby tables of ponies that wanted him to continue as well. So that meant that the audience turned out to be most of those, if not all within the dining room. That was when he realized that the whole place had gone completely silent in order to hear him out. Thankfully enough, none of them got to see the blush on his face, all thanks to his mask.
From that point on. Brex was pretty much stuck with how he was getting the puppy dog eyes from Not only Rin and Lin. But the rest of the passengers as well. From behind is mask, he couldn't help but to have this very droopy expression that just portrayed his displeasure from accidentally putting himself into such a situation and eventually he caved in. He then thought the following. “Oh wow... Why do I feel like I just stepped into a hornet's nest? This is going to be a long three-day flight, isn't it...?”
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Location: Canterlot castle* *Time: Nine-Thirty at night*
Luna was in the middle of walking through one of the many hallways that was basking in her Moon's light. All of it coming from the many rows of large windows. Each one of her steps echoed as it reverberated off of both the stone walls and floor to indicate that not many were in the hallways apart from herself and a few of the night guards stationed here and there.
As she was passing one of the windows. She came to a stop and began to peer through so that she was looking up at her moon. She then leaned in and placed her elbows onto the ledge, as she began to contemplate on the events of that day. She had just gone into the throne room to try and meet up with her older sister, but found that she was nowhere to be found within.
Luna checked the dining room next, but she wasn't there either. Then the garden and lastly the library. But still, there was no sign of Celestia. Afterwards, she went to the last place she could think of, which was her sister's bedroom and once she arrived at the front door, she found that the two guards that were stationed outside were on high alert. Which meant that the one that she was searching for was most likely within.
Luna knocked on Celestia's chambers door and called out. “Sister, is there something amiss? You were not in the throne room and I became worried.” She quickly got a reply from Celestia which consisted of, “Please come in Luna.” She wasn't quite sure, but she had this feeling that the tone that Celestia was using, conveyed discomfort. Of course, she took the invitation and came on inside and close the door behind herself.
What she saw within was her sister sitting on the bed and giving her an obviously fake innocent smile. If that wasn't enough, the visible sweating was a dead giveaway for Luna, as she came closer and sat on the bed so she was on the right side of Celestia before speaking. “Sister? Pray tell us to why you are in your room at this time of day? It is only half past four and there is still a great deal of time before we must switch the Sun and Moon.”
Luna's eyes were looking straight into her sisters before they began to lower to take notice of the outfit Celestia was wearing and couldn't help herself but the comment on it almost immediately. While at the same time, her right eyebrow is beginning to rise oh so slightly. “Pardon me if I am mistaken, but is that not a different dress from what you wore this morning? When last I saw, you were mostly wearing white. This has more colors in line with your mane.”
Celestia's eyes went wide for but a fraction of a second before returning to what they were. The white mare replying to that with an even bigger smile. “Oh… This? Yes, I did change. I had a small accident earlier and my dress got messy while going through the garden. I took a small break and I might have not have been watching where I ended up stepping. You know how it is.”
Luna just went ahead with this and accepted what Celestia said, before she took her by the hand and started to stand up to try and lead them both to having their time together. However, Luna did this so quickly that it had caught her older sister off guard and when she began to pull, Celestia was partially pulled off the bed. As a result, she gave a quick grunt of pain before freezing in place.
After hearing that. Lunar released Celestia's hand and stood in front of her sister that was now trying to carefully sit back down. All the while, keeping her face from contorting in pain. Luna's gaze hardened as she stared down at her sister that was now at a lower elevation thanks to their standing and sitting perspectives. Luna then started to talk in a slow and deliberate tone to convey that she didn't want to be led around the bush.
“Dear sister, I have been a part of many battles, so I know when I hear an injury. What has thou done this time?” Luna slipped just a tiny bit into her old way of speaking when asking that question to really drive it in that she was not playing around and she knew that Celestia had noticed this as well, after giving a slight wince before speaking herself. Celestia was even partly looking away as she did.
“It's not really a lie that my outfit got messed up and I needed to change... I may have gotten a little impatient… and.” Celestia let that draw out for a few seconds, before saying the rest as quickly as she could and closing her eyes tight at the same time. “And I might have teleported just outside of Ponyville on the dirt roads in order to try and get a glimpse of Gambit!”
After that was said, there was nothing but silence that filled the room for a good number of seconds. During that time, Celestia was holding a pose that suggested that she was waiting to be struck by something and Luna was just staring straight at her with an unamused look that barely budged an inch.
Not even the sound of their breathing could be heard with them both holding their breath. That was until Luna released a heavy breath of air through her nostrils and started to talk, while pacing slowly back and forth in front of her sister as though she were a parent that was about the scold their child.
Celestia's eyes began to slowly open as she watched this going on and as the seconds went by, she began to relax and lower her guard. However, that turned into a really bad idea, as she was unprepared for Luna to do the following. First the younger one of the sisters went and used a spell that shot in all directions from her horn and collided with every surface of the room to create a soundproof barrier.
Then, Luna got right up into Celestia's face and grabbed onto both of the alabaster mare’s arms just above the elbows in order to hold her still. Lastly, Luna began to yell at the top of her lungs in quite a vulgar way of speech, that was really close to the Canterlot voice level. “Hast thou gone mad! I beg of thee hath not gotten into an altercation with him! What could possibly have been said and done this time?! Of all the irresponsible! What could possibly have compelled thee?!”
Celestia's face was almost blown back from sheer force of Luna’s voice for a few seconds, before she hurriedly replied to that with her eyes going wide and head shaking frantically. “No! Nothing of that sort. I have done nothing wrong; I swear! I didn't even get into town before it all happened!”
Luna was now pressing her face right up against her sisters so that they were now muzzled to muzzle and forehead to forehead, while staring straight into her older sister's eyes with a death glare. There was even a small hint of a feral growl that escaped the edge of the lunar princess’s lips along with a few twitches of her right eye to show her irritation was flaring up and was near its breaking point.
Luna then said in almost a whisper. “Dear sister… Although you're the eldest of us, I swear. If you did anything to anger him this time, then I will do what Nightmare did and slap the bitch out of you!” Celestia looked utterly shocked at the vulgar talk as Luna continued. “I may not remember too much from beyond our fight with him, but I do remember that bit!” Celestia's eyes were almost as big as dinner plates as she began to talk very slowly, while having this expression that she was fully remembering the experience in her mind.
“I swear Luna! The incident today had nothing to do with Gambit. I never even got to see him!” Luna then backed off and took a few steps away so that she was still staring down at her sister. And for a brief instant, she began to wonder in her mind as to why she was compelled to say such things. There was this small part that was ready to throttle her own big sister if anything was done to gambit by her actions.
It was fully aware to Luna that Gambit was far stronger than any male. But the very notion that Celestia could have done something to him again, had sparked something within that compelled her to use such language. Moreover, was the confusion as to the word choice, considering that she had never used them before or even heard of another saying them around herself. That was when she started to hear her sister talking and pushed those thoughts away so that she could fully focus on what was being said.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia* *Location: Canterlot, castle throne room* *Time: Three-Thirty in the afternoon*
Celestia Just finished with the last of the petitions to have an audience with her and now had a relieved look on her face after the throne room was cleared out. Normally, there would be so many trying to get an audience, that they would end up having to wait until the next day because of their time running out. But luckily for her, the number was quite low so she was able to get done a lot faster than she normally would have.
Seeing as she got a good hour or maybe an extra hour and a half before Luna was to wake up. Celestia had this devilish thought creeping into her mind about taking a quick trip to Ponyville in order to get a glimpse of Gambit. She surely thought that she could get there and back without anyone being the wiser, especially if she was going to use a spell to disguise her appearance.
To start off her plan. Celestia informed the guards that she will be going to her room for the time being to catch up on some paperwork that was left behind. This was followed with her doing just that by going into her room with a quick teleportation spell. When it came to the paperwork that she had previously mentioned. That turned out to be a large rolled up piece of parchment containing the map of the general area and even Ponyville near the edge.
After taking several seconds to go over the map. Celestia pointed to a single spot just to the South, where a small road was indicated. After looking around to see just where it was connecting to, Celestia could tell that it must have not been used very often with it leading to the middle of nowhere and decided to use that as a point to teleport into.
The solar princess didn't want to take the chance of going straight to Ponyville and being discovered almost instantly. Her plan required her to use a long-range teleportation spell and upon arrival. She would cast the illusion spell and continue the rest of the way on hoof. Once her mind was made up, Celestia did just that and gave a bright flash of light from her horn.
When Celestia's spell was finished, she found herself in the middle of the road she was aiming for. But after a quick glance in a distance, she could tell that she was a little off from her calculations. Instead of being less than ten minutes away on ground. She was more like an hour and started to grumble to herself about needing to practice her magic more when it came to something other than lifting teacups or papers with a levitation spell. Clearly over the years, she has become quite rusty and promised herself to get right on that after the visit.
Only a few seconds had gone by and she hadn't had a chance to use the disguising spell before there was a big sound coming up from behind that caught her attention and caused Celestia to turn on the spot out of surprise. What she saw was a large yellow bird and it was coming to a screeching stop as both of its legs were digging a trench into the ground and kicking up quite a bit of dirt in the prosses.
When it finally came to a stop. There was a large amount of dirt that came flying by in the form of a thick cloud, which lasted a good several seconds before the wind cleared it all away. During this, Celestia was having a slight coughing fit and using her hand to block as much as she could from going into her mouth, as her eyes tried to squint to get a clear view of the figure that was barely made out through the dissipating brown veil.
Once her vision was completely restored. Celestia found herself standing before a creature that was taller than even herself. Its form was indeed that of a large chicken of sorts, but she did vaguely remember one of her subjects talking about a creature that did fit its description and it went by the name of a Chocobo. The body was covered in yellow feathers and a saddle of sorts was securely fixed to its back.
The Chocobo was staring straight down at her and slightly turning its head to the left in order to allow one of its eyes to get a clear look at her. As Celestia was looking into those orbs, the creature was giving short chirps that any other type of bird would make.
It then slightly tilted its head, which looked quite adorable to Celestia. She was just about to say something to it when she noticed it coming to a complete freeze. All the while, still having its eyes locked on her and this caused the mare to have a confused expression after witnessing the sudden change in its behavior.
After the Chocobo blinked a few times. She could see her own reflection in its eyes as her confusion soon turned into panic as its eyes instantly narrowed at her. Which gave the impression that she was not very much cared for.
This was immediately followed with the creature spinning on the spot without warning so that its tail was pointing straight at herself. But before she could do anything, Celestia was kicked straight in the stomach and sent flying a good dozen meters before slamming into the side of a tree that was just barely able to keep itself from falling over from the impact of her thrown body.
Before she was able to regain her senses from the sudden attack. Celestia's blurred vision allowed her to catch the creature flapping both of its short wings to its sides and giving out a multitude of sounds to indicate that it was far from being happy at all. This was then accompanied with it charging head first and jumping at the last possible second in order to deliver a powerful flying kick. A kick that was clearly aimed right for Celestia's now screaming face.
But Celestia was able to use a teleportation spell to appear in the middle of the road so that she was now behind it and witnessed how it demolished the tree with that single kick. As the tree was slowly toppling over, the Chocobo turned its gays towards her after seeming to pick up where she was and began to scratch at the ground to indicate that it was still not done.
Even though this creature was still trying to attack her. Celestia couldn't bring herself to retaliate. Clearly, she had done something that warranted this, but she had no idea as to what it could have been and held up her arms in a placating gesture to try and get it to calm down.
Although, it seemed that the Chocobo wanted nothing to do with her trying to lessen the friction between them both and it charged yet again. In response, Celestia channeled some magic through both her horn and hands in order to cast a binding spell onto the Chocobo as it got halfway between its starting position and where she was in the road.
This created some golden bands to appear out of the ground as soon as a magical circle appeared right as the Chocobo stepped right on the ground where it was. These shot right up and grab onto different sections of the Chocobo, which consisted of mostly its legs and around its neck. It started to instantly thrash as it came to a grinding stop, due to the binding spell and Celestia began to relax as she let out a heavy breath that she was holding in.
Thinking that she had everything well in hand. Celestia had let her guard down and the Chocobo took full advantage of this and flexed its muscles in order to try and break loose. After a few seconds of this, it started to take a few steps forward. Although it started off extremely slow at first, it was now rapidly gaining speed. There was even this slight red glowing aura that was surrounding its body as it gave off these menacing chirps while doing so.
The Chocobo then threw its head up and started to flap its wings a few times before there was a small explosion of green light that encompassed its form. Once the light had subsided, Celestia could see that her bindings were now cracking and falling to pieces within seconds. Once the last thread was broken, the magical circle on the ground disappeared and the Chocobo was right back to charging at a blinding pace and closed the distance before Celestia could think to do anything in response.
This resulted in a full body side tackle, as the Chocobo turned and rammed into Celestia. Some of her clothing got torn up thanks to the armor that was placed on the saddle and even though Celestia herself was thrown a couple of meters back and went into a tumble. The Chocobo used the impact to stop itself and was now standing on both of its legs again. From the posture it was giving off, it was clearly ready to go for another round.
By the time she had gotten back onto her hoofs. Celestia was already getting charged at again. This time, the alabaster mare thrusted both of her hands forward and sent a shockwave in the creature’s general direction in hopes of pushing it back.
Of course, Celestia had far more power to do a great amount of damage, but she just couldn't bring herself to actually inflict any harm to the Chocobo in front of her. If only she could figure out what it was that prompted this sudden change of attitude from the gentle creature, she first saw it as.
But just as the wave was about to make contact with the Chocobo to force it away. There was a pulse that emanated from it in the form of a barrier that was comprised of many segmented sections of polygons of light. This lasted for the briefest of instances. That was when her wave made contact, but instead of it pushing. It was merely dispelled as if something much more powerful had collided with it instead. In a way, it was no better than trying to stop a charging rhino with a white picket fence.
Still not wanting to cause any undue harm. Celestia quickly took to the air so that she can be out of its range. However, before she can make it more than four meters off of the ground. She saw how the Chocobo was squawking angrily, while also flapping its wings and there was this sudden rush of air that could be seen flowing straight towards its body and an enveloping it.
Then, it's body began to glow yellow as its feathers began to bristle. Lastly, it did a number of other squawks before it's suddenly vanished after making multiple after images that seem to go in different directions. Only to immediately disperse after separating hardly a few hoofs away.
Celestia could only find herself blinking dumbfoundedly at what just had happened. For all she knew, the Chocobo's were a new breed of creature that were quite tame and none of what she knew had even mentioned them having these strange abilities. Her attention was brought to one of the trees nearby that gave off a strong rattling sound as the top shook quite violently. This happened again with another one off to her left and then a third time with a tree on her right side.
There was a sudden sound that could be heard coming from the front and the next thing she knew; she saw a yellow blur coming at her at such speed that she could barely even make out its form before she was suddenly hit in the stomach once again.
This had allowed her only a fraction of a second to notice that it was the Chocobo again and the amount of force it used, along with the speed, was making a visible funnel of wind that was being displaced from the kick it used to strike her with.
This move sent her flying to one of the treetops and crashed through a number of the branches until landing on the ground with a heavy thud. All the while, her eyes were pretty much bulging out from the impact. She also screamed and let out quite a few grunts of pain as each one of the branches collided into different areas of her body. One of which, even smacked her in the forehead and caused her to go a little dizzy for a few seconds as a result.
Celestia was now on her stomach, along with her arms, legs and wings spread out and uncomfortable angles. The right side of her face was now pressing into the dirt and grass and just as she had slowly begun to lift it. Another attack came down from above and slammed right into her lower spine and displaced the ground underneath as her body was pushed even deeper. This elicited a loud scream from the solar monarch, as her eyes were forced to bug out yet again.
This was soon followed by the creature constantly jumping up and down and slamming both of its legs down on the princess repeatedly for what seemed like forever. But was actually for a good ten or twelve seconds before it all stopped. Celestia's dress was pretty much torn to shreds thanks to the branches and the repeated stomping of the bird. Her entire body was twitching from the pain as her right hand was pathetically outstretched of the shallow hole as if begging for anyone nearby to lend assistance.
Seemingly left alone for several seconds after that. Celestia attempted to get up but her body was just a little numb from the thrashing and all she could do was let out a small tiny, voiceless cry of pain, while her right hand attempted to claw at the ground in order to pull herself away from where she was. But as she was doing this, there was the sound of dirt being displaced. So, she ended up turning her head to see what it was and her eyes turned to that of both pleading and disbelief.
Right there, just about a dozen yards away. Was the Chocobo at the edge of the road and it was using its feet to scratch away at the dirt and was already making a hole. Once it seemed that it was at least three or four hoofs deep. The Chocobo stopped and was coming right for Celestia once again.
Who is now shaking her head desperately to show that she may have had an idea as to what was to come. She had tried to look away in order to find something to grab onto, but it was too late. The Chocobo already reached down with its beak and had caught on to a section of her dress that was still intact. Now dragging her slowly towards the hole, she was kicking to try and get away.
Once she had gotten close to the hole. She figured that she would just be tossed in, but instead. The Chocobo decided to do one more act. Celestia was then roughly spun while it held on tightly to her dress until they were pretty much a blur with how fast they were going. The Chocobo then released its grip. Which in turn, launched Celestia straight up after a quick jerking motion was made to change the trajectory they were spinning at.
Quickly, it followed up by doing another disappearing act, only to re-appear right above Celestia and it was already in a form of frontwards flip after coming out of a tucked in form and struck her with a leg, which then sent her hurdling right into the hole and created a dust cloud to be shot out upon entry. Celestia gave out a loud cry of pain upon making a loud thud that quickly reverberated. As her arms and legs could be seen sticking out of the sides of the hole, along with the wings that now had their feathers completely misaligned by now.
All she could do was to stare up into the sky as her eyes were clearly spinning and letting out small moans of discomfort. The head of the Chocobo was now seen as it was looking into the hole. It then gave off a weird bird like sound, that sounded a lot like a sneeze or perhaps a cough before it was pulled away out of her sight. A few seconds later, Celestia could now hear the sound of scratching as some dirt was kicked into the hole and was now covering a part of her midsection before she ended up blacking out.
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Location: Canterlot castle, in the hallway* *Time: In the present*
Luna found herself having a giggling fit, while looking at her reflection after we calling what her sister went over. But even that came to a stop after going through with letting her older sister know about the current events. Celestia was completely appalled upon getting word of there being a possible Herd Cult member in Ponyville. Even more so when it turned out to be the mare friend of one of her special agents.
Seeing as her sister was still rather messed up and would require a full night of sleep to even be able to walk around without so much as screaming and pain. Luna went ahead and left out the rest of the report in concern to last night's activities at the local bar. Truly, the last thing she wanted to do was to aggravate her sister's condition and chose to relay this on the next day. There was no doubt that Celestia might try something if she knew that gambit was going on a trip and still so close.
Seeing as they were now down to a single unit that could keep an eye on Gambit. All she could do is wait till the end of the night to be able to have any type of update. So, after leaving her reflection, Luna went towards her bed chambers to get ready for tonight's patrol. Although, during the walk, Luna would constantly recall bits and pieces of her older sister's story and would have a small chuckle at random intervals while walking down the hallway. Which only confused a couple of her night guards.
After giving her usual orders to not be disturbed, unless a matter of importance were to occur to the guards outside of her door. Luna immediately got herself comfortable after climbing into her large bed and pulling up the sheets. Once her horn was glowing, it only took a few seconds before she was now in the Realm of Dreams.
From there, she saw how she was in the middle of the starry sky and surrounded by dream bubbles of varying intensities in regards to their coloring and went on her way to slay the nightmares. One by one she would check and dive into those that desperately required her assistance. For most of the night, it was of the usual variety, whether it be the troubles of their day or the stallions being plagued by nightmares involving them under the thumb of some dastardly mare.
Luna would swoop in and change it to one that would give them a peaceful night's rest. Unfortunately, when one of these stallions would see her. Their first reaction would be to run in terror. She knew it was not due to her once being that of Nightmare Moon, but just for the fact that she was a mare in general. It was safe to say that it still hurt her none the less.
Honestly, the only males that she has had the chance to talk to and not get that run and flee reaction was from her new nephew, Prince Blue Blood, then there are Shining armor and Sir Fancy Pants. Of course, last but not least would be Gambit. She would be lying if she herself didn’t have the same thoughts of sneaking to see him in person. Thankfully she seemed to have more willpower in that department. Perhaps it was from knowing that she could see him whenever he slept that kept her in check.
However, when she progressed in her patrols and got around to checking on Ponyville. Luna immediately noticed how Gambits large dream bubble was nowhere to be found in that cluster of Ponies. Ironically enough, Luna mistakenly forgot that he was not in town and this caused her to show some disappointment. It wasn’t like she was always able to see him but just knowing this made it seem different and she didn’t quite like it.
Although, she did find a few dreamers that ended up calling her inside with the way their dreams were giving off a nightmarish vibe. The first belonging to a mare that she had not needed to see as of yet, with a reddish mane and a cutie mark of a rose on her clothing.
The mare was within a facsimile of Ponyville, although the buildings and sky were pretty misshaped and the coloring was completely off. When Luna arrived, the mare was in the middle of asking the dream constructs of other ponies if they had seen Gambit. But no matter how hard she tried, none of them were giving her any notice to indicate that they even knew that she was even there to begin with and kept on their merry way.
Luna pondered as to why this counted as a nightmare. Also, why was this mare so frantic to be in search of him. Eventually, the mare had gone through nearly a quarter of the town and now found herself in the middle of the town square. It was there, that she was sitting on a bench and openly crying. Having seen more than enough. Luna made herself known to the mare and sat on the other end of the bench and called out in her usual sweet tone that she was only able to give while consoling those being affected by a nightmare.
“Young one... Please be at ease, for this is not but a dream.” And with that. Luna used her magic to take hold of the nightmare and cause the immediate surrounding to look more normal, as the warped building began to fix themselves as her magic washed over each and every one of them. The mare looked around and saw what was happening before returning her gaze to Luna. Now seeing who it was, she was showing a shock expression as she got into a bow after taking herself off of the bench.
Luna then said to her, while motioning to where the mare was previously sitting. “Please, there will be none of that now. Why don't you go ahead and sit back down and tell me what is it that is causing you such turmoil.” When the mare heard this, she immediately return to the bench and the two of them began to exchange words.
“As you may have already surmised, I am Princess Luna. May I have yours?”
“I-I'm Rose... I'm very sorry but I don't quite know how to act around nobility.”
“That is quite all right Miss Rose. I am merely here to lend assistance as the dream realm is under my protection. Now, as for my earlier question, could you please elaborate on just who it is you are so adamantly searching for? To be so thorough and looking high and low in the way you have, could only imply that you are very troubled by his absence.”
“It's my friend… Gambit.”
“Gambit, you say? And just why would you be having a nightmare about him?”
“Excuse me Princess Luna, but how do you know it's a him?”
“Oh, I have my ways and the name does not sound as though it belongs to a mare if I am being truthful. But please, do continue.”
“I-I guess, I'm just really worked up about him leaving Ponyville...”
“Why are you sure that this Gambit is leaving Ponyville? Did he say he was?”
“Uh-huh! He'll be gone for a while. He only just told me yesterday and left on the train this morning. I suppose I got the time messed up in here and thought it had already been weeks since he left and I just started to panic. It just seems that no one bothered to react when I mentioned his name. I was scared that if they all forgot, then I might too.”
“I see how it is Miss Rose. Is it right for me to assume that he will be going somewhere that could possibly be dangerous and that is the cause of your worries?”
“That's just it Princess... He kept making it vague as to where he was going, but I could just tell that he was doing it intentionally. He even left his mare friend behind.”
“Excuse me, did you say that he left his mayor friend in Ponyville?”
“Yes, yes, he did...”
“Well, there you have it. Do you not think that that would be a good enough reason for him to come back when his business was concluded?”
“I-I guess that's right. I don't really know why I was freaking out so much. After all, he is the strongest person in the town, if one was to go off of what I heard.”
“Oh? I see so this Gambit could be considered a capable male? If so, then he would be a rarity, as those are not very common from what I have been told.”
That was when the dream began to respond to Rose, as she was clearly thinking on Gambit. The area before them was now transforming itself to take on the background of somewhere else that was not a part of the park. It then showed images going from one to the next with the two interacting with one another.
First, it began with their encounter where Rose was scared enough to faint when he showed up inside of their shop one night when it was about to close. The mare upon seeing that, reached up and was now scratching at the back of her neck, while giving a weak smile and spoke up before it went to the next scene. “I kind of got spooked there.” This ended up getting a wry smile from Luna, as she gave a small nod and returned her attention back to the images.
The next showed Gambit and her at a café and a familiar incident occurred that involved the waitress and a very annoying noble mare. After that, it went a few more times from one location to the next. Luna ended up raising an eyebrow upon seeing the familiarity between these two. And whenever there was a scene that Gambit was patting her on the head, Luna couldn't help but to have a small frown before realizing what she was doing and returned to her normal facial expression.
The two weren't particularly close, as they were merely passing by one another for one reason or the next. But as time went on, Luna began to notice how Gambit was slowly opening up as he was only saying a few words in the beginning. But was now having a solid conversation, along with being a bit more expressive. Even with his face always being covered.
Apparently, Rose had seen Gambit from time to time when she was at a distance and these were depicting him to be doing one job or another. Either it was gardening or assisting with the reconstruction of Ponyville after some type of calamity occurred. The last of the memories that they both viewed were fragments of their time in the bar and Rose witnessing the girl that was undoubtedly Rory Mercury and Gambit singing their song on a stage.
Of course, upon hearing this. Luna got some mixed reactions that she was having a hard time with concealing. When it came to the first song, Luna could easily see that there was a strong bond between this dark mare and Gambit. Which caused a somewhat uncomfortable feeling to be felt in her chest for just a moment. Although, at the same time, she was captivated by the song itself and most of the lyrics got stuck in her mind.
Now when it came to the time that Gambit and Rory were singing together. Luna's draw practically dropped at lightning speed, as her eyes went wide at the spectacle. To see Gambit being so expressive, even with a mask on and singing in such a way was not anything that she had expected to witness. The next set of words escaped her lips as she casually let them slip. “Oh my, I didn't take him for a dancer.”
Rose came in after giving a small giggle. “Haha-Haha, it took all of us by surprise! I was so happy to see that he was being this animated. I could tell that he would still be working on it when it comes to me, but whenever Rory's around he's a lot more at ease.” That was when Rose’s eyes became down casted and the memories began to fade. Upon noticing the change in the mare’s demeanor, Luna quickly asked, “Please, tell me what it is that has you trouble now?”
Rose only shook her head lately before answering in a very worried tone, as she was looking at her hands that were now twiddling her thumbs. “I know that I should be happy that Rory is still here, so he has a reason to come back. But at the same time, I worry that she should have gone with him.” Luna replied to that while looking a little skeptical. “Could it be that you have developed feelings for this Gambit? Although, I am rather confused as to your insistence in pushing another mare to be with him, if that were the case.”
She gave a small smile before glancing at Luna for a few seconds and then returning them back to her hands as she gave an answer. “I suppose you could say I have, but not in the way you think. I already know that he distrusts mare’s and it took a while for him to get close to me. However, I can't help but see him more like a… Big brother.”
“I see. Could you possibly elaborate on these feelings?”
“The best way I can describe it would have to be... … It would have to be, that I have always wanted a brother. I don't really see Gambit as a romantic partner. I do feel safer when he's around. I don't know what it is really. You might find this hard to believe, when he's around, I get this feeling that nothing can really do me any harm. I grew up on stories of the old days when the stallions would stand up and be strong. Gambit is what I hope that all the others could become.”
The mare then shook her head a little bit and smiled a bit more as she continued. “There's this mare that I know called Applejack and I wouldn't say we're close friends. We do talk from time to time. She has this big brother that she looks up to a lot. Unlike most of the males in town, her brother is pretty strong from what she says due to him working on the farm. I've never really said it out loud, but I’m really envious of Applejack for it.”
Luna was now tapping her chin as her eyes were now trailing straight up as she was showing signs of being in deep thought. She then said, “A large stallion you say? I cannot say I have come across any since my return that matches that description. Well, unless you count this Gambit that you've shown me in your stories. Perhaps I should pay him a visit in his own dream when I'm done here?”
That was when Luna heard a loud gasp that was coming from Rose and saw how she had gotten up off of the bench and was now waving her hands frantically and shaking her head in kind. The eyes of the mare were wide with panic, as she quickly stammered out a response. “Please, please Princess, don’t do that! Big Mac would not do well if you were to show up in his dream!”
Now being completely taken aback by the mare’s sudden outburst. Luna was now a little wary and slowly asked her next question. “I suppose there is a good explanation as to why I shouldn't?” This was immediately followed with Rose looking towards the ground, while holding on to her left arm before she spoke and a depressed tone.
“Applejack's brother doesn't do very well with any mare that's not a part of the family. For the longest time, he's actively avoided anything that would cause him to leave the farm. He can't even stand being in a direct line of sight with another mare without running off. I doubt aside from Applejack and the rest of the family, that he's even had a proper conversation with any of us in town.”
Luna's eyes were now looking really sharp, as she looked ahead after hearing about this stallion being in such a state. She was almost certain that if there was such a male within Ponyville. Then odds where she would have picked up on his nightmares, but not once sense her return, did she ever come across this Big Mac in need of her help. So, after giving herself a moment to calm down. Luna then asked, “Could you tell me why he would be so distant?”
Rose went back to sitting down as she began to recall what she remembered. Although, it had been some time and she herself was not there. The rumors were the following. Apparently, Big Mac was the only male in school at the time and he wasn't really all that big to begin with. Even though he didn't speak all that much, Big Mac had a way with words to convey what he meant.”
“However, the colt was constantly being picked on by a couple of the filly's. Sure, some of the others did tell the teacher but even then, the mare who was running the school at the time didn't do much at all to stop it. From what I hear, she was pretty much encouraging it. They said that Big Mac really wasn't acting like other colts by doing the sissy things that they would normally be up to.”
“So, in the end, there was this one incident that involved a number of the filly's and the teacher that caused Big Mac to never return to school again. There's a rumor that I heard once. Apparently, the teacher got fired soon after this was found out, but even I still, don't know the details as to what it was. Although, I can't prove it, I'm pretty sure that one of them was a part of it was that Lyra Heartstrings.”
Inside her mind, Luna instantly recalled that name from the previous report. She then started to think to herself. “Hmm, this Lyra Heartstrings has been like this since she was a filly. Obviously, this was due to child upbringing. I'll make sure to make it a priority to do some investigation onto her parents when I am done tonight with my duties.”
After these thoughts were done, she turned her attention back to Rose before saying, “I see your point. Very well, I will not see him directly. Although, if he should have a nightmare, I will make sure to not be seen and leave as soon as possible so that his privacy will be kept intact and not cause him any undue distress.”
This got a relieved sigh from Rose, as she clutched her hands close to her chest before saying the following. “Thank you, Princess Luna. I don't know what I would do if I was the reason you went to see him and he was no longer able to go to sleep comfortably with the idea that a mare would be able to go into his dreams. Even if the mare turns out to be one of our princesses.”
After taking a quick look around to see that the dream was no longer giving off that detestable impression of a nightmare. Luna said her goodbyes after placing rose’s dream on a more relaxing one, by bringing out one of her older memories and disappearing after a flash of light. Once Luna was out and about once again to continue with her patrol of Ponyville. She saw that there weren't very many nightmares and recognized one of them to be that of Rainbow Dash yet again.
Of course, for Luna. This had been a nightly occurrence, with only a few days here and there where it would be a normal night. But it seemed as though Rainbow Dash was still having some trouble with reconciling with Gambit. Which happened to be a problem that she herself was pretty good at seeing with her sister being the forefront of her thoughts on that very subject.
After receiving the detailed reports of their last altercation with Rainbow Dash, that just so happened to be when she was accusing him of having illegal activities with an underage mare. The level of nightmare for the Pegasus only spiked in response. But not to that of requiring Luna to jump in. She did in fact give Rainbow a warning that her sleeping mind would remember constantly, so that the waking one would feel some type of drive to do what was needed to alleviate the stress.
After checking on Rainbow for a moment. Luna didn't really have to go far at all, before she came across another dream bubble that was almost close enough to touch the one that she was just at. After parting the outer areas to peek inside. Luna's eyes went wide upon seeing a Griffin. Sure, the princess of the night would have eventually discovered that there was a female Griffin within Ponyville. Although, not once before did this one ever have a nightmare that warranted her to look within.
Luna was just about to go in and see just what might be the problem and was already lighting her horn up. Just when She was ready to cast a spell however, was when the bubble popped. Not only that, but the one belonging the Rainbow Dash also went through a similar fate. Going off of how close they were in the dream realm. Luna surmised that the griffon must have awoken and caused the blue Pegasus to wake as well.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Fluttershy's house*
Within the small house that was constructed in a way that it resembled mostly that of a mound covered with grass. There was a large cushioned bed that was oval in shape, and within it was arresting Chocobo with its saddles and leg guards sitting near the edge and near its head. Its legs were currently tucked in underneath and with the help of its wings, the head itself was covered and giving out this soft cooing noise that could be heard gently throughout the quiet house.
Within the same room, there was a couch and a table with a number of small critters standing or sitting on them. One of said critters, turned out to be a white rabbit that was crossing its arms and giving the Chocobo a dubious stare, while also lightly tapping its left foot on the couch. The others were looking on curiously with both fascination and wonder. There was even a couple of chickens that wandered close by in order to get a better look, but kept the respectful distance for their larger cousin that was still sound asleep.
Soon, Fluttershy came into the room and was in the middle of carrying a small bowl full of water and a white wash rag that was draped over the edge. The bowl was placed right next to the large bed being used by the Chocobo and began to dip the cloth to the warm water that can still be seen giving some steam on the surface in order to clean up the dirt that was accumulated on the Chocobo's talons.
As she was doing this. Fluttershy would hum to herself now and then, while speaking to herself in a low volume to make sure that she didn't disturb her current patient. “You poor thing, I couldn't find any injuries. It’s clear that you were no more than exhausted. You should be good in a day or two… Although, I have no idea who you belong to. I do hope that you forgive me for going through that bag on your saddle, but I didn't find anything at all inside to give me a clue. I really hoped to find some indication as to your rider’s identity so that I could let them know you're here.”
Fluttershy's body chose that moment to let out a yawn as she covered her mouth in a dainty fashion. Clearly, upon taking care of her animal friends and getting help from Barry the Bear to get her new guest back to her Cottage safely. Had exhausted the Pegasus, as her eyes became quite droopy and letting out a second yawn that turned out to be so adorable, that a number of the animals, including Angel Bunny. Ended up doing the, Awww! face.
The next thing to happen, was the mare practically falling asleep while still kneeling down on her knees. This was quickly followed with her leaning in and pretty much using the Chocobo as an oversized plushie and passing out. All the while, she went and dug her face into the soft yellow feathers and released a small sigh at the level of comfiness she was getting from the yellow animal.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 60: Hmm, She looks good in that!
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Las Pegasus. The airship port* *Time: Five-Ten in the afternoon. Two days Later*
From a vantage point up along one of the many tall towers that were dotted all over the port and was attached to a large cloud in the shape of a city. That also, just happened to be right over another one right below. A cloaked individual was wearing a dark cloak that obscured pretty much all of their body, as the rest was shrouded in one of the few spots of the tower that just so happens to have a space for someone to crouch inside.
These structures were meant to be not only as mooring points so that lines could be attached to keep the ships from floating away once they were docked. But we're also meant as a lookout for those that couldn't fly to guide the incoming ships so that they would be less likely to collide with any other vessels whenever the traffic was on the heavy side.
The opening of their hood was directed towards one of the sections of the port meant for the larger vessels, as it was protruding further out from the rest of the cloud-based upper city. Behind the figure and off just a short distance beyond the port, was something that resembled Las Vegas with how there were many spiers of cloud buildings that were in various shapes and sizes.
However, not everything was completely made of clouds, as many parts of the structures were made with some wood and marble set being in place as to allow those who couldn't stand on clouds to move around freely. This even included the roads that gave off this feeling of one walking on the shipyard on the water.
Now back to what was being observed. That turned out to be the mass amounts of goods that were being transported off of a ship that just came in only a short time earlier. There was also a number of ponies that seem to be gathered in a semicircle around a much smaller group that just come off of the gangplank together.
The smaller group consisted of one large person wearing a white and blue robe that was being accompanied by two maids and another, who is mostly wearing a brown cloak. But their revealed head showed them to be a Zebra.
From the looks of it, they are getting quite a fair bit of attention and most of their activities were centralized around the biggest of the group. After several minutes, the crowd began to disperse and allow the four to make their way down the docks. Soon they checked through customs and were now heading straight for the city gates. That was when the figure ducked into the tower and disappeared into a set of steps and leading down.
As the scene changes. It shows the same unknown person skulking around the corner of a building in an attempt to keep to the shadows. As they peaked their heads out in order to take a look at their surroundings. The same four from before was coming into view as another group of tourists crossed the road between them and this conspicuous watcher. As soon as they got close enough, their voices became clear to make out.
It seemed that the Zebra was currently in the middle of conversing with the larger one. “Was it wise to leave behind my goods? This place is quite new to me and I would not say a word if we were still in the woods. But I do hope that those ones wearing black, do make sure to show care for my wares and not leave a single crack.”
The taller one quickly responded to that, while waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. “You got nothing to worry for Zecora. I assure you everything will be fine and they will be waiting on our next transport without so much as a single potion bottle being jostled. Now let’s enjoy ourselves now that we are off that boat. We got a long trip and don’t want to waste the time we got.”
After seeing his mask turning from left to right a few times to take a look around, he then continued. “Thanks to the scheduling, the ship arrived before dinner was to be served, so we're going to need to find something to eat on our own. Of course, we could just go on to our next ride and eat there, but since we're already in Las Pegasus, it would be a shame if we didn't take a look around and try what they had.”
After saying his part, one of the two identical maids with the silver mane spoke up. “My Lord? Rin might have a place in mind. From what Rin has heard. The Eatery is fairly close to the port and even has a wide variety of dishes for both meat eaters and non-meat eaters. Perhaps it would be a nice change of pace to go to such an environment. There is also the added benefit of not being too overly crowded, as many tend to avoid it because of the meat options.”
Zecora was the next one to speak up, as she was holding onto her chin with her right hand for a few seconds, while also having a thoughtful look on her face. “There might be a chance that some food from my homeland might be served. The very thought of having a traditional meal, even if it is not the real deal. has already caused my stomach to feel quite starved.”
Afterwards, the group made a turn on a street that was going in the opposite direction of where their silent observer was hiding. This progressed until they stopped outside of a decent looking establishment that had barely any type of decorations outside. After peaking in through the window, while trying to maintain their cover.
The group could be seen taking a table in the far back and being waited on by what appeared to be a male Griffin that was a bit short in stature. So, it was easy to assume that this might have been one that was under seventeen years of age. If one was to look at the type of feathers coming in. As they were not as long as a full-grown adult.
After watching for about a half hour, their hood would tilt down after a large growl could be heard coming from their stomach. Right after this occurred, there was some shifting from underneath the cloak before a black gloved hand pulled out what could have been nothing but an energy bar. It was shaped as a rectangle and unwrapped in order to be munched away at with haste. Although, after the first bite. There was a small coughing fit, along with a disgusted “Blah!” Sound that indicated that they were a female.
The food was pulled away from the hood and it appeared that they were just about to simply toss it away, but hesitantly, it was brought back for them to continue in consuming it. That was when the hooded girl was startled after hearing a voice that could not have come from anyone else, then the one that she was following. “You must really be hungry if you're willing to eat something that you clearly would rather not be putting into your mouth.”
The hooded girl quickly gave out a startled gasp, before she whirled around on the spot and staggered back a few paces until they were nearly hitting the wall for the restaurant. But before anything else could be done on her part. A small box that resembled a Chinese takeaway container was quickly pushed into her, so all she could do was to reach up and grab onto it without even thinking.
As she was looking down at it. The one that gave it to her was already walking away with their group. But while still stun by the random interaction. Their voices could still be heard as the male was conversing back and forth with a female Zebra.
“How about we take a look at the sites before finding our new accommodations for the night? We won't be setting sale until sunrise anyway.”
“Gambit, do you by chance know that girl?”
“Huh? Who, her? Nope, have no idea who she is. The waiter gave us an extra portion of food by mistake and I didn't really feel much for wasting it. Besides, I could tell when someone's having a hard time with trying to eat and keeping it down.”
As they were getting further away. The girl was still standing there rather dumbfoundedly, as her head continuously glanced between the group and what was in between her hands. After a few seconds of this, she stepped into a nearby alley that would still allow her a direct line of sight with the group that was barely a block away and started to open the box to see just what was inside.
From what could be seen upon doing so, revealed a large amount of noodles and steamed vegetables. What was more surprising, was how they were these pieces of meat that were deep fried and dipped in a reddish sauce that gave an orange smell that wafted in the air. Inside was also a plastic fork.
After a stunned silence. And without even taking any time at all to think it over. The girl had thrown back her hood to expose the very same mask face that was conversing with Luna only a couple of days beforehand. That was when the mask was partially pulled down with two fingers that belong to her left hand with great haste.
This act had the result of exposing her face from just above her eyebrows and leading till it was just past her chin. This revealed her to have a set of yellow cat-like eyes and a mouth that was pretty much drooling along with a set of fangs that glinted with hunger and already salivating to the point, that drool was already cascading onto the lower part of her mask.
The short fur around her face was a type of gray that was just a few shades darker than the two in maid uniforms. The food within had no chance at all and was gone within several seconds as it was quickly shoveled into her mouth and eaten at a voracious pace that would have even cause a dragon’s jaw to drop in shock. The mare was barely able to take in much air as she was pretty much gasping between bites to show just how hungry she really was.
Now that she was looking at an empty box. Her eyes quickly darted back to the one that was clearly visible with how tall they were at the far end of the city block, before saying the next part to herself with a raised eyebrow. “Quomodo scire potuistis me manducare carnes?” Which came out translated as, “How could you have known that I eat meat?” Afterwards, she went to throw the container away and continued with her assignment. Although, now she is going to have to keep a bit more distance, otherwise she might get surprised again.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Airship port. Just outside of the docked Yuna* *Time: Seven-Thirty at night*
As Brex was staring up at his ship right where the plank had come down in order for them to walk on board. Both of his maids were standing on either side of him. With Rin on his right and Lynn on the left. As for Zecora, she was further out to his right and her jaw was pretty much slack with how she was now gawking at the floating ship of a strange design.
Unlike all the others all around. The Yuna was standing out a lot, seeing as there was no balloon in sight that could have allowed it to be able to float in the air in the way it did. Aside from the slow turning devices on either side of the hull. There were pretty much no other movements, even though there was this small hum that could just be heard over the gentle breeze of the night air.
Even at a quick glance, Brex could tell that there were some subtle changes to the frame from when they last took it out. Although, it kept the same aesthetics. The framework did have some minor tweaks that would allow some increased structural integrity. There were even a few small mounted domes that he quickly assumed were a type of weapons array in key locations along the upper and lower hull.
Each one of them had a small cannon barrel sticking out. But because of the placements, they didn't really stick out all that much. If anything, to an outside observer, they would just be part of the decorations. Especially with how they were all turned so that the barrels would be pretty much touching the hull to be considered as air vents if anything else.
Also, from where they stood. There were even some signs on the top that showed some railings that weren't there before and they melded quite well with the rest of the ship's design. Most likely, they were meant to prevent others from falling off after ascending the inside steps so that they were standing on top of the ship.
After breaking Zecora out of her stupefied state, which prompted a few pokes to the side of the cheek, which was accomplish by Lin. All four went on board and were greeted by the captain. Most of those that were on board consisted of normal ponies. These ranged from a handful of Earth types and an evenly spread-out number of Pegasus and unicorns. Of course, they were all virtually identical thanks to an enchantment on their clothing. This gave them an appearance that was similar to his maids in terms of fur color.
The reason for this was for the sake of having a decent explanation for the crew all looking the same. Heck, if the royal guards and personal guards of the wealthy could use them and not draw up a fuss. Then why couldn’t he just take a page out of their playbooks for himself.
After living around their race for so long, even Brex has begun to tell them apart without even realizing how he was doing so and quickly identified their Captain as the scientist that was monitoring the systems during their maiden voyage. What stood her apart from the rest, was how she was wearing a pair of small round spectacles that were resting on her nose and attached by a chain that went around the back of her neck.
The Changeling was just as excited as before, but managed to rain it in while giving a brief explanation as to what their itinerary was going to be when it came to their departure time and arrival. All the while, she and the others on board we're putting on the act that Brex was merely a passenger that was being treated well and were actively avoiding any slips of the tongue.
which meant they were not calling him their Lord. When it came to Zecora, she was surprised to find out that the trip that would normally take close to a week or two at most if there were no troubles. Would be done by the Yuna at a fraction of the time. Instead, they would arrive in close to three to four days at the most.
After that was done, the Zebra was a little reluctant to do anything else unless she was allowed to inspect her belongings to see that they were properly stowed away. Understandably, Brex knew that this was a very delicate subject with how a lot of her personal effects were also brought along. Not to mention, a number of the concoctions could be considered to be rare. So, on his orders. Lin would escort her to the cargo hold, while Rin would remain to discuss a few matters with the captain on the bridge.
Although, Brex got a kick out of seeing the Zebra always getting startled whenever one of the bulkhead doors would open up automatically whenever she approached and her eyes would constantly be glued to anything that was lighting up. Which meant pretty much all of the surfaces were easily distracting for the girl. Once everyone was pretty much doing their own thing, the Roegadyn went on ahead and was taking a little stroll around the ship.
After roughly fifteen minutes went by and he got to see the cargo hold, along with Zecora who was taking some time to go over her inventory. Which was then followed with the observatory deck that was above the bridge. When Brex saw the walkway leading up onto the upper deck, he had this small sensation in the back of his head that compelled him to want to go up top. But just as he had put one of his hands onto the railing to go up the ramp. Rory's voice came through the connection. Although it felt as though it was just a little weak.
Instead of it coming in as clear as though she was whispering straight into his ear. Her voice was pretty much compared to a person speaking to another from across the room. Even with that being the case, Rory sounded really excited as her voice was pretty much squeaking with joy. “Oh Master! Oh Master! You really should have been here! Those three are just so adorable! It took everything I had just to not go up to those cuties and give them a group hug!”
After hearing her, Brex turned away from the ramp and went over to one of the railings next to the windows as he glanced outside, before replying to her in a light tone and the both of them began to say the following back and forth.
“Well then, let me guess Rory. Another one of the episodes happened today?”
“Yep! Master, you should have seen it! It was the episode for those Cutie Mark Crusaders. It was so adorable the way they got to be friends during that cutie mark party that was being thrown for those two brats.”
“I see, I see. You're talking about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, right? What type of part did you get to play?”
“Eh, I didn't do a whole lot. Although, I did get the strut the fact that I don't have a cutie mark of my own when those two brats were making fun of Apple Bloom. You would not believe how fast their jaws dropped when they realize that a hottie like me was a blank flank. But you know Master, that wouldn't be the case if you allowed… "That" to be seen.”
“No way, no how. Besides, the place you picked out isn't exactly something you should be showing to the world. Especially to kids that aren’t even at the age for a PG thirteen movie! And before you even think about saying it. The answer is no! You are not going to strip and walk around nude.”
“Master you're just no fun sometimes. Oh, and by the way Master, what are your plans for you know who?”
“I really shouldn't be surprised that you knew it too.”
“I can always see your mini-map and that green dot flying straight towards you is a pretty dead giveaway that someone just boarded the ship without permission.”
“Yeah, it's most likely Luna's spy trying to hitch a ride. Honestly, I could try and nip this in the butt right now and get her thrown off the ship. But that would just cause too many problems for the mare when she's just doing her job.”
“Master, you really are too nice to these girls sometimes, you know that right? You could already tell from your seat inside of that eatery that she might be getting hungry. You also went ahead and purposely snuck in that extra order of food when Zecora wasn't watching.”
“Well, it helps that my status bar seeing ability can also register a De-buff that says whether or not someone is starving. For her to be here in Las Pegasus, must mean that she left and tried to follow us the whole way.”
“None of the Changelings informed me that they found a trespasser on board, so she really wasn't on the trading ship. Odds are the girl wasn't able to get a decent amount of food and relied heavily on ready to go meals. After all, I did happen to talk with someone back at HQ that used to work with the Royal Guards. They said that those things are probably the foulest concoctions ever devised that were meant to be ingested.”
“Again Master, that just proves that you're too nice. I really can't see why you would help out the one who's intentionally spying on you and acting as though you had no clue as to who she was. Are you intentionally doing this to have fun with being one of those oblivious stereotype main characters from some of your anime shows? Its either this or you're-... Oh wow! Why didn't I see this sooner! My master, it seems that you're finally catching on.”
“Rory, what exactly are you getting at in your head this time?”
“Ah, don't mind me! I'm just so happy that my Master is finally putting forth some personal effort to find and add to his harem all on his own! It's just so obvious to anyone. A girl is assigned to follow and report the activities of a mysterious man. Said man, then offers the spy who is clearly in distress a helping hand and shows his chivalrous nature. All of this in the hopes of planting that little seed in order to bring up that little flag and trigger a romantic event, where the Spy falls for the one that they are watching over.”
“Rory. Sheesh… I've only been gone for a few days and I feel like you've been hanging around Rarity too much... Besides, I can't have her passing out from hunger and then losing track of me. At least I know how she operates, so her movements are easy to predict after all this time of trying to follow me in Ponyville. If I didn't, then a new one would be assigned and that would make things a little harder for me to find them out.”
“Whatever you say Master, but don't forget that I know a lot about you after all. No way you can get out of lying when it comes to your attraction to those Bat Ponies. I do recall something inside your head that involves a certain picture of one inside of a maid outfit. But you know, I am actually very surprised that you haven't asked for either of your current maids to take on that form. It's always either their Unicorn identities or their natural forms.”
“Hey! You can't blame me for that. Unlike in the show, these are very sexy Changelings. Aside from the horns having a few small dents or being slightly jagged, the only real holes they have are a few in their wings and the way their hairstyle tries to keep the form for some strange reason whenever it's not actively being combed out straight and being held in place by either their own magic or hair products. Seriously, they're all starting to look as healthy as any of these ponies.”
“Yes Master, I can see your point. Their a far cry from when you first met them back in that rundown warehouse.”
“So anyway, has there been any other developments that I should know about over at Ponyville?”
“Hmm, no nothing really that I need to mention. Just the same old same old.”
“Is that so? Well, how about Gilda's training? Have you taken over or is she still getting time off?”
“I really haven't seen her in the past few days Master. I suppose she's just been really busy or taking the opportunity to relax. That Griffin can really complain when it comes to the training, but she's always the first one to wake up and be ready to go in the morning. Almost seems eager if you ask me.”
“Yeah, she does tend to do that, doesn't she? It can be really confusing at times with whether or not she enjoys it or flat out hates the training and just wants it to be over with. But I'd have to give it to her. She really shows some promise. I bet if Gilda was to ever go against another person that was at her same level, then she would easily trounce them. The average Royal Guard wouldn't even stand a chance against her with the current skills she has now.”
“You know Master, it's very rare for you to be giving this much praise. It's almost as if you-.”
“Rory that's enough. Just as you know me, I also know how you think. And I'd like to ask you not to push that thought any further. I've known the kid since she was around six years old. What do you take me for? A cradle robber?!”
“Master, I'm sorry to bring this up again, but you do realize that you're... An immortal... Right? And Gilda is an adult now. On this world they mature a lot faster when they're younger than sixteen. So, that makes her an adult to them. But you're still going off of Earth standards. That's fine and all, but now she's eighteen. I really don't see the problem. Also, you haven’t exactly been around her for her entire life. It would be for a few days to a week every month. And on a few occasions, you only saw her like once or twice a year. You can't use that as an excuse either.”
“Okay Rory, I am going to humor you for a moment and say that what you're saying is correct. Although you're leaving out one crucial piece of information that will bring that entire house of flimsy cards down.”
“Oh, and what would that be Master?”
“Hello... Gilda is in a relationship with Rainbow Dash! Shouldn't that be the first thing that comes to your mind when giving this whole oddball theory of yours?”
“I don't know… They do have the whole concept of having multiple partners in Equestria for relationships. It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility.”
“Gerrr! Rory, that's quite enough! I don't know why we're even talking about this still. Let me lay it out for even a horny obsessed girl like you can figure it out. Gilda is my apprentice and I am teaching her how to fight. Her relationship with Rainbow Dash is mending perfectly and those two will be together from now on! Besides, we all know that Rainbow is into girls and look at the way she's always reacting around me. I doubt very much that she'd be appreciative if her... Okay, I was about to say mare friend, but I'm not sure what the term is for a griffin.”
“I believe it would be a lot easier for Master if we just went with simple terms such as girlfriend and boyfriend. You can get quite confusing when you’re trying to use specific phrases that relate to specific species.”
“Fine! Sheesh! What I'm trying to say is, I doubt that Rainbow would be very forthcoming with the idea of sharing her girlfriend with someone she blatantly despises. Even to the point that I’m pretty sure she’s trying to find a way to get me thrown in jail.”
“Very well Master, I'll let it go... For now. But I will say that you're trying awfully hard to come up with all of these reasons to not feel attracted to Gilda. After all, you did see her naked in the tub once and even though you turned around and got out of there without showing it. The little you down below certainly had a re-.”
That was when Brex finally had enough and cut the connection with Rory, while visibly fuming on the spot and went to go downstairs. Along the way, he did bump into one of the crew members and gave them an explanation as to the surprise passenger. Of course, her instant reaction was to want to get a security team on deck to capture the intruder. But Brex told her to notify the rest of the crew that they were to pretend as though they never noticed that she was even there and only to react if any hostilities or tampering were to be discovered.
Furthermore, he instructed them to open the hatch tomorrow morning and pretend to do a last-minute pre-flight maintenance check. This would allow for a good excuse for her to get inside. This was because, there was no way he was about to let her stay out there for the next three or four days to be pelted with high pressure winds from their accelerated travel.
No doubt she expected it to be a leisurely cruise, but had no idea what she was about to be put through upon takeoff. The last thing he wanted, was for her to be hanging onto dear life and lose her grip when the ship was somewhere out in the middle of the vast sea. Only to die because she couldn’t get back to shore.
After all of the relevant instructions were given. The Changeling in disguise quickly went off to continue her duties. While at the same time, her horn was giving off a faint green glow to indicate that she was in contact with her sisters to relay the set of orders. Once the crew member was about halfway down the corridor that was located near the center of the entire ship. Brex turned and went for what was supposed to be his assigned quarters.
At first, the captain tried to give him hers, but he was adamant about taking one of the other ones that were free. Even he knew that the Changeling had ulterior motives with the way she was blushing while giving the suggestion of taking her bed. Along the way, Brex was lightly shaking his head as he was trying to get over how he was surrounded by horny girls no matter where he turned. Even if the Changelings were pretty much throwing it out there. He at least knew that they had some self-restraint when it came to that lord title that they gave him.
There was a total of eight rooms that could be seen connecting to the hallway that was just large enough for him to walk if he was to hold out his arms and bend at the elbows. Which meant there was way more than enough room for two regular size Ponies or Changelings to walk side by side without having to bump into one another.
After reviewing the schematics in his head. Brex knew that there was another row of rooms only one deck down. So, there was quite a bit of space for crew members and guests if the need should come up. Each one of the doors even seems to have a name plate that could be changed whenever the one inside wanted to. This was done by fiddling with a keypad that was affixed to the inside of said door.
This meant all Brex had to do was to keep on going until he found one that didn't have any type of nameplate at all. Which turned out to be the next to last on the left-hand side. It didn't take him much time at all after going in to start using the keypad he was just thinking about earlier and putting down the name, Gambit.
That way it would be seen by anyone walking down the hallway. This was completed when he heard the last keystroke being made and opened the door really quick to see that the digital display was working correctly and displaying and bright neon blue lights for the letterings of his name, before closing the door yet again with him inside. This way he would at least be easy to locate, especially with him always concealing his emotions from being detected.
The next thing to happen was Brex looking around and seeing that there was a single bed attached to the wall that seemed just big enough for him to use. Just to make sure that it was strong enough to handle his weight. Brex went over and was placing his hand onto it and instantly found that it was really two bunk beds that were locked together after being pulled closer.
After giving a small smirk from behind his mask, he then started to say out loud, while also taking a chance to look over the rest of the room. In doing so, he noticed the small door leading to what he thought to be the bathroom and peeked inside. What he found was a toilet, along with a shower big enough for himself and even some elbow room to boot.
“I see, they went all out when it came to the multifunctionality of the crew quarters. With there being twelve in total to run this ship. They really only have space for sixty-two to ride comfortably with the maximum capacity. especially with how fancy the ship looks on both the exterior and interior.” After, Brex turned his attention back and continued.
“Even this bed is just big enough for me and it's going to be pretty difficult to have more than one other to be laying next to me. Oh, I really, really hope that those two don't end up getting into some type of turf war when it comes to which one of them might end up laying in that bed along with myself. Hmm, that reminds me.”
“I wonder if Zecora will be fine with a roommate or will she want a room for herself? She did have that one room all to herself during the first ship ride over. Oh well, there's nothing else to worry about, so I may as well go ahead and use the shower really quick and head off to bed early for once. Maybe I'll talk to Luna tonight.”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Ponyville* *Time: Nearly three hours ago. Right after the party for the foals*
Sugar cube Corner was slowly emptying out now that the party was finally coming to an end. The only ones that remained, turned out to be the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the main six. Which also included Rory as the seventh adult there in the main room of the building that the party was held in for the last couple of hours. In the back were the two owners which happened to be Miss’s and Mister Cake.
Fluttershy was in the middle of helping Rainbow in taking down some of the decorations that were still high up on the ceiling. When it came to the rest of the party favors and trash. That was left to Applejack and Pinky for the tables and the floor was under the care of Rarity and Twilight. When it came to Rory, she was lending a hand by picking up the long tables after the legs were folded in on themselves and carried out through the front door so that it could be deposited within the shed that was located behind Sugar Cube corner.
Just as they are getting done with the last of the cleanup work and Rory came in through the front door after getting rid of the last table. Rarity could be heard speaking up as some of the remaining trash was levitated into a nearby plastic bag.
“We are so appreciative for the assistance Rory. I do hope that those tables weren't too much of a bother.” Rory was already in the middle of placing the smaller round tables that were pushed to the edges of the room back to where they were, while nonchalantly replying to Rarity.
“Not at all Rarity. Those were nothing. Besides, if I can't even handle that much, then how have I been able to survive being with my Master?” This caused the white mare to blush a little as her magic also began to waver and she nearly dropped the bag that was slowly being levitated towards the doorway. Rainbow was the next one to speak up just after throwing the last of the used-up streamers into a box that was marked for party supplies on the far end of the room.
“There! That should be the last of it. I'm fast, but I have no idea as to how Pinkie can get all of this set up when I only had my back turned on the mare for a few seconds. Pinkie, who is right underneath Rainbow and stuffing her face with the leftover cupcakes that had been burned in the attempt to be made by Apple Bloom just before the party was started, spoke up while some of the crumbs were falling out of her mouth. “I can't help if I got the power of laughter on my side. Oh, and also, cut aways scenes really help a lot too!”
Rainbow was now scratching the back of her head and giving Pinkie a strange look as her mouth was beginning to open. But it slowly closed after a few seconds of consideration. This was immediately followed with her giving a shrug before landing on the ground and speaking up again. Now taking a good look around the room to inspect for any more decorations along the ceilings before she finished up. “Okay, everything looks back to how it should.”
Over in one corner of the room was the trio known as Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. As they were still talking to one another and giggling every so often. Twilight would be standing next to Rarity and Applejack, while looking in their direction with smiles on their faces. The farm mare was the first to speak up in the group as she let out a relieved sigh. “I was getting a might worried there for mah’ little sis. It looks like those three tikes might turn out to be the best of friends.”
Twilight nodded to that as she added to the conversation. “To think that I never got to getting around to doing that when I was there age seems pretty laughable now that I've come to Ponyville. By the way Rarity, I didn't know you even had a little sister.” The white Unicorn was just finishing up with brushing her hair a few times to get it straightened out in some areas after the cleaning before she replied in a sing song voice.
“Ah yes, she just recently started living with me. You see, our parents have started to retire and are now going on this long trip that they've been saving up to go on for quite a while. So, for the time being, Sweetie Belle is going to be living with me above my shop.” She then said the next part in almost a whisper. “The stars must have been in my favor that she didn't move in until I already calmed down from that… Err… Incident.”
Applejack clearly picked up on just what Rarity was saying and instantly covered for the mare right as Twilight was about to ask what she meant, if judging the inquisitive look that was beginning to build and the purple Unicorn's eyes. “Y-Yeah, you really had a bunch of those darn orders for your dresses. Easy to see that would have been near impossible to get Sweetie Belle moved in during that commotion.” luckily, the student didn’t notice the erratic twitching on the farm mare’s part from that bold face lie.
Twilight seemed to have accepted the explanation as Rarity had a look of relief, while secretly nodding over to Applejack for the assist. It wasn't until after they came down from there unexpected heat cycle that the two conversed and understood what the other one was going through.
From then on, it was decided that it would be better off if it was kept between them and apparently Pinkie, who got to see the whole aftermath. It was also safe to say that the pair was both relieved and disappointed that the one who had an inadvertently caused they're odd actions was now off and on to a mysterious trip with their new friends Zecora and lamented over not smoothing things out with him in time.
Over with Fluttershy. The yellow Pegasus was abnormally skittish. Considering that there isnt a thing that could possibly be the reason for making her seem scared or worried. Although, she was in quite a bit of a rush which caught the attention of both Twilight and Rory as well, who is keeping an eye on the mare for quite some time. It was Twilight who was approaching the pink Pegasus before speaking up. “Fluttershy? Are you doing all right there, you don't really seem quite like yourself?”
This caused Fluttershy to let out a small, “Eek!” Before clutching her chest and looking at Twilight before she answered as her eyes were looking towards the ground almost pathetically. “It's not that Twilight, it's just I think I should be getting back to my place soon. I promised one of my animal friends that I would help them with a problem and today's party slipped my mind until just this morning. I feel bad for not being able to keep my promise, that’s all.”
Applejack heard what was being said and walked up a little bit until she was almost next to Twilight to ask her own question. “And just what might be this promise that’s got you on pins and needles? Don’t tell me it’s that Angel Bunny of yours? I think you need to put your hoof down when it comes to that guy.”
The Pegasus was now bringing both of her hands closer to one another to slowly poke her index fingers together, before answering Applejack. “Umm… Well, a couple days ago I came across an animal that was on the side of the road and I've been taking care of her. The poor thing was completely exhausted and I promise that I would take her into town today to try and find her owner.”
Fluttershy paused for a moment before she continued with a blush on her cheeks. “The only real problem I have is… That I know she can understand me, but I can't seem to understand her at all.” Twilight scrunched up her face before asking hesitantly. “But I thought you could communicate with all the animals?”
She looked a little more flustered before answering Twilight. “Well, it's not that I can fully understand them like I would with you and me. I can figure it out pretty easily if I have enough time with them. If it's a certain type of animal that I've been around before, then it becomes a lot easier and I can pick up what their noises mean. With some it's almost close enough to have a real conversation.”
Rainbow zoomed down and was now hovering among the group. The blue Pegasus then asked in an incredulous tone. “Just what the hay is this animal anyway for you to have such a problem? Why didn't you just put up some posters or start asking around before now?” That was when the rest of them began to nod before Fluttershy replied.
“Well, umm… It has to do with what she is... I hear that she's an animal that’s highly sought after and I didn't want to take the chance of bringing her into town and not be able to defend herself if someone just claimed to be her owner and drag her away.”
That was when she started to lift her right hand while continuing. “Also, she's pretty big and I didn't want to agitate her condition until she was ready to be up and about.” By then all of them were looking pretty confused at the explanation, but Fluttershy was just about to go into more details before they all heard a knock at the front door for Sugar Cube Corner.
It was Apple Bloom who was the closest to the door and she quickly went right up to it to answer. Once she had opened it completely, all the girls from within the room could see how her neck was craning up as if she was trying to look at something really big on the other side of the doorway.
Which they couldn't see very well with the door itself being opened inwards to block whatever it was from their line of sight. That was when Applejack called to her sister. “Well? Who's at the door Apple Bloom? The party's already over and the shops going to be closed for the rest of the day. Tell whoever it is that the shop will be open again tomorrow.”
Apple Bloom was immediately joined by Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle after noticing the slight pause in their new friends reply to her older sister. This was then followed with a collective gasp from all three as they were now clearly excited about what was beyond the door. The rest of the girls were just beginning to make their way over to see what was going on when they heard the voice of a mare on the other side.
Going off of the way they spoke, the mare sounded as if she was quite out of breath. “D-Does this… Belong to any one… In the building?” As soon as those words were heard. The three little girls moved out of the way and what came through the door was a large bird. Said bird was poking its head around to get a good look at what was within the room while taking a few steps inside.
Apparently, it even needed to crouch down enough to fit through the doorway and as soon as it is straightened itself up. All of the ponies within the room were now lifting their chins in order to get a good view of just how tall it really was in comparison to themselves and Pinkie ended up falling over onto her back and going all, "Ooooh and Haaaaa."
A heavy silence filled the room during all of this. But that was broken after hearing someone coughing, which brought all of their attention down towards the ground. Where there was a guard holding on to a piece of rope that just so happened to be looped around the bird’s neck.
But what really got their attention, was how there are three more and each and every one of them was literally being dragged on the ground as their armor could be seen all scuffed up. Some of them even had mud and grass or possibly a mixture of both on portions of their armor.
One of the other guards spoke up right as they started to let go of the rope and rolled onto their back to take in a heavy breath. “Thank… Celestia… It finally stopped.” another one was the next to speak as they were pretty much doing the same, but this time with a groan of pain behind their voice.
“Someone reported… Spotting this Chocobo coming into town and we've been trying to wrangle it for the last… Half an hour. All it did was walk around, but no matter what we tried, we just couldn't hold it still. We think the bird was searching for something or someone by the way it was randomly walking the streets.”
The third mare that was still holding on, began to speak as she was trying to pull herself up on the rope to get back on to her legs. “It took us all over Ponyville... No matter how much strength we had or magic used, nothing worked... Please, oh please say that the owner is here so we can just go home... I got rocks and places of my armor that I'd rather not mention...”
During all of this, the Chocobo was turning its head to look in all directions until it had come to a stop after catching sight of Rory. This got a set of excited set of chirps from the bird before it began to slowly make its way over to the girl and paid no mind to the extra weight of the mare that were forced to go along on the ground once again.
The two guards that spoke up first already let go the rope, which meant that the third was the only one still hanging on and she was dragged along no differently than a can would when tied to the back of a bumper for a newly married couples’ car. All the while, groaning under her breath. “Oh, for the love of Celestia... Not this again...”
Rory met the Chocobo halfway and gave the her a very confused look, before she raised her right hand and began to make some motions and whispering some words. This was also accompanied by a small glow that was appearing around said hand before it slowly dissipated after a couple of seconds. The girl then started to say, “Crystal, what are you doing all the way here? I thought you were back helping to keep an eye on the new Chocobo's?”
This started a weird go between with the Chocobo and Rory as every time she began to ask a question, the bird would simply give off a couple of squawks and chirps, along with a couple that sounded eerily close to what a cat would make when it was pretty upset.
It would even make some gestures as it was moving its body as it was doing all of this. During this time, the guard was already back to her hoofs and was now standing with the others. All the while, giving them a strange look as some of them were arching an eyebrow or tilting their head at the spectacle.
Rory would hum a tune ever so often. At one point, after it a few minutes went by, the girl was pretty much laughing so hard that she literally staggered back. It even got so bad, that she required the help of one of the round tables to steady yourself as the other hand was trying to cover her mouth. Rory was even going so far as to start crying so hard, that she was having a hard time with breathing as she tried to say the following in broken sentences.
“YOU DID WHAT?! HOoooooo-Hooo! HAA-HAAA-HAAA!!! I can't believe-you did that to-. I wish I was there to see that! I can't breathe, I can't breathe! You just-. You just left her like that?!” By this point, Rory just lost her grip on the table and fell onto her tail with a loud thud and began to roll around while still laughing like a crazy lunatic and kicking her legs in the air.
It took nearly a minute for her to finally calm down enough to wipe the tears from her face, while getting up onto her legs again. Although, she still needed the aid of grabbing onto the table to keep herself steady or she might end up on the ground a second time with how she was still giggling.
Twilight was the first one to snap out of it and gingerly approached Rory. As Twilight was keeping her eyes on the Chocobo, she got right up next to Rory and leaned in so that she could speak from the side of her mouth in an attempt to not startle the larger creature. “Just what is going on and why is there a Chocobo in Ponyville? They're not native to this area and are only found in the Southeastern part of Equestria.”
Rory was just finishing with wiping her face and was now giving a small grin towards Fluttershy before responding to Twilight's question. “Oh, oh, I should probably explain a few things. But first.” Her gaze slowly shifted to the guard that was still holding on to the rope.
From there, she gave the mare a narrowed look before saying the following in a sing song voice that was clearly laced with malice. “This is the personal Chocobo of my Master and I do not think he would take it very well to see Crystal being held like some common pet. Especially by a mare he has no relationship with.”
This expression of hers greatly affected all of those in attendance. Well, all of those aside from the Crusaders who were lucky to be standing at just the right angle so they were behind Rory and looking up at the bird. This meant that they had no idea what she was doing. The main six all took a step back as their eyes went wide and this left the guard all by herself to be singled out by Rory, who was not budging an inch as her eyes turned cold towards the mare.
The guard who was receiving the full blow, began to shutter in her armor as she weekly released the rope that was in her hands and also took a quick step away from the bird before going into a attention stance. The mare then said in a terrified voice. “I-I was only doing my job, this Chocobo was wandering around without their owner and with no saddle… We-We assumed it to be a wild animal that wandered into the t-town.”
The mare was clearly about to add onto her statement when Rory leaned in so much that this caused her to become slightly lower and now looking up at the guard mare from just a few inches below her nose. Normally, getting into a lower position would not be an advantageous choice to make when trying to put forth their point.
However, Rory's eyes glinted with a fiery red hue, along with those lips of hers turning a slight shade of purple gave off the impression to the guard that she was not to be trifled with. It also didn't help the guard situation with the malicious grin that was being directed towards her at the same time. This grin just said that she was clearly looking for a reason to make a move and the mare was just seconds away from soiling her pants out of fear.
Rory went in even closer now and straighten up so that she was standing on the guards left hand side. With a mouth almost close enough to touch the hairs on the edge of the mare's ear. She spoke in a strangely seductive voice that made the mare stiffen up the instant anything came out of her lips. “I can fully understand that you're doing your job and seeing as her owner is not here. I shall take upon the responsibility of taking custody of his property.”
Rory continued after switching over to a cold tone. “My Master would be greatly upset if he were to discover that his Chocobo was mare-handled by not one, but three of the town guards. And I just cannot stand it when my Master is not happy. Now don't you agree? By default, that means your actions are causing not only me trouble, but also you as well.”
Twilight was looking between the mare and Rory with wide eyes, while looking really conflicted as to what she should be doing. When it came to Rarity however, she seemed to have been completely captivated by the site and was eagerly awaiting the conclusion. It was as though it was some type of soap opera to the white mare.
Fluttershy looked even more conflicted than Twilight by now, but was more focused on the Chocobo more than anything else. The pink party pony was sitting in a chair that was pulled out of nowhere and eating a tub of popcorn in a similar way as to when Nightmare Moon turned herself in, but not before slapping Celestia across the cheek with the strength of an Alicorn.
Going over to Applejack, the mare was a shade of gray as her eyes turned into pinpricks. Obviously with her ability to sense a lie, the mare was terrified at what a level forty would do if they were to lose it. Mush more so when they have a frame like his. When it came to the last Pony in the group, which was the one and only Rainbow. She was at first looking at the scene with an incredulous stare, but over time. It morphed to that of doubt and then strangely to being concerned at what was being said out loud.
Seeming to have been triggered by the situation. Rainbow flew up and in one quick motion slipped the noose off of the Chocobo's head and dropped it in front of the Guard, before taking up a defiant stance with her arms crossed on the other side.
The blue Pegasus then said, while pretty much imitating the look that Rory was giving only earlier. “Yeah, you don't really want to make that big guy angry. You know Applejack can tell if someone's lying and if she hasn't said anything yet, then everything that Rory said one hundred percent is true. We should probably drop this whole thing now, unless you want to be on Gambits bad side when he finally gets back from his trip.”
Not only did the Guard mare who was being surrounded by two girls flinch at hearing that. But so did the other Guards that were laying on the ground after rolling on to their elbows to look up at Rainbow only an instant later after that sentence was said. The others on the ground quickly looked towards one another while sweating profusely for a few seconds, before getting up onto their legs.
As for the Guard that was being talked to, she slowly nodded before changing her tune to that of a more cheerful nature and also smiling widely. It also didn’t escape the notice of the rest when she was now slowly backing away towards the door without breaking eye contact with Rory.
“Oh! I uh… see… S-So this Chocobo belongs to Gambit? Well, I-I mean. We… That is… Just make sure that the Chocobo is accompanied when going through the town as per safety regulations and we will just pretend that… Gulp! T-This never happened. In fact, if Gambit should ever need a bird sitter for a while, then he could call on any of us if it should ever come up! Hehe...”
And with that said, all three of them were now grinning from ear to ear, while still sweating and making for the door in a rush. However, in their current state, the three Guards ended up getting stuck in the doorway as they tried to squirm through for a few seconds before finally coming dislodged and falling to the ground on the other side. It didn't even take them a good two seconds before they were already up on their hoofs and making a break for it.
With them out of the way. Rory gave Rainbow and inquisitive glance that lasted a few seconds, but was caught on by the blue Pegasus that just looked away. Afterwards, Rory returned her gaze back to Crystal and said in her usual cheery voice, “How about we go over to Fluttershy's home for the time being and see about getting a place for you to stay.”
After hearing that, the bird let out a few more chips and chirps before tilting its head slightly. Rory saw this and responded immediately afterwards with an apologetic smile while speaking to the bird “I'm sorry to say that Master isn't here and won't be back for some time.”
This just got Crystal to lower her head and soon gave out a pathetic little chirp which caused pretty much everyone there to have this little pinch in their hearts at the sight of a sad Chocobo. Rory then said, while putting her hands onto her hips. “You got nothing to worry about Crystal. I'm sure Master will summon you at any time he feels that he needs your assistance. I'll even send him word about you being here as soon as he arrives to his destination.”
This instantly perked up Crystal as she leaned in and began to nuzzle both her beak and face into Rory's own. Which got the girl to give off a series of giggles as the feathers were clearly tickling her. Twilight was also giggling at the site before approaching the pair. She then asked as she was now looking over at Fluttershy. “You just mentioned Fluttershy, why is that?” In response, the Pegasus in question stepped up rather sheepishly and started to get everyone's attention.
“That's because she's the animal that I was telling you all earlier... I hope that's all right?” Rory nodded to that before stepping in. “That's right. Crystal told me about how she was being taken care of and that the rest of her gear is still at Fluttershy's place. After fully regaining her strength, Crystal couldn't wait anymore and started to search the town for Master and that's when she came across those Guards that tried to... Well, Crystal says that they were trying to get a ride out of her, but I'm pretty sure that's not what happened.”
Rory then went on to continue as she ran her hands along the Chocobo's feathers. At the same time, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders were getting a closer look at its legs and wings. “Besides, it's late in the day and I doubt I can get any arrangements made at this time. So, I hope it's not too much of a bother for Fluttershy to keep her for another night so that I can get Crystal situated in her own place. Oh, and by the way Fluttershy. I'll make sure to tell Master what you did for Crystal. The two of them have been at each other's sides since long before even I came into the picture.”
Twilight, who was taking this all in, was suddenly hit with a stroke of realization as she quickly darted her eyes from Fluttershy and right back to Rory, before asking another question that popped into her head. “Rory! I had no idea that you had the same talent to talk to animals just like Fluttershy can! Why didn't you say that you can talk to them? Also, I've been meaning to ask this as well, but you don't have a cutie mark.”
This got a reaction from the Crusaders as they zoomed around the Chocobo so that they are lined up all in front of Rory. Their eyes were pretty much ready to explode with how they were giving a puppy dog look and clearly wanting to hear the explanation for themselves.
Oddly enough, Rory was instantly affected by this and showed it by flinching at the sudden action. She was also now holding her arms up in a defensive position and full-on sweating bullets. At the same time, she couldn't help but to squeak out the next line which consisted of, “Too cute! Just too cute!”
After taking a moment to recover from the weaponized cuteness. Rory straightened out her outfit before returning to her usual composure in order to answer Twilight. “Oh, I can't speak with animals all the time. That would have to do if one of my spells that allows me to communicate with them for up to ten minutes at a time. It essentially breaks down the language barrier and conversing back and forth becomes possible. Although, it is greatly dependent on the intelligence level that the one I'm trying to use it on has.”
Rory brought a finger up to her chin as she was clearly in deep thought for a few seconds before continuing. “Think of it as one animal might be really smart and it's no different than if it were between you and myself. While another one would barely be able to put a few words to string a sentence along if they're intelligence level was pretty low.”
“However, when it comes to Crystal here, she's exceptionally smart when it comes to the Chocobo's.” Rory quickly leaned in to say the next part into Twilight's ear and also giving a shifty glance to the others in the room. “I wouldn't put it past Crystal to be able to do our taxes. Although, she could be rather impulsive. If you see she is in a bad mood, make sure you’re not between her and what’s causing it.”
This got a quick smack to the top of Rory's head when Crystal leaned in and hit her by swinging the bottom of her beak downwards. This got Rory let out a small pained Yelp, while clutching at her head before yelling up to Crystal. “Hey! Watch it there! Don't get all full of yourself because you have seniority over me!” Twilight, who had already summoned up her notepad, was writing some notes down when Scootaloo chimed into the conversation by waving her hand in the air to get some attention.
“Miss Rory! You said earlier that you didn't have a cutie mark, but you can do what Fluttershy can. That must mean you do have one, so which is it?” The girl was just about to go with a thought she had in her head, but quickly stopped before a single word came out as she looked across the three kids. Inside of her own head, she was half crying as she thought the following. “I just can't! I just can't corrupt these kids, they're just too cute! Also, Master would never forgive me if I were to do something lewd around them.”
She also remembered the threat that he made to her before leaving and internally shivered at what kind of punishment he would come up with. If it was just to mess with the grown-ups, then it wouldn't have been so bad. But she just knew it would have been something not even she would enjoy if she were to try something with these three.
Back and outside world. Rory gave them a small smile before getting down onto her right knee so that she was closer to their height. She then spoke in a way that made her seem a lot more mature than normal, which easily threw off the other girls in the room. “It is true that I do not have my own cutie mark and I'm perfectly fine with that. Now, what I have is something special that I received from the one that I love. It’s kind of like one, but more personal.”
It was Sweetie Belle that asked her question next.” But why don't you have a cutie mark to begin with? Did you ever find out what you're good at doing?” Rory took a quick glance at Sweetie Belle's older sister before going back to the younger one and saying, “It's nice and all to have a cutie mark, but you never really know what you're going to get. I want you to keep in mind that I'm not normal, so I won't ever have one.”
All three of them had a sudden look of fright, as well as a weird look that was coming from Rainbow, Applejack and Fluttershy that were standing in the background. But before the three fillies could go into a set of hysterics. Rory quickly continued. “Now I'm sure that the three of you will get your own cutie marks, it doesn't matter if you get them now or later on in your life. My master told me a proverb that would make sense here. It is not the destination that truly matters, but the journey itself one takes along the way there.”
Obviously, they didn't get it with how each of them was now having various reactions of scratching their heads and sticking out their tongues, while looking up at the ceiling. So, Rory quickly elaborated. “What I mean to say is, that instead of focusing on whether or not you will get your cutie marks. You should enjoy your freedom while you still have it. Have fun, trying new things. Think of it this way, your future has not been set into stone and you have a possibility to be anything just like you said during the party when defending Apple Bloom.”
Seeming to be satisfied for the moment, two of them were now calming down. But this left Apple Bloom as she was tilting her head and clearly wanting to ask a question. After seeing this, Rory quickly nodded and Apple Bloom went right ahead. “Miss Rory, where is the mark you have now that you got from the one you love?”
Rory reached out and padded Apple Bloom on the head lately, before getting to her feet. She then said in a sly tone of voice. “Now I'm fairly sure that your sister would not like me disclosing that information.” She then winked at Apple Bloom before continuing with, “let's just say you need to be a bit older for I can even think to say where it is. PG-13 stuff.”
After getting a set of, Aww's. Applejack and Rarity went on home along with their little sisters. When it came to Scootaloo, she was brought home by Rainbow. As for the rest of them. They all made their way over to Fluttershy's. This time however, the yellow Pegasus wasn't acting so skittish when it came to getting close enough to be with Crystal even though Rory was right there. Upon seeing this, the girl in disguise had a small smile at seeing that she might be able to make some leeway in approaching Fluttershy who had been quite distant.
As all of this was going on and off to the South. Quite a bit of ways further down the road from Ponyville, was the sound of shuffling hoofs along a gravelly road. Said noise was coming from just over a small hill that the path was coming down from and it appeared to be getting closer.
With the way that the sun was currently positioned. It showed that there was only a short time left until it's swift descent over the horizon to usher the night. A shaded figure could be seen crossing over the top of the hill at a slow speed.
Also, with the way the sun was directly behind them now, the figure was shuffling along, while clutching at a bag that was hanging near their hips. This was followed with a worn-out feminine voice that droned along with the words it was trying to say. “Crystal… Crystal… Where are you? Crystal… Come back, I got tasty num nums... Please, if you could hear me, let's go home...”
After a few more seconds, the figure stopped for a moment and appeared to be taking in a deep breath of air with all the strength they had before yelling the last bit as loud as they could. Which turned out to be pretty weak, while at the same time being extremely desperate. “CRYSTAL COME BACK! THE LORDS GOING TO KILL ME! I thought we were buddies!” After saying her peace, the girl kept on trudging along with a great amount of difficulty with every other step and almost went into another stagger before catching herself.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Time: The Present* *Location: The Dream Realm*
The scene shows a long-paved road that was easily seven lanes across. Tall box shaped archways with Celtic markings could be seen edged into the stone were situated every few hundred meters apart from one another. Thunder could be heard from the dark sky that was partially illuminated by a sun that was fully eclipsed. Which left only the white outline to be a source of light for all of the land below.
A number of figures wearing red robes and carrying one handed sword’s that were forged in a way that gave them a zigzag pattern that started from the handle, until it was halfway up. From there, the rest of the weapon would go straight again till it went to a point. When one of the hoods turned in the direction of further up the road. It exposed their face to be horribly disfigured and dried with black blood. Their teeth could be seen without the skin around the mouth and the canines were abnormally long and sharp.
As these were dotting the road, something large just stepped over them to reveal a set of long red legs with three long digits for toes now griping onto the ground. When looking up, one would see that it belonged to a weird diamond shaped black cage that was oozing an endless supply of black goop. Said goop would splash onto the ground underneath to make a trail. Inside of the cage, was a number of bodies that were decomposing and their limbs were flailing about as they tried to reach through the cage bars for anything they could.
The background noises consisted of thunder and rain, as well as the moaning souls of the doomed that were being tortured without End. But this was instantly cut through when the excited voice of Brex was heard over it all. “Hey there Luna! Thanks for dropping in! Just give me a few minutes here, I need to get to the end of the bridge before I run out of time! Oh and don’t mind the pedestrians, they go through this sort of stuff all the time!”
This was instantly followed with a loud roar coming from a mighty beast of metal, which was also accompanied with the voice of Luna. The princess of the night was right now screaming at the top of her lungs before a souped-up car was seen rocketing into the air after going up a ramp in the road.
Before the car landed back onto its wheels. The walking two-legged cage of a monstrosity was plowed right through and the black substance was splattered everywhere. But miraculously, the car was left without a single blemish as it fumbled around on its tires before straightening out upon the landing soon after.
The car itself showed it to have a pair of overly sized tires for the rear. While smaller ones were in the front. The engine itself was practically exposed with a set of three long exhaust pipes being on either side and letting off constant bursts of flames whenever the engine revved up.
The outside was mostly black, but the metal bits shined like pure silver. There were even some hot rod flames that were painted on the sides that really stood out on the black paint it was on and making it look cool as fuck and Brex would say so, if he was ever asked about it.
(here is a picture of the car in the dream.)
Inside the car was a two-passenger seat and the ones in them were none other than Brex and Luna. When it came to Brex, he was currently wearing a set of gear that gave him an apocalyptic theme, as he was covered in multiple straps of leather that showed some small spikes to be protruding from them on his four arms and legs.
Pretty much everything was covered up in the same fashion and his head had a kind of leathery helmet that would only have exposed everything below is eyes. But that was covered up with a black cloth hood, that went down and covered up the rest, including his neck. So, from a distance, he could have been thought to be wearing a full body leather outfit that would easily send Rory into a sex fueled fit if it was in the real world.
As for Luna, she was currently gripping at anything she could and bracing herself as she was still screaming bloody murder. Instead of her usual dress, the princess of the night was now wearing what appeared to be a black T-shirt with a white bird flying downwards. Inside of that, it also depicted a type of Egyptian marking in the center of it.
She even had on some long wristbands with spikes protruding that also went along with the spiked belt that was meant to hold up the dark blue jeans. These pants could be seen hugging her form quite tightly by the looks of it as they showed off her curves quite nicely. Around her neck, was a dark choker and she even showed to have some black eyeliner that she would normally not have. But it really worked for her nonetheless.
(Here is a picture of the clothing Luna is wearing right now in the dream of Brex.)
After a few more seconds from when they touch down. Brex reached over with his right hand and grabbed onto a long stick shift that had a number eight ball attached for the handle and shifted it to a higher gear. This move then caused the car to accelerate to a more dangerous speed as he plowed through the robed beings and hit a few more jumps to do the same to another two more of the cage walkers.
Right when it seemed that they had finally gotten passed most of them and were now on a long straight stretch of highway that was now elevated over a seemingly endless black sea on either side. Luna was beginning to get used to the ride somewhat and yelled over to him without taking her eyes off the road. “What in my mother's name is going on here! Where are we? What is this thing? And what am I now wearing?! How can clothing be both tight and make me feel as I’m practically in the nude?”
Luna wanted to say more, but was distracted when a number of places along the road began to cave in so there were large gaping holes in their path. Brex narrowly avoided going into one of them as one of the larger tires skidded a few times when there was barely anything underneath, but managed to keep going until it landed on the pavement once again to produce a screeching noise in the process.
Brex called out casually as if they were on a Sunday drive. Although, there was a bit of excitement behind it. “Didn't your mother ever tell you not to distract the driver?” Brex did a sharp jerk of the wheel to go onto the right side of the highway just as the middle section caved in. This made Luna shift herself so that she was now pressing right up against his body, before straightening out the car again as he continued.
“Oh this? I guess I just ended up reminiscing on the past! I thought you would end up in my mind eventually, but you came rather quickly tonight! Don't worry, we don't have much time left.” That was when he took one of his hands and pointed straight ahead to indicate that she should look.
When Luna followed his arm, she saw that there was a shoreline coming up and released a breath she was holding out of relief. Unfortunately, then she ended up letting out another scream as the rest of the road began to crumble apart even more and the car needed to swerve from one side to the next at nearly the last second when they nearly when into another hole.
When it seemed as though they were nearing the end. The entire bridge was now coming down and the last hundred meters or so of the bridge fell into the water. This was followed with the section of the bridge that they were on falling as well. Although, it seemed as though it was the rear that was going first, so they were now on an uphill slope. Brex stepped on the gas and called out at the last second, while at the same time, letting go of the wheel. “Hold up your hands like this! it's a lot better that way! WooooHoo!”
Although Luna was having none of it and was screaming so loud that one could see her uvula swinging in the back of her throat as the car went into its last long jump. The two of them soon land on the shoreline after giving several bounces and spinning in a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn. To which they came to an abrupt stop with Brex leaning on to his door with his elbow and throwing his right arm over the back of Luna's seat in a relaxing motion.
For Luna, she was still gripping on to whatever she had been this entire ride and by the time she realized that they stopped and released her grip. Brex could hear the way that the metal was creaking and there was a visible indentation from her hands on the upper part of her door. Brex gave a quick laugh before waving his hand in a dismissive gesture when he spoke up.
“Oh, come now Luna, that was the fun part. At least you dropped in after I already dealt with the giant vagina worm with all of those piercings. I have to say, those three tongues were so grabby by the end. Now if you want nightmare fuel, that’s it right there.”
While still breathing quite heavily from the scare. Luna took a good look at her surroundings and noticed a multitude of weird beasts roaming the lands. There were things that resembled porcupines. However, their bodies were now covered in glistening silver blades that shifted with every movement they made as they waddled over the ground rather awkwardly.
There were even some large black furred covered beasts that went on all fours. Those could be seen in the act of randomly attacking the porcupines, as well as one another in aggressive fashions that seem to have no real purpose. Perhaps in a way of asserting dominance or territory, she couldn’t really tell.
When her eyes turn to the sky and saw the condition of the Sun. The lunar princess could do nothing but gawk at it with disbelief, as she slowly turned her attention back to the one that she came to see. She then spoke in an uneasy voice, while gesturing towards the background with her right arm.
“Is-Is this Tartarus?” After hearing that, Brex stepped out of the car by jumping right over the door which clearly could not be opened and landed with both of his feet on the ground. By doing this, he just so happened to squish one of the porcupines that came too close to the vehicle with a loud mesh of a squish and metal grinding onto one another.
After making a disgusted grunt and wiping his shoe on one of the tires. He answered with his hands on his hips, while he took in the surroundings. “Nope, this is not Tartarus.” Luna took another look around before she exclaimed after jumping out of the car herself and approaching him. “How can this not be Tartarus? Do you not see the sun? do you not see all the Monsters?! The sky is a constant thunderstorm and I cannot even see the stars. From right here, the sea looks as black as tar.”
Brex was turning his head from one direction to the next to look at what Luna was describing. Soon, his attention was fully back on her before he just nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders and said, “Eh! It's clearly not a spa, but it has its charm. For one, you're never without a weapon to defend yourself.” As he was saying that. Brex reached down towards the carcass of the porcupine creature and carefully ripped out one of the blades before he showed it to Luna.
He then said, “See, already you got yourself a knife. Some of the creatures around here you could turn into a bunch of stuff. Especially if you clean out the barrel, flush out the chamber. Of course, that's only after you scrape off the gizzards and remaining fleshy bits. Don't worry, after a while you don't even notice the smell anymore.
Luna visibly shuttered after noticing that there was still a piece of flesh attached to the bottom of the knife handle. This only caused her to come to the conclusion that it was indeed growing the metal right out of its own body in the same way a pony grows their mane’s. To her, it was the same as killing something and ripping their bones out for a crude weapon or club.
In her mind, Luna was going over everything and shuttered even more at the very notion of letting her sister know what kind of world he was sent to. After that thought ran through. Luna finally noticed her current appearance and began to scream frantically, as she noticed that she did not have her wings.
“MY WINGS! where are my wings?!” From there, it took her a few moments to come to the realization that this was his dream, so there was the possibility that she was not allowed to have them in this environment and quickly calmed down after first taking in a few deep breaths.
After closing her eyes for a few seconds. Luna opened them to see him just leaning on the back side of the strange vehicle with his arms crossed. He then said in a nonchalant way, “So? What do I owe tonight’s visit?” Luna was pretty much caught off guard with how casual he sounded. Especially when compared to the other times where he was pretty serious and just contributed it to him having a good day. After attempting to straighten out her clothing, but only to realize that it was not her normal attire and being quite tight on her slender form.
She replied with, “Very well, I shall get straight to why I am here. I'm interested in knowing as to where you are heading and just what might your intentions be?” After a few seconds, Brex shrugged again, before placing both of his hands down so that he was putting a good portion of his upper body weight against the back of the car as he replied. “And here I thought you would be happy to have a potential threat leaving your lands for a while.”
Luna was caught unawares by the statement and tried to push a bit more. “I do not understand as to why you would be under the assumption that we perceive you as a threat. My sister and I merely wish to know what your plans are.” But before Luna could go, on Brex interrupted her by saying, “I take it that Twilight has already sent in another one of her many reports on my activities. I wonder if she's freaking out that she can no longer be your sister's spy while I'm not there in Ponyville.”
From behind his mask, Brex was smirking as he knew plainly well that her spy was already hot on his heels as they would say, with being on top of the ship while he was sleeping right now. But he wanted to see what kind of reaction he can get out of Luna. From his perspective, the lunar princess was clearly unnerved by what he said. This was because of how she couldn't keep her eyes on him and was now looking away.
Brex began to think to himself the following. “Wow, Luna really wants to tell me about the spy. But she can't seem to bring herself to do it. I wonder just how long she'll go along with my apparent misunderstandings when it comes to her sister’s student. But then, he decided to throw her a bone to get things going.
That was when he stepped away from the car and waved his right hand in the air. The act was now having the effect of changing the dream, as a subtle wave rippled across all of the surfaces. Within a few seconds, they found themselves within a place that caused Luna to have a look of realization on her facial expressions. Where they were now, was the outside patio that they first ran into one another. However, this time it was on a clear day around noon.
Luna was already turning slowly in place as to take in the view. During that time, Brex shifted his form so that he was wearing his usual white robes and mask, while also making his way towards the nearest table. Afterwards, the two sat down and Brex relayed that he would be going to Zebrabwe and that he would be gone for the foreseeable future.
Although he didn't go into very many details, no matter how hard Luna tried to pry into it. However, Brex did make it a point to say that Rory was still in town and that if anything was to be done to her, then he would no doubt come looking for the two of them first. To which got Luna to quickly reply in saying that they would not do any such deed and showing that she was extremely nervous at the prospect.
Luna even requested that she brings Celestia in tonight to continue with some talks. But Brex refused out right and stated that he would rather have a relaxing evening, then to accommodate an unwanted person into his mind. Luna looked a little down casted at this, but otherwise agreed and soon after she left his dream.
However, as soon as the lunar princess went up in a flash of light and he was now left alone in his mind. Brex waited a few seconds before slowly turning his attention away from where Luna was and towards the nearby doorway that was leading into the cooking area and began to talk just loud enough to be heard from a distance.
“You know, it's pretty dangerous for you to be there. Especially while Luna is in my mind.” Brex got no response, but there was a small glimpse of something dark moving around in one of the shadows that he could see just inside from where he sat. He then said, “If you have any preferences for a dream tonight, then you may as well let me know now.”
With another stretch of silence following. Brex began to speak in a much Sterner tone of voice that was just barely above a whisper. “This is beginning to feel quite irritating. I suggest you fix that attitude of yours soon, because my patience is growing thin. Don’t mistake my lack of action for anything foolish such as weakness. You have seen my control here. Don’t test me.”
The next thing to happen, was the shadowy figure starting off somewhere that he could no longer get a line of sight from. What's more, was the rapidly made steps that indicated that they were running as fast as they could in the opposite direction and growing distant by the second. Obviously already crossing the bridge and making for the rest of the city.
Brex was just about to say something else, but felt that there was something going on in the real world and instantly made himself wake up on the spot without going through the process of exiting the outer layer dream first. Upon waking, he was met by the site of Rin, who was standing at the edge of his bed. The silver haired Changeling then spoke up after giving a short bow first. “Rin thought that the Lord would care to know that the unexpected guest has already snuck into the ship.”
“One of our crew members exited in order to get some additional supplies and she took the opportunity to get in during that small window. Currently, my sisters and I have tracked her to be staying in the second cargo hold that Zecora also has her belongings stored away in.”
“No other movement has been detected of her part and we believe she will be staying there for the time being.” Brex gave a small yawn, before he responded to that. “Good. Do make sure to have the crew go about their usual business for a little bit so that she can keep an eye on how things go and put a few crates of supplies in there. That way she could easily find other sources of food and water.”
“Last thing we need is for her to go starving and snooping around the rest of the ship while trying to look for food. Also, make it obvious that the bathroom that's nearby that location is not often used. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd rather not have her doing her business in the corner somewhere. That would only stink up the place.”
This got him a small tilt of the head from Rin, as she went on to ask a question. “Master, why are we going through all the trouble when we could simply take her in? It wouldn’t take that much effort to capture just one lone spy and toss her into one of the spare rooms to be locked in for the trip.”
Brex smirked from behind his mask as he reached up and took her by the right hand. He then pulled her so that she would end up falling and sitting across his lap. The Changeling gave out a sudden “Eep” Of surprise by the action, but was blushing when he brought his mask close to her face in order to whisper.
“What better way to see what kind of a person she is when she believes that she is the one that's in control. If we were to confront her now. Then she would most likely put on a mask of her own and be more closely guarded.” He took that moment to bring up one of his fingers and placed it onto the Changelings lips, before lightly dragging his gloved hand down so that it was tracing along the center of her neck.
This got a small hitch from the Changelings breathing as he continued. “And you and your sister know very well that I love to mess with others on occasion.” He paused only after his hand was now right over her chest and lately began to squeeze at her right breast through the girl’s outfit. The Changelings body began to arc a little as she pushed her chest outwards slightly. This was also paired with her head leaning back and giving out a content sigh of excitement as her body started to shiver.
Before continuing and further, he whispered into her ear after placing his mask so close that it was brushing right up against the fur of her disguised Pony form. “When your sister gets back, I wouldn't mind giving the both of you some much needed personal attention.” This got a response of a strong shutter to run along the Changelings entire form as her body almost went limp soon after.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: The Yuna, inside of the cargo hold* *Time: One-thirty in the morning*
After shifting around from behind some crates. The one that was outside of the eatery could be seen going around and undoing a few of the bindings on her clothing. This revealed a Thestral with bright yellow, slitted eyes. Although, even if she was no longer wearing her cloak, most of her body was still covered up from head to toe. Apparently, she only just woke up and was giving herself a light stretch, as she began to think to herself after hearing some strange noises that were echoing throughout the ship.
“The strange machines that they have on board are giving off some peculiar sounds. Why is it that they resemble moaning?” That was when she heard some more noises coming from the other side of the room and she decided to climb on a couple of the stacked boxes as to get a higher viewpoint. That was when she caught sight of one of the crew members that was carrying in a small crate. The container was barely a foot in diameter and was placed down before the mare started in making their way towards the still open door.
However, she ended up tilting her head upon noticing that the mare was nearly staggering, as she grabbed on to the doorway and was now letting out a sensual moan. At the same time, her free hand was now aggressively reaching into her pants in the front. After a couple of seconds went by, the mare was now trembling.
Her knees could be seen pretty much wobbling in place before letting out a loud sensual scream that was being muffled by the hand that was not busy underneath. That bat Pony could only wonder to herself the following. “Wow… Just… Wow. That one must really love doing her job?”
For the rest of the night, she was pretty much kept up with how the entire ship was continuously making the same type of sounds that was heard coming from the mare just earlier and this caused the Bat Pony to even begin to touch yourself. While at the same time, still crouched and hiding in the back of some of the crates. She then thought to herself after some time and releasing some of her pent-up urges. “Perhaps I should show myself to them? Could this possibly be a form of mental warfare and that they already know that I'm here?”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 61: Rory! A Heads Up Would Have Been Nice!
Chapter 61: Rory! A Heads Up Would Have Been Nice!
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Las Pegasus. On the bridge of the Yuna* *Time: Six-Forty in the morning*
Within one of the narrow air vents, among the few leading into the bridge of the Yuna. A pair of yellow eyes could be seen in the darkness that belonged to a Thestral, could be seen trying to shimmy themselves through the cramped space. With there being pretty much no room to stretch her wings, she was left with nothing else but her elbows to slowly inch her way down as she was heading for a light source ahead that was coming through the grates only a few yards away.
If it wasn't for her slender form, along with ditching pretty much all of her gear back in the cargo holed, there was no way she would have been able to fit. There would have been no way of her being able to circumnavigate the airship without being spotted during the daytime hours if this method wasn’t utilized. So, when she finally made it to her current destination and was now looking through the gaps in the events cover. She got to see what appeared to be a very unusual site of a glowing floating orb in the middle of a room full of crew members.
She ended up releasing a quiet sigh of relief that she had finally found some place that looked interesting enough that she could stay in one place and catch her breath. On closer inspection, one could see how her eyes were partially bloodshot and this was most likely due to her not being able to get a good night's sleep with all the weird sounds that were coming from the whole ship at random instances. And by that, it was the crew that was the cause of her current state.
For once, her bat like ears that could pick up even a pin drop went and betrayed her. Only to cause the mare to get sexually aroused and unable to relay that night’s report to Princess Luna and vowed that she would try her best to do so this evening. Even if it meant knocking herself out through what might be considered brutal means.
What made it worse for her, was how she would always succumb to the urges and would try in vain to relieve them. Only to have one of the crew members come in at the worst possible time and disrupt her efforts. Eventually, all she could do was to make things worse and even went as far as to contemplate the idea of simply getting caught and put into a cell. Just so she can have some privacy and finally get that sweet relief.
Back to what she was doing. There was a total of four crew. One was walking around, while the other three were sitting at some seats that was just at the edge of her viewpoint. It was almost impossible for the Bat Pony to be able to put into words just what she was looking at and was thankful that the report was going to be done in the dreams, so all she needed to do was to allow Luna to project her memories so they could be viewed.
Strange machines and doors that open for anyone who gets near them. A floating globe that depicted all of Equestria. Large screens that she could only assume to be what they would refer to as computers. Not only that, but the whole bridge had a weird type of dome that allowed them to see the outside of the ship from what could have been over a hundred- and ninety-degree view.
What's more, where the references they were making to one another when checking the ships condition before their flight. Things such as, hull condition, their weaponry status and what she was positive were the words, Aether flow converter and intake rate. Most of which were words that completely went over her head, but she tried to remember them nonetheless. Although, with her body nearly at the point of becoming delirious from lack of sleep. She struggled and continued her best at keeping awake.
That was when the bulkhead door swung open and a group came in. This turning out to be Brex, along with his two maids and the female Zebra. Although, now the striped one was without her cloak and wearing a very revealing outfit. From a distance, one would have been confused for her going naked with how the stripes would almost meshed with her own natural ones.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex looked over and saw how all of the Changelings in disguise were pretty much going about their business. Although, he could tell that a few of them seemed a little sluggish. Of course, it didn't take him much brain power at all to figure out that it was most likely due to his overindulgence last night with his Maids as being the cause and mentally facepalmed at the blunder of not having them set up a countermeasure.
After taking what Rory said about them needing attention. The Roegadyn did just that and went on with pretty much a rotating marathon between the two. As one was tending to him, the other would rest up. Only to be awoken by whoever was his current partner to do a type of tag team switch out and resume it all over again.
It also helped that the rooms were pretty much soundproof. So, Brex pretty much went all out when compared to being at the hotel, where everything was done in moderation. But it completely slipped his mind about how much the others on board might have been feeling the waves of pleasure that were coming off of Rin and Lin. If they were going to do it again, then Brex was going to make sure that they placed a spell to dampen their emotions for the room. That way it wouldn't affect the performance of the others.
His thoughts were soon broken when the computer operating Changeling came up to him and started to speak. “Ah, nice to see that you're up Mister Gambit. We were just going through the final checklist and we will be taking off momentarily.” From behind his mask, Brex had a small smile as he was glad that the crew was treating him as a passenger, instead of their lord. Especially with Zecora standing off to his right side and their mysterious guests being only a few meters away and in the vents above his head. Yet again, another time that his mini-map came in handy.
The mare then continued after adjusting her glasses. “Once we depart, it shouldn't take us longer than fifty-three hours to arrive. Of course, we could shorten that if we were to go to our absolute limit, but with this being the longest overseas flight for this craft. We would much rather take it easy, then have a stall out in the middle of nowhere. Now wouldn't you agree?”
Upon those words being said. Brex nodded and instantly caught sight of how Zecora was almost leaping out of her skin, along with her eyes going wide. It also didn't escape his notice that there was a small thud being made in the air vents at the same time this was happening. No doubt that the spy was surprised as well and ended up with them nocking their head from the info.
Brex really needed the contain his laughter after knowing that two people were so affected by the estimated time it would take the cross the ocean. This fact was even further compounded when Zecora instantly started to ask her question with a startled tone in her voice. “Less than three days? How can this be? For it took a month to cross the sea for me?!” This got a confidence smirk from the Changeling in disguise, as she raised her chin almost triumphantly before giving a small explanation.
Most of it was technical babble. But it seemed that Zecora accepted it at that. Although, he was pretty sure that he vaguely heard a noise coming from the vents that sounded like a groan of annoyance. Apparently, the one up there was just as confused and may have given up nearly halfway through the Changelings explanation. Of course, for Brex. If he was going to explain it, it would be as simple as possible and be the following.
The process in which the Aether converter creates the necessary thrusting power to keep the ship not only in the air, but to quickly accelerate. Was primarily due to how it would take in the ambient energy from outside and channel it through a series of components. These would filter out the pure power of Aether that was within the air and send it to a chamber. Said energy would be stored for future use as it would be carefully funneled into the reactor, which would utilize it through various means.
If one was to think about it another way. Then it would be close to that of a hot water container that was producing steam. Said steam was being carefully pumped out underneath the ship to give it the lift and a stronger stream would be expelled from the rear that would push it along. Luckily enough, the expelled energy would safely go back into the atmosphere. In a sense, it was a renewable energy supply so long as they were in the atmosphere. Moreover, the amount of power they would have would pretty much skyrocket depending on a few factors.
The first would have to do with the ambient density of Aether that they were currently flying through. The thicker it is, the more energy could easily be taken in through the converter systems. The second would also have to do with the speed that they were flying at. Which meant that the intake system could essentially suck up far more than normal. The last would be the supplementing of Aether crystals that would be put into a separate storage tank. This in case the Aether density outside was too low to be of much use or to give an extra kick.
So, in a sense. the Yuna could have been easily considered a one-hundred percent green engine when it came to both fuel and engine efficiency. Which was something one could only do on a fantasy world full of magic. Of course, all of this would produce a great amount of heat in the systems. So instead of relying on finding liquid helium to act as a cooling agent. The problem was solved with the use of ice shards and crystals that would give off a perpetual amount of cold when put into the water pipes.
Brex would have gone further, but that was when Zecora started to ask him a question, as she turned in his direction. “How is it possible that you can get on such short notice such a conveyance?” Brex was just about to answer that, but was saved by the Changeling after getting the Zebra’s attention.
“That would be due to the efforts of Mister Gambit. We do owe him a lot for what he has done for us. And besides, this is another test run for the ship and we saw no problem in taking on a few passengers. More input would be very much welcomed. Some business needs to be conducted at our set destination and we will be there for a few weeks. Hopefully, you will all be ready by then to come back with us.”
“The president of the company has ordered us to give you any hospitality that you might require, so please do not hesitate to ask.” Zecora, who is looking at the Changeling brought her attention back to Brex and gave him a questioning stare. He then answered her with, “You could say that the two of us go a long way back. You're going to find out that I have a couple of connections due to my traveling.” All Zecora could do was to nod to that and go back to looking at all of the devices that were on display from where she stood with fascination.
As for the Changeling that they were talking to. She quickly returned to the computer screens and began to type away. Which brought up a two-dimensional cross-referencing drawing of the ship and began to issue orders to the rest of the crew. This would end up with a series of replies and statements from all of those involved, these mostly consisted of the following.
“Listen up everyone! We just got the green light to take off from the tower. Now that are exit is clear, let's hit the skies. Time for Yuna to Launch!”
“Roger that, switching over to main power and increasing output to ten percent.”
“Roger that! Intake system and core are operating at optimal efficiency. Fuel tanks are at full capacity. No fluctuations detected across the board.”
“Ramp and all external hatches have been retracted and sealed. Defense systems are online and set on standby. Oh! I really, really hope I get to blow something up today!”
“If everything goes well, you won't have to blow up anything! Seriously, who let the one that likes to destroy stuff be the one that sits in that chair?”
“Come on! You're just jealous! I've seen you eyeing this really big red button over here in the corner! It’s mine I tell you!”
“Stow it you two! Anyway, back to business.”
“Structural Integrity is holding and no fluctuations on any of the compartments. Pressurization is also holding at acceptable levels. The inertial dampener spells are on standby for acceleration.”
“Pulling away. Now at five meters from the port... Twenty meters from the port... Thirty meters from the port. We are now clear of any traffic. Adjusting the heading to West by Southwest. Current elevation is six thousand four hundred. Once we have reached a quarter of a mile out, the Yuna will ascend to ten thousand and continue on that level for cruising speed.
“Time until adjustments are made will be one minute and seventeen seconds. Nothing on the radar... Wait! I'm picking something up and its heading for us.”
“What is it, is it another ship? Did we just cross into an incoming ship's flight path?”
“No, it's too small to be a ship. Bringing up the image and putting it up now on the main screen.”
“I'm picking it up on my targeting systems, do you think you could zoom in on that?”
“Hold on, doing it now.”
Brex and others were standing behind the floating orb, while witnessing all of this going on. From the edge of his vision, he could see how Zecora was greatly confused at what she was hearing, but had her eyes soon trained on the image on the main screen.
Which had a good view of the entire port from where they were in the sky. At first, they couldn't really see what was coming their way, but after a few seconds the image zoomed in to an area of the picture. What they saw next, couldn’t have been none other than a Griffin who is flying at them as fast as they could.
That was when Brex could hear Rory in his mind with a slightly amused tone. “Oh? Well, this explains why I haven't seen her around.” Brex quickly snapped back with his own question. “Rory, do you have any idea why she's even here? Why the fuck is she not in Ponyville and with Rainbow?”
Rory replied to that in a tone that just said that she was probably smiling and looking at her fingernails as she spoke in a sing song voice. “Hmm, I really have no idea why she would even be there~. But I do recommend that you let her on board. I'm no expert on Griffin's myself, but the way she's flying kind of seems a little off.”
The Changeling that was in charge of the ship’s weapons array commented after taking a good look at the radar. “I'm really surprised with how fast that Griffin's catching up to us since we're already going at one hundred and thirty kilometers an hour.” From the image, one could tell that Gilda was not wearing her best armor and was pretty much wearing nothing but leather type clothing instead.
She even had her spear that could be broken down into two pieces, so that it could be reassembled later and securely fastened onto a holder on her belt. But what surprised Brex the most, was how her face was contorted between exhaustion and anger and felt as though she was peering straight at him through the image itself. After shaking his head a little bit and bringing his left hand to cover his face. Brex gave out a slow grunt of annoyance before he turned towards the Changeling at the computer systems and called out.
“Captain, if you wouldn't mind. Could you delay for a few minutes to allow me to have a few words with our new visitor?” The Changeling quickly turned around and had to stop herself from immediately going along with what he said and calling him her Lord. After giving it a second or two to make it appear as if she was mulling it over. The captain started giving out commands and side hatch was opened, along with the ramp being partially extended on the left side of the ship.
Once that was done. The image on the main viewer shrunk in size. It then displayed a number of others that could have been from cameras leading all the way from the bridge and to the ramp itself. After giving his thanks, Brex quickly made his way down the corridors which could be seen on the cameras for those on the bridge to witness what was going to happen.
*Point of view: Third Person*
A fair distance from behind the Yuna, was Gilda flying as best as she could. Although she was wheezing pretty badly. Her wings were completely disheveled and a good number of feathers were looking pretty loose and ready to fall out. All clearly signs of her overdoing it for an extended period of time. Normally, her form would be more straightened out to allow for better movement by lessening how much when she was dragging through the air. But her limbs were pretty much hanging instead.
Her steely gaze was replaced by her now looking pretty worn out with there being bags under her eyes, as one of them was already mostly closed. By now, she was coming up on about one hundred meters out from the Yuna. However, her strength was beginning to hit its limit as one of her wings began to go out of rhythm with the other one while flapping.
Back with the ship. The side hatch was opened thanks to a pair of hydraulic arms that were pushing it so that it came down. Brex soon appeared after stepping on to the section that was protruding from the door and was now hanging on to one of the hydraulic systems with his left arm and looking right at Gilda. The wind from that altitude was causing his robes to flutter about wildly and almost deafened his hearing.
Having caught sight of him. The female Griffin re-double her efforts and was now close to seventy meters now. However, that was when a heavy gust of wind came across and slammed into Gilda from the right side and thanks to her seemingly exhausted condition, was unable to adjust for it and started to tumble.
Witnessing the event, Brex held out his right arm and channeled some magic. But after a moment of nothing happening and the glow fading. He threw it to his side and could clearly be seen yelling towards the inside of the ship. This was before releasing his grip on the hydraulics and jumping clear from the hatch and going into a free fall.
This was followed with the hatch quickly closing afterwards and the odd sounds from the ship suddenly picking up in intensity. After, the bow was beginning to drop so that it was turning towards the sea below. While within the bridge, the lights switched from blue and turned yellow. For those inside, all were holding on tight as the ship lurched forward while making the dive. Over with the central forward seat, which was meant for the pilot.
The keyboards were moved aside and another device popped up so that the Changeling can grab onto it. Which resembled the bars meant for a bike, as she was pushing them forward. Over on one of the nearby screens, the words “Manual Override” could be seen flashing and depicting a small diagram of the steering system that was being utilized right then. After a few seconds, the Changeling began to tilt the steering mechanism and caused the ship to go into a slow turn. All the while, still heading straight down.
Going back to the scene outside. Gilda was appearing to be unresponsive as her limbs flailed about as she was going into a spiraling fall. While quickly approaching the surface of the sea which was close to four thousand feet. Brex was quickly closing in and angling is body so that his arms and legs would be straight and pinned at his sides. It wouldn't have taken him much time at all to catch up the rest of the way, but another crosswind slammed into him and knocked Brex off of his expected course.
In his mind. Brex screamed the following, while trying to write himself again and to bring himself into a position where he can make his way over to Gilda, who is still in her free fall. “Fuck! Why the fuck can't I summon any of my flying mounts? All I’m getting is this error message! Is it possible I can't use them while I’m out here?”
That was when he threw out his arm again and sent some magic into his palm, only to get nothing out of it and cursed to himself within his mind as the wind pelted his body. “She's still too far out of range for the rescue spell, I can't reach her! Fuck it, I'm going to have to use that spell instead!”
Brex began to internally chant one of the spells from the Shield Hero world. As he was doing this. The words just came to mind and he allowed it to go freely. “By my name, decipher the laws of nature! I call upon the unnamed spell! Break the everlasting bonds of Earth and set me free! By my authority I name thee, Lunar Dance!”
When the last of the internal chanting was completed. Brex felt that his body was being enveloped by a mix of light and dark green that glowed only for fraction of a second, before he was suddenly sent forward at a surprising speed that he was clearly not ready to occur.
Even over the rushing wind, his voice carried as he screamed in shock, as his arms began to flail in a pathetic attempt to try and gain control of his new momentum. However, he was going right for Gilda and was about to take the opportunity to grab on to her. But as soon as he had gotten close enough to grab onto even any part of the Griffin, another gust of wind blew them apart and sent Brex tumbling in the opposite direction with his arms flailing.
That was when he screamed out and pure frustration. This making Brex sound really close to a movie character by the name of, Ace Ventura. And at the same time, throwing his arms out as if trying to emphasize what he was screaming. “Oh, come on now! Can't I get a break!” By now, the two just passed two thousand eight hundred feet.
Brex quickly reoriented himself and was now beginning to have someone of a control on his new flying ability and heading right for Gilda for another pass. Yet again, his efforts were Thwarted by another gust of heavy wind that only knocked him off course a little bit instead of sending him into a out of control spiral.
After the second interruption on natures part. Brex screamed out again in frustration, while holding up a finger and looking towards the sky. “I swear, if you do that just one more time! That's it, the first chance I get, I'm putting in an application for some flying lessons!”
On the third attempt, he finally got a hold of Gilda left hand to pull her in and was holding her firmly in his arms. At the same time, trying to make sure that her wings weren't flapping all around, otherwise they might end up getting twisted with the way that their bodies were still being pelted by the heavy winds.
Still not having full control over flying by himself meant that holding on to her was making it nearly impossible to do anything. So, there was no way for the two of them to stop their descent. That was when he spotted the Yuna coming in fast off to his right-hand side and went into his inventory to grab onto a Link Pearl to contact his maids onboard. Over the rushing winds, Brex yelled into the Pearl as best he could to make sure that he could be heard. “Don't worry about the impact! Just get the unit under us before we hit the ocean!”
It wasn't after he put the Link Pearl away, that a sudden lightning bolt went through his mind and the word ocean came booming through all of his thoughts. Now that he had finally gotten a hold of Gilda. His full attention was no longer on the Griffin and the situation was becoming fully aware to the Roegadyn. He was quite literally going into a free fall right into the massive body of water. And this caused his pale skin from behind his mask to turn almost as white as Princess Celestia's fur as he blanched.
This caused whatever power was allowing him to fly, to send him into a quick spin for a few seconds before straightening out again with his face looking down and right at the upcoming water. But during that time, he couldn't help but to scream and cry in his head the following in the same Ace Ventura voice.
“I'm goanna die! I'm goanna die! Bluhg! Huhg! First, I'm goanna throw up! And THEN, I'm goanna die!” However, right as Brex and Gilda reached and passed the one-thousand-foot marker. The Yuna did a hard turn and was now coming directly across their path and the force could be seen in doing such a move, was now displacing some water below.
Now having is line of sight broken from the seawater for just that instant, allowed Brex to snap out of his panicked mind and switch over to his Scholar Soul Stone out of reflex. From there, he used a combination of the Quick Cast ability to bypass the channeling time and used a group wide healing spell on the both of them.
The spell not only was meant to heal those effected, but even had the added ability of creating a damage absorbing barrier around the both of them. Also, during that moment. Brex had the foresight to wrap himself around Gilda as best as he could and maneuvered himself so that his body would be the first to make contact with the ship before bracing himself for the rough stop.
As soon as all of this was done. Brex ended up colliding with the top of the ship. The impact was strong enough to cause him to bounce a few times, but luckily on each of those, Brex was the only one that ended up making contact with the deck. The shield could be seen taking effect as the four-pointed diamond symbol could be seen flashing. Although, on the second bounce. The shield exhausted its magic so that the pair would have to withstand the last tumble without any buffering.
As a result, Brex ended up losing his grip on Gilda and she rolled away a couple of feet and ended up on her back. As for Brex, he ended up slamming his head into the floor after rolling over once and coming to a stop. The two of them laid their motionless for a few seconds before movement was made on his part in the form of his right arm lifting and turning his body.
After shaking his head. Brex was now on his arms and knees and looking around for Gilda. After a few seconds, she was spotted only a short distance away. Once Brex got to his feet, he made his way over to her and crouched down in order to take her into his arms. In doing so, her back was pretty much leaning on his left arm. Gilda’s eyes were barely open as she took in steady breaths from what he could see and he used his right hand to lightly slap the side of her face in order to get some type of response.
After a few times of this being done. Gilda's eyes could be seen coming into focus as they started to open up a little more. Although, she seemed pretty out of it with how she was having trouble with keeping them open for very long, before needing to slowly blink. That was when Brex started to feel the cold air and moisture coming from the sea on his face. Along with a piece of the fabric for his hood slapping into his cheeks.
This all got pretty annoying quickly and he went to adjust his hood. But when his gloved hand felt the fabric and no sensation of hard wood for the Mask. His eyes went comically wide before frantically feeling around to make sure he wasn't mistaken. Only to discover that his mask had fallen off at some point during their tumble. So, while still holding on to Gilda, who was slowly beginning to see clearly by the looks of things.
Brex anxiously looked around from where he was and saw that his mask was a good four or five meters away and used his rescue ability to pull it to his hand. From there, it was hastily put on again right as he heard Gilda beginning to say something. Unfortunately, it was too low of a volume for him to hear, so he tried to look at his chat window log to see what she said. But it came out as nothing but gibberish, so he had no idea what she was trying to convey.
But after another second, he can feel her gripping on to his robes near his hood and saying the following in a week voice that was clearly going in and out to show her exhaustion. “You... are a bigger idiot than I... thought... if you think, I'm gonna... let you-.” Gilda clearly wanted the same more, but whatever it could have been, was interrupted with her blacking out and going limp in his arms.
Back with the crew inside of the Bridge. They we're quite startled a few moments ago when they saw how the two of them collided with the top of the ship and began to bounce a couple of times before separating. Apparently, there was a camera up top, which allowed them to see everything and it was being displayed on the main viewer. The Changeling that was operating the computer system clicked on a button and began to call out through what appeared to be an internal intercom to send up some medical personnel on deck.
Although, even while that was done. Everyone there had their eyes glued to the image of Brex. It wasn't out of fear that he might be hurt, seeing as he got up and was now helping the Griffin. But they noticed that during the tumble, his mask got knocked loose and slid away from him. Unfortunately, for all of them. It was thanks to the positioning of the camera and how Brex was facing away, that none of them were able to get a good glimpse of what his face was like with the way the wind was causing his hood to flutter around erratically out there.
One of the Changelings that was inside of the three special seats and was in charge of the ship systems. Which also included the internal cameras, was adjusting it frantically in an attempt to get a better look at Brex's face. As she was doing this, the Changeling would constantly recite something that was more of a prayer or perhaps a mantra of sorts.
This consisting of her saying, “Please turn this way. Please turn this way please. Please turn this way!” Unfortunately, it seemed that her prayers were not answered once they all saw him retrieving his mask and placing it back on. Then all of those present, aside from Zecora and the two maids let out a collective sigh of disappointment.
Zecora, who was watching all of this. Was now having a puzzled look on her face upon witnessing all of those there suddenly slouching and looking completely drained of all life the instant that happened. Once all is said and done and the camera feed showed crew members rushing out onto the deck. All of those up top came inside after going down a ramp. Once there, Brex and Gilda were immediately met up by Zecora and his teammates. Along with a few other crew members that were following in toe.
The two medical officers wanted to take the Griffin to the examination room, however even with Gilda currently out of it. One of her hands that was grabbing on to him earlier, was not letting up at all. But after some effort on his part, Brex managed to get her to release and was taken away. As soon as Gilda went down the steps and it was just him along with Rin and Lin.
It was the dark-haired one that spoke up first. “My Lord, we watched the video feed. Are you sure you are not injured?” To that, he shook his head before replying. “No need to worry. I'm quite all right. The barrier spell I used activated just in time.” Next came Rin who spoke up. “Our Lord lost his mask in the fall. We were quite fortunate that the camera was installed where we couldn't get a good view of your face. But what of the young Griffin, do you believe that she managed to get a glimpse?”
Brex really had to think about that for a moment, as he went through the events in his head. He very much doubted that she saw anything with how she was going in and out. So, he figured he was safe. He then answered Rin by reaching over and lightly patting her on the head before speaking. “I believe we have nothing to worry when it comes to Gilda seeing my face. Now the question that I really need to look at is whether or not we have to turn around.”
The Changeling who is getting padded on the head was smiling so wide that she was pretty much sparkling from glee. While Lin on the other hand, was slightly pouting and giving her sister an envious look from behind her sharpened eyes. Brex went on to continue with, “Knowing her, I doubt she's going to take it very well if I just drop her back off at Las Pegasus and be on my merry way. And judging from the way she was talking; I don't think she has any intention of leaving me alone to go on this adventure.”
The Roegadyn gave a heavy sigh before heading on to his room after that. But not before informing his Maids to make sure that Gilda is okay and to see him if there's any change. Once Brex got back to his room and sat on the bed. He quickly called out to Rory through the connection for a back and forth between the two.
“Rory, are you too busy to talk?”
“Not at all Master. I suppose this has to do with Gilda showing up out of the blue?”
“That's right Rory. You wouldn't happen to know why she's here, would you?”
“Nope. I really haven't seen her much at all, so this was quite a surprise to me. But there was another matter that I couldn't help but notice on my end that might have something to do with it.”
“Is something going on that I should know about?”
“No not at all. If it was something that needed your attention, then there would be no doubt I would call you up immediately. It's just that Rainbow has been acting a little odd.”
“Odd? What do you mean by odd?”
“Well, I'm not sure how to put this, Master. But I can't help but get the feeling that she's trying to get in on my good graces. Before, she would outright avoid me. Now it seems that I'm getting the opposite. There was a small incident and to my surprise the Pegasus took my side on it.”
“Oh… Wow. Okay, now that does seem odd. Knowing Rainbow, she's probably got some ulterior motives. You may want to keep an eye out for what it might be. For the element of loyalty, she can be pretty selfish.”
“Oh, Master. You have nothing to worry about. I know full well of how this Pegasus is through your memories and I already caught on that she was up to some type of ulterior motive. But I am quite interested to see where this might lead too.”
“Now Rory... You do remember our promise, right?”
“I know, I know Master. I won't do anything that you would disapprove of. But maybe we should get back to talking about Gilda. Are you really going to take her with you?”
“Hmm... If she went through all this trouble. Then I probably don't have much of a choice. She at least has until we arrive so that we can talk. If it comes down to it, I'll just come up with some excuse for the Yuna to come back over here and she can get dropped off then.”
*Point of view: Gilda* *Location: On board the Yuna. Inside the Infirmary* *Time: Eight-Thirty at night*
Just over twelve hours came and went since the incident and Gilda was just beginning to rouse herself awake with the way her head was beginning to tilt from one way to the other as she laid in bed. Her closed eyes could be seen shifting to indicate that she was beginning to have some rapid eye movement.
Within the Griffin's mind, the following was going on in quick succession. Small bits of past experiences, along with brief flashes of images would come one after another. Some clear as crystal, while others blurry and nearly out of focus.
One showed that she was mindlessly following along some orders being given by someone who was out of her sight. At the same time, surrounded by a number of other small kids. The next was the image of Brex in his yellow robes, with his bow drawn back and ready to fire an arrow at a floating creature that was already in the midst of firing some large pieces of ice in their direction.
As the scene transitioned further. It would show the Gilda's point of view of times that Brex would come by for a visit. Gradually, the angle in which she saw him would eventually rise until it was at the same height to be able to look at her own aunts in the face. During those, she would sometimes act out, but would get talked down gently and guided into doing something else by none other than him when his aunts we're having trouble with her attitude.
There was even a scene where Gilda was throwing her spear on the ground while outside of her home and between some buildings. This was back during a time when she was just starting to attend the combat schools and was clearly getting fed up with following the teacher’s instructions. Brex could be seen approaching from the end of the alley and picked up the spear. From there, it all changed to him giving her some pointers before shifting yet again. This time, it was the graduation day of her last year of training.
The ceremony consisted of there being a stage and students getting their names called so that they could receive their first Adventures plate after getting the schools info added on. Off in the distance, among all of those that were sitting in the stands to witness the event. Were her two aunts, along with Einstein. But what caught her eye the most was Brex sitting at the end of the line and giving her a thumbs up after pulling his right arm free from a cross armed position to do so.
Soon, Gilda saw the next set going by and Rapid succession. This consisted of her time in Ponyville. Starting with running into Rainbow and then Brex himself. There was the training and getting pretty much forced into reconciling with her childhood crush from Flight School after getting handled so easily and getting picked up off of her feet.
Then there was a small talk with Rainbow in her cloud home. Although, it was broken up quite badly, a few words came clear. Which consisted of Gilda talking to the Pegasus and hearing the name of Gambit and Rory being used multiple times. After a bit more, it showed the pair hugging each other before Gilda left the cloud home in a rush.
The next set of images showed both day and night. With Guild of flying as much as she could and only taking short rests so that she could grab a bite and perhaps a quick cat nap. Next up was her inside of a city made of clouds and asking about for any information leading to a description she was giving of Gambit. Eventually, she got a lead and was told that he got on to a weird ship that had no balloon up on top at the docks just the night before.
Gilda soon found herself flying throughout the shipyard and spotted what she was looking for. But it was already in the middle of leaving and quite far from the port, so she ended up giving chase even while in her already exhausted condition. The next set of images came in with short bursts of blackness in between. It was because of this, that only allowed them to show a second or two of things going on each time.
Brex was hanging from a door. She was then tumbling in the air and seeing him off in the distance and falling as well, with her far below. He was then seen holding his arm out and ready to take a hold of her. The next thing she knew, she was being held tightly and her vision was completely blocked. But still the sound of the rushing wind could be heard in the background to show she was being held onto.
The last image she saw that seemed the longest out of that set. Was her sitting on a flat surface and his arm was draped around her back to help in propping her up. Her vision was extremely blurry as she was barely able to make out his form and the beak in front of her own face. Although, she was sure she was no longer seeing the brown mask this time around and wondered in the back of her mind if he switched back to his old white one.
But not even a second later did she witness him placing his brown mask back on and wondered if it was just her imagination, or was she looking at his real face. But thanks to her delirious state at the time, she decided to push past that at the moment. Her hand could be seen gripping on to him, although the words that came from her mouth seemed almost muffled to her own ears.
(Stop the music here.)
Once that final image went through her mind's eye. Gilda suddenly woke up with a startle. With her vision just barely coming back into focus. She now had this drowsy expression as she lazily turned her head to take in her surroundings and found that she was alone in a small room. She slowly pulled off the white sheet that was covering her and placed her paws onto the floor after swinging her legs off the edge of the bed.
Before she could move any further. There was this slight tugging and a stinging sensation coming from her left arm and when she went to investigate upon turning her head. It was discovered to be a needle with a line that was leading to what seemed to be a medical bag that was feeding a clear liquid to her body.
After sluggishly tilting her head in its direction and giving it a mile long stair. Gilda reached up and carefully pulled it free from herself and allowed the needle to clatter onto the floor. She hadn't even noticed it until then, but all of her armor had been removed. This meant that she was left with wearing her usual purple shirt and short jeans right now. Even the metal parts for style were removed and placed onto a nearby table.
Thankfully enough, it appeared that the needle itself had an enchantment on it that would release a small healing spell once it was removed and this sealed the opening quickly before any blood can escape. From Gilda's perspective, most of the objects in the room that were more than a couple of feet away were a little hazy and only getting worse the further they were. Now if that wasn’t enough, there was also her feeling of balance going a little weird on her and it took her a few seconds to try and walk more than a few steps before needing to grab onto something.
After getting out of the Infirmary. She was trying to get her bearings and soon found a plaque on the wall with directions that point out which way went to what part of the ship. Although with it still being a little blurry. Gilda walked up to it almost in a zombie like State as she was having trouble with keeping her balance. Until she was pretty much standing with it only being a foot or so from her face as her unfocused eyes fixated on it for a couple of seconds.
After which, she turned to the right and began to go down the hallway. Once she started to move, it revealed the plaque to state that where Gilda was heading for, to be the sleeping quarters. When she came across the first room, the name plate came to be the first thing she saw and moved on to the next and then the next. She only stopped once finding the one that stated the letters that would spell out, Gambit. From there, she went inside and closed it before she slumped against the door, while letting out an exhausted sigh of relief.
The inside was barely bigger than her own hotel room. There were no windows, but she just barely made out a large enough bed quite a ways away from the door. The room was dimly lit with some faint neon blue lights that ran across the upper walls and near the ceiling to show that they were integrated into the wall itself and making an unbroken line that was going around.
In a way, it was vaguely similar to blackout lights that one would see in a nightclub and only gave enough illumination to move around. And it was because of this that, she did spy that there was a large figure laying on the bed.
Gilda's body was pretty much ready to just crumple to the ground with how shaky her knees were with trying to keep her up. Even with the door helping with her current situation, this was not easy for the female Griffon. As those eyes of hers were slowly beginning to close, she took a quick whiff of the air and this caused them to shoot open as wide as they could for just a brief instant, before returning to what they were when she had a little more energy to go down the hallway just earlier.
There was that undeniable smell that she knew so well from all those times she would come to his room back at the hotel and the door would be open to release that, musk. Especially when it was after a night of those two having some fun and keeping Gilda awake whenever she decided to stay at the hotel, instead of being at Rainbows place. That was when a memory of their last training session came in to play in her head, where he explained how she needed to use her other senses besides her sight to help her in the training exercise.
So, for once. Gilda just fell into what was said and allowed her eyes to go unfocused as she took in another deep whiff of the air of the room. Because she was focusing solely on the scent, it came flooding like a tsunami and hit her pretty hard. It was as though the room itself was bombarded with nothing but his own smell and this sent a strong jolt throughout her entire body.
As a result of this action. The following began to occur to her body, as she was slowly inching her way towards the bed that was situated on the other side of the room. Her paws slightly extended their claws for but a moment before retracting. The long slender tail with that puff on the end was now twitching along the ground so much that it was practically sweeping the floor.
Both arms were weakly reaching forward slightly, as though they were ready to grab onto the first thing that came into reach. Her heart rate began to spike as her breathing quickened. Which was obvious with her chest heaving and showing off the cleavage hiding under the purple shirt.
Those golden-brown wings of hers flexed a few times before they were now fully extended. Even to the point that one might say that they were painfully so. As for her face. Just under her eyes, was a forming blush that started off quite light. But was now intensifying and spreading across her cheeks. The eyes themselves were nearly closed completely and shined some of the light.
Gilda's breathing was coming out so heavy and hot, that one could almost see it coming out along with a very sensual moan that she just could not be bothered to contain with the way her mouth was almost slack open. There was also this thick line of drool that was now coming out of the edge of her mouth that she quickly trying to lick back up and swallowed in response. Altogether, her facial expression was showing to be completely drunk on something and she couldn't care less with the way she had this small ecstatic grin that was now beginning to form.
This was followed with her feebly attempting to take off her top. But thanks to how her wings were now fully erected, this made the disrobing process of that article nearly impossible. As the few seconds went by, Gilda's face contorted to that of desperation before taking her sharp fingertips to slice away at her own shirt, until it was nothing but tattered shreds lying on the floor and letting out a few huffs to show the frustration.
Ironically enough, the sensation of destroying her own clothing and this situation was causing her fur and feathers to bristle to show that she was getting very aroused, while still keeping her unfocused gaze squarely on the bed. Underneath, Gilda wore a white bra and using her experience with the shirt, she took her index finger and sliced away at the centerpiece between her breasts and allowed that article of clothing to just slip completely off of her body.
After her top was fully exposed, Gilda continued to unbuckle her belt and pull down her pants before kicking them off to the left side of the room. Of course, as she was doing this, her underpants were taken off as well. However, while those parts of her clothing were being slowly pulled off.
The dim lights of the room clearly showed a trail of juices that were just barely connecting the fabric to her crotch to be glistening before the strands finally broke to show that Gilda was so wet that it was probably soaking into her pants by then. So, now she was completely naked aside from the collar around her neck that she usually wore for the style.
Her right hands index finger went up and was about to undo that as well, but after a few seconds of touching and pulling on the leather. Gilda went ahead and left it on and began to walk slowly towards the foot of the bed. It was thanks to the odd lighting in the room that barely was able to illuminate her figure.
Oddly enough, the light did reflect perfectly off of the metal pieces of piercing that could be seen on her body as she sauntered over in a very alluring fashion that just screamed that she was looking for a certain activity to do this very night. This was made painfully obvious as her hips swayed, along with her tail making those graceful cat-like movements.
Gilda typically carried herself as a strong independent woman that really didn’t care about how others saw her aside from being tough. But it seemed as though she was putting that aside and showing off her sensual appeal for once and it was quite a show that could possibly rival that of an exotic dancer from a club that would be approaching a new customer.
There are two silver studded piercings for her right eyebrow and one for her navel that everyone pretty much knew about. However, there were some additional ones that were kept for more private matters. These consisting of ring piercings on both of her d-sized breast nipples. In addition to those.
Gilda also showed that there was another on her clit in the shape of a dumbbell and going horizontal and forcing the hood to be lifted. Now if that wasn't enough to reflect the dim lighting of the room. Then there was also the small amount of juices already leaking down halfway along her left thigh and already dripping onto the floor to make a small trail behind herself.
By the time she was standing at the edge of the bed. Gilda was pretty much shivering from an extreme level of arousal as she was able to now see that it was Gambit. Not only that, he was also seeming to be sound asleep. That was when she began to have other thoughts in her head that managed to penetrate the heavy fog of lust that she was now trapped within.
These primarily focused on images of Gambit, along with Rory being there. Not only that. They were of moments that Gilda herself who was a witness to whenever the girl would call him Master. Soon, the images of Rory morphed to take on the form of Gilda herself and she was the one now calling him Master instead. Over the course of the next several seconds, over a dozen scenes played out and every single time that Gilda saw herself calling him by that title, only sent more shivers of excitement through her core.
This of course only came to an abrupt end, when her mind went blank and she almost passed out upon having an orgasm while still on her own two feet and in the middle of his room. The result was her wings going painfully straight and her arms going down to her sides as her fingers went rigid. Gilda's back was almost arching so far, that it threatened to cause the Griffin to fall over. While at the same time, her beak was going as wide as possible and eyes becoming glazed over.
There were also a few rivers of tears leaking from the edges of her eyes that threatened to ruin her black eyeliner. As for down below, she inadvertently came so hard, that her juices literally ended up gushing out from her winking folds and coated the side of the bed frame with no less than three squirts. However, it didn't stop there as she was still convulsing on the spot to show she was going through with a prolonged orgasm that was still in effect even after several seconds went by.
For as soon as her mind even started to come back from the mind-numbing white void that it was making. All was replaced with another electric current and this brought the next thought of the two of them in a scene, where he would still be wearing his garments. But she would be in the same state that she was right now in his room. The only difference would be that they would both be on the bed and she was forced onto own her hands and knees.
Gilda would be trying to keep herself upright with her left hand, while the other was grasping at her collar that just so happened to be getting pulled rather harshly by a leash that was clipped onto a D-ring that was now on the accessory. To add to that, the collar would have a tiny pad-lock to prevent it from being removed right next to the leash was affixed.
From there, it would lead to one of the hands of Gambit and wrapped around a few times to cause the line to be fairly short. Which would happen to be right behind her and most likely from the image, to be plowing her hard from behind. As this was all going on, Gilda's face would end up with this blissful expression as her tongue would be lulling out of the side of her open beak and drooling onto the bed.
Back in the outside world. Gilda was still locked up in her current position and had another jolt run through her body, which elicited another silent scream as she gritted her beak as tightly as possible to contain any kind of noise from being made and alert Gambit to her presence. At the same time, both eyes were now shut tight as if it could assist in her ordeal.
Although, she had absolutely no control over the splattering sounds that her pussy was making after sending another stream of juices to splash along the side of the bed frame yet again. It seemed that the constant strain on her body from being in this position was even beginning to make some odd sounds as her muscles were doing their very best to keep up with her sexually induced brains impulses. These also included some small pops of the joints from not only her back, but also the arms and wings.
Still, her sight pretty much came back as she lurched forward and grabbed on to the bed frame in order to prevent herself from falling to the ground. Even then her knees were pretty much grinding against one another in a pathetic attempt to keep herself from giving out and just dropping straight to the floor and onto the wet mess that was forming underneath.
Even in her plainly exhausted state, after having multiple self-induced orgasms from merely her imagination. Gilda's head was hanging limply for a few seconds before she raised it up and had this extremely hungry expression that just said that she was not about to give up right then and there.
Already, her face was dripping with sweat and some the feathers were sticking to the sides of her face, before she reached up to move them aside. But as soon as she had reached forward and placed her left hand onto the bed in order to grip. There was yet another image flashing into her mind to distract the Griffin.
During that exact moment, her attention was broken from what she was trying to do and she inadvertently moved forward just enough to brush one of her pierced nipples along the edge of the bed. As a result, this added to the image that was being rapidly constructed. This time, it was of Gilda in the same position as the previous one, however there was a key difference on this go around.
In here, Rainbow was a part of it, with the Pegasus being underneath Gilda and roughly playing with the Griffins nipple rings. While also giving her a deep passionate kiss with their tongues intertwined. To top it all off, it seemed as though there was a long dildo that was inside of her pussy and the other end was going into rainbows after it bent in order to do a U-shape.
This clearly meant that either she was being done in the ass this time around, or he was doing so from the beginning. This time however, Gilda had no way of holding in the sounds that were in her throat. So, she ended up leaning forward enough so that she was pressing into the sheets and biting down onto the fabric of the blanket in order to make it into an improvised gag.
She even went was far as to press her face firmly into the mattress so much, that she was effectively smothering herself just to muffle herself even further. Luckily, her efforts were able to bear fruit as the sound was nowhere near loud enough to wake up Gambit, who was still laying there on his back and unmoving. Much to the Griffins relief.
By now, Gilda was nothing but a quivering mess and only thing that was going through her mind, was this strong urge to want to get on top of Gambit and rip off that mask of his in order to give the sloppiest kiss she could muster and finally find out just what he was hiding in his pants. And with that, Gilda shakily started to climb onto the bed, but was mindful of not causing anything to stimulate her any further. So, just as her body was situated in a position that she was now crawling up with her hands and knees on either side of his right leg.
Gilda was reminded of just how large he was in comparison to her own body and shivered at the very thought of trying to guess as to how big he must be down there. After that went through her head, the idea of taking off his mask was thrown away and her eyes fully focused on his crotch instead. Well, as much focus as one could get when they could easily be confused for a person that was pretty much drinking themselves to death with how drunk she was acting.
But just before she got to where, she could practically touch the area of his clothing with her face. Gilda tried as hard as she could to lift her chest so that she would not brush her nipples onto his leg. Although by doing this, Gilda inadvertently lowered her hips and started to grind her pierced and now swollen clit that was pretty much pulsing with need onto his pants leg after shifting her hips.
At that very instant. She could feel every piece of the fabric’s material sending another jolt of lightning throughout her entire body as the fibers ran over the exposed clit stitch by stitch. This turned out to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, as she arched herself even more out of reflex and was now grinding her entire pussy onto his knee. Which only made it a hundred times worse for the Griffin as she screamed “FUCK” in her mind.
It was because of that; Gilda was left with a shocked, and overwhelmed expression that show that she was in a silent scream, before she completely blacked out while still holding herself up and allowing her muscles to flex to their limit. Even her eyes could be seen rolling back before her face showed both satisfaction and disappointed at the lack of control to see it through.
The end result was her pretty much plopping down onto Gambit, although gently, as her body was still reacting to the intense orgasm. With all of her limbs, including her wings completely outstretched and draped over the bed. Her face was now firmly pressed into his crotch after going forward a bit and letting out a small moan.
Luckily, she didn't go face first and cause any type of injury with the tip of her beak, so she was now laying sideways on the noticeable bulge of his package. Although, her nose was taking in quick breaths of air as a reflex to recover. Which only caused his scent to be continuously taken by the Griffin.
It was unclear as to whether or not it was from the multiple orgasms, or being subjected to a constant stream of his musk through the clothing. But Gilda's hips just couldn’t stop with the subtle grinding of her sopping wet pussy onto his now well-placed knee. Which only led to her spraying out a small amount of her juices every now and then as she was still out cold for quite some time after.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Brex was currently looking straight up at the ceiling with wide eyes from behind his mask, as he felt Gilda laying on him for what could have been close to an hour since she came in. Which happened to be the time he woke up. But remained quiet to see what would happen after this weird situation started up.
From where he laid, he was easily woken up by the opening of his bedroom door thanks to his senses and clearly heard the distinct sound of water hitting either the floor of his room and also his bed at least three times. If it wasn't for the fact that his mask wasn't obstructing his vision at all, then he would not have been able to see the show she was giving off, as she was now slowly approaching his bed after closing the door after coming in.
However, it wasn't until she started to climb onto the bed, that is cock from underneath his clothing was beginning to twitch and come to life. From deep within his mind, Brex was pretty much screaming the following at his growing member in utter disbelief. “Hey-hey-hey! Don't you dare!”
“This is Gilda we’re looking at! She's with Rainbow Dash and obviously there's something wrong! So, don't you dare take advantage of the situation and just calm the fuck down already! No! Really! I will pull a, “You don't mess with the Zohan” shit, and look for a Parana to stuff down my pants later if you even so much as come out and show yourself to her! Do you hear me?!”
He then turned his thoughts towards Gilda, as he continued in a panicked inner tone. “And you missy! You're clearly delirious, so why don't you just go back to bed and-. No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no! That's not what I meant! I didn't say you can climb into this bed! Come on! This is not funny anymore! Please start thinking of Rainbow! Please start thinking of Rainbow! Please start thinking of Rainbow! Okay, there is something clearly wrong with you and-. Whoa! What did you-.”
Brex couldn't help but to have his eyes to go as wide as dinner plates, as he continued in his head. “Great... Now you got your face on that! Well, isn't this just dandy! She's all passed out and she's literally nuzzling my dick! And wait, what's that? Oh, did she just?... I don't really want to believe that she's... But she is… She's... Literally jizzing all over my leg.”
“What do I do now? If I make any type of move, even to get her off of me. I bet it's going to turn into one of those scenes where I get labeled as a sexual deviant! I guess if I just wait long enough then she might wake up and leave out of embarrassment. Yeah, that s it, if I just stay perfectly still then I can play the, I don’t know anything card, and this could just turn into a memory to laugh about.”
That was what he thought back then. But now that an hour had gone by and he was quite aware of the multiple orgasms during the time that she was still asleep. It started to cause a good portion of his clothing down there to be soaked through both what he was wearing, but also the bed sheets underneath.
He even started to think in a desperate tone. “Where are Rin and Lin? I could really use their help right about now... Wait, hold on! NO! That would be even worse, who knows what those two will do to her! She might be seen as someone trying to rape me in my sleep and it will go downhill way too fast! Rin would go with the slicing and dicing and Lin… I don’t wanna even think of what Lin would do to Gilda!”
As his thoughts then trailed off to his memories of trying to get The Griffin and blue Pegasus back together. His face blanched even more as he continued with his thoughts. “Oh fuck! If Rainbow finds out about this, there's no telling what I'll be in for. Come on! What exactly am I meant to do here?!”
His would have gone further, but the sound of the door beginning to open pulled his full attention as he internally began to scream like a little girl. “Wait! You're coming in now? Really? Come on! Damn you, Murphy! I'm so going to kick you in the balls so hard, you're going to end up singing alongside a bunch of choir boys in some church if this spirals out of control!”
By then, the door was fully open. Who came in turned out to be his two maids that only stopped after a few paces within the room. From there, they only stared blankly at what was happening on the bed. This didn't bode well for Brex, as he quickly had a few flashes of some very detailed gruesome images.
Most of which, involved the Gilda being torn to shreds, along with the room possibly being splattered with her blood, organs and a skeleton as a form of modern art. However, before Brex could even try to explain the situation outright. The two began to disrobe so that they were in their undergarments within seconds and climbed into bed. After a few seconds and some effort, they were their usual place and snuggling up right against his sides without so much as batting an eye at the situation on the small bed.
From behind is mask, Brex was utterly confused as to what was happening and attempting to make sense of it all. He then started to think to himself, while Rin and Lin were getting themselves more comfortable and closing their eyes.
“By the name of the Twelve… Can someone please tell me what… The… FUCK, is happening here?! Why aren't they going ballistic? They're acting as if this is completely normal! Is this some kind of twisted girl game they're playing here and I'm just the victim of a bad joke?! And you down there! Can you please stop having one orgasm after another on my leg! You're a Griffin, not a female dog that’s in heat! What happened to that pride you’re so proud of?”
There was a long pause before he continued in a tired tone, after his mind got all of that out, he said. “There is no possible way I'm going to be able to sleep tonight… is there?” This thought was only made more apparent, when Gilda brushed her face up and into his pants and right up against the package underneath, that was threatening to rip itself out with how tense it was becoming.
So, before his long night of just staring up at the ceiling commenced. Brex had one more thought that ran across his mind. “I hope Gilda doesn't try to slap the shit out of me when she wakes up... Knowing this worlds cartoon logic, I’ll be sent through the side of the ship. She might even one hit kill me like how some of those bosses can in an eight-man raid.”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: On the Yuna. Inside of the cabin of Brex* *Time: Six-Fifteen in the morning*
Brex was still looking up at the ceiling with a very unamused look on his face after staying up pretty much all night. After so long, this was probably the one time that he actually looked dead tired after being awake all night long as he was under a pile of three girls. Girls that he did absolutely nothing with at all he might add.
At least the only respite he had, was after Gilda started to move around in her sleep and crawled up so that she was now laying over his chest and her face was just below is mask. At one point or another, she finally seemed to calm down after whatever was going through with her body and was lightly purring.
Which confused Brex as to whether or not this was a normal thing she did. Especially with how it made her look so adorable and Brex was thankful that his arms were otherwise preoccupied by the other two. So, he didn’t have to worry about absentmindedly reaching up to pet Gilda as though she were some cat when his mind slipped.
There was even the way the room smelled as though he had already gone through a marathon with his two maids thanks to all the juices she was causing to soak into the bed. He was even sure that it was going to take quite a bit of cleaning to get it all out, even with magic. Now, as for the others in bed. They seem pretty content with how the setup was, so Brex was pretty much in what could have been seen as a blanket of girls to anyone that walked in.
It was now, that the Griffin pick to start to stir and he contributed it to her internal clock. This was because of all the times that Gilda would stay in at the hotel. He never once heard an alarm going off in her room before she started heading over to their door to bang on it if they weren't all ready to go for their morning training. Although, what Gilda did and said next, clearly surprised Brex even further. As it even caused his mouth to drop from behind his mask in silent shock.
While still having her eyes closed. Gilda was now affectionately rubbing her face against his chest and giving out a set of adorable little sighs of content, that didn't really go with her cocky attitude at all. She even went on to start to mumble something to herself, while her hands that were at her sides, were beginning to feel along his body and running up along the clothing and towards his chest.
After letting out another sigh of relief. The female Griffin started to gyrate her hips in order to hump him, as she started to talk in a very sleepy voice, that was just barely above a whisper. “Good… The pillow didn't move from last night... Mmmm~. Hooooooh~. Just a little longer... Then, then I'll go get-.”
Gilda's sentence was caught in her throat, as she released another sound. This time however, it came out as a guttural moan to signify that she was close to getting off, as her hips started to grind a little rougher onto his pelvis area. In his head. Brex was mentally picturing himself in the middle of running his hand down his face and showing an exasperated expression to what Gilda was in the middle of doing.
And without even opening her eyes in the slightest. She pushed herself up using her arms in order to get into a position to ride out the rest of the wave so that she can finally arrive to her seemingly, much needed morning orgasm. Unfortunately for the Griffin, the two Changelings in disguise that just so happen to be laying right on either side of Brex, did not take too well to this and immediately took action.
As their horns both started to Glow with a faint moss green glow. The Griffins body was surrounded from head to foot, along with her wings and tail and was quickly lifted a few inches into the air. At the same time, still keeping her in the same position. Gilda was startled by this with how her eyes were now bugging out as if someone just threw a splash of cold water onto her face and was about to scream out what could have been nothing but obscenities. But to her dismay, her mouth was clamped shut by a more intense green glow from Lin.
Afterwards, her eye snapped in the direction of the bed and there was this intense blush on her face that just exploded upon realizing that Brex was directly underneath her this whole time. Although, her attention was quickly broken free from him, when the two Changelings got up so that they were standing on the sides of the bed and keeping her between the both of them. Of course, they were still in their lingerie but paid it no mind. From his perspective, Brex could see Rin on the right, while Lin was on the left side.
Rin, who is wearing the silver lingerie to match her mane. Was giving Gilda an unamused look, while lightly wagging her finger to indicate that what the girl did, was a clear no-no. Only an instant later, did that hand go in after first reaching down and sharply slap Gilda’s exposed lower lips.
Thanks to the way her legs were still spread from when she was mounting Brex, only moments before, only made this so easy for the Changeling and the juices that were already present, was now coating the maid’s hand. This out of nowhere punishment got a loud heaving sound to be made from Gilda, as she took in a sharp breath through her nostrils and puffed out her chest. By doing so. Brex couldn’t help but to see the piercings that hung from her nipples and they swayed with that sudden body shift.
This cause Gilda to try and thrash around as best she could in order to break free, but the green light that was around her body, began to condense itself until it turned into matching sets of green bands of solid magic. These were situated in key areas along her body to restrict her movement as best as possible, without having to disperse it along every single inch.
Starting with her tail, there were two binds one in the middle and one near the end to keep it from swishing around. The wings were pulled in so that they were folded and a band went around those to keep them from going out. Surprisingly enough, the two were quite efficient and this was completed within a matter of seconds and Gilda didn’t have a chance to fight back.
Her legs were pulled in so that the back of her ankles was now pressing up against her thighs before two bands were wrapped around those limbs. This meant that if she was to be put down, then she would have no choice but to sit on her own legs in a kneeling pose. As for her arms, those were roughly pulled around so that they were now behind her back and also used in assisting to pin down her own wings even further.
Both hands were even made to reach as far as the opposite elbows before a band went across her upper arms and another over the forearms to put them in a box shape. Not to mention, an aura was coating her hands to prevent them from being used in any way and forced to be balled into fists. Brex lifted an eyebrow at this and wondered if this was a part of Rory’s training that he knew nothing about and told himself to ask the girl at some later date.
This second part was all pretty much done in a matter of two or three seconds at most and Gilda was grunting the whole way, as she was not expecting this type of treatment from Ponies. The Griffin was about to try and make some sounds to protest further, but Lin reached up from behind and grabbed on to the back of Gilda's head and roughly pulled.
Which elicited a pain squeal from the silenced girl. Lin then forced Gilda's head to turn in her direction slightly. While still mostly facing the ceiling before giving the Griffin a cold stair as she spoke in a slow and deliberate tone that was so cold, that it even sent shivers along Brex's skin.
“So very disrespectful. To even be allowed into his bed it's a great honor that not many have been privileged to partake. Yet you show the audacity to pleasure yourself last night and not offer any to our Lord! More so to do the same upon awakening… Is nothing more than spitting at his generosity.”
Rin jumped in and with a bubbly tone, she started to talk. While at the same time, her hand was reaching down and harshly flicked Gilda’s pierced and still swollen clit with her index finger. This got a pained scream from Gilda from behind her closed beak.
“That's for sure sis! Rin can't believe she would even sneak into his room and then just do all of that without so much as even giving any pleasure to our Lord! No doubt she must be brand new if she hasn't been trained well enough to service him properly. If not, then how is she going to be able to say that she's a good enough girl for our Lord?”
This was followed with another hard flick of her finger and Gilda released another loud muffled, shriek. However, her body was now shuttering a little in response. Now, as for Brex. Who was still laying in the bed and looking up at what was going on. He was now getting a little turned on by the two-on-one girl domination thing.
Thanking for the young girl that was being abused. Brex snapped out of it and finally had enough, that he sat up and spoke out in a loud and authoritative tone, that caused not only the pair of maids to freeze up. But also made Gilda's eyes to widen and lock onto his mask. “That is enough out of the both of you! We will be having some words later. As for now, release Gilda immediately!”
And just like that, all of the magic being used, just up and disappeared in the blink of an eye and the female Griffin was dropped right down onto gambits lap with a small whelp of surprise. As soon as that was done. Brex wrapped both of his arms around her in a protective manner and pulled her into his body. While also still looking at his maids and continuing with his voice turning stern. “It is one thing to restrain her, but there was no call for causing her pain in such a way.”
Both Rin and Lin were taken aback by this and mirrored each other by taking a step back, before trying to come up with a reply. As for Gilda, he wasn't quite sure what was going on by the way her expression was showing from where he could see. When he used that tone of voice and reprimanded the two, while acting as a shield with his arms. Brex even felt a small shiver from Gilda as she was against his body.
It took a few seconds before Rin spoke up, as she was clearly beginning to sweat and looking a little panicked. “But-but my Lord. It's just that we saw on the security cameras-.” Rin pause in mid-sentence, when Brex sharply turned his mask towards her. But it seems that Lin was ready and stepped forward, while in her usual, calm demeanor and continued with what her sister was saying.
“My Lord, our deepest apologies. The Yuna has security cameras installed throughout the entire ship and your room is strictly monitored by the both of us. None of the crew have access to the one in this room, so we witnessed everything from start to finish. Every disgraceful and selfish act of this Griffin was documented.”
On the outside, nothing was different at all. But on the inside of his mind, Brex was panicking as he thought the following. “What the fuck! There's a security camera in here?! No one told me that! Oh… Uh… I think I may have put forth that idea myself... Shit! I completely forgot about it.” Brex was just about to ask about the cameras himself, but it seemed that Gilda was the first one to act, as she tried to turn her body. All the while, still in his arms. She was now glaring at the two maids and made her voice raised to near that of a yell.
“I have no idea what's going on, or just why it is I’m in Gambit's room… Naked!” Her head quickly turned towards his and she tried to pull away just enough so that she can get a couple of inches further, before turning her fury to him. “And you! WHAT IN THE TARTARUS DID YOU DO TO ME LAST NIGHT?!”
This was when Rin upon witnessing the aggressive outburst being sent at him and recovered before she pointed an accusatory finger towards Gilda, as she started walking to one of the walls and speaking up while doing so. “Don't think you can get one past us by lying. We got proof of you attempting to sexually assault our Lord in his sleep!”
Gilda's eyes snapped wide when she heard that, as she was now looking back and forth between Rin and Brex's mask. Also, it was pretty comical with how her eyes were now shrunken into pin prix and her beak was opening and closing. She was even making some odd sounds to show that she was trying to say something, anything at all.
But all the words were getting jumbled around. Over with Rin, when she arrived at the wall. The Changeling in disguise placed her hand onto a small panel that seamlessly melded with the rest of the surface and revealed a keyboard of sorts after pushing and sliding to the right. After typing away a few buttons. A section of the wall that was the size of a fifty-inch screen lit up.
Over the course of a few minutes. It showed images of the infirmary and how Gilda got up and was switching over periodically, whenever she went from one section of the ship to the next in order to keep track of her movements. Eventually, she ended up entering his room and the camera feed switched over to a night vision type of lighting. During all of this, while everyone was watching. Gilda couldn't pull her eyes off of the images, as her body became stiffer in his arms as time progressed.
Gilda, upon instantly seeing that she was disrobing on the screen, tried to desperately say something to get it to stop. But a piercing death glare from Lin, immediately stopped Gilda in her tracks and she was forced to watch the rest of the scene play out. Over with Brex, he could plainly see steam beginning to come off of Gilda's head, as she was beginning to blush so hard, that he wondered if it was possible that she knew a fire spell and she was about to self-destruct just like one of those floating Fire Bomb monsters.
When it got to the part that she finally collapsed and was still shaking her hips and causing the bed to become more stained with her juices. The Griffin's head slowly turned in a way, that it kept doing these small jerking motions to signify she was trying to stop herself from doing so. When that was done, Brex noticed how she was looking at the large damp spot near where his right leg should have been and blanched at how much was still visibly wet from what the video showed.
The female Griffin was clearly about to lose it, but oddly enough, Gilda somehow got a second wind and tried to take control of the situation by looking at his mask and pointing a talon towards one of the maids. She then started to ask in a mixture of panic and frustration, while at the same time, trying to hold back her reddening face and eyes that were close to crying out of embarrassment.
“F-Forget that, h-how do you explain these two huh? Why do you have these half naked maids in your bed?! Does Rory know about this?! I can’t believe you have this sick fetish and cheating on her! How could you! I thought you were different! All you care about is getting yourself inside any girl you can get your hands on!”
Lin went around to the side of the bed and was accompanied by her sister, that closed off the image and were now standing side-by-side. Lin was the first to speak, as she raised an eyebrow towards Gilda's reaction. “But of course, the Mistress knows of the both of us. After all, it was thanks to her that we were able to service our Lord in such a way.”
Rin was the next to speak up, as she was in her carefree zone and giving Gilda a smile. “Yep, that's right! If it wasn't for Mistress Rory convincing our Lord, then we wouldn't be in such a relationship. Also, you’re lucky. If you were anyone else. We would already be looking for a place to dump your body for accusing him of being a deviant.” To make her point, Rin pulled out of nowhere, a black plastic bag, before putting it away after a few seconds of showing it off to all present.
Brex couldn’t help but to silently blink after seeing that and moved on without going anywhere near that to ask a question. From his perspective, he could tell that Gilda was having a hard time with trying to process this, with the way she was pointing her finger towards him and the two maids, while trying to stutter out a sentence. “B-But wait. S-Since w-when? I-I didn't know that Gambit was in a-a herd?” Lin was the next to speak up, as she was giving Gilda an unamused look.
“I believe that there is a problem with that statement. My sister and I are not officially a part of his herd as you say. But we are merely his attendees. We both have pledged ourselves to be of service to him and Rory and we are quite happy with that. The Mistress is the only one who has the right to be called his heard mate. However, we should go back on topic as to your actions last night. Not only did you sneak into our Lord's room and brought yourself to multiple… Lust filled orgasms. But not once did you ever offer him any pleasure. Completely inexcusable.”
By then, Brex could feel Gilda shifting in his arms, as if trying to get closer when the atmosphere around the two maids shifted to clear hostility. Gilda completely lost any semblance of trying to take control of the situation and was now cowering from the two and burying herself into his robes. However, they went right back to normal after Brex lifted his left hand in order to motion for them to stop. He then said in a firm tone, that was not out of anger, but meant to make a clear point.
“That's more than enough out of the both of you. I understand your feelings on the subject. Judging from the video, it's plain to see that Gilda was not in the right frame of mind. She was staggering as she walked and in no way would she do such a thing to me under any normal circumstances. After all, she already has someone back in Ponyville. Isn't that right Gilda?” By this point, Brex was now looking down to get a good look at Gilda as he said that last part for some confirmation.
Fully expecting her aggressive nature to flare up and defend herself from being seen as something she is not. Brex was pretty much blindsided, when she turned her body and gripped onto his robes with both of her hands. All in order to pull herself up and grind the side of her face against the lower part of his mask in an affectionate display of nuzzling, without causing any harm with her beak. This caused Brex to not only freeze up on the outside world, but to also make his mind come to a dead, screeching stop, upon receiving the unexpected display of affection.
All that went through is mind for the next couple of seconds during this, was everything going black, and then a blue screen appearing to state the following. “Brex.EX. Version one point one, has crashed and re-initializing the reboot process. Version one point one will not respond. Updating to version one point two... Updating... Updating... Update successful, rebooting system now.” And with that, his mind finally moved again and everything slowly came back into view.
Back in the outside world, this literally took less than two seconds to occur. But for Brex, it seemed as though an eternity had come and gone by, before he started to blink from behind the mask. As Gilda was keeping her face from being seen by him while in this position. She was clearly blushing up a storm, as her eyes were shut tight and she started to talk again with some uncertainty behind her voice. “Gambit... I-I mean… M-Master… There's something I need to tell you.”
Brex really wanted to take a good look at her face right now. But Gilda was having none of that and was holding on tightly, as if she was scared of allowing any type of gesture that would indicate a refusal, even if it was just to get a few inches apart. In his mind, Brex was sounding both confused and scared, as he began to think the following in rapid succession.
“D-Did she just call me, Master? Where'd that come from? What happened to dweeb? I’d much rather have her call me dweeb! Something is definitely wrong with her! I don't think I like where this is going! I need an adult! This must be how Peter griffin felt when he got good looking! Gilda must really be sick, that has to be it. Because this is just way out of character for her. What happened to Rainbow, did they break up? Don't tell me she's using me as a rebound! I was only gone for a few days!!! And why didn't Rory warn me of this?”
As Brex was going through this mental crisis. Gilda continued as the rest of those in the room watched with both fascination and skepticism. “Rainbow and I talked it over... I want to be a part of your herd and Rainbow wants to follow me.” Back inside of his head again. Another small screen popped up that said the following. “Warning! Brex.EX one point two, is on the verge of crashing, attempting to recalibrate.”
Seeing as he was unable to talk at the time, it seemed that Gilda took this as a sign to elaborate on her statement. “Please, let me join you and Rory! I still love Rainbow and she's told me about how much she's sorry about all those times that she ended up saying or doing something to upset you and it's been tearing her apart! All I'm asking is that you give us a chance.”
Brex pretty much had both of his arms around her, yet they were out a little bit so they weren't touching. Seeing Gilda in such a state, almost caused him to have the reflex of pulling his arms back in in order to embrace her for some form of comfort. But he stopped himself as his fingers began to twitch to make the motion.
That was when he remembered he had two Changelings in the room and turned his attention to them. And without even having to say a single word or even a gesture shown. Lin was the first one to speak up as she nodded. “My Lord, her feelings are genuine.”
As for Rin. She was slightly pouting but overall, she seemed to be trying to contain a small smile, as she continued from where her sister left off. “That birdie's not lying. Rin doesn’t see the harm of giving her a shot.” Gilda felt as though she was beginning to calm down with how her hands were now relaxing their grip. However, what Rin said next, caused Gilda to clench her hands even tighter than before.
“If this does turn out to be a trick. Rin wouldn't mind cutting her into bits and frying up some chicken for dinner.” That line alone might have been enough, but it was the tone of voice that Rin was using that made it seem much scarier. It came out so innocent, that one would have thought that a three-year-old was saying it as if it was the most common thing in the world.
Now if that wasn't enough. Her sister joined in, while giving an evil smirk from behind those sharp eyes of hers.” Oh Sister, what do you have in mind? Simply baking her as one would a Gobbler wouldn't be right. Perhaps cutting her into bits and deep frying would be a better choice as the main dish?”
This caused Gilda's head to pull away and look towards the two as if they were a pair of monsters. With fear completely being the dominant emotion, Brex place the hand onto Gilda's shoulder, so that his right arm was mostly covering her back and pulled her in close before beginning to reprimand his Maids. “That is quite enough out of the two of you! Any more talk along those lines and I'm sending you right back!”
This immediately made the two go down so that they were on one knee and began to profusely apologize so fast, that Brex would have thought that the two of them might have thrown out their backs. Now returning his attention back to Gilda. She was now pressing himself against him with her eyes closed, as he began to talk to her. “Now Gilda, I don't know why you would feel this way, much less that of Miss Dash... But before any decision could be made, I would feel better if we were able to get in touch with her and have a talk amongst us all.”
“As you know, my… relationship with Miss Dash, is not all that great. I cannot simply take what you're saying is face value, you can understand that can't you?” After getting a subtle nod from Gilda. Brex continued after giving out a short sigh.
“Let us get ready for breakfast and then afterwards, we can get in touch with Rory and set up a meeting.” Gilda pulled away her head in order to look into his masks eye holes, before she tilted her head and confusion as she asked her question. “How does my Master intend to get in touch with Rory from all the way out here?” What made it odd for him to hear Gilda saying that, was not the words. But how it came so naturally to the Griffin to say, that caught him off-guard.
Brex then thought to himself, “Again with the Master thing from her! Why the heck is she calling me that anyway?” As a result, he then asked her. “Gilda why are you calling me that? Are you just trying to imitate Rory?” For once, after all that was going on. Gilda's usual attitude finally breach the surface as she was now glaring at him with full seriousness. For once, Brex started to get the sensation that Gilda was about to throw a punch. But instead, she said the following in a tone, that left the impression that it was pretty much set in stone.
“When you captured and forced me into submitting to following your rules. That meant by Griffin customs that I was to be your slave. Whenever a male Griffin and a female Griffin are going to start courting, it is determined that whoever wins in a bout of showing dominance is the one that's in charge and takes the other one as their slave and future wife. Don't you realize that when you got me to verbally submit to your commands, that you took me as yours? So, by our law, you are my Master.”
From behind his mask, Brex was making the, face of a fish out of water thing. As his mouth just kept opening and closing at a rapid pace. Inside, he was thinking this... “What the fuck-What the fuck-What the fuck-What the fuck-What the fuck-What the fuck-What the fuck did I just get myself into?!?! Why didn't I know this! There's no way in the seven hells at this can stand up in a court of law! I was only trying to get those two together! I can't believe this! Does this mean I've been engaged for a couple of weeks now without even knowing it! What's Rory going to think of this!”
That was when Rory's voice came chiming in after all of this was going on. “Oh, I knew about it from the start! Tee-Hee~.” Brex responded to that in a panicked inner tone. “And why didn't you say anything to me before now?!” This got another cute and innocent giggle from the girl, before she replied with simply saying, “Oh, uh... Well, you didn't ask… Also, I really don't mind. By the way, I'll go and find Rainbow now. Talk to you later Master and good luck!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 62: Day of The Gala. Part One.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia* *Location: Canterlot castle. Inside of Princess Celestia's private office* *Time: Ten in the morning the day of the Grand Galloping Gala*
Right now, the princess of the Sun was sitting behind a large, mahogany desk that was covered in a couple of tall stacks of couldn’t have been mistaken for anything aside from paperwork. There was one tall window directly behind her chair and the door leading out was on the opposite end of the circular stone room that was bleached white all along the walls. Alongside walls, were a couple of bookcases and displays to show a number of artifacts that were collected over the many years of her life.
Due to the size of the space itself, there was more than enough room so that in the center, there was a small coffee table in the shape of a circle and that was surrounded by a few plushie bean bag looking chairs of varying colors that match those in her mane. There were even the remains of a half-used tea set to show that Celestia took a number of breaks during her extended time in that very same office.
That was when the clock struck ten and the door was open to reveal a mare with a dark brown mane and carrying a clipboard standing in the doorway. Along with her, was a couple of other servants. Celestia raised her head from what she was working on and gave a small nod as she gave her full attention to her visitors. Seemingly to understand the silent command. A total of four Unicorns came in and quietly use their magic to levitate the stacks of papers from the Princesses desk and exited the room with only leaving the first one remaining to have a few words with Celestia.
Once the door was closed and only the two of them were left alone. Celestia lower the quill that was in her right hand and addressed the mare. “How is the progress on the Gala, can I assume all is in order?” The mare carefully cleared her throat and pulled from her pocket a set of wide rimmed glasses, before taking a look at the clipboard in her hands with a scrutinizing gaze.
“Nearly all of the preparations are completed and should be scheduled well before the official start. The catering has been taken care of, so there will be no issues there. The orders for the Buffet are ready to be placed on to the table and as for the specialized dishes meant for the dignitaries, our chefs are ready at a moment's notice to provide them with whatever they should desire.” The mare gave a visible shutter before returning to that professional demeanor as she went on. “The variety of... M-Meat has been received and is on standby.”
“As for the decorations and entertainment. The former is already done and the musicians will arrive close to two hours before the appointed hour in order to give them enough time to set up. However, there is one small issue I'd like to address first.” This got a small raise of the eyebrow from Celestia, before she nodded for the mare to continue.
“It is in regards to the transportation that was intended to pick up your personal student and other guests over at Ponyville. It was originally believed that we would be sending some flying carriages to act as their mode of transportation, but that was canceled on Miss Twilights part.
Celestia replied while giving a small smile to this. “That's quite correct. I did intend to send some Pegasus chariots, however my student insisted that she already has travel arrangements in order. By the way Miss Inkwell. Were there any problems in sending that extra ticket a while back.” The now identified as Miss Inkwell had a thoughtful expression before she replied. “Oh! Yes, my princess. It was indeed delivered to a, miss Rory Mercury that resides within Ponyville. Might I ask as to why a ticket was sent out so much later than the others?”
In response to that. Celestia turned her gaze so that the window was just coming into the edge of her vision for her left eye and paused for a moment before speaking. “She happens to be a mare that I am interested in having a few words with.”
Inkwell gave a small nod to that and began to go through her paperwork for anything else to report on. So, for the next several minutes, a couple of small topics were brought up and given the go-ahead by the princess to continue with the procedures. Once that was all completed, the mare left the room in order to give Celestia some privacy.
As the seconds went by with Celestia looking out at the window. The grandfather clock that was situated between a couple of the bookshelves was beginning to fill the room with the subtle ticks and tocks being admitted by the many gears within. As this was going on, Celestia’s mind started to wander, as her thoughts started to drift over the last couple of weeks. First, there was the many letters that she would get from Twilight that would have her valuable lessons from her interactions with her new friends.
Then, it would shift to her royal duties. Which was on a daily basis and almost mind numbing with it all being the same. Although, one in particular did stick to her mind and came up now and then. That being a proposal made by Sir Fancy Pants in regards to a business venture that was in the works for many years and was about to finally show the fruits of his labors.
The whole thing actually got Celestia and her sister quite excited upon showing Luna the plans that were drawn up nearly a decade ago. In fact, it was only several weeks prior to this day that Sir Fancy Pants gave them the final report and stated that construction would be completed before the gala was to occur. This meant the day was fast approaching.
If Celestia was to be up front with anyone, then she would say that she was feeling like a school filly that just couldn't wait to go on a field trip. Honestly, it was no small feat to build everything that was proposed back then. Celestia herself even wondered as to how it was possible for the stallion to come up with so much capital in order to start such a business venture, when there was so many that he already had his hands in to manage.
Celestia even jokingly commented to her sister if it was possible to borrow money from Sir Fancy Pants if there was ever a problem with the treasury. Of course, the reaction she got was priceless with the way Luna's eyes were almost bugging out with the very notion that a non-Royal could possibly have more money than them. Of course, it took a bit of work after that to go into explaining to Luna that the two of them didn't really have their own money and that all of the bits in the treasury belong to the country itself.
But it's not like they were dirt poor and they did get paid, so that the money was placed into an account just for them to use on personal matters. At the very least, they were pretty well off. After a few moments of this, Celestia’s thoughts then went on to another topic and this one held her attention quite firmly as she went over the details. Of course, by this point, she already left the confines of her chair and made her way over to one of the more inviting ones in the center of the room and laid down on the largest, which happened to be the pink bean bag chair.
Once she was fully situated. Celestia took a quick glance to the door and shot a spell towards the lock in order to give her some privacy for a while as she continued her thoughts. Going back to six weeks. Gambit had already been away and they were receiving periodic reports in the form of dreams that would replay whatever the Spy of Luna's was perceiving during the trip.
Although, it was mostly the three of them being there and watching everything from the Thestral's point of view. She was quite annoyed with the way Luna was affecting the dream so that anything Gambit was saying, was pretty much removed and replaced with Luna filling in the parts herself.
That was when Celestia brought her left hand up to her face before wiping it down to show her discomfort at the very idea. It seemed that because of all their pass interactions in the Dream Realm. Luna was pretty much trying to keep up with their prior means of communication. There was more than one occasion that this was brought up, but her younger sister refused to budge on it.
Now as for the reports. They started off with Gambit leaving Ponyville and catching a flight here in Canterlot. Now that very thought alone made Celestia anxious when she found out about that. Just a very notion that he was nearby without her even knowing sent goosebumps along her body and it took her nearly a day or two to fully calm down. Not to mention the need to change her underwear more than two times in the day. Sometimes even so much as three or four.
Although, there was another reason that caused her to be in such a state for so long and that had a large part to do with who was with Gambit. First, he left Ponyville and was accompanied by a female Zebra. Then upon arrival in her City. He was joined by two others who were wearing made outfits. At first, it took everything she had in order to keep herself from freaking out and take hold of the spy from within the Dream Realm to squeeze more information about these new girls.
But judging from the interactions, it was safe to say that nothing was going on with the Zebra, but the other two were obviously treating Gambit with the same level of respect that her own subjects would for herself and wondered if they were sent by someone else or perhaps the maids could have worked directly under Gambit himself.
It even seemed that during their flight over to Las Pegasus was quite eventful when it came to Gambit being the center of attention because of the story that was being told to both the guests and crew members. Unfortunately for her, Luna didn't feel much for trying to translate over for her but only gave the main points of the story for the beginning.
This was all thanks to the superior hearing from the Bat pony from outside the ship. Although, it seemed that she was unable to board the craft and was forced to fly in the blind spots and land in small spots to rest along the ship itself.
Celestia and Luna were for a lack of better words disappointed, when they couldn't get any information once Gambit and the rest of them went under the deck and to their rooms. Their spy insisted that there was no way to sneak on board and track down their rooms, because of the level of security in place. It didn't really matter what she did, but there was always some crew member or guard that would be blocking her path, so there was no way of sneaking around without being detected.
Even if she did manage to get past one, another would just show up out of the blue and would force her to pull back before any significant progress could be made. Of course, this caused Luna to ask out loud if it was possible that those on board were given special training with the level of security that was even able to keep her most elite of spies from being able to find the smallest gap in their perimeter.
There was even the scene that seemed to cause their spy some discomfort that had to do with their first interaction together. The mare was attempting to force down a square cube of food with some difficulty, when Gambit showed up out of nowhere right outside of the restaurant they were just at and handed her some food. That was when Celestia came to the realization that this was the first chance she had at seeing Gambit doing something nice that wasn't in some written report about his activities.
It was because that very action, that caused her to zone out for a little bit during the streaming of the dream. During this, Celestia was wondering if it was possible for things to be different if she had done something else in the past and this made her mood quickly turn to melancholy, as she was now holding onto her left elbow and slightly lowering her head in shame.
What came next, was quite a surprise when it came to looking at the second ship, they were to be boarding in order to cross the South Luna Sea. There were a few reports in the past about there being a new breed of ships that was in the middle of the research phase. Which required no balloons for flight, but this one just blew both her and her younger sister's minds when they got a good look at it.
There was really no way for the two sisters to even conceive of how such a large ship could keep itself in the air without the use of a continuous supply of magic, which would have been almost impossible to keep up under normal circumstances. Even a group of a dozen Unicorns wouldn't have been able to work together well enough to sustain a levitation spell for more than a few seconds with something this large.
From the outside, they could see four large letters spelling out the word, Yuna. And close to that was the unmistakable logo that belonged to the, Tech Hex Institute of Science. It wasn't until then, that the two princesses came to understand that there was far more behind The Institute that could produce such a wonder.
Celestia even recalled a small rumor among those that worked in the science department on their supposedly being a new breed of airships on the way and quickly connected the dots to this very craft. This only brought up bits and pieces of conversations with the magic and science authorities and their attempts to persuade her into signing some preposterous proclamation to get them access to T H I S.
When it came to the exterior, that alone was enough to take their breath away, but the interior was on a whole other level. There were bits of technology all over the place that Celestia made it impossible for her to identify their purpose. Even the mechanism for lowering the door alone was something she couldn't quite grasp. The inside had lights that lit up everything without the use of any exposed crystals or any open flames. Even the doorways would open up with such frightening speed whenever anyone would even get near to them.
In a sense, the two royal sisters were getting a first account viewing of the inside of the ship when the spy was sneaking around. Unfortunately, she couldn't get anywhere that seemed important such as the bridge, engine room and what was marked off as the armory. Although, the observation deck was quite nice and enjoyed the view that gave them the perfect vantage point to see all of Las Pegasus.
The morning was quite eventful during the time their spy managed to squeeze herself into the air vent to get a look at the bridge. Luckily for the princesses and the mare standing beside them. The three weren't cramped in there as well, so they were now standing next to the rest of the passengers.
All the while, Celestia was pretty much pacing around Gambit and taking in his figure as best she could. There were even a few times that she would lean in and tried to crane her neck to see if she can get any kind of view past the gaps in his clothing, but only to come up empty.
It took Luna some time to explain that even if there was such an opening to show his bare skin, then there wouldn't have been anything there to begin with, seeing as their spy has no memory that would allow that to even happen. From then on, they all continue to watching until the scene with the approaching Griffin occurred and Gambit left in order to go to the outer door.
During this time. They got to see the wonders of their strange technology that allowed moving pictures to be shown on the front of their window. These being of Gambit making his way through the entire ship. Even with her eyes trailed on the male figure. Luna leaned in and voiced her opinions as to how beneficial it would be to them having such a system within their own castle for security purposes and made it a point to contact this institute on a later date on such matters.
Upon witnessing him jumping straight out of the ship after the Griffin started tumbling. Celestia's heart nearly stopped as she went into a full-blown panic attack and almost went into using the Canterlot voice to order Luna to save him with her dream magic. But remembered that this was a memory and not happening in real time.
Only a few more seconds went by upon his departure, that she got to witness the one pony sitting at the center of the three chairs in front and she was making some motions with her hands on some colorful lights being displayed on a glass like screen in front of themselves.
The next thing Celestia knew, was that the panel split itself apart in the center and produced a contraption that was gripped onto quickly by the mare. And once it was pushed forward, did the entire ship emulate the movement and go into a sudden nose dive. Luckily, the spy quickly gave them the warning to hold on to something when this occurred. But Celestia was too occupied with what was going on with the scene right outside the ship to understand the meaning in time and was thrown back and onto her tail.
Once he was finally able to grab on to the Griffin in mid fall. Lunar relayed a command given by Gambit through some means of a magical communication device that was heard within the ship. From what they could tell. It was coming from a small item being gripped in one of the maid’s hands. This being the order to get underneath them before hitting the ocean. Upon getting this, the ship gained of burst of speed that nearly caused the solar princess to begin sliding around a few steps here and there, before grabbing onto a passing railing.
The moving pictures in front of them began to change and showed Gambit putting himself in harm's way and erecting a green magic barrier around himself before colliding at a high rate of speed onto what could have been the top of the ship. This was only made more obvious with the exceedingly loud thud that rang through the ship in time with the picture showing of making contact.
Celestia, upon getting her legs stabilized. Ran right up to Luna and began to shake the poor lunar princess by the shoulders at a hysteric pace. All the while, begging for Luna to use her magic to teleport them over there and by Gambits side. But Luna carefully explained that they were subjected to only being in the line of sight of their spy.
Luna was just about to go into more details as to how her magic works in comparison to all the times that they entered the mind of Gambit. But the darker of the two alicorns was quite unceremoniously tossed over so that Celestia could run up as close as she could to the screen after letting out a loud gasp. Of course, this didn’t go well for the younger sister, as she huffed in irritation to the treatment.
She then turned to Luna, who was now rubbing her head and giving a very unamused look, as Celestia spoke up in an excited fashion. “Look Luna! His mask fell off!” Much to her word. Gambit was looking around and after a few seconds his arm outstretched and the missing article of face ware was pulled into his hand from a short distance. It didn't take more than a second before Luna's eyes were now wide and mirroring her older sisters to this revelation. From the perspective of the camera. It appeared as though the Griffin may have had the opportunity to see his true face.
Afterwards, the rest of the images were pretty much spread out over the course of the next month and a half, as the spy was now keeping a close eye on their activities from the very moment they all landed in Zebrabwa. At first, their group disembarked and started to make their way through the city that acted as a major port for both the airships and sea going vessels.
But at some point, the dream shifts to a scene where the female Zebra from before, was accosted by a group of lions judging from their upper muscular bodies. The only other dead giveaway, was the long tail that came out from under their cloaks and their leader pulling back their hood to show that they were of that species.
From what was heard. The one that was being cornered was called Zecora, and she was apparently a runaway slave. The thugs were pretty blatant with their accusations and even pulled out a rolled-up piece of parchment that had a very accurate drawing of the female. Although, before anything could be done. Gambit made an appearance and quickly dispatched them all by literally sending them flying with some simple punches to either their stomachs or the side of their faces.
Two attempted to come at him in a bum rush from the front and got their heads caught in both of his large hands. After a few seconds, Celestia could hear the two lions quickly apologizing and screaming from pain, before Gambit pushed forward so that they were both flung off their legs and slammed into the ground. This was accompanied by a pair of echoing thuds that displaced a good amount of the sand that was accumulating on the ground.
Once the rest of their party join them when all was said and done. All three watched as they went into a large building that had a number of empty cages sitting outside and only emerged after roughly fifteen minutes went by. Luna then relayed that Gambit said the following while holding on to a rolled-up stack of papers within his right hand.
“Zecora, I understand that you informing us that you were a runaway is a tender subject, but it would be best if we were not to go against your country's laws. From what the trader inside explained. The record show that you willingly went along with becoming one of these slaves in order to act as payment for supplies to be sent to your village. Please, keep in mind that this is only until we leave this country and to avoid any more problems in the future.”
Gambit received the response of a slow nod from the Zebra that had her hood pulled up. As said hood was being pulled off and revealed that the female Zebra was now wearing a thick iron collar. It appeared to be about an inch thick and nearly two inches in height. It seemed like there was just enough room to slip a few fingers in between the gap on either side, so it was quite roomy from a first glance. There was even a section to show a box and some writing inside that said, “Property of Gambit.” She then started to talk.
“I do understand the purpose of this steel collar. For getting constantly hounded would be quite the bother. I do not hold it against you for going with this plan. It makes perfect sense if we are to use any Caravan.” The Zebra coughed into her fist once, before continuing with a slight blush on her cheeks. Which could have been seen as embarrassment. “I suppose I should also get used to not rhyming anymore. With my current status in my homeland, it would only get me into trouble if any of the officials should hear of me talking as I once did.”
After Zecora said that. All of those present showed different signs that they were slightly confused and this also included the two princesses. Noticing this, she continued to explain. “The way one speaks is a sign of one’s status. Those that are training to be shamans are brought up to do this as a method of self-concentration. This also leads to other outcomes. Not only does the rhyming prevent us from talking far too much and choosing our words more wisely. But is a clear indication of our spiritual status.”
That was when Zecora reached up and began to run one of her fingers across the top of her collar in the front, as she went on. In Zebrabwe, there are two common ways that turns another into a legal slave. The first, is to be a part of a crime that is serious enough to warrant slavery as a form of public punishment.”
“The other one is to voluntarily become one yourself in order to receive a form of compensation that the rest of the family can accept. As you may have surmised by my change in speech, that I can no longer have others believe that I am still a shaman and trying to do so otherwise would only call forth a harsh penalty.”
It was Gilda that stepped in and began to ask her question, while scratching the back of her head in confusion. “Just hold on! If you're supposed to be a slave, then why were you in the Everfree forest?” Zecora gave a small smile before she looked in the general direction of the sea, before she spoke up again. “Shortly after being purchased. I was to be delivered into the hands of my new owner who resided here in this very city. After riding in the back of a wagon for several days, I succumbed to the heat and passed out shortly before arriving.”
“In the position I was forced to be in, caused me to have a vision. I was without a body and going over the great ocean. After some time, I found myself coming to a land full of ponies. There, I would find a city on tall mountain and a vast forest full of unknown properties to the South of that.”
“It was there that I pass through a thick patch of trees and caused a single acorn to fall right in front of me. But to my surprise, there was another right below where I was. And although I could not see them very well, it was quite clear that they picked up this very same acorn and took it with them to a nearby clearing and planted it.”
“From there, the sun and moon passed by before I could even track their movements with my eyes. A sapling came forth and grew into a mighty tree. Although the soil was barren and not a drop of water was in sight. The branches grew high and wide and sprouted leaves. Soon, this miracle of life took hold in the ground and caused all nearby to become rejuvenated. The grass started to grow and all the dead trees around sprang back with full vigor. It didn't take much longer until there was a trickle of water and that turned into a small river just a short distance.”
“Once I woke up from this dream. I found that nearly three days past by and was convinced that was where I needed to be. I was most fortunate when a riot broke out in the streets and this knocked over the cage that was holding myself and some other slaves. It wasn't much of a tumble. It was just enough to knock the door open and I made full use of the opportunity and snuck on to a ship that just so happened to be bound for Equestria. This all occurred a little over a year ago. So, I was quite surprised that my poster was still circulated when those Lions came.”
All of those from the memory were all standing in a position that had Gambit behind all of them. So, it was easy to tell that none of those present could have noticed the way he was becoming rigid for a moment, although the three dream observers did catch on to that little tell. That was when Luna posed a question to her older sister. “Would seem to be that Gambit has a connection to this story. Do you not agree sister?”
Celestia gave a nod as she replied, while keeping her eyes on Gambit. “Certainly does seem to be that way. This may explain as to why a Zebra is in our country. They are so scarce, that I have only seen a few with my own eyes. Still… It does not explain why Gambit is there.” Luna came up to her spy and started to chat amongst themselves after the dream came to a sudden stop, so that all were frozen in place. During all of this, Celestia was remaining motionless and keeping her eyes squarely on Gambit.
The older sister literally had no idea how long she was staring, until her little sister Luna started to shake her out of the weird trance and exited the spy’s dream. From then on, the reports became somewhat erratic with the timing due to a number of unforeseen circumstances. Most of which, was how Gambit in his group would suddenly disappear and it took days to be able to track them down once again. And the reports would end up with the following being shown.
In one place, a large gang would be toppled overnight. Only to be found neatly bound in front of the local authorities the next morning. The next would have them breaking up a drug maker's den and distributing what could have been only medicine among the masses and disappearing again before any were the wiser. Another would have a black-market mercenary Guild that was working with a local bathhouse as a front. Only to go down into a secret tunnel that needed one to empty out one of the larger bathtubs to enter.
The next report had them inside of an underground labyrinth and fighting these oversized toads in order to rescue a kidnapped family belonging to a high office official, who is being blackmailed and to doing some shady work with the life of his wife and newborn child being at risk. Moving on. Gambit could be seen in the middle of the night with a caravan stopping at a small village that just happened to be experiencing a problem with their crops.
Using a speed to run across the open planes and to a nearby Mountain. Gambit spent a couple of hours mining away into the side of the mountain and returned just as quickly to work on the fields that was more than three acres big. The old dried-up crops were pulled and the ground was tilled with a tool that he produced from out of nowhere. At the time, Celestia merely thought that Gambit had a magical storage device and left it at that.
By the time the ground had been worked over and new seeds seem to have been planted. Gambit would raise one of his hands and pointed straight up before a massive ball of water grew just over his palms and shot into the sky. After a few seconds went by, the clear night air was taken over by thick rain clouds that showered onto the fields. That was when the dream shifted to the next morning and found the group, along with Gambit, was missing once again.
However, what drew the spy’s attention, was all the commotion being drawn by the small group of villagers and a caravan that stood on the very edge of the land that the crops were supposed to be growing on. After the Spy got to a better vantage point to look over the heads of the rest. It was found that a wide assortment of organized fruits and vegetables were already growing and nearly ready to be harvested if one was to go off what was seen.
These sorts of things would continue to happen in different locations and all across Zebrabwe. There were even a few occasions, where Celestia even witness Gambit facing off against Fire, Earth, Wind and Water Elementals. Although, what made these stand out the most. Was their sheer size of nearly two meters tall or even higher. Whereas the very same things in Equestria would barely go over a meter tall. What's more, was the way they were all giving off this sickly black and green aura during the fight, which was then cleansed once Gambit defeated them.
Although there was one time, that Celestia nearly grabbed on to the spy in order to press for more answers after viewing a particular memory. Upon turning in for the night at local Inn. The group split off into three rooms, but the Zebra ended up staying in the one that Gambit was in. Thankfully, Luna was curious about this and asked the question before Celestia could act on her first impulse of wanting to scream into the mare’s face.
Since arriving in that country, their spy started to look up their customs in order to blend in if necessary. She then explained that Zecora must have been registered as Gambits slave and due to their rules. The Zebra was not allowed to be too far from her owner. Otherwise, she would have been perceived as a runaway slave and harshly punished, before getting dragged back in shackles.”
“This meant that there was no other choice than for the two of them to share the same room. Before leaving my land. There was tell of a new rule for those who were caught in such a predicament. In some, they would say that some chains would be placed onto their ankles. What made it worse. Was how they would be locked by pouring molten metal into the key-hole to prevent them from being removed… ever…”
In reaction to hearing this. Celestia's right eye began to twitch to the point that one might have heard a musical instrument and it was having one of its strings plucked. Luckily, it was soon shown in the memory that the spy looked into the window from the outside when the lights turned out and spotted the Zecora sleeping on the bed and fully covered. While Gambit was over in a chair a good distance away. It was then mentioned by the pony, that he did not leave his position the whole night and was not taking advantage of the odd situation that the two of them were forced into.
After that report. It moved on to one where there were these two warring tribes and they were forced into peace with the other one. This was done by Gambit literally placing himself between the two small armies and slamming their heads together in order to knock them all out. This only being done if they were to even try and cross the line that he made in the ground.
Later on, it was pointed out by him that the feud was orchestrated by a third party of war merchants and that they wanted their land for the resources. The plan was heavily leaning on the hopes that the two tribes would end up wiping each other out and making it easy for the unknown party to clean up the leftovers and stake their claim.
After that. The last time Luna brought Celestia in to review the next report. Was close to a week ago, when they were in the capital city. At the beginning of the briefing, it was stated that they slipped past the Spy for a good number of days until their tracks were picked up and this led the mare towards said capital. Unlike the other towns and cities around, this one was surrounded by an enormous wall made of a reddish stone that was easily five stories tall.
It was pretty much in an oval shape and the longest distance when going across amounted to eight or perhaps nine miles. As for the shorter, this was about five or six. Most of the buildings were arranged in a pattern to show that the further out one went from the center, the worse the conditions became. Just as the outside wall, the city had three more rings within.
The outermost section of the city, which was clearly the biggest in terms of population. It was so run down and Ill managed, that trash was quite literally covering nearly every inch of the roads. Now, if that wasn't enough. Then there were the buildings themselves. They hardly had any uniform style among them all, aside from all being made of purely mud with only a few pieces of wood that could be seen here and there being used for their construction.
These buildings weren't even smooth out with tools and were clearly made by hand with the way the walls were slanted and in odd angles. The same could be said for the windows that were merely holes with no glass in them. In fact, it was quite rare to even see a tattered piece of fabric draped over any of them.
There were even a few missing roofs that showed signs of collapse. While others didn't even have one to begin with. The spy even informed them about the awful smell that permeated every facet of this environment and even trying to pinch one's nose only added to the suffering from tasting it on the air.
When moving on to the second row of the ring. The only real difference was the major cut down on the filth littering the streets and the buildings now looking to have been molded using tools instead of bare hands. What's more, was there being spread about, these merchant stands that sold a large variety of goods.
As there was pretty much no rhyme or reason as to what one might try to find in the mess. One shop would be selling what appeared to be forms of nearly rotten fruit that should have been thrown away. While others sold shabby weapons that were covered in rust.
The third row looked completely different. As the first two were primarily composed of mud and some rocks. These primarily used stone and mortar. In a way, they had this feeling that was comparable to the noble section of Canterlot. There was hardly a speck of dirt or garbage that could be perceived anywhere.
There were fancy shops selling all manners of goods, as well as a cluster of homes with gardens that would even make the most snobbish of elites wish that they owned property there. Most of these buildings would be easily three to five stories tall and surrounded by tall metal gates. Lionesses would even be on sight to act as security.
Each one wearing clothing that was quite revealing and only protecting their forearms and lower legs. Also, they would have on some breastplates with shoulder guards connected to them. Each one being armed with either a short sword or a spear. From a glance, they may have been made of iron.
When it came to the final area at the very center of the city. There was a castle close to half the size of the princesses. The outer area was surrounded by a lush tropical Oasis that was obviously handmade. Exquisitely carved topiaries and fountains littered the landscape. Unfortunately, the decorations were mainly focused on a male lion in different poses. A few of them were in such poses as, standing straight with their chest puffing out and fists pressed against the side of their waist. Others would be in various states of trying to flex their muscles.
Upon seeing all of this. Luna just couldn't help but to state the following. Which caused Celestia to slightly blush. “Well, well, dear sister. It would seem we have found another who has the same tastes as you. I might even go far as to say he has nearly as many self-sculptures.” Of course, she was a loss of words for a few seconds, before quickly snapping back and giving a small pout as well.
“I'll have you know that I did not commission those. They were done by our subjects. I only recalled two around the castle if memory serves me right. This here is just pompous boasting of ego! So please, do not compare the two of us.” Of course, she also heard Luna grumbling under her breath as she said the following. “I'm a princess too. Yet I don't have a single statue anywhere...” This caused Celestia to think to herself on that matter and vaguely recalled that there was a statue of Luna somewhere, but was unable to place a finger on it.
However, her current thoughts were derailed when everything changed and was now showing the other side of the castle. What was over on that side, was a grand arena with tall outer walls that allowed multiple rows of seating going in at a sharp angle. Within, a tarp going over most of the ceiling and only leaving a little more than half of the center exposed for natural light.
There was even an announcement being made by a very tiny lion, that was currently standing on the back of a lioness who was on her hands and knees. Despite the male’s short stature. His voice boomed without the need of any type of magical enhancement by the looks of it. His voice came off as one of those stereotypical announcers that had just way too much energy, but at the same time, a low baritone voice that projected.
“Good day everyone from the capital~. Today’s entertainment has to be a big surprise for all of you! It sure was for me I’ll tell you! I was only informed but a short time ago, but it seems as though our King has been issued a gladiatorial challenge!”
This got a mixture of booze and hoorays from the crowd that was comprised of easily two thousand citizens. Among them, were groups holding up banners to show their support to the king. There were even those that pulled out their weapons and holding them over their heads, while roaring to add to that atmosphere.
Below the stands could be seen two entrances that were on opposite sides of one another. The entrance towards the North end was made in a half dome shape in the stone wall. With wooden doors being reinforced by iron that was installed so as a pulley system was required to lift. But right above that, was a sign that said, “The King” and made a pure gold. There was even on both ends of the words, a rendition of a male lion standing straight and in the middle of flexing his two arms.
As for the other door. This one looked as though it should have been put out of service with the way some of the wood was warped in some places. It didn't even have the metal reinforcements as the first did and as for the sign above. It was so tiny, that one would literally need to be within the arena and standing a few feet away to be able to read the words. But thankfully with a combination of the good eyesight from the spy and some subtle application of magic on Luna's end.
They were able to zoom in on it to see a plaque that was barely an inch and a half tall and saying the word, “Challenger.” What only added to the disgrace. Was how there were easily four holes for a nail to go through, but there was only one still in place. Which meant the sign was lopsided. Ironically enough, that was when a small gust of wind chose to go by and cause it to swing and fall to the floor after going back and forth just a few times.
The announcer went on without so much as skipping a beat after a few seconds of the cheering. “As you all may know, our King now has under his belt, nine hundred and ninety-nine straight wins and zero losses! Can you all believe that the day is finally come for our King to reach one thousand consecutive wins within the arena! Because I sure can!”
This got more from the crowd as he continued. “Over to the north gate! He's mine, he's yours, he's everyone's favorite... King of the Lions, Sahar! King Sahar has fought Lions, Rhinos, Monsters and Beasts, oh, my! all kinds of beasts and creatures both large and small! He has shown that he is the Alpha predator among Alpha predators!”
“None of his matches have gone over five minutes and the quickest one was only a paltry seventeen seconds long! Today, we'll see just how the King shows his dominance over challenger number one thousand! Maybe he'll give us a treat and drag this out, what do you say folks?! Give the young ones a lesson on how a warrior should grow up to be!”
This was followed with the entire arena now shaking from the collective stomping of the spectators in the seats. The announcer then said in a voice, that was somehow able to be carried over the noise. “I don't think the King can hear you from all the way in there! How about showing how you really feel?!”
This got a series of roars from multiple different species that caused quite a bit of the structure to vibrate with the raw intensity of not only the crowd, but the strength being used in the continuous stomping that accompanied it. Of course, with this being a memory and all. The Bat Pony was already covering her ears, so that meant that the two sisters got the full brunt of the sudden increase in volume and their ears flattened out of instinct. While showing a pair of deep cringes on their faces to indicate pain.
That was when the announcer pointed towards the north gate, while his free hand was cupped over one of his ears and began to raise his level of excitement while calling out to the crowd. “I think he heard your call!” The next thing to happen, was for the ground at the edge of either side of the fancy door to start erupting with technicolor fireworks that made a landing strip that was a couple of meters wide and going out a good ten forward. During this, the gate was slowly opened and some over the top band was playing in the background with trumpets and drums.
With this, King Sahar stepped out, while being garbed in a crimson red cloak, with fur lining the edges so that it was around his neck and going down the front was the color white. At an imposing two meters tall, he was easily able to look down at Celestia if they were to come face to face by an inch or two.
The broad shoulders almost made him appear to be as muscular as a Minotaur, even if his body was covered up. As for the exposed head of his. The mane was a vibrant gold, that flowed nearly halfway down his back. He was even giving a big toothy smile that gave off a white gleam from the sunlight hitting his sharp teeth.
This was immediately followed after reaching the end of the pyrotechnics, by him thrusting his arms wide in order to toss off the cloak and reveal Sahar to be wearing nothing but a piece of brass plating over his chest, along with some arm and leg guards. His pants only went down to his knees and was covered with something that was similar to the tunics made of segmented brass plating that was lined up against one another. After doing this, he released a loud roar while pointing his face straight up into the open sky and causing the spectators to cheer his name.
After witnessing this. Celestia ended up doing a face palm before throwing her arms in front of herself to gesture towards the king, before calling out in an exasperated voice. “By Mother's name! That blow hard hasn't changed one bit! I think he might have even upped his showboating as well from last time…” Luna leaned in after seeing this and asked her older sister a question, while holding up a hand in order to try and keep it from being heard by the third member of their group. “Do you two have any history with one another?”
Celestia crossed her arms before grumbling out an answer. “That insufferable Lion always tries to hit on me during the Gala... I don't know how many times I've refused his advances by this point, but he just will not take no for an answer. He already has nineteen wives and he stubbornly insists that I become his twentieth. Really! If he wasn't a royal to begin with, then he wouldn't even have gotten an invitation in the first place.”
“Honestly speaking, he's not all that bad, but I just can't handle his attitude. It just rubs me the wrong way and part of me just screams that I need to come up with any kind of excuse to get out of talking to him. Celestia then use both of her arms and cross them so that she was holding on to her upper arms and gave out a violent shiver as she said the next part. “There’s just something about that King that just causes my entire body to want to get away as quickly as possible.”
Luna's eyes went slightly wide at this, before a look of realization came across her features, as she replied in a deadpan tone. “I see, so he is what they call, a meat head.” Celestia shook her head at that, while looking pretty exhausted. She then asked Luna in a defeated tone of voice. “Where are you getting these phrases from?”
The younger of the two had a thoughtful expression before it turned to one of pretty much not caring and giving a light shrug before speaking up. “Not really sure as to where. Probably picked it up from one of the servants or the dreams ever so often. Does it not sum this Sahar up quite nicely?”
The alabaster mare gave a dead pan glare towards Luna before retorting. “You've been spying on the populace again, haven't you? I keep telling you to not use that sound amplification spell to listen in on the nightlife.” Celestia's face slowly started to relax as her shoulders lowered before she spoke up again. “Luna, I'm really happy that you acclimated to present day mannerisms of speaking, but there are times I think you may have taken it too far.”
They're little discussion came to an end when the announcer spoke up again and was now motioning towards the south gate. “Now that the introductions for the first combatant have been made! Let's introduce our challenger! Coming from parts unknown! Pretty much an unknown to any of you here. Heck, literally everything about him is unknown aside from him being a male and standing at it an impressive height of two and a half meters! The one who literally slapped the king in the face with a large fresh fish only a few hours ago! We have... Gambit!!!”
Celestia's jaw pretty much slammed into the ground with the reaction she had from hearing the part about the fish slapping and just stood there like a statue with disbelieving eyes. On Luna's part, she had already fallen over and was now kicking her legs into the air and loudly laughing. Even during the laughing, Luna was trying to speak through labored breathing thanks to a low amount of oxygen in her lungs. “Gambit, did what to Sahar?! I have to make sure I heard right!”
And with that. Luna used her magic to rewind the dream several seconds to catch that line once again and this only resumed the laughing fit with double the energy on her part. On the second time around for Celestia, she hardly really moved aside from her arms and wings limply hanging off of her body. However, she barely wheezed out the following question. “Why would Gambit slap him with a fish?... A King of another country no less?”
By now, everything caught up to where it was in the dream and Sahar was now giving the smaller Lion a shifted death glare from the side of his eyes, which caused the other one to give him an apologetic smile. Apparently, that bit wasn't really expected on the King's part to be made public knowledge and wanted to get past that as quickly as possible by shifting into the next part of his act. With a feral roar, Sahar called out to his adoring fans as his left arm was pointing towards the gate that was now slowly opening on the other side of the fighting arena.
“Come now and face me! Come! Let us show my people a fight for the ages! I cannot even remember when last I fought one of your level before. But worry not, I shall make this sporting and take it easy on the one who is weaker than I.” This got a loud gasp from the smaller Lion nearby, as he started to talk up a storm once again.
“Did you hear those words folks? Our great King is going to put on a show! Also, I must remind those sitting in the first two rows of the seating that you are in a Splash Zone!” In response, all of those that were called on, quickly lean down and pulled from underneath their seats what appeared to be rain ponchos and quickly dawned them in preparation for what was to come.
Luna quickly turned to Celestia, who also did the same for her little sister, before they both spoke in unison. “Splash Zone?” The one who spoke up next was Luna, who said, “Dear sister, if I am not mistaken. Hasn't gladiatorial battles to the death been abolished even in this country?” This got a quick nod from Celestia as she replied in a worried tone. “Such events were agreed upon by the leaders a couple of centuries ago. I so hope that they are just doing this for the spectators... Lions are known to be quite passionate when it comes to displaying their physical prowess.”
Luna took the opportunity and teleported all three of them up into the bleachers in order to get a better view right as the door to the South was fully open. From her new spot, Celestia's perceptions of the noises coming from the crowd were becoming faint as she witnessed Gambit stepping into the light from the dark. She could feel her pulse quicken, along with gritting her teeth from behind her lips as she looked on at the site of him wearing an article of clothing that she thought to have forgotten.
(Here is the current gear gambit is wearing for the fight.)
She literally felt her heart being squeezed tightly when alone tear fell from her eyes upon seeing the dark clothing. This turning out to be the travelers gear that she witnessed him with back when the assault on her part started at the castle of the two sisters. Thanks to her being at a higher elevation and looking down at him in that state, nearly triggered a panic attack as her mind quickly flashed to the dream she would have where the whole incident would repeat itself.
As Gambit approached. Sahar would be in the middle of eating up all the attention he was getting by turning slowly in place to allow the spectators to get a good look at them from all sides and making a few stretching poses here and there to flex his muscles. As soon as they were now five meters from one another and the smaller Lion was right at the center mark. The announcer spoke up, while holding both of his arms up to gain the attention of the spectators and have them quiet down.
“Here are the rules of the match! Both combatants were giving the option of using any weapon they wish. Now our King has chosen to fight bear-handed. Surprising enough, the challenger has chosen to do the very same!”
This got everyone there to get excited as they were rooting for the king with as much strength in their voices as they could muster by the sound of it. The announcer then said, “There is no time limit to this match and a loser will be decided when they can no longer fight, or is killed! In other words folks, the same rules as always!”
It wasn't until that last word was said, that both of the princesses looked utterly appalled. Not only was it wrong, but clearly made illegal through all international law. So, to have a King be a part of such a match was just unforgivable. However, Celestia did catch the devilish snarl coming from Sahar and this made her fur stand on end.
The reason for such a reaction on her part, was not out of fear but out of anger. No, it was from seeing that the ruler of Zebrabwe acting like this would surely cause Celestia to have quite a bit of trouble in containing herself when next they meet. Which would most likely be the Gala soon.
But what the announcer said next, only caused her face to fall and to show some panic, while looking between both of the fighters. “No weapons are to be used aside from your own body. This also means that natural weapons are allowed! She knew that the Lions had claws, but she had no idea what Gambit was. So, there was no telling if he even had any natural weapons of his own defend himself with to speak of for this situation.
After that, the referee left in a rush. But not first informing everyone that the fight would commence upon the ringing of a large gong, that was situated up in the stands. During those few moments before the gong was to be rung. The three spectators of the dream got to hear just what Sahar said to Gambit. This was all thanks to the Bat Ponies excellent hearing. “I feel rather sorry for you. To think you're only here because that Griffin got you into trouble. Really, one should do as they are told by their betters. Don’t you agree?”
Gambit didn't say anything at all for a few seconds before Sahar continued after looking a little annoyed, although he was still holding onto that confident look for his fans. “What's wrong? Too scared to say anything to a King now that you're all by yourself and without your females nearby to act as your body guards? I suppose not all of us can be as gifted as myself.”
That was when he began to do a few more of those ridiculous bodybuilder poses as he went on. “Ha! To be blessed with not only the looks. But also, talent and good luck. Sometimes I feel as though it's nothing but a curse. Hahaha-Haha! But I must be the one to bear such a heavy burden. Otherwise, it would only pain me to witness one of my dear subjects having to go through such an ordeal.”
That was when the announcer picked that instant to ring the gong to start the match. So, without even taking the chance to waste the opportunity of a first strike. Sahar launched himself forward and delivered a strong left punch that was swung in a wide sweeping ark to land squarely on the side of gambits head. As a result, his body was sent flying a few meters, only to slide and soon skidded to a halt after tumbling over a couple of times. Along with sending up some loose dirt.
As the crowd cheered for the painfully made hit. Celestia caught herself from reaching out her right hand in reflex, right as Luna spoke in a confident tone that didn't quite fit with the situation. “Ha! That arrogant blow heart has no idea what Gambit did just then.” At that moment, the King was throwing up his arms and giving out a loud roar to show his excitement from being the first one to make a move, as Gambit slowly got back to his feet and took on the same waiting position he was at the start of the match.
Luna then continued with her arms crossed and giving a small smirk of her own. “He already moved his head just before that fist even made contact. He also shifted his legs to push off to go along with the momentum. If anything, King Sahar was not the one that sent him flying. But Gambit himself.” Due to Sahar being in the middle of his little show, his back was currently facing Gambit and was unaware that he was back on his legs again.
Because of this, the crowd began to pick up momentum and the King took it as a sign of them really getting into his quick win. However, his face fell slightly once he completed his rotation and saw Gambit just standing there as if nothing even occurred and was ready for more.
After giving a small snarl and returning to that over-the-top grin of his. Sahar began to speak loud enough for the crowd to hear. “Haha! Good, good! How about we continue. Now show me what you can do!” The King of the Lions took on a ready stance with his legs slightly spread and is left leg forward. Both arms were raised and Claws fully extended from the ends of his digits has he flexed his hands.
On the part of Gambit, he made no movements at all for a good several seconds before his opponent got tired of waiting and went for another attack. This time, it was done using his right fist that ended up slamming right into Gambit's gut from below. This had a similar effect as the first, as Gambit's body was slightly lifted off the ground a couple of inches, before falling back a meter or two. But much to the surprise of both the King and the crowd. Gambit got right back up again even faster than the previous time.
From where she was, Celestia could hear some murmurs in the crowd as one of the spectators made a comment that didn't go very well among the rest of those around in regards to the king not being a strong as previously thought. As a result, that one was pounced on by some adoring fans and promptly knocked silly. When turning her attention back to the arena. The King was already back at it and using a number of attacks the strike Gambit.
Whether it be kicks, thrown punches or even slashing at him with his claws. Gambit just kept on getting back up. As the minutes went on and they were coming up on the ten-minute marker. The murmurs in the crowd were starting to grow as the confusion took hold. To their eyes, the unknown fighter could be seen exhibiting the signs of being an Undead.
Especially with how he just kept on getting back up without showing any signs in his body movements that he was in any pain at all. It even made it creepy in a way, when he lazily straightened his body as one would when sleepy after getting up and doing an odd stretch and swaying.
Even King Sahar was showing that he was getting a little tired by this point in the fight, with the way his upper body was raising and lowering with each deep breath he was taking. If that wasn't enough, then the expression he was giving off displayed how much he was getting annoyed with what was going on.
After baring his teeth and giving a snarl of anger. The King leaped forward and tried to slash at Gambit with both of his arms going down to form a large X motion. Surprisingly enough, that did very little aside from pushing Gambit back a few paces from the force, as he skidded along the floor several paces but remained standing up straight after taking a stance to take the blow.
Both Luna and Celestia couldn't help but the gawk at the site, as gambits clothing showed no signs of taking any type of damage whatsoever from the sharp appendages. There were rumors circulated about that very same move from Sahar, should have been able to cleave right through shields. And it was because of that that, they began to wonder to one another about what Gambits material must have been made out of to be able to withstand such a move and not be shredded apart.
Back with the competitors. Gambit's head could be seen lowering as his right hand after finishing with lightly brushed off his chest. This obviously got the King to become more furious as both of his hands were now clutched into tight fists and shaking. He then pointed towards Gambit and yelled out in a tone that was very much unlike him and had no hint towards his cocky attitude from before.
“Are you making a mockery of this! Of me! Gerrrrr! Have you forgotten who I am! You are a worthless commoner who doesn’t belong in my land! For an alpha predator such as me, to be made into a mockery... I invite you into my home and give you a chance to take a seat under my command. But in return, all I get is insolence! If you will not heed my command, then you are not worthy of being allowed to live on!”
As far as Celestia knew. Sahar was always a quite full of himself and love to show off. But never did he allow any kind of anger to be displayed in her presence. But right now, it seemed as though something snapped and that charming personality was replaced with one of pure bloodlust and loathing. But that last part that was said, struck a sour chord with Celestia and this puzzled expression began to grow on her face, before she was distracted yet again by what was about to happen.
Sahar’s body took on a stance with his legs spread apart, both arms pulled in at his sides and fists lifted and pulled in close. With a look of Rage plastered onto his face. His teeth were fully exposed into a snarl, as his eyes now beginning to turn completely blood red. As for the rest of his muscular body. That too began to go through an odd change, as the muscles could be seen rippling underneath the fur and swelling up to bolster his overall size.
A feral growl was now filling the air as the crowd went silent. The tension was so thick, that it could be cut with a knife. With his form now beginning to hunch over. The fur on his back was beginning to grow a little longer as it ran down his spine. His mane also grew in length, till it looked completely wild and unkept. Even the animal features on his face became more prominent to the point that it was on par with the wild Lion monsters that would roam the land.
Even the armor he was wearing, now buckled under his new size and eventually broke off once he was over three meters tall, which meant that he was now the tallest of the two by far. If that wasn't enough. There was even his claws and fangs that also grew in length. As the teeth in his mouth grew an extra inch longer. The claws on both his hands and feet gained an extra two or three inches. What came next, was him talking in a rage filled growl, that was at a very low tone. “Be honored! This is the strength I used to take the throne!”
Obviously, it was not loud enough to be heard by the crowd. But the sisters heard it nonetheless. Celestia's face then scrunched up into a scowl as she went over her mind something that she had heard a while back. Close to six or seven years ago, Sahar took the throne after his father passed away. The official report said that it was due to an accident involving a random monster attack when the previous King was out of his castle.
She then thought to herself as she locked eyes onto the red ones belonging to Sahar. “Could it be... If what he proclaims to be true... Then is it possible that he killed his own father?!” Her suspicions were only compounded further, when she heard the announcer speaking up.
“Oh, my folks! Look at that our King showing his true strength now! It has been years since he's pulled out all the stops! Don't blink everyone or you might miss the bloodbath! When the previous king was slain by a monster, it was our very own Prince that slew the beast after the guards finally caught up.”
Even then, the announcer was trying to sound excited. But there was still this hint of fearfulness behind his tone. Of course, the rest of the crowd was feeling pretty much the same as all of the cheering was beginning to lower, as more and more of them were watching the fight progress. And without giving any type of notice, Sahar lunch at Gambit with speeds that were nearly impossible to follow with the naked eye after kicking off of the ground and closing the distance.
Within the next couple of seconds. The Kings arms were nothing but blurs as they launched a furious set of attacks in an attempt to slice up Gambit with his overly sharp claws. Some of the attacks would hit the ground and leave a gouge that was easily two or three hoofs deep. The strikes themselves were even powerful enough to send a shockwave to do the same over a dozen yards behind Gambits location.
But when it came to Gambit himself, the dark cloaked figure was seemingly unfazed as he was now dodging the swipes. From Celestia's angle, Gambit was only moving what was needed to avoid a slash before dancing around them and immediately transitioning to the next needed segments of body movements. These avoiding tactics weren't even over the top or flashy with him just shifting his weight from one way to the next at such speeds, that it could only be conceived on pure instinct.
During all of this, the Lion King was constantly roaring throughout the entire assault and only became wilder by the second, as his movements went from precise and calculated, to being completely random near the end. Said end, only came after Gambit started to talk for the first time and Luna relayed his words. “I've waited long enough. That's enough embarrassment for one day. How about I give it a try?”
After the last words were spoken. Gambit changed his movements and closed the gap so that he was now too close for the random swipes to even come close. From where he was now. He sent a gut punch right at Sahar’s stomach and effectively stunning him with his arms still out to his sides. The force of the punch that was used on the king, caused his oversized form to lurch forward. Also, his mouth was stuck hanging open as some spittle and blood came flying out after releasing a small cough.
Even his red bloodshot eyes were on the threshold of coming right out of his eye sockets, while the right one was twitching erratically. And even with his sight being locked straight ahead. Sahar tried to speak as his voice was now showing a great amount of pain and a lack of oxygen from being unable to breathe properly at the moment.
“Gah!... Ha-how... Only lev-... Who!... What are-. I-I give up! You win! I'll even apologize...” However, his little speech was cut off when Gambit spoke up in in a way that made Luna's fur visibly bristled, along with her feathers getting slightly ruffled. “You murdered your own father. You butchered your mother and younger brothers as well... You turned what was a utopia into a land we're only the strongest have any rights.”
“Your slaves are mostly those of family members who had to sell themselves in order to save the rest of their family from starvation or sickness. All of it due to your mishandling of the country. I know all about your operations to mine crystals. You don't care one bit of those who live here and allow crime to go unchecked. Your views on being a ruler are completely wrong! Believing that they just have to do everything you say without question is just the height of stupidity.”
But before Gambit could continue. The fist he used was pulled away from Sahar and another one was launched straight up so that it would collide with the bottom of his jaw. The force in which that was applied, caused his entire facial features to be slightly warped for that split second before the Lions body was flung back and crashed onto the dirt, but not first doing a complete flip and crashing onto his back. From where she, stood Celestia could plainly see a couple of broken teeth flying off when this was done.
He then continued. “A ruler is meant to be the one that stands to help the People! They are not meant to just order others around for their own personal gain, but for the betterment of their society! What you have done is nothing but showing off and brainwashing the masses and to believing your ways are right. You warped their views. Corrupted their souls. You broke up families! Destroyed communities! You make me sick! that way of thinking will only make your citizens appear to be nothing but animals!”
“Fathers, Mothers, Sons and Daughters. Even the newborns were not left untouched by your thoughtless and selfish actions... Even when those with power try to do what is right in your lands, you go and send mercenary’s and thugs to kidnap their families and threaten with their death's?! You even go so far as to poison the land with your drug operations and caused the forces of nature to go mad! You have nearly two dozen wives and you still go after others and force your way into their bed chambers!!!”
If I hadn't stepped in, and you went even an inch further with your attempts, then you would have been dead last night... But no, I wanted to make sure that you are made an example. Why else would I put forth this challenge? I already knew all about you and your ways. Why do you even think I let it slip to one of your guards that you had eavesdropping on me about being level forty?”
“Huh? Come on, use that brain of yours. I held back enough so you should still be able to have common sense. That is if you even had any to begin with! Wasn't your new plan to have me killed in front of a massive crowd? With the whole fanfare you were giving out, I expected so much more.”
King Sahar rose on to his hands and knees after rolling over and coughing up some teeth. Only to quickly get back onto his feet once again and turn to face Gambit. Visible veins could be seen pulsing on his head from the extreme anger flooding his body. If it were even possible, the fur all over bristled to where it was standing up like needles. It was quite clear that the king lost all sense of reasoning when he dropped to all fours once again and tried to pounce on Gambit as though he was some wild cat with rabies.
Although, this came as a surprise to everyone there, that is aside from Luna. That Gambit dodged this and Sahar only ended up tumbling until he was rolling onto his back, before getting back on to all fours once more and attempting to do the same move over and over again with constant failures. After the fifth attempt, the king got back onto his hind legs and thrashed his arms around and released another roar that caused pretty much everything to shake within the structure.
However, this one didn't exactly end like the other, as there was this thick black gas being emitted from his mouth. This was quickly followed with weird, slimy tendrils sprouting and wrapping around his own head. What followed next, was accompanied by the King gasping, with his mouth for the first few seconds. While wheezing for air, along with choking gargles.
Soon, his head was slowly taken over inch by inch. As his fur was being flattened before hardening into a metallic black sheen. Eventually, most of his upper half on the right side of his body was now a black suit of armor, which had some lion aesthetics thrown in. Such as the Kings original fur pattern along the arms and mostly in his mane.
By the time the transformation finally slow down to a stop. The right side of his chest going out was now clad in a suit of armor. This covered his shoulder and entire right arm. Whereas the leg was only partly covered. When it came to the head, that was now a solid metal covering, that took on the strong facial resemblance of Sahar. It also included the mane going out and into imposing spikes. On the top of his head could be seen two horns that were growing and made out of the same black substance.
The left one was only out by a couple of inches, where the one on the right was easily three hoofs long, as it was now in a straight line going up after curving at the back sides. Where the eyes should be. Were completely glazed over with a white metal and the mouth was locked open as more of the black ooze trickled off of the sides of the mouth and stuck in mid roar, if one was to go off the facial expression. His body began to flail about for a few more seconds, before coming to a complete stop with his head partly tilted upwards.
He then lurched forward and spewed up a large amount of the substance. That muck quickly pulled in front of him on the stone and dirt ground. This went on for at least several seconds and the amount that came out was clearly more than what was meant to be held within one's body.
This site caused Celestia to hold one of her hands up to her mouth out of fear, as Luna stepped forward and grabbed on to the railing so that she could try and get a good look at what was going on with a steely gaze. The spy however, having already seen this should have been fine. But judging from the way she was looking away; the Bat Pony was unable to relive the scene a second time.
The amount of goop on the ground started to ripple as it was flowing towards the middle instead of going outwards. Soon, it began to build up until it was now nearly a few inches high, before it went further by condensing itself until it took on a solid form. The King reached out and grasped onto what it was before pulling it free. As his hand drew further from the puddle, more and more of it came along until it was nearly all used up and now forming a very long two-handed blade that gave off a peculiar curve.
(Here is a picture of the blade.)
The whole thing was made to have only one side having the edge and the metal being pure black that reflected the light of the sun very easily. What made it more impressive, was how it seemed to be made for his tall stature now that the King was a good three and a half meters tall. If the blade itself was stuck into the ground, then the handle might have reached as far as Sahar's upper chest without a doubt.
By the time the transformation was completed. Everyone there was in a full panic. Among the screaming, there were those trying to rush out of the arena and almost trampling one another in order to do so. Some others ended up fainting upon witnessing the horrific change and were now slumped over the chairs in front of them.
When it came to the announcer, he was up in one of the box seats and cowering behind a large chair along with the Lioness that was with him earlier standing at his side and in plane view as she kept still and had this look on her face that just screamed out, “I don’t get paid enough for this.”
The princess then heard the very same Lion calling out in a mix of determination and fright, in his voice as it boomed across the arena. “Everyone! Remain calm and exit in an orderly fashion! What? No-no! What are you talking about? I'm going to stay here! You go ahead and leave if you want, but I'm staying! Who else is going to announce the winner! I'm telling you to stop trying to pull me! Don't worry folks! I'll be right here to announce the results even if it cost me my life!”
Even from where Celestia was standing. It was clear to see that the lioness in the box seat was giving an indignant stare towards the Lion, while crossing her arms in protest. Yet she made no signs of leaving and reach down and picked up a sword and shield and just stood by the announcer. Back in the arena, everything went completely silent as the two fighters squared off against one another. But after a moment, Celestia heard a hallowed echoing sound of one of them breathing that came off as extremely haunting to her perked ears.
The next thing to occur, was a sudden explosion of dark mist with Sahar being the focal point. It didn't even take a full second before the entire arena below was covered with a miss, that obstructed all vision to the point that everything within could only be seen as rough outlines. The dream even showed their spy approaching the railing and reaching out her hand in an attempt to touch the mist. But instead, she was blocked by a physical barrier. On closer inspection, it was a perfect circle and completely closed off the battlegrounds from the outside world.
This was made obvious when the memory of the spy could be seen taking to the air in an attempt at getting overhead. Only to quickly discover that it went higher and higher and she was unable to go over. That was when Celestia's eyes were drawn to a flash of light from the ground below. King Sahar was unchanged, but Gambits attire was now different, with him wearing something on top of his head. Whatever it was, there was no doubt it was a kind of hat, but its shape was quite strange with how it was a wide rim going all the way around as though it was an umbrella.
Upon squinting her eyes and getting as close as possible. Celestia could just barely make out the new change of clothing. Even though her vision was still deeply muddled. The shoulders could be seen being a little sharper and the rest gave off a different feel compared to the white robes from earlier. She was also positive that he was now holding something that was attached to his left waist. The object was pretty long and had a slight curve along the length.
Gambit then took one step forward with his left leg and crouched a little. As is left arm could be seen holding on to the object, the free right-hand reach down and grabbed onto it as well. From then, the air was still riddled with that odd sense of breathing coming from Sahar. But Luna's voice broke the silence as she relayed what was said within on Gambits part. “This brings back old memories... What would you say, this would make what, the twelfth or thirteenth time we fought?”
King Sahar could be heard now, although his voice came out as two toned and clearly both confused and worried. “Eikon Slayer... Kin killer... How… How are you still alive? Weaker... you're weaker now!” For that whole time, he was speaking quite cautiously. But when it got to the point when he first said that Gambit was weaker. The tone of his voice started to turn more confident. By now, the two started to walk in a clockwise manor, while still keeping their distance as Sahar continued speaking and that weird voice of his.
“Others say you became weak. Not as strong as before...” There was now this slow cackle that echoed on the wind from King Sahar, as his shadowy form was now jerking from the act before continuing. “We thought we were through with you. But here you are... Titan... Garuda... even Ifrit... No! I am not a failure! I prove... Not failure!” From what she gathered. These two obviously had a history and if one was to follow the choice of words being uttered. A history that was not friendly at all.
Then Celestia continued with her thoughts. “This monster was confused as to why Gambit was around. And that he was apparently stronger in the past?” But she couldn't really wrap her mind around the concept of this thing being worried so much of being seen as a failure. There was also the term, Eikon Slayer. That didn't register in her mind. However, she did notice at the corner of her vision, that her younger sister Luna was looking quite pale and was about to ask her what was wrong, when the fighting started back up again.
All Celestia could see where the silhouettes of the two going at each other. As Sahar brought up his large sword, which was held in one hand. While Gambit kept his hidden until the last second of avoiding his opponents swing and drawing out a long, thin blade to strike at the monster while in the middle of running by. Sahar swung weapon around to try and get Gambit from behind in retaliation. But the smaller of the two leaped out of the way by doing a backflip, which sent him a good fifteen yards away.
But right as he landed. Celestia saw him swinging his blade after first, returning it to the sheath and redrawing it. This ended with him sending a crescent moon shaped source of light and immediately gave chase at nearly the same speed. In doing so, he was less than a quarter of a second behind.
As the Lion King brought his sword up to defend against the aerial attack. Gambit closed in the distance and hit him with a flurry of attacks. Because of the dark mist, there was only the short flashes of light that shined off of the blade with each swing Gambit made and the loud metal on metal clashing.
After several blows were dealt. Gambit leaped away right as the ground in a circular pattern around Sahar exploded with a vibrant white light. Not even a second had gone by, before the large weapon was swung and sent smaller orbs of the same color right at him. Which gave him no other choice than to dodge by running in a counterclockwise direction, along with weaving and changing direction ever so often.
Wherever one of the orbs landed, there was another large explosion that sent some dust and debris high above the strange mist. She even noticed how these attacks were trying to change direction while in midair in response to Gambits own movements in real time. This sent the thought that the spells were locked on to him and it was a miracle he was not struck yet with the speed that they were flying towards him with.
Given the way he was running around and contorting his body. While going into a number of different lunges and flips to narrowly miss getting struck. This gave Celestia the impression that he was somehow able to tell where they were going to land ahead of time and was using that information to use the least amount of energy possible, while trying to stay one step ahead. Surely, that could have only been done by a seasoned warrior with much time being on the battlefield.
Once the attack from Sahar was exhausted and the obstruction only got worse from the amount of dirt being kicked into the air. Celestia was barely able to see Gambit rushing in and delivering another furious set of attacks and causing the King to let out a pained roar. While trying to hit Gambit with a counter attack of his own. But before the large blade was able to gain enough momentum to be effectively used.
Gambit used yet another technique, which gave off a pale white light of his own after turning his blade around so that when he pulled in words, the blade would pass underneath his own arm and strike at Sahar just above the hips on the left side without the armor. That was when Luna called out almost excitedly. “Sister! I saw it, that was ice magic just then!” What followed next, was a series of blinding flashes that gave off an orange hue of light.
What immediately followed after that. Was Sahar screaming in agony. As he flailed his weapon around in a vein attempt to get Gambit, as he skillfully dodged it and used another set of attacks before going with something new. After re-sheathing his blade. It was pulled free yet again. However, Celestia only saw him moving his arm for a single swing, but there could be seen these five flashes of blueish white light emanating from where he stood and causing deep wounds to be dealt to Sahar. This was obvious with the amount of blood that could be seen spilling into the air right after.
Although the attack did strike and do what might have been a massive amount of damage to the monster that was once a king. Gambit was in place for far too long and was finally hit by the oversized weapon and sent flying. By the time he stopped, Gambits form could be seen slamming into the edge of the barrier, which then gave off a ripple effect that went along the entire network and passing by where the three spectators were now standing.
As Celestia was about to further go on with the memory. A gentle set of knocks came to her door and broke her from her thoughts and turned her head towards it with a look of mild annoyance crossing her features for about a second. This only lasted until they return to their normal serene one after a moment and she called out. But not before sitting up straight so she was no longer simply lounging on the bean bag chair. “Please, come in.”
The pony who came in, turned out to be the same one from before and Celestia took a quick glance at the clock in the room and found that almost a half an hour went by. After, the mare came in and fixed her clipboard for a moment. She then said, “My Princess. There are a few matters that require your personal attention. We have only six and a half hours until the Grand Galloping Gala commences, yet you’re fitting for tonight's dress and a few last-minute finalizations have yet to be completed and handed out.”
As Celestia was giving a small nod and getting ready to leave the room along with the secretary. She couldn't help but to scowl on the inside, as she really wanted to finish with her little trip down memory lane. Also, it didn't quite help with her not really wanting to wear a new dress when she already had so many stuffed in her closet. Yeah, her subjects would most undeniably be disappointed if she didn't at least do this much and resigned herself to the fate.
But just before she left the room. She glanced towards the window that barely had a good enough view to show the tower that housed Luna's bed chamber off in the distance and began to wonder to herself the following. “Luna... I know not why, but you have been troubled these last few days. I do wish you would confide in me in what it might be. Please reconsider and join me for tonight's festivities.”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Princess Luna's bed Chambers*
With the lights off and the windows closed so completely, that not even a single thread of light was able to enter the room. Luna was fast asleep in the middle of her large bed for the day. Unlike the time she would spend in the Dream Realm during the night, where she was wide awake. The day was when she truly slept and right now, this was made pretty clear with the way her eyelids would shift to indicate that she was having a dream of her own right at this very moment.
She pressed her lips after a few moments went by. While contorting her face and displeasure, before letting out a heavy huff of air and turning onto her right side. This was soon followed with her doing the same and the other direction, before gripping onto her blankets and pulling on them quite roughly. But before long, she began to mutter a string of words over and over again. “Eikon… Eikon… Eikon Slayer...”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 63: Day of The Gala. Part Two.
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Location: Princess Luna's bed chamber. Within her mind* *Time: Ten Thirty-five in the morning*
Inside of Luna's dream the following was set to be at the old castle of the two sisters. Although, a few things were quite a bit off when compared to the last time it had visitors. The old throne room was in shambles as Nightmare Moon was squaring off against Twilight and her friends. The Elements of Harmony were broken and scattered all about the floor where the dark Alicorn stood. Celestia was nowhere in sight and the six were all very beat up and barely able to get onto their unsteady legs.
All that went through Nightmares mind, was taking over Equestria and having her eternal night to rain over the land and seal the victory she was longing for the last thousand years. The orange Pony with one of her legs having been broken earlier on, was trying to use her axe in order to get back up with it as a crutch. The white Unicorn, along with the yellow Pegasus were strewn out onto the floor and apparently knocked out cold.
As for the pink excitable one. All that could be seen, was the left hand of hers, as it was sticking out from a pile of stone rubble that was once one of the many support pillars throughout the room. When it came to the blue Pegasus that was wielding a set of knives. She was currently being held in Nightmare Moon’s left hand, as the blade was being ready with the other and now lifted so that the edge could be seen pressing up against the mare’s neck.
Twilight was a short distance away and pretty exhausted with all the heavy breathing she was doing. Her horn barely giving off anything better than a few sparks of magic. Nightmare Moon was in the middle of one of her triumphant declarations after defeating the so-called Element bearers and was just about the force Twilight and to be coming her servant and student, as to be another strike against her older sister, by threatening to kill one of her friends if Twilight should refuse the offer.
But, before the scene could move any further. Nightmare Moon's weapon was roughly knocked from her grip and sent to the floor quite a ways without any warning. While at the same time, her left hand felt empty as that wrist began to feel some pressure on it, before a sharp pain ran up her arm and made her release a strained scream.
Once her moment of surprise ran its course in just a second. Quickly her agonizing pain turned into fear, upon bringing her attention to that arm and seeing it gripped with a large hand being encased in a dark gauntlet. The creaking of metal upon metal could be heard as the fingers slowly coiled around and applied more pressure.
That hand could be seen being connected to the one she knew as Gambit. Who is wearing the same armor from their fight and looking down at her in a way that made him more imposing than even back then. The dark eye coverings were now a pale white that glistened in the moon’s rays. The defining shapes of his armor were far more pronounced, with there being much more jagged pieces along the shoulders and joints.
She was just about to try and order him to release her arm through gritted teeth, but was interrupted with him swinging upwards with his other arm and detaching her gripped arm from her body, at just above the elbow with a single pass of his weapon. This was then followed less than a second later, with that very same blade coming down right as Nightmare Moon leaned forward in a silent scream of pain, that was just about to turn into a loud cry. Although, that never came about as she was immediately decapitated when the blade cleaved through her neck.
From there, all that Nightmare Moon could see was the world beginning to move without her input Then the upside-down sight of her own body, along with Gambit coming into view, before she realized just what had happened and continued to tumble until she was pretty much laying at Twilight's feet and staring straight up at the mare with wide eyes that quickly lost life within seconds.
This was eventually followed with everything going silent, as Luna suddenly appearing off to the side and walking between a few of the still intact pillars to look at the frozen scene in front of herself. As soon as her form came into the light after several steps. She was already holding her right hand up to her neck and having an expression that just screamed, that she went through a near-death experience of some kind, while still looking at the lifeless head laying on the floor.
Her body was in a constant state of shock with the way she was trembling all over after witnessing the scene play out. Her eyes not even moving even a twitch from where they were looking, while beads of sweat were trickling down her face. After a few seconds of this, she took in a sharp breath between her teeth before crumpling and now on her knees and covering her face as she quietly sobbed with her head lowered.
After a long moment passed. Luna was still clearly crying and allowing the shed tears to fall to the dirty stone floor beneath. After using her left hand to try and wipe away some of it. Luna began to talk to herself in a somber mood, while still looking towards the floor and keeping herself pretty much hidden behind her mane and wings drooping so much that they were now laying on the floor.
“Why does this cause me so much more pain when compared to how it was in so many of my dreams before? It was never this bad until now. And he was referred to as a, Eikon Slayer. What pray tell exactly is an Eikon?” That was when she brought both of her hands and placed them in a position to cover up where her heart should be before going on. “How could such a title cause me to feel this much fear and trepidation?”
Luna started to slowly shake her head in order to try and shake off these feelings before speaking again, but this time there was a small amount of defiance placed in there, along with her fearful tone. “The both of us have been conversing every few days, yet I can't bring myself to cast that location spell for several nights now...”
“Eikon… Eikon… Why? Why do I feel as though I should know what that word means? He might just tell me if I ask. NO! I-I can't do that! He believes Twilight Sparkle to be the one that was keeping an eye on him and sending us the reports! If I mention Eikon’s, then he would know that there's another.”
Luna slowly raised herself onto her hoofs after a few seconds and manipulated the dream with her horn in order to bring back her memories of her personal spy’s previous report. Within a short time, the castle was replaced and Luna took on the role of her self during the meeting in order to see just what was going on for a second run through.
Although, even if she wasn't doing it this time around, Celestia was still being told what was said as before. So, she didn't have to put so much of her concentration on doing that task and devoted most of her senses to the fight and everything else going on.
Honestly, Luna was getting a fair bit tired of having to repeat everything Gambit was saying for sister. But felt that there was a reason for why Gambit wouldn't talk to her directly. So, she was willing to put up with it for now. It had even run across her mind that this issue might have already been resolved, if Celestia was allowed to see him at night. But clearly, he didn't want her older sister in his mind at all for the foreseeable future.
As of right now, she was looking down at the arena that was mostly covered in a black mist. But she was still able to make out everything that was going on to a small degree. The scene started off only a few seconds before the monster started to babble about Gambit being a slayer and making a fuss and constantly proclaiming that he was not a failure.
Luna expected Gambit to take this creature down quite quickly, but was obviously having some trouble. Even though multiple attacks landed and Luna had to hold back a cringe upon seeing him getting tossed across the arena from the large weapon finally making contact. Fortunately enough, Luna was quite accustomed to seeing things in the dark, so she was able to catch a glimpse of Gambit bringing up his weapon in order to parry the blade and prevent himself from getting cut in half at the very last instant before getting sent flying and crashing against the barrier.
Gambit was now pressing himself against the wall with his back and slowly standing back up. All the while, he was keeping his left hand behind himself and pressing it onto the strange field that divided the area and the outside world. At the same time, using the other arm to hold up his weapon in a defensive stance to indicate he was ready to retaliate, if King Sahar should come any closer. Luna took to the air and looked back for a brief moment to see that her past self was still in position and playing her role.
Afterwards, she flew through the barrier and tried to get closer to observe anything that she might have missed from up in the stands. Although, now she was at a better vantage point. However, it still changed nothing when it came to getting a better look and making out exactly what Gambit was dressed like with it just being a dark haze. Even though she was only a few paces away, she couldn't help but to Grumble to herself on not being able to clear it up, but kept a vigilant watch and an ear open as the scene played out.
Sahar swung is blade, while still nearly half of the arena away and shot another series of attacks that were coming straight for Gambit. In response, he stomped his right foot that was in front of himself onto the floor, and called out the following. “By my name, decipher the laws of nature. I call upon the power of earth, come forth and do my bidding! Spite Bamboo Spike!”
Luckily, he spoke this out fast enough that it triggered its effect just as the attacks we’re about to reach him. What happened next, was the ground pretty much exploding with multiple bamboo shoots that were going in a straight line across and several going forward from there so quickly, that it was hard to keep up with their rate of growth.
Each one was a good inch and a half thick, and was easily close to three meters tall. From a rough estimate, there must have been twelve or perhaps fifteen going across and five or six going forward to make a fan pattern along the ground. What's more, was the way they came up and were now crisscrossing each other to make a diamond pattern and effectively went to work with blocking the oncoming blasts of magic that attempted to tear right through.
With each one making contact and blasting away at several pieces. One might have thought that the shield of plants might have only given him some protection for a few seconds. But whenever there was even a fraction of a second in between one of the lights coming in to destroy the cover.
The bamboo shoots would be replaced just in a nick of time. Eventually, even this had a limit by the looks of it and it only lasted long enough to intercept the very last of the incoming blasts. Which came dangerously close to his blade, but thankfully it was just far enough that it didn't cause any real harm, aside from a few broken splinters bouncing off of his clothing.
Ironically enough, Gambit was not making any type of move to leave his current spot and Luna wondered as to why he was not taking his hand away from the barrier and firmly placing his palm onto it, seeing as he still had enough strength to cast such a strange spell on the ground. Judging from the positioning of his arm, it wasn't as though he was using it to keep himself upright or anything of the sort.
Her attention was drawn away from this question, when she heard Sahar letting out another one of his loud roars and began to charge at Gambit. While wielding his weapon in his right arm and swinging it madly. In the corner of her eye, she witnessed Gambit shifting his front leg again and pressing forward a little. This in turn caused the very same phenomenon from before to occur. But instead of acting as a barrier to protect himself, it was instead used to capture Sahar in a type of a green woven cage.
Luna's eyes went wide at realizing the timing of it all, as both the oversized weapon and arm was locked in place, right at the precise moment for it to come to a stop, before coming back around again. Which meant that there was literally no momentum at all to smash through the improvised bindings. Said bindings would sway and bend only so much before the tension caused them to bounce back to their previous location whenever he tried to break loose.
Shoots were crisscrossing in such a way, that they tangled pretty much all-around Sahar's body. While also reaching in odd directions as they made their way between his legs and arms to put him at odd angles. There were even a few that attempted to stab him, but only managed to give a light scratch or two, before breaking after coming into contact with his tough hide or metal clad parts of his form.
She then heard him whispering under his breath the following phrase. “Just a little longer... Just be a good little Odin… And just give me a few more seconds.” Luna blinked a few times at the word Odin, before Sahar started to thrash about more wildly and started to snap a few of the bamboo shoots as a result. It then took at least eight or maybe ten seconds or so, before he was free again and resumed charging Gambit after exhibiting an extreme amount of strength and sending the pieces flying.
When Sahar got close enough. He raised his right arm and brought down his blade with what Luna thought was all his strength. This amount of force caused a thick dust cloud to erupt right as the blade was to make contact with Gambit. But after several seconds, Luna could see that Sahar wasn't exactly looking happy with the way his body was still tensing up on the edge of the smoke screen that was created by such a mighty downward slash.
It only took a moment before the screen faded away and revealed something that was hovering just over Gambit's head. From what she could tell. It was giving off an ethereal green shine and took on the shape of a kite shield, that was more than big enough to cover pretty much most of Gambit's body. There was even a pair of grunts coming from both Sahar and Gambit, as they were pretty much fighting for who would win out, that could be easily heard over the grinding of weapon and shield against one another.
Gambit then said through gritted teeth. “I said... to wait... a few seconds.” In response, Sahar began to talk as well, although his normal voice would be echoed, along with the weird second one was being easily eclipsed more and more, as each of the following words came out of his metal clad face.
“You... Didn't have these powers before. Your level, is lower... Yet, you’re this strong... What else... Are you hiding?” By now, the larger of the two was beginning to gain some leverage. This meant that the shield was starting to slowly lower, as the blade was pressing down even harder during the talking.
But Gambit responded to that, while seemingly pushing back a few inches. “Need to do a lot... Better, if you're going to... Win! What's the matter? Gah! Did you skip your breakfast of crystals this morning? Ha! Titan was a lot more troublesome than you!” Sahar was now digging his legs into the ground and creating some deep grooves, by displacing some dirt as he retorted in a much angrier tone. “Don't… Dare compare my strength to such a weakling! Weaklings! My current strength is... More than is required to end your life!”
Gambits voice was now filled with humor and a hint of being condescending as he spoke. “I'm literally holding you back... Gah! With one hand behind me no less! Ha-Haha! If I’m being technical here, then I’m literally doing it with no hands! And here you are and you’re laying your whole fat ass on my shield! Yet, here I am! Gerrr! If anything, you're displaying just how weak pathetic you really are!”
“Now fill me in on a little... Something that I've been wondering since the beginning of... Gah!... This little sparring match! Are there conditions that need to be met... Or can any idiot pick up your sword and get possessed? Because otherwise, you must have really picked a winner... So... Gerr! Was it your idea or his to kill off the royal family?”
This was when Sahar started to push again and the two were evenly matched, without giving any type of ground to the other. This time, Sahar’s voice returned to an even balance, but the King's voice was filled with a thick layer of mirth. While the strange one, was that of indifference. “It just so happened, that it coincided with both of our views. Taking the throne by any means was always a desire. Not much had to be done other than... To gain strength. That is all I needed to claim my birthright!”
By now, Sahar's normal voice was dominant among the two, has he went on. “Haha-Haha-Haha! After hearing of your exploits in my lands. I thought to make you a vassal to serve under my rule. What a pity you turned out to be the Slayer! It's almost hilarious! Too bad really. After getting that Princess of the sun to bow down and become my wife.”
“I was going to let you have the leftovers and take the younger sister as part of the deal. She's defective anyway! Who needs a scrawny ass girl that would so easily be turned against their own family after being alive for far longer than me. She would no doubt slit her own lovers throat if it meant gaining any type of advantage.”
Even though Luna already heard this before only a few nights ago. It didn't exactly help with how much that comment got to her. Although, those thoughts were flipped around when she heard Gambit talking again, but this time, there was pretty much no emotion behind his words. Which only caused them to be all that much more terrifying, yet at the same time, causing Luna to slightly blush.
“Just for that... I'm going to take your head and put it on a plaque to decorate my home. I will not allow you to speak ill of Luna! She may have tried to make her eternal night a reality. She may have tried to take her revenge upon being released from the moon after a thousand years. Yes! She had done those things. Yet, she has not taken a single life, in any of those pursuits.”
Gambits floating Shield was now starting to push back and this eliciting a few grunts of exertion from Sahar in doing so. Before continuing in the same dead tone. “She has committed crimes that cannot be simply excused and forgot. But she is making up for them and it is fully remorseful for those past decisions.” By now, the shield which was less than half a hoof from his head, was now easily four yards away. Gambit's voice could still be heard as Sahar desperately tried to push back and releasing a series of growls in vain.
Gambit still went on to say, “To have one who would mercilessly slaughter his own Father, Mother and Siblings... Has no right whatsoever in this life or the next, to condemn Luna in anyway. Saying that she's the failure... Ha... Ha-Ha-ha! What a joke, what a farce. If anything, you're just projecting your own insecurities and so-called failures onto another in order to make yourself feel better. How about I tell you a little something about the one you were just looking down on?”
By then, Gambit was now lowering his arm that was on the barrier this whole time and standing up straight with both hands now gripping the swords handle in front of himself. At the same time, raising the blade in a ready stance, as he spoke further. “When Luna was still Nightmare Moon, she was barely fighting me at half her strength.”
“I dare say, she would have had a decent chance of beating me if she were to have used her utmost capabilities when we met. And with all that power, she showed me concern when I told my tale. Even after all these centuries and being labeled as evil. Compassion was still in her heart. So, I will not hear you say another bad thing about her, EVER AGAIN!” it might have been a trick of the mind. But Luna was almost positive that there was a bone chilling growl at the very end of that sentence.
Even as Sahar was being pushed back and making a few grooves into the ground with his metal clawed paws. He grunted past his helmet the following words in clear disbelief. “You were the one... Who vanquished Nightmare Moon? My sources said it was the new bearers of the Elements. They saw it all happening from outside of the castle. That mare was struck with their power and only that pathetic Luna remained.”
Luna's eyes narrowed at Sahar for that remark. It was because of this, for the last week. Both she and her older sister were looking into any clues, as to who was there that night aside from those that they knew of. Yet they're investigation turned up nothing. Luna's thoughts were broken on that subject, when she heard Gambit’s tone changing to that of amusement, as he called out to Sahar. “What's the matter? Don't tell me you're running on empty? It must have really taken a toll out of you to try and make a half assed transformation like the one you have going on.”
Sahar took a quick step back with his left leg in order to gain some momentary distance from the shield and swung down as hard as he could with his weapon and smashed it to tiny pieces. Those pieces quickly dispersed after flying into the air, after first making a loud shattering sound from the swords impact.
This was immediately followed with Sahar spreading his legs, along with both arms in order to roar straight up into the sky. Afterwards, it didn't take much time at all before Luna turned her head in the direction that she remembered an odd light coursing through a part of the stadium during the first review of this memory.
Even with some time passing since the Kings transformation. There was close to a third of the spectators inside of the structure that were still trying to escape. As the crowds were pushing themselves past the archway. The gates that were being held up were suddenly released and slammed down after releasing a chorus of chain rattling noises. Luckily, this was loud enough to alert those below and they narrowly avoided being cut in half by the metal reinforced wooden doors. Of course, this went for all the other exits, which meant that those that were still inside were now trapped.
Along the floor in separate sections of the colosseum. Were some large manhole covers that were made of metal bars just big enough for someone to slip their small hand through the gaps. It was from these, that the strange light sources were beginning to come from. Wisps of colorful lights, along with tendrils of energy were flowing out and into the air as a river and making their way over to Sahar. Luna then witnessed as Gambit was not making any type of effort to stop him, as the lights phased passed his armor and flowed straight into his body.
The King of the Lions was now releasing these non-stop growls and hisses of pain during this process. But soon, that turned into more of a exhilarated grunt, as his body began to ripple as if there were millions of tiny worms, just wriggling and writhing underneath the skin. After a few seconds of this gross vision going on. The muscles that weren't in the parts of his body with joints, suddenly expanded so much, that it was within the realm of possibility that he was literally going to pop parts of his body like an overstuffed sausage.
But after a few more seconds of this going on. Luna barely perceived the moment that everything else grew to accommodate the new muscle mass and Sahar was now easily four and a half meters tall. Now if that wasn't enough. There was also more of the black ooze spewing from his mouth.
But instead of it falling to the ground, it turned into tendrils and was quickly wrapping itself around his body at the very instant it hit the air. Only this time, Sahar was paying it no mind as it did before, where it was clearly causing him some major discomfort. There was no violent jerking or any type of indication that he was having any problems whatsoever with breathing.
Soon whatever, parts of his body that we're still exposed, was being covered up by a complete set of black armor that conform to his new size perfectly within seconds. When it came to the horns on his head. They shifted so that they were going backwards, before going in a V-shape and coming back and shooting straight up to make a pair of identical straight antlers, that was just too big to be practical.
Even the blade itself grew on its own without any type of interference by the odd substance, as it was now so tall, that one swipe could have easily cleaved a battalion of guards in a single stroke. This would also include the one right behind without any effort. Although there was this odd sound of metal creaking as it did.
The King then started to laugh, as his two-tone voice was being completely overshadowed by the hollowed out one. He then said in a voice without any emotion after the laughing was finished. “Yeah, yeah! Finally, yes!” Gambit's voice quickly cut through afterwards and spoke as though none of this was much of a surprise.
“I suppose I am speaking with the true Odin now, am I correct?” This got nothing as a response from the now called Odin, other than him sweeping the sword over his head a few times and causing the mist to go out to the very edges of the arena and only going as far up as the wall itself and coming up a few inches short from going over the railing and onto the first row of seats.
This of course, got rid of pretty much most of the cover and revealed Gambit to be wearing an unusual set of robes and a wide rim hat. But instead of seeing his face, all Luna got was everything between the neck and the hat, being completely wrapped up in white tattered bandages as most areas were wrapped up pretty tight and others seemingly loose and very close to falling off. And because of the headwear overshadowing the upper part of his face, Luna wasn't even able to see his eyes.
However, it took several seconds before something clicked in her mind back then, as she recalled one of the dreams that displayed another unknown City that was near an ocean. It was when she was about to climb some steps in order to find Gambit in a large building at the top of the hill. Even though there was no one around. The shops were still full of wears and she recalled they're being some articles of clothing that were put up on display that had a striking resemblance to the style that he was wearing now.
Gambit could be seen gripping onto a sword even tighter, as his clothing was being blown by a win coming out of nowhere, before practically vanishing after taking a single step and delivering a wide slash to the metallic abdomen of Sahar. Instead of flinching or even so much as a sound of discomfort being made on the larger ones Part. Sahar just countered and swung his blade down with so much force. That a good third of the blade was cutting into the ground itself right as Gambit avoided it and got behind in an instant with some fancy footwork.
He then delivered another series of attacks onto the Kings exposed back, before the large blade was twisted so that the edge was now facing Gambit and swung as if the ground wasn't even a factor in keeping it still. Gambit avoided that one as well when it came close, but had to use his sword to cut away some of the larger pieces of rocks that ended up getting in his way from the blades rapid motion when coming out of the ground and was now keeping over a dozen yards between himself and Sahar.
The King's body was covered in multiple deep cuts from Gambit. Yet no blood was spilled. However, the streams of light came back again and upon going into his body. The wounds miraculously closed up within seconds as the metal was repaired in very much the same way. From a glance the armor itself would turn into a liquid state as it pulled itself together again and flattened out before hardening.
That was when Gambit started to say the following, as his blade was being in circled along its form with tiny strands of light, before changing its shapes slightly and giving off a fiery glow. “Let's see if that regeneration works with cauterized wounds. Good chance to find out how much damage I can do with a sword from Ifrit, along with some enhancements of my own.”
From Luna's perspective. There were these two red orbs that can easily fit in her hand and they were a fixed with one in a slot of the blade right as it left the handguard and the other at the bottom of the long handle. One of them began to glow and the already red-hot blade was now giving off some flames that caused the very air around it to visibly ripple from the produced heat. A second later, the next orb lit up and the flames grew by nearly two folds.
That was when the two began to fight in earnest again with charging at one another. Sahar swung his long blade with a bit more efficiency than before. Gambit would try to weave as best as he could and used his blade to perry a few strikes in order to guide the rest of the hit away. Sahar would continue with causing the ground to erupt and shoot the orbs from before after giving a roar.
While Gambit was seemingly able to anticipate where those unexpected ground attacks would come from and slash away some of the others with that long-range attack of his. What couldn't be simply dodged or countered, was blocked by another use of that plant spell. Even though Luna knew she couldn't get hurt in her own dream. She still couldn't help herself but to actively avoid anything that came near her. She was even more surprised by how well Gambit was able to move so quickly and avoid these seemingly random attacks. Especially with his large physique.
She thought that he would be at a slight disadvantage with being the smaller one now. But it became painfully clear that Gambit must have been accustomed to fighting others that were much larger than himself. As the fight continued, Luna could tell that the blade was indeed causing whatever was being cut, to be scorched black as the flames passed through the fresh injury.
Although, the healing was still taking effect, but at a much slower pace as a result to cauterizing the wound as Gambit mentioned earlier. When it came to the arena itself. It was pretty much trashed with everything inside of the barrier, now covered in cuts from both of their weapons. But most of which was done by the King and his oversized sword and the wide arcs being made.
After nearly seven minutes of constant clashing by the two. Sahar was looking as though the fight hadn't even occurred thanks to all the healing being done. In fact, there wasn't even any signs of his chest moving to suggest that he was even winded in the least. However, when it came to Gambit. He wasn't looking all that good. His clothing was pretty scuffed up and a few cuts could be seen in many parts.
His gloved hands that had the fingers tightly wrapped up in bandages, were now stained deep with red. Even some of the bandages where his mouth should be, now showed signs that he was coughing up at least a small amount of blood and it was spreading all over his jaw and even dripping onto his chess as the excess fluid exceeded the amount that the bandages could hold.
From there, the bandages soaked in to the nearby black fabric. Even his left sleeve bared a cut near the elbow, where it was just enough, that if it took any more damage. Then it might even come detached from the rest of the sleeve. Luna was very surprised that it even held up as much as it did. Especially when the damage was done and she was almost positive that Gambit was about to lose his right arm after Sahar attempted a fake out. Then shifting his blade to come back after quickly jerking it to a standstill.
Yet like so many other times. Sahar continued to heal himself again in order to regenerate for the sake of cleaning up some of the scuffed-up areas of his armor, until he was now practically shining as if it was freshly forged and polished so one could see themselves in the reflection. But Luna was blindsided, when Sahar kicked off of the ground and flew at Gambit with an abnormal amount of speed compared to his earlier display. Once he had gotten close enough, he swung his blade in a wide arc and Luna could do nothing but watch, as it fazed right through her body as it went for Gambit.
As for Gambit himself. He took a big leap backwards and into the ring of dark mist on the very outer edge of the arena. For as soon as he entered. Luna could just barely make out the outline of his body, as it went down as if sinking into the floor and disappearing in an instant. She then heard a loud metallic shing, from behind and when she turned. There was Gambit a few meters in the air and his blade was fully extended upward from being positioned right behind Sahar.
In response, Sahar swung his left hand after bawling it into a fist and sent it around so fast, that Luna had a hard time and seeing past the after image it made. As it struck Gambit on his left side. During that instant, before he was sent flying and right as the fist made contact. There was this undeniable snapping of a bone being made, as Gambit released a pain yell, while still in mid-flight. It wasn't until he was done skidding several meters and ending up near the center of the ring. That she saw him shakily getting back to his legs and gripping onto his blade that was now dragging the tip on the floor.
Even with this being the second time. Luna couldn't help but to flinch at seeing his left arm bending at an awkward angle, along with his wrist and hand turning away from his body. The blade itself was no longer giving off the strong flames from before and even the original glow of the weapon was certainly dimmer. There are also a couple of chips missing along the sharp edge here and there, that are giving off a slightly stronger glow that was just a few shades brighter than the rest.
However, when it came to the headgear. It was pretty much useless with it being slashed at so many times, that the last impact caused it to break and fall off his head during the tumble. Even now, Luna couldn't help even during this situation, but to give an indignant look towards Gambit, upon seeing the extra precautions he took keeping his appearance hidden.
When his strange hat flew off and expose his entire head. She was met by the sight of it being wrapped up tightly and this even included his own eyes, which greatly confused both her and her sister as to how he was able to see this whole time. She even had this brief moment of wondering if gambit could have been blind, but she just couldn’t hold on to that thought after seeing all that he could do.
Luna also recalled during their fight and that strange three-headed Hydra showing up. Where she got a glimpse of him from behind without any type of full head covering. The long black hair from before was even wound-up in its own set of bandages, till it resembled the shape of a fox's tail. Although, because of the lack of covering. One could even see the head trauma he suffered from earlier, as the left side of his head had a noticeable blood stain just a few inches above where the ears should be.
Her attention was immediately pulled towards Sahar after noticing the injury, only to show a deep scowl as she felt a burning anger building up after seeing the sight. Then she glanced over at the stands and saw her past self also doing the same. Not only was she giving the stare that could kill a lesser being. But she was gripping on to the railing with her knuckles literally turning white.
One could even see her past self’s teeth being completely exposed, as they were grinding at the site of seeing Gambit hurt. What made the scene up there even more noteworthy. Was the way her spy and older sister were glancing at her past self and slowly giving her a few inches of space, before returning all of their attention back to the fight. Even now, Luna could still feel the phantom pain from her chest from back then.
That soul crushing feeling that something inside was being twisted around. That overwhelming anxiousness. Even now, Luna felt that she was close to causing herself to throw up and wanted nothing more than to change this dream with her magic. Where she herself could be seen tearing this monster apart with her very own hands. But fought back the urge to watch the rest of it.
Gambit took in a deep breath and slowly released it, before his body gave off a very faint mix of green and white energy that flowed out from every pour. Once that was done, his left arm began to twist itself all on its own and there was another sound of bones crunching that lasted a few seconds. Luna could instantly tell that this was not a type of healing spell, but more of an ability that restored the body to a certain degree.
Afterwards, he could be seen flexing his fingers a little bit in order to test out his arm and gripped onto his blade once again. Even some of the bleeding that could be seen, receded to signify that is entire body went through a small healing phase. The blade itself went through another change as the lights conformed around both the blade and its sheath.
Only to change its appearance by going from red to a brightly glowing yellow. The sheath itself was now covered in large pieces of rocks near the end, that were fully melded into it and the gaps in between, glowed with the same faint light that was the same as the blade itself.
Just like with the last one. There were two round slots in similar locations. Gambit took his left hand off of the handle and closed his fingers for a moment, before opening them again and producing another set of orbs and placing them and there are appropriate places without so much has making any head movements to indicate he was looking down while doing so. He then spoke up in an exhausted voice.
“I got to hand it to you... I've… I’ve never had a weapon of mine, give out before a fight was over.” But then his tone of voice changed to a more carefree one as he continued. “But to be fair, a Katana isn't meant for blocking and parrying your attack so much. Perhaps the blade of the Titan will do a better job at that.”
He then shifted his stance so it was more casual and his blade was now held in a reverse grip in his right hand and the blade also pointing backwards when he spoke up again. “I will admit that you're stronger than the last time we fought. There's no mistaking that. But we both know that you would have lost a long time ago if it wasn't for that little trick of yours. In the end, when you're asked how you managed to win this fight. All you could say is that you one through a war of attrition. By wearing me out.”
This was when he started to laugh during his little monologue, but not until he lifted his chin and slightly tilted his head back as if slighting Sahar, by looking down on him. “But I do applaud your ability to think of some very sneaky tactics. Oh yes! I had no idea that you would switch from your outright fighting, to what an assassin would do. Bravo, bravo! Years have taught you well.”
As a result of the taunting. The monster of a King, finally started to talk after a long stretch of silence. Even though it was with that hollow tone, there was a piece of arrogance that was similar to Sahar’s. “I prefer when you didn't speak during our battles... Much has changed.”
That was when Gambit gestured towards his sword, after bringing his arm around so that it was crossing in front of him and the blade was obscuring the bottom portion of his face before, speaking up again. “You should be happy. This time I'm using Titans blade. After all, you both have so much in common.” This was obviously the wrong thing to say. As Sahar swung his blade wide and took a big step forward with his left leg, as he started to yell with clear frustration in his now booming voice.
“I will not be put into the same category as that lumbering pile of rocks! I am vastly superior! I do not require rats as my worshipers! You will die now! Enough with you!” And with that straightforward declaration of death. Sahar raised his blade so that it was pointing straight up. With that, the sky itself over the arena could be seen darkening until it was as black as night.
All of those within the arena were now screaming of fright at what was going on. As some were attempting to pull open the doors frantically and getting nowhere. Others were huddling together as if doing so would give them some type of protection, while the younger ones were pulled deep inside the cluster of adults that wanted to guard them from the seemingly approaching apocalypse.
During all of that. The streams of energy were now pouring with much power, as they became nearly solid and flowing right into the blade that was now glowing a deathly dark purple. As soon as all the attention was pulled from Sahar’s actions and now towards the sky. The blackness was immediately beginning to fill with one purple dot after another, until pretty much everything above the arena was made solely of that particular color.
When she turned her sight back to Gambit. He was already dashing towards the center of the Arena coming to a skidding stop and quickly started to look straight up. He then out stretched his left hand, so that it was pointing towards the light above and stab his weapon into the ground with the other. From what Luna could only surmise as a personal pocket dimension. Gambit produced a number of small, blue filled vials, that was held between his fingers so there was a grand total of four in his possession.
(Play this for the effect as the following spell is used.)
Then he yelled out at the top of his lungs the following phrase in a booming voice. “Air Shield!” His body was covered in a green aura that extended outwards, until it took on the shape of another being that was vaguely made out to be wearing a type of cloth and fur lining set of gear. The mane was short and it was also wearing a cape that was nearly touching the ground. No weapon could be seen aside from there being a shield being fix to its left arm, which was then raised above its head before dispersing in a near blinding flash.
Once that was done. The flash of lights reassembled themselves high above and formed from a single point, a massive version of the green shield from before and displaced quite a bit of air to create a shockwave as it was now roughly thirty meters above the ground. The scope of it was capable of covering nearly a third of the center of the arena and was easily two, maybe close to three meters thick. That was when Luna saw her past self and older sister up above, as their manes were blown back for a moment.
The lights from above quickly revealed themselves to be nothing but these dark purple spears that were either straight, with Jagged edges of crystallized magic or ones that resemble different styles of tridents from Sahar and they were now showering down as rain. The air was filled with not only these strange projectiles that were coming in at high velocity, but also the sound of them swishing as they came down. Whatever didn't have the shield blocking its path, would stab into the ground and explode with what could have only been seen as self-contained explosions, that began to decimate the arena floor.
Craters began to litter the ground as their numbers grew and whatever was caught in the devastation was completely obliterated to the point, that even the rocks themselves were nothing but dust and blown into the air so violently, that it may as well have been complete disintegration. From Luna's vantage point, it wasn't just five or ten of these dropping at a time. No, it wasn't even twenty. More so of thirty or forty that would hit the ground within the span of a single passing second.
After only a handful of these seconds passing by. One could distinctly make out the shape being left behind as the large shield above, as everything was now starting to practically disappear as every one of the circular holes was beginning to accumulate. It even went as far as to cause the ground to go deeper and deeper and was now leaving Gambit to be left on an island of untouched ground. But as for the shield itself, it was taking quite a beating, as a majority of those falling were centered on that.
Gambits legs could literally be seen being pushed downwards and into the ground, as some of the dirt was being slowly displaced as his hand was still outstretched above his head. With all of the explosions going off, the princess of the night was having a very hard time in trying to make out any other type of sounds over the violent booms. So, after pausing the dream for a moment and weaving more of her magic to try and muffle the ambient sounds around, to where she could hear him speaking again, did she resume the dream.
Of course, this was something that she couldn't do on the first go-around along with her sister, with needing a little while to make the necessary adjustments. This could have been done before if given the time. But Celestia was just not in the current mindset and Luna didn't want to be yelled at again if she paused the dream at such a crucial juncture.
Once this overwhelming attack was going on for close to a dozen seconds. Gambit brought his other hand to his face and pressed one of the corks that was ceiling a vial of blue liquid to what she presumed was his mouth. As it was being pushed between a couple of the bandages.
Said cork was roughly pulled out and spat out, before he started to guzzle down the liquid and toss away the empty container. That was when she heard Sahar speaking in that strange one-sided hollowed voice again, without so much as lowering his still outstretched and glowing weapon that was pointing to the sky.
“What will hold out, what will give way? My endless supply of Aether or your potions?” Luna recalled the blue potions as a mysterious concoction that could replenish one's magical supply almost instantly. In theory, a Unicorn could keep their magic supply up almost indefinitely, if this was to be given at regular intervals.
However, there was a distinct drawback that was labeled on the bottle itself. A set of instructions that stated, that one should not consume more than a set amount within a time period. Otherwise, some damages might occur and cause the Unicorn to be bedridden almost instantly once a certain amount was ingested.
She then said from under her breath, as this was going on. “Does he truly intend to drink all four, when two is the limit?” As the light he was giving off was getting stronger, and in doing so, causing the raining attack of magic to intensify in force on the protective barrier above. Gambit’s shield started its descent after a moment went by.
The King then continued, as his tone got more arrogant. “For all of your boasting, this is your own folly! So many years and finally your defeat is at my hands! Hydaelyn is not here anymore! There will be no coming back! Do you still think you are going to keep my head as a decoration? Ha!” Near the end, Sahar's way of speaking was beginning to bleed through, with the arrogance that was being shown just now.
The shield had lowered considerably and was only at half the distance over Gambit. After a few seconds went by and he immediately drank the second potion in his grip. By doing so, Luna could tell that Gambit recovered enough magic to stop his protection from budging anymore.
But this was short-lived, as it started to move once again, but a much slower pace than previously done. As the glowing spears continuously battered into the shield without any significant signs of letting up any time soon. Small cracks began to form that could be seen from underneath and in different sections, as they were spreading out in a spider web pattern.
Gambit’s legs began to buckle by now, as even more of the dirt underneath his legs were pushed away to reveal that he was nearly a few inches into the ground. Even his arm, which was outstretched. Was starting to bend at the elbow to show that he was indeed feeling the force being pushed down against him. Even through all of this, Gambit spoke up, with him clearly exerting himself as much as possible, while still having a jovial tone thrown in.
“My, my… Gah! You gone and got all talkative on me! Ungh… I guess even a Primal like you can be influenced by an overgrown cat, who sees himself as a W.W.E wrestler! I'm a little surprised you're not referring to yourself in the third person now. T-That's what you need to finish the look! Nugugh! Gerr... No scratch that, you need some spandex! You're also missing... A signature… C-Catchphrase!”
By then, the cracks on his shield reached the edges and small fragments began to fall away to show that the shield was beginning to crumble from the outside going in. Upon seeing this. Brex immediately guzzled down the third of his four potions and this caused the shield to regenerate some of the lost pieces. But was already showing signs of breaking apart yet again almost immediately after.
Gambit then spoke up again, but this time it was more serious, as his head was slowly turning towards Sahar without breaking his concentration. “How did... You two meet? Don’t tell me… Nnhg! A really bad speed dating group? No, wait… Did one of those shabby merchants from down the road sell you to him?” When that was said. Luna's eyes were tracing Sahar's form for any type of hint and spotted the way there was a sudden jerk of his free hand to signify, he was getting agitated before Gambit continued.
“You were always a second-hand sword! Passed down from one to the next. Only for you to try and take another body to continue your efforts. I seriously wonder how it is you can get found by a new unwilling host so many times. They must make a killing off of selling you over and over again.”
“I bet there's one of them in the crowd right now. Following you for the next opportunity to snatch you back up and to add to their wares! Haha-Hahaha! I can't help but see you as this big parade and there's this one guy sweeping up the back and throwing all the garbage into a trash can to be recycled!”
Gambits outward musings were interrupted, when he was suddenly pushed down to the ground so that he was now on his right knee, just as the shower began to build up even further. Surprisingly enough, Gambit recovered fairly quickly and said the following in a much more juvenile tone. “Oh, sorry about that, did I hit a nerve?! Gaahhh! You better be careful; you're going to use up more power than you’re drawing in! You know what they say. Live within your means.”
This got an aggravated growl from Sahar. As he was clearly wanting to get right up in Gambit's face with the way his right leg was inching forward by a couple of inches, before pulling back to its original spot. The white metal eyes were now shining so bright, that they were literally emitting beams.
The sword itself, also picked up in intensity as a response to this and was now coming down with so many of the spears, that one would have mistaken it for a solid column falling from the heavens. When this happened, Gambit took the last of his potions and moved his spare hand to join the first in order to make the motion of being ready to catch the shield if it got closer.
Sahar then screamed out so loud, that Luna could see a visible shockwave pushing the loose gravel and dirt near him. “RAAAAAAAAAAH! Just die, Warrior of light! Join the others in hell! Don't worry about the bird or those maids. I'll have my fun with them! As for that Zebra, perhaps I'll have a light snack after showing her your remains!” Luna watched as Gambit’s head began to lower and his hands doing the same with the palms slowly inching down, as the shield got even closer.
As The Shield was now within arm's length of Gambit. Luna heard a strange sound of a musical chime that came from Gambit a few times, before a female’s voice could be heard. Whoever it was on the other end, it sounded as though they were breathing quite heavily and speaking with an overly agitated tone. “Hey! Can you hear me?! Hello! We found it!” From where she was. It was almost like a switch was flipped when Gambit responded with his voice full of confidence.
“You all did a good job. Go ahead and send one of you my way to show me back. I just have a little cleanup to take care of on my end.” This got him a response from the girl, as Luna could hear a distinctive Huff before she said, “You better be done before I get there!” Apparently, the conversation ended after there was another odd chime once the last words were said.
Gambit began to rise again and extend both of his arms, after giving a grunt of exertion as he started to speak in a serious accent that reminded Luna of the nobles. “You made three really bad moves! First, you insult Luna! Then you threaten those that I hold dear!” By then, Gambit was pretty much placing both of his palms on the underside of the large green shield and was now holding it in place. While the outside was beginning to crumble at an accelerated rate, which meant he only had maybe fifteen seconds at most before it all was gone.
Sahar just laughed before using his free hand to do a dismissive gesture as he responded. “Oh? Please, by all means. Do tell me what would the third happen to be?” From Gambit, Luna saw how he was tilting his head in a mocking gesture, as she heard him beginning to laugh now in a strangely scary way.
The bandages covering his left eye could be seen with a faint yellow glow, before he said the following in a matter-of-fact tone to state the obvious. “You Really-Really! Shouldn't have given me so much time to look over and review your Boss Zone!” His words then turned excited as he went on. “In the Immortal words of Mega Man! I'll be taking this!”
Once that last phrase was uttered. The ground beneath Gambit gave off a bright white light that ran across the surface for several meters. Before spreading out in a strange network pattern. The strands of light immediately made their way over to the edges of the barrier and went straight up and started to spread. Soon, every surface along the ground and the barrier itself, began to show these hexagon shaped segments before there was a sudden burst that blew all of them into the air in the same way cards would be sent flying when a table was suddenly kicked over.
When this was done. All of the surfaces were now giving off a faint shimmer of colors, until not only was the ground and walls of the arena changed. But so was the invisible wall going straight into the sky. When this occurred, Sahar released a startled roar when the threads of light were suddenly cut off and slamming against the outside of the barrier, before even that just faded.
What's more, was the lack of purple energy coming from the blade, as it quickly died out and Sahar was found stumbling forward and using his long blade to stab it into the ground to keep himself upright, as he grabbed on to the handle with both arms.
As for Gambit, his arms were slightly apart and making a gesture that coincided with the shield shrinking. This suggested that he was trying to collect his magic together as much as possible to weather out what was to happen next. The falling spears from before, were now dwindling at an astounding rate. What once was a solid pillar, now turned into a shower and lastly a trickle.
So, by the time the last one came down and struck the shield. Gambit’s protection was whittled down until it was just barely big enough to be seen as a round buckle shield, that could just barely protect one's face once the last explosion occurred.
Once Gambit took a moment to check that he was not about to get struck from above by any last-minute spears. He lowered his arms to dissipate the shield and squared off his body towards Sahar. Upon witnessing the display. The King tried to stand up on his own, but stumbled halfway up and was now found back to holding onto his sword, as he weekly spoke out again with his voice now split in half as it did before.
“How did you-. What did you do! Tell me, NOW! What have you done to the Aether?!” That was when some wisps of black smoke began to be admitted from different areas of his armor, before his body could be seen to slowly lose mass in the same way one would, when slowly releasing air from a balloon. As a response, Gambit reached over and took a good hold his sword and freed it from the ground. He then turned so his back was towards Sahar.
Then, after giving it a few twirls and resting the back end of the blade over his shoulder, so it was going across his back. While also turning his head to look in the direction of the now weakened king. Gambit said the following as the bandages on his face contorted in a way to emulate there being a smile behind them.
“Haven't you learned already that I know quite a few more tricks when compared to our last little get together? As for your food. I might not be able to bring down the barrier, but I can still tweak the settings a little bit. It took a bit of time to go over it in my head. But I finally got the precise setting to block out your snack of Aether. Of course, I could have done this so much earlier. I really needed to find out where you're hiding the stuff before I act.”
Sahar responded to that in a strained voice, as his armor was now creaking from the constant attempts to stand up to his full height. “Accomplices? No, if not under my command, the all the rest of the adventurers over level thirty… I've been so thorough. I was sure that I slaughtered them all! The creatures I placed within, should have been more than enough to eat any that venture in there in one bite!” Gambit retorted to that, as he kept that grin from behind the bandages.
“Why don't you tell that to an overly cocky Griffin and a pair of twins that just loves to slice and dice? Not to mention, a competent healer that’s backing them up. No tank in the party, sure. But the overall offensive capabilities were more than enough to plow right through your pathetic guard dogs. But I will give you credit. That dungeon you had built underneath the arena was pretty deep. Must have taken years to dig out. If they just went in there and started roaming around, then it would have taken them days to track down all the ether crystals you had stored in that vault.”
Sahar finally got all the way up and was just barely able to lift his weapon a few inches off of the ground and off to his right side, as he angrily growled his next question. “They were just in the castle up until the fight. How-HOW did they find the treasure vault so quickly? There were pitfalls and traps within that maze of tunnels. The monsters themselves were among the deadliest that could multiply and fill that dungeon to the brim!”
That was when Gambit turned towards Sahar and reached into his clothing with his free hand and pulled out a tiny glowing light blue shard. He then proceeded with crushing it between his fingers and this release some flowing bits of powder into the air. Which quickly zoomed over towards Sahar and into his body, like a moth to a flame. What followed next, was a heavy silence for a good long couple of seconds before the King exclaimed, as he stabbed his sword into the ground and took a shaky step forward.
“You! YOU tricked ME! All the taunting, was just-just a bait to aid in your collaborators search all that much quicker?!” His free hand was now clenching at the air and giving off a few metal-upon-metal grinding sounds, as some sparks came out from between his fingers. Immediately after, Sahar took a defensive stance and prepared his weapon. However, it appeared that he needed to grasp onto the handle with both hands this time around, as the blade could be seen moving at a much slower speed.
Luna's eyes were constantly going from one combatant to the next, as the next thoughts ran through her mind. “Gambit willingly took all of those beatings on purpose? What exactly are Aether crystals? Could it have been what he just crushed? The better part of a week in the archives and I am no closer to finding that answer out.”
Luna stopped with her thoughts in order to catch the rest of the fight, that only spanned for less than a minute as the following occurred at near blinding speed. All in the hopes of gleaming anything else that might have escaped her attention. Every so often, she would pause the dream or slow it down to a crawl whenever things got too quick to perceive. All the while, flying in different positions and trying to gleam anything new, as her eyes were that of a hawk.
Gambit took a stance with his legs spread out and brought his sword above his head, so that it was going across. As his right hand was gripped onto the handle. His left had its palm placed on the underside near the end and he was enveloped in a quickly growing red aura that was flowing off of his body for nearly twelve seconds.
Strangely enough. Sahar allowed all of that time to pass and waited patiently, before Gambit lowered his weapon again and was now sheathing the glowing yellow blade. Now in a familiar stance with his right hand just barely hovering over the handle. Gambit called out to Sahar and said the following in a cold tone.
“This is for all of those that you made suffer under your rule... And what I said about taking your head. I was not kidding.” Not only did Luna hold her right hand up to her neck and made an audible gulp sound after hearing that statement. But, so did her past self, as well as her older sister from up in the stands. Of course, it didn't escape the lunar princess's attention that her spy was also doing the same, but quickly lowered her hand before the other two up there had a chance to see it themselves.
The two came at one another after displacing some dirt from their initial kickstarts and or now exchanging strikes on one another. Sahar would go at him with a downward swing, but only to miss and have Gambit running up the edge of his blade and delivering a wide sweep of his blade that left a deep cut in the metal and caused some blood to spray out and splatter some of its contents unto his black robes. This was followed with him kicking off of Sahar's right arm, so that he would go in the opposite direction and take another strike that would start from below, as his body was in mid turn and land a couple of yards away.
Sahar tempted to swing his blade at Gambit again, who is now on his left side. But while in the middle of the swing itself. The last injury that was sustained opened up on his arm and his grip faltered on his weapon. This allowed Gambit to jump over the blade as it passed underneath. While still in the air for a split second. Gambit did another attack where his blades edge would make a full circle and give off this impression of the Moon with the way it shined in the sunlight, thanks to the after image being created.
The King, while still off balance. Managed to kick out his leg and land a solid hit on Gambit, who brought up his sword in order to try and perry and was forced to slide back a few paces. However, in doing this reckless attack. Sahar lost his balance and was forced to fall on his right side and expose his back as a good amount of dust was displaced from the fall. Even with his size returned to half of what it was. Sahar was still a great deal bigger so the ground shook when this happened.
Seeing this, Gambit took the opportunity to close in, but just before he arrived within striking range with his weapon. when he was nearly half way to Sahar’s fallen form. Gambit used his sword and swung it so that the blade was cutting along the ground from behind by a few inches. During that moment that the weapon was still making contact. He yelled out the following.
“By my name, decipher the laws of nature! I call upon the power of Earth. Come forth and do my bidding! Bamboo claw!” Once that phrase was uttered, did the ground explode and create a heavy dust cloud that forced Luna to fly back far enough, so that she was outside of it. This was immediately followed with Sahar, while still on his back and his limbs flailing about and still holding on to a sword in his right hand, now being shot straight up.
What caused such an event. Turned out to be another one of those strange plants. However, it was just a single stock. But unlike the rest, its thickness made it appear to be a green tower. As it grew and grew. The ground was broken up and tossed over continuously. While this was going on. He would still be running into the dirt filled air at the base of the new structure and disappear from Luna’s sight.
After a few seconds, he could be seen running up the side of it with nothing but his legs and going at such a speed, that couldn’t have been possible for one on such a steep surface. Even with the speed that the stock was climbing. Gambit was easily catching up to the top and when he got there, he jumped so that he was higher than Sahar himself.
As soon as Gambit was no longer touching the plant. It stopped its growth almost immediately. The curved blade was now held overhead and, in both arms, as it was quickly swung down when he yelled the next part out, as he was plummeting right for Sahar. “Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū Style! Ryūtsuisen!”
Obviously seeing the attack coming. Sahar brought his blade up at the last second in order to block the oncoming strike. But the white metallic eyes of his helmet went comically wide as the force delivered, was powerful enough to send his body downwards and start to split the tower down the middle, while sending splinters everywhere. Sahar was pretty much screaming out a roar of continuous pain over the noise, until he was nearly a third of the way down. Which put him at a point where he was just over the very top of the stadium’s height itself.
(Stop the music here.)
His back went first, as his arms were pretty much pinned in front of himself, thanks to the oversized muscles that were being held in place by the two sections of the plant and this rendered him immobile. As he registered the situation he was now in, his face turn to watch Gambit beginning to fall along his left side from above. As for the blade itself. That was no longer in his right hands grip and could be seen falling as it was thrown into the air instantly after blocking gambits sword and his form was sent down first.
But as soon as the two warriors nearly met up again. Sahar used his metallic tail and whipped it around his body. From there, the tip went around the handle of the falling sword when it got in range and managed to swing the weapon in order to throw it into Gambit when he got in range from around the other side of the stock. All in hopes of landing a surprise attack when he was thought to be defenseless and Gambit to have his guard down.
With the whoosh of the flying blade filling the air. Sahar’s eyes began to contort to show unbridled glee, before they went wide again after hearing a loud clang. This came from Gambit deflecting the sword at the last instant. But thanks to the heavy blade’s momentum, a few things occurred. Sahar’s sword was knocked away so violently, that it rocketed towards the ground and near the far edge of the arena almost instantly and was nearly halfway buried into the ground as the blade sunk in.
Gambit, while holding on to his own sword with both hands. Was pointing the yellow-colored blade to his lower right side. The blade itself could be showing a number of cracks, where a stronger version of the glow is seeping through. Gambit was also sent flying straight into the barrier thanks to the downward swing he used, that gave him enough momentum to not lose any altitude. But instead, he gained a view meters.
When he was about to reach the barrier. Gambit performed a backflip in midair, right as he made contact and quickly kicked off after crouching for a strong kick-off. It was thanks to this, that now, he was practically flying at Sahar. Gambit readied his blade again. However, when he got to the halfway marker between the jumping and Sahar himself. Who is still immobilized and now without a weapon. The long blade was covered in a familiar string of white lights and revealed it to have been replaced with yet another new weapon.
This one was not glowing like the other two. But the metal itself was mostly white and gray with hints of green running along the blade and handle. There was even a decent amount of gold to be seen. But just like the previous two, there was another set of round sockets and they were currently occupied by green orbs. Gambit then yelled out, “MY TURN! LIMIT BREAKER!!!” When that phrase was uttered. Gambit's whole form exploded with a mixture of bright lights, along with sparks of electricity, that trailed in his wake.
Sahar’s eyes went wider than ever before, as Gambit instantly closed the distance. The new sword did the following in such speed. That Luna tried to slow the event. But even with time going at one-tenth the normal rate. She was scarcely able to follow as his arms were in a constant blur.
A clean cut was made going through the entire stock, along with Sahar, by going clean through diagonally, thereby separating his upper and lower half. However, it did not end there. More only followed instantly, one after the next, as one line intersected with another. The force of each slash actually stopped Gambits forward momentum to a standstill, as he was now carving up Sahar while still in midair.
First the deformed King was in two pieces. Then four, then eight, then he was in sixteen. Eventually, there were too many to count, until he was pretty much resembling one of those stained-glass windows that were comprised of thousands of tiny shards that were put together. But amazingly enough, once one slash was made going across his neck, everything else going up was left completely alone. By the end, Gambit quickly placed his sword back into his sheath and held it behind himself, before pulling the blade out for one last swing across and was now holding it outstretch to his right side.
The result from that, was the accumulated energy being stored in each one of the cuts, now exploding forward in a blinding white and silver flash, that quickly made all sound go completely silent as the sky lit up. Luna, who is trying to keep up by flying nearby, could do nothing but cover her eyes with her arm when this occurred. But before she ended up needing to do that, she was positive that the chunks of Sahar could be seen flying off and disintegrating into the bright light.
The rest of the scene played out with Gambit re-sheathing his sword, as he went into a landing pose with his arms outstretched and slightly raised. The move causing his tied-up hair, along with his clothing to flutter in the wind. A few seconds later, the two broken sections of the green tower came tumbling down from where it was blasted loose from and crashed a short distance away. This caused a good gust of wind to blow some dirt around, which Gambit paid little to no mind to, as he started to walk forward.
After taking this time to cross nearly a quarter of the arena’s length. Luna saw him bending down and picking up an object that was just beginning to come to view, as the screen of dust finally cleared. This turning out to be the head of Sahar himself and the right horn was being gripped near the base. On closer inspection, Luna can also perceive a black mist seeping out of the neck hole for a few more seconds, before it stopped and she heard Gambit saying the next part.
“I suppose keeping your real head is out of the question now that it's turned to dust. But this will do just fine. Now, where oh where could you be hiding now~?” Gambit's head could be seen turning from left to right, in an agonizingly slow pace in order to scan his surroundings, before stopping with himself turned towards his right and making his way over.
Luna followed as Gambit kicked over a jagged rock that had been up heaved from earlier, only to reveal the sword of Sahar. But oddly enough, it was nowhere near the scope in terms of size from earlier and was roughly down to only one-eight to only moments ago. The weapon was looking to be in bad shape. The metal was starting to show signs of warping in the handle and the blade was now slightly resembling rust beginning to form.
The head in his left arm suddenly vanished and Gambit took his sword out once more and slashed at the weapon that was stabbed into the ground, thereby breaking it in half, as well as were it was entering the dirt. As soon as the three pieces were separated and clattered onto the stone floor a few times. The metal began to quickly melt away, until it returned to that black ooze and eventually evaporated until there was no trace left behind.
Gambit then turned away and was heading towards the exit that was used for his entrance. While also saying the following in a disappointed tone of voice. “You were rotten from the very start, even long before the two of you met. No remorse. All you cared about was power. Luna and Nightmare Moon were nothing like you. At the very least, she didn't go and actually kill her family. That was your choice... If she really wanted too back then. She could have done it easily with all the strength she had at her disposal.”
When Gambit approached the doorway. The barrier finally lowered just in time for him to disappear into the dark recesses of the inner walls for the arenas structure. With him gone, the dream came to an end and Luna found herself in the dark void of her mind, that slowly took on the appearance of her room from back in the real world.
After going over to the now constructed bed and taking a seat on the edge. Luna turned her head so that she can get a view of her standing mirror that was directly across from herself and imagined her appearance shifting to that of Nightmare Moon. Looking right into that face, she returned back to her own form after a few seconds. This was when her facial expressions morphed between worry and deep confusion, as her mind was wrestling with itself on the dilemma within.
So many phrases were bouncing around and she just couldn't pin a single one down for any definitive answer. What was an Eikon? What was all that talk about being a failure on the creature that Sahar became? Who was this Hydaelyn, and what was her connection to Gambit? Why was she and Nightmare Moon constantly compared to Sahar? Why was the term Eikon Slayer, able to fill her with so much dread? Why did Gambit defend not only herself, but Nightmare Moon's name as well?
But the last question that was on her mind, was pressing down on all of it so that it was on the forefront of her mind. That being the question of why she can't seem to bring herself to visit him. Perhaps it was simply fear or the fact that she now knows more about him now, than over their multiple visits. It could even be possible that she was feeling more guilty about not informing him about the true spy that was tailing him, even though he was standing up for her.
It was months now since she came back and lived in the castle. Yet she never really left the walls. Her older sister continued to push for the idea of attending this year's Grand Galloping Gala. Of course, she refused on more than one occasion with coming up with some excuse or another. These being, that she was not ready and was not brought up the speed on how this modern society works. She even gave an excuse once by saying that she was still weak on magic and was not presentable.
Although, that was a complete and flat-out lie and she was sure that her older sister caught on to this, but didn't press the matter. Which made Luna very thankful. But right now, her thoughts on the subject were now shifting in the other direction. As she started to recall the one known as Rory Mercury.
She was quite positive that Celestia sent a ticket specifically for her to attend the party. When Luna asked as to why that was done. Celestia simply said, that it was her way of thinking Rory for assisting Twilight when it came to that terrible dragon that they were to deal with.
But of course, Luna did not buy that for an instant and new that this was all a ploy in order to find out what she could about the girl and subsequently, any additional information about Gambit. That was when she began to lightly shake her head in exasperation. as she recalled all the times he was brought up in a conversation and her older sister would have one reaction or another. It also didn't escape her attention when the smell of cake was almost a constant and was always present during these times.
That was when she had this thoughtful expression, as she started to tap her chin and thought to herself. “I do have a dress that Tia had me fitted for... Hmm... I suppose dropping in wouldn't be so bad. At the very least, I can meet up with this Rory Mercury and give her a little warning about my sister. It would only be fair to let her in on what's to come if my guess on my sister's behavior and what might come to pass.”
That was when she gave a firm nod and a determined look, before she used her magic to wake herself up from the dream. But just as she was at her final moment of coming back to the waking world. She said, “I do so hope I am wrong on my premonition. If not, then my hands will be quite full. A plan must be devised. Otherwise, my dear sister may try a drastic course of action.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 64: Day of The Gala. Part Three.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Canterlot castle* *Time: Five Fifty-Six at night. Four minutes before the festivities begin*
Princess Celestia was already at the top of the stairway that was constructed in a way, so there were two directions one might take to go down the steps and into the lower areas that the rest of the party was being held. The room itself was so massive, that if it was compared to anything. Then an entire high school gymnasium could have easily fit within the walls itself.
With the basic layout being that of a long rectangle. There were two evenly spaced out exits on both sides that led to either the garden on the left and a patio overlooking the rest of Canterlot on the right for those that wanted a nice view from an elevated height. This was thanks to the castle being made so that it overlooked the rest of Canterlot.
On the far end from Celestia's position was another exit. On said lower floor that led to other parts of the castle and happened to be where most of the chefs and waiters would come and go to either restock the buffet tables or to come back with wine and small trays filled with tiny bits of food to be brought around. This just so happened to be located right nearby to where the musicians would be set up on a stage that was clearly built for this specific occasion. The ceiling itself was so tall that the windows were easily going more than three stories up.
The ceiling itself was dotted with nine evenly spread-out chandeliers. While the floor was set up so that a majority of the center would be kept clear for those who wish to mingle or perhaps dance when the mood struck. The outer edges were lined with multiple round tables with enough chairs to comfortably seat ten occupants altogether at each one.
Of course, this also meant that the long buffet table was set up nearby and it was covered from one end to the other with a wide assortment of dishes that were prepared by the top-notch chefs from all over Equestria that were invited to cater this event. As per the norm Celestia spared no expense in making sure that her guests were properly taken care of.
Even if it meant having those that were willing to cook meat. Personally, she didn’t have too much of a problem as long as it was not a sentient life of course but her subjects weren’t quite as open as she was and there were times that a few of her regular kitchen staff would end up running out of the kitchen during some of the past Gala’s.
As for the musicians, they were finishing the last minute of their instruments fine tuning. Celestia turned after hearing some footsteps approaching and grew a sincere smile that graced her lips upon catching the sight of her nephew entering through the front doors and approaching. While also fiddling with his shirt collar with both of his hands. At the moment, Prince Blue Blood had a slightly aggravated expression as he gave a small huff of annoyance as he was looking down at himself.
The young prince was currently wearing a dress uniform meant for the royal guard, which was mostly white and color but had some patches of blue here and there along the edges of his sleeves and around the collar of his shirt. The shoulders themselves had some padding over the top and attached to those, were a few pieces of these golden braided ropes that started at the halfway point along his shoulders and swung down before going back up again at the end. He even had on a belt that was currently keeping a hold of his sword and scabbard at his left hip.
Celestia gave a small chuckle and approached her nephew and started to fix his shirt a little with her hands as she playfully spoke. Allow me. “It's so unlike you nephew, to have so much trouble with your clothing.” Her eyes then trailed down to the weapon in his care and raised an eyebrow, along with a small smile to go along with it as she continued. “And pray tell, what would be the use of brandishing your sword at such an esteemed gathering?”
Prince Blue Blood gave a mocking scoff to what she said before placing on an overly pompous air of arrogance. All the while, throwing his head slightly to allow his golden mean to do that overly exaggerated flipping motion as he spoke. “Why auntie. You of all should know the purpose of this.” That was when he lightly started to pat the side of his sword with his left hand while continuing with his attitude returning to normal as it became more jovial.
“It's to keep all those pretentious parasites away if it should ever come to pass that I am found in a situation that warrants physical means of escape. And as for my slight wardrobe malfunction. That has to do with me giving my attendant the night off to enjoy the party. I'm quite surprised how difficult it is to get dressed in such a stuffy Formal Wear all on one's own.”
Celestia gave her nephew a small giggle as she was finishing up with the last little alterations to the collar so that it was not sticking out at any awkward angles. She then said, “So, that is where that supposed ticket went off too. I did think you were spending an awful lot of time with that personal maid of yours.” At the end of that comment. Her face was back to its normal composed self, yet there was this tiny hint of a sly smile on the edge of her lips as she made that last observation.
Prince Blue Blood started to stutter as he was clearly not expecting this from Celestia. But immediately recovered as he looked away from his aunt. He then replied while looking a little embarrassed and already readjusting his collar and nearly messing up all the work that was done in the process. “Auntie! Could you please not tease me so, especially on a day like this? I only thought that she should enjoy herself with all the hard work she's put in over the years.”
Celestia's sly smile only grew a fraction bigger as she replied to that. “Has she not attended as your servant on all the previous Grand Galloping Gala's since becoming your personal maid? What makes this year so special?” Blue blood closed his eyes after re-composing himself before he replied in a more dignified tone. I merely want her to enjoy herself for once and not feel need or obligation to be glued to me for the whole party. So please, don't try to look too much into this.”
He then had a thoughtful expression as he turned to her once again in order to ask his own question. “Is auntie Luna going to attend the festivities?” This got Celestia to look a little downcast, as she lightly shook her head before saying the following. “I'm afraid all my efforts were for not. Perhaps it was too soon and I was only forcing my views. Perhaps it was still too soon.”
Blue blood looked utterly disappointed at hearing this and gave a tired sigh as he motioned towards the lower doors on the other side of the room as he spoke up. “Such a shame. This only means that we will have to try and get her to join the next event with twice as much effort on our part. I'm sorry auntie, but I need to head down and check on the rest of the preparations as my last rounds.” He then looked utterly appalled for a split second as he muttered the next part from under his breath, but made sure it was just loud enough for only his aunt Celestia to hear.
“I'd much rather tangle with one of those overgrown plant monsters that tend to spew that toxic breath, then to mingle with so many of those uptight nobles that think of no one but themselves. Unlike the monster, I can't go slaying them when they make an inappropriate move or spew that nonsense from their own maws.” And with that, Blue Blood quickly took his leave by heading down the steps.
As he was going to the lower floor. Celestia couldn't help but to linger on his words and try to picture the creature in her head that he described. Of course, it didn't take her very long to come up with a mental picture and visibly shuttered at the thought.
But then, Her Imagination began to run away as she pictured the nobles taking on those shapes and wearing obnoxious hats and dresses on either their heads or lower parts of their body. She then said under her breath, “I suppose he isn't all that far off. Just great… I'm not going to be able to get that mental picture out of my head for a while.”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Canterlot castle. Just outside of the front gates* *Time: Six-twenty at night*
The scene shows what could be easily described as what one would come across, when looking at a red-carpet premiere with how there was a crowd on the other side of a velvet rope and a very wide and clean red carpet going down the steps until they met the road below. There were quite a few ponies with old style cameras that were just a little more modern than the types that required a large flash bulb or explosive powder to create a bright enough light to take a picture.
Along those, were ponies hoping to somehow sneak in or get some kind of interview out of anyone that would come close enough to hear them calling over the rest of the crowd. This was mostly done by those with paper and quill in hand. While some carried blocky recording devices that were about the size of one of those old-style car phones from back when they were the size of bricks.
The Royal Guards that were on duty were decked out and they're very best polished armor and standing watch at key locations around the castle. While at the same time, Luna's Night Guard were secretly keeping an eye on everything from up above and within any shadows that were available. Normally, the two guards would hardly ever work together but with such an important gathering, they deemed it necessary to go all out for a joint operation.
Even some of the staff who were wearing serving uniforms. Turned out to be some of the Royal Guards in disguise as an extra security precaution in case something should slip past the outer defenses. Now as for the reason of all of this. It mostly coincided with so many dignitaries and wanting to make sure that their safety was Paramount.
This also coincided with protecting their goods as this was a perfect opportunity for private trades to be done among the leaders. They would either be protected by their own security within their rooms or stashed away and the Royal Vault to be accessed later on. Through a complicated security checking process and having their own section within said vault, that they themselves would have a key for. Along with a magical enchantment that would require either the princesses or the visiting dignitary to be the only ones that could even touch the lock boxes within that held their goods.
As for the guests. Pretty much every country would have gotten a ticket or two in order to send their own representative. Of course, a few couldn't attend due to matters that require their full attention back at their own lands, but this didn't mean that there wasn't quite a group in this year's festivities. On one side of the room near the food table. One could easily spot a mix of species that were either staying in their own little group or mingling with others.
The following species could be seen all over the place. which included, Ponies from all three of the tribes. A handful of Griffins. A total of four large Yaks that were being quite loud while drinking. Three Minotaur’s who were in the middle of trying to chat up one of the guards and eyeing their armor as if it were candy and making the mare look a little disturbed in the process. Surprisingly enough, there were two parties that were right next to one another, yet no visible problems could be seen. The ones in question turned out to be two Diamond Dogs and a group of four Cats.
Unfortunately, among the few that couldn't make it. Turned out to be the representatives from the Dragon’s and Kirin’s. Seeing as both Luna and Celestia were quite keen on talking to one of them and regards to the similarities of their culture and what they saw in one of Gambit's dreams. Yet ironically enough, none of the usual members that would usually attend the Gala came from Zebrabwe. Even with all of this, the music and festivities were already on the way and everything was going according to plan.
That was when the doors opened for the next group of partygoers to enter and this revealed Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. Of course, just like it did in the show, the entire group ended up dashing off and leaving their Pony shaped dust clouds for only a second.
At the end of that. It was only Spike standing there and looking utterly defeated as he slouched and allowed his arms to just dangle, while waddling off in some direction all by himself. But just as he was leaving, he could be heard grumbling to himself as he said the following. “I didn't really want to hang out with all of you anyway. Maybe I could find Blue Blood somewhere. Knowing him, he’d be more than happy to sneak away and play a game of cards to pass the time.”
But thankfully enough, the party-goers didn't go straight to their main activities as they were wandering around in either groups of three or two. While Twilight approached her mentor and attempted to have a chat with her, as Celestia greeted the incoming guests. Applejack and Rainbow were at the snack table and looking over what was available. Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy were together as they were taking in the sites and slowly but surely getting closer to the stage where the music was playing.
Of course, all the girls were getting some positive compliments thanks to the dresses that Rarity made. Which only caused her to be more ecstatic with every time she heard them praising the designs. Whereas Pinkie was pretty much oblivious and Fluttershy was living up to her name and trying to hide herself behind Rarity whenever she felt eyes being drawn towards herself.
Unfortunately for Fluttershy. This Dynamic didn't exactly hold up for very long and the group ended up splitting up even further once their prospective targets were locked on. Applejack didn't really care much for the food and immediately made her way over to an open area just passed the doors that would lead towards the garden in order to start setting up her stand so that she could sell her families goods to the upper class for some extra bits.
As for Fluttershy, she continued down that same direction and was heading straight for the garden in hopes of meeting the animals. Pinkie was pretty much bouncing all over the place and trying to gain the attention of the band, who were in the middle of their musical number. When it came to Rarity, she soon locked eyes onto Blue Blood who was just minding his own business near one of the exits that would lead to the terrace and allow one to get a good view of the city and made a quick beeline for the stallion.
When it came to Rainbow, she was already trying to gain the attention of some of the Wonderbolts that could be seen in the VIP area but was having trouble with getting close with how the team was already being swarmed with fans. But of course, Twilight was still with Celestia. But thanks to the constant flood of new arrivals every other second. She was unable to get so much as a complete sentence in, before Celestia’s attention was pulled away for another meet and greet.
As it was getting closer to seven at night. The next group came in and was quickly announced by one of the guards just like all the others that came in beforehand. Although it seemed that this quickly caught the attention of not only a handful of the guests. But Twilight and Celestia the most as they were pretty much stopped in mid-sentence with their current greeting and looking over towards the door.
“Announcing the President of, Tech Hex Institute of Science. The appointed envoy of Zebrabwe and guests!” Once the announcement was made, there was a chorus of mumbling between the guests along with plane looks of shock that crossed not only them. But both Celestia and Twilight at the same time who were nearly dropping their jaws from what the guard just said. From within the crowd, a noble mare’s voice could be heard just above the others as she spoke out and clear surprise and disbelief. “Did they just say the President of T H I S is here?! No ponies ever set eyes on the President of that Corporation!”
Of course, nearly all eyes were glued to the top of the steps. But at this very moment, all was being drowned out by the multitude of flashes from the photographers just outside the still open door. It wasn't until they were closed yet again and removed the obstruction from everyone's eyes before they caught sight of just who it was.
First, there was a female Zebra decked out and a very stylish dress made of both fur and cloth. This turned out to be Zecora and she was wearing something that was vaguely similar to her usual attire. But obviously it was for more a formal setting as she was wearing a gold-plated sash and a few more gold bands on her arms and legs that did not clash at all with the striped fur that was around her waist and draped over her shoulders as a shawl.
Her hair was down in the same way it was during the first leg of their ship ride and she gave off this air of Elegance as she gracefully walked on the marble flooring. To the guests she had this way of appearing to be one of those who would belong at such an event but to those that knew her, they could easily tell that she was giving off this feeling that a huge weight was finally lifted off her back thanks to the smile she sported.
(Here is a picture of the outfit that Rory Mercury is wearing.)
The next one to be looked upon, turned out to be Rory Mercury and she was wearing a flowing dress. The right arm was covered from the elbow going down so that it acted as an arm guard. As for the left arm. That one had this thick gold band that was half way up from the elbow to hold some of the fabric to go down and expose the rest of said arm. The jewels for the neckline, above the navel and knee sections for the leggings were of a brilliant teal color. The gold decorations in the fabric itself, was real threads of woven gold.
As for her left wrist, there was a gold bracelet. She didn't really need any makeup at all aside from her usual-colored lips that were now pink and some light eye shadowing, but that was pretty much it and it only made her natural beauty stand out even more as her red eyes had this confident look. The only other change would have to be the way that her hair was made into a ponytail and a gold accessory to hold it in place.
When it came to the next two. These were of course Rin and Lin. The two were wearing a similar dress to Rory, but with a different color scheme. Although instead of matching the color of their mane’s to their clothing. They instead, did a reversal and wore clothing that went with the other sister’s hair color. This meaning that Rin was wearing black and Lin was the one wearing silver.
The next thing to be different about these two, was the way Rin was seeming far more reserved than normal. Whereas Lin was attempting to soften her sharp gaze. But instead of seeming cheerful. This instead got Lin to have this odd aura that made her seem mysterious and this caught the eyes of quite a few of the males in the room. Of course, this inadvertently caught the attention of the mayors that were with them and they started to scowl, before recomposing themselves only a moment later and attempted to gain back their much-wanted attention.
(Here's a picture of the type of outfit that Gilda would be wearing.)
Next up was a Griffin and she was wearing an outfit with a unique style, as it allowed the full range of one’s movement. Of course, this also included her wings not being impeded in any sort of way. The top piece that looks similar to a hood that had been pulled down, had this long piece that stretched nearly to the floor and there was a slightly glowing blue diamond shaped rock at the end.
However, she did keep on her signature black studded collar around her neck which surprisingly went pretty well with the rest of her clothing. Altogether, it gave off this impression that she was both ready to party. Whether it be to have a good time or tumble with anyone who should get on her bad side that evening.
(Here is the gear that Brex is currently wearing.)
The last member of the group who turned out to be at the very back was slowly being shown, as the five girls were taking a few steps forward and making some room by parting from one another. This of course was none other than Brex, as he was wearing his unique level seventy Red Mage gear, but without his weapon at his hip. His face was firmly covered by a smooth porcelain mask, with a couple of sections carefully cut out to make a simple white opera mask with a happy expression.
However, instead of having everything covered like normal beyond the mask. Brex allowed his black with silver tipped hair to come out from underneath the hat and quickly tied into a low ponytail so that the majority of his neck was covered. As for the front of the neck, that was easily concealed by a small piece of black cloth that was hanging off of the lower half of the mask itself.
Over with Celestia, who was less than several yards away. Her body went completely rigid without anyone else taking the chance to notice her current condition. However, instead having the look of shock or surprise just like everyone else in the room. She had a mix of panic and some other type of emotion that really couldn't be described too well as her body started to tremble. As well as they're being a blush that she was trying very hard to keep down.
Although, with Twilight standing right next to her, it didn't take that long at all before the Unicorn began to sniff the air subconsciously and arched an eyebrow to take a quick glance down at the lower floor for only a second, before bringing it back up to the group that just came in. She then said the following in a somewhat confused tone. “Did they already bring out the cake?”
Yet again, Twilight was completely oblivious by the way Celestia reacted towards that comment and tried to straighten up with this even more intense blush on her face that threatened to cause her head to burst into flames. The Alicorn even pressed her lips to show that she was concentrating extremely hard at that moment, before her expression returned to normal. Although, she was now beginning to sweat a little.
Afterwards, the party of six made their way over to greet Celestia with Brex at the back of the group. It was Twilight who was the first to speak up as she turned towards Zecora with clear interest in her eyes. “Zecora! I can't believe you made it back already and you're here of all places! Rory said that you were going overseas and I thought you were to be gone for a lot longer. Hold on, what's with the sash?”
The Zebra gave a smile to the purple Unicorn, as she looked over her attire before answering. “Very much to both my surprise and joy. I was permitted to return to Equestria as a permanent envoy. It was all due to the new king, that used his authority to pull a few long and short strings.”
It was Gilda that ended up budding in next. As she gave an amused huff before speaking up. “Yeah, the shorty couldn't come this year with the whole getting situated in his new chair. So, he went ahead and made Zecora into whatever she is now to stand in. I’m thinking it’s gonna take a while because they’re either need to build a set of steps or grind down that chair so it’s lower.”
Twilight turned her attention to the Griffin and quickly exclaimed the following. “Gilda! Us girls were really worried when you suddenly went up and disappeared! Rainbow and Rory explained the situation to us later on, but I really wish you would have said something. Even if we weren't that close, we got pretty worried.”
Gilda was looking a little disturbed by this and was avoiding eye contact with the mare, as she was attempting to keep her bad girl façade with her reply. “Tsk! Only thing you need to worry about is what happens to whoever that tries to mess with me. Besides, there was no way in Tartarus that I was going to miss out on an adventure that takes me overseas.”
Twilight then started to really look at Gilda’s attire and tilted her head in clear confusion, as she asked her next question. “Well, that's an interesting dress to wear to the Gala. Did you pick it up during the traveling?” Gilda gave a light scoff as she crossed her arms, while she was also beginning to fidget on the spot. She then closed her eyes and tried to put on a confidence smirk as she said the following in a somewhat embarrassed voice that she was trying very hard to control at first, but sounded normal near the end.
“Oh, this is? It’s… Uh, something Gambit gave me when we got to Zebrabwe. It looks cool and it's got some pretty good enchantments to give a decent boost to my stats. Also, there's no way that any of you are going to catch me wearing a dress to a stuffy party like this.” The next part was whispered just under her breath so that it wasn't picked up on anyone else there as her eyes quickly shifted over towards Brex for but a split second. “There's only going to be one time that I do.”
Unbeknownst to any of them there. Gambit saw that on his chat window in the bottom left-hand corner of his View and internally shuttered. Aside from some small goosebumps from under his clothing. The rest had no idea that he was given a small shock from what Gilda said. The young unicorn after conversing with Gilda turned her attention towards Rory.
Having already expected the question. Rory went ahead and beat Twilight to the punch and quickly said the following, while giving a small smile and a wink. “I already had a ticket. It was hand delivered to me at my place almost two weeks ago by one of the Day Guards. It was a Pegasus and she was wearing some armor that was different from those in town. So, I think she came directly from here.”
“I didn't say anything because the rest of you were a bit too busy. Also, there was no way I was going to attend if my Master wasn't going to make it on time. From being around all of you I was pretty sure you were going to try everything in your power to get me to go along with you and I didn’t want to go through that hassle.”
When Rory said the word, Master. This caused Celestia's eyes to dart between her and Brex repeatedly before fixing themselves on Rory once again, as Twilight replied. “How did you all get here anyway? You weren't even ready to go when we left Ponyville. You would have needed to get dressed, do makeup and your hair done. Not to mention the ride needed to even get to Canterlot. I’m pretty sure the train wasn’t going to be making any stops in time for you to catch that.”
Rory laughed at that before gesturing over her left shoulder with the use of her thumb, before she said, “You could thank Crystal for the transportation issue. Master has a carriage that Crystal could easily pull and held all of us after he got back to Ponyville. In fact, you all pretty much missed each other.”
Now that part was not a lie. Seeing as the Yuna came in pretty low from the direction of the Everfree Forest, after taking a long about route to be on the other side of Ponyville for their approach and they did catch a glimpse of the chariot heading for Canterlot with all of the girls and Spike on board.
After they all got off of the ship. They were accompanied by Crystal who was taking up the rear, who was eventually summoned all the way to the other side of the ocean nearly a week and a half ago. Brex went into his selections of mounts and pulled up the icon that showed a Chocobo pulling a wagon and clicked on it with his mind.
That was when the object appeared to be a fixing itself to Crystal and showed it to be a wagon from his world with a set of balloons on either side to allow it to float off the ground. From there, they all got on board in swiftly made their way over to Canterlot and arrived only a short time after the girls did. The only reason that they were so much later was due to Brex taking a not so direct route, that would allow them to take a good look at the night time life and sites of Canterlot itself before getting to the party.
Although, Brex was pretty surprised when he saw the personal Chocobo keeper from back at HQ already in town, as she was accompanying Rory to their meeting destination at the edge of Ponyville. He inquired as to why she was there and Rory answered with the explanation of how she knew that he was going to be in need of Crystal at some point or another and had her transported over to Ponyville a short time after he left.
After giving it some thought. Rex understood the reasoning and was appreciative of the girl’s hard work and attending to Crystal. Although. he wasn't really quite sure as to why, but he was pretty sure that the changeling in disguise was looking a little nervous and profusely sweating, while giving a big grin as Rory and Gambit were talking with one another.
Of course, what Gambit didn't know was that the changeling arrived in Ponyville only a day or so after he landed in Zebrabwe and Rory ended up being the one to come up with the story, so that the Changeling couldn't be held accountable for Crystal running off on her own. But honestly speaking, Rory didn't hold the Changeling at fault and she knew that her Master wouldn't either. But the girl was so scared that she would be in deep trouble and Rory decided to keep this as a little secret between them.
When it came to Rin and Lin. They simply hanged back a little bit and were quickly introduced by Rory as their maids. From there, they introduced themselves further by giving their names, as well as a set of short bows. However, when it came to Brex. All he did was give a subtle nod when Twilight mentioned that she was glad that he was back and this caused the mare to tilt her head and confusion as to why he wasn't talking.
Celestia, who was taking a back seat to all of this. Soon started to give her own greetings to each of them as they one by one went down the steps. Surprisingly enough, when she got to Brex. She managed to hold her own as she spoke out in her usual calm demeanor that was always present during her time with the rest of her subjects in the throne room. “This is quite a surprise. Although, I am so glad that you were able to come tonight. Would it be possible for us to have a discussion later on?” After a few seconds of silence, Celestia's mask began to crack as she was looking a bit worried.
That was when Gambit turned his attention back to the girls that were already waiting and started to follow without giving any type of indication that he acknowledged her presence or the question at all. Upon seeing this, Twilight quickly stammered out the following to Celestia as they began to converse back and forth with one another.
“Oh, um. I'm sorry, I am so sorry Princess. Hehe-Hehe... Uh, Gambit doesn't really do well with talking to mare’s he doesn't know very well. I'm sure that once the two of you spend some time with one another, then I'm positive that he'll start to open up.”
“Truth be told Twilight… I was not expecting Gambit to be here. Although, I do suspect that his ticket is quite genuine, as we have had many trying to get into the Gala with a fake ticket in the past. All the guards at the entrance have been trained quite well in order to spot these counterfeits. Otherwise, Gambit and the others would not have been able to come in.”
“You didn't send him a ticket? But each one only allows a single guest. I wonder where they got so many tickets to begin with. Oh no! I completely got distracted! Their introduction! Oh wait! The President was in that group! But who is it?! It can't be Zecora. The twins are maids. I never heard anything about Gilda being involved with the company. That leaves only Rory or Gambit to be the President! Princess! You must know who, right? I have so many questions!”
“Hmmm. Of that I am unable to help with. You see young Twilight, I myself have never been allowed on the premises or even in the company of the president of Tech Hex Institute of Science. All correspondence are done with a secretary.”
“WHAT? But-but they're the biggest company in all of Equestria? And you're the Princess. Have you never had any interest in visiting them?”
“Oh Twilight, of course I have. The problem is the land is private property and is such one that I cannot directly be involved in. Sure, I can instill my own level of taxes on their goods, but they're pretty much a self-sustained country of their own if you will. They do not require any outside sources and are completely self-reliant from what my sources tell me. But seeing as they're doing so much good for the rest of Equestria, I have no real need to impose my authority. Although, I would be lying if said that I didn't want to go. But I was denied and every opportunity.”
“But still! You're the Princess, you can do anything you want! Why would they deny access to one of our country's rulers? I for one would think that it would be seen as an honor.”
“For the longest time I was unsure as to the reason of all the dismissals, but after tonight, I believe I might have a picture... Twilight. Could I ask you for a favor?”
“Well yes, of course, just name it.”
“After the party is done. I would like to have some words with you and the rest of your friends in my private study. If I do not find you myself then I will send a guard to retrieve you when it comes close to eleven. If not, then we could postpone until the morning when we all have breakfast together. After all, you, Spike and the rest of your friends will be staying the night. Rooms have already been prepared for our out of state party guests that don’t have sleeping arrangements in the city.
“Okay, I suppose that should be fine. When I get the chance, I'll tell the other girls.”
“Thank you, Twilight.”
As more guests came through and the pair began their arduous task of the meet and greet once more. Celestia was in the back of her mind and beginning to dread what she was going to tell her student and hoped that things would turn out well for not only that meeting, but for the rest of the evening as well. Although, what she really regretted the most, was how she was stuck at the top of the stairs for who knows how long until she was able to get down below.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Once Brex got to the bottom of the steps, he released an internal sigh from within his mind after finally getting away from Celestia. If anything, he was pretty surprised with himself with how well it went. He was almost sure that she was going to try something, but it went pretty smoothly. Actually, it was so smooth that it caused warning flags to pop up in his head and he wondered if there was something waiting for him tonight.
That was when he heard Rory in his head as she talked to him in a comforting voice, as she was now hanging off of his right arm. “You see? It went just like scenario number two. It really did help to practice how you would interact with her with the use of the dream realm and setting up some simulations. And here you thought she was going to try and set up a trap.” This got Rory a sigh coming from within Brex as he playfully argued with her, for a little back and forth, while making their way through the groups that were obviously eyeing them both.
“Well, the night is still young and there's always a threat of getting turned to stone on the back of my mind. Who's to say that she's not going to turn this into one of those... Oh. I'm going to stone you after tonight. But I'm just making sure your last day of freedom is the best in the world.”
“I'm pretty sure I can take her out in a fight if I really have too. But Luna's here now and she's pretty much back up to full strength. I'm not sure if I can even win if they both come at me at once. Are we positive that my mental defenses are going to hold up if they try to get inside my head and read my thoughts?”
“Master, I think you really need to try to relax a little bit, this is a party after all. Also, for all that she's done to you in the past, she really hasn't tried to make a move. This could very well be an Equestria that she's actually a good Pony. In the show, she was always good. But I will admit that there have been some questionable decisions.”
“And of course, there's always all the Fanfictions that you have in your head. Quite a large majority of them have her centered as being the bad girl that's always out to destroy the displaced. This could be one of those rare two out of ten moments that she's not out to kill you scenarios.”
“I… It’s just… Uhg! I can't help myself Rory... She's the figurehead of an entire country and can move the freakin Sun. She has almost limitless magical potential and can order a legion of devoted followers to do whatever she says. Heck, she could tell a flat out lie and the masses would take it as fact. To some she’s pretty much a God with the way they look up to her.”
“She's also been around for so long that she has more life experience than any other alive, except for those Immortals that have been around forever. It's not so much out of the realm of possibility that someone in such a seed of power and upbringing wouldn't snap if their order was to be disturbed.”
“Umm. Master? I don't really mean to come off as being someone who has a habit of nitpicking, but a few of those qualities apply to you as well.”
“Huh?!”
“You happen to have a lot of money in the bank and you control some of the most influential companies that this world has ever seen. We quite literally have our own legions willing to do whatever you say back at HQ. The Changeling’s specifically. They pretty much treat you as their God from the way they act.”
“Rory, I’m not some all-powerful being that can move the sun. That’s hardly a comparison.”
“Now Master, you may not have the spell to be able to move the stars and satellites around the planet. But you're capable of going toe-to-toe with the ones that can. And don't forget that you're on good terms with Luna, so I doubt that she's going to jump in and go sword swinging happy on your neck.”
“I know, I know. You got a good point... I just can't help but think that if I lower my guard, then everything's going to suddenly come crashing down all around me. It’s a common trope where as soon as you let down your guard, everything gets turned on its head and I’m trying my best.”
“Oh, I'm very proud of my Master for doing so much. Hehe-Hehe, in fact, did you forget the look on Rin and Lin’s faces when you came out of the room wearing what you are now? They just couldn't peel their eyes off of your hair. They know a thing or two about disguises and they could tell right away it wasn't a fake wig. If they’re gonna react that much to just your hair alone, then I have no idea what they’re going to be like when they see the whole you.”
“Ugh... please! For the love of the twelve! Don't remind me! Even this much is making me feel really uncomfortable in front of so many of these people. I would have worn something to cover up my entire body as normal, if you didn't talk me into this one change in my outfit.”
“Come now Master. who knows how long it will be until we can go to another party and it would be far better to make a good first impression.”
“Good first impression my ass! You're the one getting all the looks from the business types, while the more questionable ones are giving me that, Ooh its eye candy look... I swear, that one over there that we just passed was undressing me with her eyes. I'm just glad that we all discussed that I was going to say very little at this party and rely on you and the others to do the talking.”
“Do you really intend to be completely silent during the whole party just because you don't want Celestia to hear your voice? Don't you think that's just being a little childish?”
“Gerrrrr.... I know how it sounds, but I don't know what to say... I spent over a decade keeping away from her and when she's in my dreams, I have Luna relay everything for me. She happens to be an ancient and manipulative ruler that likes to guide others into doing what she wants without being noticed. In other words, if I give her even the slightest hint that I'll talk to her. Then odds are, she's going to try and drill me for any information she can use later.”
“And there goes my Master's paranoia flaring up once again... Nothing bad is going to happen, and tonight is one of the fun episodes where we get to see Twilight and her friends completely botching their night. All we have to do is sit back, blend into the background and watch the fireworks unfold. Also, it would be best not to forget that we still need to have a few words with those two at some point before we can continue with the whole herd forming idea.”
“Oh… That's right, we still need to nip that in the butt, don't we? I still can't believe that we managed to talk those two down until we got to see each other face to face as a group. I even had one of my doppelgangers start looking through some legal texts when it came to this whole being engaged to Gilda thing. As it turns out, Gilda told both of her aunts and she got their permission through a letter she sent right after the incident occurred in the forest.”
“Oh yeah, I do remember Master mentioning this. As long as two family members acknowledge the custom, then it can hold up in their courtroom. Even if there really isn't any presidents when coming to a situation where a Griffin and a non-Griffin go through the custom, Gilda seems really insistent on it. So, I know I asked this question of you Master. But what do you think Gilda is? Personally, I see her as a type that likes to get it up the ass. And all those piercings suggest that she's really… REALLY! into rough play.”
“Come on Rory! not this again! Do we really need to go and discuss what Gilda is into?! After that night she climbed into my bed, I made sure nothing happened again by giving the girl her own room.”
“Master, and let's not forget that you also came back in the middle of the night after you made your trip over the ocean to hand me a link Pearl to give to Rainbow, while you gave a second one to Gilda so that the both of them could talk to each other every night.”
“Hey! I only did that so when we got back, I wouldn't be buried under a mountain of questions and accusations from Rainbow about what I did and didn't do to Gilda. Also, I didn't want to take the chance of those two breaking up over a long-distance relationship and not being able to talk to one another.”
“Master, in case you were unable to see, I'm rolling my eyes over here. You're really hoping that they would just cave in and forget about forming that herd with us, aren’t you?”
“Can we just stop talking about this for now and leave it for later on? I know this is a very stuck-up party where all you're really doing is eating some expensive food that's priced way too high and made by some really snooty chefs. Then you got all the political talks and backroom dealings that go unknown to the populace. Aside from that, you're really just standing around and doing nothing. Gugh... I really just want to go home already! Oh wait, look at that. someone's starting to talk to us. Oh great, I think I know this one... Fun times all around, yippee... Oh right, and in case you can't see it, I'm rolling my eyes back here.”
By then. the group pretty much started to disperse a little more so it was now just Brex, Rory, along with Rin and Lin. And the one that just started talking to Rory. Turned out to be a female Unicorn, that was being accompanied by a male that looked as though they were brother and sister with the way their Mains and fur coloring, were pretty much the same. That being amber for their mane’s and a azure blue for their fur coloring.
The mare was wearing a party hat with flowers on her head and a dress that looked like it came from the Victorian age. When it came to the male Unicorn. He was wearing something that came from the same era. However, it seemed as though the measurements were a little off and some sections look as though they were form fitting, while others were just a few sizes too big. These parts obviously focusing on the ends of the arms and legs to make them appear as though they were bell bottoms.
The only thing that they had in common in terms of what they were wearing. Was the matching set of gold badges that were on their upper right shoulders. On closer inspection one could see the molding to take on the form of an open book and a quill that was in the middle of writing something into said book. These signified them as members of the royal courts magic and science divisions.
Brex only really remembered them through his doubles eyes during their attempts to get Celestia to give them some type of authority to go and snoop around Tech Hex. Of course, even without looking into it too much. One could easily tell that they wanted to merge it with their organization so that they could eventually take it over. It was actually these two in particular that caused his secretary back at the main office to have her days nearly ruined with another one of their stupid letters. Honestly, he was this close to just ordering those two to be abducted and replaced.
It was the female who introduced herself first of course, as she was the one who initiated the whole contact and had her sights squarely on Rory. “How fortuitous for us to have this random convergence. I go by Azure Pie and this is my little brother, Azure Squared.” Her brother quickly gave a nod as his sister continued. “Now, straight to the point. We have petitioned on numerous occasions, quite frequently might I add, that as you are conducting experiments in our field of expertise-.”
“The Unicorn was abruptly silenced when Rory stepped up quickly and had her face almost an inch away from the mare, as she started to speak herself. “I know who you are Miss Azure Pie. And we have been sending those letters back each and every time with the same answer. We are a privately funded organization and you have no claims on what we do.”
“Just because we are in the same field, it doesn’t mean that you are automatically in charge. Now tell me this. Do you go around and hassle any adventurer that should happen to come up with a good idea off the streets? Do you track them down and try and steal their accomplishments for yourself, even if they went so far as to build a better toaster. Are you going to claim that as your property?”
The mare was visibly startled and was trying to put some words together, as her eyes were crossed in order to look at Rory, who was very much within her personal space. However, it seemed that the brother was slowly nodding from behind, as he was fully agreeing with whatever Rory was saying. However, the sister caught this and quickly shot him a look that said that he was to stop. This caused Azure Square to change his reply to a solid no by shaking his head furiously.
Rory then went on to say, “your claims would have some leeway if we were to also be receiving some funding in the same way as yourself. We also know about your attempts to push the Princess into somehow granting you access. And as stated on all of the returned letters. Since we are a privately funded and own company. That just so happens to also be located on a land that we ourselves purchased. Then you really don't have a shot in the dark from talking to the Princess, because not even she has been allowed to come onto the premises.”
Azure Pie was about to say something, but Rory quickly cut her off again, while also bringing up her right hand and extending her index finger upwards and slightly shaking it from left to right. “We follow all of the procedures to have our products tested and that is all that is required to have them distributed.”
“Under no part of the contract and rules is there anything that states that you are required to know exactly how we produce our products or how they function as a whole. As long as they operate as specified and use no harmful components, then we are free to do pretty much whatever we want.”
By then, the two groups were now starting to gain even more attention from the crowd nearby that was listening in on the whole discussion. Azure Pie then pull back with an indignant face before brightening up and turning her attention over to Gambit who is on Rory's left-hand side and only a few inches back. She then straightened out her dress and tried to put on a pathetic attempt at looking sultry over at him as she spoke.
“Could you please try to talk some sense into your President? She is obviously gotten drunk on Power and has no idea on how the real-world works.” Brex could obviously tell how Rin and Lin were beginning to tense up a little bit as the mare tried to put the moves on him, but continue to remain silent as his mask was facing her. As the seconds slowly went by, the mare’s composure was now crumbling, as she realized that her attempt failed. With that out of the way. The discussion was reheated between Rory and Azure Pie.
However, as it was starting to get so tedious, Brex really had to try hard not to raise a hand to his mask in order to yawn. He got to get a glimpse of something in the corner of his vision which was in the direction of the exits leading to the garden. So, after sending a little message over to Rory that he'll be going off and doing his own thing for a little bit. Gambit slowly made his way out. Once outside, he took a good look and found that there were only a few of the guests outside right now.
But he did happen to spot Applejacks food stall and even further away, was Fluttershy having a bit of trouble with interacting with the animals that would scurry away from her whenever she tried to approach. Already, he could tell that everything was going according to the show's design and was now putting it together in his head as to how long he possibly had before the entire Gala was to turn into a war zone.
It was during this mental calculation that Brex noticed a figure he saw from before at one of the corners of the garden and decided to head on over. But along the way, Applejack caught sight of him and quickly called out in an excited tone, as the first few words she said would get a little awkward as she would lightly chuckle to herself. “Over here partner! Hehe-hehe... I mean… That is... I uh, it didn't even cross my mind that you would be here of all places when you get back from your little romping.”
“Say! Are you hankering for some Apple products? I don't know what it is about the stuck-up folks here, but they just don't know what they're missing. I really thought that they'd be selling faster than grandma's Apple cakes. But I ain't getting a lick of luck.”
Instead of saying anything to Applejack. Brex brought up his right hand. With one of the uses of his prestidigitation spell, he quickly started to write something in the air with his finger as the tip produced a white light that remained in place. Once finished, he waved his hand across the floating writing so that it would spin around and allow apple Jack to get a clear view to read the texts.
“I would love to try them right now, but I am pressed for time. How about you give me two of those candy apples and whatever you don't sell at the end of the night, then I'll buy what’s still in stock?”
He then produced a couple of bits from his item box and pulled them from his pocket and placed them onto the flat surface of the stall. Applejack was so happy that she finally made her first sell at the party, that by the time he was already walking away. She had only just realized that he wasn't talking and tilted her head in clear confusion.
Knowing how things are going to go over with Fluttershy. Brex went ahead and completely avoided that section of the garden until he arrived at his destination, while still carrying the apples in each hand by their stick. By the time he stopped and was now at the edge of a small pond being surrounded by a stone wall that was barely a foot high. He was with none other than Princess Luna herself, who was intently staring at the water and a few of the fishes swimming through it, as the moonlight reflected from the surface.
*Point of view: Third Person*
After checking his mini map quickly for anyone nearby and finding that it was just the two of them alone. Brex spoke up in a way that would minimize the chance of spooking Luna. “I'm sure that your garden would have looked very nice with one of these at your old castle.” Luna whirled on the spot and nearly fell into the water after taking half a step back. But thankfully, she caught herself in time on wobbly legs and straightened herself up before giving him an unamused look, before she responded.
“Do you take joy in frightening us!” But Luna stopped herself before giving Gambit a puzzled look that quickly morphed to that of understanding, as her eyes went wide. But before she could say anything else, the candy apple in his left hand was handed over and she ended up taking it as the two started to go back and forth. While at the same time, taking in the site of the pond in the Moonlight.
“I wondered if I would be able to see you if I were to come to the Gala. Was getting a little worried with you not dropping by to say hello.”
“I-I... Have had great many of other matters on my mind that required unwavering attention. I do hope that it went well with your travels.”
“Not much to write home about. Talk to a few here and there and did the odd job. Also, cleared up a little misunderstanding, but that's pretty much it.”
“Oh, we see. Hast thou enjoyed in partaking in the merriment?”
“Luna, you're beginning to relapse back into your old speech. I've talked with you enough times to know that you only get like that when you're worked up. Maybe you should take a bite out of that apple to try and relax a little and we can talk about it if you want.”
Luna took a look at the candy apple gripped in both of her hands and glanced up to him a few times before she eventually brought it to her mouth and took a small bite. It wasn't exactly subtle, but Luna was definitely loving it as her eyes lit up and she hurriedly took another bite and started to savor it more.
After she was nearly halfway done. Luna clearly realized how long she was eating and developed a slight blush before turning her attention to the pond as she spoke. “Can't say that we-. That I have had an apple served in such a way. I happened to look in on the chefs and I was certain that these were not anywhere to be found.”
“You can thank the one that you know as the Element of Honesty for those. You know what's funny? All this talk about food and seeing you enjoy that apple, as I also look at this reflection, has got me to think about Mooncakes. Ha-Ha… I suppose that's a little random.”
“What is this, Mooncake? Is that a new pastry?”
“Oh, I would not say that it's new, that's for sure. Why? Are you interested?”
“Very... It's not often that there are mentions of the Moon. If you wouldn't mind, please.”
“Hmm... First off. It would be better if I explained the reason behind it. A very long time ago, even before I was even born. There was a story widely known in a certain culture. Bear in mind that this is just a story and I don’t remember all the details.”
“I understand. Please, do go on.”
“To summarize. The story goes with there once being ten suns in the sky, that were burning the land. A legendary archer could not stand the plight of his own people, so he used his bow and arrow and shot nine of the ten suns out of the sky so that only one remained. It was said that he was given a gift from those up high. Which turned out to be the elixir of immortality for his deed in saving the lives of many. He gave the potion to his wife for safekeeping, but while he was out hunting. One that he thought to be his apprentice and best friend, tried to steal it from his wife.”
“So underhanded. How could one that is called the best friend do such an act of betrayal?”
“You, as well as your sister knows what the talk of immortality can do to a mortal. But as the story goes On. His wife drank the potion to keep it from being stolen. But as a result, she herself gained immortality and was forced to become the spirit of the moon and was sent there. In the end, she ended up leaving him alone. But he was not sad, because she was not killed in the robbery.”
“Ever since then, on the anniversary. The husband would set out an altar and pray to her in hopes that she was having a good life up on the moon. And all the while, he would set out these small cakes, which turned out to be something she really liked to have on occasion. Eventually, the story became widely known and during the Autumn Festival, it would become a tradition to make these confections. During this time, the moon would have those prey to it and offer thanks for the good harvest.”
“Even after three-thousand years, it was as popular as ever, if not even more with all the Innovations they put towards making different types of Mooncakes. One could put in red bean paste as one. Another can be filled with a type of tart. One would even be made filled with the assortment of nuts, seeds and held together with honey or syrup. For those that are of the meat-eating variety. They have variations of those as well. Oh, and let's not forget the jelly and ice cream.”
“I do recall that there was one called the, Thousand Rainbow Mooncake. Which lived up to its name, especially with the way the colors would swirl almost endlessly on the outside. Some mooncakes would even be made in a way that a good luck charm would be imprinted onto the outside and given to students to wish them good luck on their tests.”
As Brex was absent-mindedly going on with his explanation. Luna was continuing to eat the rest of the Apple off of the stick, as she had this wonderous expression on her face over the way her moon was being coveted in the past and had no idea that such an event had even occurred.
She was also in awe over the simple fact that such a tradition was going on for well over three-thousand years. But that was when a question suddenly popped into her head and she couldn't contain it and slightly averted her eyes in the opposite direction of him. “Do you follow that tradition?”
Brex hummed to himself for a moment as he brought up the candy apple to his mask and somehow was able to take a bite out of it simply by pressing it to where the curved line for the smile was. He then kept his mask facing towards the water as he replied to her question. “Unfortunately, I do not belong to that country and have no relations to any from there as far as I know. As for following that tradition, I would have to say that I don't. At least, as far as I remember.”
This got Luna to lower her head, along with her eyes for but a brief moment before he continued. “The Autumn Festival for which this is done on, does not exist anymore. But who's to say one has to give thanks to the Moon only one time of the year?” That was when he started to eat the rest of the Apple at a rapid pace as Luna turned her attention towards him and gave a small smile. But what he said next, made that small smile grow even further.
“But now that I've talked about it. I can't help but to want to make some soon. How about we make a deal?” Luna slightly tilted her head, while raising one of her eyebrows as a result before he went on. “I'll make some when Autumn rolls around. In return, I'd like you to judge their taste. Do we have a deal?”
Luna was now blinking rapidly, as her mouth was slightly open. She attempted to put some words together but fumbled with them before they managed to exit her lips after a long, several seconds. That was until she managed to stutter out the next string of sentences, although she was quite flustered while doing so.
“Wah-What!? Why would you want me to taste them? I wouldn't have any idea how they're meant to be.” Brex turned on the spot and started to walk away from Luna and back to the party, as he waved the now empty stick in his left hand in a goodbye gesture as he spoke.
“They were originally an offering for the wife who turned into a Moon Goddess. Seeing as your Princess Luna and you control the Moon. That makes you pretty much the same. For one to make Mooncakes, and get the approval of the current Moon Goddess. Now that is one great motivation to do my best. Oh, and by the way. I suggest getting a high vantage point in the party. I get the sneaking suspicion that it's going to be pretty entertaining.”
And with that, he left a now stunned Luna as she was now sporting a heavy blush that easily stood out on her dark figure. Eventually, she was able to regain her cognitive functions as she looked down to the Apple stick in her hand before mumbling the following to herself. “What just happened to us? We are so confused.” She then scrunched up her muzzle for a second after picking up a very weak aroma that only lasted for but a split second, as she quickly labeled it as blueberries.
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
Soon after leaving Luna when their chat was finished. Brex used a fire spell and quickly vaporized the tiny piece of wood in his hand until there were not even the smallest traces of ashes left as it blew into the wind. Keeping in mind of Fluttershy's location. He went ahead and took another route that was different than the one he used beforehand.
Once he was sure that he was coming up on one of the entrances leading back into the party. He ended up stopping in his tracks just before going around the bend that would lead him straight into a small clearing that he remembered through his doppelganger always hanging around the castle, to contain the number of benches.
The reason he ended up doing this, was because the icon meant for Celestia was coming up on his mini map, along with three green dots close by. While being very careful and slipping into the shadows of a nearby bush. Brex creeped along until he was able to stick his head around the corner and see the sight of Celestia, who was talking to Rory, as both Rin and Lin were standing behind her and off to the sides.
Upon witnessing the situation, Brex had to really hold himself back from immediately jumping in so that he could hear what was going on. Of course, he did see the subtle eye movements of Rory that was keeping her gaze solely on Celestia, which gave him the indication that she was aware of his presence. Luckily for him, they weren't too far and the music from the party was just faint enough that he didn't need to rely on looking over to his chat window to know what they were saying, as Celestia started talking aloud and the two of them began to exchange words with one another.
“Please, I do apologize for this unusual request for a private conversation. And if I’m to be quite honest, I could tell that my ministers of science and technology were taking up quite a bit of your time.”
“Not at all. It is true that I am somewhat grateful for being able to put a stop to that repetitive discussion. I too have been meaning to have a small chat with you as well. I can only surmise that would be the very reason for you to specifically have a ticket delivered to me.”
“Forgive me, as I don’t mean to sound pretentious. But I can’t help but notice that out of all the ponies here, I have yet to hear you refer to me as Princess. From that alone I could only come to conclusion that you are not from my country.”
“I can safely say that if I were, then odds are I would have been completely brainwashed and my Master and I would never have gotten together.”
“I am so sorry… But I don't quite understand by what you mean when you say brainwash. Have I done something to offend you?”
“Oh, you certainly have. Now I don't want to keep my master waiting too long, so I won't go into the details. However, I feel that I must tell you this at the very least. Princess Celestia, ruler of these lands. I, Rory Mercury, do not like you at all. If it were not for my Master, then we would not be having a civil conversation and your head would already be gone from the rest of your body.”
“I-I see... I suppose this has to do with back then... I don’t normally get these types of declarations all that often. Just how much do you know about…. The incident?”
“I know more than enough... He may have excused you to an extent, but I assure you that I am far less forgiving when it comes to the one that tried to kill-. No... Not try… The one who was the cause of his death. You could scarcely imagine all the things I want to do to you right now, but I won't due to his wishes.”
From where Brex was standing. He could easily see Celestia's wings giving the slightest of twitches as her left hand was now balling into a shaking fist. This was followed by a few seconds of silence before the talks continued. Although, the first couple of words that came out of Celestia’s mouth were so low in volume, that they were nothing but mumblings.
“What? You're going to need to speak up there.”
“I said, how’s Gambit been doing?”
“Huh?”
“I said, that I wanted to know how Gambit is doing. Is-Is he having any difficulties?”
“Under what obligation would I have to tell you anything of the sort?”
There was another one of those long stretches of silence as Rory was now looking visibly annoyed with Celestia. When it came to the pair of maids. Their eyes were locked onto the princess and already had themselves in a stance, where they could easily react without giving it away too much. But, Brex did see as Celestia scrunched up her face to indicate she was in some manner of pain, while a single teardrop managed to escape the edge of her left eye, as she responded to Rory.
“I've communicated with him in the Dream Realm on numerous occasions and conveyed that I am sorry for what transpired... I... I only wish to show him that I am truly sorry. Is there any course that could be taken that will gain his forgiveness? To my surprise, he shows up here of all nights and I felt that I finally had an opportunity to talk to him face to face. But instead, he completely ignores me.”
That was when Rory opened up the mental communication to Brex for the both of them to have an accelerated chat in his mind. “It would appear that your psychological attack from earlier was quite effective. I’m quite impressed Master. You really thought this through, didn't you? It's one thing to be sorry to an individual when you know their face and have spoken with them.”
“But it's on a whole other level with one's guilt and anxiety over the matter when their victim is one that they have no idea of their face or even their voice, so their imagination ends up running wild. What she did to you, must be pretty close to the emotion she fell towards her sister. Especially with this much time passing to allow the seeds of guilt to grow and sink their roots quite deep.”
Brex remains silent at that, but was clearly confused by Rory's words. He then raised an eyebrow questionably as he internally thought to himself, so that Rory was unable to hear his ramblings. “Hey! I have no idea what she's going on about! What's all this about psychological warfare? I just don't trust her or want to talk. Does she really think I planned this out to be some kind of long-term mental torture?”
Rex then gave it a split second to consider it, before he continued with his thoughts. “Hmm... Now that I think about it. It really isn’t all that bad of an idea. I'm probably better off with letting her believe that. She's the only one that knows how I really am and I want to keep some brownie points.”
Even with him going through this mental debate at lightning speed. His legs were still slightly shivering as the muscles were constantly tense, so that they were more than ready to act at a moment's notice. Of course, this was not out of a flight or fight response for a fear of the Princess. But more of an instinctual response. Especially with the close proximity of Rory and the other two when it came to Celestia.
Sure, Rory could hold her own, he knew that very well. At least long enough to possibly get away if the situation should turn into the princess’s favor. But when it came to Rin and Lin. He knew that they were not strong enough to take Celestia in a head-on fight, at least not yet. Even now, he could faintly feel the tug of one of his tank class Soul Stones that were pretty much begging to be equipped in response to his protective nature. Of course, he knew this was most likely his imagination playing the part, but he brushed It so that he could keep focused on the current situation.
Now, with going back over to Rory. The girl gave a slight huff of annoyance before turning away from Celestia. But she did say the following with a devilish grin on her face, just before she started to make her way back towards the castle with the two maids and tow. “I'm not doing anything for you. Much less when it comes to trying to improve your relationship with my one and only Master. Talk to me again after, and only after he allows you to suck off his dick!”
She then paused for a moment before speaking again, but this time she was looking right at Celestia in the same way that one of those upperclassmen would in some anime that had the upper hand and wanted to rub it in and was clearly loving it to no end.
“On second thought... Hmm. Why not come to our place after a week’s time. I would just love to see you try and get his permission. As long as you don’t step over the line, then I won’t interfere. Hehe~. Who knows. I may even decide to lend my assistance if you were to beg like the horny whore you are and promise to do anything I say. I can smell the desperation from before I even crossed the threshold of those front doors.” And with that, she turned again and left for the building.
A few things happen as soon as those words left Rory's lips when it came to both Celestia and Brex. The princess's mouth was hanging so wide that a bird could literally have flown straight in as her eyes were bugging out from pure shock. She also nearly stumbled back due to the unexpected words as her hoof unintentionally stepped on the hem of her dress.
But she caught on quickly enough and stopped herself from falling to the ground. She even had this deepening blush that pretty much spread across her entire face. In fact, the blush was so intense that it was even running along her ears and neck before she ended up slapping her hands over her face in letting out strange little whimper that was mixed with a tiny squeal. At the same time, her mouth was slowly beginning to move but was unable to let out any real words.
Over with Brex. Who is still hiding just around the corner. His mask nearly fell off with the way he was bugging out and he had to quickly grab on to it with his right hand to keep it from coming loose. His mind also came to a screeching halt as he tried to compute the implications what such a phrase would create in the future. By the time he was able to think properly again, Brex quickly found out that thanks to him being so distracted, the Princess was already long gone.
He then thought the following to himself, but made sure that Rory wasn't able to hear it. RORY! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING IN THAT HEAD OF YOURS?! You literally told the princess to suck my dick! I don't know if I should be incredibly turned on that you're being that forceful with her, or to be angry that you're causing so much friction.”
“Errr... Hmm, okay. If I'm being honest. Then I'm sort of… Seventy percent turned on in thirty percent angry. Also, why would she even want Celestia near my dick in the first place?! You even invited the her to our room?! So what? Am I meant to serve her some tea? Great, just great. Perfect even! Just was I needed to look forward too. I wonder if this is a good enough reason to start drinking? Maybe it'll help me forget about all of this happening.” And with that Brex stepped out of the shadows and went back inside.
From there, the rest of the party went as expected with all the girls playing their expected roles. Celestia was pretty much glued to the top of the steps along with Twilight. Although, Brex was pretty sure that she was somewhat distracted. Applejack just couldn't sell any of her goods, so he instructed Rin to be ready in the event that the stall should happen to be left behind.
Pinkie was pretty much making a spectacle of herself while attempting to get the band to play some more upbeat music. Not to mention the way she pretty much hoovered down most of the food. Brex was almost positive that she even gobbled up a couple of the silverware and began to chew her overly stuffed cheeks and swallow before spitting out the utensils as though they were watermelon seeds. From this he got to see another aspect of the cartoon rules, as the silverware landed perfectly arranged onto the table.
When it came to Rarity, she did try to swoon Prince Blue Blood, but he was having none of that. Unlike in the story, the prince wasn't acting all snooty and uptight. However, he did try to get away from the fashionista as much as possible with one convenient excuse after another. But no matter the excuse, Prince Blue Blood was always found by her soon after as she was popping out of the most unexpected places in a familiar fashion to Pinkie.
What was once a cordial chat between the two of them, would soon turn to him pretty much only replying with the least amount of words. Overtime it, would end up progressing to the point that Blue Blood was now actively ignoring Rarity in order to greet the other guests and check up on the guards for any up-to-date status report. Of course, Brex was keeping an eye on this from his tall vantage point and was trying to hold back a giggle whenever Rarity's attempts to swoon him would fail and the mare was clearly becoming more desperate by the moment.
The supposed scene where the two of them would go outside to sit on pillows just like so many others, would not come to pass. The opening doors or the spilled drink on the floor didn't happen either. Although, Rarity's expression was turning more manic, along with her having a very creepy smile and a not-so-subtle twitch of the eye by the end.
When it came to Rainbow, she was trying her hardest in order to get the Wonderbolts to pay her any mind at all. Which was quite surprising to Brex with the multitude of failed attempts he got to see after coming back inside. Although, it became quite apparent that she was indeed gaining some attention. But it was from the guards, as she was now performing more and more dangerous aerial acrobatics from within the hall
While staying inside. Rex ordered his doppelganger from within the castle to go over and keep an eye on Fluttershy. Soon after he did this, he got the mental images of Fluttershy to be wearing some streaks of mud on her face as a form of camouflage and hiding in the bushes. While at the same time, she had a long piece of string that would be leading up to a trap. Said trap, was the comically overused box being held up by a single stick. It was because of this, that the Roegadyn was pretty sure of the rapidly approaching climax for the gala and was already in a spot to have a good view, while also staying out of the way.
But luckily enough, he just happened to catch the site of Fancy Pants and Fleur. The two lovebirds, along with his group of four all went to one of the corners for some privacy and started to chat. Although, Brex quickly got to work with writing in the air and explaining that he was not going to be talking out loud while in the castle. Thankfully, the two were understanding and didn't press him for the reason.
From there, they discussed a few minor things which also included how fancy pants came about to purchasing a very unusual item. Apparently, one of his subordinates came across it during their travels and shipped it to Canterlot and was scheduled to arrive sometime tonight. He then went on to some vague details. Which consisted of the item being a kind of metallic wrist bound item. There was a screen and multiple dials attached in various locations.
But due to poor handling with the mail system. The letter that came ahead of time had a good portion of the description damaged thanks to bad weather when it came across the sea to the east. So, it was nearly impossible for fancy pants to elaborate on anymore of the details.
Of course, Brex was quite interested in knowing that there was a type of Technology out there that was clearly more advanced than what normal Pony Society possessed. To say that he was excited, was an understatement as he eagerly waited for when sir Fancy Pants was done examining it himself. But somewhere in the back of his mind, there was this small itch that made him wonder if he was forgetting something and simply played it off as his curiosity and moved on.
It was then, that the domino effect of multiple outgoing mare’s came to start, as Applejack came first through the lower doors that led to the kitchen and came in with a very large multi-layer cake on a cart. That was when he glanced up to the upper floors and quickly surveyed for any sign of Luna. He had almost given up hope until he came across the last set of curtains and spotted the Princess of the night using the shadows provided to stay out of the way.
He ended up letting out a small laugh as he saw her face contort to both amusement and shock at what was to happening. The cake got destroyed by Pinkie doing a stage dive and getting multiple of the guests covered in cake. Instead of Blue Blood using Rarity as a shield, he was just about to deflect it with a magic spell, when Rarity popped up right in front of him with having no idea what was happening around herself and getting hit with an abnormally large glob of the cake and frosting.
Of course, Blue Blood was surprised by the events. Whereas Rarity went off on a tangent and accused him of using her to protect himself when he obviously had nothing to do with it and quickly stormed off in a huff. This only left Blue Blood standing there with a very confused expression. He even turned towards one of the guards and gave the motion as to wanting some answers. But the guard mare gave a shrug of her shoulders before lifting her hand and extending her finger to do a swirling motion to indicate that she thought the mare that ran off was a bit screwy.
The next thing that happened, was Fluttershy causing a stampede and making the entire Ballroom Shake as well as a few of the glasses on the tables to fall over from the vibration when an army of animals trampled their way inside. But with the sight of Fluttershy coming in all crazed and screaming “LOVE ME!!” With a volume that was just way too loud for the shy Pegasus. Brex had this fluctuating mixture of emotions crossing his face that depicted both unbridled fear and laughter.
Of course, with all the animals running amok. Rainbow was distracted by one of the flying creatures and ended up slamming straight into one of the support columns. And with that, it began to fall and strike the next column, which then repeated the effect until it went all the way down to the end of the room and miraculously causing that pillar to fall sideways. From there, it caused the next row to come right back.
By the end of all the carnage. Brex could clearly see Twilight calling out to all the girls and motioning towards the front doors and running out of the castle before they could be blamed for anything. As for the rest of the guests. They immediately started to file outside when Prince Blue Blood took command and issued loudly over the screaming for everyone to evacuate. Of course, Brex and the rest of his party weren't really all that phase and quietly exited along with the panicked guests.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia*
The princess of the sun could do nothing but to stand there with object horror plastered onto her face once the festivities were broken apart by the strange string of chaos that was caused by the friends of her most trusted student Twilight. Even with it being a few moments after they all ran out through the front door. Celestia was still there observing as the animals continue to loiter around and eat up all the food that was eventually knocked over once one of the dears bumped into the table that it was all placed upon.
However, it was a whole other story on the inside of Celestia's mind. She was quite literally jumping around in her imagination with pure glee and excitement at how Lively the so-called best party in the world, which was in reality, the most boring one to turn out so great. Obviously, she couldn't exactly show this part of herself as it would completely ruin her image. But it was Luna's voice that came out of nowhere that shocked her out of the state and caused the mare to turn around in order to hear just what was being said to her.
“These parties sure have changed from what I was originally told only a few weeks ago. Dear sister, would it not have been prudent to at least inform me as to the change in the required etiquette? It would have been foles play to locate a bear in the woods for my part.” Luna's voice was obviously meant to throw off any who would be listening as it was meant to be condescending. But Celestia knew from the glint behind Luna's eyes that she was only making fun of the situation and clearly loving every bit of it as much as herself.
Luna then continued, but not before casting a spell in order to allow herself to mentally communicate with her older sister for some privacy. “This will do quite nicely. Dear sister, I just so happen to have an interesting encounter with sir Gambit. Why were we not let in on his attendance?” Celestia visibly flinched on the outside before she replied to that. “It was a complete surprise for me as well.”
That was when Celestia went right ahead and told Luna about the whole encounter after the announcement from when he arrived. Of course, the tail also included the small discussion between herself and Rory Mercury from back in the garden.
This whole task took only a few minutes to complete as they kept a good watch on the ballroom from the top of the stares. Eventually, Luna let out an audible hum as she thought it over and considered the next response in her head. “I dare say that he is beginning to warm up to you.” This obviously got a confused look from Celestia before the two of them started to go back and forth.
“Just consider this if you will. You were forbidden from entering his dreams and all of a sudden, he meets you face to face. If I can gain anything from that decision, then he might be open to the idea of mending that forementioned bridge that we all believe to have burned down long ago. Well, I suppose if we are being truthful, then it would be the bridge that you believed to be burned down. I for one see it was perfectly usable if some work was to be put into it.”
“But Lulu! He didn’t even acknowledge me! I was ignored! That feeling... it's... it’s so strange. Instead of a princess, I felt no different than a simple vase that was placed on top of a small table in the corner of the room. I don't understand! Should I not be hurt? Should I not be upset over this? I am so very much confused.”
Luna gave a disgruntled huff, before she replied. “Dear sister… I feel as though this is another time that requires that I take the path of bluntness. Now, before you say anything, just hear me out. Tia... you have particular needs. Needs that have obviously been slowly maturing over a thousand years of ruling alone and stuck in the same rut as they say.”
“If you're going to say that I need to get a partner-.”
Luna's inner voice was now getting really annoyed at this point as she interrupted Celestia. “Sister! It is clearly not that simple! Not in the least. Very well, let us try another approach on this topic. Oh mother, please give me strength… After an extended rule. You have experienced the life of being in utter control over every aspect of not only your life, but the ponies around and being waited on hand and foot.”
“But I-.”
“Tia! Please! What I am trying to say, is that you are completely bored with being in charge! You're bored of being the center of attention for once! You wish to have another that does not look up, but looks down upon you. The very fact that you smell of cake right now as I am saying these words is proof enough!”
“I-I… That is! Umm.”
“No if, ands or buts. Tia, you are getting off on being treated in the complete opposite of what a princess normally is. You've been like this ever since that argument in his dream! For the Love of our mother's name! Whenever Gambit’s name is even brought up you-.”
“Lulu! Please just stop already!”
“I am not going to cease in my attempts to make you learn. Through my recent research into these modern times. I can easily classify you as a closet masochist. Don't think I haven't noticed the traces of magic that you use to heal your neck every now and then when I see you in the morning for our meals. Not to mention, there’s how the outside of your dream bubble appears when I go on my nightly patrols”
“Huh?! L-Lulu! You promised you wouldn't peek into my dreams without my permission!”
“Oh, come now Tia. I didn't do such a thing. All I had to do is glance over as I was passing and it was painfully obvious you were having a highly erotic dream! Sure, you would get one every now and then, but they happen to be a constant occurrence when it happens to coincide with a night that you are brought to see him or we have a discussion with Gambit as the subject.”
In the outside world, the two princesses were simply standing there without saying a word. But Celestia's cheeks quickly became flushed as sweat was now quickly forming on her brow. Her eyes even shrunk the show that she was in some manner of distress as she replied. “You, uh. Wouldn't happen to recall what our mother warned us on, would you?”
“Was I not the one to bring it up when we last had our little discussion on this topic? Of course, I remember her words clearly. When an Alicorn develops strong feelings and physical attraction to a possible mate, they end up going into a state of perpetual heat that only gets stronger over time. This is something that doesn't happen that often, so we can pretty much go our entire lives without having such a problem. Yes, we do have our normal heat cycles. But this is a part of something else. If found out early, then precautions could be enacted to halt it in place.”
“I-I think… I'm well past that point! I keep thinking of Gambit more frequently! First it began with just the visits, then it was his name being spoken. This went on until anything that reminded me of him, would trigger these feelings. But now, it's almost constant and it takes a lot for me to concentrate enough on other matters. It was only due to the importance of the gala that I was able to hold on for so long this day.”
“Tia, I already know of the multiple teleportation spells you've been conducting in secret.”
This caused Celestia to let out a loud gulp in the outer world. She then replied to Luna with an obvious hitch in her inner voice. “For j-just how long have you known?”
“For over a month now. As for tonight alone. I could faintly feel the pulse of such an advance spell from a certain distance. I believe the count is up to seven.”
“Um... make that eleven... Oh, hold on! Okay… Now it makes twelve. Lulu I'm in really, really big trouble! What am I supposed to do?! This is not going to go away on its own.”
“That is very much true Dear sister. Mother herself did attempt to stave off the effects for herself. But in the end, it bore no fruit and she lost control. It only got worse... I do recall her saying that she ended up flying straight through the castle walls once her willpower was broken. This was all in order to find the target of her affection. She even made the joke on the matter of not realizing how injured her body was until after she found him.”
That was when the both of them visibly flinched as Celestia replied and a somewhat worried tone. “Y-Yeah.... I kind of feel sorry for Dad. The poor stallion was a member of the royal guard and she crashed into him in the middle of their usual guard training exercises in the yard. In my case, it only got really bad after I had a talk with Rory.”
“Ah! You are referring to the act of sexual gratification towards sir Gambit.” This was followed by a short pause of dead silence, before Luna reacted in a shocked and disapproving voice that echoed loudly in their minds. “Tia! Are you not ashamed! I am literally standing right next to you and you had to go and-.”
“I can't help myself Lulu! Here comes number thirteen, and I'm sure these are probably the last pair I have that I can teleport. This is becoming a big problem.”
“Fine! Seeing as you are not in the current state of mind to be able to cast a constant spell to hold these urges back. Then I have no other course of action but to lend you my assistance for the time being.” And with that, Luna flashed her horn once and Celestia had this look of relief crossing her face.
Celestia then said, “I told Twilight that we would meet up tonight or possibly in the morning.”
“I see, I see. It would be best to take care of that little task now, rather than in the morning, when your condition might turn for the worst. I'll do my utmost to be able to keep your condition under control while we go and find your protégé and the rest of the elements of harmony. Perhaps afterwards, we can have our own private discussion on what needs to be done about your little situation.”
The next part was whispered on Luna's part. But Celestia was just barely able to pick out a few words. Which turned out to be about Luna wanting to talk to someone at the party, but was unlucky and missed the opportunity when the animals came into the mix.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Donut Joe's*
After a little bit of time passed since they're quick exit. All of the girls found themselves at Donut Joe's, along with Spike, who was already there before they even arrived. Each one was going over their horrible experiences and easily seeing what kind of mistakes they were making. More so when they came up with what the gala was going to be like. That was until Celestia eventually came in along with Luna at her side, who were looking pretty good when compared to the rest of the girls who were in the varying states of disarray.
Once all was said and done. Twilight ended up giving an oral report to Celestia about what she and her friends learned that evening. Then, they started to munch away at a few of the donuts that a startled Donut Joe just put down after witnessing the two rulers in his shop. But after giving everyone several minutes to enjoy their meal and talk amongst themselves. Celestia called for Donut Joe, who had just come into the room and requested for them to have some privacy and that she would be putting up a soundproof magical barrier.
Of course, she did say that she would compensate him for the time and asked him to consider it as renting out his whole shop for the next hour. Donut Joe just gave a light shrug and agreed to it and told them that he would be in the back and all they had to do was to call out for him if they should be needing any more of his services.
Now showing that they were visibly confused on all of their faces. Celestia produce the sound blocking barrier and took in a deep breath before steadying herself as she began to say the following. “Twilight… What I wish to impart on not only upon you. But Spike and all of your friends. Is a tale that I have not spoken to another, aside from my own sister. Please, keep in mind that it is all true and to wait on any questions until the very end. But before I start, I would like to know your opinions on the one that you all know fairly well as Gambit.”
Twilight had a thoughtful expression as she replied to her mentor. “Well, I guess there's not all that much, aside from what I've told you in my reports. I do know that he likes books, that's pretty much it. Oh, he also spends time with Spike on occasion. We both don't really talk all that much. But when we do, he can be a little... um... blunt, to say the least.”
Spike was the next to speak up after swallowing a mouthful of donuts that was pulled in only a minute earlier with his arms reaching around a tray full of them. “I think Gambits a cool guy. He would tell me of some of the places he's been and would even play a card game with me on the weekends. Although, he doesn't really like to talk about himself too much and can be a little flaky on the details. Hmm… Oh! Oh! He also gave me an autographed picture of the Diamond Dog adventurer called Einstein!”
Rarity was the next one to speak, as she was in the middle of pulling out some bits of cake that was still stuck in her mane. “I'm truly sorry to say, but I have not even spoken two words to Gambit. But from the conversations I would have with Rory, then he is a very honorable stallion. Although, I do get the odd feeling that he's actively avoiding me. Just listen to me, I just know that cannot be the case. Perhaps he's just shy is all.”
Half of the girls within the shop ended up in rolling their eyes, while Applejack was the next one to throw her two bits into the conversation. “I can tell y'all that he's honest and doesn't beat around the bush. It also takes a lot to get under his skin if he's willing to let things slide and forgive those that he believes are worthy of it. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he has a pretty good idea about all of us here. Not to mention, he's probably the hardest working stallion I've ever seen. That is aside from Big Mac in my father.”
Pinkie started to bounce in place, while also waving her hand as one would when trying to get the teacher's attention. “Oh-Oh-Oh! Me-Me! Over here! He and Rory really like the stuff we make at Sugar Cube Corner! He's always here and there in Ponyville to fix up every little doodad and what's it that's broken! I hear from the little ones that they love the playground he fixed up over at the towns school. He even got rid of the annoying squeaking that the swings make and that spinning wheel that they like to ride on doesn’t get stuck anymore.”
She then started to speed up the way she talked, until it was pretty much all stringed out as one word. “He didn't really like mare’s all that much, but he's starting to open up! I also know that he doesn't really like big parties and I've been trying to keep my distance so I don't freak him out! But I just know that when he finally opens up then he and I could be super-duper besties! Oh! I know! Maybe he'll even teach me how to use that sticky tongue spell so I can grab cupcakes from across the room?! That would be so much fun! I could just stand right here and I could eat every single donut-.”
Pinky went silent when Rainbow covered her mouth, while keeping the pink pony and a kind of headlock position as she herself began to talk. “Okay, okay. I'm sure we all got the part about the parties. But I got no idea what you said after!” As soon as Rainbow finished with that and released her grip. Everyone there found that Pinkie was still talking up a storm and acted as though she never stopped before Rainbow quickly snatched up a nearby plate of donuts and put it in front of her in order to get the pink mare to stop.
After, Pinkie gave a broad smile and started to stuff her face again. Once that was done, Rainbow continued after first letting out a relieved sigh. “As for me... I… That is, I and him... I-I think he's a cool guy... Huh, not as cool as me of course, but we all can't be perfect. I may have done and said a few things to him and he was pretty quick to forgive me...”
“And from what I've heard from a friend. Uh... I really had him pegged wrong. I guess what I mean to say is. Umm. He's pretty patient and can give some good advice.” By the end. Rainbow's voice was getting a little timid as she was sitting in her chair and leaning over the counter with her hands over one another.
As everyone went silent. Well, everybody aside from Pinkie, who was happily munching away. Fluttershy was hiding behind her hair with one of her eyes poking out, as she started to talk in a whisper that was just barely loud enough for the princesses on the end of the seats to pick up. “He can be really scary... But I’m beginning to think that he’s a lot nicer than I gave him credit for. We don't get to talk much, if any. But it's not his fault. I'm sorry to say that I have been actively avoiding Gambit. But after hearing what you all have to say... I wonder if that makes me a bad Pony.”
Celestia lightly shook her head before gently speaking to Fluttershy from the end of the counter. “I do not believe that makes you a bad Pony. As for my sister and myself. We could say the same of Gambit.” This was when both of the rulers began to slightly tilt their heads down as they were pondering a bit more on how to continue. But it was Twilight who spoke up first as she tilted her head to the side while making a scrunched-up expression.
“Wait... Are you saying that the both of you have some experience with Gambit? But Princess, you are the one that wanted me to tell you what I knew. He's been in Ponyville for nearly two months and gone for the last month and a half. So that must mean this happened before he moved to Ponyville.”
Twilight's face slowly came to a realization, as she thought back to how they came into the Gala. She then added in a confused tone that had a hint of worry behind it. “The way he reacted when you greeted him... How he also talks about you whenever you're involved in a conversation... did... something happen between you three?”
Celestia gave her younger sister a quick glance from the edge of her vision before taking a nervous gulp. This was soon accompanied by a hurt expression crossing her face, as her wings began to droop a little, along with her ears flattening on the sides of her head. The moments went by at an agonizingly slow pace as Celestia tried to steady herself and take in a few calming breaths before she spoke up again.
“Originally, I was going to tell you all this tale when you were brought to my study later tonight, but I suppose now is as good a time as any. First, would any of you like to tell the story of how Ghastly Gorge came to be?” Applejack started to scratch the back of her left ear as she reluctantly answered that question. “That big hole in the ground that stretches on for miles? I reckon it was made by some falling meteor if I recall my school days.”
Luna placed a hand onto her older sister's right shoulder in order to give some moral support as Celestia continued. “The story starts close to eight hundred years ago. Nearly two centuries after I banished Nightmare Moon and subsequently my younger sister. It was within my throne room, right as I began my duties that-.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Canterlot train station* *Time: Seven in the morning*
Gambit was at this moment taking the train back to ponyville while riding in the very last of the passenger cars and sitting in the back row of seats. With him was of course Rory, as they both lived there currently. But on the opposite set of seats facing them. Where his maids, Rin and Lin. Who were lightly dozing off while leaning into one another with a set of suitcases on the very ends of their seats.
As for the reason of their current state. That was entirely on Brex and Rory's late-night activities which lasted nearly to the end of the night cycle. Which meant that the two Changelings in disguise only had about an hour or so of sleep before they had to get up so that they can get to the train station on time for the early morning schedule.
Zecora was in another seat right on the other side of the maids, as she was looking out the window with interest as the city was beginning to move away now that the train was now in motion. The schedule had their motive transport departing Canterlot at six fifty-five in the morning. Meaning that four minutes had already gone by and the train was halfway out of Canterlot and going down the side of the mountain.
Thanks to the way that the tracks were set up. The train had to first go around the mountain a couple of times until it got to ground level before heading straight to ponyville. Of course, if one was to simply fly straight from the city to the small town then they would have easily have cut down the times substantially, but with the added tracks the distance was increased a fair amount.
When it came to the topic of the missing Gilda. The Griffin turned out to be with twilight and her friends and already at the train station. This came as a surprise to Brex, as he was almost sure that she was going to be with Rainbow and stay at the castle for a while longer. It wasn’t until a little while later after the fiasco at the party, that Gilda came across Twilight in her friends and decided to stay with them instead of tagging along with him and going back to the House of Fancy Pants, along with the rest of the girls.
However, he did find it a little odd with the way they were keeping to themselves when he walked right past them and headed to his current seat at the back of the train. Of course, it didn't escape his attention at all, when he saw the way Pinkie’s hair was slightly deflated, instead of being it's overly poofy self. But it soon went back to its normal state after a few more seconds went by and the pink mare giving him a small wave once she realized he was turning his mask in her direction.
Back to the present. Rory was snuggling up against his right arm with her eyes closed before she opened up the connection to speak with him. “You haven't even gotten within thirty feet and you're already worried about Pinkie?” Rory then continued after a few seconds of silence on his part. “Perhaps now would be a good time to give her that permission she’s been waiting for in order to throw that welcome to ponyville party?”
Brex gave Rory a small sigh from within his mind, before he responded. “I don't want to make this a big deal. We live in a one-room apartment with a small bathroom. So, the odds are she'll try to use Sugar Cube Corner, the Library or possibly Town Hall. Speaking of which. You're the one who insisted that we bring them with us.”
As he was thinking that. Brex nodded his head in the direction of the sleeping maids as he went on. “Did it even cross your mind as to where they’re going to end up sleeping? I’m pretty sure they’ll be fine with anywhere I tell them to sleep, but our place is just too small. The bed could probably hold but it would be a really tight squeeze.”
“I mean, wouldn’t it just be plain weird in everyone’s eyes if a guy and his girlfriend is living in a small room with two maids? It’s not exactly better if we were to do the whole, put them in different rooms on the same floor route. It would make more sense if I just go out to buy or rent a house. Hmm. You know what, that might not be such a bad idea. I might try that. If they only have some place small, then we can somehow make it work out. Somewhere out of the way, preferably at the edge of town. What do you think?”
Rory continued snuggling up against him, as her arms were wrapped around his own and giving off a small hum of amusement as she replied. “My thoughts exactly Master. How do you feel about a place near the Everfree Forest? It would be pretty useful to have all that open space and let’s not forget the solitude. It would also come in handy when you want to come and go without anyone else being none the wiser. Being able to also walk to your special training ground in the forest is an added bonus.”
“I’m pretty sure from the last time I was in ponyville that there weren’t any new homes being built near the forest. Hmm... unless you count that structure that's already being built. There's been a few rumors that I catch wind of here and there about some rich mare buying up the land just over a year and a half ago and immediately started on the construction. I don’t know who it is but to be able to do that must mean that they’re involved in either government work or must be literally drowning in bits.”
Rory shifted her body slightly as she was now getting a little more situated. This meant that she was in a more sit up straight position. She obviously was just about to say something to him, when her eyes shifted towards the door nearby that would lead to the baggage cars further back on the train.
Not even a moment went by before the doors were suddenly torn off the hinges after a female Griffin was thrown through them and into the Roegadyn's car. From the amount of force required to do that to the door, along with the speed at which the Griffin travelled and skidding to a stop, must have meant that she was thrown or hit really hard.”
From a quick glance on his part, he could easily tell from the amount of messed up parts of her leather armor that she was in a scuffle. There was even a large amount of red substance that gave off the coppery smell of blood and it was covering most of her body. He then surmised that it wasn’t from her, as the amount needed would have clearly led to her immediate death.
His attention was quickly brought to the doorway after hearing someone taking heavy steps. Once the person came into view, he can feel himself freezing up as he looked upon the sight of who it was. Right there, standing in an iconic set of clothing and wielding a large pistol in his right hand. Said pistol was also being pointed straight at the Griffin. The male than said the following in a tone in a manly voice that had a hint of maliciousness behind it. “The Commonwealth says hello!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 65: Rider On The Rails.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: The Griffin Empire. In the Mountain region to the south of the Capital* *Time: Four in the afternoon. One month before the Grand Galloping Gala*
Out in the middle of the wilderness where there was a flat plateau nestled between a couple of tall hills, at approximately three thousand feet above sea level. A pair of vultures were pecking away at the carcass of a small dead rodent for a couple of seconds before a sudden Thunderclap erupted out of seemingly nowhere. The loud noise caused the two birds to fly off in a hurry, while carrying the remains of their meal just in time, as a bright flash occurred just several feet off the ground.
What occurred within a few seconds, was the site of a growing tunnel comprised of swirling yellow and purple lights. There was a loud torrent of blowing wind emanating from the rip in space as voices could be heard yelling from deep within. One was of a young man, while the next couldn't have come from anything else then an old man with a deep raspy voice. They were grunts and apparent thuds being repeatedly made as they went at one another with a string of verbal abuse.
“Fucking asshole!
“That's Mister Fucking Asshole to you! I've done a lot to earn that title and I deserve the respect!”
“Let go! I'm not staying in this hell hole any longer!
“We have a contract! I ain't letting my investment just walk away from me! I'm taking what I'm owed!”
“Fuck off! This is what you’re owed, take this! *Thud* Take that! *Thwack* And take another one of these! *Bonk*
“Now you're just making a fool of yourself! Do you really believe you could really-. GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh! Why you yellow livered sack of-.”
“HA! How do you like a metal toed boot to the nuts! How about I throw in one of these! I call this, The Atomic Nutcracker!”
“No! Not the Power Fist! You wouldn’t dar-. Gahhahaaaaaaaagh!”
“Not so tough right now, huh? Count yourself lucky I took off the metal spike. Otherwise, you would have another hole to piss out!”
“That's enough! No more playing nice! Haaaaaah!!!!”
“Hey! let go of that! Do you have any idea what I went through to get this?!”
What came next, was a huge fiery explosion that quickly started to approach the exit of the tunnel at a frightening speed. Next was a flaming body as it was flung out of the tunnel and tumbled several meters until he went off the edge of the plateau and landed on a piece of ground that was jetting off of the side of the cliff nearly a dozen meters below. As it was traveling, the flames would fly off while in the motion of rolling. It wasn't until the long drop that most of it was extinguished and only left a few burning cinders that were barely still lit.
At the same time this was happening. Another object came flying out and was going at a greater distance until it was clear over one of the mountains towards the south. Whatever the object could have been, it was approximately seven or eight inches long in diameter and resembled a brown tube in shape. When taking in the sight of the swirling lights that just erupted of flames.
One could tell that it was beginning to close in on itself as the edges were picking up speed and shrinking inch by inch. This continued only for another two or three seconds until it caved in on itself and emitted a strong shockwave that blew quite a bit of the smaller pieces of rocks away and left an impression on the ground of several circles going outwards.
Back down on the small cliff that the body was laying on. It started to show signs of stirring with the way it was on its back and the gloved fingers on the right hand were now twitching. Once all of the black smoke finally was finished obscuring the rest of his form. It revealed a man wearing a strange outfit and a helmet with a mask that covered up his entire head. In a strange way it closely resembled something that was a cross between an old army helmet and a gas mask.
On closer inspection, the chest was covered with a steel plate that hugged his form well enough to give the impression he was pretty well built. Aside from that everything else looked to be made out of a leather-type of material and miraculously, it survived the odd explosion from just moments ago. Unfortunately for the man, his right leg was twisted at an odd angle and blood could easily be seen staining the clothing that was close to the knee.
(Here is a picture of how he looks now.)
After releasing a loud hiss of pain and trying to hold up his upper half by placing his elbows on the rocks. He was able to lift his head enough to take in his current appearance and loudly exclaimed in an over-the-top fashion. “Not again! I fucking hate it when I get the crippling effect! It's a good thing I stocked up on-. Aaah SHIT! I can't believe that stupid old geezer ripped it off!”
He then rolled his head a little bit before letting out a very loud exasperated sigh of annoyance, as he started to reach down with his right hand towards the now busted up leg. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to reach for what he wanted to. So instead, his fingers hooked around some of the pants leg fabric in order to pull his boot closer. But by doing this. The man released another series of pained grunts as the sound of crunching bones could be heard while doing this.
After some grueling work on getting whatever he wanted done. His hands index finger slipped into the gap between the top of his boots and leg to produce a single syringe with a pressure gauge near the handle and a pair of small hoses from the container that led to the gauge itself. Not even a hint of hesitation went by as he then Jam the unnecessarily long needle into the side of his injured leg. Once that was done, the item went straight to work and released a loud hiss, as the gauge dropped within seconds to show that something was injected straight into his leg.
As his leg was beginning to twitch and miraculously pull itself back into the right position. He could be heard letting out another set of grunts that only dwindled until it was completely switched out with pure relief. He then started to talk again with a Texan tone to his voice, as he let out a small laugh. Haha! And Preston really thought I was being silly by keeping a spare stem pack in my shoe. Just great. Now I’m without my Pip-Boy, but I'm also fresh out of stim packs. Survival mode just got a lot harder.”
“I can't even tell if there's radiation until I start to feel like I'm going to throw up. And obviously, if I'm at that point, I may as well be dead. Oh well, at least I maxed out those stats for surviving radiation. As long as I'm not standing next to a drop zone, I should be fine... Oh, that's right. New world. Well, I better stop staring at my weirdly reattached leg and take a look at what I got myself into this time.”
And true to his word, he did just that. Once he turned his head, everything about him became as still as a statue as he took on the site of the many small hills and mountains that were off in the distance. The rolling greens of wide-open lands and patches of forest filled his vision and caused a small sob to escape his lips before he recovered.
He then quickly got back onto his two legs and started to jump for joy as he threw his arms straight up into the air and started to spin in place. While also screaming to the heavens and a kid like fashion. “I did it! I did it! I'm finally out of that place! No more radiation! No more ghouls! No more Rad Scorpions trying to crawl up inside my sleeping bag!”
That was when his voice turned oddly serious for a split second as he said the next part. “No… Seriously. That's happened to me at least a dozen times. It's really awkward when you're in bed with a girl and you wonder what exactly is poking you in the middle of the night.” He then shivered for a second and was moving his arms as if he were trying to knock off something imaginary from his own body, before he returned back to his carefree nature. “I can't even remember what it's like to breathe clean air.”
His hands both went up and started to frantically go at the straps that kept his helmet in place and ripped it off as soon as he was able to get the last one undone. When he did this, he took in a deep breath and held it in for several seconds before letting it out and talking again.
“Ah! The way the clean air tastes! Even the way it blows through my hair feels so much different… Huh? Hold on… Did I really let my beard go that much?” His left hand started to feel the sides of his face and then to the underside to discover that he had quite a bit more facial hair than he remembered before leaving that last settlement.
Being curious, he pulled off that hands glove and started to feel his face once again. But stopped when his fingers ran all over and discovered that he had hair and spots that he knew he didn't the last time he checked. It also became quite apparent with his eyes going wide, when he pulled his hand away and started to turn it over while in front of his own face. Said eyes were going as wide as dinner plates as he held out his arm completely before shouting in a panicked voice. “What happened to my hand? It's orange! It’s-It's also got fur all over!”
While in that state. He reached down with his other hand and pulled out his machete and held it up so that the reflective surface could be used as a makeshift mirror to look over himself. Once he did, he ended up dropping the machete before he started to stumble backwards until his body was pressing up against the rocky cliffside. In a way, it was as though he was trying to back pedal away from his new reality.
He even started to hysterically cry as both of his hands ran down the sides of his face in order to stretch it when he spoke. “It can't be! My face, my face! My beautiful-beautiful face! I'm an ugly, stinky, Pony! Pony faaaaaaaace!!! He then slumped down as his legs slid away so he was now in a seated position before kicking them up and down in a comedic fashion.
(Play this for the way he is freaking out for the "Emperor's New Groove" llama face clip.)
From his perspective, his entire body ended up shifting to another species completely. His once smooth skin was now replaced with almost every inch being covered with orange fur. Aside from some key differences due to his new race, he still retained a few of his normal features. Which also included his brownish blonde hair that went down and past his shoulders. When looking down, he gave a quick sigh of relief upon seeing the set of boots on his feet and took much delight at the sensation of wiggling his toes. Although, now he was aware of his current condition.
Upon doing some further, personal exploration. That got a very subtle nod of approval. He also discovered a tail as it was coming out from just above his tailbone. At first, he thought it was a fake and started to poke at it absent-mindedly, but as soon as it twitched. There was no longer any denying that it belonged to anyone but him. He also wondered if he was able to eat normal food and ran his tongue across his teeth. This ended up revealing that he kept his original teeth, which meant that he could still eat everything he used to in the past.
It took him a good several minutes to come to terms with his current form. But when the time came for that he ended up slapping himself across the cheeks. He then said, “Okay Engineer. Time to go through all those useless steps so I can get over this extremely weird life crisis!” From there, he took in a quick set of breaths to get himself psyched up. Then went on to aggressively denying what was happening to him for several seconds and stating how this just couldn’t happen and it was complete bullshit.
This was quickly taken over by anger at the ones who sent him there, as well as to the guy he just nut kicked only a short time ago. Next up, was bargaining to anyone who could possibly hear his voice as he got down onto his knees and through his arms into the air. He even went so far as to bow his head so fast, that he ended up smacking his forehead onto the rocky ground below and making himself go dizzy as his eyes went crossed.
Only to instantly lay on his side and crawl into a fetal position as he fell into a deep depression. While at the same time, muttering to himself in such a way that he was going full-on emo. He even went so far as to say that he would have been better off as a worm. Oddly enough the air around him actually turned dark with the level of negativity he was giving off. After going through an exceptionally long bout of this stage compared to all the others.
The now identified person as being called Engineer. Perked right back up and had a stoic expression before loudly proclaiming in the most grown-up voice he could muster. I will be a pony! And I will be damned proud of it! You hear me I’m gonna make the most of this and I’m gonna have fun with having a horse’s-.” Unfortunately, he stopped the ground a little too hard and ended up slipping, which interrupted that last part of the sentence.
Once he got back up and shook off whatever was going on with him both figuratively and literally. He took quick stock of his current predicament and looked over everything he had on hand. After going over to pick up his dropped machete. He got himself comfortable and sat cross-legged and began to place out his items in a neat row so that he was sure he wasn't going to leave anything out.
First off, was the machete of course on his far left. This was immediately followed by the next item being a large handgun and enough bullets for all the chambers to be loaded and an extra set on the side. He then said out loud, “At least I got you. Kellogg's pistol is my all-time favorite hand gun.”
He then moved to the next item. “Oh, sorry I can't forget about you, don't get jealous now! I bet that guy from the movie with that book that would bring back the dead wishes he had a Boomstick like you.” That was when he quickly pulled from underneath his jacket, what would appear to be a type of automatic shotgun with a round clip attached at the bottom and an extended barrel. This one also had a full clip, but he only had three extra shells on the side.
Next to be added to the row, was a few metal tins that resembled the kind that would hold breath mints. One looked quite plain, while the second had a crayon drawing of some purple grapes. Next to that was quickly put down a stick of meat all bundled up in a leather wrapping and a piece of tape placed on it with the words, “Rag Stag Jerky.”
After seeing the last item to be put down so far. Engineer nearly snatched it back up but reluctantly put it back down and turned away as he said, “I can’t! That's for emergencies only!” There was even a small bottle that held close to thirty ounces of water with markings that said, “Distilled Water.”
His hands began to fish around for the rest of his pockets in order to find anything at all. So, over the course of the next minute or so. The Earth Pony pulled out a handful of gold coins which he was positive had somehow replaced some of his bottle caps that he had on hand. There was also a handwritten booklet that resembled one of those Wastelanders Survival Guide magazines. Except this one had the words, Ex-Wastelanders guide to surviving in the inside and outside of Equestria.
The paper itself looked pretty well worn out and stained with various colored fluids, which he could only assume was water, mud and perhaps just a few drops of blood near the top right-hand corner of the page. The sloppy drawing depicted a very low-grade version of himself on some type of map and an arrow pointing off to another one. Said other land showed sunshine and rainbows depicted everywhere in colors.
Upon seeing the whole picture, he had this look on his face that just screamed what the fuck. He even contemplated for just a brief moment whether or not he made a good idea with accepting the opportunity to come over. Somehow, the thought that this world might end up being worse became the forefront of his thinking.
After he was sure that everything was taken off, aside from the clothing from his back. Engineer picked up the magazine again and opened it to the first page. Once this was done, he ended up falling over as if he got sucker punched in the face and screamed the following in a child's voice as he keeled over and waved a finger in the air before blacking out.
“Brain Blast! Gotta Jet! Carl, Get that lama out of the lab.” Now that he was laying on his back. His eyes fluttered open several times to show that an assortment of rainbow colors was being emitted and multitudes of images were quickly being displayed. These clearly showed places and persons of interest. There was even one that lingered on a large being in a white set of robes.
This went on for about a good half hour. When he came too. He sprang back up like a Jack in The Box with his legs spread apart and palms pressing on the floor in front of himself. He then exclaimed, while shaking his head and causing his lips to do that weird sound people make when doing so.
“By Faust tits, this place is fucking nuts! ... ... Okay well… it’s a better type of nuts compared to the other place. Really, I am fine without the irradiated monsters. But I'm really going to miss my companions. Uh-oh. I hope Codsworth doesn't have a meltdown about my disappearance.”
He started to tap the left side of his head before continuing. “Let's see, let's see! I've been sent to a world with colorful ponies and other assortment of mythological creatures. I'm obviously an Earth Pony... now I really feel jipped. Why can't I have a horn or wings? Wings would be real helpful right about now!”
That was when he took the opportunity to slightly lean over to his left so that he can get a little bit of a look at how far up he was from the bottom. From what he saw. The mountain gave him the impression that if he was to jump off, then it would take him a good eleven seconds to hit the ground. Once he was positive on the height, he started to shake his head very enthusiastically about not trying that mode of travel.
Once everything was gathered back up again and placed into their correct pockets, and or placeholders. Engineer brought his hand up to his eyes in order to act as a visor and looked around for any signs of civilization. Luckily for him, just at the very edge of what he was able to perceive from his current vantage point. There was a small settlement at the very bottom of the mountain and close to maybe two hours of walking.
Unfortunately for him, it was still too far to be able to tell exactly what sort of buildings they were. But there must have been close to a dozen or so and he could easily see some short stacks of white smoke coming from a few of the buildings. This meant that it was not abandoned and they were clearly some residences still living there.
After making sure everything was secure and placed his helmet back on again. He started to make his way down the side of the cliff by grabbing on to some rocks and situating his feet for some stable foot holds. As he was going down, he ended up saying to himself, “I'm really glad I maxed out all of my stats. If I'm lucky, I can get there before sundown. Here's hoping that I don't get shot on sight. Ugh... it would be a real nice change of pace.”
*Point of view: Engineer* *Location: The Griffin Empire. Unknown settlement* *Time: Five Forty-Five in the evening*
It took quite a bit of work and getting past a couple of rabid looking dogs that seemed to be both way too large and skinny to be normal. But luckily, he didn't have very much trouble and easily dispatched them with his machete. He of course knew quite well not to waste any bullets as he had only a finite amount. Whereas his missing item, mysteriously kept a hold of the bulk of his gear.
Just as he was pushing his way through a couple of bushes that was on the outer edge of the clearing for the small town. He grumbled to himself in a clearly agitated voice that was just above a whisper. “I really need to get my Pip-Boy back and pronto. I forgot what it's like to actually need pockets to hold all my stuff. I guess I should be lucky that I didn't have myself equipped with the heavy artillery. If I at least had the junk jet, then I could just grab random shit off the ground and shoot that as ammo.”
When he got to about twenty paces into the open clearing. An arrow shot out from between one of the two buildings that were situated fairly close together and got stuck in the ground only a few feet away. This caused Engineer to quickly throw up his arms in a surrendering gesture, while calling out in the most innocent cowboy voice he could muster up on the spot.
“Whoa! Just hold on there partner! I'm not here to cause any problems! I plum went and got myself lost out here in the woods. I saw the town from the hill just over yonder!” While saying that. He gestured with his right hand so that his thumb was pointing behind himself and in the way he came.
A few seconds passed with nothing but silence following. This was before a group of six Griffins came out from behind some hiding places that consisted of a couple of barrels and the backside of one of the fences that was attached to a house. There were even two Earth ponies thrown in and each and every one of them was wearing some pretty shabby equipment. Most of which was covered in dirt and grime to the point that he literally thought that was what they were made of.
Half had an assortment of melee weapons, which included knives, swords and shields and a two-handed axe. The others, which were only two, held onto bows and arrows. What stood out immediately to him was the fact that each one was of the female gender. While the only one in the group who was brandishing the axe stepped a little closer, which brought them to about thirteen meters apart. She was an earth mare and mostly of dark green, while her mane and tail where that of red. She even had it cut so much that it was pretty much standing up as a messed up mohawk.
The mare then spoke up as she hefted the axe over her right shoulder and gave him a confidence smirk that had a hint of maliciousness behind it. “And what's a tall glass of hard cider like yourself doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”
After hearing the question. His mind began to race as it frantically went through the amount of information that was shoved down his throat for any type of answer to give. By the end, he got what he needed and smirked from behind his face covering at what he was about to do next. He then started up a back and forth with the mare, as he lowered his arms and started to pace back and forth, while also looking really disappointed.
“What am I doing here? What am I doing here?! Did you really just ask me that question? I knew it! I just knew it! I kept saying that I wanted to work with professionals! But nooooo~. Work your way up they said, make new connections they said! Build up your reputation in a new land they said! It will be good for you they said! When I get back, I’m going to make sure that they can’t sleep at night for a week by the time I’m done!”
“Wha? What?! Huh...”
“The one you work for went through my secretary to set up our meeting. If it wasn't bad enough that the map I was given was so badly made that it could have only come from a three-year-old with a broken piece of crayon could have made. But not even the passphrase was properly communicated! Oh, please! Please don't tell me that you don't even know I was supposed to be here!”
The mare was visibly getting more and more confused as her posture was beginning to slouch as she responded, or at least she attempted to. “Ah... I..I... um.”
“Did you or did you not get told that I was supposed to be here to meet up with you for the job? This is another reason why I don't like amateurs! I still haven't even been told my temporary boss's name yet out of security purposes! Okay, you know what, fine! I'll start from the beginning.”
That was when he started to overly exaggerate his body motions to do a sort of pantomime, as he was talking in a slow fashion that gave the impression that he was trying to talk to someone who spoke a different language at the same time, conveying his irritation at the start.
“I... I'm here to... help you all, under the request of your... boss.” When he was finished, he already had his arms out to his side as if presenting what was just said in a way that made it seem so obvious. But from behind his covered face, he was beginning to sweat a little as he was mumbling the following within his head.
“Please-oh-please-oh-please-oh-very much pleeeeeease! Let my Charisma check work! Unlike my other world, this one is primarily filled with females, so I should get the Lady Killer perk activated.” As this was going on. The one he was talking to was looking visibly disturbed and glancing over to the rest of the girls, who were all giving her a mix of shoulder shrugs or winceful expressions to show that they had no idea what was going on.
The mare then lowered her axe out of frustration and stabbed the head into the ground, before giving out an exhausted sigh as she started to reluctantly reply to him. “Buck it! Those idiots back at the hideout don't know their heads from their asses... I could just guess who made the map. I swear! That mare’s been reading too many mystery novels. And what's with that code phrase about being lost in the Hills? Did it even cross her mind that's pretty much the first thing a lost person says? It won't work if just any random Pony uses it...”
On the outside, Engineer was as cool as a cucumber as his hands were resting on his hips. But on the inside, it was a whole other matter. There was this mental image of him crouching down on his knees and holding his hands together, while looking up into some odd light shining down in the darkness. His mental self then said the following while having a voice that was a mix between happy sobbing and hysterical.
“Thank you developers for the Charisma system! Oh, thank you-thank you-thank you- thank you! I was scared it wasn't going to work! Gullible ponies plus maxed out charisma, plus all the perks is a godsend! If this works as well as I think it will, I could probably get her to sell the family farm for two coins! Hell! I can probably talk her into getting a farm and then selling it to me with my maxed-out skills! Nope, nope! I better not get too far ahead of myself. She might just be really dumb.” That was when their conversation heated back up again with the mare starting things off.
“We got things pretty much wrapped up here, so I guess you're just a little late for the party. All the goods already got shipped out and we just got this last little loose end to tie up. But tell you what. We'll let you do it and we'll even give you a little something else to do, seeing as we're paying for your services and all.” That was when she and the rest of the females in the group began to relax as confused expressions slowly morphed into broad smiles and sultry filled eyes.
Engineer quickly held in a loud gulp from being let out, as his eyes went comically wide from behind his mask. He then thought to himself, “SHIT! Even I could tell what is going to happen without that book filling me in on how this world works! What's really scary is how attractive I find them all right now. Especially with the way I freaked out about my own face earlier. What else did that stupid thing do to me?” He then said to the, “How about we get the job done. Then we could think about how to set up my overtime.”
The mare gave a subtle nod in the general direction of the town and Engineer went along with her, as the rest of the girls took on positions from the rear. Now that there weren't any arrows or axe’s pointed at his head and passing the outer set of buildings. The rest of the town's condition gave a pretty good picture as to what he was walking into. The buildings were in pretty rough shape, but this was not due to time or neglect. Instead, there were broken windows and carts toppled over with fresh produce still on the floor.
Over by one of the doors leading to a small house. The corpse of a Griffin could be seen just outside and laying on the porch. Judging from the amount of blood that was mostly centered on the back of their shirt. Engineer could easily surmise that this was done with a small set of blades after taking a good hit in the back and trying to run away. There were a few others for a total of eight all over and in various positions.
The group was currently making their way to the other side, where there was a larger building that must have been the town hall or a storage area for goods. Unfortunately, it was hard to tell with how shoddy the workmanship when it came to its construction, as it looked really plain and didn’t seem to have much thought for the design.
Anyway, it resembled a barn, but the double doors were still a little too small to allow a wagon to go through. But before they made it all the way over, he asked the mare from before a quick question. “Care to run me through the overall strategy you implemented? Just want to make sure I'm on the same page and don't leave anything that stands out if there’s anyone that looks into what happened here.”
The mare gave him a cocky look as she appeared quite proud of herself and used her large axe in order to point at various spots as she replied. “We went ahead and steered a couple of the local monsters towards the town for a few days. After a while, a lot of the townsfolk evacuated. Obviously, they're going to go tattletale to the authorities, but the Army shouldn't get here for another one or two days.
Once it was down to only a handful of Griffins, we snuck in just before dawn and took care of the stragglers. We're really lucky that they weren't ready for us and we caught them off guard before they could put up much of a fight. A good thing too. I heard that some were close to rank D. The whole plan may have gone out the window if they came at us in their own group.”
Unknown to them, engineer was now scowling from behind his mask. But he managed to keep his voice the same way as before, as he gritted his teeth and asked the next question. “I was never filled in on the objective. I was told it was a need to know and I would only find out once I got here. I take it those back at your hideout don't want their plans getting leaked if they're hired help doesn't even make it to where they need to be.”
The mare gave a huff of annoyance, as she used her free hand to scratch the back of her head when she came to a dead stop. She then said rather annoyedly, “I was really hoping that you would at least know that much so we can finally find out.” After, he tilted his head slightly to indicate that he was confused and the mare continued as she started to walk again.
“Our boss said that they're supposed to be a treasure vault underneath the town. But we can't find it anywhere we look. They're supposedly a map that belonged to the leader of this town.” She then looked over her shoulder and gave a, I'm angry at you look, towards one of the other girls in the back and that one in particular shuffled around until she was hiding behind another one before the mare went on. “One of us got a little too excited and stab happy. We were going to use the map but it ended up getting destroyed… So now we have no way of finding the stupid vault.”
He ended up nodding to this and stayed silent for a few more seconds until they were now standing in front of the double set of doors. He then said, “And what about this last little issue you mentioned earlier?”
This got a wide smirk from the mare, as she went right up and kicked the center where the two doors met and caused them to swing wide open. Once that was done, the interior was quickly exposed and this showed off a warehouse with most of the goods stacked up neatly in boxes along the walls so that the center was pretty much cleared of any obstruction.
However, due to the size of the roof there was a single support beam that was rounded off and easily three feet thick. But what really got his attention, was how there was another mare all tied up so that she was on her knees and back against the pillar. Her wings were tightly bound up as both arms were forced to go behind herself and locked to one another by a thick chain connecting to equally thick cuffs.
Her head was hanging low and he could easily see the knot belonging to a blindfold being tied at the back of her head. She wore something that was similar to a safari outfit, but there were some large rips in the clothing that suggested that she was beaten up quite recently and undergone some manner of torture. This was made only more apparent as she was pretty much out cold and visible blood stains were already dried on her fur and clothing.
Because of the way that he was standing in the door, while most of the mare's were either at his right side or at his back. None of them were able to see the way the red lenses on his helmet began to give off this faint red glow that lasted a few seconds. His muscles began to tense up from underneath his clothing as his eyes carefully took in everything around himself. From inside, something was beginning to stir that he just couldn't place of finger on.
That was when the sun decided to set so that it was directly behind himself. Once the Sun was finally over the tip of the mountain it was crossing, his lips began to curl into a small smile. Then it turned into a big one. From there, it somehow grew even bigger until it was something that could cause children to run screaming in fright. His blood could literally feel as though it was boiling under his skin.
As this was happening and everything was beginning to get dark. The one with the axe called out to a few in the group to light up the building. When they walked right by Engineer. he slightly lowered his head and started to talk in a more serious voice. “What's the plan?” This caught the mare off guard slightly. This was either the question or perhaps the way it was said. But she raised an eyebrow to him with a somewhat shocked expression, before it turned into a mischievous smile.
She then motioned towards the bound-up Pegasus before she answered. “This one got to get a good look at the map before she destroyed it. This here is the famous Daring Do. If I were to go off on her reputation alone, then I'm sure that she's memorized it down to the letter. We got time, but all our attempts to get her to sing has got us nothing. Do you think you got something under that belt of yours that we may have not tried?”
She was expecting an answer, but at that moment as all the torches in the room finally got lit. They were suddenly extinguished without any type of wind being the cause. And in the next second alone, the following happened to him. Flashes of events went by in his mind. How he found himself in a home that came from around 1950. But had some futuristic pieces of technology here and there and a rocket propelled sphere that was acting as a robotic butler.
He then found himself standing in an open door and talking to a man wearing a yellow coat and hat. Oddly enough, the character seemed quite old and with silver hair slicked back that could be seen just below the rim of the hat itself. After signing some paperwork that had some information on himself. He was presented another that required his signature and the man at the door relayed that it was a contract to ensure, that not only would he be protected from the upcoming nuclear holocaust, but so would his wife and child.
Then the images show him along with a woman carrying a small baby wrapped up in some cloth, as they ran up a dirt trail and pass the gate being manned by guards with guns. The next image to be shown, was him, the female and the child walking in a room full of weird pods lining the walls of the wide hallways.
He was then placed inside of one of the pods in the same way his wife was directly across, as she was still holding on to their child when the doors closed. But just as everything started to feel cold. The very same man he saw that gave him the contract to sign, walked by the round window showing the outside world and he gave a malicious smile before slowly moving on and going out of sight.
The next string of images went by so quickly that it was nearly impossible to make any sense of them. Waking up to a world that was covered in poison. Animals that had been horrifically mutated into huge monstrosities. Humans with shriveled up skin that would attack on site and without any type of intelligence. Humans that would steal, kill and torture others as though it was a normal Monday morning and without any type of remorse whatsoever.
He would be found in varying states with limbs broken and being heavily affected by the ambient radiation in the air, which would slowly kill him if precautions were not taken. Hundreds upon hundreds of uses by the same needle as before and pumping his body full of chemicals in order to survive. Having to fight off the previously stated monstrosities that could only be described as the devil walking on Earth. With long curved horns, teeth and powerful arms with razor sharp claws at the end. A long tail that could easily break a man's spine if struck by it directly.
Constantly seeing dead bodies around every corner and digging through trash in order to find that small, almost insignificant item that could save his life. Every single day a fight for existence to live beyond the next fifteen minutes as anything and anyone would be willing to take his life without so much as a second thought.
A gut-wrenching scream of agony started to ring through his thoughts as the last few images showed a mighty explosion. Then himself holding on to a bloody corpse of an old man in a lab coat. There was also a figure wearing a black business suit and holding onto a cane standing a short distance away and showing a bright glistening smile with his teeth.
Back in the outside world. He started to talk again. However, there was a dangerous edge to his voice, that instantly caught the attention of all of the bandits that were now inside of the building. “I have a few ideas... but first-. This was when he suddenly cut himself off and through his arms out to the side. Which led to the axe wielding mare to be flung to the far wall and into a stack of crates that was easily four meters away.
His back was beginning to arch as his legs were forced to be spread apart a little. His head was quickly thrown back as his mouth was hanging wide open as he roared from inside of his mask. “HAAAAAAA! HAAAAAAAAAA!” The yell produced was what one would make if they were to be holding on to a microphone and screaming into a deep cave for the countless number of echoes to reverberate back even louder and deeper.
Flames flicker to life at the bottom of his boots and quickly erupted into a torrent of flames that would blow away the wind and cause everything inside of the building to be rattled. As the fire grew hotter and hotter so that anyone could feel the heat from clear across the room. The Flames snake their way up his legs and enveloped his entire body within seconds as everything he had on burned to cinders.
As soon as not only the clothing but all of his gear was gone. His orange body burned away all of the hair in patches as his skin could be seen boiling over and evaporating instantly. But instead of normal flames. These had traces of blue and green thrown in at random intervals as they erupted from multiple spots of his now cooking body. All the while, he had not broken from his screaming for even an instant as it went on.
Once all of his flesh was entirely destroyed. His internal organs exploded from the build-up pressure of heat within, before shriveling up and then burning to ash. Oddly enough, the last bit turned out to be his eyes as they popped only to leave a set of empty black eye sockets in the skull. The only thing that was left of the Pony, was the site of a standing bleached white skeleton. But still the flames remained brightly burning hot. That was when the screaming started to resemble that of a drawn-out maniacal laugh that had a strong presence of pain mixed in.
The next action to take place, was a strange black set of smoke that would first come off of the ground to cover every last inch of his skeletal form and slowly pull itself together until it took a more physical state. Everything from the neck down was now suited in a very form fitting black leather that strongly resembled a biker’s outfit. Thick gloves were covering his hands and there were multiple spikes running down the arm guard that were roughly half an inch long, while the hand itself had a couple on the back of the fist and one on each knuckle. There were also a set of three, one-inch-long studded spikes that came poking out from the shoulders.
(Here is a picture of how he looks now, but imagine him in Anthro form.)
Once the clothing was fully on. The fire that was exiting from any small gaps that it could find as exits all died out, but only left his head to be the one part of his body that still had burning flames erupting. By this point, his screaming finally came to an end and he lumbered over to Daring Do and got behind her pillar. All the while leaving seared hot boot prints whenever he lifted up his boots.
His black leather gloved fingers gripped on to the cuffs on both wrists and they instantly began to give off this orange glow that was beginning from the inside going out. This was before the pieces of the now glowing metal dripped onto the ground with a heavy sizzle has it made contact with the cold surface. At first it was a couple of drops then it all flowed off as easily as water.
Miraculously enough, Daring Do's hands had hardly any markings at all from this, aside from her past attempts to try and pull her hands free, which left some heavy bruising and small cuts from the edges. Now holding on to the length of chain that had both ends being gripped by him. He ended up opening his mouth and spewed some flames on to said chains. As most of this flowed over the item and onto the floor. The rest of it started to contort and run through the different links. The change was instantaneous as it now glowed as if it just came freshly forged and grew in length as additional links sprouted from the next.
He then released it so that only is right hand was holding on and whipped it around the air a few times. This left several deep slashes in the ground before he swung it in a way that it would normally have struck his back. But instead of doing him any harm, it then wrapped itself in a way that would make one believe it was alive, so that it was draped over his left shoulder and going down to his right hip a couple of times.
When all of this was happening from the moment, he sent that one mare flying and ending as he completed the last touches of his attire. The axe wielding one recovered and was holding herself up, while trying to pull her ass out of the crate she was half stuck in and was now looking at his new horrific form with horror plastered all over her face.
Of course, the rest of them weren't in any better shape as three already peed themselves and still in the act as it was dribbling down their legs and onto the floor. One fainted on the spot, as another wasn't so lucky as she literally was scared to death and was now dead as a doornail with her hand over her chest. Two of them attempted to run but stumbled into one another and fell face first. But what they all had in common was the way that they were screaming so loud that it was within the possibility of awakening an entire graveyard from miles away.
As he stood there silently. The flames on his head sizzled and crackled in the lack of sound, before the group attempted to run for the exit, while also screaming at the top of their lungs about monsters and demons. But just as the group was just about to crush the threshold and gain their freedom from this hellish nightmare.
The ones in the front came to a screeching halt and screamed frantically for the others to stop as well. This was because there was a wall of flames that sprouted out of nowhere and blocked their exit. Soon, said flames ran across the interior of the building and covered nearly every surface with the other worldly flames that still had that strange mix of green thrown in now and then. Although there was still that heat that was hot enough to be felt from several feet away to them, nothing within was actually getting burnt.
It was quite unfortunate though, that the others did not heed the warning and pushed just enough to send one of their members through the wall of flames. But instead of ending up on the other side and frantically needing to look for a way to douse the flames that would have already been clinging on to them. The mare was already a blackened, and charred corpse before landing on the ground with only a few pieces of the armors still showing.
Obviously being able to tell that there was no way of running. A few of the braver ones... scratch that... make that the stupid ones, attempted to fight back. There was three in total and the first one to go at him, was a Griffin and she held onto a pair of knives and leaped into the air so that she could stab the blades downwards. Each one sunk into where his shoulders should be until they were all the way to the base of the handles. The Griffin had a satisfying grin on her face at this, but it only lasted a second before she had a look of shock and screamed in pain as she leaped away.
She then crumbled down to her knees after bringing both of her hands up and finding that the flesh had been burned so badly, that she was able to see the bones in her palm's. As for the two knives she used. They could still be seen stuck in his shoulders, but they were now glowing red hot and liquefying at a frightening pace. His flaming skull slowly turn towards his left shoulder and then over to the other at an agonizingly slow pace to show that he was examining the damage, before turning his attention back to the girl’s.
He then raised his left hand and started to wag his finger, while slightly tilting his head and saying the following in the same voice as from when he was screaming. But in a very intimidating way as it was now very low. “Nah-Ah~.” The second one to attack, pulled out her bow and shot an arrow straight for his chest.
The arrow itself went in quite deep but it did not get destroyed so quickly as the daggers. Instead, he gripped onto it with his right hand and yanked the arrow free from the leather. The metal tip itself, along with several inches, was now white hot and he played with it for a bit by twirling it between a few fingers a few times.
This lasted a few seconds before he whipped his hand in through the arrow straight at the one who fired it first. The crudely made projectile itself went cleanly through the very center of her rib cage and buried itself so deep, that it nearly came out the other side of her body. The Griffin screamed for a few seconds before her voice left her.
By the end, all that was left was her in this frozen state as her jaw was left wide open to show that she was in the middle of a silent scream before falling over, while in the same state and clearly dead. The piece that was glowing before quite literally cooked her organs and seared the oxygen within her own lungs within seconds, so she ended up dying before she even finished taking her last breath.
The last one was carrying a small shield and an iron sword that was barely two feet long. He then made a mocking gesture by laughing and allowing is teeth to clatter against one another whenever his jaw moved. He also raised his right hand as if to grab something in the air and a burst of flames came out of his palm to reveal his machete. Just like with his body, this item was quickly overtaken by flames and the blade turned jet black and started to extend. The metal started to have these engravings that resembled tiny skulls and connecting arms that would run up the length of the flat side of the weapon.
Once the transformation was completed, only the very edge was glowing hot and giving off a few licks of flames as the machete grew an extra foot and a half. This meant it was longer than his own leg and it had a heavy goth feel. Even the handguard itself turned into a silver skull as the rest of the blade was coming out of its open maw.
He then gave it a few cautionary swings and allowed the sound of the heat coming off of it to fill the air. It was immediately brought up so that it was able to be examined by him closer as he spoke the following in an oddly chipper accent, that was really close to someone who lived in Australia. “You call that a knife? Now THIS, is what I call a knife?”
It was then raised up and swung down. After seeing it coming at her the Griffin raised up the shield in order to block it. But the blade went right through just as a hot knife through butter. His newly forged demonic machete not only cleaved through the protective item, but also her left arm and chest, as it traveled through.
Only a second later, the body fell apart, while still on its legs. The sections that the weapon came into contact with, was burning hot and cauterized everything. This left the Bandit to scream and agony for a few more seconds until she finally succumbed to the injury of being cut into multiple pieces.
He then went over to the one that attacked first with the daggers and stood right in front of her, while looking down at the now crying girl. He then tilted his head slightly and caused his jaw to bend just enough to give the impression he was smiling. This was before he said the following as he started to repeatedly stab her in the chest.
“Stabby-stabby-stabby!” First it was the left lung, then the right shoulder. Next was the stomach and left thigh. He continued this a few more times until she was pretty much a used-up pin cushion and she crumpled onto the ground with a horrified expression frozen on her face. Along with there being stab wounds that gave off a faint glow as the flesh and armor around it was burned.
The one with the axe, was so horrified by everything that she had neglected to get out of her current stuck position and watched as he continued with the rest. All the while, she was crying and dripping snot from her nose. The scene then focuses on her eyes as they gave a bleary reflection of the following events. At the same time, the shadows of said actions were being displayed on the wall behind where she was.
The others were then literally torn to bits when he grabbed onto the next member of their group and held her over his head. From there he gripped on to the girl from somewhere on the upper back and one of the legs near the thigh, and pulled so hard that they tore apart right where the hips connected to the torso.
Another had her arms ripped out of their sockets and used to bludgeon her to death. He then took a hold of the chain that was on his outfit and easily slipped It off and flung it in order to grab on to another's neck. The chain wrapped around a few times, before he yanked and caused the line to go tense, thereby causing that one's head to literally be torn off as it's spun like a top.
This went on for a few more until it was down to the last member aside from herself. This one was gripped onto by his left hand and held so that she was now dangling several inches off of the ground, thanks to his fingers taking hold of her skull. The Griffin screams got louder and louder until they were a full-on shriek, as she was also begging for her life.
The sound of which was easily on-par with what could possibly cause crystals to shatter before her head was crushed in by his fingers. But not before he said, “Say hello to those that begged YOU to stop…” This not only caused her screaming to stop, but within a fraction of a second, the bones could be heard crunching multiple times before allowed squelch sound was made and the body was dropped.
The next thing to happen, was his figure slowly approaching after putting his toys away. The wall behind her got brighter and brighter as he did this, until the reflection on her eyes was filled with nothing but his Pony skull that was still on fire. He then said in a deep hollowed out voice that was filled with tiny sounds of embers burning behind it. “You and I… are going to have a few words... And don't worry... I plan to show you many… many of my techniques. And I know A LOT!” The last thing to happen, was the mare screaming at the top of her lungs before the scene went black.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Canterlot castle. In the lower floors* *Time: Ten-thirty at night*
The party came to an abrupt halt not too long ago and most of the partygoers were already sent home. As for the ones who came in from out of the country. They had assigned sweets in the guest area of the castle itself and most were already in bed or at least doing something in their rooms until they were ready to sleep. This however didn’t affect the guards who were still on duty and staying at their posts, while others were constantly on patrols.
Down in the lower recesses of the castle, where the Royal Vault was kept. Two guards were on duty, while standing on either side of an overly elaborate and well decorated door. Said door was more than big enough for an entire Freightliner truck to drive right on through with more than enough clearance on both the sides and roof.
One guard was a Unicorn and holding on to a long spear. While the other was a Pegasus and she was also using the same type of weapon, but being held in the opposite hand so the two were mirroring one another. The two mare’s were standing at attention and looking straight ahead with a passive gaze for several long seconds. This was until the Unicorn started to talk without moving anything aside from her mouth and this caused the both of them to start talking to one another.
“So...”
“Yeah?”
“This year’s party turned out to be pretty exciting from what one of the other guards said.”
“Yeah?”
“Yep. I sort of regret volunteering for this assignment tonight.”
“Is that so?”
“Don't you have anything else to say?”
“Nope.”
“Are you just doing that to mess with me?”
“Maybe.”
“Whose ass were you eating out only last night?”
“... ... ... okay. But still, this is really boring.”
“I agree with you there.”
“Nothing ever happens down here.”
“That's true.”
“What do you say we go out for some drinks when our shifts over?”
Nothing nut silence could be heard.
“Hey! Don't pretend that-. *Yawn* that you... didn't hear me. *Yawn* I'm so bored I could barely... keep my eyes-.”
And with that, the two were completely silent and slumped against the walls before sliding down. Only a few more seconds past before something came down from the ceiling that was being suspended by a set of wires. This turned out to be a short, yet muscularly built person. They were wearing a form fitting black outfit that resembled a ninja, with only a slit going across the mask that allowed a pair of eyes to be shown. The left eye could be seen blackened as it was kept closed. there was also a long bushy tail that was fairly unkept that could be seen.
He was only a foot off of the ground. He had a little black box being cradled in his left hand. As what appeared to be a lid was gripped on with his thumb and the index finger in the right. It was giving off a faint smoke that was traveling straight down and disappeared only a few seconds after leaving the container.
The one hanging then placed said containers lid back on and reoriented themselves so that they can land on their feet and unhook the wires from their belt. From there, the mechanism made a loud whirling sound as it retracted towards the ceiling above and into an air vent that was left wide open and somehow it turned out to be big enough to allow someone in his size to crawl through.
He then called over his shoulder in the direction of the hallway that was directly in front of the door, where it branched off into a T intersection with a gravelly voice. “Hey! Let's get going already before another guard comes and we are found out!” Not even a second later, two more figures came out from around both corners.
One was nearly twice the height of the one near the door, but he was awfully skinny yet he was wearing the same attire. Along with sporting his own tail that seemed a bit thin to go along with his physique. Moreover, was the way he kept on darting from one wall to the other as he was pressing his back firmly against it with his arms and legs spread out. However, as he was doing this, he nearly tripped a couple of times, while flailing his arms in a slightly comedic fashion.
As for the third figure of the group. He was quite a fair bit taller than the other two, along with being quite round. Unlike his friend, he was only walking down the hallway, while holding his arms up in front of himself in a gesture to show he was attempting to be sneaky while tiptoeing.
As for his tail, it was a bit shorter but was very fluffy to the point that it may as well have belonged to a raccoon, but still gave off the same look as the other two. By the time they all got together and in the light. The coloring of their tails could be seen as light brown, light blue, then light green from the order that they revealed themselves.
From this point on, the three of them will be referred to by their tail colors. Brown quickly spoke up as he threw his arms to his sides in an aggressive posture, before pointing at blue and speaking up in the gravelly voice of his. “What are you doing???” Blue placed both of his hands onto his hips before leaning in a little to reply in a whisper.
“We're sneaking around, aren't we? What else do you think I'm doing? I sure ain't knitting a sweater.” Brown quickly gave himself a facepalm before running his hand down his face, while also grunting in frustration. He then said, “Stop messing around and we're the only ones down here that aren't knocked out! No more messing around, let's get this door open.”
That was when he reached into a hidden pocket and pulled out a small item that resembled a key with a red pointed gem affixed to the end of a silver handle. It was brought close to the keyhole for the door and a red lightning bolt shot out and into the mechanism just inside of the opening. The locks could be heard undoing themselves as a multitude of clicks and thuds were made. This was accompanied by the entire frame being encircled by the very same red lightning for several seconds before it died off.
During all of this, the three were standing side by side with the larger one on the right and skinny one on the left. Their eyes were going wide as each tail was wagging furiously. They also said the same thing in unison in an awe-inspired tone of voice. “Wow... pretty colors~.”
The door finally started to swing open with a loud creaking sound, which instantly got all three to wave their arms in a placating gesture, while also shushing the inanimate object as if pleading with it would cause the noise to halt. By the end, it gave a very loud slamming sound as it was opened at a ninety-degree angle.
One of them which, turned out to be Blue. Reached up to his hood and pulled off a piece in order to release a long furry ear that was a bit sharper than the average Pony. It flicked a few times as the other two watched in nervousness. Once the blue tailed one released a sigh of relief, he was holding in did the other two reciprocate and do the same thing, while also wiping their brows. Once they were sure no one was coming, all three rushed inside.
Brown and Blue were going from one spot to the next as they were walking around large mounds of separated coins. Along the walls were many portraits and statues that easily were over a thousand years old in some cases. Magical artifacts were set on display in either glass cases or on top of pedestals. Brown came across a pair of boxing gloves that were made of iron and covered with various gems that gave off a series of colors that just called to him.
Blue was admiring a picture of a mare with wings and a horn that looked a lot like the princesses inform, but her mane was red, while her fur color was white. But before either of them could reach for the prospective items that gain their attention. Green pick them both up by the scruffs of their necks and brought them over to a section of the wall with small doors lining it. At first, the two of them tried to fight but quickly gave up and just allowed themselves to be limp in his arms and gave small grumbles of annoyance.
Green then spoke up for the first time with a surprisingly gentle and soft-spoken voice. “We were instructed that all the items in here have a magical protection and the key only works on the front door and the cabinet that has the item we’re meant to steal.” The other two relented and gave some half-assed shrugs along with apologies, before quickly glancing back at the two items for a moment as they were now put back on track.
Brown was about to use the key once more, but it was snatched up by Blue who pulled down his mask just enough to stick out his tongue to blow a raspberry. He then said, “Give someone else a try! Now let's see... How does this work again?” All the while, he was turning the item over repeatedly while also bringing it close to his eye.
Brown started to growl in the same way that a dog would before Green interrupted. “All we have to do is put it near the box and it will glow. Then we just have to touch the lock and it will open and we can go.” Blues eyes gave them the impression that he understood it and started to frantically wave around the key along the many rows of boxes that was close to fifty in total. As it was five going up while the rest was going left to right.
Soon, the one that they were searching for was located and immediately opened. The item was snatched up and placed into a duffel bag and thrown over Blue’s shoulder, as they all made a break for the door while also making sure not to touch any of the loot or they might trigger the alarm. Luckily, Green snatched up Brown just as he was about to collide with a stack of coins that he was not watching out for on the way.
Once through, Brown stopped Blue in place and took the key back and used it to lock the door up again before continuing with their escape. A few minutes went by as the trio ran around one corner after another. Eventually, they began to slow down as Green was now breathing heavily. But the other two didn't really notice it too much and were able to keep on going and essentially left him behind after rounding yet another corner.
But when they did, the duo ran face first into a patrolling Guard, which not only startled the two of them but herself as well. The two of them quickly turned on the spot and ran back the way they came, while leaving behind a very confused Earth Pony mare. She ended up giving chase after giving out an order to stop and they all went back around the last corner that the two made.
Unfortunately for her, Brown and Blue knew that Green was right there and avoided running into him. But she on the other hand, wasn't so lucky and after colliding she was sent tumbling back several feet and bang the back of her helmet into the stonewall, thereby knocking her out cold.
Brown and Blue peaked out from either side of Green after that happened. Even though it was only their eyes exposed, the two of them were having this, “Oh no” expression. As Green looks completely mortified and was holding out his hands as if wanting to not believe that he had hurt someone. The big one then started to walk forward a little, while sort of leaning in as he spoke in a very concerned voice to the others. “Oh dear... uh. Do you guys think that she's okay? That looked like a nasty tumble. Shouldn’t we go and find a doctor?”
Brown quickly stepped up so that he was on the left side and pointed at the Guard. While also giving a scowl with his one good eye and speaking in his rough voice. “We're supposed to knock them out! We're all criminal masterminds after all.” Blue appeared on the right and quickly retorted to that, with a sing song voice while tilting his head back and forth.
“Err… Technically we only started yesterday. Soooo~. I don't think we could be counted as-.” The Guard mare was beginning to stir and this caught the attention of all three, as their eyes went as wide as dinner plates, before looking to one another in rapid succession and pointing at the Guard at the same time.
As this was going on. They were making constant hand gestures as to what they should do, while the other one receiving them would reciprocate with not knowing. That was when Brown got a little closer and raised his right fist and pulled it back, so that it was ready to be thrown for a punch. He then said with a steely tone, “What’s wrong with yah! We just got to make sure we knock her out so there's no witnesses! Here, I’ll show how it’s done”
The mare was still pretty out of it and had not opened her eyes yet. She even made a few feminine moans that caused all three's eyes to have this unsure look about them. But a second later, both Blue and Green were making hand gestures to push Brown into continuing. He then through his punch, but as soon as he had gotten close to halfway through his swing. He ended up jerking back and hopping on his left foot, while spinning in place and making some pained whimpering noises. He then said in an obviously fake voice, “Ouch-Ouch! I pulled a muscle; I pulled a hamstring! Ouch, I can't do it! One of you knock her out instead.”
Blue came up with a confidence smirk that could be seen through the cloth on his mouth, as he ready for a strong downward sweep with his arm and fully intending to do a karate chop on the mare's slightly exposed neck. But before he could do it, he ended up stumbling back and frantically waving his arms before speaking in a panicked voice. “I-I can't do it either! She hasn't done anything to deserve me hitting her!” He then pointed over to Green and the two smaller ones instantly got behind him in order to try and push towards the Guard.
However, no matter how hard they pushed or how much their feet kept on skidding on the floor with them going nowhere. Green just stood in place perfectly still and glancing between his buddies and the mare on the floor before taking another look around at the surroundings. He then said, “Umm… Guys? Why don't we just put her in that closet?”
Once that was uttered. The other two began to glance around until their eyes laid squarely on a door that was halfway open and revealing some cleaning supplies, that could be seen just Within. They then said the following in unison, with each one arching an eyebrow and slightly tilting their head. “That's conveniently placed.”
After several minutes’ past, the three were in the middle of closing a door and revealing that the mare was tied up using a number of rags that were linked together to make an improvised rope. Unfortunately, she woke up at some point during this process. So Blue ruffled around and found a roll of duct tape and gag the mare. As Brown and Blue were already sneaking on a head. Green paused after a few steps away from the door and went right back. His form mostly obscured the door itself for a few moments, before he hurried along to catch up to his friends.
But when his body moved away and revealed the room that was holding the mare hostage. A knew item was now hanging off of the door handle in the shape of a small wooden plaque. On it, was a curved arrow pointing to the center of the door itself and right below that, were the words hastily drawn on that said, “Please let guard out.” And right below that, was the following words that said, “P S. Tell her we're sorry. P P S. Also, I hope she's not hurt.”
From there, the trio snuck from one lower floor to the next one above, while avoiding the regularly posted security details that would make their assigned rounds. There were a few occasions where a group of guards would be coming their way, but the hall that they were inside of had nowhere to hide.
So, Brown and Blue would jump up and somehow claw onto the walls so that they were literally right above the archway that connected one hallway to the next. Green would then jump up as high as he could so that the other two can grab on to his arms and hoist him up just in the nick of time when the approaching Guards would pass by.
Of course, this meant that all of the heavy lifting was done by the two smaller members of the group of three as they were clearly sweating and shaking as they were both gripping the wall and keeping their larger friend from falling. When this had to be done for the third or perhaps fourth time. Blue spoke up right as the last group of Guards were out of earshot by talking in a whisper, that was heavily lace with him putting a lot of effort into holding up all the weight.
“You…. Nugh! Really need to cut down on the breakfast.” Brown was the next one to speak up as he was in the same position, but with an incredulous tone. “Just the breakfast? After this job we're going to help you with that diet you've been saying you're going... to start. We need to get out of here. Gerr... I don't know how many more times I can handle doing this!” Green was looking awfully apologetic as he replied with his eyes clearly showing that he was embarrassed. I'm really sorry that I'm big boned. Just got the other two the perk up as they started to scan the room hurriedly as if something green said caused an instinctual reaction.
As a result, they all lost their grip on the wall and fell to the floor below that was about fifteen feet down. Brown was the first one to land, as Blue fell directly on top and elicited a small cry of pain from him. But a fear-stricken expression appeared on Blues mask as he quickly got up and scurried out of the way just as green fell. Fortunately, the larger of the three didn't look hurt at all as he looked around and asked the one that was off to the side a question, while tilting his head. “Uh, what happened to-.”
The question that was being spoken was interrupted by a small murmur coming from underneath Green that lasted a few seconds, before the arm of Brown could be seen reaching out and slamming the floor with his hand repeatedly. Blue instantly tried to help Green get up and when they did, they found Brown lying face down with his arm still padding the floor but now at a weaker tempo.
He then lifted his head, that strangely had this suction sound as it was being peeled away from the marble floor. He then said in a wibbly wobbly tone of voice that was going in and out from his usual rough voice to that of a little child. “I... think I saw Mommy and Daddy... and they wanted to know if I was up for going to the zoo...”
Seeing as he was completely out of it after getting squashed, the two immediately grabbed the hold of both arms and started to rush down the hallways. After this went on for a little while, they finally came across another set of stairs that would lead them to the upper floor and hopefully to the nearest exit that they could take to get out of the castle.
Once at the top of the steps. Both Blue and Green were frantically trying to pick a Direction and going in opposite ways, before they realize that they were stretching their friend a little and went straight ahead from the stairs instead of going left or right. This led them through the kitchen and Green had to resist from stopping to try some of the leftover goods that were unable to make it to the party.
Once they passed the kitchen. Blue released his friend and ran up ahead to open a set of doors and peaked to see what was on the other side. But when he did, he froze before slamming the door as quietly as possible and pressing his body against the whole thing with his arms and legs spread. His eyes were even bugging out, as he was breathing quickly and only getting faster to the point that he was pretty much hyperventilating and sweat was also forming on the outside of his mask
He then tried to stutter out his words, but they came out as nothing but broken gibberish, before Brown finally recovered and looked at him with a dead pan face. Brown then asked in a very tired tone that just said he was over all of this and wanted to get out. “Spill it already. What did you see?” Blue was looking even more panicked by now as his voice came out so raspy, that it even shifted to small squeaks, before Brown came up and grabbed on to his shirt.
Blue then pointed at the door and managed to squeak out the following. “It's-it's the Princesses! They're on the other side of the room where that door connects!” Brown then grabbed on to Blues head where the right ear should be and hopped up just high enough that he got a hold of Green’s shirt to pull him down, so that he can do the same with his head and brought them in close. “You blunder heads! We went the wrong way because of you two! We were told specifically to take a certain route so we would avoid the party hall!”
While clearly showing signs of pain on Blues Part. He quickly started the point repeatedly at a wall nearby where there were some hooks. On said, hooks. There just happened to be three sets of clothing that miraculously appeared to be just the right sizes for all three for them to take on the role of waiters. Upon noticing that, all three frozen place and had gleeful expressions crossing their eyes, as they quickly went to changing their outfits after diving behind a set of counters once they grabbed on to their perspective disguises.
As they were doing this. Blue told them the state of the next room and that the party was done. So, all they had to do was sneak past the princesses and leave right out of one of the exits. But Green spoke up after he was done changing and the three were still out of sight. “We got the uniforms, but we're going to stick out so badly when we step out there.” Brown's voice could be heard speaking up as he had this confident tone in his voice. Haha! And that's why we went and got these.”
Blue was the next one to talk after a few seconds and he sounded really excited. “Oh duh! I forgot all about these! We just have to picture in our minds and we'll look just like any of the castle staff. Hold on, why didn't we just use these from the start?”
This got a quick reply from Brown. Along with a not too subtle smacking sound and allowed “Oof” coming from Blue. “That's because we got the knockoff brands. They'll only work on our faces. Also, the only go for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. There's no way we can afford three of the genuine articles, especially with our budget.”
They all stood up and showed themselves to be Earth ponies with the same coloring as their tails. Brown still had his one messed up eye. Very thick bushy eyebrows could be seen and his sideburns went straight down and curved forward to meet his mustache for a type of handlebar look. Although, he had this very grumpy expression and facial features that gave the impression that he was a bar brawler.
Next up was Blue. He had a clean face and a very wide smile and a slightly pointed snout they gave him this shifty fox type of sharp look. Without his full body covering from his other black outfit, he looked rather thin and could have easily been blown over by a common gust of wind.
When it came to Green, he was standing behind the other two and his mane was so short, that it was on the same length as the rest of his body hair. In fact, if he was to be compared to a human, then he might have been bald. He even had this face that no doubt had the effect of causing any grandmother to see it to have the uncontrollable urge to pinch his cheeks.
They then took the duffel bag and placed it into one of the garbage cans that was off to the side of the kitchen that was already emptied out only a short while ago. They then made their way out into the party room. Luckily for them, it seemed as though the two princesses were quite absorbed in some matter and paid little mind to them as they went up the steps and exited through the front doors. All the while, smiling and sweating so badly that their shirts were getting very damp with the amount of moisture by the time they got out.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Canterlot train station* *Time: Six Fifty-Five in the morning. The day after the grand Galloping Gala*
On top of the train station that was constructed with a long glass roof that ran along the sides of the train so that it would cover up the areas the passengers would stand. There was somebody standing near one of the doors that would lead to a set of stairs leading down into the structure. This person turned out to be Engineer, as he was still wearing his ranger outfit and head fully covered with his helmet.
Aside from the engine keeping itself warmed up for the rapidly approaching time for departure, along with the many passengers that would be disembarking before the next set came on board. There was this odd sound being emanated from a device being held in his left hand that was giving off this weird type of static, that would fluctuate as he waved the device around. As he was bringing it back again from his left all the way to his right side. The noise it gave off would slowly turn to that of a musical note that resembled a dial tone, that would only get stronger and stronger before dropping again.
Just a little ways off. there was a voice of a female calling out along with the sound of flapping wings just over to his right-hand side and nearly twenty meters away. Engineer just kept on waving the item a few more times and only stopped once the musical note became constant. This was just as the owner of The voice from only a moment ago could be heard much more clearly and he turned his head in its direction.
(Here's a picture of Daring Do.)
Who came over a wall after pulling up from a low dive beforehand. This turned out to be none other than Daring Do herself. Although, her outfit was pretty beat up with all the small rips along the fabric. But what she did have on was a thick leather belt with a couple of pouches attached that would click shut thanks to a clasp. On the right side of the belt, there was another strap that went down and enclosed her right thigh for a holster with a pistol securely fastened so it wouldn't fall out during flight.
From a quick glance, it had this copper color going on and resembled something that was put together using spare parts and copper pipes. It even had a revolver designed to it with six shells that could be loaded at once. On the other side of the belt. It had a similar holster, but this one held onto a seven-inch combat knife. When it came to her landing, she stuck it like a pro that was trying to make an entrance for a group of fans as she got down to one knee and had this big smirk on her face.
It didn't take her long to get back up and get right alongside of Engineer as she had her hands on her hips and giving him this, I’m so pissed off at you look. She then huffed before speaking in an irritated voice while also taking a look at their surroundings. “You could have at least waited for me! What's the big idea of running off? You could have at least come next door and knocked to give me a heads up. I literally had to grab the first thing I saw so I can get dressed in time to catch up to your ass.”
Engineer started to talk with his voice taking on a cowboy feel to it. “What's wrong with looking a little dirty? You're an adventurer that likes to go diving into ruins. Besides, that's still covering up a decent amount of your body.” Daring Do immediately replied to that while pulling on the bottom of her shirt to give it a small stretch in order to draw his attention to it.
“I got a certain level of reputation to uphold buster! There's ruin diving and then there's a mare that just got roughed up while having a good time in a random back alley. Also, I'm supposed to be in my civilian clothes while out in public. I already told you that I’m supposed to be keeping a low profile so that my private life doesn’t get destroyed by those that I make enemies of.”
He gave a quick chuckle to that before slightly leaning in so that he was a couple of inches away from her face and started to talk with a sultry tone. “Oh, I wouldn't go that far. Now if you really want to look the part of a girl who's had a good time, then I wouldn't mind lending my experience in-.” His sentence got immediately interrupted as she whipped out her pistol and place the barrel right up against the side of his helmet and used her thumb to pull back the hammer pin.
She then said with a small yet innocent smile, despite the situation. “Keep it in your pants lover colt. I ain't that easy.” The pistol was playfully pushed away and a nonchalant manner by the back of his left hand, as he returned his attention to the device that was immediately switched over to his right only a moment before they're little spat. After getting his bearings once again. The two of them began a back and forth, while he was gesturing to the back-end of the train that was currently parked just below where they now stood.
“I finally tracked down the little devil. It's in the baggage car right there.”
“Are you sure that little doohickey of yours is working right? We've been chasing after your Lost property for close to a month now.”
“Yep, I'm sure all right. Here, check for yourself.” That was when he tossed the item over to Daring Do and she gave it a once-over before handling it in the same way he was.
“So, if this thing makes a lot of beeps, it means we're getting closer?”
“Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner folks, give the beautiful mare a shiny, Nuka Cola World doll!”
“Hardy-har-har! You know that I don't get half the things you say, right?”
“Yep, I know that for sure! It's the mystery that keeps you coming back, isn't it?”
“Gerrr... you wish! I'm only repaying you for that... thing. So, when we're done here and you get your precious little toy back. Then you can kiss me goodbye.”
“Ooh~. So, I get to have a kiss now, huh? I would have preferred it sooner, but better late than never.”
“I can't get over how much of a mare you sound. This is seriously confusing me to no end.”
“Sooooooooo~. Is the kiss still on the table?”
Daring Do released a few more grunts of annoyance at his antics, before turning away and stomping her hoof along one of the metal railings that would be between the glass roof sections. She also tried really hard to make sure that he wasn't able to see her face, as she had this slight blush crossing her features before she tossed the device over her shoulder haphazardly, so that it would be quickly caught by Engineer after fumbling with it for a few seconds.
He then called out to her in a bit of a huff, as he held up the device in his hand and waved it around. “Watch it there! You got any idea how difficult it was to put something like this together with what I had on hand? We're really lucky that those Bandits had a radio. Otherwise, I'd be breaking into every house I see and rummage through all their drawers until I found it, and we have no idea how long that would have taken.”
That was actually quite true. Because after he was done with spending the whole night using various means of interrogation on that one leader and gaining a handful of knowledge that wasn't in the book. Engineer eventually finished her off and went through all of their belongings. He also got his hands on a radio that was stashed away in one of the other houses and broke it open for his components to create a receiver that would be tuned to his Pip-Boy.
During his time in his previous world. He did happen to come across a few nearly intact versions of his equipment and did a little experimenting to figure out how it worked. So, this meant he had a decent grasp on the signal to piggy back on when it came to the built-in radio. It was also really fortunate that much of the everyday items in circulation were not sophisticated enough to be much of a hindrance when it came to interference.
It was only after the sun came up that he eventually turned back into his normal form and had to rest for several hours before he could even move his body. But after he got back enough strength and started to look in on Daring Do. He found that she was pretty beat up, but her life wasn't in jeopardy. So, he did the best he could by rummaging around the rest of the houses for any first aid supplies and went to work at patching her up.
More time passed and the sun was about to go down again. When she finally came too, and nearly attacked him when she realized she was not restrained anymore, but was quickly subdued by him after a few seconds of tussling. After that they had a little question and answer session and eventually, Daring Do Believe that he wasn't there to hurt her, but was a little more than shocked that he was able to take down all of the bandits on his own.
Luckily for him, he went ahead and buried the bodies just before she woke up, so he didn't have to explain the whole being barbecued deal as well as the condition of their leader. It also gave him a little time to process the weird transformation. But no matter how much effort was put into it, he wasn't able to transform again while the sun was up.
Although, he did feel something when it got dark, but he didn't transform while Daring Do was around. This was because that new survival manual downloaded a few names into his mind and he didn't want to be labeled as a new supervillain just like that one guy called Lord Tirek.
Afterwards, he helped her in unlocking the treasure vault that was hidden and they immediately got out of there just in the nick of time. Although, when he heard the word vault. He instantly thought she meant another one of the underground sanctuaries. But was a little disappointed when he got to see it was a regular underground room that had a couple of knick-knacks here and there that he wasn’t all that interested in.
In fact, they were just over the first hill when they had to duck into some tree cover when a large battalion of griffins came flying over their heads. It also became quite obvious that Daring Do didn't want to talk to them as she was very adamant about getting out of there. So, he was pretty sure that she wasn't even meant to be there in the first place.
They traveled over land and sea, until they finally came to Equestria and track down the signal to the city on the side of the mountain called Canterlot and decided to rest for the night at one of the middle-class hotels. However, when he woke up that morning and checked his tracking device. He found that his Pip-Boy was already on the move and deduced it was heading towards the train and he rushed out of the hotel by jumping out of the window and was making his way across the roofs until now.
Back to the moment at hand. He put the item into his back pocket and made a sprint for the train just as it was starting to pull out of the station and Daring Do was hot on his heels. Once on the very back car. They waited until they were a little ways away before making their move. This was so they wouldn't get caught by the authorities that were watching from the station.
Luckily, the train was pretty loud thanks to the railings scraping along the steel wheels underneath the train. This meant that they were able to open the very back door and slip in without being noticed by anyone inside. Once in, they found a bunch of large and small baggage stacked up neatly into piles. But in the center was a single table and four Griffins sitting around it as they were playing cards.
Three were obviously females, while one was a male. However, one of them, which turned out to be one of the girls was wearing some armor, while the others had only clothing. He was slowly sneaking up after crouching low and making sure that Daring Do stayed back for the time being. He went around a trunk that was big enough to be considered a walk-in closet and it also appear to have a symbol printed on all sides with what appeared to be three blue diamonds.
He ended up arching an eyebrow and thinking the following to himself, while staring at the oversized luggage. “Geez! That things big enough to hide a fully grown Super Mutant. Whoever owns this must have taken half of their house with them. I bet if daring and I take off all our clothes and gear and stuff it inside this thing, there would still be enough room for some Hanky Panky... hmm... note to self. One day, buy a big trunk, then set up a scenario where we get locked inside and take advantage of it.”
His internal musing was interrupted when a small pebble must have struck the back of his head and this made him look behind. When he did, he saw Daring Do giving him the stink eye that just said, that she had an idea on what he was thinking about and shot back with an accusatory finger. Said finger was also accompanied by a thumb that was being raised and she made the motion of pretending it was a gun.
He then returned his attention to the front of himself as he quickly thought, “Okay, we've only been together for a month and she already knows me so well. Now all I got to do is wear her down.” He then released a small sigh as he went back to sneaking and lamented on his decision about not using his Charisma abilities in order to get further along with the adventurous mare.
When he got a little closer, he started to hear one of the Griffins talking to the others and this turned out to be the one with armor as she started to laugh a little bit with amusement. “It went so well! Hah-Ha! Those three chumps believed every word we said. Also, there's going to be no way to tie the crime to us.” That was when the male Griffin of the group spoke up, as he started to deal the cards.
“You're right boss! We just had to sit back and wait for the goods to come to us. What's more, it only cost us two bits. Hahaha!” While they were picking up the cards and setting up their hands. One of the other Griffin spoke up. “I can't believe they were so gullible to think that we would literally pay them three thousand bits. That bag was filled with nothing but washers we got at a hardware store for dirt cheap and we just had to show them a couple of real bits and toss them in the bag without showing them the rest. Hahaha! I suppose we shouldn’t have expected any better from their kind.”
The final Griffin spoke as she threw down a couple of cards in order to draw a new set. “Only thing I'm complaining about, is that we have to come all the way out here! I hate Equestria. Can't wait till we get back to the Empire. This whole trip wouldn't even need to be done if we got the thing before it went overseas.” This was when the leader spoke up again as she looked over her hand after replacing three of her cards.
“Who would think that we had a high roller in the crowd when it came to that auction house. All that pony had to do was say that he works for this Sir Fancy Pants fella and he was pretty much handed the prize with almost no questions asked. Our girl couldn't even get a bid in that was high enough. Especially with the way that pony kept upping the price by leaps and bounds.”
It was the male that spoke up again as he arched an eyebrow and started to point at the black sack that was hanging off of their leader’s hip. “You don't suppose they already had an idea what this is, do you?” The leader scoffed at the idea and started to pat the bag before rolling her eyes and giving her own reply. “We're not paid to think. As long as there's someone out there to kill and things to steal for our employer. Then I won't ask any questions so long as we're getting paid. But I did hear a rumor that the minister of science was really interested in it.”
She then had this look of curiosity that was quickly growing as she started to smile and allow her eyes to drift down to the bag. She then dropped the cards and snatched up the bag, before dumping the contents onto the table and causing the rest of the Griffins to voice their disapproval at ruining the game. Over with Engineer, his eyes went wide upon witnessing his Pip-Boy just sitting less than four meters away.
He would have cried from happiness alone at the sight, if it wasn't for the leader beginning to fiddle around with it. At first, it didn't bother him too much, but after a few seconds. He heard the unmistakable sound of it powering up and along with another sound to indicate that the selection progress was being scrolled through. This was immediately followed with the leader having a scrunched-up expression, while trying to read what was displayed.
What he heard next out of the female Griffin's mouth, caused him to literally scream in his mind. “What's a… Fat Boy?” She then turned another dial and this produced the so-called fat boy that was now laying across the table after coming out of nowhere. This startled them all into letting out their own versions of squawks. The so-called Fat Boy was a long catapult system, which could be held like a rocket launcher. It was designed to be loaded with handheld mini nukes that could be launched at a distance and destroy their targets with a devastating explosion.
What made this one so particularly dangerous. Was the fact that the loading mechanism was augmented to be loaded with a set of six that could be fired all at once. If someone was to say that it couldn't get any worse, then they would be sorely mistaken. This was because it was already fully loaded and primed with a six pack of mini nukes that only required someone to pull a trigger and completely demolished the train, along with all of the passengers in a fiery nuclear explosion that could be seen from all the way back in the city.
Once he saw one of the Griffins making towards grabbing the weapon. Engineer immediately leaped into action and pulled out his machete before any of them knew he was even there. One downward swing literally chopped off both of the Griffin's hands a few inches above the elbows. The next was in pure shock and was unable to react as Engineers weapon came around and decapitated him.
The third Griffin managed to pull out a dagger, but he yanked up the blade and started to cut her. This started from the stomach and the edge of the blade ran along her body and stopped only after slicing her throat wide open. The Griffins beak also ended up getting cut so that it was splitting near the tip when the blade left her body as this was going on.
The leader was practically getting showered by all of the excess blood that was spewing in her direction. The Pip-Boy was still in her left hand. While the right tried to grab onto her short sword. But thanks to all of the red liquid dousing her, she was unable to get a good grip and the handle kept on slipping between her fingers.
He then spun around and delivered a strong back-kick, that landed squarely on her chest and this sent the Griffin flying towards the door that would lead to the next car over. He also saw as she went through, that his precious Pip-Boy was tossed so it rolled a bit further away as she crumpled onto the ground. Obviously out of it and unable to get up due to the strong strike to her chest. He made his way over slowly and put away his machete, before taking out Kellogg's pistol and had it pointing towards the Griffin's head.
Once he was finished strolling into the next car. He was already preparing himself to pull the trigger, while still aiming right for her forehead. He also felt a smirk coming to his lips as he couldn't help but to say the next line and the manliest voice he can muster. “The Commonwealth says hello!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 66: Rainbow’s Conviction.
*Point of view: Rainbow Dash* *Location: The Train heading to Ponyville* *Time: Several minutes before a crashing sound could be heard from in the next car over*
Rainbow was sitting alongside the rest of her friends, as they took up two sections of seating so that they could be on either side of the walkway. Instead of the trip being a lively one with all the girls gossiping as to be expected. It was replaced with an uneasy atmosphere, as everyone was off in their own little world. That is aside from Pinkie, who was attempting to cheer everyone up by pulling out a party balloon or talking about some random topic to get their minds off of everything that was offloaded only last night.
Gilda herself was sitting in another seat with its back facing the other girls. This meant that she was just a few inches behind Rainbows head. The blue Pegasus recalled how the events went, when Gilda crashed with her in one of the rooms being provided by the Princesses, after walking out of Donut Joe's shop. At first, Gilda flat out denied that Gambit was either some Immortal being, or one that was brought back to life after first being sent to another world for the last eight hundred years by the princess of the Sun.
And when Gilda voiced her opinions about wanting to clock Celestia in the face. Rainbow would have normally stood up for Princess Celestia’s defense, but had this sense that screamed that Gilda was within her right and didn't push the matter and just let it slide. This also brought up the question as to what his real age might end up being and this caused some doubt to creep into her head.
This was mostly whether or not the whole heard idea was going to work out or fall apart when based on that fact alone. She honestly thought that he was in his twenties. But instead of being with a male that was only a few years older than herself, which would have been perfectly fine. He was closer to a thousand years old, if one was to round the numbers up.
Of course, this also brought up the thoughts of why he probably wears that mask whenever he’s in public and never takes the darn thing off. For all she knew, he was an old shriveled up mess that had a voice that made him sound a lot younger than what he really was. She even threw out the question to Gilda on whether or not she was still wanting to go through with their plan.
However, Gilda quickly shot back that it changed absolutely nothing for her. The Griffin even went as far as to push for the idea, that he could possibly be ageless, just as their two princesses. When that was said, Rainbow didn’t want to admit it. But the idea of being in a herd with a male that stayed young and may not lose their sex drive like they normally would, was a bit of a turn on for her.
Also, when thinking about the two princesses themselves. Rainbow was taken aback when they gave a brief layout of what they learned of him and his many deeds over the years as an adventurer. Of course, this also included their speculations as to who he might be. This meant that all of the girls there, including Gilda. All knew for once and for all, that he was indeed not a pony.
Neither was he of any other race that they had on record, if going off of what Gambit said was to be one hundred percent true. This also led to the group question as to him being the only one of his kind being the case. Then was it possible, that he is incapable of having children with other races to repopulate his own numbers? It would only make sense. Especially when given the amount of time he’s been around.
If all of that turned out to be true. Then the odds were, that no children would be able to be fostered by him and any who were in his herd, would be unable to have their own foals. But it wasn't until it was just herself and Gilda in the room last night, that the Griffin said something that surprised Rainbow yet again.
Apparently, at one time or another. Gilda got into a small argument with Rory about them making too much noise in the middle of the night. At the time, Gambit was off doing something or another on his own for a few minutes and it was just the two of them for a little while. So, Gilda took the chance to ask a certain question that was on her mind for quite some time.
Which turned out to be, why they haven't had any little ones running around with how much they're doing it almost every… Single… Night. Rory answered the question with only a second or two passing. But Gilda couldn't quite understand why it wasn't bothering the girl so much, even though it's saddened the Griffin upon receiving the answer.
Rory said that she was unable to have children of her own. This was due to the way her body currently is. But also, she added, that it could be fixed in the future if the timing was just right. She was just about to go and give some additional details, but that was when Gambit returned and she brought up a finger to her lips to show that they shouldn't talk more about it while he’s around.
Rainbow and Gilda even went over a few more specifics that weren't discussed when she and Gilda were talking late at night during that time they were away. Of course, she did hear from Gilda about them being invited to the castle back in Zebrabwe. Then the incident that involved the King coming into her room at night and made an effort to force himself on to her.
It went without saying, that Rainbow was really ticked off about that. Although, when Gambit came into the scene, but not before he sent the set of doors to the room crashing down and summoned a fish out of nowhere that looked to be a tuna and struck the king straight in the face. It was launched with so much force, that it sent the so-called King of the lions clean across to the other side of the room.
The Pegasus nearly fell over laughing when she heard this before. But when the two were together. Gilda went right ahead and tried to emulate the reaction on the King's face and this caused the Pegasus to roll around on the large bed for a good minute, while trying to catch her breath due to all the heavy laughing. Although, she did find it more than a little weird, that out of everything the princesses has told them. There was no mention of any of their deeds since they left and headed over to Zebrabwe.
Although, Gilda wasn't present at the time, as she was busy in some underground labyrinth that was made by the King and fighting her way past an endless supply of monsters. This was along with Zecora and these two other Unicorns that were with them during the trip. And when it got to her going about Gambit killing the King. Rainbow wasn't really all that bothered by it, especially with everything bad she had been hearing from Gilda on a nightly basis when it came to the way he treated his country.
The only real thing that she regretted, was not being there with Gilda so that she can get a crack at the lion herself as her knuckles were turning white from underneath her fur after thinking about what he could have done. The Pegasus was visibly shaking when she first got word. At first, it was from anger towards the king. But soon it was from being scared for Gilda, seeing as he was of royalty and they held the power.
Then the reason for the shaking, quickly transformed to how grateful she was towards Gambit for saving Gilda. It was fortunate it was done over the strange magic device back then. Otherwise, Gilda may have seen just how distraught she became. Along with the silent crying. No doubt she would have gotten some lip from Gilda about being all sentimental and losing a few points on the meter that says how cool she was. But this thought brought a smile to the blue mare’s libs and she recovered quickly.
Of course, the blue Pegasus really wanted to tell the rest of her friends about the awesome adventure Gilda went on, but the Griffin was pretty clear that it shouldn't be told to the rest of the girls. When Rainbow asked why. She got the simple explanation that Gambit didn't want her to say anything about it, as one of the conditions that she had to keep up with, if she was serious when it came to the whole herd thing.
So, it was because of this. That she was a little more than conflicted. Seeing as this would put him pretty high on the totem pole for being a desirable male, which would in a roundabout way, make her even cooler to be associated with him. Even more-so if in the same herd with such an amazing male at the center.
Now, when it came to the part where she was interested in the fighting that went on below the arena. Gilda described it as a stone lined passageway system with multiple floors. There were creatures that resembled walking fly traps that had these four large petals and some teeth at the center and they would shoot their seeds fast enough, that they could literally leave dents in the stone walls. Not to mention a couple of bats here and there that would come in groups. There were also these mosquito-like monsters, which were easily twice the size of Applejack's dog.
Gilda was using her lance and performing various stunts in order to get in close enough to hit with her Spears head, while also keeping her target at a distance so that dodging wasn't too much of a hassle. Zecora was there too and she was wielding a simple two-handed staff and casting some healing spells from the back.
At first, Rainbow fell back to her old prejudice nature about the Zebra when it came to the whole being able to use magic. This was obviously something that was coming from back when they first met her in the forest and Rainbow immediately caught on to that and calmed herself down before anything was said out loud.
When Rainbow brought up the topic about how she didn't have a horn, so she was confused on how was she able to use healing spells. Gilda pointed out that Gambit started teaching her on how to be one of the healing classes, known as a conjurer during the time that they were away. In fact, Zecora may have only had a month and a half after being taught. But she was already strong enough to be a level nineteen, if what Gambit said was right.
But of course, Zecora didn't get herself added to the Adventurers Guild at any point. Seeing as she was regarded as a slave over there and didn’t do so while in Equestria. So, she didn't have a plate to state just how strong she actually was. Rainbow practically jumped out of her fur and threw her hands on either side of her head in order to scream out a very loud, “WHAT?!” When it came to that statement.
Gilda then went on to explain about the items that she and Zecora were given shortly after arriving. Gambit said they would have the ability to allow whoever has them on to grow stronger at a much faster rate. Not only that, there was more than one occasion that they did fight monsters that wasn't inside of the underground dungeon so they all got stronger while away.
So, after hearing this. Rainbow hesitantly asked Gilda what was hers. The Griffin gave a big smirk while puffing out her chest a little, as she pulled out her Adventurers plate and handed it over to Rainbow. The blue Pegasus nearly unhinged her own jaw upon reading that Gilda was level twenty-nine. Not even the Royal Guards broke Level twenty-three and only a few ever got close to thirty.
It only took the neck set of words to cause her jaw to fall the rest of the way. That being, Gambit saying that she was close to getting a class Promotion. Witch was not something that she ever heard off and wanted to ask what she meant. So, when the Pegasus attempted to pry the truth out of the Griffin on what this promotion was all about. Gilda only said that she would have to wait and see because it was going to be a surprise.
For Rainbow, nowhere has it ever been mentioned even once, that someone's level could jump so dramatically in such a short amount of time. Sure, Gilda may have had a couple over herself on the day she left to go after Gambit. But now, her Griffin friend literally left her in the dust. She was even sure that she heard about Gambit being level forty and wondered if he had gone up just as Gilda did.
All that Rainbow knew, was that the members of the Wonderbolts had a requirement that stated that all of those that were applying, needed to be over level twenty-one to join. And obviously it was widely known to many that by the time they were strong enough the applicants would already be close to their mid-twenties and age.
But she was really confused when it came to another topic and this had to do with Zecora being a healer known as a Conjurer, when she knew that Gambit used that weird spiny doohickey thing. Which meant he was one of those Astro what's-its. When she wanted some kind of clarification. Gilda just said to her, that Gambit was able to use multiple classes.
Now, when the blue Pegasus heard that bit of info. Her mind instantly shot back to her days in her combat school and how there were a few students that tried to do more than one class. But a majority of them failed with only one or two being able to push through every year. She didn’t want to admit it herself because of being made fun of for failing. But when others thought that she was napping when not actively working on her rogue abilities. Rainbow was now and then, watching some of the other students in secret in order to glimpse anything that she could try and throw into her own skills.
These were commonly known as the Multi-Class Elites by most and others saw them as geniuses. Normally, one needed to focus on one job in order to get through and learn the material correctly. So, whenever a Pony tried to do more than one could handle, it got a little overwhelming. This was doubly so when it came to mastering magic and physical combat. Of course, it didn't exactly make things easier even if you went from one magic class to another, because the spells would fundamentally feel different. Well, that's what she was told by one of her classmates anyway.
She then brought her attention to the present and glanced over to her friends. After taking to the air and getting Twilight's attention by getting behind so that she was poking her head over the top of the seats. Afterwards, she asked the following question with an upbeat attitude to try and lift everyone's spirits. “Sooooo~. What’s it matter to us now that we know that he's been around for a while and there’s also some history with the Princesses! Does it really change anything?”
This obviously got everyone else's attention, as well as their ears flicking to that remark and they all turned their eyes towards Rainbow and Twilight to see what was going to happen next. Twilight didn't really expect the outburst and needed a second to recover before she gave a reluctant reply. “I think it might... this does explain his attitude in one way or another when it comes to his interactions to not only us, but to Princess Celestia. We may even have to change the way we look at him and how he's treated.”
Rainbow arched and eyebrow to this, just as Applejack started to throw in her own thoughts to the mix. “I don't really follow what you’re implying there Twilight. What exactly is going to need to be different from now on?” All heads were now back to the purple Unicorn as she was apparently trying to put together some type of list in her head with the way she was looking towards the ceiling for a few seconds. That was when she used her magic and tried to make a chalkboard made out of lights and obscured the window.
Soon after, the basic images of a long line went straight across and nearly divided the whole thing in half. Under that at the center, was written the word, “Timeline.” As the left show the words “Eight hundred years ago.” And all the way on the far right, was the words, “Present time.” Over to the left again, was a picture of someone who resembled Gambit and Celestia. Twilight then said as she was pointing a finger to the images and the illustrations followed in time with what she said next.
“Gambit was found by guards at the castle of the Two Sisters when they were going to be killed in some diabolical plot by a noble. The Princesses have a suspicion that he might be of royalty. This judging by what was conveyed between himself and those two Guard mare's. There's also a possibility that he may have been captured by one of the nobles that was exiled during the Great Purge that followed immediately after this incident.”
As Twilight was saying this, there were additional pictures right above Gambits, that showed some chains and right beside that was a small crown. Right under the line was a crude depiction of Canterlot and someone kicking another Pony out. Rarity was the next one to speak up, as she pointed towards the chalkboard of light and used her own horn and tried to make some markings on what she was going to say.
“And let us not forget he defeated a horrific monster inside of the Underground archives in order to save the two damsels in distress. But fate conspired against him and he was unfairly accused of being the perpetrator of their disappearance. The Princess even attacked him on site, but he retaliated in a way that overpowered her so absolutely, that she was sent into such a strong dive, that it created half of Ghastly Gorge. While at the same time, the Princess was responsible for the other second half.”
Fluttershy was the next one to speak as she was doing that usual move with hiding behind most of her hair and speaking in that week voice of hers. “T-The Princess also said that he ended up killing himself by flying into the air and exploding.” Twilight quickly nodded to that as she replied, while also making a drawing of set explosion with her horn. “I spoke with both of the Princesses on that matter and we all agree that it was due to a magical overload that was brought on by the dire situation.”
“It’s still unclear whether or not it was due to a sudden increase in power that was just too much to handle due to pulling out so much at once. Or, he might have had too much to begin with and was not regulating it during the exchange.” Pinkie appeared by hanging her head while the rest of her body was inside of the baggage rack right overhead. This spooked all the ponies, including Gilda. As the pink pony had a very inquisitive look on her face as she spoke next.
“Everybody keeps saying he died. So, does that make him a Zombie? Oh my gosh! We have a Zombie living in Ponyville! I don't know whether to be scared or happy. Hmm. I had no idea Zombies even liked sweets. Maybe that's why he likes going out at night so much?” Rarity chimed in at that point and looked at Pinkie with a pointed-look in her eyes, as she spoke the following and pointed a finger at the mare. “Just what do you mean by that dear? Please do not say that you have been spying on poor Gambit ever since he came to our town.”
Pinkie hopped down from the baggage rack and went back to her chair. She also rolled her eyes before she gave out a very long, “Maybe.” Before going into her hair with her right hand and pulling out a notepad and opening it up, as she went into the details. Pinkie even motioned towards the board as she started to talk. “Oh Twilight, you may want to write what I'm adding. “Okay, now where do I start… where do I start? Ha-ha, here we are!”
“Gambit shows up on the train just one day before Nightmare Moon got back from the moon. That was when he stayed with the flower sisters. On that very same day on coming into town, he looks around on his own, but goes on a guided tour from Rose again the following day. Now I don't know about you all, but I think that's pretty suspicious. I mean sure, I forget things now and then but two tours in a row is a little much, even for me. We also got the party that we threw for Twilight and I couldn't even find him anywhere I looked. Even though my pinkie senses said that he was somewhere in town.”
This got a somewhat annoyed sigh from Twilight, as the Unicorn rolled her hand in order to give Pinkie the go-ahead to continue on. “Like I said, he was nowhere to be seen during the entire time we had to deal with Nightmare Moon. But to only show up in town when it was all done and the big meanie was blasted away. Is it odd to anyone else here that he didn't show any kind of appearance to lend us a hand?”
That last remark caused everyone there to slowly go wide-eyed. Well, everyone aside from Gilda, who had this slightly confused look, before it turned into a dead pan one, but remained silent to hear the pink pony out more. “If Gambit’s strong enough to clash head-to-head with the Princess. Then… Then- Oh...” Pinky was interrupted as Twilight practically jumped out of her chair and looking at Pinkie as though she couldn't believe her eyes, before she spoke the next words in clear disbelief.
“Pinkie! I-I can't believe I'm saying this… But I think you're a genius! It all makes sense! All those accidents and obvious traps the slow us down in the woods should have given Nightmare Moon the chance to get to the elements before us. But instead, she was nowhere to be found after arriving to the castle. She also mentioned how she would be in trouble if she went back on some word and didn’t allow herself to be hit with the elements! Gambit must have intercepted her and they got into an altercation.”
“I’m starting to understand why the Princess was so interested in my copy of the book that had any mention to the Elements of Harmony. There were a few pages in that book that weren’t in the ones in Canterlot. It could be conceivable that Gambit came to the library on the day of his arrival and somehow planted that extra piece about some backup plan when it came to fighting off Nightmare Moon. We could have been spied on while in the library and she already knew where to find the Elements, but an unknown threat could have called her away first!”
“According to the Princesses. He came back close to a decade ago. I don't know how they came to that conclusion, but he must have had a plan and saw all the signs pointing towards Nightmare Moons return. He's been keeping a low profile this whole time and that explains not showing himself that night.” Applejack came into the conversation again as she tilted her hat, while motioning over towards Rainbow, who was in a position that caused her Adventurers plate to dangle from around her neck.
“Okay you two… Then how do you reckon he's a lower level than the Princesses? Don't tell me y'all forgot that he's a lower level than them? Isn't the two of them around sixty? If so, then his numbers should be a lot higher. I mean, it would only make sense, right” Pinkie started to bounce in her chair before she spoke up again. “Oh, I know I know! Maybe he got a lot weaker after going kaboom? It must be really hard to pick up all your pieces. He probably lost enough to make him a whole lot weaker when he came back.”
Twilight was now completely exasperated before rubbing her hand down her face as she replied to that in a teacher like fashion. “Putting aside the matter of Pinkies… Kaboom theory. I have not heard of anyone coming back to life in such a way. For one, we have those Zombies that are already out and about. These happen to be completely rotten and Gambit shows quite a bit more life, whereas they lumber around and only make grunts.”
“So, I don't believe he really died. Or at least not in the normal sense. This is just a theory and it’s heavily focused on the what if… But to exhibit the amount of power that the Princesses said he had, then it must have been so much upon release that it literally ripped the fabric of space and time and sent him to another world.” After getting some very strange looks from the other girls. Twilight tries to explain her conclusion, after giving a small cough into her left fist and looking a little embarrassed.
“The scientific community recently published some papers a couple of years back on the theory of there being Multiverses. These would be other worlds just like our own and they exist at the same time and place as us. But are unable to interact with any others. One could be completely the same as ours. Whereas on the other end of the spectrum, we would see it as something so different that it would be utterly unrecognizable. This could also have to do with the progression of time between the different worlds. Whereas one would flow the same way as ours, another could be several times faster or even slower.”
Applejack spoke up next with a slightly apologetic tone to her voice. I don't mean to criticize yah’ Twilight. But what self-respecting science type would even write a paper that says all that hogwash?” Twilight began to tap her chin as she went over it in her mind. She then had this expression of being slightly confused as she said the next bit. “You know, you have a good point there Applejack. The paper was submitted anonymously and no one has any clue as to where it even came from. I believe a few researchers attempted to find its origin, but had no luck at all.”
Rainbow was the next to speak, as she hovered in the air between the two sets of seats that all the girls occupied. “Princess Luna believes he was fighting almost non-stop before he got back to Equestria. Maybe he got strong enough to return. But whatever he did, made him really weak as payment?” Twilight obviously looked as though she was contemplating Rainbows words, which took several long seconds as she started to write down the whole fighting thing on the board.
After keeping quiet the whole time. Gilda finally spoke up as she reached into a bag that she was keeping at her side and pulled out of it a small item and held it so that all the girls can get a look. “Well, this probably explains Rainbow's theory. This shows Gambit from twelve years ago. I was walking through a bizarre when we were still over at Zebrabwe and I saw this on one of the tables.” What she was referring to, was a fairly faded card that looked to have better days. But the picture and writing were still legible, as it depicted someone in a set of robes and a mask that had the exact same design as the ones Gambit always wore, but in yellow instead.
Rainbows jaw was now hanging open as she could read out the name Gambit at the top and instantly slapped her hand over her forehead with enough force that it caused her flying form to do a flip in place. She then called out in her own frustrated voice. “How did I not realize that they're the same guy?! I've literally seen that stupid card more times than I care to count!” As everyone's attention was pointing between the card and Rainbow. She was the only one who was facing towards Rarity and saw how she looked really nervous for some strange reason as she was intently staring at the card as if it was some priceless ruby.
Rainbow got really suspicious of this and was about to ask Rarity what was wrong. But she was interrupted at the very moment she started to open her mouth, as a loud crashing sound could be heard from the rear car. This caused Rarity to let out a loud shriek of surprise as she quickly reached over and grabbed onto Fluttershy as a reflex. The fashionista then pointed in its direction and quickly spouted the next string of words in a high pitch and frantic manner. “My dress is my dresses are back there!” Of course, this got a set of eye rolls from everyone upon hearing this.
Both rainbow and Gilda were the first ones to make a break for the two sets of doors that would separate the group from whatever was happening. As for the rest of the girls, they were following close behind. As soon as they got past the first door. They were all bunched up together so much, that when the second was finally open. The group of mare’s, along with one Griffin fell over and on to one another and created a rather large pile of girls just past the doorway and between the seats.
The order of which they went down to construct the current setup, started from the bottom going up as the following. Gilda, Rainbow, Pinkie, Applejack, Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy being at the top. At first, they all had mixed reactions when it came to some slight discomfort or confusion to how they got into their situation. But all of that turned into panic and pain as they heard a loud bang being heard next. This caused them all to either cover their ears or flatten them as a reaction from the sound coming from right up ahead.
From what she could see, from her face pressing onto the carpeted floor. Was first a bloodied-up Griffin, who was laying on her back. While in the middle of the walkway and about halfway down and bringing her attention towards the others in the car. Next were those who were standing up after getting out of their seats. Which turned out to be Zecora on the left-hand side. And when it came to the right, there was Rory and two Unicorns who were already in defensive stances.
Rory was currently unarmed, but when it came to the two others. The one with the mane of silver was holding on to a metal ring in both hands and was ready to throw them. Whereas the one with the black was holding on to a set of curved blades that resembled daggers in a reverse grip and crouching a little lower. Rory had a serious look about her, while the other two right nearby looked utterly appalled.
What Rainbow saw next, was that just a little way past the Griffin, was the familiar site of Gambit’s back. He was also crouched down onto one knee and his right arm was outstretched with his palm open in the direction of Rory and the two Unicorns. She could just barely make out that there was another figure standing on the other side of Gambit as well. Of course, she didn't really get a good enough view from where she was, but the top of some weird helmet could be made out over Gambit shoulder.
Everything had gone completely silent aside from this intense ringing in her ears from the loud sound only seconds before. But she was almost sure that she heard Gambit's voice even if it was severely muffled by the way her eardrums reacted. However, none of it made sense and was obviously in another language that she was positive that she never heard spoken aloud before.
Rainbow then glanced around before going back up to her friends, as they appear to be in the same state and trying to shake their ears. Twilight was looking over at what was happening ahead and tilting her head. From what she could tell. The egghead was mouthing the words from Gambit and becoming more and more confused as the seconds went on.
A few more seconds went by as they tried to get off of one another. Soon, Rainbow was finally freed and started to stand by the time she saw Gambit getting up once again. But as soon as he revealed his left arm, that was now hanging down at his side. Rainbow’s eyes went wide after seeing some dark-red liquid dripping from a few of his fingertips and onto the carpeted floor, where she could just barely make out the sound of the droplets landing and quickly creating a puddle with the amount being lost.
There was even a section of his sleeve, that was roughly in the center of where his wrist and elbow should be, that had a hole that was a little over an inch wide. The area was heavily stained with the same red coloring and slowly growing as it soaked into the fabric as it was now running downwards.
As the eyes of the blue Pegasus were solely locked on to the injury. She could just barely make out the sounds around her, as her own heart was thumping louder and louder from within her chest. To her, time was now slowing down, as her heart beat indicated with the rate it was going. Soon her vision started to go blurry from her sides and she was gaining tunnel vision. All the while, her ears were pounding so much. That it eclipsed the ringing almost instantly.
Quick flashes of some of her nightmares came flooding in where they would have Gambit lying in a pool of his own blood. Then she would be there while trying to save him. When the memory subsided. She found that she was gritting her teeth so hard now, that they were oh so very close to breaking under the amount of jaw strength she was using.
But before she knew what was happening, she already found herself in the air and passing right by the left side of Gambit. This was after first landing on top of one of the seats and catapulting herself over to the next. From there, she launched herself into the walkway.
It all had the sensation of an out-of-body experience for her, as it all went numb to the Pegasus. The one that she was currently facing and in the middle of flying towards with a dagger in her right hand. They were wearing an odd type of jacket and some armor that could be seen underneath. There was also a helmet that covered most of the head. Also, being held in the right hand, that was still outstretched, was a weird item that was made of metal. And she was almost sure that there were some traces of white smoke coming out of the one opening at the very end that was still facing Gambit.
But as soon as Rainbow got even remotely close to the unknown assailant. He took the weapon that was still in his right hand and started to swing it in the direction that would allow it to slam into the side of her head at the rate she was going. Everything slowed down again for the mare, as the blunt item drew closer. At the same time, she was coming in to try and stab her target in the neck, as both hands were gripping onto the handle of her knife tightly and pointing it straight ahead.
Even though she was aware of his counter attack and that it would strike her long before she got a chance to get at him. She didn't care in the slightest as the only thoughts in her head, was the words, “BUCKING DIE YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!!” Her blade was easily several inches away from him, when the weapon in his right hand was already coming into an inch and a half to the side of her. She was sure it was about to make contact, but instead, she felt the strange sensation of her body lurching backwards all on its own.
During this, her vision was squarely focused on the one with the helmet, as her vision was still narrowed to where everything else around her was either blackened, or very blurred out once it got close to the center. She watched as her head was pulled along with the rest of her body at such a speed, that he missed her by just a few centimeters as the object crossed her vision as it went by. Her arms and legs could also be seen dangling as he got further and further away.
Soon, she stopped after feeling her backside colliding with something. But her senses were so attuned to the one she was just going after, that she was unable to make sense of it all. She then tried to go at him once again, but felt something wrapping around and going over her stomach, thereby keeping her stuck in place. She could already tell that her arms and legs were flailing, along with her wings trying to extend but somehow getting pinned down and against her back so they couldn’t be of any use.
She then started to hear her own voice, that was yelling at the top of her lungs in such a way that she immediately felt her throat going sore. “YOU! YOU HURT GAMBIT! I’M GOING TO BUCKING KILL YOU! I’LL CUT OUT YOUR HEART!” She then felt that there was also something else grabbing on to her right arm. This turning out to be the same arm that was still clutching at the knife as she continued, while also contorting her body and thrashing about to get free of what was holding her in place as she went on.
“Let me go! Let me go, don’t you hear me?!” In the back of her mind, she was almost sure that she could hear multiple voices in the background over her own, but she was unable to zone in on them and only struggled even harder to break herself free. She did pretty much everything that came to her rage filled mind. This progressed to the Pegasus pushing even harder. Then slamming the back of her head with all her strength.
She then endeavored to grab onto what was going across her stomach with her free left hand and felt some type of fabric in her fingers grip. But she paid no mind to it as her hands clawed away in order to try and get a better hold. Rainbow only got more hysterical as she started to try and kick whatever was behind her as well. After a bit, one of her fingers slipped into a spot that felt both warm and squishy, along with a loud grunt of pain that obviously came from a deeper voice. That noise alone caused the Pegasus to stop so abruptly, that nearly everything around the mare came into focus within a heartbeat.
The one she was attacking just a few seconds ago, had not made a single move and was just standing there after taking a slightly defensive posture. His hand weapon was also pointed forward but more towards the ground, as the left hand was now gripping the underside of the handle. She also felt the sensation of the short fur on her cheeks being completely soaked and very cold thanks to the air. The bottom of her vision was slightly blurry and it took her a second to realize that she had been crying this whole time.
Her head slowly turned a little to her left and lowered so that she could look at where her left hand currently was. What came next, only made her eyes go wide and her pupils shrink until they were nothing but tiny dots. Her breathing started to quicken again after seeing the site of her fingers drenched in blood. What's more… was that it was all coming from a heavily red stained sleeve and there were many red lines that were obviously made from her clawing away in sections that were still white.
Her head then whipped around to her right arm that was still held slightly above her head and saw a gloved hand coming out from a white sleeve. Afterwards she brought her attention higher as she turned her head as far as she could and saw the mask of Gambit. Which happened to be less than a couple of inches from her own face. That was when she heard his voice as it came out as a whisper. But she could instantly tell that there was a miniscule hint of discomfort buried away.
“Rainbow… I'm going to need you to calm down. Can you hear me? Have you come back to your senses? Just try to settle down and take some deep breaths nice and slow. Everything's going to be fine. But I will have to ask that you take your finger out of the hole in my arm first.”
Without even looking away from the eye holes of his mask, Rainbow could just barely register his words fast enough as everything was coming at her so quickly with the way her senses were all over the place. However, she did manage to take her shaking left hand and carefully took it out of the injury after a couple of seconds went by. She then nodded and attempted to do what he said about the breathing.
Rainbow was then slowly lowered so that she can be on her two hoofs, before she heard him say the following in a voice that was on edge, as his head began to gesture behind himself. “I'm going to hand you to Gilda, please stay behind me...” A second later, she felt another set of arms taking hold of her as he released his grip. This turned out to be Gilda as she slowly took herself and Rainbow and backed away so that they were with the other girls.
All the while, Rainbow found herself unable to look away from Gambit's mask until she felt the presents of her friends all around. This was also accompanied with them all coming into the edges of her vision as her narrowed view was subsiding and finally returning to normal. That was when he brought his attention back to the one in armor, so that she was unable to see his mask any longer. This allowed Rainbow to finally take in her surroundings and bore witness to the reactions of everyone there.
Gilda looked a fair bit worried for her. But was trying to put on a brave face as she was keeping Rainbow upright and steady. The other girls were looking at her with jaws halfway dropping and eyes full of shock. More so for some strange reason when it came to Rarity. Who was glancing between her and Gambit repeatedly. But Rainbow was almost sure that there was something else behind the fashionista's eyes, that said that she was feeling something else that was quite different from what the other girls were.
Zecora was taking a slightly defensive stance of her own, while keeping an eye on the rest of the situation. But there was a vial being held in her right hand that Rainbow immediately identified as a healing potion. This was thanks to the red liquid that could be seen through the see-through glass container that sat in her palm quite comfortably. When it came to the other three. There was this small knowing smirk coming from Rory, while the two unicorns were giving her a puzzled expression, before bringing their attention back to the unknown assailant.
That was when she heard an unfamiliar voice of an upbeat male and it was coming from the other side of Gambit. “Ain’t got any idea what you just said to me. How about you speak some English for once. Ah, that’s right! Why don’t you use that little trick of yours and find out what's going on before somethin’ else ends up happening. Also, I suggest restraining that Griffin on the floor right over there. Wouldn't want a cut throat mercenary to get up and take one of your friends as a hostage.”
Gambit motioned with his head towards Rory and the other two, before nodding behind himself. This was followed by the one with the daggers instantly leaping over the seats without any real effort on her own part and landing next to the downed Griffin and holding a blade to her neck. Of course, by then the one in question was beginning to get up, but froze once this was done and was keeping her arms out so that they could be seen.
He then used his right arm and extended it from his body a little. This was before there was a flash of light and a familiar axe appeared in his grip. The axe was then tossed over to Rory, who caught it quite easily. Gambit then said the following, in an oddly serious voice that caused not only Rainbow to feel a great deal of goosebumps, but apparently the rest of the girls who were standing right next to her.
“You're pretty well informed for a newcomer... Fine then. But don't think of pulling any tricks. She doesn't need to be faster than a bullet to take off your arm. She just has to be quicker than what it takes for you to point that weapon and pull the trigger. So, trust me when I say that for her, it's nothing but child's play.”
The other one Shrugged his shoulders and slowly lowered his weapon some more, before he placed it onto a holder on his right hip and taking a cautionary stance with his arms fully seen as they were lifted up in a surrendering gesture. Rainbow then heard the male speak and a tone that resembled Applejack's accent yet again. “I ain't planning on doing anythin'. If it's going to settle this whole matter, then fire away. Got nothin' to hide in this noggin of mine.”
This confused Rainbow even more, as she just watched as Gambit stayed perfectly still for the next several seconds. At the end of that time, he reached up and clutched the side of his head with his right hand, while also giving it a light shake. Gambit then spoke up again. But this time, it wasn't as serious as before. Although, there was still this hint of tension behind it. “I suggest that you keep a low profile for the time being. Also... take this.” On that last part. Gambit tossed a small orb that was black in color and she instantly recognized it as something similar to the item she used to communicate with Gilda every night.
Rainbow really didn't understand what was going on or why Gambit was saying such things, when he obviously had a bad wound on his arm. But the other one caught the item while it was still in the air with his right hand and gave a solid nod. Gambit then called over his shoulder. Lin, toss that brown arm guard over to him.” During everything that was going on, it had completely escaped her notice that there was a strange device on the floor only a couple of steps away and it was quickly snatched up by the Unicorn’s magic and levitated right over to the male.
He then quickly went about and affixed it on to his left arm and turned on the spot to head into the baggage car with the set of broken doors. Twilight took this opportunity to step up and point towards the one that was leaving, while also saying the following and seeming confused as to how the situation got so quickly resolved. “I have a few questions-.” But her sentence was cut off when Gambit spoke up again, as he was still keeping his back towards the majority of the girls. “Twilight... go get Spike. Get ready to send a letter.”
The purple Unicorn took a steady step back from hearing the order and was just about to ask why, when Gambit continued. “An unknown Adventurer took out three out of four of the most notorious outlaws that came over from the Griffin Empire. They nearly blew up the entire train and this would have resulted in the deaths of all those onboard. We currently have their leader in custody and will require a pickup squad to meet us at Ponyville for a handoff. Also, this one appears to have some connections. Precautions will need to be taken. Your Princess will know what to do.”
He then turned his head just enough so that the corner of his mask could be seen right as the hood was moved over enough and spoke up again. Lin, keep an eye on that Griffin and make sure she goes nowhere. If it comes down to it, you have my permission to pin her to the floor by stabbing her in the leg.” The Unicorn that was identified as Lin. Now moved her gaze over to the downed Griffin, who is looking pretty worried at this point and shot her a glare that froze the criminal in place and also pulled from the female a very loud gulp as a response.
Zecora was the next one to act, as she approached Gambit and uncorked the bottle in her hand and was just about to pour it straight onto the wound. However, Gambit stopped her by raising his other hand. He then said the following, while holding his right hand over the wound. “Hold off on the potion until I can get this out.” That was when his hand began to give off a faint yellow glow. Which was also mirrored by the same being emitted from deep inside the wound itself.
This got a few very weak grunts from him, as he was clearly focusing very hard on what he was doing. Applejack spoke up next as she walked a little closer and around to his left side in order to get a better view. “What's the holdup in lettin' Zecora give you the medicine? Fluttershy could also cast a few of those healin’ spells to fix that right up nice.” As soon as Applejack was finished with talking. The sound of squelching could be heard from the wound as another small spray of blood trickled out and onto the floor after Gambit gave a rather loud grunt when his arm gave a small jerk.
Gambit then replied after taking in a sharp hiss of air from behind his mask. “I have no doubt that Miss Fluttershy has the healing capabilities to render assistance. However, the piece of metal in my arm needs to be removed before that could be done. Unfortunately, it made its way through my muscles and lodged partly into a bone. Closing a wound with that still inside would cause complications in the future.” After a few more grunts. Something came flying out of the hole in his arm and tumbled onto the ground with a metallic clatter.
Applejack saw this and was just about to pick it up, when Gambit spoke up hurriedly while holding up his good hand. “Applejack! Don't touch that!” The way he said it was not quite an order, but more out of concern as he went and snatched it up before placing it somewhere into his arm sleeve, which probably had a pocket in the inner lining for all Rainbow knew.
He then nodded to Zecora, who immediately administered the potion and promptly healed the wound within moments, as the red substance mixed in with the blood that was still pouring out and effectively closing the wound once a small hiss was first heard. This only took a few seconds and Gambit made to cover the wound up with his right hand before anyone would get a good look.
As this was all going on. The other Unicorn that was standing next to Rory spoke up as she got closer to Gambit. “My Lord. Why did you step directly into the path of that bullet?” This got a collective gasp from Twilight and the rest of her friends. This also included an arched eyebrow from both Gilda and Zecora. This only got the Unicorn that just spoke those words to backpedal and slap both of her hands over her muzzle before darting her eyes back and forth between Gambit and Rory.
Within Rainbow's head. She kept repeating the mare’s choice of words over and over again and recalled something in what the Princesses mentioned to them that night. She then thought to herself the following and also having this deep-in-thought expression on her face. “Didn't the Princesses think that he was some sort of Prince? Whoa, hold on, why didn't I notice it? Is she in that other one both wearing maid outfits? Oh buck! Does this mean he really is royalty?” Although, her current thoughts were derailed upon hearing Rory's voice next.
“Master didn't want to risk there being any casualties.” This got a quick response from Rainbow as she managed to get back a piece of her bravado and called out to Rory with an incredulous tone, that was beginning to grow as she went further along. “Risk ANY casualties?! Did you NOT see his ARM?!” She even went so far as to break free from Gilda's hold, as she stomped her way over to Gambit and went around his form so that she was standing right in front of him as she continued.
“What's the big idea buster! You better have a good explanation! What in Celestia's name got into your head to even cause you to get in the way of something that did that much damage to your arm?” She even went so far, as to use both of her hands and reached up near the top of his robes and just a few inches below the hood and pulled him down so that she was within a few inches of pressing her face against his mask.
By now, she was so focused on him in that moment, that she didn't even register as Zecora, Rory and the second unnamed maid could see that she was beginning to water up again with her eyes. They were even going so stern, that they were nearly as strong as Lin’s usual piercing gaze as Rainbow continued.
“There was so much blood, and you didn't even flinch during the entire time that the standoff was happening! Then there's the whole bit about ripping out a piece of metal that got stuck to your bone and all I hear from you is a few small grunts?! What is wrong with you?! That must have bucking hurt! Why can’t you just let us know if you need help… Let… Let ME know if you’re in need of any help!”
By this point. She was quite literally pressing her muzzle against the section of his mask where his nose should be and went on as the water works kicked into full gear and was now running down her face and causing her voice to crack. “You… You’re really hurt! Don't you care about your own safety? What do you got to say for yourself? Huh! Tell me right now or I'm going to sock you in the face!”
A few seconds went by as no one took a breath after Rainbow was finished with her outburst. Of course, this was only broken once Gambit reached up with both of his own hands and carefully gripped on to the shaky ones of Rainbow’s own and got her to release him. He then said, “Rainbow… Please understand. This is a very tight space we're in and if I had done anything different, then there was a good chance of a ricochet and anyone else here could have been gravely injured if not killed.”
Gambit turned his head slightly to indicate that he was looking around before he continued. “If I did one thing wrong, then it could have bounced off of many of these metal surfaces due to how many of them there are in this train car. And besides, I’ve felt a whole lot worse and this isnt all that much. So, Miss Dash... There really isn't any need for you to-.”
To not only everyone’s surprise there, but to herself as well. Rainbow interrupted by pretty much screamed at the top of her lungs at him, as her eyes went completely blurry from the tears. “CUT… IT OUT WITH THAT SHIT! It's always a Miss Dash this or Miss Dash that! I want you to call me by my first name! Is that so BUCKING hard to ask for?! I'm joining do you hear me! Gilda… She’s already your fiancé! If… If we're going to be in the same herd, THEN at least do that much!
This got Twilight, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy to quite literally fall over onto their faces from shock. While Pinkie was pulling out a day planner and sporting a smile that was just way too big. But from behind Gambit, who was blocking her view. Rainbow was pretty sure she heard one of them giving themselves a very strong facepalm, which she could only guess was Gilda. She even went on to say the next part, while wrenching her hands free from his and pointing a finger towards his face.
“I'm not about to let my stallion put himself in danger just because he's stronger than me! When we get back to Ponyville, you better help in getting me up in levels just like you did for Gilda and Zecora!” It took a number of seconds to go by, before everything that Rainbow said finally caught up with her. As a result of it, her strong attitude from before began to falter as she got embarrassed and was now blushing so hard that she was nearly the same shade all the way through as Pinkie's fur.
Now that everything was set out loud for all to hear. Rainbow immediately left Gambit and grabbed onto Gilda's right wrist before flying off to the next car. She also hurriedly screaming that she was going to get Spike to send that letter. But this immediately snapped Twilight from whatever state she was in and she ran after them. All the while, the Unicorn was screaming that she didn't want him to come into that car and see all that blood and that she would have him send the letter from the other car.
*Point of view: Third Person*
Engineer re-entered the baggage car and saw that the other Griffins had already succumbed to the injuries and laid dead around the table they were only just playing cards at. Just a little past them, was Daring Do and she was looking at the carnage. All the while, she was holding the left side of her head with her hand and slightly shaking it to show her disapproval. Once she noticed he was back, she carefully stepped around the pooling mass of blood on the floor. Once close enough, the Pegasus grabbed onto his coat and started to lead him out towards the back of the car without even saying a word.
Once they got to the back door and swung it open so that they can stand on the balcony, which showed that they were halfway down the side of the mountain. Daring Do finally released her grip and made sure that their exit was locked up tight again, as she turned and started to yell just loud enough to show that she was making a point. But not at a volume that would allow anyone inside the train to hear that they were out there.
“Couldn't you have taken care of that in a less bloodier way? In the name of Celestia... you didn't even give them the option to surrender before you started with hacking them into pieces. Okay, okay, let's just put that on the back burner and let's get off this train before we're found out. There's no way I'm going to get myself linked to this. At least say that you got what you came for.”
To that question, Engineer lifted his left arm that now had his Pip-Boy. With the device latched on. He double checked that I was secured with the last lock by making a subtle click as the locking mechanism engaged the rest of the way. He then pressed the tiny red button that was near the bottom base of the screen and it displayed a loading icon. After a few seconds of it filling up a loading meter. Did the familiar image of the Vault Dweller appear in his jumpsuit. But instead of a human’s face, he had a pony one instead.
Following that picture was all of his settings and he immediately used one of the dials to go through the selection process until he got to one of the upper tabs that said “Map”. From there, it showed a two-dimensional layout of the mountain that Canterlot sat on and his arrow was moving in a circular pattern that was slowly going outwards. He then turned another dial until there was a multitude of clicks, before the icons began to grow and shrink as it went from one to the next.
This continued until he finally came to a stop and turn the dial in the opposite direction for a few clicks more. He then spoke over the rushing wind and all the noise that the train was making underneath. “I don't know about you. But I'm looking forward to that breakfast they serve in the main room of our hotel.” This got an incredulous look from the mare, as she glanced back up the mountain just when a couple of trees went by to allow her a good view.
She then said, “Oh no! If you think I'm going to fly your ass up there, then you're sorely mistaken! Once we get off this train, you're on your own. Now grab onto my hand. I should be able to get us off the train without any problems.” Daring Do was already in the motion of stretching her wings a couple of times and bracing herself to take on his extra weight so that they could glide off the back end of the train.
But before she could say or even do anything else. Engineer spoke up again, just as he made his Pip-Boy produce an odd video game sound upon clicking one button that was placed on the device. “As much as I would love to hold hands with yah’. I'm way hungrier. So how about I show you one of the reasons why I really wanted this lil’ guy back.” This was immediately followed with both of them disappearing and reappearing back inside of Engineers hotel room.
It took a couple of seconds for the two of them to recover after first stumbling around for a second once the process was completed. Engineer went right to work with pulling off his helmet and showing that he was rapidly blinking his eye, while still shaking his head a couple more times. When it came to Daring Do, she was pinching the bridge of her muzzle and looking a little sick and confused all at once. She even went so far as to grab onto the end of his bed in order to act as a way to stabilize herself before she stumbled around.
She then said the next bit in a wobbly voice. “What the hay was that! And just what was up with that weirdly ominous music?” Engineer chuckled at that and started to scratch the back of his neck and also giving her an apologetic smile. “Ah, so that isn't just me, ha-ha? Did you also happen to see some texts and an object slowly turning in place?” This got a curious raise of the eyebrow from Daring Do as she slowly nodded.
He chuckled again as he started to fiddle with his Pip-Boy some more and this caught daring Do's attention as she carefully stepped back with a wary expression. Upon seeing this, Engineer just shook his head and said, “Don't worry, I don't plan on Fast Traveling again... Um, at least not right now. Just seeing about putting on something new for a change.”
But before the Pegasus could say anything else. His body was instantly changed into another set of outfits that resembled a black and white suit with a bow tie, along with a bowler hat sitting on his head. There was also a black walking cane resting over his right arm that was bent at the elbow so that he was in a gentlemanly pose just a few paces away
After taking a moment to look himself over, by turning his upper half from one way to the next. He gave an appreciative nod and looked over to Daring Do. Who was now looking at him with a slacked jaw. After walking over and taking one of his fingers to her mouth. He carefully lifted it back into place for the mare.
He went for the exit while talking in the same way that some of the Nobles would, but quickly failing with it and returned to his usual Cowboy accent. “I believe milady would like to change into a more adequate attire before we have our morning meal. But you better hurry! Because I’m so hankering for something to eat, I'm even willing to kill anyone who stands between me and that Buffet.”
But while Daring Do was recovering from what she just saw him doing. His back was turned away from her and was just about to put his hand onto the doorknob, when he had this small smirk growing on his lips. He then thought the following in his head, as his eyes drifted towards the window and became momentarily fixated on the world outside.
“Somethin’ big must be coming if I'm sent here to help a big fella like that. Sheesh! He blocked a bullet with nothing but his arm from my modified Kellog's pistol. Anyone else would have gotten that entire limb blown clean off. But if it gets me out of that hell hole, then it really doesn't matter. I wonder if I'm ever going to hear from those two kids again.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Ponyville train station* *Time: Eleven-Twenty in the morning*
The whole ride took close to three hours to take from Canterlot and all the way to Ponyville. Gambit was standing along with Rory and his two maids, while they're captive was tightly bound up with a thick coil of rope. Which was all thanks to Applejack when they were still on the train. This meant that nearly an hour went by that they were waiting at the station and a chariot could be seen in the sky as it was approaching from the direction of Canterlot. There was also a company of eight Pegasus guards flying alongside it to make a V formation in the front.
During that time, both Rainbow and Gilda were getting grilled by the rest of the girls about what was exposed on the train in regards to their relationship with Gambit. Gilda seemed quite enamored with herself out of the two, as she was soaking in all the attention in the same way, as one would win standing on one of those pedestals to gain a medal after winning some type of competition. Whereas when it came to Rainbow. She completely lost her fire and her attitude was closely resembling that of Fluttershy and trying to leave a majority of the questions to Gilda.
Now speaking of questions. With the rest being pretty occupied with the recent news of their prismatic friend and Gilda being his fiancé. None of them even noticed Rory using a spell to create a Zone of Truth, that was just big enough for the Griffin and got her to spill pretty much everything she knew through a series of questions. From what was gathered. The four of them discovered that the Griffin Empire was keenly interested in any form of technology. This became especially true when it came to anything that was not in public circulation.
This meant that groups such as the one that this Griffin was from was hired off the books to act as a search and retrieval team. In a way, it was a cross between an elite stealth group and treasure Hunters that worked directly under the government. But Brex already anticipated that there would be those out there that would try to steal his technology and magic from the start. So, the Roegadyn made sure to install a number of fail safes into his products for such an occasion.
This referred to a set of spells that were woven into the base of all his creations, that would cause the spell matrix to completely dismantle itself if anyone got past the outer protection layer. Which would thereby cause it to be useless. This mostly referred to anything that could potentially become dangerous, such as the construction Golems created and dispersed all over Equestria. At one point or another in the past, Brex would laugh about the many attempts that the science and magic members over at Canterlot would buy up his items and only wind up with broken empty shells whenever they attempted to pry open their secrets.
This turned out to be one of the few cases, where Rory would openly commend him for his paranoia induced planning and setting up such a self-destruct system ahead of time. So, at least for the time being his own Creations were safe, but it seemed the Griffins got a taste for the knowledge and were scouring the lands for anything else they could possibly take apart and learn from in order to start their own Enterprise.
Luckily for him, the Queen of the Changelings had a few drones stationed in the Griffin Empire and she would get periodic reports on the current state of affairs. So as far as he knew, there was no indication that anything big was happening from where they were placed. However, with this most recent event occurring. He was going to need to speak with Bellona in order to get some more detailed reports in the future.
When it came to the approaching set of guards that were just about to make a touchdown along with the carriage. Brex began to go over his interactions with that strange displaced he met on the train. When his trick was mentioned, Brex went ahead and used the Echo on him and got a few bits of information here and there to get a good idea as to who he was. Among getting a feeling for what kind of a person he was. There was also a world that was in such a devastated state, that it strongly resembled the fallout 4 game he used to recall playing.
He got to see how this person that calls himself Engineer, became allies with the Minutemen. Then there was something going on with a weird old man wearing all black and holding on to a cane. This creepy old guy would even appear in front of Engineer now and then, only to taunt the guy in regards to some contract that was signed. But since he didn’t know the full story, he wasn’t sure as to why Engineer was getting so upset with each interaction.
Then it showed him talking to some voices that would come seemingly out of nowhere. These coming from two children that seemed really familiar to him, but he was unable to place the names. This led to the same man in black confronting Engineer and trying to prevent him from entering a weird swirling vortex that would eventually spit him out into this world.
However, he had to hold it all in, and not laugh himself so hard that he would break the connection, upon seeing Engineer kicking the guy between the legs. Then he would pull out what was none other than the Power Fist and punch him in the same place as soon as the guy fell over. This eventually progressed to the man in black getting so angry, that is entire body was engulfed in flames and a powerful explosion occurred. Which sent Engineer flying through the portal as a human sized fireball.
It then showed a quick clip of him transforming into the Ghost Rider. Aside from being a skeleton of an anthropomorphic pony. It was all very similar to the movie it was from and continued as he was saving Daring Do. The last scene to be witnessed, was right as he came across the four Griffins in the baggage car and prevented them from accidentally setting off the Fat Boy.
For all he knew, the destructive power from a single mini nuke was devastating on its own. However, with this modified version already primed to be fired. He was pretty sure that it had the destructive potential to vaporize not only the baggage car, but could have easily taken the lives of those in the next couple of cars over. It also didn’t escape his grasp that it could have killed him as well. But what really turned up the level of paranoia in his head, was the notion of radiation possibly having an unknown effect in a world full of magic.
But what really got him concerned was that bullet that was lodged into one of the bones in his arm. During the time that he was carefully using the rescue spell as a tool to pry the piece of metal loose from the bone marrow. He saw a negative effect at the top of his vision and when he looked at it closely, it was a depiction of the circle and three markings on the upper and lower left and right sides to show the mark for radiation.
He then considered that some of the items he had on hand might have been permanently marked with the energy from his old world and freaked out when Applejack was about to touch the bullet on the floor that was just pulled out. Once he had a chance. Brex was going to do some tests to see if it was truly was giving off some residual radiation or if it was just some special effect from being fired from Engineer’s weapon. He also wondered if the guy even knew about it himself.
This made it quite obvious that Brex was going to get in contact with this engineer character through the link Pearl that he tossed over to have a detailed discussion. From what he could tell, he was not in possession of his token. Otherwise, the words he spoke in the beginning would have been instantly translated over. So, this ruled him out as a normal displace, since he had no way of traveling to this world on his own and Brex wanted to get the whole story from the source.
From there, the next half hour went excruciatingly slow for the Roegadyn, as all of those that were there were asked a multitude of questions, which got the answers written down, while the prisoner was loaded up onto the transport and switched out from ropes to that of shackles. Eventually, Twilight even added her own personal notes and through them in the reports, which was no doubt for the princess's eyes only.
Afterwards, Brex was in the middle of heading towards their hotel. But was stopped by Rory, who grabbed on to his right arm and pulled him to a stop, before going in the opposite direction along with the two maids and Zecora in tow. The Zebra didn't really take much mind of this, seeing as they were heading towards her home in the forest. But Rory, along with Rin and Lin seem to know what they were doing, as Brex was scratching the back of his head in confusion and periodically glancing over his shoulder to the part of the town that their place was at.
Every now and then, he would ask through the mental connection as to where they were going. But Rory just wasn't giving him a straight answer. Instead, she would always say that he would know soon and just needed to be a little patient. Eventually, they made it out of town and was walking towards the Everfree forest itself. Although, they took a slightly different direction and was heading more towards the area that Brex remembered was the large structure being built for some rich mare.
Rory brought all of them right up to what appeared to be a very tall gate, but released his arm close to a dozen paces beforehand so that they could get ahead. That was when both of his mates went on to either side of Rory and faced in his direction, before the both of them gave a low bow and recited the next phrase in perfect unison. While at the same time, Rory was giving a confidence smirk and crossing her arms. “Welcome home my Lord!”
That was when the gates began to open wide and revealed what was on the other side. Within seconds, as everything came into view inch-by-inch. His eyes were going comically wide, along with his mouth slowly dropping into an O shape. On the outside, he looked perfectly normal. When it came to his mind, he was making a very loud and overly drawn-out intake of air, while his eyes were slowly beginning to move upwards.
He then finally mustered the following words through the mental connection after a couple of seconds went by. Which had him using a fairly thick Cuban accent, along with an accusatory tone with a hint of playfulness behind it. “Rory! You got some splainin to do!” Which got him a quick reply from Rory in the form of her reaching into the bag of holding that was attached to her hip and pulling out a long roll of parchment. Said parchment appeared to have over a dozen or so pages inside of it and a wax seal placed onto a ribbon.
The item was then held out to him, as she had this beaming smile before she spoke. “Well, how about it Master? I'm just dying to take you on a tour of our house. You're going to be quite pleased with what we've done on the inside.” Rory then approached him and started to whisper into his ear just loud enough to make sure that the two maids could hear it. But it seemed that Zecora, who was standing nearby. Was also picking it up as her ears flicked and a small blush was forming on her cheeks.
“I'm sure that will all enjoy the bedroom. But I think there's going to be a few other spots that you'll find very pleasing. Just wait and see all the toys I got shipped in. Our maids even through an a few suggestions of their own and I’m just loving it.” she then went ahead and grabbed onto his right arm and began to pull him excitedly through the open gate. As for Zecora. She was waving goodbye and making towards her own home, while also stealing a few glances over at the group from the corner of her eye.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Somewhere on the other side*
Right now, there was a section of the cartoonish city known as Springfield. In one direction, there were all the houses, buildings, power plant and whatever was found on the show. There was a particular building with the sign up right above that said the word, “Mo's.” And the doors slowly open to show the person using the form of Jet, from Cowboy Bebop. He was currently wiping his brow and taking a good look around, while holding on to a red tool case in his left hand. He even had a belt to hold a couple of other tools, but all of the rings were empty aside from a single gold Hammer hanging from the right side of his hip.
A few seconds after turning his head from his left to the right. Did he notice something that caught his attention and he immediately ran over. Soon, he was standing where there should have been one of the randomly placed hair salons to fill in some of the missing plots of land. But instead, there was a smoldering heap of rubble and an ominous black hole that was rapidly opening and closing several times over the course of a single second.
There were even bolts of lightning that could be seen on the inside, as it gave very bright flashes that caused Jet to reach into his pocket and pull out a set of sunglasses that seemed oddly the same as the ones that Daddy wears. Jet then grumbled to himself, while giving it a scrutinizing gaze from behind the dark shades. The right side of his lips even curled into a snarl as his brows could be seen knitting themselves.
He reached out his free hand, while keeping several meters away and tilted his head down. This was before turning his lips into a frown to show that he was concentrating. Said frown only drooped lower as he let out a very disappointed sigh and reach down for his hammer in his belt. He then tossed it into the air a few times in order to grab it. When it came to the fourth time, he did this. The item grew until it was more than twice his own height.
The round section in the front, along with the curved part in the back to remove nails, morphed into a hammer with two flat ends and was now brightly giving off a strong glow of white and gold. There were all of these intricate patterns running along the handle, as well as the hammer section. In an odd way, it gave off a Roman feel to the aesthetics as the long handle strongly resembled one of those marble pillars.
The gigantic hammer was still being held in only his right hand without any trouble at all. He then said with an exasperated voice. While, slowly putting down the tool chest and gripping on to the weapon with both hands and taking on a position where it was held over his head and ready to be smashed downwards.
“This just reeks of Bart's energy... That brat… How many times have I told him to not blast bits of our home away just because he gets bored from time to time. He's lucky none of that energy managed to escape through the barrier, or it could have hit something outside. And here I thought I'd finally get to relax after putting the last of the toilets in.”
Once that was all said. The hammer was brought down and as it slammed. The gold energy that was being given off by the weapon ran in all directions as a wide field of energy covered everything within half a mile. Suddenly, there were cubes rapidly forming in the air at random places and swiftly flying towards the large hole in a nearly unending flood. Over the course of several seconds. Many of the cubes would get disintegrated as soon as they even got near to it.
But it was overwhelmed by the sheer number, until it was filled up in the same way that a brick wall would if someone smashed through the middle and was fixing it. As soon as the last of the cubes fell into place and all the lines that would indicate that it was filled with a number of small pieces now vanishing and giving the impression of a solid wall without any weak points.
The whole began to flicker out of existence until there was just the ruin building left behind. Jet then raised up his weapon once again and slammed it to create the same effect. Although, instead of creating a bunch of blocks to fill up a hole. This made the many pieces of the broken-up building lift into the air. From there, it reorganized themselves until they came back together just as a jigsaw puzzle would.
Jet was just about to return his hammer back to normal by the way it was starting to shrink. But stopped the transformation and returned it to its full size. He then had this very manic look crossing his face. Along with a toothy smile that was anything but nice. He then snapped his fingers and caused the tool chest on the ground to disappear.
From there. Jet began to stroll towards the building that they all stayed within. But as he was walking, he made sure to go at a very slow pace and was playing with his hammer and practicing a few swings. He then started to have this fake maniacal laugh as he said the following in a sing song voice that had a few hints thrown in ever-so-often of malice. “Oooooh~ Baaaaart~. Can I have a few words with yoooooou~. It won’t take too looong~.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 67: The Interview.
*Point of View: Third Person* *Location: Ponyville* *Time: Six in the morning. The day after Brex and rest got back from the grand Galloping Gala*
The scene shows a close-up of a solid marble countertop that was mostly white. There were also hints of black mixed in at random places in the smooth stone. Next to it was an oven that appeared to be a mix between an old-fashioned wood burning type and one that was a bit more modern with a few dials along the top. There was even another one next to it, which gave the feeling that it was all capable of cooking a large meal all at once if it should ever come to be needed.
Even though there was a digital clock on both said stoves. The burners on top used fire that was produced by a red crystal that was fixed to a clamping system to hold so it would not roll around. On top of the burners, were a couple of frying pans that were quickly grabbed by their handles by a delicate set of arms. These were covered with pink oven mitts with a small set of two letters that spelled out, B.M.
From there, it was almost as fast as the blink of an eye when the contents within, were tossed right up and into the air. Where they immediately did a couple of flips before landing onto another plate that just so happened to already have a few Pancakes sitting on top. Without even giving them the time to settle in. A line of syrup was drizzled over, along with a single stick of butter landing in the middle in a flash.
Next, the plate was placed on to a serving tray, along with some toast and a glass of orange juice that was already waiting. From there, it was carried off with such efficiency, one would have thought that time was sped up with how the contents of the glass hardly shifted when the tray was picked up. A door could be heard opening after a small bump was made.
Which must have been whoever was carrying the food pushing it open. The door then came into view as it was just halfway through closing itself, but there was a quick glimpse of some white fabric that could be seen, just as it went through the doorway and disappeared and narrowly avoided getting caught by just a single centimeter afforded by the one leaving in such a great haste.
(Here are some video's of how the place is built. Just ignore the monsters and broken bits.)
The next scene shows a large hallway and a shadow could be observed going across the wall that was opposite to a set of light fixtures separated at equal intervals. Although it still gave a dark atmosphere all the same. Whoever it was that was going down the hallway was going at a very brisk pace thanks to the whooshing of wind that soon came after. The shadow then went down from the wall and traveled along the ground to show that whoever it was had just made a turn. This was immediately followed with the outline of the Shadow itself becoming much more defined thanks to the amount of light becoming much brighter in the direction they were heading.
Next came a set of steps that was lined with an intricate set of rugs and the one walking up them, was right next to a thick railing on the left-hand side. Once it had gone up at least a full flight of stairs, it then made a quick left-hand turn and took another handful of steps, before circling around another railing that was at the very top. Once the form came to a stop. It was found to be right in front of a large pair of double doors and surrounded by faded colors that were obviously coming from a large stained-glass window somewhere behind the one casting the form.
Of course, now that the figure was standing still for a moment. It was plain to see that it was a female wearing a dress of sorts if one were to go from the outlining and it came just a few inches short of the knees. The shoulders appear to have some fluffy bits, whereas their waste was quite thin to make that noticeable hourglass figure. Whoever it was standing there. Was taking a second to look themselves over and straighten out their clothing with their hands, before lightly knocking on the doors.
After a few knocks were given, there was a masculine voice that could just barely be made out through the wooden doors, and this gave the person standing outside the go-ahead to enter the room. Once the set of doors were opened just enough to allow one to enter. They were immediately closed once again, as the figure promptly made their way over to a large bed with a set of drapes attached to the corner posts that went four meters off the ground. The mattress itself was essentially what one would see if they were to combine two, or perhaps three queen size beds together.
The bedframe was made from a wood that was well polished and had this dark red tint. The curtains were a dark purple and just thick enough to obscure all vision within. But was just thin enough to allow just enough light to pass through, so that it was not pitch-black inside. While at the same time, the ones within could see outwards just fine. The one that came in, then said the next set of words as they were keeping themselves at an attentive stance with their arms behind their back. “My Lord. My Mistress. Breakfast has been prepared and is currently being set up in the dining hall for your enjoyment.”
This was when Lin finally came into focus as her face came into the light shining through one of the windows. Even though she had this stern look about her, anyone who knew her well enough would say that she was in a comfortable and relaxed state. However, a noticeable set of twitches occurred that ran up her entire body and caused her eyes to go wide for only a split second, before returning to normal and having this small pink hint forming on her cheeks. Even her thighs could be seen trying to rub themselves together from underneath her skirt, but it was painfully obvious that she was fighting the urge to do so.
A few seconds later, the curtains could be seen in the process of partly opening. As soon as that was done, Lin immediately closed her eyes tight. The one that was coming out right now, turned out to be Rory, as she crawled out headfirst and slipped her legs over the edge and onto the floor. The only thing that could be seen on her slender and tanned form, was the item around her neck. Instead of it being her usual choker which was meant to keep her in disguise.
It was instead replaced for the moment, with a very thick, black leather collar that was big enough to almost be thought of as one of those types that were meant to control one’s posture. The scandalous item had a buckled strap on the back and a blackened metal ring dangling from the front. The ring itself gave a distinctly loud clanking sound when it shifted on its fastened piece.
The girl’s hair was slightly disheveled from sleeping but was in pretty good shape when one was to consider its length. She barely took a few steps away from the bed in this state, before she stopped and gave her own little shiver as her lips curled into a content smile, as the sound of a couple of wet drops could be heard hitting the wooden floor right between her slightly parted legs.
This was also accompanied by a very loud and drawn-out moan that not only echoed in the room, but caused the Changeling who is standing just a short ways away, to almost release her own as her legs became slightly wobbly for a moment. Lin could also be seen in the middle of resisting the urge to bite her lower lip and squinting her eyes even more tightly than before Rory even came out and into the open. However, a small whimper did slip past those luscious lips of hers and caught the eyes of the girl and this earned the Changeling a grin in her direction.
Rory then said the following, as a few more droplets could still be heard landing. “I feel somewhat sorry that you and your sister were not included in last night's... Late Night Celebration. But it's been so long since the Master and I were able to really have some fun on our own and really let loose.” This got a loud gulp to come out of Lin, as she barely stuttered out the next response with a heavy breath coming from her lips to show that she was currently being affected quite strongly by the current situation.
“Not-Not at all M-My Mistress... It is my sister and I that should be thankful to have been given so long to be with our Lord. I assure you that we were most content for the evening.” As the Changeling was speaking. Rory slowly sauntered over to her, while swaying her hips and allowing her wolf-like tail to sway along with her body’s subtle movements. She then came right up to the maid and started to slowly walk around Lin, as her right hand was lifted so that her fingers were barely tracing along the maid’s form.
First, it was starting at the hips and then her fingertips would trace along her arm. The light contact was giving Lin the sensation of being caressed with a feather. Even though she was aware of the gesture. The Changeling shivered as her senses lost focus of Rory’s small hand at times. As a result, when she could finally feel the touch again. Lin was almost overcome by a wave that would threaten to force a sexual moan past her nearly parting mouth.
When Rory was back in front of Lin. Her hand stopped just as her index finger had reached her neck and lifted a little bit so that it ran along the underside of her chin. Lin still had her eyes shut tightly and she nearly released a whimpering moan at the sensual caressing, before Rory leaned in a little bit after hooking her fingers underneath the maid’s own choker. This was in order for her to lead the girl into bending her knees so that she could lean down and be closer to Rory’s own height.
Rory now had her lips very close to Lin's left ear and allowed her breath to intentionally brush up against the Changelings disguised face. She then spoke in an alluring voice, that was just above a whisper, so that Lin had no other choice but to try very hard to hear it. “I'll make sure that my Master has a good time with all of us this evening. I do trust that you have already put on the appropriate attire that I requested?” This got another shutter from the maid, as her legs were pressing against one another so badly, that she was straining to keep herself from moving as she replied with a stutter and in the same volume as Rory.
“Ye-Yes m-my Mistress... both my sister and m-myself made sure to put them on this morning before starting our duties.” This got a delighted moan from Rory that was a mix of elation and a hint of pure mischief before she spoke again into the Changelings ear. “That's very good. Today is nothing but a relaxation day for our dear Master. So, I do hope that we can all give him the much-desired… Hehe-Hehe… attention he deserves. And of course, we all know how much he loves a certain activity. Oh, I am so very sure that these items will make his day.”
After Rory was done saying those words. She moved away from Lin. Who gave off a disappointed whimper that was just barely loud enough to be heard. But Rory’s left ear flicked to show she did pick it up. She then raised a hand to her lips to help in covering up a small set of giggles at the maid’s suffering. When she approached a dresser nearby, Rory pulled open one of the top drawers before reaching inside for a few seconds.
What she soon pulled out. Were three distinct items and she held two of them in the right palm while one was in the other. Rory glanced over her left shoulder at the maid who was still standing there with her eyes closed, before looking down at her right hand. This one held on to two seemingly normal brass rings. But there was a tiny stone attached to them both. One was silver, while the other was pure black. Furthermore, they were slightly larger than what was needed for her own fingers, which meant that they were intended to go on to her Master's hand.
She then looked over to her other hand that held on to a small ring and two tiny keys that were slipped on. which were the same size that would be needed to undo a set of handcuffs. With a wicked smile now growing. She took the one ring with a black stone between her thumb and index finger and started to lightly run her middle finger over the shiny stone.
This caused the item to give off a very faint vibration in time with a sensual moan that was escaping Lin’s lips, as she crumpled down and onto the floor. All the while, she was desperately attempting to steady herself from falling over completely, as both hands were pressing against the ground, while both legs were spread apart so she was stuck in an odd sitting position that left one to see it as an invitation to check under that short maid skirt of hers.
The Changeling’s eyes were still shut tight, but there was a lone teardrop escaping her left eye that ran down her cheek. The maid's mouth was hanging open, as well as her tongue, which was nearly falling out as her breath could be seen exiting in heavy huffs. Rory placed the keys back inside of the drawer and slowly closed it before going over to Lin, so that she was standing right before the breathless Changeling. The girl then raised her left foot and gently placed it up against Lin's chest and squarely against her left breast, before giving her next order in a stern and commanding voice that was still at a whisper.
“Now… Lay on your back and lift the skirt for your Mistress.” Without showing any kind of hesitation and allowing a short hitch to escape her throat. Lin quickly nodded and did what she was told so fast, that it might have bordered on one’s reflexes, rather than a thought command on her part. She could feel Rory pushing her down with her foot, until she was about halfway through the motion. The instant she was all the way on her back, the Changeling immediately went down and pulled up the hem of her skirt till it was just up far enough to expose her navel.
What was being seen. Was not of the usual silk underwear that the maid would occasionally wear. But instead, it was a very tight material that closely resembled that of some black latex. But there was a set of loops that would go around at the hips for none other than for a belt. Going through the loops was a metal band that would go all the way around and lock at the center. From there, one could see another piece of metal that would go down and become narrow, as it went between her thighs and continue towards the back.
However, there was a shield covering the area that was just a bit thicker than the rest of the band that was covering up her obviously wet pussy. Which was currently being contained by not only the metal, but also the shiny black material just underneath. The maid’s legs were still spread at an awkward angle, where they hadn't even budge from when she was put into that odd sitting position.
Thanks to this, Rory had a clear way to just place the front of her foot onto the contraption and give a slight push with her weight. This instantly got a slight hiss of pain, which eventually turned into a loud moan from Lin, as she nearly arched her back from that, while also lifting her chin as if she wanted to throw her own head back, but was unable to with herself already pressing onto the floor.
Rory didn't hesitate to leave her foot there. She even went as far as to apply a little more pressure over the next few seconds. While doing this, she leaned over a little, so that she can look down at the Changeling, who was obviously enjoying the situation but could plainly be seen in trying to hold back.
She then said the following as her mischievous smile from before, as it quickly turned into an innocent one. Also, Rory could be seen shaking the closed hand that contained the two rings. “I hope you both get to enjoy our little prototypes. There will be no touching-touching, so long as those are locked in place. Oh! I just love it when my Master goes and comes up with these little idea’s. Don’t you?”
Her tone then became quite serious without there being any sort of a hint of a transition between. “We already went through the rules last night. But I believe I should take this opportunity to remind you once again. Of course, I do expect you to relay this to Rin later. Rule one: Until further notice, these are to be worn at all hours, unless the Master or myself give you permission to do so otherwise. Rule two: there will be absolutely no begging or pleading for these items to be used at your own will. Doing so will lead to a punishment later.”
“Rule three: it will be completely up to the Master when he decides to use these rings for either punishments or as a reward. Rule four: If you are ever caught tampering with them or attempt to remove them on your own, then a very harsh punishment will be in store. They've been magically enchanted so that they will not need to be taken off if you should have to go to the restroom. Rule five: No matter the situation, you will have no say in the matter as to what we decide goes into your pussy and ass before your locked in for the day.”
Back down to the Changeling who was currently squirming on the floor. She was already biting her lower lip and nodding to each one of the set rules so fast, that it appeared that she didn’t care in the least and would just agree to anything Rory said by this point. All the while, her insides were going crazy thanks to her mistress pressing down and causing the vibrators that were placed into her pussy and the butt plug to move around in such a way, that it was causing her to almost leak out through the seemingly airtight material.
Now, as all of this was going on in the middle of their large room. Brex was wide awake and sitting in the center of his bed, while watching through the small gap in the curtains that Rory made when she was getting out of their bed. He was also looking at the two girls, before bringing his attention down to his member, that could be seen as he was in a cross-legged sitting position.
The length of it was still slick with Rory's juices that were still mixed in with his own, as she and him went to sleep with her on top and his dick resting within her tight little pussy. In fact, it was her own idea to sleep in that very same position. It was something they only started to do recently, but Rory absolutely fell in love with the sensation of him constantly filling her at all times when sleeping with him.
It was during these moments, that she would refer to herself as his cock sleeve and talk of how she wished to lay in bed like that for hours upon hours. On more than one occasion. The girl would make a joke on what it might be like if she was strapped into a harness. From that, she would be in a position, were he could walk around, and she would have no choice but to have his cock ramming into her pussy with every step he took.
It was nothing but an idea to him. But last night, during the showing of the new house. Rory brought him into the closet and pulled a set of curtains. This revealed the very same item. Rin and Lin, who were right there, had no idea what it was for a few moments until Rory started to explain. Once finished, Rin nearly fainted on the spot after having some sort of overload from the implications in her own mind.
Honestly, he had no idea whatsoever, if this was a normal occurrence with his current race or if it had to do with his nearly infinite stamina as a videogame character. But he could keep himself down there nearly rock hard for as long as he needed it to be. This even included when he was fast asleep so Rory could continue to feel filled all night long. This turned out to be the very reason why Rory started to leak their combined juices as soon as she got on to her feet only a few minutes ago, as she was literally unplugged after about an hour of being sealed no differently than a wine bottle.
As for the current situation that was just outside of his bed. Rory convinced him into coming up with a design for some. These chastity belts would have a set of mix of mechanical and Magic components to stimulate the ones wearing them. And in her eyes, they're maids just so happened to be the perfect test subjects. Brex new quite well that the two of them would happily except whatever the two of them asked.
It also helped that in a roundabout way, they could take on the forms of any other race. Which meant they didn’t need together a group in order to have a good basis in order to calibrate the item if the one wearing them was not of the pony race. Of course, he was quite sure that Rin and Lin were turned on far more by the very idea of him being able to play with them at any given moment more than the item itself. Although, it was going to be fun either way to see how much they can handle.
The latex type of material was a special mesh put together. This was thanks to the Demonic Spider thread and other components that made them nearly indestructible. While at the same time they were very flexible so that they were quite comfortable to wear as the customer, or should he say, the victim could still do their daily activities. Rory herself tried them on beforehand, but without locking them and mention how it would be so easy to forget that she was even wearing them if she wasn’t standing in front of a mirror, while looking over her naked form and striking a number of poses.
As for the intended band of metal that would slip in place under the loops that would keep it all secured. It was made using a carefully measured and combined set of metals. It took a little work and sometime, but the team of scientists she had working back at HQ, did come around to creating Stainless Steel. That, and along with a core lining of Titanium for some extra durability, made them pretty hard to cut. To him there was no reason to make such a device so that one could easily get out, so he went all in.
Rory even went so far as to heavily insist that he use some of the special metal that he got from Ryu all those years back in its construction. This turned out to be a unique substance that he had not come across at all in this world with the properties capable of absorbing magic that would come near it. Back in the other world just being close to a large enough substance would cause a magic user some discomfort. There are even weapons armor and buildings that would be comprised of the stuff and mages would be rendered powerless when up against such individuals or housed in those very buildings.
Luckily enough, Brex had ample time to do some research on the metallic compound, and along with getting a good sense of control over his magic. This meant he was able to fiddle around with it without having to worry about the negative effects on himself while in his private lab. He did not want to cause any harm, but he did want to make them tamper proof when it comes to magic.
So, there was just enough of the said anti-magic material to be mixed in with the Titanium core, that it would at least give some heavy resistance if a magic user were to try to cut through or rip them apart with nothing but their magic. This also was true for the locking mechanism. There was no way he was going to allow a Unicorn to pick the lock with a simple spell. This meant if they even tried then they would get quite a backlash and would think twice about doing such an act.
It was unsurprising that Brex came around to asking Rory on why she would go so far with their maids. But the girl simply insisted that it was a must. Apparently, the reason for so much security was to make it as real as possible so that once anyone put them on, then they would have no choice but to submit to the owners of the key. Oh, and speaking of the key. Rory spoke with a few of the unicorns that oversaw its development and got them to add one finishing touch to the small item itself.
This turning out to be another enchantment which would force the key away from the lock if it were being held by the one who was originally wearing the device in the first place. The best way to describe this phenomenon, would be if someone were to take two small magnets with the same polarity and attempt to push them up against one another. This would result with them being repelled. So, in this case. The belt would send a charge through the host. Once they took hold of the key, then the wearer would activate the enchantment.
Although all of this was done. Brex should have known it would turn out like this but was still surprised nonetheless when all the details were spoken aloud with the four of them in the room. Rin and Lin immediately agreed to putting them on without so much as a single question being asked. In fact, they appear to be so excited that they fumbled around while trying to correctly ware the items.
So, from the moment Rory finally gets around and is finished with toying with the sexually frustrated Changeling on the floor. He was to be given the Rings and have complete authority over his maids at any given time, simply by lightly touching the rings and clearly desiring the appropriate amount of stimulus to be sent. Brex couldn’t help but to admit to Rory, while they were still in private, that he enjoyed the idea of having a literal remote control at his fingertips.
And judging from the reaction from the one-time Rory did have the belt on, along with the toys. He was positive that it was barely even close to the medium setting as it sent the strong-willed Changeling to the floor with hardly any pause from the time Rory started the effect and the first signs being shown. Once he saw that happening to Lin. Brex raised his right eyebrow questionably and wondered if the settings were too high seeing as it brought such a battle-hardened individual to their knees so quickly.
Then he considered on what would have happened if it were set to full power, when he was positive that he had it on the lower settings to begin with when he had it calibrated. In a sense, the stimulation itself would be a mix between a high level of vibration and some electrical stimulus thanks to a lightning shard placed within the items that would be inserted before getting locked. Thanks to this also being a world of magic, Rory and Brex had no need to worry about batteries as the ring and other items were fueled directly from whoever was wearing them.
When this very concept hit him during the development phase, Brex started to laugh to himself upon realizing that he could have easily run the battery businesses into the ground if this was done on earth. Of course, the thought also crossed his mind that he had to be incredibly careful with how it took power from the user so there was a set of limiters woven into the magic spells for protection purposes. There was no way he was going to make this an item that would be sold in sex shops if there was any possibility of it becoming dangerous.
Eventually, Rory had enough fun and dismissed Lin ahead of themselves so that they can get dressed before heading downstairs. But not before she replaced the collar with the special choker and transformed herself into the image of a pony. On his part, Brex was already getting another massive boner after seeing the way his maid was leaving, while clearly getting flustered from both the teasing and Rory's naked Pony form just standing there as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
Once they were alone, Brex came out from the curtain and started to equip his gear for the day. He was just about to put on his white robes and brown mask with the green stone on the forehead, when he stopped and began to go over his selections for possible options. After everything that was going on and being able to stand near Celestia during the party. Even if it was for a few seconds, had sparked this small pinch in the back of his mind about his conceptions when it came to his identity being hidden.
For him, even going so far as to allow his own hair to be exposed was on the same pedestal as walking in public with his pants down and only in his underwear. He felt almost defenseless in some way and just thinking about that right now was beginning to make him feel a little tired. Thoughts of all the times Rory would try to convince him to finally come out in public flashed for but a second. He quickly realized that he was about to send himself into one of those… depressed states and shook himself free to continue with what he was about to do.
The following options came to mind as he carefully weighed them for the pros and cons, along with the styles that might be acceptable to both him and the public. Perhaps he would just put on a set of full body armor that was on the lower spectrum of gear quality. This was something he did from time to time in a few of the towns when he wanted to play as one of his tanks.
Then there was the butler outfit, but that was more of an option when it came to his Caretaker persona. Speaking of the Caretaker. Brex had not used that identity in quite some time. In fact, the last time that name was even used, was when he went ahead and confessed to Prince Blue Blood on one of his visits a few years back about being called Gambit. This came about one of their chats and found himself just wanting to throw it out there.
Luckily for him... or perhaps unlucky if one was to look at it from another way of taking in the situation. Prince Blue Blood was keenly aware of there being a black market and a new item coming into existence that allowed the wearer to disguise their appearance for a short time. This meant that the prince wasn’t all too surprised when he broke the news. Although, it didn't quite take a math genius or the world's most powerful supercomputer to add 2 + 2 when it came to figuring out that the disguising spell from Dungeons & Dragons, was now making an appearance in the criminal underworld and this was all thanks to that rippling effect that started so long ago.
But luckily enough, these disguises were fairly easy to expose when it came to not being able to fully interact when the image came to physical contact with an object. This also coincided with Rory's black choker that had the same enchantment. Although it was a much better version thanks to the many researching hours that the Changelings put in. This was to make it a more physical alteration rather than an image, so he didn't have to worry too much about Rory's disguise being found. The only real downside that she had to deal with, was the possibility of the timer running out before she reapplied it.
As Brex was going over his options a little more in his head. He quickly came to the end of the list so fast and grumbled to himself within his own mind about the lack of full body covering that didn't involve him walking around in a tin can. Sure, it's not like the game where you could only wear the item for the face, and it would only cover what it was meant to. But Brex was able to attach a cloth to the original item in order to use it as a template to glamor his other items to look just like it, but without losing any of its durability.
He even entertained the idea of whether it was possible to add an enchantment to the building itself so that it would keep him disguise as a pony or some other race, while within its large walls. In the end, he just shook his head at the notion and went ahead with putting on his white robes. When it came to Rory, she was going through her wardrobe that was placed in an excessively big walk-in closet. Said wardrobe was probably big enough to hide up to ten or fifteen people inside and still have plenty of elbow room.
After a few minutes went by and she was about to exit and appear back in the bedroom. He lifted one of his eyebrows, while also tilting his head slightly at the sight of Rory wearing an outfit that was not an exact copy of her usual one from the anime. If anything, it was a mix of different clothing options from his Final Fantasy game. But if one was to pay close attention, then they would see the subtle similarities between it and what she normally wore.
(Here is a video of what Rory is wearing now. Just that the handle for the axe is a bit longer by an extra foot and a half.)
Most of which, came from the design known as the songbird set. Normally it would be mostly white and black but this one was dyed red. The leggings or a shade of light black and the boots were given the same coloring but just slightly darker than the top. The gloves themselves were modeled after some fingerless ones, that would go up nearly to her elbows and dyed black. She even had some hair ribbons with fake flowers and bits of red flowing down next to our ears. These happen to be glamoured over from the female variant of armor one would get from the level sixty dungeons with the swimming theme.
She even went so far as to use a new axe that Brex got around to making from scratch. This one was modeled after a particular design from the game that one would get as a dungeon looted item. It was dyed a similar set of purple and the axe blade itself was quite thick instead of being thin like so many of the other axe’s out there. He honestly thought it would be perfect, as it would have a greater chance of standing up to Rory’s monstrous strength. Up until now he hadn’t seen it for a few months and wondered if she was ever going to use it.
After getting in front of Brex. Rory started to take on a pose. Her left fist was placed on her hips while the other hand was brought up so that it would bend at the elbow so that she was holding her fingers to do a V-shape that was sideways in front of one of her eyes. This instantly struck him that she was taking on a Japanese Pop Idol stance. She gave him an excited smirk before she spoke. “Well? What does my Master think?” She then paused for a second, while looking down at herself and humming a few times as though she wasn't too sure. She then continued while doing this
“Hmmm. I know that it's not all from the same outfit set, so it's not meshing perfectly. But it's as close as I can get and still have a little personal flare. Also, maybe you should go and change up your look as well. Come on, I know you can do it! We can just do baby steps and go with just wearing the mask over your face. Odds are the girls are comfortable with the idea that you're not a pony. This means you won’t have to worry about not having big ears, so you can show the sides of your head at the very least.”
Brex gave a small sigh as he looked over Rory a little more. He then said the next part in a gentle voice when it came to her outfit, but afterwards, it got a little hesitant. “I think what you picked out is just amazing. I don't know if it's odd or just me being nostalgic, but seeing you do that reminds me so much of what it's like back when I was in that world. Hmm, I don't really know if I should... I suppose you do have a good point. You know, I really wonder if you're my voice of reason given flesh and blood.”
Rory retorted to that by putting both of her fists on her hips and leaning in just a little bit, while giving him a small smirk. “Master, I'm pretty sure that if you didn't listen to anything I said, then you would be living in a hole and stocking up so many canned goods, that you can literally build the Golden Gate bridge with the sheer amount of metal needed to pack away all that food for me to be safe and hidden away from the princess.”
She then stood straight up and began to mockingly sing a few verses from the digging song that he sung all those years ago when he was trying to make a basement in their old place. Of course, this immediately got a quick face palm delivered to his uncovered face out of sheer embarrassment, as he held out his other hand and waved it frantically and speaking out in a hurried voice. “Why! Why must you torment me so?! You know exactly what kind of state I was in during that… Umm… lapse of common judgment.”
Rory ended up throwing her head back, as her eyes were shut tight. She even started to laugh as she covered her mouth with her left hand in order to muffle the noise as she was really close to crying at her Masters expense. He then started to open his menu with his mind and was about to click on the glamor tab in order to go through with his pre-made glamouring sets, when there was another interruption by a knock on the door to their room.
This caused the both of them to look towards the door and back to one another, before Rory spoke up loud enough to be heard by whoever was on the other side. “We're just about done.” But instead of what they expected to hear. They instead heard another voice that was pretty far away, which meant it was not at the door, but at the lower level where the main entrance was at the bottom of the steps.
Said voice, was a little obnoxious and immediately registered as Gilda. “Tell Rory to get off of Gambit's dick for more than five seconds so we can actually talk! I brought Rainbow with me! By the Seven Hell’s! You can even go ahead and ride him the entire time were chatting, just get your asses down here! We’ve waited so long and we’re not going to be putting this off for another day. Hey! I know you can hear me in there! If you’re not out in the next few minutes, then I’m coming back with a pail of water and dumping it all over the two of you!”
Rory's head slowly turned towards Brex as she worked her own eyebrow and gave him a knowing smirk. Upon seeing this, he quickly cut her off by raising his left hand and extending his index finger straight up in order to gain her attention before he spoke. “First off, I have no idea when she started using that phrase!”
He then continued, but not until after raising a second finger. “And second, I don't think it's a good idea for you to be riding me as we... er, you know!” this was followed by a third finger as he said the last part. “And I suggest we hurry up. Because I don’t doubt that she will do that thing with the water.” When he was done. Brex lowered his hands so that his entire posture was slightly slouching, along with his head doing the same.
The Roegadyn proceeded with motioning towards the door. With that, they finally left the bedroom right when Brex grumbled the following in an exhausted tone, as he was also dragging his feet for a few steps before walking normally. “I'll worry about my outfit change afterwards. I feel like this is going to take everything I got.”
That was when he somehow looked even more drained of life, as he continued so that his voice was just high enough for Rory to hear it. “I really hope that they would have just given up on the idea and put it all behind us.” Rory perked up at the last second and added the next bit, as the door was opened and the two were stepping all the way through. “I seriously doubt that's the case. Especially after our Rainbow's little outburst. No way a stubborn mare like her is going to back down and take back her word so easily.”
Afterwards, Brex and Rory met up with Gilda and Rainbow, who were just staring at the entire interior of the house now that they were given a moment to just wait around for the two to finally come to them. Once both groups were fully aware of the other one’s proximity. Brex motioned for the group to make their way towards the dining room and take seats along a table that could have easily accommodated a dozen or so people. The number was completely dependent on how much spacing was to be given between the guests
From his perspective, the house was a nearly perfect replica of one of the dungeons that a player could queue up for. Well, it really wasn’t a perfect re-creation, due to the lack of monsters and broken furniture that was evident in the game. His bedroom alone had a ceiling that was nearly two stories tall on its own and had more than enough space to hold a single normal house.
The distance alone from his bed that was on the west end of the room in comparison to the doorway that was at the center on the south. Was easily thirty-five feet away. Ironically enough, the bedroom was actually the location for the final boss fight for the dungeon’s normal mode. During the time he was being shown it. The Roegadyn made a little side joke through the connection with Rory about her possibly being the final boss. Of course, this led to a comeback and quickly escalated to how he needed to conquer her that night.
The dining room that they were in now was approximately the same size, except it was more of a rectangle shape rather than a square. The room itself was going north to south and they were all sitting at the Northern end and on opposite sides, so they were no more than five feet apart. Brex was feeling a little uneasy as this kind of subject was rather sensitive to him. Sure, something like this happened between him and the two Changelings that now service both Rory and himself.
However, they knew each other for a very long time, and it took a lot of convincing from Rory to even swing his opinions far enough, to even be in the type of physical relationship they were in on right now. The only real difference between that and this very moment. Is the realization that these two in front of him wanted more than a servant and master relationship, and it was that alone that was making him feel uneasy.
Whereas he was pretty much strong armed into being Gilda's fiancé, even if he was the one that was technically doing the strong arm when it came to the Griffins traditions. But when it came to Rainbow. Brex was in a lack of better words, shaking in his boots. Both metaphorically and physically from underneath the table. But it seemed that none of them realized this was going on and it gave him plenty of time to calm that down before he was found out.
With Gilda, he at least had some kind of idea with how to deal with her. But when it came to Rainbow, he just wanted to keep away from her, due to how aggressive her personality was. Especially when it came to her typical responses and all those displaced stories. The last thing he wanted to deal with, was the prospect of getting involved with the blue Pegasus, but for it to come to light as a ruse to gain his trust and to ultimately be betrayed. Of course, he had to mentally slap himself before he subconsciously inserted his character into one of those stories where it actually did happen.
The discussions hadn't even started, and Rory was already sensing his anxiety, even though his thoughts had no clear signs of there being any trouble. While trying to make sure that she wasn't being distracting in his head. The girl was lightly humming a small melody from the intro to Final Fantasy fourteen, in an attempt to calm him down. Once she was sure that his posture was becoming slightly relaxed, she knew that it had done the trick and took command of the discussions in order to give him a break from being the center of it all.
Rory went from her typical carefree persona to that of a shrewd business woman as her expression became quite stern. This caught both of the girls on the other side of the table by surprise as they both straightened up in their chairs and locked eyes with her. There was even this silent atmosphere going on, that allowed Brex to hear the pair taking a very big swallow, as they both waited patiently for Rory to finally speak up and officially begin the talks.
She then looked towards Rainbow and motioned with her head at the Pegasus, as she said the following. “Miss Rainbow Dash. I will ask that you remain silent until I am done with Gilda's interview, is that understood?” The prismatic Pegasus took a moment and was about to give a response with her mouth just as Rory's eyes sharpened.
Surprisingly enough, Rainbow’s outward appearance strikingly resembled a Cadet being talked to by a superior officer and she looked straight ahead and at the far wall. This was preceded with rainbow giving a quick nod and slapping her jaw shut. But Brex was pretty sure that he was beginning to see that Rainbow was now sweating bullets, while also holding her breath now and then.
He also took a quick glance at Rory without moving his head, this was followed with him quickly sending a communication through the link with a very perplexed tone to it. “I get the vague impression that you've been practicing this for a while.” Without even taking her eyes off of the two. Rory replied with a matter-of-fact tone.
“Oh, I've been prepared for this... talk. For a very long time. I also took the liberty of going through the library and brushing up on local customs. I even went so far as to have a few letters with Gilda's aunts, along with Einstein on their thoughts on the matter and how I should handle it when it came to Griffin customs”
He ended up sighing at the end of that and allowed Rory to take command until he felt that his input was needed. Although with the knowledge that Rory was doing everything for him and that she wouldn't go too far, was the only thing that was keeping him grounded and trusting in her judgment. Even with what she did with the house. It didn't register as a breach in trust. In a way she was just getting ready for the future, and he didn't fault her for that in the least.
His thoughts were torn away at this internal dilemma when he heard Gilda speaking up after gaining Rory's permission. Which was a subtle nod when the Griffin raised a hand. “OK! This has been eating me up from the instant we found out that the both of you moved. But how the hell is it that you both live in this house now and why didn't I hear anything about it beforehand?” once the question was asked. Rory started to speak, as this turned into a go between with her and Gilda.
“Oh this? That's very simple. I bought it. Now when I say I bought it. I mean all of it. The fifty-five acres of land, which mostly goes out into the Everfree forest, along with this building and the grounds where the wall marks off the territory. I also paid for the construction and materials that were used. Not to mention the top-notch builders were flown in from not only across Equestria, but from overseas.”
“I even had a good number of our things shipped over. Not to mention the expensive enchantments placed on the grounds to shield it from being seen by anyone outside of the ground’s limits. You would be surprised how many out there like to keep their little projects a secret until the great unveiling. The concealment spell was broken once the main gates were opened yesterday.”
“I-I... but-but! You! But he... H-How the… this can't be? You can't have that much money... the amount of land alone... then the building... you're going to have to explain how.”
“Te-Hee! It's very simple if you think about it. I merely used some of my allowance.”
Both Gilda's and Rainbow's mouth dropped so fast, that it was within the realm of possibility that if they could stretch. Then they would have smashed right through the solid wood table. Then Gilda spoke up after a couple of seconds of silence. “A-Allowance?! What kind of allowance are you talking about?! This is not something you can buy with a handful of bits a week!”
“Oh Gilda. My sweet little Gilda~. My sweet and innocent Gilda.” This obviously flustered the Griffin as Rory went on. “I literally bought this with a chunk of the money I saved up from my Master giving me a weekly allowance.”
From his perspective. Brex was positive that he heard the sound of wood being broken apart as Gilda and Rainbow slowly turn their heads in his direction. However, with the way that they were doing it so slowly. It was really starting to freak him out as they were really close to resembling a set of puppets with the way that only their necks were moving. He even cursed himself for being aware of the cartoon logics of this world and just hope that it was only that and they literally didn't just break their necks as Rory went on.
“My Master really doesn't like to show off too much, but now that it's going to be made public that we own this house. It's not going to be as straightforward as living in the woods or staying at some Hotel like we always have. As Rory was saying that, she was subtly giving Brex the look that said that she was disapproving of his past actions.
Gilda obviously spoke up the next question that was on both the Griffins and the Pegasus's minds. “Wait, Wait! Hold on there! If-If Gambit has that much in the bank, then why does he try to hide it? Why not live in Canterlot? And what's all this about living in the woods?” at first, Gilda was confused about the money. But Brex was slightly taken aback by the way the Griffin now looked worried once the part about living in the woods came up.
“How about you tell me something... In your own words, what do you believe would happen if my Master's wealth should happen to have been made public knowledge in the past?”
The two of them look to one another and started to whisper into each other's ears for a few seconds before Gilda replied. “I uh, suppose he would be pretty popular and could get not only anything, but anyone he wanted.”
“Yes, that is very true. It would also attract the wrong types of people. To be more specific, the gold diggers for just one example. My master is a male above all else, and there are those that would immediately try to take advantage of that fact alone. You wouldn't believe how often my Master was assaulted in the beginning.”
Rory’s tone started to shift into one with growing malice on the next part. “The females would first try to approach him like any other would. Then it would escalate to them working together in groups and be a bit more forceful. There were occasions that an entire gang of mare’s would assault my Master and attempt to drag him off to do who knows what. Unfortunately for them, they didn't know who they were messing with.”
As Rory was saying all of that to Gilda and Rainbow. The two on the other side of the table were looking more visibly disturbed as the details piled on. Gilda was visibly shaking with anger, as Rainbow merely looked away and had a hurt expression crossing her face for a moment.
“So, Rory, when did you come into the story? I seriously doubt that you would have let any of that go on if you were around. Was this before or after Gambit came back to our world?”
This caused Brex to look at Gilda with pure shock in his eyes for a few seconds before his sight quickly darted between Rory and the other two. Whereas Rory only sharpened her gaze for a moment, before leaning back into her chair to start crossing her arms with a slightly indignant look as she gave the impression that Gilda should continue.
Gilda's expression turned almost threatening as she became more serious than ever in these talks. “That Princess never said anything about keeping it a secret! So, I'm just throwing it out there now. As far as I'm concerned. I don't care one way or another if Gambit is some immortal or some guy that came back to life. I just want you to say it with your own words on how long he had to suffer all by himself.”
Rory gave Brex a small glance in order to get some type of permission from the Roegadyn. On his part, he didn't even have to use the connection and just turned his head slightly so that he was facing Rory a little more and this gave her all she needed to say the following, while also looking a little disheartened at the start.
“It would be best if I don't go into too many details for the time being. However, I will say this... The two of us did not physically meet in the beginning. We first became aware of one another's presence the very day before his meeting with your solar princess. I lost contact with my Master up until he returned a little over twelve years ago. All the blatant disregard for him and his choice of wanting to be alone all occurred within the span of a few months after his return. It was only after all of that passed, that I finally got to meet him in person”
This news clearly saddened the both of them, before they immediately started to look at Rory with this puzzled expression that mirrored the other one, as they glanced at each other, and Gilda asked the question that was obviously on their minds with her voice sounding as though she was a little scared of hearing what the answer might be. “You've been waiting for... That long? Then that must mean that you're at least eight hundred years old...”
“HEHE-HEHE! Oh come now! Stop it with all that! You're going to make me blush! Do I really look that young?!” There was a pause of deathly silence that followed before Rory's playful attitude changed to that of curiosity. “Huh and here I thought I'd get a bigger reaction. I mean it's not every day you see an earth pony that lives as long as the princesses.”
This just got Rainbow to shoot her eyes wide open and start to sweat as she had this nervous smile creeping onto her face. She was even doing that obvious nervous tick that people get when they feel as though the shirt they were wearing, was a little tight around the neck and was now trying to stretch it with her fingers. Gilda saw this and rolled her eyes, before bringing her attention back to Rory as she spoke.
“Rory, no offense at all, but you aren't exactly a normal Pony. At one moment you act like all the rest, while at other times, I think you could put us Griffin's to shame with how you can be both crafty and bloodthirsty on others. Rainbow mentioned how you were able to track down Gambit from halfway across town with smelling his scent and telling where he's been.”
Gilda then let out a loud scoff before sending a sharp look towards Rainbow before continuing. “Rainbow, I think it's about time we fill her in if we're going to make this herd thing of yours work out.”
The blue Pegasus immediately threw out her arms and started to shake her head frantically, as she spouted a series of broken sentences which consisted of her denying what was being insinuated and repeatedly mentioning she had no idea what Gilda was on about. The only real problem was the way she was looking in every other direction that didn't have a set of eyes and chuckling to herself with that blatantly obvious fake laugh, that one would give when backed into an awkward corner.
As a result, Rory gave a shifted glance over to Gilda before uncrossing her arms and lifting her right hand to show that she was wiggling the tips of her fingers very slowly. At the same time, she had this wicked smile that crossed her lips before it turned on to a full grin that showed her teeth. This got the girl in disguise to raise her eyebrows as high as they would go, before causing them to bounce up and down the show that she was having a lot of fun with the prospect of doing what Gilda suspected she was going for.
The Griffin quickly turned towards her right so that she was facing Rainbow and reached out so fast that it caught the Pegasus off guard, as she was roughly forced into facing Gilda. At the same time, the Griffin was already so close that they were pretty much pressing their foreheads together as she stared directly into Rainbow’s eyes with a level of seriousness that made the Pegasus freeze.
Gilded then said the following in clear panic, as her eyes were nearly bulging out of her skull with how intensely she felt about her words and how she desperately wanted Rainbow to grasp the situation. “RAINBOW! It's best that you tell her on your own what you told me! If you're going to take anything seriously in your life! Then trust when I say this! If Rory wants to know anything, she has ways of getting anyone to sing.”
She even pulled on Rainbow’s shoulders harder so that they were literally grinding skulls together, as the Griffin was sounding a little more panicked as she continued. “You know just how tight lip I can be and that's saying a lot. So please, please. Just tell her before it’s too late.”
It didn't take much time at all for Rainbow to see that she was left without any real options and broke down. She proceeded to spill the beans on how Rarity caught site of Rory inside of Twilight’s bathroom, just as her real form was shown when she needed to get dried off after that one heavy rainstorm that kept them at Twilight’s place all night. She even confessed that there was a moment, or probably more like several moments at the time she was told about it, that she thought Rory was some kind of spy and was about to confront her if it wasn't for the others holding her back.
She even went on to say that after a while, she thought that Rarity's description of her was pretty cool and wanted to see it for herself. But wasn't quite sure whether or not saying anything was a good idea. Once all was laid out. Brex spoke with hardly a hint of any strong emotions in his tone, as he looked over the two in front of him.
“Aside from the other girls, who else knows about my Rory?” Rainbow responded to that rather quickly, as she shook her head and started to make the motions for the Pinkie promise. “We all did the Pinkie promise not to tell anyone else. When it came to Gilda. We got the go ahead from Pinkie to tell her what we knew after the Gala, seeing as the two of you already know each other pretty well.”
That was when she immediately perked up and looked squarely on Rory with her eyes almost sparkling to show what she was probably thinking inside of that head of hers. Already knowing what was going to happen. Brex released a small sigh, before begrudgingly saying the next phrase just loud enough to be over a whisper.
“I'll let this be your decision to make Rory. I've allowed my paranoia to cause me to make quite a few selfish decisions... I will not even attempt to dissuade or push you into it. Nor will I give any advice. We'll see how this turns out and if it will affect my personal choices down the road. Just know that I will fully support any decision you go with.”
Even though those words left his lips. Brex felt his insides beginning to hurt due to the level of anxiety he was feeling for not himself but for Rory's own sake, as he was holding his breath for what she was about to do next. The amount of stress he was feeling might have been close to that of a teenager who just wrecked the Family's car and was forced to walk home as the wreckage was towed away and the rest of the family was waiting inside the house for him to arrive. To him, time was beginning to slow down as his senses kicked into overdrive.
In his own head. Brex was repeating the next set of sentences in order to calm himself down to any point that the world wasn't spinning anymore. “Rory knows what she's doing, she wouldn't make a stupid mistake! She's going to be okay! she's going to be okay! Twilight and her friends are not evil...” By the time this ran through about half a dozen times, which was only a second or two in the real world. His senses suddenly snapped back to normal and nearly all of the anxiety went away as Rory got out of her chair and started to hug her arms around his right side as she spoke.
“I'm afraid I can't do that right now. If I am, it's going to be when I choose. As for how I want to do it. I would much rather have it here in our house and my Master at my side when he's calmed down. Due to all the prejudice that the ponies have shown over the years. My Master has developed a complex when it comes to my safety and showing who I really am. This is a really big decision, and I don’t want to make it on the spur of the moment. Besides, it wouldn't be fair for me to show you when I have yet to do that for our maids.
Rory didn't even let a second go by, before she added the next bit as if it was a simple afterthought while bringing her right index finger to her chin and looking up to the ceiling. “You know… I feel that I should say this, since it’s eventually going to come up. Especially after we just talked about my true form.” She then turned her focus onto him before she continued.
“Excluding myself. The only others who have ever seen my Master's face would have to be my father and mother.” Unknown to any of them, Brex was holding back his body from taking on any type of defensive measures, as his face contorted into a grimace when he felt a phantom pain wash over his entire body. This also had the effect of causing every hair on his body to literally stand so stiff, that he may as well have been seen as a porcupine if he wasn’t fully covered up at the moment.
Back over with Rory. Who wanted to get things back on track after derailing it with her own musings for long enough. She brought her attention over to Rainbow and started the next back and forth. “Miss Rainbow Dash... Gilda I have known for a while, and we already have an understanding when it comes to this fiancé business with my Master. If it were just her, I would have no problems. However, I do know that you are a packaged deal if I was to be so blunt. I want to ask you one question before I hear your opinions and reasons as to why you want to be in a herd with us.”
“Okay I'm game. Go ahead, hit me with your best shot! Ask me anything you want to know. But just so it's on the record. I'm the fastest flyer in Equestria and the number one pick to join the Wonderbolts. I'm also a member of The Elements of Harmony. Not to mention I'm a rank “E” Adventurer that's close to leveling up to twelve very soon, I just know it!” The Pegasus was even pushing out her chest with the armor giving a little more bulk to the size of her breasts as she did this.
“Very well, you want my best shot? then here it is. Could you say with an honest face that you would not attack another person who was of a different race that you are unfamiliar of, if they were to suddenly walk into Ponyville? To be more precise... if the individual was clearly displaying no hostility, even though the rest of the townsfolk were overreacting to their arrival and saying things that could obviously be seen as a flat out lie, or an exaggeration if one was to stop and look around for a few seconds?”
For Brex, he immediately knew that this was a loaded question, as he himself through this as an example to Rory on several occasions. But he wasn't expecting her to use that on Rainbow and eagerly awaited what she was about to say in response. Although, he already had an idea that she would with a high probability when it came to the Multiverse. But still held on to the thought that there might have been a levelheaded blue Pegasus out there.
“Oh, that's easy, I-. I uh.”
“Just hold on. Don't just answer with the first thought that comes. I want you to really think it over and take as much time as you need. It may not look like it but I think this is a very important question that needs you to be serious.”
Rainbow irritatedly rolled her eyes as she was about to lift a finger and open her mouth. But before she can even get it halfway to the point that she can utter a single syllable. She froze as her eyes went wide and frantically looked between Rory and Gambit, as her index finger was beginning to curl down. After seeing this type of reaction, Rory worked one of her eyebrows, as she waited a few more seconds before the Pegasus started once again. But now she was looking utterly defeated with her head now starting to hang low and her voice was coming out weak.
“I guess. I would...” Rainbow released a very heavy sigh before going on. “I would have... no. I did do that. I even called him a monster...” From then on, Rainbow couldn't even bring herself to even point her face in the general direction of Gambit. As she turned to her right so that none of them could see her expression. Rainbow was just sitting there silently for a few seconds and was beginning to make the motions of standing up when Rory spoke and a gentle voice that contrasted greatly to her stern or playful demeanor. For once it came out almost motherly.
“I don't quite recall the exact words. But I believe it closely resembles this... Making mistakes is a part of life. Choosing to ignore these mistakes and only pushing forward is not only a sign of one who will not truly grow but is the face of vanity and ignorance. This leaves one to be frozen and unable to evolve. But as long as one makes the effort to look at their past mistakes and feel even a shred of remorse. Along with using what they learned in order to avoid the same mistake again. Then that person is truly deserving of another chance.”
Even though Brex couldn't see Rainbow’s face from the angle he was sitting. He did catch her body giving a few small shutters before she calmed down enough to just stand there without making for the door anymore and only a few inches from her chair. Rory then continued as no other actions were being taken, while both Gilda and Brex were staying quiet to watch the scene play out. Whereas Gilda was looking rather nervous. Brex was very invested and what Rory was about to say next.
“I already know that you're sorry Rainbow. And I will admit that that was a low blow on my side. Your reaction is all I need to know. Now, as for my other questions. I just want to hear your honest answer on your reasons and opinion of the one you wish to be with. Just keep in mind, that I will flat out reject you as a herd member if this is simply out of obligation to Gilda. I sincerely believe that my master deserves to be with another that truly wants it.”
The Griffin was about to lift one of her fingers in order to get Rory's attention off of her friend, but a sharp glare caused the girl to remain silent. Rainbow straightened herself up and allowed her feathers to bristle, before letting out a defeated grunt as she uttered the next sentence and keeping her back towards them all.
“Buck! My mom told me interviews with the head mare’s would be intense, but I had no idea it was like this. I thought all I needed was the qualifications and accomplishments underneath my belt and I’d get to join any herd I aimed for. Sure, tell me to go and fight a Manticore! Tell me to kick and Ursa Major in the nose. I'd even be willing to get dressed up in one of Rarity's Frou-Frou dresses...”
The very mention of the dress not only got Rainbow, but also made Gilda have the reaction of their fur bristling, as it went in a wave pattern that started from their feet and only ended after letting the tops of either their fur or feathers on their heads to go straight. Rainbow was about to say more, but she was quickly interrupted by Rory. Who leaned in and was now resting her elbows onto the table and giving the Pegasus a calculating look as she spoke.
“Allow me to make an educated guess and feel free to deny them if they are not accurate at any time. From what I've gathered during my stay. You were a firm believer of the stereotypical labeling of the males being unable to do any strenuous activity, or to be allowed in public without an escort. Then you meet my Master, who clearly goes against all of these beliefs. For once in your life, all of these teachings are brought into question.”
Rainbow only gave a quick nod before Rory went on. “Then we have your personality from upbringing. You see yourself as a kick ass, hotshot. That excels in all sports and aspires to join the elite flyers that are widely known across Equestria. Naturally, this puts you in a situation where you are easily seen as intimidating to the opposite gender. My master presents a unique opportunity that you cannot ignore. A male who not only sticks up for himself, but has already pushed you back on not one, but a few other occasions.”
At this point the Pegasus was beginning to slightly turn towards them and show that she was beginning to cringe while also twiddling her thumbs. Her eyes were even shifting to glance over at Brex a number of times and pulling away to show how nervous she was. What Rory said next, made Rainbows eyes shut tight as she brought up both of her hands in order to cover the upper part of her face. At the same time, her fingertips were going into her hair and a noticeable blush could just barely be made out under her palms.
“Just this alone, would put you in the category like so many others... in fact I wouldn't even be having this discussion with you right now if it wasn't for your reaction when seeing his injury. Gilda already knows his strength, so she already has a good idea that he would be just fine.” Rainbow finally was able to turn her attention back to both Rory and Brex as the girl got to that part of her speech. But what Rory said next, flipped Rainbow’s entire demeanor from hopelessness to complete elation.
“Personally, I would have no problems with you going on to a probational period of two months before officially announcing that you can be in a herd with my Master.” But Rory paused for a moment as she turned her attention over to Brex, before saying the next part that caused Rainbow’s joyous emotions to come into doubt. “Keep in mind that this is my personal opinion and all matters have the final say by my Master.” By then, all eyes were on him and this caused Brex to feel some of the anxiety coming back as he was put on the spot by Rory.
Brex started screaming the following in his head, while noticing the nearly hidden flinching behind Rory's knowing smirk. “By the seven hells, Rory! You couldn't make this easy and just say no to her couldn’t you! You already knew that I didn't have any kind of romantic attachment to any of the main six... and now I got the rough housing tomboy one going through this whole interview process to do this weird getting permission to be dating scene?” Afterwards, he started to growl through the connection for a few seconds, before just giving up and allowing the growling to turn into a drawn-out sigh, that literally lost all of its strength within an instant.
From there, he quickly reviewed what was going on and went over his options. Thankfully enough, Rory went and set up the situation where he had an out, even if he said yes with it being a trial period. There was also the matter of how strongly Rainbow felt. Especially when she got so emotional, that she allowed herself to go so far as to cry in front of a crowd, when she had the personality that would have her cut off her own right hand before even thinking about letting it all out.
He also contemplated on what he was going to say when it came to what kind of relationship, he was willing to be in and was about to be completely truthful. Who knows, the cocky sports nut who always has to have her own way and hates being wrong. Just might back out of the entire plan, if she knew what kind of a person he was. That was the precise moment that an idea came crashing into his mind and turned everything around.
There was even a brief moment where all the negative emotions within his mind became silent, while his mouth turned into an almost sinister grin as he spoke the next words in a serious voice in order to take control. But the first word out of his lips apparently struck the Pegasus hard, as her eyes went as wide as dinner plates and ears shot up into a straight attention in the same way a dog would when their owner talked about going for a walk.
“Rainbow... there are a few things you need to know about me before I tell you what I'm looking for in a companion. First off. You already know that I am not of your, or Gilda's species. I doubt that you will even find mention of my kind's name and any book in the library. There might not even be a possibility that I would even be able to get you pregnant if the time should come that you wish to have a child.”
“Second. Do not even consider that I follow the common norms that is expected of males. I am not weak. I will not hide. I can do the same thing as any other female. I don't see a difference when it comes to the gender and what one can and cannot do when it comes to their daily lives. So, if you can’t accept that, then too bad for you.”
“Third. I do not see myself as a good or bad person, I am just me. I treat others with respect, only so long as I am given the same. Someone pushes me, you can guarantee that I will push back. This holds true even when it comes to royalty such as the princesses. I have no doubt that you already know that I do not harbor any favoritism when it comes to your solar princess. I'm more likely to punch her in the face, then to allow myself to even bow in her presence. You are the bearer of loyalty and of course, I already know that you are one hundred percent loyal to her and this will come as a hard pill to swallow.”
“The fourth has to do with me having my own secrets. I don't like to talk about my feelings in public and currently, Rory's the only one I'm willing to do that with for the time being. So, if you cannot accept that and give me the space I need, then you should call it quits right now. I am not about to openly trust before I'm sure that I won't regret it later on. Especially with one that I don’t have much in the way of personal interactions with.” Brex allowed what he said a few moments to soak in, before he went on to the next part and changed his tone from seriousness, to one that leaned more towards threatening to drive his point home.
“The fifth and final thing you should know about me. Has to do with my personal preferences when it comes to activities with both in and out of the bedroom... I don't know exactly what you have heard from Rory during my extended absence. But I lean more towards a certain genre of carnal pleasure. Just so that it is perfectly clear. I will always, and I mean always, be the dominant in the relationship. If someone is going to get tied down, it's not going to be me. I could be gentle at times, but I mostly prefer to be rough.”
Brex didn't even wait for any type of a reply from the girl, before he went into the specifics as he got out of his chair and was now standing in such a way, that he was pretty much looming over both the Pegasus and Griffin, as though he was a raging storm cloud that blocked everything in their vision. In turn, Rainbow got back into her chair as they shrunk down into their seats and were pressing their backs firmly into their chairs as he continued.
“When I say rough, I don't mean light slapping of the ass or some small hair pulling as I go in hard and fast. I am the type to play various means of sexual torture that does not always apply to physical pain. I enjoy messing with my partner's mind. A big part of me relishes in the very thought that I could do whatever I want at any time I wish. This is doubly so when it comes to either training or punishment. If that isn’t clear enough, then I’ll say it like this. I may not always play the part, but I am a Sadist deep down!”
To go even further at making his point. He motioned his head towards the door and called out. “Rin! please come in here.” It didn’t even take a full second before the doors were carefully opened and the forementioned maid came in and stood at his side within seconds. To Rin’s surprise, along with the rest of the room. Which also included Rory as she had this dumbstruck expression. Rex reached over without a word and grabbed on to the front of the maid uniforms skirt after taking a good hold of it.
His hand roughly pulled on it so much that nearly brought the Changeling in disguise to try and balance yourself on the tips of her hoofs. Right in front of the two that came to visit him. Was the site of a maid who was wearing a compromising set of underpants, that was a mixture of a black rubbery material and some metal bands that would go across the waist and one going down in between the legs. As both of their eyes for going wide and clearly glued to what was being shown.
Brex continued as though nothing was wrong with that strong voice of his from before still being there. “This is what I’m talking about. if it hasn’t dawned on you both, then I’ll explain it. This is a heavily modified chastity belt of my own design. Rin here, along with Lin both have to wear this. there’s no possible way for them to get out without Rory or myself to assist and they’re constantly being stimulated by toys that are locked away inside. Rin keep holding up your skirt!”
In response, the clearly shocked maid went right to completing his order and grabbed on just as the fabric was released from his grip, so that she can keep herself presented. While keeping his gaze still locked on to Rainbow and Gilda. Rex reached for his left hand. Right over his middle finger were two rings and he carefully placed one finger over the one with the silver stone. He then placed enough force through concentration so that it would send what he thought to be thirty-five percent of its strength.
As a result, the maids face contorted to one that was utterly filled with lewd thoughts upon first glance. Her breathing suddenly picked up as she tried to contain a loud gasp and a sensual moan. Her mouth was partly open, but the edges were curled into a grin. At the same time, her eyes were nearly rolling to the back of her head, as she was slightly tilting her head back. The maid’s fingers that were holding on to the hem of her skirt, were shaking so much. Eventually one could literally hear a few pops from her knuckles to show that she was gripping as tightly as she could to the fabric.
But what really caught everyone’s attention there, including his own. Was the low buzz of a toy being emitted from the girl’s crotch. The location of the sound was made only more apparent, as she involuntarily started to buck her hips almost every other second but was clearly trying to hold back with little to show for it on her self-control. After about five or six seconds of this. He thought that a little more was needed to run the rest of his point through.
That was when he touched the ring once more and went for fifty percent. This obviously caused Rin to have a much more severe reaction, as her eyes turned up completely and she released a loud scream that shook her entire body. The low buzz from earlier intensified till it was loud enough that it could easily be heard outside in a crowd from nearly ten feet away if it turned out to be the situation they were in. She was now breathing so heavily that she was practically gasping has her entire body was going into a spasm.
The edges of the latex type of material just couldn’t hold the juices she was giving off and it just began to run down her leg and into her leg stockings to stain them as they quickly soaked up her juices. Brex allow this to only go for about three seconds before he cut off the magic and Rin collapsed onto the floor and onto her left side with this expression that said that she was off in another world. Her entire form was still twitching along with her hips slightly bucking. She was taking noticeably short quick breaths as if trying to come down from an overloading experience.
From what he could tell, he may have gone overboard. But seeing as this was Rin, he didn’t pay it too much mind as she was always the thrill seeker of the two and even if this was far more intense than normal. He also considered that this may not have been the same as touching her nerve cluster but wondered if it was on the same level or not and told himself that he should ask about it when there was some free time.
That was when he brought his attention back to the two and saw how they were both still staring at the same place that the maid was standing. But were so out of it, that they failed to even register any eye movement to show that they were tracking her fall. While trying not to show it on the outside. Brex was seriously wondering if he had gone a little too far. Sure, this was to try and dissuade Rainbow. But was it really alright to do that to Rin? From the corner of his eye, he tried to see what kind of a condition she was in. But from the way her expression was all of his concerns on her part vanished as he thought the following. “This is Rin I’m thinking about… she’s probably loving it.”
Over with Gilda. She was rather surprised yet again at how openly he was stating his preferences. Of course, she did tell Rainbow on how he could be rather pushy and at times, even sadistic to a degree when it came to their training sessions, but this right here was causing her fur to bristle almost uncontrollably from even under the clothing she was wearing with how strongly she was feeling. Sure, she had some small shard of worry when it came to whether she could have a child with him.
Being another species didn't even register as a problem at least. She was even perfectly fine with him having secrets, along with the negative thoughts towards the ruler of their country. Which didn't really matter all that much to her. But she instantly made a personal vow that she would do whatever it took to gain the same level of trust that Rory cultivated and even wondered if she could surpass the girl at one point or another.
But when he got all serious and talked about how forcefully he can get. Along with his kinks, that left a big window for her imagination to run away with. If going off of how those two maid’s reacted when she woke up on top of him was to be any indication. Then there was a good chance that he wasn't fibbing in any way. She didn't even care one way or another, with how she was breathing through her nose with each heavy breath she took as her mind reeled back to when she was grabbed from behind and almost slammed into the ground head-first on that day she met Zecora.
The intense rush she felt throughout the entire fight. Getting to see firsthand how strong he was even with a heavy handicap weighing him down by being blindfolded. The strong sensation of both frustration and pride that she had a capable mate at the time, was nearly sending her into a frenzy.
If it wasn't for the mock battle alone, then she might have lost out to her urges a lot sooner than near the end. That was when she couldn't take it anymore and lunged at him without even thinking. Instead of getting into the active mating. Gilda was caught unawares by the strange grapple and backwards throw that nearly smashed her own head into the floor.
That was the very moment that her entire world went white right before she came to a sudden stop as he canceled the move at the last second. Thanks to his strong arms keeping her in place as she was dangling upside down. The Griffin's wings had no way of going into a full wing boner, as they were fighting desperately to push against him.
Her mouth was nearly hanging open in a silent scream as she ended up squirting into her own underpants right then and there. It was only thanks to the armor she was wearing that it covered up the large wet stain and preventing him from noticing. Even with her barely able to give a response to him saying she needed to calm down. Gilda had this crooked smile that display that she was nearly out of it.
Even at this precise moment where she was being intimidated. Gilda was already feeling the effects of a self-imposed climax, without any need of even touching her sensitive and now pulsing clit below. It also really didn't help that the clits piercing was only serving to make it that much worse as the metal was grinding along her pants.
She couldn't even control her own legs that were mindlessly pushing up against one another and only adding to the stimulus she was being forced to endure. As a result, both of her hands were straight down at her sides, and she was already gripping all but her thumb on the underside of the chair and nearly digging straight into the wood with how much force she was using to try and hold back. But what he did with his maid was almost too much for the Griffin to handle, as she watched the spectacle of her being played with by him in such a way.
There was little to no regard to the maid’s personal privacy, along with how he did so without asking or giving any type of warning as to what he was about to do in front of guests. Not to mention the weird toys he had at his disposal. But then there was also the girl’s reaction that pushed Gilda to her limit, and she ended up having one of those orgasms of hers, that required no actual touching of any kind due to her mind linking what she saw to all the previous stimulations she’s experienced. By the end, she was nothing but a zombie who was sitting in place, as her entire mind was checked out for several seconds.
As that was all going on for the Griffin. Rainbow wasn't in all that much of a different situation, as she was also grinding her thighs together. The secrets. The whole not being a pony. Even the chance of not giving birth to his child had little effect on Rainbow by this point. Thanks to her current career goals for the future. She already pushed that prospect out of her mind. She even voiced this to Gilda and was worried about the whole having sex and getting pregnant.
But over the past several years, she got wind of there being a new drug that helped with preventing pregnancies when magic wasn't an option. In a weird roundabout way, this was also one of the reasons why she swore off males when she was younger once she made up her mind to be the best flyer and Equestria and join the Wonderbolts. Back then, she was not going to take the chance of being in a relationship with a male if it meant destroying her career. Especially if one of those heat seasons was to be too much for her and she couldn’t control herself.
In fact, as soon as she and Gilda got away from the others and their seemingly endless wave of question after question after getting back to ponyville yesterday. Rainbow swiftly went to the hospital and spoke to one of the nurses about any pamphlets that talked about the birth control. As of this very moment there was one in particular that she vaguely remembered sitting on her kitchen table back in her cloud house. On the bottom was some company's name that went by, “Apothecary Medicinal Traders.”
During all of her life. She was both taught and exposed to colts and stallions that were obviously far weaker than herself. All the propaganda on how they should act just couldn't hold up anymore in her head when it came to him. Sure, she went ballistic back on the train. But after having all night long to consider how she really felt. Along with Rory's good guessing. She couldn't deny that she may have at one point or another, started to subconsciously lash out as a form of testing to see whether or not he would really be different, and this wasn't some type of act on his side.
Sure, he didn't actively lash out or break down crying like so many stallions would. Instead, there was a strong sense of self-control and being able to speak his mind. There was also his self-control when it came to being legally the owner of Zecora, while being in the zebra's home country. According to Gilda. He never so much as laid a single finger on her in any inappropriate way. Even though Gilda did mention on one evening through there late-night talks, that he was within his rights to literally use her body and she could not say no to him due to their laws.
Gilda even approached the Zebra and questioned as to what happened in the room that they shared on occasion when it was only the two of them. According to Zecora's own words. Gambit never made any type of move and allowed her to sleep in the bed, while he took one of the chairs on every occasion. It was even surprising that just letting her use the bed could have gotten them in trouble if it were found out by the authorities, because she was meant to sleep on the floor.
When the female Zebra made it a point to tell him of that part of the law. He didn't even pay it much mind and said that if anyone had a problem with how he treated her, then he would make sure they had a bigger issue with their faces being broken with his fist then to allow her to sleep on the floor like some animal.
In Rainbow’s opinion, this clearly showed that he did have respect and would not jump at the first chance to stick himself into any female that gave him the time of day. This was a big weight off her shoulders too, as she did hear stories of some stallions that would literally go sleeping around all the time for one reason or another. Which was all due to their popularities of being a male. Rainbow did know that there were areas of Equestria that allowed them to sleep with as many mare’s as they wanted to without any repercussions.
But for Rainbow. What was really sticking to her the most. Was all this kinky talk. To her, it all sounded as though it came out of some erotic book that she was not willing to ever disclose to any others that she may have stashed away in her house. Sure, she and Gilda would get into some rather rough play with one taking charge of the other. And more often than not, she felt more at home being on the bottom and Gilda was pretty much the same.
So, this pretty much put the two females in a switching off role, of who would be dominant that night. But it wasn't as though she was just going to lay down and give up. Much like Gilda, this Pegasus wanted to be forced into the role above all else after some struggling was done. And everything he was saying was hitting every one of her buttons in the right way. Although, she was really regretting her decision to go without a bra today, as her nipples were getting so hard that they were grinding along her clothing that was just underneath her armor.
As for the reason why, the Pegasus was in such a state with her clothing. It all had to do with how small her breasts were compared to many of the other mare's in town. Often, Rainbow found it almost pointless and would occasionally leave it lying on her bed if she wasn't actively thinking about putting it on during the dressing process. This would happen more often whenever she was rushing out of the door as she was preoccupied with one thing or another on her mind or even just late for work.
It took her a moment to be thankful that she didn't go out wearing a tank top, so this was all hidden away. But there was the small part of her that kind of wished that she had done so. All in order to draw his attention towards her chest to get some kind of validation. This also brought up another thing that she liked. This happened to go along with knowing that gambit was into small breasts because of Rory’s size.
It just so happened that there was this incident from a few weeks back in town. Rainbow couldn’t really remember all the details too well as to how it’s started. All she knew, was that it had to do with a stuck-up mare. She even had a set of G-size breasts that were barely being contained in her dress. At the time, she was inside of Sugar Cube Corner and giving Pinkie a hard time. A long line was already forming due to how much time was being spent on this arrogant mare, that Rainbow and Rory had to wait just outside of the door to get in.
At one point or another, Rainbow mentioned how big of a chip the mare had and Rory's response was to make a pointed joke that the only thing that was bigger, must have been those humongously useless breasts. Of course, the two kept it to themselves and had a small giggle after bonding over there mutual adversary. But Rainbow clearly remembered that she was unprepared and nearly choked on her drink that they finally got to have after a while, when Rory mentioned that Gambit was into all sizes when it came to breasts.
This caused Rainbow to grow more confident with her size after hearing that from Rory. This was due to how much others would focus on being bigger as the better choice. It was more apparent when it came to the chest sizes for the females from the male’s perspectives. Even now. As she felt her painfully erect nipples. Rainbow wondered if it would be a good idea to go through with what Gilda did to hers. Although, having her clit pierced was too much and Rainbow would out-right stop and wouldn’t even talk about having it done to her whenever Gilda brought it up on occasion.
When it came to him calling in the maid. Rainbow just couldn’t believe what she was looking at when he started to show the girl off as if she was some object. Giving the order and playing with her in such a way, that it would have been too much for any normal pony to take. The toys that he apparently had access to that even she had not even seen in any magazines. For some strange reason, Rainbow couldn’t help but to go over something she saw in one of the small stories she read when it came to a mare who was using a small egg vibrator that was shoved into her folds as she walked around in her hometown.
If that wasn’t enough for the Pegasus. It only got more intense with knowing that whatever was being done could have been controlled from a distance. This also caused her imagination to run away and place herself in the same position as that mare in that one story. But instead of it just being a walk through the town. Her mind put her along with Gambit to walk throughout ponyville, as he played with her at random times with the very same item she was currently watching the mare being tortured with.
This only led to her zoning out so much, that she couldn’t even think straight anymore while still sitting in the chair. Rainbow couldn’t even come to a full orgasm, but she was so close that she may as well have had an ongoing low one and she just didn’t care about anything else and focused solely on that sensation. Somewhere in the back of her mind. Rainbow somehow associated this feeling with the times that she would be running on the field or going through flight training. There was always this strange sensation as she was pushing herself and right now, she was beginning to have a similar sensation.
That was when both of their thoughts were broken free from everything running through their minds as they saw the way he was looking down at them. There was a long stretch of silence as the two girls were looking straight at the empty eye holes of his mask, that gave no indication that they were ever going to be able to see his eyes no matter how long they looked. They then looked at one another without so much as turning their heads. When this was done. They got to see just how hot and bothered the other one was before they brought their attention back to the one that was talking to them.
Without even making any type of effort to show that they were getting any kind of signal from the other one as to what their thoughts were. The pair started to talk in perfect unison, as though they had this question prepared long in advance and practiced it for this very moment. With the surprising level of confidence and determination, they asked their question… “Will we finally be able to see you without your mask?”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 68: So Many Visitors.
*Points of view: Twilight Sparkle* *Location: Right outside the gates to Brex's Mansion* *Time: Seven-Thirty in the morning*
Twilight Sparkle was dressed up in her usual schoolgirl style of clothing and currently grasped in her right arm was a thick notebook that was ready to be used at a moment’s notice. Next to her was Spike who was wearing his hoodie and a set of jeans. Although, one couldn't see his undershirt with how he had himself zipped up thanks to how cold it was in the morning and being dragged out of the library a little earlier than normal because of Twilight being in such a rush.
In fact, Twilight was in so much of a hurry, that she didn't even take the chance to taste the breakfast Spike painstakingly made and scarfed it all down so fast, that even pinky would have been impressed and gave the unicorn a nine out of ten if she was present to witness the unintentional speed eating contest that was being done between twilight and spike that morning.
Spike himself barely even got a third of the way through before he was picked up by Twilight's magic and rushed out of the front door. But luckily, the young dragon was so accustomed to Twilight's antics, that he was quick enough to grab onto his plate and took the opportunity to eat what was left, while they were in route to the edge of town. Once he was finished. Spike went right on and got Twilight's attention and she finally lowered him to the ground. She also grumbled to him upon seeing the empty dish in his right hand and placed it into her pocket dimension and the two of them continued on their way.
It didn't take much longer after that, before Spike held up his right hand over his mouth to stifle a yawn that was so powerful, that it may as well have been confused with someone suddenly pulling out and using a bullhorn. This also allowed his teeth to be partially exposed as he was in the middle of lowering his hand at the end and showing a set of jagged teeth that were very accustomed to chewing right through even diamonds. He then pursed his lips before licking them as he finally showed signs of life and spoke up to Twilight that was already taking notes and examining the gate right up ahead.
“Twilight... why did we have to come all the way out here when most of the shops aren't even open? We could have come over at any other time you know.” Twilight was still looking over the gate and writing down a few more words onto her notepad, while answering him over her left shoulder right when she turned away to look at something that caught the Unicorns eye.
“My research shows that he always disappears in the morning. Now if that’s the case, then I wanted to get here as soon as the sun came up. But I accidentally overslept and now it’s already been one hour and thirty minutes since the sun was risen by Celestia. Please oh please. Let him still be inside!”
Spike, who was now looking more than a little annoyed at this point. Placed both of his hands into his pockets and kicked the ground with his left foot once before leaning his back right against the gate. He then said, “And who are we here to see again? I didn't even think this place was done.” This got Twilight to stop what she was doing to give him the, “Are you kidding me look.” Before raising both of her hands and gesturing towards the gate as she spoke at nearly a yelling volume. “Did you not notice that the spell for keeping this place under wraps was broken yesterday after getting off the train? It's as big as nearly three, or even four of our Town Halls put together!”
Spike gave another yawn and started to scratch the scales on the back of his neck with the use of the claws on his right hand, as he sheepishly looked at his adopted sister. Twilight just slumped her shoulders down before running her left hand down her own face as she muttered the next sentence in a dead pan voice. “You were ogling Rarity too much to notice, weren't you?” This got a nervous reaction from the Dragon as he rolled his eyes to play it off. But kept his gaze away from Twilight, while also giving a nervous chuckle as Twilight went on.
“Don't you recall when we went out for dinner? We bumped into one of the mail mare’s and she let it slip that she had a new stop added to her delivery route. I didn't really think much about it until she got excited and said that it was Gambits new address. That mare was making a big deal about where the location was and talking up a storm with her coworkers a few tables down from where we sat.”
This got a confused sound from Spike, as he answered Twilight in a very unsure tone of voice. “I could have sworn he lived in a hotel.” He then pushed himself from the gate and peaked over his shoulder so that his eyes could easily look through the spacing between the bars. Now that he was getting a better look after getting interested at last. His eyes went wide as he said, “Gambit really did move over here? Wow!”
This started a go between, as Twilight spoke up next. While at the same time, she was pacing back and forth and writing a set of numbers onto a new page of paper. “How in Equestria could he afford-. Okay! I just need to think about it logically! First, let's look into buying the land, then there’s also the hiring of the contractors. I also need to factor in the cost of materials for not only the structure itself, but what would be needed for the furnishing too. There are also the permits! Oh! So many permits that would have needed to be signed. This… This makes no sense, no sense at all!”
“Twilight, you need to calm down a little bit! Ok, so what if the guy can afford a big place like this? He must have been saving up.”
“Spike! Don't you get it at all?”
“Okay then, why not explain it to me? It's not like I have any first-hand knowledge on renting since we're living in the library for free and you get that big allowance from the Princess every week. And even though we are on the subject, I will not start talking to you about why I’m not getting a bigger cut of it.”
“Spike? Do you know how much it costs to even buy a one-story home with two bedrooms, one bath and a kitchen? Roughly Thirty-two-thousand bits for a normal house. And that's just to buy the house alone. Look at all this land! I'm not sure but I think half of it extends into the Everfree forest. Sure, that alone would cut the value of the property land substantially with it being a dangerous Zone. But even still, this would have cost hundreds of thousands. If you count everything else I mentioned. I wouldn't be too surprised if he had to pay close to Four-hundred-thousand!”
“Four-hundred-thousand bits?! Okay Twilight now you got to be exaggerating it!
“I'm not Spike! Just take another look. Do you see the front of that building? First you got the lawn with the sculptures in walkways. Now look at the building itself. That's not a typical style you see around here. Obviously, some designers were pulled in from other parts of Equestria, or perhaps they were even called in from other countries.”
“Well Twilight, now that you pointed it out... T-Those things sitting on the sides of the building look awfully scary. I'm not sure from here, but they sort of look like those gargoyles I once saw in a book.”
“Hmmm... you know what, I think you're right. I may recall that gargoyle statues were used in some constructions as a way of warding off evil spirits.”
“Yikes! And here I thought that the creepiness would pull ghosts towards the house, not scare them away. Anyhow... I get that you're probably excited, but couldn't this have waited? I mean, he's probably not done unpacking.”
“Spike! This has to do with the Princess! She was so broken up at the end of her story. I've been around her for most of my life and I could tell that she was really affected by her actions.”
“Sooooooo.... You're just going to show up at his house and straight up ask him what's wrong between him and the Princess, while also trying to patch up their relationship? I’m sorry to say this Twilight. But you don’t really know him well enough to be giving any type of advice.”
“Of course not! Every pony-. I mean everybody knows that stallions-. Oh you know what I mean! They don't like to tell just anyone about their problems. They tend to get way too emotional and will only open up to those that they're close to. That or you get them a little drunk first.”
What Twilight just said at the end, immediately got Spikes attention. As he gave her an accusatory look before the Unicorn realized what she said and quickly added the next bit. “W-What? Please don't look at me like that Spike! It's not as though I have firsthand knowledge... Oh come on! Don't give me that look, it’s what Mom said! I'm only quoting her words. We have a perfect example back at home. You know how dad is.”
The next thing to happen as the two of them were taking a moment to take in all that they could from where they stood at the gates. The head of Crystal the Chocobo suddenly came out from the right side and released a loud squeak that scared both Spike and Twilight into falling onto their tails with a unified scream. It took them a second to realize what was going on, before getting back onto their shaky legs and rubbing their now sore bottoms.
Twilight was still looking a little bothered by the scare, but Spike instantly walked right up to the gate and reached right through the bars to pet the top of Crystal's head and eliciting a few high-pitched squeals of delight from the bird. Spike then said, “Hey there Crystal, that was a good one! I didn't even hear you coming.” Twilight mumble to herself a few words which consisted of, “I don't get why crystal is so infatuated with hide and seek.”
Spike heard this and replied without even looking towards Twilight, who is standing right behind him now. “For a tall bird, Crystal likes to visit Fluttershy's place and play with the smaller animals. Fluttershy even told me that Crystal would spend most of the time with the babies to keep them occupied, while the parents get checked on for any injuries.” Twilight was now tapping her chin while staring up at the sky as she tried to recall anything that had to do with what Spike just said. She then had this look that just screamed that she recalled something as she replied.
“Ah yes, that's right! Fluttershy did mention that a couple of days ago. Crystal would also accompany her into town occasionally to help with carrying some of the feed and other supplies she needs. I really had no idea that the Chocobo's were so useful to have around. I ran a quick experiment with Crystal once and I was really shocked that she could play Tic-Tac-Toe by scratching on the ground with one of her claws. It’s truly a mystery how her cognitive functions are so close to that of us ponies.”
Spiked looked over to Twilight and said the next part while raising an eyebrow. “Didn't Rory make a joke that Crystal could probably do their taxes?” In response, Twilight spoke as she was in the middle of rolling her eyes. “Spike, I doubt that Rory was being serious on that part. Although, I will not deny that I do get the impression that Crystal does understand what we're saying. At least far better than any other creature that is incapable of speaking.”
They're little chat was cut off when they heard someone coming towards them from inside the gated grounds. This turned out to be the earth pony that they met a while back, who was in search of Crystal. In some way, she strongly resembled Applejack, but her coloring was slightly darker for her fur and the mane was amber red in place of their friends blonde hair. She also had an accent, but it was nowhere near as thick as Applejacks own.
She was currently wearing a colorful get up that seemed more for work purposes along with a cap on her head with that strange cartoon depiction of a Chocobo in the middle. Coming out from underneath the cap, was her hair braided into two long strands that would go nearly halfway down her own back. If Twilight was to be honest. She could have easily mistaken her for her country friend if the lighting was slightly different and they weren't only a few paces apart.
The mare was holding on to a bucket in her right hand, that currently contained a bushel of greens and clearly meant for the Chocobo as the creature moved away from the gate and dove headfirst into the bucket and started chowing down. This got a chuckle from her as she tried to keep a hold of the container before it was knocked out of her hands completely. From there, Twilight gave a quick wave before calling out and starting a back and forth with the mare. “Good morning, Cinnamon Bee!”
“Good morning to you too Miss Sparkle! Wasn't expecting you to show up. Much less this early.”
“And I believe I told you just to call me Twilight.”
“Well, what'cha expect. I'll start calling you Twilight if you just start calling me Bee.”
Twilight gave a quick sigh before she replied. “All right-all right. Anyhow. Please tell me Gambits still home and hasn’t done that disappearing act of his already.”
“Hmm... Nope! I don't think he's left quite yet. Hey Crystal! Take it easy! You're gonna eat all the way through the bottom of the bucket if you keep this up! He's inside talking to two of your friends. I'd say it's been close to an hour since they went in.”
“Huh? Two of my friends? Do you know which ones?”
“I was still in the back, but I'm pretty sure I saw them flying in. Judging from the colors, then I'd say it was Rainbow and Gilda.”
“Oh, just great! You didn't happen to hear any glass breaking, did you? I can't even think right now on how much one of those windows would cost...”
“I got no clue what you're on about Twilight, but I didn't hear any crashing.”
This got a slight grunt of annoyance from Spike who was now standing off to the side, before Twilight gave him the, “I know look”, as she spoke. “I know-I know Spike... I'm also getting the feeling that she only does that to our place. Well, putting that aside that talk will have with her later on. Do you think you can open up the gate so I can come in?”
The mare finally got around to wrenching the bucket that was practically stuck on Crystal's head free, only to show that it was empty upon turning over, as she answered Twilight with a confused tone in her voice. “Uh... Twilight, have you tried pushing on the gate? The Lord has a spell on it that keeps it locked at all times. But those he gives permission to when the spell is made can open it at any time they want.”
Twilight's face turned into a small scowl as she pondered those words carefully. She then started to make some motions to push on the gate with her right hand as she spoke out. “A spell like that would be incredibly complex. Especially if given the nature of the individuals that would be granted access. It would be understandable if it were placed on a small room, but for a front gate that would allow a multitude of visitors is just preposterous. I can’t even go over in my own head how much of a process that would be to complete.”
She was about to say more by the looks of her expression, but it all stopped once she realized that the gate wasn't budging an inch. She was also about to complain but jumped a few paces back once she saw that a piece of the flat surface near the center of the gate was beginning to morph and took on the shape of a big mouth.
It was at least three times bigger than her own. Along the metal grate it pushed outwards into a set of lips, but there was no sign of any depth past those as words came out of it, that was really close to resembling Gambits own. “You have not been permitted authorization to enter these premises. please go away and have a good day.”
Once the message was given, did the metal mouth start to morph back into a flat surface. Twilight released a scream along with the words, “What in Celestia’s name is that?!” She was even clutching at her chest to show she was about to have a heart attack from the sudden appearance of a mouth. Her eyes were even misaligned when it came to their sizes as a few of her hairs were sticking out at the same time. There was even a set of heavy breathing that was remarkably close to the limit of hyperventilating for a few seconds.
When it came to Spike, he was holding a hand up to his mouth and pointing between the door and Twilight as he spoke. “Hahaha! Twilight, y-you should have seen your face! Oh, wow that is just hilarious. I wonder if I can get Gambit to do that to our front door whenever we're away from the library!” Spike was now going into a full giggling fit and was about to lose his balance when he placed his hand onto the gate that was a little further away from the center.
This time around. Even though she was recovering, Twilight was ready and floated in front of herself her notepad so that her magic was ready to write down everything at lightning speed upon the summoning of the mouth again. But much to her dismay. It did not come back as the gate started to swing open with there being only a small amount of resistance to keep Spike from falling over before catching himself.
Twilight's right eye began to slightly twitch when her jaw dropped at what she just saw. She then spoke in a tone that was a mix of anger and a small hint of confusion buried underneath. “Hold on! I get nearly scared to death and Spike gets to just walk on in?! This got a bemused look from Bee. Before she spoke up as she was also scratching the back of her left ear and eyeing the two. “I guess Spike has a clean pass. I think you should just call yourself lucky Twilight that he likes you enough to give you the normal sendoff message.”
Twilight was frozen for a second before she hesitantly asked her next question with a pointed look in her eyes. “And just what would the other message be... if he… didn't like me?” This quickly earned the Unicorn a strong reaction from the mare, as her face contorted into a grimace while speaking. “Heh… Well... Um, let's just say there's a good reason there's a lot of space in front of the gate and let’s leave it at that.”
Twilight, who's curiosity was lit a flame after hearing the vague explanation, was opening her mouth when Bee spoke up again as she turned her face into a frown. “Now-now, this is a security matter, and I am under no obligation to tell you anything else when it comes to that. Count yourself lucky that I told you as much as I did, and I would ask that you do not divulge it to any others. If the Lord should here that you did, then you might get set up for the second message.”
Twilight really… Really wanted to know what it could have been. But the reaction she got made her reconsider her thoughts and grabbed on to spike by the shoulders to push him to the front door that was at the end of the path. All the while, she was calling over to her shoulder and saying goodbye to Bee and Crystal. It had taken them a few moments to do it. But after they got through with glancing at the interior of the lawn and arrived at the front door. Both were lifting their heads so much to take in the size of the entrance that they nearly started to bend their backs so much that they were very close to falling over.
From that point. The two started to talk to one another with hardly any emotions behind their words as Spike started off. “T-Twilight... Those looked to be a really big set of doors!”
“I'd have to agree with you there...”
“It may have been just me. But this place is way bigger than what I thought from back at the gate.”
“Uhm... I was so distracted by everything else that I wasn't really paying attention. I know it's a new building, but it looks as though it's been here for a while.”
“So, am I the only one that's starting to get a creepy vibe? If so, then I'll just ignore it but if you are too, then maybe we should come back later...”
“Stop being such a scaredy cat! It's not like this is an old building that's been around for many years. You're acting as if it's haunted. Besides, two of our friends are inside so we may as well go the rest of the way and knock on the door.”
“I don't think we should really be bothering them right now Twilight. If Rainbow and Gilda are both here, then it's probably something important.”
“It's all the more reason why we should be in there too. If it's really something we're not supposed to be a part of, then we'll get out right away. How about that? Now let's just-. HAAAAAAAA!!!”
Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs while in mid sentence just as a hand was placed on to her left shoulder. This in turn also got Spike to turn and give out his own yell for the next several seconds as the two kept on giving off their own once the other was done for a set of three or four each. Once they were finished and both heaving for air to go back into their exhausted lungs. A feminine voice was filling the air with a chorus of laughter from right behind them.
As soon as their eyes came back into Focus after the scare nearly caused them to burst out of their eye sockets. The site of a maid with silver hair could be seen clutching at her stomach in a nearly vain attempt to keep from falling over. Both Twilight and Spike waited for her to recover as well before she immediately identified herself as Rin. It only took them a few seconds. But the two of them immediately remembered her from the train ride just yesterday and she was standing along with another as members of gambits group.
The mare quickly apologized about what she did, however her attitude said otherwise as she was still giggling now and then before bringing the pair inside. Once within the walls. The door was securely locked with a subtle click once Rin closed it without any real effort when considering the size of the object itself. Twilight was dumbstruck by this and seriously wondered if the Unicorn was as strong as Applejack herself upon seeing this.
The maid gave a small bow before saying that she would inform Gambit and Rory that they were there and went to the right side of the stairway and around the corner that led to a hallway until she was out of sight. The entrance hall that they now stood in the middle of was quite large and the ceiling was so high, that she almost considered the idea that it was purposely done so that a Pegasus could easily fly while within these walls.
The walls were lined with various pieces of artwork. Most of which consisted of paintings of various landscapes. Although they mostly consist of darker colors and left much to be desired in terms of bright ones. One did catch their eyes that was just off to the right wall where there was a small table. Underneath and resting on said table were a vase filled with flowers that appeared to be from the Everfree forest. After getting a bit closer. Twilights eyes, along with Spikes, were glued to the image of a number of structures nestled within a tree background of sorts.
(Here is a picture that is similar to what they are looking at.)
There was even a waterfall leading into what could have been a large pond or possibly a lake off to one edge of the image. Most of it consisted of green for the trees. Whereas different shades of yellow were meant for the structures themselves. At one point, Spike brought Twilight's attention to a small white figure in the middle of a path near the bottom corner of the picture.
After squinting their eyes for several seconds to try and make out any definitive features, the both of them just gave up seeing as there wasn't too much detail put into it. That was aside from it obviously being a female and blonde hair could be seen coming off their head and only going just past the shoulders. It even seemed as though she was holding in one of her hands a long white staff that matched her white robes.
Spike notice that there was another painting towards the left and went over. He then called over to Twilight, who immediately joined him as he lifted his left hand and pointed at a large blue stone that was hovering in the middle of some type of Plaza that was obviously in a picture of the same place that they were only just looking at. Spike almost messed up his words with the way he was drooling as he spoke. “Going off of what's here, I'm thinking that's a really-really big blue sapphire.” This remark was made due to the numerous individuals surrounding it that were mostly shaded out and how they barely came to a tenth of its size.
Upon closer inspection on Twilight's end. It was indeed a stone that could have been made a sapphire but with the way it was right behind and off to the left side of the larger of the buildings, which could have been some type of inn. It would have been large enough to fill the space that they were currently standing inside of. And that was saying a lot with the space between the door and the bottom of the stairs alone being close to twenty-eight paces. Of course, that was only about half the space and nearly fifty to fifty-five across.
The painting itself was done using a form of art known as pointillism. This meant that it was not done with simple brush strokes. But instead, it was made with painstakingly making the tiniest of dots in order to produce the artwork. It didn't take long at all until Twilight noticed on the opposite side of the room that there were another set of paintings. The first one showed an outside Amphitheater. Everything was obviously made of wood and the stage was set with a large tree as the background, which was way bigger than any that she had ever seen in her life.
The other painting showed a few buildings on the left and a low fence right before the ground dropped off and displayed a miraculously vibrant garden in the distance. There was one very tall and thin figure holding on to what appeared to be a basket that could have easily fit an entire Pony inside if they were to sit down. Next to them was a short figure that could have been a child. Although, she was wearing a big hat with flowers around the base and holding on to a belt full of gardening tools. Even though her back was towards them. they could tell that she was pointing towards the garden as if giving orders.
In Twilight's head, these were strangely fitting to the mansion they were sitting inside of however, the pictures themselves were giving off this opposing vibe of tranquility that she was not accustomed to be along with the structure. This was doubly so with her past experiences in the Everfree forest. Just from this speculation alone. Twilight knew this could not have been anywhere inside of the Everfree forest and began to wonder if this could have been a scene from Gambit’s homeland.
By now, the purple Unicorns thirst for learning was reaching its peak. It was even going to such a height that it nearly caused Twilight to forget the very reason why she was there in the first place as she started to mindlessly walk towards the left side of the staircase that led to a hallway going into the opposite direction that the maid took. But just as she got to wear the turn was and could tell that there was another walkway that led to a room behind the staircase. The voice from Rin caught Twilight's attention and broke her free from whatever was compelling her to move.
“My Lord and Mistress will be out shortly with your friends. It will only take another minute. You may wait here, or I can take you to them if you wish.” This was followed by a short pause before her voice had this small change that Twilight couldn't really place. It still sounded as cheery as before, but something was causing the Unicorn to have this fight or flight response. But in her case, the part that wanted her to run for the hills as quickly as possible was the dominant of the two.
“Miss Twilight Sparkle. I could have recalled mentioning that you were to stay in this room. I must ask that you not go wandering around my Lord’s abode without permission. I know all about you being unable to open the front gate on your own. It would be best if you were not to overstay your welcome by doing something that is not needed. Also, we would not be held accountable if you should so happen to trigger any of our home security.” Twilight obviously felt that this was a threat and somehow, the maid picked up on this before continuing.
“I am merely giving you a warning as you are a guest at this time. This is because your reputation has proceeded you and we all know how much you tend to fall into a certain bad habit when it comes to your hunt for knowledge.” This clearly confused Twilight as she arched one of her eyebrows towards the maid and then sharply turning it onto Spike. This caused the young dragon to look a little sheepish as he looked away and started to whistle a broken tune that was hastily put together.
Twilight broke away from her obvious attempts to say that Spike and she were going to have a few words later and spoke to the maid after lightly coughing into her right fist and looking a little embarrassed. “If it's all the same, then I'd be thankful if you could bring me to them.” This got a nod from the maid as she turned and began to lead them down the other hallway. The walk only took about a minute or so with how long it was, along with passing a couple of doors on either side.
But the two of them did notice a few more paintings on the walls that were a mix of unknown landscapes and some others from around Equestria. But the thing was... that they were all done in the same manner as the ones before. Even with a passing glance. Twilight studious mind could easily surmise that each and every one of them was done by the same person. Although there was a slightly different style with some coming close to a picture being taken by a camera with how accurate they appeared.
While others were most likely from memory, so certain aspects were standing out more than others. But there was one odd thing that was constant in each of them. This turned out to be the way the background characters didn't have much in the way of details. To her, the artist was intentionally blurring them out for some strange reason that she couldn't wrap her head around. From what she could tell, the bystanders would require the onlooker to try hard while concentrating in order to spot the background characters if they were just passing by.
Once they arrived at another set of doors and came to a stop behind the silver haired maid. Twilight's curiosity took control once more and forced her to blurt out a question that essentially exploded in her mind with the way she just couldn't hold it anymore. “Could you tell me where Gambit got all these pictures?” The maid didn't even pause, as she started to grab on to the handles and pull the doors apart to reveal a large dining room as she responded. You would have to ask my Lord in person.”
Even though she didn't show it on the outside. Twilight was fuming. The very way that this maid was dodging the question was not something she was accustomed to. She spent a fair amount of time in the castle for her studies with Princess Celestia, so she was fairly familiar to being around maids and butlers on a nearly daily basis.
However, there was a universal constant among them all, where even though they were quite professional. The word of gossip was something that couldn't be stopped. As Twilight and Spike entered the dining room. She started to think to herself, while eyeing the maid. “The castle staff was nowhere near this tight-lipped. She must have received specific instructions not to say anything to her, or this was a result of some strict training.”
Although, her attention was brought to the sound of rainbow talking loudly. At first, Twilight had this reaction of wanting to flare up her horn in case there was some trouble. But she quickly found out that it was just her friend voicing her opinions about something. “You're really serious about wanting to train all of us?! I'm sorry, but I don't really think that you're able to do even that much. Do you even know what we all do? Oh, hey Twilight! Hey, you're on my side, right?”
Twilight didn't quite understand what she was being asked and carefully looked over the situation. At the far end of the table had one side with Gambit and Rory sitting next to each other and right across from them, was Gilda sitting in her chair while rainbow was on her hoofs and pressing both hands onto the table while leaning over. Gambit was wearing his typical white outfit. Although she never saw it herself, but there were rumors that he was able to eat through his mask and it appeared to be true with how he had just brought down a fork from his mask covered face.
Rory was in the middle of chewing some food and had her eyes closed to show that she wasn't really all that bothered by Rainbows outburst. Although she was wearing something different than her usual attire, which looks pretty good on the mare. Twilight might have guessed that it was something that rarity would have come up with. But knowing her friend she would have made it into some type of big show in order to get everyone to know that she was responsible for his creation. And since that wasn’t the case, that it must have been from someone else.
Whereas Gilda was just lazily shaking her head before looking back down at her plate and eating something that appear to be pancakes and some white pieces of meat on the side. Which Twilight immediately identified to be chicken. She kind of felt sick at seeing that last bit and resisted the urge to puke and swallowed the upcoming vomit that she felt was on the way to look at Rainbow once again to try and take her mind off of the food.
She then thought to herself for a second. “Ugh... maybe gambits a meat eater. That could explain why they have something like that on hand for Gilda. Oh, right! Rainbow's talking again. I better get back on that. When her thoughts finally got out of whatever state she was in. She heard Rainbow say, “Twilight, you agree, don't you? Hello! Equestria to Twilight. Are you even there? Helloooo~.” Rainbow was now giving her a deadpan expression before going on and repeating what was said earlier.
“Hey! Egghead, get a load of this. Gambit says he wants to help in training all of us to get stronger. I get it that he's been helping Gilda and she's already up to level twenty-nine but-.” The blue Pegasus was immediately cut off right there, when Twilight's eyes shot open while also beginning to scream at the top of her lungs and surprising all of them there. Well, aside from Gambit and Rory, who were just lazily continuing their meal and watching from the side.
“Gilda's already that high!? But-but-but... T-That's-that's just impossible! I heard you say yourself that she was only a few levels higher than you Rainbow! That would mean she's nearly doubled in strength!!! No one could get that strong in less than two months! Sure, give it a year and a half and I could understand.” Twilight would have gone further on this rant if it wasn't for a purple scaled hand that was now resting on her right shoulder. She then saw a small brown paper bag being unfolded thanks to Spike waving it in the air to allow it to fill up from the wind pressure.
It was then snatched so quickly that there was nearly an afterimage from Twilight's own hand before it was brought to her lips and used to help with her breathing. After about thirty seconds of this. Twilight lowered the bag and gave Spike and appreciative look before bringing her attention back to the other four as she started to talk again. “F-Fine... let's say that I believe this... then does that mean Gambit is going to hire a bunch of tutors and have them all come to Ponyville?”
This got a quick shake of the head from Rainbow as she kept her sights squarely on Twilight and shaking her right thumb in the general direction of Gambit and Rory as she started to talk in a skeptical tone. “That's the part that you walked in on. According to them, they'll be the ones doing all the teaching.” Rory took this opportunity to swallow the last of her food and got their attention after placing the fork onto the plate rather loudly when the metal met the ceramic plate.
The girl in red then said, “That's right. Although I will only be of real assistance when it comes to the Marauder class. Then there's also being the teacher’s assistant. This means I will be mostly mentoring Applejack. Sure, she's not registered as a Marauder, but she's already wielding a large two-handed axe. Then there's that dependable personality and strength of hers which would make for a perfect tank. Up until now, my master wouldn't announce this to the world, but he is quite capable at utilizing multiple classes.” By the end of that. Rory had this smug expression, even though her eyes were closed.
Twilight approached the table so that she could slam both of her hands onto the end. Unsurprisingly, she did not cause a single piece of utensil to budge even though she slammed the table with as much force as she could from where she was all the way down there. She then gave a cocky expression of her own as her lips turned into a snarl, before saying the next bit in a sarcastic tone. “Okay then! By all means, please inform us all on what he's able to do.” The purple unicorn then stood up straight and crossed her arms with a satisfied smirk while awaiting an answer.
Rory didn't say anything. But instead, she looked over to Gambit. This got a small grunt of annoyance to come from him as he had to lower a fork with a piece of pancake on it back down to his plate. He then said the following, while waving his free hand in a dismissive fashion as though he was talking about something so trivial it barely required his full attention. This of course cause Twilight's right eye to start twitching as a result, as she just wanted him to spill the beans and that they could move on with this Preposterous idea.
“Marauder… Gladiator… Conjurer… Arcanist… Astrologian… Pugilist… Lancer… Rogue… Archer… Dancer… Thaumaturge… Red Mage.” This got a tired sigh from Gambit as he went back to eating his pancake before lazily adding the last bit. “I can teach everything that they're putting out there in those schools.” Rainbow, Gilda, Spike and Twilight just froze on the spot. The Pegasus who was looking at Twilight to see her reaction. Was now turning her head slowly as if it were on a swivel back on Gambit.
Gilda inadvertently dropped her fork that had a piece of meat on it when it got so close to her mouth that she was about to close it near the end of Gambits listing of jobs. As for Spike, who is standing off to the side of Twilight. He was going completely starry eyed, while silently mouthing the word awesome. When it came to Twilight. All of her hairs were sticking out at random intervals. In fact, a few more were still popping out as if they were spring loaded and she resembled what one would look if they just came in from a tropical storm, along with the worst hair day all wrapped up in one.
Both eyes were now twitching at completely out of sync intervals and a crooked smile was inching on to her face. It took several long seconds before she even looked as though she could even speak without breaking something in her brain as her hairs began to calm down. Her eyes even return to normal as she gave out a very weak chuckle that was on the edge of being crazy in a way. When all this happened, Twilight started to talk again as she brought up one of her fingers for every class name she began to repeat out loud.
When she reached three. Her left eye gave a single twitch. As all five fingers on one hand were exposed. The Unicorn gave a nervous chuckle as her right eye did something similar. Eight fingers in, turned that nervous chuckle into a manic grin as all of her teeth were exposed. Once she got to using all her fingers and was now stuck at ten. The purple Unicorn could do nothing but to nervously laugh to the point that she may as well have been seen as one of those lunatic asylum patients as she was looking towards the air right above everyone's heads.
It may not have been noticed to all of them. But she even flicked her ears in attention in order to count off the last two. That was when her knees gave out and she ended up slumping straight down onto the floor so that she was sitting on her ass. The hysterical laughing that she had built up, instantly turned into loud sobbing as tears were trickling down the sides of her face. This was followed with the mare falling backwards and passing out on the wooden floor with her arms and legs spread out so far that she was even exposing her white and purple striped underpants from just underneath her short skirt.
*Point of view: Third Person*
The entire dining room fell into a dead silence for close to a full minute. During that time. Spike had this very disturbed expression on his face as he slightly tilted his head in clear wonder if Twilight finally went over the edge. He was also contemplating whether or not he was prepared to take care of a mentally destroyed Pony at his young age. More so, if it was ordered by Princess Celestia if word of this reached the ruler. He then approached her from the side and carefully leaned over so that his head was directly over her own as he tried to ascertain her current mental state before making any kind of rash decision.
Gilda was just sitting there... nothing but sitting and watching with an oddly neutral look that had this creeping grin growing on the edge of her beak. This was quickly followed with her lifting her right hand. Without any type of warning, the Griffin snatched a brown bag that was just large enough to fit in her palm from out of the air. Said bag made a few jingling sounds that was strongly reminiscent of coins rubbing up against one another. The one that it came from turned out to be Rory and she was giving a very unamused look at the downed Pony that was just out of sight. This was thanks to the table being in the way.
She then said in an aggravated voice, that was also laced with a bit of amusement as she spoke through the side of her mouth that was facing Gilda. “You win the bet... *Sigh* You were right, she lasted a little longer than I thought. The next bet we have a wager on, we're going double or nothing.” Now when it came to the next member within the room. Which happened to be Rainbow. She was still in the shocked expression that came about when Brex said that he had multiple jobs under his belt. So, the only difference was the direction she was facing.
But at the end of that long minute. She was the first person to speak as she stated the obvious with an awestruck tone to her voice that threatened to turn into heavy laughter. “I think you cracked the egg-head!” This was immediately reciprocated by the still unconscious Twilight who began to give a few quick spasms as a little foam appeared on her lips before it disappeared, and she was breathing normally again. This got Gilda to say the next in the straightest voice she had ever given. Which actually had the effect of making everyone there, aside from Spike and Brex to laugh. “I don't think he cracked her... I'd wager the egg-head got scrambled.”
Spike didn't even register the joke, while Brex merely started to hang his head along with shaking it disappointedly. Even though Rory was laughing up a storm. She managed to keep her thoughts calm enough to have a legitimate conversation with him through the connection. “What's wrong? Isn't it every displaced person's dream to break Twilight? And you literally did it without even trying.”
This got a grumble sound through the connection from his end as he replyed to her in a flat tone. “I'm really sorry Rory, but I wasn't really in the mood to do that today... With everything going on with Gilda and Rainbow, I just feel drained to where not even this could bring my mood. If it was any other time, then I’d be chuckling along with the rest of you.”
This turned Rory on the outside world to quiet down a little bit as her mental voice got a little worried when she spoke to him. “Okay! I know something's definitely wrong now, if you can't even get any enjoyment out of this. Maybe you should take today as a day off and just decompress? You know, not really think about anything, and just come up with some mindless hobby to drudge up again. We did just liberate a crumbling country that was taken over by some sword in-bodying Primal. Who just happened to take over a prince and then slaughter the rest of the immediate royal family over the course of a couple of years.”
“Who not to mention, sent that nation into a downward spiral of disease, crime and moral decline. Then we come right back here as quickly as possible and use up almost all the reserves on board the Yuna to get across the ocean just so that we are in time to attend the gala. This was THEN, followed with you facing your fears to stand right in front of the Princess of the sun. Afterwards, on the way back from the party, we bump into another displaced on the train and it nearly erupts into a gunfight.”
Rory took a moment to take in an inhale of air for her mental voice, before she went on again once she got some strength built up. “I also did spring the whole mansion on you. Last, but not least. We somehow started a herd with Rainbow and Gilda being added on to it.... Well... I wouldn't say the last one was something to worry about, but I figured I should just throw in some good points at the end of this long list.”
This was when Rory's voice turned more upbeat than a car salesman that just sold half the lot in a single afternoon. “We did find one very distant relative who was able to rightfully take the throne. Ahhh...The scientists and engineers on the Yuna now have a bunch of new data to look over as well from the long trip too.”
“Now that's bound to get them fired up for a while. We also know that Celestia doesn't really have any diabolical plans set in motion to have you turn to stone. At least none that I can tell. We also find out that a Displaced has not turned the world into a nuclear wasteland, even though he's been here for a while during your absence. We have a bigger place and now have two members to add to your harem! I'd dare say we had a very productive two months. Hehe!”
Brex slowly started to shake his head just enough that he was sure that Rory could see it as she was still looking in his direction. He then said through the link, “Maybe I will. But first we need to send the rest of them home and I need to get in contact with this Engineer person. I can talk to him through one of the pearls and now that I've met him, I can look up his general location with Heaven's computer. Afterwards I'll take the day off. But I still need to get some items ready for tomorrow.”
He then glanced over at everyone in the room before adding the next part. “Um… do you think it’s OK if I just head on out of here and leave the rest of this to you? I just really don't feel up to too much confrontation and I think I just have barely enough in case this displaced character becomes an issue.” Rory quickly responded to that with a tender tone to her mental voice, while secretly reaching over with her left hand to take his right one for a firm hold.
“Don't push yourself too hard now. You haven't acted like this in a while. Make sure you call me the instant you feel as though anything is off. I mean it.” This got a quick nod from him as he slowly got out of his chair and made his way towards the second door that led into the dining room. Miraculously, he slipped out without gaining the attention of the others in the room as he stealthily switched over to his rogue and use the hide ability until he was clear through the door.
Brex didn't even take the chance to look over his shoulder or say goodbye to the others before taking his leave. Once he got into the hallway and saw that Lynn was waiting nearby. He informed her that he would be going out for a bit and would be back in the next two or three hours. Once he had is current affairs in order and left Rory to contend with three guests in the house, along with one partially comatose unicorn. The Roegadyn soon found himself out the front doors and already halfway to the gate by the time he started to think to himself without Rory listening in.
He had the following thoughts in a somber inner voice as he trudged along the paved path. “I can't let them all see me like this... Why do they have to be so happy about being with me. I really… really thought that I'd be able to dissuade them and get out of it if I was to toss all of that onto the table. By the seven hells. I even thought that when I answered them about not showing my face, would have been more than enough, but they're just so stubborn!”
Brex grabbed on to both sides of his head and started to squeeze it as a sign of his frustration for a few seconds before letting it go and continuing with his thoughts. “I mean, come on! Anyone with common sense would see that they're being incredibly rash with their decision. This whole thing is up there with hooking up with someone over the internet without ever even seeing a photo!”
Brex was now passing the gate and closing it behind himself in order to walk along the outer wall towards the North, as his thoughts continue to spiral out of control. “This is nothing like what we got going on with our maids. They're just into it to have fun and help me out out of what I can only assume is some weird obligation to their Queen.” That was when he released a heavy sigh and stopped to glance around and see if there was anyone nearby.
When he was sure that he was completely alone and that no one was watching. He continued the rest of the way until he went around the corner that would lead towards the Everfree forest. But what he was really going for, was the shadow that was just being made along the wall on that side thanks to the sun's position in order to go into the Shadow Realm. This was all because of his paranoia kicking in and he wanted to throw anyone who was observing from a distance off his trail by making them believe he was going into the forest.
It didn't take him long before he stepped into the Shadow Realm by making a hard right and walking into the dark section of his walled-off estate. Once he was finally in a place that he was completely alone and that no one else could follow. Did he finally slumped down against the wall and onto his butt and firmly pressed his back against the hard stone surface behind. From his current position he could just barely make out Ponyville in the distance due to the haze in the air.
While in this shaded version of his reality, it was just really hard to make out when it got to a certain distance. He was quite sure that the forms that were flying over town were most likely the Pegasus variety of the ponies. Honestly, it was hard to tell with them just looking like wisps of smoke from where he sat silently.
He sat there and rested for a few minutes until he felt that he recovered enough when it came to his mental state to be able to meet a fellow displaced. After getting to his feet and brushing the shadow version of dirt off of himself. Brex opened up his connection to Heaven's computer and brought up the relevant information there was on this Engineer guy.
It took a couple of seconds, but something did come up. Once the window was displayed and he started to peruse what was documented. He soon found that there was quite a bit of sections that were redacted and cursed his lack of clearance level when it came to accessing some of the more relevant personal data.
There were literally two sections on it and the one that was heavily protected was what he thought to be his pre-displaced life. However, he did find it odd that his name on that section was indeed Engineer. He had this flat expression as he saw this and began to grumble to himself on whether Heaven's computer was having some type of an issue before he looked over to the second set of documentation. This one displayed him with the name of Engineer and that he was an earth pony. There was also some mention of him only arriving a short time ago and that his entry point was in the Griffin Empire.
Now going off the small number of images that he glimpsed with the echo. He lined that up with the story on what was shown and continue to look through what was in front of his face. The next set showed that he had relations with Daring Do and a few random Ponies and Griffins along his travels. But surprisingly enough, there was a section that had labeled his point of origins as Equestria. This caused Brex to run his hand down his mask before he froze in place and looked at Heaven's computer systems again and started on bringing up his own information.
He then said the following as he compared another set of windows popping up into his vision that mirrored that of what was displayed for this Engineer guy. He went past the usual stuff and got to his point of origins and saw that it also said Equestria. However, there was a small blinking icon that was too small to make out on a cursory glance and he concentrated on it. This caused the icon to expand and add a new set of texts that said the following. Point of origin: Equestria. Subcategory: Final Fantasy Fourteen. Visitor status: Non-existent. Additional information: Restricted.
After seeing all of this. His eyes darted over to the window that was meant for Engineer and went down to where he was before. He didn't see it at the time because it wasn't blinking or anything, but there was a small Dot that was partially shaded so that it was blending in with the background. After going through the same motion as he did with his own, some more texts quickly popped up. Point of origin: Equestria. Subcategory: Final Fantasy Fourteen. Visitor status: non-existent. Additional information: Restricted.
His right eye began to do that small twitching thing from a buildup of irritation as he angrily repeated the words out loud before adding his own. “Okay, I understand the point of origin. I can also understand the subcategory being that version of Equestria. But what's going on with the visitor status? Shouldn't that be different if he's coming to my world? Hmm... Okay, there's just one way to double check this.” And with that he waved his hand and dismissed all the windows except for his own and miniaturized it so that it was not covering his vision. But was still on the part about visitor status.
That was when he hopped in place and disappeared into a tiny hole that expanded to allow his body to enter before closing the moment he was swallowed up. He soon found himself popping out of the shadows at the front of his old handmade house in the mountains. He then pulled out from his item box the skull key he got from Ryu and stepped right up to the porch.
After exiting the shadows and using the key on the door. Brex opened it up and went through without any pause. On the other end he found himself coming out of a doorway that was in one of the higher sections of Ryu's underground city and was thankful he hadn't been noticed yet, because he didn't plan on sticking around for too much.
He chose this moment to look at the window once again and found that the information did indeed change to that of, Subcategory: League of Legends. Visitor status: Current location, Rune Tara. Non-summoned. This only caused Brex to have a sour expression, as he continued to silently glare at the screen as if he were daring it to try and say something else that wouldn't make sense. Without wasting any time at all. He used the key and went back to his own world and closed the door behind himself, before taking a few steps away from his old house.
He then threw his arms up and motion both to either side of the screen and made the action of grabbing on to the edges of the window. Surprisingly enough, he was able to grab onto it after feeling a small tingling sensation in his fingertips and began to move it around a little. While also stretching it so that it showed more texts. That was when he angrily began to yell at it without any care about keeping it in his head. “Why are you saying that I'm at another world, but you won't say that he is?! This just makes no sense at all to me! And I’m the one that’s meant to be confusing!”
He was just about to go on, when he heard a young boy's voice coming from right behind and slightly elevated. “You really should lighten up man! That bad habit of always worrying too much is gonna get’cha killed.” Upon hearing this. Brex Follow the voice and discovered it to be a black raven that was sitting on the very edge of the roof and right above his front door.
His next reaction was to leap back so that he gained about five meters. However, the distance was enough that he ended up splashing into about a foot or so of water and equipped his Black Mage Soul Stone. Nothing really changed on his form, but he did cause a long two-handed staff to appear in his right hand and pointed it at the bird while taking a defensive stance. This action clearly spooked the raven, as it started to flap its wings as Brex was already in the middle of channeling some magic into a fireball that was quickly building up at the end of his staff.
However, the spell was canceled upon hearing the panicked shouting coming from his target as it was flailing about its wings in an odd manner that was closely resembling one of those flag wavers that would be standing at an airstrip. At the same time, he was sure he could clearly see droplets of sweat being thrown about as it spoke in a panic. “WAAAAAAAIT! Don't cook my giblets!” This lasted for about two seconds and during that time, the bird started to calm down a little, but this only flared up with even more panic than before after what Brex did and said next.
“Nice try Jericho Swain! But I'm not going to fall for it! I must have let my guard down if you came through the door with me without noticing. There’s no way I'm going to let you take a foothold here!” A new fireball was quickly summoned and launched right at the bird, but it managed to get out of the way with only the tips of the feathers on its tail being partially singed as it flew towards the right.
As soon as it got to maybe seven or eight meters away from its last position, did it flap its wings so that it would stop in mid-air to avoid a lightning strike that was aimed right where he was about to be only a split second later. The lightning bolt that passed by even left a few sparks that floated for a few seconds before it dissipated.
Over the next thirty seconds or so, the following happened. The bird would constantly fly in one direction and then the next, as it continued with either some hair pin turns or seemingly sporadic flaps of its wings to narrowly dodge the next set of fireballs, lightning strikes and flying ice shards. Luckily from their current positions on both sides. Most of the spells being flung by Brex were flying off into the air so that they were harmless. Although on the few occasions that the bird did fly low or off to the left or right a little too much. A fireball would either land in the water to produce a loud sizzle or make a circular burn mark on a rock.
The lightning was pretty much the same except the markings were a little more centralized on the impact instead of going outwards when compared to the fireballs. When it came to the ice shards, they would either make deep indentations or cause a section of the water to explode with sharp spikes that would erupt from the sudden drop in temperature.
The only thing that managed to stop at all from continuing was the way the bird was crying as this was going on. It managed to blurt out the next set of words right as a lightning bolt nearly struck right between his two tiny legs, along with a loud squawk and a small whimper. “I should have brought Little Moon with me. The kid would listen to her and not go all Darth Sidious on my manhood!”
At that exact moment, the bird nearly fainted and lost pretty much all its strength. As a result, it could do nothing else but to fly straight down to the ground and land about five meters away as it was loudly panting. On the Roegadyn's part, he was pretty much frozen in place right as he brought his staff above his head and a magical circle was forming at his feet and going into a slow rotation.
Several seconds of silence went by as Brex thought the following in his head in a disbelieving tone. “Did this... H-How does he... I heard wrong, right? He couldn't have! I haven't spoken about her to anyone else but to Rory and it was never out loud. T-This has to be a trick… But-But what if it isnt?”
The magic he was channeling slowly dissipated as he resignedly lowered his staff. But kept it at his side with the bottom end now resting on the ground. On the outside nothing was wrong aside from the hesitation. But from behind his mask, Brex had this very odd expression that was a mix of disbelief and what could be closely resembled to wonder.
He was just in the middle of opening his mouth to say something, when the bird beat him to the punch and was now flapping its wings in order to straighten out a couple of the messed-up feathers that were acquired during the improvise and very dangerous acrobatics being performed only moments ago by the talking bird.
“Yeah, yeah, you heard me. I had no idea you had a phobia of birds too. If I had, then I would have picked another form.” This only made Brex blink dumbfoundedly from behind his mask as the bird continued after giving himself a good once-over and flying back towards the house. It then landed onto one of the rain barrels that was situated next to the door.
It gave itself one final shake to fluff up its feathers before it continued. “Now that you're not trying to turn me into a side dish anymore, I'll come out and say it. No, I did not come through the door, I was already here. And I have no idea who this one person you think I am. Ah man! I feel all staticky.”
“And yes, I do know Little Moon. I was only talking to her maybe ten or fifteen minutes ago. And before you ask. Daddy, Little Light and Little Moon are doing okay. Well… as okay as their family relationship is involved. But I won't go into the details on how Daddy's been getting chewed out by Moon so much. As for why I'm even here, now that's got very different reasons. First, you could just say that this bird is on a bit of a vacation and the other, is me playing the delivery boy. Ah! And speaking of that! Just give me a second here.”
The bird lifted its right wing and was now reaching underneath with his black beak to scrounge around in its feathers. After a second or two passed by as it did this. It started to make some extremely uncomfortable sounds that were reminiscent to how one would when trying to talk with an oversized jawbreaker in their mouth. Once he pulled his face out from underneath his wing. It became obvious that it was just that with him now clutching between his upper and lower Jaws, something that was a fair bit larger than a tennis ball.
What caught his attention next as this was going on. Was the way the bird was making these gagging sounds as though he was touching something that was completely rancid as the following words were partially muffled around his beak. “Blah! fwhat dosh ke keef in thosh fockets?!”
Clearly, the bird just could not take it anymore and dropped it onto the barrel next to himself before hopping a few steps away. This went on till he was at the far end and giving it the stink eye as he continued. He then spoke the next part as he was intentionally keeping his mouth open and not allowing his outstretch tongue to touch anything in his mouth. Which made it a little difficult to understand. But Brex did manage to make out the following.
“Ghagh! That old fossil needs to clean out his pockets! I don't even want to know what that thing's been brushing up against while he's had it! Blah! I really need some mouthwash!” That was when he took a moment to fly over to the nearby water and started to dunk his head. Immediately he brought it back up and started to gargle loudly before he looked back at Brex while giving an angry tone to that kid voice of his.
“Little Moon better make this up to me, cuz I'm never doing that again! NEVER EVER AGAIN YOU HEAR ME! This must be what it's like to go through some grandpa’s drawer and find things you never want to see! But soooooooo much worse! I just know I caught some long sense died out disease that must have been around the time of the dinosaurs! I swear! If I lose my feathers, I’ll pick them all up and super glue them on that bald head of his!”
It's feathers quickly bristled after saying that, before going right back to the barrel and looking a little calmer. He then said the next bit very hurriedly and in a mocking manner, as he pointed his right wings tip towards the thing that he put down and then back up at Brex. “That there’s a gift. Now don't ask me what it does because I don't know, Daddy doesn't know, Little Light doesn't know, Little Moon doesn't know and I get the feeling you don't want to know. So, don't ask me what I know, because that right there is all I know!”
Brex currently had this what the fuck face behind his mask as he was slightly tilting his head off to the right and also beginning to open his mouth. Unfortunately, the bird cut him off yet again as it flaps its wings a few more times before taking to the air. “I bet you want to know who I am, but I'm not going to say! Don't want you blabbing it and getting heard by the others at the table of theirs later. He was now arching an eyebrow as he released a question that just begged to come out. “Why do I get the feeling you shouldn't be here if that's the case?”
The bird gave off a small laugh as it continued to encircle the area. “Let's just say that I may have... uh... played around a little too rough and broke something. So, you could say this is a bit of a vacation until things blow over!” The next part was a quick back and forth between the two of them as Gambit started off with an accusatory tone at the beginning. “Just what did you do?”
“Nothing much!”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, I didn't do much! That is aside from blowing something up and running.”
“What was it that you blew up?”
“Just some empty random hair salon. I wanted to see if it was true about putting a bunch of hair sprays together and shoving them into a microwave.”
“And just why would you want to put a bunch of hair sprays in a microwave?”
“Why else? I can't think of any other better reason than to watch the big kaboom! Although it was a little weak so, I tried again and added a bit more juice to the mix.”
“Okay... so I take it you blew up the building?”
“Oh man! You should have been there! It was so cool!”
“I see... I suppose if you know about those three. Then you must be one of their kind. From what I remember they could conjure up pretty much anything they want, so what's the big problem?”
“Aaah... Well~. Hehehe~. I may have gotten someone angry and-.”
“Just spit it out already, what did you do to warrant an escape to this world?”
“Hey, I'll tell you, but you got a promise not to be mad!
“Fine... I promise I won't be mad if you tell me. Now just spill it.
“Well... I may have tried to hide behind a certain table when I was found out.
‘Uh, okay? And?
“I… May have been a part and its destruction~.” At the end of that part. The bird was talking as though he might have been giving a strained smile.
“Okay, so you broke a table and-.” That was when his voice came to a dead stop as his mind carefully processed what was said. This bird apparently is among the three he met on the other side and was responsible for blowing up a building. But it only got more nervous when it came to a simple table. Images flashed from a time long since passed where he was in a weird place with a metallic gold sea for the floor and a large oval-shaped table.
Once the situation had fully dawned on him. His face fell as he spoke the next part in a disbelieving voice, as he just stared blankly straight ahead at his house. “It wouldn't happen to be a very big oval-shaped table that was capable of displaying images of this world, was it?” Instead of words. This only earned him a long string of awkward chuckles from the bird as it continued to soar around in circles, although judging from his mini map, the bird did add a little bit of distance to its flight pattern when it came to their positions to one another.
But before Brex could say anything else. The bird immediately spoke up as it turned to its more carefree and childlike voice. “Hey, look at the bright side. At least they're not going to be watching you for a little bit! And it won't take too long to get that table fixed if they're working on it together.” The bird started to do a couple of loop-de-loops in the air before it landed onto the barrel again that had the strange orb as he continued.
“Anyways! Here, go ahead and take it. I think you just got to push it inside your body.” Brex quickly retorted as he used his free hand that was not holding his staff and placed it onto his hip. This was followed with leaning his head forward a bit and talking in a tone that just said he was being very skeptical. “Do you honestly believe I'm just going to randomly take an item from a talking bird and shove it into my chest just because it says so?”
The bird then started to tilt its own head before it reluctantly answered and an oddly chipper tone. “I guess that would be… yes? It's either that or swallow. But judging from what it tasted like I would really rather you go and pick a different route.” His voice then turned quite mischievous as he said the next bit with what Brex thought was a smile that was creeping on to the edge of the raven’s beak. “It's either a shoving it into your chest or use it as a suppository, but you don't really strike me as a guy who would be into that.”
His right eye was now twitching from behind his mask as he was now giving a strained smile to indicate he was having trouble with keeping his cool with this bird as he replied. “I will consider the first option of putting it in my chest if you can give me some type of proof that you know Little Moon.”
That was when the bird released a sigh before giving an answer. “Well. Little Moon currently has the form of that one character from the OverWatch video game. I can't really remember what the name of the character is but it's the one that has a bodysuit and rides around in that odd robot that shoots the guns from the arms and loves to go Kamikaze and makes a big boom”
Brex was now narrowing his gaze as his voice turned a little dangerous. “That sounds awfully vague to me. And since I don't really know who you are that only makes it even worse. You better come up with something better. Otherwise, you'll see just what I'm like when someone plays with my emotions...” This was immediately followed with an aura beginning to build up around his form and his left eye giving off a faint yellow glow that was just beginning to flicker to life.
Upon seeing this. The bird was now panicking again as it was changing positions with its wings bending in various angles as it did before. After the short panicking session that lasted a few seconds. It was followed with his eyes going wide as he screamed out the following and holding out his wings in a placating gesture. “Whoa-whoa-whoa! Hold on! I know something else; I know something else! The both of you bonded over video games!”
Even with this said, the Roegadyn was showing no signs of calming down which caused the bird to panic a little more before he came up with something else to say. “S-She's really worried about you because she thinks of you as a little brother!”
This however, started to calm him down and the bird continued. “Oh yes-yes and the day you left she was very upset and wanted you to stay longer! She's been keeping up on a promise she made to you when you were in one of your training sessions about checking up on you now and then. She didn't do just that! She goes to the table almost every day now!”
Brex's form lost all that energy within the blink of an eye. Along with the glow subsiding till it was long gone after hearing those words. He then spoke and a rather shaky voice that was just above a whisper as the rest of his body relaxed. “I… I can't believe… I forgot about that. It has been so long since I've seen them... now I just feel like an asshole.” Once Brex was done. The bird took this opportunity to fly away as he called over his shoulders just loud enough to be heard as he was gaining distance and heading off towards the North.
“They can't see or hear anything right now that's going on, so let's keep this our little secret! Don't say a word about it. Otherwise, they might find me before I'm ready to come back! Make sure you and that Engineer guy have some fun and stop taking everything so seriously! Oh, and I'll make sure to find you before I head home, and you could give me a message to tell the others!” By the end, the bird was so far that Brex couldn't even see any more texts showing up on his bottom left-hand view to indicate that he was still talking.
In all honesty, Brex really wasn't in the right state of mind to give a fuck as to where the bird was heading to. Especially after hearing about Little Moon. After a few seconds went by with only the sound of nature in the waterfall to keep him company. Brex turned his attention to the barrel and more so towards the odd orb. After giving himself a chance to think on what to do. Brex went over to the orb after dismissing his staff to pick it up.
On closer inspection it was mostly see through, but the inside was filled with a black murky substance and a set of continuously changing set of stars that would blink in-and-out of existence or simply shift to another position. That was when he placed it into his item box in order to look up any information that was on it from the description window. But instead of getting anything useful at all. Instead, all he got was a set of texts that described it as an unknown orb.
Once that was seen. Brex gave a small sigh, while lightly shaking his head. He took in the position of the sun and realized how late it was beginning to get and immediately pulled out one of his link pearls and began to speak into it once it was brought to his right ear. “Hey, do you hear me over there? I'm ready to meet up.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 69: The Pair Ride Again.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Canterlot* *Time: Ten in the morning*
Brex was currently standing in a section of Canterlot that had most of the taverns situated both near and yet it felt so very far away from the uptight nobles by the looks of the rustic décor. Sure, the city itself was clean but there were other sections in what was for those people of lower status resided. The roads were a bit narrow so there wasn't anything left to add a real sidewalk. The shop windows were either a little dirty from not being cleaned on a regular basis or had some tinted glass put in place to make it difficult for outsiders to look inwards.
The road that he was waiting on was just a little wider than what a standard carriage would require to move through without hitting any of the signs or open doors for the nearby shops. To Brex, it kind of reminded him of something he saw in a movie that involved some small kid going to buy magical supplies for attending a School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Well, if one were to take the usual outfits of the coming and going adventurers that he could see from where he was, then it wasn't all that far off, especially with some of the spellcasters that would wear those pointy hats.
The Roegadyn just happened to be standing there for the last twenty minutes and got a few odd looks from a couple of the drunken patrons that would come out of the nearby shops and local taverns, but otherwise he was left alone for the most part. He was just about to contemplate whether he should give a call through the Link pearl he had pinched between a couple of his fingers when he heard someone calling out to him from just a short distance away on his left-hand side.
“Yo, what's up! Ready to get sloshed? hmm. I might be using that word wrong. Maybe it's hammered? Hey, you know what I mean, let's just get drunk off our asses!” This turned out to be an orange Earth Pony with a dirty blonde mane and tail. From a glance he was most likely around six feet and five inches tall. He was wearing pretty much the same thing as what he was on the train. But the armor meant to be underneath was replaced with an undershirt and not wearing his helmet. He was also without his gloves. Although, he still had his Pip-Boy strapped onto his left arm.
As he was getting closer, he was waving his left hand and giving this big smirk. As soon as Brex saw this he grumbled underneath his breath. “Just great. I feel like I'm the only displaced out there that doesn't drink. Or it could just be my luck that I just attract those types. I'll just have to make sure that we don't end up in some type of drinking contest again.” As soon as the two got close enough that they were just out of arm's reach of the other. The Pony reached over his shoulder with his left hand so that he can indicate behind himself with his thumb as he spoke.
“I hope this doesn’t’ become an all-day thin'. I promise to meet someone so they could show me the guild.” Slightly tilting his head to that, Brex asked his question. “You're going to join the Adventurers Guild?” This got a hearty laugh from the pony before replying. “You're darn tootin! Can't make the scene without the green. Huh? Wait, they use gold coins, so I got to come up with a new saying. Ah heck to it, you know what I mean. Follow me. I found a place last night and we could talk over there. Even has a room or two in the back for those private meetings.”
Brex nodded to that and allowed him to lead the way. but during their walk that took about a minute. Brex heard the orange Pony talking over his shoulder in a volume that only the two of them could hear with their proximity. “I never really said it, but I think it's way past overdue. The names Engineer. Full names Engineer Grave.” Gambit responded to that as he was looking the guy over. “I go by Gambit.” This got a laugh from him as he slowed down enough so that the two of them were walking side by side and he gave Gambit a light punch to the arm as he spoke up.
“Gambit huh? Now that's a mighty kick-Ass name. You know, I was really surprised that you didn't want to talk back on the train. Must have a million and one questions in that melon of yours. I really didn't think I'd run into you there. Even had a whole set of the Elements of Harmony thrown in the mix.” Brex was now narrowing his eyes slightly as he kept his sights glued to Engineer as he spoke. “Quick question, just how much do you know about Equestria?”
Engineer started to scratch the back of his head as he was looking towards the sky that was just barely visible between the buildings as he answered. “Not much really. Just whatever that book that came with me and put into this head of mine. I know about the Elements of Harmony and who has them along with what they're meant to do. Then I got places and other important names. Oh, and not to mention the important things such as customs and what was see as the norm so that I can fit in better.”
Brex hummed to that when they came to where they were heading for and entered one of the smaller taverns with a dark atmosphere set as the theme. It was set up in what one would consider an attempt at mixing and medieval drinking establishment with that of a hint of country thrown in. There were a couple of patrons scattered here and there with most of them being on their own. These were mostly comprised of Ponies of the three tribes. However, there were very few Unicorns thrown in, as a majority of them were of the earth pony persuasion.
Engineer led them both to the counter and got the bartenders attention. He tried to order two drafts of their strongest beer, but Brex waved his hand and said that he would just be fine with water. But shockingly enough. Engineer turned around and said that he was only ordering for himself, so the two drafts were still going to be coming his way. The bartender turned out to be a stallion and he carefully eyed the two of them for a second before closing his eyes and giving a light shrug and started on getting the drinks prepared.
The pair waited silently until the bartender returned and engineer inquired as to whether or not the back rooms were open. Once the go ahead was given, the pair walked away from the counter and off to a side hallway and found an unlocked room and went inside for their chat. Once there and the door was closed. Engineer made his way to the one table in the center of the room that had a couple of chairs around it. He was just about to say something when Brex held up his right hand to motion that he should wait.
This got a curious raise of the eyebrow from him as Brex performed his usual check of the room that he was so accustomed to doing that it may as well have been second nature by now. After casting his spells in order to detect any type of bug that could have been planted. He paused and looked at one of the two light fixtures and pointed a finger towards it without saying a word. This was because this one essentially pinged his radar as something that would ease drop on their privacy.
This was immediately followed with him taking out a Link Pearl and giving it a toss so that it went over the table and was caught by engineer. Once this was done, Brex could feel something appearing in his hand and upon looking at it he discovered it to be a copy of the one that he just gave away. After some concentration was given. The special effect he had placed on this token activated and he started speaking to Engineer.
To anyone else apart from the two of them. All that would be heard was an odd language that coincided with nothing that was spoken on this planet. However, the two would still hear a second layer of language underneath the one that they can understand as their own and this unsurprisingly confused engineer as he furrowed his brow, while watching Brex take a seat across the table.
“Make sure you hold on to that or place it on yourself while concentrating and no one will be able to understand us. That light fixture over there is a bug. I've come across a few of them so I kind of expected that in a shady place like this.”
“Are you kidding me? I'll make sure to tell Daring Do about it when I see her again.”
“You know about Daring Do?”
“Yep! Met her on my very first day here. Helped her out of a tight pinch and we've been traveling together ever since.”
“So, I take it she was the other presence I felt in the baggage car. I can only guess that you're going to meet her later when we’re all wrapped up with our business here.”
“That's right. Oh wow, OK now that’s really weird with the way my voice is sounding. So, what do you want to talk about?” As soon as he had said that. Engineers started to drink away after pouring some of the gold liquid into a smaller glass to make it easier to consume.
“It's really simple. I just want to know what your intentions are in this world and how is it that I saw memories of another. Yet for some reason you’re registered to this world instead as your point of origin.”
“Well, all I know is that I'm here to lend you a hand. And as for where I was before... uh. I guess you could see it as a testing ground if I’m looking at it the right way.”
“A testing ground? Okay wait, do you know anything about the Displaced? don't tell me you're a newbie.”
“I got no idea what a Displaced is.”
“Okay, maybe we should start at the beginning.”
“That would be the smart plan. Go ahead and use that trick of yours again. Now that we've got all the time in the world and we won't be bothered, it's a good time as any to get a better look.”
“Again, I’m rather surprised you let me do that so casually. It also makes me wonder how you know so much about the Echo when you just said you have no idea about what the Displaced are.”
“Oh, that was one of the things that was in the book. I got a basic rundown on who and what you are, but not a whole lot else. Why else do you think I'd back off and not make things escalate back on the train? Between you and me I rather not have you pissed.” Brex gave a small huff, before he nodded and started to use the Echo. As this was happening. The world around him began to twist before fading into black as he felt that his mind delving into a pool.
Unlike all the other times where it was almost instant after letting things have time to come into focus. This time around Brex found himself in an odd void with these weird blotchy images that could just barely be made out in the distance. When he tried to gauge his situation, he immediately discovered that he couldn't even see his own body, so he was in a sense, a floating consciousness.
After a few seconds of ominous silence going by. He could tell that everything had this bluish hue to it, and something appeared right below him and started to make a walkway of sorts that oddly resembled neuro pathways and clusters. In the beginning it was just a few pieces that were trying to line up together until it was going straight ahead and slightly curving off to the left as it was going at a slight angle of elevation.
That was when he began to think to himself in a voice that gave an odd echoing effect. “I think I know what's going on here. All I need now is some screwy doctor giving me directions and some commentary and we’re all set. Well let's dive into his mind, shall we?” And with that, Brex began to slowly trudge along the winding path set before him. It did not take long at all before it brought him to a section of memory that displayed a schoolyard meant for kids that might have been in middle school.
The courtyard showed a bunch of kids fooling around in the distance. But the scene close to where he was standing, or in his case floating. Showed two boys ganging up on a single child. The image was stuck in the freeze frame position as the kid with an orange skin and blonde hair was punched in the side of the face and could be seen in the middle of being knocked over. As for the two assailants, their skin could be seen as variations of pale green.
A few seconds went by before he began to hear Engineers voice that sounded a little more monotoned than normal. “Engineer Grave. Born on December twenty-fifth. Has a sister that was three years younger than himself. Always got into fights and made plenty of mistakes along the way.” The image that was being shown started to gray out, as another set of walkways could be seen extending on the other side of the memory and going to another one that could just barely be made out in the distance.
Brex followed that until it led to another scene where a kid that looked to be like the one before. Although, he was just a bit bigger and could be seen standing in the middle of a crowd full of blurred out images along with another figure that was smaller than himself at his side. When he got a little closer, he nearly fell into a large rectangular shaped hole in the ground and managed to keep himself from falling in and coming to the realization that this was a funeral.
Engineer's voice came again as it now hit a somber tone. “His parents died in a car crash, so the only ones left were him and his younger sister at the age of six. Due to their age, they stayed with a distant family member and moved away from their home country of New Zealand. Even with this tragedy. They were quite lucky that some inheritance was left behind, so they at least had enough to live off from until they came of age to work.” When the commentary was over. The scene greyed out once again and produced another path.
Once Brex got to the next one. Engineer's voice started up just as everything came into view. “From there the kid started to clean up his act and everything was looking great. But it looked as though fate was resolute in kicking him down and he ended up losing his sister at the age of sixteen. After that, everything went to shit after he finished high school. He got a job as an engineer at a great company. But that was as good as it got because of the horrible manager he had to work under that always abused his power.
The scene shows engineer as an adult with the same orange skin and yellow hair. He was working in a factory and moving around some equipment that was on a cart. Behind him was this arrogant man who was the stereotypical old guy that should have retired eons ago and he was in the middle of yelling and throwing papers into the air. The boss looked quite old and very thin. The guy’s face was twisted and shriveled up that he could have easily convinced a random person in a dark alley that he was a walking zombie.
When it came to Engineer, he had bags under his eyes and nearly hollowed out cheeks to show that he was both sleep-deprived and was both likely made to work past his brakes in order to keep up with the tyrant and his absurd demands. Upon closer inspection of the background. Brex could tell that there was hardly anyone around and one of the windows could clearly show the moon high in the sky. Which meant that he was working late when most of the other workers had already left and gone home.
On the next scene to be shown. It depicted Engineer inside of a blue jumpsuit and coming out of the ground thanks to a circular elevator that was only a few feet from reaching the top. The world around him looked exactly how it did in the Fallout 4 game, when the Vault dweller first started after getting out of the underground facility that he was frozen inside of. He was already wearing the Pip Boy and shielding his eyes with both of his hands from the bright sun.
That was when Engineer’s voice could be heard again. “It wasn't long until I was struck down in the middle of the night as I was going home after another twenty-hour shift at work. I really had no idea what had happened. But in one moment I was alive and the next I was laying on my back with my eyes closed and unable to speak or move even a muscle.”
“After a few minutes of freaking out and calling for help in my mind. Two voices came out of the darkness, and it really surprised me that they were from two children. The two of them were talking immediately one after the other. The first sounded like a boy as the second was from a girl that was probably at the same age of eight or less.
“Oh, come on! Help me out here, it was a mistake. I had no idea this was going to happen!”
“You never think things through at all, now do you? You're lucky I didn't tell the others of what you did already. And why is he even here?”
“He died because of me, and you know we can't interfere directly when it comes to them. Oh man oh man oh man oh man I'm in really big trouble! I'm going to get grounded again! I just know it!”
The other voice was completely exasperated and was trying to calm things down as she spoke in a way that made her seem older than what her voice portrayed. “Let me guess… You want my help specifically to try and get you out of this mess?”
“YES, YES, YES! You know me so well. Okay, go and do your zippity zap and put him right back!”
“You do know that that's not how it works. Especially if you want this not to be found out. Besides, you already showed me the aftermath. There's nothing left, not even ashes. He's already been declared dead for a few days now and there's no way that we can make him a new body that won't pop up on the records. I'm sorry to say this brother but you really messed up big time.”
“Well! I can't send him to the afterlife either! There's literally no way to push him into that line without the proper documentation. The second I do; he's going to pop up as being smited by me! Can we just put him somewhere else?”
“I really don't know if I should... that would be breaking at least six rules right there. You've already broken five before you even brought me into all of this.”
“Pretty please~. I'll do you a favor!”
“Ugh! Fine, fine. I'll add this to the bucket of favors you still owe me... You're really going to regret it once I start cashing all of those in.”
“Haha jokes on you, that's the future me that has to worry about that! Now what'cha gonna do? Are you going to turn him into a frightening beast that will go on a killing spree or do that really boring thing and just put him in a tinny worm to go through the cycle? Oooooh! Let’s give him a spacesuit and a ray gun! He could have a talking dog to go on adventures in space.”
“Bart! You really got to stop comparing me to the others. If you really wanted the worm option to happen, then you should have just gone to the other dimension and asked one of the other ones to do this instead of coming straight to me.”
“You know I can't do that. if I did, they would just go and tell Mother!”
The little girl began to make some thinking sounds that consisted of heavy humming and a few disgruntled grunts that indicated that she was against some idea. Her tone of voice then came back, but it was a little more excited than before. “If you're willing to put in the effort, then we could try this...” What came next was a nearly non-stop set of whispering that was coming from the two before the boy's voice could be heard.
“Oh, come on! That sounds like way too much work man! Can’t we just toss him somewhere and pretend we know nothing about it?”
“I would like to remind you that I'm a girl, so that doesn't really count.”
“You know how I get when you try to be all politically correct. You know exactly what I meant! I'm just saying it's going to take a whole lot of work and you know that I just want to relax and mess around.”
“Well… it's either this or mother finds out and you have to deal with her directly before we get the chance to show that we're trying to clean up your mess. If you won't do it on your own, then I'm perfectly willing to cash in on all of those times that you owed me one. And I promise you that I won't hold back in the least. First off, I'd like to go to a place that's full of flowers and all the books we could read out loud to all those starving children. Oh, and we can’t forget the adorable puppies!”
The girl’s voice was quickly drowned out as the boy began to sing an obnoxious tune of lalala's before speaking again. “For the Love of-. Why is it only times like these that you remind me that you are my sister! That's just evil... Okay, Okay. Fine! You have it your way I'll help. I can't believe it. You go and hurt one mortal by mistake and get all this trouble for it.”
When the voices began to fade out. Brex found himself at the end of the trail and at a new scene. There was Engineer standing alongside Preston from the Minutemen. He was all decked out in his current gear that was seen on the train. The scene showed a still image of the man firing his laser powered rifle in one direction, as Engineer was using a pistol and pointing in another way. They were within some old rundown town with a church nearby, where most of the buildings were caved in. While others were just simply gone as if sections were torn away.
On one side had a couple of people wearing broken bits of metal and wrappings, along with pointing their weapons at the duo. The other showed a small gang of chard and half naked people. These seem more like zombies as a few could be seen missing some teeth, but all of them had glowing yellow eyes and were moving in a way that showed that they were working on more animalistic tendency’s rather than running in a normal manner that did not require arms flailing and mouths wide open.
Engineers voice came once again. But it sounded a little more tired and grown up when compared to the others. “I woke up taking the identity and life of Nate from The Fallout 4 game. I played through that along with New Vegas after I tried exploring some more. You'd be surprised just how much one has to do when all of the downloadable contents are thrown in. It was actually pretty fun being the figurehead of the Minutemen and taking down the Institute.”
“What I would have traded, where all the things that was done to me whenever I got shot, stabbed, burned, or even blown up where I lost a limb. Survival mode on a screen is a cakewalk when compared to real life survival, where you can literally feel everything happening to you. I can't even tell you how many times I've had to recover from broken bones. Well, that was until I got that one perk to make them as strong as metal, so that happened a whole lot less.”
That was when everything went black, and a new scene was shown of Engineer and Brex both sitting in the room right before the Echo was used. Everything was still frozen in place as Engineers voice was now coming from his motionless body that was looking at Brex's own. “And here we are now. Two beings that don't belong in this world and sitting at a table.” There was a slight pause before he started to chuckle a little bit before continuing.
“It must have been years for me, but I could still remember hearing those two talking to me the moment I got out of that vault. I can almost remember it so clearly that it may as well have come from just yesterday. They told me of how I was accidentally killed and that I was given another chance. They plucked from my memory my favorite game and threw me in as the main protagonist. I was given the option of living out my life in any way I wished there until the day I died.”
“Or I could prove to them what kind of a person I am and earn the right to go to a world that was not destroyed by nuclear bombs. The only condition is that if I do pass their little test, then I was to lend a helping hand to another just like myself.” There was another moment of silence before his voice turned a little cheerier. “Well, I suppose that's pretty much the long and short of it. These would have to be the most important parts and I doubt you want to see every moment of my life. But go ahead and poke around if you don't feel convinced.”
For Brex. He was not only watching the images and hearing Engineer explaining what was shown. The Roegadyn was literally feeling the emotions that were pouring into his soul. Even though there wasn't a whole lot. Brex felt as if he literally lived through another person's life. The pain of loss… The frustration of being powerless when others held all the control. The fear and confusion upon his apparent death. Even the mounting levels of pain that Engineer had to endure after being placed into a new world.
It was just as he assumed when he last used the echo on someone that was not from this Equestria. The emotion from Ryu and Engineer were so intense, that Brex did everything he could in order to ground himself so that he would not get overwhelmed and lose sight of who he was. As this was all happening, he released his hold on the Echo and allowed himself to wake up in his own body and already clutching at his head. At the same time, he was gritting his teeth so hard that it made an audible grinding sound before letting out a hiss of pain through his lips.
Pretty much every part of his head was now pounding with so much pressure that every thump of his heartbeat was only giving the impression that someone was sending a railroad spike into his brain at every conceivable angle. His eyes were clenched tight for a couple of seconds, before the pain subsided just enough to allow him to open his eyes again and speak out in a not so happy tone. “Why... is it so much more painful to do that with someone who's not from... Erk… this world? I should really make a habit of taking some heavy-duty Ibuprofen before I do that ever again as a precaution.”
He then allowed his headache another moment to subside, while slowly turning his head from side-to-side before speaking again. “That was a little different.” Engineer raised an eyebrow before taking another drink and asking the question on his mind. “Oh really? I’d like to know how.”
Brex was now clutching his head again and taking a big swig of water before he answered. “Instead of me just seeing things play out, I was put into a Kellogg mind reading scenario.” The Pony across the table made an "O" shape with his mouth, before holding on to his own head with his free left-hand and giving a loud chuckle.
Unfortunately for Brex. The laughing only brought back the pain and he released another groan of discomfort. “Gah... please, just no loud sounds for a few minutes. Nuhg... if this turns out to be a constant factor, then I might have to hold off on reading the minds of other people again and stick to those that don't come from another dimension.” Brex was so distracted by this, that he reached up to try and pinch the bridge of his nose and bumped his fingers into his mask. This nearly caused it to fall off before he caught it in time.
Engineer gave him a few more minutes and pretty much finished off all his alcohol, before leaning back into his seat with his hands knitting their fingers behind his head and looking up at the ceiling. He even went so far as to push back and place both of his legs onto the edge of the table to balance on the back set of legs before talking again. “What's the plan now? You got a good looky-lou, so do I pass your inspection list?”
Brex had his right eye open and looking at the orange pony right in front of him before answering in a relieved tone. “The only thing I have a hard time believing in, is that you haven't gone completely mental after living in a world that would kill you in order to take all your stuff or even just to eat you in a form of cannibalism.” He then covered his face with his right hand before leaning back into his own chair in almost mirroring Engineers actions. The only real difference was the way the chair was creaking to give off the early warning signals that it was about to break under his weight.
Once he saw what was going on. Brex blinked a few times before putting himself back down again and giving a small chuckle of his own before he spoke. “It's going to take a little bit for my head to sort through it all. It wouldn't be too surprising if I started to sound like Applejack anytime soon. But yeah, you passed. I'm glad that you are just like Ryu and are perfectly fine with going through a background check.” Engineer looked a little confused as he raised an eyebrow. He then asked, “Who's this Ryu character?”
From there, Brex took the time to explain about the displaced and what the general rules were that he knew about. It didn't take much time at all before the orange Pony attempted to make his own token by taking out one of his extra bullets and putting his own phrase before he tossed it into the air in hopes of it going into a portal. Unfortunately, it did not do anything aside from tumbling to the ground and rolling across the floor once this was done. This act was attempted several more times before Engineer turned to Brex and asked what was wrong.
This started a go between the two of them as they rapidly fired off one question and answer and the other one's direction. The first one to start, happened to be Brex as he was tapping the chin of his mask. “Well… this is weird. I don't see why that's failing. In all the stories I've read, that was the bare minimum to get a token sent out.”
“Dang nabbit! This is a real bummer. You know, I never really came across a token while I was on my world.”
“Hmm... you know what? I've only ever come across Ryu's token now that I think about it. It's understandable that I may have not been summoned. But there are so many Displaced out there in the multiverse. Odds are I would have come across another during my time here. Oh, I know! Let me try this. The Pearl you have just has the added effect of translation. Let me toss you my real token.” He then took his white Link Pearl with the gold markings and tossed it over to Engineer, who immediately caught it in the air.
“Whoa where did it go?”
“Huh? what do you mean by where did what-.” The Roegadyn's words suddenly came to a stop when he felt a round object between his fingers and looked back down to see it was his token back in his hands. From the angle of the item itself looking towards the ceiling. The site of Brex and Engineer leaning over so that they are looking straight at the link Pearl and almost bumping the tops of their heads together could be seen. This was followed with a shared pair of awkward and confused sounds.
“Soooo~. What does this mean?”
Brex brought the item up so that he can look at it a little closely as it was pinched between his thumb and index finger before he stared at it awkwardly and answered. “I'm... not entirely sure. Oh, hold on! When I saw your memories there was something off that I really didn't put too much thought on. Would you happen to know why everybody has colors in the same way the ponies do here?”
“Okay now you're just getting me all confused. The ponies here have the same colors as all the humans.”
That answer alone caused Brex to straighten up while carefully eyeing the pony in front of him for a few seconds before he slowly asked his next question. “So… everyone back home before you were killed had the wide range of rainbow colors to their skin? If so, then I take it you've always been orange?”
The Pony started to answer back, but halfway through his voice turned a little accusatory as he was looking at Brex with a shifty look. “Yeah, I've always been orange. Why? Do you have a problem with orange?”
This earned the Pony a set of awkward sounds as Gambit's face contorted into one of confusion from behind his mask. He lifted his right hand and extended a single finger up and found that he kept opening his mouth, only to immediately close it and purse his lips together as if he were sucking on a very strong lemon. He then lowered his head and used his right hand in order to place his thumb and middle finger across his forehead so that they were touching where the temples should be on his mask before speaking up again.
“I probably have an idea, but I need to ask one more question... Does everyone back home have the same kind of name set as those here?’ This got him another confused look from Engineer before he continued with some awkwardness in his voice. “What I mean to say is... are there people in your world that have names like Jack, James, Susan, Sarah... You know, like that?” This only got the pony to look at him as if he were crazy before he slowly shook his head to indicate that those were not common.
“Hmm, the only time I've heard anything like those would have to be my short time while in the Griffin Empire.”
“Okay-okay, umm... let's try this! You wouldn't happen to know of a place called Crystal prep or Canterlot High? Or maybe you heard of another Pony's name that is the exact same as someone you knew back home? Especially when they seemed to have the same color scheme and personality.”
Engineer was about to deny it as his head was beginning to shake. But he stopped halfway. His eyes were trailing straight ahead and looking at nothing as he took on this intense stare of concentration before speaking. You know now that I think about it. I don't know why I didn't think about it before… But the one called Princess Celestia has the same name as someone I heard about back home. She was called Celestia too, but I never really met her in person. I think she was an upperclassman in high school, but she was a couple of grades ahead of me. The only reason I even know the name is because she was popular for being on the student council. You know, I think she may have been the president.”
From his side, Brex really was put into a difficult position. Going off what was just said. He had a very… very, strong suspicion that Engineer did not come from his Earth. If anything, it sounds too much that he may have come from the other side of the mirror that Twilight ends up going through shortly after becoming an Alicorn in the future. Now the real question for him was either to throw this theory out into the open and possibly witnessing what might become of it or keep it to himself until the time was right.
It took him a couple of seconds to run a few scenarios through his mind on what either of those options would bring about and concluded that it would be best to get it out there now. So, after taking in a deep breath to study himself. Brex said the following as he was keeping a close eye on Engineers reactions. “Okay, two things I really should point out. The first one being that you and I come from two distinctly different Earths. Where I'm from, we don't have a wide range of skin colors. Whereas on yours, it seems to be just like the ponies here. This also includes everyone’s names.”
This got an odd look from the orange Pony that conveyed he was in thought before slowly nodding to what Brex said. Inside his head, Brex was mentally wiping his brow as he was glad to be past that with relative ease before he threw out the next part. “I might know of a world that is closely resembling yours. Mind you, there is an infinite number of Earths out there and this may not be your point of origin.” After not hearing anything, Brex continued now that it seemed to be going smoothly, so he was feeling a little bit more at ease
“I may have heard about a magic mirror that connects this world to another where the occupants show the same similarities as yours. They also have the same naming conventions as here in Equestria. Unfortunately, it's locked away and can only be used under strict conditions. Now my real question is this... If you had a choice, would you want to go through the mirror to get back home?” As soon as the question left his lips. There was an awkward silence as engineer just gave him a blank stare that made Brex feel he was not looking at him, but more like he was looking past at something in the distance.
The orange Pony placed his chair forward until it was back onto its four legs and leaned forward in order to lay some of his body weight onto his elbows with the help of the table. He then closed his eyes for a few moments before opening them again and showing a small smile on his lips as he slightly shook his head before responding in an oddly calm voice. “If I had a choice. Then I'd say no to going back to my old home. Sure, a visit would be nice, but I think I'd rather stay here.”
Brex was about to ask why he made such a decision so quickly. But Engineer beat him to the punch after letting out a small chuckle and looking at him with a sincere smile as he spoke. “My life wasn't exactly great and being thrown into another where I literally have to fight for my life is not something I would say is better. But call me crazy, but I prefer this way more. I literally had no more immediate family there.
He paused for a second while lifting both of his hands as if imitating a scale as he continued. “Sure, I had a nice job, but I didn't much care for the people I had to work under. At least now I'm my own boss and in a weird sense there's a lot more freedom. I used to get into fights almost all the time even when I wasn't the one that started them. You wouldn’t believe how many times I got beaten up and it was somehow my fault to everyone else.”
“But now I can do pretty much anything I want and even though it's a fight for my life on a near daily basis, I’d prefer it. At least now I'm in another world where it makes less sense but is not as dangerous. There's actually clean water and food. I don't have to sleep in a broken-down building or slapped together pieces of metal out in the wilderness where you'd be lucky to see a blade of grass. Yeah, there's monsters I'll give you that. Not to mention magic and a bunch of different races. Heck, I even got someone already looking out for me even though she plays hardball.”
Brex gave him a long stair down For What seemed like forever, but was in reality, only six or seven seconds before he spoke to reply to what was just said. “Hm. I guess you and I probably have something in common with not wanting to go back to our worlds in the very least. And judging from what I saw, then I'm sure that you're not going to take advantage of your situation. But there's just one thing that I really need to talk to you about and that concerns this little baby right here.”
After going into his inventory and pulling out the bullet from the train. Brex placed it onto the table right in front of Engineer to see. The peace of metal was partially deformed from being stopped by the bone in his arm, but still retained most of its original shape. It was then pointed to before Brex spoke in a serious tone. “I picked up what I think is trace amounts of radiation when I got this inside me. Does that Pip-Boy of yours work at picking up anything that's radiating off of objects with a weak amount?”
Engineer reached over and picked up the used bullet and began to carefully examine it as he rolled it between his fingers. He then brought it close to his Pip-Boy and got not even a single static sound from the instrument before he placed it back onto the table. The orange Pony then said, “I've never really had this thing go off unless I'm literally next to barrels of nuclear waste or inside of the glowing sea. It might be that it's not sensitive enough to pick up anything beyond a certain limit that would cause bodily harm.”
Brex hummed to himself as he pinched the bottom of his masks chin as he thought of something and spoke his opinions. “Is it possible that I can ask you not to fire any of your weapons or use the ammo you brought from your world until I can put together a more sensitive piece of equipment to test your items?” He then started to eye the pit boy and also stroking the bottom of his mask in a thinking gesture.
After a second or two passed by, Brex said, “I'm just worried about the negative effects of radiation when it comes in contact with magic. I can detect whenever I suffer any type of special ailments such as poison and magical effects that would either boost or negatively impact me. But all I got was a radiation symbol and no real information as to whether it was doing any damage.”
Engineer than said, “Well, that's going to be a pretty tall order. How long do you reckon that you're going to need to make one of these? I don't exactly want to be caught with my pants down without a piece in my hand if you get my drift.” Brex didn't want to say it, but he already sent a message to one of his body doubles that was working away inside of his private lab to start putting together a Geiger counter with much more sensitive calibrations and that it would take several hours to even get the components ready to assemble.
Whether it was just coincidence or plain luck on his side. Rex did recall videos on the subject of how Geiger counters work, so he had a general idea of how to build one. Of course, several the gases that could be used in its make were not available thanks to the overall technology level in the world. But there were a few on hand that he could still use. Honestly, the whole thing would be solved a lot quicker if he used magic, but he did not want to chance it. So, in this case. It would have to be an item that was made purely through technology alone without any type of assistance on the mystical side.
But Brex did say the following while lifting his right hand up so that the palm was facing downwards and slightly tilting it from left to right. “We can know for sure by later tonight or tomorrow morning. All that I ask is that you use a weapon from this world and just avoid doing anything that would warrant you to have to pull that gun of yours out until then.”
This got a low Grumble of annoyance from Engineer before he waved his hand in a dismissive manner. He then said, “Fine. I'll play it your way. All I need is something to use until then. You wouldn't happen to have any extra weapons lying around at home, would you? I'm not just restricted to guns. I could use melee weapons or go unarmed if I really need to. I’ve been in a few bar fights.”
Brex started to inspect Engineer from were he sat to see what kind of class he was registered as. After a few seconds past and his window appeared at the side of his vision. Brex noticed how it was phasing in and out between the usual border lines he was used to seeing and an odd green computerized version. One second it would say he was a vault dweller and the next it would show nothing but garbled letters and symbols when it came to trying to say what he was when compared to Final Fantasy Fourteen standards.
Brex started to roll his shoulders to show that he was letting out a sigh before he spoke. “Yeah, I'm not sure what it is. But you're not really registering as any of the classes that I'm accustomed to. On one second, it's showing what would be displayed on your Pip-Boy and the next I'm getting this bugged out version of my inspection screen. Here I thought you would come out as a Machinist seeing as you like to use guns. So, who knows what you're going to turn out as when you go and register at the guild. I can't even get a grasp on what your level would be in this world.”
Engineer gave a quick laugh as he pointed to himself with both of his thumbs on either side of his body. He then triumphantly said with a proud tone to his voice. “Ha! You're looking at someone who's maxed out his chart so I'm at level two hundred and eighty-six when it comes to Fallout 4. This also includes the DLC's from Nuka Cola World and Far Harbor. There’s also New Vegas.”
He only continued after taking his right fist and pounding it on his chest. “I'm really strong and really fast. My body is as tough as metal… Well, at least my bones are. I have all the required intelligence and skills to build pretty much anything from my Game World. Not to mention I have the stats put into Charisma and Luck that could probably make me the best gambler in the world. Hahaha! I wouldn't be too surprised if I was maxed out here as well.”
Brex nodded to himself before going into his item box again and pulling out a number of weapons and placed them onto the table. These mostly consisted of level fifteen weapons and below. Starting from the left side was a short sword. The next was a bow. Next up were a pair of knives and the last item was a spear. Brex then said the next part while sounding a little unsure of himself.
“Odds are you can at least use these. No idea on just how strong you really are and until we know for sure that you’re not a health hazard, then these would at least help in making you look normal and minimize any unwanted attention in the meantime. I can understand that you might be able to use the guns of the Machinist, but I've been trying really hard to keep firearms from becoming a thing here. Well at least not in the eye of the public.”
This got an odd reaction out of engineer as he slightly winced and was now giving the Roegadyn an awkward smile. This caused an uneasiness to form in Brex's guts as he waited for the orange Pony to talk. “Hehe-hehe… I may have... already done that. Haha-Haha!” This just got an awkward silence between the two before he elaborated. “I may have put together a pipe pistol for Daring Do. And when she last went to go check in at the guild a couple days ago... she said that her adventures plate gave her the new job title of Machinist. Soooo~. Oops!”
Brex nearly pulled off his own mask upon hearing this to directly pinch the bridge of his nose. He then pursed his lips together while trying to hold back his frustration and taking in a sharp intake of air through his nose that could plainly be heard throughout the room. That was when he waved his hands over all the weapons to make them disappear back into his item box so that they were instantly replaced with an old-style musket with some Final Fantasy flare thrown in. It was just a little longer than Engineers arm and was mostly using wood as the base.
Brex then said, “Go ahead and try picking this up and see what happens. It's called a Steel-barreled Carbine. It's meant for level 30 but I'm guessing you're at least that strong if going off of your base stats are any indication. It's designed to be loaded with seven bullets at a time. There is a lever underneath to get the next bullet in the chamber. Think of it like one of those shotguns you see the Terminator swinging around to reload the next shell. This can be a placeholder until we get your other stuff checked out.”
The orange Pony got up from his chair and picked up the weapon and started to go over its design as well as the loading mechanism with great interest. Engineer then said while pointing it at one of the walls away from Brex and looking down the gun sight, “Not two different from the hunting rifles I picked up from random Gunners. Think I can also get that one short sword you had earlier as a backup weapon?” This got a shrug from Brex as he pulled the weapon out again and placed it on the table. It was quickly picked up and given a few swings before it was put back onto the table along with the gun.
Engineer gave it a couple of seconds before he nodded his head and spoke. “I reckon I can make do with these. Just don't take too long with putting that counter together. Oh, hold on do you think I need to wear clothing from this world too?” Honestly Brex didn't even consider that his clothing might be radioactive and now that it was brought up Brex gave a firm nod to this. The Roegadyn then said, “Yeah, that would be a good idea. If you're strapped for some cash, I can lend you some now and you can use it to get some appropriate gear.”
This got a hearty laugh from the pony before he waved It off and replied. “I'm already covered on that. Daring Do talked my ear off about not standing out so much so I went ahead and got something. I guess I'll change into that before I head out to meet her at the Adventurers Guild. Oh, dang nabbit! I completely lost track of the time! I'm not going to make it there before she does if I don't get a move on it!” Brex was now smirking from behind his mask as he went ahead and placed a few more items onto the table before turning around to leave.
These turned out to be several vials that made up four medium health potions and three Mana potions of the same grade. There was also a couple of status remedy potions that were meant for getting rid of temporary blindness, petrification, poison, disease and paralysis. There was also a bottle that contained a type of poison that would act as a tranquilizer. This was an item that could be applied to a weapon to give it the desired effect for a short time.
Brex then said over his shoulder, “I'll be seeing you around. Ah and one more thing! When you go to register, you may want to keep a pair of sunglasses on hand. I just got this small hunch that you may need them.” And with that Brex left the bar and went down the alley and disappeared after rounding a corner. But instead of going back home. He made his way over to the nearest Adventurers Guild and waited close to a block away as he was standing near the opening of one of the alleys so that he can keep an eye on the front of the building.
It did not take him all that long at all until he saw Engineer rushing to the front doors and frantically looking up and down the street for who he assumed was Daring Do. Brex was just about to leave after a few seconds of watching the human turned Pony, when he heard a familiar voice coming from behind him and causing the Roegadyn the curl his lips into a playful grin. “I didn't take you for the type to slink around the shadows… Hmm, never mind. I can see you doing that now that I think on it more.”
He only did a half turn to his right and found it to be Daring Do. But instead of her usual adventuring type of outfit being worn. She was wearing a conservative dress along with doing her hair up in a bun and wearing a set of large reading glasses. The mare then continued. “Is that partner of yours here as well?” Brex only shook his head before answering. “Nope. Blaze Caster is away doing something else. It's been a while, hasn't it?” The disguised Daring Do walked up so that she was side by side with him and glancing down the street to catch the site of Engineer waiting before she responded.
“Not since the two of you help me with one of my quests nearly a few years ago. Don't tell me you're accepting them again? Ever since you were put up as a bounty for that one Quest. Talk of you as drop down to nearly nothing.” All Brex did was to casually point towards Engineer who is still waiting right outside the guilds doors before he spoke. “Caught your eye, has he?”
When Daring Do took a glance at just what he was pointing at. The mare gave a light cough and started to stick her nose in the air while trying to keep her professional type of attitude from fading away out of surprise. However, Brex did happen to catch the small hint of a blush that lasted for only a slit seconds to appear.
She then said, “I, er. Ah, that makes perfect sense. You two are cut close to the same cloth. Too bad that neither one of you has that perfect balance. You are far too quiet and from what I've heard, would spur the advances of the ladies. Whereas he gives off the impression that he'll jump anything that opens its legs wide enough to him.” Brex turned his mask, so he was facing her, but he did this at a very slow rate to give the impression that this was the equivalent of raising a skeptical eyebrow at the mare.
Having caught this, Daring Do awkwardly pulled out a handkerchief and started to do that fake cough before she seemed to rephrase what she was saying. “Well not that I have seen him do it, but he is always hitting on me at every turn he gets.” Brex gave a disbelieving hum before Daring Do went on. “Ah, before I forget! Take these. I've been holding on to them for a little while and hopes that I'd come across you.” And with that she reached into her pouch that was tied to her waist which turned out to be a bag of holding and pulled out a brown envelope that was tied with a black cord to keep it sealed.
Once Brex had it in his right hand. The mare immediately went to where Engineer was waiting after giving a goodbye and the pair went inside after exchanging a few words. Once they were no longer in sight. Brex backed up so that he was inside of the alley again and went right to work and undoing the twine. He then reached inside with his right hand and pulled out a stack of papers that were comprised primarily of handwritten notes and a couple of slightly blurry pictures. Among these, there was only one picture that seemed to be almost perfect on top.
On that, it showed one of those charcoal imprints that one would make when placing a paper over some scratches on a wall and run some charcoal to get an impression of what was underneath. At first glance, it looked like nothing but gibberish. But then he noticed how his chat window on the bottom of his vision was beginning to slightly glitch out. Suddenly, words were appearing and disappearing constantly with the green and red arrows on either end to indicate it was doing a translation function.
After several seconds went by with this happening and the words coming and going. He finally got to see some red texts that indicated that an error occurred, and the translation eventually failed. However, there was a few words that popped up just beforehand and these were labels for different languages that just made a massive line going down and causing the scrolling icon to rapidly shrink as a result.
These consisted of English, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish, German, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Arabic, Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Yi script and even some binary code and that was just the tip of it. After scrolling up he counted nearly one hundred distinct languages that were apparently on this one piece of paper alone, before he had to stop with the way it just kept on wanting to go.
Upon seeing all of that he took a closer look and all he did happen to catch at the start was a bunch of barely discernible squiggles. But after taking a long minute to stare at it, did his eyes become slightly unfocused and he began to notice that some of the lines didn't match up with some of the others. In a strange way, it was as if somebody wrote an entire paragraph in different languages and kept turning it repeatedly so that it was going up and down left and right until it pretty much covered everything in the same way that a person would just keep jotting down over existing words.
He placed that paper back in and grabbed on to one of the photos. This one showed a mural that was carved into solid rock. Whatever it was, the thing was twice the size of a normal Pony and showed two figures side by side. The one on the left took on a cloud like shape but still retained a bi-pedal form. The only thing that seemed to be sharp enough to make out were two slitted eyes where the head should be. There were also some depictions around it that showed a bleak background with jagged trees and a skull in the distance.
The other was someone wearing some heavy armor. But their entire form was slightly suspended off the ground after a large blade had been run through their body and the tip of the weapon was jammed into the ground right below. It was unfortunate that time itself had withered away most of the details. So, there was not too much to go on when it came to who or what these two figures were. Brex just stood there while looking at the pictures for a good five minutes before placing them all back inside and tying the folder up again. From there it was placed into his item box and an instruction was given to one of his body doubles to go over the paperwork to try and make sense of it all.
Now feeling that it was time to return and find out how well Rory took control of what was happening at home. Brex started to turn away in order to go into the shadows. This was right as he heard someone screaming from inside one of the buildings. The Voice came from some random Mare, and it appeared to be emanating from Canterlot's Adventurers Guild Hall. At first, he felt alarm after hearing it. However, this changed and he was now developing a smirk from behind his mask as he heard the same mare listing off the following numbers. “Thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven!”
When the numbers reached forty. That smirk of his grew into a full laugh when bright yellow lights could be seen shining through the windows of the building and out into the street. There was even a vaguely familiar ringing of a gong that was echoing along with the number count. But what really got the Roegadyn to break down and hold on to his stomach while laughing to himself. Was the familiar voice of Engineer who was screaming the following. “My eyes! My eyes! They burn! Whose bright idea was it to make it do that?!” Although it didn't stop there as a few seconds later, Brex heard the unfamiliar female's voice again. “Your level forty-six?!?!”
It took a couple of seconds for Brex to finally gain control of himself to where he could go into the shadows once everything started to die down. However, before he did. He lifted his right hands index finger and made the motion of wiping underneath one of his eye holes in the same fashion that one would when trying to wipe up some tears. He also said, “Well, let's see how well you do with being the highest Adventurer on record. If word about you gets out, then everyone back at home will just forget about me and I can get some peace and quiet for a bit.”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Canterlot Adventures Guild* *Time: A few minutes later*
Engineer was leaning over the counter with his left hand rubbing away at both of his eyes as he slowly started to blink. Still clutched in his other hand was a now emptied bottle that was given to him by Brex to alleviate blindness. He then said in a voice that was a mixture that was heavily leaning towards irritation and only a little on playfulness. “He really should have been more specific when it came to why I needed sunglasses!” When his vision came back, he looked around and saw that Daring Do was still in the middle of recovering but was otherwise okay.
The rest of the guild members were pretty much in the same state. But when he turned his attention to the front and saw that the mare who was giving the test to be just fine. He began to wonder as to why she was able to still be reading out his level when she should have been blinded as well. But that question was easily answered when he spotted the edges of a set of sunglasses that was tucked away in her shirt pocket. That was when he pointed with his left hand before speaking to the desk mare. “You knew that was going to happen, didn't you?”
The mare in question gave him a wry smile as she quickly responded after finishing with a chuckle. “I got word from one of my cousins and Ponyville that's something similar happened. So, word got spread around to carry a pair of these at all times when giving the test. It's only happened once before so it completely slipped my mind. Sorry about that.” This earned her a flat stare from engineer for a few seconds before he rolled his eyes. Daring Do’s voice could be heard right next to him as she was looking down at the plate which was still on the testing device.
“Engineer. Earth pony. It says your age is 25 and your class is Machinist. I knew you were strong, but I didn't think you were that high. Well, well. I guess you'll just breeze right through those quests and rank up pretty quick if you put your mind to it. Most to start at the bottom are lucky to be at ten.” The Pegasus quickly turned her attention over to one of the boards nearby that had a bunch of quests tacked onto it and pointed over while looking at Engineer as she spoke up again. “I know I said we'd be parting ways, but now I'm interested in seeing how well you handle your first quest.”
Daring Do started to move around Engineer to make for the job postings as she spoke over her shoulder again. “I'll make sure to pick you out a good one. Why don't you talk to her about what you need to know. Can't have a newbie trip over their own hoofs and disregard the rules, otherwise it'll hurt all of our reputations.” Engineer gave her a snarky remark as he was rolling his eyes. “Yes Mom~.” His tone then changed to one that was a slightly bit more serious when he spoke under his breath. “Not like I've never done a Quest before. It better be interesting.”
Over with Daring Do. She glanced back and forth to see if anyone was watching and when she was sure that none were. The treasure seeking Pegasus in disguise turned her head and quickly darted out her tongue before returning her attention to the board that she had just gotten to. The mare went over to the beginning quests section and was lifting her right hands index finger while reading them out to herself.
“Okay. Hmm. I probably should pick something that will keep his attention. Let's see, let's see... Fix a leaky faucet in an apartment building... Walk someone's dog... Find a lost parakeet... Wow, I forgot how lame these are. Here's one for garbage cleanup. Another to help with painting a wall. Oh, come on already! There’s got to be something here! Nope. Nope. Nope. Why is this even a quest? Nope-nope!” Daring Do was beginning to show more disinterest as she was combing through one after another. She soon added, “Who has the patience to do all this? The first month nearly drove me mad when I had to go through the same thing.”
After getting sick of seeing the same type of quest being posted for the umpteenth time. Daring Do moved over from the “F” rank's and on to the “E” ranks for anything that was interesting. This was due to the rule that allowed someone to try for one rank up. And seeing as he was at such a high level there was no doubt that the receptionist would allow it. Even if it was literally his first hour on the job. It did not even take three seconds before she saw a few that peaked her interests and began to go over them in detail in her head.
“This one is for an escort mission for some Noble that will be going out on the town. I suppose it would be a good idea to get that one for the opportunity to get known in the field.” Her face then turned into a small frown as she continued. “Eh... Probably shouldn't. Chances are he'll end up killing the noble if they push his buttons.”
She didn't say the next part out loud, but she started to envision the noble being one of those posh mare’s and possibly hitting on Engineer during the assignment. The image quickly turned to Daring Do herself appearing and putting a gun to set mare’s head. This got the Pegasus to blink dumbfoundedly while also shaking her head of those thoughts and also looking quite confused.
After getting past whatever was bothering her off of her mind. Daring Do went on to the next listing. This consisted of trying to put together a small group for an expedition into some nearby woods. This was because of an odd monster report that was submitted a few days ago. She thought about that one for a bit but decided against it. It would have been a good choice but not quite something that should have been his first assignment. The last one was a missing person’s report. According to the information. A noble requested some additional help in finding her daughter who had gone missing nearly two days ago.
She reached up and plucked it off the board and gave it a good look before turning around and heading over to the desk. When she got there, she was standing to the left of Engineer, who was just going over the last of the do's and don'ts of the guild. Without even giving either the receptionist or him a chance to acknowledge her presence. Daring Do already went right ahead and slammed the quest paperwork onto the table with a heavy thud and slid it closer for the mare behind the desk to take.
With a serious look about her. She glanced over at the orange stallion for but a second, before bringing her attention to the mare on the other side as she spoke and placed down a calling card next to it. “He's going to be taking this quest along with this mare.” Engineer was arching an eyebrow as the receptionist picked up the quest along with the card. She then spoke with an astonished tone towards the pair. “Oh my! You both know Daring Do?”
After around five minutes later. The pair could be seen coming out through the doors of the guild building and Daring Do who was still in disguise, could be seen pulling him along. Engineer was looking confused at the action and was glancing between the Pegasus mare and where they were just at for a few times before he finally spoke up. “Hay, do you mind filling me in on what just happened? Weren't you going off on your next trip after getting me signed up?”
Daring Do did not even acknowledge his question as she was still pulling him along by his arm until they rounded a corner and stopped due to a passing wagon on the street. Now that they finally got a chance to talk. Engineer leaned over so that he could see her face. But his words stopped once he realized the expression on her, as she was looking straight ahead and clearly off in the distance. “The mare that's missing is… someone I know.” This got the reaction from Engineer of him having his own serious expression before straightening out.
The once human and now earth pony placed a hand onto Daring Do's right shoulder without even looking directly at her and only keeping his eyes straight ahead. He then spoke in an unusual calm voice that was oddly stern for him. “Fill me in on the way and don't leave a single thing out.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 70: First Days On The Job Are Never Easy. Part 1.
Chapter 70: First Days On The Job Are Never Easy. Part 1.
*Point of view: Daring Do* *Location: Canterlot* *Time: One in the afternoon*
Daring Do had just now pushed open a set of doors for one of the high-end apartment buildings in the city that was located near the center of Canterlot’s residential area. From where they were the pair was literally as close as one could get to the nobles without having to be one of them. It was a thirteen-story tall building that houses a few high-ranking personnel that mostly worked in the military or the castle. The building itself was painted an eggshell white and the windows were lined with balconies so that the residents had the option of setting up some planters for flowers or to even go about in growing a small garden.
It was at that precise moment that a Pegasus flew towards one of these and landed at their apartment from outside so that they did not need to go through with using the main entrance and utilizing the elevator or stairways. The street in front of them was a four-way intersection that was busy with the hustle and bustling of business ponies and other such beings that were going to or coming from work. There was even a stray mare that was running along and clutching a to-go-bag from what could have been from them eating out on their lunch break.
Daring Do herself changed out of her civilian clothing and into something that was more fitting for a job that did not require her to put any pen to paper. Although, it was not as flashy as her usual cave diving and artifact retrieving work outfit that she was usually seen in. This one consisted of a set of blue jeans and a white tank top. Over the shirt was a green lightweight jacket that was completely left open. Her left outer thigh was holding on to a scabbard with a long knife in its sheath.
Also, if one were accustomed to firearms. Then it would have been obvious that she was wearing a holster underneath the jacket on her left side thanks to the way she was adjusting her shoulders to get comfortable in it. This was due to the straps going around her back and down both shoulders to keep it situated in place and ensure that the weapon would not fall out in case she was to ever take flight.
Following closely behind the Pegasus, was Engineer. The stallion was wearing a long coat that covered up some basic middleweight armor that was comprised of scales from a lizard and some leather in different sections to emulate his ranger gear for when he arrived. There was a short sword strapped to his waist and a strange device on his back that looked to be an oversized and far longer version of the pistol he made for her. Earlier when she saw this, she asked him what was up with the change and not using his normal setup. However, all she got was a vague reply that he needed to hold off on it until something was done first.
Daring Do released a heavy sigh as she pinched the bridge of her muzzle and having this frustrated expression for a couple of seconds after that before she started to look around from where she stood. It then proceeded with her turning to the right side so that she was walking down the sidewalk and towards the less desirable side of town. She then caught sight of him walking right next to her as close as possible without intruding on her space. The most recent events were now playing in her head as she tried to make sense of it all to come up with what they needed to do next.
The place that they just exited, was where the quest giver was currently staying, and they came to meet up with her to learn what they could for the job. This turned out to be a mare that went by the name of Stormy Flare. She was the mother of Spitfire who was one of her friends and a member of the Wonderbolts. In fact, she was their one and only captain. The basic rundown was the following. Stormy Flare was coming into town for a visit that would have lasted nearly a week to see her daughter. However, upon her arrival. It was soon discovered that Spitfire had gone missing for nearly twenty-four hours beforehand.
Stormy Flare immediately tried to find out whatever she could from the Royal Guard, along with those that she knew from Spitfires Inner circle. Unfortunately for the mare, not a whole lot was known aside from her daughter leaving work as usual and just suddenly disappearing and leaving no trace behind us to where she could have gone.
As for the Royal Guard, they were already put on the case, but an entire day went by, and no word was sent when it came to finding Spitfire herself or any new clues as to her whereabouts. All that was really known so far. Was the simple fact that Spitfire finished work and left at her usual time at four in the afternoon and did not show up for her next shift the following day.
As Daring Do was asking all the questions she could of her friend's mother. Engineer was silently standing back and just looking around the living room and casually walking from one place to another. It was not until near the end that he finally started to talk with Stormy Flare on what she did while she was inside of her daughter's apartment. The older mare stated that she stayed in the guest bedroom for most of the time. This was of course, when she was not in the living room and sitting on the couch full of worry and being anxious to hear a knock at the door on any word on her daughter's whereabouts.
It was even discovered that the Royal Guard did indeed come to the apartment to do a search on any kind of clue that would lead them to Spitfire. But ultimately, they came up empty. She even heard him ask in detail as to whether she saw what the investigators were doing, and she gave him a play-by-play of their actions, along with whatever they touch. When it came to the end of the visit and Daring Do was ensuring they would find Spitfire soon, was when she caught Engineer constantly looking at some of the furniture’s with a shifting gaze from one to the next.
Back to the present. Daring Do started to shake her head so that she could be brought back to the moment and immediately asked the question that was on her mind since that time. “Mind filling me in on what that was all about? I've never once seen you get that serious. Also, I can't imagine that that furniture is your style.” After asking, her eyes drifted over just enough so that she could see where she was going and taking in his facial expression as he replied.
Engineer still had this concentrating look as he continued to stare straight ahead and spoke in a tone that was quite serious and very much unlike is usual outward, and almost carefree nature. “Either your police force has no idea in what they're doing to where I can't even trust them to find a snowball while trapped in a blizzard. Or the ones that came in might have been in on what happened to Spitfire and are just putting on a show…”
Daring Do scrunched up her face and was just about to ask him why right as he continued in a lower volume so the nearby pedestrians would not be able to hear their conversation. “They went through all her belongings and searched almost every nook and cranny of that apartment. But what I found that's really off, is how a number of the furniture and the items that were sitting on tables, bookcases and shelves were not where they were meant to be.” Once engineer said this, the two of them started to go back and forth with the questions and answers as Daring Do started off.
“It all looks fine to me.”
“That's the real problem right there if you ask me.”
“Huh?”
“It was too clean. Especially when you looked at the picture frames and the other items that were sitting on most of the flat surfaces in the living room for one.”
“Are you saying a mare can't keep a place clean?”
“Of course I'm not saying that. I'm just trying to make a point. Most of the picture frames have a thick layer of dust on top and there was a baseball on a stand that was slightly turned on its side.”
“Okay, so she may have just forgotten to clean those and just wipe down everything to Spruce the place up for when her mother came to town. That would make the most sense.”
“Not buying it. It was clear that it was done literally in the last day or two. Which lines up with her going missing. There were already some traces of dust beginning to fall on to the surfaces. When it came to the baseball. The only reason I'm saying it was put on its side, was the way that the right had a decent amount of dust. Whereas the rest of it was virtually untouched. So, it's obvious that it was originally taken off or possibly knocked over and then just placed back on the stand. Then there's also the furniture itself.”
“Fine, I’ll go right ahead and humor you. Tell me what you know about the furniture that's so odd that you even had to mention it.”
“Let me ask you this question first. From what you know. How long would you say Spitfire has been living there?”
“Hmm. I remember her telling me when she moved in. Which was maybe three or four years ago I think.”
“Do you happen to know that her curtains still let in a decent amount of sunlight even if they're closed? This shows me that she likes to get up at the crack of dawn. She values her privacy but doesn't want to live in complete darkness, so she got some that were made of some thin fabric. I also didn't notice much dust on the top where they slide on the railing above, so she must have been opening them every day.”
“Come on and spit it out already, where is this all going?”
“I'm getting there just hold on to your-. A friend of mine once told me that the devil is in the details. Now back to what I was saying... I noticed that the floorboards were beginning to fade due to sunlight exposure and this was true with the walls as well. I don't know how great your paint is here, but where I'm from, they usually put a new coat on every decade or so to keep it all looking new at the very least. The white paint behind the bookshelves left a vague outline of where they were kept from the time Spitfire moved in. I looked a little closer and saw that the shelf had been moved a couple of inches to the left.”
“Okay… Well maybe the investigators moved it to see if there was anything behind it?”
“I could tell you that it was not them. Why do you think I was asking Stormy Flare about what she saw the investigators doing? They were also not responsible for a few the other furniture pieces being moved about in the same way. There were subtle indentations on the wooden floor from where these items stayed for long periods of time. If I was to play it out in my head, then I'd say Spitfires room was thoroughly searched through before putting everything back as best as the Intruder could. Everything being cleaned was most likely their attempt to get rid of any evidence.”
“Oh, I get it now. So, the baseball must have gotten knocked over during this. Why didn't you say anything about it while we were still there?”
“I just recently found out that one of your usual meeting spots has a listening device that's been planted in one of the back rooms. So-.”
“What! Horse apples! You think that whoever's responsible could have put one of those in the apartment? Okay now I'm really mad! I've been using that place for the last couple of years. Now it just makes perfect sense why I keep running into all my competitors so frequently whenever I go on a job after going there. And here I thought it was just a bunch of random coincidences that I would always get the artifact and find them waiting outside!
“Well then? Now that you've heard that. Got any ideas on where we should head? This is still new territory for me, and you have the home field advantage. I'll just provide support for now.”
When Daring Do heard that last part. She was honestly expecting him to pull one of his moves to get closer. Although, that instantly faded after a couple of seconds went by and he made no motion to get any closer. If anything, his brows were knitted together as though he was going through some more facts in his mind. Her eyes were nearly beginning to drift towards him more and more until she realized she was about to bump into somebody and recover quickly in hopes that he hadn't noticed.”
When it seemed that he hadn’t, the Pegasus turned away so that she can let out a relieved sigh without him noticing. She then began to think the following as her inner voice was practically screaming at herself in disapproval at the start. “Get it together Daring! Just keep it cool!” The Adventurous Pegasus was more than surprised with how Engineer was staying so focused and not displaying that mare-ish side that he normally would. If anything, Daring Do was beginning to feel some small goosebumps on the back of her neck before she finally came up with something else to say.
“Let's head over to an old Pony I know. It's not too far from here.” And with that the pair continued on their way as Daring Do took the lead. When they finally arrived at their destination. They were standing in front of an old run-down pawn shop with the windows being so dirty that it wouldn't be too surprising that they could not see a face on the other side if it were to be pressing itself right onto the glass. The outside had some worn down Pony sized carvings of wood. However, they were worn away by either time or weather so that they were extremely hard to make out as to who or what they were.
Although, on one of the small tables near the door was a pair of stuff and mounted Ravens. One look to be dusty with its feathers nearly ready to fall off and misaligned. While the other could have been brand new with how it was pristine and free of any dust. Daring Do gave a quick smirk as she made to open the front door and made a quick remark. “Ha! I guess he cleaned up the place since last I was here. Come on, let's go see if he's in... Huh? I guess he is, the door is unlocked.” As she was pushing the door open. Daring Do couldn't help but notice that the sign was still showing that it was closed and shook her head disapprovingly at the owner’s carelessness.
Upon stepping inside. They found it to be extremely cramped as the walls were literally lined with mismatched items that made it nearly impossible for anyone to find anything they wanted unless they were willing to spend hours to sift through all the wares. Everything range from jars filled with nearly unidentifiable substances and what was no doubt eyeballs and other such components floating within. There were even dried roots dangling from the ceiling and items that most likely came from overseas as they came in various sizes and shapes.
Daring Do remembered that she once tried to go through these very shelves and was scared half to death when she found a nearly petrified snake when she thought she was grabbing on to some other type of item and yanked it out of the pile. She had no idea how it was possible that the shop owner could find whatever she asked for whenever she came to his shop. Especially when it came to all this mess. Although, she knew that this was just the front of the shop and looked around and found that there was a door leading to another part of the store right behind the desk.
After motioning towards it for Engineer to see. They went through and found a set of stairs leading down into what should have been the basement. From what they could tell. The front of the shop was still lit but the owner was not there, so he must have been down below. However, there was no signs of light being emanated at the bottom of the steps and she wondered if his crystal went out again or just forgot to close shop last night and was still asleep.
Daring Do then released in aggravated grunt before reaching over for a small handheld torch and struck it against the wall a few times to ignite the substance to get it lit. After reaching the bottom of the steps, did they find another door. But this one was left halfway open. She now had a flat stair as she began to shake her head again, while her free hand was also scratching the side of her head in frustration. That was when she called out when she was in the middle of pushing the door the rest of the way open so that the light of the torch could shine inside.
“How many times do I have to tell you that you need to finish with closing-up your shop so none of your things get stolen before you go... to... be-.” Daring Do's words died on her lips as she was starting to go wide-eyed at what was displayed on the floor only a few steps away from the doorway. This turned out to be a pony that was mostly dressed in gray robes with the hood pulled down.
The Pony was currently laying on their belly and facing the direction of the door. Their left hand was extended to show that they were reaching for the exit as a large knife was left sticking into the upper part of his back and towards the side so that it was undeniably running through his heart.
It was a light-gray Unicorn with straggly white hair that was beginning to show a bald patch on the top of his head. The eyes were still open but completely lifeless. The ground surrounding his body was already blackened with his dried blood. Daring Do was without a lack of better words, utterly stunned after seeing the sight of someone she knew being in such a state. Her entire world began to slow down as she felt a hitch in her throat as she tried to stammer out some words just before she felt her body being carefully nudged aside to allow Engineer to enter the room on her right side.
He made sure not to disturb the blood, along with the body to turn on some of the crystal lamps on the sides of the large room. From any others perspective. The place was just a pile of junk that was haphazardly stacked along the walls and multiple crates laid open. The room was big enough to allow four or possibly five wagons to sit inside, which was even bigger than the shop itself. One wall had a map of Canterlot, and strings of different colors were tacked to lead one section to another with the help of thumbtacks.
There were even a multitude of post-it notes that were placed in such a way that they were practically overlapping one another. Towards the back was a table that was rectangular in shape and could have had four chairs on the long ends in a single on the two edges. On top or a number of brown envelopes and only a few pieces of paper that were either upside down or completely turned over. However, when it came to Daring Do, what she saw was a complete mess as she knew that many objects were recklessly moved about from her last visit.
She then noticed how Engineer was walking around slowly and bending down to look underneath objects as he kept himself from coming into any physical contact until he made a full circle around the room and back to her. He then said the next part while keeping his hands tucked into his pockets and just staring at the body. “Would it be safe to assume he was a smuggler or some information dealer?”
She then replied as her nerves were finally starting to settle down but was still a little frazzled. “Oh, uh... yeah. He's the one that pointed me to that small village back in the Griffin Empire. He said he got an informant somewhere that gave him the location. Also, it may not look it, but this place is usually a lot more organized and filled with a lot more paperwork than this.” This got a low hum from Engineer as he slowly circled around the body again with an indifferent look in his eyes.
Slightly Disturbed her even though she knew he was willing to kill. But to honestly see a pony to be so unfazed on top of being a male, was making the whole thing stand out even more. Any other stallion would no doubt scream at such a high pitch that it would shatter nearby windows and fall over within seconds of seeing a dead body in a dark room. But what he did next nearly freaked her out. Without any type of remorse on his part. He began to ruffle through some of the pockets before pulling the knife out of the stallions back so that he can examine it.
He then said in a calm voice, “He doesn't have anything on hand that could give us any clues aside from the plain looking copper dagger. It's rather cheap so the attacker didn't mind leaving it behind. Too bad we can't really get fingerprints...” The term of fingerprints was new to her as she looked down to her hands for a few seconds, before bringing her eyes back up as he continued. “Judging from the angle it went in, the attacker lunged straightforward. So, if you take the height of the stab wound on his back into consideration. Then the attacker must have been at the same height.”
“I don't think he knew it was coming either. Because this would require one to either have a whole lot of strength or he was standing still with his back towards them when they came with the weapon. He was facing towards the door so they must have been talking and were about to leave. Then you have how his arm is outstretched towards the exit. He must have known that he couldn't get to it with the wound he received. So odds are, he was calling out and the door must have been wide open at the time.”
He started to scratch the bottom of his chin as he glanced around again to the table and then back to the door again before he went on. “This place must be pretty private. I doubt he would have left the door wide open for just anyone to walk in to overhear anything he was saying. Someone else must have come in and caused him to turn around so that his back would be exposed to his attacker. Everything upstairs seems fine, whereas everything down here has been emptied out except for the not so important items and notes.”
“Hey, do you think he might happen to be the type to have any kind of surveillance installed?” Daring Do scrunched up her muzzle as she wearily looked around the room as if searching for something. It did not take long until she spotted a torch that had a small round orb attached by tiny brass claws that would go around in a triangular shape and seeming to be a different color than the other decorations on the rest. She then went over to it and pulled the light off the wall holder and turning off the crystal above before bringing it over.
It was turned upside down and presented to Engineer as she said the following. “He said that this had a voice recorder installed after he was swindled out of pay due to not having the details put down on paper beforehand. Darn it all, it's been damaged! Look here, there's a small crack in the stone.” Engineer leaned in a little and asked, you want to see what we can get out of it?”
Daring Do took a moment to look over the stone a little to try and see what she needed to do to get it to activate. Several seconds went by as she started to do a number of actions. First, she would look over it several times before tapping at the stone lightly with her index finger. Then she started to say a couple of phrases that were most commonly used as passcodes. By the end, she gave out a frustrated sigh and just handed it straight to Engineer.
She then said, “I think we need a Unicorn to access it. That or an artifact. I really don't understand why they don't make these things easier for everyone to use!” Engineer began to roll it around in his hands a few times before he mentioned something that caught her attention. “Hey, I can vaguely make out some markings on the outside of the stone.” Daring quickly took the stone back and began to go over it again. It took her a few seconds, but she did notice a pattern that was almost invisible with how shallow the markings were made to be.
Engineer stayed silent for a few seconds before he took Daring Do by the right wrist and began to lead them out of the door in a rush. Very indignantly, Daring Do try to wrench her hand away but found that his iron grip was holding fast as she was beginning to talk at a much higher volume that was getting close to yelling. “What's the big idea?!” This got a quick response from him just as they were about to exit the shop now that they were up the steps.
“That bodies been dead for more than thirty-six hours. And before you ask how I know this. That body was ice cold, and it had no signs of any stiffening, so rigor mortis obviously wore off. There's also the lack of that putrid smell for stage three, where the body starts to decompose. It's safe to say he hasn't been dead for more than four days. So, if I was a betting man, then I'd say he's been dead around three. I have no idea how bad the city really is, but I find that too much of a coincidence. Also, we're heading back to the apartment!”
By now, the two got outside and hastily made their way back to Spitfire's place. Although, since they were in so much of a rush. Neither one of them took any notice to how there was only one stuffed Raven outside of the shop which only left the old beaten up one to still be in place. By the time they got back. It was getting closer to three in the afternoon. Spitfire's mother greeted them at the door, and they were soon shown in. At this point. Daring Do was obviously getting exhausted as they return to where they started and was now crossing her arms as she watched Engineer approach one of the tables that had the baseball on it.
He then reached for the stand that was holding it and gently grabbed on to the upper and lower half. Which consisted of three pronged bases that would intersect in the middle for an hourglass type of shape. This made it so that the ball would set comfortably between three rods while the other three were used as the base. He fiddled with it for a few seconds before the upper and lower half began to twist in opposite directions and became detached with a subtle click. Once this was done, he placed the upper half off to the side and it was able to stand with a flat piece underneath.
As for the other piece. That one had an indentation that was roughly the same size as that of the stone that they had in their possession. He then motioned to it with a tilt of his head and Daring Do immediately realize what he was going for and brought the stone out and placed it into the slot so that the upper half was the only part being shown. It did not even take more than a second before the stone was now giving off a faint glow and displaying the markings that were barely visible for all to see.
Coincidentally, the base that it was attached to now was also beginning to display similar markings and Daring Do turned her head over to Engineer without taking her eyes off of it as she asked a question from just under her breath. “How did you figure that out?” This got her a quick scoff before he playfully poked her in the side of her cheek with his finger lightly as he replied. “Didn't I already mention the whole details thing? I found it odd that the ball itself was Dusty on top, but the rest of the stand seemed perfectly fine. Plus, you could say it was also partly a gut instinct.”
She was just about to say more to him but was interrupted by a loud amount of static that was now coming from the stone that resembled what one would hear out of an old radio with a lot of problems with the speakers. Daring Do raised an eyebrow to this and wondered if this was due to the Damage done thanks to that crack. It could be plainly heard that there was an elderly male voice being a part of several conversations with different people, but none of it was legible enough to make out what was being said.
But it was not until after listening for nearly five minutes that they did catch something that had Spitfire's voice in the conversation. Unfortunately, there was still a lot of static. So, much of the sentences being said were broken up but they were both able to pick up on several words that consisted of the following. “Grand Gala... Theft... Diversion.” There were several long seconds that they could not make out before they got the next set of words from who they thought was the Unicorn and speaking to Spitfire. “Four days... believe... on...air... seven... careful...”
After another heavy amount of static went by and the two of them believing they heard everything. Everyone in the room, including Spitfire's mother who was standing a few feet away and listening. All gave a collective scream when the stone began to emit a high-pitched sound that began as a low buzz and grew within a few seconds to where they all had to fold down their ears and place their hands over them. Daring Do could do nothing but to scrunch up her face in pain, as she was also shutting her eyes tight and barely able to stay on her hoofs.
This only lasted for a few more seconds until it came to a sudden stop along with a shattering sound that was just barely perceivable in her current state. When she finally got back to her senses and looked around. Engineer was already helping Stormy Flare back up who had nearly collapsed. The stone itself could be seen with a number of additional cracks showing and a sliver of the surface broken off and now laying on the table a few inches away from the stand.
Stormy Flare was the first to speak up as she looked towards the remnants of the Stone with a worried look on her face, while also still hanging on to Engineer for some support for a few more seconds. “That was Spitfire's voice, I just know it was. But by Celestia's name… What was that horrific noise?” Daring Do then heard Engineer shaking his head thanks to the way his ears were flopping as he spoke in a mix of annoyance and pain. “These dang ears are way too sensitive! My head feels like it's going to get split in half...”
After hearing that. Stormy Flare went to the back set of sliding doors that would lead to the balcony and opened it up so that some fresh air could come inside. She then said, “You poor dear. Here, why don't you sit down, and I'll get you some water. Just don't go pushing yourself.” This got Daring Do to roll her eyes and expected him to take advantage of the situation and get pampered like all stallions would. But she, along with the other mare in the room were shocked at what he said next.
“I've had explosions going off so close that they send me flying and I felt a lot worse than this.” Daring Do started to give him a questionable look as she looked him up and down and started to think to herself about how that did not really sound normal. Sure, she's seen him in action in a number of times with these guns and that machete of his. But the very notion that he was actually caught up in an explosion was more than concerning for the young Pegasus.
But before either of the two could do anything else. Engineers spoke up as he approached the item and picked up the rest of the Stone from the stand, along with the small shard and began to speak. “Miss Stormy Flare. Did your daughter tell you anything about a theft?” This got a firm head shake from the mare as she replied. “No. Spitfire knows better than to discuss private Investigations even when it comes to family members.”
Daring Do was the next to speak up, as she pointed to the stone that was still in Engineer's hand. “Okay, I'm guessing that she must have been there either during, or before the murder happened in the shop.” Engineer nodded to this before throwing his own thoughts in. “I'd say she was there and whoever the culprit is must have taken Spitfire. Odds are they didn't need the Unicorn anymore and thought that she would be a better hostage given her position.”
Daring Do released a very loud grunt as she stomped one of her hoofs before she spoke. “It still makes no sense! He was a male for Celestia's sake! They're protected by law and I'm sure the princess would have given anything for his safe return if he was used as a bargaining chip.” They’re practically worth more than their weight in gold in the eyes of the country.” Engineer answered as he was giving a light shrug. “Whoever did this must have not cared on what gender they were. It's that, or they must really hate males enough to go through with killing one.”
The young Pegasus’s eyes shifted from left to right as she was running some thoughts through her mind on who could be responsible. Of course, she started off with her usual suspects such as her competition when it comes to finding relics. But immediately pushed them away. She then came to a sudden conclusion as she looked straight ahead with this far off look on her face as she uttered the following words just under her breath. “The herd cult...”
Everyone in the room went silent for a moment, before Engineer was already making his way to the door and pulled it half open by the time he called over his shoulder. “Hey let's go! You heard the recording. We're running out of time. We got an airship to catch!” And with that, the two of them were gone in almost an instant, only to leave the concerned mother behind as she waited patiently for her daughter's return from the living room.
The next scene shows the sun getting close to going over the horizon to show that it was nearly six at night, when Engineer and Daring Do were standing at the entrance to the Airship Docks and trying to mix in with the crowd that were going back and forth from their own modes of transportation. There was maybe a dozen or so airships that were docked and one caught daring dues attention due to its size that was dwarfing all of the rest.
This one in particular she immediately recognized to be owned by a mare that went by Big Mama. She could not help but to narrow her eyes at it as she wondered to herself about the sudden change in that shady trading company. There were so many rumors about their shady dealings over the years and she was eagerly waiting for a chance to throw their dirty laundry out and into the open once she had enough proof. However, it seemed as if overnight the entire company just up and changed.
It went from rumors in the underground about slave trading, foal-napping and along with black market trading of illegal goods and dangerous artifacts, to an upstanding organization that even started to work with charity foundations. And it did not stop there either. Almost overnight, a large portion of the black market literally came to a stop from what she got from her sources. There was even talk going around about Big Mama actually being on a diet which nearly floored Daring Do upon hearing it.
Her attention was brought back to engineer who was already weaving between the pedestrians and going to one of the upper floors that housed some of the smaller ships. The pair took an elevator up and stepped off to see a wide wooden dock that easily went several hundred meters ahead and gangplanks leading to a number of ships on either side with anchoring lines attached. They were also many crew members and other pedestrians going to and from some of the ships and loading cargo that were mostly in crates. While others were being lifted by nets into open cargo holds with a hatch open on the deck.
The pair walked along in a way that made it seem as though they were meant to be there and carefully kept an eye on their surroundings as they counted the numbers that marked each docking port for a vessel. A few of the ships appear to be mainly for recreational purposes for the elite and possibly couriers that were to make quick deliveries with parcels that were too heavy for a Pegasus to fly with. That was when she heard engineer speaking up from the side of his mouth. “Some of these look just like the size of speed boats. It makes me wonder if they go just as fast.”
Daring Do had no idea what he was referring to and just looked straight ahead and awkwardly smiled to make it seem to others that she was a part of some type of inner joke and that nothing was wrong. After a bit, they finally came across dock number seven, and she was about to stop when she felt Engineer putting his left arm around her right to lead her into continuing their walk without him so much as glancing in the ships direction.
She gave him a pointed glare as he said the following in a whisper that was right next to her ear without being too inconspicuous. “You wouldn't want to make it too obvious, now would you? Just keep going and try taking as much details as you can.” He then started to point off to the side of the pier that the ship was on right as they were passing it so that the two of them could slow down and pivot on the spot.
The stallion then started to talk at a slightly elevated volume so that others nearby could eavesdrop on what he was going to say. “I know we've had this argument a number of times, but I still think the size of the boat doesn't matter when it comes to the speed.” Daring Do was not quite sure what to do for a split second there. But she caught on quickly and saw how he was playing the fool. She then smirked back playfully and pointed towards the large ship that was at dock seven before bringing her hand to the smaller one next to it as she was talking.
“You got to have rocks for brains from working on that farm for too long to think like that. It's obvious the smaller ship is going to be quicker, it's basic aerodynamics.” This little pretend argument they had, lasted a few more minutes with Engineer constantly trying to make his case about the size difference. While Daring Do was actually throwing in some very valid points from a non-ship riding Ponies’ perspective. Eventually, this started to draw the attention of everyone nearby and a few of the crew members that were on both ships that were being used as the examples.
It did not take long for her to notice how there was a mare on the larger ship and she was looking down at the two of them. Seeing as most of the crew members were now lining up over the edge to hear the argument. This made the mare run down the gangplank and right up to Daring Do. She was wearing an outfit that closely resembled what one would wear when on the high seas. The pants were gray, while the boots were dark brown around her hoofs. Black fingerless gloves could be seen that ran halfway up her forearm.
As for her shirt. It was a light red with the front being opened enough to show her D-sized breasts that were displaying her cleavage. She even had a black hat with a white trim on top. She was mostly a beige color with a black mane. Judging from what she saw earlier and leading up to now. The rest of the crew from that ship were almost indistinguishable when it came to their clothing and the only way that this mare stood out was due to the hat itself. She then thought to herself for a second the following.
“They must be using an enchantment to keep their identities hidden. Isn't it illegal to do that when you don't have the proper permits? Only the Royal Guards and those that are guarding VIPs to be allowed to have that.” She glanced around without moving her eyes thanks to her peripheral vision and saw that there were no guards within sight and began to continue with her thoughts. “What happened to all the security?” Herself imposed questions were brought to a stop when the mare in front of them began to talk in an angry tone.
“Can't ye see that ye be troublin’ me’ crew! And take this, this thin-. Take this stallion and get out of here! A dock is no place for one of their kind! Best be not seeing his face near me ship again!” Daring Do did not really like it very much when she caught that this one in front of her was about to call Engineer a thing. And this made the fur on the back of her neck begin to bristle for but a second before she caught herself. She then brought a fake smile that was eerily convincing to her lips as she spoke to the mare. “Oh, I'm dreadfully sorry for our little dispute to halt your progress in getting your ship ready to go.”
The mare was clearly about to scream some obscenities in their way and Daring Do was ready to take them. But she was pulled away by Engineer who was putting on a convincingly scared persona and spoke a matching voice that was just a little too much for the situation. “I-I I'm really sorry if we bothered you...W-We... we'll just g-go now.” As they were leaving back the way they came. Daring Do caught on in the corner of eye the way that the mare was sneering at Engineer, and she felt her trigger finger beginning to twitch in response.
She instantly realized this and brought her attention straight ahead as she had this momentarily perplexed expression. Her eyes then went wide as she started to think the following while she and Engineer were locking arms together. “Oh, Daring, what just happened? Don't tell me I'm-. No-no-no-no-no-no! You are not going down that road! No way am I going to let my base instincts take control! I would have the same reactions if it was any other male. Yeah! That's right! It doesn't necessarily have to be because it's Engineer...”
“And why in Celestia's name is he still holding me! Come on just let go of me already! Wait why am I waiting for him to let go? I could just pull my arm away... Nnggh! ghagh! What is wrong with me?! I can't even bring myself to pull away. And was he always this strong to begin with? I know he's not trying to hold tight, but it feels the same way as that time I got stuck in that anaconda’s death grip. Just what has his mother been feeding him? And why isn't this widely done for all the stallions? Wait! What? No no! Bad Daring! Bad Daring! Just forget about him holding you and remember one of your friends is still missing!”
By the time they got a fair distance away and were near the end of the dock. Daring Do finally got around to wrenching her arm free just as Engineer began to talk. “We found what we're looking for.” This got an annoyed yet confused sound from Daring Do as he continued. She was way too hostile towards me. Even though my argument was that her ship was obviously faster. Which should have gotten me on her good side at the very least. If she was the culprit for that dead body we found, then I believe it.”
After Daring Do recovered, she then asked the next obvious question to him. “We're going in there aren't we?” Engineer then gave her a quick nod before he said the following while gesturing ahead. “Eeyup! Coming back for sure. First, we need to do a little shopping and find the nearest hardware store.” And with that, the pair disappeared into the crowd when he took a hold of her left arm near the wrist and began to pull the Pegasus along. The entire time this was going on. Daring Do was fighting his grip with no signs of any real progress. But from an outsider’s perspective, the mare wasn’t really trying all that hard to begin with.
The next set of scenes depicted Engineer going through a couple of stores that first started with one full of food and the next with them being surrounded by small tools and an assortment of glass jars of various shapes and sizes that were along the shelves. This was then followed by going back to his hotel room and being busy at one of the tables that was practically covered with random assortments of goodies that were procured. As all the while this was going on. Daring Do was following and glancing over his shoulder at what he was getting at the stores and keeping a close eye when it came to their time in the room.
This all took a couple of hours. So, by the time they arrived near the docks again. It was already getting close to six at night as the sun was already at the point at which it would go over the horizon with hardly any effort needed on Celestia's part. Daring Do was already decked out with her survival gear and weapons being held on her hips. Which consisted of a survival knife and the pistol that she got from Engineer.
As for the guy himself. He didn't look all that different from before when they were last there, but he did have a couple of items that could be seen just under his open coat. Running along his belt was a couple of loops and a few pouches that were filled with items. There was even a crisscrossing set that would go over his chest and these were filled with a number of vials with powdery substances. Some were long and thin, while others were the size of the bottles that baby food would normally be stored inside.
After getting to a spot where they could not be seen anymore. Engineer had Daring Do wait behind and went sneaking off for several long minutes before coming back. But before he went. The stallion just brought a single finger up to his lips and gave a very low shush to get her to not draw any attention as he replied. “Just putting together a little distraction for when we'll need it.” Daring Do was beginning to get a little irritated with the way she was tapping her hoof at this point when she replied.
“I don't like waiting so much. Spitfire could be on that very boat and who knows what they're doing to her.” Engineer was keeping an eye on the situation while speaking through the side of his mouth in a whisper. “Spitfire’s a part of the military, isn't she?” She gave him a slow nod before he continued. Then odds are the girl’s capable of handling some torture for a few days. Going with away that that one mare was acting towards me and only me, gave me the impression that she would be treated a whole lot better than your friend at the shop. She's also a possible bargaining chip if they should get cornered.”
Once he was finished, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a device that could be held in his hands that was in the shape of a tube. It was about an inch and a half wide and nearly six inches long. While still grasped in his right hand. He brought one end to his right eye and pointed the other towards the ship as he started to talk again. “Our little commotion from before brought out thirteen crew members and this included the mare that came down to see us. I only see six right now on the deck. The others must be below. Once the sun starts to go down, we will make our move.”
Daring Do raised an eyebrow to this and looked between the ship and engineer for a few seconds before she spoke up. “You plan to do it during the switching of the sun and moon? If we're going to wait, shouldn't it be better for after it's gone completely dark?” The stallion gave a quick, yet firm head shake as he was continuing to survey the ship while answering.
“They don't come off as the type that only just started going into this sort of business. They'd most likely expect something to happen in the dark, so they'll be on high alert then. Here, take this and have a look at both ends of the ship and on the mast above. They appear to be doing their duties, but they're really just posted there for lookouts.”
She was then handed the item which she found out to be a miniaturized telescope and began to use it. Indeed, the crew members that came into view were mindlessly repeating the same mediocre task repeatedly while keeping a good look at all angles of the ship to be inconspicuous. However, what did catch her attention was the way the light from the lowering sun reflected off one of their faces and revealed that they were wearing a set of goggles with a green tint to the lenses.
The Pegasus could not help but to angrily mumble under her breath the words, “Night vision,” before she paused for a few seconds and continued. “I was sure I didn't see any of them wearing goggles before.” That was when she reached into one of the coat pockets and pulled out a small pair of goggles. These were similar and had the same green tinted lenses before holding them up for Engineer to see as she spoke. “They got the same equipment that I do. It wouldn't matter if we came in under the cover of darkness if they had those on.”
The reply she got from him only caused her to smirk. “That's why we're doing it during the transition. If we can't go during the day and we can't go during the night when those things are active, then we'll just have to slip in before the darkness takes hold and everything is being covered in rapidly moving shadows. I want you to wait here and keep an eye on the ship. I'll sneak on board during that change of lighting and take out the guards so you can swoop on in.”
She looked towards the ship again with the device in hand for a few seconds before she lowered it in order to ask how he was going to do such a thing without getting spotted. Although this did not really get a chance to happen. This was due to Engineer being gone without giving any type of indication that he had even moved. She then had this flat expression that just said that she was not entirely amused when she said the next bit in a condescending tone to no one but herself. “How the hay is a big fella like that move so quick?”
From that point on, Daring Do waited as she counted the minutes that went by until the sun and the moon began to exchange their positions. The bright orb in the sky just barely made it over the horizon and the guard on the mast, as well as the one at the front of the ship were already taken out. Everything went unusually dark between the couple of seconds of the sun going away and the moon finally coming up to illuminate the night sky by the time the last guard was knocked out from behind by Engineer.
Through the scope she caught sight of him waving and she immediately flew over after dodging and weaving between a few of the ships lower holds and swooping up onto the deck to land on the ship, so she was now right next to him and looking around for any surprises.
Without even exchanging any words between the two of them. They immediately went down below deck through the main entrance and were stalking the hallways and taking out a few of the wandering crew members with a combination of sneaking up behind or causing a distraction with one of them making some odd noises so that they would turn their back towards the second of the pair. This continued until they searched the entire level which included the dining hall and some personal rooms that the crew members obviously slept in.
By then, they counted to nine of the crew members, which included the three up on top of the deck. Daring Do had a bit of trouble and almost messed up on a couple of occasions when the one that they were currently going after was about to make a loud enough noise to alert the others. However, she was always surprised with how quick and efficient Engineer was when it came to literally doing one motion to knock them out with a strike to either the side of the neck or the back of their head with his hand. He even went so far as to have one in a chokehold and the crew member could not even let out anything louder than a wheeze before succumbing and getting knocked out due to a lack of oxygen.
Once the level they were on was completely secure. The third was immediately descended upon thanks to a small set of ladders leading down and under a trap door. These were discovered when Daring Do could hear a strange sound as her hoofs stepped onto a section of the hallway that sounded different than the rest of the time they were roaming the halls. As soon as they got to the bottom and had a chance to look around at their surroundings. They immediately saw built-in cages that were on either side of a narrow hallway that could have spanned the length of the whole ship.
As they were being passed one after the next. Daring Do’s eyes quickly ascertained that they were meant to hold beings such as Ponies with the way there were shackles attached to the far wall so that they would be connected to one's arms and neck. The one trapped would then be forced into a standing position and limbs pulled nearly to their limits. Several of them looked clean. While a few obviously gave off a strong odor of someone who had clearly not bathed in days and the undeniable send of fecal matter that was obviously coming from a dirty bucket that was seen in the corner of one of these cells.
At the end of the hallway, was a single door with two lit up crystals on either side for illumination. The entrance itself did not look all that much, but there were a few markings along the edges to show that something or perhaps someone, had grabbed on to prevent themselves from being brought inside at one point or another thanks to the scratch marks and faded dirt. Engineer came right up to the door and carefully placed an ear to listen for anything on the other side for several moments. After getting nothing, he gave a solid nod and gestured with his eyes to the lock just below the door handle.
At first, she believed that he intended her to pick the lock. So, she was already beginning to dig into her bags for her tool pouch that had some lock picking equipment. However, before she could even find it. Engineer was already crouched down in front of the lock and was holding in his hands a simple screwdriver with a red handle and what appeared to be a bobby pin being pinch between some fingers in the other. Honestly, she did not believe that it would work at all and continue to ruffle through her pack quietly before she heard a subtle click that drew her eyes away from her belongings.
Engineer was giving a wide smirk from over his right shoulder towards her as she was just staring at him with her jaw partially dropped at the very notion that he was able to open it so easily with those items. In her mind, she could not help but to indignantly think the following. “Oh come on! I'm Daring Do for crying out loud! At least give me a chance to show my skills. Also, how does that even work with just a bobby pin and a screwdriver?! I paid a lot of bits for this kit. It better not have been a waste if I could’ve done it with those this whole time!”
She was brought back to reality when he slowly turned the handle to open the door and exposed a dark room on the other side as soon as a few inches were cracked open. Daring Do immediately snatched from in her bag her personal pair of night vision goggles and put them on before she took another look. When she did, the room was bathed and a dim green light that showed it to be a fair bit larger than what one would expect. At the far end and near the middle of the wall was a wooden chair with some thick armrests. It appeared to be larger than it needed to be, and more than one pony would be required to lift it.
On said chair was a mare that was bound up so that her legs and arms had multiple straps in a way to prevent any real movement to any that was secured. She was currently leaning forward and hanging her head low. She was wearing a full body jumpsuit that came up to their neck and judging from the shading thanks to the green tent of the lenses, it could have been a light shade of blue if the Pegasus were to place a guess on it. The rest of the room vaguely showed a couple of shelves with an assortment of jars and currently unidentifiable objects all around. There were even a couple of large thin boxes that laid against the walls at equal spacing that for roughly two meters in height and hardly over half a meter wide.
There was even another door towards the left of the restrained mare and near the corner that led to another room. Although, the door was currently closed, and Daring Do could not make out any light from the small crack underneath the frame to show that anyone could have been using it on the other side. She then quickly glanced over to Engineer and gave him the go-ahead with her eyes and motioning towards the room. Once he got the signal, they both immediately entered and went straight for the mare in the chair.
The only means of actual light for the room, was coming in from the hallway thanks to the entrance being left open and casting a direct path of Illumination that was long enough for all three to be seen all the way across the room itself. Daring Do stepped aside so that the hallway light could show just who they were approaching. One she did, the Pegasus immediately identified it as Spitfire. And the mare was not looking in the best shape as she had a couple of cut marks along her arms that tore away at bits of her jumpsuit near the area one would get blood drawn.
Her head was immediately lifted by Daring Do and this exposed a slightly swollen left eye that was caused by an injury not too long ago. The mare was seemingly out of it as she was not showing any signs of waking up soon. This even went on as Daring Do was lightly tapping the side of her face with her palm and whispering the mare's name.
As this was going on, Engineer removed the straps within moments. As a result. Spitfire ended up leaning forward without the support and needed to be caught by Daring Do, while Engineer was apparently giving her a go over to see if there were any other injuries. He went with the pulse, then looking over the cuts. Lastly, her eyelids were pulled up to check if they could dilate correctly.
She saw him giving her a subtle nod to indicate that there were no other problems, and she was going to be OK. The stallion then gestured towards the exit with his right thumb and the two placed themselves at either side of the knocked-out Pegasus so that they could use her arms to go over their bodies to carry her out. They had not even gotten halfway across the room when the boxes lining the room flew open in such a way that the front pieces were sent flying fast enough to catch them all by surprise.
One lid crashed into the floor and did a few tumbles as the corners collided with the hardwood floor. This was before it slammed into the door they left open and caused it to shut with a loud bang. Another lid crashed into her backside and sent Daring Do, along with Spitfire to the floor as they were wrenched out of Engineer’s grasp. One of the other lids ended up crashing into one of the shelves and caused a couple of jars on display to rattle and roll over the edge and smash open, thereby sending shards of glass and the unknown contents to pour all over the room.
This all resulted in the room being filled with an eerie black and blue fog that was giving off a phosphorescent glow as it went all around and left a thick layer that was easily up to their waist. Because of the way they fell. Daring Do hurriedly got back up to her hoofs, while struggling to bring Spitfire with her so that they were above the gas’s level.
But during this, her eyes could not stop themselves from watering as her nose was literally being burned from the inside out. This was all from the rancid smell that may have been from over a dozen disgusting and decaying origins that were too numerous to pick out from one another. It even sent her into a horrible coughing fit, that the act of breathing even turned into a labored feat.
Her eyes were now stinging so much from what was in the air now, that her vision was rapidly fading in and out. Her stomach was even churning to where she was ready to throw up everything it held. It only took a couple of seconds until she realized that her own body was beginning to feel heavy, and her muscles were also having the subtle twitches that were growing in number. Even in this condition, all she could do was to think the following and panic. “By Tartarus! W-We must be standing in a toxic cloud… We need to get out! NOW!!!”
Her thoughts were brought back to her surroundings when the site of the rest of the ponies that were unaccounted for when it came to the crew, came stumbling slowly out of the boxes and surrounded them on both sides of the room. Daring Do then thought to herself, “They're not wearing masks. How are they fine in all of this?” The fact of the matter was this was all true. As they were just standing there and not showing the smallest signs that the fumes even had any effect to the new arrivals.
But what she did also notice. Was the way their eyes were completely unfocused and had absolutely no life in them at all, as they were just trained straight ahead to whatever direction their heads were facing. In each of their possession was a curved cutlass already drawn and heavily stained with dried blood to show that they were used many times before. The way they stood also seemed unnatural in a sense. To her, it closely resembled what one would see when watching a wooden puppet being controlled by some invisible strings in one of those performances on the side of the street for the kids.
She attempted to call out to Engineer with what little breath she had still, but only got out a set of sickly coughs before she fell to the ground along with the still out cold Spitfire at her side. Her vision was finally beginning to fade as everything was turning black once this happened. She was also feeling the uncontrollable movements of her eyelids closing.
But before she lost consciousness. The Pegasus felt a rush of wind out of nowhere that almost caused her and Spitfire to roll over from the force. This was immediately followed with a loud roar that nearly scared her half to death and a near blinding amount of yellow light that barely came into view just before her eyelids fell and plunged her whole world into darkness.
There was no way that she was going to be able to forget the sound being made. As it caused her to think that it came from over a hundred monsters all roaring in both that of anger and pain. It even resonated throughout her entire body and almost threatened to make her soil her own pants. It was immediately followed with a loud crashing sound that was a mix of something being thrown and colliding with a solid surface to produce a wood shattering noise.
Her consciousness was nearly gone within the next couple of seconds, but she did feel the sensation of something grabbing on to her shirt from the back and being lifted into the air so that her hoofs could just barely be off the floor. The next thing she felt was the sudden weightlessness of her body, before coming to a hard stop and skidding along a flat surface.
And lastly, before everything was gone. Was the exhilarated feeling of taking in fresh air into her lungs. However, even with all this happening to where it would cause any normal person to panic and lose all sense of rational thought. All the Pegasus could have running through her last thoughts, were the following in both a scared, yet weak tone that would never have been heard in the outside world. “W-Where… is… Where is he… … Engineer! Run… Please, get away…”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 71: First Days On The Job Are Never Easy. Part 2.
Chapter 71: First Days On The Job Are Never Easy. Part 2.
*Point of view: Third person* *Location: In the kidnapper’s airship* *Time: Six seventeen at night*
The scene shows a room with a number of ponies holding cutlasses and standing in a half moon circle around a stallion with a flaming skull for his head. His body was clad and black leather and metal spikes along the shoulders and gloves. Also, he had still clutched in his left hand the leg that was attached to a pony that was similar to the rest that were still in the room. Currently facing the now smashed open door, one could see just beyond a short distance away, was Daring Do and Spitfire who were laying unconscious next to one another and on their stomachs.
Apparently, this was Engineer who had undergone a transformation mere moments ago and used one of the oncoming attackers as an oversized club to destroy the door and throw the two Pegasus mare’s from the poisonous air filled room. Speaking of the poison. Now that it was no longer being contained and venting through the now open doorway. The mist was easily dissipating a short distance before it even made it to the two downed girls.
The one that was still being held in his grasp began to move and wildly swung their weapon to try and hit him. But instead, they were thrown into one of the others and essentially knocking them both to the ground with a set of thuds. Although the noise was a little off when that was done. As it did not coincide with two large bodies colliding with one another only a second prior to hitting wood. Instead, it sounded as though there were many small, yet hollow objects bouncing around. In a way, it resembled what would be produced from a xylophone.
A moment later, the mist had dropped low enough that one could just barely make out the floor. This immediately revealed that the two bodies were nothing but a set of black skeletons that were still wearing clothing and now crumpled up in a tangled heap. Arms and legs were either twisting or slipped through sections such as the ribcage.
He held out his left hand and the short sword that he equipped before appeared in its grasp and went under a metamorphosis. This was done as flames erupted from his skeleton hand and coiled along its length. When the flames died down. It revealed it to take on a more demonic form but still retain the overall shape.
Still sticking with the skeleton and silver theme of the handle. The blade itself was giving off a bluish flame from the surface that was really close to how one would see some drinks being served at a bar and being lit a flame just before one would blow it out to drink. His right hand produced the rifle right after, and this too underwent a change. The underside where one was meant to hold onto it underneath with their hand was lined with a silver rib cage. Along the underside of the barrel there was even a blade that ran down the length and only stopped till the tip lined up with the end of the barrel.
His skulled face could be seen going from one weapon to the other as he was clearly giving them a once-over. When he was finished and looked ahead. His eye socket seemingly seemed to move as if he still had an actual face to show his eyes having this expression that just screamed, that he really liked what he saw. As this was going on. There was a sudden sound coming from the pair of skeletons on the floor as they were pulling themselves apart from one another with some difficulty.
This only drew his attention as he moved his gun to point directly at the pair and pulled the trigger without even looking at what he was doing. There was a loud bang, while also being accompanied by a swirling vortex of flames that erupted from the end of the barrel. Oddly enough, it was no simple gunshot, but more of a mixture with a cannon being fired and a lion's roar. Instantly after that was done. The skeletons were blown to pieces and scattered by a white flash. The remains soared in almost all directions, but mostly on that side of the room. Some even pelted the others and caused those to stumble back a few inches.
The floor underneath now had a wide black mark that nearly burned right through. If one was to come in later and saw that mark, then they would have mistaken it for a bonfire literally being made on the ground with how the floorboards were blackened and cracked from the intense flash of heat. All of this happened within the span of four to five seconds. So, the others within the room really did not have much of a chance to react until now, as they all began to charge in and swing their cutlasses in hopes of causing a mortal wound onto Engineer.
The following occurred within the span of a few seconds. The now transformed Engineer would spin towards his left and cut the head off of one of the skeletons and continued with the motion until he got another one. The second one was sliced right through its upper arm and exited on the other side by going through its rib cage and second upper appendage without slowing in the slightest. As for his right side, he began to twirl the gun so that the action lever underneath would come out and snap back into place to reload the next round.
As he was making this motion with the gun, the end with the blade literally went right through the side of one of the other skeleton skulls as easily as a hot knife through butter. Another one got really close as his arms were outstretched and was about to stab him through the front of his own chest with the tip of their curved blade.
However, Engineer had his gun position at an odd angle with his elbow bent and fired the next shot that just barely grazed the side of his head and went flying through his own flames. The bullet continued until it made a direct hit and destroy that skeletons head with a loud boom as flames erupted and coated a significant part of the room in that direction with a thick cloud of black dust.
The final target was coming up from behind and was swinging his cutlass straight down in hopes of splitting his head wide open. Instead, Engineer allowed his back to curve so that he was leaning far enough towards the last attacker. This made it so he was now facing his eyes straight up and to the ceiling. He even turned his head at an angle which would have been impossible for a living being to perform without breaking it. This allowed the oncoming blade's edge to just barely make it into his mouth right as he chomped down with his teeth and caught it in a dead stop. This even produced a few sparks as the metal was forced to grind to a halt along his pearly whites.
The last set of movements he performed, was him kicking off the ground with both legs and going into a flip and wrenching the blade free from the skeleton's grip by breaking a few of the fingers. His body literally soared over and landed behind his target with a loud thud as both boots slammed into the floorboards. However, while he was in mid-air, the transformed Engineer brought both of his weapons into a position so that he would do a crossing motion with them and slashed at the skeleton upon his landing.
When the three seconds were up, his head slowly rotated until it was back in its proper position and the blade within his teeth began to quickly melt until it slipped through his jaw and onto the floor with a sizzle. As he stood there. All that could be heard was a hollowed set of breathing and the embers flowing from his own body. There were even the slight sounds of the leather creaking as he gave off the most subtle body motions while taking another glance around from where he stood once all was said and done.
His empty eyes eventually turned onto the door on the other side of the room and flipped his gun around to reload the next round and shot at the doorknob. The door itself erupted into an explosion of fire and broke into splinters of wood as a result as he prepared for another shot. He then held up the gun so he can look at the side of it and turned it over a few times before he spoke in a demonic voice that droned, while also slightly tilting his head. “I… Like!” He then lowered it and called out in a very intimidating way as he drew out his words. “I know you're in there... I can smell your soul!”
What came out slowly once that was said, was a figure of a mare, as the other side had no lighting. But as soon as she crossed over the threshold and was illuminated by the light being given off from his body. It revealed the same mare that came down from the ship to yell at the couple. He pointed his sword at her and called out the following words while slightly tilting his head down to cause his non-existent eyes to give the impression that he was scowling. “Sinner!”
This apparently only caused her to scoff at his words while slowly sauntering into the room and looking him up and down slowly with her own predatory gaze without even giving the impression of being surprised by his form. She then began to speak as her tone was somewhat curious at first but turned disgusted near the end. “To think that we had another one of us around. I do love the whole leather and burning skull you got going on... if only you weren't a... Male.... Most certainly a new type. Would have remember that mug of yours back home.”
This got her a quick reply from him, as he lightly shrugged his arms and bringing his weapons outwards while doing so. “I don't mind showing you… what I can do… So long as I get to skull fuck you with my burning sword when done. Ha-Ha-Ha!” The way he said it was so serious, along with that small laugh at the end, would have made others run in terror. This Got him an annoyed look from her as she replied. “Be it figurative or literal, I would not allow you to come anywhere near me with such a disgusting tool.”
This got him to tilt his head slightly as he asked the following question. “What happened to that sailor talk?” The mare rolled her eyes after giving out a tired sigh before speaking. “Oh, that was so exhausting to keep up. As for you... if you were a female, I would invite you to join my crew in an instant with your strength. But alas, we can't all have our own way.” As soon as those words left her lips. Her entire body was enveloped by a black growing orb and swirling ripples that started near her midsection and expanded until she was completely gone within.
It then released a strong shockwave that sent Engineer across the room until he slammed into one of the opened boxes and destroyed it with his weight. Although, it seemed as though the wall between their existing room and the one that she was previously within was all but destroyed due to her position during her little trick. When the debris and swirling dark energy was no longer blocking view of where she stood. There was a new creature standing there that was just a handful of inches from hitting their head onto the ceiling.
The Pony form was long gone and replaced with a completely new being of dark. A set of wings protruded from her back. However, unlike the Pegasus, these were bat-like. There was even a long set of curved horns that went out to the sides of her head. The rest of the form was covered in natural dark armor that covered every inch.
Even were there was a gap in said armor for the many joints, was only more of the same sliding right underneath. The smallest of body movements caused an odd noise and creaking that strongly resembled a mixture of metal and ceramic being rubbed onto one another. Even the jaw was lined with teeth and seamlessly formed with the body to produce a mouth with zigzagging edges that would no doubt be able to bite off anything in one go if one were to get too close. She also had in her right hand a long rod with a length of metal to make a blade that was as long as her own arm.
(Play this video for the new form that the mare took on.)
She then began to speak and a warped demonic voice of her own, as she looked around the room, while also lightly playing with her scythe in both hands. “I always did find this ship a little... confining. Would you not agree?” She then threw her head from side to side and was now giving off a manic grin between her teeth as she said the following quite excitedly. “Care to lend me a hand in some light renovations!” This was followed with her pointing the tip of her weapon towards him and sending a strong stream of purple lightning that impacted his form and drew out a ghastly howl of pain from Engineer.
This was also accompanied with him being sent through the ceiling when she rushed up and made an upward swing with her scythe and carving up the floor while doing so. Luckily, he did block the blade from piercing his body by crossing both of his weapons just before she rushed in for the blow. His body was sent up so hard that he literally collided with the ceiling on the next floor up and came crashing down. With himself now laying face down, he rolled over and released a groan of pain while slightly shaking his head. There was then another sound coming from his right that got him to quickly turn his head in that direction.
When he did, he saw what could have been the fin from a shark poking out from the water and it was coming straight for him as the floorboards were being sliced apart and splinters sent everywhere as it rushed towards his head. The only difference was that it was pointing backwards, and it was obviously made of black metal. He quickly rolled out of the way just in time to be given one of the worst types of haircuts that would take way too much off the top.
However, the blade sunk into the ground and reappeared only a second later to come right back at him yet again. He did manage to get out of the way again by jumping high enough that he ended up slamming his skull into the ceiling for a second time. But it was a small price to pay as the blade was dangerously close to making a straight cut up and down where his pelvis was. After getting back to his feet. This continued a number of times. All the while he was using his gun and sword to either deflect or try to destroy his attacker’s tool but only managed to draw a few sparks upon collision with the blades of the sword and gun.
Eventually, the floor was cut up far too much and started to cave in. As a result, Engineer fell and was quickly pinned by several pieces of debris that fell across his midsection and only allowed his right leg and arms to be visible, as his hands attempted to pull off whatever was on top of him. It was also unfortunate, but he also ended up without his weapons as they got knocked away from his hands in the tumble.
As the dust created by the falling rubble subsided. The demon was already standing nearby and had her weapon raised over her head. She then said the following, just before sweeping down and allowing the edge to skewer through the pieces of wood and eventually contacting with his body. “Ah good, good! So much more space to do this!”
She then pulled on the handle that was still in the grip of both of her hands and carefully extracted both it, along with Engineer, who was now stuck on it in the same way a fish would be caught on a hook. By now, his leather clothing already had visible cuts in the fabric and the once roaring hot flames that were meant to consume his head were barely flickering to life. He was upright and his limbs were dangling as she brought him closer so that she could mock him face to face. “Pity... Was ready for so much more on your end. I guess it's to be expected from the weaker gender. The skeletons with the disguising spell were only around level fifteen.”
She then tilted her head and brought her demonic face so that it was on his right side before she whispered the following. “How does it feel to go against a level forty-two demon? Such a pathetic show. If there were only more of you, then you might have had a chance. Didn't anyone tell you that it's not smart to go against a boss rank all by yourself?” Engineer could not really respond as his flames were growing dimmer by the moment. Although, his hands were trying to lift as the creaking of leather could be heard from his fingers lightly flexing. But they eventually fell back down due to a lack of strength after halfway reaching up for the demon’s weapon.
The demon then made a noise that closely resembled sniffing before she spoke up again. “You're different from me, yet almost the same... I think it's your Aether. It... it feels off. It's decayed. Unsure on what else to call it other than... rotten. Oh, and trust me, I know what rotten is. But this, oh this is just, peculiar.” The demon proceeded to lift her weapon over her head with Engineers still on it and plunge the blade to the ground after swinging it hard. This was to ensure that more of it went through his body and anchored him in place as the length of the blade only stopped once it reached the section that connected to the handle.
This was followed with him watching as she went around his form. The demon then lifted one of its legs and firmly placed it onto his turned skull, which was also grinding along the floor thanks to some of the weight that was already being used. The clawed black feet of the female demon was now pivoting in place and causing some grinding sounds to occur by now. Engineers voice started to lose that demonic tone and was halfway to turning into his normal one, while low screams of pain came from his practically stuck open jaw.
There was even the sound of some cracking beginning to occur and the demon was mere seconds away from caving in his head when there was a sudden bang. Following that was the unmistakable sound of a ricocheting bullet. This caused the demon to stop in her current activity to take her foot from his skull, before slowly turning halfway to look over her shoulder to see just what was happening.
Right there, near the edge of the Demons right shoulder and along the back, was a small scratch that was the size of someone's pinky finger. The one who fired it just happened to be Daring Do herself, who is standing on her own shaky legs and still holding onto an outstretched pistol being gripped in both hands. She did not look all that great as her hair was disheveled and some clear sweat could be seen on her brow. She could also be seen breathing heavily, although there was this sharp gaze in her eyes that was trained on the black demon that was standing close to several meters away.
After a few seconds went by, she readied the pistol again and fired the remaining shots that she had loaded up beforehand. With each consecutive bang that was produced. There was a shower of Sparks to indicate that the projectiles were skidding from the surface of the demon’s skin and impacting in different places in the ship. The demon was clearly getting annoyed and was about to move her left leg to fully turn around. But instead, Engineer reached up with the last of his strength and gripped near the ankle, which led to the demon pausing and looking down at him.
He then weakly called out that was just barely loud enough to reach the ears of the Pegasus mare. “R-Run...” The demon gave off a grunt of annoyance before pulling her leg free and kicking his hand away. Her attention was then brought back to Daring Do. After a few seconds, her head could be turning back and forth between the Pegasus and Engineer as she brought her right hands index finger to point towards the mare as she spoke in clear disbelief.
“You… You honestly care for our food?! That right there is a walking, talking, appetizer.” The demons voice then turned to one of pure amusement as it was getting close to outright laughing in a ridiculing tone. “I thought that you kept her around for a late-night snack! You! You're clearly not one of us! Oh well, as much as I would love to play with the two of you longer. I really should get out of here fast with all the commotion of our little playing has caused. First, I'll~.”
The outstretched finger that was pointed at Daring Do before, immediately gave off a purple spark, which rapidly grew into an orb pulsing with electricity that was the size of a basketball. In a way, it strongly resembled one of those gadgets that would be filled with a gas and allows streams of electricity to travel to areas that a person touches on the outside of a glass orb. Engineer recovered just enough strength to raise both of his arms and grip onto the scythe to try and push it off himself. Unfortunately, he had nowhere near the required amount to yank it free from the floorboards on his own.
The orb of lightning was just ready to be let loose when another figure came from the demon’s blind spot and swung down at the outstretched arm with what looked like one of the cutlasses. The figure was thrown back after all their weight was used and repelled by the monster’s hard skin. But as a result of that action, the trajectory was changed just enough that it narrowly hit Daring Do in the head and exploded down the hallway that was behind the Pegasus. Although, with it being such a near miss. Her hair was now standing for a few seconds before the charge faded.
Surprisingly enough, the demon spoke in an exhausted voice rather than one of anger as the arm was lowered and her attention was brought to the new fighter. “I'm quite surprised that you have enough strength to do that much.” This turned out to be Spitfire and she was grasping in one of her hands a weapon that obviously came from the skeletons earlier. Her swollen eye was partially closed, and she was almost down onto her left knee with a plain look of exhaustion now crossing her features.
The mare then said the following as she was having to struggle with both talking and taking in heavy amounts of air as she was clearly overexerting herself. “Buck! And here I wanted to take your arm off... got no clue as to who or what that is down there... but if daring is trying to help... then that's all I need to know.” With those words being said, Spitfire finally crumpled down and dropped the sword which clattered onto the floor loudly.
The demon then gave a feminine shrug before reaching out into empty air with her right hand. All three of them had no idea as to what was going to happen next, but that question was answered when a small black rift appeared in the air and her hand slipped in until it was nearly halfway to her elbow. The arm fidgeted around as if looking for something for a few seconds and when it came out, there was an orange orb that was the size of a Pony's head sitting in the palm of her hand.
The inside was a murky red and orange. However, there was a distinct glow that was reminiscent to that of lava that bathed the room with its light. There was also a weird low hum that came at equal intervals and vaguely gave off the impression of a loud heartbeat. The demon looked it over before she said the following. “Once I'm done with all of you. This port will be quite busy with the ensuing fire this little trinket will cause.”
There was a small pause before she continued after taking a second to examine the item in her hand. “What better way than to erase any evidence, then to have it all burn to the ground. Of course, I will be quite sad that there will be so many delicious ponies that will end up dying before I get to have my fill of their delectable Aether. The ones on board this ship are just shriveled husks anyway. Eh, could always ask for more when I get back.”
This was followed with one of those stereotypical maniacal laughs that a villain would give right after giving a monologue of their plans. Her gaze turned towards Daring Do as the orb was placed back into where it came from. A moment later a slurping sound could be heard as the creature started to move from Engineer and flapped its wings once to give it a strong push to close the distance and grab on to Daring Do by the neck with its right arm.
As the Pegasus was attempting to claw at the arm to break the hold. Along with using the handle of her pistol as a blunt weapon. The demon continued. “But who's to say I don't have enough time to savor just one more soul before the entire feast is thrown away?” That was when Daring Do began to release a pained grunt as her body was beginning to give off a light glow, which turned into a bluish white mist and float into the air by several inches. Once this was done, the demon emitted another set of sounds to indicate that it was taking in a deep breath before letting out an appreciative sigh of delight as it spoke again.
“The other one I was draining bit by bit so that she could still be alive in case she was needed. But you, oh you! I'm taking everything all at once! Might just put on an extra pound or two, but I can easily slim it down.” Daring Do's right eye was closed tight as the other was just barely halfway opened by this point, as she was gasping for some much-needed air. Eventually, her eye was slowly beginning to roll back from the asphyxiation just as her hands were moving slower and slower until they rested down at her sides.
The next thing to happen, was a large amount of sound that came from chains rattling. The source immediately came into view as a link of fiery silver medal links went around the demon’s arm once and continued straight ahead without even touching the blackened hard skin. As soon as nearly several meters of it was going past the arm itself, did the chain go taught and grip on to the demon. This was immediately followed with the chain being pulled in the direction that it came from with a strong jerk. The end result was it acting as a chainsaw as it instantly burned its way through the natural defense and elicited a large number of sparks in doing so.
It only lasted for a few seconds, but pieces of flesh could be seen burning away until the underlining bones were exposed, and even that too was sawed off by the time the last of it passed. The arm that was still wrapped around her neck finally released itself just as Daring Do fell to the floor and immediately ripped it off to breathe once again and look to what was happening. From her perspective, the hulking figure was letting out a ghastly howl of pain. While at the same time, gripping on to the still glowing red hot stump that was just past the elbow.
But before the monster could do anything in response to the loss of her arm. A glowing whip of metal came soaring over Daring Do’s head and struck the front of the demon and sent it flying backwards with a loud thwack only a second before there was an equally loud crash on the far side of the room. The entire area was now brightly lit to where Daring Do Believe that the weird orb from earlier was taken out again, but she was wrong upon finding the source. Both she and Spitfire were now looking wide-eyed at the now standing stallion with a burning skull who was erupting with a level of heat that dwarfed his previously displayed ones from earlier.
The skull itself was enveloped and a raging storm of fire that could have come from a furnace going at full force with the way it was gushing through the neckline of the jacket. The numerous cuts and small rips in his clothing were also releasing the inner flames in small jets now and then. It could not be seen before. But now, there was a flowing tail of pure orange and red that gave the same impression of one's own tail standing on end and ready to whip at the first sign of aggression. There could also be seen some flickers of green on the tip.
The hard wooden floor below his legs was slowly blackening from being burned from the heat being given off until it was more than several inches away in all directions. Gripped in his right hand was the chain from earlier. After wrapping around a few times along the arm’s length and continuing from how he was holding it. The item was laying near and ready to be put to use once again. He then said the following in a voice that was quickly changing between normal and a demonic one with a deep voice, while pointing at the demon with his free hand. “DoN't ToUch… HER! We're not FINISHED!!!”
In response, the demon broke free from some of the pieces that landed on her after getting tossed thanks to being struck with a chain. She then pointed her left arm towards Engineer and immediately summoned an orb of lightning and shot it without any warning by forgoing a lengthy charge up time. But not before screaming the following. “YOU CUT MY ARM OFF!!!” Engineers swung his chain upwards at the last moment and sliced right through the orb and ended up dissipating the lightning harmlessly into the air as most of the charge went into the chain that was still in motion.
Said chain was already on course for the demon as it landed a direct hit to the midsection and completed the circuit to send the residual energy right back. Not only was the demon hit with another whip from his weapon but was also struck with her own spell as she was sent flying for a second time to the corner.
This got another pain yell before crashing into another set of debris and getting half buried. However, she wasn't under there for more than two seconds before everything was thrown off after getting back up again. This was quickly followed with a loud roar of anger as she took on a stance. She was slightly hunched over and with her legs spread and one good arm being pulled in near her side.
The air was filled with numerous crackling noises as a multitude of orbs began to appear and float around her body until there was at least over a dozen of them and holding position. These were then launched at all directions in a cone to blanket the fighting area. Not only was Engineer the target, but also Daring Do and Spitfire, who were caught in the crosshairs of a few of the orbs. But just as this was happening. Engineer was already in the motion of swinging his chain towards the ground and sending it into the floorboards. This act caused it to move on its own in the same way as a snake would when diving into a hole.
At what seemed to have been at impossible speeds. The entire area was immediately covered with spider webbing of burning chains that would go out of the floorboards and into the ceiling. Which would then come right back down again to continue the process. As a result, there were too many obstacles for the orbs to get to their intended targets and collided with the makeshift barricades and started the process of electrocuting the lines.
As the surge of electrical energy was bathing the room in a shade of dark purple. It was easy to track where the energy was flowing. So, when it got to traveling all the way back to Engineer. One could easily see it stopping only a few inches away from his hand that was still gripping on to the chain. Apparently, he was giving off so much heat and distorting the air around himself to such a degree that the energy was unable to overpower it and could not come close to even make contact with his form.
Now, when it came to the demon. She was not so lucky, as the chains were wrapping around her form as they were passing from the floor and up to the ceiling continuously. Her neck, one horn, good arm, legs and even her wings were hopelessly coiled in metal bindings. This forced her to stand in place with this shocked expression in her eyes as she watched in real time when her own magic spell was traveling right towards her and eventually into her own body. The air was filled with the unmistakable sound of buzzing of power and crackling of lightning.
This elicited a two-tone scream that obviously came from different sources, as the demons body convulsed erratically to the point that the amount of strength being used to pull it the chains was causing them to even dig into her flesh. After several seconds of this going on, did the demons body finally stopped with its uncontrolled movements and slump in its current captive state. Aside from the mixture of static saturating the air now and then, and the sizzle of the chain still slowly burning away. There was almost a near constant whaling of moans of discomfort from the demon as its head was now hanging from its body.
Engineer then said the following as it resonated heavily, while turning his wrist a couple of times to show that he was making the chain tighter as it was traveling into the floorboards. The Airship made some creaking sounds as the chains shifted until there was a loud grunt from the demon on the other end as the limbs were pulled tight to where they were close to resembling what a person would look like on a stretch rack. “YOU… ARE… GUILTY!!!”
And with that, his right arm with the chain was pulled back. This had the effect of copying what was done when removing the demon’s arm. But instead, all of her limbs, including her head, were sawed off simultaneously within seconds. The demons mouth opened wide to bear all of its sharp teeth as it wailed in agony for a split second when this was done. All the while, his weapon came completely undone from the ship and went to coiling around his form so that it was set in place to go over his chest by the time the last of the pieces even touch the ground.
Engineer by then, was giving out a couple of menacing growls before the tense flames erupting from his body ceased. In fact, it all died down to where there was barely even a flicker of Ember that would travel more than halfway up his head as his body fell to its knees and his back arching so that he was forced to look straight up. The fiery tail from before was completely gone now. Over the course of a few seconds, the transformation reverted as black smoke enveloped his body before it blew away to reveal Engineer in his Pony form once again.
He then said the following in a voice that was filled with mounting pain. Gah.. Dang! My head… Did anyone get the name of that vertibird that crashed on top of me? Because everything hurts so fucking much...” On Daring Do’s part, she was bringing herself up after being stuck on her hands and knees for a portion of that fight near the end and slowly made her way over to Engineer that was not making any further motions after giving that statement.
By now, she was standing in front of him as his eyes were locked on her with this sleepy expression. As for her, she had a stern one on her as she glared down at him. She then said, “You and I are going to need to have ourselves a sit down when this is all done!” There was a slight pause before she continued as her tone became angry as she started to yell.
“And this… is for scaring me half to death! You bucking jerk!” That sentence was immediately followed with her rearing her right arm up and sending it straight down so that it connected to the side of his face and caused him to fall to the ground with a thud and to also have a dazed expression on his face.
Right now, Engineers eyes were spinning as he was holding a hand to his now bruised cheek and looking up at Daring Do with a great amount of confusion showing. Upon seeing this. The Pegasus continued while having one hand on her hip and the other pointing at him in an accusing gesture. “Now listen here! I can overlook the whole Undead Pony and being on fire bit! But there is no way in Tartarus that I'm going to let you die on my watch! You hear me?!”
After hearing that, Engineer dumbfoundedly replied as his eyes were looking between Daring Do and Spitfire, who was watching from a distance and looking almost as confused as he was with the Pegasus’s reaction. “Uh… Well, it's nice and all to see you have your priorities in line... But was punching me really somethin’ I needed?”
This got Daring Do to blink a few times as her eyes started to slowly get wider between each one. She even straightened up and took the hand that she was pointing with to scratch the back of her head as she was looking away with clear embarrassment plastered on her face. Daring Do even started to purse her lips and do that thing where she knew she did something she should not have.
She was obviously going to try and come up with some type of excuse when Spitfire called out after getting up again. “Wow... I always knew you had a thing for the exotic types with going out of the country, but I think you may have gone a little overboard in picking your stallion! Hahaha!” Upon hearing that. Daring Do’s face became flush with a pink tint before it quickly grew red as a tomato. There was also a string of nonsensical words and stuttering as she angrily looked towards Spitfire and pointed between herself and Engineer a couple of times before she finally choked out the following words that clearly were not very convincing.
“You t-think that he, and I? Really? I-I! But he's just, and I'm just! You-you really have no idea what's going on here… So-So just shut your mouth! It's nothing like that okay!” Engineer was just laying on his tail while looking at the two and noticing the way Daring Do was getting all embarrassed as Spitfire had this mischievous grin that just yelled out that she found something fun to mess with and was not going to stop anytime soon.
The fooling around between the two mare's was broken when a loud growling sound emanated out of nowhere and caused the pair to get into a defensive stance in preparation for another fight. Spitfire grabbed onto a piece of wood that was just a little longer than the average sword, as Daring Do went on to unsheathe her survival knife and held it in a reverse grip. The tip of it was pointed straight ahead as her free hand was pressing on the bottom of the handle. This was just in case she needed an extra bit of strength to send it into her would-be assailant.
They obviously did not see anything with the way their heads were turning from left to right to scan the room for any new hostile threats. Once the pair gazed around for at least the third time. They both had their backs towards one another and got closer so that they now had engineer between the two of them as he was laying on the floor. The stallion himself was doing the same, but also glancing at the mare’s in confusion. When the loud growling came for the fourth time. It was easily twice as strong as before and this caused Daring Do and Spitfire to tense up further.
This caused them to bend their knees slightly so that they were in a ready stance. Their eyes sharpened along with their muscles tensing up for that split moment that they would need to react. Daring Do called over her shoulder without looking away from the area in front of herself with an edge to her voice. “I got nothing!”
This got an equally stressed reply from Spitfire as she said, “I don't see it, but it sounds to be right on top of us!” The next one to speak up was Engineer, as he spoke in a very drawn out and almost melodramatic wine, while still sitting on the floor between the two girls that pretty much had their tails almost pressing against the sides of his head by now.
“Everything hurts and I'm so damn hungry!” This was immediately followed with the same growling noise that they have been hearing for a while now. This caused both girls to sharply turn their heads towards Engineer while also flicking one of their ears. Spitfire had a mix of bewilderment and surprise going on. But when it came to Daring Do, she just released an exhausted sigh before letting go of the handles tip and using that hand to slap herself in the face. The Adventurous mare then ran her hand down her face before she said the next bit with a bit of irritation in her tone while also somehow sounding relieved.
“Sheesh! You can't be that bad if you're able to make jokes like that. So how are you feeling?” That question just got a tired and very drawn-out groan of pain from the stallion as he attempted to lift one of his hands, but to only drop it after gaining a few inches off the ground. “Every bone in my body feels as though it's about to break... You know that feeling you get when your leg falls asleep, and you get those pins and needles that make it impossible to do anything for a while kind of feeling?”
After getting a reluctant nod from Daring Do. Engineer continued in the same pathetic voice as earlier. “Every part of me has that right now... and I mean every part, it's just horrible! I could even feel it on my eyebrows and it's weird. I could also feel it in my lips! Someone please, make it STOP! I’d rather be knocked out than go through this for another second!”
This cause Spitfire to immediately try to cover her mouth after dropping the piece of wood. This was so that she could cover up a loud laugh. After nearly a minute of this going on and the blue jumpsuit wearing Pegasus having to steady herself with both hands clutching at her knees for support, otherwise she would end up slouching all the way over and falling to the floor. The mare finally began to release some intelligible sentences as a few tears were streaming down her face. “Haha-hehe! And here I thought he might have been some sort of monster! Oh, it hurts, it hurts my sides, but I really needed that! You really know how to pick them Daring!”
This got a mock laugh from Daring Do in the direction of Spitfire before she reached down to grab on to Engineers left arm to try and pull him back onto his legs. The act elicited a hiss of pain from the stallion, and this caused Daring Do’s previous face towards her friend to turn somewhat concerned before being a little gentler with the motion.
Having caught this, Spitfire gave the pair a quick smirk before lending her assistance. By the time Engineer was on his legs again. His arms were draped over the shoulders of both the mare's. The trio were walking slowly up a mound of debris that formed a makeshift ramp that led to a large enough hole for them to exit above and get right onto the deck of the ship.
They had not even gotten halfway up, and the group nearly stumbled when one of them stepped onto some loose debris. Engineer released another grumble from his stomach that caused Spitfire to chuckle before letting out a joke. “I heard a burning through a lot of calories, but this is just going too far! Daring, aren't you feeding him enough?” The young Pegasus’s head started to hang a little low right as her cheeks were beginning to flush after hearing this and Spitfire took this as a queue to push the mare's buttons a little more.
“I kind of feel sorry for you buddy. Daring hasn't really been all that great at cooking. So, you must be stuck eating out all the time. What do you say we get out of here and I cook you up something good at my place?” She then said the next part with a sultry tone, while also giving a playful wink to the stallion and intentionally pressing her body suit clad body a little more firmly into him. “After all that, I'll personally give you a very special dessert.” Daring Do's head immediately shot up as she gave Spitfire a death glare that said that she needed to stop now, or pain would come very… very soon.
She then tried to yell in the beginning, but her voice dropped nearly halfway through to show that her confidence was wavering. “Hey! I'll have you know I... I... I can cook now you know.” The other mare rolled her eyes before playfully jabbing back. “Oh really now? You finally stepped it up above opening one of those premade energy bars and roasting it over a flame for a few seconds to warm it up? You know, I'd be really surprised if you could even boil water without burning down the kitchen your in.”
Daring Do's teeth could be visibly seen as she was beginning to grind them, while also attempting to keep a disarming smile as she spoke through them. “That was just one time, and it was only a small fire.” Spitfire raised an eyebrow to that before her cheerful expression turned a bit more serious as she replied. “That was no small fire. You’re the very reason I had to move into that apartment building now, remember?” By this point the two ended up forgetting about Engineer and were practically pressing their foreheads into one another for a stare down.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate for the stallion depending on how it was seen. His face was literally being pressed from both sides by one with a white tank top shirt and other being a skintight blue jumpsuit. However, it started to become a small problem with him being able to breathe thanks to the twins sets of pillows underneath both fabrics almost blocking his ability to take in any oxygen. This lasted for several seconds until there was a muffled yell coming from Engineer and the two pulled away enough to reveal his panting face that was gasping for much needed air.
Spitfire was smirking up a storm on the left side of him, while Daring Do was looking both embarrassed and furious at what just happened. They were just about to go into another argument with the stallion stuck in between thanks to his current condition, when a pulsing black orb shot past them and headed right for the exit of the ship that was less than three meters away by now. Daring Do's eyes shot wide and sent a glare over towards the entrance. Spitfire apparently picked up on that and the pair more than tripled their efforts to getting outside in a hurry.
When the three of them got up on deck. The two mare’s were searching high and low from where they stood as their heads were turning to take in everything around. Engineer used his head to point to the bow of the ship and quickly said, “Go over there! I think I know where it's heading!” Not wanting to waste any time with questions. All three were instantly at the edge of the ship and they caught the sight of the weird orb giving off some random bursts of light as it sailed down the pier. It then entered a smaller ship that was maybe six meters long at the very end of the line of docked ships.
Thanks to it being later in the evening. All the lamps were on and gave a good view of what was happening on that small ship from where they stood. The stairway leading to the bottom deck was now giving off a strong surge of purple light that lasted a couple of seconds before going dim. This was immediately followed with the demon from before coming out after first having some trouble with squeezing its frame onto the deck. It was even followed by a pair of the same type of black skeletons as earlier.
All three of the ponies on the larger ship expected another fight to occur, but were surprised when the two skeletons and Demon hurriedly prepared the ship for a hasty take-off. Daring Do scrunched up her brow as she confusedly asked the following question. “Does anyone understand why they're even running? Our heavy hitter is nothing but a mannequin at this point. Oh, uh, no offense!” To that, Engineer just bobbed his head a little and gave a weird smirk and a sound to indicate that he did not take it personally before Spitfire added her own thoughts.
“Yeah, she has a point there. I think this monster is a body snatcher. It could have just taken one of the ones that were still on the ship and came after us again.” There was only a few seconds before a look of realization came across the captain's face before she added the next bit. “She might be running on fumes. That could explain why she's on the run! Come on, let’s get ‘em before it's too late!” Clearly taking the hint. Both Pegasus release their hold and were about to take flight. But they were stopped as Engineer managed to reach out and grab on to their clothing near the lower back area.
This got a pair of feminine screams as they almost fell back from this and shot him a, are you kidding me look. Before wrenching themselves free from his hands. Seeing what was about to happen. Engineer quickly spoke up as he was now leaning onto the railing and trying to keep on his own two legs that were heavily shaking.
“I think we’re in the perfect seating for a good show.” Daring Do replied to that while pointing at the smaller ship that was already a dozen meters away from the edge of the pier and going out into the open air. A good show? If we don’t hurry, then they’re gonna get away! That’s one of the faster flying vessels out here. Once it picks up speed, we won’t be able to catch up in time with how worn out we are.” He also looked over to Daring Do and said the next bit while giving a devilish smile. “Remember when I said I was setting up a distraction?”
Going back to a couple of minutes prior to now and on the smaller ship. The orb of light flew right in through a small open port window for the doorway heading inside and entered another standing box after phasing through the wooden cover. It did not even take a moment before there was a glow seeping through the cracks before the lid was roughly pushed off as the body inside fell onto its knees.
This turned out to be a previously unseen Unicorn mare. But her flesh could be seen in patches along her face thanks to some missing fur. Her left eye was sunken in to where one could not even see the orb thanks to being replaced with an empty darkness with just a single purple orb pulsing in the center. Said pulses were in rhythm with an audible beat. One that was reminiscent to hearing a person’s beating heart for a moment or two.
Both the fur on her face and the small amount of mane that could be seen were both brown. The horn had some jagged pieces to show that it was partially cracked. The clothing itself was that of a red set of robes that obviously needed cleaning thanks to the large brown spots in random places along the fabric.
There was one spot in particular that was bigger than the rest. It was near the stomach area that also had a ripped section reminiscent of what would happen if someone were to be stabbed. The Unicorn attempted to speak at first, but all that came out was a few gurgles before some black ooze was coughed up onto the floor with a splatter.
There was some hollow wheezing before she finally got her voice. “BUCK! Barely enough strength to make this thing move! N-Need to report this!” She then turned her attention to another set of boxes that were partially leaning against the wall at an angle and began to scream. “Stop being lazy and get this ship moving!” A second later the lids were pushed off and to the side and clattered to the ground to reveal a set of skeletons with their arms outstretched to show that they were the ones responsible for the lids coming off.
The Unicorn stumbled as soon as she got to her legs and grunted a few times. As soon as that was done, she was enveloped in the same cloud of darkness that took on the shape of an orb until it grew large enough and dissipated to show her demonic body. There was a low growl as she lumbered towards the exit that would lead above as she spoke up again in clear irritation. “This body's too damaged to function properly! No choice but to expend more of my energy for my true form... At least until I can get one that’s fresh.”
However, just right outside of the door, was a set of fishing line that was running low to the ground and in the path of the outwardly swinging exit. If one were able to follow where it led, then they would have seen how it zigzagged all over the ship. Not only was it partially blocking the way down below, but it was also tethered to one of the handles that would be steering the ship. Part of it even included the small gap in the railing just a couple of inches from the ground where the gangplank would lead on and off the ship.
As soon as the demon got out and caused the wire to break by opening the door. The line pulled tightly by a couple of inches before somewhere along the length it broke. At the very end of it all was a single egg timer and it started to make some very low ticking sounds. This was being obscured by the footsteps being made by the Demon and her skeleton assistants as they came onto the deck.
Said egg timer was also connected to a large volume of cylinders and glass bottles that contained a substantial amount of black powder. Many of them were situated near the center of the deck and right behind the steering column where it would not easily be seen in the dark. There were also more vials placed nearby in other nooks and crannies. Once the ship got moving the creature looked over to the larger ship that it was previously on and caught sight of the three it was fighting on top.
She then gave off a light chuckle as a snarl soon grew on those fanged teeth of hers as she began to talk to herself. “If I had just a little more energy... Then it would have been child's play to take one of the other crew members and finish those three off... Maybe I'll be forgiven if I can deliver some useful Intel on this new arrival. The captain should not have any strength to give chase. I could probably still take on that other Pegasus if she tries to fly over.”
That was when she had a devilish idea and reached into a familiar rift in the air. She then pulled out the glowing orange and red orb. This was followed by a series of maniacal laughter as she pulled her arm back in preparation to throw the object as she called out in hopes of the others being able to hear her banter. “I must apologize for leaving so soon, but here's a parting gift!” She intended to hurl it deep into the docks so that it would not only destroy some ships. But to also cause a substantial amount of damage to both the nearby ships and the structure of the docks.
By that point, the egg timer was already counting down to the last of its seconds. In fact, it had just clicked so that it indicated that five seconds remained. The Demon’s arm was in the middle of throwing back when it hit four. She was taking aim when it hit three. Legs were braced for the best leverage when it hit two. One last laugh was given when it hit the final second. And just when she was already halfway through with swinging her arm to let go, did the bombs finally go off. There was a set of blinding flashes and multiple strong concussive pulses emitted from each explosion that was practically under her feet in eliciting a demonic scream of fright.
As a result, the skeletons that were acting as crew members were either torn to bits as sections of their bodies were forced apart or thrown against some other object such as a railing or the mast on the small ship. The Demon lost her grip on the weapon as it slipped from her grasp. The surface of the item instantly showed hairline cracks that spider webbed all over before what was contained within was released. Her eyes were even going as wide as possible upon witnessing the event occur in slow motion. As everything was engulfed in a fiery explosion at point blank that emanated from the now ruptured item.
It took less than a split second, but everything caught up and its seemingly ever-expanding blast radius, was not only torn apart. But also instantly vaporized before it was even fully engulfed in the bright light. The Demon burned to nothing as a purple light attempted to flee from its disintegrating form. Unfortunately, that was ultimately destroyed as it was not fast enough to escape.
The blast grew until it was practically big enough to form a perfect sphere to contain nearly a dozen of the same size of ships within. This however, produced a powerful shockwave that caused many of the other ships nearby that were still anchored to rock violently. As this was happening, the port was shaken to wear a few of the bystanders needed to grab onto something or risk falling off the sides of their own vessels or the edge of the walkways.
Back over with Engineer, Daring Do and Spitfire. They were just standing with their bodies grabbing on to the railing as they watched the ensuing destruction in progress. The entire incident from the flashpoint and the loud boom that followed, until everything stopped rocking lasted for nearly ten seconds. At which time, all three were just looking at where the ship once was with eyes wide open and mouths hanging so low that they may as well have been completely unhinged. Engineer was standing in the middle as the two Pegasus mare’s slowly move their eyes so that they were looking straight at him with unchanged expressions of shock.
Upon noticing this. Engineer began to change his own expression to that of embarrassment as he gave them a slight wince and a smile before he spoke. “I... hehehe... I may have messed up on the measurements... just a tad bit.” Daring Do was at a complete loss of words as Spitfire spoke up. “Well... when you said that was a distraction, then I think that was more than effective.”
Daring Do's face then morph to that of horror for a few seconds before she grabbed on to his shirt collar and started to shake him violently as she started to talk in a dangerous tone. “I was walking around with a walking BOMB for the last half an hour through the city?! Are you bucking crazy! What would you have done if that went off in the hotel room!”
Spitfire blinked a few times before she had this sultry look about her before she made a pointing gesture between the other two as she spoke. “Hmm. And what's this about a hotel? Oh Daring, you're really starting to live up to your name now, aren't you? The Pegasus in question released Engineer and allowed him to plop onto the floor before she ran both of her hands down her face to reply to Spitfires implied accusation. “It’s not like that at all! We were doing some preparation work to rescue you.” This got Daring Do a not-so-convinced hum from the mare before she continued and gestured towards Engineer at the same time.
“Hey, you're not a stranger in this! Come on! Back me up on this. We got nothing going on, right? Hey, ignoring me is not helping! Engineer! For Celestia's sake! Don’t tell me that mouth finally picked now to shut up when I need it!” It took a few more seconds before the two realized that the stallion was not moving, and they became immediately worried and started to check up on him.
It did not take long before they discovered that he was snoring like a log and unresponsive to anything they attempted to try to wake him up with. That was when they heard the royal guard approaching in the distance and this caused daring due to panic as she looked to where the sound was emanating from and back down to the passed out Engineer.
Catching on to what might have been going through her friend's mind. Spitfire gave them the go-ahead to get out of there with her staying behind to fill in the guards on what was transpiring. However, she did tell her friend that she wasn't going to say a thing about the stallion’s transformation and that the two of them would meet up later at her apartment. And with that, Daring Do grabbed on to Engineer and glided off the other side of the large ship so that they were not in view of the oncoming guards that were both on hoof and in the air.
Fortunately enough, there was not all that much damage inflicted on the pier and all of the docked ships from the explosion. Well, aside from some rattled crew members who were caught unawares and could not grab on to anything to prevent some minor injuries from occurring in time.
Much to her word, the captain of the Wonderbolts gave a detailed record when it came to her abduction. Now, when it came to how she was rescued. The mare stated how a pair of adventurers came on board and fought a monster who was capable of stealing bodies and controlled skeletons as minions.
After a close battle, the monster tried to flee on another smaller vessel and was caught up in the bright explosion that could clearly be seen from halfway across the city. A few hours past as the rest of the crew members that were detained thanks to the efforts of the two that came to rescue her, were taken into custody and immediately found evidence that they were all members of the rumored Herd Cult. Honestly, it did not really help that they all carried either on their possession or tucked away in their cabins a set of red robes that were known to be used by the fanatical group.
Even more questions were asked to the neighboring vessels about the suspicious ship. In the end it was discovered that it was docked for nearly two weeks. And strangely enough, it was the only one that did not get regular inspections by the officers stationed to oversee permits for how long they can stay in one place before needing to move on.
This eventually led to finding those very same officers. Thanks to a reasonable suspicion the Royal Guards searched their office that was situated near the front of the dock. It did not take much effort at all to come across a large number of bits and expensive artifacts being kept in a hidden trunk that was underneath some loose floorboards.
It was nearly ten-thirty at night by the time Spitfire got back to her apartment by flying into it through the balcony. Even though she had been held captive for a few days and assisted in the new investigation that took place at the pier. Spitfire did not look too worse for wear after she took a few steps in. But as soon as she came even dangerously close to the couch, did she go right for the end and tossed herself high enough that her entire body was now plopping across all of the cushions. This produced a loud poof sound emanating throughout the living room. This was also accompanied by a long groan of relief as her face was pressed into one of the pillows.
Her right wing was draped over the top of the couch as the other one was drooping on to the floor. The mare was just about to pass out for a well-deserved night of sleep when the excited voice of her mother came out from the nearby kitchen. “Oh my! My Firefly is back home! This got a pathetic grunt from Spitfire as she lazily picked up one of her hands to do a dismissive gesture as she was trying to speak through the pillow covering her face. “Mom... I'm not a little filly anymore, so… please stop calling me that already.”
She hardly even had enough time to finish that sentence before she was plucked off of the couch and given one of the biggest bear hugs she could possibly get from a happily crying mother. It would have been seen as a heartfelt moment for the two if it were not for the simple reason of Spitfire now feeling her internal organs being crushed into paste.
Stormy Flare was almost crying out-right out of pure joy, whereas Spitfire was now shedding a teardrop from her right eye from nothing but excruciating pain as her upper half was literally creaking from within her bones due to the amount of strength the older mare was exerting. She then wheezed out the following as she was trying to prevent her back from being crushed. “If you really love me... let me, GO! I-I need… to breathe!”
Of course, she was eventually allowed to breathe again, but not after suffering for a few more moments. After which, Daring Do came out from the short hallway and into the living room to find the mother and daughter together. The mare then pointed over her shoulder in the direction that she just came from and stated that engineer was out cold and sleeping on the guest bed.
According to the mare, they had not even made it halfway back before he could no longer stay awake. However, they stuck to the rooftops and glided every so often. So, it didn't put too much of a strain on Daring Do to get into the apartment building after gliding down from the structure just across the street and into the open balcony window.
But what was really concerning was the fact that Engineers body temperature was low on arrival, and it was stormy flare who suggested that he rest in the spare bedroom and be put under the covers. This at one point or another led to the topic of having a late dinner. Daring Do was all for relaxing on the couch next to Spitfire to catch up until the food was ready. But that idea was thrown out the window when she caught what her friend said next, while heading over to the kitchen along with her mother and quickly putting on an apron with the Wonderbolts logo printed on it.
“Think i'll give you a hand in there Mom!” Stormy Flare desperately tried in vain to get her to reconsider but the captain was extremely adamant about doing this. In the end, her mother just gave up and allowed her to do what she wanted. She even continued with, “How often do I get to show off my cooking skills to a stallion?” Daring Do, who was sitting on the couch by then. Had this slight look of panic has she glanced between the kitchen and the hallway several times along with also showing beads of sweat on her face.
She then reached up with one of her hands towards the kitchen and gave off a light chuckle before saying the next part in an unsure tone. “Uh, maybe I could also-.” However, her words were stopped right in their tracks as both mother and daughter stuck their heads out of the kitchen and yelled at nearly the top of their voices in perfect unison while giving Daring Do a very cold stare down.
“NO! You're still banned from the kitchen!” But what really shot fear into Daring Do, was what stormy Flair said next while also gesturing with two of her fingers towards her own eyes before pointing them at the mare. “I see you so much as place one hoof on this floor and I will break out the photo album little missy! And yes, I did bring it with me. And I always have it ready.”
The threat of showing her past self was enough to make Daring Do stay seated with her arms straight down and looking off in the distance with a horrified expression that just screamed that it would have been the end of the world for her. She then said the following under her breath as her eyes quickly looked over to the hallway for a brief moment. “For the love of Celestia. Please don't let him see THAT yearbook picture...”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Canterlot*
Meanwhile, add another location. Alone figure dressed in some white and gold trimmed armor was by herself and walking the streets of Canterlot. This turned out to be one of the Royal Guards and they were equipped with a small buckle shield and a short sword, which was a part of the basic equipment issued to the soldiers. No wings or horn could be visible to show that this was an Earth pony mare. She had just turned off a seemingly busy road that was where the residential district would meet with the shops.
This turned into a small alley that ran clean through and on to another busy street that was nearly a block away. She had not even gone a third of the distance before stopping at a door that would have been difficult to see unless one was to be standing right in front of it due to the tall stacks of boxes on either side. To anyone who would be standing at either end of the alley. It would have just appeared to be a rather tall stack of garbage and disregarded any notion of there being an entrance anywhere down in there.
The guard knocked on the door with a subtle rhythm once she was at it. But only after checking to see if there was anyone else there. The door itself was painted in a way that it had a camouflaging effect as to blend it in to the brick wall around the frame. It even had a sliding shutter about a quarter of the way up to allow someone to look through and communicate beyond the door while still being closed. Said shutter immediately opened and a set of blue eyes could be seen on the other side. The voice of another female came out rather rough as she pointedly asked who was there with a snarky attitude. “Wha'cha want?!”
The guard then leaned in to whisper the following. “Here to give my report on the dock situation. The eyes from the door quickly shifted from left to right for a few times before it was abruptly shut with a loud click at the end to signify it was locked. There was also another set of sliding sounds as something large was being removed from barring entrance just a few seconds prior to it being swung open. The one on the other side was wearing a set of red robes and the hood was pulled up and only allowing the eyes to be seen thanks to the shadow it was casting.
As soon as the guard entered, and the door was closed. The two started to go down a short hallway with pieces of wallpaper barely holding on as patches could be seen of the wall it was originally attached on. There was only a single door at the other end, and that looked so weathered, that one might have thought that it was exposed to the elements for many years. Even the brass door handle could barely be seen with any of its usual shine thanks to the amount of dirt and rust coating the metallic surface.
The one in robes went in first after opening a door and stood off to the side to allow the guard to come in. Once the second door was closed, the room went completely black for several long seconds before a single light shine down and onto a simple metal foldout chair all by itself. Thanks to the way the lighting was used. It made it nearly impossible to see anything else aside from a few paces of empty space away from the chair. After noticing this. The guard immediately went over to it and sat down while staring straight ahead with a stoic expression.
What happened next was a lengthy conversation between the mare in armor and a number of voices that would come from the dark. Even though they would come out at different directions. They all sounded so similar that it may as well have come from the same female. The only key difference was the slight shift when it came to how they spoke.
“State your number!”
“I am number one five eight six.
“Please inform us all as to what division you are under.”
“I am a member of both the intelligence section and currently posted in the eighteenth squad of the day guard.”
“Tch! Forget the dang formalities and just hurry up and get to tellin' us what yea know!”
“Efforts in both retrieving leaked information, as well as a possible recruitment candidate has failed. Furthermore, it would appear that one of the elite officers has been defeated.”
“Oh, my word! The poor thing... I really did like her attitude, but I suppose fretting over every little setback would not be very becoming.”
“Who was this possible recruitment candidate?”
“It was a Pegasus mare by the name of Spitfire. From second account of those who got taken into custody. She is the captain of the Wonderbolts. While in the middle of tracking down the leak, she was taken into custody after stumbling into the middle of an operation on a target site. The officer in charge said that she was, and I quote. A good catch.”
“Hmm... Hmmm...”
“I see. this is quite troublesome. Would it be accurate to speculate the same suspects are involved in causing this hindrance for us?”
“I'm afraid not. The remaining crew members aboard the ship have almost no recollection of even catching sight of the ones who were involved. Meaning we have no Intel that would be useful in tracking down the suspect.”
“For crying out loud! All that wasted effort! It took so much shifting of the paperwork to have our operatives to be the ones that would go to that apartment and put on that little song and dance to keep any eyes off of our backs.”
“Now now! Please try to hold your temper. At the very least we now have reason to believe that a new piece has been added to this little chess board.”
“GERRR! Just what BUCKING good is that going to do for us?! Every time we come up with a new venture this happens! And it’s been going on almost every BUCKING time”
“I suppose that would be true. Too bad that we lost our eyes and ears in Ponyville. The Elements of Harmony and those other two need to be kept under constant surveillance.”
“Oh, that is so very true. That man really must do read the room as they say. Whether it be directly or indirectly, it is quite rude to continuously cause us this much distress.”
“I do concur. It would have been most prudent to contain those emotions, rather than to blatantly attack a male in public in such a way. Reasoning would dictate to cover our tracks. Perhaps the wrong one was assigned to this task. I propose that we do a restructuring on what task is dictated to whom.”
“Please, I think we have gotten far off topic. Now, do tell us anything you can. Any detail, no matter how minor it may seem will be most helpful.”
“I understand. The larger ship suffered substantial damage which range from the holding area and the sections right above. From the few crew members that were barely awake at the time. They remember hearing a number of loud sounds that were similar to cannon fire. The Unicorns even sensed a large buildup of lightning magic that was coursing throughout the ship near the end of the exchange. I got a first-hand look and found multiple holes in the area that was most likely the main fighting zone on both the floor and roof. Not to mention some random burns spots.”
“Burn spots you say? Interesting, very interesting. I already have one suspect in mind.”
“Must I waste precious oxygen by reminding you all that the most obvious suspect is not anywhere near here at this present time?”
“Then would it be possible that we have missed another one of ours out there yet again?”
“No way, no how! We made sure that we had more personnel on site for when the procedures were done and kept them safely locked away until they were ready to be used!”
“Oh, pardon me! I did not mean to offend. Rather, it is still distraughting that we lost one to the possession of a male... during phase three.”
“There will be no discussing of that topic for the time being. Now as for you, you may go now. But do make sure to pass any relevant reports down the proper channel when they should arise.”
The mare stood up from her chair and left the room along with the other within seconds and close the door behind themselves. Once they were gone and only the single light and a chair was left in the dark room, did the voices start back up again.
“Shall we take a vote on how we shall proceed?”
“Hah! I say we go right ahead and start the next phase as soon as possible!
“It would be detrimental to hastily proceed without first fortifying our position. I propose the course of sticking to the schedule. This would also further allow us to add or subtract any obstacles that might hinder our endeavors.”
“We have one for, and one against moving the timetable up.”
“I would rather not rush. Just as beauty needs it, perfection takes time.”
“That's two in favor of waiting.”
“I pinned my hopes on this working out. However, if it should happen to go south. Then i'd like to build up my capital for any future plans. After a fair amount of my bits have been sunk into this. It doesn't hurt to have some financial stability if the worst case should come. It’s like my mom always said, don’t go counting your money bags until you got all your bits.”
“That's one for moving ahead and three for waiting.”
“Hmmm... hmm. I don't feel like voting.
“As the impartial member I will also abstain from throwing my own vote in. By majority, we shall continue with our current plans as scheduled. In the meantime, I suggest that we have our members that are stationed within the Adventurers Guild to keep an ear open for any talk of someone who is powerful enough to take out one of our officers.”
“I regretfully say that will be rather laborious. As of now. We have no members within the Canterlot branch office. Other areas have also been going dark when it comes to the information network we have in place.”
“To Tartarus with that Mare! It's all because of her outburst in Ponyville that they've started screening their employees and rooting us out! It's so infuriating! How the buck are they even finding us so quickly?!”
“There's not much we can do now. Pointless arguing will get us nowhere. If there is no further matters that need to be immediately discussed, then I propose that this meeting is concluded.” For several long seconds not one of the voices could be heard again. Seemingly to take this as a unified agreement. The light in the center of the room began to shrink in size until everything was obscured with complete blackness.
But seemingly out of nowhere. The entire room lit up. The chair from before was missing and replaced with an open area and a tastefully designed rug with pictures of story books. The interior was filled with wall to wall of shelves and countless volumes of text all neatly put away on each of them. It would have taken only a few seconds for anyone to realize that this was a regular bookstore. The blinds were drawn closed for the two large windows on either side of the stores entrance.
There was also a long counter with a register at one end. The rest of the surface was covered with random books that were either neatly stacked or spread about on their own. Sticking out from underneath one of the larger tomes, was a piece of parchment with what appeared to be titles belonging to stories and written in black Ink. However, there was a set that had a red circle outlining it near the bottom corner. Inside the red marking, there was a total of four in all.
These turned out to be, Beast of Fire. Beast of Earth. Beast of wind and Beast of lightning. But just underneath the circling. There was one more title but it had been scratched out so much that one might have thought the quill could have ripped the paper apart if it had gone any further.
*Point of view: Daring Do* *Location: Spitfire's Apartment* *Time: A little over an hour after both mother and daughter started preparations on late dinner*
Daring Do could be seen sitting on the couch with an extremely bored expression plastered onto her face. Said mare was currently upside down thanks to her laying across the couch. Her body was on its back so that her arm and leg were hanging over the edge as well. As for her Wing that was already draped onto the carpet and having one of its feathers being lazily played with thanks to her hand resting on the top of it.
Her eyes were drifting from one side of the room to the next as she was in a good position to look under a couple of the pieces of furniture for anything that could bring some semblance of entertainment. For the better part of the last hour, Daring Do was not allowed to enter the kitchen unless it was to get a glass of water. And even then, she was quickly ushered out by Stormy Flare. It really didn't help her self-esteem when it came to cooking when she was immediately seen as a walking kitchen disaster by the two mare's in the other room.
She then started to think the following to herself as her inner voice was sounding just as bored as her outer exterior. “Bored… I am so very bored... This is just so boring! I really don't get what the big deal is about cooking at home. We could already be eating by now if they just let me run out and grab some takeout. For crying out loud! I could at least be allowed to make some coffee. That's the one thing I do know how to make, and it won't explode halfway through.”
Daring Do started to Grumble to herself a few more times before she continued after first rolling and situating her body so that she was now laying across her stomach. “They're just doing this to impress him!” She then had this serious pout on her face as she was staring up at the ceiling while going on with these thoughts. However, it started off with a snarky tone to her inner voice.
“I could cook too if I wanted too! Just uh, didn't have the motivation, that's all. Yeah, that's right, I can cook! I'll just march right up in there and show them! For Tartarus’s sake it's in my name. I'm Daring Do, not Daring can't!” And with that, the Pegasus sat up and started to march right up to the kitchen with long strides between them. However, she did not even make it to the threshold before she paused and adopted a bewildered expression.
This quickly morphed to another that was comprised of both confusion and self-discussed as she started to think the following in panic. “Did I? was I almost? Am I getting jealous? Get a hold of yourself Daring, he's just a stallion! Okay yes, he's a tall stallion and he's a lot stronger than he looks. Sure, he might not be a Pegasus, but we all can't be perfect.” This was when her inner voice began to shift slightly to what one would think to come out of an excitable schoolgirl.
“He's not so hard on the eyes I will admit that. There's also that strong grip. I've arm wrestled both mare’s and stallions and none of them have come anywhere near that. And sure, he has that condition where he erupts into flames, I'll give him that. But that's only temporary, so that's not much of a deal breaker. Also, if it wasn't for him, I'd most likely be dead off in some foreign land.” By now. She had brought up both of her hands and started to do that weird thing where a person would poke their index fingers into one another while slightly hunching over.
This went on for a few seconds before she suddenly shot her head back up and blinked repeatedly as her face started to blanch. From there, she clutched at both sides of her head while pacing back and forth in front of the kitchen a couple of times as her thoughts began to race even faster. “Did I really just sound like a school filly again? Nooooo! Get a hold of yourself! I'm just going to contribute this to the exhaustion and being slightly malnourished. Yeah, that's right! I just need some food in my belly and I'll be just fine!”
Her thoughts were broken when she heard Spitfire calling from within the kitchen and saying that the food would be on the table in a few minutes. Without even giving it any sort of afterthought. She immediately replied to let them know that she would go and try and wake up Engineer so that he can get something to eat. It did not even take more than a few seconds before she was already at the door to the guest room and quickly swung it open.
What she saw next caused her following words to stop at the back of her throat as she was just standing there in the doorway with her eyes slowly going wide and mouth slightly opened. She was also sniffing the air between every other breath while doing this. Right there and sitting with his legs crossed on top of the bed sheets was the stallion she was looking for. He was in his pants, boots, and undershirt. But what really drew her eyes in. Was what he was holding in both hands.
From all of her travels. Daring Do has gone from one continent to the next and experience different cultures from a close perspective. So, what she caught sight of and being paired with the smell in the air. The Pegasus instantly identified that Engineer was snacking on jerky. Long pieces of dried and seasoned meat were being held in the grip of both hands and nearly devoured. As for Engineer himself. He was looking straight at Daring Do with a deer in the headlight expression as his quick chewing slowed down to a crawl.
He then swallowed everything in his mouth as he was trying to keep a pathetic attempt at an innocent smile while doing so. It was immediately followed with a nervous set of chuckling as he began to speak the following. “Aaaah... I guess there's something else I need to tell you.” As for Daring Do. All thoughts in her head came to a grinding stop as all she could do was to dumbly nod to that statement. Spitfire's voice could then be heard off in the distance and down the hall. “What's taking so long in there? If he doesn't hurry up, he's going to have cold food!”
In response. Engineers ears perked up and he bounced himself out of bed. But not before shoving the rest of the jerky into his mouth and eating it before he even got to the door. Daring Do moved out of the way to allow him to pass just as he said the following. While also sounding extremely excited.
“Eat now talk later!” By then, she had stepped into the room slightly and was staring at his back. Then she thought the following in a disbelieving tone. “I've been traveling with a meat eater this whole time?” She was so out of it that when she tried to leave the room, she found that she was somehow getting caught on something that was preventing her from crossing the threshold.
When she turned her head to see what was going on. Her worried expression only grew upon seeing the state of her now fully extended wings that were preventing her from walking through the doorway. Her cheeks quickly turned to a deep crimson as she had this pleading look right as her stomach was giving a loud growl.
She then spoke the next set of words in a pleading whisper as her lower lip was turning into a pout. “Oh, Pony feathers... Why now? And I'm so hungry too...” The next part sounded more panicked than anything else and she frantically tried to do what she could to calm her wings down. “Oh no! he's alone with Spitfire and her mother! And worst of all… They have the photos!!!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 72: What Have I Gotten Myself Into?
*Point of view: Brex* *Location: Ponyville, right outside the home of Brex* *Time: Twelve-Thirty in the afternoon*
Brex was standing nearly a quarter of the distance that it would take to enter his property from the front gate. The Roegadyn stood while staring right at the entrance as Rory remained at his side and in the middle of hugging his right arm with a grin. Within the large front yard and off to the side was his Chocobo Crystal prancing about without a care in the world.
The bird was randomly letting out a few chirps here and there while also scratching at the lawn. At the same time it would be running away from Bee, who was holding a brush in one hand and looking rather tired by the way she was out of breath. As Brex found out, Crystal had a fondness for getting her feathers brushed on a near daily basis.
However, the mischievous bird always turned it into a game and whoever was holding on to the brush was essentially forced into playing a round of tag, before anything can get done. This meant that for nearly the last twenty-five minutes, the changeling in disguise that oversaw taking care of crystal was running rather ragged and on the verge of tumbling over. As for the reason for Brex and Rory to be outside like this. The reason having to do with their expected guests who would be arriving shortly.
This all went back to when Brex returned to his home yesterday. Both rainbow and Gilda were already gone by then so that they can get to their normal daily jobs. Twilight was still passed out and was taken to one of the rooms on the first floor that was meant to act as a small library and placed onto a couch within. Of course, Spike remained at twilight side for the whole time. But eventually she did wake up and seem to be in a better mood after having some time to process the shock she went through from earlier when Brex mentioned just how many jobs he possessed under his belt.
Nonetheless, she was still skeptical of the whole matter. But after some short discussions it was agreed that she would bring her friends over the following day and be at his place around twelve-thirty. Once the purple Unicorn and young Dragon got around to leave. Brex went right to work with getting some items ready for day for when they all would arrive. This included a few books, weapons, gear for the low levels, a table, and a few chairs for the expected number to sit outside. Of course, while all of this was still going on. He had a couple of his doppelgangers being hard at work with putting together that Geiger counter for when he would come across Engineer again.
Now, when it came to sometime after dinner the night before. It was safe to say that the four within the mansion had quite a night with one gratifying activity after another. Which led to half of the participants eventually passing out around midnight. Obviously, this would not take a rocket scientist to figure out just who were the ones still being active until the early morning hours. So, when breakfast was finished the following morning, and they still had the next six hours until Twilight was to come by. Brex tracked down Engineer and the two of them used his ability to travel through the shadows and conduct their experimentation while in the deeper sections of the Everfree Forest.
It was soon found out by the more sensitive nature of the calibrated Geiger Counter, that a number of Engineers items were giving off trace amounts of radioactivity. But surprisingly enough, there was not any that could be detected from the stallion’s body directly. Brex wanted to try and do a comparison between Engineer firing his own weapons and then using the ones that were provided by Brex the day before. This was to see if it was not somehow created in some way as a passive ability or simply a result of those original items coming from an irradiated world.
Of course, this whole idea was stalled greatly after Engineer got around to explaining how he lost the weapons and what happened after they parted. To say that Brex was both annoyed and concerned after hearing the story was an understatement. He knew that he did not have eyes and ears everywhere, but the think that there was such a high-level Voidsent with the power to control the undead in the city was something he could not forgive himself for not knowing about. Especially since he was literally there a couple of hours before it all went down. It was even more concerning that it was one that was capable of complicated speech.
As far as he knew, there were speculations and research done into the hierarchy of the Voidsent. These being called Rungs. In this system there are twelve in all. The twelfth rung houses the weakest and most primitive of the Voidsent. Meanwhile, the first Rung belongs to the strongest and most lucid. For example, Voidsent such as Imps and Nats belong to the twelfth rung. But as you climb, one would see that bombs are on the eleventh. Ogre’s or different types of Gargoyles are between the seventh and sixth.
Arc Demons inhabit the fourth and toward the end you see things like Succubi varying between the fourth and third Rung. The second and first Rung are chaotic to say the least. These Voidsent are so clever and powerful, they’re constantly challenging each other for dominance. Some Voidsent on the first Rung get knocked down to the second, only for another to take their place. Among the top would have to be The Cloud of Darkness and the Queen of Shadows to name a few. There are even those that were considered untouchable, and they retain their ranks for who knows how long.
For one of them to be able to talk in the way that Engineer described. Along with not exhibiting mindless attack patterns, could only suggest that she came from somewhere around the fourth or perhaps the third of the ranking system. Those of the lower typically have reduced way of thinking to where it would not be no better than a rabid animal. Brex explained this as best as he could to Engineer so that if he should ever come across another that could talk, then he was to be extremely cautious.
Now when it got to the end. He showed his concern when it came to his transformation being seen by the two mare’s he was with. Then there was also how he casually explained to not only them, but to one of their mothers that he was an omnivore. Brex literally gave himself a facepalm that was strong enough to create a visible shockwave and even rattle a number of the nearby trees as a result of hearing all of this. As soon as his vision stopped being so blurry after doing that. Brex was about to lay into Engineer about being so careless. However, he did manage to stop himself and take a few deep breaths before anything came out.
From what he gathered. Engineer seemed to be not so phased with this turn of events. He wanted to tell the once human turned stallion the downside of showing his skeletal form and letting it be known that he requires meat to survive. Then there's Daring Do. A mare who loves to write stories about her adventures. There was no telling if that mare was going to put this down and have it distributed for all to know. Not to mention Spitfire and her mother. She literally is the captain of the Wonderbolts, which means that she is a member of the princess’s army. It would not take much effort at all for any word of this to immediately make its way straight to the solar princess.
But for Brex above all else, was the simple fact that he had spent all these years in Equestria and kept his real form and the fact that he is an omnivore himself a secret from everyone was really eating him up right now. There were so many times that he had to be extra careful with the way he reacted around others. So many close calls. He even saw it as a blessing in disguise that his interactions with other displaced being strictly set to either Ryu or Engineer. Back then, he envisioned a cartoonist drawing of him grabbing Engineer and stuffing him into a large tin-can that was marked, “Can of worms.” And riveting the lid on with a power tool. This would be followed with it being placed into a package and addressed to go to Australia.
This only got an annoyed sigh to escape his lips as he wished it were that easy to stop this leakage of information. In the end, he just did not want to go through the hassle and was willing to trust the stallion with who he believed could be told of such matters. Although, he did make a mental note that he was eventually going to have a word with Daring Do on this matter. Not to mention he was going to ask that his informants in the castle to keep an open ear when it came to Spitfire just as a precaution.
Brex then provided Engineer with a new set of weapons that were identical to the last. The next hour was spent with them going over the ammunition that was expelled in all their trials on the makeshift firing range that was set up using some dead trees and boulders. This was also paired with taking some genetic samples from not only himself, but Engineer as well. These were placed alongside a few others that he scrounged up.
They were then exposed to the effects that were being given off by Engineers original equipment to see what kind of reaction it would get. Of course, there were also small traces of Aether crystals to be used as a safe catalyst for what would happen when radioactivity was to come into contact with a source of pure magic energy. The last thing he wanted to find out unexpectedly was weather or not there would be a violent reaction if the trace amounts of nuclear residue where to interact with a huge amount of the energy from this world.
The following results were as followed. The equipment themselves from the other world that Engineer first was thrown into had a lasting effect that did not seem to be getting any weaker. Any ammo fired from these weapons would have an isotope with a half-life added to them. Any living matter that comes into direct contact it would then show signs of typical degradation that would be expected. Judging from the different test samples of various species, along with his own. He was able to tell that he had a high resistance thanks to all his stats being much higher than normal. This included his physical resistance and magical resistance. However, this would vary greatly depending on his current class and gear set.
When it came to a target that would be struck with these enhanced bullets. They would exhibit the signs of their healing rate being significantly slowed down. Not only that, but it did also have an interference when it came to the magic itself. Brex originally feared that the two forces would have an adverse reaction. Something that would be equivalent to adding two volatile chemicals together and resulting in a catastrophic explosion. But instead, it had a type of diluting effect.
For example. If a creature that was made primarily of Aether was to be hit with these bullets or cut by Engineers machete. Then they're magical power would be significantly more difficult to control or even weaken their overall capabilities. Of course, this would all be temporary as the cut would eventually lose its effect and heal up normally again. Whereas the bullets would also turn into regular pieces of metal after close to an hour past. This would undoubtedly be cut shorter if the item was removed early on and not left to just sit inside of the target's body.
This meant that as long as Engineer was to use weaponry that was not brought straight over here, then he wouldn't have anything to worry about. So, Brex strongly urged him not to use his original armor or weaponry for the time being unless it was something he fashioned here. Of course, if he were to equip them then he would have to make sure that he was very careful about doing so. He was also extremely adamant about not using any type of fuel source that would require nuclear energy.
Engineers’ immediate reaction to this, was him going on to explain that a number of his more powerful items required either a Fusion Core or a Fusion Cell in order to operate. The Roegadyn only started to shake his head before telling him that they could work on a substitute for those items in the future. After all, he did have his own version of the power suit for when he fought the Red Dragon. Of course, it was not as if he was outright banning him from using them to begin with, but just to be extra careful.
Nonetheless, Brex was going to provide him with some level-appropriate gear that was without a doubt better than anything that could be sold in the shops for when he was not in critical need of his original setup. The next set of tests had to do with his transformation. Once Engineer took on his other persona. Brex immediately noticed a discrepancy with what he remembered seeing of his first transformation through the use of is Echo ability. He even voiced it out loud by inquiring as to why there were no small hints of green from the vision what he saw.
On Engineers part, he could not really remember it all too well and it was mostly a haze on his part when it came to what he did in that building back in the middle of nowhere. But after thinking it over for a while, he did say that he recalled seeing some green here and there but that was about it. From this, Brex surmise that it may have been a byproduct of only arriving through the portal and it was some residual energy that stuck to him and that caused the manifestation of the odd Flame at the time. But he did instruct Engineer to let him know if it should ever happen again.
Really didn’t help that engineer had a hard time with remembering the end of the fight with the demon on the ship. All that he could say was that he was really angry near the end, and that most of it was in small bits and pieces. But what really stuck was the way he diced up the Voidsent at the very end and everything after getting carried out and onto the top of the ship.
If anything, he could at least arrive at the scene to take some residual readings of the area to see if there were any lingering effects that were worth to put down on his notes. However, when the testing was all finished and engineer returned to his pony form. He could not help but to point and ask what was going on with his right eye. Apparently the now turned pony human was showing a patch of fur missing to expose a cut going down from right above his eyebrow and continuing an inch below the eye itself. This was followed with him checking it just as it was beginning to fade.
Engineer was really confused about what was going on but commented that he did have quite a few scars on his body from while he was in that fallout world. But upon coming to this one they were mostly absent. That was when he lifted his right hand and used a couple of his fingers from the other to move the short fur and expose a long scar on the back. This only made it obvious to Brex now. Whereas it was normally difficult to spot if one wasn’t really paying attention to that part of his hand.
He even went on to explain that he did have more on his back and a couple on his front side from everything he went through while fighting Raiders, Ghouls, Super Mutants, and other mutated abominations in the wasteland. However, unlike his hand and eye the rest were plainly visible as they were far worse. But this still begs the question as to the one on his eye only revealing itself for a short time after reverting. As far as Engineer knew this was the first time that it showed itself and that neither Daring Do or Spitfire commented on it.
Brex was not all too sure, but it seemed that it would only appear during certain times. And with the number of uses of his ghost rider form. There was a possibility that his scar on his eye would become more of a regular occurrence with the more uses of his other persona. There may even be a chance that it would be permanently back at one point or another.
Afterwards, Brex even went so far as to take him to his house in the mountains and said that he was allowed to use it for himself. Especially now that he had a new place to stay in Ponyville. At first, Engineer did not understand why he would go so far and made it obvious with his refusing in the beginning. However, Brex argued that if he didn't take it, then it was just going to sit around and collect dust all on its own.
To sweeten the deal even more so that it would be practically irresistible. He even brought Engineer inside and showed him the entrance to the basement which contained a fairly large room that was big enough to house several carriages. There were even a couple of work benches and some tools that were already set up on them and hanging on the walls.
To top it all off Brex eventually carved out a tunnel that would lead to a secret exit just a little way from the house and down the mountain. Upon seeing all of this. Engineer started to get all giddy and was already beginning to list off a number of items that he was excited to get on to making. One of which included on the list, was a suit of power armor.
When Brex caught wind of this plan, he offered the unfinished second prototype of his first generation set of robotic armor to help with speeding up the process. But surprisingly enough, Engineer refused it outright and said that he wanted to make one of his own design. Not wanting to take a no so easily from him. Brex pushed for at least giving him the schematics and raw materials to make a magic-based power source, so he did not have to rely on Fusion Cores as the fuel to power it.
Sure, it probably did not have that much of a kick in comparison to the destructive power that could annihilate cities. However, it would not leave a toxic footprint if one could call it if the battery should happen to be discarded or destroyed for any reason when compared to the nuclear material version. Brex even joked that if Engineer could transform weapons, then why not do it to the armor as well. Who knows. He might even be able to power it himself with his own raw heat being emitted from his body in the same way as some self-contained blast furnace.
So, when all was said and done when it came to the test and getting Engineer a place to stay. Brex returned home and began his preparations in setting up the front yard. Now being back at the present. He and Rory have been waiting for several minutes now. As for his two maids, they were inside doing some household chores. Even as Rory was still clinging onto his right arm, he glanced over his left shoulder towards the house and began to wonder the following.
“That place is way too big for the two of them to clean on their own. Maybe it should be a good time for me to display my doppelgangers to help with the work?” Rory apparently heard this and spoke to him through the connection. “I'm not too sure that would be a wise choice Master. After all, they may not be all that strong, but being able to have an information network dedicated to you that is hidden from everyone else aside from me, is a great asset. If anything, I would advise against it unless it was a big emergency. And it may only just be me, but I doubt an oversized dust bunny qualifies as one.”
On the outside, one could have seen him give a slight wince if he were not wearing a mask when he began to think the following in return through the connection. “It’s just a little too much, even for them. They may be my maids, but I'm not going to work them to death. Not to mention it's hard enough to get them to take days off unless it’s a direct order. I could just tell that it would literally take them from morning till night of non-stop work to be able to keep up on all of that with just two pairs of hands. Then there’s all the times that they get all mopie and panicked if I try to help. The next thing that happens is that they start to cry and say that their failing me as my personal maids.”
Rory could be heard through the connection immediately after, along with a mischievous giggle. “If you're so worried about them being overworked then we could always slap on a pair of made outfits for Gilda and Rainbow to ware. And you can't deny that you think that's hot.” Brex did want to deny her that, but he knew it would have been a fruitless argument seeing as she knew pretty much everything about him and what she said was undeniably true. Even now he could not stop himself from picturing them in said outfits.
However, he replied with a tired sigh and a light shake of the head as he spoke through the connection. “Okay… you have a point that yes, they would look really hot in maid outfits. But seriously. Do you really think that I would do that to them? What is this, the fifties?” Rory quickly scoffed as she said, “Oh, I'm sorry Master, but that's what is typically expected of the males here in Equestria. They're supposed to stay home and take care of the children. I don't see any harm in reversing that for them. Who knows, they might even like it.”
Brex was now facing forward and at the gate has he had this flat stare from behind his mask and replied. “I'm not collecting girls just to make them clean my house! Now I've considered calling in some more Changelings to fill in the positions of staff members, but I'm a little worried when it comes to Rin and Lin. I already know how territorial they can get when their sisters are around me. Sure, I may be a little dense at times, but even I noticed the extra distance the others would give me whenever those two are at my side back at HQ.
Rory gave a small giggle as she said, “If that's the case, then I suggest that Master does not bring either of them to the Ponyville Hospital. Wouldn't want there to be a bloodbath if nurse Red Heart should ever try to put the moves on you again while in their line of sight. I really couldn't tell if this was a result of you giving them their names or the training that got them to be this protective.” Brex was now bringing his left arm up and placing two fingers on the side of his head to rub to show that he was trying to get rid of a small headache.
He then said in a rather tired voice. “I know that they started having this hierarchy business with the others when we were staying with Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis. You know... now that I think about it again. It's really odd that I have yet to meet that assassin since that very night. It's been a while since I stopped looking over my shoulder for another sneak attack. Who knows, either they're already dead or they're just playing the long game and she’s waiting for me to lower my guard after a long absence.”
Rory gave a low hum and closed her eyes for a moment before she spoke up through the connection again. “I'm not too convinced that they're dead just yet. She did exhibit some extraordinary level of strength and agility when the two of you went at one another then. It may have been a fair assessment that her level could have been higher than your own. It may have been my imagination... but I think she may have been holding back until near the end. After all she did take that little crouching stance in preparation of a rush before she ended up stumbling and making that retreat.”
Brex was now tilting his head back so that his mask was turned towards the sky and the few clouds in it as he began to go over the fight in his head. It was true at the time that he did get this impression that she was indeed holding back quite a bit. There was even the strange movements she was utilizing which were strongly mirroring the style of the dancer class. Especially when it came to utilizing that large ring as a weapon. But he couldn't get over the simple fact that even though he was literally fighting her head-to-head. There was still this empty sensation that he was actually fighting nothing the whole time.
He then released a heavy sigh as he lamented over not being able to get past this level seventy cap that he was up against. He knew for a fact after playing the game on the other side with Little Moon, that there was something more. He also went over a few of the moments of his characters adventures that were now seeming almost as real as this very moment. However, the realism abruptly came to a halt before the shadow bringers expansion came into effect and all he knew was what he saw from the screen as he sat at an oval shape table with Little Moon, Little Light and Daddy and all playing as a group on the game.
He began to wonder if this world was stuck at the same ceiling as him by this point. Now if that was true, then the only real threats to him were creatures that were classified as raid bosses at the end on Stormblood. However, the highest level he had ever come across turned out to be Nightmare Moon and he easily bested her. That was when he casually brought up his character window and opened the tab which displayed his list of jobs.
As his eyes rolled down the list with starting with the blue icons, that turned out to be the tank classes. He quickly found himself in the green section for the healers. Eventually, he got to the red colored icons which were meant for the damage dealers such as the melee, ranged melee and spell casters. Brex constantly saw the number seventy lining up neatly against each one of the names and a completely full bar to indicate the experience that was accumulated for the next level. However, there was one that stood out as it was the only one to have a sixty out of the bunch.
This turned out to be the Blue Mage. Sure, he may have the achievement unlocked for having everything maxed. However, the Blue Mage did not count as it was considered a limited class. Unlike all the others, this one could not go into the party randomizer that would automatically put together players to go into the Dungeons and Raids. Instead, they had to manually go into the party finder window and post that they were going to try for one run or another and hope that someone else was looking to join.
The developers would make sure that it was always ten levels below the current cap of everything else and would add new spells that could be learned with each update. The Blue Mage had a spell book that would first start off with blank sections that would instantly fill up whenever a new ability was learned from some certain enemies after defeating them. Although it was quickly found out that his was already full after running around and defeating what was needed to fill every slot in the book, which meant that he could not learn anything new. He did find it to be a fun class to be, but he held off on it with its complete randomness for a couple of reasons when it came to the public.
For one. It would at times summon random objects which was dangerously close to appearing in the same way a certain God of Chaos would pull things out of nothing whenever his fingers snapped. Then there was the simple fact that he was essentially using monster abilities. Which would instantly draw a red flag. To him, there was a good chance that if someone saw him using something that only a monster could throw out, then he would instantly be labeled as a dangerous creature and hunted down. And of course, there was the whole bit about being ten levels below everything else. If only there was something that would boost his overall effectiveness so that he would at least be able to contend with those of his other jobs.
Brex was about to wonder on a few other subjects when he began to hear some voices off in the distance. The first one was Rainbow and soon it was accompanied by the others. They seem to be in the middle of a conversation by the sounds of it and began to quiet down as they approached the gate to enter. Brex started to smirk from behind his mask as he caught the tail end of what Twilight was saying in regard to his gate and made the motion to try and push on it herself. However, Brex did get around to changing some of the settings on the spell for the gate and gave them all a pass.
When the gate opened easily from Twilight's touch, she was caught staring straight ahead with her eyes slightly going wide and making these subtle noises to indicate that she was dumbfounded. To him this was most likely due to her wanting to show the mouth appearing on the gate but was clearly feeling a little embarrassed. Applejack could be heard speaking as all the rest were arching an eyebrow towards the purple Unicorn. Well, aside from Rainbow and Gilda, who already knew about the entrance’s effects. “Uh... Twilight? I didn' see no face on that there gate.”
Twilight herself began to stutter a little bit as she pointed to it repeatedly and then back to herself. “But-but, I'm telling you it did, it did have a mouth on it yesterday when I touched it! Oh, I know! Spike! He saw it. He can tell you he did! Come on Spike, could you please tell-. Oh… That's right. I completely forgot I had him stay at the library today.” Upon hearing this, Brex began to roll his eyes from behind his mask and wondered if Twilight had him stay behind to clean up her mess. He could actually see it in his head that as soon as Twilight got home, she probably went straight to doing as much research as possible for today and left Spike with a mountain of books that had to be reorganized and place back onto the shelves again.
Twilight was the first to come in and the rest followed in this order, while turning their head side to side to get a good view of the mansion. Along with the garden for the front yard. Rainbow was strolling along with her hands behind her head. Gilda was right behind and already giving off this air of superiority that just screamed that she belonged there. Applejack was tilting her hat back and giving a long whistle. Pinkie was bouncing and saying things like, Ooh’s and Aah’s in the same way as a tourist would. Honestly, all she was missing was a camera. But just at that very moment. the pink mare instantly pulled one out and started to take a bunch of pictures.
Rarity was carefully looking around and making small remarks such as to how elegant the front yard was, along with pointing out some of the aspects that stood out. However, she did look a little confused at the sight of some of the large cages that could be seen on the far left and right. When her eyes got to the mansion. Both orbs went comically wide as glittering lights were appearing on them.
When it came to Fluttershy. She was sticking close to Rarity and eyeing the place with some trepidation. She even started to shrink a little as she saw the cages and the creepy style of the mansion. This was even more so when she caught sight of the gargoyle statues near the roof and gave out a small “Eep” of fright and pressed herself up against the fashionista in some hopes of hiding from the inanimate objects.
Once everyone gave their greetings. Brex immediately showed them to the table he had set up and they all took a seat. On the very end sat Brex, along with Rory on his right side and Gilda on the left to start the line down the table. On Gilda side. There was Rainbow, Applejack, and the one and only Pinkie. Next to Rory was Rarity and Fluttershy. There was one more chair that was empty which Brex assumed Spike to be sitting at if he was there. At the far end was Twilight and she was already putting down a couple of notebooks. There was even an ink bottle, along with a quill that was already placed inside of it to be used at a moment's notice.
Rainbow rolled her own eyes at Twilight’s preparations after only sitting down for a few seconds and commented on it. “Twilight, what are you doing? Gambit said he's going to help us get stronger. What’s the deal with the class supplies?” Twilight replied as she was closing her eyes and fixing some of the supplies by moving them so that they were in perfect order on the table. “I'm merely being prepared this time around. Besides, you never know when you'll need to take notes.” Seeming to be getting rather impatient by this point, it was Applejack who spoke next.
“So Gambit. Rainbow and Twilight been sayin' that you're going to help get us to be as strong as Gilda.” Rarity was the next as she did that hair flipping motion with her head. “Ah yes. It was rather shocking when Gilda disclosed her status to us all. More so with how short a time it took to gain such astounding results.” Pinky was now vibrating as her hands were grabbing on to the bottom of her chair before she exploded and started to blurt out what was on her mind at such a speed, that it may as well of all seem like one unbroken word. Of course, this went completely over the heads of the others, but Brex did look at his chat window to see what she said.
“Ooh! I wonder what we're going to do! Are we going to go through a training montage? Oh-oh I know! I bet he's going to power level us! Wait-wait maybe he's going to put us through strength training? Do any of you think he's going to have us wear a bunny girl outfit and do bunny hops on a long set of stairs going up a mountain? Wait, if we do that, then will we all need to wear sports bras? Because it would look really weird to wear the ones with straps if you're wearing a bunny girl suit. Oh, wait! Are you supposed to wear bras under those? Okay, now I got a craving for carrots. I'll need to make sure to grab a slice of carrot cake the next time I go by the shop!”
By the end of all that. Brex could easily see that Fluttershy was attempting to make herself seem as small as possible from his current position at the end of the line. This caused him to wonder if he had done something wrong to get such a reaction from the mare. He did not recall any instances that he showed aggression towards her or did anything at all that would have made him seem dangerous. For all he knew, she could have had a fear of males in general or maybe it could just be him.
Twilight was the next to speak as she turned her eyes on Gilda and picked up the quill and got one of her notebooks ready to be used. “So, as a baseline. Could you please tell us Gilda what you did to raise your level at such an astounding rate?” To this, Gilda leaned into her chair and raised one of her eyebrows before answering. “There's no big secret. I just did a lot of fighting. Twilight paused her quickly moving hand that was probably writing every word that was being said and gave the Griffin her own confused expression.
Seeing this, it was Rory who elaborated and brought all of the girl’s attention towards herself as a result. “It's simple really. As an adventurer, one gains experience through combat. It's as clean cut and straight forward as that.” Clearly catching sight of Twilight beginning to open her mouth in order to throw in her own thoughts. Rory quickly interjected and continued with her explanation. “Let me explain it like this. As we all have our own levels, so do monsters. Now when you go up against a creature that is just as strong as yourself in this regard. Then you get a modest chunk of experience upon their defeat. This is a given.”
She allowed this a long moment to sink in for the group before she went on. “Now, as you get stronger and you continue to fight the same opponent repeatedly, what do you believe will happen?” Rainbow was the one who answered that by saying, “Hah! That's easy. You get stronger too of course. All it means is that it gets a lot easier.” Rory was now smirking at the Pegasus before turning her attention over to Gilda and motioning with her right hand for the Griffin to take over.
“When you level up, so does the amount of experience you need to do it again. If you keep beating up on shrimps nonstop, then you're going to get a shrimp size chunk of experience every time.” Rory nodded to this before taking over the explanation again. “Gilda's right on that. It should also be known that the higher level you are compared to your opponent will also affect how much experience you get by cutting it down substantially. Let's say you had to defeat ten opponents before you leveled up. Now, you won't level up again by defeating another ten. Instead, you would have to go against something that is as strong as yourself and it might take twenty or more.”
“However, if you just keep attacking the same things you have at the start then instead of twenty, you might end up requiring forty, or even more. So, if we follow that way of thinking. Then it's easy to see that the reason others have not been leveling up so much is because they are either not fighting enough in the first place, or they've been going against weak opponents all the time. Which then results to them getting such a small amount upon their victories, that may as well be a single drop of water into a large bathtub.” During all of this, the other girls were listening intently to Rory’s words. While Twilight was furiously scratching away at her papers and only glanced up occasionally.
Twilight's head eventually rested on Rory after taking one more glance to see if she got everything down and asked her question. “This is the first I've heard of anyone referring to monsters having their own strength measured in the same way as ours.” Rory first reply by placing her right hand onto her chest before it eventually switched over to her left so that she could gesture to Brex as she spoke. “Well, I have the experience to be able to sense how strong my opponent is. Whereas my master can clearly tell the level of anyone or anything he comes across, of course there are a few exceptions.”
Twilight was now slightly tilting her headed in confusion for a few seconds before she followed up with another question. “Okay hold on. Are you saying that Gambit is using a spell that identifies a target's level in almost the same way as the plate readers at the Adventurers Guild does with our identification?” Rory only shook her head at Twilight as she glanced over at Brex and said the following. “No. I mean he can tell just by looking at them. If you need any proof, then why not ask him what everyone's level is right now at this table?”
Everyone there were now looking between Brex and Twilight repeatedly until they all stopped after landing on the Unicorn for the fifth time. She clearly wanted to ask how, but she was looking rather ashamed and even covering her chest with her arms for some strange reason. It quickly dawned on him that she must have felt exposed if he was able to do what Rory was stating. Wanting to get things over with he started to point to one girl after another by saying their name and corresponding level.
“Gilda is twenty-nine. Rainbow Dash is thirteen. Applejack is nine. Pinkie is eleven. Rarity is ten. Fluttershy is eight and Twilight is level nine.” Everyone there appeared surprised, but Brex caught the way Twilight was hanging her mouth while trying to form some words that were just unable to exit her lips. Eventually, she laid into the back of her seat while having this thousand-yard stare that was literally looking right past Brex as she spoke. “I… I thought you just heard what we were from Rory or Rainbow. But-but you couldn't have known about my own... I went by The Guild earlier today just before getting the girls. No one was inside of the building besides the workers, so there’s no way you could have heard that I leveled up.”
Her tone started to turn a little more excited as she stood from her chair and leaned onto the table with both hands. “Do you have any idea just how useful that is?! We have no idea how powerful a monster is until we go up against it. We even have to rely on past documentation to go off of. So often do the guards have to go in blind to fight an unknown threat. Knowing the strength of a monster could greatly increase our defensive capabilities. Knowing the proper numbers to send in, whether it's something we can take down or have to retreat for more reinforcements. This would keep us from sending too many to fight a weak opponent when we can allocate the appropriate numbers to where they're needed the most!”
Brex started to slowly shake his head and leaned forward so that is elbows were on the table and he had his right hand covering his left before he spoke. I am different. Rory as well as a few others are able to feel these things out. All of it is drawn from experience. Where they can have a close approximation, I’m able to be exact. Now please tell me that you still remember what they taught you in school when it came to difficulty ratings when it comes to a creature.” This got a nervous smile from the unicorn before Brex began to look at the rest of them. Rory and Gilda already knew about this as he instructed the Griffin carefully when it came to this matter in the past.
But everyone else there was not lifting a hand to answer him. Eventually, it was Rarity who was the first to speak up after a long stretch of awkward silence. “Darling, it would appear that we may have forgotten that lesson. Perhaps a small refresher course might be in order.” By the end, she was showing a slight blush and giving one of those smiles that one would use to try and get out of being in trouble. Brex ended up giving out one of his signature sighs again and held out his right hand so that it was pointing towards the center of the table.
By accessing one of his Dungeons & Dragons spells, Brex created an image of a small creature that was no bigger than one of those one-inch figurines on the table. The form was not very defined but everyone there could tell that it walked on all fours and had a thin tail and a set of wings. In an odd way it kind of resembled a gecko, but the proportions made it thin and one area and rather round in others. There was even a floating number right above its head that said, five.
He then said, “Okay, let’s say that this is a level five creature and it's classified as easy. Of course, it would have the lowest stats when it comes to all of its abilities, and it typically works alone.” He then made it go away and produced two more that resembled a large ladybug and a swarm of flies before he continued. “Now imagine that these are also level five, but they're classified as medium. Not only are they a little stronger, but they sometimes tend to work together with another creature nearby when their threatened.”
This was when he produced another figure that looked like a Pony wearing a suit of armor, while holding on to a sword and shield. The new fighter that attacked the ladybug was instantly caught in a pincer attack from both it and the swarm of flies that came at his flank. He then added, “Now keep in mind that easy and medium typically are not hostile until you attack first. Next, I'm going to show you one that's considered to be high on the threat rating.” This time he produced a spider like creature that had six legs and a single and almost flat disc body where the limbs were connected.
The underside could be shown opening with a mouth that broke into a couple of segmented pieces. The same Pony figure from before appeared. Although it did not get too close as it did to attack the ladybug and flies. However, the spider like creature immediately started to pounce on the Pony and easily won the fight after some struggling was put up by the figure in armor. Most of the girls there were watching it in horror while Fluttershy was ducking underneath the table and only peeking up from the edge once she was sure the simulated fight was over.
Brex followed up as he allowed the images to fade. “Now those will attack on site. It doesn't matter what they look like either, so you need to be on constant guard in case that should happen. Even if it wasn’t an ally in the start. As long as one of them has you in its sights and you get close enough, then a fight with those are unavoidable.”
Applejack was now looking back and forth from all of her friends to Brex before she spoke in a confused tone while also arching an eyebrow that conveyed how serious the matter was to her. “Now how in tarnation do y'all forget somethin’ as important as that? That would be one of the first thin’s that I would memorize if I was to be in one of those darn classes.”
Brex began to smirk at that statement as he pointed towards Applejack and said the following in a fashion that resembled a teacher praising his student. “That is exactly the first lesson they teach. I can already see that you're going to make a great student.” Applejack looked a bit flustered by that before she countered. “Now look here mister. I only came here because Twilight said that we should. Besides, I got a lot of work on the farm and-.” The farm mare was interrupted when Brex raised his right hand to ask her to wait.
He then said, “I know that the Apple family has a lot to do but they're all for you learning from me. I'm sure you've heard something from them recently.” She was about to argue when she lifted her hand to extend a finger. But just as she was about to say her first word, did she finally come to a stop to have this thoughtful expression for a few seconds. Brex waited during this time as he was sure that either her parents or even granny had let it slip at one point or another. In anticipation, the Roegadyn could almost see the gears turning in Applejack's head before she spoke again.
“We... we did get that tractor. And my Ma and Pa did say that I didn't have to worry about going to the school... wait, wait! Hold on. Are you saying you know my parents?” He ended up giving her a subtle nod before he explained further. “I've known your parents for a little while. They even expressed how they felt a little guilty when you weren't able to go due to all the responsibilities of running the farm. With how far the schools are from Ponyville, you would end up having to rent a room or stay in one of the dorms if you left to go. It would have all been nearly impossible for you to lend any assistance with your family when it came to harvesting or planting any of the crops.”
It did not even take a single second to fully pass by before he noticed some wetness on the edges of Applejack's eyes as she stared blankly at him. At first, he wasn't sure what it was about, and that uneasiness turned into concern on whether or not he overstepped some line that he was unaware of. He then rushed to continue his explanation while he still could and thought that it might calm her down if she knew it all.
“Originally, I was going to head on over to the farm to give you lessons. But there was always one distraction or another, so I kept putting it off. Although it would seem that thanks to a certain someone among us. A proper training area is no longer an issue.” When he got to that part, he was facing Rory with his mask and getting an awkward chuckle from the girl. Applejack tilted her hat down so that she could cover her face with her right hand as her left was busy with most likely wiping away any semblance of weakness.
The other girls were now smiling at this, and Rainbow was just about to poke some fun at the farm mare when Gilda punched the Pegasus in the side of the shoulder to get her to stop before anything was really done to ruin the moment. This earned the Griffin a role of the eyes from rainbow as a result. However, this was short-lived as Brex said the following to earn a wide set of shocked expressions from everyone aside from Rory and Gilda. “I'm not all that sorry to say this because I need to. But the truth of the matter is... at the pace you're going, then each of you at this table is likely to die within the next couple of months.”
After getting a collected set of “WHAT'S?!” Brex went on to explain. “The dangers of this world are only getting stronger, and your princesses will not always be there. Contrary to popular belief. They are not gods. they do not have limitless power. They cannot see everything or be everywhere at once. Those of you who are the elements of harmony will no undoubtedly come across even greater dangers in the future. Can any of you say to me with a straight face that you have not come across an incident where you nearly lost your life? Or saw someone who did, or was about to lose theirs?”
Rory and Gilda stayed quiet as the others had a mix of reactions. Twilight obviously did not have to go through any life-or-death situations of her own. Or at least any that he was aware of. The Ursa Minor attack was dangerous and all, and yes, Trixie nearly lost her life. He was also aware of what she went through when it came to her dad in that hospital. Rarity looked as if she was lost and thought. When it came to Fluttershy who was right next to her. The poor mare was hugging her arms tightly as she was looking down at the table and shaking.
When he glanced over to the left, he could see the way Applejack and Rainbow were giving each other that look that conveyed they were silently talking to each other with the use of eye contact alone. From just that, Brex recalled lending them a hand with that buffing ability he lent when they were being swarmed by those bugs in the forest while on that Quest to gain a tree sapling. If anything, it was a miracle that none of them had passed away during his absence. But he was sure that it was due to Rory sticking behind.
After a few moments of getting nothing out of the group. Brex felt it was about time to get the show on the road and loudly clapped his hands once. This had the effect of snapping a few of them out of their daze and thoughts as others were startled. This was followed with him getting out of his chair and walking to the center of his front yard. This placed him on the four-way intersection that had some small sets of bridges going across a couple of the handmade rivers that were incorporated into the gardens design. This meant that the table was now a good dozen or so meters away as all the girls eyed him curiously.
From in his personal view. Brex brought up his character window, along with the options and started to do the following. After equipping himself with his Samurai Soulstone, he also brought out a level one item that appeared in his right hand. This turned out to be the wooden shaped katana that was the kind meant for training. The weapon was also completely blunted so that it could not cut anything at all. He also went to the trouble of maxing out his level so that it was at seventy for the moment but kept that option up on his HUD to change in the next couple of seconds once his point was made.
This got an immediate effect on Twilight and her friends as he noticed the way their fur began to bristle as soon as he did all of this. To him, this was probably contributed to how he was intentionally releasing some bloodlust in their direction while doing so. A couple of them were shaking violently, while Rainbow was releasing a very loud gulp of nervousness and attempting to keep a brave front for her friends.
Twilight dropped her notes at the same time that Fluttershy ducked underneath the table and hid behind Rarity’s chair legs for additional comfort. However, the one thing they had going for all of them aside from the fur reaction was the way their eyes were nearly bugging out of their skulls in the same way a cartoon character would when getting a scare. In fact, if it went any further, then they may have turned pure white and fell over on the spot.
He then called out in a serious voice while keeping the sword close to his side and pointed towards the ground. “Hmm, you feel that right now, don't you? That's every fiber of your being from the tips of your hoofs to the ends of the strand of hair on your head screaming that you need to run. Its saying that there is no other course to take, otherwise you might die. As for why I'm doing this, it’s for two reasons. First is that I need you to feel this at least once so that it's not overwhelming in the future. It could be so easily overpowering that any rational thought will leave a weaker person's mind if not prepared.”
“Their body will lock up. They will be unable to speak, unable to move. In worst case scenarios they could even be paralyzed to the point that they can’t breathe, or in worse cases, they could even suffer from a heart attack.” He paused for a moment as his mask tilted down slightly before going on. “Please… do not take this as an insult Miss Fluttershy, but I am rather surprised that you haven't fainted yet.” Even though she was mostly hiding. Brex could barely see her lips moving to show that she was trying to say something. Although because of the distance and how weak her voice was. There was no way for him to hear her, so he glanced over at his chat window.
The following texts that could be seen caused him to raise an eyebrow in confusion. “I-I c-can't feel my legs. You were much scarier before.” Brex tried to go over in his head at any time he could have done anything like that, but nothing came up. He wondered if it was just because of their first meeting and played it off as just that. Afterwards, he began to flex his muscles just a little bit. It was also accompanied with rolling his shoulders a couple of times and letting out a few calming breathing exercises to loosen up.
As this was going down, he mentally synced his level to that of ten. Almost instantly there was a visible change among all of the ponies as the clear signs of being on high alert faded away as fast as they originally came. There was even a collective exhale of air that they were apparently holding in. Even Fluttershy began to poke her head out from the side of Rarity’s chair and started to crawl out of her hiding spot from underneath the large table after a couple of seconds passed.
Applejack was the next to speak up while wiping some apparent sweat from her forehead before the others could voice their opinions. “Landsakes! I hadn't felt like that since the last time I got on Granny's bad side after I went and broke her rocking chair a couple years back!” Brex then made a mental note not to get on that grandmother's bad side as he answered Applejack. “You felt me releasing everything I had without any limitations. If it were anyone else that didn’t know me. Then they would be running for the hills or passed out if they were at your levels.”
The farm mare was looking confused now as she lifted her hat again and scratched the back of her left ear before replying. “I kind of figured that part out. Woo wee! If that's what it's like, then I could guess that you weren't really all that angry with Rainbow. But what I don't get is why do you feel different all of a sudden now? I can't exactly put my finger on it. I can just notice that you're not giving off the strong impression as a few seconds ago.”
Rainbow also chimed in as she took to the air and zoomed up close to Brex and was now hovering around him, while she was giving the Roegadyn a scrutinizing gaze. “Yeah! What Applejack said. Now I can sort of see it too. Whenever you're close by it's as if I'm flying in the air and I'm about to go into a low cloud. It doesn't stop me, but I can still feel the sensation of the water vapors rushing over my face and that small resistance. But now I don't even get that.” The next to speak up was Rarity, as she got up from her chair and started to fix her outfit a little.
“I do believe that analogy might be quite fitting. Darling, you typically have this intimidating air about you. Although I am not getting that anymore.” Brex was glancing over to Twilight right after that when he noticed the way her horn was slightly glowing. The Unicorns eyes were shut tight for a couple of seconds before she opened them and had this shocked expression as she started to talk. “His magic... I… I don't know how. But it dropped like a rock! I can't even feel it from over here anymore. But how? There's no way any Pony can do that... Er! I meant that there's no way anyone can do that.”
At the end there, Twilight nervously gulped and gave a nervous chuckle. Brex did not mind seeing as she was actively making an effort to change the way she was using that term. Although she probably thought that she was going to trigger something with the way she was looking incredibly nervous. He then said while resting his wooden katana on his right shoulder. “I'm restricting my power so that I'm near that of all of you if I was to go off an average number.” He held up his other hand quickly to prevent them from asking any more questions as he continued.
“All of you right here and right now. You're going to attack me with everything you got as a group. Fluttershy brought both of her hands up to her mouth to contain a horrified gasp. Rarity took a few steps back with her own shocked expression and bumped her tail into the table, which caused it to rock a little bit. On the other side, Rainbow's mouth was hanging open in disbelief. When it came to Applejack, the farmer was frozen in place. Over with Pinkie, who was surprisingly quiet for a good while. Her face fell at the same time as her hair fell and releasing a hiss of escaping air.
However, the most notable reaction came from Twilight in the form of her knocking over the chair as she abruptly stood up and started to shout. “Are you crazy?! If what you just said is true, then we could really hurt you! Not to mention it's against the law! I'm sure you know that stallions are not to be attacked without sufficient reason. If none is given, then we're all going to go to jail if we so much as leave a mark on you!” Twilight was about to go on a long rant by the looks of it but was stopped by Brex gesturing for her to hold up after outstretching his hand.
Once he was sure that Twilight was sufficiently halted. He turned his head towards the house and gave out a small whistle. This had the effect of bringing out someone who was standing behind one of the pillars. The one in question turned out to be a Unicorn mare in what looked to be a guard uniform for those stationed in Ponyville. She came over and approached the table and gave a quick salute before taking off her helmet. This act caused the illusion spell to dissipate and reveal a dark brown mare with a light chocolate mane. She has a set of violet eyes and a couple of freckles on her cheeks.
The guard mare then said, “I am Lieutenant Search, at your service! I am here under the request of the Adventurers Guild.” She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out of it a rolled-up piece of parchment and held it in her right hand as she continued. “I have documentation from both the branch here in Ponyville and signed authorization from the town mayor that you will not be punished in this training exercise with Gambit. In other words. As long as I'm present and can vouch that this is not being done with malicious intent. Then you are free to do as he says and attack.”
The arrival of the guard turned out to be something else that he had to get set up earlier that very day. Knowing full well of the law, Brex paid a visit to the appropriate government officials and the guild to get this permission all drawn up. At first, the lieutenant wanted to be in plain view of the girls at the beginning, but Brex convinced her to stay hidden until now. He did this for a couple of reasons. One was so he could see their general reaction when ordered to go at him as a group. This was to find out if they were not only willing. But to also gauge how highly they thought of themselves if the command was followed right away.
The other was to discreetly show the lieutenant just in case she caught on to anything amiss. It was not as if he was a mind reader, but it felt better to have an experienced officer who had a spotless record on hand to catch if there were any signs of the group being perfectly fine with doing such an act. Lastly was to also calm down the guard. It did not go unnoticed how agitated she was with this whole notion upon receiving the quest and being guided back to his place. During the trip from the guild, she was constantly trying to get him to recall the request on the grounds of his personal safety and how ludicrous the whole idea was.
Especially after the whole Lyra Heartstrings incident where a stallion was nearly killed. Since then, the guards have all been on high alert. They even adjusted their patrol routes for areas to be looked after more if a stallion were to be reported in the vicinity so that they could jump in when needed at a quicker rate. There was even one guard constantly stationed inside of the guild hall itself.
This was all just in case another altercation was to show any signs of turning into what happened that day. But thanks to some help from the guild, and for both his high level and rank. It did not take too much effort on his part to convince the parties involved into signing the permission papers. Otherwise, the Elements of Harmony would end up in the dungeon so fast for this, that the princess’s own head would pop off.
The mare then called out while tapping at her left wrist impatiently after putting the paperwork right back into her pocket. “I'm not fond of this request but we better just get a move on it. Got better things to do than to hang around here all day. This was an abrupt call, so my schedule hasn't been changed to accommodate it. So, I'm only here long enough for this big fella to give you all a group test. Now chop chop!” Miss Search emphasized that last bit by rapidly clapping her hands loudly a few times to show that she was indeed in a big hurry.
All the girls seemed rather reluctant with the way they were glancing at the other one nearby before Rainbow landed a few paces between them and Brex and took on a defensive stance. However, all she brought to bear was her empty hands which were immediately balled into fists in the same way a karate student would be presenting themselves. She was just about to say something with the way her mouth was in the middle of opening, but she was abruptly cut off before any syllables escaped as Brex started to shake his head and say the following in a disappointed tone.
“Rainbow has the right idea about jumping into this now, but she's mistaken about one part. This isn't a game and I want you to take this seriously. You're going to need to break out your weapons and attack me with everything you got. This means no holding back.” A loud chorus of gulps erupted from all the ponies, while Gilda released an amused chuckle that resonated in the silence that followed.
Gilda then said the next part while having a dangerous tone to her own voice to show that this was no joke on Brex’s part. “He may have made himself as weak as the rest of us... Okay… Scratch that. I doubt that even now I could still take him. But if you all don't listen, then odds are you're going to get beat up badly.” Over on his end. Brex was beginning to develop a small smile on the right edge of his lips as he considered the current situation. Unlike back on Earth where it was strictly frowned upon to beat up a girl. The very same concept was true here in a sense. However, he was placed in the opposite role.
This meant that it was just fine for him to attack the female gender as there would be no social repercussions. Well, I guess the only repercussions would really be that sensation of humiliation that a guy on Earth would get when word got around that he was beaten up by a girl. However, his little musing was interrupted when it was quickly found out that Twilight and her friends were not making any motions at all towards their weapons. In fact, they all were looking away from him with conflicted emotions.
He then had a mental picture of himself giving a self-imposed facepalm as the next thoughts went through his skull. “Don't tell me that they're all playing the chivalrous card in are refusing to hit me? Well, I'm sure once Rainbow gets started then the rest will-. Oh, come on already! not you too?! Okay, then I'll have to admit that kind of looks a little cute on her.” What he was referring to, was the way Rainbow Dash had dropped her fighting stance and had adopted an embarrassed schoolgirl position.
It was one of those stereotypical anime things where the girl would look down to the ground with a small amount of embarrassment plastered onto her face. Both arms were extended straight down as her fingers were interlocked. Even her right hoof was crossed in front of her left as her body fidgeted. Brex could not really see her eyes thanks to some of her hair obstructing his view of the upper part of her head. However, he did imagine her giving him the puppy dog eyes that would come with the whole set.
He then said the following while placing his right hand over his mask to show that he was beginning to get a little frustrated towards everyone in the outside world. “I thought as much. I've suffered many injuries and have recovered just fine. But really, there's no need for you to worry about my safety so much. Not only do we have healing magic at the ready. There is also a sufficient quantity of potions on hand.” When he lowered his hand enough to expose the eye holes of his mask. The Roegadyn expected at least two of them to be brandishing their gear. However, that was not the case here and now.
After resisting the urge to slouch and allow his arms to just dangle. Brex motioned over to Rory with a nod. She then started to say the next part, while the girl took a number of envelopes and swiftly tossed them onto the table so that they would land in front of the chairs of all the girls that were still there. “Those contain a reward that I will be willing to give out for those who participate. Go ahead and open the one with your name. But I must ask that you don't let the others know what it is. Each and every one is specifically for the recipient.” At the end, Rory tossed the last one over so that it zoomed through the air and was immediately caught by Rainbow.
Pinkie was the first one to see what she got after literally tearing the envelope apart so quickly that one would have thought it went through a paper shredder that was set on high. But miraculously the note inside escaped any type of damage as it was looked over with Pinkies excited gaze. She immediately shot up into the air and threw her arms and legs out to shoot a substantial quantity of confetti before plummeting back into her chair. This was also followed with her squeaking behind a set of closed lips as she desperately held it all in.
Applejack gave Pinkie a wide berth after seeing the outburst and carefully opened her own envelope. She gave it a scrutinizing look over as her eyes went from left to right while the paper was slowly brought up to the next line underneath to be taken in by the farm mare. After a couple of seconds. Applejack slowly lowered the paper until she had it on the table once again. However, her sights were squarely set on Brex as she gestured down at the paper with her eyes before looking back at him with clear disbelief written on her face.
In turn, Brex gave her a slow nod which then caused Applejack to plop in her chair as her expression turn to that of shock. She even started to do that thing with her hands where she was obviously attempting to do some form of math in her head as her right index finger was going between the others on her left. When it came to Rarity, she daintily picked up hers and slipped the contents out just as a red set of glasses popped into existence. Once she was done reading and had the paper folded.
She said to Brex in a near stuttering tone. “C-Can you truly do such a feat?” She then received the same acknowledgment that was given to Applejack and the fashionista nearly swooned so much that he thought she was going to collapse on the table in the same way she would if it were her fainting couch. But luckily, Fluttershy was there to help at the last second and was doing her best to prop her friend up onto her two hoofs. Once Rarity came back to her senses after a couple of moments and could stand on her own. Fluttershy was the next to examine what was given to her.
The yellow Pegasus covered her mouth with her free hand after letting out a small excitable Eep! She then said the following in a rather bashful tone. “I…I couldn't possibly accept this... it's too much... also there's no way I can bring myself to attack you...” In the end, she was doing that thing where she was trying to hide half of her face behind her mane out of what he thought to be either embarrassment or a lack of self-confidence.
In response. Brex made sure that his mask was facing directly towards Fluttershy as he said the following in a voice that was intended to give off a relaxing tone for the mare. “There are other ways to be a part of a group that is in combat that does not require you to literally be a part of the assault. I didn't say that I would not be counter-attacking. If you do not wish to cast any offensive spells, then why not stay to the rear, and offer assistance if they should get any injuries?” After hearing that. Fluttershy began to lightly nod as she began to speak. “I-I uh, could try... If it’s alright with you.”
Over with Rainbow, who was closer to Brex. She was already in the middle of reading her own note. Her face was partially obscured by the paper for a few seconds until it was slowly lowered. Once most of her face was exposed. Brex could see a devilish glint in the Pegasus’s eyes as she looked over her shoulder and towards Gilda who was still at the table.
She then turned her attention to Brex as she whispered the following. “Are you really going to… You know… That?” All she got was another small nod that was just barely perceivable from where she stood. As a result, a manic grin appeared that threatened to crack her face as her hands started to do that evil villain move where she rubbed her knuckles with a wicked glee.
Twilight, who was the last member to finally pick up their envelope. Had just placed it back onto the table before giving Brex a thousand-yard stare down. Her mouth was slightly hanging as her eyes were going so wide that he was wondering if it was going to become a medical issue. Especially when he noticed that she was obviously frozen in place to the point that she was probably not breathing anymore. However, this all changed as she let out a loud squeal of delight and rushed right to Brex in a flash and grabbed onto his robes with both hands right at the chest and near his hood.
As this was all going on. Twilight was looking right into his masks eye holes, along with a small amount of drool coming from the edge of her lips. Excitedly, she exclaimed the next part at such a volume that it was almost loud enough that it could be heard halfway back to Ponyville. “You're not kidding, are you? Please don't say that you're kidding!” Brex was giving her a flat stare as he was expecting this type of reaction and gently pulled her hands from himself as he responded. “Yes, what I wrote down is true. Also... personal space, please.”
The excitable purple Unicorn immediately backed off and had this set of nervous giggles erupting from her mouth, while also looking in every other direction as her eyes shifted. It did not take much time at all before Twilight and all of her friends got into a group huddle to discuss how they were going to tackle Brex. All the while. Lieutenant Search, Rory and Gilda had moved over towards the front door so that they were out of the way. The area they were fighting in was quite spacious and would require several seconds for someone to dash from one side to the next at a full sprint.
There were a couple of bushes lining the sides of the cobblestone path. Along with a couple of small bridges that would go over the man-made rivers that could possibly act as small obstacles. Brex even started to do a couple of light stretches along with rolling his neck a couple of times to loosen up the joints. Sure, he was at their level essentially at the moment. However, he was not going to use any abilities aside from what he could normally be used by a normal person who played a Samurai at his current settings in this world. This meant no additional spells from his Artificer subclass, or those from the book of The Shield Hero.
In other words. Brex was going to have to take this seriously if he was going to make it out as the victor. He then called out while they were still huddled together and said the following and giving his wooden katana a few light swings from side to side. “The time limit is ten minutes. If you can manage to bring me down before the allotted time is up, then I'll treat you all to dinner tonight at any restaurant you all decide to pick. You know what, you can even invite your family members and I'll treat them as well.” Surprisingly enough, it was Applejack who spoke next as she was tilting her hat down so that it was causing her eyes to have a serious expression.
“Oh partner! You're goin’ to regret those words. Y'all got no idea how much my family can eat. But I can tell you're not lyin’, so don't go tellin’ anyone that I never warned ya.” Rarity was the next to join the conversation as she used her left hand to fix a bit of her hair while also giving him a confident look. “I have been feeling a small desire to dine out as of late. And I'm quite sure that my little sister would greatly appreciate the outing as well.”
Twilight joined in herself as she was giving a confident smirk and brandishing her staff in her right hand as she took a step forward from the rest of the others. “This is not just about the meal, girls! We have a reputation to uphold as the Elements of Harmony.”
And with that, all the mare’s got themselves into position where they had Applejack in the front alongside Rainbow. Rarity was just a little ways behind the two of them. Beyond her was Twilight and Pinkie. Taking up the rear was Fluttershy and her green carbuncle at her side. The scene became silent as the two opposing sides glared at one another. All eyes sharpened. The sound of a crow could be heard in the distance. A single tumbleweed rolled by in the background. This lasted a couple of seconds before a strong gust of wind made a few of the leaves for the garden sculptures rustle to mark the start.
What came next was a battle of epic proportions. The ground quaked. The wind blew with the strength of a full-blown tsunami. It was all the stuff of legends. Songs would be sung for generations on what happened in this small battlefield. Scars were earned, tears were shed. Great lessons were learned by all and would shape they're future. Unfortunately… that was not the case in reality. Well aside from tears being shed and scars turning out to be more of scratches and bruises… Ok, more like bad boo-boos.
Most of which were inflicted upon the girls thanks to friendly Fire and some uncoordinated attacks on both the frontline and rear. In the long run, the only Pony that was fulfilling their role turned out to be Fluttershy as she was frantically running and flying back and forth to administer her healing spells to the others.
If Brex was to be honest, then this entire fiasco would have ended within twenty seconds if it were not for the yellow Pegasus’s efforts in keeping most of them conscious for just a bit longer. Especially after Twilight inadvertently nailed Rainbow in the back with a fireball when the athletic member of the group picked that moment in time to fly in the path of the spell.
After the fireball collided with Rainbow in the back. She fell onto Applejack as a result and the pair became hopelessly entangled into one another after tumbling for a bit. During her struggle to try and get back up. Rainbow accidentally poked Applejack in the butt with her dagger and this made for the perfect incentive to cause the farm mare to buck Rainbow off so hard that she flew through the air and crashed into Rarity. Who was just finishing with channeling her magic through her weapon to produce a lightning spell.
Rarity, upon getting struck by Rainbow. Moved her arm that was holding on to her two-piece weapon that was still connected for the channeling over towards Pinkie and made a direct hit once it left her control. The pink pony’s entire body was coursing with electricity as her hair became spiky from the electric discharge. She even gave off a weird staticky noise as this was happening and jerked around in some weird dance. Unfortunately, she was already done charging a special arrow attack when this occurred, and the projectile was let loose.
As it was flying through the air. Its trajectory was slightly altered at the very last possible instant. Instead of going for Brex. It instead went right for applejack, who was just barely getting back onto her legs. Luckily, she was looking back at the commotion and caught sight of the arrow flying right for her head and released a scream. In reflex, her axe was brought up just in time to deflect the arrow back so that it was soaring high into the air. This made it to leave a red energy trail that glistened in the light before it disappeared thanks to the positioning of the sun that was directly overhead at the time.
By then they were all stuck in position while keeping a close eye above for where the arrow went off too. At first their faces were full of surprise. But as the second went on. They became more worried as their eyes attempted to look frantically for where Pinkies shot ended up. Eventually, Twilight began to sweat as she whispered from the side of her mouth while not bringing her eyes away from the sky in clear nervousness. “Pinkie... just how much power did you put into that arrow?”
The pink pony answered and the most innocent voice. “I really-really wanted my prize, so I put everything I had. Hmm, now that I think about it, I actually feel a little tired right now. Eh, that's a first.” After hearing that. Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity and even Fluttershy's eyes became full of panic from the implication that their friend may have drained all she had into that one shot. Even Brex wonder just how powerful that would have been if it had hit him and nearly blanched at the notion of being sent clean across the yard with a single hit from the pink party pony.
His musing was rudely interrupted when there was a subtle whistling sound being emitted from above. That was when they all caught sight of a glowing red object falling at a frightening speed towards the center of their group. The only reason that they were able to see it from so early on due to it being such a small object.
Was all because of the amount of red energy it was accumulating that made it almost as big as a cow if one were to use that as a comparison for how big the orb of energy it was giving off turned out to be. If anything, it was more like a red comet crashing to the planet. This caused Twilight and all of her friends to let out a unified scream of horror just as it collided with the lawn.
The end result happened in slow motion before his eyes. In a way, it was almost as if he was watching a scene in some action movie where the explosion was slowed down to a point where you can literally stretch it out over the course of a minute. Once the arrow's head got stuck in the grass and sunk several inches. There was a flash of light that erupted from underneath the ground. First, there were beams of light slowly erupting and random spots. Then the floor was pushed up as more of the light escape the now forming cracks.
Pieces of gravel and now loose dirt pelted the air and the girls. This was immediately followed with a strong shockwave from said underground detonation. Pinkies face looked almost lethargic to express how drained she felt the instant the explosion happened, and she was sent flying. Heck if anything, she was probably about to take a nap, and this might have not have been able to keep her awake. Rarity was pushed up and away from the impact site. Her hair was blown straight up and both hands were being used at the front of her skirt to keep it from being blown up as she was sent soaring.
Rainbow was sent straight up and into the air as if she were a rocket thanks to her wings catching quite a bit of air from the shockwave and essentially became nothing but a blur. Applejack was knocked over and forced to do a number of roles until she collided with the nearest section of the stonewall at the edge of the property. At which point, she was stuck in a position where she was upside down and laying most of her weight onto her shoulders. Her legs were completely spread and bent at the hips so that she was now displaying herself in an awkward position as her back was pressed against the wall.
Twilight however, attempted to use a spell to Shield herself from the blast at the very last instant. Unfortunately, she was not quick enough and the spell was interrupted nearly halfway through. In the end she did keep herself from being tossed like a rag doll into a storm. The only real problem was how her clothing was strangely torn apart to where it was barely covering her underpants and bra, as it poked out of the sides as she just stood there in place while still gripping her staff in her right hand and eyes closed tightly.
It took several moments for the dust to clear enough to show the impact crater that was caused by Pinkie unleashing a devastating shot that should not have been possible. It did not take long until there was this faint bluish green glow that could be seen near and towards the other side of the hole as the screen of dirt dissipated. He could not help but the blink dumbfoundedly as he was surprised at the site of Fluttershy standing there perfectly unharmed after all was said and done. More so when one was to think of how the others were affected.
She was hunched down and cowering in fear while looking straight ahead at the carnage that occurred. But what really caught his attention was the way the carbuncle that she had out before was standing right in front and taking on a defensive stance with its tails sharply pointing straight up and the front end leaning down in a crouch.
Out of all of them, apart from Twilight attempting to shield herself. Fluttershy managed to use one of her abilities to create a personal defense barrier that would nullify incoming attacks. Said spell could only be activated while the carbuncle was out and about to use as a conduit for such a useful ability that was meant for emergencies.
Although, Brex had to quirk an eyebrow as he wondered if Fluttershy did that intentionally, or if it was some kind of reflex on either herself or her summoned ally. Especially with the way she was giving off an outward expression of her being both terrified and confused at what happened. The barrier itself had a number of hairline cracks that ran all over the surface. There were even a few small sections with holes clearly being made from the magic being overwhelmed. Eventually, the carbuncle collapse and laid on the ground right at the same time as the barrier disappeared.
After coming to her senses upon witnessing her little friend laying on the grass. The yellow Pegasus immediately brought out her book and the creature jumped into its pages. She also went straight to work at casting her healing spells on the others that required it without even a second thought to anything else. As this was going on. Brex could see at the corner of his vision upon turning around, the expressions of the other onlookers near the house that witnessed it all.
Rory was having a hard time with holding in a giggle fit as she was literally crying and holding her mouth closed with both hands. At the same time, the girl was even hunched over on wobbly legs that threatened to fall out from under her. Gilda was covering her face with her left hand while clearly muttering a couple of phrases in the Griffin language that mostly consisted of her calling them all stupid. Now when it came to Lieutenant Search. Her mouth was hanging so low that he could quite literally see the back of her throat from all the way over where he was.
Brex could also make out a small sound coming from the mare that sounded as though it was a long string of a single word. “Eeeeeeeeeeeh?!” This eventually turned into some legible sentences as she said the following under her breath as Brex clearly saw it in his chat window. “Are these the same mare’s that went into the Everfree and defeated Nightmare Moon? They couldn't... they couldn't even... I I don't even know what to think anymore.”
Over with Brex. He glanced back at the group as his right eye began to subtly twitch underneath. He even had this expression that was a cross between being completely stupefied and possibly stuck halfway into a stroke. Honestly, he was at a complete loss of words as he could not bring himself to utter a single syllable for a couple of seconds until he managed to calm down somewhat. He then brought both of his hands up to his mask to do the following.
While being very careful. The bottom part of the mask was pulled away just enough for him to slip a finger underneath to touch around his nose before pulling it out and placing the mask back into place to look at the finger. Right there, was a single droplet of blood that caused him to partially freeze in place before Rory's voice could be heard in his head in a mixture of her still laughing and confusion. “How did they hit you?”
Brex then said in an inner voice that was straining to push out each word as if it was causing him some manner of pain. “They didn't... I think I got a brain aneurysm... from the sheer stupidity...” Rory's voice sounded as if it was getting more amused as she said the following. “There's another part to that joke, but I don't think I should really say it.” This got her a quick and decisive, “Thank you.” Before he sent away his weapon and began to help Fluttershy. Although he had one last thing to think in his mind in a whiny and kiddish tone. “I really don't want to have this world relying only on me! I need to do something, and I need to do it fast...”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 73: The First Day.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Sweet Apple Acres* *Time: Six-Thirty in the morning. Two days after the… Uh, let’s just call it the mock fight*
The wide site of trees belonging to the Apple family’s orchard could be seen almost touching the horizon with how massive it appeared if one was to stand on the very top of a single hill on the property. The morning air was beginning to feel slightly chillier compared to previous days with a subtle drop in one or two degrees to mark the changing of the seasons was soon on its way. These small yet almost in perceivable changes would still occur even with the required help of the ponies to usher in the next part of the cycle that would be done naturally on earth.
Typically, a majority of the apples would be harvested around the time of July. However, there were certain types that came to a crisp freshness around autumn. But for some unrealistic reason, the Apple family's trees would have an all-year-round growing spurt that fought most of the seasons aside from winter. Fortunately enough, it was thanks to the Mirror Apples provided by Brex awhile back, that they had something that would go during those harsh winter days and nights to produce a subclass of apples that went quite favorably among all of the residents of Ponyville and those of Canterlot.
Off just a short distance and at the bottom of the hill could be seen two figures working underneath a couple of trees that still had a number of the red juicy fruit ready to be picked. Well, in this case, more ready to be kicked if one was to be more direct with the method used in getting them down. One of the two was undeniably Applejack. Who was wearing her usual Stetson hat, white and red checkered shirt that was tied in the front and allowing a number of the buttons to be undone. There was also a set of flannel genes that had its fair share of scuffs along the knees and sides of her hips.
Her leg had just struck a tree with enough force, that it made a resounding thud and echoed through the gaps of the surrounding foliage. The apples above immediately fell down and remarkably landed inside the well-placed baskets. What made it even more remarkable was how not a single one tumbled back out after bouncing off of the earlier ones that fell in first. The farm mare tilted her hat back a little to wipe the sweat on her brow, before turning her attention over her left shoulder and speaking out loud in a tone that had a mix of light exhaustion and what could be called satisfaction.
“Woo wee! We may just get done a lot faster than I was thinkin'. I do appreciate the extra pair of hands and getting’ my chores done. Just another twenty more trees and that’ll be enough done for today. Just might get all these in the barn in the next half hour if we're fast about it. I don’t mind in the least if yeah want to go ahead and take a... break if you... want for a few... uh, minutes.” Applejack's voice mindlessly trailed as she watched unbelievingly at the site that she was plainly unaware of going on behind her until just now.
The one she was speaking to, turned out to be Brex as he was wearing is usual white and blue robes along with the brown mask. As for the reason he was there. It was discussed that they could either come all at once for some group training, or break off so that two or three could come a day for some more hands-on help. In the end, they chose to come in groups on the weekdays and to have a full session with all of them on the weekend so that it would not constantly take away from their daily lives and jobs.
Today just happened to be with Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie. Seeing as they are all physical Fighters. And in another two days it would be Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy because of their magical nature. Now, as for Applejack's current reaction. This was due to the fact that Brex was just near the end of completing his work much faster than she had earlier anticipated.
However, the method he used was for a lack of better words, unorthodox. The two of them had already placed the required number of buckets under the trees that they were going to do, as well as a few that they would have scheduled later in the day that would be done by the other family members of the Apple clan.
She had originally tried to teach him how to properly buck the trees in the beginning. But instead, he opted for using an odd fighting stance which utilized not only the bottom of his legs but almost every part of them in unison with his arms as well. To her, time was almost slowing down to a crawl as he swiftly went from one tree to the next with the odd shifting of his stance and placing of his legs. Some trees would be hit with a palm of his hand. While others would be struck with his elbow. A few even got the back of his fist and his knee. There was even a straight-on punch or a roundhouse kick thrown in here and there.
His steps would oddly pivot in place or he would manage to move his body with subtle motions that would almost give off the impression that he was gliding while swinging his legs in a half semicircle from time to time. He did not even come to a stop at any moment as he transitioned from one apple tree to the next. In a way, he was even using the collision to send his body into another direction to launch his next strike on an unsuspecting tree. Normally, this would not have been an easy task, but thanks to his large stature, he was able to traverse between each of his goals.
Even when he needed to get around and towards the next row to start again. Brex would shift his body to narrowly collide with the bark by the narrowest of margins at such a breakneck speed, that one mistake might have caused some injury. By the time he stopped and looked over towards Applejack a few seconds later. Brex said the following while slightly tilting his hooded head. “Wait did you say, twenty?” He then turned back the way he came before returning his gaze back to the farm mare to continue with a somewhat apologetic tone. “My apologies. I may have gone a little overboard and lost track.”
What Brex was referring to was the way there were not just the stated number of trees done, but he had easily done over a hundred while Applejack was apparently preoccupied for a fair amount of time without noticing his progress. Applejack just stood there blinking nearly a dozen times with her eyes going wide before she muttered out her response almost dumbfounded.
“Huh?! What, Oh! No... Ah, that's fine, don't be goin’ and frettin’ about it. I-I should have said something sooner. I guess we'll just be spending the rest of the time and take these back to the barn. I'll get the cart ready so you can pull, while I get some of those buckets hooked up so they can be carried.
What Applejack had planned was to load eight baskets onto the wagon so that there would be a layer of four with the other half on top. Typically, she would try to put a third row to make up to twelve and pull it herself. But even that was a little challenging for her, so the farm mare wanted to go a little easy on him. In fact, her own brother and father could just barely manage a wagon of eight for multiple trips. On her part, she thought that he would at least be able to handle that without much in the way of problems.
For her, she was going to attach the rope from the large buckets so that they would be hanging off of the ends of a slightly curve piece of wood that she could have on her shoulder. If anything, she was expecting to make multiple trips by the time he got to the barn with the first load that she prepared. However, when she told him of the plan as soon as the wagon was nearly half full. Brex informed her that she should go ahead and take the wagon, as he was going to carry his load instead.
At first, she believed that he was probably tired out after getting all those apples down and was going to take it easy by carrying two buckets at a time. If anything, Applejack couldn't fault him for that as he did do a substantial amount of work compared to what was originally expected on her part. After reluctantly agreeing, Applejack went right ahead and placed 12 and began to make her way over to the barn. However, she and the wagon were easily overtaken by Brex who was jogging ahead at an abnormally fast pace.
He was so fast that he was literally causing a strong enough gust of wind as his body displaced the air. A few of the fallen leaves and grass could be seen flowing and getting kicked up as a low woosh sound was made. The expected heavy footsteps for a being of his size were clearly absent as his footsteps landed softly and barely even made an impression on the floor. If Applejack had not seen it with her own eyes, then she may have not even noticed his progress and thought that he was lingering behind.
She even had to stop in her tracks to rub her eyes as she made sure she wasn't seeing things. Instead of using one of the wooden poles to carry a set of two buckets full of apples at a time. Brex was Now using two of the poles and each one was holding four and now carrying a total of eight. If that wasn't enough, he even had balancing on both hands a set of three for a total of 14 in all. If she didn't already know that it was him, then she would have thought that the apples were bringing themselves to the barn all on their own with how they were almost blocking his body from being seen.
After recovering and continuing on. She had only just arrived by the time she was passed by on the path with at least three loads on his part. Honestly speaking, she had expected them to be nowhere near to be done with picking them all up before needing to leave to meet up with the others. But with Brex moving at such a speed and carrying so many at once. The entire chore was done so quickly that it even left Applejack wondering if this was just a dream. She was even almost sure that this was the case and proceeded to pinch herself a number of times before she accepted it as reality.
It wasn't until they were about to exit the barn after placing the last of the apples inside, when Big Mac and Bright Mac came walking on in. The pair just stood side by side with their mouths gaping open at the site of so many apples in the barn at once. If it wasn't for the small signs of their age difference and their color scheme, then one would have thought that someone had placed a mirror in between the two as they were a perfect reflection with the way they look so much alike. Well, aside from Bright Mac wearing a hat.
After seeing their reaction. Applejack ran off to their house to get cleaned up and grab her gear while yelling over her shoulder once she got past her older sibling and father, who were just standing there as still as statues. “Well, I think my chores are all caught up on for a while. I'll be headin’ out!” Once she was long gone and it was just the three guys inside of the barn. Bright Mac was the first to speak up after shaking his head a few times to get himself out of the dazed state he was in, while also snapping Big Mac out of it in the process.
“I can't help but thank you enough for this Brex. We did want to cut her chores so she can have more free time. But the mare could be really stubborn just like her mother. Instead, she says she can take classes on top of Adventuring. While still taking care of her chores without any special treatment. But wow. I was sure surprised that you had a place built and are going to teach our daughter there on how to be a Marauder. Here I thought you'd be coming to our place to do that.”
Brex raised his hand and began to wag his index finger playfully a few times before he responded and a joking manner. “Now now Bright Mac. You should know better than to use my real name. Remember, I go by Gambit in public? Only You, Big Mac, Pear Butter and Granny know. I hope none of you have let it slip by accident to anyone else.” This got a firm head shake from Bright Mac and a strong nope from his son.
For the last twelve years, Brex had been keeping a friendly relationship with the Apple family ever since that incident with the Timberwolves. In fact, as time went on. The entire Apple clan was getting some financial backing from Brex both on, and off the books. He then took a few moments to think of the following in his head as he started to replay the events leading up to now.
Of course, Applejack and Apple Bloom had no idea of their connection. So, when it came to that evening two days ago and he got to see Pear Butter, Bright Mac, Big Mac and Granny. The five of them pretended as though this was their first-time meeting at the restaurant after what transpired on his lawn. Yes, he did say he would take them all out to dinner if they managed to get him. But he just felt so bad and went right ahead and did it anyway to try and cheer them all up.
But this was not until Brex recovered and gave the group a piece of his mind with how poorly they all performed. Each one was made to sit on the grass for a neat line with their knees bent. Much to Rarity’s protest and constant fussing with how she did not want grass stains to add to the already messed up parts of her outfit. Just as it went down, he told each of them off in kind. As he was pinching his mask’s nonexistent nose, Brex started with Twilight. Who was in the middle of covering her body the best she could with some new clothes that were taken out of her magic storage.
“Your first little missy! Is there anything you want to say when it came to how that all went down?” Twilight’s eyes shifted from left to right as her voice was apparently out of her grasp, which left an opening for Brex to continue after a couple of seconds went by and a heavy sigh to be let out. In the beginning, Brex started off slow and calm. But eventually his frustration was leaking out and causing his voice to become strained as it slowly grew overtime.
“This isnt a game! You’re lucky that your spell wasn’t strong enough to put Rainbow’s life in any real danger with only one fireball to the back and it only knocked her out of the air. Also, why was it you that attacked first when your team was already in combat position to charge in? You need to give the tank and other melee the time to get in close so they could get your opponent’s attention. That way the rest of you can focus on your jobs without worrying over a counter-attack.”
“That was only mistake number one might I add. Now, onto you Rainbow. It didn’t escape me that you also jumped ahead of Applejack. Please be mindful of your surroundings. Especially as a flyer. You never know when your teammate is going to launch a long-distance attack so you need to keep an eye on everything on the battlefield, this does not only apply to you, but the rest of you as well.”
“Next would have to be your way of getting up after colliding with Applejack. You’re both carrying weapons. Did it not even occur to you once to be careful with where you’re sticking those daggers? You’re a Rogue. Why not use the hide skill and sneak into range? Avoid getting it and do the most amount of damage you can while doing so.”
“Applejack. I know you got poked in the ass, but please, do not buck your teammate into the others! Sending Rainbow flying with how much strength you got is not a good idea. If anything, I can’t fault you for neglecting to us an axe throwing skill as soon as we started with not being trained as a Marauder yet.”
“As for you miss Rarity. I know it takes a lot of concentration to cast a spell. However, it would be best to get out of the way if you’re being attacked. More-so while in mid channeling. As you are at your most vulnerable if not experience enough to handle the situation. Especially when it someone being hurtled right at you. Also, discharging a lighting spell at a random direction would cause more problems than good. Case in point, Pinkie getting electrocuted. We are all lucky that she is very durable. Otherwise, it could have done some major damage.”
“Moving on to that arrow that was fired. Pinkie. You need to control your Aether flow. That right there was not a good idea to throw everything you had into that shot. Your body already goes through a lot of stress when accessing your abilities. All of you are starting out and your bodies have yet to be strengthened to handle such a strong surge. We should count ourselves lucky that all that occurred from it, was you getting really tired. There was a lesson in school that taught the dangers of overtaxing your flow. People have died from drawing on more than they could handle.”
“By the twelve! A part of me believes that you’ve never worked together in your lives after witnessing such a colossal train wreck! Fluttershy, Rainbow and Applejack have worked together, so I can understand that they have a more in-your-face tactic as Fluttershy stays back to provide assistance with her healing magic and crowd control spells. As for the rest of you, I can only imagine that you rarely work together, if not at all. Perhaps I was looking into it too much as you are all friends. I believed that there would be some communication, or possibly a plan set in advance!”
“The only one out of all of you who correctly played their role was Fluttershy. If it wasn’t for her, I’d doubt that half of you would even be conscious right now to even be hearing me speak! I been in random formed groups in the past that had never even met the other members and they were never this bad! Perhaps using myself as a test was too difficult? Oh, who am I kidding! A stick in the ground with a paper plate and a face drawn on would have resulted in the same outcome.”
Brex paused himself as he brought both of his hands together into a praying gesture and placed it onto his mask. This was before releasing a heavy intake of air that would slowly be let out as a form of relaxation technique. After a few seconds, he brought it down and did a pointing gesture to the group of mare’s that were now looking at the ground with both hands still together before returning to a normal standing gesture with his hands at his sides.
Brex then said the next part under his breath just loud enough for the others to hear. “I find it hard to believe you all made it through the forest… Seriously, how… How did you all not get eaten? There is a multitude of beasts and monsters. Then there’s Nightmare Moon. Were you all just lucky when you fought her?!” As he said that one part. He did catch the way the girls were quickly glancing to one another with a puzzled expression that lasted for only a few seconds before going back to everything else that was said.
Of course, the Roegadyn knew exactly why they made it. As he frequently brought himself to the edge of Ponyville and walked back and forth to the castle so that there would be a distinctly visible path to follow. More-so, was that his scent was all over the place and most of the predators knew better than to mess with him after the countless encounters within those very same trees over the years.
He then closed his eyes for a few seconds as his back was turned towards the girls in order to pull himself back together. His head was tilted back as if wanting to look at the sky but he could not bring himself to gaze upwards until there was the sound of flapping from behind, and a sudden swoosh of wind going around his body. When he did finally open his eyes, it was Rainbow and she had landed right in front of him. At first, she had an angry expression. But even that faded in almost an instant as her shoulders slumped.
Brex expected the blue Pegasus to lash out and defend her friends. He expected that bold cocky and superiority complex to be unleashed in his direction. Inside, the Roegadyn felt a mixture of anger and self-loathing for having gone off on them. But underneath all of that. He had an inkling of hope that Rainbow might use this as an opportunity to talk back and to possibly break off their little arrangement over the herd talks. Perhaps, even with it being unintentional. Showing that he was not always a nice guy and would fly off the handle to speak his mind would be enough.
But what Rainbow did and said next only made him confused. “You’re right! I should have known that flying ahead was not the best idea… I I only wanted to show you what I could do.” Her head was hanging low along with her ears pinned to the sides of her head. He took a couple of seconds to take stock of her appearance before turning his attention to the others. Once he did, he found himself raising an eyebrow questionably at the sight.
Instead of getting angry or arguing with what was said. The rest of the girls were slowly nodding their heads with their eyes shut tight while still sitting on the ground. Even Rarity was sitting in place and not making any kind of motion to prevent her outfit from getting more stained than it already was. Even her hair was still somewhat out of place, yet she made no effort to pull out any brushes to fix it as she was giving this aura of a beaten puppy.
Brex then thought the following as he was taking all this information in. “Wha? OK what’s… ohhh, hold on. Right, the gender role switch. Kinda like in those anime’s where the girl yells at a bunch of guys and they’re just sitting there with their heads hanging low, along with agreeing with everything that the angry woman is saying. What am I now, their mother? Oh, and just great, just freaking great! Even Pinkie’s mane is completely flattened and Fluttershy looks to be close to crying. Now I just feel like I’m an ass…”
After a few seconds. Brex motioned for rainbow to join the others and he crouched down so that he was near their eye level. He then said the next part in the most reassuring and calm voice he could. “I’m sorry if I went overboard with my words. I just want you all to understand that I’m only frustrated because this is for your well-being. I have already mentioned that the world is getting more dangerous by the day. Don’t take this as me being mad or that I hate any of you. The last thing I want for anything is for you all to not make it back if another incident should happen.”
“Now, we all know what to work with and plans could be made for a more effective training session. I don’t want any of you to forget what happened this day and use it as a stepping board for what you should strive to overcome.” Brex did not know why. But thanks to how Rainbow positioned herself so that she was closer to him. Along with her obviously looking down on herself. Rex felt the uncontrollable urge to reach over with his right hand and gently placed it on the side of her face. This got an unconscious reaction from the mare as she began to lightly press herself into his palm.
This only lasted for a second before he pulled his hand away and elicited an almost undetectable wine from the blue Pegasus once his touch left her face. He then thought to himself in both a mixture of confusion and panic. “What the FUCK! Why did I do that? I just wanted them not to give up!”
Over with Rainbow. The mare was inwardly pouting so that the others could not see at the loss of the contact of his hand. Somewhere deep, she was beginning to feel an odd sensation. It was not one that she was fully comfortable with, but at the same time almost pleasant. Being scolded and following up with a form of reassurance sent an electric current through her body. Afterwards, Brex stood back up and began to make his way to the house. As he had gotten a couple of steps away. He motioned to the girls while calling out. “Come on! Let’s see about helping you all get cleaned up a little before we head out.”
When it came to the place they went to. It certainly was not one of those fancy types that required a reservation to enter. It was one of the local ones that was slightly on the pricier side when compared to getting Hay Burgers or going to Sugar Cube Corner. Although, it did have an upside as there was some meat-based dishes that were on the menu. This meant that Gilda and Rory would not have to worry about going without a proper meal. However, when it came to the time that they were ordering, he remembered that she would not have been able to order any meat with her still in her disguised Pony form.
He had invited his maids to join as well, but they gave the excuse that they were a little too busy and would have to take a rain check. It was because of not only the two of them, but Rory's predicament that he began to feel uneasy during the outing. He even knew that if the two of them were there with him at the time, then they would have been able to pick up his guilt with how hard it was to contain. It was that very night that he decided on a few things.
One was going to be Rory being able to show who she is to at least Twilight and her friends so that she can have some type of semblance of a normal life without having to constantly hide herself. Although, Brex himself was seemingly fine with the concept when it came to him and only him. But he wanted to make Rory happy and this was probably the best course that he could bring himself to do. As for the house situation however. Some additional help was definitely needed. Otherwise, Rin and Lin would have jumped at the chance to go out with him and Rory in a heartbeat.
When it came to everyone else, it appeared that they were all enjoying themselves and conversing with one another. Twilight had gone and grabbed Spike so he was now sitting next to her. But when it came to him asking how it went today over at Gambits place. Twilight and the other girls could not bring themselves to answer as they all looked in different directions and acted as though they didn't hear the question and immediately found something else to preoccupy their time, whether it be the food or their family members.
Unfortunately for Twilight, Spike was not one to give up so easily as he kept on pressing for answers for some time after. Ultimately, Twilight had this look that she just broke down as her hands were covering her face and was about to lay it out on the table to all the other girls dismay when Brex stepped in.
“They all got to show me what they could do. It wasn't much, but I got the general idea. Although, I do believe they are going to require some remedial classes for a refresher course. After all, there's only so much you could learn in school. I believe I once heard this in passing and it might play true in this situation.
“While in school you learn what is in the world and what makes it up. It is when you leave that you truly learn how it works. Now, there are a couple ways to look at that phrase, but what I take from it personally is this. It is important to get as much knowledge as you can. However, learning first hand as well on top of it is much more valuable. They all have the knowledge but they have not been able to practice it enough to draw out their full potential.” A few of the invited members were a little confused at what he was saying while others were not really paying attention. The second-half was mostly the younger ones.
On Spike's part however, that was a whole other story as he pointed at Twilight and said the following while having this look that just screamed he was right. “You see Twilight? I've been telling you this whole time that you need to get out of the library and do things outside more often. If you keep up with what you're doing, you're going to end up sleep reading if that's all you do from the moment you walk in the library and until you go to bed.” Twilight started to pout as a couple of her friends gave a few giggles.
She then gave Spike a dirty look before she retorted in defense of herself. “I don't read all the time Spike!” The kid remained silent for a good few seconds while giving Twilight the flattest stare that Brex had ever seen come from anyone who was not some old person and called Twilight out with the following words.
“Twilight... you literally eat my food without even taking your eyes off of the book you have at the table. You only know that you're done once you hear the sound of your fork hitting an empty plate a couple of times and then walk off. I've even caught you trying to put an oversized shower cap on one of your books in preparation to go into the shower last week with it.
Twilight was now nervously chuckling to herself as she quickly pulled spike in and held a hand up to his mouth to make him stop. Then through gritted teeth that belonged to a fake smile. She said to him while trying to keep her voice down enough so that everyone in the restaurant wouldn't hear. “Okay Spike, I get it, that's enough. You don't need to say anything else that we do in the privacy of our home.” It was because of this, that Brex thought the following in his head.
“Note to self. Rain storms and trees falling through windows may not be the only source of water damage to those books in the library. May want to talk to the girls at HQ about circulating waterproof paper to the public. No… no. That won't work. Then how would the ink from printed works stay on the paper. Maybe I should just phase the books out and get them to work on electronic tablets. Hmmm... what would I even call it? Maybe I can call it and E-tablet. as in Eorzea from the game. Eh. I guess I could just call it the Hex-tablet instead.”
This also turned out to be the first time he got to meet Apple bloom and Sweetie Bell in person. But thankfully they seem more preoccupied with sitting together and talking more than getting up in his face and asking a million questions. Although, he did catch something that was muttered by Sweetie Bell for an instant that pulled in his attention right as she pointed over in his general direction. “Hey Apple Bloom, do you see the big guy over there with the mask? He looks a lot like the plushie Rarity has in her bedroom.”
Brex really wanted to hear what this was about after raising an eyebrow. But it seemed Rarity had heard this as well and immediately waved down one of the waitresses and got a piece of cake and placed it right in front of the kids to distract them so quickly that it may as well have teleported there. He found this pretty suspicious and looked towards the older sister. By then, all he found was her going back to her conversation with Fluttershy who was sitting on the seat right next to her and looking as if nothing happened.
When going back to the present. Brex could hear Applejack coming back from their house and carrying some gear. Which included some armor pieces, along with the two-handed axe she was known for having on hand. They both said their goodbyes to the stallions and headed right into town after that to pick up Pinkie.
Surprisingly enough, both the pink Pony and the blue Pegasus were both waiting outside of Sugar Cube Corner by the time they arrived. Rainbow was lazily laying on top of a small cloud that was brought near the ground, while Pinkie was apparently putting the very last touches to her arrows by placing a wine bottle cork on the tips as her tongue was lulling out of the side of her mouth and having a concentrated look on her face before shoving them into her quiver.
Brex was looking at Pinkie as she was doing that for a couple of seconds and it seemed that Rainbow picked up on it and try to explain. Apparently, that it was to prevent anything from the other day happening again. The Roegadyn did not believe that adding a cork would dampen the destructive abilities displayed by the sugar fueled nuclear reactor known as Pinkie. But relented with not giving any rebuttal seeing as this was Pinkie after all and left it at that. If not, then he may have tempted himself into gaining a migraine and he was not in the mood to handle one of them right now.
Afterwards, they soon arrived at Brex's place right as Gilda came swooping over the fence line to land near the group. The Griffin had no real reason to come today, but she was stubborn about being there to see how Rainbow stood up to his training sessions and immediately took one of the chairs that was set out the day before and plopped her rear right into it. She then proceeded to take something out that obviously came from the bakery in town and started to slowly munch on it in order to watch the show.
Once everyone was situated and placed most of their extra items onto the large table and then standing in a line before Brex. They were asked if they had worked together often and if they were also aware of what their teammates capabilities were off the top of their heads. When they answered with a yes when it came to going on Quest once in a while. Brex already knew this but wanted to play it off as he had only met them out in the field just one time. However, he was gravely disappointed when they showed practically no knowledge of their teammate’s capabilities when he continued with some follow-up questions.
As a result, he had them spend the next half an hour to get to know about each other's strengths and weaknesses when it came to their classes. This was along with how they preferably acted to get a better feel for a fight. Pinkie was apparently all for this and was ready to talk up a storm. While Applejack was a little reluctant at the beginning with how she had no real abilities with not having a designated adventurer class like the others.
Rainbow fought this idea for quite a while thanks to her stubborn personality. But when she tried to get some assistance on her point of view from Gilda. The blue Pegasus was left standing all alone when Gilda confidently said that she already knew what she and her friends were capable of thanks to the lectures given by Gambit over the course of a month and a half. She even went so far as to say that she probably knew more about them and what they could do later on than they knew themselves.
Once the half an hour marker was reached and Brex returned to learn of their progress. It came to little or no surprise that Pinkie had everybody else memorized down to the letter. Rainbow had the basics to where she had some type of idea. Although, the one who had it the worst was Applejack. As she was clearly standing there with her eyes slightly rolling in her head while the other two were giving their explanations to him. This was then followed up with Brex instructing both rainbow and Pinkie to use some of the training dummies that had been already set up ahead of time while Brex started on Applejacks lessons. Of course, Rory was on hand to give them some tips here and there.
But much to his surprise, neither one wanted to leave and stood their ground so that they too could be with their friend. Brex smile to this and slightly altered is teaching method by adding a small story in the beginning as he started to speak once they were all situated on the ground. With their legs crossed in a semicircle where there was a patch of soft grass nearby, did the Roegadyn begin.
“Hmm. I suppose I better start with explaining one thing before the lessons begin. As you may have already been told by Gilda. She is soon eligible for a class promotion.” The Griffin in question could be seen giving him a curious look at the edge of his vision before he continued.
“This has not been widely discussed outside of those who run the three schools. But once someone reaches a certain level of strength, are they eligible to go through with such an event. I won't go into too much details right now as you are all still nowhere near that point. But I will say this. If one works hard enough and meets the right conditions, then anyone can grow stronger. And I'm not talking about sheer strength alone. There are many ways one can achieve this. So, I asked that you keep what I say in mind.”
“Now I'm going to tell you a short story that has to pertain to what Applejack is aspiring to become. This was something that was handed down from mouth to mouth as what could be the beginning of what brought the Marauders and there promoted class to be widely known. It is unclear as to how long this story had been passed around, but it was once said that towards the north. There was two tribes who were constantly at war with one another. One side was dwindling in number as the other was beginning to gain the upper hand.”
As Brex was beginning the start of the tale. The rest of the girls were intently listening. Although, when it came to Pinkie. The mare pulled out a cup with a crazy straw and began to sip at it loudly every now and then. “The side that was losing was becoming more desperate as the days went on in their continuing struggle. They were stubborn and wanted to win on their own. But quickly realized that it was not to happen if things did not change soon.”
“The elders sent a messenger to another clan that was further along in the mountains to request for help. This third tribe consisted of fighters that were known to brandish large axe’s as their main weapons and boasted great strength as they were said to have never lost a war. Although, instead of receiving the aid of troops or additional supplies.”
“The third tribe sent only one of their fighters in response to the call for help. This one held a great axe in one hand that normally required the use of both to wield properly. Clad and a mix of metal and fur lined armor, he instantly took to the field and joined the small clan as the most recent skirmish occurred.”
“But the tribe was easily being overrun by the sheer numbers of their opponents. Even the loan fighter with his vastly superior strength was having difficulty as he was swarmed with one group after another. It wasn't until he was completely surrounded and was left to fend for himself as the rest of the clan members that requested his assistance had no other option than to fall back. That was when they heard a booming roar that rattled not only the sky but the very Souls of those on both sides of the conflict.”
“The lone fighter threw off his assailants and stood there holding on to his axe and not faltering at the least while charging into the horde of oncoming elites. No matter how hard the other side fought or even the many types of injuries they could inflict upon the fighter. There was just no stopping this axe-wielding mercenary. His body was an unstoppable force as each wave was thrown aside with ease. When the enemy saw him as the true threat, they forego to attacking the small tribe in order to take him down quickly. The lone fighter would give off one final roar before lifting his ax high above his head and swinging It to the ground when they came near.”
“This would result in the Aetheric energy within his body to course through not only his muscles and weapons, but into the ground as well. This force would be capable of unearthing a significant portion and send the shock wave and debris hurtling towards his enemy. Each piece being given the force in raw power equal to that of being struck by his weapon head on. Now that right there is the fighter tapping into what is called the Inner Beast. It's what they draw most of their power from.”
“Now Applejack, should you choose to go and follow this path. Then you must be told of the Inner Beast now so that you could be better prepared for the class advancement from Marauder. The Inner Beast is what lives and all living creatures. It is a part of that fight or flight Instinct that kicks in when danger is about. Most out there can go through their entire lives and never once tap into even a sliver of this force. However, the one in the story I mentioned was in control and drew on its full potential to win fights all on their own.”
“It can boost your strength, increase your defense and bring your sense of pain down to almost nothing. However, I must warn you that the old saying of too much of a good thing is true to this as well. One must be disciplined in both mind and body to be able to withstand and harness the Inner Beast. If not, then you will just become a mindless creature that is hell bent on fighting their next foe, whether it be an enemy or an ally. There would be no distinction between one holding a weapon and wearing armor to that of a small child standing in your sights and grasping onto a doll in fear.”
“Now, I ask you this and I will only ask it one time. Think carefully on your answer and only give it once you are truly sure. Will you follow the path of the Marauder and put as much work as needed to protect your friends and family to where you are even required to wrestle with yourself if it means they're safety? Of course, you won't have to go through that if you do not go any further and stay as a simple Marauder. But you will be giving up a lot more strength that could be useful in defending the ones you care for. If you are having second doubts then I don't mind training you in some other Defensive class.”
After all was said and done. Brex remains silent as he was carefully observing Applejack. The mare could be seen fidgeting on the spot as she was clearly weighing her options. Her head was slightly tilted forward so that her eyes were no longer visible as she slouched over somewhat. As for both Rainbow and Pinkie. The two of them were reassuring Applejack that she wouldn't go and turn into some axe wielding maniac and that she was the most dependable person that they've ever known.
After several long moments passed. Applejack finally spoke in a low volume that started off in a whisper before her voice grew in determination. “My whole family nearly died... but if it wasn't for some stranger... No, if it wasn't for some stallion. Then I wouldn't be here right now. I was knocked out so I couldn't see anything then, but I was told of what happened afterwards. Came through the orchard and slaughtered the pack of Timberwolves. All while wielding a large axe. He too roared in the same way you mentioned and scared the wolves. He even took out their leader that turned into a large one that was almost taller than our trees with his bare hands.”
Applejack then raised her head as she had this look that just screamed that she was not about to back down. Her eyes even flashed red for but a split second, but that was enough for Brex to catch on to as she began to talk while a small amount of moisture was beginning to form in her eyes. “I… want to protect my family. I want to protect my friends. No way am I going to allow another filly to feel the way I did on that day. The hopelessness of losing your loved ones. There's no way in Tartarus that I'm going to allow Apple Bloom to feel that way in her life!”
The farm mare stood up so that she was now looking down at Brex from a slightly elevated position as she pointed her right hand's thumb towards her own chest and also making the next proclamation. “I'm Applejack! The eldest daughter to the Apple family here in Ponyville! I admit that I don't quite understand all of it. But I'll wrestle this Inner Beast you've been talkin’ about to the ground and make it listen to what I have to say! So yes, I'm plenty sure on wantin’ to keep going as a Marauder!”
Over with Brex. He started to think the following in his head as he had this small smirk on his lips from behind his mask. “Hay there! Say Applejack, I think you already got a small hold of it right now.” He then snickered within his mind as he continued. “Now I wonder about something.” That was when he brought up his character window and opened the section that housed all of his soul stones. He instantly saw that one of them was beginning to pulse. Which turned out to be the Warrior Soul Stone as it was clearly reacting to Applejack's words.
He then said out loud as he was bringing himself up onto his own legs and also slowly dusting the grass off of his backside. “That's all I needed to hear. Now you two go ahead and get to work on those training. I’ll get Applejack set up for her first training session.” The blue Pegasus flew up next to him while her arms and legs were dangling in disappointment before she spoke up. “Aw! You can't leave us hanging! Applejack got a cool story about her class, why not mine?!” Pinkie chimed in right next to Rainbow as she was on the other side of Brex and giving him the puppy dog stair. “Please-oh-please-oh-please-oh-please, me too!”
Brex started to shake his head as he raised both of his hands and placed them on top of the two mare’s heads in order to lightly pet them both. They were caught unawares of this before it was too late. Rainbow lazily went into a trance as her flapping wings lowered her onto the ground. Pinkie was even starting to fidget with her right hoof as it was quickly tapping on the ground in the same fashion that a dog's leg would kick when being scratched in that one really good spot.
What they both had in common, turned out to be the way that their tongues were slightly hanging off the sides of their mouths, along with a distant look in their eyes. Even their tails were lightly swishing on the floor after a couple of seconds. There was also this twin set of sounds coming from their open mouths that was a mix between a small moan in a winnie that was in time with the motion of his hands.
Gilda, who was sitting a short ways away on her chair, had to stop and lower her snack as she used her other hand to run down her face at the sight of Rainbow being completely enthralled by Brex. Once her hand had passed her own beak, did she say the following while pointing right at the blue currently zombified Pegasus.
“I warned you about that Rainbow. You're not supposed to lower your guard when that happens.” When it came to Applejack who was watching the exchange. All she could do was to look between her friends and then back up at Brex before slowly taking a step back. The farm mayor was even taking light steps as she did not want to give off any indication of her movement as she said the following words.
“Okay fella… I'm not sure what you're doin’ to my friends, but just keep those mitts to yourself, okay? There's no way that I'm going to let myself be seen looking like the pair of them.” Brex nodded to that and released the two from his weird hypnotic ability. Although Pinkie while still in her somewhat dazed state, still retained the ability to reach up and grab onto his hand before all the pressure was let up to try and keep it there.
Ultimately, his hand was finally wrenched free as the mare gave out a few whimpers that the experience came to an end. It took several moments before the two of them started to shake their heads and come back to their senses. In Rainbow’s case. The Pegasus was unaware as to what happened and Pinkie was giving off a small pout as if someone took her favorite toy away.
The blue Pegasus had this look of panic after a few seconds went by as she trained her sights on everyone there before yelling out the next part towards Gilda. “Did! Did he just do what I think he did? Oh, come on! At least say I still looked cool!” This earned her a small chuckle from Applejack as she said, “I'm sorry sugar cube, but that wasn't cool in the slightest. But I think you were enjoying it. If you don't believe a word I'm saying, then take a gander at your shirt.”
Rainbow did just that and grabbed on to said shirt to pull it forward so that she could get a better look. Her face fell when she noticed a obvious wet spot that was already fully soaked into the fabric as Applejack continued along with adding another set of snickering. “I've never seen you drool that much even when it came to Apple Cider Season.” The athletic Pegasus immediately turned towards Brex and pointed at him before her finger went to one person and then the next as she yelled the next part angrily. “Nothing that is said and done here, leaves here! Got it?!”
Once everyone was settled down. Brex sent the two others to what they were supposed to do while he motioned with his hand for Applejack to follow him to the table. Once they got to standing next to it, Brex waved his hand over the surface and produced a level one, two-handed axe. He then said to her while motioning towards it with his left hand.
“This here is a class specific weapon. Also, it has a soul-bound effect. Meaning only a marauder can wield it. And once you pick it up, no others can use this one in particular apart from yourself. Once you do, you'll be registered as a Marauder when you go to the guild and have your identification plate reviewed. Furthermore, you'll be starting at level one.”
Applejack was eyeing the axe with Intrigue clearly in her eyes. But as soon as she was about to touch it during his little talk. Her hands jerked away as she looked at him with confusion now becoming dominant in her features as she asked her question. “Now whoa right there! Just wait a cotton-pickin’ minute! You saying I'm going to lose all my points and go straight to square one?! That's not exactly what I signed up for mister!” Brex calmly responded to that as he slightly leaned on to the table with his left arm so that he was facing her.
“Applejack. let me ask you something. How strong would you say is the average person before the schools even started this whole thing?” This earned him a small shrug to show that she was not clear, so he continued. “The average adult Pony was around level fifteen. The stronger ones were perhaps around level twenty to twenty-five. And that was after them growing up after being in the guild for awhile. Now, you could surpass that before you even reach the age of nineteen if you were to be in constant fights. I know you won't believe it, but you can get back to your original level so quickly it would make your head spin if you allow me to help.”
Applejack was clearly trying to get a reading on him as she was scrunching her muzzle and looking squarely into his eyes for several long seconds. Eventually, she closed her own and released a heavy sigh of reluctance before she answered. “Fine... I can see you ain't pullin’ my tail.” She then drew her attention over to Gilda for a second before bringing it back to Brex as she went on. “She's a prime example of your method working. That was when she went ahead and picked up the axe and started to give it a few swings.
When she was getting comfortable with wielding it in both hands and doing a couple of motions, did Brex speak up. “Good I won't have to worry about you cutting your own tail off seeing as you're pretty familiar with it. Now we're going to take a couple minutes to go over the basics on your Aether control.” This got a confused sound from Applejack as she replied while slightly tilting her head when her arm was in the mid motion of swinging. “My Aether what now? Are we even speaking the same language?”
From behind his mask. Brex was giving Applejack a flat look before he muttered the next bit from under his breath. “This is going to take a little while.” He then spent the next half an hour going over the mechanics when using a Marauders inner flow of Aether to strengthen their body and to give bursts of energy to produce powerful weapon technique’s. Applejack was even brought over to a small boulder and instructed to use the very first Marauder weapon skill on it in order to see how much damage she could do.
At first, the farm mare had a hard time with grasping the very concept. Each swing with the axe would result in her stumbling or almost losing her grip. But near the end of the thirty-minute marker did she finally show some progress. It was subtle in the beginning with a few nicks here and there along the rock's surface. But this eventually evolved to her burying a solid inch into the rock on her final swing. Which elicited a set of claps from Brex as he congratulated her for successfully executing her first weapon skill properly.
This pulled a bashful look from the mare as she tried to hide her face with her hat for a couple of seconds. Once she recovered and the pair walked over to see how the other mare’s were doing. Did they finally get to what they were waiting for. This turning out to be an outing into the Everfree Forest to do some real combat training with the creatures within. However, they had to pause for a few minutes as Brex needed Applejack for something before they were to head out. But what he asked for. Got a loud scream from the mare as she yelled out the following words and started a go-between with herself and Brex.
“You want me to do what?!”
“We're going into my house and you'll be escorted by one of my maids to a spare room. While inside, you're going to remove your clothing and hand it to her. From there she will give it to me and I'll use it to change the gear you need to look exactly like it.”
“Wait-wait! I… Okay… One more time! You want to do what with my clothing?!”
“I have specialized gear that will boost your overall effectiveness and increase how much you grow in level. I want you to wear it from now on whenever you go training or on a quest to raise your level faster. Unfortunately, it's not really your style so I'm going to use a special magic that will alter it into another form. And in order to do that, I'll need a piece of clothing to change it into. That's unless you want to wear something flashy like Gilda did back at the Gala all the time.”
“I don't think I feel comfortable being naked in another stallion's house...”
“You won't be completely naked. My maid will assist you and give you a blanket. I won't even require your underwear for this. I just need your leg coverings, pants, shirts gloves and hat.” This Was Then followed with him showing a projection in his hand of Applejack in her usual clothing before it shifted into what Gilda wore when they got to see each other again in Canterlot.
“Nope! No way am I wearing that every day. Fine! Let's go! But you better not be peeking or you're ganna lose an eye!”
It all went smoothly once inside and Rin handed Brex the required articles of clothing. They were then brought to another room with the door closed and he went straight to work with glamouring the items. Originally, Brex planned on having all of the girls wearing variations of the same type of clothing and glamoured into their desired outfits. But for the moment, he decided to focus on Applejack so that she could catch up to the rest.
But back at the room that Applejack was inside of while this was going on. The farmer was standing rather awkwardly as she tried to keep herself completely covered from the neck down as Rin stood silently near the door and facing towards herself. Things were feeling a little awkward with the silence after a bit, so the farmer attempted to make some conversation with the Unicorn for the first time since seeing them on the train.
“Um. This is a mighty big place y'all got here. I could just imagine that there's a few more of you that I haven't seen yet keeping everything clean.”
“Aside from the Lord and the Mistress, it is only I and my sister who service them.”
“Oh, I uh see. Sooooo~ you want to fill me in on how you both ended up with Gambit and Rory?”
“I don't see why not. Long story short, the Lord saved my family when we were in big trouble. We are all truly indebted to him and my sister and myself have been dutifully serving under his command ever since.”
“Seems what the princess’s said was not some tall tale.”
Unbeknownst to Applejack. The Changeling in disguise had this glimmer in her eye as she bared her teeth for just a moment. Said teeth were clearly fanged to indicate that her disguise was partly lifted before returning to a normal expression as she replied. “The princesses have been talking about my Lord? Might I ask what they were saying?”
“Oh I um. They seem to think he's a decent fella.”
“I can tell that there's more, but I won't force you to say what it is.”
And with that, the silence return as Applejack started to turn on the spot so that she could look for anything that could possibly distract her until her clothes were finally returned. Luckily enough, it did not take much longer until there was another knock at the door and her clothes were promptly placed onto a nearby table within the room along with an identical set.
It even had the same scuff marks and small worn-out patches that made it almost impossible to tell them apart. The only real way to tell which was the set that she wore coming out from her house, was the one that did not have some small letters that were stitched into either the inner lining of the hat or somewhere else on the rest of the clothing. These turned out to be her own name.
Seeing that there was no harm. Applejack immediately put the new set of clothing on and found at once one article was added, that she could feel a small sensation that seemed almost pleasurable. She felt stronger. Almost light on her hoof as if she had lost several pounds in the blink of an eye. There was even a small exhilaration and an extra burst of energy that she easily compared to how she felt upon getting a short rest in the middle of a work day at the farm.
Above all else. Applejack had an easier time and sensing the flow of energy in her own body when compared to earlier in the yard. She was just about to pick up the rest of her clothing to put away so that she could grab it later and take home but was stopped when Rin presented a small box that was about six inches in diameter and began to open the lid as it was connected towards the back. Inside was a set of earrings and a single ring that had a large blue stone fixed in place. Along with that, was a brass-colored ring, a necklace of the same material and wristbands.
Upon seeing them, the farm there began to blush as she was fidgeting on the spot. This was followed up with her immediately looking up at Rin and starting to stutter with her words. “If I didn't know any better, then I'd be thinkin’ that Gambit has a thing for me.” This caused Rin to giggle a little bit before she replied. “You have nothing to worry about. The earrings and ring right there have the same boosting capabilities as your attire. The rest have enchantments to further increase your overall stats that pertain to your class.”
Applejack began to sweat a little bit as she gave this wincing smile when the next words escaped her lips. “Y-You say this is all… Enchanted, right? I can't except this. It's just too much. All of this must have cost a fortune.” The Box itself was carefully pushed into Applejack's hands as Rin started to talk again. “Not at all. Everything there and including your clothing was made by my Lord's hands personally just last night. Hmm. I do also recall him saying that these were of the superior grade. Must have wanted them to last longer before needing to be switched out for a better set.”
“Aside from the basic materials. It was all fairly cheap when compared to his high-end works. These just happened to be what you're able to use at your current level, that's all. I'd say with the whole set, I think your stats have more than doubled all around. Who knows, you might even be as strong, if not stronger than you were before coming here today.”
“Oh, but my Lord did say to remind you of a simple fact about your gear. It has to do with the overall defense that it offers. In exchange for increasing your rate of growth in leveling up, it won't be as tough as what you would normally be wearing. Not only that, but the unique enchantment will only be effective until you reach level thirty.”
Rin took a moment to allow Applejack to slowly put on the rest of the items before motioning to the door with her right hand as she spoke again. “I believe the others are currently waiting for you outside.” Applejack quickly gave her thanks to Rin and headed outside. However, as soon as she had gotten close enough to the rest. Did she start to get some odd looks from the other girls. First, it was the earrings and necklace, but as soon as their eyes trailed down and locked onto the large azure stone sitting on the ring for her left hand. Rainbow’s eyes shot open before turning into a harsh glare.
Said glare was aimed at Applejack for a few seconds before turning it onto Brex. The Pegasus took flight and was squarely in his face as she angrily spoke the next words while pointing in Applejack's general direction which was now behind her. “We're technically dating and you're already giving Applejack jewelry when I've gotten nothing?!” This cause Brex to give a small grunt of annoyance as he lazily pointed towards the farm mare and said the following in a flat tone just loud enough for them all to hear.
“All of you will be getting similar items. The only reason she's got hers now is because she needs to do some catch up work so you're not all spread out. What she's got on is the same equipment Gilda used until just recently.” Pinkie was the next to pop up in her usual excited tone. “Oh phooey! And here I thought you made Applejack your special some-pony. I had a party plan and everything in my head. Well, I guess I always have a party plan in my head, but this was going to be an extra special party plan.”
Applejack was looking a little more embarrassed about the misunderstanding and was eyeing the stone on her finger. After seeing the problem. Brex held out his hand after getting around the still hovering Rainbow. He then said, “I don't want this to be an issue so I'll do something about it right now. Take off both rings for a moment and hand them to me.” After giving a nod she did just that and slipped the regular brass one off first and then the other. Once they were both in his possession and sitting in one palm. They watched as he brought out a small item that resembled a prism and held it in the other hand.
Over the course of a few seconds the item began to give off a shimmering glow that pulsed a couple of times with many vibrant colors. Almost immediately, after the same occurred with the two rings. The light grew until it was almost blinding the objects from everyone’s view. Once the light faded, it revealed two identical brass Rings side by side and the weird prism from before was no longer visible in the free hand it was once in. The rings were returned right away and Applejack hesitantly placed them back onto her fingers and gave them a small flex.
Pinkie was already standing next to the farm mare and looking at the rings with a scrutinizing gaze for a couple of seconds before scratching the back of her right ear in confusion. She then said the following, while trying to do multiple tests to figure out which one was the large stone ring, which consisted of looking, poking, placing her ear up against it and even licking the items, much to Applejack's dismay now that her fingers were coated and drool. “How’d you make that ring look like the other one? Also, how do you tell it apart if you got something special mixed in with a bunch of the normal ones?”
Brex rolled his eyes as he lifted his right hand and pointed to his masks eye holes and replied. “I have really good eyesight. I could easily tell which one is which. Not only that, I can even say who made a crafted item.” Pinkie changed from being confused to that of excitement as she started to jump in place and pull out a number of items that were laying across both hands now that they were placed side-by-side. Among these. Were a couple of rock necklaces, an oddly shaped retainer that Brex assumed was for her pet alligator Gummy.
She then asked,” Ooooh! Try it out on these!” Brex pointed to the necklace and then to the retainer and said, “That was made by someone called Maud Pie. And the other is from Colgate the dentist here in Ponyville.” The pink party pony sucked in a loud gasp of air as she stepped back with a look of surprise. She then said the following while bouncing around Brex cheerfully with the nature of someone who had just guzzled down three Triple Espresso lattes in a single sitting.
“Oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh! He got that right; he got that right! Did you hear that?! He got it right! You don't even know my sister! And most just say the other one is from the town vet. I mean, almost everybody knows that I got a pet alligator and it's obvious it was made for him! Oh, wait! I got something else you can try!” And with that, she stopped right in front of Brex and bent over in the opposite direction so that her tail was pointed towards him. And in one fluid motion. She reached back and pulled on something that was just barely sticking out from her pants.
This turned out to be a section of her underpants and it was being stretched so far, that it caught Brex unawares to the point that he was inwardly flinching at how easily Pinkie was giving herself a wedgie. That was when she called out to him from over her shoulder in the same kid like fashion as always. “The brand logo got washed away and I've been wanting to get more of the same pair!” Applejack immediately slapped her hand over her head to pull down her hat over her eyes as she was clearly starting to blush from her friend’s antics.
As for Gilda, who was still at the chair from the very beginning. She clearly had her jaw dropped after seeing the blatant display coming from the pink party pony that she had an issue with before, but had recently started to get along with. Brex was just about to reprimand her for showing off her underwear to him. But was interrupted by his vision going dark once Rainbow zoomed around behind and started to cover his mask with her hands. The prismatic Pegasus then said the following in clear embarrassment by the sound of her voice. “Pinkie! Do you have any idea what you're doing?!”
The mare then straightened up after allowing her underpants to snap back loudly after letting go to give everyone a confused look. This of course changed after a couple of seconds after noticing how everybody else was looking at her and she started to have this "O" face. After looking extremely embarrassed herself, she replied with. “Oopsie! I kind of got a little too excited there! Hehe-hehe!” She even had one of the biggest smiles on her face as she was inching behind Applejack and firmly having both hands behind her back and covering the base of her tail.
While his face was still being covered, Brex calmly asked Rainbow to get off. Eventually, they all calmed down and went through the front gate and around so that they could go into the Everfree Forest. Today he was going to act as their fourth member and play the healing role. Once within, they did not have to go too far before they came across a set of carnivorous plants that ranged from Level three to level four. One was off on its own Brex told Applejack to take it out all by herself and ordered the rest to hold back to see what she could do.
The place that they were in gave just enough spacing between the trees for just her alone to move effectively against the target. This plant monster turned out to be a long, yet thin stock that would come out of the ground and have a large flower head at the top. The entire thing would move in the same way a snake would when standing upright.
Its only real attack was the ability to launch its pollen in a cone fashion in front of itself, while also shooting a couple of its seeds at high velocity. It was essentially the beginning level of the same type of flower that appeared in his dreams when he first encountered both Luna and Celestia at the same time in the Frozen Wasteland of his game world.
Applejack was a little hesitant in the beginning. However, she soon found out that she was more than a match for the monster. She was easily able to avoid not only the spray of pollen, but also the seed attacks that were trying to hit as she was approaching. Yet, one did make an impact on to her left shoulder, but the mare brushed it off as nothing and charged straight for the creature. She used a couple of swings that cause some damage and finished it off with her weapon skill at the end. The last hit ended up cutting it in the midsection as her axe came down diagonally.
The other's cheered for her success but they were unaware as to how much this did for the pony as Brex could easily see her level changing rapidly. When he mentioned that she was already level three off of that one fight alone. The others looked at him like he was crazy. But he paid it no mind and pushed them forward.
The next set of creatures they came across turned out to be an oversized wasp. It wasn't like the giant ones from the game, but it was almost half the height when compared to all three mare's. When he told them that this one was level twelve and that they would be working together to fight it. The group was full of confidence.
However, when he mentioned that he would not be taking part. He could easily see the fire quickly dim. At first, he didn't really understand it too well as to why. Then he realized that they were not all that accustomed to fighting something that was closer to their own rating. This was mostly due to them constantly going after the same targets so something like this was bound to cause them to be a little more fearful for their lives. He ran his hand down his face before he said that he would be helping only if they needed it when it came to healing. So, they did not have to worry so much if they should make a mistake.
Although, he did warn them that the bee monsters typically have this special skill that does a lot of damage when they get themselves steady in the air in order to launch their stinger. This resulted in him explaining how it was possible to tell when this was happening. Once they were properly instructed, did the three come out from behind the trees and attacked the bee monster.
It took some work which lasted a good five minutes, but they did defeat it in the end. He had expected it to go down a lot faster with three of them going at it but this was a life-or-death fight. There was also the possibility of friendly fire accidentally being used and they were strongly against having that happen again.
This went on for nearly an hour before they all started to head back to Brex's place. By then, all but him were almost exhausted to where even Rainbow could not fly anymore and Applejack was dragging her axe on the ground and behind herself. Pinkie was for once, seemed to be like any normal Pony with how she was not doing any jumping around anymore and wasting energy. Apparently, she had used up all her snacks and in her own words, she was beginning to get slow. On his part he only stepped in a few times during a fight and gave out some heals here and there after a skirmish to get all the girls back up to their tip top fighting condition.
The group were getting near the edge of the forest when he glanced over their status bars to check on what progress was done. Applejack was already up to level eleven. Whereas Rainbow and Pinkie were now at level fourteen and twelve. For a start, Brex thought they were pretty well off. But he knew very well that this was only going to get harder if they stuck to what they were doing today when it came to them being ready.
His main thoughts were the following as they were finally stepping out of the gloomy forest and into the open lands right next to where he now lived. “First, I need to get them all working together. Then I'll have to figure out a place for them to train properly as to get the most of their time. Not to mention we're wasting too much daylight with going in and out of the deeper sections. Guess my top priority should be getting them all to level fifteen as quickly as possible.
Another hour passed since then and Applejack, Rainbow and Pinkie had already gone home after getting a short snack break once everyone was safely out of the woods and back on his property. Brex had taken a moment to take a seat at the outside table and glance towards the general direction of Ponyville that could just barely be seen from the top of his stone-lined fence. His eyes closed slowly and he began to feel a presence nearby and it was coming in his way. A gentle smile creeped onto his lips from underneath his mask as he already knew the sensation of who this could possibly be and remained seated in silence.
Eventually, the sound of grass being stepped upon could be heard from behind and the light pressure of someone's body was now firmly against his back. Upon opening his eyes did he catch the sight of Rory who was just barely peeking her face into view on his right-hand side and laying onto his shoulder. Her arms were wrapped around as to give him a gentle hug as she spoke in a relaxed tone right beside his hood. “How was it to be a teacher again? Don't tell me you were just as harsh on them as you were on the Changelings when you took them out into the woods? I believe a few were in need of some counseling from the others afterwards.”
Brex reached up with his right hand to lightly press it onto one of Rory's before he replied in a tone that was both tired, yet at the same time, fulfilled in a strange way. “Rainbow wasn't that much of a hot head as I thought. Although, she tends to get two into what she's doing and leaves herself wide open to attacks on her right flank too often. I'll need to work on her perception of the battlefield or that's going to come back to bite her hard.” His head leaned back a little as he paused for a moment before continuing.
“Pinkie was being… Uh, Pinkie of course. I don’t think anyone can do anything about that. Although, she didn't drive me crazy. Still, it's scary to think that she caused that explosion with only firing one arrow. If she could stop being random for more than five seconds, then I bet even I'd have a hard time avoiding her shots even if I was to be at my best condition and maxing out my level. But I'm glad that she's always watching out for her friends. If it wasn't for her cover fire, then the others would have been getting more injuries from their blind spots.”
“Now, Applejack is really surprising me. I had a good idea that she was stubborn to a fault, but she's really taking to being a Marauder as if she's been bred for it for her entire life. She even exhibited signs of her Inner Beast slowly coming near the surface even if it was for just an instant. Perhaps I've been judging them too harshly on what I've been reading in my past life...” Rory began to lightly brush her face against the side of his hood while giving out a few soft hums of agreement on her end.
She then released her hands grip and walked around so that she was now sitting across his lap and leaning into his chest. Once she was settled in, she closed her eyes and started to talk again. “Hmm, think your preconceptions maybe coming into question if you're talking in such a way. What happened to my Master who was obsessed with how these characters are normally portrayed?” Brex chuckled again as he leaned down depressed the bottom of his mask with a minimal amount of pressure onto Rory's head as he replied. “Who knows... could be that I have had some time to properly process everything.”
Rory hesitated for a moment before she pulled away to look into his mask. She then raised an eyebrow as she said the next bit in one of those skeptical tones. “I guess when you-know-who comes along on the weekend is not going to be too much of an issue for you?” Brex tilted his head to this before he replied in a confused way. “I think I can handle all six of them coming over if that's what you mean?” The girl immediately shook her head as she said, “No that's not it. You can't have possibly forgotten that the princess is going to be here for a visit... Have you?”
Brex was slightly opening his mouth as he was going to say something to that. However, his words died in his throat as his eyes went wide. The only thing that came out turned out to be a tiny squeak of fright that just barely register to Rory by the way her ears flicked. The girl released an exhausted sigh as she got up and started to lean in to give Brex a peck on the edge of his mask before she spoke up again in a sweet tone that was behind a smile.
“I thought as much. Just happened to get two focused on your students to remember that little fact. Don't worry. I'll be with you for every step of the way.” And with that. Rory slipped herself off from his lap and strolled out of his line of sight and right back into the house.
Back over to Brex. He was motionless in the same way as a statue. This was made only more apparent as a single bird flew by and perched itself on top of his head. He then thought to himself in a zombie type of inner voice. “If I'm lucky… there might be another emergency that can get me out of the house before she arrives... Uh… What are the odds that another Primal will just pop out of the blue?” There was a small pause before he added, “Hay… This would be a perfect time for Murphy’s Law to kick in!”
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Canterlot castle, Princess Celestia's bedchamber*
In the well-lit room sat Luna on the edge of Celestia's bed with her elbows resting on her knees. While also hunching over with this unamused look on her face at something directly ahead. A piece of fabric literally came flying with a golden hue of magic that was just barely visible before slapping the lunar princess straight in the face so that her horn was poking out through one of the holes for one to slip an arm through. With a subtle grunt of annoyance, Luna pulled it off and tossed it over her shoulder in a practiced motion.
The piece of fabric could be seen as it landed onto a large pile comprised of the same articles of varying size and color. The entire mound was big enough to fill the entire bed of a pickup truck by this point and there was barely any room on the bed itself for Luna to lay upon. So now, she was now stuck in the small section where she was currently sitting. She then angrily began to talk through her teeth as her right eye was beginning to twitch. “Tia... I oh so love you, but please, oh please! For our mother's name, make up your mind already! We have other duties that require our attention! Surely this can be put on hold for more important matters?”
On the other side of the room was Princess Celestia. The mare was wearing what appear to be a silken nightgown with a purple hint to it that just barely concealed her naked form underneath. All around were open drawers and other pieces of clothing hanging off of the edges as they were roughly pulled aside while others were clearly tossed earlier. Even the walk-in closet itself was a living nightmare for the cleaning staff with how it was completely disheveled and unorganized. Celestia clearly had this glimmer in her eye that showed that she was beginning to give off an air of panic, while whirling on the spot to look at her younger sister to reply.
“I'm going to his house Lulu! This is my chance. What you wear can easily start a war. The right outfit needs to be chosen! No... no... This won't work. I can't wear that! I could probably wear this one, oh never mind! This one's far too early to wear! This won't work either, it's too conservative! Luna!I need your help! Please!” Luna gave herself a powerful facepalm that echoed in the room. But thankfully enough, the pair thought it was a good idea to put up another one of those sound dampening spells ahead of time so that the guards would not come storming in and assume that they were under attack. She then said, “Tia, you got four more days before the seven are up.”
This caused Celestia to whirl around so that she was facing Luna again. Her legs were slightly parted as her arms were outstretched and bracing themselves on to her dresser for support after leaning back. Just as it was for Luna, she too was beginning to have her right eye do a subtle twitch to what her sister said. She then screamed the following as she ruffled through some of the clothing that was on the ground nearby. “Only four days?! These won't do, I've worn all of them before! Maybe I can get a new dress made?! Oh, but I have no idea what kind of style he prefers! What to do, what to do!”
As Celestia was now going on a small rant while lost in her own world. Luna leaned back far enough that she was now laying on the stack of clothing. She even used her left arm and draped it over her eyes as she was saying the following under her breath. “I don't know how much longer the dampening spells going to work on you... perhaps I shall accompany in case the situation should turn in a bad course. At the very least, I can try to distract you.”
She raised her arm to lazily glance over to her older sister one more time. Only now, Celestia had pulled off her nightgown and was standing in front of her full-length mirror for a pathetic attempt at a provocative pose. She was placing one hand onto her right hip, as the other one was up and behind her neck.
What the eldest sister said next, cause Luna to plop her head back even harder and to give off a groan of annoyance as the pile fell on top of her entire body and continued to the floor. “I could always go in the nude! Perhaps that will convey how I feel?” At that exact moment over at Brex's mansion. The Roegadyn who was sitting in a stone like state, instantly began to shiver in a way that visibly caused his body to ripple from the ground going up to the top of his hood. He then said the next line as his teeth were loudly chattering. “W-Why… In the seven hells… do I feel cold right now? I’m definitely not supposed to feel cold!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 74: Great… Field Trip Chaperones.
*Point of view: Brex* *Location: Ponyville, the home of Brex* *Time: Four days later. Eleven in the morning*
For Brex, the last handful of days came and went with a mix of it being fast paced, while others were at a snail’s pace. The training session with the melee part of the group went well. Even the Ponyville guard that was present before was there to keep an eye on things. Whereas the magic portion a few days later was mostly done indoors and in the front yard. When it came to the Everfree Forest, Brex only took Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy in a short distance compared to the first group and stayed nowhere near as long.
As expected, Twilight had the basic theorems down when it came to the use of the Thaumaturges. The only real problem was that she clearly did not have enough personal experience to not overdraw on her ether supply when casting her fire spells. This was due to how she would not alternate with the use of ice spells so that her reserves could fill during combat. For the class Twilight chose. One had the ability to use fire, ice and lightning for their attack spells.
If one was to think about it in a broad term. Then fire would be seen as the primary offensive spell with the most destructive power. As the Thaumaturge get stronger. The element being used in succession would gain more strength, but it would also require a larger amount of Aether to activate the spell. Now when it came to the ice. It was the same yet at the same time different. Yes, each continuous use of the ice-based spell would increase its overall output and cost by a small amount. Except, it had the ability to bolster one’s Aether regeneration to were a couple of them would be enough to completely restore Twilight’s reserves. Albeit at the cost of not being nowhere near as powerful as a fire spell.
The lightning however was more of a short-term damaging effect that would be applied to a target. Also commonly referred to as a D O T. Or damage over time. It would not be powerful enough to take down who she was fighting on its own at the start. But over time, it would do a considerable amount while she was busy with using some other spells. Now if only she could get over the whole bit where she gets flustered and confused while in the middle of an actual fight that did not give her plenty of time to think of what to do.
As for Rarity. Her control and finesse were a great asset when utilizing the Red Mage class. It even helped that her attention to detail aided in balancing her white and black energy which was a byproduct of the red Mages spells being used. With this class one had to alternate between two realms of magic in order to stay effective. For example, if someone was to cast too many that would draw for either white or black, then everything would be for a loss of better words, out of whack. Spells would take longer to cast and their overall power would diminish.
Her use of the blade itself that would have a focal device attached at the end of the handle was remarkably precise to where Brex wondered if she would have been better off with a melee class. At least when it came to fighting the training dummies in the yard. The Red Mage in particular was one that he himself found challenging to master in the beginning with how it alternated from both magic and close-range combat. The only real issue was how she was very insistent on not getting dirty so it was a hindrance when it came to actually being in a fight. This was especially so when they were in the Everfree forest and she would completely panic and lose all control at the worst of times.
The third member was one that he needed to take a delicate hand in teaching thanks to her docile nature. Being out of the healing class, Fluttershy took on the roll quite easily. Yes, it was true that their main priority was to keep everyone else alive. But there would be certain situations where she could use some offensive spells whenever her services for that roll were not currently needed. Brex did not even find out until halfway through their session that Fluttershy divulged to never using an offensive spell on anything alive.
In fact, the only objects that felt any Wrath from the yellow mare was nothing other than training dummies. And even then, she just could not bring herself to do any significant damage other than a few scratches here and there. She would even go so far as to profusely apologize and run over afterwards to see if she can fix the training tool in some way or another. What he did find intriguing was how her summoned familiar known as a carbuncle, was a distinctly different color than those of others. Typically, they would always come out as a bluish shade and adorned with a red gem on the forehead.
Sure, this one did have the gem as expected but it was green and color. Normally one can only change the way their carbuncle appeared after reaching level thirty and completing a specialized Quest that would give the player the ability to personalize them into certain forms. Now if that wasn't the end of it, then it had to be when the carbuncle would react without being given orders all the time. Brex remembered quite vividly to the time that they were in the Everfree forest and surrounded by the group of insectoid creatures.
Sure, Fluttershy did attempt to cast some offensive spells, but they had hardly any strength behind them. Whereas the carbuncle was tearing its way through them without being issued an order after order. To him it was as if it was working completely independently and Fluttershy's safety was its paramount duty to perform. There were even times that he saw how the carbuncle would look in his direction and not break its eye contact with his form for extended periods of time before cuddling up to Fluttershy.
As for the particulars for Fluttershy's class. The Conjurer was different when it came to the use of magic when compared to Twilight and Rarity requiring their spell focus items to draw the ambient ether to assist in their spells. As the others needed to concentrate in order for their spells to take effect more often. The grimoire afforded to Fluttershy acted as a perfect spell matrix so that all she needed to do was to supply them the Aether required for the spell to work. In fact, she did not have to worry about overloading as it would keep it all in check due to the runes inscribed within. In a sense it was the most energy efficient of the three.
When Brex had them all in the Everfree Forest. He took on the role of the tank by switching over to his Paladin class. Although, he's still appeared to be wearing his robes and his weapons having the appearance of bronze. He was equipped with his level seventy gear that had been glamoured. Just as the previous few days earlier, Brex lowered his level so that he was the same as the others as to not throw their experience completely out of whack to the point that they would get nothing. In a way, they essentially kept a diamond formation with him as the vanguard and Fluttershy in the rear. Twilight and Rarity would take up the sides and behind Brex to be kept out of danger.
Although there were a few instances where he was nearly hit by friendly fire by Twilight, who had these momentary lapses in judgment when the situation suddenly changed due to one thing or another. The other problem was with Rarity because of all the times her spells would get interrupted whenever she realized she was just about to get herself dirty. There were even occasions where Brex thought that he had somehow not detected that there was a creature that was coming up from behind. This was whenever Fluttershy screamed in fright whenever they were on the move or even in mid battle. Most of which was just her getting spooked by one of the scarier aspects of the forest itself.
By the end, they all managed to gain a couple of levels thanks to their little outing. Even little Fluttershy eventually caught up closer to her friends thanks to the boosting gear that she was given before they headed out. Thankfully enough, this time he did not have to deal with some misunderstanding when she was asked to go inside so that the glamouring process could be done on her gear. Brex just chalk this up to them all being told about it ahead of time by Applejack and the others.
Although, there was a momentary interruption from Twilight as she was going into her so called full research mode and asking Fluttershy a multitude of questions regarding how she felt when putting on the items. Much to his dismay, a number of them were thrown in his direction as well. For him it was mostly consisted of what was the material made out of. Who taught him how to do the enchantments and so on. As far as Brex knew from personal experiences. Most gear that was circulated did not have stat boosting effects. And only those that had deep pockets could afford them with how costly they could get on the market.
So, it did not come off as too much of a surprise with the way Applejack reacted when he gave her all of those items. Normally the clothing, earrings and ring were exclusive Quest items or online store bought for the game. Which meant that he should normally not have had extras on hand to just hand out. But it was thanks to his magic scanning spells that he used in tandem that he was capable of learning how to make them himself after going over them a while back.
The clothing would be good until they were close to level thirty. This was also true for the blue ring itself. Whereas the earring would keep scaling and continue with the experience boost until one was to meet their max level of seventy. Twilight and Fluttershy requested that there's were to look more normal. Whereas Rarity was practically gushing with how well the blue ring and earrings matched her cutie mark so she opted to keep them as they were.
As for this very moment. Brex was holding a couple of fingers up to the side of his hood while also holding between them a link pearl and speaking into it. “All right, we'll meet you at the rendezvous point in twenty minutes. Just remember your parts and don't say anything unnecessary.” Afterwards, he brought the link Pearl back down and placed it back into his inventory before walking off to join the group of mare’s and Griffin who were waiting a short distance away.
At a glance they were all having in their possession their gear along with a small backpack of various colors to match the owner. Although, it seemed as though Rarity’s looked as if it could have held everything in her house which would have included the kitchen sink with how bulky it looked when compared to the rest. The reason for all of this was due to their class going on a trip into the Everfree forest and Brex informed all the girls that they should bring whatever they thought they needed for a couple of hours. If anything, there was even a chance that they might not even be back until shortly before sundown.
Right as he was getting close. Rory stepped next to him to look over the others before casually speaking. “So, Master. This is your plan huh?” Brex remained silent for a few seconds and this gave Rory the incentive to continue as she placed both hands behind her back to lazily lean forward so that she could look up to his mask from the right side.
“A catastrophic event didn't happen today so this is your backup plan to avoid the princess of the sun, isn't it? Just take everyone and go far away for an all-day training session. Even going so far as to call in the Yuna for pickup. One might even see all of this as your attempt to run but I'm sure you didn't mean for that… right?”
To all there, there was nothing wrong with Brex. But from behind his mask, the Roegadyn was sweating bullets while carefully glancing down to Rory and keeping his emotions in check. In all honesty this was exactly as Rory said. He wanted nothing more than to get out of there before Celestia arrived. Sure, he did have a copy of himself at the castle. However, there was no telling exactly when she would just decide to teleport over. As far as he knew, there was no preparation being put into effect for a carriage to transport her to Ponyville on the other end of his connection.
After all, the solar Princess was not supposed to have a real visit to Ponyville for a number of episodes for the meet and greet like in the show. This meant that there was the possibility of her using magic to travel straight to his place. He then released a small grunt of annoyance that came off a bit more of a growl before he replied. “And just who was it that invited her here anyway?” This got Rory to roll her eyes before adopting an innocent expression to that remark. She even went so far as to bump her tail into his leg in order to try and get him out of his grumpy state.
She then said, “I could possibly be placed in second place in this world when it comes to how much I don't like that mare. First place undeniably being my Master. But even I can see that she's not all that bad.” This earned her a tilt of the head from him before she hastily went on. “Yes yes, I still think about cutting off for horn and jamming it up her ass for what she did. But please Master. If not for yourself then at least do it for me. Getting hung up on her is not going to help you move on. I really believe that if you can get over this hurdle, then taking off your mask while in front of others is going to be so much easier.”
By then, her right hand was now holding on to his left and squeezing tightly as she continued in a worried tone. “I can tell that my Master has done a great job in opening up over the years. Even to where you'll give me permission to show myself to them when I feel comfortable. I just don't want to see you living in the shadows for too much longer. Sooner or later this mask needs to come off. And I don't mean the one out here. The one inside needs to be removed as well.” Rory had used her other hand and placed her palm onto his chest by this point before her gaze was squarely set onto the eye holes of his mask before she continued this time through the connection.
“You're always worried about the what ifs and coming up with one plan or another. You're out of your comfort zone whenever you have to fly by the seat of your pants. Not to mention how stiff you can get. I've seen that part of you that you rarely show the others when it comes to having fun. I may not always hear your thoughts, but I know that you feel as though you need to hold back. Now I promise I won't do something like this again, so please think about what I said. It's not as though I'm expecting you to start talking to her. Heck, you can either have me say what you want or use that handwriting spell again.”
Brex closed his eyes before taking in a steady intake of air to fill his lungs to capacity and released after holding it in for a few seconds in the same way. From behind is mask, Brex had a gentle expression before placing his hand on top of Rory's head to give a light pat as he replied through the connection.
“Heh-heh! Hard to believe that I’ve gone and met demigods and fought beings that have been summoned from other dimensions. Yet I can't even bring myself to follow one of the essential steps to getting past trauma such as confronting my fear when it comes to her... I could just see little Moon getting frustrated over my indecisions. OK fine… I’ll… Try. But I’m not making any real promises that I’ll get along with her. I wonder if this is what it’s like to have a personal guidance counselor on call twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week.”
Rory gave a confidence smirk as she released her grip and took a few steps backwards before replying. “Everyone should be so lucky to have their own Rory! Now I think we should probably get going. I could already see Rainbow and Gilda getting impatient with the way their wings are flicking from agitation.” Brex then said the next bit in a whimsical tone. “Yeah, even Gilda has her limits when it comes to Pinkie bouncing around the place with nothing to do.” Now that could not be truer, as the pink mare was in the middle of asking Gilda a couple of questions and the Griffin was now having a twitching left eye and a growing scowl as a result.
That was when Brex loudly clapped his hands together one time to get all of their attention. Once they were all looking, did he speak up while pointing over his right shoulder and towards the front gate. “Okay! Now listen up! Double check what you got and we'll head out in a couple of minutes. Our destination is deep in the Everfree forest. By ground, it will take us about two days to get there and that's taking into account the dense underbrush and a study pace that we all can manage. However, we only have to go a short distance so that we can meet up with our ride. This will cut down the travel time from days, to only between thirty minutes to an hour.”
Rarity was the first one to speak up as she had this worried expression when talk of going into the Everfree came up. “Pardon me darling… but is there any particular reason as to why we have to dredge our way through that awful forest? If there are other means of transport waiting for us then would it not be better to have it come here instead and pick us all up?” This got a couple of nods from a few of the others just before Rory stepped up to answer the mare’s question.
“That is because our ride has not been officially announced to the public and meeting in the forest would reduce the chance of rumors circulating any further than they already have.” Twilight scrunched up her face as she had this contemplating expression. This lasted for a good couple of seconds before she snapped back with a sudden gasp. “Tech Hex! I completely forgot about what was said at the Gala! Does this happen to have anything to do with the new airships that's been going around in gossip? I remember hearing a couple of the nobles talking about such a thing. T H I S will be introducing their new airship designs to the public very soon.”
Rory gave a nod to the purple Unicorn, along with a big smile and saying, “Right on the nose there! You're all going to be in on a real treat. We're going to be riding on the very prototype that just got its last adjustments made. It will be coming in from deeper in the forest so that it won't be seen by anyone in Ponyville. All we need to do is get far enough in and reach the designated clearing that it's going to land.”
Rory then pointed towards the forest with her right hands thumb before going on. “The plan is to use it on a more regular basis so that we can get to areas to optimize your leveling. My master has already documented where we should go within the forest depending on what we need to fight. Oops, I should have said, what YOU need to fight. Master and myself will only be playing the roles of tanking or healing if needed.
Gilda chimed in as she was shrugging her shoulders. “Another healer would have been covered. But Zecora said she was catching up on some potions she was meaning to brew up. The Zebra might be up for it next time. Oh well. If my Master's plan is to get the rest of you caught up, then Zecora’s got some time to spare before that happens.” Brex didn't want to admit it but he found the way Gilda said that he was her master to be a bit of a turn-on. Yet at the same time, he felt ashamed that he was having those types of feelings when he knew her from when she was younger and it made him wonder if it was alright with the whole being betrothed.
Rainbow was standing right next to the Griffin when this was done and she elbowed her as she said her next words and a joking tone. “Now that's going to take some getting used to hearing you say that. You never even called our instructors by teacher even once back in school. He's not making you say that, is he?” Gilda playfully shoved the blue Pegasus before adopting a small blush while turning away slightly before grumbling to herself. This went on for a few more minutes until everyone was all set to go and started to follow Brex and Rory towards the front gate. All the while, the two maids stayed behind and waved farewell from just outside of the front doors to his house.
Brex open the gate and everyone filed right outside. As soon as he had closed it and turned around to give any further instructions. The space between him and the others erupted in a near blinding white flash and a noticeable pop could be heard. Most of them, including Brex shielded their eyes as quickly as they could when this happened. Once they were sure that they were no longer going to get blinded and whatever caused it faded away. It was quickly revealed that the two co-rulers of Equestria stood right out in the open.
On the right was Celestia and she was wearing what may have been considered as civilian clothing but of a higher quality than most. Although, it still had that hint of a Roman theme going. Unlike the flowing dresses that would be worn in the castle. This one was cut just a couple of inches short from touching the ground. Most of it was white but there were a couple of other shades of pink and light blue that matched her mane. What's more was the lacking of golden regalia, which came off as weird to Brex as she was never seen without it in public. However, she was wearing a choker with the same color of gem that would normally be seen in her tiara.
Luna was dressed in a similar fashion but in her typical colors as per the norm. Aside from the color, the only thing that really stood out from seeing them both stand next to one another was the way Luna's chest had this modest cut to the top where it came down near her breasts to show just a little cleavage. But when compared to Celestia, one wondered if the twins set of orbs were ready to pop out at the slightest flex of her exposed shoulders.
Their dresses even that this thing where there was a patch open from where the hips went down along the sides and nearly halfway down to the knees so that their hips could be more pronounced. When it came to their faces. Brex could see how Luna had her makeup done no differently. Whereas Celestia was clearly wearing an extra shade of dark eye shadow than what she would normally be wearing at the castle.
It did not take more than a second or two before Twilight and the rest of her friends immediately started to bow so low, that Brex thought the Unicorns were about to bury half of their horns into the grass. The only ones that were still standing and not showing the same level of respect was Brex near the gate and both Gilda and Rory on the other side of the princesses with their arms crossed and containing a smoldering glare that was clearly focused on Celestia.
Brex however, was not in the right set of mind after getting a surprise teleportation at such a close proximity. From behind his mask, his eyes went wide as his pupils shrunk. He could literally feel the muscles in his legs twitch as he consciously fought the urge to get into a defensive stance. He could not even bring himself to breathe for a couple of seconds before hearing Luna's surprisingly gentle voice. “Please, there will be none of that this day. Rise, for we are not here on official business. Ah! And well met sir Gambit! I pray thou have been well.”
Luna's attempt to break the ice was having a positive effect on Brex as he was now beginning to breathe normally and his joints were no longer locked up from the tension. However, his chest was another matter. Not only was his heart beating a million miles an hour and delivering a large amount of adrenaline to course through his veins. But there was also this uncomfortable stabbing pain right at the center of where his ribs would meet together. If it was not for the shock at the beginning, then he would have flinched for all to see. But now it was beginning to slowly make itself known and was causing his right eye to wince at how uncomfortable it was becoming.
All the while his eyes never once left Celestia's face, which was staring straight at his own with an expression that he was having some trouble with describing. Clearly the princess of the sun had on her legendary princess mask. Yet, there was a few emotions that broke through the surface. These turned out to be shock, fear, relief, anxiousness and something else that he could not put a name to. This lasted for only a second before she calmed down enough and spoke in the same way as she turned her sights to see just who was around. Upon seeing her student, the Princess of the sun spoke with a tone of relief.
“Oh Twilight. Thank goodness we arrived before departing on your excursion. I do hope we are not an interruption.” Twilight quickly replied to that after getting back up. “What a surprise to see you here princess! I wish I’d known you would be coming to Ponyville! There were so many preparations that needs to be done for a royal visit! Oh no, was this a surprise test? Was I supposed to be ready?! Oh no oh no oh no where's my list?! Did I not quadruple check it this morning?!” Celestia giggle to this before she began to reassure Twilight that nothing was amiss.
All the while Brex was beginning to grit his teeth while shifting his surprise eyes to that of a venomous glare. He even began to talk to himself angrily from inside of his head. “Yes… you are interrupting! now can you please tell us why you're here so you can get back to that plushy Throne of yours and out of my sight! I'm beginning to wonder if putting a surveillance item inside of the princess's bed chambers would be a good idea to start doing... My body double didn't see them come out of their rooms so I had no way of knowing they were doing this. What is this… Gerr… Am I having heartburn?”
His eyes quickly glanced between Rory and Celestia a couple times to gauge everyone's current position before he continued. “If things go wrong here, then not only am I in danger, but so is she. Gerrr... fine, I'll play your game! I'll follow Rory's advice and try… And I mean really try the best I can to act as civil as possible. Maybe if I just let them know that we're leaving right now then they'll just go and try another day.” And with that, Brex walked over to Rory but made sure to take a circular route so that he did not come any closer to the solar princess than needed.
Everyone else there was giving the two rulers the usual song and dance of bowing and giving their respects before Brex interrupted them by clapping his hands loudly a few times. Twilight looked at him with a look of confusion and embarrassment that was also mirrored on a few of the others before he lifted one of his fingers into the air. It was soon followed by a noticeable glow that expanded into a two-dimensional word bubble. Soon some words appeared for everyone in front of him to read. “We were just leaving. perhaps the visit could wait for another day?”
There was this noticeable sigh of resignation through the connection with Rory as she quickly said, “I guess this is an improvement. Technically you're talking to her.” Everyone else was looking between Brex and Princess Celestia as if they were waiting for some big event to happen that would undoubtedly be written in the next history book.
Even Luna was peeking her head up and just over Celestia's right shoulder to see what was happening with some trepidation on her face. Clearly as to whether or not she should step in by how he saw it from the corner of his vision that was still tracing every movement of Celestia's facial features for the slightest sign of danger coming his way. During the next few seconds, he also began to feel that uncomfortable sensation in his chest growing as if someone was slowly inserting a needle into one of his bones.
What he got was a gentle smile that vaguely creeped him out to see from her to give to him. It Was Then followed with a small bow of the head which surprised everyone there aside from Luna as she spoke. “I never had the chance to thank you for the invitation. I suppose it may have slipped your mind that we were to visit this day. Luckily enough with a little work, our schedules have allowed us enough free time that we are not needed until the sun goes down. If anything, we could come back in a couple of hours when your business is done.”
Twilight was the next to speak up as she stepped a little closer to Brex. “Um, if the princess is here then I don't mind us postponing our field trip.” Brex immediately responded with writing. “I will not drop what I am doing for them. Our ride is already on the way. Also, we won't be back until nearly sunset. Please try another day.”
From here it started a go-between as Celestia and Gambit began an odd conversation which caused the rest to bounce their eyes to the one currently speaking or writing in the same way a group of Spectators would track a ball that was being hit back and forth across a tennis court net.
“I'm afraid my scheduling is not so easy to push around when it comes to leaving the castle for extended periods of time. One would never know when it would be possible to come back.”
“You must have more important matters to do then to enter the forest. More rules or at least then enforcement of them must take precedence over a hike into dangerous woods.”
“No need to worry. All other tasks have been caught up on in preparation for this day.”
“Then why not go to the spa now that you are here in Ponyville? Surely a sister's day out is much needed when paperwork is not in your way. From what I understand you both have conflicting schedules that keep you apart.”
“It does sound quite lovely. But my sister and I can easily make time for ourselves back at the castle.”
“But that's still at the castle. Going out must be a real treat for you.”
“Yes yes, you're right about that. But we have had our sights set on finally meeting you face-to-face ever since the Gala. Or should I say face-to-mask in this case. There was hardly any time for us to converse back at the Gala.”
“The Everfree forest is no place for princesses to be seen in. Odds are your dresses would get dirty and it would not help with your… standing. After all… you live in another world compared to the rest of us.”
“Everyone gets dirty from time to time and a simple cleaning spell will take care of it all.”
“This is a training trip so you will not be getting my full attention. Hence this would be a waste of a visit. Perhaps making the best of your free time would on the forefront of your concerns.”
“Oh, I am quite fine with observing how my student and her friends are faring. By joining I can make a fair assessment on whether or not to recommend an escort for when you all go into the forest in the future. And it is just as you say, it is quite dangerous. Some extra precaution is not uncommon.”
His right eye was now starting to twitch with growing agitation as he wrote the next bit. “They are all in good hands. I would rather so much as lose my right arm before anything bad happens to them.” Brex knew that this was a low blow, but he just couldn't help but let that slip out. Especially with how he was beginning to get distracted from the pain. Of course, he was dead serious that he was willing to let that happen if it meant protecting them in some way. But he really wanted Celestia to back down even if it meant him playing the role of the insensitive jerk. This of course got a small wince from Celestia before she continued with her reply.
“Oh... I... I see what you mean. Your commitment is quite admirable. If only more stallions were as self-assured as you, then Equestria would no doubt be a better place. But please, I assure you I will not get in the way unless I am needed of course. I merely want to exchange some words when possible, that is all.”
There was a long pause before Brex wrote the following. “Very well. We wouldn't want our mutual students to be distracted if I were to send you away right now. However, at the first sign that I feel that you are not to stay, then you are to leave, is that understood?” Of course, what he said about Twilight was absolutely true. As he knew that the future princess of friendship was going to be too distracted to make any real progress if he did not allow her teacher to join. He then thought the following to himself in a firm tone as his eyes sharpened from behind his mask. “You win this time. But only because of Twilight and the rest. Wouldn't be too wise to create a rift.”
Of course, this was not going to make anything easier on him, as Brex knew that he was required to lower his level so that it would not negate the experience the others would get if he was to be a part of everything. So, from that very moment he brought up his menu options and stuck it to the edge of his vision so that he was able to switch his level up to maximum at a moment's notice if Celestia and Luna were to try something.
There was no way in hell that he was going to be caught in the same situation as back when he was fighting that Imp in the carnival tent. But this time he had the backup of Rory who could easily give him enough time to react as she would be keeping a close eye on both of the princesses as much as himself. Now if he could only do something about his chest then this whole situation could be more bearable as his irritation was slowly building overtime.
Rather reluctantly at first, Brex turned his back and began to walk along the outer wall and towards the Everfree forest. But as he did this, the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand on their own as every fiber of his being was screaming that he did the worst possible thing in the world by exposing his back towards the Princess of the sun. It also did not help that there was this stabbing sensation that was only getting worse in his chest. If anything, there was no way that he was going to show weakness with her around.
Among everybody making their own conversations, which included Celestia and Twilight who were getting caught up with one another. Luna's voice could be heard in a joyous tone as she half-heartedly yelled. “Huzzah! For too long have we not had an adventure through the woods such as our younger years! Perhaps we will encounter a Hydra to test our metal!” Just hearing Luna saying that caused Brex to calm down a bit more. This was most likely due to how the two of them already got to develop a bond through the dream realm. In fact, if Luna was not standing beside her older sister, then he might have gone so far as to pull out a weapon when they first popped up.
While in the woods. He would take point and lead them through and onto the path that was previously picked out. Rory however was taking up the rear so that she could not only keep an eye out for any dangerous animals, but to keep a close eye on the rest of the group so that she could send any type of warning to Brex upon his suggestion. As soon as they had gotten near the end and about to enter the clearing that could be seen up ahead. Gilda broke away from Rainbow and caught up to him so that she was walking along on his left side.
From the corner of his vision, he can see how she was glancing from where she was walking, and back to the princesses ever so often as she spoke to him in a whisper. “Hey, how are you holding up there big guy? I haven't seen you this tense or closed off since back when I was just a chick.” Before he responded, Brex used one of his spells to detect for any magic being used in his vicinity in case the princesses were using a spell of their own to amplify sound. Once there were no clear signs of them eavesdropping, he replied in his own whisper to Gilda to start their own back and forth.
“I'll… be fine.”
“You are not fooling me with that.”
“It's nothing… Really.”
“Like Tartarus it's nothing. The one who killed you is suddenly in our group as if nothing ever happened and we're just going on a picnic. And I've studied you for a while now and I know that you were ready to pull out a weapon on her. You're never this jumpy. Remember my race are hunters. We can practically sense fear. And you mister are just exploding with it.”
“It will pass.”
“Now look here, you haven't started talking like that in years with me. Clearly, you're not fine if that's going on. If it makes you feel any better than I don't like her being here either. I also reached for my spear when I found out it was her standing there after that flash. From what you said, or at least wrote to her. I'm guessing you wanted to get out of Ponyville before she arrived. Let me in on the plans next time. I could have helped with pushing everybody into the forest quicker.”
“I'll handle it.”
“That’s enough of that. I know how tough you are, there's no denying that. But I'd rather be there for my future husband if he's in any trouble. If I didn't, then what kind of a fiancé would I be if I was going to stand back and watch you in this condition and not say or do anything.”
“Since when did you start getting all mushy?”
“I Uh, Um. Hey! I'm not getting mushy! I got a reputation to maintain and I can't have you falling apart and ruining it, that's all. Don't go looking into it too much.” This was followed with Gilda giving a small grunt as she sharply turned her face away.
The group, along with the two extra guests waited in the clearing for a few minutes and witnessed the Yuna coming in from the west at a low altitude where it was just barely skimming the top of the trees. From where he stood, Brex could already tell that there were a few additional changes to the outer design to streamline the efficiency. The panels that separated the sections were almost seamless from where he was on the ground and wondered if it was due to some engineering changes or magically induced. The exterior cannons that were standing out and could have been confused for intake vents were also changed so that they too meshed with the aesthetics.
Right as it got overhead, everyone's clothing and hair were lightly blown by a small continuous gust of wind that was being pushed down. When the entire ship was lowered till it was only a couple of meters off the ground, did one of the side hatches open and lower the boarding ramp that extended thanks to a set of hydraulics built into not only the door frame but the extendable half it created to the ground in a matter of seconds. Normally, this would have been impossible where the ship itself would have been securely docked for this to be used. But the scientists back at HQ got the propulsion system to be exact in holding the ship in place while still in the air to use this boarding mechanism.
The group of Brex, Rory and Gilda looked on with small smiles on their lips. Whereas the others could only stand there with jaws wide open while marveling at the site of the floating ship that was clearly meant for royalty to ride in if one was to go off the decorations on the hull alone. Brex could hear Twilight barely coming out of her stupor as she was saying something to Celestia from under her breath. “P-Princess, w-we don't have any ships that even come close to this one... let alone the design, but the propulsion system as well, I can't recognize a single part. Could this be what those rumors were about?”
From the corner of his eye, he could tell that Princess Celestia was putting on an act to mirror the others in their shock. This was because they probably got plenty of descriptions from their spy that tagged along to Zebrabwe. As for the others, they were left speechless for a couple of seconds before they notice Brex leading the way onto the ramp and everyone got into a simple line and followed him up. Among all of the murmuring, Rainbow was zooming around the ship a couple of times before she went inside and said how awesome it all looked. Unsurprisingly, she even posed the question as to how fast it could go and boasted that she could outfly it if it was to come down to a race.
Once on board and the hatch was closed once again. Rory took the initiative and began to talk to a few of the crew members that were waiting at the hatch for further instructions. Everyone else was completely enamored by the exterior, that Brex was sure that they hardly noticed the way that both of the princesses seemed familiar with the layout in some way or another. In fact, the only parts that drew their eyes were the subtle changes that were made after coming back to Equestria that he himself caught on to.
The hallway itself felt a couple of inches wider, along with some of the control panels being moved over to one place or another. Some were even completely redesigned with their outlook. He then thought to himself without taking his eyes off of the uninvited guests. “Wow! They sure work fast over at HQ to have done this much retrofitting over the course of a couple of days. I guess that's what you get when you have a hive-mind and could literally think of thousands of ideas and run them by one another in real time. What would take a team of humans to discuss and figure out in a month they could probably take care of in a matter of a few hours.
He then opened up the connection so that he could talk directly to Rory to let her know that he was going up onto the observation deck and requested that she should show the others around so that they could get situated for the ride. Once that was done, he excused himself and slipped away by going down one of the corridors and up a set of stairs. When he was at the top, he glanced down to see if anyone was following. Once he was sure he was alone, the Roegadyn approached the right side of the ship and placed both of his hands onto the railing that was just a couple of inches away from the glass windows that started from the floor and ran all the way up to the ceiling.
The observation deck itself had not gone under any additional changes with how it was just meant to be for relaxation. The glass itself was several inches thick and comprised of what was meant to be a similar version to that of bulletproof glass. Even the outer and inner surface was coated with an enzyme derived from the Changelings cocoons and chrysalis Chambers to give it some extra fortification. This meant that it would not only take a direct missile and barely show a scratch, but the coating itself would add an extra layer of resistance to magic and chemicals that could possibly get onto the glass itself.
Brex only stood there for a couple of seconds before he found himself leaning forward and lowering his head as a grunt escaped his lips. The pain from before had just begun to lessen before it started back up again. His left arm reached up swiftly and clutched his fingers into the fabric of his robes right over the center of his chest in such a way that it threatened to rip it open from how much force he was using with his fingertips. His other hand that was still hanging on to the guardrail was squeezing even tighter. This went onto where his whole arm was beginning to even shake.
The pain he had been feeling had only gotten worse as time went on. It literally felt as though something was thrusted into his rib cage and his insides were swirling with a mix of hot and cold sensations. From behind his mask, he was running a cold sweat as his eyes were clenched tightly closed and his teeth were grinding as he was trying to hold back from making any more noise. No matter how hard he tried, Brex just could not figure out what was happening as his vision showed no signs of taking on any kind of negative effect recently.
This continued for a couple of minutes before they began to slowly subside. In an odd way, the progression of this made him think that's some invisible knife was slowly being pulled out of his chest in the order of how his lungs were the first to feel relief. Next came to the bone and his skin being last. Brex was fairly sure that if he was without his mask right now, then his reflection on the glass before himself would have displayed someone who had the same expression right after throwing up in the toilet for the past couple of hours.
Now standing up right and taking in a few calming breaths. Brex released his grip on his clothing and straightened out the fabric with the same hand as he began to think the following to himself. “What in the seven hells was all that? A panic attack? I've had a couple of panic attacks in the past but this... this was new. Maybe getting a checkup isn't really that bad of an idea.” He had released a small sigh of relief and closed his eyes for a brief moment before the pain came back with fury and the sound of footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs behind a few seconds later.
When he slightly turned his head to the right. The site of a white horn and a mane of bright multicolored hair could be seen coming up onto the deck he was on. This only caused the sharp prick from before to begin and slowly grow as more of Celestia's form could be seen. His right eye winced for about a brief second as he thought about why this was happening. Even at the Gala, this was not present during the time that he spent a brief moment in her company. There was something clearly wrong with his body but he did not want to show it, so he gritted his teeth to keep himself composed from behind his mask as she drew closer with every step.
He turned his head so that he was looking outside while also using the reflection to watch her every movement. The solar princess was now on his right side as her own right hand was now holding on to the railing from just a few steps away. Her form was partly turned so it was halfway between staring straight out of the ship and facing himself as there was a drawn-out silence that filled the observatory. From the way the glass had this small curve. Brex had a hard time with making out her exact expression.
Her eyes were clearly looking outside with her princess mask beginning to waiver as time went on and her sights lowering just a little. Brex was getting dangerously close to just leaving right then and there if it was not for what Celestia said next. “Thank you...” This was only followed with more silence as Brex was clearly confused before she continued with what she was going to say. “Thank you for putting the others first. A small part of me expected that you would cancel today all because of my stubbornness.”
“Also, I wanted to thank you for opening my eyes on a few topics that have eluded my notice. My subjects have been coddled for far too long. I once believed that my kingdom only had small problems sprinkled around. I had no idea that the most heinous crimes were right underneath my very own nose. I had my suspicions but it was you, was it not? You were the one that snuck into my room and place that music box on my bed. And in doing so you prevented my nephew from being taken advantage of by another that I trusted.”
“Just as it was nearly a millennia ago when the purge of the corrupt nobles was under gone. So was more found again in recent days. It makes one wonder if it all could have been different if it was not for one rash decision on my part.” Celestia was now grabbing on to the railing with both hands as her head was hanging low to obscure her face from showing on the glass. It was not until then that Brex began to pick up the strong aroma of vanilla filling the air. He then thought to himself about how much she must have been eating cake to have it stuck to her this badly.
Brex wanted to get away right that second, but he held out just to see where this was going. Princess Celestia's voice began to show signs of cracking as she lowered it so that it was at a volume that he was most likely the only one that was meant to hear with their proximity. “I'm sorry... I can't say it enough and I know it's not going to change your mind. I'm not as clueless as one might believe. Your deeds over the past decade are now known to both I and my sister.”
“The Elements of Harmony for one. Applejack's family was about to be killed by a pack of Timberwolves. You saved a number of them when they were just children. Rarity was kidnapped and close to being sold off into slavery along with a number of others by unscrupulous figures running a carnival. You were there underneath Cloudsdale. I didn't know then, but it was undoubtedly you who flew past me when I went to see what was the cause of the unnatural balance of nature that day.”
“So much positive energy was expelled and obliterated what was most likely the cause of the air being stagnant. I saw the swirling vortex of wind and the bright lights. I attempted to give chase but you were too fast for even I to catch up before I lost sight of you over the mountains. Then to my surprise, you show up over a month later in Canterlot. I found the same unmistakable magic energy coming from the hospital and rushed as fast as I could to try and find you. To think you were saving the life of my future student’s father. I could scarcely imagine of how many others you have helped that I am not aware of. Never… Never should I have called you a monster...”
Princess Celestia shoulders were beginning to show signs of shaking and a single teardrop fell onto the floor below as she continued. “Even my own sister who I lost was brought back to me. I may be hated... but I am so grateful for everything you've done... the thought of not making things right is just eating me up inside.” Over with Brex, he could not help but to think the following in his head as his inner voice was in clear distress, as his own mind struggled to put them together. “Y-You're not the only one... Gaggh! That's feeling like they're... getting their insides eaten up! I don't know how much longer... I can… handle this!”
This was referring to how the pain was nearly reaching his own spine as his entire body was struggling to stay still. His vision was slowly beginning to show signs of everything becoming hazy before returning to normal every so often. The feeling in his fingers were also going numb as he felt he was going to throw up at any moment. Now he knew something was seriously off and it clearly had to do with being in close proximity to the princess. But luck was apparently on his side as Twilight came rushing up the stairs with a manic look on her face that was most likely from being over stimulated by the new sources magic and unknown technology on the ship.
Once Twilight’s presence was known, Princess Celestia recovered and wiped her eyes before standing up straight to give recognition to her student’s arrival before the young mare knew what was going on. But with the way things were going, Brex just could not even hear what the two were discussing as Twilight was going over some notes. He did not even so much as say goodbye and turned to go down to the lower decks. Once below, he rushed over to his private chambers on the ship and slammed the door shut after getting inside.
He leaned on to the right wall with his hand in order to guide him in the direction of the washroom after taking a few seconds to catch his breath that was coming in erratically. The next set of doors was locked and the lights inside were turned on. With himself now standing in front of the mirror with a sink underneath. The mask was harshly pulled off and thrown to the floor half hazardly as he gripped on to the sink on both sides with his face looking into the mirror.
His eyes went wide as he leaned down and produced a series of both coughing and hacking that filled the bathroom. Some were short, while others were clearly labored as his entire form shuttered in the mirror. After close to a minute past, Brex released one louder cough that resulted in a splattering sound from within the sink. The Roegadyn heaved a few times as he slowly started to stand up straight enough that his face could just barely be seen as it was looking straight into where he was just doing his business in. This was followed by a single drop of blood stretching as it exited his lips by a few inches before releasing whatever hold it had on him before falling down into the sink with a splat.
When the sink came into view, there was a large viscous blob of a red and dark liquid sitting near the drain and half splattered across the rest of the sink. With the way it formed it was easy to tell that it came out as one large piece as the middle was mostly solid. Brex panted while trying to keep himself upright with his arms and examined it with horror stricken across his face. Due to how the bathroom was made. The sound of him taking in a single swallow echoed just as the glob began to show signs of movement.
The splattered edges condensed until they resembled strangly tendrils and the middle mass swelled until a small slit could be seen opening to reveal a Hazel colored eyeball. Brex released a startled yell and stumbled back just far enough to cause his back to collide with the wall. After taking a second or two to steady himself, did he finally walk forward to look at the sink once again.
Only this time there was not anything inside of the drain aside from a couple of stray droplets of his blood. No signs of what he saw before could be found. No smear marks, not even a trail of it moving from where it once was as the sink faucet was closed off the entire time. In a way, it was as if it never even existed in the first place. He even went so far as to take the towel nearby and coil it so that it could slip into the drain to check if whatever it was went down. However, there was not even a single blood stain on the towel when he pulled it back up.
After tossing the towel aside. Brex used his right hands gloved finger to run across his lips. All that was revealed was a very small amount of his own blood smeared on the leather of his index finger. Although the horrible feeling in his chest just happened to subside a great deal to where it was more of an annoyance than anything and still getting better as the moments went on. Brex wanted to ask Rory what happened but felt that the connection had been closed for some time without him noticing. After re-establishing with Rory, Brex asked if she felt if anything was off with him on her end and explained just what occurred.
From what he could tell from what she said next. Rory felt him sever the connection only moments after Celestia came to stand next to him on the observatory deck and only now opened it back up. But she did make a beeline for his room to check up on him in person in the bathroom only a few minutes later. By that time, Brex was sitting on the toilet with the cover pulled down and partially hunched over with his elbows on top of his knees for support. Even his face was left uncovered as his mask was all the way in the corner and turned upright.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: The Yuna, on the observatory deck*
Twilight was just finishing up with having a discussion with Celestia when it came to her findings and a few possible theories on how the systems on the ship operated when Luna came up the steps to join them after some time passed after Brex unexpectedly slipped away without either one realizing until it was too late. The younger sister motion towards her elder, while facing Twilight to give the unspoken signal of a glance towards the stairway that she wished to be alone with Celestia.
After saying her goodbyes, Twilight went back downstairs to see her friends. Meanwhile, the two began to talk with one another as Luna stood onto her older sisters left side and leaned forward so that her crossed arms were now resting on the railing and started things off with a curious tone as her eyes looked off in the distance over the seemingly endless see of mysterious green known as the Everfree Forest.
“One’s long absence has not gone unnoticed to neither myself or the other passengers. As we have not been kicked off just yet, I had assume discussions were going smoothly. Alas, by judging the unsure nature of your gaze, that may not be the case.”
“I really don't know Luna.”
“Then perhaps we could lend our council if it is accepted. Please, regale with what was said on his part, and do skip yours as I was forced to endure most of last night as your audience in its practice.”
“He…He didn't say anything at all.”
“Ah~. Yes, we did notice the writing spell that was implemented. Very well, if you wish to play that game. then please, tell us what he wrote. But do feel free to paraphrase if you wish.”
“There was, uh. No writing either... At first, I really did think that some leverage was made and dialog would have begun, but my student chose an in-opportune time to seek my company due to her excited nature in regards to this vessel.”
“Very peculiar indeed. Oh, I am referring to the lack of communication, not your student. Stories have already circulated towards my inner circle that mare’s antics in the past. Sir Gambit was most talkative only a short while ago. What could have caused his sudden silence I wonder. Perhaps he had other matters on his mind in regards to the young one’s on the ship? Judging from the window. We are traveling deep into the Everfree Forest after all. Such a trip with warrant our guides complete attention.”
“Perhaps you are right Luna. I don't know why I expected it all to go perfect. Could I have been a little too forceful getting him to allow us to tag along?”
“No, not at all. This is the perfect opportunity to get to know one another. If anything, we will simply fall back and watch his teaching methods from a respectful distance. At the very least it might calm down your condition if you watched him at work. When it came to mother, her urges would calm down somewhat when she saw her colt-friend, or at least that is what she mentioned.”
Celestia paused for a moment as her eyes went wide while looking at Luna after she said those words. Afterwards, she looked away so that she was facing the window. On her reflection, there was a growing redness that started from her cheeks and erupted almost all over. This was before she realized what was going on and covered her face from embarrassment after catching her reflection that was staring right back at her from the glass. She then spoke from behind her now muffled mouth thanks to the set of palms that we’re practically covering most of her face.
“Wha? Won't that only ma-make it worse?”
“I would disagree. Was it not you who displayed dissatisfaction of not being able to go into his dreams along with myself for some time? Consider this making up for lost time if you will. However, I will not hesitate to use the strongest cold spell possible in conjunction with the one I’m currently keeping in effect at this very moment to cool you down if any move on your part should be made out of desperation.”
“Lulu, sometimes I think you're just plan evil... This has got to be payback for getting you trapped underneath my laundry, isn’t it?”
Luna came in and gave her older sister a hug while nuzzling her face against the side of her clearly overstimulated elder sister. But this was before releasing her own set of giggles at the site of a now bright pink Celestia that just chose that very moment to allow her wings to spring out after Luna made a quick comment on watching the way he might give orders to the others in the forest. Luna then said, “Oh my dear sister. I do not have the faintest idea as to what you are insinuating towards.”
From then on and for the following several hours. Brex, along with everybody else departed the Yuna once they arrived and began to set up a small camp nearby. This was by no means meant for an overnight camping trip but more of a quick rest stop. As for the Yuna, it stayed hovering about twenty meters off of the ground so that nothing could sneak on board when no one was watching.
Much to Celestia's dismay, Brex would actively keep his distance from her whenever possible, whether it was with an excuse or simply acting as if he didn't notice she was approaching when walking somewhere else. There were often moments when he would be going off in one direction, but to only pivot on the spot and head somewhere else whenever she attempted to wave him down or to start a conversation.
When it came to Twilight and her friends, they would go into the forest and split off into two groups. In order to keep things relatively balanced when it came to the roles within the two parties. The first group consisted of Rory, Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy. It was thanks to the connection that Rory had the ability to adjust her level as well so there was no trouble at all with the experience being tampered with, as Rory would not be joining at such a high level. Also, with her acting as the tank, Twilight as the range damage dealers along with Rarity. Fluttershy took on the role as the group healer.
Whereas the other group consisted of Applejack as the tank, Rainbow as the melee damage dealer and Brex playing the part of the healer. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about Gilda seeing as she was close to hitting level thirty. So instead, she was beside group two and would go into encounters on her own to gain some experience now and then.
Now as for what they were going up against while on this outing. They were mostly coming across creatures such as spiders like the one he showed for his illustration. Some giant wasps that were easily bigger than any of the ponies. There were also more of the same insects that Applejack, Rainbow and Fluttershy encountered a couple of months back. Also due to their lack of experience as seen from their little test. It was agreed upon that the team leaders would be himself and Rory.
Rory was giving commands in an efficient manner that got over some of the flaws between the rest of the girls in her group after just their first encounter. At least there was no one aside from Rory that would get hit by one of Twilight stray fireballs and Rarity was not tripping over anything to hit a comrade with a lightning bolt. In the end, Fluttershy only had to concentrate on healing Rory as she was barely taking any damage in the first place with how well she was defending herself and keeping the monster’s attention on her during all of the skirmishes.
The girl was even intentionally allowing herself to get struck just so the yellow Pegasus would have some real experience in giving aid. The last thing Brex wanted was for Fluttershy to breakdown later on if she should see her friends get injured at a critical moment and be unable to help. To her, getting something lodged in her gut or possibly receiving a blow that would nearly slice off her leg was no different than getting a paper cut by the way she acted.
Of course, Rory was willing to go so far as to get nearly mortally wounded by their standards if it would help Fluttershy in gaining some confidence. But Brex urged her not to do so. Especially with her accelerated healing due to what was inside of her own body. Luckily enough, Rory was able to consciously pull back on her recovering abilities just enough so that the healing spells had something to work on.
The only real issue when it came to the group that Brex was a part of, was the way he could not bring himself to talk out loud while still in earshot of Celestia. So instead, he would give the others instructions by writing in the air just before they started to fight once a target was located beforehand. It was a little choppy at first, but Brex helped out by throwing in some offensive spells here and there, along with a crowd control type to limit the enemies’ options if he felt the group was going to get overwhelmed with too much to do.
Sleep spells and other such that would lower an enemy’s intelligence rating was a big help. In fact, it was almost hilarious when there were too many at first, and half of the wave would suddenly fall face first into the mud and snore so much that bubbles would float right to the surface. When it came to the rest that were practically turned stupid. It was not only him, but the girls nearly fell over laughing when a couple of the creatures were lazily walking into trees over and over again before the spell ran out.
It did not take much time at all before everyone was used to their perspective duties and each encounter went even better than the last. By the time it got close to four in the afternoon and everyone was getting ready to leave. The girls went up a couple of levels and were completely exhausted to where a few required the assistance of the more physically able to get back to the ship. On the way back on the Yuna. A delicious meal was served to commemorate their first group outing as a success and that they should all be proud of themselves.
Of course, Brex went into his room while the others were eating because he could not handle being in close proximity to Celestia. In the meantime, the two rulers were positively gushing over with how delicious the displayed food turned out to be. It did not take too long at all until it was slipped by Rory who stayed with all of them that it was her master that made everything they were eating. As for the dishes, these included the following.
For the drink options.
Water.
Milk.
Mirror Apple Juice.
Pineapple Juice.
Purple Carrot Juice.
Triple Cream Coffee.
Mulled Tea.
For the main dish options.
Beef Stew.
Steamed Catfish.
Beet Soup.
Baked Onion Soup.
Popoto Pancakes.
Black Truffle Risotto.
Apkallu Omelette.
Finger Sandwich.
For the dessert options.
Crowned Pie.
Pineapple Ponzecake.
Starlight Cake.
Rolanberry Cheesecake.
Rolanberry Shaved Ice.
Rarity, who was trying as hard as she could to not overindulge herself, was finding her hands drifting over to serve herself more food than she would have cared to admit. She was even going so far as to glance and taking the small windows of opportunity when no one was looking to make a move. The fashionistas eyes would close to give off the expression of pure delight whenever one morsel after another was brought to her mouth. There was even the hand motion where she placed her left hand onto the side of her mouth and giving a small hum of delight that was barely perceivable to the others that were talking.
Gilda was happily munching away at some meat-based dishes, much to the dismay of a few of the others at the table who kept a fair distance in order to take their minds off of the very notion that they were sitting right next to a piece of flesh being consumed at the same table. Applejack was captivated when she found something that was made using mirror apples as an ingredient. It turned out to be a pie with a fake gold crown sitting slanted to one side for decoration and scarfed it down along with a large mug of fresh apple juice.
As for Rainbow. She was sitting right next to Gilda as she did not show any signs of weakness when it came to what her girlfriend was eating. In fact, she would on occasion, steal a bit off of the plate when the others were not looking to try some of what Gilda was munching on. After this was done a few times and Rainbows fork was parried away with the one that was in the Griffin’s hand during one of the stealing attempts.
The Griffin had an annoyed look before she whispered into Rainbow's ear that if she did not stop soon, then she was going to start eating her out at the table while the others watched as payment. Suffice to say, the blue Pegasus found herself too busy with a wing boner to get much of anything else off of Gilda's plate when that was said and a few of the girls laughed at their friend’s expense after clearly hearing the threat.
The desserts were disappearing one after another thanks to Pinkie grabbing them all with her stretching arms that defied the logic of the world. They were also in such a speed that one could actually hear the snapping sound of rubber bands as her arms returned with a new bowl to place in front of herself. All the while, she would speak between gulps on how she was going to get some of these recipes from Gambit when she could start to move again. The statement having to do with how she was already eating more than her own weight and bloating up like a balloon in the same way a certain other earth mare turned into after a baking contest.
What none of them knew at the time was that any food made by Brex had all the nutritional value required but for some strange reason one could eat almost constantly no matter what it is and they would not gain a single pound of weight as a result. This phenomenon was not entirely clear to the Roegadyn, but it was simply contributed to his video game logic and refused to question on it any further when the simple fact was discovered a handful of years ago.
Fluttershy was beginning to come out of her shell and was eating a small amount of food, while also giving some of her portions over to her carbuncle that was sitting on her lap so that its head was peeking just over and laying its chin onto the table. When Luna saw it, she first mistook it for a plushie and reached over to get a good look. But to her surprise, she jerked her hand back with a Yelp as it licked her finger when it got in its range. This earned a light chuckle from Celestia as she covered her mouth to prevent any food from falling out when the surprise occurred.
As for Twilight. She was sitting on the opposite side of Celestia so that the two of them can converse just like they used to when she was younger and in between lessons. Eventually, she spoke low enough to get her mentors attention without bothering the rest just as Celestia was in the middle of eating one of the desserts herself. “It was so nice to spend the day with you.” Celestia replied while giving her student a gentle smile. “Why the pleasure is all mine. Although, I did keep my distance as to not be a distraction.”
The princess took a moment to wipe off some of the food on her lips with a napkin provided. But was not paying enough attention to see the very small embroidery with the letters B M in the corner before she continued. “It is truly reassuring to see how much you have all grown. I would be lying if I was not concerned for your well-being when you sent that letter several days ago and writing that you were going into the forest today.”
She only paused for a moment before she continued. “Mind you, I had no doubt that sir Gambit would have you under his protection. Though, I do wish that I had more opportunities with him than I did. Oh, before I forget. With these happen to be the items that sir Gambit crafted himself?” By then, Celestia’s gaze wandered to Twilight’s clothing until it went down the Unicorns arm and rested on one of the brass rings on the mare’s left hand.
At hearing that, Twilight went into scholar mode and explain the functions as they were done for her by Brex when they were first given over. Celestia smiled at this as she listened intently and nodded ever so often and added her own set of questions here and there. All the while within her mind. Princess Celestia was pondering the following as her mind trailed off whenever Twilight needed a moment to get some more of her notes out to explain her findings and speculation on the outfits and for the ship itself.
“Clearly sir Gambit was avoiding me all day. Did I say too much? Perhaps the idea of me looking into his background was not what he wanted to hear. Would it have gone better if I came over on a day that he was not busy? Also, there's this airship we’re on. It has to be the prototype that they intend to unveil soon. It even looks different from the dream we were using to learn of his exploits in Zebrabwe. We never did find out if it was him or Rory who was the president of T H I S. Perhaps it's Rory? She was the one who was conversing with the crew members.”
“Then there's knowing that he can cook. Oh, by mother's name, he CAN sure cook! If I could just get some of my castle chefs to cook half of this...” By that point, Celestia's inner tone was turning more needy as she continued in her inner monologue. Hmm-Hnn… Now I want him even more! He’s strong, he cares about others and he can bucking cook! He’s just like some of the stories that mother would tell us before bedtime. A time of when the stallions would actively play the roles of heroes.”
Her vision soon drifted to Twilight and she continued with her inner thoughts as they slowly went from her normal voice, to that of clear building frustration. “Oh Twilight… I have missed our time back in the castle when you were a small filly and would ask for my advice so often. The way you would spend your time in the library and in my personal study for our lessons in magic have been the highlight of so many of my days. But perhaps I should have thrown in some lessons on how to… READ THE ROOM.”
As this was going on the solar Princess slowly shifted in her seat as her inner thighs were pressing into one another as her legs were having problems with holding still from underneath the table. With the use of her free hand that was out of view. She reached down and carefully began to pull up the hem of her dress from the front with her fingers. Eventually, the fabric slid up her slender legs and passed her bent knees.
Then with almost practice motions her middle finger slid between her thighs until it came across her practically smoldering core. However, instead of making contact with her underwear, she instead immediately felt the wet, glistening and velvet touch of her pussy. Celestia used almost every ounce of willpower to prevent herself from showing any visible signs that the very act of doing this had sent another wave through her body and a small gush of her juices coated her finger. She then thought, “Lulu may not have let me out of the castle if she knew I went commando! I wonder if he noticed anything.”
During their time while observing the outing. Celestia had made multiple attempts to approach Brex under the pretext of wanting to have a few words alone in regards to one matter or another that would randomly pop in her head. However, each attempt ended before it even began as she was unable to even have a few words alone. Yes, it was both frustrating and disheartening at the same time. But as each failed attempt went on the sun Princess was also feeling a significant spike from her lower region.
What was once disappointment and annoyance. Soon turned into downright frustration and anger. Although on the fourth attempt, Celestia was beginning to feel something else that was taking over. And intense heat along with arousal overtook the other emotions when she caught on to him intentionally avoiding her. But this was not any type of avoiding, oh no. This was plain ignoring altogether. She was the Princess of Equestria. Adored by practically all that lived on this land. Yet here was a male that was outright giving her no second thoughts or any common courtesy of putting her first.
She was practically nothing to him and that very thought eventually brought out another and then another. The very notion of being treated in such an unfamiliar way was almost a breath of fresh air. Being fond over and waited on hand and foot without even having to say a word was so boring, so agonizingly mundane. Then she considered that for once she might have to actually work for some affection. This only spurred more blatant attempts to speak with him but to only come up with the same end result. Each one only building on the hungry desire within her mind and core.
Near the end, when everyone else was distracted and there was a small window of opportunity to be alone with herself. Princess Celestia walked a short distance away so that a number of the trees could be used to break the line of sight with the other girls. When she was sure that no one could either see nor hear, Celestia began to lift her dress and swiftly started to play with herself with her right hand as her body was leaning up against one of the large trees.
At the same time, her left had slipped through the opening of the dress to play with her breast. Her eyes were barely open as they rolled upwards and into her head. There was this twisted smile that was only broken thanks to the way she was biting her lower lip. While heavily breathing through only her nose so that she did not inadvertently release a loud enough moan for the rest to hear from where she was. The solar Princess and one of the two Co-rulers of Equestria was literally masturbating in the middle of the forest and bucking her hips as though she were some wild uncivilized animal.
This had gone on for maybe six or seven minutes by the time Twilight’s voice could be vaguely heard over the muffled moans. Her student had been calling for her and Celestia was literally a second or two away from an orgasm while imagining that she was being pinned against a tree and her fingers were instead those of Brex as he played with her mercilessly. When she realized that her student was only a few paces away and around the tree she was against. Her hands stopped and pulled away as she mentally screamed in her head the following.
“TWILIGHT PLEASE! I ONLY NEEDED A FEW MORE SECONDS! JUST A FEW MORE SECONDS AND I WOULD HAVE BEEN FINISHED!!!” While quickly using her magic to clean up any of the mess. Her hand that was originally playing with her breast was placed onto the tree behind herself. Then as she turned away to intercept her student, that very same hand could be seen clawing into the tree as the nails dug in past the bark and left a deep gouge of four slashes that went on for several inches.
Upon meeting the purple Unicorn. Celestia looked as normal as ever, yet when twilight turned away. The solar princess was giving a death glare that only appeared for the briefest of moments before she caught onto what she was doing and took a deep breath. Even while walking back to the group. The princess was carful with how her tail would sway in an attempt to fan the musk of her arousal before the others came into range.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: On the Yuna. The private quarters of Brex*
Brex was fast asleep after leaving everybody else to have their meal and collapsed on the bed almost as soon as he laid down. His form was currently resting onto its right side and letting out a few not so nice grunts of discomfort. Slowly, he rolled over so that he was on his back and facing the ceiling as his left hand was absent-mindedly placing its palm onto his chest.
Another grunt escaped his lips from behind his mask that came off more of him being annoyed than anything else. This was before he uttered the next set of words from within his sleep-like state. “I'm not... A hero... Gah-Hugh!” This was immediately accompanied by a small hiss of pain as his left hand lightly gripped onto the fabric right at the center of his chest.
A few moments later. Brex continued to roll until he was facing the opposite direction from when he first began. His breathing picked up as his entire body began to show small shivers. The next thing that happened, was his hood tilting enough that his face was now half buried into the pillow. From there at the very edge of his still visible eyehole for his mask. Was a single teardrop that began to form on the edge until it left and ran down along the surface and started to soak into the fabric of the pillow.
The next set of words that came out, were broken and barely half formed into syllables. These words if heard by another, would have been able to tell that they were heavily laced with sorrow, regret and self-loathing. “I… I’m… No-… Plea-. Why… Not beleav-.” This would go on until Rory came to his room to wake him up, but as soon as the door started to open, did his condition stabilize to how he would normally appear when asleep.
Upon getting off of his bed. Brex gave a long stretch as he strangely felt as though he was drained, rather than feeling some rejuvenation from his nap. Although, he did notice a small wet spot on his pillow and wondered if he had always had a drooling problem and Rory just never told him about it. But his thoughts were derailed as he remembered who was on board after a second or two passed. His mood began to turn abnormally sour as he developed a heavy scowl from behind his mask after seeing a mental image of Celestia popping into his mind.
What’s more, was that it was not of the current one he had seen that day, but rather the one who looked at him with pure malice in the past. He did notice the way he was beginning to be an immediately shook those thoughts out of his head as he was attempting to get along with the Princess as per Rory’s suggestion. But for a split second he was almost sure that her image upon going away turned into one of those old photo negatives.
Within almost a flash. Brex felt a wave of hostility building before he just out of nowhere, began to blink from behind his mask and forgot everything that occurred within those couple of seconds after looking at his pillow and followed Rory out of his room. Even as the door was closing behind him, he was completely unaware that his left hand was tightly clutching and shaking as if with pure hostility for a second before relaxing.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 75: The New Dragoon.
*Point of view Brex* *Location: Ponyville, the house of Brex* *Time: Ten in the morning. Six days later*
Nearly a week had gone by since he took all of the girls and including the princesses out for one of his joint classes. Much to her word, Celestia left with Luna upon everyone getting back to Brex's place and saying they're goodbyes to one another before heading on to their own home’s. Even then Brex was barely able to hold it together until the last of his students finally left. After having an evening meal served to him and Rory as per the norm. He excused himself to go to his room to rest and immediately collapsed in his oversized bed.
The weird part about all of this, aside from the princess of the sun's close proximity causing him internal harm to where he would actually cough up some blood. Was how Rory was utterly unaware of any of it going on and even stated how there were at least two occasions where she was unable to see or hear anything from his side. These two events were when he was talking to Celestia on the ship and yet again when going into the bathroom in his personal quarters while in-route to their destination.
Thankfully enough, everything went back to normal after spending some time away from the apparent source. Rory even spent the entire night as they slept to go through his mind for anything that could have been the cause, but in the end, she came up with nothing that could have led to any kind of reasonable explanation. His mental defenses were still up and no signs were given that any outside sources did any sort of attack. What's more, was the memories he displayed. She did not see the large glob of blood with the eyeball in the sink aside from there only being a few droplets of blood.
Brex was worried that she was going to see him as a crazy person and that everything was nothing but him running away with his imagination. But Rory quickly assured him that there was no way that he would do such a thing and believed every word he said from the beginning to end. After some time and going over the events step-by-step, the pair came to the conclusion that the bathroom was a hallucination of sorts, whereas the pain may have been caused through extreme levels of duress. She even proposed that he and the princess should limit their interactions to only short intervals for his safety. At least until everything was sorted out.
Brex at one point or another even mentioned having a physical. However, that plan was shot down after thinking it over a little more. Even if he were to go to nurse Red Heart, there was no baseline to go off from to determine whether or not he was in peak physical condition for his species or if there really was something going on in his body. Then there was also the fact that he never once got sick. In the end, he just could not figure out if this was due to his high endurance and resistance or just for the simple fact that he was a video game character brought to life.
It also was apparent that he was not feeling as energetic as usual. This was especially true whenever he woke up in the morning. Even though he did his usual dream time activities. He would wake up in the morning and feel as though he was constantly running for a long duration of time. Of course, he would soon recover just a little while after getting up, so he was not too bothered by it and just contributed the whole ordeal to how Rory would sleep next to him at night and fill herself up with his cock at random points in the evening.
As for the rest of the days. Brex would continue to take an odd job here and there so that he would not end up getting rusty with being idle when there was nothing else to do and no emergencies popped up at HQ. When it came to his classes. He made a few minor adjustments to cater to each one of the girl’s personalities to get the best results he thought possible. While also attempting to tackle some of their issues so that they would not come back to bite them in the tails later on. In Applejack's case, it was her stubborn nature and refusal to accept others help when she believed that she could do it all by herself.
For one example with the farm mare, there was how he allowed her to try and tackle an enemy by herself as he stayed on the sidelines for when she finally admitted that she could not do it alone. Rainbows problem was her need to show off. Now this would not have been too much of a problem if it were not for her playing the Rogue. Often or not, she would go daggers blazing and charge right in head first. It wasn't until after he convinced the athletic Pegasus to go for a stealthy approach or attack an opponent while their attention was focused on Applejack that she discovered she was a Powerhouse with how quickly she could take them down.
Now Pinkie was a tricky one. In all honesty Brex found her unpredictability as well as popping up at unexpected locations to launch a surprise attack to be her most advantageous advantage. But the mare had a problem with staying focused as well as a need to rush things along whenever it got a little boring. Knowing right off the bat that giving her orders was going to get nowhere fast. Brex instead took a moment to have a sit-down with the pink mare and came up with a few analogies that would coincide with cooking. Well, in this case, it would be for baking.
Pinkie was serious about her cooking methods due to where she worked and Brex explained how she would not try to rush a cake into being made by cranking up the oven too high. Or to even skip a few steps to save time so that it could be put on the shelves for the next customer as quickly as possible. This surprisingly got a serious rant from the pink mare about how the taste and texture would be all off. Not to mention it would just come out all lumpy and misshapen and that no one would want it. Not to mention that she could not possibly bring herself to ruin the reputation of mister and miss’s Cake by doing such a shameless act.
This convinced Pinkie to take things just a little more seriously so that her aim would be more precise and that she could pick better moments to strike. The end result led to a higher rate of accuracy and less accidental friendly fire on Applejack and Rainbow as they were in the field. Brex even switched over to the same class as them and gave a few pointers on how to make their skills more effective after hearing their personal views on some of the skills they use. This also included very small personal questions that would normally not be brought up if it was not for Brex carefully nudging them into saying anything.
Now, when it came to the magical half of the group. Brex had a few issues here and there on what to do. Rarity would not budge on the issue of getting dirty. There were even a few times that she attempted to use her feminine charms to get him to reconsider a certain path in the woods for one that was less likely to get her clothing messed up with any dirt or grind. But Brex was having none of it. Fortunately, Brex new how to distract the fashionista so that she was not so focused on her cleanliness.
This was done by bringing up Rory's clothes and what he had planned to make for Gilda in the near future. Small bits were thrown here and there whenever the Unicorn was about to go off on another tangent. As this was going on, Brex would notice how more comfortable Rarity was getting around him when compared to the other times where she kept a respectful distance.
It was not as if she was hitting on him per say, but she was beginning to take what he said more seriously. Even going so far as to show off her skills and manipulating her offensive spells in a way that she could adjust their path in mid-flight. Which obviously surprised wrecks that she could even do something like that to begin with. Typically, whenever a spell is fired you would either go in a straight line or a previously determined arc. Although Rarity was able to cause her spells to zigzag, weave and go around objects to hit their intended targets with ease.
Next up was Twilight. Since last week the mare got more control on keeping the rotation going between her primary fire and ice spells so that she would not exhaust her Aether flow too much to end up with nothing to use until she naturally recovered within a couple of seconds later. This would not be too much of an issue for most, but for her class those precious few seconds of literally being out of ammo or catastrophic in most battle situations.
But she still had issues when the unexpected occurred. This was tackled by the use of setting up an obstacle course at his place over the course of the night before. It was basically put together by using some rotating dummies that he would control by pulling a set of levers and pulleys. Depending on how they were set. Twilight would have to react at near split-second intervals to come up with what her actions would be.
For a bookworm who always plan things out ahead of time and would feel uneasy without a backup plan, or a backup for the backup plan, this was no easy task. When the dummies would spin. It would display a cutout of either a monster or some random Pony in the middle of a daily activity. At the start, it did not help her case as she freaked out and blasted a picture of Rose the Pony that appeared behind her. But after a little while, Brex could see a noticeable change. Even if it was just a small amount with how she was getting more comfortable as the exercise continued.
When Fluttershy's time came. Brex was at a complete loss on how to tackle her issue of being scared without pushing the mare too hard. In all honesty, the healing class needed to focus on the well-being of their friends in the group and doing damage was a secondary task. And seeing as she had some issues with him and a better relationship with Rory. The Roegadyn allowed the two of them to spend some personal time to chat before heading into the woods. Brex hoped that she would be able to talk to Fluttershy and give some reassuring words to get the yellow Pegasus to be more comfortable with being in a fight, even if she was in the back line.
He was not sure what was said by Rory in the end. But when it came to the field. Fluttershy did pretty much the same as before. Although, there was this air about her that said she was a little more confident. When he inquired about it later on. Rory mentioned how Fluttershy felt guilty about not contributing enough to the party with how she could not bring herself to do any harm to another. All Rory did was to convey how important her role in all of this was and how her friends greatly appreciated her efforts.
She was not expected to fight on the front lines or to take on a horde of monsters all by herself. But with her being there, her friends could rest easy in knowing that she had their back and this allowed them to do their best. In a way, she was their safety net and they relied on her as much as she relied on them. All she really needed was a little more confidence. Rory even told Fluttershy that if there was ever something she needed to talk about, no matter what it might be, then she could always come to her without the fear of being judged. This made Brex glad that she stayed behind so that she could build some trust with the rest of them while overseas.
As an end result, each of them reached level fifteen or higher now that a few issues were resolved while others were still slowly being worked on. On another note. Brex informed Gilda that she reached level thirty when she was with the physical half of the group once they got back. This resulted in her dragging him over to the adventurers Guild to check it for herself on her identification plate.
Upon seeing the change, Gilda unexpectedly hugged Brex and emitted a small high-pitched squeal of delight that needed to be covered up nearly a fraction of a second after it came out by coughing to make it seem as though she was having something stuck in her throat. She even glanced around and she gave a bone chilling glare to the guard who obviously heard the sound and caused the mare to start rattling in their armor from the sight.
Once Gilda calmed herself down and was back to her usual way of acting cool again. Brex told her that he would work on getting her some new gear to commemorate the achievement. Not to mention that she would get her promotion the day before they all met up again for another trip deep into the forest. What Brex was going to make, was a set of scale armor comprised of some high-quality materials from a powerful creature around level thirty. Moreover, he was insuring her that what he made would easily outpace a similar set of gear thanks to the high-quality materials. This way she would not have to switch gear until she reached level forty.
Even the spear was going to be a customized type with two slots for a set of crystals to fit in just like the ones for his modified Samurai weapons back when he faced off against the Primal called Odin. This way, she would have the option of adding an elemental aspect to the tip of the spear or to place another type that would augment the striking power or speed of the weapon. However, Brex recalled what Gilda used to wear and came up with an idea to use as a glamor and saved it as a surprise for the right time.
Now this brings it all back to the present. Brex was standing just inside of his house with his front door wide open and Gilda standing right in the archway with her legs spread and arms outstretched to show that she was the one who opened the heavy piece of wood. The young female Griffin was slightly hunched over and breathing heavily to show that she was in a rush to get there. Her eyes were locked on him as she had this somewhat disturbing grin on her beak.
Brex could do nothing but the stand there while arching an eyebrow at the site as Gilda finally spoke as her breathing was haggard. “I… I finished with my work early! Now come on! What do I need to do before Rainbow catches up! Oh, I really wanna rub it in her face that I got all finished before she showed up!” Brex did not really know why, but even though the two of them were technically on probation to be in his herd. The pair have been getting a little more competitive ever so often when it came to anything that had to do with Brex.
Most of which would show during their time in the forest whenever one of them caught him looking in their direction. This would happen even more when one was in a fight and putting a little more effort than normal and to taking down their foe. It would even include daily activities. There were even a few times where Brex and Rory would be going through the town, only to catch a glimpse of some rivalry between Gilda and Rainbow sparking up. But to only become more heated up once they realize he was there.
Brex released a small chuckle as he turned around to walk deeper into his house while motioning with his right hand for her to follow. After going around the staircase and entering what appear to be a large room meant for throwing a party. They went through another set of doors that led into a hallway. It went from left to right and directly ahead was another set of closed doors with an elaborate locking system that required a key.
Gilda pointed to the closed path and immediately asked, “Just what’s down that way?” Brex answered as he turned to the right and walk the short distance until yet another room appeared on the left side at the very end of the hall. That way is off limits for now as it has sensitive equipment and documents. And don’t bother asking Rin or Lin, as only Rory and I have the key to get past that point.”
Brex then said after holding up a hand. Wait right here I need to grab something first. After getting a nod from Gilda. Brex enter the room which turned out to be a storage with a number of shelves that held large crates and barrels that would have them all right up and pressed up against the wall so that he would have to walk around the left side. After going around and walking two rows, did he turn and go to the very end. Crouching down Brex reached into an area that was shaded thanks to the light barely reaching all the way down to where he was and pulled out a chest that was just barely big enough to put a football inside.
A key was pulled out from his left sleeve and used to unlock this chest. Once opened, it revealed a couple of items that stood out as rather peculiar. Along the top of the lid was a number of carving tools being held in place thanks to a long leather strip with notches fixed along the length. At the bottom of the chest, were a couple of dividers that kept some brightly colored stones in order. He then pulled out one and held it in the middle of his palm to get a good look at it for a few seconds.
This turned out to be a dark blue stone that one could just barely see through. It was smooth to the touch with a curve on the left side as the right had three points so that it would resemble a reptile scale in some way. In the center there was a carefully carved out depiction of a dragon's head that stood out. He then said the following as he closed the chest again and placed it back into its small hiding spot while also making his way to the door. “It's been some time since I've handed one of these out. I could just see the faces on all those Changelings that I took under my wing and made into those teachers when the time came.”
(Here is a picture of the Dragoon Soul Stone.)
Once he got outside and saw Gilda leaning up against the wall with an impatient expression and tapping her right hands index finger onto her other arms elbow. He had her follow him back into the large room that they passed earlier. Off to the right side of the door was a small sitting area with a couple of bookshelves and two couches on either side of a coffee table. Brex sat at the one that was against the wall, while Gilda was shown to the other. Soon, Brex place the stone he had gotten on the center of the table and turned it so that it was facing up right for Gilda to examine.
She was about to grab on to it to get a closer inspection when Brex reached up and gripped onto the Griffins wrist at a lightning speed just as she was inches away from touching the stone. This was to add an air of mystery on his part as he could not necessarily send her on a roundabout quest such as the ones back in the game world. There was this small smirk from behind is mask as he saw the way Gilda reacted by freezing on the spot.
This was also the moment that Rainbow came rushing into the room half flying to gain some extra speed. As soon as she nearly shot past the pair. The Pegasus came to a grinding stop so that she was literally right between the two and rushed up to see what was going on with herself looking very worn out. Brex figured that Rainbow had rushed over as soon as her job was done. The young Pegasus then said through labored breathing as she wiped some sweat off of her brow. “Hey! I didn't miss anything important, did I?! No fair Gilda! You started work before I did.”
That was when she noticed how Gilda’s arm was being held and raised an eyebrow before pointing between the two of them and continuing. “Uh, is everything okay here?” Brex gave the two of them a flat look before he finally spoke up. “Please, sit down Rainbow. This saves me from having to explain it an additional time later.” And with that, Rainbow sat on Gilda's right side and intently began to watch what was to happen next with some excitement being clearly seen in the mare’s eyes.
Gilda's hand was slowly released and she pulled it back as he began to speak in a serious tone. “There are not many so far who have even seen, much less to come this close to a Soul Stone. Well perhaps I should say a stone that is about to become a Soul Stone.” Gilda was about to ask a question but Brex interrupted her by holding up a hand for her to wait before he went on. “A Soul Stone is a very unique artifact. They are carved from special gems for one. But what truly makes them what they are is what is put inside.”
“A Soul Stone or otherwise known as a Soul Crystal. Play a key part in passing knowledge from one generation to the next. Possibly unknown to all those now in the world, but they existed far beyond the years from before my birth. A Soul Crystal is a faceted gem that houses the skills, memory and possibly the personality of those who kept it close to their body. They are gems of multifaceted layers of Aether engraved into their structure and carved into particular shapes. They are capable of storing a piece of the bearer's soul and the flow of their Aether. This captures an echo of the bearer’s skills and history into the crystal itself. Thereby edging their very soul and deeds.”
Both Gilda and Rainbow's eyes started to go wide as Brex got to this part and only grew as he continued. “Once a Soul Crystal is passed on through a right, the original holder’s demise or other reasons. The new bearer will be endowed and given access to new skills and abilities that have been stored within. This will allow you to utilize everything that was used by the previous host and grow at an accelerated rate.”
“However, it is not as simple as picking up a stone and learning what it has. One must have a fundamental knowledge and is already attuned enough to sync with what is in the Stone. This would have to be through physical means or your Aetheric flow, or perhaps a mixture of both. This would be akin to being given a book in some unknown language that you are unable to read even a single word of. For example, the one you see before you are meant for the Dragoon. The Dragoon is an advanced class to that of the Lancer.”
“Gilda, because you trained as a Lancer, you are now ready to take on this Soul Stone. Nevertheless, it must not be touched just yet as it is not ready.” Both girls looked at him skeptically as their eyes trailed down to the blue gem on the table as he went on to pulling out a similar one from his robes arm sleeve that had a glow to it that greatly contrasted to The emptiness being given off by the one laying before them all.
While pinching it between his fingers, Brex then said. “As far as I know, not many are out there aside from the new ones I know of, which are just a handful. But I am capable of copying and then transferring that into a new vessel. That stone right there has not been touched by anyone else but myself from the moment I dug up the mineral and carved it into the exact shape that is needed. Not to mention getting the spell matrix just right so that it would be stable enough to handle the transference of knowledge from mine. Now Gilda, do you feel that you are prepared to accept this?”
“In the past there have been guardians and many keepers that work together as a society to keep these Soul Crystals and what they held safe. There are those that would gain possession of one and become corrupted due to a lack of self-control. While others are bent through selfish desires and go down a dark path. During my years of traveling, I have not come across any others who have these so I can only come to the conclusion that I may very well be the only one who has the ability to give these out. Now, I must ask one final time. Do you truly feel that you are willing to take on such responsibilities?”
Gilda's feathers and fur ruffled as her hands clutched tightly into fists. A heavy gust of air was expelled from her nostrils as her expression became stern as she was looking into his mask. This soon turned into a confidence smirk as she gave a clear, “Yes”. A sincere chuckle emanated from Brex as he reached down with his left hand and took a hold of the empty Stone on the table so that it was clutch between his thumb and index finger before rolling it around and having it on his now opened palm that was facing upwards in the same way as the other one.
He then said the next part with an ecstatic tone to his voice. “I don't see why we have to hold off on this any longer, now do we? Ladies, you're about to see the birth of a New Soul Stone!” Only a single second went by as he said that before there was an explosion of light coming from underneath the couch that he was sitting on. This revealed a quickly growing circle with runic symbols coming into existence as more space was created. The whole thing came to a stop in its expansion right as the edge of the outer circle barely made it to Gilda and Rainbow who were looking on with clear awe at the light show.
It came off as a bright cerulean blue that coursed with light and dark shades running through every section in an intricate pattern. Along with the rune’s, multiple circles and diagrams shot across the surface of the floor. Soon the edges created a curtain that slowly ascended until Brex and a portion of the couch and table were closed off with the shimmering lights. Brex then spoke as his voice sounded as though it was speaking through a tunnel with the way it had a small reverberation from it. “This is the easy part.”
The stone that was glowing in his right hand had another circle appearing that was just barely wider than his palm. This array then levitated the item a couple of inches in the air and held it in place as it slowly rotated. The same occurred to the one on his left hand as it took on a similar position and nearly a meter apart from one another with the positioning of his hands that were half way outstretched.
The breath of Brex could be heard loudly with each intake and exhale of slow air. The original grew brighter and brighter until it was powerful enough to illuminate that side of the large room they were inside of and even began to cast shadows of the two girls so that they reached the far wall with perfect clarity.
The second stone gave off its own light by now, but it was so dim that it was almost in-perceivable. Then another set of circles appeared that started off wide and grew narrow as each one lined up to connect a form a bridge between them both. After reaching the half way point, it started to grow again as it connected to the other stone.
There must have been at least twenty in total, as each one was slowly rotating in time with the rest. A narrow beam of light that was a mix of white and blue shot from the original and connected them both as it pierced all of the circles. The line was then filled with pulses that would go one after another to produce a noticeable low thump with each passing one.
Unseen by the others thanks to the screens that only he could see. Brex could perceive a window that depicted a download in progress and it was already saying that it was at twenty-fife percent and steadily rising at an accelerated pace. When it hits sixty, the pulses grew faster and faster. At eighty, they began to slow down as the last few percentages were being reached. Upon hitting one hundred, the beam went flat as the stream of light disintegrated as it started from the original and went right for the copy as one would watch a lit fuse being burned away.
After a few seconds passed, all of the lights and circles disappeared one after another in a reversed order of when they appeared until the room return to its normal state and both stones lowered themselves to rest on the middle of his palms. Brex carefully placed his Soul Stone back into his arm sleeve as he looked over the other one. The stone itself was absent of any glow whatsoever as he brought it closer to his mask.
He then said in a calm voice that was just above a whisper. “Come now. Time to wake up. Someone's waiting to meet you.” Almost as if it were alive. The stone began to give off a small glow that would start off dim for a moment before coming back stronger and more vibrant with each pulse. In a way. The whole ordeal was closely resembling a beating heart as the rhythm only grew gradually.
This went on for maybe half a dozen times before the light became stabilized and it was just as strong as the one that Brex previously had out. With a relieved sigh, the Roegadyn stood up and walked away from the couch so that there was easily two meters of space in between him and the table and motion for Gilda to come forward with his free hand. While closing his fingers around the stone. Brex held it out so that the back of his palm was facing outwards and Gilda reached forward so that her hand was right underneath his own. It was then placed in her possession and she gripped onto it tightly right as Brex took a steady step back.
Almost as if the stone shown that it had accepted her. There was a bright white light that filled the room and she grasped around it tightly with her fingers. From behind his mask, he was looking on with an expression that was filled with a sense of fulfillment as he watched a new Dragoon who was coming to existence. Visible waves of gold and sparks of electricity erupted from underneath Gilda's feet and ran along her body until it developed a distinct aura.
Her eyes went wide as her body flexed almost every muscle, which included her wings that went to her sides and into the air right above the height of her shoulders in response to the flow of power now flooding her body. One might have even seen how the feathers seemed almost sharper and her eyes becoming unfocused for but s split second.
A noticeable hitch came from her throat as she struggled to form her following sentence as this phenomenon occurred for the next several seconds. “Whoa! Som-Something is flowing into me! It's all tingly! This is just freakin’ awesome!” By the end, there was a quick build up before all of the energy was expelled in all directions to return Gilda back to normal. The young Griffin was blinking wildly as she still held a pose with her body standing up and both hands pulled close and at her sides as if she was trying to hold something in.
She was also breathing quickly as her eyes were slightly dilated. As Brex watched on, he knew very well what occurred. Knowledge of many past Dragoon’s were now in printed onto Gilda and she must have felt an intense rush and exhilaration as her body literally broke past the walls of normal limitation that her own physical form and soul were imposed upon her moment of birth. From now on, she would grow and be able to utilize skills that others would require decades of training to even come anywhere near to mastering. This much he knew from his altered memories from the game.
Rainbow stepped up right beside Gilda while throwing her hands in the air and exclaiming the following at the top of her lungs. “What in Tartarus happened? You were all whoosh, boom and kablooey with lightning all over! If that's what happens when you get one of those thingies, then I want one too! Not as cool as me, but still, I cant wait to do that!”
As the both of them were conveying what Guild of felt to one another. Brex sent a signal to Rory, who then made contact with Lin to come in a few minutes later while rolling in a mannequin on wheels. With that, there was also a spear that was propped up on a securing harness next to it as it came in through the doorway that would lead to the front entrance.
The mannequin itself was a full body representation that had a striking resemblance to Gilda's own figure, but minus the wings, tail and a beak. The head was covered with a helmet that protected everything above the mouth with a wide slit for the wearer to see through. The top and going towards the back was a flat bone-like fin that went to a point and gave it a reptile feel.
It had a set of shoulder guards made out of a scale-like material. The same could be said about the chest, pants, gloves and boots that overall sent a signal that one should not mess with whoever wore it. Especially when it came to the ends of the legs and gloves where the edges would protrude outward to give it a sharp look. All of which was made so that many straps were used to keep it all fixed onto the wearers form when secured.
The gloved hands showed a pair of spiked knuckles that could do some serious damage if one was to throw a punch. The boots were equipped with metal joints at the tips that curve to resemble talons of a large bird or perhaps a dragon. The gaps that did not have open flat surfaces for movement were in case with a dark chainmail that was woven very small so that it would not hinder one's range of motion.
The back side showed a set of slits for a pair of wings to protrude and a hole in the right spot to allow a tail to do the same. All in all, the wearer would resemble a type of humanoid dragon with a brown base as the color palette, whereas sections would be dark to the point that it was nearly black.
Behind all of that, was two spears that were lined up so that they could be seen protruding from just behind the left and right shoulders. The one over to the left looked normal until it got to the spear's head that resembled segmented sections of bone and some black feathers attached right as the poll connected to the end.
On the other side. This one looked more normal. Except at the very top, where it broke off into a T-shape and into a set of twin spearheads. As for Lin who was pushing all of this in. She came out from behind a mannequin and was holding in her hands another set of clothing and boots that were tailor-made to fit Gilda.
Afterwards, the new clothing itself was laid out onto the table in the corresponding positions to show it off completely and left the room as quickly as she came to allow them all some privacy. Both of the girls were gushing and commenting on how sick the armor looked for a few moments before Brex coughed into his left fist to gain their attention. He then said as he was gesturing to the object he was mentioning with his right hand.
(Here are some videos of what the two sets appear.)
“This is the new gear you will be wearing while in its natural state if you want. Unlike what you've been using up until now, these have your core stats in mind instead of a broad spectrum. Whereas the first gave a slight boost to your strength, dexterity, endurance, intelligence, wisdom and so on. This will focus on what you require for your class. And trust me when I say you will feel the difference. Now, as for that spear with the dual tips. That's meant to go matching with what I have on the table. The decision I'll leave all up to you on whether or not you wish to keep the original appearance or to change it up.”
Upon hearing this. Gilda glance at the armor once more before going over to see what he was talking about. All laid out was a black outfit that resembled the fiber used in her original denim clothing. Most of it was black and the trim around the neckline was made of a type of white fur. Right next to it was a set of accessories made of a metal that was close to silver and this caught Gilda’s eye as it reminded her so much of her typical style before wearing the outfit that was given to her on their trip.
For the next couple of minutes, Brex watch as Gilda chatted with Rainbow to make a decision. Eventually, he had had enough and suggested that he would step out of the room so that Gilda could try them both on and see what she was more comfortable with. He was just about to turn away and exit the door nearest to them when he felt a hand grabbing on to his right shoulder and causing him to stop and turn to see who it was.
This turned out to be Gilda, as she had this expression of some doubt, while slightly turning her head away and sporting a heavy blush as she spoke. “You... d-don't have to. It's not as though you've never seen me naked anyway. Besides, you're my fiancé so it's fine!” Brex was left rather speechless as he could also catch Rainbow in the same state at the edge of his vision as he was locking eyes with Gilda. The very same eyes that were looking up at him with something different. Temporarily gone was the tough girl act and replaced with the shy type that was having trouble with looking at his body above the neckline.
This started a go-between with Rainbow and Gilda right as the Pegasus snapped out of it and exclaimed loudly, while flaring her wings at the Griffin in an accusatory tone that was also laced with some traces of embarrassment of her own. “Whoa! Hold on there! He's already seen you naked?! When was this?!”
“Ah, that's right, I didn't say. I may have climbed into his bed while he slept when I caught up to him a few days after leaving Ponyville.”
“Then… Then… That means that the two of you have already done it?! Gilda! That's not fair at all! What else have you been keeping a secret from me?”
“No-no Rainbow, we didn't do anything! I was still delirious from exhaustion. I woke up and found myself tracking down his room and climbed into his bed after taking off my clothes. I promise you that nothing bad happened! It was when we woke up in the morning that he got to see me in the nude.”
Brex was watching all of this unfold as he stealthily rolled his eyes at Gilda's attempt to cover up a few key facts. Especially, when it came to how she was literally humping him for a good while and brining herself to multiple orgasms. All the while being completely unaware that he was watching the entire thing as it happened right in front of himself from the start to the end. Clearly the young Griffin was not going to convey the lewd acts she committed in the spirit of the moment and wanted to control the situation a little better.
But as Rainbow was in the middle of grilling for more of the details. Brex had his eye on Gilda and notice something going on over the course of a couple of seconds and how there was something shifting a few of the feathers along the back of her neck. A single black thread wormed out and into the open which was then immediately followed by a few more. Right after at least four or five more these came out and into the open, did the source they were connected to come out and this revealed the same bloody eyeball that Brex saw in the bathroom on the ship.
His eyes went wide before his mouth began to open. However, at that exact instant there was a resounding metallic shing that echoed loudly in both of his ears. This caused him to rapidly blink and the horrifying sight on Gilda's neck was nowhere to be seen. Moreover, Brex was stunned for a second as his mouth was partially open and a confused expression dawned on his features from underneath his mask. After blinking a couple of times, he began to wonder to himself as to what he was just thinking about as there was this lingering feeling that something was forgotten.
He was immediately interrupted with Rory speaking through the connection while sounding a little more than concerned. “Master, is there anything amiss? I thought that I felt our link go a little hazy just now.” Brex soon replied almost dumfoundedly as his eyes were still locked on the pair of girls in front of him that were still in the midst of their heated discussions.
“Oh, I guess it was just my concentration. It must have slipped. It's probably because of how Gilda took me by surprise just now.” Between the two of them. The link was always active. But Rory was not always monitoring everything at all times as she had her own life that required more attention now and then. Still, for it to be cut or to even get hazy. Now that was an occurrence that the two of them found to be more than concerning.
Although, it was understandable that she would be worried whenever it was closed off so abruptly. Especially over the last few days as it was happening at random intervals and Brex was unaware of each of the incidents until Rory brought it up right after the incident or sometime later on. His thoughts were brought right back to the moment at hand as both of the girls grabbed onto each of his hands and guided him towards the couch where he sat just earlier before.
Once he was firmly planted on the cushions. Rainbow assisted Gilda in lifting the table so that it was out of the way and placed so the open area became much wider. Immediately after, Rainbow sat on his right side with her body practically pressing up on him in. In a way. It felt as though the Pegasus was doing this in both an affectionate and excited fashion thanks to the grin that was plastered across her lips.
Unsure as to what was going to happen. Brex warily-eyed Rainbow before bringing his attention over to Gilda. That was when his jaw dropped and his eyes nearly bugged out so much that he almost felt them pressing on his mask from the inside. This was from the Griffin now taking a stance where the table once was, and she was in the middle of unbuttoning her top and slipping off the article of clothing so that she was now showing more cleavage than normally witnessed by him in public.
His vision darted over to Rainbow and then back to Gilda in response. As this was being done, he witnessed the way the Pegasus was grinning even wider and her eyes filled with a distinct level of lust. He then thought the following in a panic, while also trying to keep himself calm on the outside. “What in the seven hells is going on right now?! I-I think I missed something really important! Wait, what is Gilda doing and why is she-. Oh, there goes the jacket... and now here comes the top. And what's with the way she's moving her hips?!”
Rory's voice soon came as it was filled with a mischievous mirth. “Oh~. I see what’s happening now. Didn't really think she was comfortable enough to try it. Although it looks a little stiff, she could do with some polishing.” Brex quickly shot back with, “Rory! Explain to me what's happening right now! And why do I get the feeling that your behind it.”
There was a giggle on her part before she went on to explain that sometime ago, Gilda and her were having some random talks and one thing led to another. Eventually, the topics got around to her spear and Rory commented that it reminded her of these things called a stripper pole. From there, she went on to talk about these places where girls would go to work at and perform certain… exotic acts for the patrons that would go inside.
As Rory was filling Brex in on it a little more. His thoughts were somewhat divided as his sights were squarely locked onto the young Griffin that was conducting some very sensual body movements, along with her hands that were gliding over her form to remove more articles of clothing one after another. As both hands fingertips started at her hips to go up and hook underneath her undershirt. The top was slowly pulled off to allow her bra-clad breasts to come free and instantly tossed aside as soon as her wings slipped loose from the confining undergarment.
Next came her foot coverings. Her belt buckle was undone before she slipped her thumbs underneath the edges around her waist and pulled them down until they were wrapped around her ankles. It took almost no time at all until even those were kicked off and sent soaring over his head and behind the couch with almost practiced movement.
However, on that section. Gilda chose to turn around and bend over so that her ass was pointed straight towards his face. Even her slowly flicking tail had a sensual feel to it as it managed to use the small amount of fur at the end to run underneath the chin of his mask and eliciting a tingle to run across his entire body.
If that was not enough on its own, then there was also the way her panties were so tight that the fabric between her ass cheeks were acting as a thong to barely cover up her privates. Thanks to that. Brex was nearly in direct contact with the supple ass cheeks of a young and very well-in-downed Griffin. The light brown and gold-ish fur that covered most of her body from the neck down, was short enough to easily confuse the Roegadyn into thinking it was tanned skin.
From where he sat. The contrasting pure jet-black bra and panties stood out. More so as they were the lacey kind with some elaborate floral patterns that allowed sections to be nearly see through. To Brex, he had no idea whatsoever that Gilda even owned anything really like that to begin with and had her pegged for something a little more towards her usual style of punk.
An appreciative hum of approvement came from both Rainbow who was sitting next to him and Rory through the connection as the girl in his head spoke up again. “Wow! Now call me impressed... must have got that little number while we were still in Canterlot when we weren't looking. You know, I do recall saying something to her about the red-light district once in passing by. Looks like she took my advice to heart.”
To Brex, he was beginning to wonder if the world source of lewd was coming from his creation in the form of a girl from his own mind. He also contemplated if he may have inadvertently unleashed an unstoppable force of nature that could no longer be contained within the Pandora's Box where it once laid dormant. The world may not have been pure from the start. But he was sure that it was only going to fall into the hole of deprived debauchery that was so deep. One would have no other choice but to dig deeper and deeper.
While Gilda continued to slowly turn on the spot so that she can get into a more provocative pose to show off her body. Brex mutter the following phrase in his head in a tone that was both in reverence and horror. “What… have I exposed Equestria to... And is she-. Yes, Yes, she’s getting into it more. She just licked her beak; I know I just saw that. It wasn’t my imagination.”
Gilda even went so far as to do that little trick where she would bring both of her arms straight down and pull them closer together by adjusting her shoulders. This made it so that both of her large breasts were now pressing together to where the bra was audibly straining itself to stay on right as she leaned her body towards him just a little bit. His mind took no time in wondering just how much more it could take before the orbs were fully on display after breaking free if Gilda was to push just a little bit more.
In the beginning. Her movements were what one would call stiff. But as time went on. The typically cocky Griffin’s confidence grew and everything became more fluid until Brex began to have some rather risky thoughts to come flooding into his mind. Each one evolving from just looking, to that of outright actively touching the girl all over.
More so when it came to the girl’s private areas. Most of them mainly focusing on him first holding the Griffins breasts and going right to roughly playing with them and wanting to find out just what kind of noises she would make. Especially when it came to those piercings that he knew that only Rainbow had seen. This only brought up the memories of when he pretended to be asleep on the Yuna and Gilda climbed into his bed.
Even Rainbow was clearly enjoying the show as Brex heard the ruffling of feathers from one of her wings as the other one was now straining to outstretch itself. Unfortunately, it was bumping into him thanks to how they were sitting next to one another. Rainbow even leaned in just a little more and began to talk with a husky tone to her voice as she kept her eyes on the show. “Heh-Heh. You should see the pole she went and set up at my place. I might even try learning how to use it myself with how much of an exercise she got last night from practicing.”
Thanks to that, Brex was now envisioning the pair doing the strip tease with one another and immediately going into a type of pole dance and using the pole between their legs and a number of stretches. If that wasn't enough, then it nearly pushed him over the edge as his imagination caused both of the figment Gilda and Rainbow to start making out as they leaned backwards away from their perspective poles to lock lips with one another and grind their hips against the long metal rod that protruded from the floor made of clouds and up to the ceiling.
His right eye began to twitch as his mouth formed into a frown. His teeth were now mashing together as his face began to turn red from the amount of effort that he was putting into containing himself. Although there was another problem to deal with when it came what was down below and under his clothing. As it typically had a mind of its own at times, Brex could feel that his cock was slowly getting hard as it attempted to pull into an upright attention stance even though it was currently being stopped by his clothing.
His eyes shot down with Fury behind them as he mentally berated himself on the fact that the two of them were still on probation and it was far too early to rush into these matters. Yes, he saw Gilda on two occasions, and on the latter, she straddled him while not in her right mind. Yes, she was technically his fiancé of his. Yes, he did find her attractive. But if things were to go any further, then odds were that Rainbow was going to join in with the way she was acting and Brex did not want to go down that route.
He then screamed from within his mind in a frantic voice and clear sweat running down his brow. “Where’s a fucking cock-blocker when I need one?!?!Rory, get your fuckable ass in here! No, I mean get in here and stop them before someone makes me fuck them up the ass! No, augh! I mean... For the love of the twelve, you know what I mean!Just get in here and stop them before I lose it!I’m a guy for crying out loud! I need HEEEEEEEELP!”
Gilda went on and nudged herself a little closer and leaned in to where it was just before she would have some trouble with keeping her balance and presented her breasts only a few inches from his mask. Just at the lower edge of his vision, he could plainly tell that Rainbow was reaching over with her right hand after slightly turning her body so that she could get closer to his crotch in an obvious attempt to try and cup of feel of what he had to work with. Brex felt as though he should be straightforward and outright stop all of this. However, he really did not want to deal with the emotional backlash or jeopardize what he had going on.
What if this were to cause Gilda to lose her temper and do something crazy. There was also the possibility that Rainbow would also take it badly and run off. Thereby putting his plans in jeopardy and it leads to the girls getting killed for one reason or another. But he knew that just taking them for that reason was just plain wrong. He had wanted them to get stronger and be able to save their own world. But there was something deep inside that deeply fought at the idea of going all the way. Something that felt… dark. Something that made his insides churn. It was more of him anticipating in some form of regret.
If anything, he had hoped that at some point or another, Rainbow would just lose interest and eventually back out. But soon, another idea popped in his head as he contemplated going after Gilda and showing how rough he could be. Perhaps going barely half as far as he does with Rory might just be enough to scare the two into reconsidering their choice in having him as a partner. He then mentally scolded himself for being such a hypocrite. He even started to hate himself and began to wonder as to what exactly the problem was.
The moment was slowed to a crawl as his mind was in a whirlwind. Brex was just about to act on it when Gilda got around to popping the hooks in the back of her bra loose. This made it so that the straps would fall and hang off to the side as one hand did the work while the other was holding the bra tightly to her breasts. The sound of the elastic fibers could be heard as the sound filled the room. This was all thanks to how much of a strain they were under until that point.
Brex was just about to go along with this out-of-the-blue idea, when there was a chorus of noises being emanated from the closed door at the far end of the room that led to the front of the mansion. These noises consisted of heavy thuds that obviously were produced from a very large two-legged being. A being that was a fair bit larger than a Pony by far. There was even a joyous “Woohoo!” from a young male and what must have been another who was following close behind and frantically begging for someone to stop what they were doing by the muffled sounds of it all.
The loud footsteps came quicker and quicker until the door was forced to fly open after a large yellow form covered in feathers burst right through with little effort with how it was not even locked to begin with. This of course was Crystal the Chocobo, and the small figure on top and holding on tightly to the saddle was none other than Spike the Dragon as he was bobbing around with the way Crystal ran.
At one point or another from Brex’s point of view, the young drake somehow got is hoodie pulled up and it was obstructing his ability to see where he was and what was happening around him. And following close behind was none other than Bee, his personal Chocobo caretaker. Who seemed to be nearly out of breath and sweating up a storm. She even sported some grass stains to indicate that the Changeling was in some minor scuffle with what was most likely the Chocobo herself in some attempt to gain some control over the bird.
Whereas Crystal was obviously having a blast from all the running around along with Spike. Although, the Changeling in disguise was clearly not having that much fun as she was freaking out thanks to the way her voice was cracking and looking around as she gave chase until all of them stopped near the center of the room. But not before Crystal did a few zig-zags, along with a long leap or two that caused the dragon to let out a few more sounds of excitement.
Well, it was more of crystal hitting the brakes and skidding to a stop after several feet. This cause Spike to go flying forward from her back and to be caught by Crystal with her beak at the last second so that he was now hanging in the air. Bee ended up coming to a halt when she came face first into a wall of yellow feathers and fell back onto her tail with a loud thud after first giving a whelp of surprise from the unscheduled pitstop.
Brex expected this to be the end of it all. But the sound of another approaching at a rapid pace could be heard from the now open door and it sounded a lot like Twilight who was on a frantic manhunt for the drake. Unfortunately, as all of this was going on. Gilda was startled and made the mistake of allowing her bra to slip a little from her grasp, even though the pair of breasts were still partly covered and this led to it falling so that it was now on her left foot. There was even a loud squawk as her entire face turned bright red so fast, that Brex wondered if there was magic involved and the Griffin jumped clean over his face and behind the couch in one swift summersault.
As an outcome, the black bra fell and was now laying on top of Brex in a way that they may as well have been ear warmers if he was wearing a set of fake cat ears. Quickly knowing what was about to possibly happen if they were spotted by the ones who came in. Brex reached up with his right hand and took a hold of the black bra and stuffed it into his left sleeve before resting both of his hands on his knees so quickly that it could have been a complete blur to even the athletic Pegasus who was sitting right next to him. Who was watching the whole thing with a shit eating grin.
A few seconds later and a heavily panting Twilight could be seen coming to a stop only a few paces into the room and hunching over with both hands on her knees to keep herself from falling over. She even had a very angry face as she locked eyes with Spike who had just picked up his hood and looked towards the purple Unicorn. Twilight then yelled while trying to hold back some wheezing as she still needed to catch her breath. “Spike... Huff! I said... Huff… No. And that's… Huff! F-Final!”
Back over with Spike. He started to cross his arms and even went so far as to pick up his legs so he was somehow looking as though he was sitting on the floor cross legged as he was still in the grasp of crystal. In a way, he kind of resembled a bag of oranges. A bag of green and purple oranges with the way he was dangling by the back of his shirt. It would have been almost threatening, if it was not for Spike slowly twisting from left to right while doing so.
He then said, “But Twilight! You saw what was written in that book! I should be a little taller and have my wings by now. Then there's the way my diet’s been all wrong too. It was you that went ahead and ordered that book for research! Don’t go and turn a one-eighty on me and say what’s written is all garbage and not to be taken seriously.”
Twilight was standing in place and rather flustered by what was said and soon recovered to retort as she was beginning to get her second wind, while at the same time, looking a little more than nervous. “B-But Spike, I only got that to help me prepare for when the Dragon migration comes along and pass’s near Ponyville. You're way different than those other Dragons. Besides, not a whole lot is known about them to begin within Equestria, so we can't take an unknown author that came out of nowhere seriously. Especially with what he puts down on Dragons.”
Everyone's attention in the room was squarely set onto the arguing pair that continued to go at it further. Brex carefully turned his head so that he could look over his right shoulder and onto the ground just over the couch. Right there crouched so that she was pressing the length of her body against the long back side of the seat itself, was Gilda. She was in nothing but her black panties and wings that were draped over her form. The Griffin was clearly shivering from what he thought was either embarrassment or perhaps anger when it came to the timing of things and how many people suddenly rushed into the room.
Rory soon peeked her head into the doorway after a few more seconds, but kept quiet so that no one noticed she was there, apart from Brex who felt her presence. After looking around to see that the purple Unicorn was talking to a still hanging Spike. A slightly dizzy Bee that was sitting on the floor and Brex and Rainbow standing at the couch. She then said the following through the mental connection while giving an innocent smile as the argument persisted.
“Here's your one-cock-blocker as ordered. Twilight and Spike were already right outside and I asked Crystal for a little help. It didn't take much coaxing for Spike to climb on and to send them running into the house.” This caused Brex to have an internal sigh as he came to the realization that if it was Rory who came in, then there was a chance that Gilda may not have stopped and just continued with what she was about to do.
His attention was brought back to Spike as he said the following. “I… I really don't know about that Twilight. That B.M. character seems to know quite a bit from what I saw so far before I came to you. There’s a whole lot in there that I never even considered and it makes perfect sense now that I think about it. That was even something one of the passages that even talked a little about my fire breath and how to control it when it starts to manifest. Do you have any idea how many books I’ve accidentally burned until I got that under wraps back at the castle?”
Brex raised an eyebrow after hearing that. Slowly it changed to a look of realization as he instantly knew what book they must have been referring too. The Roegadyn had to hold himself back from showing it on the outside and letting out an annoyed groan that he had to deal with not only his apparent herd problems, but also with now that Spike knows some truths when it comes to his race at the same time.
The very book in question, was in fact written by Brex himself and published a couple of months back. It really was not all that long if compared to most when it came to basic information. Which mostly consisted of different types of Dragon categories, their age cycle and what normally progresses when they grow up. However, it did have a good number of facts put in that he learned and disproved during his travels in both Equestria and when he went overseas to where the Dragon Lands were located close to a little over four or five years back.
Originally, Brex put that out to help in case he needed to talk to Twilight about Spike's needs. Although, he did not count on the purple Unicorn going about and ordering it so soon. What was another kicker, was that the original manuscript and first edition were both kept in his library only a few rooms away. Back when twilight first got into his house. She might have found it if she went searching. However, she would need to contend with the number of securities that was implemented in both the houses construction and later on installed.
Now going off of what was going on and how frantic Twilight was being and with trying to downplayed the whole situation. It was most likely; the young Drake was here for a couple of reasons. Which just happened to be what Spike was about to say next and going from being overly frustrated and angry, then being silent as his expression turn to that of nearly breaking down into crying as his eyes slowly drifted towards the floor.
“B-But Twilight… I'm- I’m too short for my age! My body is too squishy. My wings should have sprouted a couple of years ago already. My spines are rounded off at the end, they're supposed to be a little pointier at the very least. I can't even blow flames for more than a few seconds. I'm so weak that I can literally be blown over by a wind that would barely cause Sweetie Belle to have to lean into it to keep herself upright. All of it lines up with me not having proper nutrition and daily activities that are vital for my natural growth to be normal. At the very least I should be almost as tall as you...”
Brex was beginning to feel a little awkward being there for such an intense argument and he could tell by the looks of everyone else that they were in the same boat as him. The only one that did not seem to have a problem, turned out to be Crystal, who was most likely concentrating on holding on to the young Drake so that he would not fall during the small body movements he was making. The kid then went on to say, “Twilight! I'm weak! The only reason I can even pick up all of your books to put them away all at once is because you placed a spell on all of them so that they would be almost as light as a feather when being held by another.”
Spike paused for a second as he was clearly having trouble with saying the next part as sniffles began to escape his lips. “And... And I’m starting to hate being here at Ponyville! I don’t even feel safe being here! I can’t stand it for much longer!” The Roegadyn felt his body tensing up as his blood was slowly simmering to a boil thanks to a gut feeling. Everyone there was stunned into silence as Spike was now rubbing his eyes and elaborating on his comments in the best way he could.
Not only was he upset about his physical condition. But for his treatment in Ponyville since they arrived when compared to when they were living with Twilight's parents or being in the castle with Celestia and her nephew. How he was treated as one of two things. Twilight's baby pet Dragon, or an unwanted guess when he was alone. The second was made more obvious whenever Twilight sent him out to do some errands and he would get the not-so-friendly of interactions with the other ponies in town.
How there was not even one time he could think of, where he could simply go into a store without being constantly watched by the owners from the corners of their eyes. How some of the younger mare's and fillies would make these snide comments about how small and weak he is, or how they could not bring themselves to be seen in his presence or it would hurt their social standing with rest of their family and friends. How he could not even bring himself to go outside to play or he would either get picked on or have his stuff taken by one of the other kids.
This would lead to him confronting the nearby parents and them acting as if the items in question were originally the other kids, or him being made to do some stupid trick to earn them back. Spike did not even have any friends to talk to of the same gender, much less the same species. He even spoke on how he attempted to fill Twilight in so that she would know what was going on. This only got to him being either ignored, or played off as some misunderstanding and that he was not putting enough effort into making some new friends. Only to have the issue pushed aside for her own problems in the end.
Brex barely noticed the small whelp of pain that came from Rainbow as she backed further away on the couch after a small sizzle was emanated from between their bodies coming into contact. There was also a small throbbing from his left eye that he paid little mind too. From behind, Gilda was growling but at a lower volume so that it could not be heard by the others that were a bit further away. All eyes were being drawn over from Spike that finally finished after a good long couple of minutes, to only land on Twilight who was now shrinking on the spot from the different types of gazes from everyone there.
Brex was about to say something when Spike spoke up again after first wiping away some tears from his eyes. “The only ones in town that even listen to a thing I say and take it seriously are those in this house! That’s why I’m here…” As a result, Brex could feel his body temperature returning to normal as he was no longer seeing red. Even the small throbbing sensation he been experiencing for a few minutes soon vanished. Twilight looked as if she was about to cry on the spot and make a break for the door when Brex called out in a loud, yet tender tone while also not turning his mask towards the Unicorn.
“Twilight, this will not get resolved if you run away now. It’s clear that Spike’s on edge and everything he's saying is out of raw emotion. Yes, we should listen to everything he says, but I doubt very much that he meant to hurt you with that last comment.” Brex then took in a slow breath of air before releasing it as he continued. “Crystal, could you please put down Spike? It would be better if he, Twilight and myself go to the study so we can talk things out.” Crystal did just that and slowly lowered the young Dragon onto his feet before she too left with Bee through the large set of doors.
However, just as she was going, the Chocobo gave Spike a little nuzzle before walking off. Although upon passing Twilight. The large bird made a scoffing sound right before giving a light flap with her wings to straighten out a few feathers. This had the effect of lightly slapping the backside of Twilight's head so that she nearly stumbled forward and glanced back at the bird with a scowl. Brex then took Twilight and Spike and left the way they came in to take another path that would not have them walking right by a still naked Gilda that was hiding behind the couch.
But just as he was about to go through the doorway. Brex called from over his shoulder to Rainbow without turning his body very much. “Make sure to let Gilda know when she comes back to make up her mind if she wants me to do that trick to the armor. This might take a little while. You can either stay for dinner or head on home. Depending on how tonight goes, tomorrow's class might be put on hold.”
As they were walking quietly down the hallway. Brex had this pit in his stomach that said making that book may not have been such a good idea. However, now that Spike's treatment was brought to light. Brex was not so worried about messing with the timeline so much if it meant jumping on this problem now. If anything. This could have been seen as a blessing in disguise.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 76: A New Student And Growing Concerns.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Deep in the Everfree Forest* *Time: The next day, One-thirty in the afternoon*
Spike was sitting in one of the small chairs provided on the bridge of the Yuna and quietly observing Twilight and the rest of the girls who were conversing with Gambit below the ship and getting ready to head into the nearby tree line. All of this was all thanks to a large screen being projected right in front of the see-through dome so that everyone inside could get a good view of what was happening out there. All around him were unfamiliar pieces of technology as most of the surface area that he could make out were covered in what was either blinking buttons or glowing panels of lights and odd icons.
Around him were four ponies with the same face and clothing who were busying themselves at their own stations. Near the back and towards what he assumed was one of those computers that he heard about back in Canterlot, was the only one of the group to be wearing a set of large round glasses. As for the others, two were in chairs on either side of the front see-through dome and looking over their consoles. Every now and then they would converse with one another on either personal matters or what was happening on the ship.
The last of the crew was in the center and looking awfully bored with the way she was tapping her four fingers in a rhythm on the console as her head was lazily laying on her fist that was being propped up with one eye open. He wasn’t quite sure, but he was almost positive that he caught that one mumbling about not getting depressed the buttons she wanted. She would even make some pretend explosion sounds from under her breath, of which he found curious.
After a couple of seconds went by after seeing everybody leave into the forest as a group. Spike's attention was brought to his right as the one with the glasses stepped away from what she was doing to stand next to him and give a light cough to gain his attention. She then attempted to push her glasses firmly in place after previously getting loose from making the noise before speaking up. “I can tell that you're a little scared. Want to talk about it?” In response, Spike look towards his clawed feet before giving a silent shake of the head to indicate that he did not feel up for it.
The mare stayed where she was for a couple of seconds and said the following before turning to return to her station. “Well, that's too bad. And here I thought you'd want to see something cool~.” Hearing the word cool, cause the couple of his spines to give a subtle twitch to show that he was interested and slowly got off of his chair to follow her over. Soon, he found himself standing next to the strange mare and staring at a large monitor with a set of half circles. one of which was slightly larger and going outwards while a smaller one was rotating in the opposite direction. Below that was a rectangular bar and it was beginning to fill up slowly.
Eventually the screen went all white before fading away and revealing a strange stone area that look to be in a weird coliseum. The entire area was a perfect square with three large towers at the bottom and again at the top where the end was. The bottom ones were a bright blue, while the opposing side was red. The one next to him then began to point at a couple of icons and immediately pressing some buttons on the panel below the screen to bring up a list of what Spike assumed where characters of some sort.
Whoever or whatever they were would move their arms and legs as if either jumping or walking in place. Among these were ponies Griffin’s, Dragon’s, Minotaur’s, Buffaloes and a couple of other species that he had only heard of in either books or passing from others in the castle. There were even a few creatures and monsters thrown in the mix. Soon he was explained that it was a type of game modeled after another that would soon be showcased somewhere else and that Spike was literally looking at the prototype.
The objective was to conquer the other towers by deploying these minions and systematically conquering key points along the way. There are those that were meant to attack from a short distance or go at one another in a head-to-head fight. There were even healers and those that would cast a positive or negative effect. These depended on what their role was when deployed from the start. The more key points one captures the more units they were allowed to have deployed all at one time as the game progressed.
Eventually, he got to watch her play a match to get the basics down before a turn was offered to him. Spike was hesitant at first, but after getting a reassuring nod did the Dragon finally get around to mustering his courage to give it a try. In the beginning, the young Spike was having some difficulty with coming up with what to throw into his options before the match began. A few mistakes were made here and there and towers were lost as a result. Luckily enough, he was a fast learner and quickly got a hold of the situation and was fighting back with well-planned maneuvers and combinations of characters at his command.
A tower would be taken back and the enemy would be pushed into ambushes. His opponent's troops would be cut in half where the casters would be left undefended before being taken down from both ends. And before he knew it, Spike had completely turned it around and dominated his digitally imposed opponent and took all three of the other side's Towers in one fell Swoop after maxing out his points for available units for an all-out assault.
Right as the march came to an end upon the announcement of the victor being the player. The Changeling in disguise that was standing next to him for the whole time, now had a look of surprise as she glanced over his score which depicted all of his actions from the start and all the way till the finish. She even went so far as to remove her glasses to clean them with a piece of her clothing that was near the end of her sleeve to make sure that she was seeing correctly as the score was definitely higher than her own.
Spike himself was giving a fist pump while cheering for his victory. All the while, he was unaware that he was the center of attention as the others eventually made their way over and was watching from behind as well. The first to speak up and to draw the young Dragon’s attention happened to be the mare that was in the weapons seat thanks to a long whistle that was given off before she spoke. “Dang! And here you didn't have any experience at the game and you still kicked its ass. Didn't think you had it in you kid, but you sure came back with a vengeance. Nice work with getting your golems in place to cut off the healers from the rest of the pack.”
The young Drake was scratching the back of his head with his right arm, while also looking a little sheepish after getting the compliment. The one that was with them from the start began to add her own voice to the mix. “I dare say, you might have even gotten the top score if it wasn't for your shaky start. If I didn't know any better, then I’d think you were one of our beta testers.” Spike was beginning to blush by this point as he kicked the ground with the tip of his clawed foot as he replied.
“Um, t-thanks. Once I had an understanding of what all of my units could do on the field and their movement patterns, then it wasn't really all that hard to come up with a strategy. Getting used to the controls were also tricky. I don’t think I’ve had this much fun in a while. The moving pictures were really cool to look at and I was almost sucked into the game. Wouldn’t be too surprised if others played it nonstop for hours on end.”
The one in glasses raised an eyebrow to this and glanced over to the screen before bringing her attention back to spike as she replied. “Really now? You only got to see them use their skills only once, and you memorized it on the spot? Never seen anyone else pick up on it's so quickly. As soon as we threw our testers at it, I don’t think any of them won a match until their third or fourth try. It has a system setting where I could put it on either easy, normal or hard mode and you were playing it right at normal setting.”
From there, a small smirk was creeping on to her lips as she placed both hands onto her hips before leaning in to say the following. “Say~. You wouldn't happen to be a fan of Heroes for Hire, are you?” From behind Spike, the other three were giving themselves silent facepalms as they turned away to go back to their stations. But not until each one gave out some type of complaint that was of the following.
“Oh, not again...”
“Typical, should have seen it coming!”
“At least it's not us now. Good luck kid. You're going to need it!”
There was a short pause from Spike as he listened and watched the others go. When his attention was brought back to the one that was asking the question earlier. He could not help but to shrug his shoulders before apologetically saying, “I do play it at home, but I didn't bring any of my cards with me.” This got a triumphant smirk from her before she excitedly gave out a squeal and clapped her hands together as she spoke.
“Oh goodie! I got a couple of pre-made decks on hand. How about you wait here and I go grab them!” And without even allowing any time at all for the young dragon to come up with his own reply. The mare was already running to the now sliding open bulkhead and out of sight at such a pace one would have thought that her tail was on fire. But before the door closed again, there was an excited squeal that echoed from deeper down the hallway to indicate that she had already gone down the distance.
Spike then said the following while not taking his eyes off of the now closed door so that all the others could hear. “Uuuuh… Anyone want to fill me in on what THAT was all about?” The one on the left gave a small chuckle as she was pushing at a couple of buttons at her station. As for the next one over. She was only shaking her head slowly and raising her arms in a shrugging gesture right as the last spoke up. “I hope you really like to play that game because... well... she's not going to let you go for a couple of hours until she's satisfied. None of us wants to play with her anymore because she gets way too competitive.”
It was the second one who then spoke up as she released a grunt of annoyance. “It was all fun and games a month or so ago but... the rest of us are just sick of it and need a break. You wouldn’t believe what lengths we had to go through to get her to stop pestering to play.” Spike gave a nervous gulp as he fixed the neckline of his shirt after hearing their words and said the following from under his breath. “In the words of Gambit. What in the name of the twelve have I gotten myself into?”
As if the world was waiting for that exact question. The door suddenly opened and in came the mare that was just being spoken of. In an instant, his eyes went wide upon seeing a large box that was just small enough to fit through the door frame and there were a couple of deck size boxes stacked clear over the top which was still open. The entire thing was slightly swaying from side to side as a couple of the containers shifted around to where it nearly tumbled over in some random direction.
There was a noticeable cold sweat that ran down the side of his head as he said the following with a nervous chuckle. “Oh... now I see. Hehe-hehe... could we at least grab some snacks first?” After hearing that, the mare poked her head from one side of the box excitedly as she said, “That is a splendid idea, we can play even longer then! Here, keep an eye on these while I head down to the mess area. We’re going to need at least eighteen bottles of two-liter drinks and several pounds of snacks to hold us over! Ooh~, This is gonna be so much fun!”
She then went right up the spike and handed him the entire stack and rushed off. But just as she was doing this, Spike was overshadowed by the sheer size of everything and started to wobble on his shaky legs. As soon as she was gone again. Spike said the next bit as his voice betrayed his struggling. Why do I somehow feel déjà vu like with Blue Blood…” It did not even take a few more seconds until he fell into the chair behind himself and released a grunt from the sudden pressure of all the cards now laying on his lap.
It was at that precise moment over in Canterlot castle that Prince Blue Blood was walking down one of the hallways and suddenly began to sneeze a couple of times. Upon the third sneeze did a and gentle female’s voice drew his attention from right next to him as his mane was getting a little messed up from the sudden head jerking. “Prince Blue Blood, are you feeling unwell? May I suggest putting these discussions with a few of the nobles on hold today? That way you can get some rest.”
The prince blinked a couple of times before discreetly wiping his nose after looking around to see if anyone was watching. A small cough was given as a hint of an embarrassed blush crossed his cheeks as he turned to the one speaking and replied, while also straightening himself out. “Thank you for the concern I do appreciate it. Alas my presence is duly required. It has come to my attention that a number of the shop owners are pulling out of Canterlot in droves. Many of the owners of the buildings are complaining about the sudden influx of lost revenue due to all of the unexpected lease agreements being broken without warning.”
He then quickly added after lately coughing into his fist and turning away to one of the open windows as they went right back to walking, and the female being slightly hidden thanks to some of the shadows that were being cast on that half of the hallway. “Have you… What I mean to say is. I heard that one of the noble stallions approached you during the party.” This earned him a little giggle from the female and this made him look away a little more as his expression turned a worrisome. She then said, “I was merely getting an invitation to a herd.”
As his head was still turned away. Prince Blue Blood’s eyes shot wide open as his face fell. There was even a nervous gulp that he desperately tried to hide before she continued. “But as you no doubt expected, I turned it down the invitation. I’m far too busy after all. Oh dear, we have already arrived at the meeting room. If you shall excuse me, I will move on to my other tasks. Until then, please be careful and do be mindful of that little cold of yours. Perhaps later tonight I will have a word with the cooks and have them serve some soup along with your dinner.”
And with that. Blue blood excused her and began to take the final steps towards the closed door as his ears swiveled to listen to the female gaining distance down the hallway that they came from. As soon as he was sure that she was far enough away that she would need to turn a corner and that he was alone in that part of the corridor. Prince blue blood stopped just one step before placing his hand on the doorknobs. He then began to slump his shoulders as a very relieved sigh escaped his lips.
He then whispered, “I don’t know what I would have done if she had accepted the proposal… perhaps it would have been better if I had stayed at her side instead of making my rounds that night. After this, I should probably talk to my aunts. Surely one of them must have some valuable advice on how I should move forward. No-no-no-no-no, t-this is just too embarrassing to ask them. Maybe going to Sir Fancy Pants would be a better idea. At the very least his wife, miss Fleur de Lis may have a few pointers on how I should approach her.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
The Roegadyn was standing a few paces away from an oversized black and purple bug with a long bulbous tail in a stinger at the end. The creature itself was on its legs for a couple of seconds before crumpling to the ground and going completely motionless after giving a final twitch. Just as the last time they were all out this deep. Brex was staying in the group that consisted of Applejack, Rainbow and Pinkie. The pink party pony was jumping in place and cheering as the other two were giving each other a fist bump as Brex was looking over their latest foe that was brought down by their hands.
This was like so many of the others, which turned out to be a dire mite. This one in particular was roughly a third of the size taller than Applejack and set at level fourteen. There were also another four more scattered about to show that an entire group was taken out at once. This time, Brex was utilizing the White Mage class and held in his right hand, was a staff made of a red colored wood that went into a curve to show a hook.
In the beginning, Brex did have to throw a couple of offensive spells here and there for some assists. However, after the first encounter, the others were doing fairly well for themselves and he was primarily keeping an eye on the battlefield while casting healing spells when needed. Which turned out to be less and less as the girls all began to develop their fighting instincts and had a good feel on what the others were capable of so that they could anticipate the next course of actions.
But this did not mean that he could take it easy with how he had to lower his stats to compensate for the others experience gain. He then communicated to Rory through the connection while keeping an eye on his surroundings and mini map for any unwanted visitors that might try to sneak up on them. This of course sparked a back-and-forth conversation between the two.
“How's it going on your side?”
“As well as I expect yours to be. Although I could do without Rarity complaining every ten seconds and Twilight over analyzing the situation when she should be acting. Fluttershy however is doing better. At least her little scares are not being as frequent as before. She only fainted once so far.”
“Every ten seconds huh? That's definitely an improvement from every five. How about we meet up again at the ship in half an hour for a rest break?”
“That would be for the best. We could even switch some of the group members around. You know, just to see how well they can adapt now that they’ve gotten a good feel for it.”
“Hmm. Good plan. I'll send Rainbow and Pinky and I'll take Twilight and Rarity in exchange. It’s really a shame that Zecora couldn’t join us this time either. I had a feeling that her tonics were going to be so popular over at the twin’s spa. Sure, that stuff keeps for a long while, but the ingredients are goanna be hard to come by if she doesn’t collect them before the seasons change.” There was a slight pause before he added, “Say Rory... What do you think about last night?”
“Hard to tell. But I think my Master made a good call. Also sending Twilight over with you might help an easing her worries if she got to see how well you can handle yourself when teaching others. Apart from a couple of lectures and going into the forest a short way, she hasn't had all that much time with you to feel comfortable with what was talked about.”
“All right then, I'll see you in thirty minutes.” And with that the conversation came to an end and Brex ushered the girls to continue on their search for creatures to slay. All the while keeping his young charges safe. As this was happening, his mind drifted to the events of last night after Spike in Twilight showed up at his house. The three were inside one of the many rooms on the first floor, which was quite spacious as tall bookshelves were lining the walls.
There was even a window with dark purple drapes closed shut so that no light could come in. The light fixtures were lit and a magical fire was ignited, which gave off a tender glow and offering some warmth to the chili air that came about the current season. This was thanks to him using a low-level Dungeons and Dragons spell which ignited the logs. Brex soon took a seat at one couch that was facing the door that they came in as the other two took the other one that was facing him and sat in silence for a few moments.
Twilight was appearing to be nervous as she attempted to slowly place a hand onto his right shoulder, but only to cause Spike to pull away with tears in his eyes after pulling his shoulder away with a quick jerk. On his part, Brex appeared to be a rock with how he just sat there watching. However, the reality was that he had a mix of emotions at what he was unfolding. Among these was anger towards the town. Self-loathing for having printed that book and bringing up all of this. Disapproving towards Twilight and of course Celestia as well for not even considering the fundamental needs of a young Dragon who was stuck in Pony culture.
Then there was what he was feeling towards Spike himself as the young Dragon lowered his head while also refusing to acknowledge Twilight who was sitting a couple of inches away on his right side. He felt guilty about putting a wedge in their relationship. Although, with the way the world was no longer an exact replica of the show, there was no telling whether or not the dangers would escalate to where he could possibly lose his life if nothing was done soon to improve his chances.
In the cartoon, most of what Spike did was ride on the back of Twilight as she was the main mode of conveyance whenever trouble struck. A lot of his struggles required him to run for the most part or for the danger to be somewhat tame at best. There was literally a small handful of times that his life was on the line. Now... now it was all different. Life and death struggles happen on a daily basis in this world.
Not to mention the prejudice with him not only being a Dragon, but of the male persuasion. If he did not have to deal with the female Dragons of his kind then he still had to worry about the ponies. Sure, in Dragon culture there happened to be fewer males just like with many of the other races. But it was not so bad. In terms of ratio there are at least three female Dragons to one male. The real problem is that in this society he is still considered weak just because of his gender.
Getting together with those outside of their species was becoming less and less uncommon as the years went by. Who's to know that when he became a little older, that there would not be some group of females that would try to take advantage of him. Sure, there was already Rarity who was widely known for taking him up on his offers for assistance. Brex actually cringed as the image of Spike being used as a pin cushion in both the figurative and literal sense crossed his mind. Yes, he was indeed taller because of the anthropomorphic way everyone was in this world. However, Brex feared for his safety as he began to speak for the first time upon them all sitting down.
“Spike. Twilight implied that you wanted to ask me something. I'm ready to listen if you're ready to talk.” The young Dragon was twiddling his thumbs as he nervously began to explain his situation. It basically ran down as the following as Spike laid it all out. How coming to Ponyville sounded great in the beginning. But it quickly evolved to what it was now after a couple of weeks past and the whole Nightmare Moon coming back blew over. As Twilight was making friends and becoming better known by the residents of the town, Spike was also going through the opposite as the residents all slowly knew of his character.
At first, the simple fact that he was a Dragon was one thing, but once his caring nature and lack of aggression became more and more apparent. The residence turned to becoming more at ease. Spike thought this was good from his point of view until it slowly changed even further. The fear and reverence turned to distrust and ignorance. What was once a happy, “Oh, it's the Dragon of Twilight.” Was now a cynical, “Oh… Look at that, it's just Twilight's little pet Dragon.” In no way was he identified as her little brother. But instead, the way they refer to him gave the impression that he was some owned creature.
Many of the store clerks would act as if nothing was wrong whenever Twilight was with him. However, whenever an errand came up and needed Spike to go in on his own then everything would just turn on its head and he would just get watched like a hawk. They would even go so far as to ask a number of inappropriate questions about why he was purchasing the items in hand and if Twilight knew that he was out on his own. There was a handful of other incidences where the shop owners would even make remarks that would insinuate that he got the coins through some less respectable means and question whether or not Twilight gave them to him or not.
He even went on to speak about the living conditions at home. How everyday he needed to keep the library spotless and cook all of Twilight's meals. Not to mention the nearly endless chore list and shopping that he needed to go out to do, while she stayed indoors and would read her books from sunup till sundown on most days. Twilight would only talk to him whenever she wanted to ask a question or give him something else to do. Even on his days off he had to take half of it to go and do a favor for his older sister.
And speaking of Spike’s days off. When he was not doing any of that. He was literally scared to leave the house due to the near constant bullying he would receive from the other kids and adults whenever Twilight or her friends were not anywhere in earshot. Aside from Big Mac, who never left the farm, along with Brex and Rory. The kid literally had no one else to talk to, or to do even anything at all with.
The young Dragon just allowed all of this out and into the open as the words flowed to show just how much he was holding onto and keeping bottled up. Twilight attempted to interject here and there to offer some explanation or some flimsy reply on her defense. But the Unicorn was stopped by Brex, who lifted a single finger and placed it over the mouth section of his mask to show that she was to remain quiet until her little brother was finished with venting his problems with any unnecessary interruptions.
By the end. He was looking almost spent as his shoulders violently shook from time to time. While also holding onto his elbows and looking down to the floor with watery eyes. Twilight herself was looking shaken up as well by what was conveyed. As her mouth slowly opened as if wanting to say something to her younger brother, to only fail miserably and close it once again. Her ears were even flattened to the sides of her head as she was getting ready to cry from where Brex sat.
However, this all turned her face to that of abstract horror as she then heard Spike say the following as he was now balling up his fists, and also keeping his face hidden from both her and Brex. “Can… Can you possibly… H-help me w-with… Gulp! S-Some training too? I can’t stand it all anymore… Take me into the woods just like you do for the others. Teach me how to be… Not what I am… Something. Anything. I’m begging you, PLEASE!”
Brex expected as much as he slowly leaned back into his chair and outstretched his arms so that his shoulders were almost hanging off of the back of the couch. But still. Even with him being ready for it. He still felt a strong shock from hearing those words from Spike’s own lips. His head lazily tilted only a small amount to his left as he asked the following to start a back and forth between him and Spike, while he continuously motioned for Twilight to stay silent in the meantime. “Training is all there is, right? Or is there more?”
“I-I... I want to become stronger, because everyone takes advantage of me. I want to show them all that I'm not some pushover that will take the abuse and roll over. I’m a person, not a pet.”
“Is that it? You want to become my student so you can, what? Beat up your bullies? Show them all just who’s boss? Take your frustration’s out on them? Be the top dog as they say? Or perhaps it’s all revenge and they will get what they did to you with a hundred times more?”
“N-No, I don't want to just go around and beat them up. I want to be taken a little more seriously. Even I know that violence and revenge is a lonely path to travel. At least… That’s what they say in a lot of the books I’ve gone and read. Besides, I already know what it's like to be bullied and I don't want to be on the other end of it. It’s not right at all to make another feel this way. Also, I'm scared. I'm scared of having to rely on Twilight all the time. I don't want to be a baby for my entire life. And it's because of that that no one listens to a thing I say.”
Spike finally raised his head to show a fire in his eyes that was not there before as he continued with him looking straight ahead. “And after reading that book, I could now see so many things that are wrong with me. I wouldn't be surprised if I still looked exactly the way I am from seven years from now. Will I still be without my wings? Or not even grow enough to look at Twilight in the eyes without straining my neck back? Will I always be a baby to all around me? What happens in the event I’m alone? I won’t be able to survive on my own.”
His voice was starting to tremble as he spoke on even more. “Also... I want to be of real help to Twilight and everyone else! I'm not so silly to believe that I'll just run out and defeat the first high level monster I come across, but I need to be able to defend myself at the very least. I couldn’t help with Nightmare Moon. I couldn’t even help at all when Rarity was captured by those Diamond Dogs! What will happen if something else was to go wrong and it ends up with me being right there? Will I be forced to just watch from the side-lines as my sister or another is taken away?”
Twilight could not hold back any longer and butted in after hearing him say so much. “S-Spike, you're still far too young! Twelve years old is not a time you should be taking up a weapon. Please, just think it over a little more.” That was when Brex decided to interject and loudly coughed into his fist to gain the other's attention before he spoke. “Twilight, this may come as a shock, but once dragons hit the age of ten, they're typically seen as adults in the Dragon Kingdom.” This started a heated debate between himself and Twilight as Spike sat to intently listen to his words.
“The simple matter that he has not grown into his wings by now is a dead giveaway that there is an issue that needs to be addressed. They should have come in around the age of seven or eight. Late bloomers get them by his age and you would be lucky for them to pop up at all after that.” Brex was not kidding. Sure, Spike got his late on the show. However, from his personal research and asking other Dragons. He was not lying. As far as he knew, the Spike of this world may not get them and he would end up wingless for his whole life.
“Oh, come on! Don't tell me you've gone and looked at that stupid book too?! I know what I’m about to say is too much, but. Whoever the author is, they're a bucking idiot! I bet they got all their info off of rumors and what they could think of from the tops of their heads. There have hardly been any books that talk about Dragons in the library, or even in Canterlot for that matter.”
“Oh, the author is an idiot, are they?” Brex leaned on to his right hand as the elbow rested on his knee before he continued in an innocent voice. By the way, who is on that tome? Must be someone you don't know to speak so much against. And here I had you figured to be the trusting type.”
“Huh? Oh, uh I don't remember! I was more preoccupied with calming Spike down to look at that closely. But wait, that's not the point. It doesn't matter who the author is. What matters is Spike being told some ridiculous theories that have no basis. You know what? Wait right here. I'll go back to the library and grab it so you can see for yourself!”
While in a huff. Twilight stood up and was about to make for the door when Brex motion for her to wait and stood up from the couch himself. With confusion stricken on both of his guests faces. Brex strolled silently over to one of the nearby bookcases that was off to the right and brought a hand to his mask to make a thinking gesture while scanning the line of books that were on display.
As this was all going on. Brex nonchalantly spoke as his fingers slowly went from left-to-right on each of the shelfs rows once starting at the top and heading down. “Were the books binding dark purple by chance, and the cover also happen to be decorated with jagged stones in the corners and what seems to be an outline of a dragon's face turned downwards?”
After getting a small, “Uh… yeah.” From Twilight. He went on. “Was it also published within the last few months?” Again, he got the same response from Twilight. Although, this time it was rather reluctant by the sounds of it. After a few more seconds, Brex made an exaggerated sound of accomplishment while pulling out the previously described book from the shelf and casually turned around to flip through the pages.
Twilight's eyes went wide as she pointed towards the item in his hands and loudly yelled in a way to show her growing anger after seeing the book that caused this whole incident, but quickly died down near the end. “That's it right there! Now you can see just how... uh... why do you have that?” Brex did not answer her back as he returned to his seat and slowly thumbed through a couple of the pages. When he stopped, there was an illustration that was hand drawn on one page while the other side had an extensive amount of writing.
The pictures depicted of an egg that would slowly progress from that of being infantile, to one of teenage years through the course of several pictures. He then started to glance over a few of the texts before loudly closing the book. He then said, “Well, it's all written right there. From the looks of it, I doubt it's all something that, as you say, came out of the writer's ass.” When Twilight heard him get to the part at the end with him saying the word ass. She immediately reached over and tried to plant both of her hands on the side of spikes head to muffle anything else from reaching the Dragon as she gave Brex a dirty scowl of disapprovement of using such language.
The young dragon batted his older sister's hands off before adopting a serious look. Spike then said, “Twilight, it may come as a surprise. But I've heard much more vulgar language than that in town.” His expression turned dark as his eyes look towards the ground before continuing in a quiet voice. “Oh I've heard a lot, that's for sure…” That got Twilight to go from shock at hearing this revelation, to that out outright fury. This was made obvious when the mare began to mumble from under her breath. These being some rather pony related vulgar words towards the town’s residents.
The purple Unicorn was clearly getting more and more upset by the moment. Eventually, it quickly turned to what Brex saw as a protective instinct by pulling Spike in for a hug right finishing with nearly having a melt-down over her brother. During this, Brex look down to the cover and saw the two letters at the bottom that said, B M. This only caused him to roll his eyes until they laid onto his bookshelf where there were quite a number in full view that had those initials on the spines.
After giving them a few minutes to collect themselves. Brex spoke up again as he slid the book on the table and over to Twilight. “Look at the author. Do you recognize it? She released Spike and used her finger to clear her now wet eyes before glancing at the book in question. Soon, she had this look of surprise as she snatched it up to bring it closer so that she was positive at what she saw. She then spoke in an uneasy tone. “Hold on... I know this author! I mean I don't know him personally, but I know of their work. It's the same person that wrote that thesis on the Multiverse. I believe I even have a couple more of their works scattered in the library.”
While still holding on to the book in her left-hand. Twilight was holding her right onto her forehead while pacing back and forth between the space of the couch and the small table. As this was going onNow going back . Brex could hear the mare rambling on. “This author wrote that book and also this one? There's even the one about the genie. Oh, and that one girl with the wicked two step sisters and step mother that got to go to the ball thanks to a fairy godmother. There was even that one where a young man is brought back from a distant memory of the past and goes on an adventure with a group of friends and a mage that could summon magical beasts to get rid of a world destroying monster.”
“I remember there being a mention of Chocobo's and flying ships that don't need balloons to stay in the air. So many stories have been published over the recent years and they're all from the same person.” Twilight froze in place as her gaze was stuck at the far wall for a couple of seconds before she turned her attention back to Brex. With an almost questioning expression. She said the following slowly. “Now that I recall... the ship in that story has a striking resemblance to the one that we all took to go into the Everfree forest... if I didn't know any better, then I'd say it came straight out of that... Even the name Yuna… It was one of the main characters.”
Brex gave a light shrug and innocently replied with, “Hmm. That sounds like a big coincidence to me. More importantly. You sound to be a fan of the author. Now what you got to ask yourself is this... do you really think that you should disregard everything in that book that you're holding as nothing but complete fiction? Sure, from what you said. This author sure loves to write out a lot of fantasy stories. However, there must have been other works that are more on the serious side.”
Twilight was obviously torn between what she firmly believed over the course of a decade and what was right in front of her. From his side. Brex knew that she must have been in the middle of listing some of his works with how she basically had the library memorized for some confirmation to what was said. But after some coaxing from Brex, the purple unicorn sat down and began to quickly skim through the contents as Spike was right next to her and glancing at the pages himself.
Over the course of the next two hours. The three of them would discuss what was written. To say that Twilight was beside herself as one question led to an answer that she did not feel comfortable with hearing, was an understatement. Eventually, she faced the reality that not only was she unaware of Spike’s predicament in regards to the town and how he was treated behind her back. But also, the fact that his dietary and physical needs were not being met.
She was almost shaking uncontrollably and outright crying as she profusely apologized to Spike by the end. She would even say things like, how she was so sorry about not paying attention and possibly stunting his growth. To Brex, Twilight was almost stuck in a loop thanks to how she would keep circling around again and saying sorry over and over again. At one point. The Roegadyn found himself rolling his eyes from behind his mask on the ninth time around.
The purple Unicorn even promised that she would immediately send a letter after getting back home to the princess about what she found out. But with Brex. He knew that such a letter would bring the princess to Ponyville and he was not having any of that. Instead, he recommended that sending the book, along with the letter about what was discovered would be good enough. Otherwise, the odds were that the town would suffer if word of Spike’s mistreatment was to get to her ears.
Twilight herself was almost turning giddy at the idea of the princess coming in to deal with the one’s that did all of this to her brother. It was not until Brex explained the aftermath. How it would not help Spike in the way she thought. If anything. It would only cause more problems further down the road. There were a few reasons, but the biggest one was of how the Drake would be viewed by the public and the possible backlash. Not to mention. Spike would be none the better. What was needed to be done, was for him to be the one to fix his own dilemma.
Afterwards, when it came to Spike’s other problem. The Roegadyn said that it would not be a bad idea to help train Spike in the use of some self-defense. Not only that, but it may be a good idea to have him come over once in a while. At the very least, this way he could have the proper nutrients in his diet once a day. This way he could start his recovery process. The plan was to start small. As to not send his body into shock. For him to suddenly have meat after not getting any for his whole life. Would be no different to a starving person who suddenly got their hands on solid food. What the Drake needed, was to ease into it.
Twilight however was not so keen on the idea of Spike taking up a weapon. But Brex insisted that he would be taking it nice and slow since he was still considered a minor and that he would not be pushed into anything too dangerous while on his watch. When it came to the whole needing to eat meat issue. The purple Unicorn was visibly dry heaving as she was beginning to turn a shade of green at the idea. At first, she was willing to let Spike eat meat at the treehouse, but after a couple of seconds. Twilight took back that statement and reluctantly agreed to having her brother to come over to his place for either lunch or dinner.
Nevertheless, she did state that she was to be present at all times whenever Spike was to take any classes from him if they were to be outside. Brex rolled his eyes at this eventually and agreed to the terms as he saw that there was no other way to get Twilight to allow such an arrangement for her brother to learn how to fight. However, it would have to wait until after the others gathered in the following morning. Brex even summoned one of his maids and requested that two extra places be made at the table so that Twilight and Spike could have dinner before heading back to the library.
But when she heard him specifically saying to make a meal for Spike that had what was called a Gobbler in it. The now turning green Twilight attempted to leave. But she was caught by Brex who had placed both of his hands onto the sides of her arms to pin them down and carried her towards the dining hall with Spike closely following behind. In a way. Twilight was no better than a small kid who was in the middle of a tantrum over not wanting a bath. Luckily enough, she quickly relented and just looked straight ahead with an unamused stare.
All the while, he was silently snickering to himself and making sure that Twilight could not see him doing so. She protested greatly. But she calmed down to a degree when he said that she needed to get over it. Especially as he was her brother and supporting his daily needs is exactly what he requires right now for some emotional support.
Now going back to the present. Spike had just won another round of the computer game while waiting on his new card buddy to return from getting the snacks. He even started to silently began to snicker to himself as he recalled the way Twilight was constantly ready to run to the bathroom whenever he took a bite out of the roasted gobbler that was on his plate the night before. In the beginning, he was not sure what to make of it as he had never once consumed any form of meat in his entire life. But oddly enough, the young dragon instantly took a liking to it.
Somewhere deep down there was this growing need to eat it as quickly as possible. Especially as the unfamiliar taste washed over his tongue and lit a strong desire that was more compelling than any he had ever experienced. The strange aroma and herbs danced in his mouth and only made him drool for the next bite. Oddly enough, Spike began to notice that he was actually fatigued and for the first time it was as though his muscles finally relaxed when compared two before the meal. No. It was not only that. It was more like his entire life if he was honest. An unyielding hunger was now being satisfied.
In a way, it was as if his body was screaming that it needed to be in his stomach and that it knew this from the very beginning. Spike was just now starting the third round of the computer game as he began to wonder about how long it might take for him to see any real results. As this was going on. He failed to realize that his hand-eye coordination was getting steadily faster as he worked the controls to react to how the game was fighting back. What was once at the beginning a slow start and progressing to that of being on par with his digital opponent. Soon, it turned more in the young Drake’s favor as he was effortlessly counter attacking at a greater rate thanks to the split-second decisions.
If one was to look even closer at his body. Then they would have noticed the way his arms were not being covered nearly as much at the end of both his sleeves and pants, as he clearly gained an inch or so in height thanks to the way they were not as baggy when compared to how his clothing would normally fit. Spike’s hoodie and jeans had this style where if he wanted, both of his hands could be covered up by simply pulling on the ends of the sleeves. But now if he were to try to do just that, then the odds were that his fingers would be exposed. Ask for the pants leg. The two or three inches of extra length was easily cut in half.
*Point of view: Third person*
The scene quickly shifts to the dense underbrush of green not too far from the Yuna. The hoof of Applejack could be seen snapping a twig while walking around a bush and the rest of her group closely following behind. What Sun could be seen through the thick foliage overhead gave them the impression that the sun was nearly two thirds in making its way across the sky. This even caused solid visible beams of light to shine as though they were bars made of pure sunlight through the dark sections of the forest and illuminating the proximity of which was hit.
Twilight was the second to come around the bend as Rarity followed immediately after, while also being extremely mindful of the foliage. The fashionista would carefully take each step and with the use of her magic, a few of the odd branches were subtly moved in such a way that it gave the impression that she herself was visibly touching the object with disgust. Once a couple of more seconds went by. The large figure of Brex came out as well and displaced a number of leaves that belong to the bush that was obstructing their view up until then.
The new team setup already came across a few encounters up to now. Unlike with the experienced Rory, who took up the front line. Twilight and Rarity required a bit of time to get used to the new party line-up and dynamics. Unfortunately for Applejack. This meant that she had to keep a closer eye on spells from her own teammates while also in the middle of keeping their opponents occupied. Thankfully enough, Brex already gave them some time to go over their strengths and weaknesses with one another so that there was far less chance of a mix up to occur while in the midst of battle.
Nearly five minutes had gone by since any of them uttered a single word after encountering one of the many creatures of the forest and on the prowl for their next target for experience. For Brex, it was almost becoming boring with the way the three mare's were no longer needing his advice as often as they did in the beginning. This meant he was standing on the sidelines and twiddling his thumbs as the group had more than enough firepower so to speak.
Although, there was just one thing that was bothering Brex and that was the frequency of the creatures appearing. Unlike in a game where you can pretty much go anywhere and find something to fight and it would just respond after several minutes go by after its defeat. Brex and the girls needed to actively go out and search in new areas constantly as their prey would run out quickly with the rate they were going. He even began to wonder if it was already time to move on to the next location that was highlighted on his world map. But he knew by doing so would put the girls in greater risk as he had originally intended for them to be a couple of levels higher before he attempted to do so.
In the end, what he really wanted was for all of them to be at level fifteen before the day was up at the very least. Brex then began to overhear as Twilight and Rarity were stopping in place. This was immediately followed with the pair finding a spot to sit. Soon the pair were even giving their hooves a massage before Rarity spoke up in a pleading tone.
“Owee~. My poor hooves are just killing me! I don't know about the rest of you, but I could desperately do with a ten-minute break. All this mud and walking on the hard ground is just doing a number on my hoofs. The only mud that I wish to touch me would have to be that of the spa twins. At the very least, they make sure that theirs is quite clean.”
Brex had this flat stare in his eyes as he looked straight ahead as this was all going on behind him. He then rolled his eyes rather dramatically as he thought the following to himself in an exhausted and almost mocking inner tone. “Mud is mud. And here I thought that she’d get over it by now. She’s even wearing those long boots so it’s not as if it’s actually touching her directly. Still, I’m glad that footwear is now becoming a regular use among adventurers. I guess I can’t really expect everyone to be a bad-ass like Gilda. Sure, she would complain every now and then, but Dang was she tough when compared to the others I trained.”
His inner voice calmed down as he reluctantly began to have an agreeing tone. “OK, fine. I suppose she’s right. They’re not used to this much, so I really need to give them a break. We have been at it a lot, especially with the multiple group encounters. It really wouldn’t do us any good to trudge along without gaining some of our stamina back. Although, wasting time is not really an option. Think I’ll just give them ten or fifteen minutes.”
Twilight quickly joined in as she said, “Yeah, we've been walking all over this place and were not getting as many as we did last week.” Applejack who was a couple of paces ahead turned around to look at the girls, then over to Brex while placing her axe on the ground to use the handle as a walking stick before replying. “They got a point there partner. I wouldn't be surprised if we already took every single Monster in the forest out by now.”
The farm’s mare turned her head to look at the forest before continuing. “Used to be we couldn't take two steps before getting ourselves in a mess of trouble. Now we could probably walk the length of Ponyville and not come across anythin’. It's just as my grandma said. You can't go and draw water from a well that’s already gone bone dry. No matter how many times you drop the bucket in.”
After hearing what the others had to say. Brex turned his hood to take in his surroundings and discover that they were already in an ideal location for arrest as he had a good line of sight for quite a distance. There were already a couple of large stones that were just big enough to be used as chairs for all of them. He then said, “Very well, a short rest sounds good here.” He then went to go sit on one of the rocks but not even a second had gone by before he brought up his right hand and began to do a swirling motion as if trying to pull the air right above his palm and into a single point.
Soon, one spark after another appeared and a floating set of multicolored embers came to life as they hovered right above his palm in a slow orbiting pattern. Each flame was barely stronger than what one would see coming from a simple lantern. Yet there was no heat being given off. They all did happen to hear the noticeable crackling of fire which would be accompanied with such a site. With a subtle flick of his fingers and wrist from Brex, all of the embers flew off in random directions as they zoomed around trees in over bushes.
Rarity then spoke up as her ears flicked in order to try and track the sounds of the flames before they disappeared off in the distance. “Pardon my rudeness, but would you mind explaining just what you did?” Brex responded to that with, “That would be a spell called Dancing Lights. Which happens to be an illumination spell with four magical flames that I can manipulate with my mind. Not very useful for fighting purposes, but are really handy when you want to light up an area. Personally, I found them to be fairly good as an early warning system when out in the woods.”
After seeing the confusion in all of their eyes, Brex continued. “This spell requires me to concentrate in order to keep it effective. I can also tell when one of them happens to go out through the connection. Now my idea is to send them just a little out from where we are and move in a semicircle. This way if there are any wild animals or monsters in the vicinity, then the flames will catch their attention and eventually get knocked out of the air and alert me to the presence. On an added note, I can also make sure that they don’t accidentally catch a fire in the woods so there’s no worry on that part.”
“I have other spells to use, but since we're only going to take a short break. Then I saw no need to go through the extra effort.” Twilight's gaze soon drifted to look at something that was poking out from just behind his back and at the edge of his shoulder. This turned out to be his star globe in its flattened state. After an arched eyebrow was seen on the Unicorns face. Brex immediately knew what was on Twilight's mind as he spoke up again. “And no. This is not a spell that the Astrologian class knows.”
A look of understanding crossed the purple Unicorns face as she began to have this wondrous look about her before she started to talk excitedly. “Is that the same as the mending spell you used at my place to help with the window?” Brex was just about to comment when his vision began to flicker. What was once the site of an intrigue Twilight with a giddy expression, was immediately replaced with a quick flicker of his vision and the mare was now holding an oversized scalpel in place of her staff and a maniacal grin that threatened to split her face as she looked at him as though he was nothing more than a toad to be dissected and studied in class.
Her lips were still moving, yet all sounds that were coming from the mare was nothing but incoherent words being muffled. Soon, an eyeball appeared from under her hat with the strange rapidly moving tendrils that sunk the tips underneath her fur. Eventually the wriggling showed that the tendrils had gone underneath the skin and this caused the fur to twitch right above it. Brex was about to react right as an echoing metallic sound resonated in his ears.
Gone was the freaky eyeball and twilight was now holding on to her staff yet again. The creepy smile that was ever present on twilight’s face was long gone. Yet at the same time, there was this odd sensation that compelled him to want to look away from her. Brex simply sat there dumbfounded from behind his mask as he found himself blinking oddly before getting brought back to reality after seeing the worried expression on all of the girls faces as he did not say anything for a while.
A hand was brought up to his mask in a reflective gesture that one would take when wanting to pinch their nose before he responded. “Sorry… I was too engrossed in maintaining the spell. What were you saying again?” Twilight then said, “Oh, I was uh, asking if this was another spell of yours that could be learned by anyone.” Brex took a moment to explain how the spell required one to have a decent level of concentration in order to keep the spell going in the first place. It was capable of being learned by those who had access to the ability of externally sending out their magic.”
Of course, he left out the whole Dungeons and Dragons part, but it was enough to placate Twilight to refrain from any more questions and the group slowly return to a somewhat awkward silence. Feeling uncomfortable at how the atmosphere turned, Brex stood up and began to walk in a random direction and called over his shoulder. “I got my flame spread out too thin. Think I'll walk out a little way so that there's not so much distance in the circle by joining them. Stay where you are and rest up. I'll be back in eight minutes.”
As he left. Rarity was about to make the motion to get up when Applejack firmly shook her head. The farm mare then said, “I know I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed. Even I can tell that he wanted to be alone. Can I ask y'all a question?” After getting a nod from both of the Unicorns, Applejack then continued. “It ain't just me, but has Gambit been acting strangely since last week?” Rarity had a puzzled expression as she crossed her left leg over the other and brought a finger to her chin. Twilight leaned back so that her arms were used to help prop herself up on the stone while also slightly tilting her head in confusion.
Applejack had an exhausted expression after witnessing the other two’s reaction as she rolled her eyes and continued on with her question. “Really? Don't go tellin’ me you haven't seen it? It just happened again. Come on, it's the zoning out!” This drew a set of understanding looks from both of the Unicorns before Applejack went on as her right hand was now pulling down her face. “I can't be the only one that it's happened around. I'd say somethin’ to him and he would stand there and go silent on me for who knows how long before he snaps out of it.”
Twilight began to tap the side of her chin before she replied. “Now that you mention it, I think I did see it happen once before. It was in the middle of one of the lectures he was giving when he just suddenly stopped and seemed lost in thought. Really didn't think nothing of it and just thought that he was trying to make it more understandable.” Rarity chimed in next, but not until after giving a small hum. “I also recall a similar incident when we were in the middle of some possible designs that he was considering to make for Rory. Perhaps he's just tired and has not been getting enough sleep?”
Twilight then said as her tone became a little worried. “Maybe I could send a letter to Princess Luna.” The purple unicorn gave that a few seconds to sink in before she began to show signs of exhaustion of her own and earned an inquisitive look from the other two. When she noticed this, Twilight began to speak up again. “Speaking of not resting very much... I already talked to Fluttershy about this… I wanted to get your take on how Spike has been doing in Ponyville.”
“Have either of you noticed anything odd with the others in town whenever Spike’s around?” This earned her a pair of head shakes to show that they knew nothing before Twilight continued with a dejected sigh and began to fill them in on what happened the night before when it came to getting that one book about dragons and what transpired at Gambit's place. To say that Applejack and Rarity were taken aback was an understatement, as Rarity’s face slowly changed to that of deep red and Applejack's eyes flashed with a similar color that took over the usual green as she gripped onto the handle of her axe. This caused a few audible sounds as her Knuckles popped and all of the girls began to talk at once.
After having a few minutes to recover. Rarity then said, “My word, the poor dear! I I have not caught sight of any such deeds being done in my presence. Has my little Spiky-wikey truly been feeling this way? Such deplorable behavior. I feel shameful to even be a part of such a community. Just what gives them all the right to act out towards Spike in such a way?”
“You just took the words right out of my mouth Rarity! Those snake in the grass ponies with their heads so far up their own asses need to learn some tolerance! Really, Spike hasn't done a single thing to earn that kind of treatment! I've lived in Ponyville my entire life and this is just unacceptable! Sure, there are some hard-headed ones here and there, but this is just too much! I can’t even think of a time that Spike has ever done any wrongs to a single person to earn this sort of treatment.”
“He's my little brother and we've been living under the same roof... yet I noticed none of it. What I don’t get is that this is exactly what the Princess is trying to stop after making that declaration. To top it all off, Spike is malnourished if what was said in that book could be taken as truth. To think that he's been taken care of the wrong way all this time is just too much. Sure, we did not know a lot about dragons in the first place, but everything I did was... well... everything I did was what I learned from the princess.”
Twilight paused for a second as her shoulders began to shake as she continued. “We always had the gems and he didn't seem to be bothered with our food so it never crossed my mind that he needed meat. We just assumed it was based off of upbringing. When I told Fluttershy, she seemed a little scared but said she understood what he needed especially with already caring for the needs of other creatures that ate fish. It wasn't too much of a bother. I'm really thankful that she's not going to look at Spike any differently now that we have to switch up his diet. Especially with her fears of Dragons.”
“You got nothin’ to worry about Twilight! I sure know I won't be lookin’ at him any differently, that’s for sure. So, what if he has a slightly different diet. We already got Gilda and we've seen Rainbow eat meat on occasion. It'll just take a little getting’ used to, that's all. And I can’t see the little guy going full carnivore.”
“I fully agree with Applejack's sentiment darling. I personally would find it a little... Er... odd in the beginning. It would take some time for me to get used to the idea of Spike eating meat... Eventually. A growing young Drake does need his nutrition after all. Still, I find it unacceptable that the ponies I know could be so callous towards such a nice baby Dragon.”
“Yeah, and it really doesn't help that we exclude him way too much. I was so used to growing up without others before coming to Ponyville, that it didn't even occur to me that leaving him in the library alone was not a good idea. I even feel guilty that he doesn't even have his wings because of what’s been done.”
“Shucks Twilight. The kid’s still young. I wouldn't say it's too late to fix the problem. By the way, are you going to take Gambit up on his offer to have somethin’ made for Spike to have once a day or are you going to let him eat at the library instead?”
“Oh yes, that's right. You do run a library after all. What with a majority of Ponyville not being so accustomed to that sort of food, it might not be such a good idea to cook it there. Although, it would be such a shame that little Spiky-wikey to not be able to eat what he wanted in his own home.”
“You know what, I think I will take up Gambits offer. At least for the time being. Once I'm used to it and also install some type of spell to dampen the smell in the library, it might be for the best. I can only imagine someone coming in and then smelling Spike's food as it was in the process of being prepared.”
“Hahaha, I suppose you're right Twilight. The more squeamish ones might high-tail it out of there faster than a cat with a really long tail in a warehouse full of rocking chairs.”
“Oh but Twilight dear. Did you not say that you're raising of Spike was due to what the Princess said to you?”
“Uh yes, why?”
“It may not be my place to say and I can see it as coming office being presumptuous... It is just, Spike's condition may not be solely on your shoulders.”
“Ah, I see what Rarity's getting’ at.”
“I'm not quite sure what you two mean.”
“As far as I’m figurin'. If Princess Celestia was wrong about Spike, then who knows what else she's been mistaken on. Kinda makes one wonder on what Gambit was sayin’ when he showed up at the library and started talking about the Princess.”
“Wait-wait, no no, that can't be right! Okay sure, she made one small honest mistake. But we're talking about the princess here.” Twilight's eyes began to look a little uncertain as she started to bite the nail on her right hands index finger before mumbling the following. “I'm sure there have been some dignitaries from the Dragon lands that would come by the castle... I just thought that she asked them and this is what they said to do. But if that's not the case, then has the princess not asked for advice from any other dragons after Spike hatched?”
That was when Brex came back and approached the girls after pushing apart a couple of bushes that were in the way and spoke up. “Sounds to me that she does not like to be seen as someone without the answers to everything. If she had talked to the other Dragons about Spike, then none of this would have been a problem. Seriously, for someone who’s lived as long as she has, one would think that she would have learned that she can’t know everything.”
All of the girls jumped after hearing his entrance and Twilight immediately asked, “How… Just how much of that did you hear?” Brex gave a light shrug as he nonchalantly said, “Eh. I think around the part where your friends were saying that what's going on with Spike was not completely on your shoulders. Your voice’s carry quite a ways in here, just so you know for future reference. Really, if you are being hunted, then it would be over with quickly.”
He then gave a small snap of the fingers for his right hand before continuing. “There we go. I just dismissed my spell. Break time's over so let's get a move on. Also, this might be a good lesson for you to learn now. It doesn't matter who you are or what you are. Everyone makes mistakes and no one is infallible. This is especially true for those who have lived a long time. So blindly following another without asking any questions is not a good way to live and I suggest that you think for yourself once in a while. It also doesn't hurt to gather information from different sources to broaden your understanding.”
After saying that to Twilight and earning a small smile. They all continued with their search for more monsters for the next hour before returning back to the Yuna. Once again on the ship. Brex went over all of the girls to check on their stats. Twilight was now at level fifteen. Rarity was at sixteen. Applejack was sixteen and Rainbow became seventeen. As for Pinkie and Fluttershy, they were at sixteen and fifteen. When it came to Gilda the Griffin. She had already gained another level from solo fights on her own, which placed her at thirty-one.
It came as no surprise that Gilda was able to work on her own and took out any opponent with ease now that she had acquired a Dragoon Soul Stone. At the beginning of their outing today. Brex at first made Gilda stick with them to see how well she had adjusted to the class advancement. It didn’t take long at all before applejack and rainbow had their jaws hanging and eyes bugging out when the young Griffin was zipping through the air without the use of unfurling her wings. It was practically second nature now with the way she would launch herself from one location and the next with frightening speed.
In the end she went with wearing the similar garbs to her original ones. Along with the twin headed spear tip. She would not only jump straight at her opponent, but also use the existing terrain to her advantage to pinball and ricochet to get behind her opponent for a sneak attack before it even knew she was there. What would have taken at least a dozen strikes from the rest, only took three at most to take down a creature of level eighteen. All the while she had this big smile after doing aerial maneuvers and flips that would otherwise be risky in the midst of battle.
On another. She threw her spear with such strength and accuracy at a target at a distance. What made it remarkable was the way it would not only spear right through a few bushes on its path. But it even went cleanly through the edge of a tree that was partially in its path without slowing down in the least. This led to a big gaping section to be exposed as the spear continued on and decimated a plant type monster. Instead of simply stabbing into it and pinning it to the ground to lay dying. It instead exploded as the weapon continued even further and struck a boulder.
When everybody went to retrieve the weapon. It was found that there was a sizable crater and several long cracks running along the length of the rock that was easily the size of a mini-van. More than half of the blades for the twin tips had sunken into the stone. As for the indentation itself surrounding the tips. And it appeared as though a portion of the stone was crushed, to where applejacks reached to the deepest section at the center and found that it went past her elbow. This earned Gilda a very loud, “Landsakes” from the farm mare as she took a few steps back to admire the destruction.
When it came to Rainbow. The young Pegasus was hunched over with both of her hands hanging straight down as her eyes were glued to the center markings. And when Gilda pulled her spear free and started to walk past her. Gilda began to say to the Pegasus the following with a triumphant smirk on her beak. “You better catch up fast. Ha! At the rate things are going, I’ll be the one to be protecting my future husband.”
As for going back to the present and on board the ship. All of the girls were checking in with one another. Brex made an announcement after getting their attention while inside of the dining room on the ship as the food was being placed out by a couple of the crew members. “I'm glad to see that everyone's levels have gone up quite a bit over these last two weeks. Honestly, I expected you all to be a little higher if anything. However, this was only due to the lack of monsters in the immediate area. But don't let this discourage you as I am well aware that if the numbers had been any higher, then I would have no doubt that all of you would be much stronger.”
“Now with that being the case. Next week's destination will be at a location with far more for us to fight. I believe you all have heard of Ghastly Gorge, correct?” After getting a series of head nods Brex continued. “OK then, some of you may not know this little fact, but due to an excessive amount of magic being used at that location. The area has been known to be a hotspot for Monsters of a much higher level than what you are typically used to fighting. Not only that, the frequency of these encounters is much higher.”
“This time around we will not be splitting up. Instead, you will all be working as one large group. Furthermore, I will be requesting that Zecora join us. Rory and myself will be observers and only interfere if the situation calls for it. As for Gilda, I expect that she will be taking on her own opponents one on one to see just how far along her skills have progressed. Moreover, the Yuna will not be going in thanks to the interference. This means that we will have to go down another way for those of us that cannot fly.”
Rarity looked completely distraught after hearing this and loudly exclaimed with a look of fright on her face. “Are we truly expected to drudge ourselves all the way down into that place?! Absolutely no one goes into Ghastly Gorge. I very much doubt that there will be a suitable path for us to take down.” That was when Applejack walked right beside Rarity and began to nudge her with an elbow before speaking up in a playful voice. “Come on Rarity! And here I thought you got over getting a little dirty.”
Rarity was taken aback by this and gave an over-the-top gasp before she said, “Applejack! There is a clear difference between walking on leveled ground and having to climb down the side of a cliff to get at the very bottom of some oversized hole in the ground. I don't even want to imagine how I look by the time we get down there! I am sure I will be spending the next two days cleaning my outfit! And my hair! Oh, my poor hair will be an utter mess. It's times like These that I am envious of Rainbow and Fluttershy that they can fly as the rest of us are made to suffer.”
Rainbow started to cross her arms as she came into the conversation, along with a not so amused look on her face. “Hey! It's not exactly going to be a walk in the park for Fluttershy and me either. I've heard of that place from back in flight-school. There are these weird floating purple orbs and Lightning Elementals that float all over the place. If we're not careful, we're liable to get struck by a lot of lightning bolts. Sure, I can handle lightning as well as the next Pegasus but even I have a limit to how many I can get hit with.”
Rainbow paused for a couple of seconds before her eyes landed on her girlfriend and said the following. “And we can’t forget about Gilda. She’ll be in the most amount of danger in that spot.” The Griffin merely shrugged her shoulders while attempting to look confident. Although, Brex did notice a small twitch at the mention of lightning earlier as she spoke up. Don’t think on the same Gilda from back then. I’ll keep my eyes on the sky. As for the elementals, they will be a walk in the park.”
Fluttershy who was hearing all of this began to shrink in place as her hands were holding on to one another with clear worry has she joined the conversation with her soft voice that could just barely be heard. “R-Rainbow's right. We're both going to be grounded until we get out. Gilda then rolled her eyes as her hands were placed onto her hips before she spoke from the back of the group. “Well, this is just going to be great. Now what exactly is the plan for when we have to meet up halfway through for our rest period? Climbing up and down the hill twice is going to be difficult for some of us to handle.”
At the end of that. Gilda was pointily staring at the back of Rarity's head. Brex began to shake his own head a little bit before he lifted a finger into the air as he spoke. “That won't be a problem. There just so happens to be a bunker built at the bottom that we can use while we're not in the middle of training. Twilight and the others showed signs of confusion which led Brex to continue with his explanation after giving out an exhausted sigh.
“Let me guess. You all forgot about the bunkers too, haven't you? I'm pretty sure it was mentioned a couple of times that bunkers were built in and around settlements for both emergencies and rest stop for tired travelers. Those that are more widely used have become places where some merchants have set up shop and are dedicated mostly to those who are on the road a lot. Now as for the one we're using. It's not very frequently visited, but it is periodically checked and restocked with supplies.”
Applejack was scratching the back of her head as her other hand was lifting her hat in clear confusion as she spoke. “You may have forgotten, but I never went to one of these schools, so talk of a bunker is over my head.” Brex nodded and began to explain to Applejack. Bunkers are an underground area which is fortified with defenses where the entrance on the surface is located and goes in a little ways to prevent monsters from breaking in. Some of which are larger than others to accommodate the frequency of travelers coming and going.
Inside one would find all the basic necessities that any would need and supplies that could be used to replenish what had been spent. There are also sleeping areas and facilities that the occupants could use to bathe. Typically, there are vending machines that could give out rations to those that display one of their identification plates for the guild. This comes in handy for those that do not carry much cash on hand. Also, what is purchased is put on to a tab that could be paid off later. The bunkers entrance are even guarded by a set of combat class Golems and the entrance hall is lined with traps that become armed when no one is meant to walk through.
As Brex was finishing up with his explanation on the bunkers. He then continued with the rest of his plan. “Now, as for your concerns about going up and down into Ghastly Gorge. I think you'll be quite pleased with what I have in mind to take care of that little problem. Not only that, but it may also help with compensating with how your levels are not exactly at where I had intended them to be before bringing you all here.” Brex pause for a second before he continued. “Oh yes. We will be conducting our classes as usual. However, next weekend I expect you all to be at my place an hour early.”
All of them had no problems with agreeing to the new time schedule for the next joint class and enjoyed the rest of the ride back and sampling more of the food that was being provided by Brex. Although, this time around he did stay as there was no royal passengers that muscle their way into his class. But as they were all seating at the table. Brex got to see Spike eating some of the food that Gilda was consuming while right in front of the other girls.
At first, more than half of them showed some uneasiness upon witnessing what Spike was consuming. But after a couple of seconds the tension faded and they were acting as if it was completely normal. Which Brex took as a big relief, along with Twilight who was still trying to get used to the idea of Spike's new diet. Once everyone had their fill and Pinky could no longer do that arm stretching thing for anything else to eat, did Brex excuse himself as the empty dishes were being collected by some of the servers and went up onto the observatory deck with Rory.
After nearly ten minutes of being alone and to casually talk to one another as the scenery below quickly moved underneath the ship. Brex could hear two sets of footsteps coming up the stairway and turned to see Spike and Twilight coming up to talk. The young Dragon was twiddling his index fingers and looking a little nervous as Twilight was pinching the bridge of her muzzle. She soon lowered her hand and release a reluctant sigh before she began a back-and-forth discussion with Brex.
“I've been giving this a lot of thought. Well more than a lot actually. I stayed up all night long and only got a couple of hours of sleep after the sun started to show. Even had a chat with the other girls and it seems that it would be a good idea if Spike was to receive some help from you as well. Turns out that none of us even knew anything about what Spike was going through when our backs were turned. And I won't lie that it did not hurt when Spike said that only those of your house listen to him. But… But somewhere, deep down I just knew that it was true. Never really noticed how we all had our own thing going on and we ended up leaving Spike alone so much.”
“It’s true that I’ve seen him by himself for the most part. Fortunately enough for him, it's still not too late to correct the mistake. Also, I’m proud to hear that you recognize the problem. You might be surprised with how many out there are so stubborn to accept either the truth or to take some advice. Even when a mountain of evidence is piled in their face, they tend to fall onto their personal beliefs and disregard everything else.”
At the end of that. Rory gave a small, yet obviously fake cough through the connection. But Brex disregarded it after giving her a raised eyebrow as he continued. “Now, I'll have you know that Spike will not be going through the same as the rest of you for a while, as he is still young. Sure, Spike is a powerful species in the world. Although, it doesn’t mean that I would go so far as to toss him into a pit to fight for his life.”
“Humph! I very much hope so. I may be agreeing to all of this, yet I think it's way too early for him to go into the forest. I don’t even care if you fight the Princess and can take down who knows what. Spike is still my little brother. The moment I see that you’re going too far, I’ll take him back home.”
“Fair enough. For now, we'll work on his muscle training and endurance for a start. Some jogging here and there, weight lifting, basic self-defense classes and personal tutoring on what he might need to know if certain situations were to come up. This will be for both a fight and daily life so that he's well prepared. What do you say to all of that Spike? Still care to come over?”
The purple Dragon could only blink a few times in silence, as his eyes snapped wide open upon hearing the question being directed at himself. His attention quickly shifted between Brex and Twilight for a couple of times before it stayed onto his adopted sister as he spoke almost unsurely. “Umm... it's just that… I have more than a few obligations back at the library. There's also how you're already teaching the others. Of course, you must have other plans to do on your free time...”
Brex could see how Spike was attempting to be considerate. At the same time. Rory, who was at the edge of his vision was leaning against the railing with her back and giving a small smile towards the young Dragon. As for Twilight, the apprehension that was lingering for a while now, soon began to grow smaller as she was beginning to have a small smile of her own at how her brother was still being considerate for her sake.
Twilight then placed a hand onto Spike’s right shoulder as she was slightly standing behind him and off to his side as she spoke. “It's okay. I'm sure Gambit can come up with a reasonable schedule. All I really ask is that you make sure that you stay safe and don't skip out on doing your chores.”
Brex then came a little closer and got down to one knee so that his mask was lined up to Spike’s face and placed his hand onto his other free shoulder. He then spoke as is face turned into a gentle smile from behind his mask. “I can see you any day that you feel like you want to come over to my place. It's perfectly fine to even show up an hour or two earlier before I start teaching the other classes. Heck, some time before or even right after is fine with me.” Brex even shrugged his shoulders before continuing. “And if I'm not around, then I'm sure that someone else in the house will be able to help you out. Isn't that right Rory?”
The girl gave a quick smirk upon closing her eyes so that she was facing Spike as she replied. “You can count on it. It's just as my master said. You're more than welcome to come by whenever you feel like it.” She gave a quick chuckle before she placed a hand onto the back of her head to scratch as she continued. “Err… Although, if it happens anywhere past ten in the night, then it would be really helpful if you gave us a heads up. Odds are we might be a little busy and answering the door may take… some time.”
Brex had this flat stare from under his mask that conveyed that Rory said a little too much. Twilight was a little confused for a second or two from the comment. However, her eyes snapped open in a small blush creeped onto her face. She even went so far as to pull in her bottom lip so she could start to lightly bite on it as a small amount of sweat was building on her face from pure embarrassment.
As for Spike, all he could do was to tilt his head before saying the next part and earning the act of Twilight holding both hands over his mouth and giving out a chorus of nervous giggles. “Uh, what could you be doing in the middle of thmhmph!” Twilight then hurriedly said the next line as her eye’s shot from left-to-right. “Heh-Heh! Spike! That's something you don't need to know until you're just a little older!”
Not seeming to fully understand what was going on. Spike responded by wrenching Twilight's hands free from his mouth and looked over his shoulder to give her an annoyed look. In a comedic fashion, he said, “Aw come on Twilight, that's the excuse you say every time! When am I going to be old enough to be told anything? Why do I get the feeling that everyone knows but me?”
The purple Unicorn was shifting her gaze from left-to-right yet again as even more sweat was clearly forming on her brow to the point it was even starting to drip onto her robes. After a few more awkward chuckles escaped. She instantly said as her ears pointed straight up. “P-Perhaps it would be a good idea to… Ah… Umm, oh yes! We should take a good look at that book again! I-I’m s-sure that w-we may have missed some important facts! Come on Spike! Let’s get going!”
While still holding a flat look in his eyes as he was still on one knee, but slowly he stood back up. Brex playfully smiled as he replied to Twilight statement in an almost jovial tone. “That might be a very good idea to do Twilight. Who knows, you might even come across a few things that you may have missed when raising Spike. After all, he's still small right now, so the quicker we jump on these issues the better. Don't want to be surprised either when his puberty hits. And trust me when I say that a Dragon’s puberty is a lot worse than a Pony. Taking the proper measures during that time could very well plan out the rest of his life.”
For Brex. He knew quite well that the next major event was the releasing of Discord. And judging from how the show look. Then it could happen anywhere from the next couple of weeks to as far as half a year. Then not too long after that the episode of Spike going through his growth spur on his birthday would come up. If he could turn into such a huge Dragon and cause that much damage on a kids cartoon show. Then there is no telling what might come about in a world with violence occurring on a near daily basis.
But what Brex really knew, was that thanks to those weird glitches in the connection with Rory and paired alongside his mysterious lack of energy in the morning. A trip to the deeper parts of his mind for a solid night's sleep was now high up on his list. It was going to happen whether or not Luna paid him a visit in the middle of the night. But it was all fine with him as the fake dream of Limsa Lominsa would always come up whether he set a scenario ahead of time or not as a form of distraction.
Now, if that was not going to be enough. Then Brex would have no other course of action then to give Rory one of the most unspeakable orders that he has ever given to her. Which would happen to be the dreaded command of… Absolutely no sex tonight. And there was no way he was going to back down and give up even if Rory got down on her hands and knees and used almost every trick in the book to beg and plead for him to reconsider.
Although, Brex would have to brace himself. Especially when there were occasions that her doing just that alone would be enough to get him so excited, that he would literally lose control and jump her on the spot. So, for the time being. The sexy time before bed would need to be restricted to no more than two hours. No more late six or seven hour sessions. Of course, there was always the option of ordering her to put on the same restricting chastity belt that both of their maids wore.
*Point of view: Daddy* *Location: The other side*
Right where the house of The Simpsons should have been standing. Was nothing more than but a deep crater that was easily seventy feet deep and nearly spanned the entire length of the boundary lines for the property itself. The edges of the hole had a couple of protruding water pipes that were still leaking a little bit of sewage with droplets falling even now and then. This was also accompanied by some hanging electrical wires that obviously ran underneath the structure before it's disappearance.
Just off to the left was another house of an identical structure and the front door with a cross hanging from it was quickly opened. This revealed the one known as Daddy. However, this time he as without his purple turtle shell. He walked right outside while arching his back to pop a few bones. He was currently facing straight ahead and as soon as he turned to his left to gaze at where the non-existent Simpson house should have been. It was instantly revealed that he had a large lump on the back of his head and an equally comically large set of band-aids right over that. This formed an X going right over the top and could easily have been seen from over a block away.
Daddy then groggily walked across the lawn and towards a section of the small fence line that had been broken apart. At the same time, he was also rubbing the back of his head and groaning loudly as he spoke. “Ghaah~. Ouch! Haven't had a headache this bad since I snuck into that one brewery in California and drank every last drop out of the main tanks overnight. Why did I think it was a good idea to take that bet from Bart? At least what I got from that was worth it...” His hands were behind his back so that both fists connected as he carefully got closer to the edge of the hole and peeked down from the rim.
He then called out loudly so that it could be heard from all the way down there. “How's the progress?” Almost instantly, what came out from down at the very bottom of the hole, was a series of small buzzing sounds and electrical zaps. This produced a large amount of lightning that shot straight up into the air and a loud boom to fill the sky to occur right afterwards. A heavy plume of black and white mixed smoke erupted in all directions as it bellowed out and covered nearly the entire block in a haze.
This caused Daddy to have a coughing fit that sounded a little more dramatic than it needed to be. Arms waved a few times to frantically push the smoke away, but to have little or no effect. He then yelled out as his hands were quickly trying to waive the smoke away even more and began a go-between himself and whoever he was just talking to inside the hole.
“Dang nabbet Jet! Can you stop smoking for one minute?! I ain't letting old age get me, and there was no way I was going to let those dinosaurs have me for a snack! Not to mention, I barely got out of there before that whole atomic bomb test went off back in World War two. Geez a man's just trying to take a sun bath out in the middle of nowhere and someone decides to drop an A-bomb on his head! Who even does that!? Uh… Wait. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, right! My point is there is no way I'm going to let your second-hand smoke be the death of me!”
“You're the one who started to randomly yell! I was in the middle of trying to stabilize the section down here. Do you even have any idea how much goes into this? Oh, great now a bunch of the settings are all over the place! These readings make no sense to me. Hey! I can't see very much from under here, do you see anything different from where your standing?”
“Eh... what the?! Is it supposed to be a fifteen-meter-long version of one of those singing fish toys that you'd hang up on a wall?”
“A singing what?!”
It was at that moment that the fake fish that was sitting on top of a wooden plaque began to bend at the halfway point after a loud set of mechanical gears came to life. This made it so that the head was sticking straight up and it started to sing the, “Don't worry” song. While also using a Jamaican accent. Which was immediately followed with it singing, “Take me to the river.”
(Play this for what was being seen and heard by Daddy.)
“Were you... planning on turning it into that?”
Jet then responded with an obviously sarcastic tone. “Oh yes. Of course, I've always wanted one of these talking robotic fish to sing a very loud song in my ear ever since they first were invented! Just could never get my hands on one. And oh wow! This guy even has speakers that could put a rock show to shame… Now my eternal life has been fulfilled.”
“Well stop playing around, we need that table fixed.”
“And here I wanted to hear it sing the song a hundred more times... Just what do you think I've been doing for the past couple of days!”
“I don't know, making knick-knacks from the eighties?”
“Just leave me alone you old coot! Go read some more of your porn mags and stay out of my hair!”
“What hair? Besides, I would if I COULD! But they all got sent to another dimension! All the first editions and autographed versions are lost… Now fix that thing so I could get them back!”
“What about Brex? Why not just go back and get them all over again?
“Ah! Yes Yes! Him too! He-He uh, was on the top of my list... Um, right before my mags. Also, I can’t. The time-space continuum is stretched too thin with my presence already at those key locations in time. If I was to go there again then there’s a good chance that are temporal fissure will open up and cause a collapse. Those models may never have even been born and my magazines would just cease to exist.”
“Seriously, you should just get back together with Mom already if you're this bored! We all know that the whole magazine collecting only started up after that fight. How long has it been since she caught you peeking at that woman when she was bathing in that River? Hmm, I think her name was Cleo… Uh… Haha! I remember now! Her name was Cleopatra! Wow! Mother was really pissed that day.”
“Hay! How was I supposed to know that she was visiting those Egyptian god friends of her’s? That Anubis character even went so far as to bite me on the ass! Really?! I thought that I was going to need to go and get a rabies shot when I finally pried him off. Besides… Who needs that harbie?!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 77: Jeepers Creepers.
*Point of view: Rory Mercury* *Location: The Dreamscape of Brex* *Time: Eleven at night. Two days after the last joint class outing*
Looking from within. The entrance slowly opened to reveal Rory coming into the dream fabricated building that acted as the central hub to everything within her Master's mind. As the door closed on its own after taking a few steps in. Rory held a hand up to her mouth to stifle a yawn from escaping too loudly as small tears could be seen on the edges of her eyes to show just how exhausted she felt. After taking a quick glance around and flicking her noticeably longer ears to hear for any noise now that she was in her real form.
Rory gave out a somewhat bored sigh as she started her way up to the second floor by taking the right set of stairs. She soon began to talk to herself as her clothing effortlessly shifted into a cloud of dense mist and reformed into her usual robes to allow the girl to feel much more comfortable before heading to bed. Aside from those clothing that barely made it halfway down her thighs, the rest of her form was completely uncovered. Along with her pointy teeth that could just be made out as she had a gentle smile. There was also the bushy black tail that was carefully wagging as she shooked her hips with each step going up.
She even went through a couple of the memories from only that day as she went up the Canterlot to visit Fleur De Lis and Sir Fancy Pants. This had become a normal habit of hers whenever she was sure that her Master would not require her assistance when he was busy with teaching a class for the last couple of weeks. In fact, she nearly bumped into Prince Blue Blood as he was leaving her friends place when she got nearby. With him seemingly in a rush, Rory stayed out of sight by hopping into a nearby bush as to not be in the way and ran right up to her friend's place immediately afterwards at the very moment the coast was clear.
Even though they knew one another for quite some time. She had this feeling that there was some juicy gossip on the wind and the urge to be all sneaky was just far too overwhelming to resist. Sure, it was possible to just go right up to the stallion and ask to start off. But having some ammo to have in her pocket was sounding to be way better for some additional teasing in the future. The thing is. Rory for the better part of the last few years, was comprised of some light poking and prodding at the young prince when it came how she would show her affection to her Master. Only to earn some rather amusing reactions. Even if was at the cost of getting scolded later on.
It did not take all that long for Rory to get the juicy little information when it came to the prince coming all the way down from the castle for some advice when it came to someone that he fancied. Both Fleur De Lis and Rory were having a giggling fit at the idea of how Prince Blue Blood would take the news that he was actively crushing on one of Fleur De Lis’s sisters. Of course, they were talking about the young maid in training from over ten years ago that was requested by her Master to keep an eye on the kid. This was along with sir Fancy Pants checking in on occasion.
She was only a couple of years older and in an apprentice position at the time. It was all thanks to her ability to sense his emotions that the prince was given some help over the years to get over some of the trauma he had suffered from the hands of the Nobles that were taking advantage of him. And as a result, the two have been pretty much inseparable. If it was not for the simple reason that this group of Changeling’s no longer needed to feed off of love to survive. Then Rory might have suspected that the prince was simply a means to an end for a stable source of food.
There was even one point or another that Fleur De Lis inquired as to whether or not her sister wanted a change of assignment and get switched out with another. This was because it was customary to rotate who is doing what, so that their assignments did not get old. While also broadening their experience with other duties. However, not once did her sister ever complain and outright refuse to be switched out. Rory even made a comment during this discussion that her friend's sister was probably exhibiting similar signs to how Rin and Lin would act with her Master.
Yet, there was just one small problem. That being the fact that the maid would not make the first move and allowed everything to be played at the prince’s own pace. This only caused both of the girls to slowly shake their heads as Fleur De Lis commented on how he was going too slow and he should just say what he wants to. No matter how well he hides it, there was just no fooling a girl's intuition that he has romantic feelings. Especially a girl who has the passive emotional senses of a Changeling. Even with her own being significantly weaker than the rest of her sisters. Fleur De Lis could easily tell just how much the prince felt.
Afterwards, it was all the same things they would normally do while going out for the day. Visit a few shops here and there, go to their favorite Café. This would be followed by either more shops or taking in a show at one of the many theaters. Of course, there was also the paparazzi that would show up now and then to take a couple of snapshots. Ever since Rory found out about that one magazine article she was more finely tuned when it came to sensing them out at the edge of her range. She did find it rather annoying that they were using long distance lenses to capture more of what were considered natural shots.
To her, there was no doubt that there were going to be a few other magazine articles with her picture alongside of her friend in the near future. She even wondered if this was going to cause that one pony known as Photo Finish to show up earlier than expected if her popularity was to continue to grow at this pace. Everything was going as she had expected for a slow and calming day out when coming near the end. But when it was getting close, and the pair was holding on to a number of shopping bags in both of their hands and in the middle of chatting.
Rory's Pony disguised ears flicked off to the left right as they were passing by a random alley. She and Fleur De Lis stood at the opening while looking down to the very end. Right there in some of the shadows being cast by the buildings were three figures and they were on the ground with their backs pressed up against the brick wall. The one in the middle was impressively big. There was one short one that might have had a muscular build to the left and the right side was another. This one had a slimmer build and nearly half as tall as the first.
All of them wore tattered rags of blue, brown and green. What also did not escape her notice was how a few of the surrounding garbage cans had their lids taken off or partially emptied out from being turned on their sides. Her ears flicked again as the subtle noises of stomachs rumbling echoed at such a low volume that it was easily covered up by the gentle wind that blue between the buildings. Apparently, they had gone unnoticed to the three in the alleyway and Rory handed her items over to Fleur De Lis.
The mare was surprised for only a second before she had this knowing smirk of her own and rolled her eyes as Rory went down the alleyway to approach the figures. The entire way was easily more than fifteen meters between the entrance and where they were lying down. Her steps were so light that hardly any noise was made to alert them to her proximity. This was only made more apparent when she began to pick up on their conversations as their hooded heads slowly moved to indicate just who was in the middle of speaking.
“Have we really been reduced to eating garbage for practically every single meal? If we knew it was going to turn out like this, then I would have grabbed as much of that food as I could when we had the chance... I’d kick myself in the tail right now if I could.”
“Oh, quit your belly aching! If I ever see those Griffins again... I’ll, I’ll… Augh... I'm too hungry to make threats.”
“We may have taken up the wrong profession. I knew I had a bad feeling about this job.”
“Well duh! What tipped y'all off? Was it us dipping into everything we had for the preparations for the last job? Oh, oh I know! Maybe it was the fact that we got swindled out of our pay? Hmm~. It could be that you couldn't even keep a dropped wallet on the ground for yourself and had to go and search for the owner to give it back yesterday? Just take your pick...”
“I'm really sorry guys. I couldn't help myself. If it helps, I volunteer to be the first to be eaten if it comes down to it.”
“For crying out loud you big lummox! No one's going to eat you! I don't know if I could speak for an idiot over there. But I might be angry and disappointed. May even want to punch your face in, but I don't hate you.”
“Hey! Who you calling an idiot?! You know it said that an idiot is the one who calls another an idiot, so what does that make you?”
“I'd give you a fat lip right now if I can reach over to yah!”
“Ha! I'd love to see you try~.”
“Gnuh! Hurghg!!! If I wasn't so tired, I'd ring your scrawny neck like it was a wet towel!”
“So guys, uh. What are we going to do about dinner?”
“Dinner? I'd settle for a small scrap of just about anything to be in my stomach right now. I'm all for keeping a slim figure, but even this is too much for me.”
The conversation was immediately brought to a stop as all three tilted their hoods down when their stomachs were giving off a unified growl of hunger once again. By that point. Rory was easily half a dozen steps away or so and lightly coughed to gain their attention. The thin one wearing the raggedy blue clothing lifted his head just enough so that his chin was barely noticeable thanks to the shadows. The short bluish-gray fur was dirty from what was either mud or remains of old food from the nearby trash cans.
He then said in an almost condescending voice, while also waving his right hand in a dismissive gesture with barely any apparent energy being put behind the motion. “Just great, it's another Pony... we ain't done nothing. Just leave us alone already.” The one in brown was the next to speak up as he made a shooing gesture with both of his hands as he spoke. “Go on, get out of here. We ain't loitering in public all the way in this alley, so don't bother calling the guards on us.”
The larger one in green began to speak as his voice was sounding apologetic, while pulling in is two friends closer. “Don't mind us. We'll get moving as soon as we catch our breath in a few minutes. Please don't call the guards on us. Isn’t that right?” The last question was obviously pointed towards the other two as a small set of grumbling noises could be heard before both hoods started to nod slowly.
Rory up till now had a curious look. But this soon morphed to that of clear empathy upon getting a better look at the three now that she was close enough. After shifting her stance a little bit so that the bag of holding was exposed a little easier. The girl reached inside with a couple of fingers to open the bag a little more and pulled out a couple of Mirror Apples. She did this as one after another appeared until she had at least six lined up along her arm that she was using to hold them against the front of her body.
This earned her the full attention of the others as their hoods lifted in such a way that it was easy to tell that their nose is were acting as divining rods and zoning in on the apples. While at the same time, a chorus of sniffing sounds filled the air. She even detected the sound of some light swooshing. Which she immediately picked up on as one, if not all of them to be secretly wagging their tails from behind themselves and up against the wall. Her heightened sense of hearing was able to easily pick up on three distinctive sounds which corresponded to what she believed were the length of their tails as they varied in sizes.
She approached them further and place the apples so that they were just within arm’s reach on the ground gently and took a couple of steps back. The one in blue glanced at the apples and then back at her before he said, “H-Hey… what's the catch? You're not planning on screaming for help and accuses of stealing the second we touch them, are you?” The one in brown turned his hood away while grumbling a little bit. As for the biggest of the three. He gingerly began to reach for one of the closest apples.
When this was done. Rory got a good look as a hand began to expose itself from the end of the sleeve. It was covered in white fur and the tips of the fingers themselves had a noticeable claw or perhaps a nail. The inside of the hand itself showed a pad that would normally belong to a canine. A few round-ish patches of brown fur dotted a few of the parts as the Apple was picked up and brought to their hood.
It was sniffed a couple of times before it was brought underneath for a bite to be taken out. From there, the irresistible crunching sound of tearing away a good chunk of the Apple echoed as it overtook all the sounds coming from the city around. The juices even dripped a couple of times as the one under the hood was attempting to keep the juices from escaping thanks to the slurps being heard.
The slender one reached up and tried to grab a hold of his friend who was eating by his robes, while his voice was coming out as both panicked and concerned. “What'cha think you're doing? don't do that! I'm telling you it has to be a trick, don't fall for it! The one who was busy eating took a big swallow and gesture towards Rory as he replied. “I don't think it's a trick. She seems nice.” After giving out another grunt of reluctance. Brown immediately snatched up two of the apples and abruptly tossed one to the other and said, “If this does land us in jail, then at least we'll have a roof over our heads and three meals a day. So quit your yapping and start eating.”
As the other two began to eat and be completely absorbed by the delicious treats provided. Rory reached into her bag once again and pulled out a single white card with some writing on one side and gently placed it on the ground before she walked back towards the entrance of the alleyway. As she was doing this. She turned her head just so she can call over her right shoulder so that they could hear over the crunching sounds and slurps of the juices from the mirror apples that were being hastily gobbled up. “You may want to go to that address if you got nothing better to do.”
Without even waiting for a reply. Rory returned to Fleur De Lis and the pair finished their outing and went right back to her friend’s place. After conversing with the couple a little more. Rory came back to Ponyville by taking the last train heading down the mountain just a little while later. From there, she went back home after arriving in the small town and went right to bed. This of course led to the present as she began to say the next bit to herself. “Don't really get to see many of them around. At least not since Rarity got kidnapped. Although, I don't recognize their smells. They must be from a different pack.”
By now, Rory had already climbed the stairway and came into the room that her Master was inside of and quickly disrobed and allowed the articles of clothing to drift along her slender form in onto the ground before swiftly climbing into bed to snuggle up against him. As far as she knew for the past couple of nights. Her Master had been going straight into a deep sleep upon entering his Dreamscape in hopes of it maybe being the cure of his drifting mind.
During which, Princess Luna would come into his dreams in a futile attempt to talk. But to only come across the pre-made one that was set up ahead of time and wander around until finally giving up. Thinking that it would just be the same again tonight and knowing that she could sense any unwanted intrusions to where she could wake up instantly to deal with it. Rory went right to sleep as well to rest alongside her Master. But not before opening one of her eyes and waving her hand overhead to cause a number of screens to pop up so that they were facing downwards from above the bed.
These depicted the city of Limsa Lominsa from a number of vantage points and walkways so that most of it was being monitored all at once. There were even a few of the screens that showed some odd moving graphs and wavy lines with texts underneath to give off the feeling that they were a type of diagnostic scan. After giving them all a good once over, did she wave her hand once again to make them all disappear and closed her eyes for the night. Although, before the firm grasp of sleep took its hold on her. Rory leaned in and gave her Master a gentle kiss on the cheek before pressing herself up against his body even more tightly.
As Rory and Brex fell into a deep sleep within his mind. They were unawares as to something happening downstairs and with the color-coded wheel being displayed next to the front door. As Rory was the last one to come in. The indicated dial at the top displayed the red section. But on closer inspection. One could just barely make out the way it was beginning to slowly rotate at a snail's pace to the left. After an agonizingly slow minute passed. The wheel began to stop only a fraction of an inch from crossing over from the red, to that of the black section.
However, this was only a brief pause before it continued yet again. And just as it was going to make the clear crossing over of colors, there was a series of muffled sounds from the other side that's strangely gave off a series of metallic clangs and the wheel began to spin in the opposite direction until it was at least a quarter of the way back into the red once again. The next thing to happen was a single screen to appear right over the door knob with a heavy amount of static to gargle up what was being written in text. After a few seconds went by, the static cleared up just enough to allow one to scarcely make out the lines that one would see when listening to an audio file on a computer.
Soon, a single voice of a female could be heard at barely a whisper, then quickly followed by that of none other than Princess Celestia as the two repeated the same phrase until both were almost in perfect unison. “You should not have been born.” It was just about to continue after repeating the same phrase for at least the twentieth time right as a number of hairline cuts immediately appeared running across the screen at random angles and causing it to shatter and disappear into nothing.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: The Dream Realm. Right outside of Brex's dream bubble.*
Princess Celestia was putting on her calm outer facade as her internal self was absolutely giddy with excitement after finally persuading her younger sister to bring her along this evening to visit the dreams of Brex. As the two of them were approaching the large cloud covered bubble. The two Sisters began to converse with one another as Luna was slowly shaking her head after giving out an exhausted sigh of annoyance that was clearly a result from Celestia's pestering.
“At the very least you could have waited within your own dream for me to gain permission. There is also this small possibility that you will not see him this evening even if we were to simply enter. I know not as to why I have been unable to locate him on my previous two attempts.”
“It is as you say, Sir gambits mind is... rather unique. Nevertheless, my student’s letter has me rather worried. Perhaps it coincides with his absence from within his own dream.”
“Indeed. Young Twilight Sparkle may have a point in her assumptions that sir Gambit has not been resting as of late to have these bouts of momentary pauses. If it was for not our schedules being so full. Then I would pay him a personal visit to inquire as to his well-being.”
“Please Luna, let us not discuss daily matters for now. My hands have been full with one issue after another. Right after our treaty with overseas thanks to the new king being put into power. I had hoped that it would be smooth sailing so to speak. But to only have this growing issue of some of the companies becoming unstable in Canterlot to where the financial trading district is in an uproar. One Merchant would either be bought up by another or inexplicably go out of business for various reasons that mostly make absolutely no sense.”
“Yes, I must concur my dear sister. The growing number of nightmares in regards to one losing all their bits has been on a trend as of late. I have done my best, but this matter is not in my realm of expertise. At best, all I could do is simply put a Band-Aid on the wound and hope that the dreamers could have the momentary Peace of Mind to come up with their own solutions and vanquish said nightmares on their own.”
“Luna, we have lost nearly fifteen percent of our yearly income thanks to a number of companies that have spontaneously decided to relocate to other cities after previously opening branches at those locations. We are fine for the moment, but I fear what this might do to the daily lives of our citizens. Not only that, skilled professionals of various fields are even leaving Canterlot for other positions as well. This only came to my attention after hearing a few of the complaints in Day Court.”
“Has our nephew not been conducting negotiations on this matter? If I’m not mistaken. He is well versed in financial matters.”
“Yes, he has been in nearly constant talks, but to no avail. He even proposed a number of beneficial incentives to be added onto contracts that I myself would find impossible to turn down if I were in their position. It just makes absolutely no sense that they outright refuse each one so hastily. If this continues, then we're going to be at a severe shortage in personnel. If it was not for the social workers that belong to the company called the “Cross Species Bridge” that are finding us some temporary replacements to fill the positions and educational programs from “Endless Enlightenment” to teach the new workers the much-needed skills, then we would be in far more trouble.”
“Oh yes. I do recall Sir Fancy Pants himself recommending those to us. Does he not have a hand in investing into those companies?”
“Hmm, I do believe so. Thankfully enough, any who are associated with him have not been giving us issues unlike the rest. It only serves to show how Sir Fancy Pants is capable of finding some reliable business partners.”
“Sister. Perhaps we should consider offering him a position in our Royal Financial section?”
“Oh Luna, do you believe I have not considered that? The idea was thrown out there, only to be refused. The reason being that he wanted to be more hands on with everyone and not be restricted to that of just the castle itself. He even mentioned that there would be too many limitations on what he could do if he had to follow so many of those stuffy old rules if he were to take on the position.”
“Haha. It has not been too long, yet I could see Sir Fancy Pants saying that. From what I have heard. His family bloodline has had a knack for having an outstanding reputation with both the Nobles and that of the common folk for many generations.”
When their conversation ended. Luna noticed that the swirling clouds were almost hesitant to open up as quickly as normal when she got within range. Celestia caught onto this and hesitantly came to a stop so that she was a couple of paces behind her younger sister and wearily eyed the smoke. Luna turned towards her older sister and said the following as she was nodding her head towards the opening. “Fear not dear sister. This has been going on for the past week. I very much doubt that you will be attacked again.”
Luna paused for a moment as she had a thoughtful expression on her mind as both she and her sister were halfway through crossing the threshold. She then said, “Although, this time around it was a little slower than the rest with making an opening.” Celestia was in the middle of turning her face towards her younger sister as she was now sporting a worried expression right as they disappeared within. It was at that very moment back in the dreamhouse of Brex, that a number of screens began to pop up in front of the exit.
These all showed various positions of Limsa Lominsa from elevated spots that would show large areas and a few being in cramped corridors. One of these windows showed a ripple in the sky and the two princesses appearing as though they were exiting a reflective surface made of liquid with ripples slowly disappearing. Circle icons immediately zoned in onto their heads and respective lines were leading to texts to identify who was being observed. When it came to Luna it all seemed to go smoothly. Whereas there was a noticeable lag when Celestia's information was being displayed.
The color-coded wheel on the door immediately began to turn again towards the black. It only came to a halt as there was barely space enough for a single strand of hair before it crossed over. All the while, the wheel was constantly rattling as if there was an unknown set of opposing forces that were fighting for control for what direction it would go. Over with the camera feeds. The terrain was quickly beginning to shift to where the sky was turning a few shades darker.
There was even this odd purple haze that was building up from out of nowhere. If one was to compare the site. Then it would be said that the air strongly resembled the way oil would sit in a puddle of water. Everywhere one looked would be the same as this odd vision encompassed all. A few of the windows even began to slowly fill up with static until the pictures were completely obscured.
Upstairs and in the bed that Brex and Rory shared. The Roegadyn's face was contorting to that of clear discomfort as his facial muscles were twitching. While all of this was going on. Both Celestia and Luna landed near the large slowly rotating blue crystal in the middle of the central Plaza. Celestia turned her head a couple of times to observe her surroundings and gestured towards the sky as she spoke with a confused tone to her voice. Has that ever happened before?”
Luna then said the following as she took in just what was happening. “I have seen other dreams that are similar. Still, this is not quite what I am used to.” Luna was just about to say more when she paused and raised an eyebrow as her eyes were drawn slightly upwards and to the right. Celestia was just about to ask what was wrong when she began to do the same. Apparently, something appeared in their vision off to the top right corner. This turned out to be a mini-map with a clock at the top and an icon of a dark purple mist that was housed within a circle.
Celestia was busy focusing on what she was looking at as she was clearly having some trouble with figuring out exactly what was occurring. But as soon as her sights were squarely on that odd icon. A set of words in a small bubble appeared next to it that said the following. “Current weather: Gloom.” Luna then started to speak as she turned her attention over towards her older sister to start up another conversation.
“I know not as to why this is occurring. As much as I would love to have a map such as the one I am being shown. This talk of the weather being that of Gloom has me on edge. Perhaps this is an emotional state?”
“I'm not so sure Luna. Although I do recall that there was talk of there being a small patch in our country's borders that just so happens to have a similar appearance. Not only that. It has also been given the same title.” When Celestia said that. Her expression became disheartening as her ears began to go down and become flat on the sides of her head.
“Oh, and where might this be?”
Celestia gave a small audible gulp as she said, “You would know it as... around the deepest part of Ghastly Gorge...”
“But why would-.” Luna had abruptly stopped in mid-sentence as the implications dawned on her. The deepest part of Ghastly Gorge was where the two of them landed and her older sister launched the largest magic attack that could possibly have been recorded in all history in an attempt to destroy Brex during their not so friendly encounter. But still Luna was more than surprised that her older sister even had the required amount of magic to even produce such a blast to begin with. She even contemplated if Nightmare Moon would have even been able to withstand the hit.
Shaking those thoughts away to focus on the matter at hand. Luna attempted to use a spell to Aid in locating Brex. Her horn lit up and a noticeable spark shot along the length and elicited a startled gasp from the dark blue mare. She even brought a hand to massage the base of her horn as she had one eye closed and spoke with clear irritation in her voice. “As the current generation would say. What the buck was that?!”
Celestia gave a small wince as she replied to that hurriedly. “Oh dear, it completely slipped my mind. The Gloom phenomenon has a very peculiar effect which only manifests for Alicorns from what I can tell from what just happened now.” Luna was still nursing her horn as she gave her older sister a pointed look with her still open eye that practically screamed that she should have said something earlier and an explanation was needed.
“As I was saying. It has not been a problem for anyone else but when I myself went there... uh. I found that my amount of magic and sensitivity worked against me. The amount of magic in the air interferes with our casting. I do not believe that it is enough to prevent us from using any, but there is a backlash that we would have to force our way past. It's not sure as to when. Although, I assume that the weather changed a few years after... Uh, you know what. The affected area slowly grew over the centuries and stopped a few hundred years ago. There was even the unexpected effect of randomly calling down lightning and mysteriously spawning a new type of Elemental that is only found there.”
Luna gave a small grunt as she recovered and had this flat look on her face while storming off in a random direction that would lead her towards the docks. Celestia gave chase as she still had this apologetic look on her face and hurriedly caught up to her younger sister that was already getting a fair distance away. As they were moving further and further from the blue crystal. Luna's voice could just barely be made out as she was openly chastising Celestia about how she was gone for a long time and it would have been best if she had been warned beforehand about such occurrences.
Soon after, there was a random set of small static noises that were coming from out of nowhere. They came at a low volume before there was a reasonably large one that just exploded. In time with that odd noise. The plaza that the princesses were just inside of turned a shade of black and gray. The pedestal that was underneath the hovering crystal suddenly broke diagonally with various cracks through the stone and the missing pieces were scattered a short distance away. The crystal itself was silently laying across the ground after being broken into several pieces.
Even the gold that would spin around it along with the smaller crystals that were fixed into it was bent out of shape and half pinned underneath. The stone flooring was damaged and multiple erosion points could be seen. Patches of both stone and crystal surfaces were now covered in vines and algae in such a way that one would have immediately thought of the area to be a part of some long-forgotten civilization and left to the ravages of both time and harsh weather.
What was once the calming sounds of the sea and birds was also replaced with and ominous howl of the sea and a few crying crows. After a couple of seconds of the environment being in such a condition. A set of slithering and squelching sounds were being emitted from the edge of the Plaza where there would be nothing but the churning ocean below. It almost sounded as though it had been crawling up and was just climbing onto the edge and casting a looming shadow when an ear piercings screech was produced.
What came next was a dark viscous fluid gushing over the floors and partly reaching nearly a third of the way across the plaza before splattering onto the stone flooring and a section of the pedestal. There was even a large wet thud that emanated from the direction of the screech. This was immediately followed with the area being enveloped in a sudden flash of static for just a fraction of a second and the structures resume their previous appearance before the odd seen even occurred.
Suddenly, a dark blur crossed the open area and swiftly entered the indoor market at such a speed that it was impossible to tell just what it could have possibly have been. However, just as it managed to get into another set of shadows near the halfway point. The unmistakable shine of a metallic object could be seen reflecting the weak light that was coming in from the entrance before that too was no longer visible. Both Celestia and Luna continued to search around the city for the next half an hour while getting a better feel for the surroundings as to gleam any new information that they could possibly use in learning anything about the owner of the dream.
Eventually, the pair made their way all around back to where they originally started. Luna upon arriving, began to hang her shoulders lower and gave her older sister a, “I told you look.” Celestia had an eyebrow raised as she was glancing back and forth to where they first ran off to and back to the direction that they came in from just now as she spoke. How is it possible to have a dream and yet... not be within it as well? It also astounds me as to just how massive this all is.”
Luna replied to that after regaining her posture. “It's as I previously stated. Sir Gambit has a very unique mind. I'm sure he has to be here somewhere. If anything, then he is simply at a location we have yet to explore. Although, it is conceivable that we might be able to flush him out if I were to adjust the dream.” Luna then had this puzzled expression as she began to bite her lower lip before she continued. “The main issue is that I am not sure as to how Sir Gambit would take it. Alas... I do not see there to be any other option.”
Luna was pooling a greater amount of magic when compared to earlier into her horn as she got ready to cast a dream spell to shift the surroundings to one that would be more favorable. A few seconds went by and the lunar princess was just about to release the spell, when a screeching sound could be heard from somewhere down below and towards the docks that they had only been several minutes prior.
This had the effect of causing Luna to cancel her spell at the last moment and the two rushed off in that direction once again. But this time, they went with the route of jumping off the edge and using their wings to fly down at a faster rate than it would take to run all the way down on hoof. The younger sister was in the lead and the other was close behind after taking a sharp dive down after letting allowing their wings to unfurl.
Thanks to the Gloom effect in the air. It made it difficult to spot the docks right away as all they could make out were some outlines of the ships from a distance after gliding around a few pillars. As they drew ever so closer at a high rate of speed. The pair had to blink their eyes a few times as some of the ships that were coming into view were in obvious disrepair. The larger one’s were either full of massive holes and having some of their sailing masts broken clean near the base and hanging off the edge. There was even one of the larger ships that had the midsection underwater as the front and back end could be seen sticking partly out from the surface.
The docks themselves where they met the stone sections of the city were now half underwater. Shops were mostly flooded, as a number of the containers within could be seen floating on the surface of the incoming tides. The wooden pier was broken into several sections and only connected by a few pieces of rope. Upon one of the still above water parts was a small fisherman’s boat that was marooned and out of the water. If it were not for the protruding pieces of debris that just barely broke the surface. Both Celestia and Luna would not have taken notice to how the water was just clear enough to make out the near endless number of wreckages beneath the surface.
Among all of this. The area had lost nearly all of its color and was stuck in a black and white state. Mildew and seaweed covered a good portion and the strong undeniable smell of mold filled the air. It was so powerful in fact, that it easily overwhelmed their senses. Fighting the urge to just fly right back out of there before the contents within their stomachs came up. Celestia and Luna continue their glide until they got around one of the pillars of stone protruding from the sea that acted as one of the base sections of the city.
Once she had flown around enough. Celestia spotted the area where she remembered that there was what she thought to be a fisherman shop and found that there was a bulbous shadow. It was mostly round and barely big enough to go through the large stone archway that would go into the establishment. After giving a signal to Luna that she was going in. The two princesses began to dive. But as soon as it started to get close enough to get a good look at whatever it was. The mass released another one of those ear-piercing screeches that they previously heard. It was then sliced clean and half without any indication as to what was the cause.
If this was nowhere enough to surprise the two. Then it had to be their urgent need to split up before getting hit with the obscene amount of dark viscus fluids that were now gushing from the two parts and going right at the two of them. Both Celestia and Luna gave out a set of startled screams as they were nearly caught off-guard by all of this. The lunar princess turned just enough so that she was flying out into the open ocean and quickly coming to a stop after turning around in the air.
As for her older sister. Celestia was not as lucky as she collided with the remnants of a fisherman's net. Said net had been obviously hung out to be repaired and she ended up getting caught in it and forced to hang as her body was suspended in a bundle right over the water thanks to a post being connected to the net by a single rope. The older sister struggled and grunted as she attempted to break herself free.
After a few seconds later. Luna showed up and was now hovering just over the water. While also snickering at her older sister's expense. Snickering that did not go unnoticed by Celestia as she quickly called out for help. “Luna! Some assistance would be greatly appreciated! Hurry please. The net is starting to chafe.”
Knowing that this was not a very good time to mess around. Luna came in closer to free Celestia. Luna grabbed on to a part of the net and gave it a good pull. After a few moments of this going on, some leeway was made and Celestia was nearly free when everything suddenly reverted to what it once was. It was because of this, that the solar princess found herself no longer imprisoned much to her relief. Although, that feeling was short-lived when she realized that she was now falling and immediately landed on her head on the wooden pier that was miraculously put back together.
But not before screaming in panic and flailing like mad until the point that she landed on her own head, which then led to the rest of her body falling back and into a set of wooden barrels to cause them to roll off the edge and into the water to create some loud splashes. Luna made a slight hissing sound as her mouth open to expose her clenched teeth at the site of her sister going through such a painful accident. She even raised both of her hands as if instinctually trying to protect herself, while her eyes squinted to where they were nearly closed from hearing the loud set of thuds.
Of course, the lunar princess also gave out a few sounds of discomfort of her own as if she herself was going through it as well. As Celestia laid on her back with clearly spinning eyes. Luna eventually regained her composure and carefully leaned in so that her face was directly above her own sister by a couple of feet before saying the following with one slightly squinting eye and the other having an eyebrow raised. “Are thou still with us dear sister? That appeared to be rather… painful.”
Having trouble at the moment with her eyes. Celestia attempted to respond as one of her hands was tending to the part of her head that was struck upon landing with a woozy tone to her voice. “I know not why as to how this is giving me a sense of déjà vu.” Luna had a confused look as she knitted her brow and pursed her lips for just a second before asking a question. “Pray tell, when have you been caught in a net and slammed onto the ground?” The solar princess ignored the odd question for the moment, and she soon managed to get back onto her shaky legs and dust off her clothing.
Once she was in a right set of mind and quite sure that her attire was okay. Did she try to answer Luna. Her mouth opened just enough to let a breath escape her lips when she found herself pausing and scrunching up her face in confusion before saying the next part. “Now that I think on it more... I honestly cannot recall that I have ever been in a net. Stranger still. I have not once used the phrase, “déjà vu” in my life. Perhaps I may have overheard another say it.”
Luna started to give her older sister a mischievous smirk as she made the next comment and received a tongue that was stuck out in her direction from Celestia. “Your old age is beginning to catch up on you dear sister. Being so forgetful already? If not careful, then Sir Gambit may become turned off at the notion that you are showing your years.”
Celestia retorted with, “Lulu! We are not that off from one another. You do realize this, right? And do not bring Sir Gambit into this.” The lunar princess only rolled her eyes and began to look around. After a couple of seconds went by and taking in how the docks were now back to what would be seen as working order when compared to the dilapidated state from only a few seconds ago. She then said, “We were clearly witnessing a nightmare, yet I felt nothing that would indicate of that being the case. Curious indeed.” Celestia hummed along with her sisters’ observations as the two were facing the structure that the large object they were assuming was attempting to enter.
Unbeknownst to them. A shadowy figure slowly crept out from the rest of the barrels that were not knocked over and steadily approached them from behind. All the while, keeping itself hidden from their senses. Suddenly, the pair of princesses arch their backs as their heads lifted from a sudden jerking motion that one would get when being sharply pushed from behind. They released a set of shocked screams and lurched forward. As a result, both pairs of eyes had gone as wide as they could go as the orbs shined with a bright white light.
This apparently happened within a span of one or two seconds and both Celestia and Luna found themselves blinking rapidly as they stood next to the large crystal at the plaza for the city yet again. As if coming out of a dazed like state. Celestia turn to her sister and said the following as she quickly brought a hand up to stifle a heavy yawn that escaped her lips. “How long have we been searching for Sir Gambit. Please do not say that it has been hours. I'm afraid if I do not return to my own dream and get some proper rest, then I will be in no condition for what my secretary has lined for up tomorrow.”
Looking almost equally as tired when compared to her other sister. Luna gave her own yawn as she lit up her horn and caused the pair to disappear in a small pop right as the magic hit its peak in expanded to encompass their forms. Strangely enough. What still remained to show that they had even been there, was the very fact that there was a set of dark blotches on the floor in the shape of their shadows. Even more so, was the way that they were connected by a thin strip and unnaturally darker than the rest of the shadows being cast by the sun against the other objects nearby.
Eventually, the gloomy weather cleared up in a matter of seconds after that and everything returned to a sunny day with just a couple of spread-out clouds that fill the sky, along with the gentle breeze of the sea and many chirping birds. The shadow then pulled itself together until it was a larger mass and silently shifted its way across the ground and entered one of the structures with a set of walkways that acted as a sort of Crossroads to the other sections of the city.
Once it crossed the threshold and was now out of the direct path of the sun. The torches inside flickered thanks to a light breeze that came out of nowhere. This went on until the embers eventually grew dim and died out. As a result, the deeper sections soon became bathed in growing about of darkness that stood out in such a way, that it gave the impression that if anyone was to toss in a lit torch right in there. Then the light would just be swallowed up in an instant.
When the shadow was nearly at a part where it would have been difficult to separate it from the natural ones being made on the inside of the structure. A vague form could just barely be made out as it slowly raised from its two-dimensional state to that of a walking figure. Once it was nearly a meter high. The sound of slowly walked footsteps could be heard as something hard was now making contact with the stone floor to produce an echo. When it reached a height that was more than that of a normal Pony. The footsteps stopped just before it fully disappeared into the dark.
From there, the torches immediately chose that moment to spark to life and to turn into a blinding blaze that filled the structure from within and banished all but the tiniest of Shadows within an instant. Unfortunately, this revealed nothing to be within the halls. Nothing besides a set of words that had apparently been deeply etched into the central stone pillar. Not only that, but they were also in large, bold letters.
These letters spelling out the words, “Restless eyes, blind to the beast.” The Embers from the multiple torches could be heard crackling as those words stayed in place for a couple of seconds before slowly being covered up as the rocks shifted and created a crushing of rocks sound as it eventually closed in the gaps as to seal the markings so that the wall would be perfectly restored to its pristine state.
Back over to the dream house of Brex. The constant yet violent rattling of the color-coded wheel came to a dead halt and slowly return to the center of the red section. The multiple monitors even ceased with their constant glitches and static filled screens to show the city being empty and closing up one after another until they were all finally gone. When it came to Brex who was still fast asleep on the second floor. The subtle expression of discomfort vanished and his face turn to that of one who was coming around to having a blissful night's rest.
*Point of view: Twilight Sparkle* *Location: Twilight's dream bubble* *Time: Four in the morning*
The purple Unicorn bookworm known as Twilight Sparkle was happily running around a library line with books that were clearly as tall as her own home itself. The distant end of the structure was so far away that one would need several minutes to sprint from one end to the next at just a cursory glance. While being surrounded by books that were set up in stacks and higher than four meters, was Twilight happily reading a tome on magic formulas and its relation on physical matter with a broad smile on her face. With eyes glued perfectly onto each and every word being printed on the paper. Her hand barely had a moment of rest before turning the next page.
She had just finished with the last page and closed the book quietly before releasing a very content sigh after reading yet another volume written by Star Swirl the Bearded. The book in her hands was placed onto a new stack as her other hand aimlessly reached for another from just on the outside of her view. But instead of coming back with another paper bound item full of knowledge. She now held in her grasp a very thin arm that was protruding from a gap in the books that she had not gotten to as of yet.
Upon witnessing what she was holding on to. Twilight gave out a startled shriek and released the arm, to only jerk away with great haste. By doing so, the chair was inadvertently knocked over and slid a couple of paces back. While at the same time, Twilight took on a defensive stance and charged her horn. A small blast of a light-purple energy was then sent into the books to blow away enough and also to give her a clear view of what was underneath. As soon as the obstruction was abruptly pushed aside by the concussive force and the last of the loose papers fell away from the table. Twilight released another shriek when the form of Spike, who was in a shriveled-up state dawned on her.
Rushing up and carefully guiding him into a seating position. She could tell something was definitely wrong as the clothing felt extremely baggy to where she was not positive if she was holding on to her brother or some skeleton mannequin that would be standing in some classroom to teach a lecture on biology. Spike was almost completely limp as Twilight proceeded with cautiously shaking his shoulders with one hand as the other took a hold of his wrist to check for a pulse. All the while, her eyes were darting back and forth along his body and breathing heavily to where she was nearly hyperventilating has her mind was racing a hundred miles an hour.
Almost incoherent muttering escaped her lips as it was only broken by her constantly saying, “No No No No,” ever so often at a rapid pace. Eventually, thanks to her current emotional state. Her hand inadvertently slipped and dropped Spikes arm. She was just about to grab a hold of it again when she stopped after her fingers brushed up against one another to produce a weird scratching sound. Her eyes darted down to her hand, and she nearly fainted at the site of numerous faded purple scales that were now clinging to her hand. As it turned out, the exposed wrist that Twilight was holding was now devoid of the hard Dragon’s protective armor that was naturally afforded.
Instead, there was a pale Gray skin and numerous markings to indicate a form of infection that ranged from green, black, brown and red. Her eyes were now shaky as they could not stay focused on one object for more than a split second. A huge lump was forming inside of her throat that threatened to prevent her from swallowing properly as the tears freely fell from her eyes. Through a struggling haggard and raspy breath. Spike began to say something to Twilight that was hard to understand at first thanks to the painfully obvious cracked and dried lips. But after the third attempt. Twilight leaned in while still in her panicked state so that her ear was right next to his mouth. “Twi… light... Why? Why, did you do this... to me?”
It took her a couple of seconds to come to terms with what spike said and to connect the dots. Soon, the breathing picked up again and she was nearly about to faint as a scream was close to finally breaking past that unbearable lump in her throat. There was a sudden flash, and this forced Twilight to rapidly blink as it was strong enough to nearly blind her and to forget for just a moment as to what was going on. When her eyes focused back enough so that everything was no longer a blur. The sight of the Golden Oaks Library came into her vision.
She was currently down on the floor and in the middle of the room as her arms were still in the same position as they were when propping her little brother up. Her head then turned back and forth on a swivel and screamed at the top of her lungs for her brother. But the one who answered her was instead Princess Luna as she was standing just a couple of steps behind Twilight, who had yet to take notice of the newcomer. “Please, be at ease young Twilight Sparkle. For a dream cannot harm you, nor has your brother undergone such an alteration.”
It took a couple of minutes for Twilight to understand and to start doing a breathing exercise as her left hand was placed onto her chest and held outwards in time with her breathing. After that was done, she went to go sit on the couch after Luna had already gone and done so and invited her over so that the two could chat. Luna conveyed her gratitude regarding the Nightmare Moon incident, as she had yet been able to do so. At first, Twilight was a little on edge as she was not too familiar with how to act around the lunar princess, but eventually the two started to talk with one another openly.
This eventually led to Twilight as she speculated that Spike in her dream was most likely an over dramatized version being created by her mind after recently learning about his race and the apparent mistakes that have been made over the decade. There was even the fear of how far it would have gone with her brothers condition and the rate of deterioration if things were to continue as they were. In the end, Luna gave some comforting advice on how Twilight did a spectacular job with raising a young Dragon without any proper guidance or prior knowledge to his species.
She even went on and told her about how much she has heard of Spike from the staff in the castle. Apparently, through the many years of living along with the battles that were fought for Equestria. Luna did happen to come across a couple of dragons in her youth, but not once have any of them displayed the level of consideration and camaraderie that those back at Canterlot felt towards the young Drake. The most important part was that he was raised with a caring heart that she wished would last him until the end of his days. There was also no reason to feel bad after finding pat knew wellspring of knowledge as it would only aid in going towards her brother’s recuperation.
In fact, Twilight should feel happy instead now that some new information has come to light and Spike could be better cared for. Eventually, Luna inquired as how the young Unicorn would proceed. The young Unicorn then informed her that his dietary needs for the meantime would be taken care of by Gambit. As well as the physical training that was requested on her brother's part. Although, she did leave out a couple of sections about how Spike was getting bullied as she was not sure on how to tell Luna. It also would not help if she herself did not see any of the crimes being perpetrated in person. This meaning that it would be difficult to involve the law.
As soon as Twilight was calm down enough to where the issue with Spike had turned from that of an unbearable amount of pressure, to a sudden wait being pulled from her shoulders. Luna made a request as the two of them went back and forth after a short period of silence. “Miss Twilight Sparkle. May I ask a favor of you?”
“Please Princess Luna, just call me Twilight.”
“Hmm, very well miss Twilight.”
“What I mean is that you don’t need... oh never mind. What is this favor you wanted?”
“As you may already know Miss Twilight. Thanks to the letter that was received. Both myself, as well as my sister both paid Sir Gambit a visit in his dreams this evening.”
“Uh... Oh of course, it nearly slipped my mind with the whole scare I just had.”
“That is quite understandable. One's mind is typically not as sharp while in their sleep state when compared to when they are awake.”
“Okay then. Did you find anything wrong? If he's having issues with sleeping then, I'm sure it has already been fixed.”
“Unfortunately, this is not true. For I have not had the opportunity to speak with him directly.”
“Aah... okay~. I don't follow. Didn't you just say you went to go and visit him?”
“Yes. Yes I did. Although there is an issue. I shall do my utmost to explain so that you may begin to understand what it is that I might ask of you. However, I must strongly urge that this is to be kept between the two of us until such time as I am to give you permission to release this information to only those of which you closely trust. Is this understood Miss Twilight?”
The purple Unicorn was rather taken aback by the intensity behind Luna's words when it came to how strongly she wanted to keep all of this a secret. But eventually, she indeed gave a strong nod while keeping silent in order to absorb everything that was about to be said to the best of her abilities. Once Luna received the confirmation. She proceeded to fill Twilight in on the rather unique Dreamscape that belonged to Brex.
The Lunar Princess went on to explain to Twilight as to the nature of the vast amount of space within the dream, as well as the extremely detailed way was constructed. Of course, Luna herself did leave out some details such as the weird chariot ride in which she found herself wearing a very odd outfit and the frozen tundra. However, the city that was built on the edge of the sea was fully explained in great detail. What was most mysterious of all was not the fact that it was hard to locate Brex, but it seemed as though one's injuries in his dream would manifest in the waking world.
Twilight tried to ask as to what injuries did they come across, but Luna dismissed the question and continued with what she needed to say. “Miss Twilight. I am considering the proposal of eliciting yourself and a number of your friends to join me in finding Sir Gambit in the Dream Realm if my efforts where to become unsuccessful. This of course sparked another go between the two, as Twilight was clearly confused and slightly stuttering at the beginning. Not only that, but she was also having a look of uneasiness that was slowly growing on her face.
“P-Princess Luna... I I may not be an expert on Gambit and what runs through that head of his. It's just that... do you really believe that he is okay with us simply running around his mind? It makes more sense just to come out and talk to him.”
Under normal circumstances that would be a prudent way of resolving the issue. Alas, Sir Gambit is not the type to speak or even show his weakness. I can only assume that speaking of this within his dream would offer him a semblance of security to open up. This is simply a mere precaution. I myself have paid numerous visits and have been welcomed. I would take my sister along. Although I feel that it may only cause the search to be that much more difficult with recent nights being a failure.
“Well... I'm not really all that sure that I would be the right choice to go if I'm to be honest. Gambit and I have not truly been on very good speaking terms if I were to put it lightly.”
“Nonsense! For has it not been you and your close circle of friends who has been in most contact with him? If anything, perhaps enlisting the help of Miss Rory Mercury will do us some good. An invitation would be given by myself. The only problem is that I have not come across her dreams yet. It is entirely possible that she has a different sleeping cycle and is awake during my duties.”
Twilight began to blush a little as she avoided looking into the eyes of the princess as she spoke. “ how do you know about her? B-Besides, If going off of what I’ve overheard so far, there is a pretty good chance that she’s awake at night and sleeps more during the day. I suppose I could ask her tomorrow. But do you really think that she would be okay with such an idea?”
“Why would she not be? I for one would see it as a great opportunity to help her mate. And please, do not tell me otherwise. Even with being up in Canterlot. Word of her has reached even my ears.”
“It's just that you're proposing the idea of bringing a bunch of mare’s into his head without his knowledge. Don't you think that's a bit... intrusive when it comes to his... privacy.”
“Hmm, I see your point on this subject and I would have to agree that such a drastic measure would normally be uncalled for. But under these unusual circumstances I can see no other course of action but to gain some additional assistance in tracking him down. Just remember that this is not to go snooping but to render him aid. Your descriptions of his actions are a classic sign of restless nights that have been putting a taxing strain on his mind. I would personally prefer to have the elements of harmony, who have been exposed to powerful Magic to accompany me as you all would have a greater resistance when it comes to influences through magical means.”
“Very well Princess Luna. I will ask the others. Although Rory will be the biggest hurdle. Can't really see convincing her to help us to be all that easy. It just might be me personally, but if I had a stallion, then I would be more than a little protective with allowing others to go trouncing about in his own head.”
“Please do your utmost to gain her assistance. It is true that if she were to be a part of the group, then Sir Gambit may not be so cross when all is revealed.” Near the end of that last comment. Luna could not help but to look away from Twilight as a worrisome expression crossed her own features for a moment. As if blatantly attempting to change the subject. Luna then said the following after adopting a curious look. “Pray tell, how has the Everfree Forest been treating you and the other elements?”
Being taken aback by the sudden change of topic. Twilight blinked a few times before letting out a relieved sigh that obviously did not go unnoticed by the princess as she spoke in a more relaxed tone. “It's been going well. This was going to be mentioned in my next letter. Although I could just tell you now.” Over the course of the next few minutes. Twilight went over how her little brother was going to be spending some time with Gambit along with their next destination for the coming-up weekend.
Of course, Twilight saw fit to not go into the reasons as to why Spike was to be receiving some help from Gambit. Although when she got to the part about going to Ghastly Gorge. She instantly noticed a subtle change to Luna's demeanor upon mentioning that location's name. At first, she had no idea as to why the lunar princess’s mood shifted. But this was quickly solved after giving it a couple of seconds to think over as her eyes went wide upon realizing exactly where they were heading to and slapped her left hand over her face before exclaiming the next bit. “Ohh no, I really hope this doesn't drudge up some bad memories.”
Luna then said the following as she gave Twilight a serious look. “It would be for our best interests if we were to conduct our business before then. There's no telling as to just how much his subconscious will react to visiting a traumatic site such as that. I personally would rather visit him when his mind is at ease, for I have already had to go through that landscape taking on a more treacherous theme. I just pray that your plan to talk with miss Rory Mercury will come to a favorable outcome.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Ponyville* *Time: The next day. One in the afternoon*
Brex was walking along the sidewalk for a road that would run right down the center of Ponyville by himself. Earlier that very morning, he discovered that Twilight came to his house yet again. But much to his surprise. The purple Unicorn invited Rory so that she can hang out with Twilight and her friends for the day. It really did not bother him all that much if Rory were to go out on her own. It was actually the opposite, as he was glad for her to be having some actual fun with others in the same way that any other normal person would.
In the meantime, he saw this as an opportunity to go out in town and turn in a couple of quests that were posted on the board for the Adventurers Guild. In all honesty, the Ponyville Guild did not offer that much of a variety to choose from. Which was strange with how the town was seemingly in constant danger with every other episode of the show. This meant that Brex assume with the world being full of monsters, that there would be at least a few subjugation missions here and there to clear out some monster nests or perhaps an escort mission at the very least.
Instead, all he got were the usual requests for repair work, along with some odd jobs here and there within the town limits. Although, there were a few highlights that he came across while going both to and from a few locations. The candy shop that Bonbon ran was open once more after being closed for a couple of weeks after the whole incident with Lyra attacking Sir Fancy Pants. Brex pass the candy shop and took a quick look through the window without stopping. This led him to getting a good look at Bon-Bon, who was servicing a customer from behind the counter by handing a bag of treats and accepting a couple of bits.
According to what he got from Rory after she went to visit Canterlot and spending some time with the married couple. Lyra had been moved from the dungeons to one of the hospitals within the city. It was there that a section of the structure was solely dedicated to helping those with psychological issues. Brex assumed that this was the doing of Bon-Bon and pulling a few strings as she worked directly under the princess as a spy for many years so that her mare-friend could get better care.
Unfortunately, not too much progress was made yet for the mint green Unicorn. However, it was a far cry better than being stuck in the dark dungeons underneath Canterlot castle. In the beginning Bon-Bon would stay by Lyra's side for days on end, being allowed to stay right outside of the dungeon cell. When the transferring occurred. She would visit every day for as long as the visiting hours allowed. Eventually, the gap in between would grow as she had no choice but to work on getting her daily necessities in order. Now she takes a long weekend by closing her shop for three days so that she could go up there to see Lyra.
From what he could tell from getting a first-hand look at the shop owner. She was obviously adapting by putting on a brave face. Yet he still felt that Bon-Bon was constantly thinking of her mare-friend. Brex even wondered about the possibility of going down the path to possibly consider the use of the slave tattoo. Using it on Lyra and having Bon-Bon to be the master, would probably be the quickest way to get those two back together. While also ensuring that Lyra was kept in check. But that notion was quickly dismissed as he shook his head.
For him. Strict rules were set in place as to what conditions would have to be met to use such a diabolical method of control. Sure, it may have worked out in the world of the shield hero. But there was a big difference as slavery was outlawed in Equestria and there was a high chance that it would get abused if word about it was to spread. Another reason was for the very fact that Princess Celestia would instantly hear about it and only add to the list of reasons for her to go after him that he was sure to be growing as time went on.
Another thought came to mind as to why Lyra was being left alone. Even though she was clearly in some way connected to the cult. It made no sense that no attempt had been made so far in the way of breaking her out, or permanently silencing the Unicorn from divulging any harmful information. There were a couple of Changeling’s posted in that very hospital yet not one of them has picked up on anything related to the cult making a move. Although, it was not as if she was giving up anything to begin with, as most of her ramblings consisted of extremist propaganda.
Constantly spewing nonsense on how all males should just be exterminated, as they were in her own words, “Not needed by nature itself anymore.” Even with that being the case, the Unicorn was still being placed under strict supervision. Brex just knew that something was going to happen eventually and he even went through the trouble of sending one of his body doubles to observe from a distance while within the shadow realm as an added measure. For someone to believe so much in what they’re saying, only led him to speculate that they would make contact sooner or later.
With that out of the way. The other occurrence that left an impression on him. Turned out to be a newspaper being sold from right outside of a shop that he walked by randomly. It was inside of one of those boxes where a single copy was placed on the window so that the front page could be displayed. After putting in a single bit and pulling from the container a copy for himself. Brex carefully looked at the front-page picture and instantly started to grin from behind his mask.
The picture turned out to be a somewhat blurry shot of what he was sure to be Engineer, while jumping from rooftop to rooftop in the middle of the night. The only reason he knew it was not in the day, was due to the moon showing itself as it poked out of the corner of one of the buildings in the shot. Right above the picture it said the following in bold print. “Stallion of Mystery. Do gooder or vigilante?” Brex rolled his eyes comically as he turned the folded piece of paper over so that he could read over the article.
He then thought to himself as his eyes slowly traced every line down until finishing. “Seriously man! What happened to laying low? Eh. I guess I really shouldn't say anything now that I’ve come out of the shadows. Just be more careful. There's no telling when or where a lucky photograph will be taken of you when your in that transformed state. Hmm... I should probably talk to the others and ask them if we got anyone stationed at the paper. I have no idea why I didn't think about precautions such as having some type of control over what’s sent out to the public to read in the newspapers.”
According to the article. An unknown stallion came out of nowhere and instantly caught the number one spot for the highest-level Adventurer on record. Even with being a starting rank. It seemed that Engineer was getting plenty of requests that was at the very top range of what he could accept. If that was all he was doing, then he would not have been much of a problem. The real issue was the off-the-books activities while in between quests. In all honesty, Brex figured it was due to the Ghost Rider part that would react to those who have done evil deeds and would thereby compel him to go after the perpetrators.
There was even a small part that quickly mentioned that Engineer was spotted at a flashy nightclub and broke up a bar brawl between twenty mare's that got out of hand as the DJ was assaulted by a random competitor. Brex then thought, “Huh? It doesn't say who the DJ was. I wonder if it's who I think it is.” After a couple of seconds, he mentally shook his head as he went, “Naw! That would just be way too convenient. Just because it's a DJ, it doesn't automatically mean Vinyl Scratch. It's not like she's the only one that plays music.”
Afterwards, Brex found himself strolling past the town hall, which also functioned as the courthouse. It was there, that he stopped in place at the moment he was half way from passing by the wide steps that only needed five or six to ascend. His body was still facing forwards, but his head turned towards the structure with a lingering gaze that lasted for some lengthy amount of time before his trance was broken and started back on his way. As he did this. The Roegadyn would also feel the urge that forced him to look away and at anything on the other side of the busy street.
It was not long until he passed by a group of four mare’s that just exited the popular shop that was known as Sugar Cube Corner. As he was going down on his own way. The mare’s came towards him to go the other and eventually crossed paths. One currently had in her arms a small foal that could not have been much past five months old from a cursory glance. Brex closed his eyes afterwards at the moment they came within a few feet. Although, The foal’s crying broke this and he opened his eyes again to take in the situation.
The one that he assumed to be the mother spoke up as she was attempting to console the crying foal by either carefully rocking and checking the diaper. “Please, its all OK. Shush… I just changed your diaper. What’s wrong?” One of the other mare’s then asked, “Is she hungry?” To which the mother replied with, “Don’t know. She spat up what I gave her for lunch. It can’t be that. Oh, I know. Here. Mabey you want to play with a toy?” She then produced a small stuffed plushy, yet the foal only more of a fuss.
Brex noticed the way the foal’s hands were clinched tightly almost repeatedly. Without even giving it a second thought. He said the following while turning his attention to the sidewalk so he would not see the mare’s. “Your foal’s hungry. Look at the way those hands are moving. Also, if throwing up is a common issue after having milk, then you might want to look into some lactose free brands. Odds are she’s lactose intolerant. He was sure that he heard them all go silent after the sound of their hoofs came to a sudden stop after his words. But by then, Brex was already half a block away and round a corner.
It was at that moment that he was now out of any ones view and silently walked to the wall and into his shadow. Now that he was in the Shadow Realm. He found that he was frozen in place. His legs were even shaking as the rest of his body locked up. It was a minute later, that there was a wet sensation on his bearded chin and he wondered if he had got yet another nosebleed. From under his mask. Brex used his tongue to taste for anything with a copper taste. However, there was none. He searched for another moment and found something salty instead. He then thought to himself in utter confusion, “Am… Am I crying?” But he just brushed it off as a reaction to something that may have just slipped under his mask to agitate his eyes and moved on.
After another hour went by. Brex went back to his house and greeted his two maids as he was making his way up into his room. Once inside and the door was securely closed. Brex walked over to the full-length mirror and stood right in front of it to stare at himself for several long seconds. Aside from himself, Brex could see the reflection of the door and part of the large bed. He released a heavy sigh as his eyes traced over his entire form and stopped as they rested squarely on his mask.
His mind became filled with images from earlier that day as Rory conversed with Twilight and headed out the door in a natural way. But not before giving him a quick kiss on his mask that was right over his own lips. He even started to think on how Rory was willing to expose what she really was to Twilight and her friends. As this was going on. His right hand was slowly brought up and the tips of his middle and index finger traced along that side of the Mask in a slow motion as the following thoughts came bubbling up.
“They already know that I'm not one of them... … Perhaps there is no longer a point to...” His hand carefully shifted so that the palm was placed at the center of the mask and the fingers outstretched so that he had a grip on the covering. His fingers were also placed in such a position that he was now forced to look between them as his eye-hole covers began to move downward at a slowly agonizing pace. It only got as far as allowing a sliver of the skin to be exposed from his hairline when his hand stopped and is entire body froze in place.
As his sight was glued straight ahead and at the mirror. Brex found that his breath was hitched and the hand on his mask was almost shaking violently to where he thought that he might end up dropping it at any second. But his thoughts came to a sudden stop as he could just barely make out through the eye holes and what was in the reflection before himself. His bedroom door was now wide open and he could see everyone he knew standing right behind him in a big crowd.
There was Queen Bellona and a number of other Changeling’s, which included his two maids. Sir Fancy Pants and Fleur De List. There was also Vapor Trail, Steel Will and his family. High Road, Low Road, Rose and her two sisters. Even Bon-Bon was behind them. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy and even Gilda were all lined up. Princess Luna and Celestia brought up the rear as they were standing taller than most of the rest. There were even a handful of the other ponies that he regularly met while in Ponyville being mixed in here and there.
What surprised him the most, was the site of two that he had not seen in a very long time as they were practically right next to him towards the left. These turned out to be Swirl Sugar and Shadow Lily. For the rest of the reflection, it showed that the background was slowly transitioning until there was absolutely nothing but empty darkness. However, they were all easily seen as if an unknown light source was ever present and only their bodies were being illuminated. Brex was so surprised by this, that his hand began to slip and expose another inch of the top of his face, but it still was not enough to obstruct his view.
Within a split second, all of their emotionless faces turn into varying degrees of shock, fear, disgust and pure malice as it was all being directed squarely on him in utter silence. All of this produced a sense of intense fear that completely stopped his breathing. Those that he considered to be friends, only hurt him the most after seeing their change. Rainbow and Gilda were both sneering at him with unadulterated disgust and outright hostility. Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis gazed upon him as if he were some piece of garbage on the street.
Swirl Sugar and Shadow Lily were giving him a stare that threatened to burn right through his skull with the sheer intensity of anger. As for the princesses. Luna adopted a look of disgust as Celestia now wore the same expression as when she first attacked him back at the castle of the two sisters. Brex could just feel the never-ending negative emotions that were coming down on him as if a tsunami hit with its full ferocity and threatened to take him away. If even that was not enough. Then what came next sent nothing but a deathly chill down his spine as his eyes were stuck wide open and unable to close no matter how hard he wanted to do so.
There was a constant flow of slithering and squelching sounds that came from behind all of them and the darkness. This was accompanied by glowing eyes that were slowly opening to reveal hundreds if not thousands to be squirming about. they did not just appear over their shoulders but also going outwards and even up the ceiling itself. Some stayed transfixed in place while the glowing eyes had a couple that were moving about and even overlapping others. This gave off the impression of crawling insects just swarming over one another.
They all were giving off an eerie yellowish glow as hazel-colored eyes became glued on to him as they shifted positions. Eventually they all made their way closer and closer until each one of the uninvited guests were now being swarmed. Numerous eyeballs moved into position along their bodies and quickly dug underneath their skins after burrowing and situating themselves as large growths that would blink randomly.
Of course, this would happen on exposed arms and faces. When it came to those that had more revealing clothing such as Rarity and the princesses. There would be a few that would attach to the chest and on the edge of their breasts. Even as this was happening to them, not a single one would show the slightest twitch that they were aware of such an occurrence and only continue with giving him those condemning looks. By the end of the year and it would have been easy enough for an onlooker to walk in and see them all as nothing but grotesque abominations and run screaming bloody murder, while standing while stampeding out of the house.
The next thing he knew, was the sound of his own heartbeat growing in both the speed at which it pumped his blood, but in a sheer volume that would soon fill his ears and block out anything else. “Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump!” By the time the rhythm was so powerful that his entire body was now feeling every pump from his heart. His vision began to also falter as it all became blurry and distorted in such a way that it may as well have been looking at the surface of a pond after multiple ripples from different directions collided with one another at the center.
It was only after going through this for a long, several more seconds before he felt the sensation that could have only have been described as one popping their ears after ascending to a higher altitude while inside of a plane. There was also this lingering metallic echo that could go on forever as he started to blink his eyes rapidly. And before he knew it, he found himself standing with both arms down at his sides and looking right at his mask covered face with a bewildered expression hidden behind it. Even his breath were slow, yet heavy as if just recovering from running quite hard with just a couple of seconds to pass before returning to a normal breathing rate.
He then thought the following to himself as he turned his head so that he could take in his entire bedroom slowly as his right eyebrow raised in confusion. “Huh...?” What was it I was doing again? Just great, I bet I had another one of those episodes.” He then brought a hand to his head and began to shake it a little bit to try and clear up the bit of haze that was still muddling his mind and turned to walk away from the mirror. However, without him really realizing it. It was at that very moment where his body turned and the reflection showing a corner of the room that was slightly darker than the rest, was immediately occupied as his form passed by.
He was just in the middle of leaving the room. When the figure, which was nearly two meters tall, soon melded into the floor and a very dark patch of shadows creeped in a slithering pattern until it's form condensed at a single spot only a few paces away from the standing mirror. It rippled in place and gave a sheen that was reminiscent of fresh hot tar when a piece of it raised up from the center and turned into a slender hand that was just a few inches from what could have been the elbow. Fingers stretched and curled a couple times as though attempting to reach for an object to grab onto.
It would have continued to form if it were not for the sound of the door being opened yet again and the black mass flattened out and dispersed into many pieces so that it could dive into the many small, shaded areas of the room. This turned out to be Lin as she greeted Brex as he exited the room. It did not take long until a series of footsteps could be heard approaching the mirror and the maid to be standing before it with a bucket and cleaning supplies. She then went on to cleaning the room and straightening up a few things after making sure that the glass on the mirror was spotless before leaving to continue with other parts of the house most likely.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 78: The Thoughts Of A Roegadyn.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Within the Dreamscape house* *Time: Nine at night. Four days later*
Sitting at the very bottom steps to the right stairway was Brex. As for Rory, she was standing a few feet away and lightly leaning her back against the railing. As they were doing this. The pair would have their eyes glued to the large number of floating screens that lined the entire wall that the exit was connected to. Rory gave a small chuckle before leaning back her head far enough so that she could peek over the railing. This caused her to have an upside-down face and hair dangling as she said the following with a raised eyebrow towards Brex.
“Master. This could have all been avoided if you just spoke to Luna once. It was bad enough when it was the two princesses, but now you're Ok with letting a full tour group into your head? Even I can't say for certain if this is a good idea or a really, really bad one.” Rory then straightened herself up and approached the screens. With a wave of her hand, several of them grew in size and positioned so that a majority of the rest were now being hidden as she continued. “Anyway, have you decided on what you would want to have as a backdrop for their visit? Another go at Limsa Lominsa sounds rather boring if you ask me.”
Over with the Roegadyn. He was in the middle of slouching forward and resting his elbows onto his knees. While wearing a set of blue jeans, shoes, a gray tank top and of course he was also unmasked. He would just blankly stare at the many screens as Rory currently had her back turned towards him and held on to a somewhat listless expression that was devoid of any enthusiasm, before seemingly snapping out of it to reply in a surprise tone to Rory's words. “Uh-Ah yes... it does sound boring.”
This caused the girl to turn on the spot and purse her lips together as she replied in a cautious tone. “Master, I really don't like how you've been in the past week. Doing the low-level quests in town. Taking the girls out three times a week for classes. Then there's your time with Spike now. If that's not enough, then we also have you zipping back and forth from here to wherever you're needed. Not even going straight to sleep at night has been helping with your condition. And must I remind you of how your probationary herd members have not been able to spend any real quality time with the way you’re always avoiding them and going off to who knows what.”
Rory released an exhausted sigh as she brought one of her hands up to pinch the bridge of her nose as she continued while showing her displeasure. “Please Master, the level of exhaustion that you're feeling in the morning is only growing and it's affecting your daily activities. Even those strange blackouts in our communication are becoming more and more frequent. Some have even been extending for more than a few seconds, to nearly a minute. But no matter how hard I look into what could be the cause, there's just nothing to indicate that there's a problem.”
The girl only had this growing frustration as she was now beginning to grind her teeth as she went on. “There are no cracks in the Dreamhouse that would suggest you needing to prioritize sleep. There are also no changes to your stats for your character window when I take a look at it. Another odd behavior that I'm witnessing from you Master, is the lack of taking off your mask when in the privacy of our own bedroom. It has progressed to where I have to be the one to mention it before you even consider removing it from your face. And even then, I can always see the hesitation. Small as it may be, it's still there.”
She was now squirming as she was tightly closing her eyes and bawling her hands into fists, that were now pointing straight down. As this was going on, a cartoonish amount of steam began to emanate from her body right as she spoke up again loudly and stomped her foot. “And it's only been two nights without us having ANY SEX!!! I'm sorry, I'm really sorry Master, but I can't keep going like this for much longer! Those two are even believing that they're not doing enough and that you're somehow displeased with them.”
Rory took a moment to calm down a little bit as she went on. “Rin's been attacking the chores like crazy to clean up the house even quicker every day and Lin is now sticking to you even more than usual to ease up on some of the paperwork you do. I told them many times that they haven't done anything wrong, but it's not helping to ease their worries when it comes to Master. It pains me to say this. We might need their help. Obviously, this is not an outside source but rather an internal one that is the cause of your odd symptoms.”
Brex chose that moment to hang his head down, which allowed a couple of his long strands of hair to cover up most of his face and to only allow his right eye to be seen as it gazed towards the floor with what was easily considered a lifeless expression as he responded in an equally so tone. “Originally, I wanted to throw whoever came inside into an amusing scene and watch what they would end up doing. Or maybe it would have been something to teach them a valuable lesson. But now… I can't even bring myself to do that much.”
That was when the entire house began to shutter for barely a second and Brex found himself holding on to the right side of his head and towards the back of his skull as a small hiss escaped his lips. Upon witnessing the event. Rory rushed over so that she could get on to one knee and held on to his head gently so that she could look into his face after bringing it up. With what was now some fear showing in her eyes, Rory spoke as she carefully examined his expressions.
“Again? I'm sorry Master! Even this has been happening to you and I still don't know what could be the cause.” What Rory was referring to, was the way Brex would suffer from these migraines that would hit and leave as suddenly as they came. Sometimes, it would come as a throbbing pain. While others were more of a nail being struck so that it would drive its way deep into the very core of his head. It would be during these instances where Brex would find himself holding in his displeasure as to not draw any attention to himself while any of the others were around.
There was even one instance where he would be alone and lowered his guard. The result was him being unprepared and nearly losing his balance as the world from his point of view was distorted in such a way, that it would give anyone a nauseating level of vertigo for a couple of seconds. Brex took Rory's hands away from his face and held on to them as he changed his outward look to that of reassurance when he replied back to the concerned girl.
“It's… It’s okay, it's past. But if we're to let Luna do her thing, then it would mean lowering some of my defenses, right? If she plans on doing what I think she will, then it will need to be done for her to gain access to the deeper parts of my subconscious. It's the only logical step on her end if she has any hopes of finding me in the dream that I'm apparently absent from. The real question is, how much do I let her get into? It’s not as if I can fully trust any of them to know absolutely everything about who and what I am.”
Rory stood back up and began to tap on her chin as she had a thoughtful expression before saying the next part and turning her body towards the screen. “Hmm, it would be a small task to block any of the non-essential memories. If we allow Luna to be able to manipulate the dream and throw in some randomized functions, then that might just do the trick. It won't be as effective as tracking down the cause of all the problems, but it just might point us in the right direction.” Rory paused for a moment before she looked back towards Brex and said the next bit while wincing apologetically.
“There is uh... just one catch that I really should mention for this to work.” Brex gave her a flat look as his right eyebrows slowly raised to show his growing worry before she continued with a nervous chuckle. “You would um, need to be in your deep sleep so that you're unaware as to anything happening.” He then pointed his gaze to the girl before she hurriedly added. “Hold on, I know what you're going to say! It's not a good idea for them to be freely roaming around, so I could go into the dream as well and pretend that I'm something that your mind created.”
After a few seconds and clearly feeling the uneasiness from Brex. She then hastily said, “I will be extra careful. Anything I say and do will only be what you should know and nothing of my personal private experiences will be mentioned. That way there will be no reason for them to not believe that I am just a dream fabricated Rory Mercury. This will be to ensure that they're pushed in the right direction and don't go delving into subjects that I know would be too sensitive.”
From there, the both of them began to converse back and forth as Brex knew that there was not much time until Luna came knocking at his mind’s door. “I'm just glad that you got around that whole Pinkie Pie promise about not filling me in on the plan.”
“Yeah. She said I couldn't tell you anything. But there was nothing in there about playing a voice recording of the whole conversation that we had. It really goes to show that some of my Master’s paranoia and careful tendencies have rubbed off on me. The instant they said that they had a secret to talk to me about and your name was brought up. I discreetly reached into my bag of holding and pulled out a voice recorder and taped everything from right under the table.”
“Well anyway, did you all finally decide on who's coming in?”
“Yep. Fluttershy is going to stay out of it. Especially after Luna gave everyone a warning about how it might end up being scary if the dream were to turn in the wrong direction.”
“Ah, well I would have expected that much from the girl. Scary really isnt her thing.”
“Although, I should warn you that Pinkie was all gung-ho to join.”
“Oh no! I hope she doesn't make a mess... but I already suspected that she's already been in my head more than once, so maybe it won't be as bad as I’m thinking. Just try to keep her from leaving it a mess.”
“Rarity is sitting this one out and her reason is as I quote, “It would be inexcusable for a lady such as myself to go digging into a stallion’s drawers without his permission. I can only imagine the social taboo of encroaching into his private thoughts.” End quote.”
“Okay, now that's just odd… And here I thought she would be all for trying to find some juicy little secrets, especially with seeing as she's the town gossip.”
“Oh come now master, Rarity isn't as bad as all that. Sure, she can be a bit stuck up, bit that’s her charm.”
“Ok ok. I guess so, you're the one that's been around her the most. Well, what of the others? Who else is going spelunking?
“Well, there's Rainbow and Gilda. That's obviously a given. They are in a relationship of sorts with you, so there's no doubt they would jump at the opportunity after displaying your weird behavior. Applejack was saying that she needs to repay you for helping out with her chores, so she's also in on it. Then we have Twilight as the last member. As everyone is going to be sleeping in one room to do this, it will be up to Spike, along with Rarity and Fluttershy to keep an eye on things.
“Hmm, now that's a good idea. I remember the episode where they all end up asleep when the Tantabus becomes an issue for Luna. It was so stupid… That was a real good time for someone like Chrysalis to launch a surprise attack as they were all defenseless. Seriously, I always wondered why they didn't post an actual guard. There was a Princess and a row of the seemingly most important ponies for Equestria’s defense just ripe for the picking, and they didn’t even think of how vulnerable they were?”
Brex took in a deep breath to calm himself before he continued. “Okay, let me get this straight. We got Luna the Dream Magic user. Twilight the egg-head, who will scrutinize everything as to gain any information on me. Pinkie, with her randomness will be able to circumnavigate the dream realm rules with ease if I'm not mistaken. Applejack, the living lie detector and the most incredibly stubborn pony I’ve come to know. And last, but not least we have two girls who are in an odd relationship with me.”
“Yep, that sounds about right.”
Brex then gave a sharp flat stare that was going straight ahead and at the far wall as he said the next bit with pure sarcasm being laced into his tone. “Yeah… I can't see anything wrong coming out of that! At the very least you could reign them in at the right time. Good job by the way on convincing all of them that you'll be wide awake to make sure that I was not woken up in the middle of the night.”
“Hahaha, it would only be natural. All I really needed to say was that I had the utmost confidence that they could get to the bottom of the problem. Which of course was not a lie so it did not tip off Applejack. Otherwise, it would make it a little more difficult to explain as to why I'm already in your dreams and not in my own if Luna was to try and find me in the same way she does with the rest.”
He just shrugged his shoulders and along with Rory, the two of them went up to his bedroom. Brex climbed inside the sheets and rested his head onto the pillow as his back was pressing against the soft fabric of the bed sheets. Rory was standing right at the edge of the large bed and on his left and leaned in to give him a gentle kiss before standing straight up again. The act than caused her hair to partially block her face as a result and she used her right hand to pull one side so that it was behind her ear as she spoke and a juvenile tone.
“Are there any requests you would like to make before we proceed? Brex chuckled a little bit as his eyes slowly began to close and responded in kind. “Heh, there’s just two. Make sure they wipe off their feet before running around all over and the second is to make sure they don't see my browser history.” Rory laughed loudly to that as she was covering her mouth and gave him a quick wink before she said the next part as his consciousness drifted deeper. “If we're lucky, we might be able to discover as to why it is you know so much about your world, yet so little about yourself.”
Once Brex was in a deep, deep sleep. Rory immediately went back downstairs and made the appropriate adjustments to the dream and mental defenses to allow Luna a substantial amount of control when compared to how it would normally be. Yet Rory's still retained what could have been seen as administrator privileges so that she can override Luna's control and then kick them all out if the need should arise. Certain memories were placed under heavy lock and key, which she herself deemed irrelevant to the investigation.
With that being done. All that was left to access was the memories left alone and her Masters subconscious mind. The whole process took several minutes and completed right on time, as Rory detected the entry of Luna's distinctive magic signature. Rory was even able to feel the additional presence of the rest of the girls that had already been determined to join the princess in tow. Luna herself was easily pushing her way through the membrane that separated her Master's mind from that of what they believed was the Dream Realm to which the lunar princess governed.
Twilight on the other hand had some minor resistance that was no worse than having a fifteen mile per hour wind blowing straight into one's face. Applejack had almost no problems at all. The same went with Rainbow and Gilda. Although, Rory did feel something else happening to her Master's Dreamscape at the very moment that Pinkie was thrown in at the back of the line. Everything gave a strong yet brief shutter in the same way that one would witness somebody reacting to a scare. This caused her to smirk as she playfully rolled her eyes at the antics and brought up a single window as to be a spectator until her moment arrived to make an appearance.
Over with the now arriving guests. Each one ended up falling from the sky with the exception of those with wings that immediately caught themselves after going into a free fall for a couple of seconds. This left Twilight, Applejack and Pinkie to be the one that were screaming at the top of their lungs as they were already halfway down and heading straight for the ocean at the very outskirts of the city. With a quick flash of her horn, the lunar princess caught all three in her magic and levitated them until everyone arrived on one of the upper levels that would look down on the Plaza.
As this was all going on for a couple of seconds. Everyone except for Luna was gawking at the site of the maritime city of Limsa Lominsa in all its Glory. The white painted buildings along the shoreline and many connecting bridges filled their vision. As the non-flyers were placed carefully on one of the circular wooden platforms that extended from an archway leading into what could have been a tavern of sorts. Rainbow and Gilda took a couple of laps around the very same structure before coming in for a landing themselves.
It was the prismatic Pegasus that first spoke up as everyone was slack-jawed and busying themselves with looking at everything they could from the higher vantage point. “WHOA! This is the next best thing to being up in Cloudsdale!” Gilda could not help but to add in her own opinion after crossing her arms and giving a small smirk as her eyes drifted from the water below and all the way up the spires. “It's definitely better than back where I in my aunt's used to live, that's for sure. The sea air and all this open space makes flying around great.
Applejack wandered closer to the archway as she was weary of the edge that clearly was built without some type of guardrail. As she got closer to the structure itself, her worried expression from a moment ago turn to that of appreciation as she carefully stomped her hoofs as she spoke. “I got no idea if it's because we're in a dream, but this here is pretty well made.” Pinkie was already bouncing around and zooming from place to place to take in the view. She had clearly run into the building and back again from taking another walkway that went around the side before loudly calling out in an excited voice.
“Can you imagine how easy it is to get a good spot here for the fireworks? The foals would absolutely love it.” She went on for a couple of more moments with one random party rant after another and was about to be interrupted by Twilight when the pink mare finally noticed the large crystal floating a short distance away and on a lower level and called out to the rest. “Oooooh! What's that, what's that?! it's all spinny and sparkly!” This caused all of them aside from Applejack, who kept a relatively safe distance from the edge to get closer to see what Pinkie was describing.
Luna then said, “As to its function, both my sister and I have no clue but it serves as a brilliant centerpiece if I would say so myself. Possibly it might have a cultural significance, or an unknown magical artifact.” Twilight was looking at it with a curious brow being raised before snapping her fingers and speaking of what was on her mind. “I've seen it somewhere before... but where exactly did-. Haha! I remember now! They were on some of the portraits hanging in Gambit's.” Everyone now had their attention on the Unicorn as Luna pressed for more answers with a glance.
From that, Twilight explained the time at which she saw the paintings. They were of varying locations, however when it came to the settlements there was just one common object that was most prominent. Which just so happens to be a similar floating gem that would always be put up on some type of pedestal with the same color. Although each one would have a slightly different design. What also stood out was Twilight's assumptions in regards to the way the background characters were painted so they were blending in and hard to pick out if one was not careful enough with their eyes.
When Twilight was finished with taking a few minutes to explain. The farm mare finally spoke up again after gingerly stepping closer to the edge. “Uh… That's all well and fine Twilight. But I think we need to be getting back to findin' just where Gambit is. Luna nodded to that and began to bring her magic to bear once again as she closed her eyes and spoke to the rest. “Previously, my magic over the dreams has not afforded me all that much here. Although, this night is different. It is now possible to use alternative means. Ones of which I am hesitant to do as it would most likely bring down his wrath. Although with the current predicament I could see him being understandable.”
A bolt of magic was soon shot into the air. From there, it whizzed around in a circular pattern as she continued. “With the intention of being as discreet as possible. This ball of magic will lead us to another area for which we can explore now that my magic has its grip once again.” Without so much is another word, the ball of blue shot into the structure and all the girls gave Chase. It zipped around towards the left and down a set of steps. From there it stopped at what appeared to be a set of doors. Gilda wrenched open the doors and the group found a lever and pulled on it.
It did not take more than a couple of seconds for them to realize that they were inside of an elevator and going up as the indicator above the doorway was counting to higher numbers. When it stopped and the doors swung open. The spell shot out and hovered in place where there was a row of counters that were also connected to various short gates. Pinkie rushed up to the front of the group and pointed further ahead at a boat shaped contraption that was being suspended thanks to a balloon on top.
The pink mare then said, “Oh oh, I think we're supposed to take that thing! Come on girls! Last one on the ride is a rott- OOFPH!!!” Her words were cut off prematurely as she attempted to jump over the railing. But instead of clearly landing on the other end. Pinkie was more than intimate with an invisible force as her face was comically squished. Even her body began to slowly move down to create that streak-like sound when rubbing against a glass window. Luna looked a little worried until Pinkie started to shake her head with a woozy expression on her face.
Next up was a female voice that spoke in a clear and friendly manner from what they all thought was the counter. However, even though all eyes were there. Not a single person was visible that could have said the following words in order to start a conversation between it and Princess Luna. “Now now now, jumping the gate without paying is strictly prohibited. If you wish to use the Airship, then present your pass and pay the fee first.”
“Intriguing, very intriguing. This is quite new.” She gave a quick cough before she continued with her regal tone and approach the counter until she was just a couple of steps away. “Ah yes, uh... we apologize. We six are new to this area and we are unaware as to the proper course of actions we should take when utilizing these services. Please explain this pass and fair that is required.”
“But of course. In order to use the Airship, one must be given an travelers pass and pay four-hundred Gil.”
“Hmm. I am not familiar with this... Gil, for which you speak of.”
“Oh my, I'm dreadfully sorry. But I will not be able to allow you to use our Airship without having both of the required items.”
“I have no time for such foolishness. I am in dire need to find sir Gambit and-.”
“HUH? Excuse me, but did you say Gambit?! Are you all his acquaintances?”
“I uh, yes! yes we are.”
“Well, if that is the case, then why did you not say so sooner? Here. I'll wave it all for you right now. All I require is for you to write your names on this document and I will submit it to Admiral Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn”
Luna and the rest were now looking at each other from the corners of their eyes as each one silently mouthed the word Admiral Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn with great difficulty, before Luna responded. “Would you happen to know where we could find sir Gambit?”
“The ship can only take you to-.” The Voice was then cut off as the next set of words came out as a static noise. Although, it seemed as though she was attempting to say a number of names in the process. When Luna asked for her to repeat herself. All they got was the exact same response and this began to cause a number of the girls to grow rather irritated. Although, on the third attempt. there was one difference as a single word slipped through the static. This being the word “Ishgard.”
After giving each other another glance. The group all answered at the same time by saying Ishgard and the gate open as the voice said, “Have a safe trip and enjoy the flight. If you are having any troubles in finding Gambit. Then might I suggest that you locate and have a word with Ser Aymeric de Borel.” While in the middle of boarding on to the craft that appeared to only have enough space for perhaps a dozen to stand inside of it properly. Applejack glanced over her shoulder at the still empty booth and said in a hushed whisper to the others. “Anyone else get creeped out by all of that?” Luna then said, “Would appear to be a reoccurring theme and Sir Gambits mind. Now hurry along as the night is short.”
There was a ringing of small bells as the ship began to move away from the boarding platform and out a large opening that would lead to the outside. The controls for the ship where the same as that of a regular seafaring vessel as the wheel lightly turn from left to right in response to the ship’s movements. The craft itself took several seconds before it was heading away from the city and approaching the boundary that Luna knew for certain was there.
A number of the girls were looking at the now shrinking city after leaning against the railing, while Luna had this expression that she was attempting to hide from the rest at the notion of finally being able to see more than just that one place after so long. Once the border was hit by the tip of the airship. The entire thing melded into a mirror like wall that quickly gobbled up the entire ship until there was nothing left but an empty clear sky.
Back inside of the dream house and with Rory. The girl was sitting on an elaborate cushioned chair with a small bucket of popcorn on her lap as she stared at the window that displayed every single event that was occurring. After giving a small hum. She then said the following with a raised eyebrow. “I know we didn't put that there. Must be the randomness kicking in now that we don't have full control over everything. Interesting that it would try to take them to Ishgard though. Even tossed in the Lord Commander of the Temple Knights.” Rory then had this thoughtful expression as she tossed a popcorn bucket over her head and it disappeared before any of the contents could spill onto the floor.
She then got up from her chair which also vanished and held out her left hand for the signature axe that she was known to carry to reappear in her grasp. After giving it a few twirls, she said the following while moving towards the door. “Luna should be just fine there, although I can't say the same for the others as that's a much higher danger zone than they're used to when it comes to the monster's strength. I'd say they need to be at least triple what they are now to handle it. Oh well, I suppose it’s time to act as the guide and get them through.”
She had just placed her hand onto the door knob after turning it to the designated green color for the dream when there was a loud set of screams coming from the window that she was just watching from only a few seconds ago. Rory rushed over and took a grip of one side so that it could be forced to turn to where she stood and saw how the ship had just been broken in half as all of the passengers fell into a swirling black void. From a quick glance, she could see as the clouds were swirling and being sucked into the edges of the blackness. Rory then exclaimed loudly as she made a mad dash for the door and swung it open, while also sweating up a storm. “Oh fuck me up the butt! Master, can't you make this easy for me?!”
Back to just a couple of seconds earlier when Rory took her eyes off of the screen. The scene shows the airship gliding over an endless sea of clouds and the sun was at its peak high in the sky. All the girls on the ship were making some light conversations while looking in the direction they were heading when the wind had picked up all of a sudden. The underside of the floating ship was struck hard by an unknown object with such force, that it broke cleanly in two and ruptured the balloon in a single instant.
This sent splinters and chunks of their craft all over the place. The floor had cleanly snapped in half and the steering column became detached and thrown over the edge. The force being produced by the air escaping from the balloon to away the anchor points that were held on by strong cables. The girls themselves were flung in random directions when considering their relative positions along the craft. Of course, this also meant that none of them had any time at all to brace themselves.
The end result was all of them falling to the now dark hole that appeared in the center of a wind funnel. Those with wings attempted to take to the air, but were left at the mercy of the heavy winds and quickly disappeared into the darkness after letting out a series of loud screams which instantly died out at the very instant their forms disappeared. The last two vanish was Luna as she tried all her might to fight against the wind. But ultimately succumbed to the pressure and she was sucked in at the instant her strength faltered.
Both the dead silence and nothing but black in all directions made up the current environment until there was a set of quiet thuds that rang out. After a couple of seconds of low moans of discomfort filled the air. The voice of a woozy Twilight could be heard as she called out to her friends. “Ow, it’s gonna leave a mark… Is everyone okay? Hello is anybody there?” The response she got came from Rainbow and Gilda in the form of a couple of grunts before the Griffin spoke up. “Ouhg… Did anyone catch the license plate of that wagon that ran over my head?” This was immediately followed with an indignant tone from Rainbow. “Hey! Now I know you didn't just call me fat!”
With that Twilight created a ball of purple light that hovered just over her head and illuminated the gray ground that they were on for a dozen feet or so in all directions. A short distance away was the site of Gilda laying face down on the ground, while Rainbow was on her back and laying across the Griffin's body. Once they all got back up and onto their legs. Twilight attempted to call out for the others for a few moments. Unfortunately, she got nothing in response as the light could not even illuminate any walls within range. Much less the ceiling as all they could see was the now identified cement floor underneath the three of them.
Rainbow took to the air and said the following right as she was about to zoom off. “I know! Wait here, I'll go find them!” But before she could get away. A light purple magic aura was enveloping the Pegasus’s tail and holding her fast before she could leave the range of Twilight's illumination magic. The Unicorn then said, “Hold on Rainbow! We don't know where we are and it would be dangerous if you can't find us again. It wouldn’t be a good idea and you’ll just get lost on your own. Princess Luna did warn us that we have to be careful.”
After giving out a reluctant grunt of annoyance and crossing her arms before landing. Gilda walked up to the pair and said, “Great, just great. We're not going to find anything if we just stand around and do nothing. Let's just pick a direction and start walking. I doubt this is gonna go on forever. Sooner or later, we’ll bump into something, or maybe the others we’ll find a way to track us down. They do have that other princess with them after all.”
Twilight nodded to that suggestion and began to go straight ahead as the light remained with the Unicorn. After a couple of seconds went by as nothing was said among the group. It was Rainbow who broke the silence as her eyes were looking left to right with a growing worry building behind them. “I really don't like the way it is in here... but it's not like I'm scared!” Twilight did not pay too much mind to what her friend was saying as she was squinting her gaze to try and pick up anything from up ahead. Gilda however, merely rolled her eyes at her girlfriend's reaction to the darkness.
Over with the group of Luna, Applejack and Pinkie. They were in a similar predicament with Luna providing her own light spell that was clearly more than triple the strength of Twilight's. The princess was walking with her head held high and eyes as sharp as a hawk for any new obstacle to suddenly appear. Applejack had a serious expression of her own as she had this air about her that just screamed that she was ready for a fight. Pinkie however, was having the time of her life as she was singing in a way that allowed her voice to echo and to produce a odd duet effect.
After a little bit of time went by and nothing changing. Applejack began a conversation with Luna as they continued down the unmarked path. “Say uh… Princess Luna. I don’t suppose you got any way of knowin' how the others are doin'? I'm worried about them. I ain't no good when it comes to all this magic. But isn't this all a little off? I mean, I just figured that we should have run into him or even the others by now.”
“I can understand your worries but I can assure you that Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and Gilda are just fine. So long as we are in the same dream, then I could feel their presence. I sense some apprehension. but other than that, they are doing well. Moreover, if the need should arise, I can pull us all out with one spell and it will not matter as to where each of us are.”
“Phew! That's good to hear! A big load’s off my shoulders. Anyways, where do you reckon we ended up? after seeing everything else, this here feels… off. If you get what I mean.”
“I believe you might mean underwhelming. Nevertheless, I would have to agree. Already a number of spells have been used to change our environment but to have little to no effect. Judging from the evidence, one could only assume that we are in the deeper recesses of Sir Gambit subconscious. Or at the very least, one of the many layers.”
Pinkie jumped into the conversation right as the word layers was mentioned. “Oh oh, are we talking about cakes now? I want a cake! What kind of a cake is it? Right now, I can go for strawberry! Oops, wait! Scratch that. Make it a pineapple upside down cake!”
Luna quirked an eyebrow as she was eyeing the pink pony before she responded. “The type of layer I am referring to is not of confection. Hmm. How shall I put it? Ah yes. Have either of you ever had a dream where you woke up and found yourself in another?”
The pair scratched their heads before Luna continued on after getting no other confirmation. “It is a random occurrence where one's dreams would delve deeper into the dreamer's mind. It is there, a whole new dream could be made for which time moves at a far faster rate of speed. Thoughts that were previously unknown to the user would manifest and create even more than the initial scenario above. This would produce a greater amount, or forgo that and in return, the dream would be far more detailed. On occasion I would use my magic to cause this to happen as to gain more time to work on deeper issues. Although, I had not intended for this to occur.”
“Are you sayin' that Gambit's got nothin' on the ol' brain? I seriously find that hard to believe. Gander at what’s all around.”
Applejack was just about to continue when she and Luna stopped in their tracks after hearing a strange musical instrument from behind themselves. Upon turning around, did they catch Pinkie holding up in her left hand a contraption. There were rods and small objects connected to strings on the end. Parts of it had cloth that was ripped, although there was enough to give the indication that it was originally meant to take on the form of a small umbrella. The fabric itself had patches of baby blue, while some of the edges were clearly dirtied and stained with a couple of dark brown patches.
The dangling parts showed various small objects stuffed with cotton. There was a sun, a crescent moon, a teddy bear and a star. The entire thing looked very worn out and Pinkie poked it again with her free hand to cause the entire contraption to shift slightly as a few more notes echoed from a music box that was built into the base. Luna and Applejack approached as the princess spoke up in a confused tone as she wearily eyed the object. “Do either of you know what this might be?”
Pinkie was the next to speak as she had this innocent tone while giggling at the princess’s lack of knowledge. “Oh don't be silly. Don't tell me you've never seen a baby mobile before? You hang these on top of cribs. The foals can look up at them when they are going to be put to bed.” Luna's eyes became more curious as she walked around Pinkie to take in as much as she could while replying. “Such notions were not even conceived during our time as a foal.” The lunar princess paused when she got to one part and noticed some engravings.
Upon closer inspection Luna could not read the writing as it was in some foreign letters and started to cast a spell onto the object. This was all in hopes of the translation magic to take effect. Soon, all three huddled together to watch as the letters slowly gave off a translucent blue glow and morph to that of their own language. Pinkie and Applejack tilted their heads in confusion, while Luna's eyes went wide with disbelief as her mouth began to hang open from right behind the others. Right there in front of their eyes was four letters that spelled out… Lulu.
Almost as if this was some huge signal. The entire area began to light up. Where there were once no walls. A ceiling soon took on the appearance of a nursery that was easily way too big and caused them all to feel as though they had shrunk to a third of their size. There was also an assortment of furniture lining the room which ranged from a rocking chair, a crib and a set of drawers. Even the item that Pinkie was holding became too big and she ended up dropping it with a loud clatter that echoed far more loudly than it should have any right in doing so. This was followed with a chorus of creeks and whines from the surrounding objects as it all grew old and brittle within a matter of seconds.
The walls which were mostly white, aside from one being green. Soon had all of the paint fade and flake away to show the dry rot that was within the walls. All of the baby furniture collapsed under its own weight and produced a large quantity of dust that obscured all of their vision for several long seconds until the ruckus finally subsided. When they could finally see again. The group of three were astonished to see a dilapidated room which should have belonged to a house that was now in serious need of being demolished for various safety violations.
The windows were completely without glass. The door leading out which was left wide open from the beginning was now broken in half with only the bottom still on the hinges as the top laid in what they assumed to be the hallway. Even a section of the roof was missing to expose nothing but the same black void that they had been walking in for a while now. Obviously feeling unease about being there. Luna shook herself free from her stupor after witnessing the change and ushered the girls to follow her as she exited through the door.
But right as they were about to leave. Luna could see amongst the rubble that there was a piece of paper that was sticking out. From a cursory glance from where she stood. It was white on one side, while the other had a very elaborate set of markings of blue for the outer edges as well as the writing. Her translation spell from earlier was still in effect and a few of the words soon change to something that she could recognize. Although most of the document was illegible thanks to the smudges. She can vaguely make out the wording at the top which said, “Certificate of De-.” This only cause Luna's heart to come to a near stop as the implications hit her hard after taking yet one final glance at the room.
The scene changed to Twilight and the others as they were now coming across a set of double doors that belong to an official building with pillars used as both decoration and support on the outside. Leading up to the entrance was also white marbled stone steps and lion statues on the left and right near the bottom. Gilda tried to go around, but she quickly returned after getting to the edge to inform them that it was just the front and there was nothing else beyond the oddly placed building. She even explained that it was no different than a cardboard cut-out if they were to try and go around.
Rainbow gave a quick shrug and landed onto the first step with her right hoof. This was quickly followed with her lunging back with her ears pinned down to the sides of her head as the others watched and confusion. Twilight then asked in panic, “What happened Rainbow?!” The Pegasus only shook her head before pointing at the steps and muttering that they should check for themselves. While looking more confused than before. The two approached and did the same as Rainbow by standing on the very bottom step.
The following occurred for a few seconds before they also jumped back with similar reactions. What was once complete silence apart from themselves, was now a roaring boom of noises that were comprised of angry shouts and popping that could easily have been associated with the flashes of cameras. What was said was completely unrecognizable to any of them, yet the level of hatred behind them all was overpowering to the point that both Twilight and Gilda were scared for their very lives.
Twilight was clutching at her chest right above her heart, as Gilda's fur was standing on end to the point that she may as well have been electrocuted with how sharply they were reacting. Even the Griffins battle hardened eyes were filled with unbridled fear for several long seconds before snapping back with a cold glare that was pointed towards the structure. Before the others could call out for her to stop. Gilda proceeded to force her way to walk up the steps. There was more than forty in all and each one only added to the sensations she was feeling. This was only made evident with how she nearly staggered with each progressing lift for leg.
Even though she could not understand a single word that was being uttered by the unknown and invisible masses. Something within was very close to snapping from both anger and despair. Gilda was sweating with every forceful grunt escaping her beak after trudging up nearly the entire way. There was a couple of times where she nearly stumbled and had to catch herself with one of her arms before pushing her body to finish. When she had gotten close enough to reach for the doors handles to open them up. The noise and frequency that they were coming from was causing her vision to sporadically shake.
If it was not for the simple fact that Rainbow and Twilight were at the bottom of the steps behind her. Then the flowing tears from her eyes would have been easily seen. The shouts were painful enough, yet there was another type of pain from within her chest that only gave the sensation that she was ready to give up on life as all hope was being snuffed out in the same way a candle would fight to stay lit from a heavy storm. Gilda was just about to pass out when her hand pressed on the door knob just enough to cause a crack to open. As a result. The noises came to a sudden stop and she found herself stumbling and being caught by Twilight and Rainbow on either side.
Her eyes were blurry as she was heaving heavy breaths and looking straight down to the ground to witness several drops of sweat to land at her own feet. When she had recovered her senses after several seconds went by. Gilda found that she had somehow reappeared at the bottom of the steps. As she was about to say that she was fine. Her thoughts were interrupted upon hearing two sets of voices. One was from a female that she clearly did not recognize, as the other instantly clicked as that of the princess of the sun.
At first, they took turns as they spoke. But eventually the pair became perfectly unified so that there was a two-toned voice speaking as though they were one being. “Should never have been born! Should never have been born! SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BORN!!!” As this was going on, both Twilight and Rainbow were not only confused, but clearly disturbed with what was being said. Twilight clearly responded from fear alone. Whereas rainbow was shaking out of both being scared and anger that such words were echoing within this dream so that her herd-mate would be forcibly subjected to.
Even still, the one who was shaking the most while still being held up was Gilda. But instead, her reaction was from nothing but pure unadulterated rage at the voice. She gritted her beak and pushed away from the other two so that she could turn around and scream the following into the darkness as an intense glare was added. “Shut the buck up and leave him alone!” It was then that the voice came to a stop and silence rained again. Yet Gilda was not finished, as her hands were clenched tightly to where she even drew a couple of drops of her own blood thanks to her talons digging into her palm.
“I will find you and when I do, I'll rip you to pieces and pull out your throat with my beak! No one, and I mean no one will get away with speaking to my fiancé that way! DO YOU HEAR ME?! I'll cut you open! Pull your flesh from your meat! Your guts will be spilled and before your life ends, I will make sure to look into your very eyes as I strangle your own throat with your still bloody intestines!” Gilda was hunched over and giving the impression of a feral animal as her wings were now fully on display. She was still looking straight ahead and heaving heavily as her chest was expanding with each intake of air.
Back with the other two. They were now clutching onto one another and shaking violently as their eyes were glued on the backside of Gilda who had just made all those threats. Twilight’s teeth were loudly chattering as Rainbow carefully whispered the following so that Gilda could not overhear. “That was scary as buck... Uh, is… is it wrong that I'm... I'm turned on?” On Twilight's part, she could not hear Rainbow’s words over her teeth smashing into one another. But before anything else could be done by any of them there. The entire place was filled with cracks that gave off a strong ray of white light as the cement floor fractured.
Once there was enough of these cracks. It all fell away and the three found themselves falling yet again. During those split seconds, all three gave out their own sets of responses which consisted of. “Oh not again!” “This is embarrassing when I got wings!” “Mark my words, I'll find YOUUUUUU!” And with that, everything went white as Gilda's words faded the further, they all went into the light. As the group was done was tumbling straight down and being surrounded by nothing but nothing but an empty white that was a stark contrast to that of the previous environment. It was Rainbow who pointed towards another set of dots that were so falling at a short distance away.
Eventually, Gilda calmed down enough by that point to squint her eyes at who or what it was and called out to the other two as her right hand was pointing as well. “It's the others!” But as soon as those words left the Griffin's mouth. They all found themselves colliding with a hard ground. This solicited a number of pained grunts from each and every one of them. Moreover, was the additional surprise that they all mysteriously landed right next to one another and in various states.
Most were laying on the ground in pain, aside from Luna who stuck the landing in a pose where she was on one knee and Pinkie slowly came to a graceful one for herself. This was due to an umbrella that had been pulled out at one point or another. At the same time, she was also humming a tune and saying the phrase, “A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.” After which, the entire umbrella was retracted and stuffed into her mane in one swift motion before any of the others had even noticed.
As each and every one of the girls were getting back onto their shaky legs after another not so nice landing. It was one after another that spun in place and turned their heads in almost every direction. It did not take long until this turned into them all leaning back their heads as to take in the site of something impressively tall before them. While in the dead center of a large four-way intersection street. The group was surrounded by tall buildings of various designs that went on for as far as the eye could see in nearly every direction.
Among them were nearly countless buildings being comprised of varying designs and shapes. Some of which were primarily of the modern design with a good portion of the outside being constructed of glass and steel. Others were made of bricks and mostly wood. No matter where they looked, it just did not seem as though any of them matched with the building next to it. this was made especially true when one was seemingly from the Victorian age. Whereas another had a Mayan feel to it. another would plainly be modeled after what would be seen in Rome and right beside that was probably made out of fashioned together pieces of scrap metal for a third-world country feel.
Just as previously stated with one being made of glass. The next building over was covered with thick vines as most of what could be seen underneath was nothing but clay. When looking higher at the taller structures. Remanence of other buildings that should have been built upon a cement Foundation was protruding from the side and melding with a building from across the street. There was just no rhyme or reason as it was painfully apparent that these were all taken from not only different places, but also time zones and mismatched to create such an environment of near chaoticness.
What made it eerily disturbing, was how everything was mostly greyed out and a small gust of wind was continuously blowing between the buildings themselves to make some random pieces of trash to roll by the group. Even the writing and obvious pictures that were hanging up on some billboards or display areas could barely be made out. All-in-all, it was just a city that was so dead quiet that everyone can hear the sound of any member of the group making as they took every step upon the black pave road.
Seemingly to be getting bored of all the silence. Pinkie brought her hands up and around her mouth and screamed the following. “Hello! If this is a surprise party! You're doing a great job at hiding!” It was Applejack who spoke up next as she wearily eyed the place. “Uh, Pinkie... I don’t think that’s what’s goin’ on. But is anyone finding it even a little creepy that there was no echo?” Twilight was the next to speak up as her head was on a swivel to take in her surroundings. “Applejack's right. All of these tall buildings and lack of other sounds should have easily made this an echo chamber. Princess Luna, what should we do-.”
Twilight sentence was cut short when a window on the tenth floor of a nearby office building shattered. After clearly catching their attention. The group watched as large pieces of glass was sent clear across the street. From there, it all went into slow motion as the next couple of seconds produced the following scene of events. While facing backwards and wearing the Warriors gear from back when Luna and Celestia dropped in on that frozen wasteland. The figure of Brex was guarding with his weapon against a long spear being utilized by Princess Celestia.
The solar princess hold back with her weapon and did a spin and swung her spear in a wide arc over her head. This struck Brex, who had just guarded against another attack. Thereby sending him straight to the ground below with a large crash as his body was blown away by the heavy strike. This was immediately followed by a volley of nearly a dozen shots of solar energy that traveled straight to where he landed and produce a booming series of loud and bright explosions. As a result, each of them held their ground and brought up their arms in order to block the flying pieces of dust and debris from hitting them in their heads.
Twilight quickly turned to Luna and was about to call out for an explanation when she was interrupted by another voice that sounded to be exactly like her own. “Princess Celestia! Please, do try to at least keep him in one piece!” That was when the dust cleared and showed Brex to be running in the opposite direction and a fireball to be launched from somewhere behind Twilight's group. As a result, the flying ball of fire had struck him squarely in the back and produced a terrifying explosion with similar effects to that of the princess. This caused quite a number of the nearby windows to break as he was sent flying into one of the first floors of yet another building.
When Luna in the rest turn to see who had launched the spell. All were astonished at the site of another Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Element bearers of Harmony. They looked exactly like the real ones, except their expressions came off as dark and sinister to the others. The dream Twilight’s staff was still extended as flames were already building up for another attack as she spoke in a cold yet condescending manner. “Princess, we know how much you can't stand to have him roaming the world. But please, hold off until I've at least finished with my dissection and cataloging of his anatomy. Just think of how much we could learn from his body alone.
It was the other Rainbow that spoke up next as she zoomed forward and literally phased right through the girls as if they were not even there as she headed to where Brex landed. “The rest of you wait here and I'll drag him out! Hello~. Come out come out, wherever you are~. Don't worry, I won't make it hurt… Too long~. Hahahahaha! You already know that I don't like to take things nice and slow.” Clearly coming out of their stupor at witnessing the sight. Twilight and the rest tried to run to where Brex crashed as the Unicorn anxiously called out to Luna. “I don't understand! what’s all this? And who are they?!”
Luna replied right as they got to the broken window just a couple of seconds after the other dream Rainbow dived inside. “I am unsure. His subconscious must have a deep-seated notion of being betrayed. Hence the clear hostile actions by your counterparts.” Gilda responded to that as she started to look inside of the building. However, she could only see nothing as there was no lighting inside. “He's a lot stronger than the rest of us. I can't really see him running.” There was a sudden crashing sound from inside and Applejack made a dive right into Gilda to push her out of the opening at the very moment Brex was thrown out and into the street.
As his body rolled and collided with the pavement. A few sparks were produced as the screeching of metal upon stone rang out. It was not until the third or fourth roll that the large limp body finally came to its last skidding stop after carving a few scratches onto the ground that stretched a couple of meters. While still laying face down and the axe being clutched in his left hand. A hollow grunt came out right as a small explosion of smoke occurred just above his body. It took less than a second before it was dispersed enough to show the dream Rainbow having done the ninja teleportation ability so that she would land and straddled his back. She had already pulled out the pair of blades.
The other Rainbow even started to say the following as she lifted both of her weapons for the final blow, as there was a sadistic glee being expressed by the way she grinned before licking her lips. “Thanks for making it so easy to get close. Betcha’ regret teaching me all your tricks now, huh? You really were a great teacher after all!”
The real Rainbow took flight again and at top speed to try and tackle her copy. Unfortunately, all that occurred was the Pegasus phasing through her evil copy. It was during that time that the one who was on top of Brex had gone into a somersault after kicking the ground. She then used her entire body to plunge both of the blades into the back of his neck. There was even the distinctive sound of metal carving its way into the stone underneath as the blades exited his throat on the other side.
What came about from such an act was the undeniable splatter and garbled breathing of Brex. This only lasted a couple of seconds before the last twitches of life came to a sudden halt. Luna's eyes went wide as she stood there and disbelief as the pool of dark red liquid flowed out and spread over the surface of the road. Twilight could do nothing, but the stand as still as a statue as her breath came to a stop at the very moment that Brex was no longer moving. A second or two past and she was just about to open her mouth, when the other Twilight moved right through her and approach the body at a leisurely pace and spoke with a voice that was cold and calculating, while also showing a hint of gleeful mirth.
“It really didn’t matter how much you fought back or how far you ran. It's just as I said before. In the end, you'll just be a cadaver on my table.” Her voice then turned stone-cold as she continued after getting close enough to give a kick to wear his ribs would be underneath the armor. “You had no idea how many times I've wanted to strap you down in my secret laboratory. I would have spent days on end to poke and prod at that little brain of yours for what good it would have been.” After hearing this, the real twilight became visibly disturbed as she gazed upon her dream counterpart with clear disbelief.
During this, Celestia landed close by and gave the body a noticeable sneer of disgust before plunging her spear into his back right as Rainbow got out of the way. Yet the solar princess said nothing and just stood there while slowly twisting her spear and pouring magic so that the tip would turn red hot and produce a sizzling sound from deep inside of the corpse. As everyone stood there and shock from the constant belittling and increasing abuse. Rainbow was standing a little ways off with a blank expression that was clearly directed at her fake counterpart.
Gilda however, was seething in rage and was about to attack them all on the spot. Even if it was plain to see that it would do nothing. But right as she would have taken off with claws outstretched to go right for the other princess. A set of wing flaps came from above and another Gilda appeared after landing a few paces away from the body. Unlike the others, who showed pure hostility. She had this gleeful expression that was mixed with what could have been seduction with the way her eyes stared down. This was only more compounded by the way her hips were swaying as she took a few steps to get closer to the now still body.
She then leaned down and got onto one knee so that she could talk just above a whisper as her voice became heavy with lust. “Did you really believe that I loved you? What a dweeb. As if I could ever love a freak. I will say thank you for being an easy mark though. Whoever thought some poison would be just what the doctor ordered to make sure that we could finally take you down... not to mention all the bits I got now that I’ve married you.” The real Gilda froze as her entire body began to show some light convulsion at what the other had one just said. The dream version of her then continued after grabbing a hold of one of the helmets horns so that the head could be lifted just a few inches off of the ground.
“Took long enough to lower your guard. Really, do you have any idea how grateful I am that you kept your distance. Spared me from having to look at your real face!” She then slammed the helmet onto the ground and stood back up so that she could approach the dream Rainbow. When the pair finally came together. The Griffin and Pegasus started to furiously make-out for a couple of seconds before pulling away to say the last bit. “Stupid traditions. It's not as though it even matters. Ha! If the entire notion of getting together had been turned down, then odds where you could have lived a little longer.”
It did not take long until the rest of the dream members of Twilight's group caught up and voiced their own opinions. The first of which was Applejack, who was followed by Pinkie and then Rarity. “Yep, too bad. Could have used him at the farm for a bit longer. Should have just pushed for more assistance. Heck, with how fast he was going, my family could have just sat back and drank some apple juice while he tended to the land.”
“Oh wow, I really can't believe he thought I wanted to be friends with him? Hah hah hah! Heh heh heh! Now that's a real joke! I'm really glad he never told me his birthday. At least I didn't have to go through the hassle of planning a party for him. Oh well, even if I had, I doubt that there be anyone who would want to go. At least now I can throw a, Yay everybody! He's dead party!” The real Pinkie now had a drooping face as she was clearly about to cry. Her ears were pinned down to the sides of her head, as her hair completely deflated to the point that it was straight as a board and covering up half of her face.
“Hah! Please~. Have a modicum of self-restraint Pinkie. Also, might I add that credit should go to where credit is due. You could not possibly imagine how much I had to go through with creating the perfect blend of tea and sedatives to bring Rory under my control before we started. But all that effort came with a big payoff now that I have my own exquisite personal mannequin to display all my dresses. And please don't get me started on all the kissing up and befriending. It was just so tiring. If not for my efforts to remove her from his side, then this entire plan would have been all that much more difficult. Ohh my, it had slipped my mind. I am so dreadfully sorry my dear.”
At the end, Rarity was looking over her shoulder and at the last member of the group. This of course left only Fluttershy as she stood just a couple of paces away from everyone else. She had already taken on a shy posture with a pouting face. Through a set of scared puppy eyes and a quivering set of lips. She said the following in the most sorrow filled voice for the first few lines before it turned into a quiet laugh. “He... He forced himself on me... I said no so many times but he just would not stop.... Teehee! Just a couple of words here and there and they all turned their backs on him. Maybe I should try and get into show business as an actress?”
And with that. It was as if the entire dream had come to a pause as all movement ceased on not only the characters. But also, the random pieces of garbage being blown by the wind. The sky turned dark as the light from the sun began to change to a darker shade. The sky itself was giving them the impression that an ink blot was making its way across the sky to change it all into the middle of the night. The girls were confused as to the events until Applejack noticed that something large was coming at them fast from the other end of the street. It was easily sweeping nearly halfway up even the tallest of the buildings. At first, none of them could figure out what was on its way. But after several seconds passed. Pinkie shouted the word, “Tsunami!!!”
As the unknown mass approached. One could easily tell that it was a giant wave made of the purest black as it caused buildings to be either submerged or toppled over by the strength it carried. Even with most of them freaking out. Luna held her composure and went to work with casting a spell to get them all out of there. All the while, it was Rainbow and Gilda who were completely unresponsive to the danger as everyone was teleported just a hair's-breath before the wave made it to them.
It was at that very moment that Rory was frantically opening and closing one window after another in a frantic attempt to locate where they all had gone off to. For her, it had only been around one, or perhaps two minutes since their ship was destroyed and the group fell into that odd swirling vortex while in mid route from one major city to another. During those few minutes. A number of error messages would pop up with a triangular symbol and an explanation point within the very center.
It was not until just then, that everything returned to normal and a screen popped up in the center of everything else to show Princess Luna and the rest to have safely arrived in Ishgard. Albeit they were spread about and laying on the stone lined floor as the gentle fall of fresh white powder was blanketing the castle city in snow. The entire group appeared in the open area just within the city limits as the gate could be seen behind them that would lead to the Airship for travel. Rory was just about to run to the door to get in there when she heard Applejack screaming. “What in tarnation did we watch?! That was all sorts of messed up!”
Luna's voice could be heard as she spoke in an unsteady voice that was easily conveying that she was deep in thought. “That… That is quite enough for one night. Let us leave and speak in the waking world with the others.” Rory let out a quick gasp as she quickly held out her hand towards the screen and said the following in a panic. “Whoa! hold on! Wait wait! What did you see?! Ah come on, what happened?!” And with that, they were all gone again with just another flash of magic from Luna's horn. Rory could not help but the stand there in disbelief for several long seconds before her frozen panicked face morph to apprehension.
From there, a cold sweat ran down her spine as she glanced slowly to her side and up to the second floor. With her voice slightly cracking and mouth turning into a strained smile, she said the following. “Uh... there goes that plan.” She released a nervous chuckle as she continued while wiping off her forehead with her right hand. “Here's to hoping nothing important was found out that my Master wouldn't get mad over. What's the worst thing that could happen...” The girl’s eyes suddenly shot wide open as she held up a hand to her mouth with a look of growing worry in her eyes as she then said. “Ooooh. I just jinxed it, didn't I?”
Over with the girls at Twilight's place. Each one was stirring awake within only moments apart from one another as groans of tiredness rang out in the form of yawning and a few popping sounds to be emitted by the ones with wings. Well, aside from Luna who awoke without a sound. In the center of the main room, was a semicircle comprised of each of the sleepers as they all were on top of sleeping bags and positioned in such a way that their heads were pointing towards the center. Just a little ways off was Rarity and Fluttershy in the middle of some Idol gossip when they realized what was happening with their friends.
As it turned out, both of the mare's were wearing green mud masks and their heads were wrapped up in towels to show that they must have cleaned up only a short while ago. Not only that. A number of snacks were already set out which had hardly been touched as of yet to indicate they were going to be up for a while and only settled down. But before any of them could say a word. Spike came in from the kitchen while holding on to a wide serving dish. He then spoke in a hush tone that could just barely be heard. “Ok, the spinach puffs are done.”
Upon coming across the site of everyone sitting up on the ground. Spike took on a confused expression as he called out to his sister. “Huh? Awake already? It's barely been half an hour.” Instead of answering her brother right away. Twilight cautiously glanced about at the other girls before ending with her gaze on Princess Luna. She then shifted towards her older brother with a quick movement of her eyes so that Luna could get the hint. The princess gave a quick nod and Twilight immediately said the following to her little brother.
“Oh uh. don't worry about it Spike, it didn't work out too well. We'll just have to try again another night. There’s not much else to do so why don’t you go ahead and go to bed. We're just going to talk about some girl stuff for a little bit and then everyone will be heading back home.” Clearly being just as confused as the Dragon. Both Rarity and Fluttershy look to one another before glancing back at the group at the very moment that Princess Luna spoke up. “Ah, yes! Quite so, a young Drake such as yourself should be getting plenty of sleep. If my recollection is true. Then I believe it was written in the tome that Miss Twilight sent.”
The lunar princesses’ eyes took on an expression for just a Split Second that showed she was trying to come up with something else to say when a sudden bolt of inspiration struck for an idea. She then said in an almost juvenile tone that was laced with a decent amount of mischief. “It has been far too long since we have been able to... how do you say? Hmm, yes! Have a girl chat. There is still much that has not been covered from between my absence and today's world.” Twilight having caught on to the ruse, immediately began to nod her head furiously with a not-so-convincing smile that came off a little more then creepy rather than being innocent.
A few of the others that were asleep also nodded as well. All except Gilda, who was now visibly annoyed and sticking out her tongue and using her finger to make the gagging motion. Rainbow however, having not caught on to the ruse, only tilted her head before obnoxiously saying the following bit, which earned her a powerful elbow jab to the ribs by Applejack. Who just happened to be right next to her on the other side. “We're going to talk about girly stuff? Leave me out-. Oof! Hey, watch it!” Another quick jab earned Applejack a cold look that lasted a couple of seconds before it finally caught up to Rainbow as to what everyone was doing and gave a clearly fake smile as a result.
Now visibly shuttering and having a disgusted look on his face. Spike recoiled back and immediately grabbed a handful of the snacks that were made and ran up the steps to the second floor where his bedroom was located. All the while, he quickly said his goodbyes. “Yuck, leave me out! Goodnight Princess Luna, good night everyone else! Just leave the dishes out and I'll take care of them tomorrow.” And with that, the sound of a closing door on the second floor could be heard slamming shut.
Once they were sure that he was not going to be coming back down after waiting in silence for nearly a minute. It was Rarity who spoke up first as she kept her voice to a low volume. “Okay, I think Spiky-wikey has gone to bed. Now what's with all the secrecy that we can't even let him hear, what did you all find?” Aside from the two wearing the green face masks. The others wearily glance to one another before Luna addressed the question after taking a few moments to process it all.
As the lunar princess and the others pulled all of their collected experiences together. Within the dream in which was still running as Brex remained asleep. There was a clouded area that was slowly beginning to build up with wind as a pin-sized black hole appeared. The scene then shows the perspective being pulled inside and into a dark void. After few seconds later, some vague objects could be seen coming closer. At first, they could have been seen as mountains. But then upon closer inspection. One could see windows along the side of a brick building that was obviously constructed around the nineteen sixties of Earth.
Everything was dark and hazy, except for a dim light source that was being emanated from somewhere high above. It gave off a pale bluish white as it barely illuminated the structure. Soon, an odd noise was made that strongly resembled what one would hear when their head was being held underwater. It was then that a swarm of black masses that were barely any larger than a person's fist could be seen consolidating at one spot near the building. Before long, the objects swirled in place and something could be seen floating away as it slipped from their grasp.
This turned out to be a piece of an arm that had been detached from the rest of the body. It was obviously torn away just down past the elbow as some black fabric was still clinging onto it. Most of the fingers were missing aside from that of the index as the very tip had a distinct point for a talon. The limb only floated a couple of feet away before it was instantly caught again by the swarm and carried off around the corner of the building so that it could no longer be seen.
It then shows how the perspective turns downward and begins to go along the length of the building until another source of light could be seen from far down below. When it got closer. It was shown to be a single street lamp that was partly bent and giving off some faint flickers every now and then as it fought to stay operational. The space in which was illuminated by the object was the only thing that can be made out as everywhere elsewhere shrouded in utter darkness. Within the rays of the lamp, a few random particles glittered as it was suspended in a murky substance that comprised everything.
And from right out of the shadows near the edge of the light, came Princess Celestia, as her eyes were wide and full of panic. Her outfit was weighed down as she was apparently swimming towards the center of the light to get away from whatever it was behind her as she was turning her head to check repeatedly. A good portion of her clothing and armor was missing as portions showed that the metal was clearly torn thanks to the jagged pieces. There were even evident markings to show that the rest of her gear was pelted with numerous tiny sharp objects thanks to the indentations.
What made the scene even more horrific, was the way her hair was torn up to make it completely disheveled. On the lower part of her right leg on the outside and just above her ankle, was a huge chunk of flesh that was missing as part of the bone was easily seen. Her right wing was the only thing that was visible coming from her back, as the left one was already gone from a couple of inches beyond were it connected. The existing one already lost a good portion of the feathers as it, and the rest of her body was leaking the red substance known as blood which spread into the water itself.
Her cheeks were puffed up as small bubbles slowly escaped from her nose. However, before she could even make it halfway into the radius of the illuminated area. Her right leg was suddenly wrapped around by a black tendril and she was abruptly pulled straight into the abyss. But during those final seconds. The princess of the sun had released all of the air she was holding as a silent Scream escaped as she was clearly flailing and attempting to grab on to the ground. However, even with her attempts to dig her nails for any type of grip. The force in which was being used to tear her away was enough for her fingernails to painfully rip off and to leave deep gouges into the stone floor.
The only thing to remain once she was gone, was a piece of her horn that had been broken off during the next several seconds as it silently tumbled before coming to a slow stop after rolling into the light. From there, a multitude of round yellow orbs with the center being that of a dark green appeared all around. Some were tiny, while others were bulbous to the point where they were large enough for a truck to drive right through. The silence was then broken as endless voices called out with roaring laughter of a maniacal type. Some were that of cackling, while others were boisterous and loud.
The glow of each one curved to where it was giving the impression of a smile. But soon enough, they all slowly transitioned until they were fully unified as the voice had a two-tone set. One of which belonging to a woman as another was that of a male thanks to the deeper tone. It then said the following in an ominous, yet glee filled voice. “Not much more...” And with that, everything came to an end, as each one of the eyes abruptly closed and the light post gave way as the flickering bulb was smashed by a whipping tendril that instantly appeared from right above and outside of its effective range.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 79: Journey Into Equestria’s Scar. Part 1.
Chapter 79: Journey Into Equestria’s Scar. Part 1.
*Point of view: Engineer* *Location: Canterlot. Entertainment District* *Time: Five in the morning*
Engineer, who was in a clouded haze, could hear the sound of his own groaning voice as a splitting headache came over him within an instant after slowly regaining consciousness. It came off as something that could easily be confused for the bone-chilling moans of the undead that just came out of the Grave to look for flesh to devour. When he was finally able to pry his own eyelids open. Engineer eventually made out the blurry outline of the roof scaffolding which held a number of spotlights high above his head. Luckily enough, said spotlights were switched off as to not intensify the throbbing of his skull that wanted to split open with the rhythmic beating of his heart.
With his zombie moaning turning into a gargled mess laced with confusion. Engineer groggily began to talk as his eyes turned from left to right as his head was turning in the opposite direction to show that he was still having some issues with his motor skills. “I… Huug! Finally, did it... Nugh! I got drunk! Ergh!” His voice then turned somewhat amused as he started to cackle while continuing. “Hahaha~. It's been so long since I could do that! Those outposts always ran out of their supplies before I got this far. Hancock always got mad at me for that. Ohh boy. I forgot how bad hangovers can get.” His excited tone came to an abrupt stop as he released yet another hiss of pain and reached up to his head.
As for the reason of his excitement. It appeared as though Engineer developed a heightened immune system after taking each of the perks in endurance off of the SPECIAL tabs thanks to the Fallout game system. This of course, meant that under normal circumstances, he would simply not get sick or irradiated after drinking water that was heavily polluted for one thing. The endurance tree even increased is overall durability and regenerative prowess. Although, there was one additional aspect. Which was highly frowned upon to most humans and that was the cannibalism skill, which allowed him to eat his victims to restore hit points which he himself did not partake in.
However, in the prior night. Engineer was hired as a temporary bodyguard by a DJ that he had saved only a few days earlier while heading into a nightclub. It was on a night that Daring Do had to run out in order to take care of some personal affairs and Spitfire took the opportunity as it was also a day off the following morning to take him on a night out on the town. What was meant to be a night of dancing, turned into a full night of bar hopping as Engineer showed off his ability to hold his liquor. Although, Spitfire took that as a personal challenge and said that they had to try out as many bars as they could. But only after having as many as six drinks at each before moving on.
It was not until they got to the seventh stop, that Spitfire was reaching her limit and could barely see straight, much less be reliable enough to give any more directions to another place to try. Whereas Engineer could hardly say that he was close to feeling a buzz as he tried to hide his amusement at his partner’s drunken state. He even laughed at one point when her words were slurred and she was poking at him with her finger and leaning in to prop her shoulder so that she would be close enough thanks to her impaired hand-eye-coordination.
It was even more amusing as she was missing half the time and trying to give him an order as if she were his subordinate to get bucking drunk already. Which he only found to be both hilarious and adorable with how she was not being very commanding at all. At which point she had leaned even further into him as to prevent herself from slipping out of her seat and flopping under the table.
There were even also a number of occasions that she attempted to flirt with him, but to only get interrupted with either more drinks being served or they're being other mare's that would suddenly show up out of nowhere to try and get his attention. As a result, Spitfire spent quite a bit of her time to act as a deterrent. Fortunately, whenever it came to another female butting in, the Pegasus would immediately sober up just long enough to put the other one in their place. It also helps that she would always wear this brown jacket with some patches sewn on that belonged to only those who worked with the Wonderbolts. To top it all off, Spitfire’s face was widely known to the public as well, so it did not take too much convincing on her part.
Now, as it was coming closer to the later hours of the evening. The pair found themselves in an underground club with some spectacular lighting that would shine down from the ceiling as the DJ’s would be up on stage and going back from one to the next with their own songs being played. On the left side of the stage, there was a mare that was mostly neon pink and a spiky mane done up to have a porcupine and mohawk combination. It started off as bright blue and ended with the very tips being a bright green. She had on something that was similar to a heavy metal and punk rock mix. If anything, it's strongly resembled a style of clothing that was close to how Engineer would look when in his transformed state.
The only real difference was that she was wearing a mini skirt and her top was unbuttoned to show off a skull and crossbones for her t-shirt underneath. Even the sleeves were crudely torn away and exposing that she was wearing some black leather cuffs right above the elbows. If one was to look past the outfit and very outrageous hairstyle, then she may have looked decent in anyone's eyes. But this only got broken when one noticed the abnormal amount of black and white makeup that gave her the impression that she was trying to look like some kind of gang member with a skull partially drawn over her entire head.
She was playing some type of heavy metal and techno mixed music on stage, while bobbing her head so quickly that either one of two things was soon to happen. First was that she was going to give herself a whiplash and would end up needing some medical assistance. As the other would have her slamming her head so hard into the table that the records were playing on, that she would also need to be rushed off to the hospital. Seeing as there were no signs of a horn, the DJ was undeniably an Earth Pony. On the upper part of her right arm could be seen her cutie mark. Which was primarily made of black lightning bolts that were shooting from some manner of explosion before eventually turning into a set of musical notes.
The entire atmosphere was for a lack of better words, full-on-rage dancing as the crowds were in a mosh pit and aggressively colliding with one another after hearing the Earth Pony’s ear-splitting music. It did not take long to notice that the crowd was not really dancing, but attempting to show off their strength with the signs of there being more than a few of the party-goers getting shoved around a little too hard. When the music ended and the next DJ came up to bat. The music turned into that of dubstep and the atmosphere changed after doing a one-eighty after just a couple of seconds into the song.
This one turned out to be a unicorn Mare that was a yellowish white. Her mane was a two-tone strike of cobalt blue and brilliant cyan. Whereas her competitor was wearing makeup, she did not. Her hair was almost seeming to be in a disheveled mess on a quick glance, but was obviously done in a style that gave it an electrified look. A big set of dark purple shaded sunglasses covered her eyes as she also wore a set of noise muffling earphones that had on a black set of musical notes on the plastic. The same symbol could easily be seen embroidered onto her half Jacket and very tight-fitting tank top underneath.
She had a set of bright purple fishnet arm stockings that ran up just passed her elbows. She even wore a short skirt to match her jacket that was very close to her own natural Body color. Along with a set of boots that ran halfway up to her knees, there was yet another set of stockings that match what she had on her arms. Her head was slightly bobbing in rhythm to the music as she was holding onto a concentrated expression. Over the course of the next hour. Spitfire was having trouble with keeping herself sitting up straight as the crowd kept fluctuating from one intense atmosphere to the next while keeping in time with whoever was playing the music at the moment.
By the end, someone who worked at the club jumped up on stage and started to make an announcement on who won the contest for that night's best DJ. The Earth Pony and Unicorn came up and stood on either side of the announcer. When the crowd was asked to give their votes by cheering. It turned out that it was the Unicorn who won and was about to receive a handshake from the announcer when the competitor went into a rage fit after hearing the decision. Engineer had no idea as to how it all happened, but within seconds, the entire club turned into a brawling session and the winner on stage was being assaulted after getting pushed to the ground by the one that lost.
After witnessing this. He then turned to Spitfire and calmly told her that he was going to be right back and that she should just wait right where she was. However, in her drunken state. The mare was just about to leap over the table with whatever coordination she had left after drinking so much. But as luck would have it, she was barely able to get halfway over the table before just giving up and taking on a napping position with her arms being crossed under her head. She then lazily said that he should just have some fun. But to make sure that the place didn't get burned down.
This led to him just strolling down the middle of the dance floor and towards the stage in a somewhat hurried rate. A number of the patrons ended up taking a swing at him, but to only get thrown aside or smacked around for their trouble whenever they got near the stallion. A few even got thrown for their troubles and ended up landing into a group which fell to the ground and ended up in a tangled heap. As all of this was going on, one of the record tables got crashed into by some random Pony and this caused the music to start blasting through the club at a deafening level.
It was only due to that level of noise that led to him being unable to hear a single word that was being said when he finally got up on stage as the Earth Pony was trying to choke the Unicorn as the one underneath was attempting to yell out some words. Engineer then pulled the mare right off by grabbing on to the back of her jacket and sent her flying halfway across the stage. She only came to a stop after sliding the rest of the way and colliding with some of the black boxes that were typically used to carry equipment. When he turned his attention back to the one on the floor. It was quickly found out that she had passed out at one point or another and he picked her up and threw her upper half over his left shoulder.
This was Then followed with him going over to the table that was playing the music and shut it down by kicking one of the cords so that it would come unplugged. Even then, the fighting still continued in the crowd and having been long fed up with it all. Engineer picked up the microphone that was dropped by the one who was just making the announcements and brought it to his mouth. He then screamed the following into it as loudly as he could.
And as a result, every single patron in the bar aside from Spitfire who was out cold, had their ears pinned tightly to their heads while also covering them with their hands. "OI! YOU FUCKING CHUCKLE NUTTING CUNTS, YOU BETTER STOP OR I'MA SHOVE MY FIST SOOO FAR UP YOU ARSE'S, THAT YOU'LL BE TASTING YOUR OWN SHIT FOR TWO-HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE-YEARS, YA FUCKING CUNTS!!!” This was then followed with him holding out the microphone and dropping it without any hesitation. This emit a loud sound that was close enough to cause the speakers to blow fuse.
All of their eyes were drawn over to him and unable to look away as Engineer walked to the edge of the stage and hopped down while the DJ was still over his shoulder. He even went so far as to go right back to his table and with just one arm, Spitfire herself was thrown over his free shoulder. When he got to the entrance to leave. Engineer looked over so that he could give the crowd one final glance as he said the next bit in a cold tone. “If this happens again the next time I come in... I'm going to crack a number of your skulls open. You’re all lucky that I’m busy with needing to take these ladies back home.”
He even turned his attention to one of the staff members that was manning the door as he walked through and continued. “Beef up your security, it's pathetic!” This got a quick nod of the head from the mare as she hurriedly reached out to push the door open so that he would not have to do it himself. All the while, giving a nervous smile and sweating bullets at the same time. Clearly this one had seen just what he was able to do while sending over two dozen of the patrons flying with only some minimal effort during the entire scuffle.
Sometime after that, the three found themselves back at Spitfires apartment. Engineer had a bit of trouble with getting the door open as he did not have a key. Although he did hear some sounds from inside, so he used his foot to knock on the door a couple of times. A few moments later, it opened up and revealed it to be Daring Do as she was wearing her casual attire. This turned out to be a white tank top and light brown colored cargo pants. Her mane was pulled back and into a ponytail as she wearily eyed the two sets of ass cheeks on either side of his head thanks to the way he was still holding her friend and some random mare.
She then gave him a flat look and said in an irritated tone, “Was wondering just where you two ran off to.” Daring Do pinched the bridge of her muzzle as she stepped aside to let him in and continued as he carefully passed by and avoided hitting either of the two passengers against the door frame. “Let me guess… She tried to get you drunk again, didn't she?” Engineer quickly responded in a chipper tone right as he was in the middle of plopping both of the mare's down and on to the couch. “Hah! Tried to, being the operative word. He then pointed towards Spitfire with his left thumb as he continued. “Do you think she's going to be cranky that her plan backfired and got carried back home by me?”
Daring Do rolled her eyes as she answered that and went off to the kitchen. “Yeah, I bet she will. If anything, she'll also be mad that she was out cold while she had a chance for her ass to be rubbing against your face. By Celestia's name, she has no self-restraint. But seriously, I should be getting used to this by now. Whenever it regards you, it always turns into a mirror version of what it should be.” She only went on after getting a confused look from him and spoke with an exasperated tone. “It's this, this right here! It's almost like I'm looking at a real time enactment of the stone age. Instead of us mare's being the ones that drags home a stallion, it's the other way around.
Soon, Daring Do came back with a couple of cups of coffee and sat them onto the table just a short ways from the couch. She then said the following while pointing over to the unconscious Unicorn. “Ok, I can understand the other one, so what's with her?” This of course starts a back-and-forth conversation between the two, as Engineer went behind the couch and playfully poked at Spitfire on the cheek, which either got no response or a few annoyed grunts from the Pegasus as she pathetically tried to slap his hand away with little results to show for it.
“Eh. You know. Spitfire went with the whole trying to get me drunk again. May have gone a little too far and I'm afraid of how her bank account is going to look after tonight. As for that one. The simple story is, after getting dragged around to a bunch of bars, there was a riot. One thing led to another and I had no idea where she lived, so I just brought her with me.”
“Geeze! For crying out loud Engineer! You better hope she doesn't press charges, because that's the same as foal-napping. And what exactly goes through that head of yours?”
“Hay, hold on! Are you still mad about the other night? I keep telling you I was not the one who started it. Besides we have Spitfire! I’m sure that you can clear up this whole mess.”
“You’re the one that was saying that you're really bored and wanted to tag along! It was a simple meet up and exchange of information on a new dig site. Seriously! Just go in, talk and leave.”
“And I'm telling you that it's not my fault for the umpteenth time. They're the ones that decided to try and double cross you. They even started to pull out their weapons. How was I supposed to know they were going to be that weak? If I had, then I would have left them for you.”
“This is only gonna give me another headache! Again, that's not what I'm referring to! You took out an entire gang that's employed by the black market in just one night! Yeah, it's not as if I trusted them to begin with, although leaving a couple of them alive would have sent the message.”
“Well? You still got the info and they're all dead. I don't really see what the problem is as we came out on top.”
“Don’t you even care at all that you now have a bounty put on your head in the underground world? Seriously! I swear, cut-throats are like catnip to you!”
“Oh I really do care, I honestly do!”
“Then why are you running around the city in the middle of the night and getting intoxicated?!”
“Okay, for one thing, I don't get drunk, remember? And also, what if I do run around and somebody tries to take a shot at me? Hahaha! It makes it more interesting on my nightly walks.”
“How the buck does that even make you happy?”
“Oh my Daring Do. You silly-silly mare. If I have a target on my head, then it just shows how great I am and I’ve got some-somebody’s undivided attention! Hehe-hehe. Anyhow, it’s not the first time I’ve had gunners looking for me.”
“You're just a lunatic, aren't you? Why can't you be a little more level-headed like another male I know?”
“Hahaha! come on, you know you like it. It's my trademark signature charm.”
Daring Do came up to him and gave him a quick slap across the cheek which in turn cause Engineer to fall forward and onto the couch so that his legs were dangling over his body and towards the front. She then quickly turned away so that she could walk into the hall and head for her bedroom But before she left the living room, she said the following as she had this annoyed look on her face and a small blush she was attempting to hide. “No, it just makes you a jerk! First Spitfire and now a completely random mare gets brought home. Just what am I going to do with you?”
Engineer just allowed himself to lay in an uncomfortable position so that both of the unconscious girls were on either side of him and said the next part as his face was partially smushed into the couch cushion. “Hmm…If I'm not mishtaken we are not shupposed to be staying here for too much longer. Sho I don't think we can shay it's our home. He then brought his voice down to whisper as he rubbed his cheek that was struck only a moment ago and this allowed his voice to come clearer. “Huh... That didn't even hurt at all. Kind of expected it to sting a little.”
Once the adventurous Pegasus had left the room. Engineer took a moment and got comfortable on one of the reclining chairs near the couch to sleep the night away. It was not until the next morning that there was a loud uproar of both questions and accusations as to how the Unicorn ended up in a new place. Most of which was surprisingly from Spitfire, while the Unicorn just rolled with the punches and took over the kitchen so that she could get a cup of coffee. Almost as though the Unicorn was completely used to this sort of occurrence. She practically ignored the screaming of the captain of the Wonderbolts until nearly half the coffee was drunk and she was finally wide awake to give any kind of care.
Once the entire matter was settled after retelling the events that happened in order. She introduced herself as Vinyl Scratch or otherwise known to her fans as, DJ Pon 3. As it turns out, that was not the first for that sort of incident to occur in the past month alone. The only difference was how much closer she got to actually being injured and very grateful that just getting knocked out was the extent of the problems. On the other occasions, it was usually the partygoers that got a little too physical and some of the clubs would end up getting shut down before it escalated any further.
Through an odd Exchange between Vinyl and Spitfire, which had completely polar opposite attitudes towards how they both lived. Engineer somehow ended up with a temporary gig as a bodyguard for the Unicorn for the next couple of days. This would at least be until she was assigned her own once the record company who was holding the string of events picked her as the overall winner. From what he understood, that evening was one of a string of live performances being organized for finding new talent in the music industry.
According to Vinyl, there was a new trend of heavy metal music as it was called. Of course, she had her own that she called dubstep and this caused a rift between the two genres to clash more and more often. As for this competition. The goal was to win the best out of nine gigs as the winner through voting processes. These would be given thanks to the audience. So far, six out of the nine were already completed and just three more performances were left. Engineer had already planned on taking some more quests from The Guild the next time he went in, but saw this as a fun way to pass the time until Daring Do came up with her next adventure, which they would both go together to tackle.
Although, there was another matter which caught both him and the other two females in the apartment by surprise. This was because of how Vinyl was saying she did not have a place to stay and immediately crashed there. Daring Do only watched as her friend Spitfire went onto a long rant about not making that kind of a decision on her own when it was her apartment to begin with. But the entire argument came to an abrupt stop when Vinyl brought up how she was apparently taken to an unknown location by the one and only captain of the Wonderbolts and her stallion while she was unconscious and threatened to tell the public in a roundabout way.
This got a set of harsh glares from both of the Pegasus’s as he gave a quick smile and said, “Oops.” This then leads back to the present, as Engineer was still trying to get Vinyl to wake up. He then pushed the mare off of himself and got on to his legs after hopping off of the large table. He then said to himself as one hand was used to steady his body. “Oh Wowie, Vinyl is right. Adding some magic to the drinks really gives it that extra kick. I wish I'd known that sooner. So many bottles got wasted at the apartment.” He then took a quick look at himself and then over to the Unicorn before he said the following in a relieved tone. “OK, pants check! Shirt check! Phew! Good! We didn’t do anything stupid. Er… too stupid anyway.”
What he was referring to was during the end of the performance that night. Vinyl Scratch won yet another of the battle of the DJ’s and the pair decided to celebrate after the regulars left. It was not until she heard that he had trouble with getting drunk off of the alcohol and suggested the idea of infusing the liquid with some of her magic. This turned out to be a little trick she used when she did not have access to some more potent drinks. Now, he was just about to try another round of attempts to wake up the soon to be hungover Unicorn when something caught his attention.
Which turned out to be a notification sound from his Pip-Boy. That was when he discovered that there were some texts that indicated that he needed to open up his special perk list. When it was all displayed. Engineer scrolled to the very bottom and found that there was now a new rank added to the very bottom of the endurance row of perks to choose from. It was called “Magic sponge.” This depicted the Vault dweller to be holding a pair of items so that one hand held a wand, while the other was grasping onto a glowing stone.
The character then showed how energy from the two items were flowing into his body and he was beginning to swell up like a literal sponge before turning back to his normal state. At the end of which, the character would exhale to release a vapor that would instantly disperse. While at the same time, showing a relieved expression and wiping his brow. He then looked at the explanation as the first star out of five was highlighted and ready for a perk point to be added, for which he had one at the moment.
Number 11. Magic Sponge.
Rank one: Grants plus 10% resistance to direct magic on the body.
Rank Two: Grants plus 20% resistance to direct magic on the body.
Rank Three: Grants plus 30% resistance to direct magic on the body.
Rank Four: Grants Plus 40% resistance to direct magic on the body.
Rank Five: Grant's 50% resistance to direct magic on the body.
Additional effect upon gaining rank five: Once per twenty-four hours, the user can completely reflect any spell being sent their way and back to its point of origin.
Warning: Additional effect will not apply in transformed state.
Engineer looked at his Pip-Boy and then back at the table where there was an empty bottle of beer. He then picked it up and glanced back and forth between both arms as he had this incredibly complex decision to make. He then raised the arm a couple of inches that had to do with what he was mentioning next, along with a small whimper in his voice. “I could start building up my magic resistance now... or I could still get drunk... Uh, resistance or the ability to get drunk? Resistance or the ability to get drunk... Magic or drunk? Magic or drunk? Magic or drunk...” He then looked straight ahead at nothing as he was about to cry, while saying the next bit in a whisper. “Why… must I choose?!” He then started to shake his head as he looked to the bottle in his hand.
And with that, Engineer decided to hold on to his one point to use at a later time as he was not in desperate need to level that one up at the moment. Afterwards, he finally got Vinyl to get up and began to discuss as to what they needed to get together for later that evening as the next competition was scheduled to start around five-thirty at night. For one, they had to get some actual rest and clean up. And then they had to check in with Spitfire and Daring Do as the pair would get increasingly worried. Especially since he did not come home that night and ended up sleeping at the bar. As an added bonus, the two of them also were expected later on that day to pick up a crate of pyrotechnics as the next show was meant to be done in the park.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: The Everfree Forest. Halfway between the entrance and the Rendezvous point for the Yuna. *Time: Ten in the morning
Brex could be seen coming out and into the open as the path led right into a straight way through the woods. At the moment, the Roegadyn was riding Crystal with a smile being hidden behind his mask. There was a sudden sound of the bushes off to his side being rustled and a familiar person came into view. While she too was riding her own large yellow avian mount. This turned out to be Twilight, as she was bobbing back and forth and frantically holding onto the reins. This made it painfully apparent that the mare had never ridden another creature in her life.
At the same time, she was screaming for her mount to stop or she would undoubtedly fall off. She even had a number of leaves that were stuck all over her body from repeatedly running right through what could have been multiple bushes. This also included a branch or two to stick out that had apparently gotten stuck in her mane. This only caused rex to be thankful that she was high enough to not be involved with running face-first into a patch of poison ivy. At the very least, he already knew that the Chocobo’s feathers and their thick skinned for their legs offer them the appropriate protection from such annoyances, so it was not a problem for them.
What came next, was the number of others as they too came out of either side of the bushes to create a crisscrossing pattern as each and every one of them was also riding a Chocobo of their very own. Rainbow was hollering at the top of her lungs in sheer exhilaration, as only one hand was used to grab on to the reins as the other was held straight up in and into the air. As for Applejack. The mare was acting as if she was some prized rider back on Earth, as she handled her Chocobo well enough that it was practically in the palm of her hands.
Pinkie on the other hand, was balancing herself upside down with just her right hand, while her Chocobo was leaning from side to side in an odd form of prancing. This gave them the impression that they were doing some kind of balancing act. All the while, giggling up a storm as the Earth pony was switching up her position every now and then. When it came to Rarity. The fashionista was neatly sitting sideways as her Chocobo had its beak slightly pointed up and in a careful, yet elegant prancing speed. Even as this was going on.
Rarity would be using some brushes to carefully arrange some of the feathers on top of the head and along the back of the neck. This was all thanks to her magic, which made it almost effortless as she was holding on to the top of her hat to keep from falling off. She was also using her magic to levitate a clipboard and a single quill that was busy with making one stroke after another on the paper. Brex quickly assumed that this was to make a fashionable saddle for her new partner to wear at a future date.
Taking up the rear was none other than Fluttershy, as not only was it herself, but the Chocobo she was riding who were sticking their heads out of a bush, while taking quick glances around before coming out and into the open. From his perspective. Brex wondered if there was going to be a moment where he would turn around and find that Fluttershy's Chocobo would be sticking its head in the ground like one of those cartoonish depictions of a scared ostrich with the way it was fidgeting very much in the same way as it's rider. There were even a couple of times where the Chocobo would take a single step and cause a twig to snap. To which, they would instantly jump at the sound and the pair would end up ruffling their feathers.
With being in the front of the pack. Brex looked ahead and saw someone else that was coming into view. This one being Gilda as she already had a good grasp of riding hers and was waiting for the rest to catch up after rushing ahead just a short time earlier. Of course, this was mostly due to her already knowing about Crystal and riding her a few times in the past. When they all finally got close enough to join the female Griffin. She rode right next to Brex in order to have a conversation as the others were still getting used to their new mounts. Yet, the Roegadyn was getting this weird sensation that something was off about the Griffin.
“I can't help but get the feeling that I'm riding one of my distant relatives from the past... It’s just really weird.”
“Hahaha! I could guess so. Just try not to think so much on how you both have so many distinctive qualities such as beaks, wings and talons. If you do that, then you'll be just fine.”
“Oh wow, the egg heads overthinking it again. I swear, that Pony can't steer her Chocobo straight for more than a few seconds. At this rate there's going to be a bunch of oddly shaped holes going through the forest if she doesn't stop with that veering off the path thing she’s doing.”
“Hey, they're not all as skilled as you, so don't be too harsh on ‘em. They only just met their new partners a little while ago.”
What Brex said was true, as not even a full hour had gone by when he handed each and every one of them a whistle that was carved out of a piece of wood so that it would resemble a cartoonish toy of a Chocobo. Through a quick explanation on his part. It was conveyed that upon reaching a certain level, one could use these to summon a personal Chocobo for themselves. As the method was already experimented on with the Changelings. It was discovered that he was the only one who could produce a mount out of thin air as everyone else was required to have theirs nearby.
This meant that on the previous day, he had already sent over a group of the birds over to his house. Thanks to his personal Chocobo keeper. Bee was able to go back to HQ and pick out a selected number of those that she felt would be a good match. Of course, it was not an exact science, so there was at least ten that came by and waited until the selection process was conducted. Luckily enough, the whistles worked exactly as they were meant to and each one of the girls took turns to meet their partners with there being little to no issues.
Oddly enough, the ones that were called exhibited familiar traits that coincided with their rider. The excitable, yet wacky Chocobo went to Pinkie. Who instantly started to play some random games off on their own as the rest were busy. Rarity was paired with one that gave off a hoity-toity attitude and walked right up to her with grace. What made it almost comical was the way the Chocobo even did that weird head shaking movement to cause a couple of the feathers to do that motion that Rarity would do when making her hair flow in the wind as if to show herself off.
The one that came up to Applejack just stood there, while intensely looking straight into the Pony's eyes for several long moments as their heads got closer and closer to the point that they were nearly pressing their foreheads against one another. It only ended after pulling away and nodding to one another as if giving their approvals. The next Chocobo had some rather disheveled feathers after getting into a scuffle with one of the others for some random dispute that was not really understood. This one was what came forth after Rainbow was the one to use her whistle.
What came next out of those two, was still somewhat of a mystery for the Roegadyn, as one second, they were looking at one another as if sizing their opponent before the pair began to rush off and start some kind of a race between the Chocobo's land speed and the flying of the Pegasus. When it came for the time for Fluttershy to use her whistle. The Pegasus was so nervous, that she was barely able to put enough force into the whistle to create a very weak squeak. It was even so small that Brex even noticed the way the ears on Rory's head would flick and she would have this small wince in her eye.
Although, a majority of the remaining Chocobo's failed to notice the whistle. Although, there was a timid one that came out of the pack which was previously attempting to hide behind some of the taller ones and approached Fluttershy. Of course, the yellow Pegasus was obviously nervous, whereas the Chocobo was more so until they got closer together and Fluttershy began to lightly stroke its feathers along its neck. This turned out to be a small trick that Fluttershy discovered once when Crystal would be at her place to help with some of the critters. Afterwards, the Chocobo could be seen leaning down and brushing the side of its head against Fluttershy’s own as a form of affection.
Gilda's experience was straight to the point as the instant she blew her whistle, her new partner came rushing out and at her side as if they had already known one another. The last one to get to blowing her whistle, turned out to be Twilight. Instead of instantly bonding over one thing or another. The Unicorn was instantly in research mode and began to examine the bird from every conceivable position. At one point or another, Twilight had even pulled out some measuring tape and a protractor as a number of notebooks were levitated around and quills were rushing to write down anything that she could come across.
Brex nearly laughed out loud when he saw how the Chocobo was somehow giving the impression that it had made a horrible mistake. This was made only more apparent when it made a sudden, and loud squawk of protest when Twilight started to abruptly tug on its wing to measure the length. If it was not for training that it had received beforehand. Then there would have been no doubt that a wild Chocobo would have taken offense to the treatment and attack the Unicorn with its beak without any hesitation.
Going back to the present. It was easy for Brex to see exactly why Twilight was having so much trouble as her Chocobo was not entirely comfortable with this arrangement. It also did not help that Twilight was over analyzing and failing to give her partner the proper instructions, which turned out to be way off on the timing. If he was to compare it to anything, then it would be similar to watching someone play a video game, where they would have to drive a hovercraft without any previous knowledge of its workings. Thereby, they would go off into not only random directions, but also into some horrible spin-outs.
For the moment, it was only them as Rory left earlier on to meet up with Zecora so that they could see each other at the Rendezvous point. Speaking of Zecora. The Zebra already had her own Chocobo after coming over to his place the day before. But only after she was done delivering another load of her tonics to the spa twins. Without there being so much of a surprise for him. The Chocobo she got was fairly laid back. Yet at the same time, it would give off this air of importance in the same way as her striped rider.
By the time they had reached their objective. Rory and Zecora was already waiting underneath the ship as the Zebra’s mount was in the middle of being loaded on thanks to the basket being pulled towards the other side of the ship. It was Gilda who spoke up after everybody climbed off and watched as the boarding procedures commenced. “We got a lot here. Don't you think it's going to get pretty cramped inside?” Brex waved his hand dismissively as he responded. “We removed all the unnecessary cargo for the trip. If anything, they can all take turns and rotate to walk around on the observatory deck if the birds get a little too restless.”
Brex had expected for that to be the end of it and for Gilda to rush off somewhere. However, the young Griffin was standing nearby as she gazed upon the last of the Chocobo's being loaded without so much as saying another word. After finding it a little odd and just thinking that it must have been his imagination. Brex turned his attention over to the rest of the girls that were at the bottom of the ramp. Even though they seemed pretty busy with talking with each other. Brex did catch the subtle signs of Twilight glancing at him from the corner of her right eye before averting it when she found that he was turned in her direction.
The biggest sign to show that there was something amiss. Was obviously the way that Pinkie was widely smiling as her own eyes betrayed some worry behind them. After squinting from behind his mask. He wondered what could have recently have occurred to warrant this type of behavior. He was sure that their relationship as student and teachers were on good terms. Also, there was a lack of princesses around to act uncourteously to, so there should have been no reason for Twilight to give him that kind of look.
He then thought about Rory's plan and the subsequential results of the group going missing for a few minutes before suddenly popping back up and leaving the dream so abruptly. Seeing as it only happened last night and with Rory not having much time to be with the girls alone just yet. There was no way for the Roegadyn to know about their escapades within his mind until later on. It was at that moment that Rory excused herself and went over to chat with the others, along with Gilda so that Brex would be left alone.
This left him to stand there from several yards away as the group made him realize that this was most likely the perspective of an actual teacher from a school in his own world that was looking at a classroom of students that were waiting to go on a field trip bus. Brex was just about to start walking towards all of them when his senses picked up another presence that was attempting to hide within the dense tree line. After concentrating for a bit. He could tell that it was from the direction of their path and a little ways off to the right, to indicate that they were tracing along it as to stay hidden.
Brex then expanded his mini-map to its absolute range and found a green dot to be slowly moving towards his position. After carefully focusing on the icon to figure out its exact location. Brex carefully turned his hood and narrowed his awareness to where he could look through the trees and pick up the figure. From what he was able to see, it turned out to be someone who was dressed in black. Thanks to the way it was conforming to her body, Brex could easily tell that this was the same spy that previously followed him overseas. This only became more obvious as he noticed the black bat-like wings as they open to allow some gliding from one tree branch to the next.
There was a small smirk from behind his mask as he thought the following to himself, while resuming his walk towards the airship ramp. “The princess’s probably just want to make sure that I don't mess up with this being a new location and all. And here I was wondering where that bat Pony went off to.” With taking into account with how far she was. Brex assumed that she was well beyond range to pick up anything with those sensitive ears of hers and quickly brought out a Link Pearl to the side of his head. From there, he immediately instructed the crew about the situation and how they needed to be careful on what they say as it could all be picked up on by their extra guest.
After getting a quick confirmation from the other end. The Link Pearl was placed back into his sleeve, where it instantly got deposited into his item box. When this was done and the Roegadyn took his next step. His height and senses forced him into a state where his mind was essentially put on overdrive. As a result. Time itself felt that it had come to a grinding standstill. The carefree picture of everyone ahead of him began to flicker until the girls were replaced with grotesque eyeball monster versions of themselves. What's more, was the way they already seem to have their weapons drawn and pointed straight at him.
Pinkie already had her bow drawn to wear the arrow was ready to be released. As for the spell casters. A number of orbs of both electricity and fire were already ignited at the ends of their prospective focal items. Even Fluttershy was already opening her book and channeling what he perceived to be an offensive spell in the making. What made it even more disturbing for Brex, was the odd sensation of what he could only describe as slick and wet tentacles reaching underneath his mask and caressing his skin.
Brex wanted to scream out as his body was locked in place. A part of him even wanted to rip the mask off and to grab on to whatever was causing the sickeningly disturbing sensations. He then felt that something was covering his ears and filling them up with water right as a set of two-toned voices echoed deeply within his head. One was obviously a male, as the other was of a female that he had no recollection of as they whispered the following in a melodious, yet hypnotically calm tone.
“What is the point of this farce? In the end, they will just use all that they learn from me. So many other Displaced have made that mistake. The best option would be to get rid of them now! hurry! Now do it now! Before they become a real threat... The only reason that they have not used the stone’s… Is… Is because I'm still valuable. Once every trick is taught to them, they won't hesitate to move onto disposal. First the Elements will turn me into stone, and then they'll break me into pieces.”
As the voices were going on. Brex began to internally repeat some of the words. “I'm just a tool... They're putting on a very convincing act... can't trust... even her... Rory is the worst... the worst… She knows our secrets. She knows our strength... She knows our weakness... It's always the one you trust the most that ends up being the traitor. Yes… Yes. Shut her out, shut her out, shut her-.”
The words would have continued to flow if it was not for a mysterious set of metallic sounds to occur. Which also coincided with a pair of pain shrieks from the unidentifiable voices before it all came to an end and Brex return to his senses. As time quickly caught back up. Brex almost twisted his ankle on the next step. His eyes blinked rapidly with a bewildered expression underneath his mask as to how he could have nearly hurt himself and wondered if he had another one of those episodes.
As he was attempting to figure this out. The right side of his head began to hurt once again as a sharp pain was drilled at an agonizingly slow pace. This progressed for a couple of seconds before it's spontaneously disappeared. During which, it would have become painfully obvious for any around to see his twisted face if it was not for the fact that it was being covered during those few seconds. With ears now ringing loudly enough so that it prevented him from listening to his surroundings. Brex began to shake his head a little bit until Rory walked up to him with a concerned look in her eyes. Eyes of which turned almost pleading as she stared straight into his mask with an intense amount of concentration.
Brex was still in a daze as the ringing fully subsided. After just a handful of seconds went by, he was suddenly bombarded by Rory yelling in his head. “MASTER!!! Master!! Respond! Can you hear me, Master! Not good! this is not good! why can't I re-establish the connection?!” She would have continued rambling if it was not for Brex quickly placing a hand onto her right shoulder and answering back. “C-Calm down, I can hear you!” This earned him a relieved sigh from the girl before she asked her next question. “How are you? You weren't in a daze. I could tell you were looking right at me! Oh no… The symptoms. There progressing!”
Rory then came in close so that she can give him a tight hug before she ended up breaking down through the connection. She then began to speak in a way that made him instantly remember how she was when his body was sent into that mountain and rendered into a crushed mulch of bones, muscles and blood. “Master, *Sob*. I-I thought... I-I thought I wasn't going to be able to speak to *Sob*. To you again!” He moved his arms to give her a hug. However, he frowned upon himself as he noticed how his hands stopped for just a fraction of a second before making contact. This was only because he could not recall a single time that he hesitated in the lease when it came to being in contact with the girl.
It took a few moments for him to calm Rory down enough so that they could part from the hug. Although, when he observed his surroundings. Brex found himself slightly blushing as everyone there was staring straight at the pair. A few of them were blushing, which included Twilight, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy. Whereas Zecora was giving a knowing smirk. When it came to Gilda and Rainbow. The two of them were giving some rather envious expressions. After giving a light cough into his right fist, Brex ushered them all on to the ship so that they could finally depart.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Unknown cave system* *Time: Several hours earlier*
From within a dark and narrow passageway that just barely allowed enough space for even a person of Brex’s size to move with both arms extended towards the sides, and just an extra two or three inches above his head as clearance. A group of four could just barely be made out as they carried torches. One was a light green Unicorn and she was wearing a set of white robes with a hint of gray to give the impression that she was a Conjurer. Her mane was of a slightly darker shade of green and she had in her right hand a wooden staff with three golden bands near the top for decoration.
Another was also a Unicorn. But the only difference being that her entire body was covered up to where even her horn had some type of cloth covering. All that could be seen was a set of dark pinkish orbs that glisten from the torch light as everything else was colored black. Attached to her back, was a set of crossed short swords to show that she was a Rogue. Unlike the Healer. The Rogue was nearly in perceivable as she kept herself position so that the light of the torch was unable to get to her as another member at the front was blocking it with their body.
The third member was holding on to a shield and sword combo. The armor itself was reminiscent to iron chain mail with just a couple of pieces being made of plate. The armor itself was not all that bad, yet it seemed rather worn out as if it was a family heirloom. However, the sword and shield seemed as though they were in perfect condition as the weapon itself appeared to be made out of a mix of metal and gold. As for the shield, it was so well polished that the Conjurer from behind could practically use it as a mirror with the way it was strapped to the back of the Gladiator.
For just a second, it was hard to determine who was underneath. But after a few more steps, the Gladiator reached up and lifted the visor guard on their helmet to reveal a set of brown eyes. Said eyes obviously wore some dark eyeliner as this one spoke up in a commanding, yet feminine voice. “OK, now just how much further does this Tartarus-forsaken hole go down?!” It was the last member of the party that answered after turning just enough so that they were facing the rest of the group as the torch was being held in their left hand.
This showed it to be another spellcaster that wore a very dark shade of blue. Everything from head to toe was completely covered with a set of robes and a very large hat that just barely concealed a horn underneath. Even her face was covered up thanks to the fabric being pulled up so that it would cover the bottom portion of her face, as the rest of it was concealed by the hats shading.
With not only an arrogant, but an over-the-top way of speaking, she said the following as her voice filled the cave. “The Great and Powerful tri-.” Apparently, her introduction came to an abrupt halt after quickly coughing as she continued. “The Great and Powerful Pixie! Cares not for such trivial matters. For this much is a common occurrence. Just from that complaint, it is easy to tell that you are all very inexperienced.”
This only earned her a set of eye-rolls and annoyed grunts from the rest of the party as the spellcaster went on. She also pulled from underneath the robes a large piece of rolled up paper and continued to speak. “This treasure map is authentic and the payout will be more than enough to satisfy all of our needs! Just do as the Great and Powerful Pixie commands and all shall be well! Both glory and filled Bit pouches shall be ours!” The Conjurer and the Rogue gave each other a shifty look before the Gladiator responded with a hint of hostility behind her voice after placing her free hand onto her hips.
“Now look here! We're only following what you're saying because you're a higher rank and that's all there is! I can understand being all high and mighty, but even I have my limits! Not to mention! It's the three of us who have been pulling this team through, while you're just staying in the rear and twiddling your thumbs! Just when are you going to actually participate!?” This just got a set of nods from the other two as they also voice their opinions, which started off with the Rogue.
“Yeah... I can't help but notice that you've been keeping your distance whenever we're in a scuffle. The least you could do is lay down some cover fire.”
“I would have to also agree with that assessment. Plenty of opportunities have presented themselves for the oh so, Great and Powerful Pixie to show her stuff.”
The identified Pixie leaned down with her head just enough so that her hat was now completely obscuring her head. She then hastily responded by saying the following in a very, self-assured way. “You… dare to question The Great and Powerful Pixie?!!! It would be best not to forget that you are addressing a rank "C" Adventurer! I am but one of less than a hundred on file!” That was when there was a faint light coming from underneath the hat as to show that her horn was beginning to power up. She then said, “Feel grateful that you are even privileged with the knowledge of meeting one who has become a level forty-nine Thaumaturge!”
This got an instant reaction from the others as each tensed in place as if they were about to get struck. The Conjure immediately said that she was sorry for doubting the Great and Powerful Pixie as the Rogue simply looked away. The Gladiator reached up and closed her eye visor and gave a quick salute as to show that they knew their place. Pixie then said as she pointed with the torch to the path in front of them. “Go on now! The Great and Powerful Pixie will only step in if you three are unable to do your jobs! Meanwhile, the rear will be under the protection of yours truly!”
And with that, the group began to move past Pixie and she carefully positioned herself to be several paces behind the rest as they continued down the dark cave network. However, thanks to the way that they were all facing. None of the three up ahead realized just how much the one called Pixie was shaking from underneath her clothing. It was then that one of the others stepped onto a loose pebble and the amount of pressure sent it flying to the right so that it would strike the wall and produce an echoing effect along the tunnel.
The others paid no mind to it as it was a common occurrence for where they were. However, Pixie inadvertently flinched at the noise and lifted her hat just enough so that the pulled-up collar of her robes would expose a bit of her face. The result was hard to make out with the amount of darkness and the position of the torch. But sweat was clearly visible as her eyes darted from left to right in pure panic. She then quickly whispered from under her breath so that it was just low enough not to be heard by the others. “J-Just need to hold out a l-little longer... G-Grab whatever it is in here and get out. Please... for Celestia's sake. please let there be something worth it in here.”
Just as this universe was well known for granting these sorts of wishes. The voice of the Gladiator could be heard just up ahead. “WHAT THE?! Hey! check this out!” Afterwards, they all ran to catch up and what they found caused half of their jaws to drop. At the end of the cave. There was nothing but a very large room with walls and ceilings so far away from where they were, that it was nearly impossible to tell just how big it all was with only the limited reach of their torch lights.
Pixie moved along the left side and inadvertently tripped over a long and thin cylindrical object on the floor. This caused the caster to drop the torch in her left hand and reach out for anything at all that could prevent the tumble. But it just so happened that her arm got caught by the elbow joint by a protrusion from the wall. Having stopped such an embarrassing accident from occurring. Pixie released a heavy breath and relaxed her body. Although, this had the effect of causing whatever she was hanging from, to quickly jerk down and allow her to fall the rest of the way thanks to how the object was now tilting downwards at an angle.
It was the Rogue who turned towards the caster and pointed at the object as he said the next words in disbelief. “Did… Did you really just flip some random switch with a skull and crossbones hanging right above it?!” Pixie then replied with a nervous chuckle as she smiled from behind her covering. “Hehehe~. Would you believe Pixie... if she said she planned to do that?” It was the gladiator that was about to say something next when she was interrupted by a bright set of glowing purple lights from the far end of the large room. At first, it was dim and tiny. But over the course of a couple of seconds. Those very lights grew until they were almost as bright as the sun itself.
Pixie saw that there were three cylindrical like objects filled with a fluid. But what caught her full attention was the object slowly moving inside. The tanks themselves were nearly Thirty meters high and perhaps fifteen meters wide. The tops and bottoms were covered in a mix of stone and metal work that added an extra few meters to extend its height until it connected to another set on the ceiling. Pixie then said the following as she tried to make a break for the exit. “The big ones… Even… Even bigger than an Ursa Minor!” Unfortunately, the Great and Powerful Pixie collided face first with a steel plated door that had instantly slammed shut from the top of the caves mouth and thereby cutting off their original escape route.
She was just beginning to panic even more as her free hand was pathetically scratching at the door to let her out, when the sound of cracking glass and loud hisses of both steam and liquid flowing could be heard from behind. When she turned. She saw how the mysterious moving mass inside was pushing on the container. Thanks to the glowing lights, all they could tell was the strange silhouette of a muscular creature with long bat-like wings and multiple appendages sprouting from its body. If that was not enough, then it should have put them over the edge as the other two containers were beginning to follow the first one’s example and hairline cracks were now forming thanks to the pair of smaller beings inside of their own tanks.
The next thing to happen, was the other three immediately grabbing a hold of Pixie and unceremoniously tossing her forward so that she was now on the front line. The force of which caused her to stumble so that she was on her hands and knees as her staff tumble just a couple of feet away. While reaching up to pull the top of her large hat enough to see up ahead. The Unicorn screamed at the top of her lungs as a horrific Roar was heard from inside the tank only a second prior to the entire container shattering and sending a large amount of liquid to flood a good portion of the room. This also meant that a sizable wave was heading straight for the lowered caster as she held up both of her hands in a pathetic attempt to protect herself.
*Point of view: Daddy* *Location: The other side* *Time: Back at the present*
Daddy was just sitting at the very edge of some scaffolding that was hastily put together along the outside of the hole for their old house. As another majority was made to go down to where the remains of the table were now located. As his legs were now dangling and swaying back and forth. He would periodically lean over to see how things were progressing. Over the course of the last couple of days. Jet had gone ahead and set up a makeshift garage at the bottom and the pieces of the table were elevated through a mechanism that was closely resembling a machine meant for lifting cars. There were even a number of equipment that could be rolled around on tiny black wheels nearby.
Many cables of varying colors and oscillating lights running through the connecting points could be seen. Most of which look almost antique and required vacuum tubes. While others ranged from the nineteenth century to what could have been the twenty-fifth century by Earth's standards. Since the talking fish incident. The table has undergone many upon many transformations as jet attempted to return the original settings to the proper calibration. At the current moment, it was looking more like an oversized cream filled donut with a chocolate glaze and pink sprinkles. That was when that very one came out from underneath and could be seen grabbing onto the little hair on the sides of his head while screaming
“Seriously! Ask me to build the alien mothership from Independence Day! Or what about a completely functioning Dyson Sphere that can hold an entire solar system! By the Seven Hell’s! I can even make the perfect sex bot if I really, really wanted to!!! Yet why is it so hard to get this table to look like a table!!!” Jet’s rant was only interrupted after Daddy screamed down to the bottom of the hole in a loud, yet indignant voice while waving his right fist angrily. “Hey! I asked you about that nearly two centuries ago! You said you couldn't do it!” Jet angrily looked up at the old man while grinding his teeth together as the next word slipped through his pearly whites. “No... What I said was, that I didn't WANT to!”
In a fit of momentary rage. Jet kicked one of the older style machines that was hooked up to the gigantic confection and it sent a strong visible jolt up and through the cables. This caused the donut to expand and quickly morph into a gelatinous Berry-blue colored blob with a floating eyeball in the center that was easily two stories tall. A multitude of slimy tentacles began to whip around and knock over the scaffolding that surrounded it within seconds after. Daddy, who was sitting at the top. Failed to get away as he fell into the bottom of the hole. When it came to Jet, he was already smushed underneath as his form was seen through the gelatinous mass.
The next thing to happen from out of sight, was the loud cries of battle from both Daddy and Jet as the creature released a sound that was comparable to someone playing some whale songs so loud, that it can blow up car windows from outside of a kid's bedroom. Beams of gold occasionally shot up at random directions from the hole and into the sky. Flying golden mallets could also be seen coming down from high above so that they would constantly crash inside of the hole. Spiers of sharp Jagged rocks would rise and fall no differently than high waves on the sea as it barely went above the opening.
The scene then progressed for what seemed to be several long minutes until all sounds of battle died. Soon, the shaky hands of both men could be seen grabbing onto the edge and pulling their upper torsos so that they could lay onto the dirt. Both were heavily panting and showing a couple of new bruises and lumps all over their faces. The clothing itself had a mix of rips and chard sections to where they were very close to simply being worthless and better off torn completely from their bodies.
Daddy then said with labored breaths as his cracked sunglasses could be seen. “I think... *Huff*. I think we won~.” Jet then said in an equally exhausted tone as he showed that there were now a couple of teeth missing. “That… *Huff*. May have been the defense protocol... turned all the way up. It should... *Pant*. It should turn back into a donut soon.” Daddy coughed really quick as he looked over to Jet with a disbelieving raise of the eyebrows as he answered. “That... *Pant!* Was in no way, shape or form a defense! I swear! Those tentacles were trying to go somewhere!” He then gave a quick shiver that ran up his entire body after those words were spoken.
It was at that moment that nearly a dozen of the aforementioned tentacles slowly raised out of the hole without making any kind of noise. A number of which were wiggling in a very provocative way as they slowly approached the two from behind. It was not until they were both snatched up by their ankles and abruptly pulled into the hole once again with one quick tugging motion, that they were aware of the situation. But during those seconds. Daddy was screaming at the top of his lungs like a little girl before disappearing. Whereas Jet was full on crying as he was only able to let out one simple phrase in a shrill voice. “Mother!”
It was at that very moment on a distant planet called Earth. That the group of Mother, Little Light, Little Moon, Honey Lemon and Lisa, who had all taken on a more human-like appearance to blend in could be seen walking around a large amusement park. Little Light was looking at her phone and scrolling through a number of texts while Little Moon and Lisa were busy with munching away at a very large stick of cotton candy. Mother on the other hand, was looking at a foldable map of the theme park that spanned nearly two or even three miles. It was at that point that Little Light stepped closer to Mother and said the following as she fixed a pair of sharply made glasses on her nose. “Was it really a good idea to just leave Daddy and Jet to fix the table on their own?”
Without even looking away from the map and attempting to figure out as to where she was on it by looking over to the nearby rides. Which consisted of a long Viking boat being swung like a pendulum and some rotating teacups. She responded with a dismissive tone. “Oh shush now. You worry far too much. It was mostly their fault, so we're just going to go on vacation for a few more days. If they're not done by the time we get back, then we can give them a hand. Now come on, let's enjoy the rest of our time while we still can. Oh! look at this! It says here that the dolphin shows about to start! We better hurry!”
As the group runs off in hopes of catching the start of the show. There was another set of voices that were screaming from a distant part of the Galaxy and in another dimension. These obviously comprised of Jet and Daddy, who were both screaming at the top of their lungs and adding a few whimpers here and there.
“Jet! Whatever you do, don't stop clenching!!! I know how this goes!!!”
“Why is this even an option on the table???!!!”
“I'm not really into this! Okay, only as a spectator, and also there needs to be some really hot girls involved!”
“We need Mother's help!”
“No way, no how! I am not letting that Harpy see me like this! Hey! WHAT?! No! No! That is not happening! Keep those things away from me! Why didn’t I wear my turtle shell todaaaaaaay????!!!!!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 80: Journey Into Equestria’s Scar. Part 2.
Chapter 80: Journey Into Equestria’s Scar. Part 2.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Ghastly Gorge* *Time: Ten forty-nine in the morning*
At the edge of a very deep gorge that strongly resembled the Grand Canyon in a roundabout way. The Yuna was currently parked close to half a kilometer away where there were some sparse trees here and there as to give some open area. This was for the airship to land properly after four sets of mechanical legs were produced and then extended to allow the vessel to rest on the ground. The large rotating wheel in the back to signify that the engines would be running, were now slowly moving at a fraction of its usual pace to signify that it was now switched over to its low power mode. The ramp was already stretched and the basket on the other side of the ship was laying on the ground.
The group of Brex, Rory, Zecora and the rest of his class just happen to all be on top of their Chocobo's and near the edge as they all silently took in the long view. From where they stood, it could easily be surmised that the very bottom was close to a mile and a half, to maybe two at a cursory glance. Pretty much every single piece of rock and dirt took on a darker shade of gray and black. Even the high walls themselves could have easily been confused with that of black obsidian. In other words, it would not have been out of the realm of possibility for anyone who was unaware as to its nature to believe that it was caused by either a volcanic eruption or a massive flame attack from a dragon that was as big as a mountain.
The sky itself and the surrounding area was perfectly clear and without a single cloud in the sky. Although, upon turning towards Ghastly Gorge. It was plain to see that there was a thick layer of purple mist that just barely went over the top and only seeped across the ground for several yards. This of course turned out to be the weather phenomenon known as the Gloom. It acted as a thick fog that reduced visibility down to the absolute zero once it passed the hundred-yard marker. It was thanks to this, that all anyone can make out was the large rocks and spiky terrain. Whereas creatures were very difficult to spot until one was practically on top of them.
At the very bottom, one could see a winding trail of water that would start from the northern tip and end at a small pond near the midway point. Fortunately enough, the water was from an underground source so it did not end up flooding the entire gorge. The erosion of the ground and walls even caused it to open up even wider when compared to its original formation and this gave way to an isolated ecosystem. As a result, there were many creatures that were primarily found only at that location in the middle of Equestria.
Lightning Elementals were the most common, with Plasmoids being the second. As the first can easily be identified thanks to the lightning bolt shaped body and core. The Plasmoids were mostly a spherical object that would discharge what would be close to purple electrical impulses. However, this was in fact plasma, as the name of the creature implied. Instead of showing aggression in the same way as a regular Elemental with the tops and bottoms rotating in opposite directions. These would sporadically whiz around so quickly that it would make it nearly impossible for someone to get a beat on it if they were not used to its erratic movement patterns.
Other creatures were comprised of floating bombs, large Basilisk, floating eyeball creatures with tiny arms, legs and long wings. There were also the occasional Chimeras, which were pretty close to that of Manticore's. Whereas the second had a body of a lion, wings of a bat and a tail from a scorpion. These chimeras just so happen to have a few additional features that make them so much more treacherous. They're lion like bodies were further developed to where one could easily notice the rippling amount of muscles under the fur that would make the most decorated bodybuilder think of himself as a toothpick when in comparison.
The wings themselves were more developed to allow a short distance of flight. However, their primary focus was to give a sudden burst of additional speed and lunging distance for the alpha predator to strike with. Now, just having these features alone were not enough. Then it would have to be the two additional long heads that grew just behind the shoulder blades of the front two legs to create some serpent appendages. One would commonly be referred to as the Goat Head as it bore a good resemblance thanks to a pair of curved horns. The other was called the Dragon Head, due to how it was covered in scales and paired with a set of horns that would go towards the back.
Normally, an extra pair of heads was something to cause others to be wary on its own. But it turned out that these two heads had magical abilities, which only made fighting such an opponent to be quite difficult. As the main body would fight with its claws, teeth and stinger. The Goat Head would cast a powerful frost spell in a melee range and extend a little past ten yards from the body itself. The Dragon Head however, would use a lightning spell that would only strike enemies that were beyond a fifteen-yard range and extend to approximately thirty-five so that it would create a donut shape.
Those caught by the frost would not only take a large amount of damage, but their bodies would be slowed down by the sudden drop of body temperature. Anyone struck by lightning would also suffer a similar fate. but instead of slowing. They would have to deal with being partially paralyzed. Of course, this would make it an ideal way of hunting as it would prevent its prey from getting too far and guaranteeing that they would get caught soon after. This creature was also known for a double trifecta of danger, which included a strong fire breath that would erupt from the Lion's head. So not only did it have three ways of attacking with its normal body alone, but there were also three varying elemental types thrown in.
Luckily enough, such creatures had little to no reason to leave Ghastly Gorge. This had to do with an abundance of reoccurring creatures that would spawn through random rifts that would lead to another realm of darkness. In other words. A steady supply of monsters would come in to only become their food. Also, it was capable of consuming the Elementals and Plasmoids to turn into a source of fuel for its body. Which meant it was never without any type of a food source. If it were not for this simple reason, then there might have been a contingent of guards, along with a barracks built to keep the creatures inside.
Back with the group. Brex motion for the others to follow as Rory was sitting in front of him and sharing a ride on Crystal. While carefully navigating the difficult to follow path on the way down. Brex began to ask Rory a question. “And why don't you just get your own Chocobo instead of climbing on like this?” Rory then responded with, “Oh Master, I really don't see anything wrong with sharing Crystal. She could easily handle us at the same time.” Brex only rolled his eyes before he noticed that Crystal was turning her head so that she could face Rory. His eyes went wide as he knew what was about to happen and flinched at the sudden sound of a beak that was striking down onto a thick skull.
Rory released an annoyed grunt at the very moment the top of her head was aggressively hit by the Chocobo. She then said with an indignant voice, “Ouch! what was that even for? All I said was that we were sharing you!” This earned her another wallop on the top of her head as the girl started to protect it with both of her hands and showing a small tear on the edge of her eyes. She then indignantly screamed the following as she was now showing a pout towards Brex as if saying that she was being bullied by Crystal. “Okay okay! Fine, I get it already! We're not sharing you; you're sharing us.”
From behind. Gilda was quietly snickering to herself after seeing Rory's predicament in the pecking order. After that, it took the better part of an hour before the entire party managed to get to the bottom and relax after a few of them nearly slipped as some rocks began to give way over the weight of the birds. Once dismounting and getting themselves organized. Brex gave instructions on where they needed to go to find the bunker. But he specifically told them that there would be monsters along the way that would need to be taken out as they headed further in.
Thankfully enough, it seemed as those Zecora was able to adapt to the others fighting styles with being a back line healer along with Fluttershy. Even the new Chocobo's would stick by their prospective partners to add to the overall effectiveness of the party. The floating Fire Bomb’s posed little threat as they typically roamed solo within the Gorge. Even if there was a set close by. They would practically ignore what was going on with another member of their own kind.
This was mostly due to their tendency to self-destruct when their life was near its end. As a result, the rest very much wanted to not be a part of the suicide pact. This turned out to be a good opportunity to teach the group the importance of both interruption and stunning abilities to prevent such skills from being activated by their opponent when signs were given of its immediate activation.
The Flying Eyeballs were a little tricky as the members had to not only watch out for the incoming long-range spells. But also, the cone range effect of its “Magic Eye”. Which would cause the effect of petrification. Although there was one unfortunate accident where Applejack was unable to get out of the way in time of the petrification attack. This left her right leg from the knee down to be turned to stone while trying to leap to the side. The girls were obviously freaking out and yelling such nonsense as, Applejack had to make sure that she didn't move her leg or it might shatter.
Even the farm mare herself was making comments on how was she going to work on the farm in this condition. Brex was about to but in, when Zecora brought their worries to an end after applying some medicine to the Petrified limb. This came in the form of some Golden Needles. It only took a couple of seconds for it to take effect and the stone membrane that went all over her fur and clothing just flaked away as if she was wearing a simple mud mask. On the next Flying Eyeball that they came across. A similar incident occurred yet again while still in the middle of the fight.
This time it was Rainbow. However, before the next attack was to be launched by their opponent. Fluttershy stepped up and cast a spell to remove negative effects from an ally and broke the petrification right at the nick of time for the blue Pegasus to jump out of the way as it made a dive for her. It was not until they came around their fifth Flying Eyeball that they managed to get its general movement patterns down to where they could start to anticipate what it was going to do next and avoid any more unnecessary petrification’s.
Unlike in the game, where a player would be stuck in whatever position they were in once afflicted with such a status effect. This world's rules on that particular spell were much longer in duration. Also, stronger opponents could keep it indefinitely until they themselves were defeated. In the worst-case scenario, the victim would just be far too weak when compared to the caster and the effect would just remain without any type of cool down as to when they would be released.
Brex had even heard cases of some ponies that had been turned to stone for close to a hundred years and kept in mausoleums as a testament to their bravery when facing such a creature. It was at this time that the Roegadyn reached out to the community and disclosed the antidote to the public. Of course, he did think of the implications on someone using those Golden Needles on the statue of Discord. Although, the odds of it working on a being who was petrified thanks to the Elements of Harmony were slim to none. More so if they were strong enough to affect a spirit of chaos to begin with.
This surprisingly started a movement of individuals to go around and search for said grave sites to revive the ponies that were still kept in good condition over the years. Brex even chuckled to himself at the idea that there were those out and about and breaking open these burial sites and bringing statues back to life. There was even one mention in the paper about there being a successful revival of a stallion that had been preserved for nearly four hundred years. To say that it made the headlines for half a year was no understatement.
After going in a little further. They came across a nest of Giant Basilisk that spanned nearly the length of eight meters long. Their bodies were bright red as the scales appear to be very rough on the top, whereas the bottom was quite smooth. These Basilisk’s had such long teeth that they were still exposed after it closed its large mouth in a similar fashion to that of a saber tooth tiger. Unlike the other creatures that have been encountered so far. This one was level twenty-six, whereas the rest were barely up to twenty-one.
Brex found that this may have been a little too much without any real firsthand experience with seeing how the creature fought. Especially with the huge level gap. The thought of taking care of it himself had crossed his mind when Gilda stepped up and said that she wanted to take it out herself. At first, Brex was worried about Gilda getting struck by the random lightning that could come at any time if she were to stay in the air for too long. But luckily enough, the Griffin kept her wings tucked in and heavily relied on using the jumping techniques so that she was only in the air for no more than a second or two at the most.
The others were obviously worried about Gilda and offered their assistance. But the Griffin only laughed at all, as this was a good chance to show just what she was capable of now that there was a seemingly worthy opponent to test the new Dragoon potential. With a flurry of lunges, strong yet precise twirls of the Lance, and powerful techniques being accompanied by seemingly impossible leaps. Gilda took the Basilisk down with relative ease, as her form was pretty much a blur with how she was able to land an effective hit and dance around the agile Basilisk’s form until it was brought down by a final lunge of the lance. Which penetrated the top of its skull with nearly no resistance.
When Gilda wrenched her weapon free and did a quick backflip to land close to Brex. He could not help but to let out a long whistle of admiration at Gilda's refined technique which could have put Valkyries to shame. What's more was the impressive fact that she had also evaded each and every one of the Basilisk’s attempts to retaliate and came out what he would call a flawless victory. The Griffin tried to play it off as nothing and put on a convincing scoff before turning away. But in reality, she had turned her back so that she could hide her heavy blush as the furs on her body were positively tingling at the praise.
With them now having a good grasp on how the Basilisk acted. The group pushed their way through them one at a time. But whenever it turned into a situation where they had to handle more in a single sitting. It was Gilda who would rush in and ultimately claim the MVP title of the day. She even impressed them more with the visualization of a dragon spirit that would erupt from her body and flow into her weapon to allow for a one hundred percent critical chance on her next attack. This paired with her Leap ability, would usually end with her getting in a one shot kill.
It was not until nearly an hour and a half past by the time they manage to see a glimpse of the bunker through the haze of the Gloom. And by then, Brex could easily tell that they all had leveled up quite a bit. He even thought it was cheating now that they all cross the level twenty barrier and Gilda was already at level thirty-two. He even considered the idea of what it would be like if they were to camp there for a couple of days. He had almost no doubt that they all would easily reach the point where they could all get a job advancement. But Brex quickly dismissed that thought as it would not be right to go full spartan training mode and force them to fight nearly non-stop for such a lengthy amount of time.
As for the Chocobo's. Brex was decently surprised as well with the revelation that they had all gained enough experience to where the girls could allocate their points into unlocking nearly half of one of the three skill trees afforded to their mounts. This meant that Brex was going to need to inform them about how that part works when they were done with todays trip. He even thought on who would choose what and made a mental betting pool in his own head.
Although, finding the bunker was more of a pressing matter for a certain fashionista as she was bawling at this point about how icky and smelly that she was getting from sweating so much. Apparently, the mare must have remembered the mentioning of the showers that were located inside and quickly rushed ahead to get first dibs when the outline of the structure came into view. The mare even started to scream just two words that resonated loudly to the group and rushed off at top speed. “It's mine!”
She even went so fast as to create an after image and a dust trail that failed to keep up with the surprising amount of acceleration by Rarity and her mount. Everyone else was left with their eyes nearly bugging out as Applejack shifted closer to Rainbow to give a small nudge before speaking out in a whisper. “Hah! We're lucky she doesn't put that much effort into the runnin' of the leaves or none of us would ever get first place.”
The blue Pegasus only nodded to that dumbfoundedly before the rest of them followed suit at a more leisurely pace. As they proceeded even closer. Brex began to turn his masked face from left to right to survey the surroundings. He then said to Rory through the connection as his eyes narrowed. “Is it just my imagination, or is the air getting thicker with Gloom?”
Rory's ears perked up as she could be seen lightly sniffing the air before responding. “I'm smelling trace amounts of pony musk, and maybe some blood. That's strange... I'm also smelling chemicals. Its giving off a strong pickle smell... if I didn't know any better, then I'd think that this was formaldehyde. Strong too. There’s so much that its practically everywhere.”
In response, Brex began to tap the bottom of his masks chin before he thought the following to Rory. “Why would there be formaldehyde all the way out here? That's used to preserve living tissue. Other than that, it's also used in certain manufacturing processes. But we're way too far for many facilities that would even require that substance. How about we put that aside and concentrate on that blood you mentioned. Any idea on the direction?”
Rory could be seen shaking her head just a little before responding. “There's not much of air flow down here. But judging from the amount it can't be far.” After giving a couple more sniffs. Rory's eyes went wide and she made a dash for the bunker and nearly knocked over Twilight in the process. By the time she had gotten close enough to see the entrance and silhouette of Rarity. The Unicorns voice could be heard as she was screaming and also falling onto her tail.
By the time everyone else arrived. They were greeted by two beaten up Golems that were just barely holding themselves together. These were comprised of some bluish bricks that were obviously made with fortifying Magic to increase their durability to that of being nearly three times as tough as what would be used in a Castle's defensive walls if compared to how thick the stone was. They stood nearly three and a half meters tall and positioned themselves on either side of the entrance that would lead below.
The one over to the left was missing its right arm as the other was barely hanging on. Chunks of the chest and lower left hip were broken away. The head itself was nearly caved in to where there was only a stump of what one might consider a neck. The rest of it was littered with scratches that were nearly an inch and a half deep, as well as multiple cracks that ran along the entire framework. Metal gauntlets and leg guards were strapped in place to add to the defensive properties. Yet these were warped as if being pelted with an unbelievable amount of force to leave them nearly unusable and cracked.
The one on the right was in nearly the same condition. Although the head was still mostly intact as the front was left almost unscathed. While the back appears to have had a huge chunk taken out of it in the same way an apple would be attacked by a voracious eater in one bite. There were even markings to indicate that not only was this one hit with a similar blunt force trauma as the first. But some of the lines to give off a brick like pattern were now warped as to show that it was hit with a powerful acidic attack that was capable of eroding the stone.
From a quick glance, it appeared that whatever was poured onto the Golem was primarily focused on the back. This of course would also play into the reason as to how it lost some of its additional armor for the straps were eaten away. This leading to them to fall right off. In the Roegadyn's eye's, he was rather impressed, while also worried over the fact that there could have been a creature down here with the destructive abilities to take on his creations.
With this being one of the slightly more dangerous areas and easily proned to be swarming with a large number of monsters when compared to some of the other regions. The Golems that were dispatched here were made of the tougher variety. So, in terms of raw power and overall defense. He would have to rate them as being as strong as a level forty adventurer of the tank class variety.
The thoughts that ran through Brex's head were interrupted when one of the Golems with the still partially intact head began to show signs of movement. This was no doubt because of its sensors that were operational upon detecting the group. With a small amount of static and a robotic voice that was nearly similar to the Roegadyn's. It spoke as it turned its head towards Rarity, who happened to be the first to arrive. “Attention... Ah... Ah-Attention! Records indicate hostile predators have been reported in the immediate vicinity! Emergency pro-pro-protocols... have been initiated! This unit unit unit Zaaaat! This unit advises all personnel to evacuate to the bunker Eh-Eh-immediately!”
Upon hearing this. All the girls became wary as they began to look around for any signs of a dangerous creature. However, Brex only had his narrowed eyes locked onto the Golem before walking up to it. Seeing this as a situation and not wanting to waste any time at all. Brex spoke loudly in an authoritative voice. “Initiate verbal interface! Activate passcode verification and voice imprint verification! Sigma Zero-Zero-Four-One access! Requesting confirmation!” The Golems wide slitted eye holes which only produced a single yellow orb began to flash a couple of times as The Voice of Brex began to replay every single word that was just said to it with a perfect pitch and tone.
After a couple of seconds more. The Golem then raised its right hand in order to do a salute. It then stated in the same gargled voice as before. “Pass-pass-passcode verification and voice imprint verification authenticated! Please present follow up passcode to unlock bizt… all-all-all privileges!” Brex then took in a heavy breath of air and said the following so quickly that it may as well have come out as one solid string of numbers that was almost impossible to keep up with. “745-468-2994, 8719-942-25161, 8177-23-456-259.” As a result, the Golem lowered its arm and went into an attention stance. At the same time, the other without a head did the same thing even though their bodies creaked at the motions.
From there. Brex began to ask the Golem a number of questions and received the following answers as the pair went back and forth with one another, while also ignoring the obvious stairs from the rest of the girls. But not before sending Rory into the Bunker with a nod of his head. This was because There were no doubts in his mind that there may have been survivors inside, thanks to the blood that she mentioned earlier to have picked up on.
“Why has there no report been submitted to HQ about this matter in regards to the emergency procedures being put into effect?
“Zittt!!! Answer: Mul-Multiple attempts were made... no no no reply received! Conclusion: Signal has been either ignored or unable to reach a representative.”
“Requesting immediate report on all relevant information.”
“Affirmative! Details are as follows! Approximately three three three hours ago, a group arrived and was being chased by a large monster that follows the criteria to identify as the species Chimera. Defensive units intercepted to buy time for the retreating party to enter the bunker. The threat was repelled. One unit was severely damaged and is reduced to seventy-seven percent of peak operational status. This unit is operating at eighty-five percent of its operational status. Warning: Target is still active and exhibiting additional traits that are not currently under specified parameters.”
“Clarify last comment.”
“Chim Chim Chimera, exhibits additional combat abilities which consists of highly acidic traits. Overall physical projections have have have been exceeded. Conclusion: Chimera is well beyond specified level range for this zone. Recommendation: Immediate relocation of all personnel advised and contact must be made for investigation team.”
Brex paused as he was taking in his environment, while also noticing the worrisome expressions from the rest. It was Twilight who spoke up next as her eyes drifted over to the Golems that were still vigilantly staying on guard, even though their forms betrayed that they were barely able to stand without creaking every few seconds. “Putting aside all the questions I have right now. Maybe we should all get inside? And by the sounds of it, we may also need to cancel today.” This got a quick nod of confirmation from Brex right as Rory came back out of the bunker.
She then called out in a rush. “We got injured inside! They're not looking too good and the only healer in their group is unconscious.” Brex then led the girls inside along with the Chocobo's. He even ordered the Golems to keep watch. Once they cleared the entrance and walked into the winding tunnel that would normally take about half a minute to go through. The Roegadyn went over to a panel on the wall and inserted his Guild identification plate thanks to a slot that could be seen. As a result, there was a multitude of whirling and clicking noises that echoed along the walls, floor and ceiling for a moment. This signified that the traps were momentarily disarmed.
When they were past all that. The system was reactivated thanks to a similar panel located deeper within. This revealed a space that was about the size of a typical high school gymnasium. The walls and ceiling turned out to be reinforced with support beams to spread out the amount of tension in case the ground was to experience a sudden shift. Within the hollowed-out space, was a couple of buildings that snugly took on the provided spots to make a very tiny town if one was to call it that. There was a cantina and even a cleaning facility, a shop where one could use tools to make some minor repairs on equipment or brew up a potion if one should have the appropriate skills.
There are even a number of vending machines that held various supplies behind reinforced glass display cases. These would either take coins or use a slot for Guild plates to be placed inside of to purchase what was stored within. These would consist of not only food and drink. But also, various types of potions that would aid in the common adventurer’s duties. The bulk of which would be low-end healing and Mana potions. There was even a building with the medical cross right above that would act as a mini-Hospital near the entrance.
It seemed as though Applejack was about to ask as to where the ones that came in had ended up. However, all of their eyes were drawn to a noticeable line of red drip marks that was obviously from someone's open wound that would lead over to the mini Hospital. After immediately bursting in through the front door from following the trail. Brex and the rest were met with the site of three ponies that were laying on top of some stretchers that were all lined up. There was also one that was barely keeping themselves on their hoofs. This turned out to be a Unicorn that wore a completely black outfit. When the groups entrance was noticed. The one still standing inside pulled out one of their daggers got into a defensive stance.
Even though they too also exhibited signs of exhaustion. The Rogue held on to her side and brandished the weapon for a couple of seconds before they realized that it was just Brex in his group. Upon which, the Rogue relaxed and placed the blade back in its holder before speaking up in an exhausted voice. “About... Huff! Bloody time!” She continued to breathe heavily before going on. “Was beginning to think that no one was going to make it all the way here with those things running around!” Once the last words escaped her lips. The Rogue finally collapsed into a heap on the floor as the rest of her strength apparently ran out.
And with that, Fluttershy, Zecora and Brex immediately jumped into action and started to heal them all one by one. From where he stood while healing The Conjurer. It became obvious that the wounds were made by the following. Clear lacerations from thick claws that easily penetrated their gear with minimal effort. Scorch marks from barely avoiding a direct hit from a flame attack. The pieces of armor from the Gladiator showing signs of being pelted with extreme blunt force trauma and the same traces of damages from the acidic attacks that hit the Golems. Not to mention, the clear electrical discharges from the bodies from what was obviously remnants of a lightning attack.
What made it all even stranger for Brex. Was the weird sludge that stained not only their gear, but most of their fur as well. This being the odd substance that he was able to clearly smell from the close proximity to be the formaldehyde that Rory also mentioned. The ones on the stretchers were clearly showing signs of being exposed to a high quantity of it as they were showing a number of symptoms. The common ones being, watery eyes; burning sensations in the eyes, nose, and throat; coughing; wheezing; nausea; and skin irritation. These however could be easily dealt with under the right circumstances. But the problem is the more serious effects such as causing cancer if the levels were to exceed a certain point.
Brex then looked over to one of them and saw a familiar name popping up from overhead. Without even wasting time to think on it any further. Brex accessed the heavens computer and brought up that pony’s information. Luckily enough, the computer also displayed the individual’s medical history and current situation. But when it displayed that she was in the first stages of confirmed levels of cancer. Brex immediately started to cast his spells and pulled out a number of vials from his inventory and placed them on a nearby table.
He knew for certain that magic was not an all-around solution for every medical problem. But he deeply hoped that it was early enough to make a difference. After using a spell to remove negative effects from the target. The Roegadyn went on and administered a number of potions in small quantities through her mouth. The only problem was with the Unicorn constantly spitting it back up or being unable to swallow properly while in an unconscious state. This was all thanks to the coughing fits that would sporadically come and go.
To all of their surprise, which even included Rory as she stared dumbfoundedly at Brex as he did the following. Without even showing any kind of hesitation. He positioned himself so that his back was towards the rest as he poured the sufficient quantities from each of the bottles into his mouth at once. He then leaned down and slipped his mask off so he could give the Unicorn her treatment through mouth-to-mouth. At first, she was having some trouble and subconsciously fought back. But after a few seconds of pressing his lips to her’s, Brex could feel it going down her throat as the sound of swallowing could be heard.
After pulling away. The mask was hastily put back into place as he checked over her information one more time. Brex then gave a relieved sigh as he saw that the texts had changed to say that she was recovering from stage one cancer and would make a full recovery. Thankfully, this was not needed for the rest as they avoided the level of exposure that this one was unfortunately enough to be hit with. Brex had not even turned around to face the rest, yet he was already beginning to feel that there were three sources of intense emotions being radiated with such force, that even he wondered if he had somehow taken on the traits of a Changeling.
Upon turning his head slowly. He found Rory giving him the, “Did you seriously just do that look.” When it came to Gilda and Rainbow. The pair were easily giving the impression that the air around them was being superheated due to the aura that now took a red hue. It also did not help the situation as the others were giving them quite a bit of distance and sending Brex some very questionable looks of their own. These consisted of confusion and concern for his well-being. That was when Brex thought the following in a rather scared tone. “Oh... Uh, okay… I see what I did there...”
Gilda then pointed towards him and then back at herself before she quietly whispered the following. “Later, we are going to have a talk.” As for Rainbow, who was also standing next to the Griffin was silently nodding and this sent a cold chill to run up the Roegadyn's spine as he now knew that he made a big mistake. He then said to Rory through the connection in a pathetic tone. “Do you think they'll accept the excuse that it was a medical emergency?” What Rory said next only filled him with dread. “Master... even I'm not sure as to what I could do to help you out of this. Sure, I understand what you did. But even I'm a little upset.”
That was when he closed his eyes and brought a hand up to his mask as if trying to hide himself as he said the following out loud. “Geez… It really is true, no good deed goes unpunished.” After the awkward event was finished and everyone's attention was brought back to the immediate medical emergency. The rest of which was soon taken care of after the group concluded with the very last of the healing spells. They waited for the next hour to allow the four to rest. Meanwhile, Rarity and most of the girls ran off to use the cleaning facilities.
This only left Gilda and Rainbow to be with Brex. As he picked up some of the dropped pieces of gear near the still unconscious adventuring party to run some quick examinations on the damage. As his eyes were examining the shield belonging to the Gladiator. The girls began to start up a conversation with Brex as it was the prismatic Pegasus that spoke up first as her tone came off with a little edge to it.
“So… why? Does one of us have to be on our death beds for you to take that mask off?”
Brex remained silent to that as he had his back turned towards them. This was when Gilda spoke up. “We don't even practice in the morning anymore. What exactly did we do?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing my ass! Clearly there's an issue and Gilda and I want to know what it is.”
“Just why would you assume that there's an issue between us?”
“*Huff* why do you have to act like a dweeb now? We're supposed to be in a herd but we're not spending any time at all together these days. Not even one date. It’s always class this, or job that. Heck! You even disappear all day and no one can even find you.”
“I've been really busy. These weapons could tell me a lot about what they encountered. Obviously, it's not a normal-.”
“Gah! I can't take it anymore!”
“Rainbow! Wait!”
“I'm not waiting Gilda! I want to know why Gambit thinks that we're going to end up killing him!”
Hearing those words caused him to freeze in place as he had just brought up the sword of the Gladiator to check the knicks and cuts on the metal. There was also a sinking feeling in his guts that only grew as the few seconds that followed were completely filled with silence. At the end of which. Gilda could be heard giving herself a facepalm as she spoke past her hand. “Rainbow! Really?! You bucking idiot...” As a result, Brex had this stern look from behind his mask as he thought the following. “Why in the name of the twelve would she think-. Hold the phone. Is… Is this, what they found last night? What exactly did I dream up?!”
Rainbow obviously realized her outburst and quickly back pedaled as she continued. “I mean... that is I... What I meant was I just…” Brex by that point, had turned around after putting the blade onto a nearby table to look at the pair. He then said in a slow and questioning tone, “Why would you say something like that?” Rainbow was now sweating as she was glancing over to Gilda for any assistance. On the Griffin's part however. All she could do was to shake her head while massaging her temples to relieve an oncoming headache. She appeared as though she was about to open her beak when there was a loud noise from outside of the mini Hospital, which consisted of a number of booms that obviously came from the direction of the exit for the bunker.
Wanting to make sure that nothing had happened to the others. Brex quickly pushed his way past both of the girls and rushed into the open so that he could look down the tunnel. The bunker itself was now shaking as small tremors cause the creaking of the support beams and allowed a few pieces of loose dirt to crumble onto the buildings and the once cleared walkways. As the rest all came rushing out of their buildings and gathered up behind the Roegadyn. It was Applejack that spoke as she used her hat to block a couple of pieces of dust from landing in her mane. “What in tarnation is makin' all that racket?! Sounds a lot like Big Mac when he starts to snore again!”
Rarity was the next up as she was frantically looking above to dodge any incoming debris that would mess up her newly cleaned body. “My word! What is the point of taking a bath if it's only going to get ruined immediately afterwards!” Without waiting to give them any kind of reply. Both Brex and Rory ran forward and deactivated the traps so that they could exit and find exactly what was causing the sudden tremors. It did not take long until they were greeted by the broken pieces of Golem remains on the surface and two hulking figures that could just barely be made out at the edge of their vision thanks to the Gloom effect in the air. Already there was a menacing growl as the distorted forms inch their way closer.
When the distance was lowered to the point that Brex could finally make out what they were. His eyes went wide after witnessing a pair of Chimeras that were clearly twice the size of normal. This meant that he barely reached a third of their height. Not only were they so much bigger. But the amount of muscles on their forms were even more defined than he had expected. He then said the following as he shifted his legs to be ready for a fight and changed over so that he was using the Red Mage Soul Stone. This produced a Rapier weapon along with its focal gem. He even brought up his level from fifty up to sixty as he saw that both were registered as fifty-five.
Even his white and blue robes were replaced as he did not change them over for the Red Mage’s set with the glamouring items. This meant that he took on the same attire he used when going to the gala. Instead of the brown mask with the stripes. He now had the porcelain opera mask with the laughing face carved into it. He then heard Rory speaking as she readied her battle axe and took on a fighting stance of her own. “What's the plan? One of us hangs back while the other takes them both on, or are we having one each? Either way I'm fine with it.”
Brex responded as he brought up his weapon to point straight ahead as his free hand was slightly behind and raised so that the palm was pointing straight up. This was so that his focal point gem would levitate right above it. “Go ahead and kill the one on the right. I'll take my time with the one on the left and learn what I can. Obviously, these things have been altered. I can already smell the chemicals soaked into their fur from all the way over here.” That was when he heard Gilda calling as everyone else came rushing out of the bunker. However, they were not alone, as the four adventurers were also being carried on some of their backs. “Whoa! What in Tartarus are those meant to be?”
There was a distinct row of loud gasps from the crowd when they saw what was outside. Which unfortunately drew the attention of the two Chimeras and cause the monsters to do a bum rush. Brex used an ability to close the distance while leading with his weapon to do a lunging stab. But to his surprise, the blade barely got past the abnormally tough fur so that only several inches of his blade would sink into the flesh. At the same time, it gave off a vague metallic sound as his weapon came in for a collision. Luckily enough. This was sufficient in halting that Chimeras movements as it tried to swat him away.
To dodge the paw, Brex used a leaping back ability, along with a quick slice of his weapon to slightly alter the incoming appendage to cleanly evade the attack and return to where he was previously. This solicited an angry roar from the chimera as it dug its back Paws into the ground to prepare for another lunge and the ensuing square-off with the Roegadyn. When it came to the other, to which Rory was in charge of. It too was parried after Rory infused her axe with some light and fire Elemental Buffs thanks to the Paladin skills afforded by the Dungeons and Dragons spells she knew.
With a simple, yet quick jump forward and accompanied by an upward slice with her axe. The Chimera was struck just under its neck and sent flying back after being forced into a backflip. There was even a spark which erupted into an all-encompassing flame that quickly started to spread all over its body as it was still in the air. This made the monster stand out as a lighthouse within the Gloom filled atmosphere for a couple of seconds before it started to shake itself and extinguish said flames. A few of the embers flew and landed on the second one and it too went through a similar process. This resulted in the chemical scent being replaced with the undeniably, and painfully sickening smell of burning fur
Rory even clicked her tongue after finding out that she was unable to slice it open with that initial attack and began to examine her axe for any defaults for a reason. She then called out to Brex with a perplexed tone to her voice. “Huh? That's never happened before!” Seeing as these monsters were going to be more trouble than originally thought. Brex called over his shoulder while making sure to keep the Chimera in front within his view. “Hurry! Get on your Chocobo's and get out of here! Get to the Yuna, NOW!!!”
Both Gilda and Rainbow immediately protested as they started to run up to join Brex and Rory in battle, instead of listening to what he had just said. After seeing the two flyers running on the ground. Both of the Chimeras took in a quick intake of air and erupted two fireballs that were hurtling at the new combatants. The attacks came so fast that they were already passed Rory and Brex within an instant and halfway along their projected routes by the time the Griffin and Pegasus even realized what was going on.
Thanks to the way that they were standing so close together. Both fireballs would have collided with one another right at the point they would have reached the pair and create a massive explosion. Which in turn, would completely obliterate the two and leave nothing in their place. The fireballs cleared another quarter of the way and were about to hit. When Brex leapt out of their shadows from behind them both and rushed to intercept the twin balls of highly compressed fire within the blink of an eye. This stunned the pair as to how he even got there so fast.
On his end. Brex used the following combination to launch a counter attack. After combining the hilt of his Rapier to that of his focusing gem. The ability called Acceleration and Swift Cast so that he could use Veraero. This launched a strong wind spell against the fireball. It was then thanks to the very first ability, that allowed him to instantly cast an earth spell called Verstone. This allowed them to overlay and create a more powerful version. The resulting collision of fire and the combination of both wind and earth produced a deafening boom just several yards away from Brex.
He even used that split second that was created thanks to the resulting explosion to do another one of his backflips. This made it so that he would land before the pair and put away his weapon as to reach out and grab Gilda and Rainbow to pull in tightly so that his body could be used as a shield for the incoming wave of crashing heat and pressure. Rory managed to jump away and behind a large rock formation to avoid the explosion as the rest of the girls were far enough away.
As they were only hit with enough force that it nearly knocked them over. Of course, they still screamed out of fright. Apparently more so for Rarity who acted as though someone had turned her hair green with how she was yelling about how her mane was now completely ruined. Most were dug in and barely holding themselves upright. Fluttershy could already be seen placing herself on the floor as much as possible while covering her head with not only her hands, but with her wings as well. For some odd reason pinky pie was just opening her mouth and allowing her cheeks to puff up like a set of sails on a boat to catch the wind as if this was fun for her.
Before the dust even settled and the air was filled with chunks of dark powder from the blast zone. The two girls’ underneath Brex coughed a couple of times as his arms were still coiled around them in a protective manner. When he released his grip. Brex felt the urge to cough and this produced a small amount of blood to splatter onto the inside of his mask. Which in turned also allowed some of it to drip from the mouth that was cut into the porcelain. The two saw this and grew increasingly worried. Especially as another cough came out and caused a drop or two to land on their armor. As for the reason for the blood. The direct cause was from a couple of shards of stone that had been launched thanks to the explosion and embedded themselves into his back.
To prevent anything to be said on their part. Brex brought up his weapon and attached the pieces to cast a couple of healing spells onto himself. The effect was nearly instantaneous as the shards were expelled from his body and clattered onto the ground to show that there was at least a half a dozen or so. The wounds themselves sealed up nicely, but still allowed the blood to stain the skin so that it perfectly blended in to the dark red fabric. He turned his attention to the two Chimeras after stepping away and said the next part in an emotionless voice. “Go. Get out of the gorge. Don't make me ask again... Rory and I will handle-.”
Brex could not finish that sentence as both the Chimeras decided that they had waited long enough and recommenced their attack and leaped at the same time in clear hopes of pouncing onto the Roegadyn. Although, the next thing that happened, obviously came as a surprise to the two would-be alpha predators when he dashed forward and launched a powerful spell that erupted the area with a crimson hue. Multiple crystals appeared out of nowhere to create a spherical zone as dark red lightning coarse from the center to strike at each of the stones. The force in which was powerful enough to send both of the monsters back to a defensive stance. All the while, they would roar and hiss loudly with all of their heads.
Brex even went through the motions of holding both of his arms out to his sides while grasping the jewel in his left, as the right was held so that the blade was pointing down in a reverse grip. After equipping his armband to use the accumulated energy for a level three limit break. His body was enveloped in a bright yellow light which encompassed a good three and a half meters with his body in the center. Gold jets of flames were continuously being given off as lightning crackled along his form. Both of the chimeras crouched down to indicate that they were aware of something coming from him.
Both arms were brought together as to attach the two weapon pieces. The jewel itself became so bright that it was nearly impossible to see even his own hands that gripped onto the item and a set of glyphs appeared side by side before Brex. At the very same time. A much larger circle with elaborate drawings could be seen coming into formation right underneath his target's feet as it was taking on a wide area. Brex then said loud enough to be heard over the accumulation of power that was only growing stronger and stronger over the course of the next few seconds. “Now! It's my-GHAAH!!!”
Yet again. Brex was interrupted, thereby breaking his concentration and losing all of that energy that was ready to be released and harmlessly dispersed into the atmosphere. This was due to a much larger figure that came out of the Gloom and sent Brex flying far enough that he instantly lost sight of the bunker and crashed into the cliffside that would lead up and out of Ghastly Gorge. By the time he even knew what hit him. He already found himself half embedded into the blacked stone wall and was in the middle of pulling himself free right as a deafening roar could be heard which easily dwarfed the two Chimeras from earlier. There were numerous animal sounds all going at once to give the impression that an entire zoo was sounding their own battle cry.
It was so strong in fact. That there were visible shockwaves thanks to the Gloom being forced away. What was soon unveiled, was a creature that was nearly as tall as the Red Dragon. In fact, if one was to compare the two in terms of how strong they appear to be. The one underneath the mountain could have been seen as a string bean. And in an arm-wrestling contest, the Red Dragon would have had its arms ripped clean off. Brex stare dumbfoundedly at the creature as he contemplated on just how such a monstrous entity could have gone unchecked as to get that big.
His thoughts were only brought to a stop when he noticed that he was in a large amount of pain. After grunting a couple of times and casting close to half a dozen healing spells on himself. He thought the following. “Shit! If this was back in the game, that would have nearly one shot me!!! Fuck! I would be dead right now if I didn't raise my level by ten.” Brex released a couple of heavy huffs as he finally peeled himself all the way from the wall and stood on one of the footholds as he continued. “Wow! I can't remember when I last got hit nearly that hard. Just how strong is that thing anyway?!”
As the monster was letting out its continuously ongoing roar. Brex brought up its information bar. Unlike the others. This one was marked as level seventy. Not only that. There was also the symbol that showed that the creature was classified as very hard in its difficulty rating. In other words. The classification marked it as just below being called a world class hunt. Which would normally take a group of players of the same level to be able to bring it down. After coming to this realization, he instantly brought up Heaven's Computer and accessed the bestiary section so that he could find anything of importance. After a couple of seconds of windows opening and closing quickly. He finally found the page he was looking for.
Name: Experimental Chimera, Number 1232. Code name: Sun Eater.
Level: 70.
Difficulty rating: Very hard.
Age: 87 Years old.
It even went on to list a large number of abilities such as, Fire breath, Ice breath, Thunder breath. Poison, Acid, Paralysis, Blood absorption abilities, Enhanced senses, Enhanced intelligence, Enhanced external physical and magic defense, Enhance speed, Enhanced physical regeneration, Enhance resistance to fire and light attribute magic. However, there was just one more on the list that caught his attention. This being a description of a skill called Personalized Curse. It stated that anyone under this effect would specify a specific target for their aggression.
When encountering said target, the user would gain the ability to counteract their physical and magical attacks. But it did not stop there. It would even boost the user’s offensive capabilities up to ten times the normal amount. When Brex looked into it more to find out if it was in effect right now. The Roegadyn's eyes went wide when he saw that it was indeed active. Not only that, but the target was set as Princess Celestia. Moreover, was the fact that it was already set at its maximum grade. Brex then said the following from under his breath as he quickly scanned over all the details to double-check.
“Oh damn! Just who was it that you fucking shit on to get them to even make this monstrosity?! Most of the Primal’s would just be a chew toy to that thing! And what is with all of these stat buffs? This is just way too much, I'm calling bullshit! That was when he realized something from earlier and quickly glance over to the smaller chimeras as he said, “Don't tell me that they also... Ah, that must be the reason why Rory and I couldn't do that much damage.” Brex then switched over to his mental connection and called out to Rory in a serious tone. “Rory! I'll leave the runts to you. Don't hold anything back, do you hear me? The big ones mine.”
From there. Brex moved on and pulled a Link Pearl out to relay the situation to the crew of the Yuna. He stated that the others would be rushing back to the ship and that they should take off as soon as possible to be in a less dangerous location and to have the shit put on Red Alert. He even added that the weapons were to be free to be used at a moment's notice. Which instantly earned him an excited cry from one of the Changeling’s in the background. Once that was all finished and he was able to bring his undivided attention over to the gigantic Chimera. His face from behind his mask became Stern as he boosted his level to max so that it would match the monsters.
He made sure that his weapon was secured on his hips before he began to hold up both of his gloved covered hands, while muttering the following to himself. “It's way too dangerous to get into a real fight while the girls are still so close by... I really wish that my mark two armor was finished. At the very least I can use these pieces for now.” Once those final words were said. Brex opened up his character window and brought out a set of metal gauntlets that made his own hands appear to be twice of their original size. At the same time, the item appeared on his window to display that it was a piece that overlaid onto his current equipped gloves.
These were mostly silver and color as a neon blue light course through a circular disc in the palm and ran underneath the segmented plates and a wire-like fashion. Obviously, the circuitry for this item was clearly exposed. This showed that it was not completed. After channeling some energy into the glove thanks to some lightning magic afforded by the Red Mage class. The lights began to grow and give off a low hum. With every twist and flex of both his wrists and fingers. The whirling noise of gears and hydraulics that were built inside could be heard coming to life.
After checking to see that everything was in order. Brex psyched himself up and melded into his shadow that was being cast onto the wall. It took less than a second later for him to appear from one of the boulders in front of the creature so that he was situated between it and the retreating students. Not too far behind and off to the left, could be seen Rory as she was quite busy with the underlings. None of the three were staying still for more than a second as they leaked at one another in a constant dance of swipes and slashes on both ends. The Chimeras would get a lucky hit every so often. But unfortunately for them, it was barely more than a scratch and would be instantly healed within moments.
Rory on the other hand, was taking full advantage of her small stature and evading their strikes, while also landing one blow after another to send them tumbling as to attack the next. Even during the times that she was unable to pierce their thick fur and hide with the edge of her axe. The girl was still doing quite a number on them with the blunt force trauma that she was throwing their way. Even if the ax was unable to cut. It would have delivered the same destructive force as being hit with a truck going fifty-five miles an hour.
The fire breaths were telegraphed too much, so she had plenty of time to avoid those. The lightning and ice spells were unable to hit as they were being clearly given away thanks to the corresponding heads glowing eyes that would occur just a few seconds beforehand. Once or twice, Rory would even strike the head that was about to use magic to interrupt it and to only leave it as a dazed appendage.
Over with the big one. It was either due to its size or just not really caring all that much. But the larger Chimera had ignored Rory and Brex and was looking in the direction of the retreating group. Brex slammed both of his fists together and loudly called out to it after spreading his legs and bringing his arms down so that the elbows were being pulled back. Brex then channeled a continuous stream of lightning magic into the gloves, which then crackled with raw power. This continued for a few seconds before he was enveloped in a bubble of the same neon blue energy as the gloves themselves. Many connecting ribbons of lightning poured from the large set of gauntlets and struck the inner layer of the bubble.
Crackling zaps and what could be similar to hundreds of quickly chirping birds fill the air. Still not paying attention to Brex, even though all of this was going on practically right underneath its own head. The Chimeras wings outstretched as the lower legs crouched to inform that it was about to make a long jump. With both a loud grunt and a savage growl of his own. Brex braced himself further as he called out to the monster. “OH NO YOU DON’T! YOUR DANCE PARTNER IS WITH ME! NOW WHY DON’T YOU BE A GOOD LITTLE HELL KITTY AND WAIT UNTIL THE PLAYGROUND IS ALL CLEAR!”
The Chimera paid absolutely no mind at all to the Roegadyn's words as it took to the air with a surprising amount of speed. The force of which was felt to be as strong as a hurricane due to the strong flap of the large bat wings on its back. But at the very instant it made itself airborne and was nearly halfway with jumping over Brex. He thrusted both of his palms forward and towards the creature. While doing so, he screamed loudly the next set of words quickly.
“TAKE THIS! IMPROVISED LIGHTNING FLASH SURPRISE ATTACK!!!” This caused his thick gauntlets to release a jagged edged wave directly into the underside of the chimera. The thunderous boom of lightning and thunder eruption overshadowed the pain noises being emitted from the three separate heads as the entire form was being electrocuted. Lights quickly flashed between high and low levels so quickly, that it could cause a person who was susceptible to a stroke to suffer from one through visual stimulation.
(Here is a video of the move that is being copied.)
The hair that could be seen coming from underneath his hat was sharply sticking out in the same way that the Chimera was. Its limbs were fully locked in place while the entire form was forced to become stationary in mid-air. Although this lasted for only a couple of seconds before the monster began to fight back and attempt to flex its body to break free. As a result, Brex screamed even more as his outreached arms were enveloped by even more electrical energy. The resulting feedback from using so much of that type of elemental power was already making itself known as his clothing exhibited signs of there being scorch marks slowly being made. There was even a hairline crack on the bottom edge of his mask that came from exerting so much energy.
The lion head was twitching uncontrollably as its large fanged mouth was forced open as the muscles were barely under its control enough to close the jaw. The two heads were fully outstretched while in the same predicament. The Scorpion tail took on a zigzag pattern as it erratically twitched. Short yet quick waves of electrical energy could be seen running along the length of its fur covered body. So far, Brex was only holding this for no more than nine seconds, yet he was already close to bottoming out on his aether reserves. Thankfully though, he had the skill of Lucid Dreaming to slowly revitalize his magic for a short time which held out just enough to prevent his levels from dropping for the time being.
He had no idea as to how much longer he could hold out as he had never expected to use this technique that utilized both magic and technology to hold such a massive creature. At least not until the entire set was completed. This was when he caught sight of a number of Plasmoids and Lightning Elementals that were being attracted by the massive discharge and had a stroke of genius. He then contacted Rory through the connection and ordered her to use a skill to command them to attack him.
As Rory was still in the middle of her own fight. She replied with saying, “Master, they don't really have conscious thoughts. I'm not entirely sure if my ability to control with a command will even have any effect on them.” However, Rory gave up after noticing the way her master was struggling and finally did what she was told. After causing a smoke screen from slashing her axe along the ground to distract the two smaller Chimeras. She began taunting the Elementals and gathered them all together within a couple of seconds. She then screamed out one word after activating the spell, while also pointing her large axe towards Brex. “Attack!”
When the command was given. The Plasmoids and Lightning Elementals shifted in place for about a moment before immediately converging on Brex. From there, they launched a combined assault right as Rory was found by the Chimeras again. Even though they were all at a much lower level. Having nearly a dozen of them blasting Brex made it extremely painful for the Roegadyn. After fighting through the pain. He flexed his magic just enough so that the additional electric current was funneled into his own attack that was holding the more dangerous of the three. Through gritted teeth. Brex then said, “Ghaaaaaahaaaaaagrrrrrrr! Need… Need to… hold on!!!”
Over to the left-hand side of his vision. The character status screen which displayed his form and items that were currently equipped, was already showing that the gauntlets had already dropped to around seventy percent of their total durability. At the rate things were going. It was not a question of if, but more of when this technique would finally break. Either the gloves would eventually destroy themselves or what he was feeding them was going to run dry. All he knew was that when that creature came back down, he was going to be in the fight for his life as even he was unsure as to how far he can go against a creature with that kind of a difficulty rating, while also being at the same level as him.
*Point of view: Princess Celestia* *Location: Canterlot Castle*
Just moments ago. Celestia was in the middle of day court when her sister suddenly came in through the large set of open doors and quickly waved to her older sister while being behind the crowd of nobles. She merely paused while looking over to Luna and wondered as to why she would come to the throne room so early. However, the look of urgency on her younger sister's face conveyed that something was up. Before she could even have a chance to stop the noble who was currently in the middle of a speech for something or another. A loud boom had caught all of their attention and Celestia saw through one of the windows that there was a pillar comprised of a bright blue light and electrical strands coming from deep within the Everfree Forest.
All of those that were within the castle began to scream as they turned their heads to see just what was going on. The castle guards were on high alert and brandishing their weapons. Princess Celestia could also hear the faint noises of the citizens beyond the walls as they too were panicking. It was not until a few seconds passed while attempting to judge the situation in order to put together a proper response to tell her guards. The alabaster alicorn felt a familiar wave of energy that she instantly identified to be the exact signature as that of Gambit.
As her voice hitched in her throat and eyes glued squarely on the pillar. She thought the following while her shocked face turned into worry. “Is that... is that coming from the direction of Ghastly Gorge? Oh no! Did something happen? Wait! Weren't they all going there today?!” Celestia suddenly felt her heart sink as an unmistakable sense of dread began to grow. Without even realizing it herself. Her right hand immediately tensed its grip on the armrest and caused multiple cracks to spread several inches along the marble throne. If it were not for her back already pressing against the padding behind. Then her wings would have already instinctively flown out in an aggressive style.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 81: Journey Into Equestria’s Scar. Part 3.
Chapter 81: Journey Into Equestria’s Scar. Part 3.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Ghastly Gorge*
The once dark and monster infested gorge that was barely visible to an Outsiders point of view when standing atop the cliff face. Was now brightly lit up as to allow close to a mile going down in either direction to be seen thanks to the bright light show being provided by Brex as he attempted to hold on to his adversary. Not even a full minute has gone by since the technique was put into effect. By which the rest of the girls quickly dashed back the way they came and covered a large amount of ground with the help of their swift Chocobo’s. Even the still unconscious members of the four-person group that they had in countered were laying across the saddles.
It also helped that Crystal was in the front and dealing with a few of the creatures that laid in wait along their path. Of course, the bird was assisted by Gilda as the Griffin Would launch herself at the creatures before leaping right back and onto her own Chocobo’s saddle every now and then. Even some of the members with magic or ranged attacks would lend a helping hand without stopping in the least. Instead of taking the exact way that they traverse to make it to the bunker. Crystal, who was in the front of the pack, changed course and found another way up that was closer and the group found themselves on the top of Ghastly Gorge just as the light show was beginning to fade.
Still not stopping. They all ran along the edge and towards the Yuna. All the while, the girls were turning their heads to watch what was going on behind them. From the rear. Fluttershy's voice could just barely be heard over the many stampeding legs of their mouths, along with the still roaring beast that was still being held in the air. “Oh my... is Gambit going to be all right? W-we just left him behind…” Rarity was the next to speak as she also had a heavy amount of concern in her voice. “True. I'm afraid to say that he flew quite far after that brute launched a sneak attack.”
It was Applejack that spoke up next while trying hard to keep her hat from flying off at the speed that they were going at. “Can't say for sure sugar cube. All I know is that he told us to run. If he really is strong enough to go up against Nightmare Moon, then I got no doubt that he can take on that oversized varmint. It would be best if we all listened to what he has to say. Even if it goes against my instincts to leave them there.” The farm mare came to an abrupt pause when she noticed how Rainbow was acting.
The Pegasus was looking straight ahead with her head tilted down as to allow her messy hair to cover her own eyes. Even her hands were clenched tightly around the rains to where they were practically shaking. Rainbow was even muttering the word “Buck” over and over again. Applejack then pulled her Chocobo as to ride closer to the Pegasus so that they could talk. She was just about to say something when there was a sudden intensity to the light before it was completely cut out. This was followed with a low thud from inside the gorge and a deafening silence.
The scene then shifts back to Brex as he was blanketed by a thick layer of dust. Both arms were still outstretched as a good portion of his clothing now look like he had run through a fire and got charred so much, that more than half of his body was very close to being exposed. Quick and heavy breaths could be heard from behind his mask that showed a few more cracks that started from the edges and proceeded an inch or two inwards. The large gauntlets were no longer giving off any sources of light from the circuitry. Although, there was some small emissions thanks to some glowing red-hot pieces and stray electrical discharges that would fizzle out near the tips of his fingers.
As for a couple of meters along the ground. There was a total of three circular scorched rings that were made by both heavy pressure and intense heat. The Lightning Elementals and Plasmoids that had originally surrounded him were no longer around. After a couple of seconds. Brex slowly lowered his arms until they were hanging straight down and the gauntlets disappeared with a small flash of light. Still with heavy breaths escaping his lips. Brex said, “Note to self... *Huff*... still need to improve the magic insulation a little more. If not, then the suits are going to keep ending up as one time uses.”
He stumbled for a moment before releasing a heavy grunt of pain before continuing in a strained voice. “Ouch... I may be developing a tolerance for getting electrocuted... but it still hurts like a bitch! Thank goodness spellcasters have a much higher magic resistance.” Brex chuckled as he turned his head to look around before talking to himself again. “Phew! I’m so glad Rory's spell worked. Huh? Where did they all get off to? Either they ran off, or I literally drained them dry and they could no longer keep their forms. Oh well, at least it gave me the extra juice I needed.”
With trembling fingers due to the shocks that effected his muscles. Brex held up his right hand and two bottles appeared. One was a red bottle with three gold rings at the neck. While the other brandish the same decorations but with there being a blue liquid inside. First was the red health potion and then the blue was taken in one big gulp after the other. After swallowing. He released a loud belch and toss the bottles away. The unease in his hands subsided within a moment and he bald his hands into tightly packed fists before releasing them and taking hold of his weapon yet again. The tip of his rapier was pointed straight ahead as he took on a fencing fighting stance.
With an unamused voice he called out. “I hope you're not trying to sneak up on me again. It won't work another time.” The dust was in the middle of clearing away. As a result, the angry tooth filled snarling face of the lion head for the Chimera was becoming visible through the dissipating haze. It was roughly eighty meters away by now. Yet, even at that distance. Brex could easily tell that even if he was in the mouth of that creature just as he once did with the Dragon. Then even if he had stretched his body completely, it would have been nowhere near close enough to wrench that monsters mouth open to its full length.
Brex then said with a smirk, “Just what has your mother been feeding you? Must have been steroid juice with just a tiny drop of milk. So, this begs the question. Just where have you been hiding? Because I seriously doubt that no one has seen you since before now. Oh well... I'll make sure to have this place searched later. As for you...” There was a small pause as his tone turn serious again. “There are only two choices. I already know that you're intelligent. Why else would you just stand there while letting me talk. Either you surrender and allow yourself to be relocated to another location so that you won't cause any harm to the public. Or I kill you here and now.”
The Chimera did nothing for a couple of seconds. This made the Roegadyn wonder if it was going to comply. But those thoughts were destroyed when it suddenly jumped to the right so quickly that it almost created an afterimage and disappeared into the remnants of the dust. Not even a full second had gone by when it came back and came at Brex from behind while bearing its fangs. He leaped out of the way and ran his blade along the length of the Chimera's left side from the front shoulder and all the way to the end. A few sparks came from the friction of the blade and fur at the beginning. But the blade managed to make contact with the flesh near the halfway point and drew some blood.
It then roared in anger just as it passed Brex and whipped its scorpion tail at him in one fluid motion. Brex leaped over it while delivering another slash. Which was also followed with his weapon being coated in a magic aura that was a mix between purple and dark red as he threw the tip forward to pierce the appendage. The slice itself only left a deep nick in the bug-like exoskeleton. Whereas the second hit missed as the tail began to split down its length all on its own before making contact. With nearly lightning speed being exhibited, the now twin tailed chimera attempted to strike Brex with both of the stingers.
He dodged the first. The second was done in the same way by taking a quick step to the left by means of clever footwork. However, he was surprised when the tip suddenly sprayed a green substance. Brex narrowly avoided getting hit in the face and used a leap back ability to gain some distance. When he landed, he felt a burning sensation on his right arms elbow. His eyes went wide when that section was giving off a loud hiss as smoke bellowed from his now Exposed Skin. The arm sleeve was barely holding on by a piece of the fabric that was caught at the crook of his elbow.
Instead of his pail whitish-gray skin. The exposed area was dark red and blisters were already in the middle of forming. His attention was brought back to the Chimera as it took another lunge after skidding to a stop as to not waste this opportunity. Being more careful this time around. Brex made sure to evade the next approach as he started to cast a couple of curing spells onto his wound. His opponent was not letting up and was continuously attempting to pounce on to him and destroying the environmental obstacles that would end up being in its path after each failed attempt.
During this, Brex was also thinking about how one of his Golems was nearly melted and wondered if it was this big one that attacked it. But then he realized if it had been the very same one, then not only would the Golems no longer be functional by the time he and all of the girls arrived. The bunker itself would probably have also been demolished. This only left the logical conclusion that the smaller ones must have similar capabilities and quickly sent this information to Rory as she was still contending with them further in to the Gorge.
Now seeing as physical attacks were not going to be very effective when going up against such a heavily armored creature. Brex shifted to using long range spells. All the while, he was using his other buffing magic spells to increase his overall speed. It was thanks to this that he was able to outmaneuver the Chimera and launch a series of elemental spells as one fired after another with hardly any pause. A stream of lightning bolts would be launched and strike the side. Fiery explosions would occur as a heavily Aether infused fireball was launched.
There were sudden and strong bursts of wind magic that could rip apart rocks being summoned. Dust particles in the wind would accumulate in one spot within the blink of an eye and explode to produce a cluster of extended brick-like shapes so that they could collide with the Chimera to whittle down its health. Of course, he would also throw in some melee moves here and there whenever his accumulated bar of white and black magic reach their peak. This allowed a set of enhanced skills to be used for a weapons skill chain to be done. Quick, yet powerful slashes, lunges and multiple quick attacks were launched before jumping away.
It was thanks to the Red Mages passive ability, that he was able to launch so many spells in quick succession while cutting out the channeling time completely on about half of them. Brex thought that this was going to be an easy fight if he kept his distance for most of it. Although the best laid plans were known to fall apart and this was no exception as the monster suddenly released a lightning spell without there being any foreshadowing. It just so happened that Brex was Within that range of effect and was struck by it hard. Unlike with before as it was something being produced by him. Brex found himself taking on the full amount of damage and screamed loudly as his body was forced to get locked up.
This ended up being exactly what the Chimera was waiting for and it took the opportunity to do another lunge. Its left paw was raised to show its very long razor-sharp black claws. Brex could not move out of the way at that very moment and invoked a spell from the Shield Hero. With just a fraction of a second before he was hit. Three small green shields of light appeared and swiftly position themselves next to one another to form a triangular barricade.
The claws were prevented from slicing Brex up right there and then, but the blunt force behind the swipe was enough to shatter all but one of the shields and send him flying further away from Rory. Brex only stopped after crashing through one of the rock spires that was nearly four meters thick. It was only after, that he came sliding to a stop. A long groove was left as parts of the decorative parts of his gear were lefts stuck in some of the rocks.
With there being a little distance now between both of the fighters. Brex grunted as he pulled out a recovery potion for paralysis and immediately administered it to himself before getting back onto his feet. His weapon was stabbed into the ground as he hunched over and grabbed onto his right ribs with his other hand. Then grunted through his teeth as he said the following while also dodging the Chimera yet again after slipping into the shadows, only to reappear behind a rock just a little ways off to its right side.
“Fuck! I really need to send a complaint ticket to the admins. They seriously messed up with the stats on this guy, they'reway too overpowered... If I could see my health bar, then I wouldn't be surprised if I was brought down to under a quarter of my health with just one hit. I think I cracked a couple of ribs along the way too. This has to be payback for all the good luck I've been having lately. That thing cannot be allowed to escape.” Not wanting to reveal his location by exerting any magic. Brex guzzle down another health potion and felt his bone snapping back and mending themselves as he had to contain a grunt of pain from the short-lived experience.
His back was pressed against the boulder as he had his head turned to the right so that he could figure out his next course of action. He already knew where it was thanks to both his situational awareness and the mini-map displaying the creature’s impressively large dot. Yet something struck him as odd as it was not moving. Nearly a dozen seconds had gone by and it had not attempted to search for him. That was when his senses went wild right as the ground began to break apart from right under his very feet. Being caught by surprise only left Brex at the mercy of strange pink tendrils to shoot up and wrap themselves around his arms and legs.
He yelled as something was beginning to tear away at parts of his body. One was on his outer thigh for his right leg. The second was just above his left ankle. The third was on the back of his left hand and the last was on the inner lower arm for his right. These turned out to be the very ends of the strange appendages and he instantly grabbed the one that was latched on to his right arm and pulled on it so hard, that he thought his flesh was being ripped off in the process.
When he did this. The Roegadyn's face twisted in both discussed and utter horror. What he pulled off was indeed a section of his skin. As it was being sucked into the opening of a creature with a suction cup mouth. It had multifaceted rows of flat teeth that were angled in such a way that they would fold in towards the opening. The thing wiggled like mad in his hand as he noticed it had a set of black eyes. It kept trying to wiggle itself free even more to try and latch on again. This would have been possible if he had not already had a vice-like grip on it. The surface of its skin was even slick in oily so much, that it was literally splashing some clear slime.
In his mind, he instantly associated it with a type of fish called a lamprey. He had no idea where it came from but it was restricting his movements and draining him of his blood. Quickly, an area of effect spell was used and half a dozen blades were formed that took on a blue crystalline structure. These instantly shot up into the air and did a full turn on a dime and crashed onto his position in less than a second after casting. Each blade came close enough to give Brex the perfect shave as they skewered and sliced up the nightmare fuel creatures from his body.
They all gave a high pitch screech of pain which Brex found appealing as he thought that they deserved it. Although, he also heard the Chimera roar in anger as he leaped out from where he was. Brex fumbled in skidded after being released. While on the ground and rushing to cast some healing spells on himself yet again. He got a good glimpse of the underside of the Chimera and noticed that there was something very off about it. What he thought at first to be some long thick hair, was in fact the same creatures dangling from under his belly. There were even a few that had stretched out and gone into the ground.
Brex nearly threw up in his mouth as he exclaimed the following in his head in pure disgust. “Plah! I've heard of people getting worms but this is just way too much. It's like the Alien! But a hundred times worse! That must be where the vampiric ability is. There’s no way in the seven hell's that this is natural! What kind of a sicko would even do this?” As these thoughts were running through his head. The ones that were going into the ground were not retreating. So, the Chimera moved his body and literally tore those pieces from his underside with little hesitation.
He had just barely gotten on to his arms and legs when he started to cough up some blood. He thought that he had healed himself, but when turned his attention to the top of his view. He found that there was indeed an icon to indicate that he had now been poisoned. Brex took a poison recovery potion. But was further surprised when his chat box on the bottom left-hand corner of his view showed a set of texts that said that the potion was ineffective. He cursed himself that this was going to be a problem. Not only did he have to avoid getting directly hit. But he had to somehow defeat it while his own health was ticking away by a powerful poison that he was unable to relieve himself of.
Wanting to get this done as quickly as possible. Brex began another onslaught of spells. At first it was doing its job. But the Chimera was learning from the experience and was dodging more and more of them. What was once direct hits of his own. Was quickly shifting to where the oversized monster was somehow outright leaping out of the way right as the spells were completed and launched its way. By this point the fighting had been going on for well over an hour. Over a full crates worth of healing and mana potions were consumed. Both attack and recovery spells were used in tandem thanks to the Swift Cast ability as well as the passive Swift Cast for being a Red Mage.
Brex knew full well that if it was not for these abilities, then he would have been taken out long ago as he was barely afforded the allotted time for the channeling for most of them. His armor was brought near the breaking point as it was already taken down to less than ten percent of its total durability. The sword itself may not have seen too many close-range encounters, yet the constant magic flow was taking its toll on the tool. The area was resembling more and more of a rock quarry as various sizes of boulders and rubble littered everywhere. It would not be too much to say that if this continued, then everything would be rendered into a fine powder with how much these two were going at it.
Even though Brex had to heavily rely on restorative measures to keep his body from breaking down. The Chimera appeared to be as fit as a fiddle thanks to the self-recovery and regeneration it had in its disposal. The only signs to show that it had even been in a fight was how its movements had evolved. Gone was the feral actions of an animal. Instead, they were replaced with a better understanding of Brex's movements and spells to such a degree that it was almost bordering on the realm of precognition. Unlike all the rest of the battles that he had up until now. Brex was literally throwing nearly everything he had in this one.
The Shield Hero spells were barely of any use aside from the physical enhancement ones to boost his defense and speed to their limit. He even wished that he still had the accumulated power that was lost at the start when he intended to blast the other two. But the band on his arm was still recharging. Sure, one bar was already full. Although, he knew that it was nowhere near enough to deal a significant blow.
When it came to Rory however as all this was going on. She attempted to use the controlling spell to get them to attack each other. Much to her surprise, the two smaller Chimeras shrugged it off rather easily. It was fortunate, although small as it was, that they were nowhere near as strong or had any of the weird mutations that the larger one was afforded. Instead, they seemed to have more of the standard enhancements and some slightly higher than average intelligence.
These still telegraph their elemental attacks and Rory use the memories from Brex to accurately judge when and where to move. A little over halfway through the fight, Rory finally broke through one of their defenses and buried her axe deep inside of its back after dodging yet another of theirs. Thereby severing its spinal cord and causing it to fall dead at her feet. This was only another reminder than even a lethal blow to the right spot could do a number when the opponent was backed up with a large amount of health.
Her disguise was barely holding together as the sudden acceleration was making it difficult for the disguising choker to keep its image locked in place. Once the first one was down and Rory was about to go after the next to finish it off. She found that her axe had broken and was stuck within the body as she was only holding on to a broken piece of the long handle. The head being covered in blood and wedged between bone fragments would have made it near impossible to remove while in her current situation.
This meant that she was fighting for the better part of twenty minutes with nothing but her bare hands. Seeing as she was without her weapon now. The remaining Chimera was less wary as it made more attempts to approach Rory without the fear of getting hacked up in the same way as its predecessor. Although this turned out to be a huge miscalculation for which it soon discovered when Rory pulled back her left fist and swung directly to the side of its face when it came in to try and bite her head off. What came from this, was that the Chimeras head coming to a jerking stop as his eyes were nearly bugged out of its skull from the impact.
Teeth, blood and spit all erupted out of its now slacked mouth in slow motion. In a way, it was close to how one would watch a slow-motion scene from one of those Rocky boxing movies when the character gets hit with a hard hook. There was an odd gong sound emitted from Rory's fist and the Chimera skull colliding and the monster was sent rolling to a skidding stop several meters away. This left one on the ground, while Rory was balancing herself on one leg as her arm was still fully outstretched. It got up after a couple of seconds of staggering and gave Rory a menacing growl as it clearly lost half the teeth on the front right side of its face.
But its expression became almost terrified when there was a small kitten sound that came from it as it stared directly at Rory. The girl was now standing on both legs and partly leaning back into an awkward sideways slant. Both arms were hanging down as she was looking towards the monster with a set of brightly glowing red eyes that became so noticeable, that it could draw anyone’s attention to her in an instant. Her expressionless look soon turned into a toothy snarl as she bared her teeth. Even though the choker was still in place. Those pearly whites of hers slowly broke the illusion around them to reveal a set of sharp teeth and equally voracious canines. Even from that far away. Drool was visible to the Chimera.
A low and haunting humming growl could be heard emanating from the girl as she slightly hunched forward and into a more aggressive posture after a sudden jerk of her upper half. She then said in a cold voice, “It’s you, because of you... Because of you my outfit is ruined! And now... I'm so hungry! It hasn't even been two weeks since I got topped off, and already I'm this hungry! So? What are yah goanna do about it? Huh?!” The black manicured nails on her right hand were even extending as she flexed her fingers in a menacing manner. As for her left, those came out instantly as a metallic *Shink* was produced. Both only stopped once they were just a little over an inch and a half long.
The Chimera was beginning to shrink back as its pause were tentatively moving it backwards. Even the Scorpion tail that would normally be curled up above was now lowered and nearly placed behind its back legs. From its perspective. Rory had this silhouette of herself behind her, but it was far… far larger. The entire thing was black, as radiating red outlines could be seen. A set of glowing red-hot orbs were set in for the eyes as they had a sharp cut to them. Even the hair that was down on the girl was shown to be waving as if an uncontrollable wind was causing them to be alive. The image was hunched over and the nails on the hands were extended to be as long as swords.
But what made it start to visibly sweat, was how her figure now had a wide red mouth that curled into a wicked smile. This earned her a very loud pitiful screech from the lion head. There were also a set of scared sheep sounds and hisses from the other two before the Chimera crouched down so that its body was laying completely flat on the ground. More so, was how its tail was even tucked underneath. The main head itself was firmly planted as both ears laid flat. The goat and dragon heads were also laying down on either side and closing their eyes as the entire form was now shaking so much that it was literally giving off a rattlesnake sound.
Rory took a couple of steps forward and was ready to attack. But she suddenly stopped in place after having a disgusted look that was now crossing her features. With both hands, she covers her mouth before loudly yelling in an indignant tone towards the Chimera. “Did… Did you just piss yourself?! Ew!” She wanted a response from the monster. But when she took a closer look, she discovered that it was passed out cold. She raised an eyebrow to that before saying, “Uh. It's kind of cute when it's not trying to kill you.” This only lasted for a moment before her eyes snapped wide and she started running off to where the rest of the fight was. While doing so, she screamed at herself for nearly forgetting about her Master.
Meanwhile. A certain Bat Pony was stuck in the air vents right above the bridge where a screen was placed for the crew members to watch the fight from a safe distance. She could see that all the Element Bearers, along with the Zebra and Griffin, were standing with bated breath as all they could do was watch as the extended fight continued between Gambit and the oversized Chimera. The ship itself was over three kilometers away an elevated to where it was able to see into Ghastly Gorge from an angle. The Bat Pony even had in her possession a clear orb that was just big enough to fit in the palm of her black gloved hand.
This was a magical item which allowed a person to send across real time images to a sister crystal. It was given to her by Luna after resuming the investigation. For the last two weeks. the Bat Pony was put on rest and only came back that very morning to Ponyville. If it was not for her training to avoid the obstacles in the forest, then she may not have made it on to the ship before it took off. It was tricky but tailing the group was not too difficult as they were clearing the way. But when the fighting broke out with the odd set of monsters. The crystal was brought out to send the current events straight to Princess Luna.
They were all constantly murmuring about if Gambit was going to be okay and if there was anything they could do to help. The crew members were keeping an eye on the situation and standing by at their posts. Although, the one that was up near the front and close to a really big red button was fidgeting in place. Her face kept turning up towards the screen and then back towards the button as drool was clearly seen falling from the edge of her mouth.
The Bat Pony began to wonder if there was a problem with that one in particular. She was also thankful that she was able to hold the crystal in her hand at an angle so that the screen was clearly visible. Now if she could only do something about the uncomfortable wedgy, then this assignment would be seen as smooth sailing. It was too bad they did not make the air vents just a little bigger. Especially with how her wings were beginning to cramp up.
Back over with Brex on the ground. He was just in the middle of channeling another lightning spell when his crystal focal point that would attach to his swords hilt cracked and interrupted the ranged attack. He frowned when he noticed that the weapon had dropped down to one percent of its durability and only the blade itself was holding together enough to even be considered as usable. It was at that moment that the Chimera did something new and brought two of its heads forward and near the lion on either side. This place the three to be in a triangle position with the lion being at the bottom and the two heads forming the top corners.
The lion opened its jaw and started to build some fire. The Ram and Dragon heads were doing something similar, as frost was flowing out of one head, while the other was giving off an erratic set of electrical sparks. The three turn their heads just enough so that they would collide with one another if the three attacks were to launch straight ahead. When that was done. The collected energies were fired and combined into a powerful white stream that had straight for Brex. Out of desperation. The weapon was instantly substituted with another version that was pure white in all aspects. The handle, the guard, the blade and focal stone, everything was pure white.
He even used the collected white and black magic stored within himself to launch a threefold combo move of physical attacks right as the beam struck. Thanks to the way the sword was swung. It was able to disperse the beam as it was slicing it into ribbons at the very instant it got into range. If time was to slow down enough to show the blurred movements of the sword in action. Then one might have noticed that not only was there the strange purple and red aura covering it to add to its destructive potential. But strings of energy from the white beam were not only being repelled, but also absorbed into the weapon itself.
When the beam ended after a few seconds. It showed Brex standing as the ground nearby his body became scorched. The lion launched a large fireball at blinding speed once it realized he was still standing. Brex pointed the tip of his blade down and swung it upwards to cut the fireball in half. Red strings of energy were pulled into the blade as the two halves separated and hit the far wall of the gorge with a set of thundering booms. The Chimera looked confused as Brex began to speak in a disappointed tone. “I'd had preferred not to bring this out at all. It’s just that this world relies heavily on magic and this would make me out to be a danger to society if it ever got out that I even had such a thing in my possession.”
What he was referring to was the substance used in forging this one particular weapon. This was specifically forged using a mixture of metal and the anti-magic substance from the League of Legends world. He did attempt to make some larger pieces in the beginning, but found them to be two difficult to handle without proper precautions being taken beforehand. Although the small amount used in creating this one was just under the limit for him to use freely. Sure, if it was to simply use as a physical attack then something as big as a war axe meant for a warrior would not have been a problem. But seeing as he was using magical abilities right now, then this was the only one that was compatible for this fight.
Brex was just getting into another battle stance when he found himself clutching at his chess with his free hand and grabbing on to the shirt. It was not until just now that he realized that this pain was actually building up as the fight was so high paced that he failed to accurately notice it. The pain was even so much that he nearly fell onto his left knee and had to catch himself as to not land on his face. He then loudly exclaimed in his head. “No! Not now! Why?! Shit, I'm wide open! He had expected to be killed on the spot now that his guard was lowered. Yet nothing came which perplexed the Roegadyn.
Upon glancing to the Chimera. He found that its attention was no longer on him but towards something in the sky. This turned out to be a small spec that was coming in to view after approaching in from the west. It gave off a gold shine thanks to the sunlight overhead and Brex suddenly had a stricken Deja Vu moment. Flash is of a time where he was bombarded by golden bolts and solid beams of energy. Nearly long forgotten pain running throughout his chest and lungs came back with a ferocity. It did not take long before the familiar icon that was placed on Celestia appeared on his mini-map.
He attempted to reorientate himself and back on to his shaky legs when his vision began to go a little dark around the edges. And from out of seemingly nowhere, he began to hear his own voice talking to him from inside his head. It was almost cynical as it spoke the following words while the Chimera got ready to launch that odd beam again as it pointed its heads at the approaching Celestia. “Don't interfere... I shouldn’t stop this. It was designed to kill her. Why not let it do its job? We did plenty already. So, what if she gets killed, no one will blame us if she gets herself wiped out. Then… Then we won’t have to feel this way again. No pain, no pain inside, ever again.”
The three heads already finished with their charging up process and dug themselves in before firing. However, they were not firing just yet. As even more energy was being collected than previously seen. Obviously, it was going to use a full power attack to wipe her out in one fell swoop. The voice of Brex continued in his mind as he watched all of this going on in the corner of his eye. “See? We're no longer of concern to it? We can just sit back and watch the one we hate more than anyone else to disappear. With its skill, it will tear right through her defenses. The cause of our suffering will finally be taken care of. We, we can rest. Yes… Just allow it to happen.”
These words were now beginning to lull the Roegadyn as his body began to feel heavy. Without him even knowing it himself. His lips were curling into a small crazed smile as he just gazed upon the scene before himself. His eyes almost lackluster with life were just staring blankly ahead. He then responded to that odd voice with his own as he muttered in response. “Yes... make all the pain go away... I should just stay put. Who cares... Besides, her sister can take control of the Sun.” He even started to weekly laugh as though his mind was breaking.
The dark patches that were on the edges of his vision were now slowly creeping in towards the center. At the very edge of it all, he could barely make out the white flash being emitted as the Chimera launched a powerful blast that was easily five times the size of the previous one that was used on him. He was just about to lose his grip on his sword and allow it to fall when another person came into view. This one was darker and flew right beside Celestia. The white beam was already halfway in between and traveling fast when a mix of gold and blue energy erupted to create a row of shields between them and the chimeras long range attack.
When it suddenly clicked that it was Luna up there as well. His vision became all black in an instant. Sudden flashes of images regarding Luna laying on the floor dead as a pool of blood was trickling out of the side of her head. Even images of the Alicorn getting torn to shreds and vaporized filled his mind. The strange emptiness he was feeling up until now was replaced with a burning rage that ignited his emotions to the point that not only was he angry. But so much so that he could not contain the flowing tears that were now escaping his eyes. Said eyes were now simultaneously glowing with the golden sun for the left and the crescent moon on the right.
(Play this music for the suspenseful moment. Put into a loop until the fighting is over if you want to.)
A loud roar of his own came from out of his mouth that was so powerful that it caused the hairline fractures along his mask to spread to wear it was a wonder that it held together. “RAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! DON’T YOU FUCKING TOUCH LULU!!!” This brought back his sight which was now covered in a red haze as he found himself leaping off of the ground. This cause cracks to form on the rocky terrane as a result and he took to the air right as a green aura enveloped his body for a moment. He was going so fast in fact, that he was already catching up to the front of the beam at the very moment that it collided with the barriers created by the two sisters.
Over with the princesses. They were wearing respective gold and silver armors. Celestia was wielding her spear and Luna had gripped in her right hand a great sword which would require two hands to wield properly if it was not for the amount of strength she wielded. Upon arriving they were attacked by a massive wave of magic and erected layers of shields to defend. With already sensing how strong it was. The two bonded their magic in order to strengthen one another. However, this turned out to be a critical mistake as Celestia was marked down for the creatures very unique ability. This meant that the barriers would be rendered absolutely useless as her magic was mixed in.
When the first shield evaporated without giving any resistance at all to the attack. Both princesses were shocked as their eyes shot wide open. The second barrier suffered the same fate and it became apparent to the both of them that there was no stopping it. They brought up their weapons in front in a pathetic attempt to block right as more of their shields were destroyed. The light was so bright that they were forced to shut their eyes tightly while waiting for the impact. They even went so far as to let out a pared set of startled screams.
It was right after the last shield was broken and with there being less than a meter between that point and the two of them when Brex got to the head of the beam and placed himself in the middle. His Rapier was pointed straight ahead while his vision was completely overshadowed by a dark red tint. The anger that sparked into a roaring Inferno only a second ago had been replaced with a bone chilling absence of emotion. His thoughts were drowned to where he was almost acting on pure instinct. From his perspective, all he saw was the wave of energy as it drew close enough and obscured absolutely all else from his view.
That was when two icons appeared from either side of his vision. One was the single targeting spell called Fleche. This summoned aether weapons and fired them with pinpoint accuracy, and the multi-targeting spell known as Contre Sixte. The second one was similar, yet it was made for hitting everything in a set area. Both were literally giving off waves of heat before launching themselves towards the center. When they crashed. The pictures shattered into pieces before instantly reforming to create a whole new one. This depicted a dark blue background as a white figure appeared in the center. Said figure was shown to be surrounded by multiple blades of bright blue that were going in an evenly spaced fan formation all around.
It was followed by the notification of a new Fusion skill being created. Underneath, it displayed the words, “Rhapsodie silencieuse rideau de lames.” It then showed the English translation. “Silent rhapsody curtain of blades.” The skill was invoked and numerous blades began to crystallize and appear at the speed of light. Each one was slightly different than the next. One was obviously a Rapier. Then a scimitar. They were various forms of curved blades, short swords, long swords and great swords.
There were those that were of the standard style, while others took on a more exotic appearance. One such example was the great sword as it started off thick near the handle guard and became narrower near the middle. It then grew wide as the tip was cut into a flat surface. When counting how many. One could make out sixteen as they took on an orbiting position with the blades ends now pointing outwards.
At the very instant the last piece of the weapons were fully manifested. They shot out in the direction they were pointing and returned after flying out a short distance so that they would form an iris with a hole in the very center that was just large enough for Brex's outstretched weapon to fill the slot. When it was pushed forward. A loud click rang out as the floating weapons made contact with the one being held in his grip.
This in turn made a formation that strongly resembled a satellite dish just before the beam of magic struck. When the two opposing forces violently clashed. Brex was pushed back a couple of feet in the air before coming to a stop. His form was positioned in such a way that it would have been no different than if he was standing on solid ground with his weapon arm extended. The pressure was blowing his clothing hard as the loose fabrics fluttered in the wind along with his hair. Pieces of the white parts for his hats feather were now coming apart. Already torn and ripped sections of his gear were only taking more damage as his skin was slowly being revealed in the gaps.
Even the mask which was now cracked into more than a dozen pieces was losing a couple that were flaking away around the edges. Both of the princesses behind were barely able to keep themselves from being blown away as they were just a few Paces behind the Roegadyn now. From a distance, the wave of energy was colliding with the makeshift shield of many blades to create the illusion of a high-pressured stream of water being stopped in its tracks. Yet the escaping waves of magic were mysteriously being sucked back in. Looking past the blades and into the blinding light. It could have been seen that the energy was not just halted, but also redirected towards the center.
The magic absorbing properties of the current weapon equipped by Brex was literally eating up the spell in real time. What's more was the way the magic was flowing down into the handguard and continuing into his own body. Normally the substance would only absorb magical properties in the air, as well as physical contact. Yet with sufficient practice and fine control, would allow a spellcaster to not only come into contact with such a thing without any negative repercussions. But to also be able to draw said magic out to be used for themselves.
As for where it was all going after being absorbed by the Roegadyn. It was all going back into the skill that was already put into effect. The effect in which was clearly made a parent as the crystal-like blades gave off a near endless amount of glass cracking sounds as they shifted and started to grow. However, this was not a perfect defense as the blades themselves were holding up nicely. Yet the arm of Brex was undergoing some severe damage thanks to the overwhelming amount of magic being pumped directly into his limb. Without so much as even flinching, he continued with this move.
The glove on his hand was burned away in almost an instant. This also included the ring and armband that he normally wore to be destroyed and sent to the air as glittering pieces of dust. It was only fortunate that he wore the special bracelet on his opposite arm or that too might have suffered the same fate. The sleeve leading almost all the way up to his shoulder was completely shredded away. His skin turned dark as it was being destroyed from the inside out. Even glowing white veins appeared to break through the now dead skin only to run up the length of his arm.
This went for what felt like an eternity, but was only less than a handful of seconds as the magic finally ran its course and disappeared after the last ounces struck his defensive line. The blinding light died down and the sky was filled with an ominous silence for a moment before the wind gently picked up. The princesses lower their weapons after opening their eyes and were met with the site of Brex still holding his pose. With them being slightly off to the side, they were able to get a good glimpse of his arm and its current state. If one was to compare it to anything, then it would strongly resemble how one would look when their entire flesh was charred to a deep jet black over a roaring fire for way too long.
Even the white veins that were going all the way up were giving off a low hum. However, that was only eclipse as the entire right arm of Brex was emitting a loud hissing sound that just would not stop. Wisps of smoke slowly wafted on the wind and towards the princesses. Horrified expressions slowly creeped on to their faces as Luna could not help but to hold her free hand up to her mouth. Celestia was pretty much in the same state as she dropped her spear and used both of her hands. Her irises were now the size of tiny dots as she was locked onto his form.
A loud roar came from the ground below and this snapped Luna out of her current state and she looked towards the source. Seeing as it was the creature that had attacked them just now. The lunar princess brought her weapon up as her face morphed into rage. She then said the following in a wrath filled tone that promise that Tartarus was going to rain down. “Sir Gambit, your arm! Please, I must ask that you fall back! My sister and I will take care-.” Luna's voice was cut off when two of the blades pulled away from the collection and zoomed into place between the princesses and Brex to make a barricade formation without so much as moving a single muscle to command such a quick and precise manipulation of the blades.
They were stunned at the action and Luna was about to speak up again when they saw some white flakes falling from him. These turned out to be the smaller chunks of his mask as they were slowly breaking away. By now, the edges of his mask had receded nearly half an inch. The eye holes had even widened. There was also enough missing at the bottom to partially expose his beard. After pulling his sword free and turning his full back towards them. His body began to plummet as if the flying spell had worn off. The blades however shifted apart and followed directly behind the same path he was taking in the air.
His arms were outstretched and slightly pointing upwards as his left foot was straightened underneath. The long piece of tattered fabric that was attached to his left shoulder in the back was fluttering from the rush of wind. When he was getting close to the ground. It was one of the crystalline aetheric blades that rushed ahead of the rest and swooped in from the right to position itself so that Brex would land firmly with both feet onto the side of the blade. Which so happened to be the great sword that took on a vaguely hourglass shape and slowed his descent before coming to a stop only five meters above the ground.
His arms were down as his weapon was carefully pointed low and away from his body in a relaxed posture. The eye holes for his mask, which were usually dark. Now glowed with a powerful aura which corresponded to the symbol being held in each of them. The right was giving off a bluish vapor that was being lightly blown by the wind so that it was wrapping around that side of his head.
The same was done with the right as it was giving off a burning flame. A few more flakes of the mask fell to just barely make out the bottom of his lips and expose an indifferent frown. What's more where the very thin markings of white glowing veins that could just barely be made out as a they were leading from the lips as to go down as to disappear under his beard. Even the pale skin was taking on a darker shade, yet not as dark when compared to the now exposed right arm.
His right leg slowly lifted from the top of the overly large great sword as his body moved forward at a leisurely pace. The other blades responded to this motion and move to construct a stairway of swords that would lead him all the way down. Of course, this did not require each and every one of the sixteen, as four remained close to his sides in a defensive manner. Every time he was done with a blade by stepping off of one and on to the next. It would fly off and wait at the bottom. The Chimera was watching this from a distance as it warily eyed all of what was happening, as the weapons were easily a little over three and a half meters long, with some of the larger ones exceeding four.
When Brex was finished and placed both feet onto solid ground once again. He was at the beginning of a procession of blades that would crisscross the tips overhead between him and the Chimera. The Dragon head raised higher to show that it was about to quickly cast its lightning area effect spell as Brex took his first step. The two blades he passed flew off in a blur and quickly made it over to the moving head. Lines of blurry lights were made as the weapons traveled around the appendage and produced a series of deep cuts along every conceivable surface before returning to float nearby and hover right behind the Roegadyn.
What came of this, was that the Dragon's head now had a couple of deep cuts that ran across its face. Even the horns were cleanly sliced off as the entire thing was now gushing with blood. It roared and thrashed about as the wounds bubbled over with the red soaked tissue. These swelled until it took on a similar texture to the skin around it and instantly deflated to show that it was healed within seconds. It took great offense to this and dashed forward with its entire frame and nearly became a blur. The right paw was brought up to slash at Brex right when he took another step and released the next set of blades.
These traveled even faster than the Chimera and instantly whizzed around the leg until they reached its shoulder. From there, they began to spin as though they were rotating power saws and coiled around the appendage until it got to the end. The two even position themselves into an X formation to block and stop the Chimera in its place as it hit with a resounding gong. That was when all the cuts opened up and the ground became soaked with its crimson life-giving essence. This all happened within a single second and the Chimera was forced to back off after giving another of its pained roars of agony as the leg began to heal itself in the same manner as the Dragon’s head.
The wings flexed as they were unfurling. He saw this and took yet another step. This ended up with the wings getting sliced along the membrane so many times that it resembled the sales on a battered ship that was hit with a devastating storm. It happened so fast that by the time the blades had returned to his side. The tattered remains of leather were still falling to the floor. It then roared loudly as it bared its fangs in retaliation and dug its paws into the ground. The wind it created was so powerful that it blew a number of the smaller pieces of rocks away thanks to the force in its voice. But Brex showed no signs of all of being affected as he slowly took the next step.
The result was the next set of blades to come flying and slice up the Chimeras face so badly that it was covered in nearly a hundred cuts. Even the eyes were affected as it suddenly roared again and shook its head wildly before falling on its side. This only left four more steps before the remaining swords were put into play and Brex just stood in place as if taunting the monster and saying that he was waiting for it to make its next move. A few more pieces of his mask fell off during these few seconds and it started to show the part of his cheek with the scar.
When the wounds regenerated. It's suddenly lunged at Brex with its entire body in an attempt to get to him before it suffered too many damages. But this turned out to be a bad move as Brex took yet another slow step and did not allow the Chimera to get all that much closer. Within half a second. The monster was surrounded with so many flashing lines of bright blue, that it essentially formed a perfect sphere to incase its entire body. At the end, it broke off and sent many small crescent moon shaped waves of energy in nearly all directions. A few came close to hitting Brex and create deep cuts along the rocky floor. The few nearby rock formations were either sliced in half are reduced to small pieces of rubble when struck.
Others that went flying off at a distance disappeared before hitting anything else. As for the Chimera itself. It could be seen flying back as it was halfway flipped over. Its legs, tail, wings and multiple heads were nearly cut clean off. Lacerations littered its entire body as the thick fur and hide offered little resistance to the counter attack. Even the claws themselves along each of the feet were cut clean off to take away its devastating slashes. The leeches that protruded from underneath also ended up being cut up so much that they were nothing but tiny chunks as the base that they were connected to was cleanly shaved off so that not a single one remained.
Now only three steps were left as the Chimera landed on its back and started to flail about helplessly. The blackened ground of Ghastly Gorge was slowly being painted red by the amount of blood that was being lost by the Chimera. Brex waited for a number of seconds before it got back on to its shaky legs right as the last of the injuries recovered. Even the same tentacles with the suction cupped mouths and many teeth could be seen to have grown back. It bared its teeth to give off a low growl before it turned on the spot and attempted to run. With the use of its accelerated speed, it was capable of covering nearly twenty-five meters within a single second.
However, this was all it got after the next set of blades were sent out. The result was too curving slashes of white light and its large form suddenly falling onto its belly and skidding for several more meters before colliding head first with a protruding rock face. It was only followed up with four black limbs tumbling past to signify that it had lost its legs. Another step was taken and the creatures wings, tail’s and two extra heads were cleanly chopped off and rendered into mincemeat before they even having a chance to fall to the ground.
The base of each of the Lost appendages began to bubble as grotesque lumps grew from the body and released squelches and Pops when the bones regenerated and muscles were reformed. Given the severity of how much was being regrown. This act took much longer than the previous ones, as the Chimera was barely able to turn its head back towards Brex as it pressed its nearly skeletal legs onto the ground to push up. It still had a murderous look in its eyes as it stared at the last set of swords that had yet to be passed by. Yet, before it could do anything else. Brex moved again and a quick flash was seen in the Chimeras eyes before the world being reflected in them was suddenly turned upside down.
This was because the large lion head was swiftly decapitated and slid off the neck with a sickening squelch. This was done when the blades appeared overhead and came down from either direction to act as a pair of scissors before joining the other sets. The large form collapsed as the half-grown Dragon and Ram heads released their gargled screeches. The severed section of the neck for the lion started to spew an abnormal amount of blood before a large bubble of the red liquid began to form and swell. Once it had gotten large enough. It suddenly popped and revealed the skeletal structure of the missing appendage.
Brain tissue, along with a set of bloodshot eyeballs could easily be seen through the gaps as it was growing at an abnormally fast speed. Muscle tendons, additional teeth, veins, skin and new fur were instantly brought back. It gave off a listless look in its eyes as if attempting to recall what was happening before it began to show an expression that could have been taken as pure fear when it finally locked its eyes onto Brex. It was unsure as to whether or not it was due to what it had suffered through or the fact that the sixteen blades were now taking on a slow fan-like orbit around the Roegadyn.
It was then that Rory showed up and stood at a decent distance away. She witnessed the moment her master produced the weapons while in mid-air. The brutality that was displayed had even caused her to have this lovebird expression to explode all over her face. Hearts were practically visible in her eyes as she was biting her lower lip and sporting a heavy blush. Both arms were used to wrap around herself as she was having trouble with standing up straight. especially seeing as both knees were practically crossed with her thighs grinding against one another to signify that the girl was getting very turned on.
She even silently murmured to herself the following as drool was dripping from the edge of her mouth in a disturbing manner. “My Master... My Master has finally allowed himself to let go... Oh yes! The brutality! I love it when he gets like this. Yes... yes! Toy with it more! Rory was practically squealing with delight as she was holding in her excitement as to not ruin the moment. Her entire body was slowly building up a strong shuttering as she witnessed what was happening next.
Brex just stood there for what was close to a minute of pure silence as the Chimera just stood there in a petrified state. However, Brex finally began to move his right arm which had been still for the entire duration. As the sword was slowly being brought up to point in the Chimeras direction. There was a distinct sound of rushing water colliding with stone in the general vicinity of the monster. Then the air was filled with the distinct odor of both urine and feces as the monster's body was shaking uncontrollably and the hairs were standing on end. All the while, its eyes slowly moved in tandem when watching the blade that was being brought up.
The next thing to happen at the very instant that the tip was now directly pointing at the Chimera. Was all sixteen flying at different directions and converging on the silently indicated target. Some were going for a piercing blow. Others flew to do a wide slash. The ground was torn up so much from the inadvertent attack. The unfortunate monster was turned into a dark silhouette by the number of blue lights being produced by each quick movements of the many swords. It was sliced down the middle. Small white dots were formed to match the background and then instantly grew to show that parts of it had been skewered.
This was followed up by more and more cuts as the creature was sliced over and over again. Large chunks were turned into thin slices that would just barely be big enough to fit in the palm of a person's hand. From an outsider’s standpoint, it may as well have been slowly disintegrating as the pieces became so small that they were no longer visible in the flashing lights. There was even a corresponding shockwave that it even blew up a sizable amount of debris with enough Force to send rocks flying high up and out of the gorge itself.
(Stop the music here if it was put into a loop.)
When all was said and done. The blades hung in the air for a few seconds as everything fell to an eerie silence. Then air was littered as the crystalline aetheric shapes crumbled away so that the specs of light would disappear into the wind. When the last of them were finally gone. Brex stood still as even more of his mask continued to crumble. Now everything from below his nose was completely exposed to show his pale skin having turned a dark shade of black. Even more of the pulsing white veins were now visible as they gave off a quick burst of intensified light and time with his heartbeat.
There was a quick jerk of his chest as he gave off a small cough. What came out of his lips and dribbled slowly down his chin and into his beard was not of the expected red blood, but of a glowing white substance. Rory saw this and ran up to Brex right as his legs began to give out. With clear worry both on her face and tone. She attempted to prop him up but failed, as he ended up on his knees when she spoke. “Don't worry! We'll use some healing potions and-.” Her words were cut short when Brex began to violently cough and spew more of the white substance over his chest and onto the ground before him by nearly a foot away.
Through labored and wheezing short breaths. Brex spoke as each word was painfully difficult to choke out. “Rory... *Cough*. My body won't... it won't hold together... much longer. Too much *Cough*... aether is inside! Nervous system is overloaded! The poison from earlier has not worn off either!” Brex was now coughing even more before he continued after putting his weapon away into his inventory. “I’ve got no choice but to let this play through... I need to go before the others arrive. You know-. *Cough*. You know what to do.”
Rory could do nothing but to hastily nod as she looked over his form. She then said hurriedly, “Its fine, it's okay. I get it, I get it! Take all the time you need and I'll come up with an excuse.” her face turned into a frown as she pulled him closer so that she could put her face in the crook of his neck while also holding herself back from sobbing. She then whispered into his ear. “Don't take too long, okay? Will use the excuse we came up with beforehand. Brex only nodded as his body was pressed up against hers.”
After a couple of seconds, Rory released her grip and Brex began to meld his body into the shadow that was being cast onto the floor below. But what he said next caused Rory to give him a questioning gaze as his head was just entering the shadows after closing is still burning eyes. “Oh yeah. One more thing. When I come back... Fill me in on what I just did back there... OK?”
The scene concludes when the silhouette of the figures could be seen rushing down from the sky. The Gloom filled weather was already reforming and made it possible to obscure them until they were nearly landing less than several meters away. The voice of Celestia rang out in clearly a mix of panic and urgency. “Sir Gambit! Sir Gambit! Where are you?! We must tend to your injuries!” All Rory did, was to silently watch with a clear frown on her face as the white Alicorn approached while nearly stumbling over the loose dirt with how hurriedly she was running.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 82: What’s That In The Air?
*Point of view: Engineer* *Location: Ponyville train station* *Time: Eleven in the morning. Two days after The Ghastly Gorge incident*
The train that was coming from Canterlot, was now stopping at Ponyville to offload and pick up additional passengers, along with resupplying the materials needed to keep the engine running for an extended journey down to the south parts of Equestria. With this process taking longer than simply allowing the passengers to come and go so the train could leave right away. Engineer could be seen coming out of the sliding doors and stepping a few paces onto the boarding ramp. Daring Do was following close behind as she was giving a good stretch for not only her arms, but also the pair of wings on her back now that she had some additional space when compared to that of inside the train.
Daring Do even gave a noticeable pop from arching her neck to the side, which got a few of the passerby's attention as they all flinched due to the loud volume that was produced. And for some reason their attention was brought to Engineer, as Daring Do gave off an air of sophistication due to her civilian disguise. With an immediate relieved tone to her voice as she spoke under her breath. “I can never get used to riding on these for too long. Although, it'll get better now that we’re dropping off quite a few of the others. Who knows. With less, we might even have a whole car to ourselves.”
The pair started to make their way into Ponyville while engineer replied to continue their conversation. “Hmm, I could get us both here in a matter of seconds if this was a place we’ve both had already been too.”
“If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not go through such an experience if it can be helped. Flying and getting a ride is so much better.”
“At least you all around here have ways of traveling so that it doesn’t involve sneaking under the cover of night so your head doesn’t get taken off by a lucky shot or the occasional beast. Back where I came from, we didn't even have carriages, much less trains. Besides, you can't tell me you're still terrified after seeing that rotating Deathclaw image? Just think of it as you walking around a stuffed kill that's been put on display in someone's house.”
“I was not expecting us to teleport and suddenly have that things face appear right up in front of mine without any warning. He was way too realistic.”
“She.”
“Pardon me?”
“She was way too realistic. Deathclaws for some strange reason are born as both male and female, yet they act more like the second as they all can lay eggs and produce more offspring when its needed.”
“I am so very glad that you told me that their nowhere near Equestria. The description before we reappeared gave some fairly disturbing info.”
“Eh, they're not so bad. So long as you got enough bullets to mow them down into moldy green Swiss Cheese. Swiss Cheese that’s bleeding all over the ground and gives off a powerful vomit inducing smell. Also, a couple of well-placed mines ahead of time does one wonders. But really, you got nothing to worry about so long as you have a place to shoot at them from and they can't fit inside to grab and bite you in half. The ones you really have to worry about are the kind that prefer to hide and sneak up on you. Ran into a few that could go all ghost in the shell camo.”
“No idea what any of that even means, but I would appreciate it if you would stop.”
“What? It would be a great character to add to one of your books. I could just see it! Daring Do and the nest of the Deathclaw.”
“I would if it actually happened. Each and every one of my published works is based off of what I have really done in my travels. Yes, they are marked as fiction. But I’ll have you know that not one line has been fabricated. Some hype perhaps, but it’s one hundred percent the truth.”
“You really love to keep your character in check when you're not in your normal clothing. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you might even have a split personality.”
“All a part of keeping my private life from being disturbed. I would call it as keeping a retirement plan in place. Wouldn't want to keep getting hounded by my competitors or have my house destroyed out of spite. Even I would prefer to have a place to hang up my hat every now and then.”
“Oh come on! What better way to wake up then to have someone break in and attempt to stab you in your sleep in the early morning. It's a whole lot more effective than a simple alarm clock going off. Hahahaha!”
“I'm just going to assume that's a joke. I can't see anyone having to go through that.”
“Hey, take it all however you want.” Engineer gave a quick yawn before continuing. “You all got it way too easy here.” He then whispered the following to himself. “Its still weird to see an open shop that you don’t have to trade bottle caps for ammo and some bits of scrap.”
“Easy? You call monster attacks being on the rise and nearly getting killed awhile back after meeting a high-level demon being easy? Mister! You and I have two very different ideas of what is seen as easy.”
“Hmm? Is it normal for there to be a flashing orb of light that is obviously in the middle of zooming between buildings in a small town?”
“No. why?”
“Then I strongly suggest we duck, BECAUSE THERE'S ONE COMING RIGHT NOW!!!”
Engineer grabbed on to the back of Daring do's shirt near the neck and forced the mare to duck down at the very last second when a glowing purple or passed right over their heads and into a nearby building thanks to an open window. There was a bunch of oddly made sounds within that were close to that of a ricocheting bullet. There must have been close to half a dozen before the sound of glass shattering on the far side of the structure could be heard. As the two stood straight back up again. Both heads were turned to the house that obviously got ransacked, before Daring Do brought her attention back to Engineer and gave him a distinct look that screamed that she did not need his help.
He was just about to make a retort when the same orb came back on his blind side and struck Engineer squarely in the back. Whether it was due to the strength behind this strange spell. Or the fact that Engineer only wore civilian clothing for today. But everything right above his belt was instantly torn to shreds when his body was pushed hard enough to collide with Daring Do. This was immediately followed with the mare tripping on her elegant red Victorian style dress and causing them both to tumble down and on to a patch of grass next to the sidewalk with a heavy thud and twin sets of grunts.
By the time Engineer got around to opening his eyes. He found himself to be laying on the ground and in an odd position as Daring Do Was now laying over his body. Both of their faces were almost touching one another while the mare's glasses were now slightly off center and tilted. The Pegasus placed a hand onto his now exposed chest to hurriedly push herself up abruptly after already showing signs of a blush to be creeping onto her face. However, this now shifted her body so that she was now straddling his pelvis as her legs were completely spread. It would have been a simple matter of climbing off for the mare. But her attention was obviously drawn to something else as Engineer noticed her lingering gaze being glued to his now exposed six pack.
The stallion made a nervous swallowing sound as this predicament was already stimulating his natural responses. Said natural responses were soon known to Daring Do when her eyes shot wide and in time with a small “Eep” to escape her lips. This only caused her entire face to turn bright red and nearly glowing with clear embarrassment. Her eyes slowly trailed up at an agonizingly slow pace until they met Engineers as she began to whisper in a strained voice filled with astonishment. “Wa-wa-what do you think you're d-doing?”
In an amused and cheeky Frenchman's voice. Engineer responded with a smirk plastered on his lips. “Madam, I should be asking you. If you mean the little mini-me down there? Then all I could say is that it's out of my control. And I don't exactly see you getting away either. Not to mention, you're cupping a feel of my pecs right now.” The so-called mini-me that was hidden underneath Daring Do's dress, was pressed snugly against her panties while also twitching so much that it threatened to break the zipper keeping it from being exposed to the outside world.
Engineer smirk only evolve to a Cheshire cat's grin when he saw the way her eyes were beginning to do that cartoonish swirly pattern while steam was beginning to be produced from the top of her head. It was also paired with incoherent babbling that even Engineer was having trouble with deciphering. In the beginning it came slow, yet the broken words were picking up pace as though she was a kettle that was about to blow her top. Their little moment was interrupted when Engineer heard the sound of a young boy fast approaching. “Come on Twilight! Hurry up, it must have gone this way!”
A female's voice immediately followed while sounding rather distressed. “I knew I should have been practicing inside today. It's already broken so many things around town. I don't even wanna know what it would do if it hit-. Oh, my Celestia! What did you do to that stallion!” This turned out to be just what the Pegasus needed to snap out of her state and whip her head to face the one called Twilight. Daring Do also took this chance to look over how she was sitting on top of Engineer and immediately straightened up while waving her hands frantically to explain. “I-I assure you it is not how it looks!”
She was attempting to fix her dress with both hands while continuing in a panic filled voice. “We fell after getting struck by a weird orb! I was not doing anything, I swear!” Even with Daring Do attempting to diffuse the situation. The purple Unicorn was not having any of it and stomped even closer as her horn was already flaring up. She then said in an accusing tone, “Then how about we hear all about why you're straddling him and holding on to his chest? Just because you're wearing a dress, it doesn't mean you can get away with hiding the act in plain view of the public. That poor stallion must be traumatized with being mare-handled.”
With the situation growing more volatile by the moment. Engineer finally raised his right hand as if getting the attention of a teacher in class and spoke up with an uninterested tone. “Yeah, nothing really is going on here.” But as he was saying that. The stallion was winking towards the Pegasus when he saw how Twilight was eyeing Daring Do with a suspicious look behind her eyes. He even went through the trouble of carefully shifting his lower region around to cause his still contained member to rub against Daring Do's private area. Knowing full well that it was only going to get worse for the mare if she showed any kind of reaction while still being a primary suspect of a possible attempted rape charge against a male.
She was already fidgeting with a very worried expression that threatened to break into either a scream of protest towards his actions or possibly a noticeable moan if this was to continue. Even so, the adventurer in disguise managed to hold a poker face of calmness while Engineer continued. “We just got here and there was this weird ball of energy. We lost track of it when it flew into that house over there. A few seconds later it came up from behind and knocked me into her. Even my shirt was blown away.” It took a couple of seconds before the dangerously bright amount of magic being generated was snuffed out and the Unicorn was now expressing a calm atmosphere before lending a hand to Daring Do to stand up.
When they were back on their hoofs and Twilight was in the middle of talking to Spike over some issue’s that was regarding better locations to the practice the Unicorns spells. The Pegasus was staring straight ahead and just off to the side of the two newcomers and whispered the following to Engineer in an emotionless voice. “I am so bucking going to get you for this. Mark my words...” Although, the threats were brought to a stop when Engineer leaned in and began to casually whisper into her ear. “Really now? Hmm, the top mouth says that. But your lower one was giving a different impression if I were to go off of how much heat I was feeling on my crotch.”
Daring Do's face was heating up as her cheeks filled from an intake of air. He could even tell that her right hand was bawling into a fist and quickly flattening out to show that she was wanting very badly to strike him as hard as she could. Though this was an act that she would not hesitate to go with as Daring Do the adventurer. She was very hesitant to show any unlady-like behavior while in her disguised persona and held it all back with pure willpower. Even with this, the mare was giving a clearly forced smile that gave off an underlining murderous intent as one eye twitched but once.
After another moment or two past of even more silent threats being sent towards the stallion. Twilight finally got around to introducing herself and Spike. At the same time, she even profusely apologized and explained how the spell was a forceful levitation misfire that went out of control and the two of them were chasing it down. Oddly enough, the magic was originally used nearly on the other side of the town and the charge kept it going for far longer than the pair had expected.
Twilight even asked to make sure that he was okay. Especially with how much magic she inadvertently put into it. He just laughed at all and quickly said that he had been hit with a lot worse which clearly confused the mare and young Drake. He even went so far as to dust off his chest which showed a couple of small scars here and there to reiterate that he was just fine. However, there was suddenly a very loud gasp that erupted from behind and this caused them all to look in the direction that it emanated from. When Engineer turned his head enough to look. He found a pink pony with a dress covered in balloon patterns.
The mare was pointing straight at his exposed back which none of the others were able to see with the direction he was facing. Her left hand was covering her mouth. Unlike the front, where it was so much easier to conceal. Engineers back was riddled with so many scars and missing patches of fur along each of their edges, that it may as well have come from a horror movie where the main character was being tortured to death. There were short and long straight cuts among a few jagged ones that curved. There was even one that showed a set of three gouges that would run close together to signify that some creature had slashed at him. Out of these, was a particularly nasty one that was located right behind his right shoulder in a circular patch.
These were all accumulated through his travels in the world based off of Fallout. Knives, blunt objects and the remains of bullet holes were visible. Burn marks from either flamethrower’s lasers or plasma-based weapons left some type of mark. There were even trophies left behind after defeating creatures such as Mirelurks and Deathclaws. Engineer was not going to say it allowed, but his entire body was really one big scratching post for everything that could possibly do him harm in that other world. Just name a weapon or creature and he could point it out somewhere on his body through memory alone. Sure, these could have been taken away or made to be mostly faded through the surgery option. But he chose to keep them as a reminder.
Daring Do was about to move into position to see his back after seeing the commotion being brought up about it. Instead, Engineer went into his Pip-Boy and equipped his armor. Which instantly covered his body and replaced not only the missing shirt, but also the rest of his remaining gear. Gone was the civilian clothing and now replace with a mixture of leather and dragon scales. The only part of him that was still exposed was his head. And even then, he was looking away from the others. With an uncharacteristically distant voice. Engineer said the following while taking a certain direction towards the southeast.
“Don't make such a big deal. And before you ask. I got them all from surviving and let's just leave it at that.” He did not even bother to look behind as he could hear Daring Do excusing herself to catch up with him hurriedly. The pair remained quiet as they took one turn after another down one of the streets of Ponyville. It was not until they came across a general good store and he was about to go in before the Pegasus grabbed on to his right shoulder from behind. This started a conversation between the two as she pulled him aside so that they could have a private talk.
“What exactly is your deal back there? You would always bring up little things about where you're from. Sure, I've seen the scar on your hand. What's up with that reaction when that one mare got to see your body?”
“Talking is one thing. Yet showing it off is not exactly as fun as you would think. Now can we just get our supplies? We got a long way down to the south part of Equestria. I could load them all into my inventory so we won't have to worry about getting off the train and searching for another general good store on the way down.”
Daring Do slowly I'd him up and down before she replied. “You know, I've been wondering why you haven't been taking Spitfires invitations. I guess this is the reason.”
“You're looking way too much into it. It's really simple.”
“Oh yeah? Fine, why don't you go ahead and explain it for me then.”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes I do.”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“I will punch you!”
“Okay okay! Sheesh! Is there a law that a stallion can't have any fun? Long story short, I just like to see the way you two struggle.”
The once angry Daring Do was now clearly flustered as she was having trouble with coming out with a reply before Engineer continued. “It's that. That right there! What you're doing this very moment is what I love seeing.”
This earned a right hook from Daring Do. However, Engineer dodged it with ease and continue to do so with the second. He even got in so close that his own muzzle was nearly touching hers before booping it and whispering the next line in a clearly seductive tone before running off like a madman. “Miss me miss me! Now you got to kiss me~. Hahaha!” This led to the mare chasing Engineer deeper into the back streets where most of the citizens of Ponyville barely even went to. Even with Daring Do being hot on his heels with wearing a dress. Along with fire in her eyes that displayed how much she wanted to do him bodily harm once she was close enough.
A part of his attention was drawn towards the end of the alley that they were running away from. Even though there was clearly no one there from a glance. Engineer had this feeling and activated his targeting ability which was a very important aspect of his Pip-Boy. Time literally slowed down to a rate where his eye could literally follow a bullet that was in mid-flight. It was during this time that he noticed a number of highlighted forms that were hiding in the shadows. He counted four in total. And judging from their outlines, he could easily tell that they were all female.
Two he could tell were wearing a type of cloth or perhaps leather armor. While the others had jagged edges around the shoulders that led him to believe they were wearing scale or metal. Either Daring Do was a good actress to where she could fool him, or she probably did not even know that they were being followed. The pair kept this chase up after taking several more turns and somehow managing to return to the front of the general good store that they originally started at. By which point he was standing with a smirk while Daring Do was clearly out of breath after trying to keep up while wearing a very thick dress.
After she proclaimed that she would eventually get even with him. The pair calm down and went with doing some bulk shopping inside. When the appropriate amount of goods was stored away. Daring Do was about to lead them both back to the train station to wait until the departure time when Engineer wandered off towards the end of town. When she inquired as to where they were going. He just mentioned that they needed to see a friend to say hi. They exited the edge of town and were walking across a wide grassy meadow. Off at the distance they could see a large Mansion style house that bordered the edge of the forest. A tall brick fence surrounded a good portion of land and only displayed a single entrance.
Engineers’ eyes went wide as he let out a very loud whistle that carried on the wind. He even brought up his right hand to act as a visor to block the sun to make sure that he was seeing properly before he spoke up in amazement. “Dang! My boys got a house! No wonder he was willing to give up his old place. Really! Just how much does he make in a year?! The property taxes alone must be through the roof. I wonder if he's willing to lend some money out on a low interest loan.” His partner was clearly confused as to what he was saying as her eyes were lingering on the structure ahead with a slacked jaw.
Even with the impressive sight. The pair could not help but to notice that there were some figures in front of the gate and they were apparently talking to someone on the inside. Engineer was clearly confused as he drew closer and closer. Daring Do on the other hand was in the same boat until they were nearly a hundred yards away and could make out just who it was. She shakily said under her breath two distinct names that resonated with him. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? Why would they be here?!”
It was indeed the two co-rulers of Equestria. And they were apparently begging to get within the property line as another person with jet black hair wearing a maid’s outfit was in the process of sending them away if one was to go off of the conversation that was going on in the distance. Luna was standing just a few paces back while allowing her older sister to talk with the one at the gate. Even from that distance, the solar princess was appearing to be a bit frazzled if one was to go from the mane not being kept in a pristine condition when compared to the photos.
“Please, we merely wish to see if Sir Gambit is doing well.”
“And I have already said more than a handful of times already that my Lord is not accepting visitors at this time. Perhaps another day.”
“Are you sure that I cannot at least come in just for a short time? I promise it will be brief.”
“Until the Lord has recovered fully. Strict orders have been put into effect that state no one, and I mean no one is allowed to come on to the premises. These orders were given by my Lord and I do not intend to go against his word. And to quote the mistress, “Sorry, but not sorry. Not even the princesses are allowed to come in.”
The maid had a very cold look in her eyes as she was addressing Celestia. Yet the princess of the sun was giving this impression that she was about to blow her top and instantly reached out for the bars to take a hold as she shouted. “I’M GOING TO GO IN THERE AND SEE SIR GAMBIT WHETHER YOU-.” Princess Celestia's sentence was cut short when a couple of things happened all at once. First was this devilish little smile that was barely creeping on to the maid’s lips at the very instant that the bars were touched by the mare. The second was a mouth being formed along the circular metal section in the middle.
The mouth then screamed out in a demonic sounding version of Gambit's voice. “SUNBUTT!!! GET YOUR BLEACHED WHITE ASS OFF THIS FUCKING GATE!!!” Luna's eyes shrank to small tiny points after having this expression of recalling something very important. Celestia on the other hand had this awestruck expression of her own that just displayed pure disbelief after the blatant mentioning of her bleached white ass and being referred to as Sunbutt. A section of the ground right underneath the front of the gate fell to take on the impression of a trap door as an opening quickly showed itself between the princess’s legs. Unfortunately, not only was it Celestia who fell in, but so did her sister as they both screamed in panic once their forms began to fall.
They had only disappeared into the shadows for but a split second when two noticeable sounds were made by the pair after landing in some type of fabric. Whirling sounds of machinery could be heard in the darkness as the two protested very loudly as to their treatment and demanding what was going on. Soon, both of their voices became very muffled as a fast paced clicking sound was made. Which was proceeded by a cartoonish coiling sound right before a large brown sack was catapulted high into the air and over the entire mansion. Distant screaming from the two princesses could be heard as it rocketed clear into the Everfree Forest.
Those still standing near the gate could just barely make out the distant thud as the sack finally landed at quite a distance. Engineer and Daring Do were standing stiff as a board while watching all of this unfurl. The Pegasus was slowly pointing between the trap door that was being concealed and the far-off distance behind the mansion while silently opening and closing her mouth. Engineer on the other hand had fallen back and onto his tail in order to let out a continuous set of laughter as both legs were literally kicking in the air.
Eventually, she snapped out of it and started to yell at Engineer. “What the BUCK?! This isn't something to laugh about! Both of the princesses were just! Just… I don't even want to know what I want to call that! Who in their right mind would do that to the princesses?! We should just get out of here before we're pulled into this mess too.”
“Hahaha hahaha! Just relax already. Those two won't do anything. Anyway, it looks like it's our turn. We better go up there before that maid leaves to go back inside.” He then called out to the Unicorn that was still at the gate after getting back to his hoofs. “Oi! What's the deal with no visitors?” The maid only stood still as she was carefully eyeing him from where she stood on the other side of the gate before slowly responding with a shifty gaze at the pair. “You must undoubtedly be Engineer. My Lord has filled us in on you. As well as your current circumstances.”
“Ah good! Then we can get right down to the nitty gritty. Any chance that we can see him today?”
“I'm afraid that it will not be possible. If you would like, then I may be able to pass along a message.”
“Shoot... and here I wanted to catch up before I headed out again. I’m going down south to check on a new dig site and thought I'd drop by for a quick visit.”
“If the situation were different then I would allow the both of you to come in. However, my Lord has given strict orders as you may have already have noticed when dealing with those two, how shall I say... uninvited guests.”
“Eh. Guess it can't be helped.”
The maid was just about to turn around when she suddenly paused while looking straight at the mansion. After a few seconds she turned around and called out to Engineer. “It would seem that my Lord is willing to see you for the time being. As for your companion, she may enter the grounds but will need to wait outside.” He glanced over to Daring Do who merely gave him a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders to show that it did not matter to her. Afterwards, Engineer went inside and was guided thanks to another maid with silver hair that wore a big smile.
While passing through the hallway and towards what could be a side room on the first floor. He released a long whistle as he transitioned every now and then between walking straight and then switching to going backwards. “Dang, I'm surprised Gambit's not got it going on with all the bling bling with how much money he's got. I bet more than half the town could come in here.” This earned him a small giggle from the maid as she covered her mouth for a second as she replied. “Very close. Every resident of Ponyville can in fact fit in this very building.” This got another long whistle from Engineer as they arrived at a door and the maid opened it for him to enter.
Sitting at a desk on the far side was Brex as he was wearing his typical robes. There was a stack of papers to one side of the desk as another shorter set could be seen on the opposite. A quill was held in his right hand as the free one was being used to pinch the part of his mask where a nose should be. An almost in perceivable noise escaped Brex's lips as he released his grip and put the quill back in the holder before addressing Engineer. “Well? Don't just stand there, come on in already. Oh, and Rin? Please make sure that we are not disturbed.” The silver haired made bowed and closed the door without making so much as a sound once the request was made.
Engineer raised an eyebrow to this and pointed a thumb towards the door as he gave Brex a cheeky grin before taking a seat nearby on a couch and sparking up a conversation. “You're tapping that ass, aren't you? You can't tell me that you're not doing that.”
A small chuckle came from Brex before he answered. “You stay long enough in Equestria and you'd be crazy not to indulge at one point or another. To be honest, it was more Rory's doing than anything. It was her idea to involve them in more intimate matters. Now enough about that. I'm interested to know on how you're doing with Daring Do.”
Engineer gave a nervous laugh before leaning into the back of the couch as he put his legs up on the coffee table as he spoke. “It's a little complicated. Let's just say that I like it more when there’s a little challenge. Been around long enough to see how these mare's get all worked up over the littlest things and I have to say it's so damn funny to watch.”
“Oh by the way, I heard through the grapevine that you got a bounty on your head after having a go at some gang in the capital.”
“Hahaha! Shouldn't be too surprised that the word already got all the way down here. Yeah, I even got a couple of stragglers that are following me right now.”
“Does Daring Do know about them?”
“Hmm... nah! Once she gets all worked up, she can get a little tunnel visioned on everything else that’s going on around her.”
“Just be careful that's all I'm asking.”
“By the way. Did you know that you just sent a couple of royalty members up and over your house like a sack full of garbage that was being thrown into a truck speeding away?”
“Oh? So that's what that sound was. The security system was mentioned, but I never got a chance to see it in action. I'll keep it in mind. Let me guess. The one who touched the gate was the solar princess, wasn't it?”
“I'm getting the feeling that you really don't like to say the name Celestia.”
A small grunt escaped Brex before he replied. “Easy to tell that she is not my favorite person.”
“Okay okay. I could see why you wouldn't want to see them, but why are you turning away everyone else?”
“It's not really all that complicated. Got caught up in a fight, then injured. Had to back off and now I'm just laying low. I'm pretty sure they got a good glimpse of my state and I'm just giving them the impression that I'm recuperating. I know I know, it's kind of stupid, I guess. It's another part of my paranoia. It's just to give them the impression that I'm not as powerful as they all believe. Also, there was a few things that I needed to look into after everything was said and done without being hounded by questions. Oh and by the way, I want you to take a look at something.”
Brex took a folder that was tied closed with a string and tossed it across the room to be caught by Engineer who started to look through it. It showed some documents that were handwritten by Brex himself. There were also included a number of photos. These showed a tunnel at first and soon it would transition to a large cavern filled with strange objects. Smashed open glass containers and various equipment were strewn around. Most of which were smashed to smithereens or melted due to a mixture of acidic properties being applied or intense heat. A number of which also exhibited signs of being the unfortunate substitute for a chew toy by large teeth marks shown on the metal surfaces.
Brex then continued as he was now holding his head up by placing both elbows onto the desk. “Someone was obviously experimenting on monsters to improve their combat effectiveness. One large specimen and two smaller ones were held within that cave. Hard to tell if that was meant to be a storage facility or the experiments were done at that location. Aside from the containers, there weren't that much equipment around. So, there's a good chance that everything else that would have been needed to perform such experiments were removed already by someone a long time ago.”
Engineer got to go over half a dozen pictures by this point and came across one of a Chimera. Said monster was kneeling down with Rory standing nearby and petting it with a peculiar grin on her face. When he lifted up the photo to show to Brex. An amused laugh came from the Roegadyn before he answered the unspoken question. “Oh that? It's safe to say that Rory's claimed that one in particular as her personal mount. It's pretty much an oversized kitten whenever she wants it to be. There was another of similar size but she already killed that one. I'm really not entirely sure as to how she got the second to yield, but she seems pretty happy.”
The stallion was not sure, but he was almost positive that he heard Brex mumble something from under his breath. “They really ran Rory hard... I can still feel it.” He was also reaching around to slip a couple of fingers under his hood to lightly touch an area of his neck before retracting his hand to continue. “I searched every inch and found absolutely nothing to lead me in figuring out who was involved and what exactly was their end goal aside from pulling the mad scientist route. But it's certain that whoever they are, there's definitely a big grudge against the royal family. The monster’s stats and abilities are already written right there for you to see.”
Engineer hummed to himself as he reviewed the part about the larger Chimera and what it was capable of before he responded. “If I didn't know any better, then I'd say this had Fallout written all over it. Not too much out there in the ways of advanced science. Television isn't even a big thing yet. Aside from some flying ships, I get the impression that I should be seeing a lot of people saying the word jitterbug with how lacking they are in modern comforts.”
“Yeah, I get you there. Can you believe I had to introduce microwaves to them? Anyhow, if you happen to find any advanced technology that clearly does not belong, then I want you to let me know. By the way, where are you heading too anyhow?”
“It's down near the southern end of Equestria. I believe it's called the Bone Dry Desert. We just got word of a new dig site that was discovered and the locals are having some trouble with trying to get in.”
“Bone Dry Desert you say huh? Now that's a long way to go. I take it you'll be using the train?”
“Yep!”
“Even by train, it's going to take you a while. If you count stops for refueling and possibly adding some extra time for unpredictable matters to come up during the trip. I'd say that it would take you nearly... two weeks. Give or take a couple of days. Think you could handle the boring life of being a passenger for that long?”
“I ain't gotta worry about that. Daring’s coming with me and I have no doubt that those bounty hunters are just going to back off just because I'm out of their jurisdiction. Oh yeah! Didn't you say that you were running a class for the Element Bearers? Think I went and had a run in with them on my way up from the station.”
Brex gave a long sigh before responding. “Let me guess. Was one of them a pink pony that was extremely excitable and has a knack to show up where you least expect her too?”
“That was one of them. Tell me, does the purple Unicorn of the group have a habit of blasting clothes off of other people?”
“Huh? Okay, I feel like there's a story behind this.”
It took a handful of minutes for Engineer to explain his arrival and introduction to Twilight, Spike and Pinkie. By the end, Brex made a comment on how much Pinkie must have been shocked to not suddenly throw a welcome party and just allow him to walk away without so much as throwing a confetti bomb within his vicinity. The two even went on to discuss a few more topics before engineer realized that Daring Do was still waiting for him outside and immediately rushed off.
When he found Daring Do. The Pegasus was sitting at an outdoor table and enjoying some tea that was being served by the dark-haired maid from earlier. When he called out to her. He received a harsh glare that just screamed that if he had been any later, than there was going to be Tartarus to pay. She gave her thanks for the drinks before the pair headed back into Ponyville so that they could catch the train that was going to be leaving very soon now that it had the time it needed to resupply for the long trip.
Although, when they were nearly halfway down through Ponyville and could see the train getting ready to depart. Daring Do surprisingly grabbed onto his arm and pulled him into herself while her gaze was still locked straight ahead at their destination. He was just about to ask something when she immediately shushed him and took a quick glance at their surroundings before whispering the following to him. “Just keep looking straight ahead. Whatever you do, don't make any eye contact with anyone at all until we're on that moving train.”
His eyebrows furrowed as he was about to open his mouth to find out what was going on with her sudden behavior. But as soon as he did. There was this odd taste in the air that he just could not place. His nose flared up after taking in a strong mixture of intoxicating aromas. This caused his eyes to slightly dilate as a stupefied expression began to cross his face for a couple of seconds before he shook his head rapidly to return to his senses. With a deeply confused look now plastered on his face. Daring Do gave a small grunt of annoyance before she spoke in a whisper yet again.
“Sheesh… Lived under a rock much? You really don't get it do you? This is why I can't leave you alone! If it hasn't gotten through that warped head of yours, then I'll just spell it out. The mare's in this town are entering their estrous cycle. In other words, we need to get the buck out of town before we get swarmed. I can already feel that a couple of them are looking at us. So just shut up and do what I say. Keep your eyes forward and pretend they don't exist.” As Daring Do was giving this advice. He can feel the grip of her arm onto his tightening as the urgency was growing in her tone.
With all this time in the Wasteland. Engineer could plainly see the amount of urgency and trepidation that was eating away at the usually calm adventurer. He then recalled some of the information that was in that weird guide to Equestria book that he arrived with. There was one particular passage that specifically warned him about the mating cycle of the females in the world. His eyes quickly darted over to the Pegasus before returning to the train as he thought the following with some caution in his inner tone. “Uh… Speaking of estrus. The two of us are going to be stuck on a train for a while. When is she due for hers?”
His inner voice turned into one of amazement when he felt Daring Do tightening her grip even further to cause even him some discomfort. “Ouch! And since when was she this strong to hold me this tight? Damn she's really worked up about these mare’s coming after me.” They were nearly passed the last set of buildings before crossing the short distance to the train station when he saw a figure at the edge of his peripheral vision. They were wearing a dark black cloak while crouched down on top of one of the houses to keep from being noticed.
*Point of view: Third Person*
Not too far away was a group of mare's who were standing next to the entrance of one of the local shops. They had this growing look of hunger on their eyes as their attention was solely glued onto the stallion that was leaving. A few of them grumbled that a male was not going to be staying in town before breaking off to go on with their day. As they were moving along. They passed a notice board with a number of papers stuck on that would advertise some job wanted postings.
Soon the board had a shadow being cast over a particular note before it was quickly snatched up by a black gloved hand. The shadow instantly dashed off to the right and disappeared into a space behind the buildings that was just a couple of paces away. While being far enough from the street to not be noticed by any would-be passerby's. The note was brought up to the hooded figures head. Yellow eyes could be seen glowing in the shadows being provided as they carefully started to read what was written.
After a few moments past. The person stuffed it into their coat pocket and disappeared into the shadows after taking a couple of steps back. The scene then shows the same mysteriously hooded figure dashing from one part of town to the next with the grace of an invisible phantom while going from one shadowed area to the next. Sometimes, it would dash between objects as people walked by. Other moments would have the person leaping from one rooftop to the next whenever the locals had their heads turned away.
Eventually, they stopped right outside of a door that belonged to a building decorated with dancing horses. It was mostly painted white with purple acting as the accents and borders. The door was slowly pushed open with one hand as the other now held on to the piece of paper that was plucked from the notice board earlier. From a quick glance there was some writing along the top that said, Help wanted. Maid position open for both full-time or part-time employment. Pay is negotiable and live in options available. Work would require the following. Cleaning, cooking, possible lawn care and handling of animals maybe asked of. Bonus will be given for those with combat experience to perform security matters.
The rest of it could not be made out as it was quickly put away yet again after taking a few steps inside of the building. At which time there was a melodious tone from a mare that said the following from somewhere deeper in the store. “Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique. I shall be with you in but a moment~.” But before the door could fully close. The figure could be heard muttering the following in an alluring voice with a unique Transylvania accent that was just barely detectable. “The things I do for my princess. If the target won't come out, then I'll just have to go to where the target is.”
Somewhere else on the other side of town. There was an elaborately made house of clouds that took on a Roman feel to it just a couple dozen meters off of the ground. Inside and sitting on the cloud shaped couch was Gilda. While laying back and holding on to a magazine to read. There were some odd noises being emitted from upstairs. The Griffin lowered the magazine to show her eyes before giving them a quick roll as the article was brought back up to cover her vision. There was yet another series of noises before she grunted and tossed the magazine over the edge of the couch and quickly stormed upstairs in a huff.
Once up there, she made her way over to a door and began to bang on it a couple of times with her fist and call to whoever was making the noise on the other side with an indignant tone. “Rainbow! What in the Seven Hells have you been doing in there all day?!” This time there was a clatter of objects that obviously fell from somewhere high within the room before there was the sound of footsteps rushing to the door. Gilda took a step back as the door was forcefully open till this allowed just a couple of inches to be viewed of the bedroom.
Gilda arched an eyebrow as she crossed her arms to address rainbow who had only exposed her head. Judging from the angle of only seeing the face and not the body. It was easily surmised that the Pegasus was leaning over to keep the rest of her form hidden. There was this strange smile as the Prismatic Pegasus kept darting her eyes from Gilda and back into the room repeatedly. There was even that obviously fake chuckle that one would make when trying to hide something as she attempted to answer the Griffin.
“Oh-uh, hi there! Sorry I just got... Things. Yeah that's right! I got some things I need to do. Hehehe I'll try to keep it down.” By now, Rainbow’s expression was becoming a little creepy with how she was smiling so much that it nearly caused Gilda's feathers to ruffle after a couple of seconds of silence came from that odd explanation. In a cautious, yet curious tone. Gilda said, “Mind filling me in?” This only got her a rapid head shake that nearly caused rainbows face to become a blur as she really did not want Gilda to know by the looks of it.
With a very long and drawn out okay. Gilda stepped away from the door and headed towards the stairs. However, when the sound of the door being closed was made. The Griffin waited till the count of five before quickly taking flight towards the door and kicking it down with all her might. The door made of clouds was not exactly torn off from its hinges. But instead, it went up in a puff of smoke which obscured the room for a couple of seconds. By the time it was clear enough to see. Gilda was standing there in an aggressive stance while her eyes were bugging out. Even her beak was hanging so low that one could probably have driven a car right into her mouth.
Her entire body slumped over as she just could not believe what she was looking at. Right in front of her while stuck in a frozen state of her own was Rainbow. What's more was that she was wearing a very odd outfit and standing next to her bed as one leg was lifted and placed on to it. The Pegasus was heavily blushing while in the middle of pulling up some very long fishnet stockings. There was also more as she was wearing a black and white outfit that took on a similar style to that of a maid’s uniform. However, this one was greatly lacking when it came to the material meant for the fabric.
With a nearly emotionless tone behind the Griffin's words. She said the following very slowly as she was clearly having issues with forming the sentences. “Rainbow. Is this what all the noise has been about?” This got her a slow head nod from the Pegasus.” Are you wearing stockings?” Yet again, she got a similar head nod, although it was slower. “That's not normal... did you order that from a sex shop?” Rainbow was now nodding so slow that she may have needed some oil to keep her head from sticking midway.
The clothing was made and such a particular design that most of her body was practically exposed. Her breasts were barely being held in place thanks to the fabric just being a few millimeters from allowing her nipples to poke out. The top was basically going around as a strapless bra. The neck had a dress up collar and a two-inch-long black-tie dangling from it. Frilly armbands and leg bands were already in place on the upper arms and thighs. Just below her exposed belly button was an extremely short black skirt with a white trim that would easily expose more than half of her panties while standing. Although, those panties in question were on full display thanks to her current state of leaning over.
Even the base of her tail was carefully wrapped up in a black ribbon that caused it to hike up a little bit after going out by a couple of inches. There were also some hoof covers that took on the shape of black heels. Her arms had fingerless gloves that ran up just passed her elbows. And to finish the look off. Was the combo set of not only the French maid’s cap on top of her head. But her mane was tied into a high ponytail. Nowhere at all could be seen was the signature roughed up hair of Rainbow Dash. Instead, all Gilda could see was a pony that was going all out and could have easily have been confused for a sex shops poster girl.
The two of them had their eyes glued to the other as neither one moved a single inch. It was not until Gilda said the following question, that Rainbow stumbled and fell face first into the rug next to the foot of her bed. And thereby resulting with her ass sticking straight up and causing the docked tail to fall over her face. “You're estrous cycle is starting, isn't it? And is all this for me?” Rainbow nodded to the first question, but gave a firm head shake on the next. Much to Rainbow's surprise. Gilda placed both hands on her hips before saying the next part with a resigned tone. “Help me order myself one of those. Gambit's a hard nut to crack and were going to need to double team him to get any results.”
*Point of view: Brex Mith*
While in the midst of getting through the last of the paperwork that was brought over from HQ. A small list could be seen that it displayed the following business names that he put into effect.
Always Away Foxholes.
Apothecary Medicinal Traders.
Cross Species Bridge.
Eco Growers.
Endless Enlightenment.
Renegade Brewery.
Roads and Beyond.
Krispy Supplies.
Tech Hex Institute of Science.
There was also a letter sent by Sir Fancy Pants along with it, which gave a quick report that the new project was up and running and would be open for VIP's that were meant to arrive early. Knowing that it was going to be a hotspot when word got out. The Roegadyn took this opportunity to keep his promise to a certain pink party pony. He looked over to his right and saw that Rin was standing nearby as tentatively as usual and gave her a note that he hastily put together and asked her to get the arrangements made. After giving a quick bow and exiting the room to leave him alone. Brex got up and walked over to the fireplace and placed a hand onto the banister right above the lit flames.
He quietly stared into the dancing lights as he began to run over the course of events once he disappeared into the Shadow Realm after the fight was concluded with the giant Chimera. The scene from the room quickly transitions to a dark place with Brex drifting along as glowing weight specs escaped his mouth. His body gave uncontrollable shutters as his limbs continuously tensed up with hardly any time between spasms. Suddenly the motion that he was going in was reversed and he came out of a white light that opened up right above his head.
This turned out to be the exit point in which he appeared in front of the Tree of Harmony after exiting the floor just several paces away and to the right of the entrance. He then fell onto his hands and knees and began to cough up even more of his now glowing white blood. Thanks to how damaged the mask was by then. The blood was able to easily cover the ground right underneath his form as it was so strong with its glow that it was starting to illuminate that section of the cavern and cast his shadow onto the ceiling.
His insides were both burning and freezing as the nerves were being brutally assaulted by the influx of foreign Aether that overwhelmed his bodies limits on containing the power. His eyes were still giving off the combination of burning flames and clearly visible mist of frost. A few more coughs led to his mask coming loose as the remains fell to the floor and shattered into dozens of pieces. This revealed that not only were his eyes giving off the strange overflow of power. Yet even more veins were popping out of his eye sockets and running along his skin. Blood was even beginning to escape from them and slowly dribble next to what was being expelled from his slack open jaw.
Eventually, any control over his limbs was lost and his body fell face first onto the stone floor with a heavy thud, along with a small splash. The Roegadyn was face down as more violent twitches erupted. Soon, this just developed into a full seizure as his body became almost erratic. A silent guttural scream attempted to escape his lips as more of his glowing white blood gushed from not only his mouth and eyes, but from even his ears. He wanted to scream, he wanted to yell, he wanted this sensation that his body was being ripped apart cell by cell to come to an end right here and now. However, this continued for nearly half an hour as his bodies out of combat auto healing function was already kicking in.
But the poison being paired along with the toxic levels of Aether currently churning inside was preventing it from making any leeway. Instead, all it did was to delay the process to a crawl. A feudal attempt was made to change his class to that of any of the healer jobs to see if something could be done. Yet his lack of concentration was preventing any such feat from being accomplished. In the end, his face froze in pure pain as the final moments brought upon his death. Suddenly it was all gone in a flash and he felt his consciousness slipping away. It even went so far as to where he could not even remember who he was and why he was even there before his vision turned black.
When he came too once more. He found himself to be sitting and leaning his back against the Tree of Harmony. After glancing over to the position he was only just at before waking up again. He saw that his body was no longer there, yet the glowing white blood that came out had coded a sizable portion of the ground. Although, the glow had died down enough to where it could have been perceived as a variation of white glowing moss that could just barely be made out. After checking himself a little bit. Brex got back up to his feet and began to wonder about how that fight was concluded.
The last thing that he can remember before finding himself being propped up by Rory. Was the image of watching Celestia coming close to the battlefield. For him, everything just went hazy and he quickly grabbed onto his head as a sharp pain came back as he was attempting to recall those missing moments. While fighting through the ensuing migraine. More effort was put into remembering. The biggest issue was that with every passing second that went by with him doing this. Was the sharp pain in his head growing with each debilitating burst of agony that threatened to cause him to fall over.
The scene then reverts to him looking into the fireplace back at the mansion as he quietly said the following to himself with a stern frown on his face from underneath his brown mask. “Just what in the Seven Hell's is going on? Quick little blackouts are one thing, but now I'm even doing things that I can’t remember? And all that coughing up glowing white blood. It reminds me of the cutscenes from around the end of the Shadowbringers patch for Final Fantasy fourteen that I played with at the other side.” He then looked at his free hand as his fingers curled into a fist as he recalled one other matter.
No matter how hard he tried over the last two nights. Brex was unable to fall asleep. Whenever he did come even close to succeeding. An unknown force would suddenly cause him to become wide awake and to be covered in a cold sweat. If that was not enough to give him cause to worry. Then it was the frequent pains he would get in his chest with Princess Celestia teleporting over without any kind of warning. Yesterday, she showed up for a total of five times throughout the entire day. Of course, earlier when Engineer came by and informed about the trap being set off. It counted visit number seven when starting from when breakfast was served in the morning.
Though, he found it humorous that Celestia and Luna both fell into a hole and got trapped into a gigantic burlap sack to be catapulted clear over his house. A part of him was wondering if he would ever get any use out of it and promise to talk to the Changeling that came up with the design to give his thanks. That was when Rory came in and sauntered over towards Brex. She jumped into his arms while having this half-lidded expression on her face. He then quickly responded in a playful tone. “This better be for more sex, because I've already given you the full amount for the month earlier than normal.”
She rolled her eyes at that as she opened her mouth and slowly ran her tongue over her teeth before replying in an equally jovial tone. “I'm still full from being filled up. But I do want to be filled up in another way if you get what I mean~.” Her expression turned a little more serious as she got down before continuing. “I finally got Applejack to spill what they saw in your dreams. We should sit down because this is going to take a bit.” He gave a quick sigh before saying, Oy vey! Why is it that I'm getting the feeling this is going to be a doozy?”
*Point of view: Daddy* *Location: On the other side*
Daddy, along with Jet and the rest were all sitting at a long rectangular shaped table while having something to eat. This sort of activity was not a regular occurrence for this odd group, yet all the girls decided that they should do this more often after coming back from their trip on planet Earth. Apparently, all those snacks sparked the craving to eat and this led to a family get together for meals. They were all waiting for what was going to be served by Little Light who took the initiative to make something in the kitchen, which was in the next room over.
The food was nearly ready if one was to go off the sound of clanking plates. It was mother who spoke up next as she glanced over to the duo that remained behind as they were all gone and asked the following question. “Well? Any progress on the repairs?” This got a shifty glance to be sent to one another by Daddy and Jet before giving a quick set of nervous chuckles. Daddy then said, “There… were a couple hiccups, but I think Jet is getting close to a breakthrough.” When the word breakthrough is mentioned. The taller man gave a quick flinch as his face turned crimson for a few seconds. Even his eyes turned into tiny dots to show that he had some thoughts to flash in his mind.
This got an unamused stare down from Mother as she slowly turned her attention to Little Light who had just came in while holding two platters being covered by large silver lids. When they were placed on to the table. Little Light went back into the kitchen. Honey Lemon began to comment on how she could not wait to try what Little Light had made and was completely giddy with excitement. Another tray was put onto the table by the one in question and she began to pull the lids off one by one.
The first revealed a tall stack of hot dogs already being set into their respective buns. As everyone else was enjoying the thought of biting into the familiar food that they had experienced at the theme park. Both Daddy and Jet were inwardly cringing while holding on to a fake set of smiles that showed off their pearly whites. Sweat was even trickling down their foreheads as they glance to one another yet again. Daddy was thinking the following as he intently stared at Jet and back down to the food in hopes that he got the message without the others realizing it.
“Just eat the food dammit! They're just hot dogs, okay? I swear, if they find out what happened, then you are in a world of hurt.” This apparently caused Jet to have an even more strained smile that threatened to twist into a grimace. Little Light then said as she pulled the next lid off, “After seeing the aquatic show, I wanted to try my hand at making this dish.” This showed a bunch of skewers with grilled squids on them. This scrunched up Daddy and Jets faces so much that they were about to jump out of their seats and run out the house with how much their eyes were nearly bugging out of their skulls. Their lips even sunk in to where they were nearly pulled in side of their mouths with the sourest expression imaginably possible.
Little Light then said the next part while lifting the final lid that she had just brought in. “There's this human saying that I really want to find out if it's true or not.” What came next was a gigantic jello mold with pieces of fruit in it. Coincidentally, it had the exact shade of blue as the gelatinous mass that was produced by the table when the self-defense system was activated through Jets rage fit by kicking the electronics and sending a strong electrical jolt into the table he was working on.
This turned out to be the metaphorical straw that not only broke the camel's back. But may as well have dropped a mini nuke down its throat with how Daddy and Jet reacted. After turning completely bleached white and taking on the expressions of that one painting of the farmer and the wife screaming. The pair bolted out of their chairs while knocking them over in the maneuver. Without even looking where they were going with how their eyes were glued onto the jello mold. The wall that was dividing the eating area from the kitchen was completely demolished as the pair broke through no differently than a set of bulldozers.
The kitchen itself fared no better as Daddy ran through the stove and Jet did the same with demolishing the fridge. It only ended after they broke through the outer wall and continue to run across the lawn and away from the house at a breakneck speed. The next thing that they knew. Daddy could no longer feel the ground underneath his sandals and look straight down. When he did, the pair fell into the deep hole and right on top of the still being worked on table that was sitting while they were away. A set of jolts were made when they bounced off and landed on the equipment. Their eyes went comically wide when they saw a series of bright lights being sent straight to the table in a similar fashion as before.
The scene then shifts to how they were now huddling together and holding tight as a large shadow loomed over the pair. It was then accompanied by a bone chilling underwater roar as Jet screamed the following as tears were streaming down his face uncontrollably. CAN WE CALL FOR MOTHER'S HELP NOW?!!! All Daddy could say as more of the shadows appeared around them was, “WE ESCAPED IT ONCE, WE CAN DO IT AGAIN!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 83: Game’s, Prizes And A Show.
*Point of view: Third Person *Location: Unknown location just southwest of Dodge City. *Time: Five fifty-nine in the evening. Three days later.
The scene shows Brex currently standing in the middle of a large room that could resemble the command center meant for shuttle launches. Four rows of seats could be seen as monitors were lit up. There was a total of thirty-two sets of eyes being glued to the monitors as a nearly non-stop's dream of information was being called out from one person to the next. A mixture of males and females wearing sharp black suits with a gold metallic trim were manning all the posts. With how the room was slanted to go lower towards the front. Brex could be seen standing at the very back and right next to a personal desk that was shaped into a half circle and facing a very large monitor on the far wall that could be viewed by all of those present.
His arms were crossed as there were two others next to him. The one who was sitting at the desk with access to two small monitors in a set of keyboards was Sir Fancy Pants. Standing close and on the opposite side was Fleur De Lis. The both of them were wearing extravagant clothing as Sir Fancy Pants wore mostly white. Whereas his wife wore a dress of light pink and with a purple trim around the neckline and long sleeves. If anything, they looked as though they were ready to go to the next Gala at a moment's notice with how flashy they looked right now.
The stallion had a pleased expression on his face as he was playing with his mustache, while also glancing over the projected numbers and other important notifications being brought up on the screens. Fleur De Lis had her hand resting on his left shoulder and he reached up to place his own on hers as she asked the following question. “Today's the day, are you ready? Years of planning and setting the groundwork is about to finally show itself to the world.” Sir Fancy Pants replied after giving a grin as he had his hand ready to press down onto a red button, that just so happened to be attached to a microphone.
“Dear, I have been waiting for this for the last decade. To say that I am ready would be putting it lightly. Gathering the funds. Not to mention the hands that were needed in the construction. Recruiting not only the most skilled artisans and contractors, but to employ those that were much needed in the way of employment was no easy task. Performers practically flocked as soon as the job postings were issued in major branches all over Equestria and in some parts overseas. Not only do we have the proper equipment, personnel and location set up. We even have some very talented individuals that were hand-picked by your sisters after meticulous screenings. Aside from T H I S, we have the most trustworthy employees around.”
Sir Fancy Pants turned his attention to Brex and changed his tone to that of slight concern. “Gambit my boy. With your particular aversion, are you quite sure that you are prepared to stay even though they will be on their way as well?” Brex remained standing and looking straight ahead as he replied in a reassuring tone. “I know what my limit is. Besides, I made a promise and I intend to keep it.” Sir Fancy Pants gave a loud boisterous chuckle and gave a quick nod before pushing the button and began to speak into the microphone. “Top tip, top tip. Testing one two three, testing! Is this even on?”
From not only those in the room with the headsets, but even those who stood in various location started to pick up on the stallion’s voice. “Ah jolly good! As you all may know this is the opening of our dear town and attraction. I do wish that this will be not only a joyous occasion for not only this one, but for many more to come. Now as I know that I can get rather lengthy in these speeches, I will say this. I am very proud of each and every one of you and I personally hope to see your bright smiling faces carry on and towards to a brighter future. Just as Canterlot was a beacon of hope for our survival. We shall be a beacon to spread joy to those of the world and show that these are not the dark times. Instead, our ingenuity will spark the imagination and spur the rest to push forward and into a brighter tomorrow.”
He glanced over to Fleur De Lis and gave a quick nod for her to press another button before he went on after giving a light cough. “As my great-grandfather Sir Party Pants once said! LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!” A chorus of cheers not only erupted from within the control room. But more could be heard from beyond the walls from what could have been hundreds if not thousands of voices. Fleur De Lis pressed a round and brightly flashing pink button. The next thing that happened was the sound of whirling electric engines from deep below. The scene then shifts from one spot to the next to show the following in order.
A brown and gold lined metal room filled with those wearing protective outfits and belts full of tools with a similar design to those in the control room where monitoring electric turbines that were being fed by a powerful underground stream of water. These were even being supplemented by cylindrical containers filled with aetheric crystals to give an extra jolt of power as it all ran up cables along the walls and into a higher deck. Outside was a simple town that could have held nearly a couple thousand residents without any problems at all from a cursory glance. The building seemed more modern when compared to those with other major cities across Equestria.
Not only were there various businesses and shops littered all about. But parks, apartments and attractions could be seen coming to life as power flowed from the underground wellspring. Even institutions of learning running from kindergarten all the way up to a small College were all lighting up one after another. A modernized train station became a bright beacon as an Airfield could be seen not too far away in the distance.
Everything was covered and glittering lights that could easily put the most hardcore of Christmas light fanatics to shame and give Las Vegas a run for its money. Dozens of spotlights were shining into the sky as the once baron and dust filled planes became a thriving place in a matter of seconds as the sun began to set. The night sky only served to accentuate the brilliance that was being cast to make the city visible for many miles under the moonlit sky.
Even with all of this happening, there was yet to be one more section that was up against a tall cliff to undergo such a transformation. The scene then switches to an airship that was closely approaching from the north. As it got closer. It could be identified as the Yuna traveling at half speed and slowly reducing. With it now traveling at a more manageable speed to allow passengers to stand on top of this ship. The top deck doors slowly opened and allowed a large group of people to exit the ramp as to get a better view of what was up ahead.
This comprised all of Rory, the Element Bearers, Spike Gilda, Zecora, both Rin and Lin. And surprisingly enough the two royal sisters. All of which were wearing outfits that were easily on par with those that they wore to the gala, but with some subtle alterations so that the fashionista would not drop dead from the embarrassment. Gilda just wore her usual outfit but with a subtle application of additional makeup around her eyes when compared to normal. Zecora wore a piece of black fabric with a silver trim over her fur lined clothing that she was commonly seen to wear while out in the jungle. Although the size was present to show that she was indeed dressing up for a formal occasion.
Both of the sisters were undoubtedly dressed up in what could have been called attire meant for political meetings and displaying their respective colors. Although Celestia was showing a little bit more of her legs thanks to the cut slit running up along her left thigh. The maids lined up on either side of Rory as she took the lead and stood at the very bow of the ship. The whole group was able to catch as the town came to life with one section after another. Celestia and Luna had just finished with switching the sun and the moon before stepping on top of the ship and this caused the entire event to flash in such a way that they may as well have been looking at a mixture of colors from all spectrums of the rainbow.
Colors of which that glittered as though they were looking at the ocean and every star in the sky was dancing below them. As Rory and the two maids were already aware of what to expect. They merely gave some small smiles upon finally witnessing their Masters work finally being put into action after so many years of planning. When it came to the others. Their expressions were livelier as they came in a wide assortment. Some were cheering, while others gave words of astonishment at what they were gawking at. Twilight as well as the two sisters were practically leaning over the railing with glittering eyes as they watched the spectacle unfurl with a silent reverence.
That was when a series of fireworks were shot all along the top of the tall cliff directly ahead of their path as the ship was lowering its altitude to match the shrouded monument ahead. Bright explosions of shimmering colors litter the sky. Some were of the standard flower formation that would shoot off in different directions after fanning out. While others somehow took on familiar shapes in the sky that lingered for a couple of seconds. Some where that of animals while a very distinct one gave an outline of a creature that was in a running position as one arm was lowered and pointed down and the other was in the opposite direction while pointing straight up.
With loud clicks that could be heard from all the way where they were now. One set of Lights would come on immediately after the other to run up the length of the monument. Eventually once all was finished. The site of a large cactuar creature could be seen holding on to a saucer shape building high off of the ground. Two large oval shaped eyes were looking over the horizon. Multiple sections were protruding to take on similar shapes to that of mushrooms. Even music filled the air as they were able to make it out as the distance quickly became short thanks to the Yuna's rate of travel.
Small flying vessels could also be seen transporting both too and from an area equipped with a dock to allow passengers to enter and exit the larger saucer. When close enough. A long metal boarding plank was extended right as the Yuna lined itself up to it and came to a stop. This allowed it to line perfectly to the top of the ship and a section of the guard railing retracted down and into the ship to allow the passengers to walk straight in. Tentatively they all followed Rory's lead and entered the structure to find it to be extravagantly decorated with mostly a gold theme.
Sections that took on a familiar shape to that of stained-glass windows could be seen at regular intervals to give off a bit of lighting. The same music that could be heard from outside was gently playing. Large screens were either attached to walls or stationed on tall metal pole to show off general information. Most of which were advertisements, while others displayed scheduled events and general locations of where to go to participate. Even though they were told that this was a VIP opening ceremony. They were all surprised to see that there were already people inside and enjoying the festivities.
The princess’s expected foreign dignitaries or perhaps high-end company owners and their families to be attending. Yet it was a pleasant site to see those wearing normal clothing along with many children running around. There were jugglers, fire breathers, mascots that took on the same appearance as the monument that they were all standing inside of. The males that worked there wore neat suits. As the females donned outfits that took on a strong resemblance to bunny girls. Eventually, there was a voice that called out to them from down the entrance hall that turned out to be quite familiar to a number of them.
This being Sir Fancy Pants and his wife. “Welcome, welcome to you all! Thank you so much for being here. Greetings my princesses.” He and his wife both gave a quick bow before addressing the rest. “Please allow me to start the introductions. I am Sir Fancy Pants and this lovely vision next to me just so happens to be my wife, Fleur De Lis. And welcome to the grand opening of The Manderville Gold Saucer!” He even took the opportunity to carefully wave his hand as to gesture to everything around with a broad smile.
Pinkie apparently could not handle it anymore and she rushed away from the group before anyone was able to stop her and around the bend to disappear from sight. This even caused one of the attendees that just so happened to be standing at said corner to be forced into a rapid spin before coming to a stop and start to look around as to show that they had no idea as to what just happened. Twilight was clearly embarrassed as she tried to apologize for her friend’s behavior. However, the stallion was in no way bothered as he waved It off with a laugh.
The rest of them followed him and his wife down the very same corridor and up to an extravagantly decorated gathering area with a rotating Cactuar figure in the center that stood almost as high as the ceiling. A long circular desk could be seen on top of some steps with customers already talking to a number of the representatives stationed for various questions. He then went on to explain while pointing at a map nearby on what the sections were primarily focused on. Essentially there were two main floors for attractions and activities.
On the one they were currently on. They could see a red dot pointing to a figure that resembled the reception desk. This was the prize exchange and check-in area. As well as a Daily three ticket chance to win some currency by playing a number game where a person was to try and get a set of numbers on a nine-by-nine panel. The area attached to it was meant primarily for those that would like to play card games. Just about any game is permitted, but primarily they focused on Heroes for Hire. When the stallion mentioned that there would be regularly hosted tournaments with prizes being awarded to the top three rankers. Spike’s eyes lit up while Rainbow took a quick glance in the same direction that was just being explained.
Off to the right there would be an intersection that would connect to three main areas and housed a large blue levitating crystal. Towards the north was an indoor park with a miniature hill for those that wanted to climb up for a better view. This clearly got the attention of Fluttershy as her ears perked up after hearing that. Sir Fancy Pants moved on to the east and said there was an event area at the very center, while assorted games were stationed along the bottom floor. The top would house one of the restaurants, as well as the lottery system which anyone could purchase three tickets and have the chance to win the currency used in the gold saucer for just once a week. For which he would go into on later.
He even went on to mention that there would be a random representative on the lower floor that would host weekly contests for those who would like to show off their fashion choice. Those that would score high enough would receive the gold saucer currency. Also, the ones who scored remarkably high would have their names and picture taken to be recorded for all to see when checking the leaderboards. This obviously got the attention of a couple of the girls. The most obvious one of them all turned out to be Rarity as she was glancing with a sparkling smile back behind the group and at a large suitcase that she just so happened to bring with her.
The area to the south was more decorated towards the young ones as even more mini games were installed. The area itself was modeled to resemble multiple stacks of boxes decorated in vibrant colors to give off a festive time of the year. A more kid friendly family restaurant was also stationed in there as well. Even an elaborate indoor jungle gym was installed with pretty much every conceivable apparatus from standard and all the way to pretending to be pirates on the high seas. Princess Celestia's ears perked up as she had to try hard not to look when the mention of pirates came up. In fact, if one was to pay close enough attention. Then they might have noticed that she was close to biting her lower lip and holding back an excited squeal.
Sir Fancy Pants placed a finger onto the map and swiped upwards to show it transitioning to another set of rooms before he continued to explain any further. One area was meant primarily for the soul focus of raising one's Chocobo to be entered for a racing competition. Obviously, the competitive nature of Rainbow, Applejack and Luna came into play when a competition of speed was brought up. The last area which took on a rectangular shape was explained to house a new type of game which required strategy. He then went into details about what it was. After about a minute or two of going over the specifics. Spike’s eyes shot open as he identified it to be the same game that he had played on the Yuna’s computer.
Afterwards, he brought them to a window that displayed the town nearby and said that everything was already up and running and that there were two places for guests to stay for an extended visit. A large hotel was built below in the town, while a much smaller one was put into a higher area of the golden saucer. Soon they were brought up to the reception desk and each given five hundred golden saucer coins. These were to be used as a form of currency that could be exchanged for special prizes and to also play a number of games. But instead of being physical disc like objects that would have to be hauled around in a big bag. It was all placed onto a single card that was magically attuned to its designated user.
This way all they had to do was to swipe it through a reader and they would be on their way. The coins were nontransferable between guests. Which meant that if one was to want something, then they would have to earn it themselves. Of course, real money was accepted when it came to traveling and food. But when it came to the coins themselves, every participant was only allowed to purchase up to five hundred if they were under the set amount as to prevent those with heavy pockets from monopolizing everything.
The lottery system and events were also good opportunities to get a large sum of the coins. For the ones that were not being held in the arena to the east. They would have to go to the designated areas displayed on the map for certain ones and would be teleported to an enclosed space that would be magically altered to take on certain environments. This was all thanks to countless hours of research when applying allusions and specially adapted magical barriers. There was even the creation of a reusable teleport system to an empty room which would take on the set environment.
Of course, anyone was able to enter so long as they were of proper height for safety measures. And speaking of safety measures. Anyone who participated were given special wristbands that were enchanted to negate any damage that the guest would receive if they should happen to fall. This clearly confused the group before the stallion mentioned that they would soon find out if they were to participate. Eventually the group decided to split off and explore the Golden Saucer in groups while Brex watched everything that was going on from within the secured control room.
Thankfully enough for him. It appeared that Celestia was at a distance where he was not feeling as bad as he thought he would. Yet that piercing pain was nowhere near being dulled enough to be forgotten. With how it was going. There was a good chance that he would be able to stick around for maybe an hour before needing to go to a greater distance for recovery. This was only thanks to the many annoying visits that she was giving him until the whole catapulting incident. Now he knew that the pain he was feeling was directly proportional to both the distance and time that she was physically within a certain proximity.
On one such occasion he even switched over to his Monk class and use that one skill that was accidentally created to help with keeping himself calm. Indeed, it had an effect, but not enough to alleviate the symptoms. At best, he could probably tolerate being within a couple of feet for no more than ten minutes before needing to retreat. With going back to the girls that he made promises with so far. Two were already fulfilled. First was Pinkie Pie as he wrote in the letter that she and her friends would be brought to the Golden Saucer once it was opened. For months now there was promotions to let the public know as to its existence and the pony was going nuts on certain occasions about wanting to go whenever some random passerby would mention it in town.
Whereas Rarity was promised to meet a highly influential person that could possibly help with her business. That of course was Sir Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis. A little added bonus was to have her show off her best so as to get her name on the fashion list for this establishment and get her name out and about. He did plan on spending time with all of them to somehow put their minds at ease after Rory explained what they all went through when being led by Luna that one night. Yeah, it nearly slipped his mind at the last minute with how the princesses were already invited to come on to the opening day.
The notion of sending one of his doppelgangers crossed his mind a couple of times. But ever since his first real reaction to Celestia had caused a chain reaction among all of his copies. It wasn't as if they felt pain. But their forms would spontaneously break down if they were to get too close after he ordered one of his to approach Celestia at a closer range for observation. Eventually, Applejack, Rainbow, Gilda Pinkie and Luna ran off once one of the events was announced to be the “leap of faith” over at the north Area. The others moved on to the section of the golden saucer that was primarily used for playing card games.
The attraction for the more outgoing girls was a sort of obstacle course where one is transported into one of the designated sections of the golden saucer after talking to the representative standing at the appropriate locations. Sure, the Unicorns had teleportation magic. Yet that was only afforded to those that had a particular talent and a huge amount of magic reserves at their disposal. But when it came to the golden saucer, it was already incorporating a network of Aether flows thanks to multiple stones that would be floating all over to give easy access to anyone that wished to use them. The leap of faith also being one of these utilize the same function to send the new player to where they needed to be.
They were even given special wristbands that would cast a protective barrier around their bodies to limit any injuries. They also had the added effect of transporting a player back to the north section of the golden saucer whenever the event was concluded. The third and final effect was to reset anyone who fell back to the starting line to retry the gauntlet. Essentially, the girls needed to jump from one floating island to another. While also collecting special medallions along the way for the maximum prize at the end.
At first glance anyone would be confused and wondered if they were outside with the way some illusion magic was woven in to give the appearance that they were in some missed filled valley with floating chunks of rocks that would have some vegetation growing on them. No magic or flying was allowed and only one's ability to run and jump were needed. Tree roots would extend to the lower sections of these floating piles of dirt to act as a footing to catch the next person that would be on that leg of the run after leaping. A few of the islands were also adorned with white brick structures that gave the appearance that they had broken away from a larger piece.
A few ended up falling here and there yet none were disheartened and only continued to try and catch up with those ahead. By the end of it all, it was Princess Luna who managed to get to the end and collect the bronze, silver and the one and only gold token to get four thousand Golden Saucer coins with Gilda coming close behind by only a few seconds. Pinkie managed to get all as well, yet both Rainbow and Applejack missed a couple thanks to their competitive natures colliding and the two focusing squarely on getting to the end before the other one could. It also did not help when they kept interfering with one another and being forced to restart a number of times. This resulted in them only getting two or three thousand golden saucer coins a piece.
Over with Luna. The princess could be seen doing a fist bump with how ecstatic her smile was. Not only being the first of the group to get to the finish line that was marked by a giant floating arrow that would be rotating above. But to also experience a good workout as she was getting way too accustomed to the slow activities that her body was forced to endure inside of the castle. Without having to fly or use magic was almost a breath of fresh air for the younger sister. To everyone else those restrictions were nothing but a hindrance, but she was apparently having a blast.
When it came to the second half of the group. The scene shows a table with Twilight and Spike on opposite ends while locked in a duel of cards. It only took a few seconds before Twilight’s head landed on the table after letting out a groan of annoyance after losing yet again to her younger brother. More so as Princess Celestia was standing at the side of the table and lightly giggling to herself after witnessing her student acting in such a way. With a shit eating grin, Spike reached up and swiped his card on a reader that was attached to the side of the table to receive his winnings as the two had to bet a certain number of coins to compete with one another for an official match.
Rarity was not too far away while observing all of this going on as Sir Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis were standing alongside and having their own conversation. When it came to Fluttershy. She was currently being occupied by the small mascot that was playing with a couple of children nearby. What came adorably out of that scene was how she was imitating a few hand and leg gestures in the same way as the kids so that they could copy the mascots movements. Said mascot was wearing a Cactuar outfit and sporting some clothing that would confuse a person from Earth to be imitating the millionaire from Monopoly. In place of a monocle was a golden star over the left eye.
At some point Princess Celestia approached the married couple and inquired as to why there were so many children when she had first came to the conclusion that dignitaries and other such persons would be arriving. The explanation Fleur De Lis gave to that question was that these were the family members of those who assisted in the construction or perhaps worked somewhere in the town. As such they are free to come and go as they please and the married couple just could not bring themselves to bar this place for but a single day after their parents put so much work into it.
Although what Fleur De Lis said next caught all of them by surprise when she pointed towards the hallway that would connect back to where they all started and said that they were the ones to talk as they brought their own kids too. With all of them giving the pair the deer in the Headlights expressions towards that comment. They all slowly turn their heads and saw three familiar little fillies to be running around. This earned a loud gasp of air from Rarity as she quickly screamed out the names of Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.
After a bit of scolding was given to the triplets of unspeakable disasters all over Ponyville. They soon divulged that they had snuck on board the Yuna after getting word from Pinkie telling them about where they were all heading off to. This led to Rarity profusely apologizing to the married couple about her sister’s rudeness and coming when she was not initially invited. But to the Unicorn surprise. They just laughed it off and asked one of the workers to go and get their initial starting golden saucer coins so that they could start playing around while they were there. If anyone was really paying attention to Rarity, then they might have noticed how she was nearly ready to faint at the notion of losing her good graces with sir Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis.
Of course, Applejack eventually got around to getting wind about her little sister being there and gave her a ten-minute-long sermon off in some corner about how reckless she could be. When it came to Scootaloo. Rainbow was the one who stepped up and took responsibility. As it turned out. It was the Pegasus who initially put the idea in the little one’s head about climbing on the ship thanks to some poorly placed jokes just a little while before they left. When Fluttershy asked Scootaloo about her parents possibly being worried after disappearing from Ponyville.
All she got was a half-hearted shrug of the shoulders before making a few comments that would convey that her parents would not really care all that much. This clearly confused not only Fluttershy, but a number of the girls who were close enough to hear what the young Pegasus said. That just so happened to be when Brex was observing them through the camera feed on a smaller viewing screen. Rory who had left everybody else was already there as well and the pair were frowning at the idea that's Scootaloo may have had parents in this world, yet the lack of attention was extremely concerning.
He then said to Rory through the connection while looking down at the group thanks to a camera displaying them from a higher elevation. “Remind me when we get back to look into her parents.” His left hand was already balling into a fist and causing the leather like fabric of his glove to creak under the pressure. He then looked over to a board on the far side of the room and took in what was written before continuing. “I'll need to go and recover a little bit before the next event happens. With her being here, I'll have no other choice but to take on the stage in my copies place.”
Rory nodded to this before Brex left the room and found a secluded area to meld into the Shadows and pop up back in Ponyville for the next half an hour. When the time was up. He returned to the golden saucer and use his shapeshifting ability to alter his framework to be quite a bit taller. By doing so, he ended up becoming thinner in the process. Once that was completed a new item was equipped with the illusion spell being woven in for a particular form. After placing it on. Brex found himself turning into a very flashy samurai from the game which would normally make an appearance for one of the main events at the golden saucer.
Afterwards, he played around with his vocal cords to shift his tone to give it a more Eastern feel to it. It was loud and boisterous. Also mysterious with how there was this strong accent that came from the lands of Doma from the game as well. If anything, it would most likely be heard as the type of voice that one would use when pretending to be a Shogun and in the middle of a pose with their arm outstretched in front of them while holding a weapon over their head from behind. Soon he even heard an announcement for any willing participators for the “slice is right” event.
This was to be held in the Eastern section with the large circular ring in the middle of the room. Just outside of it and along the floor was a formation that made it resemble a large spinning wheel that one would see in a casino. Spectators were already lining up along both the lower and upper floors as participants were teleported right onto the ring. The lights began to darken everywhere except for the center of the room after a couple of moments passed and the timer for signups were closed. Multicolored strobe lights flashed along the ground before focusing on the dead center of the ring.
As a high-pitched flute could be heard along with some old instruments used in Japanese culture in the background. Some small vents that were built into the floor opened up to expose a thick mist that would quickly dissipate after a couple of seconds. It was during that moment that Brex used his shadow abilities and raised himself up in a mysterious way to put himself as the center of attention with his large frame that towered everyone else there. In a flamboyant and over the top voice. He called out to the participants while swinging his left arm to indicate his attention was on the participants at the edge of their little play area. His eyes were squarely focused on the group that comprised of pretty much everyone aside from Fluttershy, Zecora and the three small girls.
“Greetings to you all! For I who hails from the far east, the mysterious swordsman, Yojimbo. Have come from over the waves that have taken countless other ships into the dark abyss. I have come to test your skills of intuition! I have heard many tales of those here who have great skill and I wish to see it for myself! Now! Let us begin and do not disappoint!” Brex had already switched over to his Samurai class and was now wielding a very long wooden katana in his right arm as it was slowly pulled from the cloth wrapped around his strangely thin waist.
Some suspenseful music was played in the background as he started to make some almost incoherent chance while his left hand was brought up so that only two fingers were pointing straight up near his mask covered face. Suddenly, two wide bamboo pillars appeared on his left and right and soared high at a surprising speed. This caught everyone off guard if one was to judge by their varying expressions. Yet it was the two princesses who had their eyes bugging out the most. With one nearly imperceivable swift motion of his katana. The two bamboo shoots were sliced so that one was going right down the center as another was cut into multiple pieces.
The players instantly ran around to try and get away from the falling debris. Unfortunately, more than half were already taken down as the pieces force them out of the ring. Thanks to the rules they all were wearing the armbands which were issued before the start so that none of them suffered any type of injury and just harmlessly bounce a couple of times before coming to a stop. What was once close to thirty participants was already brought down to a total of fourteen. Brex inwardly smirked as he saw that all of his students were able to evade the falling bits of bamboo with little trouble. Yet he still narrowed his eyes and became a little cold when he caught sight of Princess Celestia being one of them that was still in the ring.
He then continued by doing the same a couple more times before adding a third bamboo shoot. The cuts were almost random as some sections were completely showered to take out even more of those that were on the elevated platform. Rarity was the first to be taken out as she misjudged the tiny area that she needed to be standing in by a couple of inches. Next came Applejack as she was not fast enough to run to the other end after realizing which way the pieces were going. Eventually he whittled down the number till it was only the princesses and the remaining members of the Element Bearers when the next phase came into effect.
Brex went to one side and began to loudly call out to them as a new participant came out of the center thanks to a trap door. This being a dog that was roughly the size of a Saint Bernard. However, thanks to a disguising item that was placed around the collar. It took on the form of an orange and red lion dog like creature called an Inu. This one was specifically trained for this particular part. “Let us see if your luck is as good as your intuition! Go my Hound! Collect my goodies before they can have a chance to snatch them up! And if any stand in your way, then don't hesitate to knock them off! Now go!”
Brex grabbed onto a pouch on his waist which held four more inside. The pouches were randomly thrown. Once each of them landed onto the floor. The content spilled out to reveal a bunch of fake gold coins. The participants were already informed that when money was thrown out in this fashion, then they needed to collect ten coins in order for it to count for each pile. The remaining participants made a dash to collect what they could and move on to the next pile before those spots were pounced on by the dog.
Spike was taken out along with Twilight on the second pile. Rainbow was unfortunate to be in its path as it took a quick lunge at the third. This only left Pinkie Pie and two princesses behind as the crowd was cheering for them to win. Brex knew that Pinkie was going to have a good chance of surviving thanks to her unpredictable nature. Luna still had some battle instinct so he was not surprised at all that she made it so far. But Celestia standing there with a determined look on her face as her eyes were squarely locked onto him was only causing the Roegadyn to suffer even more as his chest was slowly being stabbed by some invisible force.
Just before the next part started up. He then thought the following to himself as he was having trouble with keeping the performance going without showing that he was in discomfort. “Gerr… By the twelve... why haven't you been knocked off yet? And what's with that look? Besides, aren't you the one that usually just stays in the castle and eats cake all day? I'm calling shenanigans.” This time he produced four stocks and began to cut them down after each set as fast as he could. With the fourth added, the safe spots were greatly diminished until the players were left with no other option than to pull their bodies close enough to be within that tiny triangle at the very edge to avoid getting hit.
By the end. Pinkie, Luna and Celestia were practically out of breath while leaning forward to rest their hands on their knees for support. Heavy breathing could be heard as Brex began the next to last part. This one turning out to be a complete gamble as previously set into place spells were activated thanks to some unicorns and changelings stationed around. The ground lit up to show that the circle was cut into three equally sized pieces. The Inu dog would appear on one part. As another would be filled with a large stack of gold coins.
The last space was completely void aside from Brex standing in it. The illusion of three impossibly sized wicker baskets appeared overhead and covered up the dog and gold. Whereas the third was covering nothing. Suddenly all three baskets would start to rotate in a number of directions. They would either go in a complete circle or be quickly switched with another one to randomize what was where. Soon they came close together and started to spin at such a speed that they were nothing but a blur for a couple of seconds before separating.
Each one of them picked their own slice of the ground after realizing what was about to happen after a couple of seconds and rushed over to their spots. Luna was off to the left while standing next to her basket. Pinkie was already by the one on the right. When it came to Celestia, she took this opportunity to walk closer to Brex so that she was standing less than a foot away as she was intently staring at his mask with her head tilting back thanks to his great increase in height. He was unsure as to why she was doing this, but all he knew was that his chest was now hurting even more than before thanks to being so close that he was even able to smell the shampoo she used in her mane.
Soon the baskets were quickly lifted to reveal the following results. Luna was standing all by herself with neither the gold nor the dog to be seen, which meant that she made it through. Pinkie turned out to be standing within an illusionary pile of gold that reached all the way up to her neck. She even used this opportunity to pretend that she had her head cut off and was now laying on top of the stack with how she was sticking her tongue out to one side and crossing her eyes. This only lasted for a second before she ended up losing it and broke into a giggle fit.
This left only one option for the square that Celestia was standing, and that was for the dog to appear. When it did. The spell targeting its position from underneath the ring was activated and a strong force was used to push any competitors that were still there. Celestia was clearly unawares as to how it would feel when her dress exhibited signs of being caught in a strong blast of wind. Her wings ruffled as she was launched at him at a surprising speed after starting from a dead stop. She was just a hair's length from coming into contact with him when the Roegadyn conducted a quick set of footwork to sidestep the princess as she was now sent flying right past and off the edge.
He even went through the motion of using his free hand to act as though he was showing someone through a door as a grin quickly crossed his face. She made a quick flip in the air before gently landing on her tail thanks to the protection that the wristband offered. He was barely able to contain his laughter after seeing how her hair was already partially disheveled from the abrupt ejection before he returned his gaze to the last two that were ready for the final set. Unlike in the game. Brex went a little flashier by dashing in a crisscrossing fashion that would have his form turning into a nearly imperceivable blur as each of the stocks were cut up in different ways.
In the end, it sounded as though there could have been a battlefield of clashing swords thanks to the quick strikes. There were a few instances where there was barely a foot and a half of space for the pair to find any refuge among the wide area that they were playing on. Brex even attempted to trip them up by intentionally forcing them to run clear across to avoid getting knocked out. When the last flash of his sword was made and he turned around after getting onto an edge. He was surprised to find that Luna was standing as straight up as a pole while holding on to Pinkie Pie that was doing the same right above her head. Both were heaving heavily as their chests were taking in deep and heavy breaths at a rapid pace after such an exercise.
The tense music from before was replaced with glorious trumpets to signify the end of the event. Illusionary fireworks were shot off at the spotlight zoomed in on to Luna and Pinkie right as the crowds cheered for their win. Pinkie was already doing a set of fist pumps while also throwing in a couple of backflips to dismount Luna. Luna on the other hand was awkwardly smiling after getting such an unexpected roar of applause. On Luna's part, she was feeling embarrassed when she considered that she had rarely gotten cheers of this magnitude during her rule along with Celestia. She even wondered if she would be getting this much praise if the whole Nightmare Moon incident never occurred and the subjects grew to love her just as much as her older sister.
Her thoughts were broken when Brex, while still in disguise began his closing monologue after stepping in the center of the ring yet again and re sheathing his sword under his belt. “Ho ho! It would appear that those of your land have great skill. For one day we will meet again and shall the winds of the east forever guide your path! Farewell, as I am needed elsewhere!” More smoke bellowed from the center and surrounded his form while he himself melded into the shadows under his feet in a slow yet dramatic fashion.
Pinkie, who is still close to Luna surprisingly grabbed on to the princess's hand and began to rush them off and towards the reception area to check on what kind of prizes they might be able to get. Especially as the two had already amassed ten thousand coins in less than an hour. Luna was not sure what to do as this was well beyond the proper protocols. She quickly glanced to her older sister who was holding a giggle from behind her hands as she watched her younger sister being pulled along as though she was not of royal lineage. Twilight however, was having a conniption as she ran after Pinkie and Luna in some attempt to quell her friends over stimulated excitement.
It took some time, but Twilight did get the party pony to realize that she was pulling one of the princesses right as they were all congregating to look at the prizes. Brex chose that time to appear with Rory at his side once Luna was somehow convinced to get a pair of bunny ears to wear on top of her head. It even had the added magical effect of concealing her Pony ones as a bonus. These were a perfect match for some of those that worked at the golden saucer as they also had on a bunny girl outfit, along with the fluffy round white tail. When he got close enough to the group. Brex showed off another choice of clothing that he had yet ware as everything was exclusively bought from his game world from the very desk that they all stood next to.
His hair was let out and on full view to fall half way down his back. But thanks to the amount, there was no way of seeing his ears or neck while a familiar white mask was resting on his face. Some loose black fabric was attached to the underside as it slipped underneath his shirt to conceal his neck. Rory on the other hand was wearing the full bunny girl get-up. She was clinging with both arms tightly around his left hand as the other was lifted so that a single finger can produce the following words. “Hello everyone. I see that Princess Luna has gotten her first souvenir picked out already. Suits you well.”
(Play these two videos for how Brex and Rory appear. Rory can only be seen with the ears and tail of a bunny girl.)
Luna responded with a victorious level of excitement. “Hazah! Much merry making has been done this day!” The other girls all gave their own opinions. At the same time, Rarity was mostly circling Brex and Rory while admiring their choice of attire like a hawk. She then said, “Sir Gambit. Where in Equestria did you get your suit? The Exquisite hand stitching and patterns are simply inspiring.” He made a small gesture with his head to motion towards the counter as he wrote. “You can get the same prize over at the counter. There is a male and female variation.”
Sir Fancy Pants stepped in and made a hand gesture to another person that was a little further around the counter before he spoke up. “The one you were speaking to mostly deals in trinkets and clothing. The person over there sells uniquely designed weapons and clothing. Mind you, they are not powerful. Just consider those to be more of a prop than anything else.” Everyone's attention was brought on to either the stallion or the counter from what Brex could tell. Well, almost everyone. Princess Celestia’s gaze never left him for a single second after he made his appearance. She had this expression that she was practically looking right through him as she had neglected to blink for the entire time.
Those cheeks of hers began to slowly transition to a bright pink as she just stood there without moving a muscle. Even though he knew that he was not in any real danger. Brex had this inexplicable sensation that he was a small animal being stared down by a predator. It was nothing but a staring game as any movement on either side would have probably caused something to happen.
He then thought the following to himself as he gave Celestia a questionable look from behind his mask. “Why am I getting the same sensation from her as I do from Rory when she's really hungry? Could she just stop with the staring contest already? It's beginning to freak me out. And... is that drool right there on the edge of her mouth? Hold on! Also why are her wings starting to lift?”
The powerful urge for him to be on guard was high by this point when Luna rushed up and took a hold of her older sister's arm and began to pull her in the other way and towards a final fantasy version of a claw game. All the while giving some excuse that they needed to talk to someone that she just saw a second ago. Even as Celestia was being led away. Her head was still turned towards Brex as her eyes were giving off a creepy vibe with how she was almost oblivious as to what was happening around her. When his arm was being squeezed more tightly by Rory. He turned his attention to the girl and found that she was giving Celestia a dirty look as the fur on her body was practically standing on end.
If Brex did not know any better, then he might have thought that she was about to start to growl by the way her body was also showing some small signs of trembling. He then asked through the connection, “Is there something wrong Rory?” This seemed to bring the girl out of whatever she was thinking to look back at him with a gentle smile as she replied.
“It's nothing really. Just thinking that you've been around the princess more than enough for today. I'll also suggest to those in the control room that the slice is right should not be used until both of the princesses are gone. It'll be simple to use the excuse that those two are far too strong and if they're the only ones to win, then it may put a damper on the spirits for anyone else who wants to try it.”
Afterwards, everybody got a chance to enjoy the rest of the day by diving into practically everything that the golden saucer had to offer. Twilight and Spike were using their minds by playing the card games and going down to the lower levels to play that arena fighting simulator with the small figurines. Gilda, Applejack and Rainbow were obviously competing with one another whenever there was an announcement for another one of those jumping challenges. This also included the punching machines and Chocobo racing. Rarity was enjoying herself with going into the dining areas and talking with Fleur De Lis while Sir Fancy Pants was off and about to make sure that everything was running smoothly.
Fluttershy, along with Zecora was enjoying the indoor park that had a miniature mountain with waterfalls, rounding rivers and walkways. There were even a couple of animals that were introduced to live within that area that she got to have some time with that did not appear near ponyville. Pinkie was... well Pinkie was both everywhere and nowhere as she was constantly popping up as to earn as many Gold Saucer coins as possible. There was even a game called Air Force One that the trio of destruction, also known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders took part in whenever it was active. This involved a machine that was levitated onto a particular set of movement patterns in the air.
It would go from one area to the next and allow the three to use a pistol weapon to shoot down targets while making sure that they did not accidentally hit the fake bombs that were floating around for a perfect score. As for the two princesses. Luna was trying her hardest to make sure that her older sister did not make a scene as the close proximity to Brex was causing the dampening spelled to lose its grip. There were times that Celestia would be fine and the pair would be enjoying their time together. Yet, whenever Brex was within eyesight. The princess of the sun would go into this semi-trance and begin to wander over towards him with a lustful expression creeping onto her face.
Luna even had to step in between so that her face was breaking her older sisters visual lock so that she could bring her back to her senses yet again on multiple occasions. She was even beginning to wonder if the spell was even working anymore as she was having to re-apply it almost constantly. Ever since they were saved from being hit by that strange monster on the ground at Ghastly Gorge. Luna was on high alert to keep Celestia from losing it as guilt was racking her older sister over how he had gotten injured again because of her. She even placed a tracking spell so that she could immediately tell whenever Celestia would teleport to Ponyville and follow right behind.
If anything. She was this close to the concept of getting a leash for her older sister. She was even asked to induce a good night's sleep through magic once as Celestia was having trouble with going to sleep thanks to constant thoughts of Brex in her mind. There was just one more thing that she was very adamant about with not bringing up with her older sister. This having to do with the night before while going on a dream patrol. She was only a few minutes into the Dream Realm when she noticed a very particularly powerful wave of energy being produced by her older sister's dream bubble.
Up until then. Luna was being very discreet and respectful when it came to Celestia and her privacy. Yet the power it was giving off was so distracting that it peaked Luna's curiosity and she parted the mist on the outside to take a quick look as to what Celestia was dreaming up. What she saw left her practically petrified as her eyes went so wide that they may as well have been dinner plates at what was going on. It showed the scene to be what she believed as the front yard to wear Brex lived. The building was slightly warped as what was to be expected in a dream.
The background consisted of miss Twilight Sparkle and all her friends as they were taking lessons from Rory at one part of the yard. The maid that they constantly saw at the gate to send them all away was standing at attention with her eyes closed as if ready to pounce on the first order given to her as she stood close to the front door of the mansion. Spike was near what appeared to be a tree and playing some card games with the second maid of the house with his back turned towards everybody else. The Griffin she knew as Gilda was in the middle of training with some combat dummies with her spear.
Of course, this seemed completely normal for what she herself as she already knew of their antics. Although, when she saw her sister with Brex. Her rational mind had to take a double take. Coming out from the other side of the building and walking along the path provided to go around the yard was the large figure of Gambit. In his left hand was a thin strap of black leather. It coiled on his hand a couple of times as the other end was leading down and attached to an equally dark studded collar with some short gold spikes. The item in question was being worn enthusiastically by Celestia. She was completely without any clothing aside from some straps that ran along her torso and hips for a provocative pattern.
Her older sister’s pair of large breasts were not only slipped through the gaps in the front, but appear to be wrapped tightly with some extra coils of rope to give them a good squeeze. Heavy clamps with golden sun shaped weights were hanging from her nipples and giving off some metallic clatter as she walked on her hands and knees. Those pristine wings of hers that she was quite proud of were even bound so that they were stuck in a folded position. This was thanks to a number of belt straps being put to good use. Her nether area was completely on display due to her tail having a number of rapping near the base to hike it up so that it was unable to be an obstruction from any wondering eyes.
The mane was done up into a tight braid that barely touched the ground as it hung off her left shoulder and away from obscuring Brex’s view of her as he looked down on the mare quite often. An inhibitor ring was snugly in place at the base of Celestia's horn. When Luna used her magic to zoom in on the display. She was positive that she saw some strange substance that was coding the space between the ring and her horn. It glistened with a shine in the sunlight and Luna had this scary thought that it might have been permanently glued in place and there was no hope of having it removed without causing some harm to her older sister.
Both her knees were even covered with protective guards to keep her from being injured while moving across the stones. Both hands have been slipped into what she thought were thick mittens that would prevent one from opening their hands now that they were trapped in a fist position by the cuffs with visible locks being in place. Luna's face scrunched up in confusion as she could also tell that Celestia was even wearing some dark eyeliner which was far more pronounced than any that she had ever used before. There was also the addition of a shade of a glossy hot pink lipstick that caught Luna’s attention as well.
Instead of the calm and self-assured princess who ruled over a nation for many years to be right there. Was only now a nearly slack jaw mare that had a blissful tongue lulling smile. Heavy panting was coming out of her mouth as drool was slowly dripping onto the stones under her body every now and then. Seemingly unfocused eyes were trailed straight ahead as her body gave what were nearly constant shutters. When they made a turn and had their backsides towards Luna. She ended up holding both of her hands up to her mouth as she saw that her older sister had both of her holes occupied. One appeared to be a butt plug while the other was obviously an oversized white dildo.
Hoops were attached at the base of both of them and allowed a single piece of rope to be threaded through and tied so that it creates a type of harness to prevent either one from accidentally being pushed out. For but a moment, Celestia nearly made a misstep as her hips jerked quickly and allowed a stream of liquid to gush out and onto the floor to mark that she had just had herself a strong orgasm. Her entire body arched up as she looked straight ahead with her teeth clenched into a big smile. Strong hisses of air escaped her teeth as she attempted to keep from making any real noises. Eyes began to cross as they nearly went up and back from the sudden rush.
A couple of seconds later, Celestia's head suddenly swung down as she was having trouble with keeping herself upright on all fours. A mixture of pathetic little whimpers and chuckles could be heard coming from her lips that cause Luna to wonder if her sister was okay. With a face that was heavily intoxicated through euphoria. The pair continue their walk towards the rest of the girls that were near Rory. Without them even paying any mind at all as to their approach and acting as though the site was the most normal thing in the world. Twilight gave a quick wave with an innocent smile over her shoulder before returning to her studies.
Brex continued the walk and brought Celestia over to one of the benches and took a seat as her older sister was positioning herself so that her ass was sticking towards him. He then parted his legs and reach down to pull her closer by the tail before undoing the rope and pulling both of the objects free from the older sister. A long-wet pop could be heard as Celestia gave out what she thought was a prolonged sexual howl. One of which that would cause Luna to blush heavily before gripping on to the edges of the opening and slamming it closed no differently than a set of curtains. She even turned on the spot and leaned against the bubble with her back. At the same time, she was nervously biting the nails on her right hand.
Back to the present. Luna was eyeing her sister with a calculating gaze. She then thought the following as she prepared to fire another carefully hidden dampening spell for what felt like the hundredth time that day to keep Celestia from going overboard. “Her feelings have only been growing more and more potent. The magic is already stretched to its limit and it's only a matter of days before it no longer has any viable effect. If this is allowed to progress, then my sister may act on those impulses and cause our already strained relationship to come breaking down. If Sir Gambit is unavailable in his dreams, then I'll have no other course than to meet him in person for a private discussion.
She had been so focused on her inner thoughts, that she had only noticed right then and there that her sister was nowhere to be seen. She then continued within her mind with clear panic. “Oh Buck me! This is obviously the result of that mare repressing her sexual needs for far too long. Mother! Please give me strength! Please oh please don't let me find you causing a scene! Celestia, think of what our subjects with say if they were to witness you attempting to copulate while in the midst of the public! Oooh! I swear! I will go back to our old castle and search for that ring of mine!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 84: A Princess On The Lose.
*Point of view Brex Mith* *Location: The Golden Saucer* *Time: Eleven at night*
Brex was just coming back after teleporting a great distance for some time to recover when he appeared on the second floor of the upper section for the monument that had the arena game match’s and Chocobo racing. Already a handful of trips were made because of the frequency that the princess would end up coming near him when going around with everyone else. Almost as if on clockwork, he could turn to look over his shoulder and find that the alabaster Alicorn was already attempting to make a beeline for him through the crowds. Although, he found himself appreciating Luna's many efforts as she was continuously getting in her older sister's path to her take somewhere else.
He had gone over and pressed the button to use the elevator so that when he stepped off, it would be a good excuse to tell the others of where he had been. Once it arrived Brex stepped on board and watched as the indicator displayed the changing of floors. On the way, the feeling in his chest was only intensifying at a surprising pace at the moment the doors began to open and release a melodic tone to indicate that the passengers had reached their intended destination. This sent a cold chill down his spine as it slowly revealed Princess Celestia and Luna who are apparently waiting to use the elevator themselves. Luna currently had her back towards the elevator doors after being distracted by some noises behind. This meant that she could not have noticed that he was there.
Celestia on the other hand was standing upright as her eyes became almost fully dilated within seconds. There was a surprisingly feral, yet feminine scream that came from the older sister as her wings flared out and leaped into the elevator. Luna jerked her head around and finally realize what was happening and reached out a hand to Celestia just as a collision occurred. The way the princess lunged was so fast that he could barely process what was happening when her body slammed into his and sent them into the back wall. Out of pure instinct to get away, along with the combination of the endured suffering he was forced to take on for a good couple of hours had sparked his shadow traveling ability to activate without his conscious input.
As a result. The pair melded into their combined shadow and disappeared from the elevator right before Luna's eyes. They tumbled into a dark space before getting spat out in a location that was lacking of any sort of bright light source. Brex could still tell that Celestia was holding on to him and immediately tossed her after going into a tumble and landing on to a hard stone floor. This earned a startled scream from the mare as she landed somewhere nearby. Brex took a second to get onto his hands and knees and scanned his environment to discover that they had inadvertently teleported to the castle of The Two Sisters. In fact, Brex was able to instantly tell that they were in the throne room thanks to the large granite chair and still exposed display holders for the elements of harmony.
Another feminine scream caught his attention when he looked over to his left and saw how Celestia had extended her wings all the way to instantly close in the gap as she was airborne with both arms outstretched. He pushed himself off with both of his arms and quickly placed his feet underneath to do an additional kick to avoid the princess by barely a few inches after going into a backflip. Less than a second later, he witnessed how Celestia crashed into the very spot he was just at with a loud thud and audible “Oof”. The force in which she was traveling even caused a number of rocks to be sent flying upon collision with the ground.
Some dust was kicked up from this act and Brex brought himself into a defensive position to wait for her to come at him again. All the while, he was wondering as to why she was suddenly attacking him out of the blue. He had a sudden realization to cross his face as he felt a burst of magic from behind. He leaped out of the way right at the last possible moment and avoided getting caught by Celestia who had used a teleportation spell to get in close as the dust was meant to be a distraction. She attempted to leap at him yet again, but he had no intention of letting her come into contact and pulled something from within his inventory.
Within his right hand was a bundle of spider webbing and began to use it as an ingredient for a spell of his own which came from Dungeons and Dragons. The arm with the webbing was held straight ahead at the oncoming Celestia and a white flash occurred right as her face was nearly close enough to run into his palm. When the flash subsided. Brex summoned out his fairy fire to illuminate the area. Thanks to the many bright colors that were circling around. He was able to get a good look as the princess of the sun was hopelessly entangled in thick shining white threads that clung to her body and extended to nearly all parts of the castles inner structure.
Her body hung in the air and in awkwardly positioned so that her limbs were spread out. Even her mouth was heavily covered by the webbing and preventing her from being able to talk as muffled screams continued to escape and echo into the abandoned castle. Thankfully his control over the spell allowed her nose to be free as to not cause asphyxiation. “MMPH-NUNGH” and “Mngerr!” sounds were produced as she pulled relentlessly at her bindings and produce a stretching cable sound while doing so.
This was the webbing spell from Dungeons & Dragons That would cover an area with a synthesized amount of spider webbing. When it came to the ingredient used, the demon spiders webbing acted as the perfect catalyst to ensure that it was more than strong enough to be used in almost any situation. Not only was it durable to begin with. But also surprisingly fire resistant, which made it particularly useful when going up against someone who uses heat as a basis for their abilities. Whenever it seemed as though Celestia was about to break loose with how with her arm was stretching the silk. The tension would bring her back into place as she released a loud grunt of annoyance.
Her eyes were filled with not only madness, but also an insatiable hunger that he had only ever seen on Rory's face whenever she needed to be topped off badly. Flashes between panic and anger quickly took the place of one after the next as she pulled harder and harder against the impossibly strong webbing. Brex was taken aback at how much she was doing and also causing much of her dress to be ripped apart in the process. Eventually, the strands began to stretch ever so slightly as the lines grew taught so much that they could have been used as guitar strings. Aside from her loud muffled noises of protest. There was also the ripping of stitches and shifting of the nearby stones that filled the air.
Celestia's right arm was barely stretched forward as her hand was quickly grasping towards Brex in a disturbing way. He even noticed how her horn was building a sizable amount of charge thanks to the brightness it was producing. This act prompted him to go right into his item box and pulled out Luna's inhibitor ring and carefully slapped it down her horn and stepped away as soon as a noticeable clank sound was produced to show that it was locked in place. Celestia's face fell as she realized that she was no longer able to use her magic to try and get free and started to struggle even more when the light fizzled out.
Before he could come up with anything else to try. A number of the strands broke and weakened the trap just enough and this allowed the remaining bits to be ripped apart and she resumed her attempts at lunging at him with renewed vigor. By this point she appeared to be no better than a rabid animal. If he did not know any better, then he might have thought she was literally foaming at the mouth with how she was disregarding any normal movement patterns.
Out of reflex upon her hand getting close to his face from a surprising boost of speed that came out of nowhere. The Roegadyn momentarily forgot about his aversion to coming into contact and grappled with the princess so that she was forced to go into an overhead Judo flip and subsequently slammed onto the ground with a powerful crash that sent debris and a couple of her feathers flying. Thinking this at least stunned the princess. The grip was released on her arm and he attempted to step away when she got back onto all fours and kicked off the ground with her legs to fly at him at close range. He found all of this so peculiar that he wondered if there was someone controlling the princess and went right for subduing her.
Another webbing spell was used thanks to more of the ingredient after accumulating it in both hands. At the same time the spell was being used. Brex grabbed onto both of the mare’s hands and began to do a number of motions so that the produced flow webbing would follow the trail of his palms. Within several seconds of even more loud grunting and protest from the princess. Brex had maneuvered her in a way so that the webbing was more condensed and turned into a one-inch silk rope that wrapped around her body. Arms were pulled behind her back and secured so that her arms were wrapped from not only her fingertips, but nearly a few inches past her elbows and even restricting her wings.
Both of the legs had a couple of lines going around the ankles and knees. As extra precaution, he even used some around her neck and pulled the line tight as it connected to her ankles so that she was painfully forced to bend her body back. Even while all of this was going on. He kept hearing some weird noises coming from the princess as he felt her body shuddering almost uncontrollably while all of this was being done. The previous attempts to break out of the webbing had torn nearly all of her clothing off and left her underwear that was just barely covering her unmentionables. If anything, it was webbing that was covering up most of her body by now.
Brex stood back so that he was positioned to where she was unable to turn her head to see him and leaned up against a support pillar as his hands were tightly grasping at his chest. His insides felt as though they were not only being slowly pierced by a very big knife. They were also being twisted and pulled in every conceivable direction. He wanted to scream. He wanted to tear off his own shirt and skin to dig out whatever was going on from under his flesh. Even the notion of pulling a Mortal Kombat move on his heart had crossed his mind if it meant curing him of what was happening and rip out the cause.
From behind his mask, his face was twisting into a silent open-mouth scream as both eyes were shut tight. Somehow this pain was surging throughout his blood and expanding across his entire body as a network of pain signals were constantly being fired off from the furnace in the center of his chest. A wet sensation was coming from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears that caused the inside lining of his mask to grow increasingly damp. Before he lost his balance, Brex reached out with his left arm and placed it onto the pillar. Fingers dug into the stone and made visible indentations as each of the five digits sunk in and created a few spider web cracks.
His legs threatened to give out. He was barely able to squint his eyes open to show that the entire world was swimming in a swirl of lights from the moonlight casting through the open ceiling. Low haggard breathing barely escaped as he was having trouble with breathing. A sharp piercing sensation was clearly felt as it ran through the lower section of his chest and clean through his back. Everything felt icy cold and robbed him of most of his feeling which started from the tips of his fingers and toes and slowly crept towards the center of his mass. A ringing sound slowly made itself known as it grew louder and louder to obscure any other sound around him.
Before he knew it. The hand on the pillar had closed so tightly that it crumbled the stone within his palm to dust and he ended up falling forward just enough to throw himself off balance. A quick shuffle of his left foot towards the front kept him from colliding onto the floor as he wobbled unsteadily in place. His eyes barely were able to make out Celestia who was still struggling to try and get free just a short way off. Even through the intense ringing and everything beginning to shake from his point of view. Brex began to strangely hear his own voice angrily calling out in his head. “She's doing this to me! There's only one way to stop it!!!”
Without even meaning to. He soon found himself beginning to slowly shuffle at a snail's pace towards the struggling and unawares princess. Before long, his body was moving more normally as he circled so that he was standing close to her head and in plain view. She was still acting as though she was some wild animal and struggled to pull at her bonds even further upon getting his form within her sight. Still, even with the constant stretching sounds being made on the webbing, she was going nowhere fast as she continuously used up all her strength and recovered a few seconds to try again. Her eyes were squarely locked on to his as he could barely make out the sensations of his fingers curling on his right hand to become a fist.
The other voice of his began to say the following as that arm began to raise up and ready itself to be thrown down. “All it takes is one good hit... one good unguarded hit to stop... all of this. Yes, that's right. Just raise my level up to seventy and use everything I got! I'm sure I can crack her head open and spill her brains all over this floor.” Windows for his character popped into his view and his setting was boosted up to maximum without him putting any effort. Muscles strained underneath the clothing as the arm was ready to be thrown down. The princess continued to struggle and let out a chorus of moans and grunts through the gag that stuck her lips together tightly.
The voice then screamed, “Now! Do it NOW!” This was the signal to send his fist careening down onto the princesses’ head from the side. Whether she was aware of it or not with how her eyes were dilating was unknown to him. Yet just before the impact. A huge plume of dust erupted upwards as the entire room shook from the amount of force he used from this attack. Over the course of the next several seconds there was nothing but silence aside from some of the rubble still falling and clattering across the ground. Some of which even managed to fly up and hit the old throne that was easily more than a few meters away. A gentle breeze was passing through the openings of the walls and ceiling to blow away the dust slowly and allowing the moon to shine down after several long seconds had passed.
Eventually, this revealed him to be in a crouching position with one knee on the floor. As more of the air was being revealed going down. The Contours of his outstretched hand were followed until it revealed Princess Celestia with her eyes seemingly back to normal staring straight up at him while still in the bound-up state. They were as wide as dinner plates as the pupils shrank into dots. Her breath was obviously being held as the arm could be shown with its hand opened up. Apparently, he had changed the trajectory just enough and unclenched his fist to do a power slam onto the bricks and completely demolished everything underneath.
This left a crater of spreading cracks that would go out in a circular pattern for nearly four meters wide. He then slowly brought himself back up into a standing position. Seemingly to have an out-of-body experience where he was unable to feel a single part of himself. Brex turned around and started to walk into the shadows as his eyes were transfixed straight ahead. Before even he himself knew what was going on. He appeared back at the elevator and saw Luna straight ahead. She of course noticed him and began to ask what was going on. But instead of doing any type of talking, he grabbed on to her and went right back into the elevator to appear at the castle once again.
Thanks to his grip on her left upper arm, Luna stumbled out of the shadows as he practically threw her forward and towards her older sister who was still in a frozen state with her eyes looking straight up and at the broken roof. Luna began to look over her sister's condition as Brex watched from a distance with his arms crossed. Though the sensation had not faded as he watched with an indifferent look from behind his mask at the pair. What he was going through before within his chest had completely gone numb by now. After a couple of moments had passed. Luna turned her head towards him with a questioning gaze which prompted him to raise his hand to produce some words in the air. Yet instead of the clear and concise typing that one would see on a computer. The letters were slightly mismatched with small variations in size.
“FiX hEr bY The tIMe I cOme BAck! YoU HaVE onE HOUR!” And with that, he disappeared to get as far away as he possibly could. Which just so happens to be all the way back in Zebrabwe. And sitting upon one of their taller mountains just a couple of miles from the capitol. He sat down on a comfortable looking rock after looking around for a couple of seconds and stared blankly ahead at the lights that illuminated the city and causing it to stand out in contrast to the seemingly endless night filled desert. His body slightly leaned forward to rest on to his left elbow as the right hand was brought shakily in front of his own face.
He had a hard time with coming to terms with what he was about to do. If he had not gained that semblance of control at the end. Then he may have very well have caused some grave injuries to the solar princess, if not downright killed her in the process with that punch. He even went so far as to cut the amount of power that was originally behind the fist and only ended up with so much force to crack the stone floor. More confusing than anything else, was how he was no longer feeling any kind of discomfort. There was no anxiety. No traces of any kind of worry whatsoever. If anything, a mild case of curiosity at best. Something within him just simply turned off after being so overwhelmed by the direct contact with that mare.
Soon the shaking hand came to a rest at the same time that his breathing and heart rate turned completely normal. This was followed by an odd chime that came from one of his link pearls. Brex then brought it out and answered in a monotone voice that was lacking any sort of emotion. “Hello Rory.” This just got a concerned tone from the girl as she replied in a hush volume as the rest of the girls could be heard somewhere in the background. “Master, our connection was lost for a few minutes there. Where are you now? It's so faint that I can only guess you're really far away.”
“Yeah... looking at the lion palace.”
“Why would you be all the way over there?”
“Much needed space.”
“I just got a report that you were spotted on the cameras near the elevators with both of the princesses. Now we're getting reports that we can't find them anywhere.”
“They'll be back in a little over an hour.”
“How are you doing?”
“I'm doing just fine. We can talk later; I'm going to hang up now...”
The item was put away and Brex found himself staring up at the moon that was directly across from the center of the palace. His mask was carefully taken off and held against his chest has he stared blankly at the bright orb in the sky. There were absolutely no indications of any real emotions to be crossing his face as the hazel-colored eyes were slightly faded. If anything, one might even say that they were turning lifeless as a dead fish. His entire form was already relaxed to where there was no tension at all to speak of. After releasing a slow exhale of air. Brex just relaxed on that rock without moving even a single strand of muscle until the appointed hour was up.
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Location: Castle of the Two Sisters*
Feminine grunts were being produced by the lunar princess as she struggled to remove the last remnants of the impossibly strong silk that was being used to restrain her older sister. One final grunt of effort signified that she had finally finished by ripping off what was binding Celestia's ankles together and stood with a huff as she crossed her arms and looked down at her silent sister who was still blankly staring straight up. She was just about to reprimand Celestia when she scrunched up her muzzle after taking a heavy whiff of a strong aroma that she neglected to acknowledge since arriving thanks to how busy she was up until then.
Her eyes began to almost water as she tried to pinch her nose shut and wave the air with her free hand to try and make the odor go away as she took a couple of steps back in shock. While still holding her nose tightly pinched shut. Luna called out to her sister with a mixture of amazement and disappointment in her eyes. “Sister! What atrocities have thou done? The sugaryness in the air is enough to make me vomit! Sir Gambit-.” Luna was suddenly cut off when she noticed her sister violently shaking her hips and squirting out onto the stone floor a stream of her fluids. This was also accompanied by her biting her lower lip to try and contain a muffled scream as her entire body tensed up all at once.
Even with her laying on her side. Both of Celestia's Wings shot out so quickly that it not only caused a storm of dust to fly away, but even knocked fist sized rocks hard enough to break one of the far-off windows that were just barely intact after surviving a thousand years of neglect. Luna was taken aback by this and slowly circled around so that she could get a better view of her sister's face while the mare was laying on the ground. When she did. Luna had this conflicted expression. Yes, she was disappointed at her own sister for losing control. But she was also very worried by the way the mare on the ground now had this creepy crazed look in her eyes.
With Luna squinting one eye, she then flinched upon saying the following to test a hypothesis. “Sir Gambit...” Celestia's eyes nearly rolled to the back as her entire body arched. Luna's ears could barely believe that she was even picking up the straining of muscles as a few of Celestia's bones gave some audible pops from the act. The one palm that was facing up now had the fingers fully extended as the other was already digging some fingernails into the ground and causing five noticeable scratches on the durable stone underneath. This was also accompanied by another intense orgasm that threatened to reach Luna's very hoofs with how powerful it came gushing out from between her older sisters’ thighs.
Celestia was breathing heavily through her nostrils as she was clearly attempting to not open her mouth as a guttural moan squeezed past her teeth. Luna on the other hand quickly stepped further away just in case she was to be hit with an unexpected orgasm. She promised herself that she would not use his name for the time being as to avoid any more surprises and waited for her sister to calm down. Eventually, her older sister regained her senses enough to sit up properly and to take stock as to where she was with an exhausted and bewildered expression.
Luna would have at least teleported a towel to try and cover up her sister in the meantime. But she was giving off so much heat that it might have caused any fabric to burst into flames upon contact with her body. Visible waves of distorted air were even being radiated off of the white skin in such a way that it distorted vision just a few inches above her form. It was a good thing that they were out in the middle of the forest where no one could possibly see them and Luna just allowed her sister a few more moments to reorientate herself before bombarding with a series of questions.
“Now that you have finally calmed down enough. I demand an explanation. And it better be good...” This got Celestia to place both of her hands on the sides of her face as an intense blush exploded and threatened to cause steam to erupt everywhere as she responded in a stutter without so much as sitting up straight. “L-Lulu... I-I just experienced my own version of a wall s-slam! It’s so much like what they write in those in the library.” This was even accompanied by her giving out a childlike squeal of delight.
Luna was taken aback by this statement and was unable to say anything as her face scrunched into a grimace before Celestia continued. “It's just like in those stories. A young man and stallion are in a hallway and she is suddenly pinned against the wall. But before she could protest, the stallion slams his palm right beside her head to shut her up. He was so aggressive~. So much power was used that I almost felt that my life was about to be snuffed out...” Her body after saying this was beginning to shiver as she let out a sensual moan from clearly reliving the event in her own mind. She then spoke again as she was taking in some heavy breaths of air.
“My recollection of events is all hazy. I remember the elevator. Then right as it opened, I saw... him. I was restrained and broke free and allowed my clothes to be torn off in the process. My core was on fire and I couldn't think of anything else but to have him! Nothing mattered. I was even willing to just force myself onto him and take what I wanted. But... he stopped me~. Luna! He... stopped... me! ME?!” By now, Celestia's eyes were already beginning to dilate as her chest was heaving so fast that it gave the impression that she was just stopping after running for her life.
A strained and crooked smile creeped on to her lips as she looked over to Luna with what the younger sister thought were hearts for but a split second before going on further. “Lulu, it felt amazing!!! No words were exchanged. He brought me under his control through brute force~. I was even tied up!” Celestia began to squeal to herself no better than an overly excited teenager that had just gone to a boy band concert after loading up on a ton of sugar beforehand. Luna was just about to retort after first giving herself a facepalm when she was rudely interrupted by even more ramblings coming from her sister who seemed to be going off into her own world.
“Even after losing control, I was still overpowered. Mother almost tore down half the castle to get to father when she was in a frenzied state. Oh my! Is this what they consider to be foreplay?! Oh dear, oh dear, I-I just I...” This was when Celestia chose to look around frantically and changed to that of pure anger before shooting off of the ground with the use of her wings to rush right up into Luna's face as she said the following in a cold, yet murderous tone that caught Luna by complete surprise in almost causing her to fall over.
“Where is he? Where did my mate go?! Did you interfere with us right as it was getting good?!?!” The older sister's eyes were practically burning as they were shifting to a blazing red. Teeth were exposed in an extremely aggressive manner. Obviously, the situation would have spiraled out of control if it was not for a flash and fizzle from her horn thanks to the inhibitor ring that was still locked in place. This of course drew both of their attention in an instant and caused Celestia's aggressive manner to evaporate and turn to that of confusion. While also slightly tilting her head. Luna said in a disbelieving tone as she reached up and started to tap at the ring with her right hands index finger. “Uh, dear sister? Is this not mine?”
Celestia’s eyes which were following the actions being done to the ring, were now slowly inching their way down until they were looking straight into Luna's own as she carefully asked her own question with an accusatory tone. “If this is yours... then why would he have it on hand?” Without realizing it, Luna absent-mindedly said, “Perhaps he took it from my room?” This turned out to be the wrong thing to say as Luna suddenly felt a pair of hands grasping tightly around her neck. A pained wheezing just barely escaped her mouth as she was suddenly pulled in so fast that she ended up slamming her own forehead into Celestia's as she was stared down by the now fuming elder sister.
To Luna, it may have been a trick of the mind, but she was almost certain that her sisters’ eyes had turned into reptile like slits after turning into shades of red and orange before returning to normal. Through much effort, Luna manages to wheeze out the following response. “I... had that ring before my banishment! *Cough!* He must have found it. *Cough!* In my old room! Sir Gambit was the one who brought me here! He’s going to come back! *Cough!* The mere mention of his name caused Celestia to have another one of her reactions and this released Luna from the death grip and fell to the ground. At the same time her older sister collapsed onto her tail and hunched herself over.
While still being preoccupied. Luna took the opportunity to cast the dampening spell onto her sister again. When the spell landed and was barely able to take hold. Luna turned to a state of shock again as she realized that it had absolutely no effect as Celestia's body was now too far gone. Luna was even fortunate enough that her old toy was used as to prevent her older sister from doing anything too rash while in this state. But at the very least, the mention of his name was able to temporarily incapacitate the now crazed mare in front of her if the need should arrive. After rubbing her neck a little bit and standing before the crumpled down Celestia.
Another spell was casted by Luna to produce a set of clothes for her older sister to wear. She then said in an authoritative tone, “Get dressed already. We both need to discuss a few things before he returns. If not, then I dare say we may end up taking too long before you lose yourself yet again.” That was when both princesses sat down while facing one another and began to go over everything that Celestia was going to try and do next until the full hour was up.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Time: Fifty minutes later* *Location: castle of the Two Sisters*
He appeared after coming out of the shadows and found that both of the princesses were now sitting on the second step going up when approaching the elevated throne. His senses were on high alert as he was able to perceive everything around him. His mind was still eerily calm as his emotions were still vacant from his own mind. With a passive gaze that practically looked right through the pair. He began to walk towards them and stopped once they were within a couple of meters. He could see that Celestia was wearing new clothing and the inhibitor ring was still snugly attached to the base of her horn.
He then used his hand to point over to Celestia before pointing straight up to cast some words in the air to start off their conversation. “She does not move or speak, understand?” Celestia was appearing to be a beaten puppy as she quickly looked up at him before glancing to the floor right as Luna replied. “Very well. Seeing as she has... acted unruly. Allow me to explain the reasoning for my dear sister's actions.”
“Make it brief.”
Luna coughed into her left fist before she spoke with an uneasy expression on her face. “I shall be blunt. Sir Gambit. As you may or may not know, my sister has a deep infatuation for thou.”
From behind his mask. Brex raised an eyebrow, yet he did not respond and just remained silent for a couple of seconds to produce an uncomfortable atmosphere before Luna continued along with her eyes shifting from left to right as she was clearly having some trouble with putting the next part to words. “Does thou know of the heat cycle us females go through?”
“I know about it.”
“Oh good. Then this will make it much simpler. Alicorns have a very unique estrus cycle that we undergo. As other ponies get it within every three months. We tend to have a far more powerful variation that hits us when we perceive to have met a compatible mate.”
“No.”
“Huh... No?! Please allow me to-.”
“I will not be her mate.”
“Hear us out before you make any sudden decisions. I implore you.”
For Brex. He just stood there with his arms crossed as a indifferent expression was still plastered onto his face. He really had no idea what was happening with his indifference and lack of empathy. If it was at any other time then he would just be getting out of there as quickly as possible. Instead, the Roegadyn was completely fine with being within such a close proximity. Not even the constant paranoia of Celestia and what she could possibly do was crossing his mind. In fact, he didn't even look directly at the solar princess and disregarded her very existence as nothing more than a pile of dust and only kept his full attention onto Luna as she began to go further into explaining.
*Point of view: Engineer* *Location: Currently on board a train heading to the South*
The heavy wheels grinding along the tracks could be heard from outside of a train car that had a walkway on the left side and a number of rooms along the right that had their doors all closed. The ground was lined with a velvet red carpet and brass fixtures were used for the lighting system and handles that were attached to the doors that ran along the corridor.
While facing in the direction that would lead to the rear of the train itself. The stallion could be seen holding onto the body of a dead female Griffin by the face as the rest of it was being lifted off the ground. There were no visible signs of injuries, but the way it dangled gave the strong impression that the neck was cleanly snapped when the train began to make a slight turn on the tracks as his form remain stationary.
With an unamused look on his face. Engineer said the following from under his breath as he carefully opened the window next to him and stuffed the body out before closing it shut and clapping his hands together to get rid of any dust that got on them. “And that makes number four. A real shame. If they'd only tried to talk instead of coming at me. Oh well~.” He suddenly snapped his fingers as if remembering something and headed down the walkway and stopped at the next to last door to open it up. When he did this. He was able to catch Daring Do as she was lounging back on a reclining bed that had extended from the wall after pulling the back side of the chair down.
A quill and parchment were in her hand to show that she was making a few notes which he presumably thought to be reminders for her future book. After closing the door and taking a seat across from her. Engineer leaned over and rested his elbow on the windowsill to prop up his head that now had a board look. Daring Do raised an eyebrow at him before returning her attention to her notes as she spoke up. “I thought you were looking for something to keep you amused?” The stallion responded after giving a long and very drawn-out yawn. “I did I did. The amusement didn't last me long enough. How long is it again until we hit the next town?”
Daring Do looked up thoughtfully as she started to use the tip of the quills feather to tap on the side of her head before she spoke up after a couple of seconds. “I'd say the day after tomorrow. It will be at a small outpost as we pass the mountains and begin to enter the desert. After that we just have to hold on until we get near the center for another town and we have to meet a contact of mine to join a caravan to head over to the West. You do remember the specifics, right?” Engineer’s eyes went wide as his attention was locked towards what was passing by the train and this made Daring Do give a shake of the head and toss over a couple of papers to him.
Engineer began to look over the lines and a couple of small pictures attached with paper clips on the top to quickly sum up what was to be waiting for them. A couple of weeks ago a number of monsters decided to attack a traveling merchant and their guards while they had gotten lost in a sandstorm. What made it odd was the way the sand was not passing by and staying in the same area for days on end. Eventually, the merchant and bodyguards made it to what appeared to be the eye of the storm which stretched out to nearly a mile and a half wide.
At the very center was an obelisk that shot out from the sand to stand at nearly a hundred meters tall. The top had a point with four sides that barely made it half a meter wide as the base became wider for a total of six. With the sun being directly overhead. It made it easy for them to take in the site of many carvings on the flat surface of varying shapes and designs that were reminiscent of ancient equestrian. They expected it to be made out of stone. But upon closer inspection it was discovered to be made out of a black metal substance that was still smooth as a piece of glass even though it was obviously there for an extended period of time.
Seeing as the storm was not budging an inch and creating the image of a solid wall of shifting sand from how far they were from it after being next to the obelisk. Night soon fell as they recovered their strength and reorganized their supplies before heading out the next day. Although, one of the members took it upon themselves to explore and found a passageway that was just barely big enough for a person to crawl through and tried to find some treasure on their own. This was witnessed by a few others as they attempted to stop the one who went in. Unfortunately, they were too late right as a bone curdling scream of agony was echoing through the hole.
This marked the arrival of stone-based monsters to come crawling out of the shifting sand all around the structure and nearly surround the merchant group after a couple of seconds went by. More than a third of them ended up being killed as the rest made a run for it and escaped only for the fact that the monsters were far too slow to give chase. It also helps that they were hesitant to go too far from their spawning point and this allowed the others to escape by running into the storm. This led to several days going by until the remnants of the party finally made it to an outpost and reported what had happened to the guards.
From some of the partially blurred and shakily taken pictures attached to the paperwork. Engineer could easily see that these were closely resembling that of stone, gold and other such designs that strongly coincided with lizards with bulky midsections that would crawl on all fours. Unlike the service ones he had seen being utilized in the city of Canterlot with streamlined and exact dimensions. These concepts were completely lost on these in the desert. Soon he noticed from the corner of his vision that Daring Do was shifting her gaze towards him and back to her notes at random times. He then sparked up a conversation as he was still going over the paperwork.
“About what happened in Ponyville. Was I really in any danger?”
Daring Do gave a slight pause before responding. “You really don't know, do you?”
“I know all about estrus, but not firsthand.”
“I can't say if that's a blessing or a curse. Well, I suppose it depends on what way you're looking at it. If you're the type of stallion that's into the whole idea of mare's practically throwing themselves at you, then I guess it's a good thing. The real problem is the ones that don't know how to take a no for an answer. Most of us don't even get a chance to be with a stallion for our entire lives and the prospect of one being right there during these instances of intense arousal tends to put us over the edge.”
Engineer raised an eyebrow as he gave his next question. “Just how far is over the edge?”
Daring Do closed her eyes before resting the quill into its holder and placing the paper she was using right on to the table before answering as a grunt of annoyance escaped her lips. “Just how old are you? You know what, never mind, don't even answer that. Sometimes I feel like I'm dealing with a teenager. Okay let's start off with most just become more flirtatious. Then you get the more aggressive types that will hound the stallion almost non-stop. Next are the fanatical that will do just about anything to earn the stallion’s favor. Lastly are the minority that would go so far as to break the law and even kidnap the stallions.”
“Do you mean those Herd Cults?”
“No, those are completely separate. Their instincts completely override their sense of reasoning and become more violent to get what they want. A higher percentage occurs to those that don't have a partner whether it be a stallion or another mare. Common offenses would be locking them up in their house or breaking into the stallion’s residence to molest them. The crazier ones would go so far as to even kill in order to gain a stallion's attention. I don't know if it happened or if it was just a sick rumor that was spread a couple of years back. But a story started to circulate about a family that was nearly wiped out after the middle daughter wanted to get this particular stallion in their home town.”
Daring Do had this concerned expression as she paused for a moment before continuing. “There were subtle differences as it was passed from mouth to mouth. But it basically summed up to the same conclusion. There was a stallion that was just barely hitting sixteen and a family of five which included a father, mother in all sisters. The daughters were infatuated with the stallion that was about to come of age to where they were almost always seen nearby the male. Whether it was in class or out on the streets.”
Her expression became more disturbed as she went on. “No one knew exactly what was the cause to start it all up. But the youngest of the three somehow got it in her head that she was not going to win so long as there were other obstacles. This led to her killing her immediate family members in some sick attempt to be the only one left to be chosen to be the stallion’s mate.”
“Oh damn! That's hardcore loony shit there!”
“Yep. Some say poison was used at dinner. Another has the mare killing them off in their sleep. Another messed up version has her somehow going through an elaborate plan to turn her family against one another and get them to kill themselves off. It just kept getting darker and darker until eventually it turned into accusations of her eating her family in hopes that she would somehow gain all the traits that the male found appealing.”
“That sounds like some chem dealer shit right there. She must have been hyped up on gallons of psycho!”
“What psycho?”
“Oh, it's just a drug that some people take to boost their performances. Anyhow, has there been any word on what else was found out over there?”
“Nothing. Just as it says right there in your hands, the monsters won't pop out until we get within a certain set distance, so a camp has been established right at the very inside edge of the eye of the storm. We can get the necessary equipment at the final stop and we'll have no choice but to hoof the rest of the way once we get close to the storm. Flying is going to be impossible so I'll be grounded.”
“Expecting any competition?”
“It's ME we're talking about. Of course we're going to run into somebody that I know who wants to take my head for one reason or another.”
Engineer snickered to himself while turning his attention away from Daring Do before saying, “Only your head huh? If it were me, I take the whole thing.” This earned him a hard hit to the side of the head by a red velvet pillow that had just been tossed by Daring Do with a loud huff. While giving out a laugh and going through the trouble of peeling it off of his face. Engineer got a glimpse out of the window of some shiny reflective object that was approaching the train at a similar speed from within the air. With a murderous glint behind is now happy expression. The stallion got up from his chair and started to exit the cabin when Daring Do called out to him.
“Where are you going now?” He had already stepped out and was in the middle of sliding the door closed when he replied with one simple saying with a carefree attitude. “We're going to have dinner soon, right? So, I'm just going to stretch my legs and work up a little appetite. Don't wait up for me if you're feeling a little peckish.” Yet as he was only a few inches from closing the door the rest of the way. Engineer could just barely make out Daring Do saying something along the lines of, “Stallions... can't live with them and can't live without them.”
And with that, Engineer quietly walked to the tail end of the train while whistling a little tune that was strongly reminiscent to something that would be playing on the radio back at the Commonwealth. He even went so far as to pull out the rifle that Brex had given him to get the weapon all set up. Even though it was big enough to require two hands to aim properly. The gaming mechanic of this world allowed him to wield it with one hand. Which meant he was able to hold on to a second item in his left. This turning out to be an exact replica of the machete from his other world and crafted using the alloys from this one while he was using the workshop in the mountains.
The only difference was that he intentionally engraved a symbol of skull and crossbones, while also incorporating a slot for magical crystals to be placed in thanks to an example given by his friend’s items during their last get together. Eventually, he found himself at the Connecting Point between the last two cars and raised his machete up to his eyes so that he could view himself in Its reflection. Within the blink of an eye his entire body was enveloped in flames and burned away his form. This exposed his burning skull figure with empty socketed eyes staring straight at him from the blade.
With a strangely smooth yet demonic voice. He said the next bit with a whimsical tone that did not match his current appearance quite well. “Just got to love it when they give you some pre-dinner entertainment!” Then he started to give off a noticeable sniff from the air before he continued and caused his skeletal jaw to twist into a disturbing smile and continued before slamming the door open and closing it just as fast after entering the next car. “They better be livelier than the last bunch.”
The scene then shows the last car as a handful of winged Flyers were filing in one after another through the last door being held open. There must have been at least eight Griffins wearing some black outfits that were comprised of cloth and painted armor that would allow them to be stealthy while flying. Every single one of them was wearing a set of goggles with a green tent. This meant that they all had night vision and did not require any of the lights within the car to be lit to move around freely.
When the last came in and the door was closed, did one of the members yell out in frustration. “HAY! Who lit the lights?! I'm going to pluck every single feather off of your body and use them to tar and feather you all over again!” Frantically, one of them ran to the burning light to try to extinguish it, but released a startled scream when that one found out that it was the flaming skull of engineer in his transformed state after rounding a stack of baggage. This prompted half of them to pull out miniature crossbows that were modified to have an automatic reload cartridge underneath and they began to fire multiple shots into his body.
Engineer would have been seen grinning at this if he had an actual face to do it with as the miniature bolts became halfway lodged into his body. Small flames jetted out from each one of the punctures to envelop the rest of the protruding items within a matter of seconds. Eventually he had more than thirty sticking out of his body and this only added to the amount of light being produced and illuminated even more of the baggage car. He then thought the following to himself as he nonchalantly held out both of his arms to look down at his body and then back up at the rest to shake his head slowly to show his disappointment.
“If this is the best they got, then I'll be lucky if they last more than a few minutes. Also, I kind of feel bad for the person that has to clean up this train because of me.” From his perspective. Engineer could practically see the evil auras that were being produced by each of the others in the car with him. Going off of their bodies framework, along with the tail and protruding beaks that were covered up with masks that obviously were equipped with a filtering system. It was easy to come to the conclusion that this was a group of Griffins.
The demonic engineer began to make an inward hissing sound as his chest slowly expanded. The flames that were originally escaping his body were now being sucked in through the holes along with the metal bolts one after another. He then threw his head back for but a second before arching himself forward and opening his skeletal jaw to produce a reign of burning red hot bolts towards the group in a widespread. In a way, it was no different than unloading a wide spray with a shotgun and this hit every single one of the combatants in varying areas.
When a bolt did not miss and hit either the floor, walls or ceiling of the car. It was the Griffins who were being incapacitated after having one of their limbs be struck. The unlucky ones were either hit in the forehead, neck or main body with enough force that the projectile was either lost within their bodies or went right through to hit the far wall. A couple lost the use of one or both wings. While others were disarmed after getting struck in the arms or legs. Of course, it all ended up with them laying on the ground after dropping their weapons and writhing in pain. Regrettably for them, the moving train was making it nearly impossible for anyone to hear anything that was going on from within the last train car and their screams for help were falling on deaf ears.
One attempted to hobble away as both arms were paralyzed after getting hit in critical areas above the elbows and shoulder blades. But before she could even get close to the back door. A burning chain came out of nowhere that had apparently snaked its way around some of the Fallen comrades and wrapped around her right ankle and harshly pulled her into the air and straight for Engineer. His transformed gun was held straight ahead to impale the extended blade through the skull and allowed the body to just limply hang off of the weapon as the legs dangled just an inch off of the ground.
The gun barrel itself was already preoccupied as a glowing red-hot chain was slowly being pulled inside and produced a subtle clanking of metal until the last of it escaped down the chamber. When looking over to his hand that was holding on to the gun. One could just make out the remnants of the chain coming out of the handle and snaking its way up his arm and to position itself back to going over his shoulder and chest no differently than a snake that was returning to its owner. Apparently, it had been slowly released during that little display of violence and was ready to snatch the first one that tried to run away after exiting the gun that was still pointed at the ground at the time.
As for the one that was still on the blades edge for his gun. Engineer slowly maneuvered his arm so that her head was brought closer to his own. As the rest were barely able to watch what was going on due to their injuries. A chorus of horrified screams came all at once when they witnessed him opening his jaw and taking a large chunk of flesh and cloth from the upper right arm of the dead body in one quick bite. The clothing was instantly burned away as it floated in the flames and the teeth were already chewing on the flesh that was in the midst of being cooked at the same time from the fire.
He then started to laugh at the top of his lungs as he said the next line with an eager demonic tone as the entire car was being enveloped in flames that gushed out from his pants legs. “Daddy's having chicken tonight! Hahaha!” What came next should have been a part of some horror film as bodies were being burned alive and torn to bits. Some even tried to fight back, but only found their weapons to melt in their own hands after each failed attempt. If one was to watch from the outside and look in from the murky windows that line the cars walls. Then they would have only been able to see the bright lights of flames and the silhouettes of bodies flying with a large figure closely following behind at a casual pace.
The scene then shows Daring Do. Who was already sitting in the dining car further up the train and holding on to a menu as her free hand was aggressively tapping on to the table from feeling impatient towards Engineer’s lack of company. Her mood suddenly brightened up when she caught a glimpse of Engineer coming her way and sitting on the other side of the small booth to pick up his own menu as if nothing was wrong. She then casually glanced just above the edge of her menu before speaking up in a somewhat bored tone. “Didn’t take all that long. Did you find entertainment?”
The stallion then gave her a huge smile with visible pearly white teeth that almost reflected the candles that were set up in the room as he replied with an energetic voice. “Oh yeah I'm good now. Let's see what they got on the menu!” Daring Do gave him a coy smile as she nonchalantly mentioned that there was no meat being served on the train. Although she quickly gave a surprise expression when he made no fuss about it and was mindlessly looking through the section with vegetables and murmuring to himself about what he should have.
Her gaze shifted from left to right to make sure that no one was sitting close enough to hear what she was about to whisper and slowly leaned in with a flat look. “You ate more jerky when I wasn't looking, didn't you?” He retorted to that by putting on a show that he was deeply offended by leaning his head back and placing a hand onto his chest before retorting to the accusation. “Miss! You wound me! I can't help that I'm being made out to be some child that is a super picky eater. I'll have you know that I have learned to accept any kind of dish as it would prevent my demise through starvation.”
Even with hearing what he had just said. The Pegasus’s eyes barely budge as she was still staring intently into his to search for any deceitful traces. After a couple of seconds of silence went by without either one making any movements. Engineer broke down and gave out a loud huff as he rolled his eyes and exclaimed. “Okay fine, you got me! I did eat some earlier before coming to dinner.” This got a smirk from the mare as she leaned back into her chair and picked up her menu with a confident victory plastered onto her face before saying, “Hah! Can't deceive a seasoned adventurer like me. But I do appreciate that you did it away from the dining car. There's no problem on my end if you eat meat, but I'm not entirely sure on how the others would react.”
After giving their orders to a waiter that eventually came by. The stallion looked into his items after bringing up his arm with the Pip-Boy and reviewed what he picked up from his latest kills. There was the following items that were not destroyed from his actions. Six level thirty-eight leather armor, four repeating crossbows with poisoned ammo, eight normal size swords, seven daggers and one note that was heavily stained with blood. Most of which was unable to be made out due to the pouch it was contained inside of to be right next to a large wound that gush enough to seep inside. Although he did make out the gist of it as it gave some indications to the obelisk and making sure that their targets on this train never made it there.
Engineer then regretted that he allowed himself to go a little overboard and not take a prisoner to interrogate. He even went over in his mind about how it was to take that bite out of that Griffin before going on to take out the rest. Right now, it sort of made him feel bad that he enjoyed it back then. If anything, it saved a lot of time on eating if he was just to go into his transformed state and put raw meat into his mouth so that it would be instantly cooked by the time he swallowed it. He then raised an inquisitive eyebrow as he looked down to his stomach and wondered the following as well.
“Wait, if I eat something while transformed into a skeleton... where exactly does it go? Does it vaporize? Maybe I still have some non-existent stomach? I swear, if it goes right down my pants and get stuck in my boots then I'm going to be really pissed off.” He then made a personal promise that whenever he got a chance, then he was going to experiment and take off his boots to find out where exactly the food goes. He also thought about the implications of whether or not he had to go to the bathroom while in that state. And if the answer was yes, then what would the toilet go through when he expelled his bowels? His face even blanched at the idea of ever having explosive diarrhea in the middle of a fight.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 85: Under The Sands. Part 1.
*Point of view: Engineer* *Location: Bone Dry Desert* *Time: Two-thirty in the afternoon. Eight days Later*
Under the blazing late day sun of one of the most inhospitable and life deprived lands of Equestria, Engineer could be seen laying sideways and on his back, while also on top of a camel That lazily moved along the sand. His arms and legs were dangling off of both sides as his head hung so that the world was upside down from his perspective. A long and obnoxious moan erupted from his mouth and trailed for nearly half a minute before Daring Do, who was on another camel and just up ahead of the line of travelers turned her head in his direction to scream with much indignants behind her voice. “Could you please cut that out already?!”
With a board face and eyes that were similar to those seen on the cartoon’s main character, Hey Arnold. Engineer listfully turned his head just enough to look at her from the corner of his eyes before replying in a whiny voice. “But I am so boooooored! We've done nothin’ but ride these camels for almost two whole days and we have bumpkiss! What happened to all those reports about monsters? I was hoping for sandworms or living piles of sand. I've even take a stupid mirage that would make me jump into the sand and swim around like a flopping fish over this hellish boredom.”
The Pegasus was pinching the bridge of her nose as she mumbled the following just loud enough for him to hear over the crunching and sifting sand. “I was hoping that piece of string would keep him occupied for a little longer...” This got an indignant response from Engineer as he threw up his arms in front of himself like a little kid and proclaim the following. “It's not my fault that it broke in half and I lost it! I would have jumped off to find the thing if it wasn't the same color as all this stupid sand! You won't even play "I Spy" anymore. What I wouldn't give for a rad scorpion to just jump out of the sand right now! Even those annoying Scrap Bots with that stupid looping message would make this fun! Yeah yeah, I know I’m a broken record.”
Daring Do then said, “The answers are always going to be bones, sand, sky or clouds! And I don't know what a rad Scorpion or a Scrap Bot is, but I get the feeling that we don't need those around. It's going to get a lot busier once we get through THAT!” That was when she pointed up ahead and there was a rotating sandstorm flowing towards the right. The top of which reached just past the height of the clouds that sparsely dotted the sky.
According to Daring Do, it was so wide that a Pegasus flying at full speed would practically need a half hour to make a complete circle. Just taking a couple of steps in would cause a person to be completely obscured thanks to the density for anyone standing on the outside. This meant that there was a high chance of being lost within seconds if one was to go in without any precautions to be taken beforehand.
Surprisingly enough, there was no crackling of thunder or howling winds as the surrounding area was strangely calm. If anything, one might confuse it for being a glass enclosure with swirling dust floating in a large amount of water with how it barely lost any of the particles beyond the border. Engineer got excited and rolled right off his camel and onto the ground with both his hands and knees with a thud before getting up and making a dash past the group of fifty or so other people who were a part of the caravan to get up to it first. This even got a loud number of cheers from the rest of them as a couple loudly screamed thank Celestia when they realized that Engineer was no longer going to act as a child without any toys to play with.
This only caused During Do to tilt her head down to hide half of her face in embarrassment as the camel she was sitting on was gently ushered to speed up with the use of her hooves kicking its sides. He was just about to rush right in when the Pegasus launched herself off of the camel and swooped down to grab onto the collar of his jacket to stop him just a couple of inches away. Without too much effort with the way Engineer gave little to no resistance. He was dragged off to meet up with the others as a small whimper escaped his lips.
It took them close to an hour to gather their things and to form a group to travel through the sandstorm in a straight line. This was done by attaching ropes and guiding their equipment and camels so that everyone was able to see the person in the front and behind themselves to keep the formation from veering off course. If they were not careful, then they would probably spend way more time with going in loops while within the tornado of sand. Most of their bodies were covered up in wrappings and faces covered thanks to bandanas and goggles. The camels themselves had hoods that would filter out the air and prevent their eyes and ears from being hit with the blasting sand.
Eventually, they made it through and resembled sand versions of snowman upon reaching the eye of the storm. Engineer began to shake himself off no differently than a dog and scattered quite a bit onto the sand and reduced his new form down to half of what it was. Daring Do and the rest of the caravan were in similar positions as most of them were now crawling on their hands and knees thanks to so much of the weight clinging to their bodies. When he turned his head to look at them. He could not help but to imagine Arabian Nights and wondered if any of them were called Aladdin thanks to all the robes and turbans.
When he was done with making sure that Daring Do was okay and attempted to assist with dusting her body off, to only receive a slap to the hands as he got a little too close to some private areas. The obelisk was the first to draw his attention with how massive it appeared even though it was so far away. It seemed as though they were a little off course and the campsite was about a five-minute walk to the right. Makeshift tents of bright colors were set up as fire pits and containers could be seen nearby. Small shops and stalls were already hastily put together to sell their wares to anyone who required additional equipment while on the site.
A large tent could be seen at the center that acted as not only a cafeteria, but a meeting site for any large-scale discussions. The ground itself lacked any vegetation at all. In fact, there were no traces of even dead plants that he himself had noticed during their slow and very boring trudge through the isolated desert. It was almost as if they were inside of a giant box and someone had just poured a fresh bag of sand inside and plopped this odd structure in the center. After taking out the scope for one of his guns to take a look at the middle of the eye for the storm. Engineer could not find a single one of those reported rock-based monsters anywhere.
More so was the climate no longer feeling as though they were in a scorching desert. If anything, it felt as though it was a normal spring day that barely reached seventy-five degrees. Even with the wall of shifting sand being within a stone's throw from where he stood produced no sound at all. If it were not for all the talking of those around, then Engineer might have started to hear that weird high-pitched noise in the back of one's ear that everyone hears when there's absolutely no sources of sound within a room. Daring Do and Engineer joined the encampment and went through the trouble of setting up their tents next to one another and hurried along to the meeting area when an announcement was given not too long later.
There was a large and heavy cat person garbed in vibrant robes and an impossibly large wrapped up turban on his head. If anything, Engineer wondered if this cat took all the bed sheets from hundreds of mattresses and use that for his clothing. Also, how was it possible that his neck did not break with how much weight was on top of his head. Clearly, Daring Do sensed what was going on with him and elbowed him into the sides of his ribs to get him to not stare too much at the gigantic hat and to pay attention to what was going on.
The long and short of the meeting was to go over the ground rules and any updated news that did not reach the outside world. Multiple attempts were made to enter the structure after finding more than one entrance. Yet each one resulted in a failure with either traps or Monsters getting in the way. Skilled adventurers were not on site up until just recently and the number of casualties has plummeted thanks to being able to fight off the unwanted defenses so that everyone could retreat to the safe distance of the camp. Most ways going in consisted of tiny holes that would require someone to crawl on their bellies to navigate.
Some would just barely high enough for an adult to crouch down to half their height. Although there were two entrances that were a good two and a half meters wide and equally as tall on the Southwest and Northeast sides. The only problem with those spots turned out to be the traps and impossible to break doors at the end of what some of the residents would call the death walk. According to them, anyone who even got close to the end would eventually be taken out by the final trap that would always activate after a full minute and a half had passed. The trap being a powerful gas and acidic spray that would eat through both flesh and metal within moments.
Spikes, blades, moving stone walls and what is described to be countless small creatures that resembled scarabs would come out of almost anywhere to try and devour anyone who was not paying attention as a large swarm would come rushing out of the walls or floor. A few of these did get disarmed, but at the cost of a handful of lives. Engineer looked over to his right and was watching how Daring Do was keeping most of herself covered and only allowed her eyes to be visible. He also could not help but to look at where she was staring so intently at. Which just happened to be a group of mercenaries dressed from top to bottom with thick black that were on the far side of all of those attending.
He then carefully nudged her as he whispered the following so that the pair could have a quick conversation back and forth without getting anyone's attention. “Is it someone you know?”
“Not too sure yet. I've learned to trust my instincts and it's telling me that we need to watch out for that group over there.”
“Sorry that I can't really zone in on those. This place is so tightly packed that it's one giant crock pot of evil vibes. It’s taking pretty much everythin’ I got to not go all hell raiser on their ass’s.”
“The last thing I want you to do is to go and do your whole fire and Tartarus performance while in such a big crowd. They're probably from one of those big outfits that gets hired to go on these trips. But it won't matter as we are going to get to the treasure first.”
“Do you really think there's treasure in there?”
“Are you kidding? No one's ever set hoof in that place. I don't exactly know why it is that this structure hasn't been seen or noticed by anyone up until now. Otherwise, this whole storm would be common knowledge to the locals. It's not as if it just popped up out of nowhere.”
“Hmm, maybe it did just that? Who knows. By the way. I know nothing about ancient equestrian writings.”
“I've got that covered. Years of travel and attending college on ancient civilizations tends to come in handy in this line of work. After all you're talking to a mare that can speak up to five tongues fluently.”
“Do you know I find that hot? I’m just thinkin’ about how you can use those five tongues in a certain way.”
This clearly flustered Daring Do as she gave him a hard shove to shut him up as the meeting was coming to an end. Although he was beginning to feel a little unease with how so many were dressed up to resemble mercenaries. A majority of them even sparked a couple of images of the thugs and bandits that he would have to run across on a daily basis back in that Fallout world. Well, there were even a couple of Minotaur’s thrown into the mix that wore heavy plated gear that slightly resembled power armor with how bulky their frames were. This of course brought on memories regarding the Brotherhood of Steel and other such competing factions.
Soon, his eyes trailed on to Daring Do and a sinking feeling was slowly forming in his gut while following her out of the tent. Somehow even memories of when he was protecting his companions back in the other world would flash by as his mind wandered after a little while. He soon found himself and Daring Do with an assigned group that would enter from the southern entrance. This comprised mainly of Ponies, a few Griffins and a single Minotaur that wore the full body plated gear. Only a couple turned out to be adventurers as the rest were either there for support when carrying goods or archaeologists that would trail behind and stay out of danger.
Most of their group were around the age of twenty-five to forty at most. Although there were a few that were around late teens and obviously students. The scene then transitions to the group slowly making their way through a long winding corridor with obviously dismantled or destroyed traps thanks to the abrasions to the wall or littered parts scattered on the ground. All being the obvious signs from previous groups. Whenever there was something that would draw the attention of the others. Engineer would quietly whisper to Daring Do on whether or not it was a good idea to go with so many at once when she obviously hated to work in large groups.
She then told him that among the info that she was given from that one meeting with the gangsters, was also some inside knowledge on a couple of the sections that barely got discovered at the time. Apparently, a hidden passageway was right in plain view not too far from the doors that kept everyone at bay. The only problem was that there was a section that was blurred out thanks to somebody placing their finger part way over the lens and she needed to see it in person to figure out how to open it up. Originally, the plan was to come up with some excuse to stay behind with some fake injury and let the others go ahead so that the pair of them could take this secret passage.
He then asked her if she was okay with going through with some underhanded stunt like that and ruin her reputation. But all Engineer got was a roll of the eyes as she made it abundantly clear that her name was not given and she was going under the presume identity of Sandy Flash. This of course sparked is curiosity as he recalled all the times that she neglected to give out her name during the interview and forbid him from saying it out loud ever since they got off the train. He then wondered as to how many aliases she had. In the end, he just shrugged his shoulders as they kept up with the remaining members of the group that did not stop for one reason or another to examine the mechanisms that they all passed.
When the section of the hallway came to a familiar sight. She gave him a heads-up right as she pretended to twist her ankle on a rock and fell over. Although she ended up going a little too far and fell right into Engineer. Seeing this as a great opportunity to play on the sympathy card. It was him who cried out in pain and clutched onto his leg to take on the role of the injured male in distress. As to be expected, he got a bigger turn out then Daring Do would have received and all the females which comprised nearly the entire group aside from the Minotaur came rushing to his aid so fast, that he wondered if any of them were expecting this to happen to jump on the chance to show their chivalrous side.
It took some convincing to send the rest to continue, while Daring Do stayed behind to tend to his wounds as they were traveling together. Although, there were some protests before she made sure to tell them that they would be right behind them. But at the same time, the Minotaur was scoffing at him about being so weak and made some off comment about stallions needing to get a little tougher. That type of talk only got him some harsh glares from the females and he immediately backtracked and pretended that he did not say anything as they all went further down the corridor and right around another bend so that they were out of a direct line of sight.
As soon as the coast was clear. Daring Do quickly got to work and went to decipher the section that they were stopped at while the two started to talk as she was keeping herself busy from going to one symbol to the next and writing some notes on her book. Engineer then said the next part as he was glancing over her shoulder. “You sure this is the spot?”
“Yes, it's right here. There's a quick reference about one path closing in another one opening in its place. If there isn't a passage, then it will at least point us in the right way to go.”
“Okay. Anything I can do to help?”
“No thanks. If I need a demolition crew you’ll be at the top of the list.”
Engineer gave out an annoyed grunt as he leaned against the wall just a little over to the right of Daring Do and crossed his arms for a couple of minutes before he started to speak out again. “What's the verdict?”
The Pegasus was now scratching the side of her head as she was clearly looking at her notes with confusion before she replied. “There's obviously a message as part of the words are jumbled around. I can only guess that it's a code.” Her hand went to one of the symbols on the lower right and was pressing her palm onto it for a couple of seconds before the picture started to go into the rock by a few inches. This was preceded by a subtle amount of grinding and clicks on the other side before she spoke up again. “Most of it makes no sense apart from a few keywords.”
“Okay then, hit me. I'm sure a couple of extra brain cells might do the trick.”
She glared at him with confusion on that before she rolled her eyes and started to read out from her notebook. “Okay this part here obviously asks to give a name... I think. Then the word “Sanctuary” and “Hill” are shown close together.” This caused him to scrunch up his face as Daring Do continued. “Then there's the phrase, last of the fast rescuers. Apart from that, none of the rest makes any real sense and just comes out as garbled sections of words and letters. I'm guessing that's the part that we need to enter the password. But I have no reference to any of these terms that would work here.”
The Pegasus was beginning to lightly bang her forehead onto the stone wall as she kept trying to go over what the meaning could be. “What is this about a Sanctuary, and what Hill? Is it referring to this monument? This was built a long time ago so... I could see it being a hill at the time as the sand kept on rising to bury it. And just who is the last of the fast rescuers? It might have to do with ancient knights. For Celestia's sake! There are no records of any civilizations down here before the three pony races joined forces. Unlike the outside that's made of metal. The stones down here are clearly well preserved and could have been here for thousands of years.”
All Engineer could do was to lower his head as a serious expression came across his face. Without so much is even looking towards her, he said the following. “I got an idea. It's a long shot though. Try putting the following letters. P R E S T O N.” When she was halfway going through with pressing the corresponding symbols. Engineer glanced over and realize that everything was laid out in a particular order to strongly resemble a keyboard for a computer. When the last letter was pressed. There was nothing for a couple of seconds before there was a small rumbling and the entire wall sunk inwards and retracted down to reveal a dark hallway that was just barely large enough for a single person to walk through comfortably.
A torch was in the middle of being brought out of their bags when the glow of crystals sparked to life and illuminated the passageway with a ghostly green tint on either side. From what they could tell. It could have gone nearly fifty meters before making a turn to the right. By the time they had nearly gotten down to the end. The secret door began to close in a matter of seconds and sealed them both inside. Instead of getting freaked out, the pair just shrugged to one another as though it was the most normal thing in the world and continued further down.
The right turn led down a stairway and went on to another long hall of equal length to the first. This went on for a good while as the pair made sure to progress slowly so that they could watch out for any hidden traps. Although they did not come across any before the end brought them to a dark room that was lined with stone pillars. When they went inside. Engineer stepped on a tile and triggered something that closed off the hallway so that they were trapped within a rectangularly sized room that was about eleven meters wide and twenty-five long. The ceiling itself was nearly up to seven or eight.
Multiple glowing stones line the walls and depicted strange events. One side on the left showed towers and many rectangular shaped objects with lines trailing behind them on the ground and in the air. The opposite showed another version where most of it was covered in cracks and pieces broken away to show that's some catastrophe had occurred. On the far wall between both of these murals was a series of connecting round objects on the sides and a mushroom cloud in the center. There was even the unforgettable icon of the atom at the very center of the cloud.
When Daring Do got closer to examine one of the walls for more details. The pillars in the room popped off a few sections along the ground and going to the ceiling and gushed out a continuous stream of sand that started to fill up the room at an astonishing rate. With how fast it was going, the room itself would be filled up in a matter of minutes as the way they came was receiving most of it and flowing towards them and the center mural. This caused Daring Do to scream out in frustration. “I've had enough of sand for one day!” He then chimed in with, “Hay, at least it's not snakes. Oh… I had to open my mouth, didn't I?” Along with the sand came a number of snakes that would slither out of a couple of the holes that were now pumping into the room.
Aside from the two on the left and right. The center was the only one that had symbols at the bottom and they both made a run for it so that Daring Do could decipher what was written. But to their surprise, all that was there, turned out to be a series of numbers that would start at zero and stop at nine. There were even multiple additions of the same one that would appear in a row underneath. She then cried out as she punched the wall in anger. “Don't we even get any kind of a hint for this one?!?!” Engineer called out the following string of numbers hurriedly as he grabbed on to her shoulders and pointed her towards the stone buttons. “Don’t ask, just do! 0 8 2 3 2 0 7 7.”
Seemingly to not want to argue as he already got them through the first door. Daring Do immediately press the buttons in order and started a mechanical whirling sound that seem to be coming from all over the room. Suddenly, a row of tiles fell away to separate their section from the part that was being filled up with sand and snakes. This was only replaced by a stone wall that would come down from the ceiling to isolate them into a narrow section that gave them just a couple of meters out from the mural. This left them both to be an utter darkness as the Pegasus eventually found him and gave a light punch before calling out. “Now what are we-.”
However, her sentence was cut short when there was a sudden feeling of falling as their bodies were beginning to float in the air after a loud rumble was made from outside of the room. This only grew louder and louder and caused Engineer to hold his ears down and flat as their bodies were slowly being brought up to touch the ceiling. This went on for several long seconds before the sound grew even louder and they were slowly brought down so that they could set their hoofs onto the stone tiled floor. When it finally stopped. The wall retracted back into the ceiling and revealed a large hollowed out chasm under the surface of the ground that could have been big enough to fit five or six of the largest football stadiums inside.
The center had an odd dark cylindrical pillar that was easily a hundred and fifty meters wide and stretched down into a hole that could have gone for who knows how long. This was only made unclear as it was too dark to see after it went into a tunnel that was just a little bigger than the pillar itself. The entire thing was slowly rotating with different sections that would go in the opposite direction. Long slits that were just barely big enough for a person to outstretch their arms and touch the edges ran up the length. Between the sections and the open bits, anyone could see a faint bluish light emanating as a low hum fill the chasm.
There were also other structures nearby that resembled odd pylons as jolts of electricity arched between them to create a semicircle and towards the divided sections of the pillar at random intervals. All of which were made of black metal and covered with ancient equestrian writing. Daring Do was gawking at all of this with her jaw dropping and releasing a thick line of drool at what they discovered. Engineer however, went and pulled out his hat from his Pip-Boy and placed it on his head so that he can lean it back and let out a long whistle. He then playfully said, “Phew! Their electric bill must be through the rooooof.”
Nearly a quarter of the way to the left in order to get to the other side, was a facility that took on a Mayan temple theme to it. If anything, it might have just been one side of a pyramid as the rest of it was melded into the stone cavern. Large urn shaped figures that could have been four times the size of a pony were at either side of the bottom stairway. There were also miniature versions that ran up the length of the steps until they reached an archway that would lead into the building. With a nod of his head, Engineer said the following in a sarcastic tone.
“We can investigate the part that could easily go zap zap or the foreboding Temple. I'm up for either one.” Daring Do's answer was to take off and do a quick barrel roll to snatch up Engineer and to fly towards the top of the Temple and right through the entrance. Along the way the pair had to quickly dodge as seemingly random bolts of lightning nearly came close enough to knock them out of the air on more than one occasion.
What they found were more symbols carved on every surface as they went through one hallway and set of stairs after another that would lead to the lower levels. Various rooms were explored and found many oddly shaped contraptions in disarray. Some of which were made of the same black metal from outside, while others were crudely fashioned using copper ore. Engineer even found some tools of odd designs that he was having trouble with making heads and tails of when it came to how they were meant to be used. Some designs included can opener shaped sticks and what could only be closely resembling an ice cream scoop with one of those pressure buttons to cause the icy confection to come off.
Some of which were clearly powered at one point or another thanks to a tiny crystal that long since lost its brilliant shine of energy. There are even lumps of stone that were halfway through the carving process to be made into arms and legs. Another room was filled with panels of black metal being suspended by chains. One side would have the ancient Equestrian writing, while the other showed intricate lines that ran in a similar manner as those seen on a computer chip.
These would range from just under a meter in length to as wide as a person. When it came to the lower levels. They even found some decayed remnants of decomposed paper that was laying on top of a stone slab. What made it stand out even more among all the rooms was how there was only a single chair when all the others did not show anything for a person to sit on. Upon realization by this point. Engineer even recalled how so much of the furniture was just a little too high to be practical for a pony to stand at and work on their projects.
Aside from the stairways. The rooms would elevate and drop as ramps were seen all over. Obviously large items were meant to be brought in and out, yet it made no sense as to how most of the equipment was meant to be transported from the rooms themselves. Upon closer inspection of the slab. Some utensils for eating were located after Daring Do carefully used her wings to blow centuries upon centuries of dust away without doing much damage to the surrounding objects. When they did not find anything else and moved on to what they thought to be the last room at the very base of the temple.
All that was within the living room size chamber was a single device that jetted out from the ground. It was only a little taller than Engineer and a couple of feet across. At the midway point, they could see that something resembling a smooth orb-like protrusion that was being covered by a thick layer of dust. After running his hands over the surface and finding it to be as smooth as glass. A faint blue glow began to emanate and fill the room with a weak level of Illumination. Suddenly, multiple panels of projections were opening up to obscure the object.
Most would continuously flicker to show nothing at all aside from obscure and broken images that could barely be made out. Other showed segmented drawings that closely resemble the tower that they saw rotating in the middle of the underground facility. Daring Do started to point at one of the windows that depicted a line drawing of the obelisk from the outside. It even showed a grid pattern that extended well past the range of the storm which was being highlighted by moving particles of light. Just within said storm was a large cluster of yellow dots which they both assumed was the base camp.
When the Pegasus mare touched the screen. It caused it to shift to show only what was underground and displayed a network of confusing tunnels that would zigzag all over the place just underneath the surface. Although, there was just one shaft that was leading straight down and into where they were. Judging from the scale and the additional shaft that was located in the middle and going even deeper. It was easy to see that the odd pillar was going down deep enough to reach close to ten kilometers deep. Engineer waved his hands over the screens even more but much to his disappointment, he got no new relevant information.
Upon putting his hand back onto the crystal. There was a low rumbling sound as a section of the wall opened up after going up and into the ceiling to reveal yet another passage. They both peaked their heads to look within from either side of the entrance and found that it was too dark to see anything. Daring Do brought out a torch and quickly lit it up before stepping inside. When the flame was in full swing and she started to turn in place. The mare released a startled yell as she pulled out her knife for combat when something was close enough to nearly bop her in the face.
The knife was swung and all that happened was a loud clang and a few sparks to be produced as the weapon fell out from her hands thanks to how hard the object turned out to be that she attacked. Engineer already pulled his gun out and took aim and was about to pull the trigger when he paused and noticed that it was just a statue of a pony. From its positioning, it looked as though it was a stallion in mid-motion of stepping back with both arms held up to try and cover its face. A few cobwebs littered the room and attach themselves to it, while decayed bookcases littered the very edge of the torches light.
Even their clothing looked as though it was from over a thousand years ago thanks to the style. A thick robe covering a tunic and baggy pants were shown. The sleeves for the robe itself was all bunched up to indicate that they were just a little too long for the arms and had been rolled up halfway between the wrist and elbows. Once Daring Do picked up her knife and silently examined the statue in more detail along with Engineer. An emblem with the letters “M.A.” were visible within a shield.
This caused her to go wide in the eyes as she immediately exclaimed the following in clear disbelief. “T-That's the old crest for the Magic Academy! The very same one that was started by Star Swirl the Bearded and a handful of Unicorns when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna came to power! Engineer! This Pony must have been petrified when Princess Luna was banished! This is huge. Not only did we find out what's underneath the obelisk. But we even found a fully intact petrified stallion that survived so long without getting damaged! Hold on... if he's here... then does that mean the princess already knows of this place’s existence?”
Engineer pointed towards the statue with his right-hand thumb as he spoke up. “There's one easy way to find out. Why don't we ask him?” At the same time, Engineers freehand was already holding on to a Golden Needle between his thumb and index finger with a mischievous grin on his face as it was hovering dangerously close to poking the stallion in the butt. Daring Do screamed out the following as she grabbed onto his arm before he made contact.
“Are you out of your mind?! Uhg... okay I know I just walked into that one. What I mean is, I don't think it's a good idea to just wake up a stallion that has been petrified for a millennia without a plan in place. Engineer raised an eyebrow to this as he answered. You want answers. I want answers. And he obviously has 'em. Just let me give him one little poke.”
She tightened her grip before retorting. “Absolutely not! Think of the culture shock. Deep underground in an unknown environment. We also are not sure as to what all of this down here is for. I think it would be better if we explored before we make any hasty moves.” He then leaned in to look her Square in the eyes for a couple of seconds before he said, “You just want to see if there's any treasure you can put in your pockets before we wake this fella up. I'm right, aren't I?”
Daring Do’s eyes were laser focused onto his before a bead of sweat formed on her brow and she began to drift her gaze off to the right. It was during that moment of hesitation when Engineers arm was let up by the lack of pressure for her and he went right ahead with poking the stallion with the Golden Needle.
Daring Do caught on to this and gave him a dirty scowl while all Engineer could do was to give a big innocent smile while saying the words, “Oopsie, hand slipped.” The result of making contact with the petrified stallion was the stone beginning to crumble and fall off at a surprising rate. Once most of his body was uncovered and only the limbs were left. The entire stallion slumped back and fell the rest of the way and onto his back with arms and legs sprawled in awkward positions. The collision with the ground even knocked off the rest of the flaking crust that covered what was left of his body and scattered across the edges of the room.
There was nothing but silence as they stood side by side and leaned over the stallion’s head that was being partially obscured by their right arm and started to whisper the following to each other. “Look what you did! He's dead.”
“Hey! You can't blame this death on me. If anything, he was already gone before we even got here. I just helped him fall over.”
“And I told you we should have waited.”
“Well, if he's not going to tell us anything, we may as well go through his pockets.”
“I can't believe you! At least have some respect.”
“It's hard to give respect to a person you've never even met. Besides, how do we know this wasn't a bad guy? Do you know how many movies there are that have the villain coming back to life after the protagonists wakes them up?”
“What is a movie?”
“Really?! Okay I need to tell you about-.”
The pair was interrupted by a series of coughing and wheezes as the person underneath them attempted to talk in a weak voice. Said voice came off with an English accent that was known to be associated with the nobility of Canterlot. “*Cough!* *Cough!* I yet still breathe! *Cough!* My word! *Cough!* Out of so many possibilities, the sound of a bickering married couple did not even occur to me as the first words I would hear. *Cough!* I can give you the name of someone to talk to about your marital problems. Blah! The taste of dirt is not leaving my mouth.”
Daring Do quickly took a couple of steps away from Engineer and angrily pointed at him while screaming. “W-We a-are not… NOT a married couple!” With the evilest “Grinch Stole Christmas” grin now creeping onto his face. Engineer acted as if he was having a heart attack and stumbled onto his right knee while shedding crocodile tears. A hand was brought up to cover his face as he gave a very convincing whale of agony as he said the following. “So true! She's always been like this... she still won't let me sleep in the same bed with her! *Sob.* I've never laid a hand on her and she always tries to punch me... I'm not even allowed to kiss her when we're alone!”
A loud gasp of clear disbelief escaped the robed stallion as he got to his hoofs and tried to dust himself off quickly. With the top part of his face being covered up by the hood so that only his mouth was visible. The unknown stallion stepped right up to Daring Do with both hands on his side before speaking up in an authoritative and deeply disappointed voice. “Milady! Is what he says true? To treat your husband with so much disrespect when he is suffering so much to break down with such swiftness is outright deplorable! I know not for how long I have slumbered for our society to decline. Mind you, I will not stand for the outright abuse of one’s spouse!”
The Pegasus found herself leaning back as her ears were now tightly pressing down on the sides of her head all on their own. She even started to stare between the hooded stallion and Engineer in a quick succession as she attempted to raise a finger to speak on her behalf while in shock of the sudden predicament she was placed into. However, she did not get a chance as the stallion straightened up and allowed two points to slightly lift to indicate that he was raising his ears from underneath the hood. He also turned his head from left to right quickly. He then said in a confused tone while holding up a hand to his right side to aid and hearing something. “Pray tell, what might that be?”
As the pair were beginning to imitate him. The stallion quickly moved past the pair and into the previous room. Seeing that he was on the move. Both Engineer and Daring Do followed close behind and witnessed as the stallion was fiddling with the strange device and causing multiple windows to flash both in-and-out of existence. The stallion then said the following as his voice was shifting from both being excited and worried continuously. “Oh no-oh no-oh no-oh no! Come on girl, what's wrong? This can't be right! This over here is definitely not right! I dare say that I do not want to believe that this is right! Oh, wait never mind, this one's okay! Whoops my mistake! it's not right either! The fluctuations in the magic field have risen far too high to be normal.”
But before any questions could be given to find as to what the stallion was going on about. The pair found themselves chasing after him yet again when he dashed down the hallway with surprising speed for someone who had been fossilized for so long. When they were outside of the tomb and stood at the top of the steps to look at the chasm. The stallion reached up and grabbed onto the sides of his hood before letting out a startled scream. “Oh my, oh dear, that is not meant to happen! No way, nope! Absolutely not!” From where Engineer stood. The electrical arches were only growing in frequency as they struck from each towering pylon to the next.
There were even a few powerful discharges that were shooting from the large hole that was going into a deeper level that was definitely not there before. The stallion turned towards them and started to point at Engineer, Daring Do and then to himself as he called out. “You the crying one, you the mean one, and I are heading down there right now! Keep up! Also explain. Tell me all that has transpired since you all arrived! Hurry now, for we have little time to spare.” As they were zigzagging through what appeared to be a literal maze that line the bottom floor when approaching the whole. Daring Do attempted to fill the stallion in.
This included the sudden appearance of the storm and strange obelisk within the last month or so. The strange carvings and secret passageway. The riddles and mode of transportation to get down to where they were. All of this leading up to the moment that the stallion was unpetrified when they found themselves to be standing at a rectangular shaped cube of stone after several minutes went by that was at the end of the maze with no roof and was about three meters tall.
The whole thing was probably big enough to act as a garage for two cars by the size of it. Even with it standing out there was one more thing that that caused Engineer to wander as to why they were there. That just so happened to be the fact that there were no markings or grooves to show that it was anything but a piece of stone that was probably left behind from construction.
Engineer watched as the stallion rushed up to it and ran both hands frantically along the surface until a small hole was spotted at waist height. The stallion then started to ruffle through his robes with the sleeves being the first. The area for the chest was second. When it appeared that he had not found what he was looking for and was in the middle of pulling down his pants after lifting up the bottom of the robes. The sound of a metallic object clattering could be heard as it rolled a couple of paces away from him and snatched up quickly upon pulling his pants back up.
He then gave out a triumphant cry as he began to fiddle with what appeared to be a thin cylindrical object with a blue crystal that was the size of a thumb affixed to the end. The object was then firmly grasped in his right hand and pointed towards the hole. Nothing happened after a clicking sound was produced and he started to bang it on to his other Palm to produce an odd set of sounds of electrical pulses that would flicker to life with long pauses of silence.
While in the middle of getting his tool to do its job. The stallion then said angrily, “Ooh please still have a charge! The stasis caused by the petrification should have contained the residual energy enough to prevent a full drain of the darn thing!” After a few more tries and the sound becoming constant as the crystal began to fully light up. The stallion gave a loud huzzah as an unseen door was displayed and opened up to reveal yet another elevator to lead down to another layer built below.
When they got in and the door sealed up to disappear without leaving a single trace of the grooves again, they felt the room rumble to signify their descent. The wand-like device was then held straight up and produced the same sound from before. This made the grinding from outside that’s started off slow to increase in speed as a result. The stallion began to mumble to himself while walking back and forth along the length of the elevator just loud enough for the pair to be able to overhear.
“We just need to think about this logically. The magic field on the exterior has been pushed out due to a lack of containment. Of course, the rock and dust that was coding the outside was expelled and revealed the internal structure hidden underneath. Hence the storm that has been manifested. All the entrances are still intact as isolation procedures have been followed. There's also the matter of the monsters which coincide with the frequency oscillating structure and magical signatures regarding the earth-based creatures I have witnessed before. Reasonable to assume that they have been augmented into taking on new shapes as to adapt to their new wellspring of magic.”
“It would also explain as to why they don't leave a certain area of effect. This is no different than an animal that cannot go any further than their chain would allow. As for the secret passage, I do recall there being another entrance that I was unable to open after many failed attempts on the southern side. Hmm, obviously an alternative route was utilized to arrive down here. Judging from the buildup of dust and disarray of all my equipment, I can roughly estimate that I have been asleep for no less than... Hmm, I want to say six hundred years. I do recall that I charged the crystal on my tool just before the whole incident transpired.”
He even rambled about a bunch of other nonsense that was just barely recognizable as most of it turned into a quick paced and extremely longwinded monolog that went on for almost a solid five minutes before the doors open and he ran out so quickly that it nearly left and after image of dust between Engineer and Daring Do. As they were forced to follow again after the unknown stallion. Daring Do could not help but to comment on his strange behavior. “The fella sure likes to talk a lot, doesn't he? Most ponies that recover from what he went through usually are laid out in the hospital for weeks.”
Engineer gave a quick laugh as he responded as they were now running across a catwalk being suspended by an unknown design as there was nothing connecting to it from above and only a massive glowing white surface that was hundreds of meters below. “Just goes to show that stallions were a lot tougher back then. Hey heads up. I think we’ve found what he's all upset over.” Up ahead in the distance was a massive flat platform made of metal and glowing pieces of rocks on the underbelly. The entire structure could be seen wrapping around the pillar that would have the end plunging into the massive white light down below.
If one was to take all of the buildings and roads of a town such as Ponyville and went through the effort of placing it all over the platform. Then they might have barely filled up a good two-thirds of it. The platform itself had many pulsing lines running along the surface as numerous shapes of moving objects were littering all over. Soon Engineer can make out what he presumed to be ponies who were wearing decrepit and falling apart pieces of armor. A majority of which were simply wrapped up in faded white bandages from top to bottom while shifting around slowly in awkward stances.
Large Beetle creatures and bodies of shifting sand that took on a Pharaoh's head and large detached hands on the ground could be seen in the mix. Among these were large Giants that were so tall that Engineer was nowhere close to being as high as their knees. Said Giants were mostly naked aside from a scrap of cloth to cover their privates. Even with their muscular forms, the rib cages and abnormally sunken in stomachs portrayed them to be extremely hungry. They even had some variations with large stomachs and one humongous eyeball over their jagged tooth lined mounts. Some were unarmed while a couple carried large clubs that almost made up their length in height that placed Engineer’s head just a little past their knees
Over towards the right side of the platform, was a strange creature that was just a little more than twice the height when compared to the Giants. It was very thin and dressed up in gold as rapping made up the rest of its clothing. In each hand were impossibly long and decorative sorts made of gold and black metal. It was apparently holding said weapons at either side and towards the air as arcs of dark lightning shot out from its body and into a swirling purple vortex of smoke that grew increasingly darker towards the center.
In the same fashion that garbage might come tumbling out of a tube that was being forcibly pushed from the other side. A number of creatures tumbled out and onto the platform before spreading out to join the rest. With the way everything was positioned. The two dimensionally flat portal was between the monster and the pillar. As one side of it was being attacked by dark lightning. The opposite side was having the same done as white and blue streaks were being pulled from the pillar. This sparked all of them to begin to yell out to one another as the stallion picked up speed.
“I feared they were on the move! I knew full well that it was just putting a bandage over a wound.”
“Oi! How about you start answering our questions?”
“Yeah! Do they rule this tomb?”
“Ha, they wish! The description of pirates is more befitting! They appeared with no warning and spread as quickly as the plague. Also, my dear! Please do not refer to this magnificent structure as a tomb! The technology housed within these very walls are far beyond anypony’s full comprehension! And yes, I do include myself in that statement.”
“Sweet! Definitely decades if not centuries ahead of everybody else and Equestria. Honestly, I’ve seen more complicated stuff meant to be a child’s plaything back home.”
“Everybody? Quite odd. I see the language has progressed and much has to be relearned if I am to reintegrate to society when all is said and done.”
“For being from ancient Equestria, your way of speech is not exactly what I had expected.”
“Ah-um! Thank you… I suppose. Contribute that to much studying and research to this brilliant structure of intertwined engineering and magic. I dare say that I speculate there is an energy field that stimulates one synapses and brings along some unfounded knowledge that I have yet to fully comprehend. Notions that boggled a mind would come and go as an autumn breeze for one moment and then a raging storm the next with epiphanies that would Astound most scholars until the end of their days. Oh, my apologies. I seem to have started to ramble!”
The stallion pointed over to the twin sword monster as they were approaching the platform at a full sprint and continued. “I utilized a tiny sliver of magic from the reservoir below us to interfere with the portal being created in the past. It was fine tune to cause harm to anyone aside from my own self after taking in my passive magic into consideration and using that as a reference point to adjust it so that I would be left unharmed. There was an ensuing pulse that destroyed most of the monsters and caused a stasis effect on the stronger ones. Alas, one of the creatures followed me up top and used a spell just as the wave struck.”
“Why not do it again and cause another explosion and wipe them all out at once? By the looks of it you got so much magic you could probably set a huge explosion that would tear this place to bits. I bet you could probably see it from all the way in Canterlot and be needin’ some sunglasses at the same time, Ha!”
“Ah, but that right there my dear fellow is the tricky part! I was under great constraint and in my haste, I only got the bare minimum requirements down to execute my plan. I would have already done so yet again if it was not for the terminal being significantly eroded due to the lack of neglect. I am rather ashamed to say that my last action may have caused many of the connectors to be severed and remote access is no longer possible apart from the low tier settings. Even so that is a huge number of monsters and that I am only one earth pony. What else was I expected to do?”
The Stallion then turned his hood so that he was looking at the two of them from over his shoulder as he continued. “Why your husband here is brimming with energy. I know not what the power is but it could contend with that of the princesses. Surely such a powerful knight would be more than equipped to handle this pretentious rabble that dares to desecrate this holy site of learning!”
Daring Do took flight so that she was able to land right in front of the hooded stallion only a few dozen meters away from the platform and screamed the following so loud that both him and Engineers stopped at a skidding halt. “HE’S NOT MY BUCKING HUSBAND!!! GET IT THROUGH THAT THICK HEAD OF YOURS!!!” The loud yelling from her caused every head on that platform to quickly turn towards them so fast that there was innumerable cracking of bones from the zombie like creatures.
There was an odd sense of silence that fell for a few seconds before one of the gigantic Cyclops Giants used one of their clubs to point forward and give its own roar of battle to the rest to start charging into their group. She then turned to the two of them and gave a forced smile as she said, “Okay that was on me!” While holding on to a flat expression. Engineer turned his attention over to the other stallion that seemingly mirrored his mouth perfectly before turning back to Daring Do. Then both him and the stallion said the exact same thing in pretty much the same pitch and tone to make it come out as a form of surround sound. “We need to talk later on your anger issues.”
A number of the zombies and mummified corpses were now running at them so quickly that they were practically on top of them within seconds. Daring Do pulled out her pistol and began to offload all of her bullets as fast as she could and reloaded thanks to a handheld device that would slide six new shells when the old ones were ejected. Engineer did the same with his rifle and substituted his offhand to hold a second one that was made to mirror the first. To save time on reloading. A magazine clip was installed so that he had a good thirty rounds before needing to worry about ammunition.
The undead creatures fell after a couple of shots were taken and limbs became nothing but dust after getting blown off by a well-placed bullet. The ones that did not fall and lay on the edge of the walkway would end up stumbling to fall off the edge and into the vast white sea of energy below and disappear. Not even a full minute had gone by and over several dozen corpses were now piling up to create a wall just a little higher than their own heads that the rest had to crawl over. The hooded stallion was holding his head from the loud noises of gunshots to call over to the pair. “Might you have other means of dispatching this rabble? We're running rather short on options as that portal gets bigger!”
Engineer called over his shoulder as he was already working on his third clip in both guns. “How much collateral damage can I do?” The stallion then reached over to one side of the railing to lean as far as he could to look past the pile of dead bodies and replied after a moment of hesitation. “Try not to hit the large cylindrical object spinning at the center and leave enough of the structure for us to stand on! Avoid hitting the crystals underneath or we shall all plummet down to our imminent demise!” With a malicious grin growing on his face, Engineer gave a loud laugh before saying, “Okay, no hitting the important stuff. everything else can go bye-bye! Daring! get behind me!”
As she took to the air and did a flip to land behind Engineer. The two guns were put into his Pip-Boy and replaced with a pair of small tube-like objects. Both were brought up to his mouth as he gripped his teeth onto a set of pins and yanked the items away before spitting the two pieces from his mouth. The objects in his hands were then tossed towards the pile of bodies a moment later. This resulted in the massive pile of bodies by now to be blasted away and reopened their path as a number of other zombies were taken out by the concussive force of the twins set of grenades going off.
As more grenades were chucked onto the platform. Engineers screamed out the following in a crazed manner befitting a psychopath that was having the time of his life. “Easter Bunny's here and I'm all out of chocolate! Don't worry, I got something else that can knock those teeth out! I'm sure glad I could use grenades~.” From behind, he could just barely hear the stallion asking Daring Do what the Easter Bunny was and only got a confused grunt of annoyance from the Pegasus. Meanwhile, the weapons would soar over a number of the enemy's heads and clatter on the ground before their feet.
Some that had not been able to see what they had done to the ones up front were curious as one of the zombies picked it up and allowed a number of them to come closer to look at the strange contraption. Even one of the Cyclops and normal Giants leaned in so that they were practically on one knee when it finally went off and erupted in a fiery explosion that either rip them apart or cause severe burns that would lead to their death. Seemingly to understand what was happening. The rest of the monsters began to charge as even more were being blown to bits. Engineer would scream things such as, “Batter up and who's next” as he transitioned to taking on a baseball throwing stance on a few occasions.
It was at these times that he would actually throw a grenade that was fashioned out of an actual baseball. Even one of the cyclops’s with the club ended up hitting one of these baseballs as it randomly swung and caused it to prematurely explode and take out its entire side that was facing towards the weapon and fall on to a number of zombies to destroy them in the process. Engineer laughed at that one and called out that they had one down and two to go as all bases were loaded. He did all of this as though he was some announcer up in the stands of a baseball game.
He even saw that there was an indicator on his Pip-Boy when he glanced at it in the middle of another throw. This made him realize that he had gone up another level and procured his second free point to put into his stats. He could even hear the stallion from behind as he was yelling over the explosions to who he presumed to be Daring Do. “Your husband is quite lively, isn't he?! It would just be fantastic if he could tell me where he got those toy’s.” This caused him to turn and catch a glimpse of daring dew who was in the middle of holding herself back from strangling the Stallion that had his back turned towards her.
Close to a third of the monsters were already taken care of and Engineer would have continued with throwing more grenades to finish them off. However, his stash was quickly dwindling with the constant use and he suspended that idea when there was a sizable free space on the platform that could be taken. Now that he no longer was restricted to the catwalk. Engineer ran up and occupied the space.
The smaller creatures were all pretty much taken out of the fight and this only left the larger ones which consisted of Giants, Living sand creatures and Scarab Beetles the size of a two-person Beetle car. Seeing as this was a good opportunity to rake up the experience points. Engineer ran forward and pulled out from his Pip-Boy a new weapon which consisted of a light brown baseball bat with barbed wire wrapped tightly on the end.
His body erupted in flames, much to the dismay of Daring Do who called out to him to stop. Once the transformation made its way over to his weapon and engulfed it in a heavy torrent of bright fire. What came out of it was an oversized bone with hellish glowing glyphs and both dark and silver spikes that covered everything down to the loosely wrapped handle that could easily be gripped by both hands. In a loud demonic tone laced with a sick amount of amusement. Engineer said the following while giving a few quick swings of the giant bone and creating a heavy gust of wind that caused a number of the enemy to buckle down from the pressure.
“Now this is a Swatter. Moe would have sold his own mother to get his hands on this.” His attention was then brought to the creatures as he threw it over to rest on his right shoulder. Engineer then proceeded with taking on a ready stance and holding it out as though it weighed nothing to him and screamed out to them. “The Commonwealth says Hello!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 86: Under The Sands. Part 2.
*Point of view: Third Person* *Location: Underground, the obelisk within the area known as the Bone Dry Desert*
The scene continues from when Engineer readied his transformed baseball bat and went into a charge towards the horde of oversized monsters with the weapon already primed to swing as the huge object created sparks from being dragged along the floor until he was in range to strike. One Giant Beetle turned out to be the first to be in his path and is immediately struck with a sideways swing right as the creature tried to take a bite out of him with its mandibles. A mixture of clicking, crunching of shattered pieces of exoskeleton and a disturbing screech was emanated as the creature was sent flying and broken into large chunks.
As the bug was sent straight to his left-hand side and over the edge of the platform. The transform stallion made a tongue clicking sound of annoyance as he mumbled the following to himself and struck another that was coming up from behind for a sneak attack and sent it on a similar path without so much as looking over his shoulder and just swinging the bat. “Shoot... that's a foul ball. Hey you! Just wait your turn!” This triggered the rest of the monsters to start swarming him from every angle aside from the walkway. At a first glance, anyone would assume that he was pretty much done for when the horde of bodies was flowing with no end in sight.
Although, this was quickly overturned when a multitude of the creatures were sent flying to reveal Engineer going into a self-imposed spin out to swing the bat in a repeating three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn. This was followed up with long sweeps to take out the creatures that were more of his size and alternating to high jumps to crush the two different species of Giant’s heads in with but a single hit on the top of the skull. There was one instance where he had just landed and one of the skeletal resembling Giants was ready to come down with one of their clubs that was clenched in both hands after swinging high above their own head.
Engineer’s skull slightly twisted into a disturbing grin as he leaped off of the ground just enough to allow enough clearance for his bat to do an upward swing and strike the giant right between the legs. This caused it to release the club and let out a bone chilling girlish scream as it was sent flying into the ocean of energy after bouncing a couple of times from the platform. He then landed and turned around to catch four of the one-eyed Giants in various poses after releasing their own weapons and expressing clear dismay at what had happened to one of their comrades.
This was shown by one holding on to their crotch and crisscrossing their knees, while the next three were doing the whole act of either covering their eyes, ears or mouth. Engineer even made a sly comment as he took a few practice swings to approach the group. “Eh, I should start calling this the nutcracker.” This was immediately followed with him giving out his own roar and charging into the fray once again to either send more to their doom by falling or being crushed by the impossibly heavy object that he was swinging with little effort. There were times he had to dodge a couple of lucky swings and bites that would just barely graze his leather jacket.
In one instance. Engineer brought up the bat and blocked clubs that were coming at him and stunning the Giants as his feet slid along the metal ground by a couple of feet before digging in and warping the metal with deep grooves. This only went further after pushing away to give him some room to move and sending the pair into the next wave that were coming up right behind those and to give off a sound that gave a similar impression to what one would get when getting a strike in a game of bowling.
As the sounds of roaring, thuds and squelching of bodies rang out from the battle. Daring Do and the hooded stallion were keeping their distance as the Pegasus took pot shots at a few of the stragglers. Luckily for her, Engineer went through the trouble of fashioning a sizable quantity of bullets for her personal use before even starting on the trip. But even she knew that her ammo was going to eventually run out sooner rather than later with how she was going through them with how so many were charging and not giving any indication of letting up in the immediate future. The stallion then commented as he was keeping a close eye on the activities as his voice was filled with both bewilderment and excitement.
“Milady, when has the art of transformation been perfected for the Earth Pony race to utilize? It is common knowledge for Unicorns to have magic and Pegasi to have the ability of flight. There was the speculation with Earth Ponies having internal magic that would affect their bodies to give increased physical strength and endurance. But in all my years I never dreamed of such a drastic alteration to one's appearance. When the question presents itself over his weapons transformation however, an explanation is exceedingly difficult to put together. Might I ask-.”
The hooded stallion’s question was immediately put on hold when Daring Do grabbed onto his shoulder and forced him to step a few inches to one direction so that she could shoot a zombie that was attempting to sneak up on him. She then gave out a heavy huff to blow a strand of hair out of her face before calling out to the stallion to let off a few more rounds. “Should we really be focusing on that more than what's going on over there?” She was apparently gesturing with her free hand between shots at the creature manipulating the strange rip in reality that was only contributing towards replenishing the monsters ranks.
And started up a conversation as even more were being shot down and the stallion was continuously moving out of the way as to not obstruct her vision thanks to some awkward movements on his part. He then replied with an embarrassed tone after giving a quick cough. “Oh uh yes quite right. There will be no end to this fight if we do not do away with that troublesome portal. I speculate that the creature is mostly drawing on the power provided from this facility. It would be very difficult to maintain a spatial anomaly that would allow so much mass to pass through on its own. Its own magic must be acting as an anchor point. If we can somehow manage to disrupt the flow enough then it should collapse under the strain.”
“And how exactly are we meant to do that? It's not as if we can just go up to a switch and flip it and it will somehow fix this entire problem.”
He nervously chuckled as he responded and pointed in the direction of the portal. “Actually, uh… there is.”
“Huh?”
“There's a section of the flooring that has a removable panel right behind the portal. If I can get to it, then I could figuratively flip a switch and sour the milk so to speak. The only problem is the army that currently stands between both us and our destination.”
She then glanced over to Engineer who was in the middle of fighting one of the sand creatures. It was currently in the motion of reforming itself after being smashed a couple of times. It was at that very instant that Engineer began to breathe a heavy stream of fire from his mouth and heated the sand enough to turn it to glass and shatter it for a final time before she replied to the hooded stallion. “If you were to ask me to do this a couple of months ago then I would have said you were crazy.” She then called out to Engineer and pointed towards the large Pharaoh creature with the swords that were sending the black lightning towards the portal. “We need to get over there!”
Having caught on. Engineer gave one more kick to the crystallized monster and sent his bat away. What came next surprise not only the hooded stallion, but Daring Do as well when a strange contraption appeared out of nowhere. This turned out to be a heavily modified vertibird Gatling gun. The front was a fixed with a set of sharp blades that could act as a brutal drill when the barrels started to spin. This weapon then took on a more demonic structure as the top and bottom became covered with the upper and lower jaw of a dragon skull.
Everything was made of either black metal or silver. When Engineer pulled the trigger and caused it to begin its revving up process. A loud screeching sound was made as the gears roughly started to grind and produced a nearly endless stream of sparks to fall onto the ground. Without any form of belts to be feeding the bullets, along with the cartridges dissolving into smoke after being ejected. The weapon sprayed down so many shots as he waved it back and forth from the left to right, that many of the creatures that found themselves in its path were mowed down no differently than a field of wheat after glowing hot projectiles ripped right through their bodies.
Some were already dead as their lifeless carcasses were becoming shredded to pieces with additional shots. Those with weapons attempted to raise them up for some manor of defense but found it to be a fruitless effort as the projectiles ripped clean through their clubs. The exoskeleton and old pieces of battle armor shattered without any problems. Even the flying monsters were no match as they were taken out of the air without them even being given a chance to launch their own counter-attack. All the while, he was changing up his voice to sound eerily similar to the heavy gunner from Team Fortress. “Hahaha! Whaw whaw! Cry some more!”
(Play this for the clip of the heavy gunner from Team Fortress.)
The hooded stallion opened his mouth as if to ask Daring Do a question. But the mare saw this in time and rolled her eyes before saying, “Just don't... don't ask. It’s just how he is.” Then they followed closely behind Engineer as the entire circular platform was being cleared as they proceeded towards the portal. In the meantime, the one that was seemingly in charge was funneling even more lightning to cause the opening to become even bigger and allow a greater number of monsters to come pouring out and scramble to attack the group as a clear response to their numbers being dwindled.
A mixture of roars, clattering, squawks, thumping of steps and flapping of wings filled the air. Now there were rectangularly shaped stone heads that would grind along the ground and shoot beams of magic from their eyes being thrown into the horde of monsters. But even these got eventually whittled away as bullet after bullet chipped at the stone heads until they crumbled to dust after a matter of seconds of continuous fire. Soon they were within a hundred meters when Engineer was no longer able to fire his weapon and only went into a loud spin thanks to eventually getting to the point of running out of ammo. By which, the tips of the barrels were glowing from being so hot that they were past glowing red and going straight to white.
After letting out a grunt of annoyance after shaking the weapon a couple of times to make sure that there was nothing left. The large weapon was put away and he brought out his machete and rifle that took on their demonic forms instantly. While getting ready into a crouched pose to leap into the rest of the monsters that had not been persuaded to give up. Engineer called out to the others without tearing his attention away from those in before him. “Get a move on, I got the grunts.” And with that he charged ahead with his sword swinging and gun taking some strategic shots at some of the enemy’s heads while making a loud roar cry that shook the very air to gain their attention.
Daring Do was about to turn to tell the hooded stallion to get a move on. But she was surprised when he already was running in front of her and towards the back side of the portal without any hesitation. She then took to the air to catch up quickly and noticed the awkward running stance the stallion was taking. Apparently, with his right hand holding on to his hood to prevent the air from causing it to lift. His left was busy going through his coat in search of an object and clearly did not notice a beetle that was charging right for him on the right side.
She took it out and was about to reprimand the stallion when she caught the site of yet more monsters attempting to get him as he fumbly zigzag from one to the next. Then she started to think to herself about how unawares this one was with his surroundings and she needed to constantly keep an eye on him or he would have died already. When they finally got to the panel. The stallion was undoing some locks to lift it up with the help of the same device that was previously used to get the elevator running. The mare was heavily panting as she was giving him a dirty stare that could have burned holes straight to the back of his hood after how much work she had to do in protecting him.
She then took a quick glance and saw how Engineer was having the time of his life by slicing through some monsters while shooting others in where she assumed to be their brains or hearts after getting close enough to stab the bladed end of his gun through their flesh. Even went so far as to alternate and replace his pair of weapons with what first were large red boxing gloves. These took on the demonic shape of animal skulls with sharp teeth as he continued to demolish his opponents with a continuous barrage of furious fist-based attacks and swipes.
Faces were bashed in and teeth sent flying. Others were hit so hard that the demonic gloves literally went straight into their chests and stomachs so that the teeth could rip out the organs as he pushed off and went right into doing some backflips. A few of which were simply sent flying into the pillar to be electrocuted so much that they were turned into charcoal within seconds. When Daring Do saw that last part. She instinctively took a few steps away from the pillar as the hooded stallion gave a not so impressed “meh.” He then said, “Oh, ah... it completely slipped my mind. it's best not to touch that. And you may not want to fly close to it either. That is unless you want to know what it's like to get hit with pure magic and have every cell in your body to be fried down to a subatomic level.
Daring Do literally did not understand what he meant aside from getting fried. But after hearing that and seeing the result from the few monsters that were thrown into it. The Pegasus was only slightly more disturbed by how nonchalantly he said it. At last, the final lock out of a total of five were undone and the pair work together to lift it out of the way to expose a bunch of strange crystals being connected by a series of glowing lines etched into the metal.
These lines pulsed with white, red, green and blue lights in combination with the crystals that corresponded to those distinct colors. There was one spot with a circular design that had a handle that spanned nearly three and a half feet long. It also had some words of ancient equestrian written that said, “In case of emergency, turn this lever.”
The Pegasus who was now kneeling next to the stallion slowly turned her head towards him with a dead pan expression as she pointed to it and said, “Really?! We're just supposed to turn this and it's going to fix everything just like that?” This got a confused head tilt from the stallion as he innocently responded. “Hmm… Yes, yes it is, why do you ask?” She then pointed with both arms stretched out towards the lever and loudly explained with clear disbelief in her voice. “It cannot be as simple as that!” Without warning, the stallion used one of his hands and placed it on top of her head to make her turn and tilt downwards to look at some additional words printed just below in a smaller font.
She then angrily started to read them out and progressively turned into a whisper near the end. “In case of the following emergencies this is to be used under. To cut off a potential overload to the power flow… Or to prevent an artificial portal to be opened through siphoning the core. Okay... that is oddly specific to our situation. Who even plans for this to happen? And how did you even know this was here?” The stallion started to scratch the back of his hood while looking away in a shy manner before he responded. “I… Hehehe… may have studied here for a couple of years and poked around a little out of curiosity.”
With that out of the way. The pair reached down and gripped onto the lever and pulled as hard as they could until it made a quarter turn. There was a loud number of clicks until it ended with a booming thud as some mechanisms locked in place. What came next was a shift in the colors in their surroundings as all of the pulsing lights turned into a bright cherry red. An ominous hum quickly started to build and the energy being siphoned to make the portal turn more erratic until the strands broke free to cease the siphoning of energy.
With it no longer being fed by additional magic. The portal itself fluctuated as its size shrunk and expanded so fast that it clearly caught the giant monster off guard and nearly made it stumble. At the same time, the imbalance caused its own power to be redirected and this eventually sent it backwards to fall onto the ground while letting out a muffled yet dry roar from behind its mask. As this was happening, the hooded stallion grabbed onto the edge of the panel they had removed earlier and lifted it so that the piece of metal could act as a shield. Daring Do saw this and assisted to brace it up right as the portal shrunk to the size of a quarter and released a powerful concussive force in the form of a black colored wave when it went critical.
They were unaffected as the metal fully resisted the energy. But the other monsters that were nearby turned out to be nowhere near as lucky as they were literally sent flying as the wave passed them all. Engineer was even affected as he used the teeth like protrusions from his gauntlets to stab into the ground in order to hook himself in place. Even the flames on his head were nearly snuffed out to that of a few burning embers for a couple of seconds before reigniting to its blazing glory.
This was when one of the sand creatures who flattened itself just in time, took its golden opportunity to attack him before Engineer was able to get back to his legs and snuck over by dissolving its body into its small components so that it could rearrange and grab on to him after rebuilding itself back up just as it surrounded engineer. The sand ran up along his legs and built up so quickly that it already had a firm grip all over in a matter of seconds.
He was about to break free when another one joined in and combined their strength to hold the stallion so that he was immobilized and unable to fight back. Engineer attempted to use the flames from his mouth to crystallize the sand. But the creatures learn from their comrades’ mistakes and bent his back so that he was forced to face upwards just enough so that is fire breath could not do anything to them. Engineer was then forced to do nothing but to thrash about as to loosen the sands grip. A pull on either direction did nothing while his body was getting slowly crushed by the mounting pressure as the two sand monster’s heads were looming behind him.
A few shots of a pistol were heard right as multiple ricochets were made as bullets bounced off of the metal mask only a few seconds later. These came from Daring Do as she was already in the middle of reloading her pistol to take aim once again. Unfortunately, a pair of zombies snuck up on her and tackled the mare to the ground and cause the weapon to fall from her grip so that it would slide towards the hooded stallion. The weapon was just about to be picked up when he too was attacked by one of the flying creatures that swiftly came in from above and grabbed onto his shoulders to take flight after giving out a startle yell
Daring Do was attempting everything she could to fend off her attackers. The one in armor was mostly holding her down as the one wrapped up in bandages was making many attempts to lean in so that it could try to take a bite out of her face as it was on top of the first zombie and having a hard time in doing so. The hooded stallion was screaming from being roughly tossed into the air and grabbed by his legs by another flyer before being tackled from its grip by a third and sent to crash into the ground and forced to tumble near the edge of the platform so that is right arm was dangling over the side.
Engineer increased his urgency to be free. But the sand was only shifting to cover him more tightly and only left his neck and head exposed. Already, the feeling of Bones within his body being pushed enough to bend and give off the sensation of shattering was evident in his mind. A frustrated demonic roar was released as he made the flames on his head grow stronger. This caused some of the sand around his neck to crystallize as it was superheated. Yet this was nowhere near enough to cause the monsters to let go. Even the apparent leader that was still being affected by the backlash of power was beginning to stir as visible lightning sparks were being given off of its body.
It was not until he got a good look of Daring Do as she used one of her arms to guard her face and everything felt as though it had turned into slow motion. The wrapped-up zombie bit down and sunk its teeth past her clothing and caused a small spray of blood to exit the wound near her elbow. Even his sense of hearing was being drowned out by nothing but the sound of his own fire as her mouth was open to produce what he thought to be a silent scream.
The eye sockets for his burning skull contorted to display his horror for a couple of seconds while the flames dimmed. All the strength he had was quickly being sapped and any care as to being crushed flew out of his mind. Daring Do was still grappling with the zombies as her arm was not released. A couple of the flying types swoop down and landed and started to approach the unconscious hooded stallion on all fours. Flashbacks filled Engineer's mind of instances where he would be suddenly ambushed by ghouls. A few of which had him and his companions fighting them and keeping them at bay.
A few would have a scene where they would be in a similar position to that of Daring Do where they would be pinned down and the middle of being mauled to death. He started to think of a couple of his companions that he would travel with. Soon, the face of the Synth who went by the name of Curie popped up. The recollection of her first experience of being attacked after taking on a humanoid form filled him with dread as she had never felt such a strong emotion such as fear for her life until after leaving a robotic body that felt no pain.
Even though Curie had no idea of what was happening to her body as it reacted to the situation. Engineer was able to see pure and real fear on the girl's face as she called out for help when they were suddenly ambushed by a pack of rabid and severely mutated hounds that belong to super mutants. A sense of despair filled him up to the point that he was about to explode. But then he heard her voice as the mare called out while fighting through the pain. “Engineer!”
The overwhelming sense of helplessness was swiftly exchanged with unbridled rage that felt strangely similar to when he was on that one airship. As he threw his head back and screamed at the top of his lungs. The flames that were being emitted from his neck grew in such intensity that they were easily able to reach several feet up into the air. After what felt to be an eternity of roaring, the sand along his body quickly transformed from the amount of heat he was emitting and shattered to reveal himself to be in a slightly buffed up state when compared to his typical frame.
Although he only continued to let out another roar as he was still on his knees. One of the Giants moved in position to swing his oversized club and tried to smash his skull in. But when it came into contact, the weapon broke and sent a wave of fire to run up and consume the Giant. It took less than a few seconds for there to be nothing but a pile of ashes and a few scraps of remanence for the club when this was done. The chains that were wrapped across his chest spring to life and whipped out quickly as to slash any monsters that were within range cleanly in half without slowing in the slightest.
The two zombies and flying monsters were taken out almost instantly thanks to the chains automatically adjusting their course in midflight. This only left cleanly severed bodies with burning marks to fall lifelessly. Most of which were taken out and only left a handful of survivors that were just barely out of reach, or those that avoided a deadly hit and only took either some light or receiving very severe damage. These range from lacerations and a loss of one or two limbs. The boss himself raised both of the large swords and stabbed them into the platform to act as shields when the chains showed that they were going for him. Even if he suffered no damage as a result from this act. The weapons themselves showed slash marks that nearly cut straight through.
Daring Do rolled onto her stomach after tossing the remnants of the zombies off and gripped on to her bleeding arm to stop the loss of blood as she searched and consumed a healing potion before turning towards Engineer. She then said with an astonished voice, “Oh BUCK!” He slowly raised himself up and exposed that he now had an array of neon green flames along with a flowing tail that was giving off sparks of fire near the tips. His Pony skull was even slightly altered so that it was halfway between that of a stallion and a human's. The canines were more pronounced as they became almost twice as long and sharp enough to draw anyone's attention to them in an instant.
There was an eerily calm and loud breathing coming from Engineer as he squared off against the boss in an aggressive stance. The chains themselves were halfway wrapped around him along the waist and crisscrossing to act as a harness. All the while hovering along either side to take on the appearance of snakes ready to pounce. This was only made more apparent as the green flames danced along the chain and formed actual heads of snakes that gave off a loud burning hiss. In response the boss pulled its weapons out and gave a wide swing through the air and this prompted the remaining monsters to charge in.
If one was to blink then they would have missed the following to occur. Those that came from the left and right were either slashed apart or rapidly impaled a number of times by the chain before returning to their previous position. The ones that came from directly behind were hit by his extending tail. Once his tail passed through their bodies, all that came out of it was blackened skeletons that crumpled as burning green embers remained in a few spots. At the same time, Engineers skull showed no twitching as his gaze remain transfixed on the boss that took an unsteady half step back with its right leg after seeing what had transpired.
After a moment of silence. It seemed to have mustard up its courage and started to attack Engineer from a distance by firing some dark rays of energy after crossing its swords. The knuckles from before, along with his arms were wrapped up with the two ends of the chain and he brought them up side by side to guard himself. Engineer was left unharmed as a result from blocking. But the same thing could not be said for the platform behind him as it was left with a deep gouge that ran clean through. The floor beneath him started to give way and the chains unravel themselves to reach out and pierced another area so that Engineer was pulled to a safer location.
The whole thing would have been an exact copy of one of Spider-Man's enemies called Doctor Octavius if he had four chains acting in tandem to emulate the robotic arms. Thanks to how he was being held up in the air. Engineer would have been seen as flying if it were not for the burning green chains that could be seen from quite a distance. The monster took a wide slash and sent a crescent shape energy attack to only be caught as his green flamed covered hands gripped on to it and only sent him back a few meters before his strong grip caused it to crack and disperse the power into the air.
That was when he used the position he was in to pull forward and launched himself to go in for an attack of his own. It tried to do another swing with its right sword in a downward strike, but instead, it was parried by a powerful uppercut after Engineer’s hand was covered with a chain once again. The second sword was grabbed onto with the other and Engineer was sent into a fast arc swing after the monster realize what he was trying to do and tossed the transformed stallion towards the pillar.
It was thanks to the way he was flipping in the air and close to the platform that he was able to grab on to the edge and swing underneath with his left hand before coming into contact with the highly charged mass of energy. He then anchored the ends of his chain into the glowing crystals underneath and continued to swing a couple of times before coming up on the other end and resulting with him launching himself high into the air. Without his opponent even realizing where he was. He sent away his gloves and took out a sniper weapon and took careful aim while still being sent right over the monster.
The weapon began to morph in show segmented plates along the thin barrel that was mostly something that would be associated with a person's spinal cord that had been straightened out. The end of the scopes lens itself was replaced with a bloodshot red slitted eye, and the shoulder rest resembled a demonic clawed hand that strangely flexed to fit his shoulder perfectly. This is when the special ability of the Pip-Boy kicked in and he slowed down time to use all of his available action points to fire the following shots with a ninety-five percent accuracy rating.
This resulted in five perfect headshots to hit in one targeted spot and puncture through the golden mask and create a big hole Just between the eyes. It took three to make the indentation and shatter the protective gear and allowed the last two to go straight into its skull. This got a deep voice to scream out in agony as red flakes of powder began to shoot from the wound instead of blood. Both swords were swung at random and struck the ground a couple of times to do some structural damage while stumbling back and towards the pillar on the monster’s heart after getting hit with such an effective attack.
It took less than a second for Engineer to see that it was about to fall onto Daring Do, who was barely able to get back up and he started to shoot another two shots towards its right knee. Thankfully enough, this was able to cause it to slouch towards the direction that it no longer had any support and lean away from the mare before going over the edge. The wailing it made progressed for a couple of seconds as it went out of sight and Engineer continued his falling until he landed just a couple of meters away from the mare and drop down onto one knee before his color scheme reverted to normal red and orange flames.
(Stop the music here.)
This was followed with heavy breathing as the transformation reverted even further until he was back to his normal self. Engineer felt that he was completely tapped out and nearly fell over by the time Daring Do came to help with holding him up after putting his right arm over her shoulder. He gripped onto his head with his free hand and began to let out a drawn-out moan of pain as the rustling of noise could be heard from the hooded stallion that chose that moment to regain consciousness and walk over.
The stallion then said while holding on to the side of his head and being slightly wobbly in the knees. “This pain reminds me of when Foust was in one of her moods... Highly respected and level-headed. Yeah, I dare say that she can be rather impulsive when the need strikes her for some.. how you say, private time with her mate. It is because of her that I have a fear of standing too close to walls.” Engineer looked up at him with a very amused look before asking, “Ha, and just what was it she did to get you to feel that way towards a wall?”
The hooded stallion began to awkwardly laugh as he turned slightly to the side before replying. “I was walking by the throne room and got caught in the rubble that fell on top of me when she decided to have one of her... moments.” This only made him feel more confused as he glanced to Daring Do for any answers. She appeared to be racking her brain as she tried to shrug before saying, “I think there's a rumor that the mother of our princesses would have some weird urges to run through the castle. However, it's just folklore.”
This got a boisterous laughter from the hooded stallion as he tried to hold on to his ribs that apparently was causing him some mild discomfort after letting out a few winces as he spoke up again. “Oh my dear! Those are completely founded. I indeed for one bore witness to when she would have these strong Alicorn mating urges. You would not believe how much the stonemasons back then made. In a few years’ time they could even afford their own small castle with all the sudden orders for repairs.” It was Daring Do who spoke up next as she looked around confusingly. As engineer was fully invested in what the Stallion was saying with a growing curiosity for details.
“As fun as it would be to hear more on what the old queen did… I could have sworn there were more monsters around.” This not only caused Engineer, but the hooded stallion to glance and realize that they were left all by themselves when there should have been nearly a dozen or so various creatures that avoided his rampage. He was just about to say something on the matter when the cavern started to release a loud and strange bullhorn siren. The lights on the ground that were originally blue and turned to red thanks to the efforts of his companions were now shifting to that of a bright yellow. This then prompted Engineer to speak up as he looked around confusedly.
“What in sam hill is goin' on now? What I wouldn't give for an auto save and a chance to go get something to eat before working on the next level.”
“Oh-no-no-no-no-no-no! Not good, not good at all! This cannot possibly be happening! This was what I was intending us to avoid.”
“Stallions... just get a hold of yourself already! So the lighting changed and there’s a loud sound. It can’t possibly be that bad.”
“You don't understand. Right now were set in quarantine. That is why no pony is able to get in or out of here. All of this means that it's gone to the next stage!”
Engineer asked after giving a slow look over to Daring Do for a second before giving his attention back to the hooded stallion. “And just what is the next stage again?”
“That would be decontamination...”
“So what? We're going to take a bath? Honestly my mane could really use it after getting all this sand stuck in it.”
“My dear, you really don't understand the severity of our situation. Once the decontamination process is triggered, there is no way of stopping it. The internal sensors must have picked up on something very dangerous and this entire complex is going to be hit with a deadly amount of magic.
“Uh, what exactly do you mean deadly... are you talking about…” That was when Engineer pointed over the side and towards the glowing white sea of physically made Magic underneath their very hoofs.
This got a hesitant nod from the hooded stallion as he replied. “All of that is going to get funneled up and wash over every inch until there are no living organisms left alive. Anything living or dead when it comes to biological organisms will be completely expunged to where there will be absolutely nothing that remains to show that they had even existed.”
Engineer had this unamused look as he stared off at nothing before saying, “We killed the bad guy. What else is there?” This turned out to be the cue for a low rumbling to shake the platform as a loud moan was picked up by their ears. Soon one of the swords of the boss could be seen coming up and swung down to stab into the platform. This was followed by the second. However, they were far apart and Engineer began to wonder if there was more than one creature. But much to their horror, that was not the case as the culprit was revealed in a matter of seconds.
The reason why the two swords were stabbed so far apart was because of the boss now taking on a new form. Ribbons of flowing white energy could be seen going up and connecting to its body in several places. Its form was outstretched to where it was now more than several times its original size. The golden bits of armor that protected its body were partially melted thanks to the white-hot flames that erupted from its bandages that were barely able to cover up its new growth. The chest now had a sideways mouth filled with gold and jagged swords to take on the impression of a mouth that ran from the base of its neck and all the way down to its stomach.
Pieces of cloth were unraveled and moving around wildly. Some of which were holding on to some of the missing monsters and moved onto shoving them into the grotesque mouth to be devoured one after another as they all screamed in agony from what was apparently a slow death as the teeth punctured their bodies over and over again before being absorbed. This was only proceeded by it beginning to convulse as large mounds of flesh grew within a matter of seconds on its shoulders. This ripped away more of the bandages when another pair of spider long arms were created to be equal to that of its original set.
The mask it had on was broken to show its left side. This revealed a fully decomposed face with a sunken eyeball deprived face and a sickly red light was staring straight at the trio. Golden teeth were evident as they were chomping away so quickly that it started to emit a loud non-stop chattering. It was only made more gruesome as small tendrils of wrappings were coming out of the ears, mouth and eye sockets and making a gesture to grab anything that came close. As the body continued to get bigger from the influx of magic. Engineer spotted that the darkened skin that was just past the flames was taking on the faces of those that it apparently just ate.
Said faces were all dark and covered with pulsing veins while letting out screams of agony that went on in a loop. By now it had turned from a pharaoh type silhouette to that of something similar to that of a spider. Soon the new arms reached for patches of burning flames and gripped on to the energy that was being expelled by its body and pulled on it as though it was a tangible item. These soon turned into a set of glowing white sickles and gave a few swings that kicked up a large amount of wind.
From there it then used these to swing down at them and narrowly escaping by the skin of their own teeth after leaping off to the side. The platform itself took some severe damage from the sickles digging in to the metal and even more as the monster pulled sharply to free its tools after realizing that it had missed. The entire platform began to shake and ever so slightly tilt towards the monster that was just to the right of the catwalk. Without showing any signs of caring whether or not it was causing too much collateral damage. It did the same yet again a few more times with similar results.
They all just managed to escape each one of the strikes as it was easily telegraphed. Everything started to tilt even more to wear the catwalk was slowly beginning to rip away and give off some warping metal noises. The hooded stallion pointed towards the elevator and screamed out that they should make a run for it. But as they were getting close, Daring Do released a yell. “Look out!” Her concerns were validated when the monster decided to do a long sweep with one of its swords. And it would have hit them too if it was not for another sudden growth on its right side just below the rib cage, which caused the arm on that side with the sword to swerve off course at the last second.
Engineer then said the following as they continue to run as fast as they could in their current worn-out state. “Just how much is that guy going to grow?” While seemingly out of breath, the hooded stallion replied as they finally made it on to the catwalk before it became completely detached so that it was being suspended in the air. “It's feeding constantly. Huff! Even though it is adapting, the amount it's taking in is far too much to metabolize. I am honestly dumbfounded as to how it is able to keep itself from literally imploding from the vast amount now being stored within. By all rationality, any normal life form would have succumbed within a matter of moments.”
Daring Do had to grab onto Engineer as he was beginning to lag behind as she screamed towards the hooded stallion in clear frustration. “Enough with the talking and more with the running!” They were practically halfway across the catwalk when the boss decided to try and chase them right as the platform began to tilt far enough so that the other end was grinding along the pillar. This caused large chunks to break away while making other sections explode from the pillars discharge. Soon there was a gaping hole right where a large section disappeared into the vast ocean of magic beneath and the monster was now gripping onto the catwalk with its legs and weapons while crawling at them at a surprising speed.
Engineer pushed Daring Do off from himself and stood at the back of the pack after seeing that they were not going to make it to the elevator before it caught up to them. He then pulled out the fat man launcher and checked that it was loaded with the system containing six miniature nukes and took aim after crouching down onto one knee. He then yelled, “You like to suck on magic, right?! Then how about you try sucking on this you sorry sack of shit Mummy wannabe!” That was when he pulled the trigger and fired the mini nukes that flew straight towards its face and detonated upon impact.
After the explosion gave off a cloud of smoke along with raining bits of the monster boss. Engineer found himself nearly pushed on to his tail from the concussive force of the blast and began to hear the slow clicking of the rad's meter for his Pip-Boy. After a quick glance he found it to be of low levels and was thankful that he fired it as quickly as he did. Otherwise, he would have been worried about the others being in range and end up getting radiation poisoning. The only reason he was sure of that fact was because of them standing more than a few meters further away after seeing what he was about to use.
The section of the catwalk was undeniably ripped to shreds as the monster could no longer be seen. Engineer was in the middle of getting ready to laugh about how easy it was to kill it with just one shot of a fat man when he was roughly pulled up to his legs by the hooded stallion. He was in the air in such a way that his knees were partly bent and both hooves barely pressed on to the ground before the hooded stallion began to ask a million questions so quickly that it went over his head. It took a little help from Daring Do to pry the pair apart and remind them of the countdown before that place would kill them all.
The scene then shifts to all three of them being back inside of that one building with the control device within one of the lower rooms. The hooded stallion was doing one thing after another for a couple of minutes before one of the screens showed an additional exit route that led at a horizontal slant. He then said, “Ah-ha! The main shaft that would lead to the surface is currently blocked off and the bypass route that you took is only a one-way trip down. This right here is our only option.”
Daring Do examined closely the diagram and pointed out the following as her finger was carefully tracing the straight line that was going away from the whole structure. “I see the large space here, but why does this go for what I think is almost twenty-five kilometers?” The hooded stallion then replied as he caused the picture to rotate and display the route to take on a tube shape that was about three meters wide.
“Presumably an emergency evacuation route. Now if you will excuse me, I will need but a moment before departure.” The stallion then ran over to a bookshelf and started to grab whatever he could when it came to paperwork that survived and placed it into a wooden crate that could be carried with both hands.
After a little bit, he even started to grumble to himself. “So much has been ravaged by time. If there was only a little more before the countdown than I might be able to get a charcoal impression of the glyphs again.” After hearing this. Daring Do approach the stallion and gave a serious expression as she asked what he was talking about. He then brought them to another room that was hidden behind a push style wall that Engineer and Daring Do did not notice from before on the opposite side of the room. Within was more drawings and inscriptions that seem to overlay themselves for a half hazardly manor.
With clear disbelief growing in Daring Do's eyes that soon sparkled. She stepped forward and started to run her fingers over the inscriptions and called out to Engineer. “Hey! Where's that camera I asked you to hold on to?” Engineer then brought out the old-style flash camera that she had lent before stepping off the train and handed it over to her after a couple of seconds went by with him going through his item list on his Pip-Boy. As soon as she got it, the mare went right to work with taking one photo after the next of every nook and cranny of the room. This included not only all the walls, but even the ceiling and floor by the time she was finished.
The hooded stallion was clearly confused as to what the device was meant for after getting inadvertently blinded once or twice by the bright light that caught him off guard. When Engineer mentioned that it was capable of capturing images for pictures to be made later on. The stallion was practically drooling as he was making comments under his breath about how much he wanted to take it apart to learn its inner workings. Of course, this came as no shock as such an item never existed back then.
But the way Engineer could just make out a subtle blush, along with heavy breathing and drooling was only making him feel a little worried for Daring Do's camera and wondered if this guy had a fetish for technology. When she was finished and handed the camera back to Engineer for safekeeping. The trio made their way over to the section of the complex with the escape route and Engineer found it to resemble an oversized container with multiple seats that would be a part of a pressurized air tube delivery service meant for a large building.
There were four rows that could take two people in each. The stallion took the first row, while Daring Do an Engineer sat in the second set of seats. The third was loaded up with the crate full of materials. Unlike everything else that was primarily made of either rocks, dirt or metal. This one was comprised of a metal band that would go around in sections as the rest was made of a glass material. They were even some firm, yet still soft cushions for the seating that apparently survived the years thanks to the inside being sealed in an airtight state.
The hooded stallion called over his shoulder for everyone after pulling on one of the smaller levers and caused the tube to light up. “Please sit down at all times and keep your arms and legs within the ride at all times for your safety. Also watch for tails as they could get caught in the hinges. Trust me on this. It happened to me and it is not enjoyable in the least.”
After a couple of seconds, the hatch was one large piece that swung open so that they could climb in on the left. A lever in the front seat was pulled to start the process and lower the reinforced glass cover. Engineer believed all was going to move smoothly from that point on and reclined in his chair with his arms locked behind his head for some relaxation for the next couple of seconds before takeoff. However, the Pegasus sitting next to him was grumbling about having to leave so soon.
The wailing of the sirens was so loud that it made it almost impossible to communicate without having to yell at the top of their lungs. Engineer closed his eyes for merely a single instant before getting rudely shaken by Daring Do who pointed above. It had not crossed his mind as to what she was upset about until something collided with the half-closed cover and caused it to slam down the rest of the way hard enough to cause the entire capsule to rock back and forth a couple of times. It was thanks to this that the sound of the sirens was muffled. But was replaced with a loud choking and gagging noise from the front that drew his attention.
This turned out to be the hooded stallion as he frantically grabbed at some dark and dirty bandages that had been wrapped around most of his body. They seem to have gripped on just before they were closed in. Engineer reached forward and crawled over the top of the front seat to try and tear the tightly wrapped bandages around the neck that felt as strong as steel cables free to allow the stallion to breathe again. One of which did get wrenched away, but to only grab on to Engineer’s right wrist and try to squeeze hard enough that he had to fight back as to not let it get crushed.
There was a series of loud banging sounds that came from above just before Daring Do’s voice could be heard. “That thing’s back!” Engineer got his arm close enough to his Pip Boy and produced a handheld blade that had a similar structure to that of a chainsaw and pulled the trigger to rev up the miniaturized engine to cut away at the bandages. Once he was positive that they were properly shredded to where they were no longer going to be a problem and barely an inch was shown to be fitting through the closed section, did he finally look up. Right there and pressing against the glass was the almost completely exposed face of the monster that had gone through the transformation and blown up with the mini nukes earlier.
The only difference was how it was just the head and dozens of wrappings acting as tentacles to give it an octopus feel. The mouth which had human like teeth from before were deformed and turned jagged as they bent forward and curved in different directions. Said teeth were being slammed against the glass and creating small scratches that gave a not so pleasant screech to those inside. From what he could tell. It was only a matter of when for it to bite its way and get inside at this rate.
What made it even creepier was how each one of the teeth were moving with the use of separate muscles and acting on their own. There was even a long and pus covered tongue that slithered out to lick along the glass and leave a viscous dark fluid to slowly coat the outside and caused those inside to let out a resounding “Ew” when seeing it.
Engineer called out to the one in front and gripped onto the lever as well to pull it all the way to the next position to get them out of there as quickly as possible. As soon as that was done. Engineer was thrown back from the sudden g-forces that were produced from the launch and found himself and the others to be pinned to their chairs. The rest were fine as they were already sitting in place. But if it was not for his metal bones and increased constitution. Then he might have suffered some bodily injuries that could have range from broken bones or a severe case of whiplash around his neck area. But to say it did not hurt like hell would have been a lie on his part.
The scene then shows how not only the pod. But the monster that was halfway wrapping around it were sent into the tunnel. It was designed to be just large enough to safely allow their mode of escape to fit through and the monster ended up slamming into the wall with a noticeable loud thud. It managed to cling with the wrappings as best it could for several long seconds as it smashed from one side of the tunnel to the next over and over again. Sparks were made while the wrappings rubbed on both the glass and metal pod that made contact with the stone walls at a frightening pace.
Eventually, the last of the rapping’s were either burned away from friction or torn to leave the monster head to go into a free fall and head back into the complex while letting out a cry of anger. In the meantime. All three of them were still stuck as the pod miraculously exceeded speeds that made him feel that they were close to reaching mach one. By which point, it was not only him, but also the other two that were screaming their heads off right as a tiny white dot in the distance grew Within the time it took to blink an eye and they found themselves skyrocketing from what they thought to be a small mountain. At the same time, the screams from inside could just barely be heard from even through the thick glass.
Meanwhile, back over with the complex on the surface. Many people were running and screaming as fast as they could as the ground began to rumble in arcs of white and blue lightning ran up along the length of the obelisk and towards the sky to tear through the collecting clouds no differently than a sword. The swirling wall of sand only picked up its speed and climbed higher and higher as a result. A few of these lightning strikes that came into contact with the storm resulted in powerful explosions from overhead and created a series of loud booms. Even the flashes nearly blinded any unfortunate person who was looking in that direction at the time.
This sent the rest to grab what they could in haste and make for the outer world in droves. Of course, this meant leaving the tents and other Goods behind as they found their own lives to be much more valuable than their wares. Even with all of this going on. There was one group dressed in black who had just stepped out of the southern entrance with weapons already drawn and covered with still dripping blood. They slightly varied in sizes and gave the impression that they were both ready to run, but also resolute and staying for some reason.
One of them pulled out a dark purple crystal in their right hand while leaning against the entrance to hide from the lightning strikes. The item was just barely big enough to fit in the palm of their hand and took on an oval flat shape. They then spoke in a female voice that had a raspy edge to it. “Daring Do in her companion have not been found. Through extensive interrogation we learned that they got separated near the beginning of their group’s expedition.” A couple of seconds passed before another female's voice came from the crystal that sparked a quick conversation as the one on the other end was getting rather impatient by the sounds of it.
“How is it that the tracking amulet has not rendered any valuable assistance in your endeavors? Your files and documented activities gave me the impression of a swift and concise execution of my orders to be expected. What facts can you give to rationalize your failure to complete such a simple task as to end the prolonged existence of two ponies? Means of tracking your designated targets general vicinity and exclusive items to add to the success rate of this operation were more than adequately provided.”
“The two advanced groups that were sent head have gone missing in action. Too many eyewitnesses were present when we caught sight of them in the main encampment. Following after while within the ruins was our best bet as traps would slow their movements and wear them down as we came up from behind.”
“I will agree that that is quite logical. Exposing your abilities and forementioned equipment would have been unwise. Regardless, you have failed and have not delivered any concrete evidence of your abilities to follow through.”
“Even if we can't find them now, we still have the rest of our members spread out so there will be no escape. Each group leader has been issued the magical tracking item and will move in if anything should happen to us.”
“Your excuses are irrelevant! It would be wise if your next communication was to be filled with a positive report. Now do not contact me again until such time has come as my work requires my complete immersion.”
And with that, there was no longer any more words to be spoken as the crystal was quickly tucked away into a pocket. They were all just about to move when the lightning became so much stronger that every inch of the sand around the obelisk was being blown harshly into the wind. Everyone else was already long since gone and left nothing but the group wearing black to stand at the entrance to the underground section when the entire piece of black metal covered in writing that jetted out of the sand started to glow as brightly as the sun.
After witnessing this, they attempted to hide in the cave to get away from being cooked alive from the increased level of magical heat they started to feel from above. However, this turned out to be a useless act in futility as the same power was being emanated from deep inside the opening and shot out in the form of a powerful beam.
This caught them by surprise as it only lasted for a split second as their bodies were completely vaporized as everything was being engulfed in white. The next thing to happen was the energy that was being sent into the sky started to built up to where it created a large ball of energy and imploded into a tiny singularity that only held its form for a couple of scant seconds before it too erupted and sent a powerful shockwave that was visible in the form of a halo that kept on expanding over the horizon.
The scene then shows the next couple of places that range from not only the desert, but also somewhere in the middle of the ocean, in an isolated mountain region, a tropical forest, deep in the snowy regions without any signs of life and areas full of lava deep underground in an unmarked location. As the wave traveled quick enough to go over the entire world in a matter of minutes. Various spots reacted in a similar way and gave off a quick jolt of magic that lasted for only as long as the wave crossed over that area and return to normal. Animals, along with monsters stopped in their tracks and look to these regions for only a moment before continuing on their way.
Small seismic trimmers followed which caught the attention of the local residents. Any type of item that ran off of both electricity and magic alike went haywire just long enough to take notice. Any kind of magic being used at that time became rather unstable and either grew in strength or nearly bottomed out. Even each member of the three Pony tribes experienced one problem that was either a minor annoyance or nearly cost a couple of lives as a result.
Earth ponies became extremely weak and almost crumpled to the ground as their knees were about to give out. Pegasi found that they could not fly and were left to only glide for a couple of seconds. Even the simple act of standing on clouds vanished and quite a number of people fell through without warning. Unicorns found themselves clutching onto their horns as a painful migraine came out of nowhere. Some of which would even be rendered into an unconscious state and pass out as they could not handle the strain. Luckily enough any structures that were built did not fall through any of the cloud-built areas.
This was not only a phenomenon that affected the ponies as each and every race on the planet lost some semblance of magical control during this period. When the scene changed to Canterlot. The Castle Gardens came into view and showed the statue of Discord on his pedestal. A small voice began to be emanated from it and only grew just enough to be above a whisper. Which came off with a high pitch and comical top tone that occasionally dropped to an intimidating growl. “Who-what-when-where-why? Huh? Ooooh~. Oh so exciting, oh what fun! Hehehe ho ho hahaha! I haven't felt this excited in forever and a half! Soon our long-awaited reunion will CoMmEnCe!!!”
His words were only broken up as he laughed even louder before he continued. “Break out the shrimp and tempura sauce because I'm a coming!!!” There was also a small, yet miniscule hairline crack that was just barely noticeable on his right ear near the very tip. Meanwhile, the scene shifts back to the Bone Dry desert and zooms to the escape pod that was open so that the hatch was laying on the sand. Engineer was in the middle of raising himself up onto his hands and knees and looked straight ahead as his red furred face turned into a shade of green before uttering the next phrase.
“Uhgg... now I know what a spit wad goes through when you shoot it through a straw.” His attention was brought over to his Pip-Boy and this caused his nauseated expression to turn him completely ghost White as the screen flickered on and off a couple of times before it showed the image of the anthropomorphic pony version of the vault dweller laying on his back and holding on to a single flower. Next to him was obviously a tombstone. Just below was the text saying, “A error has occurred in operational system. Restart time estimated for one hundred and twenty hours.” This got him to scream out a single word that echoed for as far as the eye could see. “FUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 87: Under The Sands. Part 3.
*Point of view: Engineer* *Location: Bone Dry Desert* *Time: Four in the afternoon*
The scene shows the sight of Engineer, Daring Do and the hooded stallion as they all trudged along the sands as they slowly passed by one mound after the next on to their current destination. Which was supposedly a place that the hooded stallion had previously set up in the past and hoped that they could find some supplies, along with a means of returning to civilization. With his Pip-boy out of use for the time being, Engineer was left with no way of using the swift travel to get himself along with the other two out of there and to safety.
Not only that, but all of the items aside from his one gun and machete were locked away. What made matters worse was the additional lack of food and water that he had started to take for granted with being able to pull them out in the past whenever he had a need for them. There was an attempt to use the link-pearl that was given to him to call for assistance. Although all he got was a heavy wall of static that he was unable to get past. There was also another curious occurrence described by the other two as Daring Do was unable to fly for only a second and resulted in her crashing into the sand, while the hooded stallion became so weak that he landed on his tail after just taking a few steps on the sand at the same time.
He was in the middle of grumbling to himself after glancing to the sky for what seemed like the millionth time while in search of something before he finally spoke up in an aggravated and drained tone. “Where is a buzzard when you need one?” The hooded stallion who was in the lead called over his shoulder with curiosity and clearly seen dripping of sweat off of his chin. “This is not the best time to be lamenting over the fact that we are in the middle of the desert with no provisions left, not to mention miles upon miles away from any civilization and presumed dead to wear no rescue parties would be sent out.”
Daring Do spoke up in a flat tone as her wings and shoulders drooped after hearing that. “I doubt that. He's probably just hoping to kill and cook the thing.” Engineer responded to that after giving the most hardcore Nicholas Cage face smile he could muster. “Hahaha, you know me so well.” The hooded stallion giggle to himself from under the sleeve of his right hand and the Pegasus cut him off before he even got a word out. “HAY! I swear if you dare to say the word husband again! And don't think I don't notice the eye rolls you're giving me from under that hood.”
The stallion then changed the subject after stopping in place abruptly and nearly making the others bump into him. After turning around to lift a single finger up, he said in an impossibly innocent voice that did not fit their situation as it was a question that should have been long since asked. “With all the excitement I have neglected to ask for your names. I shall go first. In light of us all being in a perilous spot to come out with our lives. Please do call me En. My friends do.”
“Ah.. OK… That's out of the blue... En. Oh well. Since we're not fighting for our lives anymore, we may as well. My name is Daring Do. Adventurer, archaeologist, role model and thrill seeker. As well as one who holds multiple doctorates. And this one over here is-.”
“Yo! The names Engineer. I'm also an adventurer.” This was followed by a couple of seconds of silence as En and Daring Do waited for more to come from him, but got nothing in the end and cause the mare to begin to massage her temples.
“Now that we've gotten that out of the way. Don't you think it's about time to let us see your face? After insinuating that we’re friends, I think this much should be done. Unless you’re fine with bein’ all mysterious and I could just start callin’ you Hoodie.”
The hooded stallion seemed to be taken aback from what Engineer said before turning his attention over to the both of them to answer. “Ah yes, sorry my dear. Hehe-hehe... My manners seem to have not been fully reconstituted quite yet.” After pulling up his sleeves to bring out his fingers to grip onto his hood. The stallion slowly pulled it back to reveal an earth pony that bore a striking resemblance to Engineer. Aside from they're being a subtle shift to a brighter color for both the fur and mane. The pair could have easily have been described as twins. Well, that is aside from the scar that was now visible on Engineers face that began to show itself after their last fight.
Now being able to see his face along with a skeptical raise of the eyebrow. He then said, “My friends call me En, however my full name is believe it or not, Engineer as well.”
In the meantime. As Engineer was staring straight at En with wide eyes that failed to blink for the next several moments. The sound of Daring Do's voice could be heard as it came out all wobbly before suddenly calling their attention from collapsing backwards onto the ground from fainting. “Oh my Celestia! T-There's... there's TWO of them!”
“I believe miss do has fainted! It must be from all the sun. Quickly, we must hurry!” Meanwhile, Engineer was just rolling his eyes as the pair grabbed onto each of her arms as to put over their shoulders and went right back to walking through the desert. Now this continued for quite a while until the sun was nearly at the point that it was about to go through the switching of day and night from the princess’s magic. They went on like this until they came to a stop at an inconspicuous rock formation that jetted out of the ground at an angle to provide some shade thanks to it resembling a triangle.
By which time, Daring Do recovered her senses and was back on her hoofs. Engineer made a quick remark about picking the wrong place for a beauty nap and only got an indignant look from the mare after getting into the shade to see the final rays of the son to disappear over the horizon and be replaced by the full moon that bathed the sand with its blue light. The pair were just about to lean on the wall with their backs when En gave a loud cough while tapping his right hoof. They gave him a quizzical look before he said the following and gingerly parted them aside and stood at the wall. “Now just how do you expect for us to get inside if you're going to stand at the entrance and block it?”
They gave him the “what the fuck look” before he took out his wand shape device and held it close to the rock formation. The electronic whirling noise came to life from the crystal at the tip after giving it a few bonks with his hand to get it running and the wall began to shift and produced lines that went all the way down. Soon, it opened up and revealed a set of steps that would lead to a descending unlit passageway. Daring Do released a quick and confused huh before the stallion elaborated and started to walk down. “This is one of my off-site laboratories. I was quite fortunate to find the facility while conducting my own research in the area. Now come along! First we must take stock in what we can still salvage.”
After following along and reaching the very bottom. En walked forward and disappeared from sight while making a bunch of noises to indicate that he was bumping into and knocking over a number of items. After what felt close to half a minute of fumbling around had passed. He then called out with a triumphant huzzah before they heard a loud clank from where the stallion was and then the entire place began to light up as oddly placed crystals hung from wires that were nailed into the ceiling. En, who had this triumphant grin plastered on his face was standing near a square device that was the size of a mini-van and holding on to a lever that had been pulled down with his right hand.
It was a hollowed-out piece of ground that was mostly rectangular in shape. Although the roof was curved to give it the same dimensions that one would get when looking at an aircraft hangar. Various haphazardly thrown equipment and pieces of machinery being half put together were all over the place. In fact, one would be hard pressed to take a couple of steps without stepping on one object or another. Some look like archaic engines that would be used for automobiles in their early development. Others were varying types of contraptions that were meant for traveling on the ground and both the air thanks to some wing-like protrusions.
One machine caught Engineer’s attention as it was a one-seater with a corkscrew propeller system on top. It even had a pair of wings that had been torn up on the left and right sides that obviously were broken through other means other than becoming deteriorated through the passage of time. Large cranes and claw arms were set in place and ready to be used at a moment's notice once the cobwebs were all dusted off. Daring Do joined him and was busying herself with looking over the equipment when En walked right up to the both of them and started to talk with great enthusiasm.
“Ah, I see you found the creation that started it all! It was all thanks to her that I even found that place out in the desert.” When they gave him a look that just screamed to go on, he replied after going into the details of when he was in the middle of a test flight. After going through many failed efforts to allow anyone to fly without having to be born into either the Pegasus, Griffin's or Dragon races. He just so happened to be doing a fly by when the magical components from the crystals he had discovered recently and implemented into his engine started to go haywire after coming into close proximity with the obelisk which was still hidden under rocks.
After wanting to discover what could cause the interference. En made a journey and discovered the underground structure. This of course turned out to be what took him off of his original research and devote pretty much every minute of his time to exploring and understand what he had found. Before he knew it. Minutes became hours and hours became days. There was also another added benefit to being within the walls of that place, which he only discovered after realizing when his rations expired before he even got around to feeling the need to eat.
And that was the effect of not growing tired, hungry or even thirsty. The magic was so dense and welcoming that it literally fueled his bodily functions to where bringing supplies was not needed and he could stay for long stretches of time. And of course, he took full advantage of this and fell head first into his discovery without a moment of hesitation. A discovery that kept leading to one thing after another and completely took over all of his time.
What led up to be the workshop in which he was found in, turned out to be where he did most of his work wherever he found a component that was not put into play and just laid around as extra parts. In the beginning, he took what he could from there and brought it back to his laboratory to use in his original research on the rare occasion that he wanted to take a small break from there and keep his original research fresh in his mind for additional applications.
But eventually, he spent more and more time in the strange and miraculous structure until he completely lost track of time to the point that years went by. It was on that very day that the monster with the twin swords came out of nowhere and broke into the facility when he was just about to take a break and head back to the castle to deliver his findings to the princesses. At which point he was dreading that the idea having to explain his prolonged absence.
Engineer then asked, “Hmm, so no one thought to go looking for you? I guess you weren't very important if they just left you alone for all that.” The mare beside him gave a quick shove with her elbow before she stepped in. “What he means to say is, surely your absence was noticed. Did no one come to check on your well-being?” This got a small wince from the stallion as his eyes turned away with a bit of a blush on his cheeks as he responded. “Well~... my whereabouts may not have been disclosed.” After a couple of seconds, her eyes shot wide as she quickly covered her mouth before letting out a gasp.
After bringing herself back down from her excitement. She then exclaimed the following after grabbing on to Engineers right shoulder and shaking him like a rag doll. “He's… He’s the crazy earth pony wizard! The one who was in charge of the magical devices back when the Academy of Magic was founded!” Engineer’s eyes were rolling in circles as En responded with clear confusion written on his face before it turned into a flat look after hearing the part about him.
“Crazy earth pony wizard?!?! Miss Do! Where in Equestria did you hear that?”
“There's written records about a earth pony who was obsessed with building magical devices and started the whole process of research and development close to a thousand years ago. This led to the evolution and structuring for what we know as the Ministry of Magic and Science.”
En started to scratch the back of his right ear as he was putting on a thinking face for a couple of seconds before a figurative light bulb appeared and he responded. “I do recall starting up that small organization. If it were not for Princess Celestia's endorsement, then I might not have been made to be the chair-pony. By the way. How has it been doing since my disappearance? I could only hope that they're making strides and taking the common folk into consideration. My heart would soar whenever a new idea would be proposed and instantly followed up on with the full investment that we had to our disposal for promising young scientists.”
After regaining his equilibrium. Engineer glanced over at Daring Do and found that she was having some difficulties with coming up with an answer. “It may not be as how you remember...”
“Yes-yes, I know I have been away for far too long and much has progressed.”
“No it's not that. Over recent years, the focus has been shifted to magic and exclusively Unicorns have the higher positions within the ministry. You could say they outright gave out on searching for new talents. But there has been another group that's making great strides in putting out more then what they have done in decades over the past several years.”
This apparently caused the stallion to go quiet and slowly walk over to the flying contraption to lean his head against it. From there he quietly asked her to convey all she knew and this only caused En to become more visibly depressed. Their business practices, hiring ethics, both common and underground rumors when it came to their businesses were brought up. Even their effect on education alone was enough to cause him to angrily punch the side of his ancient aircraft with such force, that it caused it to slightly shift and break a couple of pieces without him so much as flinching after that hand slowly started to drip a couple of drops of blood while still being tightly curled into a fist.
En then asked the following slowly as he lowered his head. “How could-. Do both of the Princess’s know?” Daring Do replied with, “On the surface they're doing everything right. Whenever an issue is brought up, they would stomp it out with giving their own reasons. I believe that they are using the whole monster invasions to their favor and using that to draw the Princess’s eyes away from there shady dealings.” Engineer broke up the conversation when his stomach growled loud enough to cause the two that were in a serious discussion to jump from freight and take on a defensive stance to see if any monsters had snuck in.
He then said, “Hehe~. I don't know how much longer I can go without eating anything... Please say you have some food laying around!” En was calming down after clutching over his heart to take a quick look around and found a small item that resembled a tin can and picked it up before saying, “I did dabble in food preservatives. Perhaps this will-.” He was rudely interrupted when Engineer snatched the can and located a pull tab on the top. With an almost animalistic grin, Engineer ripped off the top and was about to down the contents without so much as a second thought when a cloud of green vapor erupted and covered his face for a second or two before dispersing and everything went black for the stallion.
After some time passed. Engineer found himself groggily getting into a sitting position and dumbly blinked his eyes a couple of times. While finding himself to be laying close to the side wall. He saw that the others were running around and operating some of the dusty equipment not too far away. There was even a very large object being covered by varying parts of cloth that hung off the edges. Obviously, none of it was from the same set as the colors were varied after getting stitched together roughly. Engineer began to rub the side of his head as he let out a groan of annoyance and caught the attention of the others.
It was En who called out first as he was wheeling over a cart that house several trays stacked up on one another with numerous glowing rocks. “Great, you're finally conscious! That was completely my fault for not realizing that these one-thousand-year-old preserved beans would turn into a surprisingly powerful nerve agent.” Daring Do was in the middle of carrying a large crate and plopping it down before she spoke up as well after stretching her back to pop a couple of muscles. “Now that's calling it mild. toss a couple of those near an Ursa Major and it would knock even that out. If I hadn’t jumped away in time, then I probably would still be laid out. I even tied a rag around my muzzle to keep me from smelling it for the first couple of hours.”
Engineer began to feel a little woozy and had to lean back into the wall a bit when the world began to get somewhat hazy for a couple of seconds and closed his eyes. He then said, “What are we going to do about eating?” He could vaguely hear the steps coming closer to him before Daring Do's voice came after sitting a few inches away along the ground. “Well, En and I have been talking and the plan is to get out of here and head back to the Obelisk. We can get supplies from the caravan that’s set up shop there.”
He was barely able to crack his eyes open enough to glance to his right and at the mare and ask, “We're more than fifteen miles away and there's all that desert between us and them. We got no water and no food. Not to mention night time and that's when more monsters tend to roam these lands. If I was in any kind of fighting shape, then I'd be all for it.” He glanced down at his Pip-Boy to see his progress, which was not very good before he continued. “I can't even bring out any items. All I got to use is my machete and this rifle that only has about-.” He took a quick second to check how many rounds was left and said, “Only six shots in the clip and one in the chamber.”
The mare took out her revolver and opened it up to show that she only had four bullets before flipping it closed. She released a sigh and said, “That's about it. My pouch is completely emptied. Really regretting on not taking you up on that offer to get me a bigger container.” En called out as he was going up some kind of ramp that was on the far side of the large covered object and appear to be having some trouble after getting stuck on something for a couple of seconds. “Priorities need to be established before we look on what we don't have. Make haste and we will be out of this trouble soon. It is as I once told others. A problem is not the end. It is simply another puzzle worth solving.”
Wanting to get whatever it is done. Engineer attempted to get up, but started to stumble for Daring Do to end up catching him midway. She helped him over and they continued to grab some parts and bring them inside. After going up the ramp himself. Engineer was surprised to see the layout and inner workings of what he thought to be the inside of an old World War two style plane. It was just big enough to allow somebody to easily walk from the tail to the pilot seat. On one of the walls, it depicted a general diagram and he got to tell that it had four propeller-based engines. A couple of crates were already loaded and safely strapped down on one side. While the other was obviously containing trays filled with more of those glowing stones.
(Here is a picture of how the aircraft basically appears.)
When En passed by to head out to grab something else. Engineer’s right shoulder was tapped as the stallion stopped to point out a few of the functions for him. “What do you think of the concept? These four spots have blades that spin fast enough to create a powerful gust of wind to propel this entire aircraft. I got an idea from those components back at the obelisk and Incorporated them into an engine design that ran off of these crystals that were carrying. You would not believe how many times the previous designs exploded until I got it just right.” Engineer gave a quick glimpse of worry before the stallion patted him on the back to reassure that nothing was going to go wrong before heading out.
He then turned over to Daring Do who was also helping by strapping a few more crates to the appropriate harness points. She glanced at him and said with a resigned tone to her voice which was also filled with some mischief of its own. “Don't look at me. I've been around you long enough that this almost seems normal.” Engineer hobbled over to the cockpit to sit down and familiarize himself with the controls as he mumbled the following.
“It's okay if I'm the one who's crazy. I'm just not really used to it being from someone else. We're about to take flight and something that's obviously never been off the ground and we're hauling enough crystals to send the Chrysler Building into orbit if something were to go wrong. And why do I feel even less safe in this thing than I did inside that old nuclear sub on that island with all the crazy Children of Adam fanatics?”
After nearly going through half of the controls, he soon found himself dozing off again from severe hunger. The next thing he knew was a rumbling sound that was shaking him right down to his core and this caused him to startle awake. He was just about to try and get up when he found that he was fitted with a harness and Daring Do was right next to him while holding on to his hand with her eyes looking straight ahead full of fear. All three of them were inside the cockpit as the two of them were on the back chairs on either side of the one that En was sitting in. The front of the cockpit was covered with thick glass and revealed them to be within a long stretch of runway that was built underground and there was a speck of light at the end.
The engines continuously built up their speed and released a heavy amount of noise that was dangerously close to robbing one sense of hearing. The plane itself which was already going at close to fifty kilometers an hour was already showing signs of heavy rattling. Engineer’s attention would have been more focused on the plane if it was not for the bones in his right hand already feeling the crushing vice-like grip of Daring Do’s own. Even over the loud noise, he yelled out to her while leaning in as best as he could. “You fly all the time!”
Without so much as turning in his Direction and screaming in what he thought to be the most high-pitched and feminine voice he had ever heard from her. She said, “Under my own power or some Airship that's been tested. And I don't see any balloons on this flying death trap!” Engineer turned his hand over after wrenching it free from her grip and held on to her hand once again as he called out. “I'm sure he has a pilot's license and we'll be just fine!”
This got a loud response from En, and caused the pair to start shaking a little bit while Engineer’s hand being crushed made him wince. “What is this pilot license?!” The engines did one more revving up before they approached enough speed right as the opening came up. From being underground in the dark for so long with artificial light, the rays of the full moon staring straight at them from the way they were coming out was almost blinding.
It would have almost seemed to be a magical moment if it was not for En screaming at the top of his lungs as excitement filled his voice. But on the part of Engineer, the stallion was gripping on to his seat right under his own butt with his free hand and gritting his teeth. There was also a single tear coming from his right eye. Unfortunately, this was not a sign of emotion. But that of deep pain from Daring Do squeezing the life out of his other hand as he quietly screamed in his head for her to let go.
The scene then transitions to where they were coming up on where the wall of sand should have been. But even with the moonlit sky lighting up everything. Engineer was having trouble with locating the weather phenomenon as he was carefully nursing his throbbing hand while looking over the shoulder of En. Meanwhile, the one mare in the cabin was holding on to a bag and dry heaving. One might have even said that along with the slight green complexion, she might have even increased the number of white strands in her hair. Engineer glanced at her and said under his breath, “Damn! She looks worse than Piper after she tried to out drink Hancock and Cait after a stupid bet.”
After making a few more passes with the aircraft and causing Daring Do to nearly throw up again from the multiple turns of the airplane. Engineered tapped on En's shoulder and spoke up over the engines as loud as he could. “We're at the right place, right?”
“Undoubtedly!”
“But there's nothing down there!”
“It makes no sense! Even if the storm is gone, we should still see the structure! Hold on, I'll take us around for another pass and go in low for a better look!”
“Quick question!”
“What might that be?”
“There's no Runway! How are we supposed to land?”
There was a long pause as En straightened up in his seat before giving an apologetic smile while turning towards the pair with only his head. “I knew I forgot something! Yeah, we're not going to be able to land! Miss Do is going to have to jump out and grab the supplies if we see them and come right back in as we go low. I will do my best to lower the speed as much as possible!”
By this point, she was looking more towards the spectrum of being confused for an undead as she slowly unbuckled herself in trudged near the back of the plane on shaky legs in a hurry after being told that she could finally get out. But before she left the cockpit, she shoved the bag she was using into Engineer’s chest and grunted that he should hold on to that for her. This prompted him to hold it out as far as he could while holding his nose and calling out to En. “How can it be that what came out of her… be nearly as bad as the beans!?”
His jokes were pushed away as he pointed towards something in the distance. It was just barely noticeable after getting to a lower altitude, which turned out to be the remnants of the camp that was set up at the edge of the safe zone. From where he sat, more than half was buried in sand as the rest was torn to pieces and scattered. The back hatch was opened and Daring Do jumped right out to check the campsite as the plane continued further ahead. Instead of there being an Obelisk standing tall from the sand where it should have been. Was just a large hole that was in the same shape as the base. When the plane flew over the site, there was a loud rumble that could be heard from even within the cockpit.
This was from the ground beginning to cave in after the planes strong gusts of wind hitting it thanks to their low altitude. While looking down through the last piece of the glass compartment at the front, the two stallions watched in amazement as the ground kept falling away and keeping up with their plane’s movements. Eventually, En had to pull up slightly to avoid the sand that was crashing upwards and turn around after making a long arc over a sand dune that they nearly crashed into.
On the next pass, they were greeted with a colossal-sized sinkhole that seem to go down forever and stopped just a little short of causing the remnants for the camp to go in. All Engineer could do was to hang his jaw low after seeing this. While En was close to crying and out stretching one of his arms and a pathetic motion to beg for it to come back. Soon enough the back hatch was closed and Daring Do was coming back to the front after dropping off a couple of large bags that she managed to carry with her when the plane was close enough to catch up with.
In the meantime, Engineer was patting the other stallions back and reassuring him with words such as, “I'm sure it will come back. And, at least you still have your health~.” But all the mare could do was to roll her eyes before saying the next part without any forethought. “What's the big deal? It was just some old ruins. Trust me, there's plenty of those out there.” This only caused En to start bawling and intern, causing the airplane to rock a couple of times. Even in his weakened state. Engineer gave her a disappointed look before offering a counter. “How would you feel if the museum that you put all the stuff you ever found into, was to just up and disappear?”
It took a moment for that visualization to take hold and this made her drop to her knees and cry out the word “WHY!” in an extremely dramatic fashion with that of En. He then said, “I know that this is not the right time, but I think we should probably head somewhere soon. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a sack full of food. He had just opened a bag and took a couple of bites out of a banana and a large red apple in the back when the air craft began to shake again. These two pieces of fruit were quickly devoured by the time he stomped towards the front and angrily screamed while poking his head through the small door. Oi! Can't a man eat in peace anymore?!”
His on coming speech about the importance of eating properly was stopped in its tracks when multiple colors streaked near the airplane and almost collided with the cockpit after passing by them. The control stick for the plane was roughly pulled down right as a blue light nearly hit the top of the cockpit before En straightened out and started to pull back up again. The stallion then screamed while fiddling with a couple of knobs and levers. “We're Under Siege!!! Hold on, taking evasive measures.”
*Point of view: Third person*
The outside of the aircraft showed five small airships following closely behind and one larger one directly towards the right and traveling parallel. The larger one had a big oval shaped balloon with metallic spines to give it a dangerous design. While the ship connected underneath brandished four cannons on both sides. Each one on the port side was pointed straight at the aircraft and manned by a unicorn who was in the middle of levitating cannonballs inside the front and juicing up an explosive charge Inside to launch the projectiles. The lights produced from each one of the cannons being used corresponded to the type of magic that was being used by the Unicorn manning the weapon.
There was a pony at the wheel and a couple more running around on deck and going below every now and then to bring up more ammunition. Right behind the one steering the ship was another figure dressed in black and they were holding up a glowing red stone to their face while screaming. “Galleon to sloops, Galleon to sloops! Enemy Airship does not have weaponry that can be seen! Move in after the next full volley! Its speed is making it difficult for the cannons to get a good shot.” After putting away the stone. The person started barking more orders while pointing to the sides of the ship. Get those side turbines going! More speed, more speed, or to Tartarus you all go!”
She even brought out a purple crystal and started to shake it angrily before putting it away and mumbling the following. “Long range communication is still down. What the buck is going on.” Meanwhile, on the lower parts on both the left and right sides of the ship had an object that resembled a bottled rocket. The back and gave off a strong surge of pink light after the Helmsman pulled on a long lever near the wheel. As a result, The Galleon was given a substantial speed boost and was beginning to slowly close the gap between itself and the aircraft.
When going back to the smaller crafts that was just big enough to carry no more than three people aboard. The bow was equipped with a single harpoon gun and two miniature cannons could be seen ready to fire on either side at the midway point. The rear had a set of three propellers along the same drive shaft to give it that little extra propulsion. Normally this would not have been enough to keep up with the World War two styled airplane in terms of speed when it came to how fast they were turning. But magical enchantments along the blades themselves were supplementing a far greater amount of thrust than what anyone would think of on a first glance.
The first ship to get within a couple hundred yards was manned by two. One already aiming the harpoon gun as the other remained on the wheel to drive and turned a large lever connecting to a crystal embedded into the wheel and surrounded with glyphs. In turn, the ship was coated with a translucent glow that lasted only for a couple of seconds. The driver then called out over the wind. “The new shield’s up! Wish I could see the stupid look on their faces when they find out they can’t do a thing to us! HAHAHAHA!”
The one up front kept calling for them to get closer so that the line would reach, while the second was constantly complaining that they were going as fast as they could. And if she wanted them to go any quicker, than she was welcome to grow a pair of wings and get out to push. The harpoon gun was carefully aimed with the sites squarely set on the airplanes tail when approaching the one-hundred-meter marker so that the line would reach and hook onto their prey.
A wicked laugh was given when their finger could be seen lightly pulling back on the trigger. But before the last twitch could be given to shoot. The back hatch of the plane opened up and they could see Daring Do standing there and holding on to one of the hydraulic arms. The sights of the harpoon were then trained on the mare and fired. The long object was soaring through the air as a thin cable was attached and heading straight for Daring Do only a moment later. Either it was a stroke of luck, or the Pegasus somehow knew that this was going to happen with what she did next.
With a subtle turn of her body to the right. The tip of the harpoon zoomed right past her and impaled a brown crate that was just barely high enough to be a comfortable short spot to sit on and yanked it right out of the plane thanks to the wire reaching its length and automatically retracting. On her part, the Khaki wearing adventuring Pegasus was deeply confused when the crate suddenly went right by her and zoomed right out of the plane without her even realizing what had happened.
When following the crate. The scene shows how it rammed right into the front of the gun and smashed to pieces thanks to the rate it was flying back with. Pieces and small splinters of wood showered both of the crew members on the smaller ship and blinded them for a couple of seconds. Small tin cans nearly knocked out the driver as she deathly dodged one that was heading straight for her forehead at the last possible second. She then called out to the one in front while shaking her fist and making sure that the ship was not going out of control. “Who taught you how to aim?! A blind old bat?”
The other while examining the harpoon gun and sliding the rod back into place only blew the other a raspberry before noticing that something was stuck on the sharp tip and reached for it. After a little bit of work with wrenching it free and bringing it to her face. It was noticed to be one of the cans with a large noticeable dent that barely broke through. She began to examine it further and gave it a cautionary shake to find out what could have been inside. But this turned out to be a horrible mistake as it was enough to cause the pressure within to break the seal and erupt a toxic green cloud that spewed right into her face and traveled straight to the one at the helm thanks to the assistants of the rushing wind.
Without even any time to scream or cough. The pair were instantly knocked out and this caused their airship to sharply veer off course and go into an uncontrollable spin until it crashed and erupted into a fiery explosion. The leader back on the Galleon angrily stomped her hoof while leaning over the railing to witness the carnage below. She then brought out the first crystal and yelled into it. “Be advised, the target is using an unknown weapon! The anti-magic barriers are ineffective! I repeat, the target is using non-magic-based weaponry!”
The scene then shifts back to inside the aircraft and Daring Do walking through the plane to poke her head into the cockpit to scream over the rushing wind that was still being let in by the open back door. “We lost one of them and a crate that was sitting in the very back tail of the plane! I hope there wasn't anything valuable inside!” En gave it some thought and soon came to the realization as to what it could have been and gave out a drawn-out whine of disappointment before he said, “I was bringing that back as a sample. My intentions were to do some tests to determine exactly when the food went past its expiration date. Oh well~. It's as my mother once said, there's no point in crying over a spilled bucket of milk. We got plenty more!”
This was indicated with him pointing with his thumb back and past Daring Do towards another stack of perhaps five or six more of the same. As this was all going on. Engineer was still snacking away and only pause between bites as he had this sour expression from remembering what he had gone through when he opened up that can. It was then proceeded by him giving an uncontrollable shutter before shaking his head and continuing to eat until his hunger was satisfied. En brought their attention to the front and pointed towards a rock formation with high walls that gave just enough room for the plane to fly right through.
He then said the following while double checking is harness. “We might be able to lose them in there! Hold on tight! Never before have I made these maneuvers and would make for a great endurance test for my design.” This instilled a great amount of worry between the other two as they scrambled to get into their chairs and secured many of the harness straps as possible before the plane entered. All the while forgetting about the back hatch being opened. With the scene shifting back towards the outside. The plane disappeared into the winding ravine with the rest of the smaller ships following closely behind one after another as the last barely clipped one of the walls to scrape some paint off.
The Galleon itself needed to swerve off course and take the long way around when they had to turn as hard as they could without crashing thanks to its large size making it virtually impossible to enter. In order to keep from colliding. The wheel was turned all the way around twice over and every crew member ran to the opposing side to help with leaning the airship just enough so that it can make the turn and scrape the bottom against the wall before racing to catch up with the rest by going around to the other side.
When it came to those within the ravine. It showed how the aircraft was banking from left to right in order to make tight turns almost every few seconds to avoid either the random cannon fire or harpoon being fired by the pursuing airships. There was even one time that there was a spire of rock that nearly clipped their wings and En cause the whole thing to go into a roll and pass right over it. This had the effect of causing one of the pursuers to crash into it after not being able to see it in time to turn. It even had another outcome for Daring Do who was grabbing on to whatever she could from within and almost losing her lunch.
In Engineer’s case, he was almost paying no mind to it as he was fully engrossed with trying to eat what he could after the food he had was wrenched from his hands and began to Tumble all over the cabin for him to try and snatch up with many failed attempts until he got a hold of another banana and started to peel it and eat with a very happy monkey-like expression. This caused the mare to call out while trying to keep herself from upchucking in the process. “How can you stand to eat?!”
Engineer reached into the bag after finishing the banana and pulled out a head of lettuce and gave it a quick shrug before taking a quick bite and replied after swallowing. “Pardon my French, but I'm so hungry I could eat a horse! If I only Had some meat, then I'd be just fine! This vegetarian food I got right here is crap when it comes to refilling the tank!” Both her, as well as En slowly turned their heads towards him as though they heard something unbelievable and just left it at that to go about their business. But not before En silently mouthed the words towards Daring Do, “He eats meat?”
The stallion continued to pull the stick in almost every conceivable way to avoid more hits and zigzag through the ravine at what seemed to be a random path whenever he made a choice at what direction to go when hitting a fork. Overtime more of the smaller sloops would have one accident after another and cause them to either crash into each other or into the walls. These would usually consist of their harpoon missing and getting stuck to where they were unable to pull them free or cut the line and get slammed in the process thanks to their speeds. Others would be unable to adjust to the rapidly changing environment and crash all on their own.
Soon the pass led to a short straight away and showed the exit that would be coming up in a matter of moments when there was just one sloop still on their tail and closing in fast now that it did not have to worry about doing any last second maneuvering. That crew even went so far as to activate another boosting system that was on a much smaller scale to raise their maximum speed and start to close in the gap. Daring Do grabbed on to one of the crates full of the old food and open the lid to start throwing the contents in hopes that it would have the same effect as last time after getting out of her seat and heading to the back.
But instead, they were shot out of the air before they even got close and released the visibly toxic gas thanks to some well-placed magical shots from the Unicorn up front. This gave the smaller craft enough of a leeway to weave just enough to avoid getting struck by the surprisingly effective and improvised weapons. She then pulled out her pistol and started to shoot back with the remaining bullets that she still had loaded up in her gun with a couple of seconds in between.
The projectiles that were hard to see when compared to arrows or bolts caused the sloops operators to duck and take cover as a couple of shots went over their heads or ricocheted off the bow. All-in-all, this kept them from doing anything else aside from just staying back and not firing anymore. Engineer was grumbling to himself while his mouth was still full and in the act of chewing about not saving that jerky for a time like this. His thoughts were broken when En called out in a panic as his left hand was pointing straight ahead at something that was blocking their path.
This turned out to be the Galleon and it was already positioned and hovering in place as its portside cannons were facing towards Engineer and the others on the plane that was heading for the exit. Thanks to the positioning of the moon, all they got was a vague silhouette of the airship before it started to fire all cannons to light itself up for them to see. Various colors of flashes came from the barrels in between getting reloaded to go again as quickly as possible to send large chunks of metal their way at high velocity. Normally a cannon would have a set distance as the projectile would lose speed and drop for an arc. Instead, the ones coming at them were magically enchanted to stay on course for a far longer distance and have a colorful trail of magic to be left behind.
Even with the best he could do. En was unable to avoid each and every one of the cannonballs as a couple managed to come just close enough to shear a few sections of the metal lining for the aircraft on either the wings or the main body. Fortunately, the engine and flaps were untouched after getting a few that could have ripped them clean off if the shots were just a few inches closer. The next thing that happened was either a complete accident or deliberately done by the cannoneer’s as multiple shots missed and veered off course and slammed into the side walls and started a chain reaction to make sections fall in the plane's path in a weird domino effect that followed on either side.
The stallion then screamed at the top of his lungs to where he almost forgoed his noble English accent. “We are royally fornicated!” His eyes were as wide as dinner plates and every hair on his body became so spiky that a balloon could pop if it got too close. Daring Do saw this and also screamed, “It can't all end here! I still haven't learned how to cook for a stallion!” It was at that moment that a rather loud belch could be heard from Engineer and he unbuckled himself before being consumed by flames. He then reached over and in one movement unbuckled En's harness and spoke with a demanding demonic voice. “I'm driving!”
The stallion started to stutter as he was not completely OK with the idea, but swiftly did as he was told and took the spot that was previously occupied while Engineer calmly got into the chair and gripped on to the stick with both hands. He then went from a loud growl and into a monstrous roar as the flames rushed out from his sleeves and traveled forward to engulf the cockpit. This made the others to raise up both of their hands to shield their faces as their bodies too were enclosed in the strangely cooled fire. En was in a lack of a better word freaking out as he was trying to keep the flames back by blowing as hard as he could and making a fanning motion with one of his hands.
Daring Do in the other seat also screamed as she was closing her eyes and having an angry face. “If this kills me, I'm going to come back and haunt you Engineer!” En caught that and quickly asked in a confused tone. “What did I do for you to want to haunt me?!” She then said, “Not you! The other one that’s burning our ride!
The scene then shifts over to the Galleon as the leader was in the middle of laughing while arching her back to hold on to the rail to watch the carnage. When the walls came crashing down and blocked her view of the plane. She loudly proclaimed that the job was done and to get ready to search for the remains as proof without any hesitation with there still being a huge dust storm. The other members of the crew by which point halted in firing any more of their cannons to get ready to follow the new orders and got to work with turning the ship. This would have been a slow process as it would require all of their help to get such a large craft to maneuver even in the slightest from the dead-stop they were at when blocking the exit.
One of the crew members that was in the middle of pulling on a rope to begin the preparations was stopped when she realized that there was something going on only a second after the order was given and pointed towards the entrance. The leader was just about to say something when a large boom and a series of crashes could be heard from where the female was pointing and saw that the crumbling walls had exploded to reveal a large fireball heading right for them as it exited the cloud of dust and debris.
Given the distance between it and them, there was hardly any time at all for the crew to react as the fireball continued on a straight path for their ship and only revealed its true form less than a second before impact to just under the line up of cannon’s. They're airplane from before with its stream line design and propellers were replaced with a gigantic fiery bat-like monstrosity. The metal wings now took on the form of bat wings with the skeletal structure being visible thanks to the elastic membrane being made of nothing but fire. The propellers and engines themselves were nothing but burning fan blades of bones that were not connected to anything as they spun at the joints.
The front of the plane where the cockpit should have been was now showing the skeletal protrusions that shifted into place to give off a bat's head and ears that had been folded back to make blades at the tips. It then used that part of its new form to ram straight through and out of the other side of the Galleon in one fluid motion. As a result, the items that were tucked away under the deck were exposed to the high temperatures and resulted in multiple internal explosions that added on to the structural Integrity being exceedingly damaged by the large object.
The whole thing barely had any time to break in half before it was engulfed in its fiery demise that lit up the night for seemed to be miles around. On closer inspection of the transformed airplane revealed Engineer at the front as he was looking through one of the gigantic eye holes and letting out a menacing laughter as he yanked on the stick to cause the aircraft to do a couple of stunt maneuvers afterwards. At the same time, the wings would even make a few flapping motions to give it an extra amount of lift.
Daring Do was tucking her legs in and holding them against her chest as her eyes darted from left to right at all the fire that was engulfing the place. Whereas, En at one point or another had gotten over the fright and was attempting to touch the flame that gave off no heat. This sparked the stallion to feel a great interest and started to ramble off a few complicated scientific terms that went unnoticed by the others. From within his robes, he even pulled out a glass tube container and tried to get a sample to go in with no luck on his part as they slipped away.
The scene then shows the two-crew member operated sloop coming out of the dust clouds that were still erupting from so much debris to bear witness to the carnage of the larger ship. And was instantly turned away after catching a glimpse of Engineers monstrous new ride and did a hard turn to get away before they too suffered the same fate. Although they had a decent start in the beginning with their ship going at full speed.
They were unable to escape as the plane was turned after Engineer saw them running and caught up as to do a dive bomb and crashed right through them with its left wing. As the ship itself was bisected in two. The two females fell to their death and landed on a couple of rocks that stuck out from the sand as Engineer and the rest turn their plane towards the North and disappeared into the night after reverting it back to its original state and leaving but a few embers to float in the air and become snuffed out after floating around for a few moments.
(Stop the music here.)
From the inside of the cockpit, Daring Do came back to her senses when she realized that they were no longer surrounded by fire and looked ahead to find that Engineer had passed out at the controls. The aircraft itself was not going to end up crashing thanks to En grabbing on to the stick while propping himself up against the side of the pilot seat and looking over to the passed-out stallion with some worry. He then said, “Is a sudden loss of consciousness a regular occurrence? And on another topic. Could you please lend some assistance in getting him out of that chair so I can fly us the rest of the way?”
Daring Do did just that and helped Engineer out and into the back after some fumbling and making a comment on him being heavier than he looks. But on his part, the guy was still in a semi-conscious state as he heard her asking the other stallion a question. “How long until we get back?” En responded as his free left hand made a so-and-so gesture. “Going off the distance… Meh. Give it three days. Three and a half tops. Uh, four if we have trouble.”
The scene then shifts to an unknown location with a single Pony wearing a uniformed outfit of black robes all twisted up to hug their form while sitting in the middle of a bright light that was shining from above. She was apparently at the end of finishing a report and giving off the impression that she was nervous with how her eyes were darting from left to right as a bead of sweat could just barely be made out as it was going between them. “Communiqué has been severed for over a days’ time... B-but I assure you that my compatriots will come through and complete the contract as instructed.”
Another female’s voice came through with a combination of sophistication and clinical coldness from both everywhere yet nowhere. “My estimations on your criminal society have underwhelmed my original view. Lack of updates, slow progress, failure to produce an outcome which was originally promised through a verbal agreement has worn thin my patience. Each of you has been outfitted with level thirty gear and weaponry that is not currently out to the public. Not even the missing documents which were enchanted with a tracking spell to lead you to the targets for a strategic assassination was not enough by going off of what was just said on your part.”
“But-but I-.”
This is not counting our latest line of airships an experimental propulsion technology. And of course, against my better judgment, let us not forget the magical gems that were imbued to resist incoming magic attacks to fortify each of the ships. Those alone were not easy to construct and are quite costly if they should need to be replaced.” There was a cold silence that lasted for a couple of seconds before the voice became that of a whisperer and caused the mare to shrink into her chair even more. “Unlike yourself, which is as easily as expendable as a used up and broken quill that should just be tossed into the incinerator when it is no longer of any noticeable use... Enough of my valuable time has been wasted, now go!”
The female quickly nodded her head and rushed into the darkness with only the sound of a door being opened and roughly closed to signify her departure. The voice then continued as another figure stepped to where their lower half only came into the light as their body was being shrouded by a red cloak. “The first sign has been shown. Preparation will need to be moved up by a couple of days. More importantly is the need for us to expedite our resources and keep the schedule on track for the new time stamp.”
The hooded figure held out an object in both hands that were placed in front of themselves to where it just barely showed what appeared to be a black sphere with pulsing jagged lines running all over it. While floating just a couple of inches above their hands. It came across as close to six inches wide and continuously rotated in different directions as pieces gave off a metallic clicking every now and then, along with a low eerie hum that instantly filled anyone's ears who were within the same room as it.
The voice then said, “A Number of my own operatives were unsuccessful in entering the dig site and now I cannot even get a hold of them.” That was when the person speaking switch to that of anger and self-loathing as they continued. “And to add more to the fire is that my research has been tainted due to that surge! Could the interpretation have gone wrong in the building process for what measures were needed to be taken?”
There was a girlie growl that emanated before it continued. “Gerrr... I must retrieve any research that is still viable and reconstruct it with haste. You! Go over the records again! No more tolerance will be given for additional complications!” The figure started to bend its body while pulling in the sphere closer to the form to indicate that they had bowed and silently stepped into the shadows right as the light flickered off. A few more seconds had gone by before the person said one last thing and faded as the volume of her voice became ever distant. “Now we have a general sense of where they all are... As well as the new chapter of history.”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 88: Date Night Part 1.
*Point of view: Brex Mith* *Location: Ponyville* *Time: One in the afternoon, a full day after the strange wave ran across the whole of Equestria and beyond the sea’s*
Brex could be seen walking through Ponyville on his way back from Sweet Apple Acres and heading to his own place as Rory was at his side. This was due to him wanting to check in on the farming family as Bright Mac got himself hurt while hauling some apples when his strength Suddenly gave out the day before at the worst possible time. Even if the stallion was fully healed through magic alone, his wife and the rest of the family were firmly resolute and wanting him to get a full couple of days to recuperate as they practically flipped out from the incident as Applejack rushed into town to drag the doctor by his ear.
In the meantime, Rory was busy with matters of keeping the residential mare's in check as the local heat season was already beginning to kick in for most of the residents seeing as it did not hit every single one of them at the same period. The disguised mare was even resorting to letting out a constant flow of bloodlust as her eyes shifted from one female to the next in hopes of sending a clear message that their lives were to be forfeited if they were to so much as to make a move while she was around Brex. Of course, he knew that even with her attitude towards pushing him into an open relationship had its limits when everyone just stared at him as though he were a piece of eye candy that they had any right to go after.
Work mostly kept Brex on his toes as he had to zip from one place to the next when it came to investigating the weather phenomenon and its effects on the populous after being affected by the bright show of power that quickly illuminated the sky. Not to mention popping back and forth from HQ and all the additional meetings with Sir Fancy Pants in regards to a few job locations that were being opened up in Canterlot due to the recent trend of companies pulling out. Through no small means on his own, Sir Fancy Pants bought up many warehouses and office buildings to reopen the doors and start up the services that were originally given so that the disturbance would be significantly reduced on the public.
Of course, these were listed under other owners as to keep suspicions away from Sir Fancy Pants or Brex of being the buyers. This included sections such as infrastructure maintenance, product trade and distribution, assistance with essential activities such as law enforcement, construction, Hospital services and an assortment of stores for the public. Honestly, if it was not for his ability to stay awake at all times and utilizing this fact to get much of the paperwork done in the middle of the night. Then there was going to be no way he could keep up with his other activities and get the whole thing done in time.
On occasion Brex would bring up a picture in his head of the grid system making up Canterlot and go on to mentally change the colors of streets or buildings to ones that he had a hand in and found himself astonished by how much of the city he was inadvertently taking over. First it was just a few shops here and there and offering some utility services after the original owners of those businesses abruptly pulled their personnel to leave the city and close up shop. But now he could be considered a virus taking over a computer as more and more of the city was being ticked off in his head.
There are even a few services within the castle that he now contributed towards and wondered if the entire city would have crumbled if his actions were not taken within a matter of weeks. Among these spots was one warehouse in particular that he was already in the stages of turning into a storage facility for a number of his new Golems that just came off the assembly line and discreetly shipped over with the use of the large trading company being handled by a Changeling under his command. Obviously, a number of the essential services were already provided a couple as to suit their needs.
Normally, the Royal Guards would be in charge of all security when it came to the original cartoon. But even the cities Incorporated their own police force that were not a part of the guard and stood as their own branch. There were a couple of stations that now had a policeman style Golem that would be meant for emergencies. Painted gray and blue and sporting a police officer's cap. They were primarily built to act as a one-man SWAT team and break down almost anything in their path while brandishing on their sides a club for combat.
The left arm would be outfitted with a grappling claw that could grab onto objects a distance away in order to capture fleeing suspects and reel them in. In addition, a large version of a riot shield would come standard when they were instructed to take on a defensive posture. The face itself would be completely blank aside from a wide slit that would display a set of eyes formed through magic to express varying states. These being the basics such as displaying that it was active or set in an aggressive manner. In certain situations, it would even display certain characters to give a brief message or to display an icon for certain dangers.
Another set would involve the hospital as these were painted white with large red crosses on the front, back and shoulders. Large backpacks filled with medical supplies and tools were fixed in place so that rescue workers would have easy access when it was to kneel down. Foldable lightweight stretchers made of cloth or metal were added so that it could easily carry any wounded personnel by reaching out with its wide hands and grabbing on to both ends. These were even outfitted with audio and visual sensors comprised of a complex magic array so that it could detect abnormalities and gain the attention of the rescue workers to the emergency if they were too busy themselves with something else to notice.
For another just like with Ponyville having a Golem to assist with their construction efforts. A new breed was put into effect and had a high visibility color scheme painted onto them. Along with hard hats depicting a shovel and pickaxe where the ears should be. Each site was given no less than three and outfitted with various attachments that could be interchanged by detaching them from the outside of the arms thanks to clamps that would go around the wrists. There would be jackhammers, tubes connecting to a pressurized launching system for pouring or firing globs of quick drying cement. There are even sets of sledgehammers, pickaxes and shovels fashioned in a large size for these creations to wield.
When it came to the smaller businesses such as grocery stores or shops. New golems that were just a few feet taller than an average pony would be put into place to help with some of the heavy labor such as carrying equipment or crates for stocking purposes. But it was only natural from all of this new technology and magic it was bringing up all over the city to catch and draw in a number of representatives from the oh so mighty original controllers of such a division. There would have been a long and very lengthy debate on allowing these Golems to be within the city and used in such a way if it was not for Celestia putting her hoof down and laying the facts that they were greatly needed with how the workforce was drastically cut in recent months.
When going back to how things were going in Ponyville. It was now coming up to just four full days since he had gotten a chance to teach any of the girls due to their heat cycle and needing to stay at their homes. Although this did not mean that he had no visitors as Spike was coming over more often with how Twilight was not going out and keeping up with cleaning the library whenever she made a mess as a way to keep herself preoccupied from what the young drake mentioned. There were also a few other matters that came to be over the last week and a half when it came to Gilda and Rainbow as they came over to his place on a daily basis and making numerous attempts to deepen their relationship.
After going over most of the recent events. Brex and Rory found themselves already in the middle of their front lawn and approaching the door into his mansion when Rory broke his concentration. “Master, seeing as it is already past noon…” She left that sentence to hang in the air for a moment before Brex released a quick sigh and replied with a flat tone. “Yeah yeah, I already know. Who's on duty today?” The girl had a thoughtful look on her face before she snapped her fingers and said, “Rin is going to be on duty this time around. Oh! And the new hire is doing a great job and is fitting in just fine. Just what do you think the odds were that you would end up getting-.”
Brex quickly snapped back to cut her off as his tone was turning towards mild annoyance. “I'm not in the mood for this Rory. Just tell Rin to have everything set up in my office and let's just get it over with.” What he said caused Rory's ears to begin to flatten as her normally cheery aura faltered and she found it rather hard for her to look up at him for just a second before they finally got to the front door and entered.
The scene then shifts to later on as Brex could be seen sitting behind a large desk and slowly going over some paperwork in his hands while Rin stood silently off to his left. There was a large grandfather clock on to one side and the room was dead silent to where the shuffling of paper and scratching of the quill was as loud as a gong. Each rhythmic tick and tock given by the mechanical device only serve to add to the apparent seriousness of Brex's duties and wanted to keep himself completely focused. The Roegadyn at one point or another changed his outfit to that of the mysterious Butler set. The only difference was that his hair was fully on display to show the jet black and highlighted silver tips.
Once in a while Rin from the corner of his vision would glance towards himself and slightly downwards before closing her eyes again after biting her lip and showing a slight blush. He had been going at this stack for a little over an hour now and was only two-thirds of the way done after sending Rin to take away what he had finished and to bring more back in. As all of this was going on, he would not utter a single word and only write what he wanted in the air with magic without so much as looking up from his current work. That was when a knock came at the door and slowly opened after a couple of seconds went by to reveal a cart with a tea set sitting in the center being wheeled in.
Upon raising his eyes from what was laying on the desk. Brex saw that it was the new hire that just recently started only a few days after coming back from the Golden Saucer. A bat Pony with piercing slitted yellow eyes, dark grayish fur and a dark blue mane stood at the ready. Her attire closely resembled that of Rin and Lin’s own aside from a gold bell that was attached to the neck choker at the front. This of course was not a uniform that he himself provided, but was something she came in with and did not feel a need to change anything about it and just went along.
(Here is a Picture of roughly the way this bat Pony appears.)
After taking a moment to stop and pick up the tray that everything was sitting on and placing it at the edge of the desk. She spoke in a professional and alluring accent that came off as Transylvanian, while giving a small curtsy that was capable of drawing suspicion with the way it was so perfectly executed. “Will ze Lord be requiring anyzing else?” Brex felt the need to readjust his seat before slowly shaking his head. This sent the signal for her to give one more curtsy before leaving the room with steps that were so light that it would have been impossible to tell if she was in the room if he was not already looking straight at her to begin with.
He was just about to reach over for a cup when his hand inadvertently jerked just before grabbing on to the cups handle. After containing an internal growl from escaping his lips from the inconvenience. Brex lifted himself up by a couple of inches and sat right back down after taking a quick look at what he was sitting on. This produced an odd noise that came off as both a light moan and heavy huffing. From behind his mask, all he could do was to have a flat expression that just screamed that he was more bored than anything else and snatched the tea and began to drink through his mask as his eyes carefully drifted down to his left and to the clock before bringing his attention back down once again.
This revealed that he was not sitting in his regular chair, but instead there was a Unicorn mare who had her head hanging low. It was blatantly obvious that she was both heavily breathing as slow as possible while failing to contain a few lewd huffs, along with some noticeable quick shuttering. She was pure white with a pink mane that was set into a double entwined braid as it Was long enough to reach to the bottom of her back. Her almost unfocused eyes shined with a light grayish magenta as a blankly stared forward and down towards the carpet at a slight angle.
From a quick glance, she was a couple of inches taller when compared to the normal Pony for that of six foot and two inches. Which was around five feet and four inches in height for most of the species to be considered as tall for their race. Both visible arms were shaking from trying to stay straight as to be leveled for him to use her as a chair. Resisting urge to let out a drawn-out sigh from the situation. Brex glanced over to his right and saw that her tail without any assistance was being lifted enough to pull up her skirt and expose a shiny black latex undergarment with a strong resemblance to those that he used on both of his original maids.
He also picked up his left leg to place it over his right after giving an eye roll after leaning back just enough to give him some extra room. Afterwards he got to hear how she was beginning to buckle from letting out a strained grunt after he shifted from putting some of his weight on both legs to that of only one. Rin on the other hand had her eyes wide open along with a heavy blush that threatened to cause steam to come out of her ears with the way she was having her eyes locked onto the mare that he was currently sitting on. The one below slowly turned her head enough to reveal her right eye as it was giving the impression of going into an odd trance of sorts.
This act caused some of her hair to shift and reveal an inhibitor ring that had been placed snugly on the base of her horn. What made it stand out even further was that it was the exact same one that belonged to none other than Luna herself. Brex motioned to his maid who was standing off to the side and she released a green glow from her horn that sent a weak pulse across the room. It took only a few seconds until the almost nauseating levels of vanilla assaulted his nostrils after this was done and a strong cringe grew on his face.
Not wanting to be so close to the source for the moment caused him to get up and slowly go around a large desk and head over to the sitting couch that was not that far away. This act not only produced a relieved breath from the mare, but even combined it with a pitiful low sorrowful whimper to display her disappointment that the treatment had stopped even though they were clear signs of fatigue on her part. Even on his way around the desk caught him a glimpse of the unicorn clutching her fingers and almost digging her nails into the rug After lowering her head to touch the ground.
Rin followed close behind and seductively climbed onto his lap as he took a seat and rested herself across his left leg to press firmly against his chest. The sound of him snapping his fingers turned out to be a signal for the mare that was on the ground to climb up and onto her wobbly legs as she gripped the side of the desk for support and made her way over to him with great difficulty. Meanwhile a recent a message through his connection to Rory.
After a bit, maid was finally standing in front of him and the couch. The mare was heavily biting on to her lower lip so much that she could have easily drawn blood with even the slightest added pressure. Both knees uncomfortably shifted to allow her thighs to rub against one another as both hands were down and at her front to grip onto the skirt to have the result of it being pressed in. All in all, the maid’s posture was completely wrong as she was apparently fighting the urge to arch herself forward. Rosy pink tinted cheeks were practically glowing as she eyed Rin in her position with what he could only call as envy and perhaps a small hint of malice towards the Changeling that was in the form of a Pony.
Rin took the opportunity to whisper to Brex the following just loud enough to be picked up by the other mare as a devilish grin formed on her lips. “My Lord... she got turned on when your tea was brought. Mistress Rory was right with the idea of having the tea being brought up by someone other than my sister.” The maid's voice was prompted to stop when Rory entered the room and made sure that the door was secured with a lock before strolling over and taking a seat over Brex's left leg to be in a similar position. She then gave a shifty look over towards the mare that was standing and speaking up with a grin towards her mirror opposite.
“Did she?”
“Without a doubt my mistress. Teh-hee! She got so scared, held her breath and all that. It took practically everything I had to nullify her smell as to not draw any suspicions.”
The mare that was still standing was beginning to shift on her hoofs to where she was fidgeting as she tightly closed her eyes from clear embarrassment after hearing what was being said about her. With a purely evil grin that caused her face to darken, Rory nodded towards the desk and Rin shifted her body so that she could crawl off of Brex and went to retrieve a box. The new maid began to lightly shake her head as her eyes shot open after hearing where the footsteps were going and pleaded towards Brex as a look of horror slowly grew across her features.
Rory obviously saw this and made a Tut-Tut motion with her hand with one finger going back and forth as she calmly spoke. “Nah-ah!~ No protesting, those are the rules, remember?” This drew a small nod from the Unicorn as she released a tiny whimper in response right as the box was placed onto one part of the couch and Rin began to pull out a couple of objects once the lid was removed. A set of short chained metal cuffs were attached to the mare’s wrists once they were placed behind her back. Black belted straps were carefully wrapped around and then tightened after she knelt down onto her knees so that she could not stand up again after getting into a prayer sitting position with her knees being slightly parted.
A thick dog collar was put around her neck with a silver chain being held onto by Rin who is now standing right behind. The last item turned out to be a lilac-colored blindfold with a soft padding on the inside to block out the mare's vision. Once everything was put on and the chain was pulled just enough so that there was no longer any slack. Rory got up and walked right up to the Unicorn and said the following into her right ear in what was a mocking tone that was meant to instill a sense of envy for the mare.
“Just as we did before. If you can't keep yourself quiet and contain yourself, then we'll push back the next time you get to come over. Understood?” This got a hesitant nod before it progressed to a couple of quick ones after seemingly to realize that Rory was waiting for an answer. Brex could hear how she was taking in a long swallow of nervousness as Rory went right back to him and got on to the floor between his legs and started to fiddle with his pants. The girl even went through the trouble of intentionally making it as loud as possible thanks to the zippers metallic nature and slowly unzipped it so that the sound was being carried over to the now bound mare.
Already the mare was in the motion of leaning forward and Rin had to lightly tug on the metal linked leash to keep her upright for just a second. Rory then continued and by positioning herself a little better as to block both of the others in the room from getting a good view of what she was doing. After everything, only Rory herself had ever gotten to see his body and kept it that way from even the two maids. Eventually she got his member out and worked her magic with both of her hands rubbing along the length to get it going. Every now and then thanks to long and very dramatic licks were made as she let out numerous moans of delight that were obviously meant to add to the atmosphere.
Brex was not turned on in the beginning thanks to the particular company being kept. But Rory was easily able to bypass this state and cause a strong sense of arousal to come out that he needed to keep in check as to not be detected by the one that could sense emotions just a couple of paces away. Soon the girl moved on to lick and suck at the tip of his member with a set of loud slurps before taking it deep into her throat to Series of blatantly obvious gags to convey to the others of its girth.
He only contributed the size to his current race and watched as Rory lifted her hair on one side to expose her neck as her throat was being forced to bulge just enough to stretch the choker a little and return to its original size when she pulled off of him between thrusts. Now and then she would completely pull her mouth free to let out a loud slurp and to gasp for air. To only be followed by going down on him once again and to change it up every now and then for the next several minutes.
Soon the room was filled with a large number of slurps and wet smacking thanks to Rory's efforts. Meanwhile, Brex could tell how Rin was getting extremely turned on as she was reaching down to lightly rub at her panties and still keeping a good grip on the chain. Said chain was lightly getting pulled almost constantly as the Unicorn was shifting on the ground and causing her lower hips to almost be in time with Rory's rhythmic pattern being picked up by her ears that were sharply focused in his direction. At the same time, Brex was taking a quick glance over to the grandfather clock to keep his track of the time while Rory continued to make more obscene noises to torture the Unicorn even further.
After a while. Rory pulled herself off and gave a seductive lick of her lips and turned around so that she was standing and carefully lifted the back of her skirt with one hand and tugged at her underwear with the other just off to the side to get it out of the way. This was preceded with her pushing herself back while leaning towards the others and keeping Brex's now swollen member hidden as a noticeable wet squelch was given as the well lubricated rod was pushed into the girls already dripping lower lips. She released a couple of sensual grunts that quickly morphed into moans of content as Brex could feel her tight body contorting around himself as it slowly pushed inside without any work being given on his end.
Without any shame, Rory began to practically yell the following obscenities. “Nughah! minph! Ghuhah! OH YES! FILL ME UP MY MASTER!!! RIP MY BODY APART! FUCK MY PUSSY! DESTROY ME!!! GERR! YES! OH YES! PLEASE OH PLEASE FUCK ME UP MASTER! ITS SOO DEEP!” Her voice then shifted to a lower one that was practically conveying that she was almost out of it with how turned on she was getting. “It’s so fucking deep! I feel as though it’s gonna kill me one day with how much I’m stretched~. So very full! Please Master… let it all out, fill me up and make my belly swell to were it’ll pop!”
She only continued to spew more vulgar words from her mouth between heavy panting and feral growls of ecstasy as she pumped herself on him with a slow pace at the beginning. But even that soon gradually changed up until she was practically bouncing fast enough that her juices were literally splashing out from the amount of force as a non-stop torrent of juices that collected at the edge of the couch. Rin was barely able to hold on to the chain as she was drooling absent-mindedly and using her right leg that was placed in front of herself for leverage.
This was due to the unicorn on the floor pulling hard enough that she was now in a position to be made to fall if the chain was to be suddenly released. Quick shots of heavy breath came out of the mare's nose while her mouth was constantly changing between biting one of the lips and going almost slack jawed to make some type of motion for something to enter her mouth. There were of course a number of instances where it would turn into a heavy scowl or one that portray that she was deeply saddened. It was not until a few minutes passed when the Unicorn suddenly arched herself forward and began to shutter in such a way that it rattled the chain and made her tails start to swish hard enough to smack into one of Rin's legs with a heavy thud.
A quick and high-pitched squeal was barely muffled when she clenched her mouth shut and sent both ears straight back with a quick flick when this happened. All breathing was done solely through her nose while she contained her noise as best as she could. In time with a couple of harsh exhales of breath, her body suddenly jerked hard enough that she would throw herself backwards into a heavy arch in the opposite direction and made her chest nearly pop out from the maid outfits top thanks to how she was practically hyperventilating.
Eventually, it went so far as to the Unicorn actually falling backwards onto her back while her legs were still firmly on the ground in their bound-up and spread state. This resulted in the mare ending up with her to show a large puddle of wetness to be staining the red rug underneath her in a darker shade as it slowly creeped further away from her body as it extended. The mouth that was clenched shut was now bearing a set of teeth that were practically ready to crack from the force that was used to bite down onto one another as sharp hiss sounds escaped in time with her quick breathing.
Rory only continued to pump away at Brex while still in her standing position for the next several minutes before he finally released his load and caused the girls belly to have a bulge from the amount of his seed pouring in. In response, Rory released a small scream of delight as her eyes were practically ready to roll into the back of her head. A slack jaw smile, along with a hanging tongue from the end of their little session was the only thing that kept the girl from saying anything else and just limply stood there in a stupor as Brex grabbed on to her hips and used her now absent-minded body to finish him off as he was still hard within. This in turn left Rory to act as nothing but a puppet to milk what was left.
When he was completely satisfied to where he was now able to put his cock back into his pants. Brex carefully pulled Rory off with one arm that was placed underneath her and just under the stomach while the other zipped up his pants. A quick nod from him was given to Rin and she quickly went to work with taking off the blindfold from the Unicorn and went over to him. As soon as Brex positioned Rory so that her back was pressed up against him and her legs were spread to hang over his slightly parted knees, did Rin come in and start to eat out what was dripping from Rory's lower lips that could not be held inside due to her small stature.
The greedily slurping sounds attracted the attention of the mare on the ground as she groggily lifted her head to look down and towards them with blurry eyes that were trying to come back into focus. It took a couple of seconds for her to recover just enough to go wide-eyed and slack jaw as she got to watch from a distance the back side of Rin's head as she ate out Rory who was in a passed-out stupor. Another nod from him got Rin to say the following between heavy licks, slurps and wet kisses. “*Lick* Eating my Lord's come out of my mistress is so good! *Lick* there's so much... Mngh! Hmm. Tasty! *Slurp* My Lord is very selective on who gets to taste him. I'm going to be so full from all of this, I just know my sister is going to be jealous! Hmm-hmm! *Slurp*”
The Unicorn could do nothing but to open and close her mouth repeatedly as one instance she would be biting her lip and then the next sticking out her tongue in a begging attempt to get anything as her eyes shrunk through sheer desperation. Her legs would attempt to break free from the straps as the bindings gave off creaking. Shoulders would thrash about as she pulled on the cuffs that were now placed underneath her while looking between her chest heaving up and down to partially block her view every now and then.
A few moments later, her eyes went crossed as she gritted her teeth and arched her back with the use of placing the back of her head onto the floor from watching the display. In an instinctive manner That displayed her pure desire, her hips would jerk into the air as more dripping sounds splattered onto the wet carpet. Seeing that she was in a semi-unconscious state of her own. Brex allowed Rin to finish up and woke Rory with a gentle slap to the side of her face. This in turn got her to playfully giggle as she drowsily asked if he was ready for another go. As well as another small erotic shutter from feeling the last of their maid that was still licking that was in the middle of cleaning up the last of the mess that was coming out of her.
The scene then shifts over to Canterlot not all that much later and Brex was now coming through a wall and into a dark room that had only a small amount of light to be peeking through the closed curtains. The vague silhouette of a large bed could be seen not too far away and his form shrouded in darkness went right to it and tossed a large silhouette onto it with a heavy poof of the fabrics. He went and opened the curtains and revealed it to be Princess Celestia's room once the light filled practically every nook and cranny. A few seconds later the sound of teleportation magic could be heard along with a flash of light to signify the appearance of Princess Luna that was now only a few paces away from where Brex stood.
She then said to him with a serious tone to her voice while glancing towards him. “I take it that today's session has been concluded with no complications?” He merely gestured over to the bed for Luna to turn her gaze and witnessed the following before giving out a tired sigh. Right there laying across in a very unladylike manner on her back, along with a blissful expression was the unicorn from earlier while still dressed up in the maid outfit.
There were even a few unconscious body movements that entailed a twitch of the finger and a very noticeable hip thrust that caused the skirt to flutter. This also revealed that the black undergarments were missing and only a set of stained white underpants could be seen. Even the inhibitor ring was missing as small sparks that resembled fireworks were given off a couple of times by the unconscious mare with a very ecstatic look on her face that one would only see from a very happy drunk person.
With a roll of her eyes that she did not even bother to hide from him. Luna started to cast a spell that enveloped the Unicorn for a couple of seconds before another flash occurred and revealed Princess Celestia who is back in her normal Alicorn state. Another application of magic carefully lifted her older sister just enough to make the covers pull out from underneath and cover her up before she outstretched the hand to Brex for him to take. After accepting the gesture and taking hold with his left hand. Luna used her magic to teleport them both out of there and into another room with a opposite theme.
After taking in the different Gothic designs and starry sky wallpaper into consideration. Brex instantly knew that they were within Luna's bedroom as she leaned up against one of the bedposts and gave him a questionably raised eyebrow to show that she was waiting for him to talk. He then responded as his head was slowly turning to one object to the next and strolling around. “Today she managed to behave herself and followed the rules.” There was a slight pause before he continued in a deadpan tone after witnessing Luna's expression turning a little mischievous. “And no… I did not do anything to her. The only physical contact between us was only the pickup and drop off… and using her as a chair while I worked on some papers at my desk”
Luna had to take a moment to slowly blink to what he said before she started to shake her head and also wave her hands to dismiss that last part before she replied with a sigh. “At the very least my sister is not destroying all of Equestria to copulate now that the dampening spell no longer has any sway. Still... I find this approach to be both peculiar and surprisingly effective in curbing her tendencies. Not once had it ever crossed my mind that my own sister could be a... I'm sorry, but beg your pardon... I forgot what that term is that you mentioned.”
“It's called being a voyeur. Apparently, she gets very turned on if she's in a position where she's forced to be in an observing role. With the magic being dampened thanks to your assistance she can be easily managed.”
“Of course. So many terminologies have been introduced to modern language that I am still having to adjust to. In all honesty I did not see this as an outcome once we had the discussion. Do you have any idea of how badly others would have taken the situation to be with my sister? Back in the day, there would be a line of stallions stretching between here and Griffin Stone if word got out that she was interested in finding a partner.”
Brex was now stopped in front of a bookshelf that held on to a couple of nick knacks that obviously survived through the ages with the help of magic when he answered in an emotionless tone that just barely came above a whisper while his eyes traced along them all. “I heard every last word back at the castle. I already understand her feelings when it comes to me... but as I said before, there are no feelings on my end when she is involved.”
“Mayhaps there is just-.”
“No Luna. I do not intend to be with her and what I am doing right now is simply a means to an end to keep this country going. Just because you and her confronted me in the old castle and went into a long-winded explanation as to how she feels towards me will not change my mind. If I was to describe it, then I feel neither love or hate for your older sister. What she did in the past means nothing to me. Having her over for an hour or two every few days is only to get it out of her system and leave to me alone for the rest of the time. Nothing else.”
Luna was holding on to one of her elbows as she slowly turned her head away and towards the half open window curtains with a down casted gaze. She then started to say the following with an uneasy tone. “Yes, and we both know this as it has already been previously stated by thou. Just tell me, how long will you go through with this act?”
He paused for a moment as he got near the end of one of the shelves to turn towards her and respond with a questionable tone. “An act? The two of you already know why I am even going through with this. As fucked up as your sister might be, this country is in need of not only her, but you as well if we are to get through these times of monster invasions.”
“Yes, yes I can understand. Especially after your recommendation to adjust our schedules so that I can take day court for an hour or two here and there. To say that the first few days could have gone better only shows that I need to reconnect with the modern society. I am also very thankful that you even took the time to coach me after my sister went to bed when speaking with my subjects.”
Brex began to quickly think of how things went after Luna threw everything out on the table for him after her sister went completely batshit crazy and tried to rape him. Ever since, Brex would find himself going without any emotions whenever Princess Celestia was anywhere nearby. It did not matter at all what it could be. Anger, happiness, fear, nervousness... There would be something that would just check out until she was gone. The only strong feelings he had were towards not wanting to talk around her and to act as if she was not even there.
Eventually, through Luna being the mediator and Brex conveying his thoughts through writing, did they come up with a plan of action. After clearly stating that he did not want to be the solar princess’s mate. Luna proposed the idea of them at least spending some time together in a controlled environment so that Celestia would not go into a mating frenzy. This also counted towards a deteriorating mindset that would easily take hold over time if she did not have some type of outlet. The Lunar princess even had the bright idea of just saying that he should rut her even if he had no actual attraction.
At the time, if it was not for him being without emotions, then he might have pulled out a drink just so he can do a spit take and spray all over the younger sister's face with what she was saying. Whereas Celestia was practically about to faint from embarrassment from hearing her younger sister’s statement. But by the end of it all, Brex agreed after setting some ground rules. Which led to how it was all set up. And to top it all off as to make sure that he got something out of it.
Both of the princesses promised on their mother's name that when a time should arrive that he was in need of their help, then they would have no choice but to give him one favor and follow it through. They even went through the whole process of signing up a contract where they both gave some blood and activated a magic spell that would affect whoever broke the contract with a very severe punishment to show how serious they were in this matter.
With this world's Luna seeming to have a better head on her shoulders when compared to a few of the stories where she would be portrayed as archaic and a little crazy. Brex figured that getting the younger sister to have a more Hands-On approach to reconnecting with her citizens would work out for the best. Perhaps even the episode where she completely messed up with her entrance when coming to Ponyville during Nightmare Night might turn out to be a little better and spend more time enjoying these festivities then being overly confused and lashing out over a misunderstanding.
His thoughts were brought back to the present when Luna strolled over to her mirror to glance at herself before nonchalantly looking over her shoulder towards him before saying the following. “I do admit that a change in our routine is quite enjoyable once one has a handle on the situation. But I still recommend going through the world of dreams to conduct our little... agreement. When might you be heading to sleep tonight?” His eyes lightly narrowed as he spoke with a calm tone. “That question is becoming tiresome to hear.”
Luna turned around and crossed her arms and gave him a quizzical look before she replied with a slightly worried voice that he was easily able to pick up on, even though she was attempting to sound normal. “More than a handful of nights have already come and gone, yet I have not come across your dream bubble even once when on my patrols.” Her eyes softened before she continued. “If thou are suffering from insomnia, then perhaps-.” Brex released an annoyed huff and began to approach the nearest wall and was about to place his hand onto the smooth polished surface before he said the next bit from over his shoulder. “You have a country to run... worrying about whether or not I get forty winks seems a little silly, don't you agree?”
He could just vaguely see from the corner of his vision on how Luna was lowering her head after those words left his lips and he began to feel some guilt swelling up after that remark. He pushed himself into his shadow to where he was halfway through and his face was about to make contact with the mysterious veil that would send him into another Realm before he let the next bit slip. “Even if it's been a while, I'm glad that you're able to think about another’s well-being. Keep it together with that cool head of yours and maybe the nobility won't run circles around you like they did your sister.” It was not until near the end that his serious nature turned a little whimsical and earned him a small chuckle from the princess as he slipped all the way through and got a small thank you from her.
It took less than a moment later and Brex found himself back inside of his mansion and within his bedroom. He was less than a few feet away from his bed and he could already pick up the sound of his maids as they walked right by his closed doors. Most of it was murmuring, but he was pretty sure that he heard Rin making some kind of a fuss about how the smell of vanilla frosting was really hard to remove from the rug. A small chuckle escaped his lips after hearing that. But that only lasted for a second as he recalled just who was the one responsible for making the smell in the first place and his joy immediately evaporated.
He cleared his mind after taking a few breaths of air to return himself back to normal and glanced over to the bed. Brex proceeded to climb onto it and placed both of his hands onto his stomach while putting himself to sleep. But before his consciousness fully slipped away. He mentally accessed his clock to glance at the time after making it expand to see that it was nine minutes after three in the afternoon. The familiar sensation from reality in all of his senses fading was a clear indication of his consciousness transitioning over to his mind.
Coherent and structured thoughts became increasingly more difficult to maintain as he fell deeper and deeper. It even took him a moment to remember that he was falling asleep because of his lack of concentration. Brex fully expected to Blink his eyes to find himself either within his dream house or standing right outside of it when he was fully asleep. But instead, the Roegadyn felt himself thrashing around to find his body sitting up in his bed with him huffing and the inside of his mask being saturated with his sweat. Some of his muscles were trembling and aching to where he was almost sure that he was straining them so much that he could have pulled a muscle in a number of places.
After taking a good look around and finding out that no one else was in the room to wake him up. Brex reached for his mask to pull it off. But just like so many other times, he found his hand pausing before even coming into contact with the wooden surface as if an unseen force was commanding it to not remove the mask. When he finally got around to it. His free hand wiped off a sizable amount of sweat that he was able to send a spray across the room after giving his hand a strong flick. He swung both of his legs so that he was sitting on the side of the bed and leaned over with his arm supporting his upper half thanks to his elbows laying on top of his knees.
A knock at his door made him stand up and put the mask right back on with haste after hearing the voice of the new maid. “Forgive the intrusion My Lord. Both Gilda and Rainbow are here to zee you.” A quick glance to his clock showed that only three minutes had passed since he last looked at it and wondered why they were there almost an hour early when they said that they would be coming by at four. He quickly answered with, “Thank you Ebony Rain. I will be right there.” After making sure that he was a little more presentable with using the cleaning spell on himself to make sure that there was nothing wrong with his outfit. Brex open the door and went down the stairs with the maid hot on his heels.
When he got to the ground level. The sight of the two made him almost stop right in his tracks with the way they were all dressed up. Gilda herself was wearing a black dress that had a few parts that gave a glitter shine with a slit that nearly went all the way up to her hips on the right side as the bottom stopped just a couple of inches off of the ground. The top of her cleavage was clearly visible as a diamond pattern cut was made as the rest of it clung to her body and went all the way up to her neck.
He even had to take a double take as she was wearing some makeup to accentuate her eyes that was definitely not for the tough girl look, but towards an alluring woman's gaze when she glanced at him with a small blush that she quickly got rid of once she fully noticed him there and not saying anything for a couple of seconds. Her choker was even replaced with another type that had silver chains to go between some small rings and dangling at the front for an oddly stylish combination of a collar and necklace design.
On Rainbow's part. She wore a dark blue dress that went right down to her knees. It was a sleeveless style with the section above the chest being made out of a semi-transparent fabric. She even wore earrings with her cutie-mark made into the accessories. Her mane was well kept and pulled into a ponytail. Some dark eyeliner was visible as she gave him a bashful expression before that too was immediately kicked to the curve and replace with a cocky smile as she called out. “Like what you see big guy?”
Gilda gave him a Sly smile and said, “Oh yeah, he better be. Standing there and listening to Rarity going on and on was just pure and unjust torture to get these measurements.” The young Griffin immediately flashed a hint of discomfort as she relived those memories. Brex internally winced at the thought of having to stay perfectly still and to have that mare running all over while not shutting up was indeed a cruel and unusual punishment. He then asked while gesturing his hand towards the one clock that was set up in that part of the house. “Why so early?” This got him a nervous chuckle from Rainbow as she tried to reply along with Gilda assisting with a slightly irritated tone.
“Yeah... about that. hehe-he.”
“Rainbow over here was so worked up that she wrote down the wrong time. It's a good thing I went and checked earlier that we were going to be able to get in on our reservation. Turns out it was not set for four-thirty. Instead, it's a three-thirty dinner.”
“Sorry about that! I got a little distracted.”
Gilda was shaking her head while pinching the bridge of her beak. “Yeah~. Really distracted. Anyway, we're going to need to head out right now if we're gonna make it on time.” The Griffins eyes trailed up and down his form with what started off as curiosity and slowly morphed to that of a hungry predator. You really should be wearing that more often. Shows off more of your physique better than those baggy robes that’s for sure.”
Brex was raising one of his eyebrows as he was looking between the two girls and getting a strange Deja Vu moment that made him have a quick flashback to being attacked by Celestia in the elevator for a second. As Gilda was giving off the impression of a dangerous hot girl from a James Bond movie thanks to the sexually aroused narrow gaze. Rainbow's eyes almost went completely out of focus while she nearly went slack-jawed and drooling once she got a better look at him after her embarrassment from earlier faded. The Pegasus was even dumbly nodding as she was barely able to let out some mumbling that made him think she was saying, “Uh huh... Uh... ye-yeah... what she said~.”
The prismatic Pegasus’s ears were pointing straight up as her tail began to slightly swish from side to side after lifting it up by a few inches. It also did not escape his notice as her wings were unconsciously beginning to unfold before getting quickly pulled back in a couple of times. While keeping an outside image of being normal. Brex decided to try something to get a little amusement. He started to slightly twist his body as to give the impression that he was testing out the clothing. “Hmm. I'm far more comfortable with the robes. Better range of movements and I don't have to worry about accidentally ripping the fabric by moving too much.”
Their eyes went comically wide as they followed each of his movements with him turning from left to right and making his arms do an overly exaggerated stretch as he continued. “We haven't gone out on a real dinner date and I don't want to accidentally cause a scene. Might be a good idea to give it a little test.” His gloved white hand flexed into a fist as he lifted it along with the other to flex both of his arms in front of himself slowly after first placing them at the front of his legs. If he was completely without a top, then the girls would have seen his muscles tensing up as the fabric gave a few noticeable noises as each thread lightly stretched thanks to the force being given underneath.
On his end, Brex was confident that if what he had on himself was just some normal old jacket and shirt, then it would have already have blown off after getting ripped to shreds from all the heavy flexing. But there was no chance of that happening thanks to it being made from the gaming system and the glamouring effect for the current armor set. Unlike the robes, Brex had a good outline of his basic form and the girls were getting a big eyeful from just this alone. A devilish grin was hidden behind his mask as he watched the two fidgeting in place. Gilda's eyes were practically zooming in on his arms with her beak opening wide. Whereas Rainbow's tail began to swish back and forth at an increased rate of speed that nearly caused a light breeze to build up from inside of the house.
The obvious breaking point was when their wings shot straight out and nearly hit the other so quickly that it even made an audible pumph that could be made out anywhere in the mansion. After being stuck in a statue state for a few seconds from the display. Rory's voice could be heard from somewhere deeper in the mansion as she called out in a very amused voice filled with laughter. “Hahaha-hahaha! Did I just hear a pair of wing boner’s?!”
This was followed with Rory showing up after a couple of seconds later when she came from behind the steps to witness Gilda and Rainbow in the middle of calming down their wings and standing in an awkward attention stance with clear visible sweat on their faces and obviously fake smiles as they both replied at the same time. “W-We have no idea what you're talking about!”
The girl playfully swung her tail as she approached and started to place her hands on to Brex along his chest to cuddle up after standing in front of him to look over at the others. Rory glanced back and forth a few times and rested her eyes onto the girls and giving them a sly wink before she said, “Now ladies. We all know how this goes, yes? A simple night on the town and dinner. Don't stay out too late and respect my Master's wishes. And for your sake they're better not be another repeat of when you both snuck into the mansion and tried to snake your way into our bed in the middle of the night while wearing those scandalous outfits.”
Brex was holding himself back from showing a boner after the image popped into his head and what both of the girls were wearing that evening close to half a week ago. He could understand Rainbow to a degree with her heat spiking to where she would easily have some trouble with making some rash decisions and breaking into the mansion just after midnight. But for Gilda to be in the same situation and sporting an identically made outfit that barely covered anything was a huge shock. The only reason it did not get any further to where they were literally in his bed and did anything, was only because he was not sleeping and just allowing Rory to cuddle up next to him as she was off to dreamland.
Fortunately for him, Brex and Rory sat them down and had a long talk on his views of when it came to their relationship and when time in the bed would have been allowed on his part. Witch was nowhere near to what they had now. They were more than ready to hear his and Rory’s words after she shot up in a sitting pose and glared at the two with a set of glowing red eyes in the dark and almost caused Gilda to let out a loud squawk and the Pegasus to do a scared sheep noise and fall to the floor and get tangled in the sheets.
This policy clearly threw them for a loop as they were unaccustomed to a male when it came to not accepting the advances of a female when it came to them being in their cycle of being sexually aroused and available. The social norms were on the extremist side when it came to males going after any tail that caught their fancy during the heat seasons when they were in any kind of positive relationship that even remotely coincided with being called as dating.
The only guys who would stay out of all of it would be those that already had their own partners, or those that had not come of legal age. The pair almost had their jaws unhinged from how fast they dropped when he informed them that he would not try anything until they had a handful of dates first and claimed it as his kind's customs that needed to be adhered to. Of course, this was all for two obvious reasons. The first was due to his strange trust issues and some hope that they would probably get tired of the runaround and give up if it lasted long enough.
Yes, he had Rory that he loved very much and could not see himself without. Then there was Rin and Lin who took care of many of his needs when it came to both daily life and some added sexual escapades when Rory felt a little more adventurous. Then there was the whole arrangement to keep Celestia in a somewhat same frame of mind to be good enough to rule the country with a session every so often. But he was not going to let it slide so easily when it came to those two.
The apparent and unintentional betrothal to Gilda after displaying his strength was not his intention, and Rainbow’s sudden arrival at his place one morning along with the Griffin to throw her hat into the ring to join into a herd was just him being strategically mindful when taking into account her personality. He had hoped that with the whole taking it slow would cause her to lose her shit and break it off on her terms so the team would not suffer too much.
There was always a chance that she would fly off the handle just like in a couple of other stories to disrupt the team dynamic for the elements of harmony if he had flat out turned her away. Although, he was beginning to notice the pony in a different light as time went on with how they were putting in quite a bit of effort after they're little outburst when he administered Trixie the medicine to cure her illness. When going back to the girls who were standing right there. There was a clear unspoken agreement with three sets of nods to one another.
Afterwards, Brex, Gilda and Rainbow headed out and towards the town to make it on time for their reservation as Rory stayed behind and wave them off with a bright smile in the doorway. But before he could turn his attention completely to the road ahead. He did catch someone coming up to Rory and begin to whisper something into the girl's ears. Which only caused their eyes to go wide for a second and turn into an obviously evil grin that nearly sent a shiver up his spine.
Of course, when he asked about it. The only reply he got was that it was nothing to really worry about and to enjoy his evening out. There was a small pause before Rory added that he should take the opportunity to touch their wings at some point tonight before giggling and closing the door. This caused his mind to stall for a moment before he remembered that move was an act that would greatly affect the girls if they were to be in a turned-on state and had to catch himself from running his hand down his face in annoyance.
Brex quickly gave her a narrowed look that just screamed that she better not be up to anything before turning around and giving his two dates is undivided attention. After some walking, they made it just in time through the doors to what could have been called the most fancy restaurant in Ponyville with only a few seconds to spare as they saw the waiter picking up a quill and stopping in mid-motion to scratch across some lines that Brex thought to be the book with everyone's names that had made reservations.
Once they checked in and then escorted by the waiter to a reserved table in the corner with a half circular seat for couples to get close together. He found himself to be in a very worrisome position as Gilda sat just a couple of inches to his left side, while Rainbow did the same on his right. The atmosphere was both elegant and relaxing with two ponies playing their instruments which consisted of a piano and violin. The first he did not recognize. Whereas the Pony playing the Cello turned out to be none other than Octavia as she wore a cocktail outfit for the performance that consisted of a skirt that went past her knees by a couple of inches for a modest feel.
It was a black dress with long sleeves leading down with frilly bits near the wrists. Her hair was done up in a tight bun with just one stick going through to hold it in place as she kept her eyes closed to use her instrument to its full effect. At the same time, he was picking up the menu and glancing over the top of it for just a second while contemplating as to why she would be there when she was always portrayed as some prestigious musician and played at some concert hall. This also got him to recall that he never got to see Vinyl Scratch in town as he expected there to be a music store that she might have been the owner of.
The rest of the night continued within the restaurant after the three of them placed their orders and received their dinner. For Brex, it was extremely awkward in the beginning as he had no idea how to start a conversation with the two. But that did not turn out to be the case as Rainbow took it upon herself and broke the ice almost immediately and asked as to how he and Gilda met. Obviously, he knew not to bring up the whole being kidnapped scenario and immediately skipped over it to where he became friends with Gilda's aunts. And this eventually led to the Griffin going into a few stories from growing up. Some of which Brex did not know anything about as he was not always there due to all the constant traveling on his end.
When it came to Rainbow. The prismatic Pegasus spared no details to make itself known that she was a daredevil and always excelled in her athletic fields. He did catch on that she completely left out anything that had to do with studies of the academic nature and did not pry into the matter. This ranged from racing, various types of sports, flying and the marks she got from back in the school of combat that she enrolled in. Brex on the other hand chimed in every now and then, but kept the details down to the bare minimum that he felt would keep the conversation going without giving away too much.
Sure, he could literally sit on the princess of the sun's back and use her for a chair for nearly an hour. But he had this nagging feeling deep inside that made him feel as though he should not talk so much. Perhaps this was a lingering effect from his past life to let the females do most of the talking. On further speculation when the talks took a moment to slow down. He came to the conclusion that he was socially awkward before coming to Equestria and just rolled with it as he was actually having some fun with hearing one embarrassing story after the next while the girls were trying to get a leg up on the other.
Buy some point they got around to ordering some dessert and asking for the check when the waiter came by and took the empty plates. Out of reflex, Brex was about to pull out his coin pouch with a predetermined amount of bits that were already put into it to pay for the meal. But that was when his dates had already taken out their own pouches with lightning-fast movements and attempted to pay the whole tab for the three of them before he could even understand what had happened.
It then dawned on him that stallions practically never paid for their own meals when they would go on a date and he started to feel a little dirty inside from the revelation. As a result, he pushed back enough of the coins to their respective owners so that he could pay his fair share. What happened next clearly caused him to almost freeze in place as many of the other restaurant patrons all glanced into his way with shock clearly growing on their faces that he had done such a thing. Most of them being females with just a few stallions here and there within the restaurant with sweat beginning to show on their faces after tugging on the ties around their neck in embarrassment before doing the same as him with their perspective dates.
The females however quickly turn from shock to what he thought were bedroom eyes as a number of them started to do a couple of acts to get him to look in their way. A few winks would be aimed at him, while others would do such a thing as to run their fingers across the edge of their wine glasses and pretend to taste them immediately afterwards to give a clear signal of their intent. His attention was only drawn away after feeling something laying across the top of both of his legs. When his eyes went down. He found that Gilda sneaked her tail around herself and was lightly coiling it around his left leg in an almost possessive manner and clearly acting as though she had not noticed as Rainbow was doing a similar play.
He was just about to say something when his senses began to go off to alert him of the arrival of Changeling’s entering the restaurant. Without trying to arouse any suspicion and calming both of the girls down by absent-mindedly reaching and patting their tails to elicit a blush from the two. Brex glanced around until he spotted two unicorn mare's coming in and being led to another table that was not all that far away. Obviously, they were mother and daughter as the first appeared to be roughly around the age of thirty-five if compared to humans, while the other was in her late teens.
Both had a charcoal gray fur coloring with mane’s of turquoise and green eyes. Where the eldest wore hers in a chain link braid style. The other had it in a high ponytail. Both had on some revealing dresses that were mostly black with bits of green and white in some places. The eldest had a long V-Line cut that started from the thin shoulder straps and went right past her cleavage as it nearly reached all the way to her belly button. There was a bit of fabric that attached to the side of the dress So that the arm covers would start just a couple of inches below the shoulders and run down the length of both arms and stop as a part of it wrapped some cloth around the middle fingers to keep them stretched and cover up the back-side of her hands.
The other had a similar design as it covered up her shoulders and wrapped around the back side of her neck along with a large green jade cut into a diamond. Some cleavage was showing thanks to a hole in the dress in the chest area and the rest of it resembled an outfit that he would probably find on a Chinese woman that would typically be seen in some old anime’s. As they both took their chairs and started to talk with one another. He caught them glancing over to his table to give him a pair of small smiles and a wink from the older mare. When it came to the younger one however. She showed a flushed face before looking away with some embarrassment.
Brex then took a good moment to use his inspection on the two Changeling’s and found out that the eldest of the pair was actually Queen Bellona herself. This caused him to be deeply confused as to why she would suddenly show up in Ponyville. He then immediately remembered the way Rory reacted earlier and put two and two together that she knew about the Queens arrival. But when he glanced over to who was with her. All he got was the name Drone overhead before he opened up her character window. This showed her to be in her Pony form and it took a little bit of concentration on the picture to cause it to reveal her true form.
When it did, he found himself gawking from behind his mask as she clearly looked different from the rest of the Changeling's and almost resembled the queen herself to a degree. Her horn was a little longer and the wings seemed to glisten as her image took on some glittery spots in a way that made him think he was looking at a rare trading card with a reflective finish. Even her clothing being displayed in a picture turned slightly more extravagant along with the transformation back to her normal form. He even took note of a small green tiara on the top of her head that the other changelings did not have aside from the queen herself.
(Here is a picture of what the changeling appears to be in her normal form.)
Brex took another look between her and the queen again and finally took notice of their levels and how far apart they were from one another. The queen had risen up to a powerful forty-seven, which meant she practically doubled her strength from their first encounter. But this drone was showing a whopping sixty-nine. Even the instructors that he personally trained were barely over level fifty, so he had no idea where this one was hiding all this time. Putting himself and Rory aside made her the strongest person he had ever come across.
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 89: Date Night Part 2.
The Roegadyn was practically clenching his teeth as he mentally berated himself on his luck when he just wanted to have a normal night out without some complication to present itself. The rest of the patrons and staff that was working at the restaurant had apparently stopped what they were doing so as to glance at the Changeling’s in disguise with obviously awestruck expression that a person would only give if they were to see a pair of famous supermodels. One mare was even so distracted that she ended up missing her mouth after bringing a wine glass up and spilled it slowly down her blouse without even batting an eyelash.
A stallion at another table was attempting to eat his spaghetti without even looking down at his plate, but place the tip of his fork onto the cloth laying on the table. Then started to twirl the utensil until he bunched up the fabric and absent-mindedly tried to bring it to his mouth and almost causing some of the glasses to fall over before it was too much and he could not pull his arm up any further. Another male who worked as one of the few waiters walking around to take orders was just dumbly standing in place and continuously letting his hand with a quill that had been taking down what the guest wanted to just squibble until the whole page was covered in ink.
Even those that came together for a date as lesbians often found their partners transfixed and gave them a quick nudge to break whatever hypnotic spell that they were under with some irritation showing on their faces. This was done as their partner gave them an apologetic face of their own once they figured out what they were doing. But it seemed that both Gilda and Rainbow were not affected in the same way. But only got closer to him so that they could take either arm into their embrace. Gilda then whispered the following while pulling his arm towards her chest with the use of both of hers.
“Just look at those two acting all high and mighty. Who do they think they are, the princesses? I ain't seen them in Ponyville before. What about you Rainbow?”
“Nope, not ringing any bells for me either. If you ask me, something ain't quite right with them. Just… Hmm. I can't really put my finger on it, but it’s nagging me so much that I can’t help but to think its staring me right in the face.”
“I thought so. Must be a couple that came from Canterlot. And just look at that, they're ordering the most expensive bottle of wine. Obviously, nobles with a whole lot of bits to throw around.”
“Gilda, what makes you say they're getting the most expensive thing on the list?”
“How could you not have noticed the way that one waiter almost fell over with disbelief before running off to get that bottle just now? The stallion even seems petrified to waste a single drop with how he's holding it.”
Brex saw that she was not kidding as the waiter came back and started to carefully pour the contents of the wine into both of their waiting glasses with a very nervous expression that one would get when trying to disarm a live bomb. He had even expected the guy to stick out his tongue in pure concentration at one point or another before he finished and placed the remaining bottle onto the table with such care that one would give to a snowflake. He then recalled the moment he glanced over the options on the menu from before and saw that at the bottom of the wine section was a single bottle that was worth over a thousand bits.
With the current economy, a normal minimum wage job would surmount to roughly seven bits an hour. So, a typical monthly earning would get a person around the area of one thousand, one hundred and twenty bits if they were to work for eight hours a day and five days a week. On Earth that bottle would go for a little more than twice that in dollars. This meant that when it came to how much Brex and the girls racked up in their own bill. It was nothing but a drop in the bucket if these two were to continue with their high spending on a full course meal.
Although, it did not make too much of a difference for Brex if they did the same. But the other two with him wanted to pay their share and they were fine with what they got. After a few seconds this thought flew out the window when Brex glanced towards Rainbow and found her eyeing the menu again that was still left on the table. Knowing that her competitive nature and not wanting to be shown up in front of her date which was him, really needed to get snipped in the butt before it exploded. While trying to calm the two down. Brex got their attention by absent-mindedly padding the top of one of their legs to get them to drop what was on their minds as he spoke in a reassuring voice.
“There's no need to worry about what the others are doing... or eating. Are there any activities either of you want to go out and do after we finish our desserts?” There was a twitch of a smirk on his lips from behind his mask as he playfully had this, “oh I got them” look after the pair stiffened up after his hand made its contact to the pair’s bodies. The Pegasus’s head was quickly turning red from clear embarrassment, while Gilda awkwardly looked away and gave a small cough under her breath as she replied in what started off as a weak voice before turning into her usual cocky one. “I-I mean that we, I-I, uh! *Cough!* We thought that going to the bar afterwards to probably dance might be a good idea. That is if you can even dance that is!”
Rainbow glanced around him to give the Griffin a confused look before she was about to open her mouth. But instead of words, Rainbow snapped her lips together quickly to hold in what he thought was a yelp of pain when he felt Gilda shifting her legs under the table and nearly brushing up against his own. This caused Brex to raise his eyebrow after thinking that the two had something planned. But he just resigned himself to let it be a surprise and allow the conversation to flow until they were finished and exited the restaurant.
But along the way to the exit. Brex caught a quick glimpse of a small flash of magic that was being stealthily made by the queen as a piece of paper flew out from under their table and zipped into his jacket as to not be noticed by anyone else after it flew around a couple of objects in other people. He then took this opportunity to excuse himself by saying he needed to go to the restroom. Upon locking himself into one of the stalls, Brex began to search his jacket and opened up a folded piece of paper and started to read to himself After making sure that there were no other people within the bathroom and doing a quick check for any listening devices through the means of magic.
“My apologies for the unexpected visit. We have come here in regards to the completion of the task that was set forth in Section 22 And already to move on to the next part. Also, there is a matter of great importance that we must meet face to face to discuss when you are free. By the way, are those two with you also a part of your herd? I believe their names are Gilda and Rainbow if I am not mistaken from what Rory has told me. I hope your date night goes well and we shall see you later.” Brex had to sit down onto the toilet seat after lowering the lid to rest his hand against his head as he mumbled the following to himself in a resigned tone. “Rory… Exactly what about my personal life have you been talking to the queen with?”
Sometime later after exiting the bathroom and joining his dates. All three were found at the local bar and sitting at one of the booths facing the stage. There was already close to half a dozen empty glasses that range from full mugs and others that were meant for drinking shots. There was some dancing and karaoke being performed by random people that came in. There were moments when everything got a little rowdy here and there, but for the most part it was pretty calm. There was one mare at the counter called Barry Punch who was keeping up with one order after the next.
It quickly dawned on him that the two at his sides had been going there as regulars to where they had an open tab set up. Speaking of the two, they were holding their liquor pretty well. Although they were already showing the effects after lowering their guard and being just a little clingier as they used him for some additional support in the same sitting position as back in the restaurant after moving their chairs closer to his side of the round table. In the beginning, it was a little stiff until they got a few drinks into their systems and began to loosen up and turn into a pair of party girls.
As per the usual, Brex abstained from drinking any real alcohol and only had either water or the special brew that was brought over and produced in one of the factories he had a hand in running. The brew itself was supposed to take on a flavor that best suited the individual’s tastes. But on his part, Brex always found it odd that it would constantly change its taste from one bottle to the next. At one point he thought it was Cola flavored. Then it was unexpectedly replaced with chocolate milk.
There was even one time where he thought that he had picked up his glass of water instead of his mug and the brew took on the taste of water, which greatly confused him. His current mug then took on the taste of grape juice and he began to wonder if there was a chance that it would randomly take on cough medicine with how it was being so random. This of course brought up the feeling that he should probably do some type of quality check to find out if anyone else was having these odd experiences, or if it was probably just because of his own personality.
In this world, Brex had to adapt pretty quickly with how to dance with numerous partners. If it were not for Rory and the others back at home, then he would not have had the practice over the years when it came to going on to the dance floor. But of course, Brex new that this was all a part of Rory's long-term plan to expand his options by giving him some pointers well ahead of time and he really did not mind at all as it was fun in the first place. But now he was really putting it to the test as he kept having to alternate between Gilda and Rainbow. The music would be fast paced and a little difficult to keep up with at one moment, then switch up with a slower set for some more intimate close range body movements.
Brex almost had to step in when an incident occurred after a couple of the more intoxicated mare’s got a bit over their heads and made some comments about how they wanted to take Brex for themselves for some private fun in the back After trying to push into their dancing. This obviously rubbed the two girls at his sides in the wrong way and Rainbow ended up doing a roundhouse kick to knock two out after she literally exploded with anger. Gilda however imitated a move that Brex himself use on a couple of large Lions by grabbing two of their heads in the front and stepping forward with enough force to get them to lose balance and slam the pair into the ground just hard enough to cause a couple of empty glasses on a nearby table to rattle.
One was left after this display and she practically fainted on the spot and fell back on her own when she received two sets of eyes that had shifted towards her direction with enough malice to petrify even a Cockatrice. That was when he wondered if it was a good idea to make these two any stronger than they already were. At this rate they might actually take off someone's head in the same way a top is removed from a simple bottle after giving it a twist. This blatant display of strength turned out to be just what was needed to curve a few hungry mare's that had their eyes glued his way and return to their own activities before the others could try anything themselves.
He then thought about how it was that Rainbow could easily get so riled up, but he had no idea that she would explode with such little provocation. When it came to Gilda, he was already accustomed to her violent outbursts so it was not really all that surprising to him. But at this rate there was absolutely no doubt anywhere in his head that she would kick the next Royal's ass that tried anything with her with the rate she was growing. He even had a brief instant of imagining a scenario for Gilda to be kicking the solar princess through a brick wall and pinning the Alicorn to the ground with one well-placed paw after asserting her dominance after only a few years.
Not long past before they were all sitting at their booth once again for the both of them to take a breather with him in the middle. By which time the music shifted to a slower one as one of the other mare's who were on a date to sing a song to their stallion. He then thought it must have been a special occasion as the lighting shifted to match the singer on stage. As Brex was listening to the tune. His Partners began to lean against him again and rest their heads into his arms. But the position only lasted for a few moments before they maneuvered his arm so that they were now pressing firmly onto his body as his hands wrapped around them both along the waist.
After furrowing his brow in confusion with how easily they did this trick with such well-timed practice motions. Brex asked a question just loud enough to be heard over the music, but not at a volume that could be picked up by anyone else at another table in hopes of diffusing the situation. “Have you both had too much to drink?” In response, Gilda shook her head and gave a relaxed sigh that was not in her usual cocky style and spoke with a seductive tone with both of her eyes closed. “I'm just glad that we got to finally go out. Just having a normal night makes up for what I had to go through for this dress.”
Rainbow reached over and was now placing her right hand onto his stomach as she added to the conversation after rubbing her own face into his jacket to get a little more comfortable. “Yeah. Not to mention getting my hair under control. It used to be I would just give it a couple of brushes and call it a day. Felt like I was standing at the mirror for an hour trying to get myself to look just right. Count yourself lucky big guy that I’d go through so much effort.” Brex was just about to say something to apologize to the Pegasus. But she continued with a small smile that he caught and this stopped him in his tracks. “Heh, I’m beginning to understand a little bit when it comes to how Rarity tries to keep up her appearance.”
Those words nearly made his mind go blank as he registered that the Tomboy was agreeing with the neat freak diva to some extent. After his temporary mental breakdown and restructuring was completed within a couple of seconds. Brex quickly glanced again at Rainbows name above her head to check if she was under some kind of mental de-buff. When he found nothing wrong, he just contributed it all to the copious amounts of alcohol running through her veins. This thought was only fortified even further as she suddenly took a hold of his right hand and gently guided it over to her chest so that his palm was pressing up against where her right breast should have been under the dress. This caused Rainbow to let out a sharp gasp that quickly turned into a lustful moan.
His eyes shot wide open and he was about to pull his arm away and reprimand the Pegasus when Gilda did the same act with his other arm and gave off an appreciative hum of delight. She then started to whisper to him, along with giving a set of half lidded eyes. “It's all right master~. We already talk to Rory and she told us that this was okay to do.” Brex was internally freaking out as he allowed the pair to continue with guiding his hands so that his fingers slowly gripped on to the different sized breasts of the two. Gilda's were not what one would call large, but they were still a far cry from what Rory had as the Griffin had very athletic figure.
As for what was going on with his right hand. The Roegadyn felt another set that was obviously more advantageous for one who was all about speed when flying and having one size up on his number one girl. He even berated himself on lowering his guard and was about to pull his hands away when he heard Rory's voice in his head. “Just go along with it Master. They're obviously drunk and might not remember any of it in the morning anyway. Why not take advantage of it and relieve some of your stress?”
Brex immediately shot back with a slightly angry tone to his inner voice. “For fuck’s sake Rory! Them being drunk is the exact reason why I shouldn't! They're inhibitions are completely gone and they have no idea of what they're doing.”
“Please master~. Would you believe me if I said that this is exactly what they wanted to do from the very start?”
“Huh?”
Now sounding to be completely exasperated, Rory said the following with a deadpan tone of her own that just spoke volumes about how much she was having a hard time with believing in his reactions. “As much as you like to say otherwise, it's blatantly obvious that you have strong feelings for the both of 'em. Just accept that we're not on Earth and be a little more flexible. Yes, they went a little too far with sneaking into our house, I'll give them that. But they want to show that they're genuinely interested in you. Relationships in Equestria are way different and physical contact between dating partners come so much earlier than on Earth’s conventional standards when it comes to having multiple dates beforehand.”
“Rory, you're really beginning to overstep your bounds here. I thought you were telling them to make no funny business.”
“No~. What I basically said was them to respect your wishes. All you have to do is reject them right now and they'll accept it. It's completely up to you whether you want to try anything with them and they're just giving a little push. Let's not forget you nearly jumping on them when you were giving Gilda her Dragoon Soul Stone. Then let's also count how they reacted when they beat up that group of mare's in the bar just now when they threatened to take you away from them.”
By now, his hands were being made to fully grope the Griffin and Pegasus so much that he was beginning to hear their heavy breath and sharp intake of air as he replied to Rory with even more panic. “B-But I... and they've been drinking! I-I can’t just-.” For him, the world was beginning to go into a spiral as he felt a small panic attack beginning to form. These were not Rory, Rin or Lin. It took him a while to even allow the second two to be as close as they were. If his eyes were to be completely visible right now. Then they would be shrunk into the size of dots and full of fear.
His rational mind was the only thing keeping him from freaking out to those outside as another part was almost thrashing about uncontrollably with nothing but the pure desire to push these two away and to rush out of the building with as little tacked as a stampeding rhino. He was sure that he could just barely make out a fading echo of Rory’s voice as he felt a disturbingly wet sensation underneath his mask. At first, he thought he might have been crying. Then it quickly grew to where he was almost sure that something was squirming under the wood.
He wanted to react to this. But his body felt extremely sluggish to where he could not move as the world around him began to slow down to a crawl and eventually a complete stop. Even the colors turned bland before shifting to a grayish state. The very heart that was housed within his chest was beating so hard that it was beginning to cause him some mild discomfort. At the moment he blinked his eyes, there were parts of the bar that had undergone some small transformations.
Some of the patrons were now dressed in sharp suits with a couple of them brandishing a suitcase that were either on the table or in their hands. Where the microphone should have been on stage was now an elevated platform and a side area that resembled where a judge and witness would be seated at. The windows were now covered with thick iron bars. What he originally took for as two bouncers that guarded the front door, were now wearing officer uniforms. It took him a second later to realize that each and every person within the building apart from his table were now glaring at him with unyielding eyes filled with a dangerous level of anger. He even found a pawn inspection that those that were male had undergone a change and turned into mare’s.
And when he looked down. He was filled with horror when his dates were replaced with strange black creatures that only showed a single large eyeball that was the size of his own head. Multiple tendrils wrapped around the back of the seat and along his arms to force his own hands to slowly sink into the black gooey mess that was a part of their bodies. Unable to move, scream, or even think rationally enough to use his magic or skills to break free. Brex began to feel his strength beginning to be sucked from his very being and was about to resign to his fate when a series of metallic clangs filled the bar.
The iron bars along the windows were sliced into small pieces as the remains clattered to the ground by an unseen force before fading. The judge and witness stand were reduced to nothing but a pile of timber after being bisected several times over. The heads of all the patrons were cleanly taken off all at once to where they were going in slow motion towards the ground with clearly shocked expressions. The pair on either side of them soon exploded as black viscous fluid shot across the dance floor. All of this occurred within a fraction of a second and was unable to keep track of it all and register what had happened until the very end.
His attention was brought down to the table itself when he heard more of the strange weapon sounds and saw how there was two words being gouged out on the wooden table in bold letters that took the entire surface with an aggressive writing style saying, “WAKE UP!” Suddenly, Brex felt as though a semi-truck was pulled off of his chest and he blinked to find himself with everything back to the way it once was. The only difference now was the strong suspicion that he had forgotten something very important before he was brought back to reality by the pair of feminine voices that gave off a chorus of sensual moans and heating up bodies pressing against his own.
With the noise being produced by all the others on the dance floor and many tables enjoying themselves, as well as on top of the music, Brex did not have to worry about their activities drawing too much attention with how they were sitting in the corner. A creeping blush slowly enveloped his cheeks as his eyes stayed glued straight ahead while both hands were being carefully guided by the much smaller ones of the girls. Yes, the Roegadyn was experienced when it came to touching Rory's, as well as his two maid's. But seeing as this was a date and he refrained from making any type of move was almost tantalizing in the metaphorical sense of having a chance at getting himself some forbidden fruit.
After a couple of seconds went by. His fingers brushed up against Gilda's nipple and felt the metal piercings as his thumb and index fingers were made to lightly pinch on them and give a subtle pull. This caused him to have a quick flashback to how she entered his cabin and undressed herself to approach his bed while they were riding on board the Yuna. At the same moment, a similar situation was happening over on Rainbow's side when he felt her own stiffening under his index finger that she was skillfully causing to twirl around in a clockwise fashion through the dress.
When he tilted his head downwards. He was taken aback by how his dates were now leaning up against him with the sides of their heads and practically drooling as both sets of eyes were becoming unfocused. Gilda had her left eye closed as the other remained barely open and a tongue that was half hanging out of her beak with every pant. Her free hand that was not currently occupied with his own had already pulled up a part of the dress along the slit and was reaching underneath to go between her legs. She then gave a very strong shutter throughout her body with the feathers along her wings bristling when she made him pinch on to her pierced nipple sharply.
Brex's eyes went wide at this and nearly dropped his jaw. His site quickly shot over to his right leg when Rainbow placed her free hand onto it started to lightly grip her fingernails after containing a particularly strong moan from escaping her lips after shutting them tightly for a couple of seconds before letting out a big huff of warm air That he was almost positive he could see. If he were a full-on cartoon character right now, then he might have had swirling eyes as he was barely able to bring his overloaded head to come to terms with a very notion that they had somehow orgasm from the mere action of being fondled.
With him finally processing what had gone on after several long seconds had passed without either of them slowing down with using his hands. A sudden surge of warmth and a great amount of pressure was being felt between his own legs to signify that his little mini me was aroused and attempting to do a full salute by straining the fabric that was trying its best to keep it in check. With a renewed sense of urgency that was now replacing his confusion from earlier. Brex was about to let go and try to stand up when he saw a pair of hands coming out from underneath the table. Almost with the speed of a striking viper, they gripped onto the bulge in his pants.
He would have instinctually kicked over the table and sent whoever it was down there to the far side of the room within a blink of an eye if he had not seen Rory's face peeking out and giving him a devilish wink as she began to rub her face into his package. He then said in his mind and what could have been none other than a loud scream. “Where in the Seven Hells did you come from?!?! Don't tell me you, and them?” Without even wasting a moment to unzip his pants and take his rod into her mouth and down her throat, Rory answered through the connection with clear lust being transmitted directly into his head so the noise all around them could not drown it out.
“Hehe~. Can't blame me for wanting to make things a little interesting~. Not to mention I know very well that you'll just rush off if this little guy down here didn't get drained. And there’s no way I’m missing on this little opportunity.” While trying to seem as though nothing was going on and being calm on the outside. Brex gave a long moan through his mind while mentally chastising Rory with small grunts occurring whenever she started to suck on his member whenever it got to the point of nearly leaving her mouth before thrusting it down her throat over and over again. “This is just-. Gngh! Ju-Just another one of those kinky fantasies you've been wanting to try out! Nngh!”
“Hehe-hehe! Master, let's not forget who made me~. What I want is merely an extension of your own desires. The only difference is that I don't have as much restraint as you do and have no problems with initiating. I can see Gilda's pretty much at her limit now. And oh my! Just check out Rainbow~. Off in her own little world by the looks of it. Kinda makes me think she’s a virgin.” He was barely able to pull himself away from watching Rory to look at what she was talking about and had to resist himself with taking a second look as Rainbow had an unfamiliar facial expression.
Yeah, in the past, he had seen her expressing anger, doubt, fear, confidents, skepticism, laughter, embarrassment and signs of being a little more than hungry for some sexual content. But right now, she was looking at him with what he thought to be a mixture of drunkenness and intense levels of euphoria. But beyond that was the true surprise as she displayed a part of her personality that screamed that she was in a very vulnerable state of mind that reminded him of Fluttershy to a point. He then questionably asked Rory through the connection as he was locking eyes with the Pegasus. “Huh... Ok um, confused for a party of one. Did I miss her getting hit with a spell by one of Twilight's random misfires at some point while we were drinking?”
Rory then replied with a triumphant tone. “Ha-ha! I just knew it. Our hardcore racing girl finally had a reason to show her vulnerable girlie self. All tough on the outside for the world. Always keeping her guard up whether she wants to or not. Master finally broke through that wall. What's that one part of that song again? Its on the tip of my tongue. Ah yes, I remember now! It went as, Came in like a wrecking ball.” For the amount of time that it would have taken him to blink. He could have sworn that there were glowing pink hearts in the Pegasus’s eyes as she gave him a dreamy expression before practically passing out and going limp in his arm after another strong shutter and displaying a broad smile.
The scene continued for several long minutes as Rory finished him off and zipped up his pants before crawling out from under the table so she could sit on the other side of Rainbow. Who just so happened to be still clinging onto him as though he were a large teddy bear and she was more fearful of anything to lose her grip. All the while murmuring some unintelligible words from under her breath. Meanwhile, Gilda was able to hang on for a little while longer before passing out as well once she had brought herself to a second orgasm and slumped the upper part of her body onto the table with her tongue hanging out to where it was practically touching the wood, along with eyes that had rolled to the back of her head.
Brex was just silently opening his mouth repeatedly like a flounder for a moment before he asked Rory the following with a disbelieving tone as he slowly looked back and forth between the two. “This is definitely not normal for Earth customs. Soooo~. Don't tell me that there is a part of their mating rituals that I am unaware of. And… Does this technically count towards sexual assault?” Rory began to help with carrying the both of them out of the bar and into the comfortable cool night air where there was barely anyone on the streets before she eventually replied. “Eh, don't look at me. You're the one completely messing up their normal routine. Besides, they just look adorable clinging to you like that.”
What she was referring to, was the way he was managing to hold both of the girls off of the ground so that they were partially sitting on his arms. Their bodies were turned towards the middle and wrapping their arms around his neck while rubbing their heads against both sides in their drunken state. With a strained look on his face. Brex turned towards the direction of the road that would lead to Rainbow's cloud house and said, “Flying is one thing when it's just by myself. Although I'm a little hesitant when passengers are along. And there's no way I can walk on clouds. Oh well, guess I'll just go ahead and take them over to Gilda's place instead.”
Rory gave a quick shake of the head before saying, “That's not possible. She moved in with Rainbow.”
“Wha? When did she go and do that?”
“Not long after the gala I think.”
Brex gave his head a small shake before he said, “I'm beginning to see a trend of being the last one to be brought into the fold tonight. By the way. Did you happen to know that the queen was going to be paying us a visit?”
Rory just gave him a big smile before averting her eyes in a playful gesture. This prompted him to give her a long stare down as she began to visibly show signs of sweating before she finally broke down after about half a minute. “Okay! Enough already Master! Geez. It was a surprise to all of us. And I was only just told by Lin when you were leaving. When I noticed how these two were making their move, I started to make my way over and ran into the queen at the gate.”
“So they're at our place right now?”
“Yep.”
“I suppose it would be the best place to have a little discussion. Way more secure than some restaurant.” Brex released a deep sigh as his neck began to feel a little heated up. He then said as he began to trudge along back home, “I guess there's going to be a sleepover. They should be fine sharing the same bed.”
Rory then had one of her Cheshire Cat grins while maniacally rubbing her hands together as she said the following. “Here’s an idea. We could always toss them in our bed and see how they react in the morning.” Brex rolled his eyes before giving her an exhausted reply when they began to walk past a number of shops with their lights turned off and getting close to the small bridge located near the center of town. “I'm not that cruel to put them through that kind of a joke when they're obviously going to be nursing one heck of a hangover.” There was a stretch of silence before Rory began to ask him a more serious question when they reach the outskirts of the town and walking on the dirt path leading straight to their mansion at the top of the hill.
“Feel any different?”
“Huh? Come on, you know I don't drink.”
Rory gave a playful eye roll as she continued. “Everybody knows that about you Master.”
“You don't even have to ask me that question. We're connected after all.”
“Hearing your immediate thoughts and small sensations of how you feel is not enough. I want to hear it straight from your own lips on your thoughts on them. The girl then shows the moment to gesture towards the ones he was carrying before taking a position in front of him so that she was walking backwards to gage his reactions better with a skeptical look. Brex turned his head slightly to the left as if showing he was attempting to avert his gaze from her. It took him a long couple of seconds for him to gather his thoughts and come up with something clear to say while Rory just slightly raised her right eyebrow and took on a waiting gesture with both arms crossed in front of herself.
Brex took that chance to stop in his tracks to glance up at the night sky that was filled with so many stars that it would have been impossible to see back on Earth with the amount of pollution in the air as he replied in a thoughtful and reserved tone. “I've known Gilda since she was no taller than my knee and became close with her immediate family members. It was a rough patch when it came to fitting-in. and being a non-pony myself allowed me to connect with her when it was possible. A stubborn nature that compels to get into a headlong fight and could put a Minotaur to shame. So much anger and mistrust were just covering up her fear of being alone.”
He released a heavy breath right there before he continued. “Sure the girl made a number of mistakes and ruffled more than a handful of feathers. But at least she's owning up to them and is trying very hard.” There was a small chuckle as he went on. “She's definitely changed from that welcoming party of Pinkies. No more needless fights and seems to be getting along with everyone in town now. Can you even believe that I overheard a couple of the kids over at the elementary school saying how they want to grow up and become just like her?”
“And~. How about Rainbow over there?”
A quick scoff came from his lips before he started to talk in a more playful tone. “What can I say. Arrogant, insensitive, unable to read the room, can't keep her mouth shut whenever she hears a strong opinion that disagrees with her own. Thinks with her fists faster than she thinks with her own head. She's extremely competitive and I've heard her make the accusation that someone's a spy on a number of occasions. Heck! Our first interaction was her doing a full flying body slam without so much as saying a word to me.”
After a moment, the Roegadyn's voice turned a little softer once he gave out another huff. “Yet all I know is that she is like that because of her friends. It's easy to tell that she's loyal and is putting her best effort to getting stronger so that they don't get hurt. I can't tell you how often she tries to push herself in a fight just to keep Applejack from taunting any more than she needs to. Going head long into the fight to take down the target as quickly as she can. Always ready to defend Fluttershy. At the same time, she has a lot of qualities that I can see from Gilda. I guess what I'm saying is... is that I'm... Er, beginning to warm up to them.” Brex quickly added to that in a rushed tone. “A-And I'm not saying that because of what happened on the date, okay!”
He received a genuine smile from Rory as she spun around and called over her shoulder to resume their walk. “I think that's all I needed to hear. Now come on Master. It might be a good idea to get them inside before they catch a cold.” And with that they proceeded to the mansion and ordered the maids to bring the girls to a spare bedroom and make them comfortable after entering through the front doors. Once the current issue was resolved and Rory went off somewhere, it did not take him that long to find Queen Bellona and the second Changeling in one of the waiting rooms.
The queen herself was sitting in one of the sofas. She was currently reading one of the books that he had copied from some children's story from Earth that he changed a little so that it involved an old stallion that created a toy likeness of a colt that came to life and wanted to become real. Brex had to contain himself from laughing as he recalled writing that out in some small hopes that it would help with preparing kids to watch out for strangers and to be good to their parents by listening.
The youngest instantly slammed the one she was reading when she noticed that he was in the room and hastily placed it back onto the shelf before turning in his way and adopting an attention stance while looking very flustered. Seeing as how he organized all of them himself. Brex was easily able to determine that she had been reading the one about a large green Ogre that was sent on to a quest by a very short stallion after having his home taken away. And by his guess, she might have been nearly halfway through and somewhere around the point where the princess was getting rescued from the fire breathing dragon.
There was that one small part that had the main character sliding on the rocks after rescuing his teammate partner from getting a sloppy kiss from the aforementioned dragon and getting his nuts hit during the chase that made him cringe when he wrote it down. The point of that story was to make it obvious to the readers that one should not judge another by their outward appearance or rumors. There was also a small uproar among a few of the bookstores that copies were practically flying off the shelves faster than they could get them shipped in. In this world the concept of a male lead being the underdog was still a new concept and it erupted in popularity.
Without showing so much as a hint of surprise about his entry. Queen Bellona carefully closed her book and placed it on to the table before giving a small nod to him and beckoning the other Changeling over to sit next to her as she spoke in a way that came off more as a gentle motherly figure when addressing him. “Might I be correct in assuming that your date went well and that you don't mind that we let ourselves be comfortable. These stories are quite captivating. The authors of your homeland are very diverse with various subjects. So much so that they could easily draw me into the plot to where I can’t wait to move on to the next sentence without some anticipation.
Brex went over and sat across from them and pointed towards the book that had been placed down and said, “By all means, please take it with you and return the book whenever you're able. And yes, the date did go well. The only issue is that getting them back home is a difficult task. So they're just sleeping in one of the guest rooms after having a little too much to drink. He then gestured towards the other one in the room and asked the Queen the following as he reclined into the couch. “And just who might your company be this evening? I can say with confidence that it’s not every day that I have had the opportunity to meet someone who is just a stone throw’s away from reaching level seventy.”
After saying that, Brex was sure that he caught the younger Changeling flinching and sitting up so rigid that he was almost certain that she was being called out by a drill sergeant. After giving a nervous gulp, along with eyes looking straight ahead and turning into small dots. The girl had even gone so far as to hold her breath for just a second or two before the queen rested a hand on her leg to give some assurance before calming down. Once the queen was sure that everything was okay. She was engulfed in a quick veil of green fire for just a moment to reveal her true form.
This caused Brex to give a small smirk as he was astounded even after all these years that she had kept her youthful figure and had not aged a single day. He then recalled a time when he was informed that the queen had a much longer lifespan and retained their youthful vitality long into their old age. It kind of reminded him of some special technique from an anime that reverted their body to a more youthful time that they were at their absolute peak physical condition. Taking this as a queue, the other did the same. But instantly took on a slight green tint to her cheeks as her wings gave a quick flutter to indicate that she was somewhat embarrassed for some reason.
After giving a small giggle and glancing over. Queen Bellona then said wild gesturing to her right. “Come now~. Are you saying you have forgotten of the first of my daughters you have helped? Alas, I will admit she has undergone quite a growth spurt so I won’t hold you at fault.” The Changeling placed her hands so that the palms were on top of each other right over her legs and gave a quick bow that caused a quick gust of wind and nearly struck the table while leaning down as she gave a stuttering response. “So-so ni-nice to meet you again my Lord! T-The honor is all yours! N-No!I meant the honor is all mine!”
Queen Bellona had a smile that was slowly creeping on to the edge of her lips, along with a quick eye roll before she began to cause her horn to glow with a faint light. Soon Brex found himself a second later hearing a set of voices in his head that obviously came from the pair sitting across from where he was. One was that of the queen giving a reassuring voice as the other was clearly panicked and hysterically complaining and making him think of a teenager.
“Please do calm down. There is no reason to be this nervous.”
“No reason to be nervous?! Mother! He obviously thinks I'm a fool! Did you not hear me just now? I'm so stupid-stupid-stupid! What was the point of standing in front of the mirror! Huh? Why is your horn glowing? Oh for the love of the Hive, Mother!!! You did not just open up a link, please tell me you did not!”
“If I did say no, then it would just be a lie.”
The young Changeling had her eyes snapping towards him and strongly conveyed that her mother was playing a prank on her. But when Brex gave a small wave and said a quick “Hello.” She instantly turned bright green which just so happens to be the Changeling’s way of having a red blush before slapping both hands over her face and releasing a small squeal of embarrassment. Brex brought his attention back over to the queen when she gave a seemingly innocent, yet maniacal chuckle at her daughter's expense before she extinguished the magic and brought out a large brown envelope and handed it over to him before she started to speak again.
“I find that being straightforward and showing ourselves to be the best Icebreaker. Also, here is a report on the Crystal Caverns. The installation was a success and a number of my children along with myself have already undergone the process. All that is left is for us to do the same here.” By that point, she was gesturing down towards the floor with a finger while Brex opened up the envelope and pulled out a diagram depicting a large Crystal with orbiting rings just above a raised stone platform. This turned out to be one of the transportation crystals that was at the center of every city, small town and outpost within the game for a player to attune themselves and teleport between locations as an anchor point when delving Into The Aether flow of the world.
So far Brex had over a dozen of them scattered across Equestria and one situated near the coastline of neighboring countries. After a mountain of research was put into the program, the Roegadyn finally recreated the vital tool to allow others to teleport. Sure, it was not able to transport goods from one place to the next. But as long as a person had the objects on their bodies then it was no problem. Counting what they just installed in the Crystal Cavern underneath Canterlot, back at HQ, various bunkers and the private one under his house. There was a grand total of seventeen and all.
As for the one at his mansion. The only ones who were attuned were none other than himself, Rory, Rin and of course Lin. Not even the queen herself had access to come and go as she pleased. And on that note, Brex responded after waving his index finger. Now now. We both know that crystal is strictly for those that live here. Anyway. What was the second topic that you wanted to bring up for coming all this way yourself. A signal to either of your daughter's stationed here would have been enough if you just wanted to let me know that the transport crystal was finished.”
“We merely came by to personally invite you to a celebration that we will be having in a couple of days.”
“Oh well that's news. What's the occasion?”
The queen placed a hand onto the younger Changeling’s shoulder before she answered with a beaming smile. “My daughter will finally be receiving her name in front of the hive.” This was followed with her excitedly clapping her hands and bringing her daughter in for a bone crushing hug that finally got her to show her face again. Unfortunately, she was silently screaming for her mother to let go as she could not breathe and violently tapping onto the older one’s shoulder with a couple of fingers to get her attention as to what was happening.
Once the excitable parent released her grip. The daughter went back to a far more comfortable seated position to fix her wings and dress and started to twiddle her index fingers around one another as her eyes shifted down to her hands and up to him a number of times before she managed to get her voice back. “T-Tradition states that I will be able to receive my name on my twenty third birthday and officially received the title of p-princess for being able to take over the hive when my mother sees fit that she will no longer be able to lead it. P-Please! It would mean the world to me if you were to attend!”
To him, this girl was as nervous as anyone could get. If he did not know any better, then he might have thought that she had been hanging out with Fluttershy with just going off of the way she asked for him to be there with a submissive tone that she probably wanted to come off as more confident. After giving it a quick thought. Brex saw that there were no problems with going. Info was still being collected from the network of spies and a couple of doppelgangers. Not to mention the school was not planning on any field trips to Canterlot to indicate the time of Discord's release being anytime soon.
Brex quickly gave a firm nod and said, “It would be my pleasure. I would be a fool not to witness the crowning of a new princess. By the way. Has the name already been picked out?” The queen closed her eyes and gave a quick playful laugh before she responded, along with a dismissive gesture with her right hand. “My Lord will have to wait just like all the rest. Not even my daughter knows what it will be until the time comes. Even with it not being official yet. My subjects have already begun to refer to her as Princess.”
He then made sure that she knew that he was facing his mask directly towards the younger Changeling before giving a light bow of his head and said, “Well then Princess. I'm sure that your mother will choose a lovely name.” What came next caused his eyes to almost bulge out from surprise as the temporarily named Princess shifted to a brighter green color that started from her cheeks and eventually covered her entire body so quickly. The wings on her back that were lightly moving had gone so stiff along with the rest of everything else. He was just about to ask if something was wrong when the queen spoke up.
“Oh dear! Oh, uh please don't mind her. She tends to get like this at times and just needs a couple of minutes to calm down.” A few seconds went by with him clearly being a little worried before his thoughts were taken away by a knock on the door. This was followed by a familiar young boy’s voice. “Hey Gambit. Rin told me you were in here.” Queen Bellona took on her disguise in a flash. Unfortunately for Princess, that was not the case as she was unresponsive and only blankly stared straight ahead and at the wall.
Brex responded by calling over his shoulder while getting up an excusing himself to get to the door without giving any hints that he had company. “Hold up Spike! Just give me a second, I just got to put this last signature and I'll be right out.” As he was about to close the door behind himself after exiting the room and placing himself in a position to keep the young drake from looking past. Brex picked up on the queen whispering something with a somewhat embarrassed tone that a mother would give to a child that had done something both stupid and adorable. “Just what am I going to do with you? Even after begging me to bring you along...”
Brex then turned his attention to Spike and tilted his head in confusion. Apparently seeing what was happening, Spike went on to say, “So yeah. Do you think it's okay if I spend the night here? Twilight's been... a little much for me. But everything should be just fine by tomorrow morning. Er… I hope.”
Brex responded with clear dryness in his voice. “Is our purple pony acting normal crazy, or worried crazy?”
“Oh yeah! Definitely worried crazy. I was in the middle of preparing to make dinner tonight and she came into the kitchen. Her mane was completely in shambles. The whole twitching eye, nervous ticks and being way more impatient than she normally is.”
“Hmm, I can’t really see a difference from her day-to-day self.”
“Ha! You say that, but you weren't there when she saw some of the ingredients I had on the counter.”
With a raised eyebrow, he reluctantly asked. “Exactly what was on the counter?”
Spike replied with a face that just radiated how much he was over everything. “A cucumber was laying there with two tomatoes... For the princess’s sake, it's never been this bad. Every scale on my body told me I needed to get out of there tonight.”
Brex pulled the whole Monkey D Luffy face with his eyes going wide, while also sucking his lips in from behind his mask as he slowly padded Spike’s left shoulder with a consoling gesture before saying, “That was definitely the right choice to make buddy.” To him, there were a couple of stories that involved these two hooking up that he found to be very stimulating. But with how he was basically treating him like a little brother in this world only made it seem wrong and caused the Roegadyn to be worried for the young drake.
Afterwards, they exchanged a few more words and the pair decided to go off to another room to do a little late-night training. The scene then transitions to a later point in the evening with both Brex and Spike with a part of the mansion that was littered with multiple types of workout equipment. These ranged from treadmills, various types of weights that could be pulled with the use of cables in various directions, dumbbells of every size from what a small kid could use and all the way up to something that a weight lifting champion would be seen with.
A couple of training dummies with targets painted on different parts were on one side of the room along with wooden training weapons. Most of which were a little smaller than normal. The voice of Brex could be heard with a couple of metallic clanks echoing in the background. “Come on, come on, you can do it, just two more. Almost there!” Spike responded with clear exhaustion in his voice as he strained to call out a few numbers that coincided with a set of grunts on his part. “Eighteen... Nineteen... TWENTY! Phew! I think... that's my limit tonight.”
What could be seen next was Brex grabbing on to the large set of dumbbells and carefully took it from Spike that was laying on his back and placed it onto the holders with a heavy clank. The kid was wearing a pair of black workout shorts and a white tank top shirt that was now drenched and sweat. Both hands even had a layer of thin white tape that was wrapped around to give some protection. His arms laid hanging down at his sides as he shakely got back up to a sitting position. Brex tossed him a towel and a bottle of water as he patted him on the back and commended his workout.
“Way-to-go! I can't believe you can already bench press two hundred and eighty pounds. That's more than your body weight. Not to mention doing three reps of twenty. Man, you could pick up a pony and toss 'em over a fence if you wanted to. Seriously, are you positive that you're not older than Twilight?” Spike scratch the back of his head after hearing that and gave him a broad smile after taking a big gulp of water. The kid then said, “Hahaha, it's only because I'm getting a lot of help. Besides all that meat that I've been eating is really beginning to show some results.”
What Spike said was a clear understatement as he was showing off a set of ab’s that were slowly beginning to form if he were to pull up his shirt a little bit. The thin framework from weeks prior became much firmer with muscles developing all over the place to give him the start of an athletic build. This was only further enforced with a clear full foot being added to his height. The scales along his body gave off a brighter sheen when compared to when he first arrived in Ponyville. The spikes on top of his head also started to be a bit longer and slightly pointy instead of the clear roundness they once had.
If anyone was to come into town and never met either Spike or Twilight, then they might have thought that he was the older brother with how he now was roughly an inch taller than the purple Unicorn. But what Brex found strange was the way that there was no one who seemed to have acknowledge the changes and acted as though he had not grown up at all. Within his mind, the Roegadyn contemplated on just how oblivious these Ponies were when it came to subtle changes. Then again, it might not have registered so much with him not being of their race.
After wiping himself off a little more. Spike got onto his legs and went over to the training dummy area and stood about five yards away from one that had a couple of scorch marks here and there that were the size of baseballs. Brex playfully rolled his eyes before joining him and standing off to the left and a few steps right behind as he watched the drake begin to do a couple of breathing exercises with one foot forward to help with bracing himself up for what he was about to do.
After taking in a few deep breaths and having his hands put together in a meditation gesture to get him more relaxed. Spike took in one quick jet of air and held it for a couple of seconds before releasing it in one long exhale to produce a flame that took on the shape of a fireball. It swirled with a jet-black outline as the inside was a neon green that bathed the room with a similar shade while flying at an astounding speed towards the target.
If anything, Brex thought he was looking at some fire bender. The attack struck near the center of the painted target that was meant to be the chest area and exploded with enough force to cause the room to give a small shake from the impact. A plume of dark smoke shrouded that part of the room that it hit for a couple of seconds as it all slowly dissipated. After a couple of seconds, Brex gave off a big whistle as he rubbed his hair on the back of his head with his right hand after witnessing that the wooden dummy was almost obliterated from the waist going up.
A few green flames and a couple of falling bits of embers remained of the lower half. A sound came from Spike as he began to jump for joy in place. “Woohoo! Did you see, did you see what I did?!” Brex then joked with, “Remind me not to be in front of you when you have your hiccups again! Haha-haha! There's a whole lot of force behind those shots now.” As Spike ran over to check on his newly destroyed target. The Roegadyn used his inspection on the kid and brought up his information.
From what he knew. Spike did not have any real fighting experience apart from the Diamond Dogs kidnapping of Rarity while he was away. It was Rory and the others that took care of them and sent the pack running for the hills. But he still got some experience after being with them during that incident. Currently, the kid was at level four but without any type of job classification. He even went so far as to go over to the stats and saw that they were way above what they should have been.
In the game, an adult person's maximum stat would be twenty-one and the others would be somewhere around fifteen for a level one player. But even with four levels. His were already saying that a majority of them were tripled. Strength, stamina and speed were already over sixty points. The other stats were half of that. However, the intelligence broke one hundred. This of course was the explanation for his fireballs becoming so powerful and destroying a target that should have been able to take hits from a level twenty player. After taking a few tips from a few Dragons he had met, Brex was able to train Spike enough so that his flames were now being utilized in the proper manner and becoming far more powerful.
If he was to go up against a Thaumaturge that was also level four. Then he would easily out class the spellcaster in terms of raw firepower. He then thought about the points and began to come up with a theory of what would happen when Spike was to choose a class and reset back to level one. Since all those numbers were rising even though he had not leveled up. Then it was only logical that he would retain a good portion of it when reverting. The only problem being was for the simple matter of not knowing exactly what the kid would choose considering none of his soul stones have given any kind of reaction to him yet.
A loud growling sound emanated from Spike that brought Brex out of his thought bubble and he excitedly called to the kid. “Spike. If you’re done with admiring your work, then how about you make sure that all your fires are put out and we'll go grab you a quick snack before bed.” The young drake tried to rebuke the statement and said that he was okay to keep on going. To make a point of displaying that he still had energy. He started doing a couple of motions to produce a few fist strikes in the air and a roundhouse kick immediately afterwards.
But Brex said, “It's not good to overwork yourself. As a once Great Master once said. Work hard study well and eat and sleep plenty. Also, we must study the art of peace, as well as the art of war. We achieve victory through the art of war. Victory is one through strategy. Strategy is derived from the art of peace. But if you should witness someone causing unlawful harm to an innocent, then it is our responsibility to step in and put a stop to it. Now hurry up. I'll grill you up some Hydra meat.”
The mentioning of Hydra meat stopped the drake in his tracks and made his mouth hang open just enough to see a row of sharp jagged teeth. It was then followed with a river of saliva that trickled onto the floor with multiple drips before the young guy realized what he was doing and made a quick dash for the door while screaming over to Brex. “Well why didn't you say that first?! Let's go already!”
A Roegadyn in Equestria. Chapter 90: Sheep’s Clothing Is Off.
*Point of view: Third person* *Location: The manor of Brex* *Time: Seven in the morning*
With the outside being that of a cloud filled day and temperatures coming down to just enough to make one want to grab and put on a coat. Breakfast was being served by all three of the maids that now comprised the staff for the residence. Instead of Brex sitting at the end of the table. The guy was now on one side with a female Griffin and Pegasus sitting dangerously close while Rory watched with an obviously shit eating grin from across the table. Without any utensils in his own hands, the Roegadyn was being fed with a set of forks that were coming in from both sides. The first one obviously had a strip of what could only be bacon with juices dripping down and onto his plate. While the fork on the right side held a piece of fried sunny-side up egg.
There was just one loud thought that shot through his mind as he had an embarrassed expression underneath his mask and being sent right towards Rory. “Why? I'm getting The Grinch Stole Christmas vibe here. *Sigh* At least they're not force feeding me fudge.” He was creeped out with the drastic change in personality that was now coming off of Gilda and Rainbow. The tomboys were nowhere to be seen as they were replaced with a couple of lovesick puppies that went right to work with feeding him before the guy could even reach for his own knife and fork upon sitting at the dining table.
From what he knew, the two were just fine when they woke and freshened up. But they practically jumped to cling on to him at the very moment they saw that he was walking out of his room and down the steps. Clearly not wanting to leave his side for even a second only led to their current seating arrangement and entertainment for the girl in red. When it came to the Changeling maids, they watch with a mixture of both fascination and annoyance at how clingy the two girls were getting with their Lord. The silver one only giggled as the dark haired one only watched with a cold and unmoving expression.
As for Ebony Rain, the bat pony showed no signs of caring whatsoever and waited diligently for her next task along with the others. However, what she thought on the inside was a completely different matter. She was ready to pull her own ears due to frustration. Almost racing with one theory after another to come to a logical conclusion was pulling on the threads of her sanity. Especially as she prided herself with being able to come up with an accurate assessment of another person’s personality within a short amount of time.
Even after going through the trouble of having a customized made outfit that she found utterly embarrassing and taking on the position for additional help at a private residence for a cover. Taking orders from those that she clearly saw to be inferior to her in terms of the social hierarchy by the other maids. The Ebony Rain kept a close watch on all of the doings when it came to both the inside and outside of the building on a daily basis and sent reports back to Princess Luna through the Dream Realm on a regularly scheduled set of times.
Such things as the fact that the one called Gambit was obviously not sleeping at all would come up on multiple occasions. Noticing that the mysterious male was always busy with one task or another and only sat still long enough to be with the female called Rory Mercury in their private chambers. There was also the odd behavior that she picked up on when it came to both of the senior staff members. No matter where she went or what she did, one of them was always nearby when she was about to go into one of the restricted sections.
Even the Chimera that suddenly showed up one day was now a permanent residence outside. The first time she saw the monster triggered a fight or flight response that almost sent her flying into the clouds so fast that it might have left an after image if she did not control her impulse. There was just no getting over the fact that such a beast was completely under Rory Mercury's control and wearing a bright red bow that rested on the back of its lion head as though it was a common house cat. There were also the unexplainable mountains of papers that would be stacked up in his office that would always be taken away by either Rin or Lin and disappear.
No matter how hard she tried, the bat pony could not get close enough to peek at what the documents were due to one of the maids always being near and needing to keep up her disguise. It almost made her believe that she was looking at a mirror image of Princess Luna whenever she needed to take care of matters regarding the state of her subjects through the late nights back when she was working under the Princess. Although. The clear amount he had far eclipse the younger sister in terms of the workload. This made it apparently obvious that her target was a workaholic of the highest degree and it was only a matter of time until the eventual collapse that she herself witnessed Princess Luna succumbing to on more than one occasion.
In some cases, it would not take too long for her to get an ample amount of info after taking on a new undercover assignment. This would mainly be brought around thanks to the talkative nature of the employers she was working under. Unfortunately, the bat pony ended up with an assignment with the first male in her memories that did not talk her ear off and kept things strictly professional. It was pretty much a blow to her own ego when she was fully prepared to be called into his chambers for the usual servicing that she was psyching herself up for Since before starting her assignment.
This was taken as both a blessing and a curse as she could not come up with a clear picture of his personality aside from his actions within the mansion. Espionage and intelligence gathering on many different levels was a specialty of hers. Strategies in regards to self-defense, military operations, education that could rival those with noble backgrounds, techniques used in both torture and lovemaking where the tricks of her trade over the many years of service.
Speaking of the mansion. She found the design to be quite appealing with the dark nature. The bat pony gathered before showing up that the structure was erected fairly quickly and showed no flaws that she could pick out from a strategic point of view. The materials used were both durable and of the highest quality. Just looking at the front doors alone conveyed how sturdy it could be if she found herself to be in a situation where monsters would be pounding to get in. The strange set of locked doors at the far end of the place turned out to be the only area that she was unable to get through thanks to the magical lock that she herself could not pick her way around.
Ebony Rain even informed Princess Luna of the other hired made that came into the mansion out of nowhere a few days after she started. It was strange how she was never really around for all that long and only showed up for a small handful over the week. Most of which was spent in the office with her current boss. Yet there was no sign of her the day prior when she brought in some tea. What she found also peculiar was that she never managed to see when the new made would come and go. This led her to believe that the girl was being sneaked into the mansion and wanted to look into it for anymore possible leads.
Normally she would do a thorough investigation is to find out who she was, but her princess gave her a clear order to leave that maid alone and to conduct herself as usual. But not before displaying some discomfort and a small blush before doing so. As for right now. The bat pony was silently judging and reassessing her previous understanding of the Griffin and Pegasus that she had seen around. For her, there was no force in Equestria that could have such an effect as to turn them into mush and act the way they were. One strong set of words resounded in her mind as she had to hold back a cringe. “Have some pride as females already!”
Over with Rory. The girl was playfully stabbing at her food and eating it as she recalled last night before after separating from her Master so that he could meet with the queen. Once the pair were placed in the bed with the help of the other maids and left alone. Rory snuck inside and turned on one of the crystal lamps to give some small illumination before sitting on the edge of the bed with her legs playfully dangling so that the two girls were behind her as she spoke to what seemed like no one in particular. “Hmm, hope you both got all of it.”
Two sets of shifting mounds wiggled underneath the sheets before Gilda stuck her head out with a huge blush on her cheeks and eyes averted from the girl. She then responded with an unfamiliar voice that came out meeker than anything else. “Yeah. Came in loud and clear.” Rainbow soon joined in as she did the same. However, she turned her head in the other direction as she spoke up. “I won't lie. I was getting a little mad at the beginning when he finally got around to talking about me. *Huff* Why am I the only one that gets this sort of treatment? First, he gets me all angry and then I have to go and feel all warm and fuzzy. It's totally not cool.”
“I've known him since before I could even fly properly and he's one of the few people that have actually believed that I could become an adventurer. Ok, sure I had my aunts and Einstein, but I always felt more encouraged when the words came from him whenever he visited our place in the city.” The Griffin's face heated up more as she felt the uncontrollable urge to pull the blanket to cover up half of her face before she continued. “I-I can't believe we actually did that!”
There was a small “Eep” sound that came from Rainbow before she fully covered her head in the blankets before she responded. “I drank so much to get the courage to pull off that little trick! I'm so glad that he didn't just stop and reject us. It would have been the most embarrassing thing in my life.” A small pause followed as the room became silent before the Pegasus spoke up again with an unsure tone. “Um... what should we do now?” This caused Rory to give herself a powerful facepalm before exclaiming in a loud whisper over the girl’s lack of common sense. “Hergh… How is it possible that both of you don't even have a clue and need to ask me?”
Gilda pulled the sheets down only just enough to show her whole head before she responded with a deadpan tone. “Yeah sure, us females are meant to be the ones to make the first move, but the guys are the ones that are all in touch with their feelings and know all about that lovey dovey stuff.” Rainbow nodded to what her girlfriend said with a quick jerk of the head before sitting up and moving her arms towards Gilda before speaking up herself. “That's it exactly! Show them that we're interested, give them some presents and do whatever they want to do. The whole happy husband happy life stick.”
Rory was now placing her hands on the side of her head to nurse an oncoming migraine while gritting her teeth. Going off of how she was made by him. The girl knew that the phrase was a reversal for “happy wife happy life.” Yet somewhere deep down she knew that word play did not feel comfortable and it probably would not be a good idea to mention it in front of her Master and firmly held her tongue on the matter.
She then said the next bit after giving a sigh. “Why don’t you drop your entire tough girl facade and just show him how much you care for a little bit.” This got her a raised eyebrow from the Griffin, along with a slight head tilt and one ear raised from the Pegasus as she continued to go into what was now going to be a very long discussion that would last for a portion of the night as she conveyed a possible method to use in the morning.
The scene then shifts back to the present as Rory continued to watch her little plan play out with great amusement. Luckily Spike was sleeping in for a little while longer with not having anything really to do. This meant there was no other person around to get embarrassed of seeing them in their current state. Thanks to how slow the others were eating Thanks to their attempts to feed Brex. Rory finished up her meal and started to leave as she called over her shoulder while heading to the door.
“I'll be going out for a while. Oh and don't be late for your work girls.” This got a couple of nods and see-yeah's from the two girls as she went through the doorway and heard her Master calling to her through the connection. “And just where do you think you're going? You had a hand in this, I just know it! Whatever you did I want it fixed now!” She quickly blew him a kiss and said, “Also before I forget. The rest of the girls will be coming over tonight. So have fun until then.”
Obviously, Brex was going to say something else in response to the girl’s antics. But was interrupted when Gilda began to make a few more attempts to get him to eat some of her food and allowed Rory to escape with a smile plastered on her lips and heading out of the house. Once outside, she got a good glimpse of Crystal running around the side of the building and right up to her as though she were some kind of go-cart in the middle of a race. Some bits of grass and dirt were being kicked thanks to how quickly she came to a dead stop. Not even a second later showed a black Chimera following the same path and mirroring the same type of skidding stop alongside the bird on the left.
Rory glance between the two and notice how they were covered in some patches of dry dirt to indicate that they had been playing prior to coming outside. Not only that. The Chimera's fur was not as mangy as it normally would be and she figured that it had just recently been brushed. On further inspection she had to raise an eyebrow as to how the Ram’s head was carefully groomed. When it came to the third, the blue scales along the Dragon part were even shinier after being given a good polish with what she thought was the sand bath being provided by the animal handler Be.
As the lion head came in close to rub itself against Rory to give out a loud set of purr's. The two other heads craned their necks in order to do something similar. It then allowed its body to fall sideways onto the ground and roll onto its back to expose its belly while out stretching both of its front limbs for a belly rub. During which, the scorpion tail would sway side to side along the grass and lightly whip to make a loud thud ever so often to show its anticipation.
Unlike the largest of the three back in the cavern. This one did not have the weird mutation of growing those creepy blood sucking tendrils underneath. Nor was the tail capable of splitting up. Obviously after some examinations were done. They all came to the conclusion that they were all genetically modified. Although the one that her Master fought had apparently went through a greater amount of augmentations. Even with this creature being more than strong enough to send Canterlot into a frenzy. It had become more of a house cat now that it was adjusting to being treated with more care than it had gone through before as a test subject.
When it came to daily activities concerning this creature, it could be found laying out in the sun somewhere to bathe in the warmth in the middle of the lawn. While other times one might find it sitting on top of the roof with a couple of limbs dangling from the edge as it dozed off during around the time the sun would be at its highest point. Rory then recalled that a few days after it first arrived, she had to deal with a contingency of town guards that showed up at the front gate. Apparently, they had been given some worrying news about a terrifying monster that made its way onto our property thanks to a passerby that caught a glimpse of the Chimera on the roof.
As she was explaining the situation to the guards. The Chimera came down from the roof and approached them and spooked one into drawing their sword. But before Rory even had a chance to stop the pony. Their sword was immediately ripped from their grip as the monster took it into its mouth and started to chew on it no differently than a toy and emitted the sound of screeching and warping metal along the jagged teeth. The others became scared and started to reach for their own right as Rory turned to the Chimera and pointed at the ground and said, “Drop it. You have no idea where that's been, now drop it right now.”
With a reluctant growl, the sword was spat out and tumbled a couple of feet until it laid right in front of the guard that it originally belonged to. Apart from there being a disturbing amount of drool coating the surface of the metal. The sword itself was bent and covered with multiple deep dents from the many teeth that worked on it for the handful of seconds it was in the creature’s mouth. Rory then took it by the ear and earned a whimpering cat like noise before she apologized to the guard and said that she would pay for a new one.
With nervous glances going between each of the guards. Along with clearly visible sweat drenching their faces. The group said it was nothing and collected the item before rushing off. Although they did warn Rory that the Chimera was not allowed to be in town unless she or Gambit was around. Ever since then, the Chimera would either be at their place or roaming the Everfree Forest. When it came to those that came by the mansion. Everyone kept their distance except for Fluttershy who immediately took a liking to the monster and started to play with both it, Crystal And the other chocobo’s whenever she had some free time during and in between a lesson.
The next scene shows Rory already coming out of Fluttershy's cabin and saying goodbye with the door closing behind herself and walking over the small bridge on the Pegasus’s property Just a few seconds later. She then took out of her small bag a pocket watch that she opened with a push of a button to take a look at the time while speaking to herself. “Already ten o'clock? It's so easy to lose track of time when there's so many animals to play with. Hmm, let's see. Putting aside the two back at the house and Fluttershy. I still need to find Pinkie, Rarity, Twilight and Applejack. Ok then, Rarity will most likely head over to Sugar Cube Corner for lunch, so I'll just wait till around then to talk to her and Pinkie then.”
Rory began to put the watch away and continued while tapping her chin in a thoughtful gesture. “Applejack’s on the far end of town. Guess my next stop is Twilight's.” It did not take too long before she found herself standing in front of the Golden Oaks Library and started to knock on the door a few times. After several attempts with no signs of anyone answering. Rory went around to the back in order to try her luck at the door that connected to the kitchen.
But before she could even go all the way around, the girl noticed some movement above and spotted Twilight as she just came out onto the balcony with a serious case of bed hair and in the middle of rubbing her eyes. Rory gave a quick whistle after bringing a couple of fingers to her lips to gain the bookworms attention and eventually was let inside after a couple of minutes past. When the girl entered the library, she was taken aback by the messed-up state that it was now in without there being a Drake around to tidy up.
This consisted of nearly every book being taken off all the shelves and stacked randomly in almost every corner. Scattered plates filled with half eaten vegetables were on the tables and chairs to show that she had been binge eating while apparently reading the many books and just leaving them to sit and go bad overnight. With only a cursory glance from just a couple of paces from the door was able to give her a decent view of the kitchen thanks to the open wall. Even that place was ransacked and covered with half eaten dishes along with the refrigerator door being left wide open.
Rory was left with no other choice than to carefully lift her leg and place it back down where she was sure that she would not be standing on anything other than the floor while coming inside further to where she was now standing at the center and watching Twilight frantically using her magic to clean up as best as she could with nervous stuttering and laughs every now and then. After giving the purple Unicorn sometime to tidy up enough to where it did not resemble a landfill. Rory finally spoke up while arching a single eyebrow that clearly conveyed a mixture of concern and judgment.
“Wow. My Master was right after all. Spike really needs a boost to his allowance if you can't even go twelve hours without this happening. And before you start with trying to explain... I already know.” Twilight's face turned beet red as she scurried off into the kitchen for a few minutes before coming back out. After making a few adjustments to her outfit and giving a small cough into a fist, did the unicorn finally respond. “Suppose I should say thanks for taking Spike in last night. Especially with it being on such short notice.”
Rory answered back after giving a dismissive wave of her hand. “Nothing to it. Us girls tend to have our nights that we... find that keeping control can be rather difficult. Anyhow, back to the reason I came by. I'm going around and inviting the girls over to our place later today. Think you’ll be able to make it?”
“Huh, what's the occasion? It's not as if we won't see each other again in a few more days once the heat cycles completely out of our systems. Although last night may have been my last with how severe it became.” At that point, Twilight realized what she had just blurted out and looked away rather sheepishly and gave Rory a embarrassed toothy smile.
“Hahaha! Seriously! That last night was probably nowhere near as bad as the couple of days that I finally had a chance to be with Master. We were a pair of overly horny rabbits~. Hardly left the bedroom for anything aside from eating, sleeping and getting cleaned up before going at it again. Remember when I told you about how we nearly went at it for close to a full day? Now that was an intense week! Wow, I can still feel the shivers when I recall what we did.” By now Rory was biting her lower lip and having a dreamy expression as her tail was lightly swishing back and forth along the freshly cleaned up floor.
Her thoughts were only broken when Twilight made an obviously desperate attempt to change the subject. “By the way. Wasn’t it yesterday that he was supposed to go on a date with Gilda and Rainbow? How did that go?”
“About as good as I expected it to get. Which is one reason why I'm inviting everyone over.”
Twilight paused in place to give a few blinks before her expression turned to that of a confused look as she replied. “Okaaay... Um, not really sure what that has to do with the rest of us, but sure. What time should I head over?”
“Probably around three-thirty would be a good time. Especially with this being short notice and all.”
“Sounds good. It’ll give me a chance to clean this place up a bit before Spike comes home.”
“That would be for the best. Wouldn't want him giving you another one of those lectures about cleaning up after yourself.”
“Uhg... those are just the worst. Makes me feel like I’m back with my parents. It's humiliating to have your little brother be the one that has to lecture you. I think he got it from my dad.”
“Okay then! I'll be going now. Oh yeah one last thing. Recently I came back with some tonics to use in the bath. Maybe we can all take a dip later on with everyone else.” And with that Rory ran out to head to her next destination. But not before catching Twilight confusingly asking herself the following as the door was being hastily opened and closed again on her way out. “Take a dip, where exactly?” After Twilight’s place. Rory made her rounds over to Sugar Cube Corner and gave the invitations to both Rarity and Pinkie Pie when the fashionista came in for her lunch and was waited on by the pink pony.
Next came Sweet Apple Acres where Rory found Applejack right as she was beginning to finish up with her chores for the morning. The mare was working up a sweat and wiping it off from her brow when she saw Rory coming up to her from between the rows of trees. The farmer then waved and said, “How ya' doing there Rory? Didn't expect to see your hindquarters over in these parts today.” Just then a set of whirling mechanical gears could be heard not too far away before something bulky came from around one of the trees.
This turned out to be a Stone Golem that was slightly taller than Applejack herself. On its back was a carefully fitted wicker basket that was in the middle of being filled with apples as the automaton bent down and picked up some fallen fruit and tossed it over its head and into the container. The right arm was slightly larger to show it was meant to strike objects while the other one turned out to be much more dexterous for handling the apples. There was even an icon that resembled a red apple and a single green leaf sticking out at the top that had been printed onto its back and on both of its shoulders.
Rory took a closer look and found that there was also a set of numbers underneath the print that said, 0-0-5. A second later Applejack called out to it and pointed towards the general direction of the barn. “Okay number five. One more tree and then head back to the barn for offloadin’ and will be done.” This got it to turn its head towards Applejack and give a salute with the bulkier arm before heading over to the next tree and giving it a firm punch that cause the apples to fall to the ground and get picked up by it only moments later.
Rory gave a smile and said, “Glad to see the set of new hands are doing their part.”
“You're darn tootin. Took a little convincin' on Granny's side to give em a chance. And it's all thanks to Gambit helpin’ with gettin’ us that contract. Now that we're shippin’ a good portion of what we pick over to the train station for those fella’s at Eco Growers, we won't have to worry about having the leftover go and spoilin’ In the barn. No more relying on Filthy Rich's store as much as we used to make enough to pay off the bills. The deal even came with a bunch of these fellas. No more having to break our backs to make our weekly quotas and it puts my parents at ease. Especially with one family member being bedridden for a little while.”
Rory had a thoughtful expression as she slightly tilted her head before asking the following. “I don’t mean to be too nosy. But has the Apple family been having some financial issues?”
“Huh? Hahaha~. No no no no-no! Nothin’ like that! Well... it's not as if we were makin' a whole lot of bits to begin with. Just enough to keep everythin' running and a little extra for a rainy day. I don't even want to think of how bad it would all be if the whole family weren't here. Really makes one grateful that we were saved from those Timberwolves who broke into the orchard a while back.”
Afterwards, Rory conveyed the same plan to Applejack as she did with all the others. At first the farm mare sounded reluctant as she would have to put in a little bit more effort into her chores to get off on time for that day. But the mention of a pie made from Mirror apples being there got an enthusiastic reply from Applejack before Rory turned around to head back. But before she was more than a couple of steps away. Rory kept on walking and waved over her head and called out. “Don't overwork yourself Big Mac.” A second later Rory could hear the loud thud of a pony falling out of one of the nearby trees and elicited a set of giggles from the girl when she heard him saying Eeyup in a dazed voice.
When Rory was passing through one of the residential areas. She caught a glimpse of a trio coming right for her from down the street. This consisted of Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom as they were riding a single scooter altogether. And almost badly if one might add with how they were wobbling all over the place. But before they could get within a few meters of Rory. The group suddenly hit a rock that stopped the scooter and caused all three to come flying in her direction with a mixture of yells of panic.
Rory then said the following as she got into a twirling motion with her body and effortlessly snatched up all three in the air with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle under her right arm and Apple Bloom being held in her left hand by the neckline of their shirts. “I know I'm gorgeous and all, but aren't you three a little too young to be falling for me? My lover is going to end up getting jealous~. Okay, what exactly are you all getting into today?”
As if Rory was completely ready for it with the way she quickly put them down. Then flattening her ears down on the sides of her head and placing a set of ear muffs from her bag onto them within a second. All three took in a deep breath of air and screamed the following at the top of their lungs. “Cutie Mark Crusaders, Stallion Hunters!” Rory removed the ear coverings and blinked a few times in disbelief as she carefully eyed all three of the girls before saying the following in a confused tone. “I'm not sure I follow. Mind explaining exactly what you're trying to do.” Right as they were about to scream again, she added, “Just without the screaming please!”
Scootaloo was the first to answer as she pushed herself into the front and began to explain excitedly. “Miss Cheerilee talked about it in class today. I don't really remember the whole thing, but I think it goes like this. A long-long time ago there was this group of mare’s that would actively hunt down stallions for some reason I don’t understand. Again, I wasn't really paying attention.”
Apple Bloom pushed herself to the front this time and continued the explanation. “Yeah! Seems that it was a real popular thing to do back then but not anymore. So we thought, why not do something that would make a stand out! Go on Sweetie Belle, show her the book.” That was when the last member Sweetie Belle took out a dusty old book from her backpack and quickly handed it over to Rory to examine. After opening up the pages. Her eyes went wide after flipping through a portion of the book quickly before slamming it shut and glancing down to the girls with a nervous look before she stuttered the following. “A-And, and is this material being taught in your class?”
Sweetie Belle answered while giving a firm head shake. “No. The history book only has like a page on the subject. We found this one outside of the school. Shows a bunch of tricks we could use. Apple Bloom said we could try a few of them out on Big Mac to see if they work.
And in one quick motion, Rory grabbed the bag on her waist and push the book into the opening until it began to shrink to fit inside as she said the following to the fillies. “I'm sorry to say it but, what you found was a very bad book. These Stallion Hunters were very-very bad mare's. Even outlawed by the princess. And I don't want to see either of you get into trouble by using any of these tricks.” She brought a hand up to her nose to pinch the bridge before continuing in an exhausted tone. “And you really should know not to do this to someone like Big Mac with his problem.”
All three looked down casted after hearing about the Stallion Hunters. Wanting to change the subject. Rory looked at Scootaloo and said, “Say Scootaloo. How's it going at home? I can't help but notice that your clothes are just a little cleaner now.” This brought out a confused look from all of them as Scootaloo replied while tilting her head in the same way as a confused puppy would. “I... guess everything's okay. My parents are getting a little annoying though. Always asking me how my day was all the time. Even Dad’s doing laundry almost every other day. It's getting a little weird. Can you believe I have a curfew now? Totally not cool.”
Rory gave the most innocent smile as she began to think the following in her head. This turned out to be how she got to watch her Master pay a little visit to Scootaloo's parents while the kid was in class immediately after coming back from the golden saucer. At first, both parents stood their ground and kept saying that they did nothing wrong. Even though her Master laid out in front of them everything that they were doing wrong in terms of caring for their daughter's well-being and lack of concern with how she was just up and gone one day without so much as calling the guards.
The father was not as hard-headed when compared to his wife. But when she pushed back and made a rude comment about Scootaloo's wings and the outright disappointment of not giving birth to a stallion turned out to be what ended up in pushing her Master over the edge. The next thing Rory knew was that she was watching him beating the mare into a bloody pulp and using healing magic to bring her back to a pristine condition before re-commencing the thrashing several times over the course of nearly half an hour.
This consisted of punches sent to her lower abdominal area that caused a spray of blood to shoot from her mouth and nose. He even grabbed onto her right arm just below the elbow hard enough to break the bones underneath in two places before tossing her over his own head and on to the floor with a resounding crash that broke the coffee table in the living room in half. More beatings were thrown in whenever she was fully healed and tried to fight back, but to come up with one dead end after another with continuous failed attempts due to her pride as a female until even that eventually shattered.
Sure, he might have been holding back a substantial amount of strength. But the mare was sent flying across the room a couple of times and broke a number of furniture in the process. By the end he was holding them both by the necks and off the ground as he said the following in a hushed whisperer that even sent chills down Rory’s own spine. “You will not... and I mean WILL NOT say those words about your daughter ever again. If I so much as catch a whiff of you uttering a single syllable such as those... I-.”
There was a slight pause as he lowered them back on to the ground and gently fix their clothes with his hands and patted them on the head before giving them what she could only assume could be a genuine smile before he said the next bit in the most innocent and chipper tone that he could possibly muster with the amount of anger being held back that she could feel through the connection and causing all of the hair’s on her body to stand stiff as a board in response.
“Haha-hehe~. It would take me far longer to explain just what I would end up doing to you in comparison to the amount of time it would take for me to do the act. But I could assure you that the lingering effects for both physical and mentally will stick with you for the rest of your life even after all the healing was done. Just give me a small nod if you understand.” Of course, he got a set of shaky nods from the pair before they collapsed onto their tails due to their legs giving out underneath them and Rory left with her Master once all the mess was cleaned up with magic.
After that little flashback was done. Rory gave Scootaloo a little smile and said, “I think they're maternal instincts finally kicked-in. Anyway, I need to go. Just promise that there won't be any more of this stallion hunting business and I'll keep my lip sealed so you don't get into any trouble.” Scootaloo gave a little humph and acknowledged it with a nod. Meanwhile Apple Bloom looked disappointed as Sweetie Belle showed signs of being both embarrassed and possibly relieved that they were not going to act on their original plan.
After her run-in with the Cutie Mark Crusaders was finished. Rory passed by the candy shop and saw the mare through the window. Knowing that she was putting on a brave front and still worrying over her mare-friend caused Rory's left hand to idly reach over and down to touch her outfit at the bottom of her stomach with a thoughtful expression on her face before thinking of the following as she moved on. “Maybe I should have a word with Master about his thoughts on this matter. Lyra still resides in custody and no one is trying to get to her yet.”
The scene then shifts back to the mansion around the appointed hour. By then all the girls aside from Applejack were outside and doing various activities to relax as they waited for their final member to arrive. While laying on fold-out chairs with a couple of umbrellas to shade them from the sun, were Rarity, Gilda and Rainbow. Of course, the last of that list was sound asleep and snoring in an awkward pose with a couple of limbs dangling over the edge of the chair. Twilight was making some vain attempts to reassure Spike that everything was fine. Whereas the Drake continuously sent some cautionary glances towards his older sister and arms being firmly crossed.
A flock of chocobo's were even rushing back and forth and playing with a large round ball made of rainbow stripes with both their beaks and lakes hitting it back and forth as if they were playing a game of soccer. Pinkie Pie with her overly abundant energy coursing through her veins in the shape of pure sugar was miraculously keeping up with the swift land-based birds without any problems. The pink pony was even wearing a costume that consisted of a paper mache helmet and a set of boots that gave her the head and talons of a chocobo.
Rory sat on the ground along with Fluttershy to give the Chimera some affection. While the girl lazily ran her fingers through the fur underneath the lion's head. Fluttershy took out from a basket a small piece of fish and offered it to the monster who instantly licked it from her hands and swallowed it in a single gulp before giving the Pegasus a wet lick across her own face in appreciation. Almost fifteen minutes past by the time Applejack arrived and all the girls followed Rory into the mansion and found Brex to go into the dining hall where some dishes were already placed down.
It did not take long before the seating arrangements drew in multiple eyes when Brex became surrounded by the same set as earlier that morning. Although it seemed as if the pair had turned back to normal and were not exhibiting the lovey-dovey persona now that there were additional witnesses. Eventually, one of them finally asked the question that laid on their minds since being invited over, which turned out to be Rarity. “Thank you so much for having us over. Hard to believe it's been a full week since we all got to meet up again. But I cannot help but to feel that there is more to this little soiree.”
Obviously, they all knew the reasons with needing to keep their urges under control by various means of distraction. Especially since none of them really had a partner to work through their seasonal issues. This was made only more apparent by a couple of them looking a little nervous. Meanwhile Spike gave a quick glance towards Twilight and earned him a nervous giggle before each of them realized what Rarity was saying right then and shifted all of their senses towards Rory for an answer.
Now this was where Rory started to put her acting skills to the test and shifted her happy-go-lucky attitude towards the spectrum of a person that was deeply concerned. The girl threw in all of the signs that she was having some issues when it came to courage by avoiding direct eye contact and flattening her ears. She already recalled the intentional revealing of her true body as to set up this moment back at the Golden Oaks Library and knowing full well that all the girls there were keeping it a secret about finding out.
She then communicated through the connection to Brex the following as she shifted herself nervously in the chair for a couple of seconds. “Master, I know that this is rather sudden and all. But I made a decision and I want to take off my disguise for them to see me.” On his end, the Roegadyn went rigid as his throat closed up tightly with genuine concern about Rory's decision to discard her Pony façade. He would have stood straight up in his chair and slammed both hands onto the table hard enough to probably break it if it was not for his self-restraint. After taking in a quiet intake of air and releasing it slowly through his nose did he reply.
“If… If this is what you really want... then I won't interfere.” Brex new that Rory would not have made such a hasty move if she was not ready for it. But for him an anxiety attack was primed and set to kick in as his eyes quickly darted to each member within the room. But then he spotted his three maid’s and quickly said to Rory, “I can understand Rin and Lin, but what about Ebony Rain? We already established that she's the same one who was following me and is reporting straight to Luna. Give me a second and I'll just send her-.”
Rory prevented him from doing something and quickly responded with a gentle and reassuring tone through the connection as she gave him a quick glance. “It's all right. I really don't care if either of those two find out. Besides, you got them pretty much wrapped around your fingers and I doubt that they'll try anything that would get you angry at them.” Internally Brex wanted to shake his head while covering his face with his hand out of a sense of mental exhaustion before he said, “Fine I get it. Just wish I was told about this ahead of time so I could mentally prepare myself.”
Back on the outside world. Rory lifted her head and gestured towards both the Griffin and blue Pegasus quickly as she spoke. “After last night. I believe it is time that... I...” Rory closed her eyes and caused her body to give a convincing shutter before continuing and reaching up to lightly tug at her choker. “I already mentioned that I'm a hybrid. However, not one part of me is a pony. What you're seeing now is not my true appearance. But a spell for my protection.”
There were a number of reactions across the room as soon as Rory said those words. Both Lin and Rin went wide-eyed after realizing what was about to happen. Ebony Rain raised an eyebrow and gauged everyone else's reaction with a great amount of intrigue. Spike only scratch the back of his head and shifted his eyes from left to right as he was completely out of the loop. The rest of the girls seemed worried while Applejack had an anxious smile and started to sweat so much that she had to take off her hat to fan herself. However, Gilda and Rainbow seemed almost unaffected because Rory gave them a quick heads up that she wanted to tell everyone something important about herself the night before.
Rarity nervously laughed as she brushed a stray hair that fell in front of her face and said, “Oh come now darling! So what if you use some more convincing make up. I for one use some all the time.” Rory took in a big lung full of air before releasing it and giving a weak chuckle before she continued. “This goes a little beyond simple makeup and I believe it's about time that I finally showed my friends. Especially after being warmly welcomed into your town. But for the moment, could I ask that this is just keeped between us in the room before I try for the public?”
The curiosity, apprehension and concern within the room practically evaporated as many gave their own variations of promising to keep what was happening in there a secret amongst themselves. Pinkie let out a loud gasp and did her Pinkie Pie signature promise with the hand motions thrown in. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” As Rory began to tug on her choker a little more to where it was about to pop off from the clasp. Both of the Changeling’s had sparkles in their eyes with anticipation. The girl closed her own and gave the final tug to remove the choker to start the unraveling of the spell.
Brex was now sweating bullets as the features belonging to a pony fell away with a shimmer running down from the tips of her ears and all the way down to her feet. The next few seconds that followed were filled with only silence as not a single person moved even an inch aside from their eyes following the effect. But before Brex could even register it happening. A pink blur shot across the table to stand next to Rory and hovered around while pointing and asking so many questions that it came off as one stream of words that even he needed the chat function box to keep up.
“Eeeeeee! I don't know what you are, but you look absolutely gorgeous! Why don't you have as much fur as the rest of us? Wow your ears are long and pointy! What a beautiful tail, what kind of conditioner do you use! I don't think I've ever met anyone that has a nose as small as yours! Kind of thought it would be bigger with how good you could smell things! Ooh~. Pointy nails! Must be really good whenever you get an itch! Are your eyes redder now? Cool, you even have some pointy teeth!” That last part came about when Pinkie stuck a finger into Rory's mouth along the side and pulled just enough to expose the girl's teeth long enough to get a good glimpse at her canines.
Applejack had to throw a lasso over Pinkie’s waist before giving a sharp tug to send her over the table and into the chair again. The farm mare then said with a stern tone. “Dang nabbit Pinkie! How many times do I have to keep remindin' ya' to stop stickin' your hands into other people's mouths.” The pink pony began to count on her fingers as she responded to Applejack. “I don't know. I think this makes it thirty-six now. Maybe it will stick when I hit an even forty.”
Over with Rory. The girl looked as though she went through a wind tunnel with eyes slowly blinking in astonishment after being surrounded by a pink tornado before getting rescued by Applejack. It took one good shake to get everything back in order before everybody else came to their senses. On the far side of the room, all but one of the maid's were eyeing Rory with a newfound sense of lust. Whereas the Third carefully examined the girl from a distance.
Rarity was beaming with what Brex could only assume as creative genius striking the mare repeatedly with one idea after another thanks to the sparkle in the mare's eyes. Luckily Applejack, Rainbow and Gilda did not seem to be bothered by it. Fluttershy on the other hand seemed a little scared for a couple of seconds after hearing the part about the canines, but eventually calmed herself down and gave Rory a small smile. When it came to Spike. The kid had his jaw dropping hard enough to hit the table with a thud and just remain there as a statue long enough for a still flabbergasted Twilight to reach over without looking to put it back in place.
Then a couple of notepads appeared in the air thanks to Twilight's magic and started to take a number of notes simultaneously. All the while muttering through herself on Rory's physical appearance and making several hypotheses on what manner of being she was and cross-referencing between several other species for some sort of reference. This went on for a couple of seconds before all the writing quills came to a stop and she quickly turned her head towards Brex upon feeling his murderous intent being let out and directed straight towards the purple pony.
After giving a sheepish smile. Twilight put away her notes and ask Rory the following questions. “I know I can speak for the others when I say that we're happy that you're willing to show us this secret. But I have to know just what are you? The ears and tail are kind of like ours. But your smooth body does not ring a bell. You're an omnivore obviously with the diet I’ve already seen being exhibited whenever we bring Spike over. Could you be a different breed of Diamond Dog?”
The girl gave a small chuckle before answering. “Well, Diamond Dog is not too far off the mark. Hmm, let's see if I can get this right.” Rory had a thoughtful expression as she brought up her hands to begin to count on her fingers in a nonchalant manner. “A good portion of me is from a couple of variations of evolve Apes. Then there's quite a bit from a Werewolf. Then I have Dark Elf from my mother and the Vampire part from my father!”
While Rory was counting each one of those off. The girls and Drake listened intently in an attempt to understand the meaning of each of those words. A couple of them silently mouth the word Apes before Twilight stammered out the word monkey in an absent-minded tone. The mention of the Werewolf got a couple of them to shrug and give a nod as they only seemed to register the Wolf part. However, the Dark Elf went right over their heads and caused a couple of them to look a little concerned with there being the word Dark.
When the phrase vampire was mentioned. There was a small window of confusion as they mouth the words a couple of times before Spike suddenly change the phrase to Vamp-pony while playing around with the word for a bit to make sense of it. Brex absent-mindedly brought up a hand to his neck region after giving out a long sigh as he playfully remarked out loud. “Eeyup, I can vouch for the Vampire bit.”
Applejack started to stutter out a response while pointing with a weak finger towards Rory. “But but-. V-Vamp-pony's are j-just superstition! And I’ve seen yeah walkin’ in the sun.”
Rory nonchalantly shrugged and gave a playful smile to expose one of her fangs as she replied. “Suppose there's not enough Vampire for that to be a problem.” Both she and Brex noticed how Fluttershy had a hand up to her own neck before Rory went on. “There's nothing to worry about Fluttershy. I have no intentions of going after you for your blood. Hmm, unless you offer it that is. Besides, I get my whole supply directly from my Master.”
Gilda finally spoke up and leaned towards Brex and asked, “Does that make you a Vampire too?” Now everyone was staring at him and making the guy feel very uncomfortable as he said, “No I’m not a Vampire.” Rory chimed in after that. “For me to make another Vampire, it would have to involve me purposely mixing my blood directly into another person's body through a bite. Or at least that's as far as I know. You know, I've never really tried.” Pinkie started to wave her arms around like crazy before Applejack pulled them down after realizing that she was going to ask Rory to try and make her into a Vamp-pony just to see if it works.
After finally getting a little more comfortable after seeing everyone's not-so-hostile reactions made Brex throw in a little joke. “Yeah. I can only imagine how much blood I would need for a body as big as mine on a regular basis if I was to be made into a Vampire during one of Rory's feeding sessions.” Brex only stopped when he noticed how the girl was licking her lips suggestively and getting him to mentally send a signal to her saying, “Now don't you go and get any funny ideas little miss.”
“It would be so romantic. We can be like that couple from Hotel Transylvania. Just need a Mummy, Werewolf, Invisible man, Frankenstein and a sentient blob.”
“You do remember that the Vampire girl was the wife and the husband was a human, right?”
“Come on Master. We don't have to follow the script exactly. Could also spice up a couple of the scenes.”
Brex had no idea that they were both being examined by the crowd while in their little discussion before Pinkie yelled out. “Wait! I get it! Rory's using some Vampire mind powers and that's why she can talk to him without actually talking!” This caused the pair to go wide-eyed as they said the same thing simultaneously in their heads. “Oh fuck! And of course, it had to be Pinkie!” Rainbow finally came in to the conversation as she was scratching her head and looking deeply confused.
“Let me get this straight. You can go into the sun and be fine. What about large bodies of water, garlic and crosses? Oh yeah, there’s also the whole stake through the heart thing.” Rory answered with a roll of the eyes. “I have no problem with crossing bodies of water. The other stuff doesn't really mean anything. And duh! I wooden stake through the heart will kill anybody.” There was a slight pause before Rory leaned over the table a little with her eyes squinting at the blue Pegasus before she continued. “You better not be planning on trying something to take first slot in the herd. I’m here to stay little missy.”
Rainbow gave a nervous chuckle that lasted a couple of seconds before it cut out upon witnessing everybody's blank eyes looking straight at her with suspicion. She then exclaimed while waving her hands. “Oh come on, it was just a joke! Besides those were legitimate questions!” Rainbow looked at Rory again and asked, “So uh... anything we should know?”
“Nah, not really. Master always keeps me fed so there's little chance of me getting thirsty. Oh and I could be a little frisky on the night of a full moon.”
Brex actually gave himself a loud facepalm onto his mask as he dryly remarked. “There's always a full moon!”
“Teehee teehee~. There you have it. Nothing really to worry about.”
With that out of the way. Rainbow took this opportunity to fly out of her chair and hover around Brex and take a hold of his hood from the back before saying, “Does this mean we get to finally-.” But before the Pegasus could finish that sentence. Brex immediately reached up and grabbed onto her wrist tightly with one hand and securely gripped his mask and hood to keep it in place with the other. Rainbow was startled by this and tried to pull her arm away, but found it to be locked in a vice-like grip that did not allow her to gain a single centimeter.
He then said the following with an eerily calm voice that sent shivers down the flyers back. “Please do not do that... again.” Rainbow quickly knotted and flew back to her chair when he released her arm. Even the rest of those in the room aside from Rory looked at him with a little bit of apprehension at the sudden movement and gave their own nods of agreement that they would not try to pull off his hood or mask. But for him. The Roegadyn was calming down from a panic attack as his heart was beating a million miles an hour.
His right eye was twitching something fierce while a cold sweat ran across his entire body. To him, he felt as though he just went through a scare of a lifetime. All of this from just the way he had dropped his guard and allowed Rainbow to come dangerously close to being able to expose his head during this situation. No matter how much he tried, he could not even recall when he last felt this amount of dread and gave thanks for his body acting on pure reflex.
After a second or two. Brex did not feel the need to be on edge so much and eventually excused himself to go into his office in order to get away from everybody after feeling rather ashamed of his reaction towards Rainbow’s attempted stunt that he knew was only her messing around. After he left, the girls finished their meal and after some coaxing from Rory, they ended up going on to the second floor and entered the master bathroom to take a dip in their tub.
The walls and floor were lined with polished white marble tiles and light green non-slip mats. Shower heads and places to sit lined one side of the room for people to get a quick shower and wash down before jumping into the public bath size tub with a jacuzzi function built in. The back far wall was decorated with a mural of an oriental landscape that comprised of Rolling Hills and bonsai trees carved into a shiny stone slab. A number of lotus blossom shaped lanterns hungover head to give a Rosy tent with the lighting. Even a bamboo shoot was set up so it would tilt over when enough water was dripped inside by a small waterfall.
Along the back corners towards the ceiling were some speakers giving off a relaxing flute song for some background noise. The air itself was thick with steam and mist coming off of the already filled up bathtub to obscure the gathering of girls already sitting inside. Most of which were already in the tub and submerged to just pass their chest and chatting amongst themselves while a couple of them still made preparations at the side showers before entering the water.
Rarity just so happened to be the next girl that was heard from the tub after giving out a sensual moan once her entire body was submerged as far as her shoulders. “Goodness gracious Rory! You're only missing a few more amenities before this bathroom could be called your own personal spa. Add a small sauna and some massage chairs would be all that's needed my dear.” The girl that the statement was directed to was currently wrapped in a towel along with Fluttershy and rinsing off her hair and guiding the Pegasus to the tub before she answered.
“Huh? but there is a sauna. It's right over there.” She pointed over towards the mural on the right to indicate that there was a door built into the wall so that it was seamlessly apart of it that had some words etched into the decoration that said sauna. She even pointed to the other side and towards some blocky pieces of wood and said, “The massaging tables are all folded up. Lin is amazing when it comes to getting rid of those stiff sore muscles. Although for the unexperienced, she could be a little rough until you get used to her touch.”
“Oh my! I am so jealous~. Just who did the decorations? It’s so rare to see such architecture from over the sea. There's no wonder that you're always getting your picture taken and put on magazines with this much pampering. If only my Boutique had a third floor and I had enough bits, then I would do the same. Careful now Fluttershy the water is a tad warm.” The warning caused the yellow Pegasus to slowly dip her hoof into the water daintily to test it before stepping down the built-in stairway at the edge of the tub and sat right next to Rarity along the edge.
Not too far away was Applejack with her hat laying on the tiled floor nearby and she was practically turning into putty with her elbows resting on the edges as she spoke up with both eyes closed. “Whoa Nelly~. I gotta tell my folks to get one of these installed! Takes forever to get a turn at the tub back at home. And I don't know what's goin’ on with this water that’s makin’ my muscles feel like a wet noodle. Never been anywhere close to being this relaxed.” The rest of the girls gave a firm nod to this and triggered a collective sigh of relief from everyone there. Everyone aside from Rory who was just about to climb inside.
She thoughtfully tapped her chin as she glanced towards the exit and said, “Kinda feel bad that we're not letting Spike join us.” A couple of the girls inadvertently started to cover themselves with their hands even though they were wrapped up in towels while Twilight screamed from embarrassment. “Rory!He's my brother and even I don't let that happen at home! Well not since we were little.” Gilda chimed in after rolling her eyes. “Sheesh, not like the little shrimp’s actually going to try anything, so what's the big deal? Toss a blindfold and the problems fixed.”
Most of the others had a blush as they averted their eyes from the Griffin and Rory took that opportunity to carefully undo her towel and let It drop to the tiled floor while slowly stepping into the water. She had hardly gotten it down past her knees when Fluttershy made a “Oh my gosh” noise that cause the rest of them to look towards Rory. And with a tilt of the head she asked, “What is it Fluttershy?” The young Pegasus bashfully attempted to look away. But failed miserably and looked right at the girl as she spoke after less than a second passed by.
“Is… Is that where you get your cutie mark? Um… You don’t have to answer if you don’t want too.”
“My cutie what?... Oh, this isnt my cutie mark. I could have sworn I already said that I don't get those. No no this is a mark I got from my Master.” Without any real shame being present. The girl parted her legs just enough to put the entire front part of her body on display and made the blue Pegasus and Griffin stare with deepening blushes. The others had wide eyes while Twilight examined it with a raised eyebrow. The mark was situated on her tan skin and just a couple of inches above her lower lips that was void of any hair due to her shaving it cleanly.
Roughly three inches and made of a dark purple pigment was a circular tattoo that consisted of a serpent going around and biting its own tail and a pair of small wings that would protrude on the left and right as it started and ended on the top. Within was a carefully made upside down pentagram with a rose thorn design and a miniature heart at the center. The girl giggled while running her right hands index finger across it before she spoke with a small smile on her lips.
“I can still vividly recall when I begged my Master to place this tattoo on. As soon as we were finally together, I wanted him to be sure that he had nothing to fear.” Pinkie, who had been gone during this whole time erupted from the center of the tub while sporting a snorkel and asked loudly. “What's a tattoo?!” Rarity ended up standing from being startled by the excitable Pony and clutched her chest as if she were having a heart attack for a second before indignantly calling out. “Pinkie Pie! How many times have I warned you not to jump out of places!”
Pinkie giggled and responded with, “No, you said not to jump out of random places. There was nothing about splashing. You’re a silly pony.” Rainbow stared at the tattoo and simply said cool. Meanwhile Gilda nodded along with the Pegasus and added, “I kinda want one too.” The other girls were tilting their heads to show their confusion until Twilight took it upon herself to educate the rest. “A tattoo is typically used on those without fur. Some think of it as a form of self-mutilation with the needles dipped in colorful ink to make a design with various meanings. Also, it’s permanent and a lot of thought needs to be put into making the decision to even have one.”
The purple Unicorn scrunched up her muzzle before she asked the pressing question that was now blowing up in her mind. “How does you having a tattoo have anything to do with alleviating Gambits fear? And it's not exactly on public display.” Without there being any time for a proper transition. Rory's small smile was instantly that of a very mischievous girl that was about to tell a secret the girls all around her would not be ready for and relish the thought for a couple of seconds before blurting out the following with an alluring tone.
“Well~. It just so happens to be a special tattoo with magical properties that only a handful of people I know can even make.”
Twilight’s need for knowledge kicked in as she blurted out, “A magical tattoo! You have to explain its functions. Please oh pretty please! It must be a branch of runes. I can only surmise them to be a form of protection magic. Wait! It's most likely not to protect you if going off of the context. Hmm...” Suddenly, Twilight had an expression that conveyed that she had just started to form an idea and transform to that of shock while holding both hands up to her mouth when Rory took the chance to fill in the gaps as her wolf tail wagged excitedly.
“Hehe-hehe! Twilight gets it. This tattoo is to secure that my Master is protected from me. Once this mark is placed upon my body, I cannot go against his wants and needs if he were to give me a direct command. Lying, going against his direct wishes or trying to kill him will enforce a harsh punishment that would cause the magic stored within my body to attack my soul and inflict an immeasurable amount of pain. In other words, I have been branded with a curse slave tattoo that binds me to my Master~. Oooooh~. Just telling others about it is getting me so fucking turned on!”
The entire bathroom grew silent to wear a single drop of water resounded loud enough to be compared to that of a gong being struck. Aside from Rory who was fidgeting in place from her body getting sexually aroused and rubbing her thighs together. The rest of the girls just dumbly stared straight at the still standing girl with their mouth so wide open to wear a fly could easily fly inside for what seemed to be an eternity. However, it seemed that Rainbow’s wings started to slowly raise from the water and into a fully spread pose after a few seconds. And only to be followed by Gilda doing the same.
The scene then shifts to somewhere else in the mansion and Spike minding his own business as he was walking down one of the hallways. Rin with a stack of papers in her hand came close after coming from the opposite direction and was about to say hello when both she and Spike were scared out of their skins from hearing a collective set of girls screaming the word, “WHAT?!?!” In fact, it was so loud that the whole building practically rattled and made the Changeling throw up the papers and end up with them scattering all over the place.
Spike and Rin both fell to the ground after this happened and the young Drake attempted to help with picking up the apparently important set of papers to hand them back to the girl while speaking. “To quote Gambit. What in the seven hells happened?”
“Mistress Rory probably said something to the others in the bath.”
“Yikes! I knew I could pick out Twilight in there. She hasn't sounded like that since I had some hiccups and vaporized the report she was about to hand into the princess back in Canterlot a couple years back! Oh uh, here, let me help! Wow there's a lot.”
“Ah yes there is. Thanks by the way Spike. The Lord is back at it again.” She allowed a sigh to come out before she continued. “Seeing this much makes me worry that he's not relaxing enough.”
“I'd say! Just look at what we got here. I've gone into the princess’s office a couple of times and this looks a little bit like what she has to work with. What the heck is Gambit doing anyway? If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was running his own country. This right here is clearly a quarterly financial report. That's a request form. And just what is he paying... Oh by Celestia's... What's eighteen billion and a half bits being put towards?! I doubt the royal treasury has that much in its reserves.”
“Huh? Only that much? Oh I mean! That's clearly a typo that I'll have to bring up! Thanks again! I best get going! Bye! And with that, the maid grabbed up everything at once and went into a fast-walking pace down the hallway and around the corner to disappear in just a few seconds. Meanwhile, Spike was left standing in place with a confused expression before he turned around in the opposite way and started to mutter to himself. “Gambits got too much on his plate. Maybe I should get Twilight to lend a hand?”
He took his left fist and began to lightly bonk himself on the forehead in order to say the following so he could help himself to remember a peculiar set of names that he caught site of on some of the documents. “Cross Species Bridge, Always Away Foxholes, Renegade Brewery, Eco Growers, Tech Hex Institute of Science, Apothecary Medicinal Traders, Krispy Supplies, Endless Enlightenment and Roads and Beyond.”
*Point of view: Princess Luna* *Location: The bed chambers of Princess Celestia*
The younger sister could be heard loudly protesting and making multiple grunting noises to indicate she was exerting herself. All the while, this was going on from behind a partition that showed the silhouette of both herself and Princess Celestia. Instead of noticing the shadowy figure of them possibly changing their clothes in private. It was instead replaced by the pair grappling with one another as the smallest of the two was trying to hold back the other who was dawning what appear to be a set of battle armor and gripping onto a spear in one hand.
“Tia!!! Please take control of yourself!”
“Take control of myself? Take control of myself?!?! Rory is a Vamp-pony!”
“No, she said it herself that she's a Vampire, not a Vamp-pony.”
“Same thing! She obviously has him under her spell! I have to save him right this instant before it’s too late!
“I knew I shouldn't have let you be there when I got the report early! He is a very capable male and I doubt that he would get swayed by some petty mind tricks!”
“She's sucking his blood for bucking sake! Let me go! Unhand my pauldron and let me finish getting dressed! To battle! Get me Shining Armor and call up the elite guards! Oh and how could I have possibly forgotten?! Lulu, you used to go hunting vamp-pony's. Get your troops too! I'm coming!”
“Dear sister, stop with your antics post haste! If the situation is not what it appears to be and you do attack Miss Rory from a misunderstanding, then what do you think is going to happen? He will not be happy with us suddenly arriving in force.”
This caused the fighting behind the partition to come to a sudden stop and show the spear being dropped just before Princess Celestia's shadow turned around and grabbed on to Luna's shoulders and started to shake the younger one so quickly that it could be heard loudly that her ears were flopping against her head quite hard. “No no no noooo! I don't want him mad at me again! Please not again!” By the end of that. Luna's body was released and she fell to the ground with a loud thud.
Celestia then started to cry as she crumpled alongside her sister and made a loud crash thanks to the metal that she was already wearing as she tried to talk. “I-I really don't want him to be mad at me anymore! *Sob!* By mother's name! Is he into bloodsuckers?! *Sob!* Maybe if I turn into a Vamp-pony then he'll pay me more attention! Luna! Tell me what do I need to do to become one of those! Teach me the ways of the goth! They wear dark makeup and matching clothing, right? So much in my wardrobe needs to be changed out!”
The older sister's ramblings were only cut off after Luna called out Gambit's name as a distraction and shot a beam of magic straight at Celestia’s head and she fell to the ground fast asleep with a clatter of metal. With a loud and exasperated sigh. Luna began to peel away the armor and drag her sister from behind the partition and toss the sleeping Alicorn onto her own bed. Her wings were drooping as she spoke in a tired tone.
“I fear so much for our citizens. If word gets out that my sister wants to be a Vamp-pony... Then who knows how many will follow her example… Hopefully a good night's sleep will calm her down. Uh… I hope. Er, best to be on the side of caution.” She then followed up by placing a ring onto Celestia’s horn and teleported away.
