> The String of Fate
>  by Omior Falroc
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> "Arc1: Monster in the mist" Ch1 At the starting plate 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The clash of steel resounded amongst an empty field. A field covered in smoke, soot, and the sickening stench of death. The ground was covered with dead bodies lying left and right, a river of blood running along, flooding the once green ground, coloring it a beautifully melancholic crimson.

Two individuals were fighting almost as one would think a dance routine with swordplay. They went back and forth, fighting for survival as the other would undoubtedly die. 

A shadow watched this battle, carefully mulling over the results of the conflict. He had a hand on his chin, or at least what would resemble a chin. It was a being unlike many, shrouded in a strange black mist that hid him from eye view. He seemed to mull something over in his head.

“Interesting how these humans can turn the tides so unanimously, and even how stubborn they are is remarkable.” Yes, the battle was already won before it began, or at least that’s what both sides thought. One group had a large quantity of vehicles with deadly capabilities that could easily wipe out hundreds. The warriors were also ready for the ambush they were told of, the one that was coming to an end right now. But skill superseded the idea of technological superiority as the conflict told the veiled being.

“This may be able to work in my favor. Too bad the loser must die.” He laughed silently to himself, “Now where was I?” The crystal the shadow was viewing began glowing brightly as the picture came back.

This time the armored man with the sword had the upperhand. He wore some strange armor of some kind and seemed to be an advanced fighter. The other man was bulked up in a large quantity of plate, holding twin hammers he swung down with mighty force, but due to the immobility of his suit. Could not even touch the evading warrior.

The heavily armored man yelled out, “Curses wretched cretin! Stand still and be cut down with the rest of your foul brethren!” He swung out again, this time in a wide arc in random directions to try and confuse the mightier warrior, but to no avail. The speedy Fighter managed to keep out of range for every swing the tank tossed. Frankly, the bulkier warrior was already becoming fatigued as he was very much slower, ever so diminishing his stamina a great sum with every swing of his hammers.

After a few seconds of allowing the soldier to fatigue himself, the agile warrior had disappeared from his sight, vanishing as though he were never there. The bulkier warrior looked around, scanning his environment, trying to discover where the warrior had gone. He yelled out angrily, “Coward! You rebel scum are all cowards!” 

His angry speech was cut short with a sword slicing through his neck, he just stood there, motionless staring out into the field. Then, all at once, he fell over, his head falling right while his body tumbled forward. Blood pooled around the wound as muscle and veins attempted to push its way out of the neck that once held his dearest of heads.

The warrior slowly sheathed his sword as he turned to walk away. He stopped at a small pile of dead bodies that lay strewn about the battlefield. They were covered in arrows, blown to bits, and covered in cuts. He kneeled down and made a few gestures, “fare thee well, my fellow comrades. May we once again see one another in another lifetime.” He continued on his way away from the conjunction of blood and guts known as a battlefield, calmly whistling to himself all the while.

“Well it seems our champion of redemption has made himself known. He passed all of our challenges we had placed and he has even defeated a mighty opponent worthy of taking the title. He shall be the catalyst of renewal and rejuvenation for this pathetic world.” Said the shadowed figure once more, a faint glow appeared above where his head should have been, but the shadows surrounding him did not scurry away. In fact, one might think the darkness surrounding him grew even darker as the glow started upon him and the crystal ball. He laughed inwardly to himself as the ground under the warrior started glowing, with each footstep it started getting brighter.

The warrior walked along the road, oblivious of the imminent danger he was being shown with each step. Behind him faintly glowing were his tracks, plants grew forth from them as they speedily stretched to the heavens above. The warrior stopped in time to hear something different though, a rumbling from below him. Whatever it was it must have been hard to hide it in such a way. He turned behind him first, seeing the large quantities of vegetation that grew like wildfire with oil thrown at it. It was almost exactly where he took each step and he warily looked down to the terraforming earth below him.

“By the heavens...” The warrior muttered as the dirt of the road exploded beneath him, forming into hands and grasping at him all over for leverage. The warrior struggled for his sword, but it was to no avail as the hands held their ground, still connected with the earth surrounding him. 

They began pulling harder and harder as the warrior attempted to force his way free from the abominations that had emerged from the ground. They pulled at him as he struggled, and after a long minute of fighting, the warrior’s head was already but mere inches from being enveloped by the ground. As the hands grasped onto his head, he took one final look at his surroundings to see a strange shadow looming just in the underbrush in his peripheral vision. But a mere few seconds later, he was completely swallowed up by the earth, he wanted to scream, but he found his mouth could not open, nor his eyes. 

Forced into a silent blind state, he just let himself lie there, lie there and wait.
______________________________________________________________________________

Celestia sat and kept her eyes towards the wall, pretending to keep her focus towards the pony who wished conference. An austere noble trying to tell her to lower taxes for him and his kind and raise it for the less fortunate. If not for the fact of the predictability of the wants of each of the ponies that walked in was very dull, she might have laughed at how easy it was. 

If it wasn’t for her advisor knowing when to shoo away the most annoying of the ponies, she might have gone crazy. Or worse. Alcove may be all business and very dull, but he knew how to handle the nobles when they were being overzealous in their impossible intentions of paying less and making the suffering masses only suffer more.

She sighed inwardly as Alcove managed to silence the noble and signal for Celestia to speak. “Yes well, your suggestions are very interesting and I’ll mull it over and decide at a later date. Either way i’m sure you will know my decision sooner or later.” The pompous noble just smiled an even bigger grin of victory before bowing and leaving quickly.

Celestia muttered to herself, “Whatever it is, it involves tax lowering or raising then it is utterly declined.” She sighed as she turned to her advisor, “If only something interesting wo-” Princess Celestia’s words were cut off as the sound of cracking stone in the throne room started. There were no obvious damage to the walls, ceiling, or floor, but it was coming from somewhere.

She looked around curiously, as did Alcove. After a minute of the horrid cracking sound, it stopped. For a second Celestia thought it was over, a mere fluke in the architecture that would soon be fixed. To her chagrin, this was rather inaccurate. The ground erupted in front of the throne and the guards adjacent to the throne readied their weapons as they looked onwards of the exploding ground. 

The portal pulsed a few times as the warrior flew out of it, painfully hitting the wall to the right of the throne. The warrior exhaled on impact and took a few seconds trying to greedily gulp in as much air as he could. He coughed and sputtered a bit as he leaned on his right arm, staring at the ground as he got his bearings.

“By the seven kingdoms,” the warrior coughed one final time, clearing his throat, “what happened?” He looked around and his eyes immediately locked onto the princess’s. He was completely still, silent as if he weren’t even there as his mind clicked away, breaking down just what he was seeing.

Silence dominated the hall as Celestia as well tried to make sense of what she was seeing. It was obviously a sentient being if what it said was any indication. The guards were eyeing the warrior warily the entire time it took for him to get to his feet.

Celestia’s advisor mumbled something to himself as the warrior tried to stand, using the wall as a support.

Celestia decided now was a good time to speak. “Greetings. What is your name, and more specifically: what are you?” The warrior grumbled something to himself inaudibly, he was about to retort something of an improper response when he took notice of the crown on her head. Whoever this oversized horse was, she definitely royalty, assuming the decorative armor and crown were any indication.

Opting not to screw up, the warrior went down to one knee and bowed his head and said, “I am Omior Falroc of the warrior clan Phalox. We train in a mix of ways of the samurai and the medieval knight. I... am human.”

Surprised by the formality of the human, Celestia spoke. “Omior, you may rise. I am princess Celestia, ruler of the land which you have entered into, I wish to know of why you have come here, and how you have come here as well. Only unicorns of the highest class can create a portal like that; even if it reaches but a few feet, is extremely difficult.” Celestia was curious, she would’ve like to, no, she was urged to continue by her ever bottomless curiosity.

Omior rose to his feet and nodded, “Princess, I apologize but I do not know of the means of which I have travelled here, nor do I know how it was possible.” Omior’s mind raced as he tried to sort through it as fast as possible, it had been proven to him in the past to stay calm and collected during times of great stress like this. He was trained to be prepared, maybe not for something quite like this, but its still just as useful, if not more so.

Celestia’s face fell a small amount, “Oh my, are you sure of this? Please tell me everything.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Omior had chosen his words carefully. He made sure he kept to being as honest and yet as inoffensive as he possibly could. It was royalty he was meeting afterall, and they tended not to enjoy him after being around him long enough. 

Alcove had long since left the room to reschedule the week’s events for Celestia, whatever it was. 

“....I see. If anything, you have the support of Equestria in your endeavours to return home, Omior Falroc.”

Omior noticed a faint ticking sound coming from the walls, he didn’t think much of it. “So then what is it I will do now? I’ve no idea how to get home.”

“My sister and I will attempt t-.” The room began to rumble and Omior fell to his knees. Using his hands to keep himself steady, he looked around for the source of the quake. 

Celestia too was looking around, shocked at such a surprise. She mustn’t of heard the ticking. The ticking that had stopped.

The wall to their left -one covered in numerous and heavily decorated windows- exploded in a fiery display. A rope shot out and caught Omior by the belt, he was about to rip it off of his person when it pulled, dragging him out towards the smoke and rubble. 

“Whaaaaaaaaa-.” 

> "Arc1: Mitm" Ch2 Confusion and-What? More confusion?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The faint whisk of a breeze blew, caressing the trees and grass, allowing them the small glimmer of excitement as they danced the dance of the wind. The wind flowed and picked up a few stray leaves as they played in circles, following wherever the wind took them. The leaves, however jubilant as they were, were disappointed at their shortened end as they got caught on something. A sort of armament made of steel, one which groaned as it began to move and shudder slightly. 

Carefully, Omior got to his feet, brushing a few stray leaves off of his armor as he lifted himself. He stopped and his left hand shot up to his throbbing head, beating harder than a blacksmith’s guild with too many materials on their hands.

“Urg.....?” He groggily stated as he stayed in his kneeling position, praying to whatever gods to get rid of his headache and cursing the ones that caused it. After a minute or two, the violent throbbing and beating turned into a dull thump, Omior finally managed to stand up, using the tree to his right as support. ‘tree? Was I not in a castle not moments ago?’

Omior opened his eyes and scanned the surrounding area, he gathered himself and tried to regain his balance as the throb in his head started getting worse. His legs buckled under him and he started up another stray thought. ‘How long could I have been out? Should not of been more than a few mere hours... But this feeling of numbness in my legs....’ 

To his left, the warrior saw a road stretching towards a hill and another towards a river. He felt the back of his throat was hoarse as the headache once again began to recede. With his destination in mind, Omior went to the south, towards the river and deeper into the forest.

Once there, he kneeled down and began taking in big gulps, engorging himself on water as he realized as to what extent his thirst needed to be quenched. He must have been out for at least a few days....

Once he came back up for air, the warrior turned and looked around his surroundings. He noticed a small trail of wooden wheel tracks heading off into the denser part of the forest to his left. He also saw hoove impressions on the ground. ‘hmm. Deep enough for them to be running?’

Omior took note of a small rustling in the thicket behind him. He slowly moved his right hand to his sword at his waist. The rustling stopped and silence hung in the air, thick as molasses. Carefully, the warrior wrapped his thin fingers around the handle of his sword, inching it slightly out of the sheath.

Suddenly, Omior dropped into a roll towards his left as a hoof came down where he once was. He had little time to act as he pulled his sword out the rest of the way, only to have it knocked out of his hand and fall to the grass a few feet away.

Another set of hooves connected with his chest and shot him into the tree behind him, causing the brittle tree to crack violently. The tree tilted slightly, leaning on the good half of itself; Omior was in a daze, but shook himself out of it just in time to register another set of hooves flying at his head. He dropped to the ground and the rest of the tree finally gave up its struggle to stay standing, cracking and caving in on itself as it fell towards where Omior and the pony were struggling.

Both parties registered and moved out of its way, it gave Omior a chance to gather what his opponent looked like. He was green, really green, with a pair of binoculars tattooed on his flank for some reason. The pony in question shook himself and yelled out as he charged Omior.

Omior spun out of the way and elbowed the pony in the ribs. The pony in question gasped as he fell to the ground. The warrior gave no chance of reprieve as he swung his fist at the stallion, smacking him across the face, leaving a dribble of blood to flow freely from the pony’s mouth. 

Omior stopped to see the pony appeared to be unconscious. He tested it with a kick and was satisfied to see no reaction from the insolent and violent pony. He turned and began walking calmly to his sword. He bent down and before he grasped the sword, a pair of hooves landed around the warrior’s neck, holding on as if for dear life.

Omior cried out as he swung the pony around, trying to get the four legged annoyance off of him. “Argh! Get off you annoying son of a-” A hind hoof connected with the warrior’s manhood then. he cried out a shrill and very high pitched whine as he grasped at his precious family jewels. “Mother....”

The pony had relinquished his hold and stood over Omior, who had fallen down, clutching his poor damaged property. The pony started talking. “Die you villanous wretch! Stealing poor ponies on the path you cretin!” He threw his hoof towards the warrior who was barely able to move his head out of the way.

The warrior coughed a few times before speaking up, “W-what are you talking about?! I just woke up here!” Another hoof came down and hit Omior’s jaw. He sputtered and coughed up blood as he continued, “one second I was talking to Celestia *cough cough* another, I was taken and just recently woke up.” Another hoof was held above the warrior but didn’t strike down, instead, it reluctantly lowered to the ground.

“And how do I know I can trust you?” The green pony kept his hard gaze on Omior, watching as he slowly got up.

“You can’t, at least not yet. But I would appreciate the benefit of the doubt.” Omior managed to get to his feet now. He brushed himself clean of dust and grass as he continued. “But I would like to know what you’re talking about. Sounds to me like something that should be stopped.” 

The pony muttered something but ultimately sighed in defeat, “I had some family that disappeared along this road. Rumor has it that the responsibility lies with a strange creature that takes them for food. If that’s true then I would like to find it so I can kick its teeth in.” The pony spit up a small mucus ball colored crimson from the fight as he finished.

The warrior said nothing, he just looked towards the ground, slowly allowing the words of the pony to sink in. He raised his head and walked closer to the pony. He readied himself as Omior raised his hand towards him, outstretched with his palm up. “Then allow me to help you.”

The pony sputtered slightly as his guard dropped, “bu-but you don’t even know me, and I very nearly just killed you. Are you not mad?” The pony nearly yelled with a hint of animosity.

“It’s an oath that we warriors take in my clan. To help when we can regardless of the race or species, if there is evil running amok we must lend our aid.” The warrior said, letting his hand fall as he recited his clans most sacred of oath’s. “I am Omior Falroc,” he said, “and who are you?”

“V-vigil. Just Vigil,” the pony said as he turned his head away, slightly bitter but overall keeping his opinion to himself.

Omior bowed to the equine and waved with his arms towards the tracks. “Well then, please, if you may; lead the way.” 
> "Arc1: Mitm" Ch3 The Forlorn cave
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Vigil was suspicious at Omior’s willingness to help, but appreciated such an honorable oath. They had begun their search of the dense foliage, carefully following the tracks. 

They reached a cave by the time night started to fall. At the edge of it was where the tracks had just stopped, as if they just simply vanished. Shattered remnants of wood remained on the  ground like a sign of bad omen surrounded the cave.

The warrior leaned down and examined where it just stopped. “These hoofprints are only half a hoof. Strange.”

“What do you think could have caused such a thing?” Vigil had lost a bit of his nerve since the new addition of Omior. To put it simply, he was having thoughts left and right of what the warrior might do if he were off guard.

Omior stood back up and brushed off the dust from his leggings. “I’ve no idea what’s caused it, but we’ll have to investigate some other time; it’s getting dark and fogs rolling in.” Vigil noticed now that indeed some fog was surrounding them from the dark forestry in which they were in.

“Let’s get out of here before the animals in this forest decide to go out for a late night snack.” Vigil muttered as he watched the fog roll in a bit more speedily. He couldn’t quite place it but the fog seemed off.

“Agreed. Let us be off then.” 

The warrior and the unicorn pony both started on their way, hoping to be rid of the frighteningly strange forest and its dangerous inhabitants. They walked in a straight line, following to where the path should have been. They eventually broke free from the blinding fog and looked on in confusion. The cave was in front of them instead of behind them. 

Omior spoke up in confusion. “Are you sure of your directions?”

“Of course I am. Would you rather try it?” Vigil growled a bit more forcefully than he meant.

Omior smiled a small amount to himself as he spoke up, “with pleasure.”

This went on for about twenty minutes of rinse and repeat as Omior and Vigil looked for the exit. After the eighteenth time, they ended up back to the cave from the fog Omior sighed. “Well it looks like we may be more exhausted than we realized. We don’t seem to have a choice but to rest in the cave until the fog clears.” 

Vigil grunted out an, “I’m not sleeping in there.”

Omior shrugged as he walked into the rather empty cave, “Suit yourself, sleep out there then.”

“Fine, I will.” Vigil heard a loud snapping from behind him and he shrieked out a slightly higher yelp than it should have been as he galloped a bit too fast to the cave.

______________________________________________________________________________

The sound of screams of surprise and anger reverberated in the cave as Omior shot awake. Anxiously, his head jerked towards the sound of the yell in time to see Vigil’s outline disappear around a corner. 

“You son of a-” The green unicorn managed to yell out before getting out of earshot. Omior was already up and chasing after the quickly fading echoes, sword bouncing against his sides the entire way.

The echoes finally stopped as Omior turned toward a dead end. He cursed silently as he scanned the wall. He noticed a small crevice near the corner between the two edges of the wall. “Of course.”

Quickly, he peered through the crack, what his eyes beheld upon the other side made him do a double take before grabbing his sword, bringing it to the ready.

A monster, not just any monster, but a creature of legend. It appeared to be a giant eyeball with tendrils protruding from the back of its horribly misshapen body. Slashes and protrusions all over the beasts mighty visage told the warrior this creature has been in more than just a few battles. It’s skin was scaly and melted, the color of a dull and very dirty brown. It screeched as it opened its maw, showing a multitude of overly-sharpened teeth, two tongues. Omior tensed up as he slowly drew his sword-and a few bones dripping wet as signs of a fresh meal.

He relaxed a little bit as he saw that his new acquaintance hadn’t been the fresh meal. No, the pony lay unconscious under a tendril that laid atop his body. “A Vile beast who hunts for flesh of the innocent, should not be a vile beast to exist at all.” Omior stepped into the vision of the beast, its jaw closed as it stared viciously at the warrior ruining his mealtime. 

The sound of tearing flesh filled the air as the skin of the back of the creature ripped to allow more tendrils to arise. It shot towards Omior, the warrior forced to jump to his right in hopes of escaping the majority of the damage. His leg was hit just under the knee, cutting him a small amount.

The blood flowed freely as he tucked into a roll and landed onto his feet. He pulled his sword back into the ready. The creature already sent another tendril towards him, to which he side stepped to his left, slashing the tendril as it slammed against the ground. 

The cut was clean as the creature pulled the stump back, the part of the tentacle that was severed began to sizzle and burn away as it violently thrashed on the ground. Within seconds it was already a pool of bubbling blood, smoke rising from the pool.

The warrior smiled as the gears in his head began to work. This creature would be an easier fight than he thought.

The sound of ripping flesh reverberated once again as the tentacle that was partially severed was cut off by the beast itself who let it fall to the ground, the place where it violently jumped out of the skin had been sealed. 

Three more tendrils were shot towards Omior who reacted; The first tentacle was parried and the second one Omior blocked, both of them went back immediately to avoid severing. But the third tendril directly hit the warrior in his left arm, leaving a fairly deep gash that showed a small amount of white bone.

Omior used his sword to rip a piece of his shirt off to tie around the wound as he ran behind a rock. He tied it as fast as he could and just as he finished, the rock behind him exploded in a flurry of stone, dirt, and flesh of a tendril that broke it.

It safely landed next to Omior who immediately cut it off at the end, leaving yet another body part to sizzle away from the giant eyeball monster. It screeched out in agony as it removed a second of its mighty limbs, it had released Vigil’s body from its grasp as it went into a rage, flinging its tendrils and big rocks at Omior repeatedly without end.

The Monster’s eye started glowing red as its rage grew, throwing itself at Omior, who continued to dodge its strikes. Omior knew he couldn't keep it up for long so he kept thinking as he looked for a way out of the situation. He needed something now.

Vigil groaned as he turned his body. Omior yelled out as his left leg was hit with another light cut from another tendril. But it was to no avail; Vigil wasn’t even registering what was going on being only half conscious. 

A stray rock from the mighty behemoth of a monster missed Omior and rebounded off the rocks and hit Vigil in the back. He yelped in discomfort and pain as he shot up. Once he saw what was happening he yelled out. “Omior!” He registered just what was attacking him a half a second afterwards and his eyes grew angry as he saw a rather sizable pile of bones to his left. 

He broke into full gallop towards the giant beast as he angrily sped towards what most certainly would be his doom. “Damn you to the depths of Tartarus!” He yelled as he jumped and turned in air, kicking out with his hind legs. It caught the creature in a rather soft part of his body and it caved in. Vigil’s left hind hoof got caught and he attempted to free it as the beast reared its head forward. It caused the wound to open a bit more but took Vigil with it as it flailed its massive body in an attempt to get him off. 

The tendrils stopped coming towards Omior and he took the opportunity to run towards the behemoth-like monster, sword aimed to damage its target. The beast’s focus landed on the warrior as he was in mid flight, sword slinging in a downward arc straight for the creatures one and only, very much glowing, eyeball.

The creature’s eye was easily severed in half as the sword cut through it like butter, covering Omior in a strange goo and a rather sizable chunk of vein. The creature thrashed even more, slamming its body into the walls as Omior ran to free his small four legged friend. The creature was just about to slam his mighty visage forward in an attempt to kill Omior where he last stood, but only hit rocks as it harmlessly flailed. 

Omior grabbed Vigil by the forelegs and with a strong tug, freed him of his prison.“Let us escape while we still have our lives.” He pointed towards the entrance to the monster’s den.

“Agreed.” Was all Vigil returned as Omior leaned on him, trying to get out as fast as they could with the warrior being wounded.

“Dammit, can’t you go faster?” Vigil complained as Omior wormed his body through the entrance of the den. 

“You try and move faster when you’re as hurt as me.” He rebutted angrily. His arm cried out for him to stop moving altogether, but that wasn’t going to happen. Not yet. “I’m not sure how you could even move when you have chunks of yourself missing.”

The unicorn looked down for a second before talking again. “Let’s just get out of here....”

> "Arc1: Mitm" Ch4 Dark Beginnings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A glass plate was thrown across the small, rather enclosed room, shattering against the far wall.

“Urgh,” the shadowed being angrily yelled as he threw more objects in reach away from himself. He was infuriated to say the least. This unforeseen miscalculation had done more damage then he would have liked.

The veiled individual gathered his thoughts as he told himself, “no matter, just a small setback. The plans are still in motion, ready to proceed without much halt.” He smiled viciously as he stared back upon the orb which viewed the human and pony escaping the cave. “Yes, even without one of our behemoths we can still win. It’s only a matter of time.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Omior and Vigil collapsed from exhaustion a little ways from the cave, they had quickly devolved their panting into mindless laughing out of relief to be through with the situation beforehand.

After a minute of them laughing together, they stopped. Slowly, the world caught up with the two, and the quiet nervousness of the situation revealed itself from under the covers.

“So....” Vigil started, it hung in the air as the two looked at each other.

“What now?” Omior didn’t realize it until now, but he had nowhere to go, no purpose, no drive. He was just... there.

The two were sitting there, wondering what would happen now. It hit Vigil and he decided to make his thoughts vocal. “How about.........you just stay with me for now? I mean, you need to make yourself known if you don’t want to be viewed as....” He stopped as he didn’t want to offend the warrior.

“Seem like a monster? Yes, I do believe your idea is the best to go on, it will help Celestia know my presence still lingers and that I will need help. As unfortunate as it may be, I may cause a problem by just being there.”

______________________________________________________________________________

*Eclipse Sanctum, inner chambers 32; location unknown*

The air sizzled and crackled, steam hissing venomously at the air and shadows that threatened to entangle it to the shackles of the ground. Within the steam stood a figured, relaxing among rocks with which the steam arose from. The frame was slender and feminine by human standards. The upper half hidden in a shadowy trail of steam which masked her self. A kind of antenna poked through her forehead and out into the cool air, breaking slightly at the edge of the steam. The lower half of her was long and thin, also very scale-y and rough. It stretched out into a tail that ended sharply, with soft fur surrounding it in tufts as well as small patches here and there all over the scaled form.

The figure purred as a gryphon soldier marched into the room, saluting his mistress, concealed by steam.

“Nnnnh...” She uttered as she stretched out, repositioning herself on the boiling rock. “What iiiissss it my soldier? Why hath you disturbed your mistress in my wonderful heating chamber?” She watched as the soldier gulped nervously tugging at the neckline of his armor.

“W-w-well yes your ladyship, the uhm, master wishes to sp-speak with you.” The poor gryphon looked to be almost in tears as the serpent lady stared him down in a silent judgement.

Slowly, she rose from the boiling rock and slithered off of it, over to the recruit. “Mmh.. yess, I am aware he would need my service soon. When does he request my presencccccce?” She circled the gryphon as she said this, looking him over on all sides.

“N-n-n-n-n........” He tried to say as he slowly followed her movements around him.

In annoyance, she raised her voice. “When does he wish of me? Do not make me repeat myself once more.” She started to increase her speed as the soldier cowered even more.

“N-n-NOW! Alright...” He raised his claws to his face as he prepared for the worst. After a few seconds of nothing, he tentatively lowered his arms.

The serpent lady was staring right into his eyes, but before he could cower away again she grabbed his chin carefully with a clawed appendage. “Be calm young one. You are but a novice, they are given a chance to make one mistake,” her face darkened as her grip tightened around his jaw, “but only one.” She released him as he suddenly backed away from her reach. “Tell the shadowmaster I shall arrive in but a moment.”

The soldier nodded dumbly as he turned and bolted out of the room in fear, a small puddle lay in front of the serpent lady on the floor. She looked at it with disgust and yelled out, “Servant! Clean this mess up!” She slithered out the door as a peach yellow pony in a maid’s outfit rushed into the room with a rag.

As the serpent lady slunk across the stony surface, she smiled viciously to herself. She turned a corner which opened into a massive room covered in torches. A room carved from simple rock, smoothed several times over. The center held a large wooden table, seemingly miles long, chairs evenly aligned to each and every side, except for the shortest of sides which had overly fancy chairs, one adjacent to the other. But she wasn’t interested in her “feasting room” as she liked to put it. She was interested in a door behind the farthest fancy chair.

The door had smoke seeping through the bottoms of it, nipping away at the clear air around the door. She glided up to the door and opened it, eyeing everything for the thousandth time for the shadowmaster before closing it behind her.
> "Arc2: The scaled dangers" Ch5 Celestial Bearings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Within the royal throne room, Celestia stared out at the hole which was being repaired speedily by a pony construction crew. Her sister Luna walked calmly up behind her and stood by her side. “Dearest sister, it has been four days and the guards still find nothing. Why do you continue this search?”

Celestia was silent for but a moment before she closed her eyes and spoke. “There is more to this story than I think is being shown, and regardless of if there is actually more to this story, I did give him my word. I must uphold it as a member of royalty.”

Luna bit back her lower lip as she muttered, “Yes sister,” she perked up as Celestia nuzzled her, “I know you’re worried sister, but have faith in my judgment. He will make knowledge of his presence should he be fine.”

______________________________________________________________________________

“You have got to be kidding me.....”

To put it simply, Omior was covered head to toe in mud and leaves. Vigil had led them to a mud hole by mistake where the two had fallen in. Now both were covered in mud, foliage, and something Omior didn’t want to think about.

As they stumbled through the foliage yet again, the warrior spoke up. “So what is the name of this village you reside in?”

Vigil stopped and played with the dirt a little bit. “Weeelll... for the time being, I ‘live’ in Ponyville, but I go back and forth between there and Canterlot.”

Omior hesitantly accepted this information and did not question him further on it. “Understandable.”

They reached the edge of the forest and it led off into a path. “From here we can get to ponyville, but not before we cross the everfree forest.” Vigil  managed to say before a last branch hit him on the snout. Ouch!.” He yelped, rearing upwards before losing his balance and falling onto his back. He rubbed his ‘boo boo’ as Omior smirked slightly before returning to his original look.

“We should probably get moving again if we’re to make it back before nightfall.”

“Yes, of course.” Omior said as he helped Vigil to his hooves.

The walk was rather uneventful and quiet amongst the two. They silently questioned what the future held for them as they stepped on, ever in search of the town of Ponyville. The walk went on for miles, and just before the sun reached the horizon, the city came into view under the sun on its decent downwards. 

Vigil yawned into his hoof as his eyes drooped a small amount. Omior too was tired, but he was far less noticeably tired, he looked at best weary or out of breath even. Omior’s thoughts moved from the subject of the future, and to the subject of the past. ‘Without me, how will Ahingor fair? What of all of them?’ Omior sighed. He continued the trudge alongside Vigil keeping himself out of thoughts of what if’s and would happens, he needed to focus on what will happen.

They managed to reach the outskirts of Ponyville just as the moon rose to its highest peak. Vigil led the warrior along the empty dirt road through the town. The town seemed to be entirely made of thatched roofing. Homes. A strange sight for the warrior. ‘Why would they have such inefficient living arrangements. They would certainly not survive even a light rain.’

Shortly, they passed a house made of some kind of confectionary. ‘A pastry tavern? Odd how one would dedicate such a thing to sweets.’ After that, it was nothing but thatched house after thatched house until they got to one small one in specific. The only one story house. Vigil practically shoved open the door in his tired daze and mumbled towards Omior. “Hrgn... you can sleep on the couch or something. Goodnight,” He paused as he tried to think of what he wanted to say. “We deal with whatever we have to tomorrow okay? Okay.” Then he walked towards a room and pushed it open, nearly slamming it as he went to his bed.

The warrior looked around. He noted how a kitchen of sorts was connected to the room they had entered. The room they entered had a simple couch and a table, along with a few cupboards here and there, that was it. Sighing, Omior got comfortable on the couch, allowing sleep to encapsulate him.

______________________________________________________________________________


The soft cooing of birds moving throughout the brisk morning air gradually awoke Vigil as he sat up from where he had collapsed on his bed. At first, the events of yesterday was fogged in the pony’s mind. It stayed veiled as he attempted to recall it, but he soon realized how fruitless it was in his drowsy state.

He dragged himself off the bed and groaned as he moved his sluggish feet towards his half closed door. He opened the door and his eyes shot open as the memories of the events that had transpired yesterday came to light.

As he peered into the living room, he saw the warrior samurai meditating, calmly sitting with his legs crossed, arms to each side. A tiny jaybird had gotten in through an open window and lazily preened itself upon his shoulder. Once it took notice of Vigil, it tweeted once before flying back out the open window.

Vigil grunted in grogginess as he tried to speak. “So, I see you’re up.”

“Indeed I am. Long weeks of training help with early rising.” Omior got up from where he was meditating and looked to Vigil with a smile. “Time to start the day, I suppose. So what is the first task today?”

“Well, I’d think you might wish to stay here while I get things done, if you don’t mind that is. The townsfolk can get a bit...” Vigil paused as he looked for the appropriate word in his mind, “crazy and irrational. I’ll talk with the mayor and have her converse with the elements of harmony.”

“The what?” Omior asked curiously, whoever these elements of harmony are would have to be crazy to be called that.

“The elements of harmony, dumb name I know but they’ve saved all of Equestria more than once.” Vigil started to say as he walked towards the door.

“Explain to me before you leave at least a brief explanation of these individuals.” Omior requested as he walked with Vigil outside.

“Well there are six of them. The elements are: Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic. The po-” A loud gasp from Vigil’s right took him off guard and his head shot towards the noise to find a certain pink blur zoom off towards the market yelling out some kind of babble or another. He looked around and noticed that they were out in the open, standing just outside the door. “Damn it,” Vigil sighed as he looked at the dust disperse from shooting up into the air in the pink party’s destructive blind panicked path.

“What?” Omior asked in confusion as he watched the dust break apart as well.

> "Arc2: Tsd" Ch6 Time on the run
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Woah hold on, what is with the rush?” Vigil suddenly started pushing Omior back into the domicile as he muttered under his breath.

“Just get inside. Pinkie’s gone and started another blind panic.” Vigil managed to shove Omior into his house as he shut the door behind them. “Sometimes she even gets the town so riled up they mob whatever it was that Pinkie identified as the center of the cause for alarm.” He went rushing around the house locking windows and lowering blinds, one of his last stops was the back door which he quickly locked with a sigh.

“We should be safe until the heat blows over.”

“So who is this Pinkie, and why is she so excitable?” Omior decided to sit down and listen to what the pony had to say, it sounded important enough to take note of.

“Pinkie Pie is the element of Laughter, and she tends to cause the town to go into a frenzy for the dumbest of reasons. If she has any reason for it other than ‘because she can’ then I’ve no idea.”

The sound of a large group of ponies screaming and running about was resounding in a muffled fashion into the domicile. Vigil was a bit more on edge as he talked faster.

“We need to find a way out of town inconspicuously someway quickly before the ponies start a dang mob.” True to his word, the sounds of panic decreased and the sounds of angered cries began to rise. 

“Dammit, already?”

Knocking at the door signalled that indeed, there was a mob present, and it had moved fast. The sound of hastily chatting and slightly anxious ponies came from outside. 

Over the loud semi-panic, both parties heard the sound of a mare trying to converse with Vigil. “Eye spy! Open up! We know the monster followed you in now open up!”

Vigil ignored it as he tried to find an alternate path out of there. Again, the same pony yelled for him again. “If you need help just show us a sign! We’re coming in.” As if to prove this, the ponies behind the door began to pound on it trying their best to break in.

Vigil gave an irritated sigh as he yelled out, “I’m fine! Now stop damaging my property and get outta here!”

“Eye spy! What about the monster? We’re coming in. Is it manipulating you?! Or making you do something terrible. Break the door down!” The pony on the other side yelled out. The banging increased in rapid intervals as the door started to crack. Vigil looked around and noticed that the back door was devoid of noise, he looked through the blinds next to the back door to find it completely devoid of ponies wanting the head of a monster.Vigil quietly cracked it open as the front door started to give way.

The two heroes, Vigil and Omior started to make distance by the time the door broke down.

______________________________________________________________________________


*five minutes later*

Vigil’s house was in tatters to say the least. The door was off its hinge and lay on the floor as but another doormat, the back door was ajar from where Vigil and Omior had escaped from, and the house was a mess with ponies who searched high and low to make sure the door wasn’t a facade. Mayor Mare was, to put it delicately, in complete shambles. She was nervous because another creature from the everfree had supposedly come into town, and anything from there meant bad news no matter how innocent looking. And anything bad news related from the forest usually meant a lot of repairs to the town. And all of that meant plunging into the town funds for repair with what little they have, which meant borrowing extra from outside towns like Canterlot, and that would create more debt.

So while Mayor Mare had cut the mob into two groups, one to search the edges of the Everfree forest and the other with her to make sure Vigil had not tried to fool them and only feigned his escape. Vigil and Omior had long gotten away inside the forest. Though the town forming a mob brought about some unexpected eyes.

“.......C’mon Twilight, please.” Spike begged Twilight as they turned the corner to the next road, the main one to the Tree of which they lived of course. 

“For the last time Spike, we aren’t getting any gems this time. Maybe next time okay?” Twilight said as she walked along. Keeping her eyes focused on the road ahead and.....

“Hey look. What’s going on there?” Spike had practically jumped onto Twilight’s head and began pointing to a house not far ahead on their left, Twilight had the unfortunate timing of being blinded by her assistant’s intrigue.

“What’s going on where Spike? I can’t exactly see when you're covering my eye-oof!” The purple unicorn said as she tripped over somepony. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I couldn’t see where I-Pinkie?” Now that Twilight could see, she noticed the pony she tripped over was none other than her pink party pony friend. And that friend was watching a house being pretty much ransacked by everyone in the town.

“Oh hi Twilight, don’t worry i’m okay.” She said as she turned from her violet friend to the happenings inside.

“Uhm, Pinkie...?”

“Yes Twilight?” Pinkie said turning back and smiling to Twilight.

“What’s happening with the ponies going crazy?” Spike inarticulately beat Twilight to the punch. Twilight huffed a bit to herself and waited for Pinkie’s almost immediate answer.

“Oh silly! We’re just playing hide and go seek with Eye Spy, he’s really good at hiding, ooh and there was this big monster thingy that looked all mean like he would be all like rawr and I got scared and told the town about it and now we’re all playing this game and aren't games fun because-” Twilight put a hoof in Pinkie’s mouth before she could stray too far from the conversation at hand.

“Pinkie!” Twilight released her hoof from the unsilenceable pink party pony’s mouth; after she quieted and paid attention that was.

“Yeeeesss?” She asked sweetly, almost sing songy with a kind of bubbly naivety. 

“What’s this about a monster?” 

“Oh well, it was wearing this fancy clothes kind of like what Rarity would make mixed with some kind of fancy Gryphon armor, oh it was so scary to see it, it was on two legs and was talking with Eye Spy, oh it looked like something out of the Everfree, maybe even worse. I hope he didn’t scare Eye Spy too much!” 

Twilight had a frown on her face. ‘Biped? Adorning armor, frightening, urgh Pinkie’s gotta have more than that.’ “Is that all Pinkie? I mean, did you get a good enough look at it to know anything remotely close to what it looked like?”

Pinkie placed a hoof under her chin as she went into deep thought to remember some of the finer details. “Oh yeah, he looked kinda like a diamond dog, only more, uhh.. short? Yeah I think something like that. He also looked like a bald chimp, like the kind Fluttershy has, I wonder if he likes bananas like a chimp too? Wouldn’t that be just silly?” Pinkie giggled to herself from pondering on that thought aloud before continuing. “He had this flat face really weird if you ask me, well, anyway, I think that’s all I got to see before running off and telling Mayor Mare about it.”

‘Okay, so it’s tall, looks like a mix between a diamond dog and a monkey. What could it be?’ A loud crash from inside the house snapped Twilight from her current thoughts before they could further evolve. “What the hay are they doing?” Twilight muttered a bit to herself before stepping towards the house. She spotted Mayor Mare and quickened her pace a bit. “Mayor Mare. What’s going on? Why is half of Ponyville tearing the house apart?” Twilight called out as she got to the mare in question.

Twilight garnered no response from the mare who looked to be silently distraught, muttering to herself a little bit. When Twilight repeated the question, she poked Mayor Mare in the side a little bit. This got her out of it and she turned to Twilight, a tad surprised by the suddenness of her appearance. “Oh, Twilight it’s just you. I didn’t see you there. No, Pinkie came running through town about an Everfree monster. So we are looking to make sure it fled, rather than hide somewhere in his house.” A few pillows started flying out of the opened window from the second story along with a few other unmentionables. Shortly thereafter a few drawers.

Twilight raised and eyebrow and spoke up, “And you don’t think you’re reacting too badly?” 

“No, no we’re reacting just fine actually. It’s far from overboard I think.” Mayor Mare turned back and observed the scene again. “Well, not too far overboard.”

Twilight gave Mayor Mare a questioning look. “So, you all are digging through and ultimately destroying a house because a creature from the Everfree was in the area?” Mayor Mare nodded. “And we seem to have creatures from the Everfree here every other week. I’d say you may be overreacting, especially if Pinkie’s the one who started this whole thing.”

“No no. Er, well, yes Pinkie was the one who informed us of the ‘Spooky Dooky Monster’ but I still think we’re, eheh, taking the rational course of action.” Mayor Mare almost looked a bit unsure now.

“Really?” Spike interjected.

Mayor Mare sighed and looked down. “Fine. I’ll call off the search and have the construction team fix Eye Spy’s house. I’d have to assume at this point the creature’s long gone in the Everfree, maybe Eye Spy will come out of hiding wherever he is if we repair his house and apologize.” 

Twilight smiled and nodded. “I’m glad you saw reason Mayor. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get home. I’ve got a busy schedule.” Twilight turned to start leaving.

“Alright Twilight, goodbye.”
> "Arc2:Tsd" Ch7 Times forgotten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The duo had kept running even when the sounds of ponies had gone silent. Omior’s breathing was ragged and labored. As he ran his vision had blurred at the edges and began to turn red, he started hallucinating as the forest seemed to swallow him from all sides.

He stopped abruptly and looked around him as he saw translucent heads and long forgotten sentences resound around him. 

“How could you....!” One female translucent head said before disappearing as a floating head of an old man with a big burly beard spoke from behind him, “Son, why have you done such a deed....?” 

A third head came from his right and was slightly different from the rest, all of which kept repeating the same sentences. This one instead was a flickering full body, it was a strong and cocky looking woman with auburn hair, “You know I’ve been waiting for you for all this time,” The sound of glass crashing froze the translucent heads in their place as her flickering self walked a few steps closer to Omior.

His vision began to fade as she looked at him with tears of disdain and sorrow. “I've waited all this time and you return to me after I've received this news,” Omior had fallen on his butt as he looked on at the apparition of his past with surprise and fear. She was in his face as she closed her eyes as tight as can be and yelled at him, as if he were as far away as can be and maybe yelling would allow him to hear her, “I HATE YOU!” Then everything went black for the warrior.

Omior was huddled in the fetal position. His surroundings were all encompassing and surrounding him in nothingness, the screams of anger and torment pushed at his ears despite him shutting them off with his hands. 

The world around him slowly built itself and color started to return. It was bright and cheery and the sounds of happy patrons drinking alcohol and being merry hit his ears. He opened his eyes, realizing the endless flow of venomous words had stopped.

He looked around and saw he was in a tavern, everyone was singing along as the bard on the small stage was playing a song of a hero who slew his enemies in the name of glory.

“The hero of yore, forever gone for now,
He waits in the shadows for our need,
He pillages the villains,
protecting the young,
The hero of yore when,
will you return.” 

The bard was singing, though it was hard to make anything out with the slur of drunkards singing along.

Omior muttered to himself as he watched the scene, “Not here....” The patrons were dancing around and having fun, and just heard over the crowds was a group all too familiar walking down the flight of stairs of the tavern that led to the rooms which patrons always stayed at.

The first one down the stairs was himself, looking rather worse for wear despite sleeping in an actual bed, the first one in weeks. He practically slunk down the stairs, his mood completely different from the obnoxious patrons. 

The next to come down the stairs was a female, she had a golden brown hue of hair with a shade of red blended into the edge of it. She gave off the impression of being stout. She was but only slightly shorter than Omior and she wore clothing that hugged her skin tight. The woman had ears as sharp as knives pointing in an upward position, indicating she was a halfling. The woman was trying to get alongside Omior, her expression was one of worry.

The third one down the stairs was a man. He was practically twice Omior’s height and had hair as black as night bunched up into a ponytail that stretched to roughly the middle of his back. He was attempting to try and catch up as well, albeit at a much slower and more relaxed pace, he had a similar expression to the female’s.

“Omior, please. I know something happened last night, now what was it,” the female had cut off Omior’s path and forced him to stop. His eyes were devoid of emotion and he simply ignored her, walking around her. She kept getting in his way as she tried to get him to tell her what was wrong.

The man spoke up from his place behind Omior, “Come on Maria, the guy doesn't want to tell us anything. If I were you, I’d drop it. He’ll tell us if he feels like it. There’s plenty of things he hasn't told me even to this day,” He looked to the bard and muttered just loud enough for them to hear, “some things I still wait to be told.”

Omior took the opportunity to go around Maria, and as he exited the tavern, the man spoke up, “You know we’re here for you if you need anything Omior.”

Maria spoke up just as the door was shutting behind Omior, “What the hell d’you think you’re doing Ahingor! Don’t you think this is at least a little reckle-.” And the warrior was now out of earshot. He continued walking off in a direction, he didn’t care, he just needed to keep moving. No thinking, just moving.

The citizens were walking around, avoiding Omior by quite a distance as they warily eyed his passing. A few eyes from the alleyways kept themselves on him, but he ignored their stares of venom. He couldn’t stop thinking of what happened the night before.

‘The night’s air was warm and crisp, a nice night for the fall. The warrior had just climbed the balcony of a castle and he was panting as he got to his feet. He opened the curtains slowly to find a woman standing in front of a mirror. Waiting for him.

“It isn’t polite to keep a lady waiting, especially one of royalty.”

“My apologies lady Helena,” Omior said as he bowed. She walked up to him and looked at him in disdain.’

Omior was moving at a slightly more hastened pace as he tried to keep his mind off of the memories so fresh in his mind. Unfortunately, it only quickened the pace of their assault on his mind.

‘“My father tells me of your exploits with the one known as the dark one,” tears were slowly starting to form in her eyes.

Omior stood up and kept a strong gaze to her, “I’ve done what I must because it is for the good of the kingdom, and for the good of you. The agreements that were made with the pa-.” Omior was interrupted with a slap to the face, he fell onto his butt in shock.

“You know how many died because of you and your pact!” Tears were falling from her face as her venomous words struck into Omior like a freshly poisoned dagger, “Do you know just who you killed? All the citizens, the peasants, the nobility? The royalty.” Helena had nearly fallen to her knees, her whole body was shaking from the adrenaline rush her boiled over anger had given her.’

Omior was now in a full sprint, he had just exited the city and tears were running down his face.

‘“....It was my mother. You killed the queen with your pact,” Helena was silent as she looked at the ground. “I had believed they were all wrong Omior, I believed you were not a villain like my father thought. Like everyone thought. But you’ve returned to me after I’ve heard this news,” she was walking up to Omior’s place on the floor, he kept his eyes off of her in shame, “I loved you and you repay me with the murder of my mother,” she crouched down and made Omior look her in the eyes, which were red and puffy from the sudden bout of tears. She looked at him in disdain and sorrow as she let out a cry of anger, “I HATE YOU!” And she slapped him again. 

This time he landed on his stomach and he slowly began to rise shortly after the blow. Helena had turned back to her mirror and only said one thing to him. “Go, leave now and never return. You aren’t the one I thought I loved,” her voice was cold and emotionless, and Omior could do nothing but leave quietly.

Omior stopped and fell to the ground. His mind couldn’t stop looking over the events again and again. Looking at everything he’d done the last week alone. Everything he thought was right, wrong, and otherwise unaccounted. He sat there under the warm afternoon sun, crying.

****

Maria and Ahingor were still at the Tavern, they sat having a quiet meal as the patrons had long since left to their jobs, homes, and families. The bard had also stopped playing to have a meal and some mead as well. He almost seemed bubbly with how he ate and effortlessly downed his alcohol. 

Maria muttered something just loud enough for Ahingor to hear, “I still can’t believe you let him go like that.”

“Don’t start this up again. What is done is done. I’ve known him all my life and know that all we can do is wait and hope,” Ahingor quietly sipped at his cup of water. He muttered to himself as he set the cup back down, “Just like always.”

An explosion rang out as the sounds of panic abruptly started. On impulse, Maria and Ahingor suddenly burst into action, leaving their food to the tavern keeper who had heard the panic as well. 

As the two got outside, weapons at the ready, a handful of nearby guards yelled out, “We’re under attack! Get the civilians to the tunnels!” Before splitting into groups to direct them to the tunnels. 

A handful of buildings were burning and arrows were already littering the ground at the two heroes feet as citizens ran in different directions, hoping to escape the forces that attacked the city. 

The two ran to where they heard the sound of clashing metal and death to find the guards fighting shades, black mists held under command of the ruthless dark one. 

Bodies fell one after another, for every three guards that had fallen to a shade, one shade was killed. It was a losing battle, that much was evident. 

Ahingor grabbed his sword from his side, and just as Maria was about to pull her bow off of her back, Ahingor stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, “Get to Omior.”

Maria nodded and answered back, “Cover me while I make my way through these weaklings.” 

The Shades caught sight of the two and one tried to swipe at Maria, but just as it was about to make contact with her face, Ahingor’s sword met with the claw. It sickeningly sliced through the creature with ease, cutting the arm off.

Maria wasted no time in scanning the battle for an opening. Once it was found, she went for it. A split between the shades and guards opened up and she made a sprint for it. A shade came up on her left as she was going which Ahingor quickly caught, jumping into her range of vision long enough for her to see him block the claw. 

She didn’t see what happened because the two exited her field of vision as she turned a corner, leaving the main stage of the battlefield.

She ran for where she guessed Omior would go. He always had these certain places he went to that always looked alike, places he could be alone. And there was only one in town.

Maria turned another corner and failed to notice a body dangerously close to it. She tripped and fell, just barely able to keep her face from hitting the hard stone walkway. She opened her eyes and immediately they were full of shock and sadness.

“No. No i-it can’t be,” she got onto her knees as she inspected the body lying limply on its right side, face etched in pain and fear looking into her eyes. Maria had tears begin to stream down her eyes, “Alexsi...”

A shadow began to take form behind her, but she didn’t react to it, she was too distraught about what happened to her dear friend living in the city. She saw it form into a familiar sight and immediately rolled out of the way. The claw from a shade meant for her sunk into the skin of her dearly departed friend, it’s right hand pointer finger jammed deep into Alexsi’s eyeball. It fought to pull it’s claw out, but it seemed to be a difficult task. 

In the meantime, Maria was pulling herself together. She fumbled for her bow and shortly after, an arrow. She pulled it out of the quiver but dropped it to the ground. She shakily grabbed for it in a hurry, but almost froze in place as she heard the sickening sound of meat ripping as the claw took back more than itself when it came free.

She looked up and jumped out of the way as the claw came back down, this time with the eyeball jammed deep down on the sharp claw of the Shade.

Maria looked at the creature with anger, “You bitch,” she aimed her arrow and waited as the Shade got right in front of her. As the Shade was about to strike down on her, she released the arrow and it hit straight through the shade, landing in the ground just behind it, “That’s for Alexsi,” the shade slowly fell to the ground as she put the bow back on her shoulder and knelt down to her dead friend, now missing an eye and a fair chunk of flesh from her face.

“I’ll come back to give you a proper burial Alexsi. I promise.” Maria kissed her two fingers and lightly tapped Alexsi’s forehead before getting up and continuing on her run to find Omior.

______________

Omior was sitting far from the battlefield, he was oblivious of the matter as he was succumbing to melancholy. The last night continued to repeat in his head, the eyes of the one he fallen in love with were burned into his mind with hatred.

The grass on the hill was swaying along with the wind. The tree Omior was under rustled and a few leaves took to the air to dance along with the grass, doing circles and spins in perfect timing with the grass’ sway. 

Omior was quietly murmuring to himself, repeating questions he never expected to have answers to.

“Why, why does this have to happen? I thought I made the right choice, I thought I could handle this,” Omior sighed as he tried to speak, “I.....Thought, maybe...... We could have been more,” Omior let a sad smirk fill his features, ‘I HATE YOU!’, “...guess not.”

Omior caught the rough shape of a shadow form coming from behind him, “Maria, I want to be alone, please,” The shadow only grew bigger and closer, “Maria, I know it’s you. Quit it. I don’t want to talk to either of you at this moment.”

The shadow ceased its movement right behind Omior and he turned around in time to see a Shade ready to strike at him. He rolled out of the way as the claw of the Shade sunk into the tree. It came out with relative difficulty and the top half of the tree fell as a result. 

“A Shade? What is the dark one’s minions doing here?”

The warrior grabbed at his blade and unsheathed it in time to block the blow from the shade. It reeled back before coming back again to strike at him. The Shade continued attempting to kill Omior as he parried left and right. 

Omior tripped while on his backpedal from the misted monstrosity. Just as the shade lifted it’s claw to strike down at the warrior with a killing blow, an arrow had directly hit into the center of the creature’s face. It reeled back and clutched the arrow, but before it could pull it out, another one hit the shade’s jugular. It froze up and started to collapse to the ground. A third arrow pinned the shade’s left claw to it’s face and it fell back, dead.

Omior turned his head to see Maria standing just a little ways behind him. “Looks like I got here in the nick of time.”

“Maria...” Omior said as she walked up. She held her hand out and Omior gratefully accepted it as he got to his feet, “What’s happening? Why is the Dark one’s minions here?!”

Maria didn’t say a word, she put a hand on his shoulder, but before she could utter a word, Omior batted it off and started at a quick pace towards the castle keep.

Maria started falling behind as she called his name, “Omior, hold on! OMIOR! Wait!” The warrior was already making a dash for the keep, his mind reeling at the thought of letting princess Helena perish because he couldn’t perform his duty. 

“Dammit Omior, wait for me!” Maria continued to call out to him, but stopped and made for the rooftops to at least get a better vantage point of him while she caught up. 

Omior was running at near full speed as he held his sword at the ready, ‘Dammit, I should’ve been in town, the guards aren’t trained for proper battle against the Dark One’s minions.’ 

Two Shades turned the corner. As Omior took notice of them, he turned his sword and jumped as he slashed the one closest to him in half. He rolled and continued on his run, ignoring the second Shade as refused to lessen his pace or allow himself be slowed by anything.

Maria managed to take the second shade down, but she was quickly losing speed as her stamina was practically drained from all the running. She muttered a “wait up.” before she had to stop and rest.

Omior had already made it into sight of the keep. He was appalled when he saw that the castle which housed both king, prince, and princess, was burning. Dead bodies of guards laid all surrounding the gate. Shades were storming by the dozen into the keep. In his angered mindset, Omior readied his sword and jumped straight towards the large grouping of Shades. He hacked and slashed at them as they cut at his legs and arms. Shades one after another fell as he cut a pathway through. Eventually Omior tripped, halting his progress. 

He got to his feet to see that the Shades had backed off, but had otherwise surrounded him completely, ‘No dammit no! Not now!’

Maria had finally caught up to Omior to see him in his situation. She pulled out three arrows and readied them for fire as she yelled out. “You know how hard it was to keep up with your sorry ass Omi-!” 

A crashing sound interrupted Maria and both looked to where the sound came from. Helena had fallen from her glass encased balcony and was in a freefall from the top of the keep tower to the ground below. Omior watched in shock as she looked straight at him and yelled for his name.

Omior tried to hack and slash the wall of shades but to no avail. There wasn’t enough time to get to her. 

As Helena came closer to the ground, she began flailing and panicking. “Omior!” She screamed as she was but a few feet from the ground. And just before she hit the hard stone head first, Omior’s vision went completely black.

********************

Slowly, almost at a snails pace, Omior heard the crackling of fire. He rubbed at his tear-stained face as his eyes opened. He was greeted to the sight of Vigil. He gave Omior a worried smile before focusing on the food being cooked on the fire.

The warrior sat up and crossed his legs, groggily rubbing his face with both hands, “Urgh how long was I out?”

“About seven hours. I couldn’t really carry you so I had no choice but to set up a camp here. Lucky for us we haven’t entered into any manticore territory when you passed out.” Vigil poked the fire before putting a few more sticks into it. “I won’t ask what it was that got to you during your sleep, but i’ll be here to lend an ear if you want it.”

Omior scooted closer to the fire and watched as Vigil pulled a couple berries from one of the sticks surrounding the fire pit hovering just above the fire, “I’d like that.”
> "Arc2:Tsd" Ch8 the afterparty is gonna be hell
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	During the time before Omior and Vigil set out, it was quiet. Omior had decided to keep it to himself what had bothered him so deeply, and Vigil took care to keeping the fire going. Shortly thereafter they had fallen asleep and safely awoke to the next day.

They prepared to venture out once more as the day just began. Vigil made sure to gather up more of those berries to take with them as they left to find the main road that goes right through the Everfree. 

Once they arrived, Omior spoke up. “May we head for Canterlot? I know not of where it’s located, but it may be imperative to find the princesses.”

“Heh, yeah. We got a small problem though,” Vigil lowered his voice a little bit, “we’d have to go through plenty of villages that aren’t the greatest to get there. Of course I’ll still help you get there, but I thought you should know that if something goes down, I may have to just outright leave you at one point.”

“Then I’ll make sure things don’t devolve to that point.” 

“Alright then. Just stay off the main road and follow me. The road gets busy sometimes and that means that its best if you stay out of sight as we head for Canterlot.”

Omior nodded and fell back into the underbrush just out of sight as Vigil began his trek towards Hoofenburg.

The walk was rather uneventful for the first few miles, but as the sun started to lower from its midway point, a broken down cart came into sight. As they got closer, the ponies around it called out to Vigil for assistance.

As Vigil approached the group, he had a small frown of confusion adorning his face. One of the ponies spoke up as he stopped in front of them. “Hey. You know the nearest city from here? We kinda got lost a little ways back and our vehicle kinda... broke.” 

Vigil nearly shivered as he looked at each of the ponies there. They gave him this weird look that made him want to turn and run on sight. “W-well. The town of Hoofenburg is about a half a days travel the way w-I am going,” Vigil coughed as the one who asked him the question in the first place leered at him a little bit, “and the way I c-came frome is Ponyville. About the same amount of time to go that way too.”

One of the group of ponies smiled at Vigil, giving him an eerie look. “Thanks. Say, what’s your name fella?”

Vigil let his eyes lower just a bit at the question. “Vigil. The name’s Vigil.” 

The ponies all gave different versions of hideous tooth decaying sneers as they started surrounding the Vigil. He began to back up and the ground gave beneath the green unicorn and he fell down into the hole onto his back. “Oww..” Vigil groaned. He looked up to see what he presumed to be the leader of their group, a grey unicorn with a large scar vertically scraping across his eyes. His mane was black as night with blue streaks pointing out from the center. 

The stallion looked down at Vigil in disgust before he turned and called out. “Hey samurai! We know you’re out there. Come quietly and we may let you die quickly.” 

Silence filled the air as not a sound was made. After a good minute, the shady pony spoke up again. “C’mon, you wouldn’t want to see your friend here on a spit roast wouldja!?” 

After more silence, the pony begrudgingly yelled to his group. “Alright! You girls get this pony up here and in a cage. We are leaving!” 

The bandits went and dragged Vigil out of the hole and threw him into a small cage before locking it. Some of the other bandits rushed to put back together the cart of theirs. As they were, a rustling came from the bushes adjacent to it. One of them spoke up. “Well, arn’t’cha gonna check it out Sem?” 

The youngest of the bandits looked at the speaker and responded.  “Well of course,” Sem said as he began walking to the bushes, “not like that samurai guys here. It’s obvious he ran after we cau-” A loud sound of a sword unsheathing itself was heard as Sem stopped just a few inches from the bushes. A blade was jutting out of the pony’s neck and his body quickly fell limp as he was slightly lifted into the air from the weapon. 

The sword was ripped back out of the pony, fresh blood dripping down to the handle just out of sight. Sem fell, clutching at his neck before dying quietly on the ground, choking on his own blood. The sword quickly went back into the bushes and one of the unicorn’s yelled out as they fired a spell into the bushes. “Sem!” 

The bush burst into a blaze of fire, but no sounds of pain or anguish could be heard coming from them. The bandits quickly grouped up, facing away from themselves, back to back with the leader of theirs in the center, next to the caged Vigil. “Dammit where’d he go?”

“Keep your eyes peeled. Her ladyship wants him dead,” The leader yelled out. 

One of the pegasi, a brown and rather meek looking one, shook so violently you could sell him as a giant living massage device. After a minute, Omior started practically running in circles around them, rustling underbrush, scaring wildlife into the open, and stepping on sticks. After a few seconds, it was too much for the nervous wreck of a stallion, and he charged towards the sound of rustling with sweat dripping down his face. 

“AHHHHHH!” ‘Schlnk.’ A scream from the pony rang out and the sound of steel meeting flesh was heard as the body was tossed back out into the open. The pegasus had no wings and a hole in his head, blood and brain matter seeping out of the fresh wounds.

A few of the bandits eyed the body nervously before one of them. A blue older looking mare spoke up. “S-sir Ironhoof?”

The pony in question scrunched his face up as it turned red with anger. “Celestia dammit. No more cocky bastards better do that, or I’ll kill ya myself!” He paused as he looked back at his prisoner. “All unicorns, take aim and fire some fire spells in all directions. That’ll take care of our problem.”

The unicorns silently went all in different parts of their circle of armed highway bandits. They nervously looked around as it seemed the samurai warrior was in multiple places at the same time. They began charging up their horns.

“Ready!” Ironhoof yelled out. He watched as the bushes rustled more violently as it seemed his prey was attempting some vein and very stupid idea. “Aim!” Ironhoof raised one foreleg as he took a glance around at all of his unicorns, nervous but ready to give their lives. “Fire!” 

Time seemed to slow for Ironhoof as he saw each of his unicorns fire all at once, but he also saw as the spell heading for a particular tree was about to make impact. He caught sight of a certain samurai suddenly leaping into the air and grabbing a rather thick branch. Omior spun once on it and used his overall speed and momentum to fling himself at the bandits. He shot at them like a cannonball, just barely overhead. 

Ironhoof’s eyebrows raised as he tried to yell out a command, but it was too late. Omior landed right in front of the pony in charge of the bandits. He unsheathed his sword and sliced through all seven bandits behind him, they fell limply to the ground with their spines very much sticking out of their backs.

Ironhoof backed away as Omior took step after step slowly up to the rest of the bandits. “What’s that about cooking my friend for dinner?” He said as some of the bandits shook. Three of them swallowed their fear and charged at the warrior all at once. It ended quickly with another clean strike hitting two of the three in the face. The third pony slid under the strike and managed an uppercut on Omior. He stumbled back but composed himself fast enough to catch the second blow and returning one of his own. The pony fell back, unconscious with a broken snout.   

The rest of the bandits broke from their bundle and ran, leaving Ironhoof by himself to face the human warrior. 

Omior shoved Ironhoof against the tree he had been backed into and held his blade to the pony’s throat. “So. I’ve got a few questions. You don’t mind answering them,” Omior accentuated his question by moving the blade a smidge closer, “do you?”

“N-no.” Ironhoof was dropped to the ground with a thud. He scrambled to his hooves, ready to turn tail and run. That is until Omior spoke up again. “Run and you die...”

Omior practically ignored the pony as he walked back to the cage and cut the lock. Vigil walked out of it and sighed. “Took ya long enough. You know how cramped it is in there?” He looked around Omior to see Ironhoof had very much pissed himself already. The green pony smirked at the poor pony as Omior turned around to begin his ‘interrogation’.

The warrior kneeled down and stared the pony in the eyes, holding his blade in his left hand. “Why did you attack my friend and I?”

“O-orders. Please don’t kill me. I-we were just following orders!” 

Omior grabbed Ironhoof by the neck and picked him up into the air. “Orders from who?” His composure never broke even once as he pried answers from the fearful bandit leader.

Ironhoof looked rapidly left and right. He began sweating even more so and he dropped a few things on the ground not worth mentioning. “I-i-i-i.....can’t tell you. She’d kill me if I squealed.” 

Omior slammed the pony into the tree. “Who’d kill you?” He dropped the pony as he finished asking his question and the pony tried to stumble into a standing position before he spoke.

“Please no. She’ll do worse to me than you ever will. Just do anything to me as long as you don’t make me say it! Please.” Ironhoof was practically in tears at Omior’s feet. 

“Get up coward. Answer the question, either that or,” the samurai warrior raised his blade to the pony’s throat, “I get to see if my blade needs to be resharpened.”

The pony gulped as he looked for the right words to say. He looked rapidly in all directions as he thought. Eventually he stopped and looked at Omior. Just as he inhaled a breath to tell him, a snake bit him in the left foreleg. “Ah!” He looked back before muttering. “Oh no, she knows. Oh no, oh no, oh no...” Snakes began to unburrow from the ground as they swarmed the pony. They crawled and climbed on him as he began panickingly throwing them off, they continued to bite at his forelegs and everywhere they could as Omior backed away from the site.

“Oh god AHHHHHHHHHHH!” Ironhoof cried. Seconds later, the snakes completely covered him, and went as far as to enter his mouth as it was open in pain. He howled and ran and stumbled. He repeated the process until finally, he stopped.

Ironhoof fell to the ground as the snakes dispersed, a pool of blood had already began to take form as Omior and Vigil got a better look at what the snakes did to the poor fool. His eyes were missing. Whatever hunks of meat were still attatched to his body were loosely held to their original bones. His entrails, or at least what remained of them, lay scattered and dragged around, far from his stomach. 

Omior and Vigil backed away. Vigil backed away out of disgust and he soon ran to a nearby bush to vomit. Omior merely covered his face with his undershirt before taking one last look at the pony. ‘Well, at least I got some answers. Now for a real challenge.’ Omior rubbed his temples. ‘This is giving me a headache.’

> "Arc2: Tsd" Ch9 A step back for air
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Failuresssss all of them,” the serpent lady bitterly muttered as she looked through a small pool of water. “Lookssss like I’ll need to up my game for this disssspute. hmhmhmmm...” The serpent lady turned and left the barren room, anger and disgust at the recent failure very much obvious on her facial features. 

She slithered down the hallway, servants moving to the side to avoid getting in her way as she went. Guards eyed her nervously as she past their posts at cave doors and hallways, one nearly broke into a full sweat as she passed by. Eventually, she reached the end of her journey through the halls of her underground home to a door that was inlaid with gold and iron. The handle was made of pure gold with highlights of emeralds all along its handle. The wood of the door was furnished with iron highlights along its entire edge, the inner edge being gold with iron bolts. 

The serpent lady opened the door to reveal a conference room. A large wooden table accompanied by over-fancied chairs with nameplates on them was all that the room held aside from lighting. There was three others in the room. They were sitting in their chairs having a small dispute.

“This new guard contingent in the Saddleworth city has become a thorn in my group’s backside. All I’m asking for is a simple bit of help making them.... ’see the light’ to bring things back on track,” the pony facing away from the door said. 

“We’ll have to continue this conversation later. Lady Listarr, what is it you’ve graced us with your presence for?” The gryphon to the right of the pony who spoke up questioned. “It is rare that we see your ladyship at a small meeting such as this.”

Lady Listarr merely slithered up to the table next to the recently arguing three before speaking up. “Mmmmmh yessss, I’ve come to-” She paused and glanced at all three beings in the room, the pony with a mane as black as night and a purple coat. The horn on his head was half the size of a regular horn and the top of it was flat, cut off from insolence in the past. The gryphon had a large claw mark across her face covering over her left eye which was shelterd by an eyepatch. Her brown and white features were so dull and average for lady Listarr. The third one was an entity that simply was known as a faceless being. Covered with black smoke and eyes that screamed ‘the fires of hell.’ “Request...... ssssome assistance with a sslight problem in the lord’s backsside.”

The faceless being spoke up, “and what kind of help would you be requesting?”
“Jussssst ssome higher quality troopss, sssimple low level thugssss cannot do the job right,” she absentmindedly moved her sharp, claw-like right hand across the table, leaving a rather deep mark as she balled it into a fist. “I’ve underessstimated my new prey. I wissshh not to take the chance of doing sso again, Malthaneous.”

The gryphon gulped slightly and the pony directly next to Listarr began to sweat as he did the same. Malthaneous just placed his elbows on the table as he brooded over Listarr’s words carefully.

“I see,” Listarr eyed Malthaneous as he removed his elbows and appeared to be smiling devilishly. “Then allow me to offer my elite faceless warriors to complete this hunt for you.”

Lady Listarr frowned a bit as she spoke, “and what brings on such a generous offer from the general and leader of the Faceless?” She absentmindedly moved to circle the table as Malthaneous spoke up again.

“I merely wish to prove my worth to her ladyship, and what better chance will I get to prove my usefulness than to provide proper soldiers to take down an adversary have understandly... misjudged,” Malthaneous’ eyes flickered slightly as he kept his gaze forward.

“Then I accept your gracioussss offer Malthaneous. You mussst introduce me first to your choice in sssoldiersss. I won’t accept.....” she paused after she made a full circle around the table and glanced at Malthaneous again. “Weaklingssss.”

“Do not worry Abal. You can expect I shall do no such dishonorable act. I’d rather not bring shame to my people by doing such a misdeed.”

Abal Listarr left the conference room after nodding in agreement, just before the doors shut, she made one final comment. “Oh and Malthaneousss, do make sure to bring them to my quarters for introductionssss when they are ready,” she smiled viciously as the doors shut.

_____________________________________________________________

A knock came to Lady Abal’s quarters. she smiled venemously as she spoke up. “You may enter.” 

The double door opened to a group of faceless who were clad in armor as black as night. They all seemed to look dreadfully similar to one another, but that concerned the serpent lady little as she spoke. “Ssso you eight are the elite soldiersssss,” Lady Listarr eyed each of the meager looking warriors over. “I asked for.” It was more of a statement than a question, hinting at her displeasure at such non threatening looking bunch.

The one ahead of the rest, a taller and more muscled looking one, kneeled before Abal and spoke up with his head down. “Yes your ladyship, we realize you might look upon us as if we were regular soldiers,“ The faceless being stood back up and motioned to the rest of the group of warriors, “and you’ve good reason to. But looks are always deceiving.” 

Abal Listarr slithered around them, eyeing them up and down as she went to thinking. She moved her right claw across the faceless farthest to the right of the group’s back. He shuddered as she smiled with a vengeful glee. She finally slithered back around to the front of the group. “You,” she pointed to the only faceless who spoke, “what is your name?”

“Dal’gas your ladyship.” 

“Dal’gas...... prove to me you and your groupssss worth by completing a short seriess of tassssksss. If you sssucceed, then I’ll trussst you and your group to go and kill that thorn in the lord’ssss backssside.”

All eight faceless kneeled down and placed their right fists to the ground as they all responded. “Yes your ladyship. We are your humble tools of destruction, use us as you see fit.”

She smiled viciously and her features grew slightly darker as she spoke up. “Excellent.”

_________________________________________________________________

Celestia sat at her throne as the last pony came to see her with a request, an earth pony from Appleloosa asking for lowered taxes on certain imports. She agreed that the high tax rate was unnecessary and promised she’d do something, if not much.

“Th-thank you princess! This is great news!” The pony said as he left the throne room, nearly in a full gallop from excitement.

As the guards shut the door to the throne room, Alcove stepped away from Celestia’s right, garnering her attention. “Princess do you think it wise? I do believe the taxes have been very fair and light these past few hundred years. This will be the first time you shall have the rates changed in such a horribly long time.” 

“Yes, I do believe it has been a tad high from the beginning. It was necessary once, but it has not been required to be that high for a long time,” Celestia nodded with a slight smile. A letter materialized above her horn and it bounced off of her head as it landed and rolled slightly on the ground. “A letter? It must be from Twilight.” Celestia opened the parchment and read it over in her mind. She blinked in surprise as she read it over again. 

Carefully, she rolled the letter back up and re-tied it before getting up from where she was sitting. “Excuse me Alcove, but there is some business I must attend to.”

Alcove followed closely behind Celestia. “But princess! What could be so busy that you must excuse yourself?”

Celestia stopped and sighed, she knew full well Alcove would find out one way or another, she just hoofed over the letter from Twilight and continued walking.

Alcove followed close behind as he read over the letter.

‘Dear Princess Celestia,
It seems that Pinkie brought the town into another panic. After a word with her she talked about a creature that i’ve not heard of before, could you enlighten me on what this creature is? It was rather tall, standing on two legs and had a flat face. It was wearing some kind of armor like the royal guard has. That’s all I could understand from what Pinkie had seen so with what little information I hope you can reply with an explanation.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle’

“P-princess wait a minute!” Alcove rushed ahead of Celestia before stopping in her path. “I don’t think this is a wise idea to go venturing out, or even sending guards to venture out when you’ve no knowledge of where he’s located!”

Celestia went around her advisor as he said this, she stopped before turning a corner and sighing. “If he’s going through towns then we can spare a few guards to find him and make his journey a little bit easier, can we not?”

“Princess I do believe this is not a wise idea, you’re letting emotions guide your judgement.”

Celestia nodded in understanding, “I wish only to send a pair of guards to Hoofenburg, I believe I know where he’ll go.”

“If you wish Princess.” Alcove nodded and turned to walk away as Celestia continued her journey to the royal guard barracks.

________________________________________________________________________

Some fifteen minutes later

Lady Listarr slammed her fist against the rock in front of her. “Cursssessss,” she turned to the nearby wall to her left and punched it with her right hand. A huge hole was now present in the wall, a small bout of steam coming from the inside of it as she pulled her fist out. 

Just as she was about to continue her destructive path, her group of Faceless came to her. “Your ladyship, we’ve accomplished the task you gave to us,” Dal’gas held a sword out once he and the others went into a bowing position. She went up to him and picked the sword up before studying it closely.

She turned and rose the blade high and stuck down at a rock near her. The rock was cut in half. She was about to get angry again and call them out about getting the wrong sword when the rock began to sizzle and bubble, turning into a molten mess of lava. She smiled as she eyed the sword and the handiwork of it in satisfaction.

“It sseeemsss you have passed the challenge I gave you. Unfortunately, you musst act quickly to ssstop the ssamurai,” Abal handed the sword back to Dal’gas before continuing. “Yesss thiss doess mean that you passss my tesstss. I’ve received word that my prey isss going to be getting help esscaping my grassp in the form of a group of guardsss heading for Hoofenburg. Make sssure they never meet each other. I entrusst you and your comradess to kill him.”

“Yes your ladyship, we shall depart immediately.”

“Excellent.”

________________________________________________________________________

Three hours later, near the town of Hoofenburg

The two royal guards Fleet and Post were flying towards the city with an empty carriage secured to their backs. Princess Celestia had ordered that a few pegasi go to try to find a creature she had been looking for and bring it to her.

The town was coming in close as they descended to the ground below. The two pegasi landed in front of a tavern that looked to be bustling with energy. Unhooking themselves, they went inside.

The inside of the tavern had all kinds of individuals who were either drinking, drunk, or doing something stupid. That is, aside from the innkeeper who stood at the bar. The two guards went up to the barkeep and asked for a room.

“Well sure, it’s on the house, after all, not everyday we get business from royal guards.” The pony leaned in closer and, in a loud whisper asked, “so what’s this mission you got yourselves on now?”

Fleet spoke up in response. “We are meeting somepony who’s coming to town. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Ah! So like one a them arrests! What’d this fella do?”

“He has done nothing wrong. The princess just wishes for a word with him.”

The innkeeper pulled a key from under the table, after he handed it over he told them, “Last door on your right. Have a good one.”

The guards went immediately to their rooms, if only the check how their arrangements appeared. Once they entered the door shut quietly, leaving them in the fairly small, two bedded room. Just as they were about to really interact with the room, the group of Faceless came from every direction, engulfing the two guards before they could react.

This resulted in the quick deaths of both ponies. Both their bodies fizzled and steamed as they slowly turned into gas. Dal’gas spoke up quickly. “Take their faces now! This is our only chance!”

Two of the Faceless stood over the slowly dissipating ponies, the shadows that obscured them engulfed the ponies as both of the Faceless morphed into the equine counterparts. After a few seconds they were an exact lookalike to the dead guards. They spoke up with voices matching the dead guards. “Fleet Wing and Post Control ready sir!” They both said.

Dal’gas smiled as his features darkened. “The mistress will be pleased.”
> "Arc3: The Scars of the Lost" Ch10 A motion set in stone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was well into the night time when Omior and Vigil reached the outskirts of Hoofenburg. They saw two silhouettes of ponies and Omior kept to the bushes as Vigil approached them. The three conversed for a short period before the green unicorn called out for Omior, who walked cautiously into the open.

He finally noticed that the guards were adorned with the same armor as the ones he saw in Celestia’s courtroom. This calmed his nerves somewhat as he closed the gap between them.

The guard on the left nodded as he spoke up. “Greetings, you must be Omior. Celestia sent us to find you. If you’d both follow us we can be on our way back to Canterlot.”

The other guard had already left to set up the chariot for departure as Omior made vocal his questions. “So how did she know where to find me?”

“She made an educated guess based on what she knew of you. We only got lucky because we know next to nothing about you,” Omior and Vigil followed him as he led them towards the chariot.

“So what’s your name?” Vigil asked from beside Omior.

“Post Control, and if you’re wondering as well, his names Fleet Wing,” Post pointed to the pony in question who nodded. “Now if you’ll please step inside, we’ll depart immediately.”

Both the green unicorn and the human samurai nodded as they walked into the chariot.

Minutes later they were high in the sky and they were on a steady path for what looked like Canterlot.

“I can’t believe we’ll get to meet Celestia,” Vigil said as he looked on at the city.

“Yes, it is hard to believe how easy it was for us,” Omior paused for a second, “I do wonder though, what will our futures hold after this?”

Omior caught Vigil shrugging out of the corner of his eye as the pony spoke up. “Who knows? Fate can be strange when it wants to. We’ll find out soon enough.”

“I hope so,” on instinct, Omior lightly let his hand rub across his sheathed sword, the familiar cloth a comfort from long times past. 

They both were silent for a few minutes before Vigil began to speak. “We are friends, right?”

Omior looked at Vigil to see him staring back at the warrior. “I do think so. Yes, we most definitely are.”

Vigil chuckled in response. “weirdest friendship I’ve ever heard of, a strange alien and a pony, both of whom know nothing about the other.”

Omior chuckled a bit as well. “Too bad for the most part I’ve got an excuse.” 

“Heh, yeah I guess so. But we’ve got time, so why not learn a bit about each other. I mean, we might as well fill the gap of time until we get to Canterlot.”

“Alright then. I guess I should start with what little I can remember,” Omior paused as he thought about what he could remember. He spent minutes thinking on the small bits of memories he’d re-attained since arriving in this pastel world.

“I was born on another world called...... Kantus, I think? I lived in a small home in a humble village. After that, I remember being with a large group of people. It soon followed with a lot of death and… after that I can’t really remember much. A lot of loss really.” He felt a hoof pat him on the back. 

“I’d bet you all the bits in Equestria that your entire life isn’t anywhere near close to that.”

Omior smiled faintly as he spoke up again. “So, what about you hotshot? What’s your story?”

“Believe it or not, I was born in Canterlot. My only family there were my parents. I was living happily until one day a fire burned the house down. I was only a few years old and couldn’t really take care of myself. I was taken into an orphanage and overheard the head nanny being told by the authorities that the whole thing was an accident. The orphanage turned out to be a really crappy place for foals to live and I ended up running away from it like, four years later. Everything’s kinda fuzzy, but I’ve just been a drifter going back and forth from Canterlot and Ponyville until I got a steady job and that house you were in. I’d only bought it recently, maybe a handful of a few weeks ago. I also got my anger and unwillingness to really open up to pony’s under control shortly before I even had a job.”

Before Omior could respond, he saw that Canterlot was still a ways away. Yet despite that, they were descending, and rather rapidly as well. They were heading towards a rather sizable rock that looked to be a cave of sorts, the clearing around it was devoid of life. It was merely dirt, and a rock. Omior let his hand grasp the handle of his katana before he spoke up. “What happened about going to Canterlot?” 

“Oh, uhm, it’s a two day trip so we have to stop and rest before going.” Fleet Wing said.

“Really now?” Vigil questioned.

“Yes, of course!” Post Controls voice starting changing from the slightly gruff and warming voice into an echoing viper like one. “Why wouldn’t we be telling the truth pony? Especially when you and your human aren’t going to live through this!”

Both of the ponies turned into their true Faceless selves, the shadowed substance blinding Vigil for a moment.

Omior drew his sword and swung at the used to be Post Control who vanished as the blade made contact. He turned his sword and jammed it into the side of the other false pony Fleet Wing. The faceless one began disappearing as well but Omior managed to twist his blade and force it to jam into the creatures spine as it disappeared completely, screaming in agony.

With no pegasi to fly it, the chariot began to shake violently as it made a beeline for the giant cave opening. Both the heroes grasped onto the sides of the chariot for leverage to keep them from falling as it began to turn on its left side. It shook even more violently and began turning the other way as Vigil screamed in full blown panic. Omior’s blood was rushing with the adrenaline as he took in as much air as he could. This was gonna hurt.

The ground continued speeding up until the chariot hit the ground on its stomach. It bounced a few times and flipped as wood ripped off of it left and right. Finally the chariot met with a stop as it crashed at a set of two trees, sending Omior and Vigil gliding across the air before landing on the ground, unconscious. 

> "Arc 3: Tsotl" Ch11 The opener
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Omior kept fading in and out of consciousness. He had been fighting for at least an hour since they crashed and the pain continued just enough to keep him from focusing on anything specific. He heard voices as well along with losing and regaining consciousness repeatedly. It was like a sermon was being held inside his head, and everyone was talking about him.

“Now I know what I said about watching for the forest pixies but....” One voice lead off on.

“Omior, don’t eat that. you’ll spoil your appetite sweety.....” Another voice inquired.

“...Just run...*Hack*.....Run while you still can...” A weak voice managed to cough up.

“And so forth will you see the light of the holy one’s power. He shall strike you down for your insolence. BOY!” 

The voices continued on and on as he remembered bits and pieces. A snow white moment stained with red in the mountains. A group of robed figures, one of which was yelling at him when he was but a child. An excitable little girl thanking him for saving her. 

Finally Omior felt himself overwhelmed as he relived the memories.

______________________________________________________________________________

Sometime in the past...

Fire was ablaze as Omior lay dazed, frozen in the white of the snow. He shivered and shrunk into himself like a ball as he tried to will away the sounds of fighting and death from the direction the fire was coming from.

His home, something about it he could remember, some furnishings, a happy family that lived out in the middle of nowhere. His family. A simple out of the way nobodies who were friendly to everyone.

Fire, no. More like an inferno, burning everything in its path. Hungering. Devouring, endlessly engulfing all it could. But not him, no that was left for the man......Man. what was his name? Who was he?.......Father yes, Father was fighting someone... no some people. The stain on the snow of the ground, it was red. Dark red. 

Omior’s mother lay behind him, a large slash across the left side of her face all the way to her eye. The blood that would’ve been spilling out had been slowed by the cold weather, and what escaped was leaking and soaking into the snow. The snow Omior was laying in but a few feet from his mother. 

He turned his head and his eyes went wide at the sight of his mother. He jerked his head back around and cradled it in his chest as his father was slaughtered by the men he was fighting. The men that burned their home and killed his mother.

Omior couldn’t handle the stress and the next thing he knew, everything was dark to him. He couldn’t see, he couldn’t move, he dared not even try. His body was going numb from the cold, but he couldn’t feel it while huddled into a ball. The outside world was closed off for the young boy. It was just him and him alone.

The boy heard as heavy footfalls started to come closer to him. He was so scared the men had decided to come for him, to kill him and use his dead body and the other bodies for their own games of amusement whatever they were.

The heavy sound of furred boots stopped at his back and he shuddered as some of the icicles that formed around him cracked and fell off into the snow.

A gloved hand stretched down and Omior tensed up, expecting a sword to gut him from his stomach to head. Instead, the gloved hand wiped some snow off of his thin clothing. A second gloved hand came down and picked him up, wrapping a blanket around him. 

The stranger put Omior on a horse before sitting behind where the boy lay and set out towards a direction Omior didn’t know of, nor care. All he knew was that he was alive. He blacked out seconds later.

Years later.......

“Omior! Sweety?” An elderly female voice rang out in a small cottage. The sound of wood hitting wood was coming from the backyard.

“Omior? Is that you?” The back door opened up and an elderly woman shakily stepped out into the open. 

Outside was a small garden Next to it was a set of training equipment. Omior was practicing with another man who looked almost as old, but far more in shape. Muscles lined with scars were along the elderly man’s wrinkles and his face looked to tell a thousand stories. His eyes were a smokey grey and his hair was just as white.The beard he bore was a brown but was beginning to whiten as well.   

Omior was much older than his tiny self, looking to be of fifteen. His dirt brown hair hung down to his shoulders and reflected some of the light as he dripped with sweat, blocking and striking in a back and forth that didn’t seem to ever cease. His blue eyes reflected strong focus in a sea of wonder and curiosity; His pale white skin was caked in dirt and sweat. He managed just one more weak swing before the older man took one final action. He swung his sword in an upward arc, hooking Omior’s sword and causing it to fly into the air. The man then kicked under Omior’s feet and grabbed the boy’s sword before it hit the ground. As Omior hit the ground the two wooden swords made a scissor shape and surrounded the boy’s neck.

The old man smiled. “Checkmate my lad,” He dropped Omior’s sword and held the hand out.

Omior took it graciously  before both of them noticed the elderly woman coming up to Omior. After he got to his feet in a swift pull the boy brushed some of the dust off of his ragged clothing.

“Oh my dear Omior I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” She grabbed his cheeks and brushed some crusty dirt off. “I’ve been calling for you for awhile now. There are guards here to speak with you.”

The old man spoke up, surprised. “Guards? What’d you do now lad?”

“I’ve done nothing.” 

“Well then let us go see what they want.”

The old man and Omior both went inside to see the two guards sitting down, clad in full armor and carrying their weapons. They immediately reacted to the two’s entrance. “We’ve come for Omior.”


“Wait, why would you need my son?”

“The emperor wants words now that new information has been given to the armies. His royal majesty has found interest in him.”

All at once the two went to take Omior when the old man raised his hands. “He may not be my flesh and blood, but I won’t let my son be taken without knowing why.”

“We come from orders of the emperor, you have no say in this.” They moved closer when the old man changed his stance to a more threatening one.

The two guards unsheathed their swords and announced again. “We are here for the boy. He will be returned safely, but the king demands a meeting with him. You will listen and obey.”

The elderly man growled angrily but conceded. “He comes back alive.” He nudged Omior towards the guards.

“We make no promises. The emperor may not want him there for a good reason.”

Omior nervously spoke up as the two guards pushed him out the door. “W-wait, what do you mean he may not want me for a good reason? Hold on!”

The world turned black around him as he was dragged out that door. He cried and kicked and screamed and the world rebuilt itself yet again.

A sword swung down at him and he rolled out of the way. Fire burned around him as wood cracked and fell to pieces in piles of ash. He saw his adoptive father crushed under some rubble of stone and wood aflamed that burned at his back. Omior managed to roll past the large man with the sword as he swung down and got his sword stuck in the floor.

Omior reached his father and tried to get the wood off of him. He couldn’t even budge it, but he continued as the man with the sword ripped his steel blade from the ground. Omior’s father grabbed his foot to get his attention before speaking up. “You have to......*cough* get out of here......Just go. I’ll be fine but *hack* get out of here.”

“No father, I won't leave you. I promise you that we’ll both get out of here.” Omior continued to try and move the wood as the man walked slowly towards them both, laughing viciously as his blade dragged along the wood.


“No, just run.....*hack*....run while you still can.” 

“...And so forth will you see the light of the holy one’s power. He shall strike you down for your insolence. BOY!” The evil man said as he swung his blade down. Omior’s father pushed him out of the way just as the man swung his blade and it connected cleanly to his skull. The man kept jerking at the sword but it stayed firmly in the old man’s head. 

Omior began crying as he turned and bolted out of the room. He had nothing left but to run now. 

______________________________________________________________________________

Omior hazily opened his eyes to feel himself being dragged. In between darkness and the outside world Omior managed to see a black pony with bug wings and another pony with a set of wings dragging Vigil along just a bit ahead of him. He tried to struggle against the seemingly unmovable hooves dragging him along but to no avail. He blacked out again a few seconds after he saw the rock from before the crash.

Omior opened his eyes again to a dark and cold floor. It was made of stone from what he could tell but he couldn’t move very much to confirm it. He heard what he assumed to be Vigil attempting to wake up and move about as well just to the place adjacent of him. All of him felt numb and unusable as he kept fighting the state he was in.

An hour passed of repeatedly trying to move about he began feeling his fingers move. He kept repeating the motion on his fingers as feeling came back to him faster. Slowly, Omior began feeling his entire wrist and soon after, his entire left and right arms. He picked himself up as the feeling of numbness finally went away.

He forced his eyes open and looked around. He immediately cringed and moved an arm in front of his face as the torchlight hit his vision. 

Omior squinted and looked around. His cage was made of some kind of sharpened bone, the top of it being metal. The area around him was a small room, a locked and barred door being what he presumed was the entrance and exit of the room. 

He heard Vigil begin to get up from his laying position, coughing into a hoof as he managed to sit upright. “The hell happened after the crash?”

“We were dragged into someplace. Other than that, I’ve no idea,” Omior couldn’t think straight. His memories were still hitting him so hard he could barely focus. 

‘You really are stupid aren’t’cha Omi? Never thought you’d get us captured again.’

“What was that?” Omior asked as he turned his head to Vigil. “What did you just say?”

Vigil gave the warrior a confused look as he answered, “What are you talking about? I didn’t say anything.”

Omior went silent after hearing that. He stared at the ground as he silently fought to suppress his memories and the feelings resurfacing with them.

“What’s wrong Omior?”

Before he could answer the unicorn, the door opened to reveal two black ponies with holes covering their hooves, horns, and wings. Behind them was a faceless one who looked over Omior with a scientific curiosity.

“Shit, now changelings? What’s next, is there some sort of flying sharks that are gonna try and eat us?” Vigil asked as the changelings opened the cage. They dragged Omior out first who only slightly struggled against them. Vigil was picked up and dragged out by the faceless one, he kicked and hollered as he tried to get out of the thing’s grip but to no avail.

Both of them were dragged down a hallway, the captors going through twists and turns as they finally reached a door that was merely part of a cage. It opened and both the pony and human were thrown inside. Omior stood to his full height and helped Vigil up as they looked around.

Cheering berated their ears as they saw the giant cage they were in had an assortment of cheering creatures waiting for something. Changelings, faceless ones, gryphons, ponies, all clapping, stomping, cheering.

Omior heard a “woah” from Vigil as he looked around the rest of the room. The cage separating the viewers from them completely surrounded the room minus the floor. The area adjacent to their entrance had a door that was absolutely huge. It was made with wood and had steel reinforcement and deadbolts all over it. The door was violently pounded against and jerked to every hit. Omior looked unsure of what to do, his eyes crossing over everything. That’s when he caught sight of a small table that was almost invisible. It held an assortment of weapons and shields. 

Vigil had jerked his head once he caught the sound of beating against a wooden door. He looked at it almost as if he’d die immediately after whatever it was came through. Omior passed right by him to get to the weapons as an announcer voice spoke up.

“Mares and Stallions! Gryphons and Changelings everywhere, and whatever the hell the rest of you are! Welcome to the AREEEEENNNAAAAAAA! Our latest victims come from the nearby city of Ponyville and another universe! Welcome the slaves to their slaughter!” The crowd’s cheering got louder as the announcer spoke up again. “Aaaand now! The king of the arena! The monster of the cage! Skulll Crusherrrrrrr!” As he said it, the wooden doors were obliterated, wood shrapnel shooting out into all kinds of directions outwards. 

Skull Crusher stood at fifteen feet, his skin was a pale pink, his arms hung down nearly to his feet as his giant feet stepped into the ring. His one eye scanned the field for his prey. It landed onto Vigil and he roared in rage as he began charging at the pony in question.

Vigil looked like a deer in the headlights as his mind took a second to make his hooves turn him around and make him run. He was chased close behind by the behemoth of a creature and it only took a few seconds for the both of them to have reached the edge of the arena, Vigil turning to run along it in order to get as far away from the thing as possible. 

Omior looked at the assortment of weapons and tried to quickly figure out what would stop the cyclops quickly enough. “No not the spear... that sword’s too short... I don’t even know what that thing is... Aha!” Omior picked up a double edged battle axe, it was much longer than most of the weapons and it was the best he could do for now. He watched and calculated as Skull Crusher and Vigil kept running along the edge, Vigil just barely keeping out of reach.

Once he got it down he was just about to jump into the fray when another stray memory hit him.

“Father I.....Wait please!” Omior cried.

“You’re a failure and you’ll always be a failure! You killed your mother and now you’re vying for my life. Shame to-” Omior saw a large hand pick the man up by the head. He screamed out in fear and surprise before it was abruptly cut off by the hand crushing his head. The body fell limp and dropped to the ground, what’s left of the head were but shattered bone, blood, and gore.

Omior screamed in fear and grabbed at his head. He shook it and nearly collapsed. He stopped when he heard Vigil getting picked up by the colossal monster and shook himself back into reality.

The warrior charged the Cyclops as he put his free hand over Vigil’s head. Before the monster could press down and crush the pony’s skull, Omior jumped from below and sliced the cyclops’ veins leading to his hand. Blood as thick as meat dripped down and the cyclops dropped Vigil as it screamed in agony. 

Omior helped Vigil to his feet and both jumped out of the way as the cyclops swung the bloody arm at them. Omior was now the prime target as Skull Crusher began attacking wildly. Omior could only manage to stay out of his range as Vigil tried to power up his horn for a spell. 

Vigil’s horn crackled and fizzed out as he kept trying to force a spell. He saw as Omior was swatted backwards, hitting a rock and dropping his battle axe and decided he might as well improvise.

Skull Crusher walked towards Omior who was struggling to get to his feet. Right before the monstrosity swung a fist down to end the warrior, a sharp pain stabbed into it’s left calf. Vigil had used his horn quite literally in stabbing the cyclops. He jumped back as Omior got up. The Skull Crusher turned and swung his right fist down, just barely missing the green unicorn. Omior grabbed the battle axe with his right hand and swung it in a long arc, cutting both of the cyclops’ calves, the left calve dug deeper, nearly severing the entire foot. More of the thick blood pooled out as Skull Crusher dropped to it’s knees. Omior sprinted and sliced at the thing’s neck, severing the monstrosities spine from it’s head. 

The thing fell with one final cry of pain. The crowd was silent as they saw what happened. Omior felt another memory hit him after the beast fell.

“You’ll never be good enough. You’ll always never be good enough.”

Omior felt a rage like no other well up inside him, he swung the battle axe sloppily and repeatedly into the cyclops’ body. 

“It looks like I can’t even trust a behemoth of a creature like the Skull Crusher to kill you. I guess I’ll just have to do it myself,” Abal Listarr slithered out from the shattered door the cyclops came from. She looked at the injured warrior with mild interest. “You and your companion are harder to kill then what was expected. That will just make this fun,” she smiled as her gaze sharpened. Omior stopped his angered slashing to turn to the voice, his adrenaline rush was making his body shake rather violently so he allowed the axe’s head to lay on the ground as he watched the serpent lady.

“And what would your name be?” Omior felt Vigil lean on his side, rather tired from the fight not moments ago finished.

“My name isssss not important. All you need to know isssss that I sssshhhall be the one to.......kiiiillll you,” she lunged at Omior and dug her claws into his right arm. He howled in pain and backed off, dropping the battle axe by mistake. She began to circle the two as Omior got into a battle stance, Vigil rather deciding to keep his eyes on her for as long as possible.

Listarr continued her talking as she picked and chose when to strike. “So you are the fabled warrior,” She struck at Omior’s back. He moved to the side but wasn’t quick enough and received a gash on his left side. “You are the one chosen by him? You can’t possibly hope to live up to his expectations...” She struck again ,this time at Vigil, slashing at his left hind leg. “You are no longer of use to us, and it seems you’re rather easy prey.” She smiled as she struck again at Omior. He managed to move in time to avoid it.

The arena shook and the cheering crowds started to panic. The ceiling began caving in and the metal cage’s top crackled with a bunch of different glowing colors. The bars bent and shattered and large rocks from the ceiling began falling into the arena. 

“What isssss the meaning of thissss?!” Abal hissed as she avoided a falling rock. Omior and Vigil were barely keeping each other upright as they could only watch the ceiling crash down, revealing light from the outside. Omior watched as the snake woman struggled to reach them in order to kill them. She eventually had no choice but to turn and leave. “Next time you won’t be sssssssssso lucky.” She hissed before leaving the way she came in.

One of the falling rocks, a much smaller one, hit Omior over the head, knocking him down to the ground. He tried to get up but he was hit with some more smaller falling rocks, his vision dazed as he tried to get his bearings but it was to no avail. He saw Vigil fall to the ground as well and the last thing Omior felt was immense pain and a feeling of weightlessness.
> "Arc 3: Tsotl" Ch12 Through the eyes he saw unto 'morrow
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Alone. He felt right at home there, in the center of nothingness. That’s where everything made sense, everything was right. He was all and yet he was none. He crouched and he sat still. 

Pain. He remembered pain, it was so intense, a lifetime of pain catching him faster than he could run. He felt like he was forgetting something, something important that divided itself from the endless darkness within his mind.

Omior felt himself come to realization in that endless void. He had to go, had to get out of it, find Vigil, had to find someone and get back. If there was anything waiting back there.

“Am I dead?” The warrior now stood there, waiting, almost expecting a response. 

Omior looked down at his hands. He clenched them and unclenched them repeatedly, after he was satisfied he muttered to himself. “Probably not,” but now what? How was he getting out of here, this strange..........Dream?

Some faint muffling was caught in the far reaches of the darkness around him. The warrior turned in circles trying to make heads or tails of the words. It sounded as if he was underwater, but that couldn’t be right, could it?

The words slowly became clearer and clearer. “............What’s his con................. and what of pr......................ot heard anything so far.” It started to fill in more and more until he heard the click of a doorknob and the footsteps to go along with it. “Princess.” A voice said in recognition. “You didn’t seem to waste time in coming here. Any reason for your urgency to arrive?”

Princess? Could the voice be talking about Celestia? That lifted Omior’s spirit as he figured he’d finally get some answers. The previous voice spoke up again as he very much thought he felt breath hit his face. “The silent treatment isn’t a very wise thing to do in this situation you know?” 

After a few moments of silence, the familiar female voice spoke up in rebuttal. “There is no particular reason dear subject of mine. I’ve merely come because I would like answers to the questions I’ve had teeming up inside for awhile now.” 

Slowly Omior felt a numbing sensation come across his body, from the tips of his toes and fingers up in a painfully slow process. The conversation continued, but only in small breaks of chit chat.

“So what about Luna? Have you left her in charge while coming here?” The voice sounded more familiar. What was it? Vigil! Yes that is Vigil’s voice. Vigil continued after a moment of silence. “It doesn’t matter anyway, but I would like to know how you met Omior.”

“Maybe we’ll have a chance to talk about it at a later date.” The numbness was now nearly covering his whole body, a sharp icy chill was followed shortly behind this empty feeling. 

The sound of a door opening hit Omior’s ears. “I’m sorry but you both will have to wait outside in the hall, he’s only barely in a stable condition as is for now and with what little we have to go on, it would be counter-productive for him to-oh my apologies. I did not realize Princess Celestia was here. Please take your time.” And followed by the door shutting was the sound of hooves going towards the door.

The icy feeling completely encased Omior and he couldn’t help but panic. Was he dying? Was he hurt somewhere that was causing this? Was the room cold? What’s going on? He almost failed to realize he could move the tips of his fingers. This did little to quell the tide of panic but, it helped in a way. 

Now he felt as if he were inside a block of ice, he tried struggling in his dreamscape but it did little. 

He gasped once he felt a small strike of pain from what could be a blanket covering him that emanated heat of a sort. He felt his hands were mobile now and could feel the blanket that was tucked around his body. He used his fingers to guide his arms across his body in a sort of criss cross manner. 

After a while, Omior gave up in struggling and felt himself content to just sit there and wait until he had enough control over his own body. What use is struggling when the inevitable is coming into arms reach? 

Omior heard the door open again and the clip clop of hooves towards the bed next to him. Whomever it was moved his arms back to his sides and adjusted what sounded like a bag of water. Omior moved his fingers into a fist real quickly before unclenching his fingers. He heard a gasp and whoever had been with him began to rush out of the room.

Minutes rang by agonizingly as Omior could finally move both his arms completely, along with most of his upper body. He carefully pulled himself up in to a sitting position and stretched his arms. Once he did, he saw his ever familiar pony companion enter the room.

Vigil gave a smirk and silently walked next to Omior’s rather small hospital bed. “Looks like someone’s been waiting for me.” His smirk grew into a smile. “Glad to see you’re doing fine buddy.”

Omior yawned into his right hand. “Glad to be okay too. I thought I had cut it close after all the damage suffered. Luckily I was proven wrong.”

“Well then sir, I do believe it’s time to go over a few things now that you’re awake,” The voice from earlier came in the room in the form of a mare in a doctor’s outfit. 

Vigil just nodded in understanding and brushed past her as he left the room. Once the room shut she walked up to the clipboard at the base of the bed and examined it for a short minute before sighing. She went to the cabinet and grabbed a needle. She came back up to Omior and smiled.

“Don’t worry, this’ll only hurt a second.” She said as she lifted the three sizes too short hospital gowned arm before plunging the needle in slightly. Omior cringed a little bit thinking of it but after another minute she pulled the needle back which held some blood in it. Omior seemed surprised by it as the mare took the vial and placed it on a stand for needles. 

After a few minutes she left the room with a few notes on the clipboard she decided to take with her, just a half a minute later, Celestia came in alone. She smiled to Omior as she sat down beside his bed.

“So is everything alright?” She asked.

He decided to lay back and stare at the ceiling. “I’m doing fine princess. Just a regular week for me.” 

“That’s good to hear. I take it you’ve regained your memories then?” She looked at him and just noticed his lips flash a frown before going back into a neutral expression.

“Perhaps some of them. I don’t know if it’s all of them yet though, but I can say it has to be three lifetimes worth.” He sighed. “So what about you? To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting the country’s leader in a medical facility?”

“Because I wanted to know what it is that has happened,” she paused, but after a second she continued. “And a new being just appearing from seemingly nowhere usually would be top of the list for most individuals. So, would you care for telling a story?”

“Pray tell as to what?” 

“Probably how you ended up being so seriously hurt.” 

“Don’t know their names, but your guards who met up with us were something else. These shadow things. Next thing I knew I was fighting monsters in an arena shortly after being dragged away from a crash. That is the gist of it.”

“What kind of monsters?”

“Cyclops, minotaur and this weird snake lady before the place collapsed and I was knocked out,” Omior looked at Celestia and she seemed to understand what he was going to ask.

“I have no idea who this snake lady is but she will be found. Later on I want you to describe all of this to my guard captain who will lead the search for her,” Celestia smiled at Omior. “As for now, I do believe rest is what you need so take as much as you’d like,” Celestia got up as the warrior nodded.

As she walked out of the room he called out again. “I do have questions of my own.”

Celestia stopped halfway out the door. “That will wait for tomorrow, but like I said, just rest for now.”

“If you say so.”

> "Arc 3: Tsotl" Ch13 Bringing things into full swing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	*Eclipse Sanctum, inner chambers.*

The shadowed pony sat at the end of a long table in an ill lit room. Lady Listarr and Malthaneous were seated there alongside the nameless gryphon. 

Listarr was the first to speak up. “Sssso what reassson have you to invite ussss here, Ssssshadowmasssster?” 

“It does seem strange for you to call upon us so frequently,” Malthaneous said in agreeance.

“I have called all here of importance for good reason, but it needs to be said with care,” the shadowed pony said.

“What is it then?” The gryphon demanded a bit too forcefully. 

“Calm yourself, Szarn. You can easily be… replaced...” Malthaneous said while keeping his head towards the Shadowmaster.

“The time has begun to approach. We must act not only with extreme speed, but with care,” the Shadowmaster calmly said.

The group sitting before him seemed surprised. The impatient gryphon Szarn seemed to be interested.

“You do not mean...Thisssssss would be ssssuicide for all parties to do that now. What could have changed,” Lady Listarr questioned.

Malthaneous was about to speak when the Shadowmaster interrupted with a gesture. 

“You will all trust me. Time is short if we’re to do this at all. Another chance like this one will not arise for centuries. You will all relinquish control of your armies to me, is this understood?” The Shadowmaster spoke with strength and assurance enough to quell Abal and Malthaneous.

Szarn spoke up in defiance, however. “This is madness! I will not allow you to do such a thing. If you act and fail, then what little I control will be in a losing three sided war! I cannot extend my armies to your control if you cannot-” He stopped himself mid sentence as a sharp claw sat just below his neck. Lady Listarr would’ve followed through if not for the magic holding her hand back.

“That is enough Abal, sit down,” The Shadowmaster commanded. She hesitantly held her claw there as the magic dispelled before pulling it back and retreating to her seat. “As for you, Szarn, you do not trust my abilities?” 

“N-no, I do not Al-Shadowmaster. I-i-it’s just I wish to be sure of-”

“And how is it I can guarantee our victory any more than I already am? I will be leading the armies once the final chapter has been laid to rest.”

If Szarn’s face could show any more surprise it would be a miracle. “You? You will be leading the armies?!” Szarn fumbled with his words.

“I’ll give you twenty four hours to decide whether you will turn your standing army over to me or not. Until then, this meeting is adjourned,” the Shadowmaster said, his horn lit up and his face flashed before he disappeared in a teleport.

______________________________________________________________________________

Omior yawned. He let his eyes open slowly as he felt his head throb. He moved his arms slowly and easily managed to sit himself upright without further injuring himself. 

He noticed once he started waking up a bit more that his chest didn’t hurt as much. It felt like a long drawn out pressure had been recently released. His nose was stuffed and his eyes were irritated though, which left him rather confused.

He heard the door click as the nurse from before entered. She smiled as she grabbed a few things off the table. “I see somepony’s up early. How are you feeling?”

“Congested. My head is also in slight pain, but it will pass,” he answered as he rubbed his eyes and massaged his temples. 

The nurse pulled something out of a drawer while muttering something. She came up with a bottle of pills of some kind Omior couldn’t pronounce and took two out. She put the bottle back in the drawer and pulled a smaller container out, taking one pill out of it before replacing the cap and putting it too back in the drawer. She shut the drawer and turned and trotted over to Omior’s bed. She handed the pills to Omior.

“What’s this for?” He questioned.

“Take these two,” she started, indicating the two pills that looked the same. “For the headache. Take the other one for the congestion. It might not be as effective because of the difference in body mass but it definitely won’t kill you from the amount in the pills. They aren’t perscription either making them most likely not as effective as well. If you are feeling strange at all in the next two or so hours then make sure to press the button on the table to call for me.” 

Omior looked at the pills strangely. He nodded regardless and put the pills in his mouth. He swallowed them and saw the nurse had started to leave. Just before she opened the door she said, “visiting hours start in an hour and the princess said she’d be back then to talk to you.”

“Thank you,” he said as she left.

Twenty minutes later Omior began to feel the effects of the medicine. Although he had no knowledge as to what those strange oval shaped medicines were doing to help him, he felt he should’ve questioned it more.

Omior rubbed his right hand across his face. He let his eyes grow wide in surprise. His face had become completely numb. 

He felt panic begin to rise in him, but it was quickly overshadowed by a larger sense of relaxation that washed over him. 

He noticed some of the colors seemed odd. He failed to register that the walls had changed color from a solid white to a purple-ish yellow. The sheets he lay in were overcome with a sea of blue that came to life to him. Birds flew freely in his room and it mashed and mutated.

In reality, Omior was staring blankly at his surroundings. The walls as white as always, the sheets and blanket as grey as always, the room as silent as it was originally.

An hour later, Celestia opened the door to find Omior staring around blankly. He reacted to her in some dull way and she noted a small twinge of red in his eyes. “Greetings Omior, I see you’ve been waiting, I hope it wasn’t long,” she closed the door behind her with magic.

She sat down next to Omior’s bed and noted his distant attitude. It took him a moment of slowly moving his lips, as if they were forming foreign pronunciations, before he spoke up. “Greetings to you as well… no. It wasn’t very long I was waiting,” Omior wasn’t paying his full attention to the swirling goop that seemed to know him. He was too enthralled by strange things that surrounded him in his world. An imp, stark blue with a black fur coat tied around his waist was walking around in circles by the door. A horse was hitting it’s head against the window, making no sound regardless of the obvious blunt force trauma it was causing itself. Colors were flowing at a much slower rate by now to Omior’s gratefulness.

“Omior? Are you okay?” Celestia asked, she tilted her head in confusion to his odd behavior.

“...................... Fine. Just fine,” He blinked a few times rapidly before he rubbed his eyes. He glanced around the room before facing the swirling goop. Focusing as much attention as he could to it.

The room was silent for a good time. Just a room bathed in light with the princess of the sun sitting there in front of a hospital bed as the one in the bed was looking at her with slightly drooped eyes. 

“Well?” Celestia finally said with her patience growing thin. “You wished to ask me some questions, dear warrior?”

Omior seemed to be playing with his mouth, moving it in odd ways yet again. He finally swallowed something in his mouth and spoke up. “I think… Yes, yes of course. I remember. The nurse took this weird needle and stabbed me with it...” Omior paused again for another ‘taste’ of his words. “She took this blood from me and it looked like a bunch of balled up mold was inside it...”

“Mold? What color was it?” Celestia let her brow crease slightly in confusion.

“.....Yeah.. This weird black fuzz stuff was in it, pretty thick and big looking too. No Idea what it means.....” Omior let his head fall to his pillow. He grinned up at the ceiling making some odd noises. 

“Is that not normal for your race?” Celestia asked as a tinge of worry grew within her. 

“Never seen blood like it before, not in a single of all the people I killed...................” Omior stated while looking around. “Odd. The bunny went away.” He muttered.

“What? Killed?” Celestia had assumed as a warrior his duty involved killing but, what if it wasn’t what she assumed? Celestia felt a bit of worry flare inside her.

“Yeah… lotsa idiots… picking on those… weaker than them. Killing, slaughtering, raping, you name it. I’ve fought someone who done it… something about killing so many that it gets repetitive too or something. Maria had said something...” Omior stopped talking. He sat up quickly and blinked in surprise as he stared at the wall next to the door.

Celestia looked at him but he didn’t seem to budge. Whether he wanted to or not he just sat there, staring with some indiscernible expression. “Omior?” Celestia asked as she leaned over to get a better look at his face. He screamed in response.

______________________________________________________________________________

Vigil sighed as he stood outside of Hogar De Los Vestidos, sitting on a crappy job to pay some medical bills left him rather tired. ‘That and the fact he had an early start so he could catch up and see Omior and Celestia talking. She almost seemed to like him,’ Vigil considered. He shrugged it off after a moment though. Best not to stay hung up on those trivial matters, at least for now.

Vigil had begun to walk down the streets when a passing pony stopped him with a hoof. It was a little filly, her pigtails looked almost like muffins and had a reddish-pink mane. Her eyes were an aquamarine but none of that was what caught his attention. The filly was practically in tears.

“Mister, can, *sniff*, can you help me?” She asked as she looked up at him with those big sad orbs called eyes.

“Yes, of course. What’s wrong?” He asked, now at full attention as he knelt down a little bit. 

“M-my mama’s hurt real bad an-and.......” She rubbed her eyes of tears as she swallowed the lump in her throat. “My mama needs help please,” she was on the verge of a full breakdown as she waited for Vigil’s near immediate response.

“Show me where she is,” Vigil said. ‘Crap this might be serious, best case scenario it’s something I can pass over to the guard, worst case.............I don’t know yet, but i’ll cross that bridge when it comes.’

Vigil let himself be lead by the filly who grabbed his hoof and dragged him along through the alleyway but a few feet from them. She pointed them towards the irregular sized alleyway as they went deeper and deeper into it. Eventually they came out in front of a run down shack. Its roof looked to be on the verge of breaking down and the rest of the house and surrounding area looked to be quick to follow. 

Vigil felt himself tense up slightly in anxiousness as he saw the state of the house, but he ignored it as the filly stopped just before the house. She was silently trying to dry her tears again.

“Is your mama in there?” He asked.

The filly just nodded, muttering an “Mhmm...” of assurance.

Vigil inwardly sighed as he walked past the filly, stopping and looking at her as he said, “let’s go in then,” He felt her hoof grab hold of his left hind leg as a sort of safety blanket as he began walking towards the house. 

He opened the door tentatively and called out. “Hello ma’am? Is everything alright in there?” He heard nothing and entered in the house, he felt the hoof let go of him and he turned around as he heard the door shut behind him. He looked around in a panic before a shadow appeared behind him.

Vigil turned back around and raised a hoof as he yelled out in surprise and fear.

______________________________________________________________________________

Omior felt his head finally clear, the goop that was sitting next to him had gradually turned into Celestia in stages along with all the colors in the room returning to their original color. 

“That.......Was rather odd,” Omior muttered as he rubbed his face with both his hands.

“What was odd?” Celestia asked. 

“Just… don’t ever let me take some of that miracle oval things again.” He said as he moved his hands and massaged his temples. “Good idea, bad result.”

A flash of realization came to Celestia’s eye before disappearing. “At least now that you are fully coherent, we may have a proper chat then.”

“Indeed. I had hoped things would be easier than this,” he muttered as he let his body easily recline back. Odd as it seemed though that his dull pain had just about completely disappeared.

“Now I do believe I wanted to as-” Omior was interrupted by the door opening, the sounds of frantic panic through the door was clear.

Celestia’s guard shut it behind her. She flicked the lights off with her magic and half whispered, “down, both of you! Keep away from sight of the window.”

The mare moved to the wall next to the door, Celestia joined her along the wall while Omior slowly got himself off of the bed. He noted his pain was indeed gone as well when he moved around as erratically as he was now.

Omior had just laid on the ground when he heard some loud metal scraping against something. It banged once, then again a half a minute later, then again seconds after that. The sound was becoming louder and louder as Omior joined them from the opposite side of the door.

The metal sound stopped just at the door and silence reigned. The shape of something bipedal Omior was able to make out from the light shining inward. After a moment, the shadow disappeared as it moved on.

After a few minutes Omior spoke up, “I think we’re sa-”

The door exploded outward as something ripped it from it’s place. The guard jumped off the wall and darted out the open doorway. By the time her body crossed the threshold her head came flying back in with only a slight thud as it landed and rolled.

Omior watched in a newly felt fear as a nightmare of his came to life.........

Ahingor walked into the room, but it was definitely not the Ahingor he knew. The body of his friend was only barely recognizable through the mutilation, severe scars and burns covering his skin. Half of his face was metallic, leaving him bald on top of his head. 

A red light came from Ahingor’s right eye as he stood in the doorway. After a moment, it stopped and he turned towards Omior, smiling a broken smile and a venomous glare. “It’s been a long time, Omior.”
> "Arc3:tsotl" Ch14 Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Ahingor.....? By the gods what’s happened to you?” Omior managed through his baffled state.

The mangled fighter merely grunted in response. He rose his heavily scarred arm upwards, ready to strike down.

Omior felt his chest explode with pain along with his back as it met the opposite side of the room, he slumped to the floor in a daze. He just barely registered through his foggy vision that his old friend grabbed the princess by the throat. She screamed in pain as he tightened his already clenching grip.

The warrior managed to pull himself up from the floor and, although his movement was unsteady, he rushed at a ghost of a friend, a faulty step causing him to lose balance and send him on an aerial collision with the attacker.

Ahingor went down, releasing Celestia to gasp for breath on the ground. As soon as the two landed, Ahingor immediately punched Omior in the chest, causing him to writhe and fall off of Ahingor who took his place above the warrior. 

Ahingor struck Omior a few times, punch after punch, not breaking bones, but doing plenty to hurt the warrior. 

Omior’s face was very much bruised and battered, blood leaking from his nose as he tried to focus enough to do something about the constant attacks from atop of him, but he couldn’t find the strength he needed.

Just as Ahingor was about to strike down again, he was hit by a bolt of magic and sent into the wall, Celestia managed to right herself and fire off a spell. 

Her horn was glowing threateningly as Ahingor recovered and started moving in a beeline towards Celestia.

She fired off another shot but due to Ahingor’s close proximity, he easily moved out of the way, and it landed harmlessly against a wall as he hit the princess, hard.

Celestia went down, seemingly unconscious. She moved and fidgeted a little bit, but otherwise did not arise. 

Ahingor smiled maliciously and turned back to Omior, who was already up and charging at Ahingor again. He rose his right arm and caught the warrior mid run by the throat. “You’re really starting to piss me off. No, that’s wrong. You pissed me off the second I saw you, and now it only makes things sweeter.”

Omior moved his hands and tried to force his tortured friend to release it’s grip on his neck, but to no avail. He sputtered and managed to say, “W-why..... Hnn....How.” A tear managed to drop from Omior’s eye from the pain already being administered to his neck.

“It’s because it’s so fun to hurt others, you should try it sometime when you’re not trying to save everyone. You took a break right around the time the princess needed you, so why don’t you sit down and take a seat again? Not like you to keep going,” Ahingor made a face as if he was in thought before tightening his grip. “On second thought, you don’t ever like to quit, but after I’m done with you, you’re quitting for good.”

Omior swung his barely dangling legs out and managed to hit Ahingor’s shins. It didn’t seem to cause any significant harm though, and as Omior’s vision began to fade. He thought he heard Ahingor mutter something.

“Even if you survive, we’ve got your little pony friend, and if you try and interfere, he’ll be dead faster than you can blink.”

At least, that’s what Omior thought he heard before his hearing was completely overcome by a loud boom and his vision disappeared behind a blinding white flash. The warrior barely registered he was gasping for breath, kneeled over on the ground. 

Omior rubbed his eyes and opened them, the ringing in his ears was rather loud but seemed to be diminishing fast as he looked at the new hole in the wall. From his position, Omior saw as Ahingor disappear in the darkness of night.

He cursed inwardly as the ringing subsided and he felt a hoof rubbing at his back. 

“-are you alright Omior?” The warrior barely caught the end of her sentence.

He coughed a few times before finding himself the miracle of speech. With a sore throat, he said, “yes......I think I’ll be alright.” He felt a cough begin to arise in his throat, and only managed to suppress it as he spoke up again through heavy breaths, “where is my equipment?”

One hour later...

“Just listen to reason if you’d please Omior,” Princess Celestia said as Omior latched his sword to his side.

“Vigil’s in danger. I’d not like to risk his life in this gamble,” Omior said, he walked past her without any regard, but stopped as she spoke up again.

“You heard what that thing said. He’d kill that pony by the time they catch sight of you.”

Omior just stood there. He heard Celestia’s hooves clop on the ground as she turned around to face him, waiting for his response. “But what am I to do then? Allow what’s captured him to do as they please?”

“You don’t even know where to look. Allow my guards to search for the human that attacked us. Maybe they’ll be able to find Vigil as well when they do find that human. Just give it time.”

“Fine......We’ll do it your way, but I wish to be the one to take care of Ahingor..... He’s my problem, and my problem alone,” Omior lowered his head slightly as he finished his sentence, and for a second, tears looked ready to drop from his eyes, yet they did not.

Celestia moved to his side and smiled an almost melancholic smile. “Then allow me to take you to the castle, you can stay in one of the many rooms while the search takes place.”

Omior let a small smile twitch at the corners of his mouth. “I think I’d like that.”

It was a twenty minute walk of near silence to the castle. Birds chirped and the wind blew softly in the evening. The streets were otherwise silent, aside from the occasional pony that walked the streets for one reason or another, but none were ever seen as the two walked towards the castle.

At the gate, a few guards nearly readied their weapons, tightening their holds on their spears at the sight of Omior, but they relaxed, if not but a miniscule amount, at the sight of the Princess of the Sun walking alongside him. Celestia smiled as the two guards moved out of the way and allowed them both unobstructed passage.

Much a similar reaction was held by the guards along the walls and even the door, and a few kept watchful eyes on the two as they entered the castle.

As the guards closed the door, Omior took in the castle interior.They were in an open main walkway, adorned with a multitude of lunar and solar tapestries that shone in the light of the candles and chandelier. The carpet that lined the floor was a dazzling red with golden colored highlights along its edge in a pattern of diamond shapes.

The view of the inner castle reminded him of Helena. The thought of her left him with a sudden emptiness, darkening his mood. Omior felt a lack of care for the castle’s looks within seconds.

Celestia either did not notice or simply did not make mention of the warrior’s drastic attitude change. She moved ahead, motioning for Omior to follow her.

He did so as his thoughts began to delve into a whirlpool, a bottomless chasm of melancholic memories and feelings. 

As they went, he heard Celestia speak, but his mind did not register a link between the words as he was too encumbered in self loathing to allow himself such a basic understanding. 

He allowed simple responses to utter from his lips, as if some desperate subconscious move to hide the fact he wasn’t paying much attention.

Eventually, Celestia stopped in the hall, forcing Omior to connect back with reality and stop as well. This time when she spoke his mind registered the words.

“-And this will be the room you’ll stay in for the time being,” Celestia opened the door and allowed Omior to see the inside of the room.

It was simple, a rather large bed with luxurious red blankets kept to the far wall across from the door. A single simple dresser with a few candles upon them for seeing in the dark. Aside from that, there was another room behind a closed door to the far left. The room was simple, yet elegant in it’s own way with the added tapestries and carpet to fill the empty colored blankness of stone. Overall it left Omior a rather pleasant feeling at it’s sight.

“Thank you for the accommodations,” Omior muttered as he took a few steps into the room, garnering him a better look of its interior than what he had from the door. 

“It’s no problem, there are hundreds of free rooms in the castle. It’s made in the way that, in a sense, there will always be rooms available if a dignitary needs to speak with I or my sister on short notice.” Celestia said with a smile from the door.

Omior turned himself around and nodded. “Thank you nonetheless.”

Celestia made to leave, but stopped as she remembered something. “Oh! And you’re probably famished. Dinner will be in an hour, a guard will come by to escort you to the dining hall.”

“Thank you for the invitation, Princess Celestia,” Omior bowed his head in gratitude. When he rose from it, he saw Celestia nod and leave.

Once she was gone, Omior closed the door. He turned around and went to the bed. He allowed himself to fall into a sitting position on the overly luxurious bed with a sigh. He pulled his sword from its sheath and observed it, holding it steadily by the handle with his right hand while laying the blade flat against the palm of his other hand. As he fiddled lightly with the blade in his palm, he let out a melancholic chuckle. It was a brief one that, to any who’d heard, would have heard the sadness of a thousand lifetimes behind it. “You know...” Omior began, looking for the right words, “I never thought I’d see you again in a million years.” 

Omior watched his reflected eyes look back at him from the sword. They seemed to grow darker and sadder as he continued speaking. “And yet despite all odds, here you are, and...I think it would’ve been better if you had not appeared,” Thoughts loomed through Omior’s mind that seemed to send him on an endless spiral downward, the slight smile that appeared on his face seemed to get sadder and sadder. At one point, it seemed almost too painful to be possible.

At that moment, Omior was ready to close his eyes for good...

A knock from the door awoke Omior from his daze and as he got up, he was careful to place his blade back into his sheath. He went to the door to find a guard silently standing there.

“I’ve been ordered to take you to the dining room, if you’d follow please,” The monotone guard said. From the sound Omior considered the ponies gender, but gave up, opting to nod in response and follow behind the guard, shutting the door after he exited the room.

Very quickly, Omior fell back into thinking of Ahingor and Vigil. It left a bitter taste in his mouth just thinking of his failure. A pony who’d only ended up tagging along with him was currently in the hands of a long time friend that had very much changed. 

Omior felt ire build inside him, almost boiling over, but it dispersed as he stopped in front of a door, the guard interrupting his thoughts.

“You’ll find that princess Celestia is waiting inside for you,” the guard said in the same monotone voice as previously.

“Thank you,” Omior answered before the guard opened the door, allowing him entrance. The door shut and the warrior looked about the room.

Tapestries hung from the wall at the same distance from one another everywhere. The paintings that seemed to fill the space between were the typical kind you’d expect from a rich or royal family.

The table was a long and surprisingly simple table, a mahogany table maybe? Omior ventured as he moved forward, Celestia called for him to sit by her and so he did. 

Once he took a place by her side in the empty room, things grew silent. After a moment, Celestia spoke. “You know you’re a rather difficult stallion to find,” she looked at him with a very small hint of a smirk. “You create a rather large trail of breadcrumbs though.”

“So I’ve been told,” Omior responded flatly. 

Celestia looked conflicted, but after a moment sighed outwardly and asked, “So who is Ahingor? If I may be so rude as to ask.”

Omior felt himself fill with adrenaline from the mention of Ahingor. He bit back any kind of response for some time, and Celestia spoke up again.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to talk about it. I merely was curious,” Celestia sounded slightly disappointed.

After a bit more silence lengthening, Omior spoke. “He’s a lifelong friend, one I would give my life for, and nearly have on more than one occasion.”

“I... I see,” Celestia said. She appeared to want to say more, but before she could, another pony entered the room. 

Omior immediately guessed by the pony’s attire that he was a cook. A clean cut mane only just coming out of the comically large hat that bounced as he stopped in front of the two. “And what would the two like for this evening?” He asked with an emphasis on his w. 

“Surprise me, Gerard,” Princess Celestia said with a confident smile. 

“And for you sir?” The pony asked Omior.

“Mushroom stew if you have any,” Omior half questioned. 

“Of course. Your meals will be right with you both,” The pony bowed respectively to the princess before turning and exiting out of the same door he had come in from.

After Omior was confident the two were alone again, he decided to venture a question or two. “So what lead to your sudden interest in hunting me down?”

Celestia paused a moment, she looked past Omior as she quickly thought of a reasonable answer. “It would not be right of the co-leader of Equestria losing an alien.”

“Yes of course, I didn’t consider that,” Omior lied, stray thoughts loomed in his head as he considered his second question. “When was it you said your guards will be looking for Vigil?” 

“As soon as possible, an entire platoon of them will be searching the city of Canterlot by the evening of tomorrow, and if nothing can be found, then they will venture further out to the other outlying villages, towns, and cities,” Celestia caught herself looking into his eyes and found them seemingly endless. She forced herself to look to Omior’s left as he spoke up in response.

“Thank you for letting me know this,” Omior closed his eyes and made a small bow from his place. 

Time passed at a relative slowness from there. Silence seemed to dictate the conversation, controlling the tension that covered the room in a thick layer, as if the god of tension had sneezed upon the room, messily wiping it up with a sleeve. 

The meals arrived quickly and by the end of it, Omior was a little happier than he had been previously. He gave a half smile as he said, “This has been a grand meal Celestia, my thanks to the cooks.”

Celestia seemed conflicted of something, fighting whether to speak or not, she bit back whatever she was going to say before responding. “They’ll appreciate the kind words. Shall I… walk you back to your room?”

“Of course, I’d be lost without a guide of some kind. But wouldn’t one of your guards be fine?” Omior questioned with slight confusion. 

“The guards are fine. Many of them are changing shifts with the night guard, so it will be easier and quicker if I just walk you back,” Celestia said. Her tone felt strange, sort of off to Omior, but he shrugged the feeling off as he nodded.

“It will be a pleasure taking a stroll with you princess.”

The two rose from their seats, Celestia leading Omior out of the room and on his way back to his room. Once there, Omior turned to thank Celestia again before retreating into his room for bed. Though that wasn’t what happened.

Omior felt something press against his lips and surprise filled his face as he realized what was happening. Princess Celestia was kissing him.