It is said we fear things that are different. Yet if it applies to every race, does it make sense? Follow the story of a young human and Lyra Heartstrings as they fight against racial stereotypes of other races of the world of Equestria.
"One minute I was in my house, thinking about why humanity fears things that are different. The other I was in a land filled with talking magical horses. The universe has an odd sense of humour. Will I manage to adapt to the new world or will I forever have to rely on a mint green unicorn? I guess only time will tell. Well, that and my sanity. And money. And sky pirates. That escalated quickly."
A comedic take on Human in Equestria, travelling through the nations with Lyra Heartstrings by his side. Watch as they try to disprove species stereotypes of every species in Equestria.
The first thing I found in the morning was the insufferable heat of the sun on my face. I attempted to ignore it, to go back to sleep, yet the sun’s rays kept aiming for my eyelids. A groan filled the air as I realized that going back to sleep would be impossible. I opened my eyes and glared at the half open flap of the tent, standing up came afterwards.
However, I couldn’t even manage to do that as my hand was pinned down to the floor of the tent by a mint green unicorn who was sleeping on it like it was a pillow.
The fact that I didn’t freak out this time said a lot about me.
“Lyra…” I whispered “Lyra, wake up.”
She responded by cuddling further into my hand in her sleep. I sighed as I reached with my other hand and started scratching behind her ears. Her body immediately relaxed further. I could tell she was going to start purring like a kitty. I abruptly stopped this by pinching her on the neck.
That managed to wake her up. She yelped and got off my hand, confused as to what was happening. I chuckled.
“Lyra, you really need to stop doing that.” I commented as I started waving my hand around, trying to get the blood flowing again. While Lyra was a cute little thing, she was a bit heavy.
She blushed, “But… We met just few days ago. I still can’t get over the fact that I’m traveling with a real human!”
I sighed. That was true, humans were some sort of myth here. ‘Then how come you’re here’ you may ask?
“Let’s just eat our breakfast.”
But that’s quite a story.
-----
Bonds Beyond Species
A My Little Pony: FiM Fanfiction
As presented by Yasahiro
Disclaimer: This is a non-profit, fan based story. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro, reimagined by Lauren Faust. Please support the official release.
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Actually, it’s not that long of a story. From what Lyra told me, she was headed towards the Griffon Mountains. Oddly enough, she wanted to study the structure of griffon claws and body language. The other aim was more or less to convince her friends that she had an actual reason to go there. She promised a pony named Rainbow Dash to find her old acquaintance named Gilda. Something about apologizing.
As for me, I had no reason like that for being here. It was just a normal Friday for me. I was in my room, leaning back on my swivel chair, finishing my work. I got screwed over too many times by life when I put off work for later and I was trying to break that habit. Many would think there would be some signs that my life would change, but for me it was just Friday.
My attention was grabbed by an odd sound echoing through my room, like an explosion in reverse. I raised my eyes from the screen, where I was working and not Zerg Rushing. The strangest thing was floating in the air.
If I were to describe it, I’d say it resembled a black hole, but it wasn’t growing and it was not black, it was more like a deep blue. I could feel a pull towards it as I closed my laptop. The chair was slowly moving towards it. I tried to back away but the thing with swivel chairs is that it is very easy for them to tip over. And make you fall to the floor, after you swing your arms around like an idiot. Which is exactly what happened. The hole’s pull on me got much, much stronger. I clutched my laptop to my chest, like a drowning man to a lifesaver. Just before the hole got me, I managed to yell out. “Just like your mother last night!”
Okay, I screamed like a little girl. But it’s the thought that counts, right?
If portals could read minds, then that’s probably why it threw me out on the other side like it did and collapsed on itself, yeah. I learned to never piss off a portal.
I started pinching myself to see whether or not this was a dream. When the test came negative, I wanted to calmly assess the situation. Be the cool guy. I didn’t account for a unicorn glomping me the moment it noticed me.
I freaked out. But just a little bit!
That little incident behind me, it turned out that Lyra was two weeks into her journey and, by appearing, I took care of one of her aims. Since then, we’ve been travelling together. Most of the time, she either asked me about humans or I asked her about the world around us.
When I stepped out of the tent, I took note of our surroundings. The meadow where we camped was filled with wildflowers. The tall grass and vibrant blues, yellows, and reds of the various flowers brought quite a sight in the morning. Off in the distance I barely could see the mountains that Lyra told me were our destination
An amazing way to greet the day, if you like nature.
“Kaisei, what time is it?” She asked me in between the bites of her food. Kaisei wasn’t my real name, just something I decided on when I got to Equestria. After all, if you have a chance to choose what people know you by, better make it something that sounds cool. And considering my companion’s cutie mark is a lyre, I guessed a word that stands for ‘vocal harmony’ would fit perfectly.
Getting back on track, remember when I said the portal sucked in some of my stuff? One of these things was my iPhone. I didn’t even need a charger, there was something in Equestria that kept it in an eternal charging state. Magic, I guess? I thumbed the main button, vaguely aware that Lyra managed to not watch my fingers this time. Progress!
“It’s nearly half past eight. We slept in.” Her eyes widened at this and she rushed to finish her food.
“We need to hurry, I want to go through those cities as fast as we can so I can bring you home and tell Bon-Bon ‘I told you that humans exist!’” I merely shook my head at this and took a second to check the reception on my phone. Still empty.
“Don’t forget to do a little dance during that.” She nodded at my words, not noticing the sarcasm. At the same time I got a mental image of Lyra shuffling while saying “I told you so” over and over again. It was hilarious.
“I don’t think one or two hours are going to make such a big difference. But… I do wonder about those griffon cities. Griffon, griffins…fons.” I shook my head. “Never mind.”
I quickly ate my own breakfast. It was a good thing that we were getting close to our first destination as we definitely needed more food. Lyra expected that she would be traveling alone and even though she did pack more food than needed, it still wasn’t enough.
We packed the camp together and were ready to go. I covered my head with the hood of my hoodie and stood up, one leg placed at a nearby rock and bent at the knee, fingers of one hand pointed towards the horizon.
“Onward to the adventure!” I yelled out in what I thought was an epic pose.
Lyra blinked.
“The Griffon cities are the other way.”
I quickly turned around. “Right! Let’s go!”
-------
We managed to get to the town few hours before the sun set. The first griffon City we had gotten to on our journey. It lied in the shadow cast by the mountain. Even the name got me hyped: Steelpeak.
The walls themselves, as well as the buildings, were made from the rough rock quarried from the mountain. The skeletons of the structures were made of the harvested trees from the forest. From what I could see, however, they cut down as little trees as possible. I assume that griffon’s have a natural affinity for high places and trees, being the perfect vantage points to strike at prey. They were predators, after all, and it could be seen in their architecture.
Wearing my hoodie allowed me to easily conceal my face. Lyra told me about several myths she found out about humans, and while most of them were contradicting each other, I didn’t want to risk anything, not yet. I’m not that stupid.
While we were walking through the town, I tried to take in as much of my surroundings as possible. In the very center of the town I could see a manor of some sort. Surrounding the inner walls were the various domiciles of what I assume to be soldiers, probably the city’s guards, along with weapon and armor crafters. However, our goal was closer to the outer walls of the city. While the various homes of the lower class gryphons could be found there, that was also where the shops and stalls for food were housed. Most buildings there had flat roofs, with access to the inside from there. It made sense considering that most griffons seemed to prefer flying.
As we got closer, I realized something; Griffons were carnivorous. That meant that it would be possible to buy smoked meat. This was something I hadn’t eaten since I came to Equestria. When you travel around in an unfamiliar world, you need the proteins.
“Lyra, could I borrow some money?” I asked her with hope in my eyes. She seemed a bit uneasy when she realized where I was looking towards earlier. Her face had an uneasy look to it.
“Forgot you’re an omnivore…” She closed her eyes and her green magic aura lifted the flap of one of the saddlebags. Afterwards a small sack floated out and landed on my hand.
“It should be enough, I think. I’ve never bought...” She shuddered as she uttered that word “...meat, but it can’t be that expensive.”
I simply ruffled her mane with my free hand and smiled at her.
“Thank you Lyra, I really appreciate it.” She gave me a smile on her own and that already made my spirits lift. I didn’t want to make her sad because of my diet. Sadness only tarnished her beauty.
Yes, I thought that a pony was beautiful, don’t judge me. She is a sentient being, therefore being attracted to her isn’t weird... I think.
My unicorn companion trotted away towards one of the stands with the food that involved less murder while I confidently walked towards one of the booths . A big griffon with dark grey feathers sat there, looking for potential customers. It raised one of its eyebrows as it took in my figure, my shape and then simply shrugged. It probably didn’t matter to him what sort of being was buying. A plus for me. I grinned when I finally realized I had a chance to use my amazing haggling prowess.
“Hello stranger, what’re you buyin’?”
At that sentence, I realized he outclassed me in Speech. It took all my willpower to keep myself from bursting out laughing at what he said.
“Some smoked meat will do.”
He swiped his stare over his table and asked me “What kind?”
Now, all I knew was that cows were sentient in Equestria, according to Lyra. That’s why I was completely clueless as to what exactly are they selling.
“I’d like to hear your own opinion on the meat you’re selling.”
He smirked. That was the kind of smirk that said ‘All your money is belong to me’. It felt like Lyra’s sack full of money was shivering in fear.
If I had my own wallet, it would be doing the same.
-----
“I thought it wasn’t expensive!”
That griffon was much better at haggling than I expected. The only way I convinced him to lower the prices was by buying a pretty large amount of it.
The saddlebags I had hung over my shoulder were filled. The sack of money was nearly an empty husk of its former self.
“I didn’t know what animals here could talk and what couldn’t. He outsmarted me here!” I shot back at her.
“Well, maybe if you asked me about it, you would know!”
I sighed and shook my head. “Well excuse me for trying to come to terms with the fact that I may be the only one of my kind in this world! Your ‘research’ keeps making me feel like a lab rat, not a person!” I should’ve simply given up and stopped arguing. Sadly, it’s in my nature to not allow such things end unresolved. It usually antagonized me towards people, even if what I said held a certain amount of truth.
The time we didn’t spend on travelling was taken up by Lyra examining my body, especially my hands and fingers. She poked and prodded me, observing my reactions and taking notes. I even saw her make few sketches of my limbs and how she thought my skeleton looked like. Most of it seemed correct. It was uncomfortable, but I endured it.
Lyra’s eyes widened at my reply. “You’ve… never told me about this.” However, she genuinely seemed to care about my well being. She wanted to help me fit in and that was how I repaid her?
“It’s… don’t worry. It’s not your fault. I just need some time. It’s been a rough few days for both of us.” We walked silently through the streets, stopping only to ask a passerby if they knew anything about Gilda’s whereabouts. We had to begin the search somewhere and the sun was setting. At least we will get the most out of a day.
After an hour or so, we were ready to go to an inn and just call it a day, try again tomorrow.
“Excuse me, I heard that you are looking for a griffon called Gilda, is that right?” We turned around. An athletic young male griffon was hovering there, slowly flapping his wings. Most of his body was colored in a pale red, his head feather however being closer to blondish yellow. I wanted to yell ‘Gryffindor’ at that time. These guys always managed to save the day. “Yeah, we are. Have you heard of her?”
He landed on the ground and nodded. “I know where she lives. Please, follow me.” Lyra looked at me, happiness in her eyes and I grinned, though I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something fishy was going on here.
-----
The griffon stopped. Before us was a dead end.
“Here we are.”
I raised an eyebrow. “But there’s noone here.”
Our guide chuckled and turned around.
“Oh, there are. Just not the griffon you’re looking for.”
As if on cue, three griffons landed at the entrance to the alley we were standing in. It was a trap.
“Now, if you would be so kind to hand over your bits.” He extended his claw towards us. I simply stared at it before looking him straight in the eyes.
“I think you’ve made a big mistake.”
“Oh?” He lowered his arm in confusion and breathed in. At that moment I jumped towards him. According to what I read, an opponent’s attention wavers slightly just as they start to inhale. Not by much, but anything helps. I spun around and elbowed him in the gut. The griffon bent over in pain, his eyes widening in surprise. Knowing the basics of kung fu helped better than I expected. I at least knew where to hit.
“Wha-” I grabbed his head and slammed my knee into his face. His head snapped back, bending backwards. Instead of letting him fall on his back, I knew I had to finish him off to at least have less to deal with. I took hold of his head feathers and pulled him back to me, changing the direction of his fall so that he would land on his face, had I let him. Instead of the ground, an uppercut met his chin.
“SHORYUKEN!” I yelled out. The griffon fell to the ground from the force behind my attack and didn’t get up.
I took off my hood and turned towards the three griffons stopping us from leaving the alley. I clenched my fist, resisting the urge to wave the pain off. Griffons are tough, I only managed to do what I did thanks to the element of surprise. I had to try to intimidate them somehow and the myths could help me. I took a deep breath and prepared to shout.
I will have to thank a certain prince later for being an inspiration.
“You see that? That is what is going to happen to you all. The humans are the true warrior race! Don’t underestimate us!” My attempt at intimidation should’ve sent them running. I put on my war face during it.
Instead, they all shot off towards me. Now, I managed to take on one griffon by surprise, mainly because I focused on speed. That’s why I didn’t want to give him a chance to react. However, as three griffons attacking me at the same time proved, I couldn’t take the pain. One of them gave a shrill shriek that hurt my ears as he shot straight at me. I tried to sidestep to the left but he still managed to take a swipe at my right side.
I hissed and tried to turn around to keep him in my sight. I didn’t account for the second griffon attacking me, launching himself at me just then. He hit me in the back, pinning me down to the ground. The last one punched me in the face. I could feel that I’d get a black eye from this. However at the moment, I was busy screaming in pain as he punched me again. The first griffon was getting up to help with the beating.
No one was looking towards a certain green unicorn. A pissed off unicorn whose human was being beaten up. Her green aura engulfed her horn as she grit her teeth.
One of the griffons gave a surprised yelp as he was lifted by green magical aura. He was immediately followed by his companions.
“Nopony. Hurts. The human!”
----
“I could’ve taken care of myself.” I grumbled to myself.
“Those injuries are saying something else.”
That’s how I learned that you don’t piss off a unicorn. However, while I managed to avoid any serious harm to my body, my pride hadn’t been so lucky. I was saved from a fight by a small green pony.
We walked out of the alley to call it a day and find a hotel.
“A little help here?”
After what Lyra did to them, we left the griffons alone. She managed to use her magic to tie them up into a ball, something I’ve only seen on cartoons.
“Somegriffon?”
And it looked like they couldn’t get out. One of them was calling for help, another was trying his best to wiggle out of the situation.
“Anygriffon?”
“Just shut up and try to move a bit to the right.”
The third griffon was oddly silent until then.
“Guys?”
“What?!”
“I need to pee.”
Their struggles to get free increased.
----
I jumped face first towards the bed. Even though the day wasn’t that great, we managed to get a good room in an inn. I turned around and placed my arms behind my head.
“We need to find a real lead. Wandering about at random gives us a small chance of finding Gilda.”
“I know, but Rainbow Dash doesn’t know where she is living now.”
“What about where she lived when they were still friends?”
Lyra tapped her chin in thought. “I think that would be Silvercrest. About a day’s travel from here if we buy a ticket for a trip on one of the griffon zeppelins.” She shook her head. “But we don’t have enough bits to buy two tickets. So it’s two weeks on hoof if we hurry.”
I thought a bit, then I merely smiled at her. “We can still take the zeppelin, it will just take some planning.”
She raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”
I chuckled. “You’ll see. Let’s just go to sleep for now, we deserve it.”
I didn’t know it was possible to shrug when you’re on four legs, but that’s what Lyra did before she snuggled into the bed.
“Goodnight Kaisei”
I took a breath.
“Lyra?”
“Yes?”
“This is my bed.”
“I know.”
Sean Keough: I reworded a couple things to make it more observational on the narrators part. maroko1011: I am unhappy with town description section. I have problems with describing buildings and such, sadly. I can't really imagine places
Lyra sighed. “There’s just no convincing you that this is a very bad idea?”
I shrugged in response. “I’m full of bad ideas.”
-----
Bonds Beyond Species
A My Little Pony: FiM Fanfiction
As presented by Yasahiro
Disclaimer: This is a non-profit, fan based story. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro, reimagined by Lauren Faust. Please support the official release.
-----
We were currently standing in the Steelpeak Skydock. I had to admit that I didn’t expect anything like that. From what I have seen in Equestria, my opinion on their level of technology was quite low. But this...
It resembled a normal port rather than what I had expected. Blimps with long gondolas resembling ships attached to them by ropes. The ships were also docked with ropes. I could see giant propeller engines attached to it, pointed backwards. According to Lyra, the engines were steam powered. I whistled at that. For a world that relies heavily on magic, they sure knew their steampunk.
“So how do you plan to get onto the Zeppelin? It’s not like you can just ask the guards to let you inside.”
I calmly waved my hand at this, “You will see, I’m a master of stealth.”
Lyra perked up at this, “Really?”
“No.”
She facehoofed the very moment I said that and grumbled something about moronic humans under her breath. I didn’t blame her. This was a very bad idea that could potentially backfire in a very dangerous manner.
Sadly, I don’t feel like spending two weeks to get to Silvercrest.
You can call me crazy, but ask yourselves this: How crazy IS crazy?
The answer is: very. But, when living in a world of technicolor ponies and mythical creatures, it’s normal. At least I didn’t break out into song... yet. I’m going off topic now. I followed Lyra with my eyes as she went to pay for her ticket. I sighed and turned my stare towards the Zeppelin, thinking about a way to get onto it. They had to load cargo, baggage, or something onto it. I looked a bit more to the left and noticed a huge pile of boxes waiting to be loaded onto the ship.
If only there was a way to get onto that ship. I could feel an idea forming in my head, yet I was uncertain as to what should I do. Maybe use a disguise?
I closed my eyes for a second, opened them, and looked around. Nobody was nearby.
I should concentrate and stop being stupid. The boxes should be big enough to even allow someone like me to get in.
I swept my hand on the lid on one of the boxes and tried to lift it. It wasn’t nailed down or anything. Most importantly, it was empty. Perfect! I ripped off a fragile label from a nearby box and put it on the one I had chosen. Lifting the lid, I got into my ticket inside the ship and smiled.
I am a genius.
-----
I am an idiot.
The one thing I didn’t account for was that they would place other crates on top of the one I was in, which is exactly what happened. I should have predicted that.
Note to self, never make plans on the fly. I thought to myself as I tried to find a way out of this situation. Except me there was nothing else in the box. I had a butterfly-knife, my clothes... And my intelligence. If I had a paperclip or duct tape, I could’ve easily made something.
I kicked in frustration at a wall of the box and then an idea hit me. I can kick my way out! I kicked again. From the sound of it, there was another box on that side. The other two walls sounded the same. I hit a jackpot with the last one, nothing but air on that side. I grinned and braced myself before beginning to megaton kick my way to freedom.
Ten minutes later, I realized that Griffons made durable boxes. However, I finally managed to make a small opening. It was a very good sign for me as I could already feel that I was running out of oxygen. Two more kicks and the wall was off, but my joy was cut off by a creaking sound I heard above me. A crack appeared on the top of the box and the roof was slowly being pushed inward.
Oh, crap. I threw myself out of the box. Said container collapsed inward from the weight of the crates on top of it. I could feel my heart beating heavily. If nine out of ten accidents happen in the house, the remaining one happens on zeppelins.
The noise was loud enough to alert anyone in the cargo bay. I could hear footsteps, or rather clawsteps. It sounded like a griffon was coming. I had to hide. I stood up and went to the crates on the opposite side from where I could hear him coming. I pressed my back to the boxes to have them block his line of sight and waited.
And several seconds later the steps stopped. “Damn it to Tartarus! I told these feather-brains to put the fragile boxes on TOP of the other crates, not the other way around.” I leaned out of my cover to see the griffon inspecting the shattered pieces of my previous residence.
He was unaware of my presence, for now, and I decided to use that to my advantage. As I assessed my situation, I realized that the only way out was where the griffon was. I had to use all the knowledge had I gained from stealth games.
I tiptoed behind the griffon, my back being supported by nearby boxes. I held my breath. Be vewy, vewy quiet... I was several meters away from the exit, when I heard a rattle coming from the griffon’s direction. I immediately jumped into the closest opening between the boxes, hoping that I was not seen.
“At least it won’t all fall apart now.” The griffon muttered under his breath. I could hear him walking back towards the entrance to the cargo bay and I prayed to whatever gods that existed here that he did not look in my direction.
It seems the gods were on my side as he just walked past me up to the upper deck. I released the breath I didn’t know that I was holding. Thank you gods of random ninjas, if you exist. I let several minutes pass to ensure that I didn’t bump into the griffon when I left. Lyra is waiting, let’s go.
I climbed up the stairs. Other passengers were talking with each other or simply resting, most of them griffons. I looked for that green and white mane among the sea of other colors. I spotted her leaning on the railing with her head in between her forelegs.
I dusted my shirt off and casually walked over to her, one hand on the railing. “So, how is the flight?”
She turned towards me, surprise etched on her face. “Where were you?! I’ve been worrying myself sick. I thought I had left without you!” I was taken aback by the sheer emotions in her voice. Her lip was trembling, her eyes watering. “I thought something had happened to you.”
I crouched slightly and hugged her. “Hey, I’m sorry. That was stupid of me.” I didn’t even think about how she might feel. I forgot that she had studied humans for years. I closed my eyes and thought.
Didn’t she tell me that her roommate didn’t want to let her go to the Griffon Mountains only to study what she thought was a possible link to humans? If she came back home without me, her roommate would probably think that Lyra made up the whole thing or worse. Why am I made of stupid!?
“I promise you, I won’t do anything so stupidly dangerous.” That sealed it. I am a man of my word, always doing whatever I can to fulfil a promise. That’s also the reason I don’t promise many things, but this was important enough.
I released her from the hug of my hopefully manly arms and looked her in the eyes. I smiled, “Now, we have the whole flight to enjoy ourselves. What do you want to do?”
I could see a smile forming on her face as she attempted to wipe her eyes with her forelegs. “I heard they have a nice buffet at the stern.” I grinned in response.
“Let’s go!” I pointed dramatically towards the front of the ship.
“The stern is the rear of the ship.” Lyra pointed out. I spun around on my foot to point in the right direction.
“That’s where I pointed!”
-----
I had to admit, the buffet really looked nice. It served practically everything, ranging from hay sandwiches for pony tourists through grilled fish and ending with sushi.
Man, I sure do love sushi!
It seemed like we would finally be able to take a break from everything that happened to us and enjoy life. We sat at one of the free tables, holding plates with tons of food stacked on top of them. I was just going to try my first sushi since I came to Equestria, yet it seemed that our lunch would be interrupted.
I experienced the worst possible thing.
I forgot about the soy sauce.
I shook my head at this little annoyance and decided to ask my cute companion about this predicament. “Lyra, I think I forgot about the soy sauce.”
Lyra blinked, “Oh, griffons don’t really think of it as something essential. I don’t think you will find any on this ship.”
I could feel my eyelid twitching slightly. I looked down at my sushi. Sushi without any soy sauce. A thing that cannot be. I closed my eyes. My hands were brought together as I said quietly, “I will fix this crime the instant I get some soy sauce, Sushi Kami-sama.”
I was contemplating flipping the table, but when you are on a ship full of griffons, it is not worth the troubles. That’s why you should at least pray that this heresy will be forgiven. I ate my sushi in silence afterwards, with Lyra giving me an odd look.
“It’s a matter of principle, Lyra.” I said after I finished my meal.
She shook her head. “Kaisei, are all humans that... weird?”
“Depends on where you look. There are weirder ones.” I attempted to roll my eyes in different directions to emphasize my sentence. From the laugh I got from Lyra, I succeeded in my efforts.
The rest of the lunch progressed in a relaxed manner. I used this to empty my mind of all thoughts and analyze all that had happened to me. One of the most important questions of the entire journey came back to me.
“Lyra, how does magic work?”
That stopped her mid bite of her hay sandwich. A question like that out of nowhere would surprise anyone. She swallowed her food and thought for a bit. “I didn’t focus on theory when I was studying it in school, but I think I can explain it in laypony’s terms.”
She took a deep breath. “Magic is the action of focusing and controlling the thaumaturgical energies that exist in any living being through a carefully made spell matrix. Spell matrices are what shapes the raw thaumaturgic power into what we call spells. Unicorns have larger amounts of thaumaturgical energy than other creatures and our horns are what allow us to create spell matrices in our minds. It also serves as a way to use the thaumaturgical energy that is already freely flowing through the world, though the usual way of performing spells relies mostly, if not completely, on our personal energy reservoirs.” Her horn lit up with green aura as one of the napkins floated above our table for a demonstration. “However there is also another type of magic that focuses on the use of magical symbols we call ‘runes’. I didn’t really study this particular branch of magic, but apparently runes are parts of spell matrices manifesting in the physical world. It enables the use of the energy already existing in the world, though a unicorn can serve as the energy source him or herself. This is one of the basic runes that stands for Strength.” She closed her eyes, letting the glow of her horn intensify. A small mark was drawn in green light on the napkin. “A small change in the runes already placed can change the spell’s effect...” To illustrate this, one of the lines in the symbol disappeared “such as this, changing the rune of strength into a rune of lighting, and drawing them takes too much time for this type of magic to be used for everyday tasks, that’s why nopony bothers with learning more about it. I only learned the basics during my... projects.” The napkin floated back onto the table as lines of light faded and Lyra took a breath after her speech.
I stayed silent after this, contemplating what I had just heard. This could prove useful in the future, I just knew it. I rose my eyes towards Lyra. “Would I be a bother if I wanted to buy some books on runic magic?”
She shook her head. “No, not at all. But it will have to wait until we get back to Equestria. It is hard to find a book about magic in griffon cities. We also don’t know if Gilda is in Silvercrest and we should save our money for now, at least until we know what to expect.” I could feel her stare on me. It was strong. “What’s with the sudden interest?”
“Oh, you know. I’m just curious.”
She kept her stare for several more seconds until she gave up and shrugged. “I guess that’s only fair, with all the questions I asked you about humans.”
We finished our meal. I stood up first and walked around the table, giving Lyra a slight bow and extending my hand. “May I help you up, ma’am?” I said with a grin.
Lyra gave me a grin of her own and accepted. “Yes, thank you good sir.”
We chuckled a bit before going back to the upper deck.
-----
There was something relaxing about watching the clouds fly by. Except this time, I was doing it on a Zeppelin and we were going next to the clouds instead of looking at them from the ground. I never bothered looking at the sky like that back on Earth.
I took a look at my green companion.
Then again, nothing here was like what I had on Earth. It was... different. Not worse, not better, just different. They don’t have high level technology, but they have magic. They don’t rely on uncertain forecasts, they control the clouds.
This was an unexpected change, but one I gladly welcomed in my life. There were times where I missed what I had before, yet it was to be expected.
“Kaisei?”
I turned towards Lyra. She was staring into the sky.
“Yes?”
“What do you think about this world?” She asked me with hesitation in her voice.
I took a deep breath. “Well, the air here is definitely fresher than the air in my world.” I smiled, “I like it here. By human standards, it would be odd, and yet I like it.”
My eyes were half-closed, I felt calm, “The colors seem more lively and, what is most important, most of the time you’re safe.”
At that moment, I heard several sounds resembling clangs before the ship swayed a bit. I immediately grasped the railing to steady myself and Lyra backed away to keep herself from falling. We heard a scared scream from the other side of the ship. It was immediately followed by a shout.
“Congratulations! Y’all have just received the privilege of meeting the Blackwing Pirates!”
Only one thought was on my mind at that time.
DAMN YOU MURPHY’S LAW!
----
Most of the passengers were running away from pirates, yet Lyra and I ran towards them. It seemed like every human had the mentality to run towards whatever is happening. That was a trait that Lyra shared with me.
Taking in the situation was the very first thing we did once we were close enough. Flying next to us was a smaller blimp. It had two times more propeller engines attached to it, cannons could be seen jutting out of the gondola. Its balloon was also colored black and had a huge image of a griffon skull over a pair of crossed bones.
Yup, they were the pirates. Of the sky. Sky Pirates. Now I’ve seen everything.
From the other ships, griffons shot at us with cutlasses and sabres in their claws. They immediately forced any griffon that tried to escape back onto the ship. They were bringing the gondolas of our ships together by attaching hooks on ropes to the metal railing of our ship. We were being taken over and it was working damn well.
One of the griffons landed near me with a sickening grin on its face.
Luckily for me, we were near the railing now.
“This. Is. SPARTA!” I shouted into the griffon’s face. He became momentarily confused as he tried to understand just what the hell did I yell. Then I kicked him in the chest.
He fell over the railing and started screaming as he spiraled out of control. It took him a moment to remember that he had wings and could recover from that. He flew back up, an angry scowl on his face. Of course, in my opinion, I couldn’t have let such a chance be wasted. Just as he tried to dive towards me, a green blast struck him head on. I turned towards Lyra and noticed her horn was releasing green steam for few seconds.
“We have to run!”
“Where? Does this Zeppelin even have any sky-lifeboats?”
“Oh, it does, but my griffons already took care of that.” An unfamiliar voice said behind us. We turned around and were faced with the scariest looking griffon I have ever seen. Not that I have seen many, though.
He stood on his hind legs, a massive, two-handed sword. Its shape resembled that of a scimitar, but bigger, the blade being far wider. The griffon himself had black feathers, yet a small patch of grey was on his chest, spreading wider until it touched his shoulders, ending at his neck. His head was mostly black, except for the top of it turning into white and tipped with red. On one of his eyes, he had an eyepatch.
He was also taller than me and, by the looks of it, stronger.
He put a claw underneath my chin and raised it, making me look him in the eyes.
“Ya don’t look like a pony, unlike yer green friend.” He smirked and took away his claw from my face. I was about to respond when something yanked my hood off from behind.
“And he don’t look like a griffon, capt’n!” said the griffon that took off my hood. I glared at the captain and growled out my response.
“That’s because I’m a human.” Welp, there goes the disguise. Still, it didn’t make any difference now.
It turned out it did. “A human?!” The captain took a step back and laughed. Some of the griffons in his crew that were nearby stopped what they were doing and also laughed.
“A human ya say?” He grinned and took a look at me. “Now that ya said that... Ya kinda look like what them legends say.” He turned to his crew and yelled out. “Oi, boys. This here be a real human!”
Some of them slowly gathered around us, staring at me with interest. “Ya look a bit lost, boy. Ah heard there not be many of ya left these days.”
I looked around, with so many griffons, we didn’t have any chance of escaping. “That’s true. What’s it to you?”
He smiled at me in what I can only describe as a mocking manner. “Ya seem kinda confused, ah can help ya.” He made a clicking sound with his tongue. “Allow me to explain. Help me out, crew!” I swear, I could hear an accordion start playing somewhere.
“Oh boy, capt’n is going to sing a sky shanty”
Pirates bursting into a song. If I wasn’t crazy earlier, this is it.
The first to begin was the captain, his bass voice spreading through the air.
“Here you are, standing tall, driven to a wall, wary of the squall, one might even say you're stuck.” He raised his sword and let it rest on one of his shoulders. “Well, I don't wanna drawl, but I would like to note that you're in luck”
He started beating his wings, rising into the air above us until he caught one of the lines connecting the gondola to the balloon and looked down at us from it. “You’ve been found by the griffon that rules these skies, so forget about your marefriend’s eyes.” He pointed his cutlass to the side. “First mate, introduce me to them, please!”
“Aye aye, Captain Stump!” We heard a female voice respond and we turned towards her. I could hear Lyra’s gasp.
“That’s Gilda...” She whispered to me.
“He’s the big and scary,” One of the male griffons surrounding us joined in, spreading his wings. “Elegant and feath’ry.”
Just as they finished this verse, the male griffon switched with another one. This one dragged his claw across his cutlass “Fear inspiring,”
Another one, clearly younger than others. “Years ‘till retiring,”
Another griffon landed next to us and grabbed Lyra’s saddlebags, throwing them up in the air and catching them as they fell down “Looting, stealing,”
This time, an oddly clean-looking griffon started singing alone. He looked like someone that was more used to an easier life. “Feather preening”
This time, they all joined in together for this line. “Undisputed Master of the Skies!”
I couldn’t resist commenting on that, yet somehow, unintentionally, I made my next comment rhyme with their last line, as if this world was getting to me. “Oh, guys...”
He landed on the roof above us and pointed at himself with his free claw. “That’s me!”
The two first male griffons from the song and the thief responded together. “Tis he!”
“That’s me!”
This time it was Gilda, the clean one and the kid. “Tis he!”
“That’s me!”
All together. “Tis he!”
The captain chuckled. “Okay, okay.” Just as I thought it was the end, he continued. “I’m a griffon pirate pioneer and these are my brave buccaneers, all of whom were once lone souls like you.”
All at once, “It’s true!”
The younger one jumped out, “He rescued us!”
Without dropping a beat, the one with the cutlass took a step towards us. “He saved our rumps!”
Gilda continued, “For that we owe our lives to Stump, and assuming he doesn’t kill you...”
The one with the cutlass stabbed it into the wall, next to my head as all of them sung together, “You will owe him too!”
The captain started laughing as he dropped onto the floor next to me and placed his claw on my shoulder. “Kill them? No, no. At least not this dangerous, useful human.”
I knocked his claw off my shoulder. “Claws off” I growled out.
He faked a look of hurt before breaking back into the grin. “Anyway.” He jumped and started spinning in the air as he flew upwards. He stopped himself in the air and looked towards the sky, “Here we are on a ship, moving at quite a clip through the ever-changing skies.”
Gilda sung the next line, “Come along on a trip,”
She was immediately followed by the clean griffon, “That’s a hint,”
And then came the cutlass one “That’s a tip,”
The one that spread his wings during the very beginning of the song stepped out and finished the verse, “That’s a good advice!”
Captain Stump and Gilda started flying in a circle, each on an opposite side, as they sung together, “In a world that’s full of thunders, to survive you must learn to plunder,”
The Captain dropped with his sword onto the desks next to me, his scimitar cutting through them like it was butter. “Luckily that’s my field of expertise!”
“He’s the best!” Gilda added from above.
The clean griffon and the cutlass one sung in unison, “He’s the roving, heaving,”
I couldn’t help but sing my next words, “We really should be leaving!”
The thief flipped up a knife into the air and caught it. “Weapon-throwing,”
Lyra tried to speak up “We gotta get going!”
The one with the cutlass ripped it out of its resting place and placed it dangerously close next to Lyra. “Pony-slaying,”
She immediately backed up towards me, seeking safety. Anyone would hear the sarcasm in her next sentence, even though fear did a good job of drowning it out, “Ah, I wish we could be staying!”
All of the pirates sung now together, “Undisputed, uncontested, undefeated”
Captain Stump waved his sword in the air before pointing its tip in my direction. “Yeah, you guessed it.”
Once more all together they sung, “Master of the Skies!”
I rolled my eyes and said my own part, “That’s lies!”
The chorus came once more with Captain and the rest of the pirates singing their respective parts.
“That’s me!”
“Tis he!”
“That’s me!”
“Tis he!”
“That’s who?”
“It’s you!”
“Just testing, I knew it’s me!” He finished the song with a loud laughter, the music in the background lasting for several more seconds before it started to quiet down.
The clean one said something, in a small voice, now that the song was done. “Good shanty, capt’n!”
The griffon in question walked towards me, his scimitar laying on his shoulder. “So what do ya say, ya wanna join us?”
I didn’t know I could get crazier than joining into a song started by pirates.
“Yes. But only when the oceans dry, the sun explodes, and you’re lying deep in your grave.”
It turns out that, when a friend of mine gets threatened in the middle of such a song, I do get even crazier. Lyra herself gasped at my statement. When I think about it, I could have said it better.
He squinted his eyes at me. “Ah don’t think ya realize that I’m givin’ ya the chance of yer life. Yer wastin’ yer time with this ‘ere pony.” He glared at me. His scimitar slashed through the air before it embedded itself in the floor before me. “Ah’ll ask just one more time. Will ya join us?”
I could feel a maniacal grin spreading on my face. The adrenaline in my blood stream was making me stupidly brave now, though it didn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to.
“I have a better deal. I challenge you to a duel. If you win against me, I‘ll go with you. However, if I win...” I took a step closer towards him and looked him in the eyes, “You will leave this ship and, if I see you again, I will finish what I started.”
He met my glare with one of his own. Nothing mattered as we were trying to see which one would surrender first in this battle of wills. I wasn’t aware of the eyes of a certain female griffon looking at me with what could be a look of hope.
The captain broke the eye contact first as he once more let his mighty laughter fill the air. He looked down at me with a smirk on his face, “So, hotshot, you wanna fight Captain Stump?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, yet the grin I had on my face turned into a smirk of my own. I believe I skipped the phase of hot rage and went into tranquil fury. As such, I could have appeared calm yet confident.
“You promised me you won’t do anything so stupidly dangerous again!”
“I know, that’s why I-”
“Kaisei, I don’t want to lose you! You don’t have to do anything like th-”
“I know! I know I promised, but I didn’t expect something like this!” I yelled out, cutting Lyra off. “But if they hurt you to make me come with them, I wouldn’t forgive myself. This is the only way.”
“By putting your own life in danger?”
“Never said it’s a good way.”
We had few minutes left before the fight. After some quick thinking, I told Stump that if he is that confident that he’ll win, he should at least allow me a few minutes to say my goodbyes to Lyra. Naturally he agreed, after laughing in my face.
“But look at him! Look at that sword! He might even kill you by accident in this fight! You barely managed to hold your own against three thugs and they were just average griffons, this one actually knows what he’s doing!” Lyra shot back at me. I could feel it in her voice, see it in her eyes, she was scared. Scared of what may happen, scared of the pirates.
Scared that this was the last time we would ever see each other.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. This plan could easily backfire, as did most of my plans since I came to Equestria. It all rested on one idea. I knelt down and hugged Lyra, whispering something into her ear.
“It will be okay, but I need your help for that. Just believe in me.” I released her from my arms and could see her blinking away tears, as a look of determination appeared on her face.
“What should I do?”
I smiled at her. “Remember when we talked about runes?”
-----
Bonds Beyond Species
A My Little Pony: FiM Fanfiction
As presented by Yasahiro
Disclaimer: This is a non-profit, fan based story. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro, reimagined by Lauren Faust. Please support the official release.
-----
The sky was getting darker, the clouds were blocking the sun. I could hear the distant roar of thunder, luckily we still weren’t near it though. It was as if nature felt that what was going to happen would be epic and decided to help set the atmosphere.
I put on my gloves and cracked my knuckles. Stump stood directly in front of me, grinning sickly as he twirled his sword in the air. I cocked my head to the side.
“Say, why are you called Stump?”
I could swear his grin got even wider, “‘Cause when I fight, that’s all my foes are left with.”
I remained silent. He was trying to intimidate me and it was obvious. I didn’t let him get to me.
He narrowed his eyes at me and held his sword steady. I took one look to my left. Lyra was staring at me, worry evident on her face. Next to her was Gilda, her expression unsure. I clenched my fists and breathed out, closing my eyes. I had to focus, no screwing around. Unless it turns out Stump is a pushover, of course. I opened my eyes. I glared at the Captain and regained my smirk.
I could see the vein on Stump’s forehead pulse as he grit his teeth. I tried to appear unphased by this and I did it successfully. I was not scared of him, of a big pirate captain, and he did not like that. Not at all.
He slammed his sword into the floor and opened his beak. A shrill cry, similar to that of an eagle, pierced the air around us. I spread my legs and lifted my arms, bent at elbow. I could feel that what I was planning would work. I concentrated and let out a short yet deep cry of my own, similar to a prolonged ‘hah’.
The wind picked up around us both and blew outward. Stump stopped his cry as he stared at me, surprised. My hands and legs were glowing as I held the smirk on my face. I could swear that I could hear some sort of music, faint but still there. Like a guitar, but that was impossible in Equestria. Was it just my imagination or the way Equestria worked, I never understood.
I rushed towards Stump, so fast that it seemed like my body flickered for a moment. With a spin, I used my left leg to kick out his own legs from under him, making him lose his balance and start falling to the side. I turned around and hit him in the side of his face with my right fist. Stump took three steps back, his head cocked back, his mouth and eyes wide open in shock before turning into expression of anger. Anyone that was still talking silenced themselves and focused on the fight. The pirates had their jaws hanging as they came to realize this fight was not going to be a joke.
“Yer making a mistake. I’ll make ya dead...” Stump growled out.
I narrowed my eyes and my smirk disappeared. I pursed my lips, my face showing my determination. No time to be fooling around. The glow around my legs increased as I jumped high towards the pirate captain and kicked him in the head. Stump slid backwards from the strength of the blow and lost his grip on his sword, leaving it on the floor of the ship.
The griffon stopped, remaining frozen in that position as he grit his teeth in anger. I jumped above the captain and landed behind him, my back to his.
“You. Stupid Human!” He growled out, the vein pulsing once more on his head. He turned around and, with a yell, aimed his right fist at me. I turned around and, as the glow around my legs faded, the one around my hands became more intense than before. I caught his fist with my right hand. Stump’s muscles strained as the veins on them became more pronounced. He was trying to break my hold on his fist and was doing a bad job at it.
I smirked once more and kicked upwards with my right leg into his chin. His head shot upwards from the force of my strike. My left punch struck him in the stomach, forcing him to bend forward. Spit flew from his mouth. My stance relaxed as he covered the place where I struck him, trying to recover. He took few steps back, groaning from pain, his rage clearly visible on his face.
“What’s wrong? I thought you said something about making me dead.” I stood there, just taunting Stump with my smug look.
I saw him take a deep breath before another cry filled the air. He spread his wings and shot towards me, his right fist cocked back. I crossed my arms, thinking I could block it. He struck.
Incredible pain shot through my body as I was blown back against one of the walls of the ship.
Why did it hurt so much?! Didn’t Lyra...
-----
I watched Lyra levitate a small piece of wood before her. She closed her eyes in concentration and the wood started burning, slowly turning to ash. Her green aura collected them before she started molding it together, green light filling any space in between. The result was an odd thick green paste.
Did I mention it was glowing? I don’t think I did.
She lifted another stick and dipped it in said paste. It floated towards one of my gloves and she started sketching out a symbol.
“Like I said, I just know the basics. I know electricity, strength and speed. We don’t have much time so I will just make two runes for speed on your legs and two runes for strength on your gloves. Just remember, that’s all they give you. No armor, no protection.”
I nodded at this. It would do me good to remember this.
----
Oh... I realized, I didn’t have any “protection” runes.
Should’ve remembered that before I tried blocking a punch from an enraged, huge-ass, griffon pirate. I grit my teeth and got back up on my legs. I looked up and quickly leaned to the right. Just in time, as I barely avoided another punch from the enraged griffon. I heard the wood of the wall cracking, splintering beneath his fist. I moved behind him, staying out of his reach as he tried to turn around. I used this to elbow him in the gut just as he finally faced me.
It had way less power behind it than I expected. As he grit his teeth in pain, but didn’t stop him from raising his left arm, I immediately jumped upwards to perform an uppercut to his chin. It held enough power to get him off his hind legs and into the air, forcing him backwards.
Why aren’t my elbows powered up? The runes are on my gloves so.... Oh. Crap.
Another punch from Stump going in my direction stopped my internal monologue. I raised my right hand and caught it. My feet dug into the deck of the ship as I tried to stop it from hitting me. Once more I realized, my hands were stronger, not my joints. And yet, my hands were still much, much stronger. I increased the strength of my grip on his fist, trying to crush it. The pain was enough to stop him from trying to continue with that attack.
Instead, he smacked me in the side with his left wing, knocking me off my feet and to the floor.
Okay, I forgot he has wings. Happens to everyone. ESPECIALLY WHEN FIGHTING A GODDAMN GRIFFON!
I rolled to the side just before Stump’s claws slashed the place where I had been.
WHY AM I NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO THE FIGHT?!
I rolled over to lay on my back and placed my hands behind my head, using my legs to spring up into the air, once more barely avoiding griffon’s claws. I landed on my feet after I had performed half a flip in the air and moved backwards, away from Stump. I stared at him trying to predict his moves.
He just stood there, not moving. A grin started forming on his face before he stood up. He rose his claws into the air and I noticed they were colored red. I checked myself to notice that his last slash got me in the side. It didn’t seem deep but my shirt was ripped. I didn’t think much of it before he spoke once more.
“Yer not as fast as before now.”
My eyes widened before slowly moving towards my legs. The runes still shone on my body, but their glow wasn’t as strong as before. Fear came over me as I realized what was happening.
The runes... I used too much of their power! Why did I have to make myself look like a cool guy?
I heard the sound of the wood grunting and straining. I looked up and noticed that Stump was trying to pull his sword from the floor and, with one more pull, it was free. He swung it over his shoulder before once more pointing it at me.
“It’s been awhile since I had so much fun, kid, but this ends here. I don’t think ya need that pretty face of yours as one of my crew. Lemme fix it for ya.”
He started flapping his wings before shooting towards me. He slashed at me from left to right, aiming for my face just like he said. I bent backwards to avoid having my pretty face messed up. I liked my pretty face the way it was, pretty, thank you very much!
Another slash, aimed at my side. I dodged it without any harm to myself, except for another rip on my shirt. He thrust his sword forward, nicking me in the leg as I tried to sidestep. I hissed in pain, but I knew I couldn’t afford to worry about it, otherwise the next wound would be far worse. He once more aimed at my head, and he cut several strands of my hair that were in front of my face, along with making a small cut on my cheek.
I definitely couldn’t catch the blade and he had far greater range with it. Combined with the fact that my runes were slowly losing power, I had to think of something.
And I did.
The griffon pirate lifted his sword into the air and slashed downward. I backflipped, helping myself with my hands. The blade cut into the deck. Stump tried to lift it back into the air and would have done it, haven’t I interrupted.
I jumped forward, my left fist cocked back as I struck with all of my power into the side of his face. He turned to the left from the blow, and I immediately followed with a kick to his knee, forcing him to kneel.
I was not planning on being screwed up further by the sword and grabbed its handle, using the fact that Stump has not recovered yet. I lifted it, struggling to even keep it from touching the ground as the sword was far too unwieldy for me. I spun around... and threw it towards the griffon.
He stepped to the side to dodge it, yet it still nicked him in the arm, drawing his blood. He followed the sword with his eyes as it flew off the ship.
He stood there, frozen in shock. He was injured by his own weapon. A weapon that had been thrown out like trash. I could hear Lyra trying to cheer for me and, as I looked towards her, I noticed that I could notice fear on the faces of the pirates. It didn’t seem like they feared I would defeat the captain. They were scared of something else. I moved my eyes back to Stump and realized what it was.
He was looking downward, towards the floor of the ship we were on. He was gritting his teeth. I heard a deep guttural growl come from him. He clenched his claws, muscles bulging out of his arms. I felt the tension, I felt the rage literally coming off his body. I took look at the runes for a second to check on how much power they may have left.
I realized I may have made a mistake.
A shrill scream, far louder than the previous ones filled the air. It forced everyone to cover their ears, I stood there shocked, watching the mad griffon. He stomped and the floor cracked underneath him. He stared at me, his glare making me fear for my life as it pierced through my soul. The eagle scream stopped just before he yelled out in a madman’s voice. He spoke in perfect English, yet it only made it scarier.
“You’re going to see what happens to those I hate. Yes, you will pay for everything you’ve done to me!”
He started laughing.
-----
Lyra stared at the raging pirate captain, fearing for Kaisei’s life, yet she knew there was nothing she could do. If only they didn’t take the airship. If only they continued traveling on the ground.
“I’ve never seen Captain Stump act like this...”
She was forced out of her thoughts by Gilda’s voice. They were standing next to each other this entire fight, yet they have not spoken to each other until now.
“You friend won’t even be lucky enough to come with us now. Even as part of the crew, Stump would have punished him severely. Now he’s just going to kill him...” She said, despair clear in her voice.
Losing Kaisei. Living proof of her research... No, her friend. It would crush her and she knew it. She tried to use her magic just to attempt to aid him in the fight. Her horn only released a few sparks. She felt raindrops falling onto her head. The airship was near the storm now, the rain was starting.
She could feel her tears forming, yet they would not be seen through the rain.
‘Believe in me’
She blinked and looked up towards Kaisei. Just before the fight, he asked her to believe in him, and even though the situation looked bleak, she did. Her eyes turned towards the fight as she spoke.
“Kaisei is not going to lose.”
Gilda’s eyes widened as she heard Lyra’s voice. The green unicorn did not seem scared anymore. She seemed confident.
“No matter what, I believe in him. Your captain is not going to defeat him.” she spoke again, her eyes were burning with determination.
Gilda’s eyes turned towards the mad captain and she spoke, “I joined Captain Stump... because I had nowhere to go. Even though now I know it was a mistake, I can’t just leave him, he wouldn’t let me.”
She took a deep breath and spoke again.
“If your human is as strong as you believe... Then this may be my chance.”
Lyra nodded.
“He is.”
They heard the sound of bodies colliding and turned back towards the fight. Stump decided to make the first move.
----
Stump rushed towards me, flying much faster than before. He rammed into me, seizing me by my stomach, and we started flying into the air.
“Let’s go for a fly!” He yelled out before once more starting to cackle madly.
I tried to punch him to make him release his grip on my body. He held on as we circled around the blimp of the airship. We were now on top of it and he finally let go. I fell, landing on my back, the air escaping my lungs. I grit my teeth and stood up. Stump landed just in front of me and cracked his knuckles.
“You don’t know how much I will enjoy this!”
He gave me a right hook to the face, just before I recovered. It felt as if my jaw cracked, yet it could be my imagination. I started falling to my right side, but the griffon hit me from my left. I could feel my teeth shake in their gums, my vision turned to black for a moment before I felt the surface of the blimp meet my face. The glow of my runes was barely visible as the cold of the raindrops seeped through my body. I thought that was the end of it.
Stump kicked me with his right hind leg, hitting me in the stomach. The food I ate before the pirates attacked left my body, staining surface of the blimp. It hurt so much. I didn’t want to die, but the pain was overwhelming. As my eyelids got heavier, I felt pain shoot through my ribs. The captain was trying to crush them as he put one of his hind legs on them. I screamed.
I’ve never felt such pain in my life, never experienced broken bones. It was too much. I could just feel my ribs starting to give in. The griffon lifted his hind leg.
“What’s wrong, boy? Not so cocky now?!” He growled as he grabbed my arm, his claws leaving deep marks on it as he threw me away. My body slid across the blimp and I laid there. I felt my eyelids grow heavier. I wanted it to end.
‘We need to get to Griffon Mountains!’
I blinked.
‘A real human! I finally found one!’
I remembered...
‘No, we don’t eat grass. At least not when we don’t have to. It tastes disgusting!’
I travelled with her, I laughed with her, I learned with her...
‘Kaisei?’
Lyra...
‘I don’t want to lose you!’
I was not going to leave her. I was not going to give up!
I supported myself with one hand as I rose up. I spit blood on the surface of the blimp. I could feel the pain, yet it didn’t matter. I put my hand in my pocket and took out the butterfly knife. I flipped it open in front of me, spinning it in my hand. I started running towards the captain, my knife in hand.
The rune on my legs lost their glow, yet I kept going.
He took a swipe at me with his claws, I made the tiniest move just to ensure it didn’t stop me from reaching my goal. Three deep marks were left in my shoulder, but I paid no heed to it as I slashed at his chest.
Blood spurted from his wound as I left a deep mark. Stump tried to punch my head once more with his left arm, I decided to counter his attack. I crouched and lifted my knife up as his fist flew above my head, my knife cutting in deep and going further up the length of his arm, as he didn’t stop his punch in time.
I took out my knife as another punch from Stump’s other arm hit me in the chin, lifting me in the air. I felt my jaw crack. I didn’t imagine it, it happened. I landed with my back on the blimp and, once again, tried to rise.
I have to keep going...
Stump flew at me, insanity visible in his eyes. I ducked under his next swipe and turned around to grab one of his wings. He kept flying, my hands gripping tight as I tried to pull myself up. I raised the butterfly knife with my other hand and slashed at his other wing.
Stump’s cry of pain was drowned out by the sound of thunder. He tried to spin around, to throw me off himself. I thrust the knife into his back and released my grip.
I fell as the griffon crashed a few meters away from me. I got onto my knees and closed my eyes. I lifted my right hand in front of my face and focused on the rune on it. The paste that made it was close to being washed off. I placed the fingers of my left hand on one of the glowing lines on the right rune. The rune that still held some power.
I wiped off the line.
‘A small change in the runes already placed can change the spell’s effect...’
The rune’s glow stopped for just a moment as I clenched my fist. I looked up. Stump was unable to reach the knife in his back and turned towards me. He was foaming at his mouth, blood falling off his body from the wounds I made on him.
I could see the flash of lightning throughout the clouds as the sound of thunder got closer.
He grit his teeth and started running towards me. I could barely move, yet I stood there, ready to finish this. He cocked his right fist back, ready to throw it at me. As he got closer, I locked the crook of my elbow against his, stopping his punch. I grit my own teeth and punched his left side with my free hand. And again. and again. I kept punching before he broke my hold on his arm and aimed another punch at me. I leaned my head to the left, narrowly avoiding it as I took a step forward, slamming my right palm onto his chest. I focused on the rune.
‘Such as this, changing this rune of strength into a rune of lighting.’
I activated it.
Electricity shot through Stump’s body. The rune did not give me the protection, yet the power of it concentrated on Stump as it was drawn towards the steel knife in his back. The pain I felt alone was tremendous, yet I could still see Stump trying to raise his other arm, slowly placing it above my head.
The sky races of Equestria are capable of controlling the weather, or at least influencing it. It made sense that griffon bodies would have some resistance to something like this, but I did not give up. Putting all I had into the rune, I hoped for a miracle.
A miracle happened.
I felt as if my eardrums ruptured from the sudden noise, my eyes were blinded from a bright flash. The electricity coursing through my body and Stump’s was overwhelming, stopping even the pirate captain from what he was going to do. I could smell that particular smell when you burn hair. My hand was being burned, the material of the glove igniting and starting to melt in some places. My clothes caught fire, yet my grip on my opponent never wavered.
And then it was over. My vision returned just to let me see the body of the griffon captain falling backwards. I won. I could feel a smile forming on my lips before darkness started covering my vision. My eyelids were getting heavier.
I don’t think Lyra would mind if I slept in...
I noticed a white and yellow blur carrying a green one, and then all was darkness.
All I could see was darkness. My jaw felt numb, my ribs were no better. I didn’t know what was happening.
Beep.
I felt a bit lightheaded. I could hear something, but I did not know what it was.
Beep.
My eyelids felt heavy. I could hear myself breathing, I could feel it, as if there was something on my face.
Where am I? Is this hell?
It felt like I was on a soft bed.
That’s odd, you’d think hell would have beds made out of spikes, or spiders, or spiky spiders, spikers...
Beep.
I willed my eyelids to open. I felt powerless, they barely moved. I concentrated on this single task, far harder than anything I could remember doing.
Not counting that time when I decided to play that one game where you have to sneak in a box while at the highest difficulty, if you get spotted, then it’s game over. This was still at the top of my list of hardest things I’ve ever done.
However, after several beeps, I finally mustered up enough strength to open my eyes halfway. I regretted doing it immediately afterwards as the brightness of my surroundings assaulted my eyes.
Even though my vision was blurry, I could still notice the colors. White walls, white ceiling, a green thing laying near me. I tried to take a deep breath. My chest decided to tell me it disagreed with that. I got into a coughing fit, throwing me into more pain. I was briefly aware that I had some sort of mask on my face, probably an oxygen mask. I blinked during the fit and the world became a bit clearer to me. I could barely make out the shapes, but I realized what that green thing near me was, or rather who it was.
Lyra?
It seemed that my coughing told her I was awake as I noticed her body moving a bit. It seemed like she fell asleep next to me. I blinked, she was rubbing her eyes with her hooves, trying to keep herself from falling asleep again. I kept my stare on her and her eyes slowly met mine.
“Kaisei?” She asked me to check if I was awake now. I tried to say something but it was harder than I thought. I blinked, to show her that I was conscious.
I could see her eyes watering, yet a smile was also forming on her face. She hugged me. I wanted to respond in kind and smile.
However, all that I managed to do was grimace as pain shot through me. It seemed that when one’s body is as broken as mine, trying to hug them is a really terrible idea. I responded very eloquently and calmly to this.
“AAAAGH!”
“Kaisei, what’s wrong? Kaisei? KAISEEEEI!”
Beeeeeeep.
-----
Bonds Beyond Species
A My Little Pony: FiM Fanfiction
As presented by Yasahiro
Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit, fan based story. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro, reimagined by Lauren Faust. Please support the official release.
And now back to regularly scheduled drama.
-----
“Oh my Celestia, I’m terribly sorry, Kaisei! I didn’t expect this to happen! Oh, you must be so mad at me now...”
After the unicorn and griffon doctors managed to save me, Lyra couldn’t stop apologizing to me. I wasn’t mad at her, she just wanted to show that she was worried for me. Though I would like her to refrain from doing this again unless she’s sure I will be fine.
“It’s... fine.” I said to her. Talking in long sentences was still a pain, literally, but at least I could communicate. “Why... unicorn... doctors?”
“Magic is basically a must in the more serious cases and griffons can’t use it. As such, it is much easier for unicorns to be hired as doctors here than in Equestria.”
Until now, I thought Equestria was the name of the planet, not the equine nation, so thanks to this answer, I actually learned something else too. It even made sense to-
Wait, who said that?!
I was unable to move my head so I had to rely heavily on my eyes. There, further in the room. A white and brownish shape. I blinked, I usually had problems with identifying people’s faces, though it probably helped that the colors of other sentient beings varied more here than on Earth, and considering how I learned who she was the first time...
“Gilda?”
She walked closer to me, placing her claws on the railing to support herself.
“Do you know another griffon as awesome as me?”
“As I.” I responded immediately, I just could not forget correct grammar ever since that one particular thing was pointed out to me.
“What?”
“Not ‘as me’ but ‘as I’”
She glared at me for a while before shrugging.
“It doesn’t matter.”
It does matter!
I didn’t show my frustration on my face and just focused on breathing now. I had few questions. My memory seemed fuzzy at the moment.
“What happened?” I asked my companion and the female griffon.
Gilda was the one who responded “When we got to the top of the blimp, you and Stump were unconscious. Also on fire. Fortunately, the blimps are made from enchanted cloth or it would have caught on fire too. The other pirates decided to take back Stump’s body, even though nogriffon was sure if he was still alive. At that point, I left their group and helped Lyra bring you back to the deck. Some of them had enough first aid knowledge to try to keep you alive, a few of them even being unicorns.” She took a look at me as I laid in the bed, “But you look like a pile of manure now.”
Lyra jabbed her in the ribs at that remark, though that didn’t stop Gilda from chuckling a bit. I was too busy with focusing on what she told me.
I remembered the fight. I remember the fear I felt when I fought Stump. I remembered how I tried to finish him off.
I basically did a Chidori on him, and it was awesome.
However, my thoughts were interrupted as I felt Lyra’s concerned stare on me. I basically promised her I wouldn’t do anything stupid. Now, opinions might differ on whether it was stupid or awesome, but I was sure she would be mad.
“You’re not... angry?”
Lyra blinked, seeming surprised at this question. She walked closer to me and gently put her hoof on my hand.
“I am angry. I am furious that you did something so stupidly dangerous after promising to me that you wouldn’t do anything like that! In fact, if you weren’t in the hospital right now, I would’ve put you here for that.” She said it in an odd, monotone voice, her left eyelid twitching.
Oh... crap.
“But you did save the passengers and got rid of the pirates, so I guess I’ll let it go. Still, we will have to stay in Silvercrest until you are released from the hospital.”
I noticed Gilda started waving to us. She was slowly nearing the exit.
“Well, it was fun and I must thank you for helping me, but I think I should go.”
Lyra left my side and ran after Gilda.
“You can’t! We were searching for you!”
She stopped mid-step and turned around. Her eyes showed surprise and a bit of fear. I could only guess that she was thinking that there was a reward for her when she was a pirate. That was understandable.
“Why?”
Lyra inhaled. “Rainbow Dash wanted us to find you and say that she’s sorry for the way things ended with you two. If you come with us to Ponyville, I’m sure you two can restore your friendship.”
Gilda opened her beak to say something, but she closed it as she started thinking about what she just heard.
“Really?”
Lyra nodded, “Really.”
Gilda visibly relaxed at this as she put her left claw on Lyra’s back. She smiled.
“Thank you.” A few seconds after saying this she let go of Lyra and stopped smiling. “But if anygriffon ever asks you what I just said, I said ‘whatever’”
Lyra chuckled at this response. I also tried to, but it hurt. That drew Lyra’s attention.
“You should rest now. From the looks of it, you can’t even move a finger without being in pain so there’s not much you could do.” She tapped her chin with her hoof. “Me and Gilda...”
She glared at me. “Me and Gilda are going to buy more supplies. Please don’t strain yourself now.”
I tried to nod. It hurt.
“Like that, yeah. Take care!” At this, Lyra walked out with Gilda. I was alone in the hospital room, with my thoughts.
They didn’t even give me my phone.
I suppose I could try that meditation. Time to clear my mind. Not think about anything... Wait, I’m thinking. I’m thinking again. Why is this so hard?!
As I laid on the bed, my body covered in bandages, I realized something. This way, I kind of looked like Sheik... If Sheik had green eyes and black hair. I was basically the essence of radness.
I heard my door being opened. A giant female griffon nurse in a green uniform walked in. She seemed to be nearly as buffed up as Stump.
“Oh, you’re awake now. Time to change the bandages” She said in a deep voice.
My eyes widened.
Nope! Nope! No-
-----
“So, what do you know about Kaisei?”
Lyra turned towards Gilda as they walked through the city. It felt as if this question came out of nowhere.
“A bit, why do you ask?”
She shrugged.
“If I’ll be travelling with you, I better know if he’s not going to stab me in the back in my sleep. Figuratively and literally”
Lyra huffed, “Kaisei is not like that!”
“Then tell me what he is like.”
Lyra stopped and closed her eyes for a second. She tried to remember everything Kaisei told her.
“Kaisei told me that, as a human, he was a bit slim. Completely not used to tiring activities. However, that changed when he started practicing something he called martial arts. Apparently, that’s an art of fighting. I guess that’s why he lasted as long as he did in the fights he was in.”
She started walking once more, the street leading to this city’s shopping district.
“When we were travelling, he was worried about every single cut or bruise. He was saying that he would get an infection or that it’s probably something serious. He was freaking out about any little thing. However, when he is serious, he doesn’t care. If he falls, he gets back up and tries again. Like when fighting against Stump, his determination is what allows him to keep going.” She thought for a moment, “Even though he does sometimes acts like an idiot, but he can be such a sweet idiot too.”
She sighed.
“Apparently in his world, they have these things called video games, he said that they were huge influence on him. They don’t have magic in his world so they rely more on technology. From what I’ve seen from the few devices that were brought with him, their technology is far more advanced than ours. He said he was learning to be a ‘programmer’. Now that I think about it, I should ask him more about it.”
She paused for a little while. “He believes that there is potential in everyone. That everyone can achieve great things if they strive hard enough. Kaisei told me that he adopted this philosophy from something he watched once. Something about piercing through the heavens and breaking our limits. It was a bit weird, but he did say it in an inspiring way.” The moment she stopped talking was the moment they finally arrived at the shopping district, “I guess that’s all.”
“You’ve found one strange human.”
“Yes.” Lyra answered, not even having to think about her response.
As they started walking towards the closest merchant, Gilda grinned, “Now watch and learn how you haggle in the Griffon Kingdom.”
-----
“How did you get them to drop their prices so low?”
Gilda smirked, “Girl, I lived here once. I have my ways.”
Thanks to Gilda, Lyra managed to pay much less than she expected. That left her more than enough bits to buy a gift for one certain person.
“Gilda, are there any bookstores around here?”
“Yeah, there’s one. I visited it when I was younger. I was a big fan of the Daring Do series. Nogriffon except the shopkeeper ever learned about this.” She smiled, remembering those moments from her childhood. “You want to go there?” She took a look at Lyra to see her nod and grinned. “Then let’s go. Let’s see if it’s still here then we might find some good stuff.”
Gilda once more led the way, knowing far more about the city than Lyra hoped to learn. The trek was quite short and they soon arrived at the store. A bell rung when the door was opened. An elderly griffon turned around to greet them. He was wearing a pair of glasses on his nose and had a long grey beard. His headfeathers were yellow though, probably when he was younger, they could have been gold in the sunlight.
“Welcome to the Goldfeather Imaginarium, where you can find anything your mind is looking for.”
Gilda smiled warmly at the old griffon. “You didn’t change at all, Goldfeather.”
The griffon in question fixed up his glasses on his nose and squinted through them at Gilda, before also breaking into a smile. “Ah, if it isn’t the young Gilda. It feels as if it was yesterday when you came into my store, reading Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone. What brings you and your pony companion here?”
Gilda gestured with her claws towards said pony. “Lyra wanted to take a look at your store.”
Lyra nodded. “Yes. I wanted to ask you if perhaps you had any books about magic?”
He stroked his beard in thought as he closed his eyes, “Ah, magic books are quite rare. Though, I believe I have a few. What topic exactly are you interested in?”
Lyra grinned, “Runes.”
------
After that rough and painful experience, where the surely-not-completely-female nurse changed my bandages, I decided to think about the future of our group.
Now we’ve got a griffon in our group. She can fly and is basically the tank of our group. Would it be possible to ride a griffon or would she get offended by this? I guess ponies would, but they are a different species. I don’t want to seem racist... Or would that be speciesist? Is that even a word?
I thought back to my fight with Stump.
The runes. The possibilities they hold if I learn how to use them. I could learn Japanese, I’m sure this will work. It can’t be any harder. Still, learning how to use magic. I dreamed about this, but never thought it will be possible. If it turns out I can shoot magic blasts with them, I am going to start shouting special attack names. Every time you shout name of your attack, you make it more powerful. At least that’s how it works in animes... I need to learn more about the rules of magic.
I was clearly thinking about serious matters. Yup, that’s what I was doing. Serious stuff.
What if I’ll be able to transform? Or maybe even transform twice! I will be all like ‘This isn’t even my final form’. That would be so awesome!
Indeed, I was thinking about great things, since I was clearly the brains of our group. I totally wasn’t just bored out of my mind from being stuck in a hospital room and the pain clearly was not affecting my ability to think
Or maybe it was.
My sanity was saved by Lyra’s arrival. Her saddlebags looked full. She sent me a smile.
“How are you feeling now, Kaisei?”
I decided to be a cool guy. I was not going to complain about the situation.
“Bored.”
Lyra nodded.
“That’s what it usually feels like being stuck in the hospital. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to move your fingers soon. Possibly.” It sounded like Gilda’s humor was starting to rub off on her. It was only two or three hours.
I was worried what it would be like at the end of the week. I blinked when Lyra’s horn started glowing and her saddlebags opened. An old looking book floated out and stopped just in front of my face. By my calculation and memory of what the thickness of one thousand page books looked like, it seemed to be around five hundred. Maybe less if paper was thicker.
“When we were out, we found this book I thought you might like. It explains the workings of magic in Equestria and also talks about runes, how to use them and such. We were really lucky this time.”
I felt a smile forming on my lips as I tried to take the book. Keyword here being ‘tried’. I still couldn’t move my arms and the book was right in front of my face. I could see the various markings that served as a decoration of the cover, along with the title. ‘Grimoire of Thaumaturgic Energies and Symbols’. It stayed out of my reach, taunting me. I moved my eyes towards Lyra only to notice the smile on her face.
“What’s wrong, Kaisei? Oh, I forgot. You put yourself into a stupidly dangerous situation and you can’t move now. I guess the book will wait until you feel a bit better.”
She started grinning, Gilda did the same. Allow me to repeat what I said once.
Don’t make Lyra angry. Ever.
I did the only reasonable thing in this situation. I spoke in a completely calm manner.
I was admitted to the hospital a week ago. True to what the doctors said, I was finally able to use my hands.
Boing!
I started reading the book I got from Lyra. Learning how to do magic, I never thought it would ever happen. It was just a childish dream back on Earth, and yet here...
Boing!
I still couldn’t believe it was real, even though my injuries proved otherwise. You can’t blame me, this was a lot to take in. I guess it’s because I finally had time to think about this whole situation that it hit me how surreal this all was.
Boing!
Here I was, reading a book about the laws of magic and their application in life while covered in a special healing paste, under my bandages. In a world where, as I learned, two princesses lift the sun and moon. A freaking sun and moon orbit around the planet instead of the other way around! Trying to check whether or not it was true was going to be my goal.
Boing!
I smiled slightly as I realized that I still had one more device at my disposal, other than my phone. Something that may allow me to make sense of this strange world and give me an advantage later on. Whenever I was forced to do nothing, my mind started always creating plans, plots, anything. When reading a sci-fi book or playing such game, I always checked how much of the technology used there was already existing, to know what was actually stopping the human race from inventing such a thing.
Boing!
And I had lots of things planned for when I finished that book.
Boing!
Speaking of which...
“Could you please stop that? I have to start at the same line. Every. Single. Time.” I glared at Gilda, who was bouncing a rubber ball against the wall of the hospital room.
I forgot to mention that, while I could occupy myself with my book, my companions were bored out of their minds. Gilda was annoying me and Lyra was simply watching her.
When most of your money went to cover a hotel room, hospital fees and a book about runes, there’s not much you can do in Silvercrest. According to Gilda, at least.
“Depends, are you going to tell me about your world?”
Apparently, Lyra made Gilda interested in my world. I wanted her to wait until I decide to talk about it on my own. She isn’t a patient griffon, though.
“At least let me finish the chapter.” I went back to reading my book.
‘While magic itself is a term that is used to describe the action of focusing and controlling thaumaturgical energies through the spell matrix, it is more commonly used when referring to the energy itself. Plants and minerals that may be described as magical, in fact accumulated high concentration of thaumaturgical energy. Said energy slowly influenced the matter in question and changed its structure. It is hard to tell what is the factor that determines the effect of said cha-’
Boing!
I glared at the griffon. “No matter what, I am going to read this chapter, and there isn’t ennething you can do about it!”
She blinked. “Wait, what did you say?”
“That I am going to read this chapter.”
“No, the other part!”
“That there isn’t ennething you can do about it.”
She scratched her head. “Why are you saying it like that?”
“Saying what like what?” I feigned ignorance. I wanted her to ask that very question, and it worked. Trying to achieve such a thing was hard on Earth, and oddly, it worked perfectly in a place without internet.
“Anything. You are saying the word ‘anything’ weird.”
I crossed my arms. “There isn’t ennething weird with the way I say ‘ennething’!”
She took a deep breath to steady herself. Lyra was simply watching the ensuing exchange and struggling not to giggle.
“Okay, say it with me. An”
“An.”
“Ny”
“Ny”
“Thing.”
“Thing.”
“Anything.”
I grinned. “Ennenene!”
“Argh!” Gilda yelled.
Lyra started laughing.
-----
Bonds Beyond Species
A My Little Pony: FiM Fanfiction
As presented by Yasahiro
Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit, fan based story. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro, reinvented by Lauren Faust. Please support the official release.
And speaking of release, I think someone should unchain me from this keyboard, right?
Hello?
-----
After a successful reference on my part, Gilda decided to wait for me to finish that chapter. She didn’t seem to like it, which was the point. Laughter is the best medicine, and boy, did I need some. I smiled and closed the book, placing it on the nightstand.
I clapped my hands together. “So, you wanted to learn about my world, eh?”
She glared at me for a second before nodding.
I smiled. “Then gather round, because I am going to tell you about the spectacular and frightening world that I lived in!”
They occupied the chairs that were in the room. My eyes were drawn immediately to the odd way that Lyra was sitting.
“...Why?” I asked.
She shot me a look. “I was doing it before I met you!”
I sighed and collected my thoughts.
What should I tell them about my world? I guess I might start with the basics. Humans are warriors, we thought we were alone in the universe, yadda, yadda, yadda.
“Lyra, do you remember that moment when I yelled out that humans are the ‘true warrior race’?”
She nodded.
“Even though I was trying to intimidate those thugs, I guess that is true. Humans are warriors, survivors. On my planet, everything we accomplished was done thanks to what we managed to invent. Our world has no magic at all.”
Gilda narrowed her eyes at me.
“But at the ship...”
“All that was Lyra’s doing, and for that, I’m grateful. I don’t know what I would’ve done without her.”
Lyra smiled before frowning slightly. “There would be no need for that if you didn’t keep getting us into situations like that!”
I laughed nervously and scratched the back of my head. “I guess that’s true.”
On Lyra’s face, I could see a thoughtful look. “When I talked to you before, I only asked about yourself and the devices you had with you. You’ve never told me how you raise the sun and the moon on your world.”
I blinked. With all that was happening, I never told her about it. “They raise themselves.”
They both looked me as if I was crazy. I guess I was, after all that happened. Either that, or it was my normal state.
“What.” Gilda said. Not asked, not yelled out. It was a simple, plain ‘what’.
“The mass of the sun is far greater than that of the earth and its gravity, along with the planet’s inertia, causes the planet to orbit around it. Same thing happens with the moon, but it is smaller than the planet, and therefore it is circling around Earth. Like I said, no magic.”
Gilda snorted. “I guess you are going to tell us next that the clouds move by themselves and animals take care of themselves?” She started chuckling.
I paused for a second. “Yes?”
She immediately stopped laughing. I noticed at that point that Lyra did not join her in the laughing. She just sat there and stared at me with wide eyes.
“Your whole planet is like a giant Everfree forest..." She looked down for a second. “That explains why you had such a hard time believing me when I was telling you about Equestria. You weren’t just talking about spells when you said...” She looked up. “No magic?”
I nodded. “No magic at all. We didn’t need it to survive. True, life was hard, yet we slowly adapted. We learned how to work with what we have and improve upon it. We didn’t have magic to control the weather, but we could still influence the world. And yet, said influence was usually negative. We were taking the resources we had for granted, and when they started running out, fights broke out, sometimes even wars. We did not need magic for that, rapid technological progress being more than enough. Yet, it made our wars... destructive.” I stopped smiling as I said that. “The reason another all-out war didn’t start in my world... is because the casualties would be too high. Our weapons are too powerful.”
Gilda waved her claws around, as if to dismiss that. “Come on, how ‘powerful’ could they be?”
“We can decimate entire cities and make that area uninhabitable for years. It happened during the last all-out war. The research on those weapons has only progressed further since then.” I sighed. “And it happened about seventy years ago.”
They sat there, stunned. I think there was one quote that said, ‘Humanity, history’s greatest monsters.” I guessed that was what they were thinking. I expected Lyra to be angry, furious, scared. That was why I didn’t want to tell her about this.
“I think... life in a world like that would be sad...”
I did not expect sympathy.
“What sort of creatures would force your race to develop weapons of mass destruction like that?”
Then again, I didn’t tell her the whole story.
“On my world, us humans are the only known sentient species. All our wars were fought against ourselves.” I closed my eyes to avoid looking at their faces. “There was always a ‘reason’ to fight. It was either religion, appearance based differences, different culture. Anything was enough of a reason.” I chuckled dryly. There was no humor in it. “I guess developing such powerful weapons was a good thing. It made us aware of a thing called Mutually Assured Destruction. If we continued fighting, we would only destroy each other, so we stopped. People say that the greatest monster is man...”
Once more, I expected to see fear on their faces. Yet, before I opened my eyes, I felt something wrap itself around my chest. I felt something wet on my chest. I opened my eyes. Lyra was hugging me, crying.
“You are anything but a monster! Kaisei, you traveled with me, you were nice to me, you tried to protect me. A monster wouldn’t have done that! Even if your world is bad, you are an example that it does have good people in it.” Lyra cried out, her snout buried in my chest.
My wounds had not healed yet, but I didn’t notice the pain. A smile started appearing on my face as I realized that Lyra didn’t care what humanity had done. I looked towards Gilda, she also had a smile on her face, as if to show that she agreed with Lyra. My fears faded away. I didn’t think I was a monster, yet some could, but now, even if others judged me on the actions of humanity, I had friends that would back me up. True trust can’t be shaken like that. Back on Earth, I thought that such trust didn’t exist. I have never been happier to have been proven wrong.
I hugged Lyra back and allowed myself to relax. I was among friends. We sat like that for a minute before Lyra raised her head.
“I think... if the mass freezing in the Hearth's Warming Eve story wasn’t caused by windigoes, ponies would turn to war like humans...”
I blinked. “Windigoes?”
She smiled. “Remind me to bring you to the play about it, once we get to Equestria.”
I tried to nod, but stopped in the middle of said action. “Wait... I thought Equestria was the name of this world.”
Gilda spoke this time. “No. Equestria is the name of the nation. Therefore, you are outside of Equestria at the moment.”
“Huh, the more you know I guess...” It seemed like I still had a lot to learn about.
She tapped her chin with her talon, as if in thought. “Still, it’s impossible that, with all of your advanced technology, all you invented were weapons.”
I shook my head. “Oh no, we created much, much more. If I were to name every beneficial invention made by the human race, I think I would keep talking until I’m released from the hospital.”
“Such as?” Our griffon companion asked me, as if challenging me. Well, challenge accepted.
“How about I show you...” I grinned. “Lyra, would you kindly bring me the saddlebags with my stuff?”
A green aura enveloped the bags in question, lifting them into the air before they floated towards me. I grabbed them and the aura disappeared.
“Thank you.”
I opened the flap on the saddlebags and reached into them, before taking out a rectangular device. Something I thanked all deities that I still had with me. I opened it by separating it into two halves and turned it on.
It was a laptop. I didn’t have time earlier to use it, neither have I checked if it was being charged constantly just like my phone. My smile got wider as I realized that it indeed was.
Lyra and Gilda leaned towards the screen, Gilda’s eyes widening in surprise.
“Amazing...” Lyra said. “It’s just like your phone, but bigger and, let me guess, better?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Not only it can process information faster, but by using a keyboard, it allows one to reach one hundred words per minute when writing. It is really useful.” I created a new document in Word and typed something to demonstrate.
Gilda crossed her arms. “So you made an oversized, fancy notepad? Big deal...”
I turned towards her with a grin that might’ve split my face. “Oversized notepad? Oh no, it is capable of doing much more. Something most of humanity spends their life on.”
Seeing as this was the laptop I had bought to work on, only about seventy percent of its memory was filled with stuff from internet and things that belonged to me. That included one important category. I moved the cursor on the screen to one of the shortcut icons. I watched as the program started turning on.
“Video games.”
-----
Being able to play video games again brought back my inner child. It could have also been the reactions of my friends as they were amazed by the wonders of said games. Their comments just deserved their own series on Youtube.
“So you eat a mushroom and it makes you grow... What the hay?!”
Still, all good things must come to an end. One of the nurses came by our room to tell us that visiting hours were over. Lyra embraced me once more before saying goodbye. After which, she walked out of the room. I could hear the sound of her hoofsteps growing fainter. I moved my eyes to my right, Gilda was still in my room, staring at me.
“Yes?” I admit, I genuinely didn’t know what could have made her stay.
“How long did you hold off on telling her that story about your race?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but no sound came out.
How long did I?
I tried once more. “Ever since I met her.”
She shook her head. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
I narrowed my eyes. I did make the right decision, at least in my opinion. I voiced my objection. “But this way, she slowly got used to me and got to know me better. This way, she accepted this fact more easily.”
She closed her eyes. “Maybe, but I talked to her recently. From the way she described you, I realized you talk about accomplishment, skills. You didn’t talk to her about what sort of person you are, neither did you really talk about yourself. She said that she couldn’t recognize you any time you fought, like you were a different person from the one she travelled with. Especially when you faced off against Captain Stump. You made her worry, Kaisei.”
I looked down. I thought I could easily read her feelings, that I was doing what was best. I made a mistake. As I have always done back on Earth. I didn’t realize my actions had different effect than I planned.
“I did my best to show her that I’m not evil. I thought actions speak louder than words.”
“They do. Kaisei, Lyra cares about you. She isn’t going to suddenly start hating you for something like that, but there is time for actions and there is time for words.” I could see the sadness in her face now. “If I talked with Rainbow Dash instead of acting like we were back at the Junior Speedsters, it would have ended up differently.”
She started walking towards the door. She looked at me over her shoulder.
“Everybody makes mistakes, but we have to avoid doing them again.”
She walked out. I was left alone in the room, with my thoughts.
“...”
You dun goofed Kaisei. You dun goofed... I will have to fix this issue as soon as possible. I will need to talk to Lyra, but for now...
I grabbed my book about magic and opened Word on my laptop.
I felt the doctor’s talons touch my bandages. They were just sharp enough to cut them, which happened after he applied a little pressure. He went through the process slowly, first freeing my legs, going afterwards to my arms and chest. He finished by cutting off what was still covering my face.
“There you go, all better n- OH MY CELESTIA! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR FACE?!” The griffon doctor yelled out, fear evident in his voice.
I immediately grabbed a mirror that was placed nearby, just to ensure a patient can check on himself. I stared at it, scared that I could have been scarred for life. The same blue eyes stared at me. My hair was a mess though, what wasn’t cut off earlier had grown longer, making me realize I needed to get to a barber shop. I moved my eyes towards my face. A bit more pale, but that was understandable, I was stuck in a hospital for four months. I couldn’t see anything that could have made the doctor react in that way.
I heard someone chuckling, and when I stopped looking at the mirror, I saw that it was the doctor.
“Just a little joke. You’re okay, kid. Still, treating an unknown kind of creature did raise your bill a bit.” He said softly, laughter still clear in his voice.
“It’s not funny.” I grumbled out, putting the mirror back on the nightstand.
His tone turned serious for a moment. “Take a look at your right arm first.”
I did and boy was I surprised. I could see reddish pink lines criss crossing throughout the length of my arm, up to my hand. They seemed to have an odd pattern resembling fern leaf.
“This kind of mark is left after a lightning strike. Usually it fades within few days, but it seems the damage was rather deep in your case. It may not heal at all, or it will just take alittle longer. I’m not sure.”
I stared blankly at the mark in question. The pattern was kind of cool, but the skin itself looked horrible.
Here I thought that scars gotten in a magical world would look like the anime ones... I was so wrong.
The doctor took off his glasses and started cleaning them. “Well, this is it. Get out of my bed.”
“Huh?”
He laughed. “Ah, joking again.” He put on his glasses and glanced at me. “Seriously though, we’re releasing you from the hospital today. In other words, we are getting you out of the bed.”
I gripped the sheets of the bed. I didn’t even notice the passage of days. When Lyra visited, I tried to get to know her better, like Gilda told me to. When she was away, I worked on my laptop or read my grimoire, sometimes both. I totally did not play any videogames instead of doing something productive.
Well, maybe a little bit.
“Where are my clothes?”
The doctor looked surprised at this question. “Your clothes were cut up as it was hard to get them off you without injuring you further when you were admitted. I assumed you knew. Can’t you go without them?”
I stared at him for a second before lifting my bare arm.
“Ah, no fur. So even your ‘private regions’ are not covered... Well, it sucks to be you.”
I facepalmed.
-----
Bonds Beyond Species
A My Little Pony: FiM Fanfiction
As presented by Yasahiro
Disclaimer: Tha’ followin' be a non-profit, fan based story. Me Little Pony: Friendship be Magic be t' booty o' Hasbro, reinvented by Lauren Faust. Please s’port th' official release.
“That’s what ye dragged me, Capt’n Stump, out here fer’? A disclaimer? If th’s all a’hm here fer’, then yah can go strai’t t’ Tartarus! Ah’m leavin’!”
“Somepony catch that griffon!”
-----
Fortunately, the doctor decided to let me borrow a blanket for a day, long enough to buy some clothes. Gilda lead the way to a local tailor, while I tried to preserve as much dignity as I could. Wearing a blanket like a toga would accomplish such a thing, if I was one of those buffed up macho-men.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t. Therefore I looked like a pale shivering boy. Especially considering the fact that it was cold outside.
“Gilda, how far do we have to walk?”
She looked at me over her shoulder. “Not that far.” She tapped her chin with her talon, thinking about something. “Why do you keep squinting?”
I sighed. “The doctor told me that my vision got worse from that lightning strike. I can barely see stuff in the distance.”
Gilda thought for a moment and walked faster. She slowed down once she was at least five meters away from me.
“How many talons am I holding up?”
I shook my head. “All I know is that you are holding a claw.”
She stopped to let me and Lyra catch up. Lyra glared at me in the meantime.
“You planned to tell us about this... when?”
I scratched my head. “I thought the doctor already told you.”
She sighed. “We will have to get you some glasses later.”
I nodded. “Sounds good. Now, could we please hurry up?”
“Why?”
“It’s freezing out here!”
-----
“I must admit, you have a different figure than what I usually work with.” The griffon seamstress said to me.
Her name was Silver. She was working efficiently, taking my measurements. It didn’t make it any less awkward though, considering that I had no underwear. Fortunately, she didn’t pay any attention to my, ehm, equipment.
“So your race wears clothes all the time? Oh my, if only I had more customers like you. Griffons and ponies usually wear clothes only for important occasions, unless they are nobles who wear them all the time. Dragons wear nothing at all, and it’s rare to see any other race visit my small shop.”
I looked around the building in question. It was made of two parts, with the area I was in being located in the back one. The entire structure was wooden, with the floor being covered by carpet. I could see many mannequins resembling griffons with some unfinished clothes on them. I noticed at least one that resembled a pony. Cloths and materials were stacked in neat piles. Everything else seemed too blurry to really make out any of the details.
“Yes, lack of fur kind of makes it a necessity.”
She finished taking the necessary measurements.
“Yes, I can see it...” She sighed. “I wish I could use magic. Not only can unicorns take several measurements at once, but they don’t have to get that close, which some griffons find uncomfortable too.”
She gave me back the blanket, to give me some measure of privacy until she finishes her work. “Could you perhaps make me some... underpants?”
She nodded, turning towards the sewing machines as she took hold of some sort of material.
“Thanks.” I was leaning with my back to a wall. I closed my eyes.
It shouldn’t take long, but... Lyra already spent so much money on me. Fortunately, she can earn a living as a travelling musician, but It feels like I’m some kind of parasite.
I went in my mind through any skill I held and I realized something. Nothing I could do would earn me any money in this world. I could always try being a storyteller, though. There was also a new skill that I was improving on.
Runes. Maybe I can make something using them and sell such items when we are passing by towns. Yes, it may wo-
“Done.”
I was surprised as Silver threw me a pair of underwear. She had two more already finished and set them to the side. In fact, they looked more like shorter boxers made out of cotton or some similar material. She directed me to a nearby folding screen, finally allowing me to get some privacy.
You wouldn’t believe how good it feels to have fresh and new underpants after traveling for so long and then being barely clothed in public. It was like being born anew.
Perhaps I am dramatizing a bit, but it still made me feel better.
“Now that this is out of the way, we can focus on something more... stylish.” She grinned.
I responded in kind. “I do have some ideas. First of all...”
-----
“I’m telling you, hay sandwiches would simply not be as delicious as they are made out to be if the hay wasn’t slightly fried. It’s all thanks to fryi- Hey, Kaisei. Swell hoodie!” Lyra said to me as she and Gilda entered the seamstress’s shop.
I nodded to her with a grin on my face. I indeed had amazing clothes. I had black cargos with deep pockets that I would find useful on the adventure, a deep green undershirt, and a silver long sleeved shirt. On top of all that, I had a black hoodie with green lining the edges, splitting at my upper torso into three thinner lines that went diagonally into my sleeves, and circling around each other as they went further towards the ends of the sleeves. A new pair of black fingerless gloves also found their way on me. In my opinion, I looked stunning.
Though it took a bit of convincing for the seamstress to get this, so my opinion may be wrong.
Also, the effect could be ruined by the fact that my hair was still a mess and I was reading a fashion magazine while waiting for my friends to come back. Still, it is the thought that counts... probably.
“I must say, I feel quite a bit better with my new clothes.”
Lyra blinked. “Why do you sound so classy?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Okay?” Lyra shook her head to clear her thoughts. Her eyes went towards Silver. “How much will that be?”
“I never had a model like him. It was quite a nice and rewarding experience.” I could swear the seamstress smirked as she took out a piece of paper and started writing down the total cost. I couldn’t see how much it was, but judging from the look on Lyra’s face, it was quite a lot. Her head turned towards Gilda, as if waiting to be rescued. I could understand that, seeing as the one doing all the haggling when I was at the hospital was Gilda, from what I have heard.
Gilda simply shrugged. “I don’t know anything about the prices of fabric.”
“It was quite a nice and rewarding experience.” Silver repeated.
Lyra closed her eyes, as if too scared to look. Her magic opened her saddlebags, and out flew a bag of bits. She opened it and the required amount landed on Silver’s claws.
I felt guilty for making Lyra spend so much money, but I couldn’t go naked. Fortunately, Silver made me one more pair of pants and another shirt, so at least she wasn’t some sort of greedy lady... griffon.
I felt a tug on my hand and looked down to see Lyra’s magic pulling me out of the building.
“Come back soon!” Silver said to us in a happy voice. I lamely waved to her with my free hand.
Lyra’s eyes were slightly narrowed as she lead me outside. Her voice sounded frustrated. “Remember that time when I said we probably didn’t have enough bits to take another airship?”
“Yeah?” I didn’t like where this was going.
“Now we surely don’t have enough.”
Now it wasn’t the guilt affecting me as much as fear. Fear for my life. I believe a wise man once said. “Don’t piss off women. Seriously, don’t.”
Luckily, Gilda took this second to say something. “Look on the bright side. Now, instead of saving our money, we can spend it all on other stuff.”
Lyra directed her glare at her. I could observe as Gilda was starting to cower in fear under Lyra’s eyes. She stopped when Lyra hung her head down and sighed.
“We’ll have to get to Ponyville on hoof, I guess.”
She started walking towards the shopping district. I released the breath I didn’t know I was holding. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Gilda doing the same.
We barely avoided meeting a terrible fate.
-----
It was my first time seeing the shopping district in Silvercrest. It was huge. Shops of every kind, selling basically everything. I believe I have seen a stand with fish with handles attached to them, swordfish. Someone went too literal there.
Nevertheless, it was amazing. The merchants that lived in Silvercrest had far better shops inside the buildings. My eyes were immediately drawn to an armory. I started walking in that direction before a tug on my hoodie stopped me.
“I am not going to let you go shopping alone. Gilda is going with you.” Lyra said, her magic holding me in place.
“Hey, I am a great haggler. Don’t you remember that time at Steelpeak?”
The aura that held me in place stayed there. Apparently she remembered it quite well. “Gilda is going with you.”
“Okay, I guess? Could you please let me go now?” Lyra sighed at this and her horn stopped glowing. I wasn’t comfortable when held by her telekinesis. Call me paranoid, but it just didn’t feel right.
I started to walk again towards the armory, Gilda following me.
“What are you planning on buying?”
“A sword.”
She looked at me from head to toe. “You don’t look like a swordgriffon.”
“That’s because I’m not a griffon.”
“You know what I mean.”
I sighed. “I need to learn how to defend myself. I mean, I know the basics of the very few martial arts I tried at my home world and even managed to get several kenjutsu, sword fighting, lessons. I remember you having a sword when you were still with Stump’s crew, though.”
She shuddered at the mention of that pirate captain. “Yeah, I did... Wait, you want me to teach you how to fight?”
“Could you?”
From the silence that followed my question, I could assume that she was thinking this through. I did take out Stump, after all. However, I did have a reason for fighting the way I did.
“If you really want, okay.”
We were entering the shop at this point, so I answered with a nod. Behind the counter was a burly griffon. Behind him on various stands, sometimes mounted on walls, were many types of weapons. I was unable to name all of them. Hell, some even looked like they were made specially for griffons. However, I could see something interesting, the blade proudly on display.
“Something catch your eye, stranger?”
I turned towards the shopkeeper and nodded. I pointed towards the blade that interested me.
“Ah, you’ve got a good eye. This one is inspired by the Neighpon culture. Single-edged blade measuring seventy centimeters. Slightly curved. Long handle to allow use of both arms to hold it, skin of a ray allowing to ensure it won’t slip out. A small circular crossguard with a slight indentation just before the hilt to ensure the opponent won’t cut its owner by sliding their own blade along the edge. I believe I can sell it for abou-”
“How was it made?”
The shopkeeper clearly didn’t expect to be interrupted. “Excuse me?”
Gilda pointed at the sword. “The blade. How was it made? In a sword, this is the most important part. We need to know how it was made.”
She took a closer look.
“You also haven’t told us what sort of metal was used in its creation.”
I could see the shopkeeper sweating bullets now. I had to admit, without Gilda he would’ve wrapped me around his talon. She managed to find something a hole in his description and used it to her advantage.
And then the great haggling began.
-----
“Lyra wasn’t joking, you do know your stuff.”
Gilda simply shrugged with a grin on her face. “Hey, I lived here, that helped.”
We were going to the closest barber shop. I was long overdue for a haircut and we all knew it. Nothing interesting could be seen on the stands. No, let me rephrase that. Nothing we needed could be seen on the stands on our way to the barber shop.
Nevertheless, I still scanned the wares with my eyes as we passed by. I stopped walking the moment I noticed a stand selling jewelry. The one selling it was not a griffon, but an earth pony, to my surprise. A travelling merchant, I guessed.
My eyes weren’t drawn to him, though. They rested on the rings that were being sold.
“I see you are looking at the finest jewelry you can find from here to Saddle Arabia. Let me, Topaz Shine, help you find what you’re looking for.”
“Do you have any cobalt rings?”
According to the grimoire that I still haven’t finished studying because runes are even worse than kanji, cobalt was a great magical conductor. It couldn’t store much magic on its own, but that was not the reason I was looking for it. If runes were placed on it, the energy would be sent into them with barely any loss, if it was subjected to magic. A highly useful material for an amateur rune-scribe.
He blinked at my question. “A... particular choice of material. Though yes, I do have some. What type and size do you require.”
“One that can be put on a unicorn’s horn.”
He looked at me oddly.
“It’s a gift for a friend.”
He smiled at me when I said this and nodded. “I see. I’m sure your marefr- Excuse me, friend would like this gift. Do you know her horn measurements?”
That, I knew an answer to. The way of getting such an answer was a bit awkward, though. It began with a question to Lyra whether the length of horns meant anything. It was quite awkward.
Luckily, the jeweler was an earth pony, and therefore, no awkwardness happened. I happily purchased what I wanted.
“Unless you find a great way to give it to Lyra, she is still going to kill you. She clearly did not expect you to buy jewelry.”
“All according to the keikaku.”
“Huh?”
“Keikaku means plan.”
“Oh. You’ve got a plan, right?”
“None at all.”
-----
Our next stop, the barber shop, was quite uneventful. It seemed like one of the old fashioned ones on Earth. Except the fact that the barber had used an old fashioned straight-razor.
“YEEEEOUCH!”
“You moved!”
On the bright side, I was cleanly shaven, and they even took care of my unruly hair, as their way of apologizing. They did a fairly better job with it, too. It was neatly trimmed and I truly looked amazing now. In my completely unbiased opinion, of course.
Considering I would be on the move, I bought myself my own razor. Beards didn’t look for me. Now, I only had to learn how to not kill myself with it. Piece of cake.
-----
Finally, we got to the last place we needed to visit. The Optometrist’s store. There was one problem about it, though.
I don’t like choosing new glasses.
“Maybe you could try those on?”
“Gilda, I already decided.”
“Come on, I think they look good.”
“I decided.”
“Then maybe these?”
Correction, I don’t like choosing new glasses with other people. Griffons included. In the end, I had my way. While the frame itself was thin and rectangular, rounding off when they reached my nose. The temple arms were as wide as the side of the frames, becoming thinner once they reached my ears.
I had to admit, clothes bought in a magical world felt... well, magical. Buying clothes in a store on Earth was an activity I disliked. Here, it felt far more important.
Though it could also be from the fact that I had nothing else on me.
-----
In the end, we stood at the gate leading out of Silvercrest. The ring was hidden in my pocket and Lyra trusted Gilda enough to keep me from spending too much that she didn’t check how many bits we had left.
I took a deep breath, the fresh air from the mountains filling my lungs. We were all ready for the adventure. I took the first step towards our destination.
“It’s the other way.”
I turned around and took the first step towards our destination.
