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Omnius' Travels: Beast Within

by Nathan Traveler

Chapters

Prologue: Immortal Beast

Prologue:

Immortal Beast


Whenever someone hears a tale of someone who gains immortality, there are two things that come to mind: a horrible sacrifice, and how it ends up being a curse. Normally, I would agree with that. I mean, you outlive your friends, are doomed to forever wander around the same world, and live with the constant knowledge of what you might have done to achieve said immortality. Then again, there’s always an exception to every rule, isn’t there?

So what would be the exception to the curse of immortality?

Well there are three, actually.

I just happen to be one of them.

Hold on, don’t go thinking this is a poorly written story about an Overpowered “OC” character. Just hear me out! Jeez, reading the prologue and you’re already judging me. I feel so pressured!

Sorry, back on track. Now, the reason I’m one of the three exceptions: I’m a Traveler. I was chosen/created by the Gods and Goddesses (capital “G”) to Travel throughout all of Time, Space, Matter, and across all of the realities and dreams for all of eternity. Can’t die, I can learn everything, and I’m the guy who’s on the side of Good.

However, there are two others with the same basic powers as me: The Traveler of Neutrality, Neutra, and Torrentican, the Traveler of Evil. Now, you might be asking WHY there are three Travelers, and why the Gods created us. It’s pretty simple really; All three of us are supposed to keep the balance between Good, Evil, and Neutrality, while also ensuring the survival of all universes, multiverses, and other such things like that.

Chances are, if you’ve read, thought, or dreamt about it, there’s a world out there for it. And that world has then given birth to worlds of its own. Guess who gets to Travel to all of them?

Yeah. My name’s Omnius. Others call me Nathan Traveler, or Sean Brandenburg. I have no idea of how old I am, I’m a Libra who enjoys long walks on the beach, and am pretty much bat-shit insane from all the things I’ve seen on my Travels.

I’m a Traveler. And I’m an immortal who will never get tired of doing the things he does.

It’s good to be The Traveler.

Most of the time at least.

T/N: Okay, just to let everyone know, IT IS NOT REQUIRED TO READ THE FIRST STORY TO READ THIS ONE. It is a separate story in its own right. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

1) Old World, New Body

Chapter 1

Old World, New Body


A large, black dragon-like figure sat on top of a pitch black throne, eyeing the dark mound of muscle and fur that sprinted its way towards him. The figure almost looked like a Diamond Dog, a creature that was both hated and feared on this world. However, the thing that charged towards him was certainly a far cry from a Diamond Dog.

For one, it didn’t have any fur covering its massive, sand colored hands, or its strange looking muzzle. Startling white claws jutted out from its fingernails, tearing through its minions with a feral rage that struck an odd sense of worry in his heart. Around its ears, wrists, and chest, the fur had lightened to a silvery grey color, a sharp contrast to the rest of its dirt colored fur. Oddly enough, it had a pair of navy blue shoes on, with long, pointed spikes on the bottoms of them.

Rapidly, its fist crashed into the small minions that peppered the area around the draconic figure. With each swing of its massive arms, another being would disappear in a puff of black mist. “TORRENTICAN!” the creature shouted in anger and rage. “YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!”

Torrentican laughed at his adversary, and settled more comfortably on his throne. “Then come, Omnius…and make me ‘pay’ for the blood of your child…”

15 years earlier…


“Gaaaahhh!” I shouted as I fell through the sky. It seemed that, once again, fate had decided that I would enter a world by my favorite method: skydiving. Thankfully, there were several trees for me to use to break my fall.

After crashing through countless branches, I finally landed in a nice mess of pine needles and soil. It wasn’t exactly a cushiony landing, but I didn’t break any bones. That was actually pretty surprising. I didn’t have a single scratch on me, and barely any bruises that I could feel. My human form couldn’t have withstood that kinda fall without any injuries…so what was I now?

For those of you just joining us, and who don’t want to read any of the first Travels story, I should probably mention that I’m used to changing forms to fit in with whatever world I’m on. Nine times out of ten, I’ll end up taking the form of the local populace, so I can blend in and not F*** up the story.

As I picked myself up off the ground, I couldn’t help but notice how disproportionate my arms were to the rest of my body. Jeez, these things were huge! Now I really need to see what I look like. Guess I’ll make that priority one. After that, I’ll have to find civilization, and try not to draw too much attention to myself.

After that, I’ll draw a smiley face on the moon.

Chuckling to myself, I started forward, taking note of how I could still walk on two legs. Well, there’s a small hint…wait, how did I not notice that I’m covered in fur? Okay, this is getting weird…

Shaking my head clear of those thoughts, I pushed onwards, taking in my surroundings. Tall, lush pine trees cluttered all around me, standing tall in the glow of the sunlight. Small outcroppings of rock dotted the area around me, occasionally leading to a steep cliff.

“Alright,” I said to myself. “I’m in the mountains. I have no supplies, no idea what I am…and I’ve recently been gargling marbles.”

My voice had altered too. That hasn’t really happened that much before. I mean, it still sounded close to what I was before, but now it had a distinct, growling sensation to it. Curious…

I shrugged it off. No sense in worrying about it right now. Not when I still have to figure out what the HELL I am, and where I can find some civilization. Oh, and maybe some grub. I could really go for some chips right now.

The sound of rushing water reached my ears suddenly, alerting me to the presence of a river. From the sounds of things, it was a big one…maybe it’s a waterfall? Either way, I started searching for it, relying on my sense of sound to get me there. Eventually, I reached a large, rushing river that led over the edge of a cliff, forming a pristine, sparkling waterfall.

“Huh. Totally called it,” I commented dryly. I started towards it so that I could get a good look at what I was-

And a dart suddenly shot out from the trees, barely missing my shoulder. Instantly, I whipped around to see a trio of dog-like figures emerge from the trees, each of them carrying a net, and some glass vials.

“Diamond Dogs?” I asked in astonishment. “I’m on Equestria?”

The dogs growled in response to that. One of them, the biggest of them with a jackal like appearance, stepped forward, and grunted, “You not Dog. You not pony.”

“Thank you Captain Obvious,” I snarled, clenching my fists.

The second one lifted his net up, and whispered, “We still take?”

“Yes, you idiot!” the jackal shouted. “Attack him, NOW!”

Instead of rushing me, like I expected them to do, the leader removed a glass vial from the belt looped around his waist, and hurled it at me. I rolled to the side, barely avoiding the cloud of gas that erupted from it when it broke open on the ground.

Another dart zipped past me, burying itself in the trunk of a nearby tree. Reacting on instinct, I fell to all fours, and charged at them. A second glass vial sailed towards me, and crashed onto the ground in front of me. I held my breath as I ran through the cloud of gas, and emerged on the other side…right in front of the dogs and their nets.

Before they could even hurl them at me though, I reached out and grabbed the two smaller dogs with my hands. What really amazed me was how my arms actually stretched out like they were made of rubber. I couldn’t dwell on it though. Kinda still fighting right now.

My hands wrapped around their necks, and slammed them against the leader. Their heads crashed together with a sickening ‘CRACK’, knocking them unconscious.

Unfortunately, when they fell to the ground, the rest of their glass vials broke open as well. My lungs started crying for air, so I did the only thing that made sense at the time: stretched out my arms, which made my hands grow in size as well, and I clapped them together. The gas was blown away by the force of the clap, allowing me to take several gulps of fresh air.

“What…what just happened?”  I asked, staring at my hands. “If this is Equestria, I should be a pony!”

The dogs stirred at my feet, reminding me that they were still there, albeit unconscious. In a bout of ironic justice, I used the net they were going to try to capture me with to tie them all together.

“Okay…they’re not getting away now.” I made my way to the river once more, dragging them with me as I did so. Finally, I was able to get a good look at my reflection…

“I’m…no, I can’t be!” I shouted, backing away in shock and slight fear. “It’s not possible!”

But there it was, right in front of me. It explained the dark fur, the claws, the ability for my arms and hands to stretch/change size, the craving for steak…

Those dogs were right…I wasn’t a Diamond dog, or a pony.

I was a Werehog.

2) The Timing Is Off

Chapter 2:

The Timing is Off


In a daze, I stumbled backwards, trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I was now a creature that technically wasn’t a type of species, and on a world where it shouldn’t exist. How was this possible? I’m supposed to take on the form of the population, aren’t I? And I’m on EQUESTRIA. I know that for a fact! After all, I’ve been here more than once. What’s going on?

My mind was racing at a mile a minute, bringing up countless reasons as to why this could have happened; a bit of magical disturbance, a poison in the air, a reaction to some sort of rising darkness…none of it seemed to fit though!

The sound of twigs breaking from behind made me whirl around, fangs bared, to face whatever was about to sneak up on me. Instead of another attacker though…

“Peace, Traveler,” a slender woman said. She was wearing a spring green dress that reached down to her ankles, gently touching the soft ground around her bare feet. Long, earth colored hair framed her lightly tanned face, flowing gracefully in the small breeze. Everything about her seemed to scream natural beauty, and letting nature take its course.

Unconsciously, I let my guard drop. Something in my head was telling me that she didn’t want to harm me…that I knew her. Cautiously, I looked up at her, and asked, “Who are you?”

She gave me a knowing smile, and said, “I will just say that I am one of your…’bosses’, as you like to call us.”

A Goddess of Good…One of my creators, an incredibly powerful being, who’s on the side of…well, good. That explains how she knew to call me Traveler.

Normally, I don’t try to trust people instantly, but I could literally feel her power radiating off of her, and she DID know who I was. For now, I better go along with her.

I bowed to her in respect, and said, “Goddess…it is truly an honor to meet you in person.”

With a small laugh, she placed a hand upon my head, letting out a quiet sigh as she did so. “Omnius…I believe that you wish to know why you are in this form, correct? And why you’re on Equestria, of all places?”

I nodded in reply.

“It is a long, and complicated tale…but I have had a vision,” she said, looking out into the direction of the forest. “The land ablaze with chaos and destruction, animals and forests dying by the thousands, innocents lost to the change that is to come…and of heroes, leading their people to victory. I can see outsiders becoming the beloved of their new people, protecting them from harm, and ultimately benefitting them.” She paused, and looked at me somberly. “Do you know what I see?”

Now it was my turn to let out a sad sigh. “War,” I stated, shaking my head. It was incredibly depressing to say the least. “No matter what world I run to, what dimension I end up in, there will always be war of some sort. I’ve been alive for countless years, and I have yet to land on a world that is not on the brink of a total war,” I lamented.

The Goddess placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Do not worry, Omnius. This particular war is not to come for quite some time. You have years, at the least,” she said. “Even Nightmare Moon has yet to be released from her prison.”

“Then why am I here? And why am I in this form?” I asked, holding up my arms. “Why am I a Werehog, of all things?”

For a moment, she was silent, as she chose her words to explain it. “Omnius…you are here because I need you to be ready. Soon, outsiders from another world will begin coming here, champions of some God who tricked them into coming here. You are the first…and the only one to take upon that form.”

She waved a hand over the river, causing the reflection to ripple for a moment, and change entirely. I saw diamond dogs, dragons, changelings, griffons, all manner of creature, both fantastic and unusual, flash across the water. Some were noble heroes, never looking for anything more than the next step on their journey. Others were simply people who wanted power, whether for themselves or others, it was hard to tell.

Most of all…I saw change. It was undeniable. And it was coming.

“The reason you are in that form…” she slowly started. “You need to be powerful, and to be able to contend with these…pawns, if you will. They will have powers that could possibly dwarf even your own, if you aren’t careful. Their minds will be as sharp as their swords, and the only one, true advantage you will have over them will be experience.”

“That still doesn’t explain this particular body,” I pointed out, trying to be nice about it.

“You have a form that fits the combination of both your sense of justice and honor…and your sense of rage, and anger,” she said, gently sliding her fingers through my fur. “Not only that, but I felt it fitting that this form’s power should help you…after all, my alternate dimension self is responsible for it.”

My eyes widened in shock, as I turned to look at her…but she had vanished.

“Gaia…” I whispered in awe.

The wind intensified for a moment, sending several pine needles over the edge of the waterfall. I made my way over to it, hoping I could get a better look at what lay below.

“…Sometimes, Gods are subtle. Other times, they just give you a huge flashing neon sign,” I chuckled, shaking off my awe.

Sprawled out in front of me was a collection of log cabins and crude huts, grouped together around the waterfall. All across the makeshift town, ponies went about their daily lives, while I watched from above. From the looks of things, the town had just been started recently. The cabins still had tools all around them, with sawdust covering quite a few of them.

There was something else too…it was oddly silent. Where were the children? No matter what, every time you go to a new settlement, there will always be at least one child out with their family.

Every one of my senses were shouting at me, telling me that there was something wrong. I needed to get down there. Scanning the area, I found a small dirt path that would lead to the front of the village, without making me fall off the side of a mountain.

So, with a heavy sigh, I slowly made my way down the path, the sun sinking below the horizon.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

“Halt!” a unicorn with makeshift armor called out as he spotted me walking down the path. A crude spear was magically lifted up and pointed towards me. “Stay right where you are!”

I think it was a blessing that I had been on all fours, and in poor lighting. The guy looked like he expected Hell to come knocking any moment now. As it was, a brown werehog that looks like a diamond dog in the wrong lighting wouldn’t do much to help my case.

“Alright,” I called back at him, trying to make myself seem as harmless as possible.

“Step into the light!” his partner commanded, lighting a torch.

Great. Well, it’s better to get this out of the way now, while I still can.

“Okay…” I said in a placating tone. “Just…try not to freak out, or impale me.”

Before they could answer, I walked forward, lifting my hands into the air to show them I was unarmed. They started in surprise at my appearance, looks of wide eyed astonishment on their faces. I smiled at them, trying to hide my teeth from view. I didn’t want to scare them any worse than they already were.

“What exactly are you?” the blue colored one on the right said, lifting the torch higher into the air.

“Just a simple Traveler,” I answered in a neutral tone, trying to keep my voice low. “I got lost in these woods, and found this town. I was wondering if I could search for some work or something.”

“Ha, a likely story,” the spear toting pony spat out, his auburn coat shivering in the torchlight. “We’re not gonna buy something as weak as that!”

“What do you mean?” I asked them, my curiosity aroused. Not like that! Get your filthy minds out of the gutter!

“Like we’re gonna tell you tha-”

“Cool it, Twitch,” the blue unicorn commanded. “Somethin' tells me he ain't workin' for any of those dogs, or those other monsters...”

“And how do you know?” Twitch replied, completely forgetting about me for an instant.

“Because,” I interrupted. I reached behind me, and pushed the bundle I had been dragging along with me forward. “I was hoping you could take these jerks off my hands.”

Twitch zipped it after that.

The blue unicorn smiled at me, a small twinkle in his eyes. “I think you just got yourself an easy sixty bits there,” he commented, nudging one of the dogs with his hoof.

“Hm?” I grunted.

“See these dogs? Look at their equipment and nets; they’re obviously slavers,” he explained, pointing at the broken glass vials still around there waists. “There are quite a few in the forest around here, and they’ve been giving us no end of trouble.”

“Is that so?’ I growled. “In that case, take these guys on the house.”

He grinned at that, and used his magic to tighten the net around them. “Here, help me push them into town. Twitch, keep up guard duty until your shift is up, got it?”

“Yes sir,” Twitch sighed, settling into a more comfortable position.

“You got a name there, Fuzz?”

“Omnius,” I answered. “Yours?”

“Name’s Sky. Sky Blue. I’m in charge of security around the lovely town of Pine Falls,” he replied, leading me into the town. “I’m afraid you’ve come at a bad time, stranger.”

I noticed for the first time how it seemed that each pony was armed with some sort of weapon. Hammers, knives, staves, spears…this town looked like it had been fighting for its life.  Hell, just the way they glared at me was enough to disturb me. What had happened to this town?

“Don’t mind them,” Blue reassured me. “They just don’t take too kindly to strangers.”

“That’s a given,” I muttered.

After a bit of walking, we had made it to a log cabin labeled  “Guard house”. The inside of it was divided into two sections: one for the guards’ sleeping quarters, and another for any criminals they might have caught. The latter was made almost entirely out of metal, with barbed poles barring most of the cells.

“Toss ‘em in there,” he told me. “We can interrogate them later, see if they've got any information worth knowing."

"Such as...?" I prompted.

Sky smirked at me, saying, "That's classified."

Of course it is... I thought to myself. Looks like even though he knows I'm not gonna harm him, he's not gonna trust me. I have to say, I'm glad that's the case. If it were anything else, he'd be a fool.

Now that there wasn't a spear being waved at my face, I was able to get a better look at the Pegasus. Ironically, his fur wasn't a sky blue color, like his name implied. Rather, it was a dark, indigo color, with a silvery gray mane and tail to compliment it. He wore a blood red bandana around his neck, and his cutie-mark was a cyan oak leaf. Wonder what that means his talent is...

The Pegasus cleared his throat to snap me out of my thoughts. With a wry grin, he asked me, "So, stranger...you say you're looking for work then?"

"Just something to help me get some supplies," I growled in reply.

"Oh? And where would you be headed then?"

I shrugged absently. "Don't know. Wherever I'm needed, I guess."

Nodding in acceptance of this, he went over to a large desk hidden in the corner and pulled a bottle of amber colored liquid out. "Some cider from my home town, Ponyville. Want some?" he offered.

"No thanks."

"Suit yourself," he muttered. "Now then, what do you know about these woods around us?'

That was a good question. What DID I know, exactly? "Not much," I admitted. "There are diamond dogs, plenty of pine trees, and cliffs. Other than that, nothing."

"Well, you're honest at least." He reached underneath the desk again, this time coming up with a large scroll. With a small burst from his horn, the scroll unfurled itself, revealing a long list of names. Some of them were scratched out, or had a red check mark by them.

"You see all of those names?" Sky asked me. Tapping his hoof to each one of them, he said, "Those are the names of ponies from this here town that've gone missing, or been killed."

"What? But-"

"These forests hide more than diamond dogs. In the past month, we've seen strange creatures lurking about. Normally, we only see them at night, but it's not unheard of for one of them to attack us in broad daylight," Sky spat in disgust. "They've already torn apart most of the guards, and we've barely been able to fight them off each time they arrive."

That didn't sound good. And those "strange creatures"...I think I might have an idea of what those are. Based on the fact that they prefer to work at night, combined with their apparent mystery and strength...those might be Torrentican's minions.

It's a little too early to jump to conclusions though.

To distract myself, I asked, "When were they last spotted?"

As Sky opened his mouth to answer that, the door burst open, revealing the guard from earlier, Twitch. Ignoring me, he galloped over to the older Pegasus, and gasped out, "Sir! They're back! They're coming again!"

"What's coming?" Sky asked sternly. "Speak up, boy!"

"Those...those shade things!"

A woman's scream pierced the night. My heart started pumping like a jackhammer in my chest, and I shot through the door on all fours.

"Where do you think you're going?" Sky called out after me.

I didn't answer him. There were ponies in trouble.

And I was needed.

3) Shade of The Past

Chapter 3

Shade of The Past


You know, I think that I’m too used to being “The Hero”. I actually expected all of the ponies in town to be panicking, like they did in Ponyville whenever something catastrophic happened. Instead, they had all rallied at the point where the monsters had been spotted, each of them armed with some form of weapon. There were a few ponies hiding indoors, but I got the distinct feeling that they were there in case an ambush was needed.

There was no denying it. These ponies were prepared for war.

Either way, I managed to push my way to the front lines, next to a mustard yellow Pegasus with small metal blades tucked into his wings. He glanced at me for an instant, before setting his eyes on the approaching horde.

“Sky let you in, right?” he asked me.

“Consider me the new hired help,” I replied, clenching and unclenching my fists in anticipation of the upcoming brawl.

He grunted at that. “Good. I’ve got your first job then.” As he made a short leap into the air, he shouted, “You’ll take point; charge into them and break their ranks. We’ll do the rest.”

I always get the best jobs at these gigs, don’t I?

“Got it,” I growled, setting my eyes on the monsters ahead.

Those monsters…I know them. At first glance, they just looked like malformed ponies, with ink black fur, and no mane or tail. Upon closer inspection, you could see that they had broken remains of horns upon their heads, with two smaller bumps next to them. Their eyes were soulless yellow orbs, and their hooves had been sharpened at the edges.

These were Shadow-Stalkers. Imp variety, if I’m not mistaken. There’s only one person who can create these monstrosities…

“Hey!” the same Pegasus from before shouted at me. “Charge! NOW!”

Obeying his command, I rushed forward on all fours, barreling straight towards them. The instant I reached their front line, my arms lashed out before me, knocking a good amount of them away, and disrupting their ranks. The moment I had done that, the rest of the ponies started their own attack, launching spears, arrows, and themselves at the rest of the horde.

Whenever an attack hit their mark, the Shadow-Stalker would disappear in a puff of black mist, leaving no trace of its existence. The ponies must have already been used to it, for the never gave the mist a second glance. They would move on to their next target, and do their best to destroy it.

What had these things done to them?

In any case, I had to focus on the task at hand. While imps aren’t exactly the elite of the Shadow-Stalker army, if I wasn’t careful, they could easily overpower me with sheer numbers. My fists struck at them again and again, but for every stalker I took out, two more would come to take its place. Occasionally, I would overshoot the attack, and miss them entirely. I had barely any idea of what I was doing, to be honest. I hadn’t ever used this body before, and the thing with the diamond dogs had just been me running on pure instinct.

A dozen small cuts hissed in pain as several stalkers leaped upon my outstretched arm, their sharpened hooves slicing away the fur, and leaving shallow lines on my skin. With an enraged roar, I swung my arm wildly, flinging them off in several directions. Finally, I stopped trying to punch them, and settled for swiping at them with my claws. It was weaker, but it let me use my stretchy arms to my advantage, keeping most of them at bay while the cavalry reaped their numbers.

“Ah, having trouble, Omnius?” a suave, hauntingly familiar voice whispered mockingly from over my shoulder.

I spun around, shouting, “Torrentican!”

“Ah-ah-ah,” the voice chided, as another imp leaped at my face. “Distractions will only kill you on the battlefield.”

Frantically, I tore the imp off of my face, and hurled it back into the crowd. “Show yourself, Torrentican!” I roared.

Out of the crowd in front of me, an imp that was much larger than the rest, with a full horn and wider hooves, stepped towards me. His eyes glowed a sickly violet color, as he gave me a condescending look.

“What do you think, my eternal friend?” he asked, his voice somehow carrying over the sound of the battle. “As you have become something not of this world, it is only fitting that I take on the form of my own creations…”

I couldn’t believe it. Sure, maybe me becoming a Werehog was a stretch (Badum-tish!), but Torrentican…becoming a shadow-stalker? I thought he was the one who created them, not…you know, BE them!

“Why?” was the only question I could ask.

He chuckled darkly at my confusion, sending another wave of anger through me. “Oh, you poor, simple, fool. Don’t you realize what is to come in the future? Of the war that could spell the end of this realm?” The Traveler of Evil shook his head in pity. “Chaos and destruction will reign supreme, and what better way to embrace that future than with a form meant for those things? Therefore, I have gone with the face of my creations…and that’s not all.”

In the blink of an eye, he had darted forward, neatly avoiding my arms entirely, until he was right in front of me. His eyes flashed, and he had changed shape…now, instead of an imp on steroids, he was a demonic, draconian figure, with scales blacker than coal, and wings the color of a blazing wildfire.

“All of my creations are open to me now,” he whispered. “And you? You are stuck in the body of a worthless beast.”

I tried to hit him with a sucker punch to the gut, but he easily sidestepped the attack. He struck my chest with an open palm, the force of it nearly cracking my ribs. As it was, he flapped his wings to lift himself, and kicked at the same spot with his powerful legs. I only had pure luck to thank for not getting my stomach torn open by his talons.

While I fell to the ground, he flew up into the air, and called out, “I look forward to our new game, Omnius!”

He laughed again, but was cut off when my hand shot up and grabbed him around the ankle.

“I’ve got a game for ya, Torrie,” I growled. “It’s called, ‘Whack-a-mole’.”

With another roar of effort, I lifted Torrentican higher into the air, before slamming him full strength onto the ground. Several Shadow-Stalkers disintegrated as he crashed into them…but I wasn’t done yet.

Once more, he was lifted into the air, and slammed onto the ground. I tried to use him as a hammer a third time, but he suddenly whipped around and sank his teeth into my hand. I yelped in pain, while Torrentican slipped out of my grasp.

“I hope you are better prepared when we next meet!” he shouted mockingly at me. “Or else this game shall end long before its full potential has been reached!”

Holy shit, he barely felt any of my attacks! Either he’s become incredibly resilient, or I still have no idea how to use this body without relying fully on my instincts.

“Come back!” I shouted, once more trying to grab him. Unfortunately, another imp launched itself at me, forcing me to defend myself. By the time I had dealt with the remaining stalkers that had surrounded me, Torrentican had already vanished.

Damn! I nearly got my ass handed to me, all because HE knows how to use his new body, while I’m still struggling to figure out how to use the stretchy-arms thing. If my guess is correct, I probably can’t swim either! This just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?

At least the battle was over. There weren’t any more stalkers in sight, and it seemed that the ponies had escaped this brawl unscathed for the most part. If anything, I was the only one who had taken any real injury…

The same mustard colored Pegasus from before landed next to me, a small grin on his face. “You did good down there, stranger. What did you say your name was?” he asked me.

“Omnius.”

He stuck out his hoof, and I shook it, being careful to not scratch him with my claws.

“That’s a weird name,” he mused, eyeing me with an appraising look. “It doesn’t really fit you that well…You know what? You have a new name now. Consider it your official, ‘Welcome to Pine Falls’ Guards’ name.”

“…Okay?” Now I’m confused.

“What? Omnius doesn’t fit a guy who’s gonna be helping us fight off these monsters while the town gets itself better protected!” he shouted. “Now, you need something that makes you sound tough…hmm…”

Jeez, thanks. I like my name, thank you very much! It makes me sound important and stuff!

“And your name is…?” I prompted.

“Oh, I’m Whirl Wing,” he said offhandedly. Wait, is it that or offhoofedly…? DAMN YOU GRAMMAR! MY TRUE IMMORTAL ENEMY!

We both made our way back into the town, as he tried to think of a good “Guard name” for me. I don’t think I need one, but if it’ll give me a bit of trust with the others…

WAIT. I can’t believe this just slipped by me, but was I really about to join the guard for a town that I had just barely came across?! There are places I need to be, and staying here isn’t going to help me at all!

Then again…I have barely any idea of how to fight in this body. Other than a few clumsy punches and swings that are good in a horde fight, I didn’t really know anything. Hell, Sky Blue had even pointed out my lack of knowledge on the forest around us. Not only that, but Torrentican was attacking this town…why?

I guess now that I think about it, I don’t really have many other options. Looks like I just got drafted.

“Hey, Fuzz!” a familiar voice shouted, once again snapping me out of my thoughts. “Good job out there. I saw the whole thing from the skies,” he said, slapping me on the back. “You were rough around the edges, but all in all, I think you’ll make a fine addition to the guard.”

“Thanks…sir,” I said, somewhat reluctantly. It’s gonna take some getting used to…I haven’t been in any sort of army, or had a superior officer in years. Decades, almost.

“So, you’re in then?” Sky asked, a triumphant glint in his eyes. He must have planned on this since he saw me. I wonder if there’s more to him than meets the eye…

“Yes sir.”

He nodded, and went back into the guard house. “Great. You can stay with Whirl Wing for now, or at least until we can get you a tent or something. You’ll report to me in the morning, but…go get some sleep. You’ve earned it.”

Whirl Wing didn’t voice any protests at all, much to my surprise. Sky must have been pretty well respected to get away with that.

And with that, Sky dismissed us, saying something about having to write a report so that he could make sure they were better prepared for the next attack. Wing and I walked through the town in silence, each of us brooding on the fact that we were now roommates.

“So…thanks for letting me stay with you?” I awkwardly said as we approached one of the smaller cabins.

“Well…don’t mention it. Just do me a favor, and let me go in there first. I don’t want you to surprise the missus.”

“Got’cha,” I said.

He stepped into his house, and told me to wait on the porch for him to give me the all clear. The sound of a small argument reached my ears, making me feel even more awkward. I mean, here I was, a near total stranger, about to stay in their home…actually, that’s all I really need to say. Doesn’t that sound like a situation you’d rather avoid too?

A couple of minutes later, and Whirl stuck his out the door, a rueful smile on his face. “Alright, you can come in,” he said.

I slowly stepped inside of the small cabin. It actually seemed a bit bigger on the inside, now that I was standing in there. They had a small kitchen area off to one wall of the house, and a door led to a separate room with a large bed inside of it. There was a large couch that took up the majority of one wall, and a wide assortment of bookshelves and drawers that made up the rest of it.

“Welcome to our little slice of home,” Whirl said, gesturing at the room. “Feel free to make yourself comfortable on the couch.”

“Dear, aren’t you going to introduce us?” a new voice called from the bedroom.

“Oh, right! Omnius, lemme introduce you to my wife, Gentle Heart. She’s one of the town’s nurses.” He gave me a conspiratory glance, and added in a hushed whisper, “Be nice, she’s a little cranky right now.”

Before I could ask what he meant by that, a unicorn with a shining white coat, and soft green mane stepped out of the bedroom. She had amber colored eyes, a light frame…and her stomach was bulging...not from fat, either.

Oh…My…Gods…

“Hello, Omnius. I heard about your role in the battle,” she said, gently shaking my hand. “Captain Sky seems to think that you’re trustworthy, so that’s good enough for me. Just do me a favor, and try not to tear up the couch.”

“I’ll try, ma’am,” I said nervously. Trust me, hell hath no fury like a pregnant woman.

“Excellent. Now, I already set some blankets and a pillow on the couch. If you need anything, just let my husband know,” she said, already making her way back to the bedroom. “Whirl? You coming?”

“Just a moment, honey…” Whirl responded.

When she had closed the door, both of us let out a breath at the same time.

“Too close,” I muttered.

“She’s really a nice mare, but lately her mood swings have been getting worse…guess that means the baby’s coming,” Whirl joked. “Anyways, I finally came up with a good name for ya.”

I raised an eyebrow…well, mimicked raising one at least. I still don’t know if I have eyebrows to raise!

“How’s, ‘Battleclaw’ sound?” he suggested. “Short, simple, and it’ll make sure everypony knows you’re in the guard! At least now they won’t attack you on sight.”

“…Battleclaw. I guess it works.” I suppressed a yawn, and added, “Alright, I’m gonna hit the hay. Thanks again for letting me stay here.”

“Thanks for actually doing good today. Tomorrow, we report to the captain.”

Right…well, let’s recap what’s happened so far, shall we?

I’m on Equestria, years before Nightmare Moon is supposed to be released. I’ve got a new body that supposedly has a lot of power, but no idea of how to use it. There’s some kinda war coming later on, and right now I have to help protect a town. Torrentican can turn into any of his Shadow-Stalkers, and apparently kick my ass.

I have no idea of what I’m supposed to do, and the only hint I have is the vision of a Goddess that barely makes any sense right now.

Oh yeah…It’s good to be the Traveler, ain’t it?

4) How Do I Stretch Arm?

Chapter 4:

How Do I Stretch Arm?


So, guess what I’ve learned about Werehogs? It’s a fun little annoying fact, but I can’t sleep. At all. Sure, I might yawn, but I think that’s just a force of habit. More than likely, it just has something to do with the fact that the only time I’ve seen a Werehog out and about is at night. Does that mean I’m supposed to fall asleep during the day? If that’s the case, then why didn’t I fall asleep the moment I got to this world?

Actually, this might be a good thing. Since I can’t sleep, this means I can try and get a grasp on what my limitations are in this body, and if I can access some of my Traveler powers. Namely, my Pocket Dimensions, and my Traveler’s Blade. My gut’s telling me that my Auras are next to useless unless I’m in my human fo-

Wait. Can I still do that? Change into a human, I mean.

Alright, that’s it. I can’t keep asking myself these questions, and expect an answer to fall out of the sky (that's my job).

Quietly, I eased myself off of the couch, doing my best to make sure that I made as little noise as possible. Once I was sure that the sound of snoring coming from Whirl and Heart’s room was genuine, I snuck through the front doors. When I had crossed the threshold, I smiled to myself and imagined the sound of drums playing.

Stealth increased~!

I won’t bore you all with the excessive details on how I made my way through the slumbering town. Nothing of interest happened, so I was able to reach the outskirts without having to hide in any cardboard boxes (Curses!). After checking in with the guards to avoid any suspicion, I found myself following a worn dirt path into the woods.

Even though there wasn’t much light, it wasn’t that hard to navigate the forest. Since there wasn’t any type of fight going on, I finally noticed how I could sort of…see, in the dark. I can’t say that exactly. It was more like a sixth sense than anything.

So, add “weird sixth sense” to list of things I’m learning about my body. Now maybe I can learn why my body is going through these changes!

Yes. You were supposed to read it like that. Now you can shudder at the mental imagery. I’m such a fourth-wall breaker, aren’t I?

A few feet later, and I was standing in the middle of a small clearing that was illuminated by the light of the full moon. Small boulders lined the edges of it, with a couple of pine trees that poked in as well. Not only that, but there was a small pond in the center of it…well, I say “Small” but it looked fairly deep. I could still see the path I had followed to get here, but the town? Completely out of sight and out of mind.

Good. Less chance of being discovered. Now then, prioritize:

1) Get a rough estimate of body’s strength/abilities.

2) Experiment with Traveler powers to see which ones work, and which ones fail.

3) Practice fighting skills to match abilities and powers.

4) Draw a smiley face on the moon.

Damn it, I will do that at some point! Hey, don’t give me that look. Everyone has to have a hobby or two. Mine just happens to be making ludicrous goals, and following through on them. Well, that and poetry. I like poetry.

No! I got off track again! Okay, sorry. Anyways, the clearing itself was fairly large. It was big enough to suit my needs.

“Okay…Live and learn!” I growled in anticipation, rolling my arms to loosen them up. So, let’s see how far I can stretch my arms out.

My fists both shot up into the air, easily stretching out to nearly ten times my size. Like before, my hands had unconsciously grown in size to match my arms. Is there a chance that I could somehow stretch my arms WITHOUT my hands changing, or vice versa? I remember something like that happening when Sonic had his stint as a Werehog…never bothered asking him how he did that.

Hindsight = 20/20.

With a small grunt of effort, I retracted my arms back to their normal state. Okay, so stretching hasn’t really reached a limit yet, but it’s obvious I can get ‘em pretty long. Not sure if they have a limit, but I can see how this could be useful.

“Okay, next…let’s see what these claws can do,” I half-laughed in excitement. There’s always something invigorating (I can use big boy words too!) about being put into a new body. You get to learn new things, make a fool of yourself, and generally adjust to a new point of view.

Eagerly, I walked over to my first target: a small pine tree situated just a little bit away from the general forest into the clearing. Digging my index finger into the groove, I carefully pulled it down, carving a long, thin line through the toughened bark.

“Alright, claws can go through trees…but can it cut through stone?” And can it blend? Okay, I’m done. Sorry.

Spying a small boulder about ten feet away from the tree, I dashed over to it, and slid my claw through it. With a bit of effort, I was able to carve another line through the stone…and then I got creative, and wrote, “Bark at the Moon – Ozzfest 2001”.

There. I have left my legacy for years to come. Now I can move on…nah. I still got stuff to do.

“Claws cut through trees, and stone…requires slightly more effort, but this implies my claws CAN cut through some pretty tough stuff. I wonder if I gave my claws enough momentum and strength…would they cut through steel?” I spoke out loud for my mind to catalog for later reference.

Funny fact that I’ve noticed: Immortal beings will get a tendency to talk to themselves. Seriously, it’s kinda strange when you think about it. I mean, look at Deadpool for crying out loud! Granted, that’s not the best analogy, but my point still stands!

Last thing I’ll test for my new body: strength.

Rubbing my palms together, I looked at the boulder I had just vandalized. It was fairly big, easily a few hundred pounds of pure stone. Hasn’t been set into the ground that much, meaning I just have to find a good enough place for me to grab it, and…

Jackpot. Groaning in effort, I slowly lifted the massive boulder a few inches off of the ground. Only a few inches?! But I’d seen Sonic hurl a freaking giant phoenix into the air as if it were nothing! He’s punched through stone, AND steel! The fact that I wasn’t able to lift a single boulder actually started to tick me off.

Without warning, the boulder shot up another few inches. I nearly let go of the boulder in surprise. “What? How did…” I started in confusion, before realizing: Anger. What did Gaia say about this form? Something about it being a combination of justice, honor…and anger!

Looks like the Hulk is strong with this form.

Releasing another roar of frustration, I hefted the boulder into the air, easily lifting it above my head as if it were nothing more than a bowling ball. Great. Now I’m mad, and I’ve got the urge to experiment in me…

I stretched my arms out with the boulder still grasped in my hands. Higher, and higher the boulder went, until it was about twenty feet in the air. Once I was satisfied with its position, I released the boulder and let it plummet towards my head while my arms returned to their normal length.

Just before the boulder reached my head, I launched my fist at it, hitting it dead center. A brief stinging sensation shot through my hand, as the boulder shattered into five large chunks that landed harmlessly around me…well, I wish that happened.

Take it from me; punches normally don’t just shatter solid rocks. At least not when there’s nothing restraining them. Still, I did manage to punch it away from me. I’m actually kinda glad that the boulder didn’t get smashed. My Ozzfest signature is something that will baffle archaeologists for years to come.

“The madder Omnius gets, the stronger Omnius gets,” I chuckled. There weren’t any scratches on my hand, although it did feel like I had bruised it just a bit. Okay, maybe a lot. Only one thing left to test now…

I looked towards the pond, and grimaced. There wasn’t any point in putting it off, but that didn’t mean I wanted to do this…

Hesitantly, I started treading water, my spiked shoes sinking deep into the mud. Cold water soaked into my fur, sending small chills up my spine. Okay…up to my chest now…just a bit deeper….up to my nose…above my eyes…

…

…

Shit. I really can’t swim. It’s not that I don’t know HOW to. More like I’m too dense to float. This could definitely be a problem later on…

“Well, that’s the basics,” I commented after I had left the pond and shaken myself dry (LIKE A DAWG!). “Now to see if I can still muster up some Traveler mojo.”

Due to extreme laziness on my part, I won’t go into detail about what I tested. Suffice it to say, none of my normal powers worked in Werehog mode. To add on to that disappointment, it took me nine whole minutes to shift back into human form! That’s way too long for my tastes. Guess I’m gonna be stuck in one form most of the time then.

On a brighter side, there really isn’t much use for my human form now. The ponies are already paranoid because of the Shadow-Stalkers, who’s to say they wouldn’t just shoot me on sight as a human?

As for the fighting style…well, after several smashed fingers, misdirected attacks, and cussing that would make this story instantly shoot up to “mature”, I had ended up with something that was a mixture of bar fighting, karate, boxing…

And one more style that I’m gonna need a straw hat for.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


The sun was well up into the sky by the time I had finished my training session. I now had a very rough estimate of my abilities, and a basic technique to work with. That’s always a good thing, right? At least now I can start improving myself.

With the sun shedding some light on the town, I was able to see that they were currently constructing a wall to fit around the town. Maybe I should start referring to it by its actual name since I’m gonna be staying here.

Pine Falls. My new temporary home.

“Hey, there you are Battleclaw!” I heard Wing call out, swooping out of the sky. “I’ve been looking for you all morning! Where’d you run off to?” he asked me, slapping me on the shoulders again.  

“Couldn’t sleep,” I grunted. “Went for a walk...” And got my pride/ego severely mauled and beaten. “Sky ask for me?”

The yellow Pegasus shook his head, saying, “Actually, he told me to tell you to report to him as soon as you were done with your business, whatever that means.”

Damn. That old Pegasus knows more than he lets on. Then again, he IS in charge of the guards. I should really stop over-thinking these things.

XHXHXHXHXHXHXHX


“Ah, Omnius,” Sky greeted me as I approached his desk. “Or are you goin’ by Battleclaw now?”

Am I the only one who’s hearing his voice as Sam Elliot? Seriously. He’s got the bandana, the old grizzled look, the wisdom…seriously!

“I’ll go with Battleclaw,” I stated. “You needed to see me sir?”

He nodded sagely at me. “Good, you’re getting used to authority. Now, mind tellin’ me what you were doin’ in them woods?”

I debated over cover stories in my head, before settling on, “I needed to train. Those monsters nearly killed me out there. If I’m gonna help protect this town, I’ve gotta learn how to be stronger.”

“Well good,” Sky said in approval. “Now, let’s get you a schedule worked out.”

He went on to explain how each guard was responsible for patrolling the perimeter, checking in with him, etc. If I saw anything suspicious, I was to report it to him immediately. For everything else, I was pretty much on my own. The barracks were barely able to hold the guards they had, meaning I still had to stay with Wing for the duration of my stay.

“Oh, and you’ll want something to wear with the town’s emblem on it,” he added. “It’ll let everypony know you’re in the guard.”

“I thought my name was supposed to do that.”

“Yeah, but the guards will want something to ease their minds,” he reminded me. “Some of the folks here in town don’t trust you one bit. Now if you were to have something in common with them…”

He let me figure out the rest.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked, my curiosity aroused.

With a knowing grin, he reached underneath his desk again (how does he fit that much stuff under there?) and pulled out a worn looking straw hat with a blue band tied around it. A green pine cone was stitched into the band, gold trim lining the edge of it.

Yes. YES YES YES! I GET A FREAKING STRAW HAT! BEST DAY EVER!

“This will work,” I whispered in a barely controlled voice. Must…not…make jokes yet. Those can wait. Note to self, become a pirate and search for legendary treasure at some point in this.

“Good. Now…there’s one more question I gotta ask ya.”

I tilted my head at him in confusion.

“…How do you feel about the night shifts?”

Ah, shite.

5) "Time Passes..."

Chapter 5:

"Time Passes..."

My time in the guard was well spent, if I do say so myself. Due to my inability to sleep, the night shifts ended up becoming something I looked forward to, simply because I managed to be useful. It let the other guards rest, earning me just a little more respect from them. You’d be surprised how much a good night’s sleep can do for someone who doesn’t trust you.

The Shadow-Stalkers only attacked five more times over the seven months that followed. As good as that may sound, my heart was telling me that there was something amiss. From my experience with Torrentican, whenever there was a lull in activity like that, it meant he was preparing. For what, I did not know…and it had me worried.

There were still other threats though. Occasionally, a diamond dog or passing bandit would sneak his way into Pine Falls and kidnap a pony to work in their mines. Thankfully, the guard was on high alert, always ready to thwart them. Of the twenty-seven times it happened, I managed to catch them in the act seven times.

Whirl Wing had caught them seventeen times. Needless to say, he was probably the best guard we had. Even with my skills improving, it wasn’t unusual for him to beat me in our usual sparring matches. Between our fights, guard duty, and time spent together, we had ended up becoming close friends. Hell, even during the Stalker fights, or the times we spent tracking down bandits and criminals, we ended up being one hell of a team.

Things really had changed around town. Hell, I had even taken up a few new hobbies. You’d be surprised by how much free time you get when you don’t have to sleep.

For once, things were looking up. There wasn’t another town I had to go to, whatever war it was that Gaia told me about wasn’t supposed to happen for years to come…for once, I didn’t have to stress out over everything.

You know what this is referred to as?

The calm before the storm.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


“Hey, Battleclaw!”

I turned to see Crimson Forge, the town’s new resident blacksmith, waving at me from his shop.

“Forge,” I greeted him, walking into the small store. Inside, all of his shelves were covered in various pieces of finely crafted metal sculptures. The earth pony really had a talent for delicately carving the metal traded with the nearby friendly diamond dog groups.

Yeah, asides from the bandits, Pine Falls is on good terms with the diamond dogs. Apparently, the mayor and Sky had both dealt with them repeatedly in the past, meaning that they could at least tolerate them. And if anypony in town had problems, they’d have to take it up with Sky…and no one really wants to get on his bad side.

Myself included.

“Say, you still in the market for a weapon, or some armor?” Forge asked me, making his way to a large iron chest he kept stashed behind the counter.

“I’ve told you, there isn’t any armor that will work with my arms,” I firmly stated. “Unless you have some sort of vest in there that will fit me, I’m pretty sure tha-”

I stopped talking as soon as he had pulled out a thin blanket of chainmail out of the chest. He ran a hoof lovingly over it, and said, “I’ve been experimenting with new techniques in the forge; one of the attempts at making a necklace got me thinking about how you can’t wear the plate armor that normal ponies wear.”

The best way to describe it was that it was basically just a literal vest. See, the former problem with armor was finding a way to fit it over my head and adjusting it for my arms. We couldn’t cut my hair (mostly because of how stubborn I am), and most plate armor that we strapped onto me wouldn’t let my arms move around enough for me to fight properly.

With this, however, it would work by letting me slip my arms into it, while thicker chains would hold the front together. It wasn’t perfect, but it would definitely stop almost anything from carving out my heart.

“Thank you Forge,” I said sincerely. “You have no idea how useful this is.”

“Ah, don’t mention it. I made armor for everypony else. It just took me a little longer to get to working out something for you,” he laughed, pushing his soot-stained mane out of his eyes. “And then there’s the matter of your weapon!”

“I don’t use weapons though,” I pointed out. “It’s mostly just hand-to-hand stuff.”

“That’s why you’re gonna love me for these,” he grinned wickedly. He dug around his chest again, only this time he emerged with a pair of large metal loops with curved grooves on the inside part of half of it.

“What are those?” I asked, confusion evident in my voice.

“These are my pride and joy…I call ‘em ‘Knuckle Dusters’,” Forge said, his chest puffing out in pride. “I got a unicorn to enchant it with a one-size fits all spell while it was melting in the fires. See where I’m going with this?”

“You mean these will fit over even my freakishly huge hands?” I joked evenly.

In answer, he shoved one of them onto my hand. It was a little loose at first…until it pulled a Terminator, and flowed like quicksilver around my palms. In an instant, they had fitted themselves over my knuckles, forming a pair of gleaming, silver knuckles.

Brass knuckles can suck it.

“These are pretty cool,” I admitted, taking a couple experimental swings with them. The extra weight wasn’t really noticeable at first, meaning I wouldn’t have to make any huge adjustments to my style. Let’s hear it for magic, people!

Thanking him once again, I set out from the metal shop to Whirl’s house.

I was proud of how much he had added onto his home. Now it had two more rooms added onto it: a guest room which I was currently occupying, and a room for the baby that was due any day now.

Stepping through the door, I spotted Whirl Wing reclining on the couch, a thoughtful expression on his face. I sat down across from him, and pulled a chunk of firewood onto my lap from the pile next to the fireplace.

Absently, I started running a claw through the wood, carving away the bark. “You got anything you wanna talk about?” I asked after a few minutes of silence.

Wing hesitated for an instant. With a heavy sigh, he asked me, “Do you think that the town’s well protected?”

Where did this come from?

“Yeah, I’d say it is,” I replied after some thought. “Mayor’s finally commissioned the carpenters to get finished on the watch towers, we haven’t had an attack in a long time, more guards are joining everyday…not to mention the woods are starting to thin out.”

“That’s true…” he quietly said in response. I hadn’t ever heard him ask things like that before. Normally, he’s the kind of pony to just go with things.

“Whirl, just tell me what’s wrong,” I said in a concerned voice. The wood I was carving had been stripped of all bark by now, and was starting to vaguely resemble a sword. I had no idea what I was trying to carve…I just start scratching at it while trying to free whatever shape was inside.

“It’s kind of hard for me to say,” he muttered.

Another scratch.

“When you’re up to it, let me know,” I sighed. No use in pushing him.  

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


A few nights later, and I was once again sitting next to the fireplace, scratching away at the same piece of wood from before. The sword was coming along nicely. I had carved out the basic hilt, with some delicate swirls etched into the sides of it.

Gentle Heart trotted into the room then, her belly even more swollen than the day I had met her. She collapsed onto the couch with an exhausted yawn, distracting me from my work.

“Evenin’,” I greeted her. She nodded tiredly at me, barely stirring from the couch. “Rough day at the medicinal place then?”

She groaned in response.

“Take it the baby’s kicking again,” I stated evenly.

Another groan of confirmation.

“Know if it’s gonna be a Pegasus or a Unicorn? Two groans for Pegasus, one for Unicorn.”

She groaned once, and actually added, “She keeps jabbing my stomach with her horn.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“No, no,” she protested. “It’s a good thing. She’s alive and kicking.”

She winced again.

“And stabbing,” I deadpanned as I continued to carve.

We exchanged small talk for a little while. She had managed to get more time off from her job in anticipation of the foal that was on the way. That always seemed to be the main subject of every conversation I had with Whirl or Heart nowadays. Understandable, given that they were two of the kindest ponies here.

Finally, I worked up the courage to ask her, in my famous blunt fashion, “Do you know if anything is wrong with Whirl Wing? He’s been acting different.”

Subtlety, thy name is Omnius.

Heart’s face fell, as she asked me, “You mean he hasn’t told you yet?” I shook my head. “Oh…well, Wing and I have been talking…and we’ve decided that it’s best if he retires from the guard.”

She braced herself suddenly, as if she expected me to yell at her or something.

Instead of that, I nodded politely, and said, “Okay. Is that all?”

“You’re…not…?” she trailed off.

“Surprised? No, not really. You know what he talked about the majority of the time when we were on patrol?” I asked her. Not bothering with the wait for a reply, I continued. “Three things: You, the kid, and Pine Falls. It’s only logical that he’d do that.”

She let out a relieved sigh. “Thank Celestia. Wing was worried you wouldn’t take the news too well.”

“Nah. I get it. He has a family, needs to focus on you guys. So tonight’s his last round then?”

“Yeah…”

We lapsed into silence once more.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Later that night, it was mine and Whirl’s turn to go on patrol. As we walked around the gate’s construction site, we talked about how he was planning on retiring from the guard.

“So what do you plan to do from here?” I asked him, tightening the straps on my vest.

He shrugged noncommittally, trying to mask his worry. “I’ve been thinking about becoming a teacher. I mean, I taught you how to read Equestrian, didn’t?”

Had to give him props on that one. Turns out, this Equestria’s written language was far different from most of the languages I knew. So when I brought up that I couldn’t read, he leaped at the chance to try out his teaching skills. A couple of months later and I had at least gotten the basics of it down. Still had trouble, but I managed to write somewhat legibly. I have to say, it explained his cutie-mark (a quill and knife in an ‘X’ shape) a bit more than it had before.

“You’d make a good teacher,” I admitted with a smile. “Guess I’ll have to move out too, right?”

He slapped me on the back of my head. “No you won’t, you big fuzzy idiot! You’re pretty much part of the family now,” he said, shaking his head at my apparent stupidity. He then smirked a bit, and added, “Besides. You don’t expect me to raise that kid all by myself, do you?”

Well. I don’t know whether that’s touching, or slightly degrading. Does that make me the new family pet?

“Hey, Battleclaw, you think you co-“

Suddenly, the alarms started to ring violently. Wing and I instantly tensed and got our weapons ready. From what I could tell, the alarm had been activated at the front of the town, towards the west. Wing took to the skies and flew ahead, leaving me to follow along. Racing through the towns, my nose picked up a bitter, acrid smell.

“Whirl! Do you see any smoke?” I shouted at him.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t look too bad. My main concern is how it started!” he shouted back, never once slowing down.

“Alright, go and get some backup then!”

He nodded at me and flew off to alert the other guards that were on duty. While he did that, I started running on all fours, picking up more and more speed.

XHXHXHXHXHX

When I reached the source of the fire, I expected a couple of bandits, or maybe some vandals. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see some of the dumber teenage ponies dancing around a trash blaze.

So I was considerably surprised to see a small group of teenage DRAGONS (three of them to be exact) dancing around a burning tree. Out of the corner of my eye, I could also see Twitch sprawled out on the ground. His armor was scorched in different places, along with some of his skin as well…

“HEY!” I roared as loud as I could, getting the dragons’ attention. All of them stopped where they were to stare at me in a combination of amusement and surprise.

“What in Tartarus are you?” one of them, a bulky crocodile like green one asked in a bewildered tone.

In answer, I clanged my knuckle dusters together, sending a flurry of sparks into the air. The light from the sparks cast my bared fangs into demonic shadows, my straw hat only adding to the intimidation factor.

The three of them tensed visibly, preparing themselves for a fight.

I gave another low growl that lingered for a moment afterwards.

“I’m just one angry sunuvabitch.”

6) "...Friends Are Made..."

Chapter 6:

“…Friends Are Made...”


I stretched my fist towards the largest one first, catching him in the gut. With an “oof!” of pain, he bent over, allowing me to run over to him and slam my head into his. Dazed, he stumbled backwards while the other two charged over to me with their heads lowered. I sidestepped one of them, but got caught by the same one from before in the side.

He then started slashing at me with his talons, attempting to rip open my stomach in retaliation for attacking his comrade. Amazingly, the chainmail vest held up to his onslaught of slashes, allowing me to curl up both of my fists and slam them on the back of his head. Down he went, out for the count.

One down…

Instinctively, I rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a blast of blue tinted flames. If I hadn’t dodged, I would have been burnt to a crisp. I got up, and faced the remaining dragons, my teeth bared in a feral snarl.

Two to go.

The croc dragon shot forward like a bullet, his claws balled up into tight fists. I stood my ground, and pulled my fist back a bit. As soon as he had gotten close enough, I let loose one of my signature haymakers, smashing him straight in his jaw.

Okay kids! It’s time to do some math! Werehog strength + adrenaline + nearly unbreakable knuckle dusters + idiot dragon running full speed…

Well, let’s just say he’s gonna need a straw for the rest of his life.

This left just me and the last one: a black scaled, slender looking dragon. I had the feeling that this one was gonna be a bit tougher than the others. My suspicions were confirmed when I feinted towards his right, prompting him to spit out another burst of flame that nearly scorched my hand. I pulled it back in time to avoid it, allowing him to move a bit closer.

We circled each other for a bit, both of us trying to seek a lull in the other’s defenses. He was using his flame breath to his advantage, keeping my arms away from him, and letting him inch his way towards me. If he got too close, he wouldn’t even have to try and attack me with his claws; he could just incinerate me.

So I did the only thing I can do in a situation like that: improvise. I grabbed my hat, and flung it like a Frisbee at his head, breaking his focus. As he inhaled to prepare another burst of flames, I rushed forward and tackled him to the ground. Pinning him at the neck with one hand, I immediately started whaling on his face with the other, alternatively slashing and smashing.

Finally, his body went limp underneath my hands as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Triumphantly, I let go of his neck, and stood up, howling my victory to the moon.

“Nice…going there…Battleclaw…” a pained voice wheezed from behind me.

Oh no, I completely forgot about Twitch! I ran over to where he was lying on the ground, and knelt beside him.

He was in pretty bad shape. Blood flowed freely from several slashes on his legs, while his armor was actually melted onto him in certain places. I needed to get him to a medic, ASAP. Knowing that the rest of the guards would be here to put out the fire, I carefully picked Twitch up in my arms.

“What…about the…dragons?” he asked me with a great amount of effort.

“Don’t worry, the other guards will be here soon. Right now, we need to get you some medical help,” I said, wincing in sympathy as I accidently brushed one of his burns. It was hard to believe that those teenage dragons did this to him. Sure, he wasn’t the brightest or the toughest of the guard, but he’s pretty good in a fight.

Not even from my time in Equestria, or from watching the show, did they once mention that teenage dragons could do something like that. Especially the last one…

As I raced to the hospital, I spotted some of the Pegasi pushing a rain cloud in front of them. Good, that’ll deal with the fire. Looks like that was what Whirl had gone off to do when I said, “Get backup”.

XHXHXHXHXHX


“He’ll be alright,” I growled in relief as I walked into the guard house with Sky. “Other than a couple of weeks cooped up in bed, that is.”

Now that the situation had been dealt with, Sky had asked me to fill him in on the details. He also kept asking questions about the dragons.

“That’s good…now, you DID make sure to restrain those dragons after they had been dealt with?”

“Sir, I knocked them out,” I stated confidently. “They shouldn’t be awake for a few more minutes. Plenty of time for the rest of the guards to tie them up.”

“Okay, I trust ya,” Sky said, relieved. He took a long drink from his bottle, once again offering it to me before hid did so. As always, I declined.

A couple of tense minutes later, and the door had burst open, revealing a very soaked Whirl Wing. Shaking himself dry, he stepped to the side, allowing two unicorns to pass by, their horns glowing as they carried the trio of dragons inside.

Sky hissed in surprise at the sight of the black one. In the blink of an eye, he had jumped out of his chair and started undoing the bonds around it, causing me to start protesting against that.

He then shouted, “Battleclaw, you stupid idiot! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’VE DONE!?”

“Thrashed a few punks and stopped them from burning down those woods?” I asked rhetorically.

He smacked me across the face at that. “This is no time for jokes! You need to take the dragon OUT  of Pine Falls! NOW!”

“What? Why?”

“Don’t you know ANYTHING about Black Dragons?!” he shouted in fear and anger. “They’re ruthless! Merciless! If that one’s mother finds out we’re holding it in our town, we’re all doomed!”

Shit. The only time Sky ever has been scared of something is…well, never. The Shadow-Stalkers, dogs, bandits…nothing ever got to him. For him to actually be shaking in terror at the thought of something like this didn’t do well for morale.

“Alright, I’m off,” I said, slinging the black dragon over my shoulder. “How far should I take it?”

“Run in one direction for three days,” he commanded. “That should give us enough distance to play it safe when he’s found.”

Great…good thing I don’t need sleep now. On the way out of town, I stopped by the spot where the ponies were still attempting to put out the blaze without any of the other trees lighting up.

“Can’t forget my hat,” I muttered to myself as I dusted it free of soot and ash.

Once it was secured tightly to my head, I adjusted the black dragon on my shoulders (clonking him another good one on the head for good measure), and ran off into the woods.

XHXHXHXHXHX


For three days and nights, I ran. The only times I remember stopping were to eat, drink, rest, or re-knock out the dragon on my back. My arms and legs started to burn from running so long, protesting the added weight of the dragon. I was half-tempted to just ditch him in a canyon, leave him for dead.

That’s not how I work though. He hadn’t really hurt anyone, other than Twitch, and the doctors said he’d make a full recovery. If anything, it looked more like the croc dragon had done that. This dragon’s claws were too thin to leave the gashes I saw on Twitch. Those thoughts constantly lingered on my mind, as I asked myself the same question over and over again:

What have I gotten everyone into?

The dragon stirred once more on my back, tempting me to stop and knock him out again. This time, however, something stirred in my conscience. In my hesitation, the dragon opened his eyes to look at me calmly. He didn’t struggle, he didn’t flail. He just…looked at me.

I kept running with him on my back. Finally, I had to ask him, “You comfy there, kid?”

The dragon looked at me curiously, and asked quietly, “Where are we?”

Looks like I made a mistake: He’s a she. I feel like an idiot for thinking she was a dude, now that I think about it, since she’s much more slender than the other dragons were. Well, learn something new every day, right?

“Nowhere near that town anymore,” I replied.  She nodded at that, and dug her claws into my shoulders.

“Good,” she said in a quavering voice. “Where are Burns and Scales?”

“Still locked up in the town jail, I’d wager,” I cautiously said. Her grip loosened, and she let out a small sob of…joy?

“They’re…they’re locked up?” she asked hopefully. I stopped running, and turned to look at her closely. Her entire body was trembling, and she had tears welling up in her gold colored eyes. Small scratches covered her back and arms…for the first time, I noticed that she didn’t have any wings on her back like the others. She was just a hair taller than I was, and her scales glimmered hauntingly in the moonlight.

Taking a chance, I softly whispered, “They can’t hurt you anymore now.”

Confirming my suspicions, tears started streaking down her face, quiet sobs coming from her throat. She fell to the ground and curled up into the smallest ball she could have possibly made. For some reason, that sent a fresh wave of anger through me.

Sky had acted like black dragons were the meanest, toughest things alive. I guess the thing everyone forgot was that this one was still for all intents and purposes…a child. Sure, she had held herself pretty well in our little scuffle, but now?

It literally tore my heart in two to see her like that. Even if they’re considered a demon, a child should never have to cry like that. Not when I’m around.

Slowly, I pulled her over to a small patch of pine needles that I had gathered on the ground. As I set her down, she flinched violently, but remained curled up like a dog.

For about an hour, I just let her sit there and cry. It was a heart wrenching sound, a mixture of sorrow, joy, relief, and fear.

When she started to calm down, I gently placed a hand on her back and said, “I’m sorry for scaring you all like that.”

Hesitantly, she lifted her head to look at me, confusion in her eyes. “Wh…why are you sorry? We were the ones who were doing something wrong…”

Listen to that. She just said what they’re doing is wrong. That implies that she still has her conscience. And not only that, but I can feel that she’s being sincere.

Smiling, I replied to her, “You sound like you didn’t want to be doing that in the first place. So why were you then?”

She wiped away her tears, and pushed herself into a sitting position. “Because…they would have hurt me if I didn’t.”

“So? The way you were fighting me makes me think that you coulda kicked their trash,” I stated, leaning against a tree.

No reply. It looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn’t muster up the courage or find the right words to say it. Certain things started to click in my head right about then.

“What’s your name?” I asked her.

“I…Scorch. My name is Scorch.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Scorch,” I said, holding out a hand. “My name’s Omnius. Most folks call me Battleclaw though.”

Tentatively, she extended her hand towards mine. I have to say, it was pretty funny to see my own enormous hand completely engulf her own.

Things went rather smoothly from there. It took just a bit of time, but I managed to coax her story out of her. It turns out that she was stolen from her nest when she was just a hatchling by the same teenage dragons from earlier, under the orders of an adult emerald dragon named Quartz. Scorch told me about how she and a few of the other hatchlings caught around that time were forced to do his bidding. Stealing gems from diamond dogs, fighting each other just to get stronger, cleaning his treasure horde…the works.

Because of all that, she was the only hatchling to have survived the first few years. Unfortunately, during that time, her wings were also forcefully ripped out of her back in a sparring match gone horribly wrong. The other teenage dragons were already Quartz’s children. From how she explained it, it seemed that Quartz was trying to raise an army…but that can’t be…can it?

There's also the matter of why she trusts me...Not to make myself sound like an ass, but I DID beat her to a pulp and take her away from the only other dragons she'd known. Best not to press her now. She's been through enough for a while.

When she finished telling me about her life story, I asked her, “Well, you’re free now. Where you gonna go now?”

Scorch looked at the ground and idly scratched it with one of her claws. “I…I don’t know. If I knew where my real parents were, I’d go there. But it’s been so long though. I don’t even know where my nest is anymore!”

You know what? Screw Sky.

“Scorch, why don’t you come stay with me?” I suggested on impulse. “I’ve got enough money to get a new house, and I’m sure once we tell everyone the whole story, they’d be more than happy to let you stay.”

“You’d…you’d do that for me?” she asked in a stunned voice. “Why?”

It was my turn to shrug. “To be honest, I don’t really know. I just can’t stand the thought of leaving an innocent kid alone in the woods. Doesn’t sit right with my heart.”

Scorch’s eyes lit up, but she still asked, “Are you sure? You’d want something like me to stay with you?”

I rolled my eyes, and growled, “You’re asking me, a freaking fur covered diamond dog reject that can’t swim and wears a straw hat, if I’d want company.”

The black dragon choked for a second, before letting out a quiet laugh. She seemed surprised that she was still able to do that.

“See?” I smiled. “Laughter. It’s good for the soul.”

And it’s good to be The Traveler.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


It took us a lot longer to get back to Pine Halls than it did to get to where we were. Then again, I couldn’t travel through the night now that I had a new friend who had to sleep, unlike me. What meager supplies I had brought with me quickly disappeared, but you’d be surprised how much venison a black dragon can help you get.

So between all of that, it took us roughly a week to get back to town. During that time, I managed to figure out something about Scorch:

SHE’S A FREAKING DRAGON VERSION OF FLUTTERSHY. No, really! Every time a twig broke in the night, she’d nearly feint in terror. Even though she didn’t mind killing a few deer for food, she only did it out of necessity. Really, she preferred the nuts and berries we might be able to scavenge.

Oh, and of course, she’s really shy about suggesting things.

Still, she’s nice enough. Still scared about the dragon hatchlings in town, but I reassured her that they’d be long gone by then.

Unfortunately, I was right.

“…Scorch, please tell me that that’s not smoke.”

Pine Falls was burning…and an emerald colored dragon was circling the blaze, igniting the homes of everypony underneath him.

“No…” I whispered in shock.

Sky was right. A dragon did come for its hatchling.

We just chose the wrong one.

7) "...Heroes Die"

Chapter 7:

“…Heroes Die”

The dragon soaring above the town let out a piercing shriek as it let loose another torrent of fire on the fleeing ponies below.

My mind instantly went into crisis mode, taking stock of the situation. In front of me was Pine Falls, half of it currently on fire. The hospital, guard house, and all the buildings around there were still untouched. Guards were currently trying to rally at the edge of the fire, most of them unicorns with ranged weapons of some sort. The pegasi and earth ponies were busy attempting to control the fire.

Priorities: Get to the guard house, formulate plan on the way there.

“Scorch!” I shouted, snapping her attention away from the blaze. She winced and looked at me a little fearfully. “Does fire hurt you?”

“N-no,” she stuttered out. “Only if it’s really, really bad.”

“Good. Come on, we’re going in!”

She gulped somewhat fearfully, but followed me as I took off towards the town. We weaved our way through the narrow alley ways and ash covered roads until we made it to the guard house, where Sky was hovering over a large group of soot-stained mares and children.

“Battleclaw!” he yelped in surprise. “You’re just in time, that d- I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO TAKE THAT BLACK DRACO OUT OF HERE!”

He angrily started to fly towards the dragon, only to be stopped when she cowered behind me at the sight of Sky.

“Back off, sir,” I growled simply, glaring at him. “Her name’s Scorch. She’ll be staying with me.”

Ignoring my tone, he harshly spat out, “If we still have anywhere to stay after this! Why did you bring her back here?!”

“Because,” I stated coldly. “I’m gonna hold off the bastard that’s burning down everything. Scorch?”

The teenage dragon tilted her head curiously. In a firm voice, I told her, “Remember that cabin with the green roof we passed by on the way here? I need you to go in there, ask for Whirl Wing or Gentle Heart, tell them Omnius Battleclaw sent you. If they don’t listen, just go wait in the woods.”

A brief flash of mistrust appeared in her eyes. For an instant, she hesitated.

“Scorch, please,” I pleaded. “If we can’t stop Quartz from destroying the town, a lot more ponies are going to end up like you were: alone, homeless, and scared.”

That did it. She nodded once, still trembling slightly, but then ran into the direction of Whirl’s home.

Sky shook his head, and muttered, “A black dragon…you seriously had to bring back the damned black dragon.”

“She’s an orphan,” I replied evenly. “Or at least she hasn’t seen her parents since she was a hatchling.”

“That’s not important now,” Sky relented, his cold glare telling me that we weren’t done with this conversation. “As of right now, your orders are to distract that dragon while I gather the rest of the guards and get them reorganized. See if you can get the dragon over the lake or something.”

“Yes sir.”

And with that, I gave him a salute, before tearing off into the very heart of the inferno.

XHXHXHXHXHX

You know how in video games they give you a path through the fire? That’s normally total bullshit. Fire doesn’t have a controlled path, so if you’ve gotta find your way through one, it’s all just one big risk.

So it wasn’t very surprising when I couldn’t find a safe path through the inferno on the ground. Quickly running out of time, I shot my arms towards the roof of a nearby grocery store and pulled myself onto its roof. From there, I ended up using my arms to jump from one blazing rooftop to another, with fire constantly threatening to engulf me completely. At one point I was nearly incinerated by one of the roofs collapsing underneath me, sending me tumbling into a burning home.

Smoke instantly started to fill my lungs as I tried to find a way out that wasn’t on fire. Realizing I didn’t have much time, I went to the nearest window and hurled myself out of it, my fur protecting me from the worst of the glass. The moment I hit the ground, I was off, still charging towards the green dragon that flew overhead.

This isn’t going to get me anywhere, I thought to myself as I found myself at another dead end (or as I like to call it, "Extreme barbeque pit"). Time to do something stupid again.

Taking a deep breath, I let out the loudest howl I could. The sound of it carried over the roaring fire, and did what I had meant it to do: get the dragon’s attention.

The dragon gave me an amused look. “Hmm…out of ponies for me to roast then?” it chuckled darkly. “Pity. And WHAT exactly are you?”

My knuckle dusters crashed together once more.

“I’m just one angry sunuvabitch,” I growled.

[I’d like to suggest listening to “Egg Dragoon Theme” from Sonic Generations/Sonic Unleashed]

I balled up my fist, and sent it hurtling towards Quartz with as much strength as I could put into it. The attack caught the emerald dragon directly on his right wing, throwing off his flight course. Unbalanced, he was forced to land on the ground, his bulk crushing two buildings beneath him. To buy himself some time, he unleashed another pillar of flames at me.

Instinctively, I fell to my stomach, and flattened myself to the ground, avoiding the worst of the attack. My hat was lucky enough to have survived the blaze with me, thankfully enough. The instant the flames had cleared, I shot forward, leaping over the smoldering debris that littered the area in front of me.

Quartz swiped at me with his massive clawed hand, causing me to leap over it, and nearly get incinerated once more. As it was, I only just managed to grab his finger with one of my hands, pulling myself out of the fire. Infuriated, he started waving his hand around in an attempt to shake me off. I tightened my grip with one hand in response, while my other started pummeling away at his hands. My claws probably couldn’t cut through the tough material, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try to crush my way through it.

Roaring in pain, he finally raised his hand to slam it, and me, into the ground. Instead of that, I used the momentum to launch myself into the air, far out of his reach. Once more, my hand shot forward, stretching out to impossible lengths, and latched firmly onto the largest spike that sat on top of his head.

You all knew this attack was coming.

“Gum-Gum ROCKET!” I shouted, pulling myself at top speeds directly at the dragon’s face. More specifically, the one spot that I don’t need a weapon to seriously damage…

With another adrenaline filled roar, I dug my claws into his left eye, tearing it to shreds inside of his skull. Red hot blood poured out of the ghastly wound, staining my coat and hat, and nearly burning me alive.

Angrily, Quartz snatched me up in his clawed hand once again, this time making sure to pin my arms to my sides.

“You little RAT!” he snarled, holding me up to his one good eye. “Who are you, to dare attack me?!”

His grip tightened, cutting off my lungs’ air intake. In a weaker voice, I managed to growl out, “The distraction.”

Nothing happened for a few seconds after I said that. Quartz gave off an amused chuckle.

“Wait for it…”

Suddenly, four grappling hooks attached themselves to his jaws. Taken by surprise, the dragon stumbled backwards, casually flinging me out of his grasp…towards the river.

The last thing I saw before I hit the water was the sight of another group of hook-toting pegasi flying towards the now pissed off dragon.

[Music over]

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

I felt air being forced into my lungs, making me cough out a generous amount of water. I feebly rolled over and pushed myself to my feet.

“Easy there, Fuzzy,” a familiar voice said from my side. “You alright?”

“Yeah…I think so,” I wheezed. I shakily stood up and shook my head a bit. “Ye Gods…what happened? And how long was I out for?”

A yellow hoof helped keep me from falling over, and Whirl said, “First off, you were out for a couple hours. I’m surprised you’re still alive. Second, that dragon hurled you into the river. Apparently you hit it too hard and knocked yourself out. You’re lucky that Scorch told me about everything.”

“She made it to you fine then?” I asked, worried about the timid dragon.

“Yeah, she just scared us half to death when we saw her,” he chortled. “Anyways, I pulled you out of the river while the guards finished off the dragon. You can see where they’re dumping the body from here.”

Indeed, from where we were standing, I could make out a large green speck in the distance being covered by a huge mound of dirt. Looks like they were burying the bastard…good. He got what he deserved.

Frowning, I asked him, “What about the other dragons?”

Whirl’s face took on a grim tone. He knew what I was talking about. “They were killed a couple of days ago. Remember how Twitch was nearly mauled by them?” I nodded, and he let out a deep sigh. “He went back to the cells to confirm which one of them did it, but…they undid the locks without us knowing.”

My brain filled in the rest of the details for me. I closed my eyes in sorrow, and shook my head. I couldn’t find the words to describe what I felt at that.

The former guard winced, and wisely decided to move onto a different topic. “So, Scorch huh? What’s her story?”

“You know that dragon the guards killed? Speaking of which, how’d that get pulled off?”

Whirl grinned at that. “You never had to take the training course, but we were taught a veeerryyy useful technique for dealing with dragons.”

I rolled my eyes and gestured for him to get on with it.

“Well, basically, the pegasi flew in and got it pinned, right? After that, the unicorns and earth ponies came in and started plunging weapons made out of lead into it. His natural body temperature melted the lead while it was inside him, and his heart did the rest,” he explained.

That’s a pretty good strategy, actually. It reminded me of that old Greek story about Bellerophon, and how he killed a manticore by impaling it with a lead spear.

“Heh, you retired just when things got excited,” I pointed out as we started the trek back into town. “So what happens now?”

Whirl Wing shrugged, flapping his wings to take to the sky. “Gotta clean up the mess now. Then we can start rebuilding, and life will go on…”

“Yeah…hey, about Scorch,” I started.

He cut me off with a chuckle, and said, “Don’t worry about it. I took you in when no one trusted you, so it makes sense that you’d do the same for someone else. She can sleep in your room for now.”

“Hooray, I get the couch again!”

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Several hours later, and Scorch, Whirl, and I were digging around the rubble, searching for survivors. Unfortunately, as Sky put it, we were really just searching for bodies at this point. If anypony had been trapped inside of a burning building, they were as sure as goners. If the fire hadn’t killed them, the smoke would have. At least since Quartz had been killed, the pegasi were able to get the fires put out fairly quickly, thanks to the rain clouds in the area.

I guess the only other good thing about it was that there was only one dead body found that day.

I just didn’t expect it .

Whirl slowly trotted through the remains of the hotel that traders would use whenever they came into town. Some of the timbers were still smoldering as he crept into the ruined building. “Hello?” he called out loudly. “Is anypony in there?”

The hairs on the back of my neck stiffened right about then. Time seemed to slow down, and I turned to look at Whirl…just as one of the support beams came plummeting towards his head.

“Look out!” I shouted, trying to stretch my arms out to catch the beam…but it was too late.

He looked up, before giving me a sad smile, like he had accepted his fate. His eyes closed, just as the beam crashed down upon his neck. The floor beneath him gave way, and he ended up falling into the basement level, soon buried by smoldering debris.

Scorch screamed in shock, and time resumed its normal flow. Instantly, I started digging through the rubble, my claws hacking away at the pile. The entire time, I kept thinking to myself, “No, no, no, this can’t happen to him, he hasn’t done anything wrong, no, no, no” over and over again. Scorch joined in after the shock wore off, and together we hacked the majority of the wood away, until…

“Whirl? Whirl, buddy, come on now, answer me!” I said, pulling into my arms. “Come on mate, say something!”

Desperately, I felt for his pulse with my free fingers…

…

…

…

Nothing.

He was dead.

8) The Mourning Dawn

Chapter 8:

The Mourning Dawn

I sat there for who knows how long, holding the broken body of my friend…no, my brother, in my arms. It was only when Scorch started to tug on my arm that I decided to move. Together, we slowly made our way back to the guardhouse.

When we got there, everything sort of became a blur. I remember a couple of unicorns that took Whirl away from me, and Sky telling me to go home and break the news to Gentle. I remember walking down the dirt path to her home…

And I can never forget the expression on Heart’s face when I told her, “Heart, I have some bad news…it’s about Whirl.”

The moment I had said those words, it felt like I had just destroyed her entire world.  Imagine that you had been on the brink of getting everything you’ve ever wanted, that after years upon years of struggling, you were literally inches away from your goal. Now imagine that one, single, unpredictable mistake suddenly tore it all away from you, and made it impossible to achieve.

That. That was what I had to tell Gentle Heart. That the father of her unborn child, her husband, and her best friend had survived a dragon attack, nearly ten years of being a guard, and uncountable life threatening situations, only to be done in by an unstable building.

I know that life isn’t fair.

But this? This was just too much.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Two days had passed since then. Heart and I were in the middle of the funeral arrangements, trying to decide where he would be buried. Normally, I’d let her plan everything herself, but with the combination of the influx of new patients at the hospital was really starting to take its toll on her. Not to mention the shock of losing her husband.  It wouldn’t have been right to let her do all the work.

So I had volunteered to help her out. I had just suggested burying him somewhere next to the top of the waterfall, where you could see the entire town in a bird’s eye view, when-

“Agh!” Heart cried out, bending over in pain.

“Heart? What’s wrong?” I asked, getting up from my seat.

“The…the baby!” she gasped out, collapsing.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was happening. MAN! What is with this timing?!

“Sorry about this, Heart, but it’s the fastest way,” I apologized.

“What are you-OOOH!”

I lifted her into my arms and hauled her outside, where Scorch was busy planting some flowers into the yard.

Yeah. She likes gardening. Who knew? Wait. WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT THIS!? THERE’S A BABY COMING!

“Scorch, I need that cart!” I shouted, gently setting Heart down into the cart that the dragon was planning on using for her garden. Yes, I’m improvising! DEAL WITH IT!

Before Scorch could ask me what was going on, I sprinted full speed to the hospital, yelling at the passing ponies/cleanup crews to get out of the way, or get flattened. They instantly jumped out of the way.

Sometimes it’s useful being a huge hairy monster.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Waiting. I’m normally someone who’s pretty good at that, what with being immortal and all. I mean, what’s a couple years to a thing that literally doesn’t need to worry about it?

Hospitals change all of that for me though. Throughout the years, I had come to associate hospitals with death. Every time I had to wait for someone to get out of one, they were either dying, on the brink of death, or one of the doctors (which rarely happens). You’d think I’d be used to it by now.

Then again, I should probably be used to the idea of my friends dying, by that logic at least.

Thankfully, Scorch had managed to follow me to the hospital to help me last through it. She was even thoughtful enough to bring that bit of wood I had been carving for the last few days. Really, that was the only thing that I could afford to focus on at the moment.  I couldn’t focus on the ticking of the clock, or else the few hours we were in there would’ve stretched out to an eternity. If I tried to read one of the magazines, the words would have started swirling around my head as if I had dyslexia. There was nothing I could do, but carve away at the chunk of wood.

Idly, I muttered to myself, “This is starting to look less like a sword than I thought it was…”

Scorch tilted her head in curiosity.

“Well, it’s actually starting to look more like a-”

I was interrupted by the doors creaking open. A light red unicorn with a stunningly bright lab coat on stepped into the room.

“Battleclaw? She’s done now,” he said, using his magic to remove a surgical mask. “She’s waiting for you…”

I got up to walk past him, but he stopped me with an outstretched hoof. “What is it?” I asked, my heart falling.

He let out a deep sigh. “How much stress has she been under lately?” he asked me in a somber, quiet tone.

“A lot. I mean, her husband’s dead, her baby WAS on the way, and the dragon attack did a lot to her,” I answered.

“I was afraid of that,” he muttered. “I don’t know how to say this, but…well, now might be the best time to say your goodbyes.”

No…

Dumbfounded and stunned, I mechanically walked down the long and winding hallway. The world seemed to toss and turn beneath me, as I finally entered Heart’s room.

“Good…day, Claws,” she weakly murmured from her bed. Her coat seemed to be duller than it was before, while her mane was a shade lighter than its usual color. Beeping monitors and an IV fluid were hooked up to her, and it seemed that even breathing took her a tremendous amount of effort.

Quietly, I whispered, “Is the baby alright?”

“See…for yourself.”

Struggling, she lifted the corner of her blankets to reveal a small, wrapped bundle that had a tuft of amber colored hair sticking out of it. A tiny horn poked out, while topaz eyes gazed curiously at the world around it.

“Her name…is Amber. Amber Heart,” she quietly sighed, stray tears running down her face. “She has her father’s coat…and my eyes…”

“Yeah, she does,” I agreed, smiling softly at the newborn foal. Amber yawned, and I held my pinkie finger towards her. Giggling, she wrapped her hoofs around it, soliciting a small chuckle from me.

My heart melted at the sight of that little filly’s smile.

I don’t care who, what, or where you are. There is no arguing against the fact that a baby’s smile, their laughter, holds infinitely more magic than any firestorm a wizard can conjure up.

“She’s beautiful,” I choked.

Heart didn’t answer.

The monitors started to beep wildly.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Scorch didn’t know what to do. Everything around her seemed to be a mess of chaos and confusion, every one of the ponies shouting things about electricity spells, jumpstarting, and getting the monster out of the room. She had no idea what they meant by any of that. Really, she didn’t know why she was there in the first place. It was just some gut instinct that told her to stay close to the Werehog.

But why did she want to do that?

Tick…Tock…Tick…Tock…

That clock was starting to really get to her. Even though everyone around her was shouting, the sound of that damned clock carried over the chaos.

Tick…Tock…Tick…Tock…

“You know, you should be grateful that you are allowed to feel time slip by you,” a soft voice suddenly said from her side.

Scorch flinched, startled the by sudden appearance of a strange, bipedal creature besides her. Whatever it was, it was nearly hairless, save for the long flowing blue hair atop her head. The creature’s eyes were a brilliant sapphire color, and the wisdom they held in them was a sharp contrast to the rest of her youthful appearance.

The dragon had the distinct feeling that she had seen this being before.

“At ease, child,” the woman soothed.

“I’ve…I’ve seen you before…in my dreams,” Scorch whispered, barely taking notice of the fact that everything in the room had come to a complete standstill. Time itself had stopped…

The woman smiled, and said to her, “You have. Do you remember what I told you in them?” When she shook her head, the woman’s smile only got wider, and she shook her head. “But you do, my child. Just close your eyes, and tell me…”

Somewhat cautiously, Scorch did as she was told. Quietly, in a dreamlike trance, she said, “You…you told me that my pain would end…that a beast born of the earth, but with the blessing of Time and Wisdom would save me…that I could trust him. He’s…he’s someone I can trust…”

“That’s right,” she whispered. “Now what else do you remember? Can you tell me my name?”

Scorch furrowed her brow in concentration, struggling to recall the name. She knew that the being had said it, but…

“Nayru…” she finally answered.

“That’s right, my child,” the goddess whispered. “And remember…keep my chosen safe. Be his friend, and he will help you find the true answer that you seek.”

With that, Nayru, Goddess of Wisdom and Time, disappeared, and Scorch found herself sitting in a nearly empty room, clutching the piece of wood that Omnius had been carving in her claws. She noted the detail that he had painstakingly carved into the curves of the piece of timber, the strange alien letters that her mind failed to recognize.

The only thing she knew was that it was most certainly not a sword.

XHXHXHXHXHX

Doctors and nurses all rushed around me, trying to bring the deceased unicorn back to life with some form of defibrillation. It was pointless though. And while I watched the futile efforts of the ponies in front of my, the baby I had snatched up into my arms started to cry.

One of the doctors, a leafy green earth pony, tried to take the baby from me. A single growl and glare had made him think better of the action. Eventually, I walked back into the waiting room where Scorch was, at a loss for what to do. Both of this baby’s parents were dead now. She was an orphan. What would happen to her now?

I looked down at Amber, at the daughter of two of my closest friends. Warmth blossomed from my chest as I gently rocked her in my arms, quieting her cries to small sniffles. She cooed at me, tears still welled up in her eyes.

It was then that I made my final decision.

The doors to the room burst open once more, allowing Sky Blue, a dark brown earth pony mare who I recognized as the mayor, and an unfamiliar unicorn with magenta colored fur to step into the room.

“Battleclaw,” Sky started, nodding his head at my direction. “Is Gentle Heart-?”

“She’s dead,” I stated simply, passing Amber to Scorch so I could properly talk to the trio.

Sky and the mayor’s faces fell, while the unicorn seemed to get a greedy glint in his eyes. The old Pegasus respectfully removed his old tattered hat from his head, and murmured, “I’m sorry to hear that. Is that the child?”

I nodded, unconsciously placing myself between them and Amber. “Yeah. I figured since she’s got no family to go to, I’m the only thing she’s got,” I slowly said.

The unicorn scowled at me, and said, “Battleclaw, is it? I’m afraid we haven’t been properly introduced yet: I’m Silver Bars.” He held his hoof towards me, and added, “I run the bank of Pine Falls, and am a very close friend of the family.”

“No, you’re not,” I coldly replied, recognizing the name from one of Whirl’s old stories. “You’re Heart’s former coltfriend. The one who didn’t make her happy.”

His eyes hardened in response to that. “At least I would’ve kept her safe, unlike that boorish W-”

My fist smacked into his face, alarming the mayor and getting a grin from Sky.  Before Silver could pick himself up off the ground, I placed one of my metal-spiked boots on top of his head.

“If you couldn’t stop that punch,” I growled, “then you couldn’t do anything.”

I stepped off of him to look at the other two ponies. The mayor cleared her throat, and said in a reedy voice, “Mr. Battleclaw…What Mr. Bars is getting at is that he is the most eligible to take care of the child, in the absence of her parents.”

“Now hold on just a minute,” Sky protested. “I’m the one who took that Pegasus into the guard, and trained him. I think after ten years of knowing him, I’d be the one to take care of his daughter.”

He then threw a conspiratory wink at me, before getting back into the shouting match that was quickly evolving from the trio. The mayor wanted to put the child up as a ward of the town, with Silver backing her up. Sky argued that he should take the child in, instead of letting, quote, “that silver tongued yellow-bellied, money grubbing, snake in the grass, pig-stealing varmint” take her. Scorch cowered in the corner of the room, the baby and carving both clutched in her arms and tail respectively.

Finally, I had enough. I roared over the noise at the top of my lungs, “SHE’S COMING HOME WITH ME!”

Sky nodded, glad that I had finally gotten where he was going with this. In a loud voice, he said, “And what makes you capable of taking care of her?”

“Officially, the house doesn’t belong to the town,” I started explaining. “It belongs to the child. And since I was paying her parents rent, that means I also own the house. Amber Heart, the kid, can’t take care of herself, leaving another tenant of the house to do so. Also known as ME.”

The mayor thought about it for a second, before conceding, “Technically, that is true…but does that mean you’re willing to become her legal guardian?”

I nodded curtly in reply.

Silver looked between everyone in astonishment. “You can’t be serious!” he shouted. “You really expect this brute to take care of a child!? No, I insist that the child comes to live with-”

I clamped my hand over his mouth, and scowled at him. My other hand balled into a fist, causing him to shake in fear. My eyes glanced at the small coffee table that sat right next to me. His eyes widened, as I slammed my fist into the table, completely obliterating it and silencing everyone in the room.

“Are you really going to say ‘No’ to me?” I growled in a deathly quiet voice.

Scorch got up and followed me out of the hospital while Silver spluttered in rage and fear.

XHXHXHXHXHX

The funeral was an incredibly simple one. I had gotten the two ponies their caskets, and picked a spot by the top of the waterfall. Scorch stayed at their…no, my cabin with Amber Heart. We had gone over how to take care of her, and I was confident in her abilities to make sure the kid would be alright.

While I dug out their graves with a rusted shovel, Sky had went around town to tell everypony that if they wanted to pay their respects where to meet.

More than half of the town had shown up. I noticed that Silver Bars wasn’t there.

Definitely not fore-shadowy or anything like that.

With the help of Sky, and Crimson Forge, I set their caskets into the ground, just as the sun started to peek over the horizon.

“Goodbye, my friends,” I said quietly.

No one said anything. There weren’t words to describe what was going on.

A massive stone was placed over their graves, with the words, “Here lies Gentle Heart, and her husband Whirl Wing. They died not as heroes, but as friends. May the warmth of the sun reach them in what lies beyond” inscribed upon it.

As everypony went up to say goodbye, I absently took out my carving that I had finally finished the night before. I should have known what it was earlier.

Once everypony had left, I went up to the grave and leaned the elaborate wooden cross against their tombstone. Across the carved wood, I had scratched the words, “Vivere et discere” into it. It was all that we could do now.

“I promise to look after your daughter,” I said to them, placing a hand over my heart. “For however long it takes, I’ll make sure she’s safe.”

A warm breeze gently caressed the area, as I turned and walked back into town.

9) Life Goes On

Chapter 9:

Life Goes On


What was it that Whirl said before he died?

“Gotta clean up the mess now. Then we can start rebuilding, and life will go on…”

That’s exactly what happened. I had adopted Amber Heart and Scorch into my life, and helped the town clean up after the dragon attack. I officially quit being a guard the instant that the last of the ashes had been cleared away. Nowadays, I was a fairly skilled carpenter. My only stipulation for whatever jobs I was given was that I worked during the nights.

Whenever they asked me why, I would always tell them, “Because I need to spend the day with my family.”

My family…It was strange to say that. Sure, I had helped others before with raising a child, but I had never been the actual father figure. More like a grandpa, or favorite uncle. But there was no denying that a father was what I was now. Heh, I remember the first time Scorch and I needed to change Amber’s diaper.

It was a horrendous experience that I refuse to tell any of you about. I have a reputation to keep up!

Amber continued to grow over the years…

Look, before I go onto the flashback sequences, I just want to say something. I have existed for well over thousands of years. I’ve seen kingdoms rise, and fall. I’ve survived hundreds of wars, fights, and come out stronger for it. There are so many memories and experiences that I’ve had, that it would take far too long to tell all of them. So why am I saying all of this?

Because those years I spent raising my daughter…Ye Gods and Goddesses, those were some of the best years in my eternal life.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


“Ga-ga!” Amber cooed as she crawled around the floor of the living room. Her horn flashed a bright topaz color, the same shade as her eyes. The next thing I knew, I was magically magnetized to the ceiling.

“AH!” I shouted in surprise. “Cripes! Someone get me down from here!”

The giggles of the filly sitting on the floor let me know who was responsible for that. That’s one mystery solved. If I remember right, unicorn magic is extremely powerful and unpredictable when they’re newborns.

Next on the agenda: GET DOWN.

“Okay Amber, very funny,” I chuckled lightly from where I was stuck. “Now put me down now. Please?”

She just giggled even harder and started clapping her tiny little hooves together. Barely even half a year old, and she’s already a master troll.

I’m so proud!

Scorch walked into the room then, her arms laden with pouches filled with herbs from her garden. Apparently, even though Quartz was an extreme asshole to her, the one good thing he had done was teach her how to read. So when I had shown her some of the books Gentle had on how to grow medicinal herbs, she had devoured them in an instant. She now helped us make a living by selling whatever she could spare.

“Hiya Scorch!” I quipped from my place on the ceiling. “How’s your day been?”

The dragon’s jaw dropped as she took in the whole scene before her. “How are you…?”

“Oh, Amber’s magic is starting to develop,” I said nonchalantly, examining my claws. “She decided it’d be funny to stick me up here.”

Scorch gave off a tiny smile, and said, “Well, um, it is kind of funny.”

I rolled my eyes, but nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it is. I’m sure ten minutes from now, I’ll be laughing with all of you.”

“Why ten minutes?” the dragon asked as she started storing her herbs in the kitchen.

You can tell this is a normal occurrence for folks like us.

I glanced at the clock that sat on the mantelpiece of the fire, and scratched my chin. “Normally, that’s the time she falls asleep for her nap,” I mused. “Unless her magic usage makes her tire out moRAAAAAAAA!”

My face smacked into the hardwood floor. Groaning quietly to myself, I wobbled onto my feet to see that Amber was sound asleep in front of me, gently suckling on her hoof.

“D’aw,” I sighed. “I can’t get mad at that face.”

Carefully, I picked her up in my arms and carried her to her room. As I went to set her down in her crib, she rolled over in her sleep, and grabbed onto my arm. Her face nestled into my fur as she made herself comfortable, a small yawn escaping her lips.

I shook my head at that. Ah well. I didn’t have anything I needed to do for a while. Trying to make as little noise as possible, I sat down in an old rocking chair that rested beside her crib, and rocked her back and forth in my arms.

Scorch offered to move her into the crib for me, but I declined. I was holding my daughter in my arms. There’s no greater feeling than that.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Scorch said for the third time.

“Nonsense!” I replied, lowering a pair of welding goggles over my eyes. “This time it’s BOUND to work!”

“You said that last time though…” Scorch muttered under her breath.

I chose to ignore her lack of faith in my abilities to get Amber to eat her food without making a serious mess. “Cover me, I’m going in!” I commanded, pulling out a spoon in one hand, and a bowl filled with mashed potatoes in the other.

The dragon hesitated slightly, before opening the door to the cabin to let me in. Another glob of crushed carrots splattered onto the door next to my head, as Amber harrumphed from her high chair.

“Now Amber, you know I love you,” I started. “But you’re eating these potatoes, and that’s final!”

She harrumphed once more, and then her horn flashed incredibly bright in another attempt to blind me. I tapped my goggles happily in response.

“I have you now,” I growled. With that, I put the spoon in her mouth, and let out a whoop of victory.

In retaliation, Amber swallowed the food with an adorable pout on her face.

Traveler: 1

Amber: 5

…I’ll take my victories when I can.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

“Alright, Amber,” I started, holding the child in my hands. “Say…‘Daddy’.”

The baby cooed in response.

“That was close, but you can do better! Say, ‘Daddy’!”

Amber’s face furrowed in concentration, as her lips struggled to form the shape needed to say it. I waited on the edge of my seat, my heart racing as she slowly said…

“Da…Da…Damm…Daaaamm…Damn it!”

…

…

…

Please excuse me, but I’m not sure whether to be insanely proud that my daughter’s first accidental words were “Damn it”, or to be horrified that she could say it without once hearing me say it.

XHXHXHXHXHX


Three years after that, and Amber was speaking fluent sentences. Or, at least, she was able to say words and have them make sense. I did my best to make sure that she was a happy little girl, while at the same time trying to make sure that she was raised right.

It was around that time that I figured that it was time to enroll her in the local school…and that meant I needed money. Unfortunately, most of the construction work had been done by then, and the bank refused to fund any more expansion projects. Their argument was that there weren’t enough ponies to warrant such a thing.

The real reason? Silver Bars hated my guts.  Ever since I had made him look like a fool in front of both the mayor, and the head of the guard, he had had it out for me. Every time I tried to store money in the bank? They’d casually “loose” it. And when I tried to claim Whirl and Heart’s life insurance?  They said that I had to wait until Amber was a legal adult.

Needless to say, Silver was on the shit list.

It wouldn’t be wise of me to further antagonize the pony in charge of nearly all of the money in Pine Falls. So I did the next best thing I could, and found a way around his scams. Namely, I started carving again.

Turns out a lot of ponies were still grateful to me for helping to keep them safe from a dragon attack, and they were more than happy to buy up all my carvings. It was a bit time consuming, but then again: No sleep. I don’t care if I’ve said it a lot, it’s freaking useful! Not to mention Scorch was really starting to learn how to take care of plants even better than before. Between the two of us, we had managed to raise enough money to keep us with a roof over our heads, and an education for Amber.

Amber seemed happy enough at school. She had trouble with math and writing, but she really excelled in whatever arts and crafts project they gave her. History seemed to be one of her gifts as well. The only other problem? Well…

It shouldn’t have surprised me.

She had just gotten home from school, her saddlebags packed with her latest doodles and sketches. I looked over them, chuckling all the while at how detailed some of them were, when I came across a picture titled, “My Family”.

Ye Gods…I know that it’s been done before. I mean, you see a crudely drawn picture of the kid with her parents and siblings by her side, right? There’s a label over each one saying who it is, and they’re all happy and smiling…

The way that Amber had drawn it? She had put herself sitting on top of Scorch’s head, both of them with extremely large smiles on their faces. Instead of being with them, though, I was drawn off a little bit to the side, with my straw hat pulled low over my face. It looked like instead of wanting to join them, I was…watching over them. Guarding them, almost.

“Amber,” I said proudly. “That’s incredible.”

The girl smiled, happy to hear someone liked her work. A frown flashed across her face for an instant, and she attempted to hide it from me.

“Something wrong, kiddo?” I asked her.

She hesitated, before asking me in an incredibly tiny voice, “Daddy…why do we look so different?”

Now I was at a loss for words. This was the first time she had asked me that. It was the one question that I feared the most, simply because of what could come afterwards. And my heart wouldn’t let me lie to my daughter.

I sighed deeply, and pulled Amber onto my lap. I held her in silence for a few moments, as I tried to think of how I could tell her. She hugged me back in confusion.

“Amber…There’s something that you need to know…” I started, tears brimming in my eyes. “A lot of things, actually.”

For my daughter, and for the sake of telling the whole story, I relived that horrible day. I told her of how I had first come to this town, adjusting the story so that I wouldn’t have to tell her about my status as The Traveler. I told her about Whirl taking me in and teaching me how to read. I told her everything I could, leaving out none of the details.

When I finished, night had fallen and  Amber had tears of her own in her brilliant topaz eyes. Sniffing loudly, she asked me, “So…my Mommy and Daddy are…”

“I’m sorry, Amber,” I sobbed quietly. “I’m so, so sorry.”

She pushed herself away from me, and wiggled out of my arms. “You…you lied to me!” she half-shouted, her own tears running down her face.

“Amber, please, wait-”

I didn’t even get to finish my sentence. She had already bolted out of the door, leaving me in my seat. Instantly, I jumped out of my seat to follow her, calling her name as I did so. The little girl was nowhere in sight.

“Scorch!” I shouted, running back inside and slamming the door to the dragon’s room open. Scorch blearily shook herself out of bed, while I told her, “Amber’s gone! She ran away! I-I had to tell her everything…”

All traces of sleep left her eyes, and she ran outside to help me search the town. About an hour later, and there was still no sign of her. Not even my tracking skills from my guard days were helping me out. It didn’t help that the Pegasi had scheduled a rain storm for tonight that was washing away all of her hoofprints.

Just as Scorch and I finally started to think about asking the guard for help, a small girl’s scream pierced the night.

Amber.

10) Monsters and Glass

Chapter 10:

Monsters and Glass

Amber ran through the streets of town, tears blurring her vision. She didn’t know what to think, what to do. Briefly, she hoped that she would wake up from this terrible nightmare, that her Daddy would hold her in his arms and tell her everything was alright. No matter how hard she wished, though, nothing changed. Her Daddy wasn’t really her daddy. He was just...

The filly had no idea what to call him now. Soon, though, she began to grow tired and cold from the rain that poured down on her. All she wanted to do now was find a quiet, dry spot to curl up in. Exhausted, she found herself collapsing onto a bundle of newspapers behind a large building. Her eyelids suddenly became very, very heavy, and they sank down ever so slowly.

In almost no time at all, she was asleep on the ground, with tears unconsciously leaking out of her eyes.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

A unicorn leered at the sight of the child sleeping in the ally. His heart didn’t care that she was alone in the rain, nor did it care that her “parent” was nowhere in sight.

All that mattered to him was the profit he could make off of her.

He just needed to call in a few favors…

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Something warm and furry rubbed against the small filly’s head as she felt herself lifted into the air. Cracking her eyes open, she looked at the dark, hulking creature that had found her.

“D…daddy?” she hoarsely asked.

The figure passed underneath the light of a dim lantern, momentarily casting his face into great detail.

It wasn’t her father. The muzzle was longer, the teeth were sharper, and its eyes…they lacked the spark of laughter that was always present.

She knew what this thing was. They had learned about them in school the other day, and she’d seen them exchanging jewels for tools at the store. Diamond dogs…

The dog let out a grating laugh, and said, “Gruff! Little pony call me Daddy!”

Another figure leaned over her and chuckled loudly at that. His breath stank horribly to the young pony. “HA! And Money Pony think she would be a problem!” a second voice cackled.

A third voice growled out threateningly, “Be quiet! We take pony to bigger pony, get paid. End story.”

All that Amber understood was that these dogs were taking her somewhere away from her home, and that she needed to get away from them. With a burst of energy born from fear, she struggled against the dog, quickly freeing herself from the vicious brute. Unfortunately, one of the other dogs, a mean looking thug, snatched her back up just as quickly. She screamed in terror, before her captor slapped a foul smelling paw over her mouth.

“Ach! Little pony think she can run!” the smallest of them growled out. He cracked his knuckles menacingly, and gave the frightened filly a terrifying glare. “Maybe we take pony, make her work in mines.”

Amber closed her eyes, tears once again falling out of them. Her heart raced in her chest, as she prayed to Celestia for someone to help her. She prayed that her Daddy would find her and make things better again…

“Awww, look!” the small one cooed mockingly. “Little baby is scared! Does the wittle baby w-”

A loud roar cut off what he was about to say. The sound of a fist crashing into someone’s skull, followed by the harsh crackle of fire singing another one reached Amber’s ears, as she felt herself fall to the ground. She kept her eyes firmly shut, now more terrified than ever. While the sounds of fighting kept battering against her ears, she cried her heart out on the ground...

Until she heard a familiar voice yell, “NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU SUNUVABITCH!”

Amber’s eyes shot open, and she beheld the sight of her father picking up the largest of the diamond dogs, and hurling him away from her. Next to him, Scorch was puffing out fireball after fireball at the other two, sending all of them fleeing away, their tails between their legs.

“AND DON’T COME BACK!” he roared again, his fur bristled, eyes burning with an inner fire.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

I shook my head, snapping myself out of my battle lust. There wasn’t any point in going after them. Not when my …when my friend’s daughter was still in danger. Slowly, somewhat hesitantly even, I knelt onto the ground next to her, and whispered, “Amber?”

She leaped from the ground and attempted to wrap her hooves around me, her tiny body still shaking in fear. “D-daddy, I’m sorry!” she sobbed, burying her face in my fur.

“Shh…it’s okay,” I reassured her in a soothing voice. It took me a few seconds to register that she had called me ‘Daddy’...I lifted her into my arms, and looked at Scorch with a smile.

“Let’s go home.”

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

“WHAT?!” the unicorn shouted, making the two smaller dogs cower before him.

The leader repeated, “We not find pony girl in time. Battleclaw find her first.”

Silver Bars fell back into his seat, shock and rage filling his mind. He had come so close to getting his hooves on that little girl, and the money that was behind her name. Words failed him utterly. His mind attempted to wrap itself around this new turn of events. The only consolation was that he knew that there was no way the dogs could be traced to him.

Cursing, he tossed a bag of jewels onto his desk, and spat at the dogs, “Get out of my sight.”

Now, he would have to wait until another opportunity presented itself…

He just had to be patient, once again.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


I guess everything that happened that night was for the better. Amber didn’t get hurt, I was able to let Sky know that dogs had somehow found their way into town, and our bond just became stronger because of all of that. Truly, I was grateful for everything that fate had let me achieve.

Look, as a Traveler, there are two things that are a kind of double-edged sword. For one thing, I have no alternate universe selves. There might be fakers, or some other people trying to imitate me, but there’s no replacing the real deal me. Why is that a bad thing? Well, I’ll bring it back up in a second. First, the other thing:

I can’t have children. At all. It’s something to do with me being the Traveler, but there’s no magic, science, or anything that will allow it. I don’t exactly know why, but I have a theory behind it. See, if there’s no alternate universe self for me, then that helps prevent confusion for whenever I go to a universe. But if I left a kid in that world? BAM.

My enemies can use them against me, I’d have several alternate universe versions of kids that I had, but didn’t have, and minds everywhere would be blown!

Here in Equestria though, no one knew about my true identity. My enemies didn’t know that I was there, minus Torrentican…and he hadn’t been seen in years.

Most importantly though, I was free to raise my adopted daughter in peace. I was actually able to HAVE a daughter. After years, and years, of seeing other families, I had finally gained my own.

For once, things were actually looking up.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Another year had passed since then, marking the longest amount of time I had spent on Equestria without Traveling. Amber was still growing, and she had quickly started to learn how to use levitation.  She still hadn’t gotten her cutie-mark, but she was persistent. I’d help her try different things when I could. We must’ve tried about a hundred things a month, like baking, cooking, carving, building, sculpting, drawing, the works.

She was good at drawing, but other things seemed to elude her grasp. Even then, she wasn’t happy with her drawings. Every time she finished one, she would let out an aggravated sigh, and toss it into the garbage, saying, “It just doesn’t feel right.”

Scorch, on the other hand, was…mixed. The teenage dragon didn’t change once physically over the years, which raised a few questions. Why hadn’t her wings grown back yet? From what I’ve studied, and from what Scorch herself has told me, black dragons are similar enough to lizards to be able to grow back amputated limbs.

That day, I finally decided it was time to ask her about some personal questions.

Amber Heart had just left for school, leaving me and Scorch home alone. Just before the dragon left to work on her garden, I told her, “Hold a sec, Scorch. I wanna talk to you.”

I led her into the living room, and motioned for her to sit down on the couch, while I took the armchair. She shifted nervously under my gaze, and asked me, “Is something wrong?”

“No, no…”  I reassured her. “It’s just that…we’ve known each other for a few years now, right?” She nodded, and I continued. “Well…you know that you can trust me, right? That if there’s anything you need to tell me, you can. I know you’re entitled to your own secrets and privacy, but…well, yeah.”

The kind hearted dragon shifted uneasily in her seat, but nodded.

“Alright. Now, I just have one question I need to ask you,” I slowly said. “If it’s too much, you don’t have to answer it. Okay?”

“Okay,” she meekly replied.

I took a deep breath, and asked her, “What happened to your wings? And why haven’t they grown back?”

Remembered pain flashed across Scorch’s eyes, and tears welled up in them as well. I instantly felt guilty for asking her that, but I had to know. Not only because of the insatiable curiosity, but because her answer would tell me just how much she DID trust me.

The moment of truth…Scorch sighed, and said in a quiet voice, “I should have told you earlier…but…when I was a hatchling, I told you about the sparring matches Quartz put us through, correct?”

I nodded in reply.

“Omnius…I…I didn’t tell you the whole story. You see, those battles weren’t for any type of training…they were for entertainment. Quartz used to own an entire gang of diamond dogs that would work for him, and to make sure that they didn’t rebel against him, he started stealing hatchlings, so he could train them to be his guard.”

“And one of them was you,” I whispered.

She cringed, her mind replaying horrifying scenes from her past. “Yes. When…when we acted against him, he would punish us by forcing us to fight in the games.”

“How did you end up landing in them?” I asked her gently, trying to mask the shock I felt at all of that.

A tear slid out of her eye, and she whispered, “There…there was a diamond dog pup that he wanted me to kill. He said it would toughen us up, and make the dogs stop trying to resist us.”

“You couldn’t do it though,” I stated, pride welling up in me. Scorch had become a sort of…niece to me, by this point. She was just as much my family as Amber was, and to hear that she would be merciful really warmed my heart.

“I helped him and his family escape,” Scorch continued, barely taking notice of what I said. “They almost made it too…but one of the other hatchlings caught us. From there, they were executed, and I was put in his games. I fought the same hatchling who caught me, Scratch, and he…he ripped my wings out.”

Tears were really pouring out of her eyes now. Still, she continued in a quavering voice. It was something that she needed to say. I couldn’t interrupt her. I’d been there too many times.

“After that…he b-burned the wounds closed with his breath. That burned the nerves, and now…they won’t ever grow back. I snapped. And I tore out his throat…” she sobbed. She curled up into a ball, and cried, “I killed him. I killed him, and I killed those poor dogs.”

Once again, I thanked whatever Gods or Goddesses of Good that might have been listening that Quartz was dead. I hope he rots in Tartarus for an eternity for the crimes he committed against this sweet, broken girl.  Gently, I sat down next to her on the couch, and wrapped my arms around her. She sobbed into my fur, the trauma of the last few years of her life finally catching up to her.

Finally, she managed to hiccup, “I-I didn’t want to kill them. I didn’t mean to kill them.”

“I know, darlin’,” I whispered. “You did the only thing you could’ve done. No one blames you for that.”

I cradled her in my arms, constantly reassuring her that she was still Scorch. She wasn’t a monster. She just couldn’t ever catch a break. You know, she still hasn’t said why she trusts me so much, after how terrible her life was before. But with how honest she was, I was just glad to know that she even DID trust me. It means that whatever secrets she has, they won’t affect us badly in the future. So, for now, I’ll let it be.

After all. She’s been through enough, hasn’t she?

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

One more year…how does time slip by us so easily? Scorch didn’t have any more breakdowns, and was a bit more confident in the things she did.

Now that her crisis had been averted, we were free to move onto the next one: Amber’s cutie-mark. Ye Gods, but she was starting to get worried. Apparently, she was the only one in her school without one. Some of her stunts were getting…extreme.

Let’s just say that I will never let her go into the pawn shop by herself. She’s pretty good friends with the mare who runs the place, Cheap Skates. Despite her name, she’s a fair and kind pony, always willing to make a good deal.For Amber though, she’s willing to give away merchandise for her to use in her misadventures.

She tried over a million things to try and get her cutie-mark.

And I still remember how happy she was when she finally got it.

The unicorn filly had been practicing her magic, trying to work on her levitation. She did great when it was just small objects, or stuff that needed precision, but when it was something larger?

CRASH!

I sighed, and shook my head at the shattered glass jar that had fallen onto the floor. Amber winced at the mess, while I went off to grab a broom to sweep it up. She knew that I wouldn’t ever get mad at her for breaking stuff, as long as I had told her she could practice with it, but that didn’t stop her from feeling guilty.

As it was, by the time I had gotten back, the shards were…gone? I looked around on the floor, searching for them, when Amber cried out, “Daddy! Look what I made!”

There, on the table, Amber had arranged the pieces of glass into a small mosaic that looked remarkably like the head of a dragon.

“Amber…you made that?” I asked in awe of the detail she had put into it, and the short amount of time it had taken for her to even make it.

“Yeah! I got all the pieces picked up, but they looked like one of my jigsaw puzzles, so I tried putting it back together! But then I started seeing something else in them, and I made this instead!” she happily explained. She then gasped and looked towards her flank to find-

“Nothing!?” she cried. “Oh, I was sure I had it this time...”

That started turning some gears in my head though. My mind started to connect the dots with everything that she was good at, until I finally said, “Amber, I have an idea.”

Quickly, I rummaged through some nearby cabinets, until I came up with a large box filled with small scrap bits of metal. I called Scorch into the room, and asked Amber if she remembered that color changing spell that she had learned once in school.

When she answered yes, I bent a few pieces of metal to fit carefully around the shards. After I told Amber to start changing the colors of the glass to her liking, Scorch asked me, “What are you planning?”

In answer, I smiled at her. “Nothing. I’m making this up as I go along! Now, when Amber’s done with the glass, I need you to torch it all. See where I’m going with this?”

Scorch’s eyes widened, and she nodded enthusiastically. As soon as Amber said she had finished, the black dragon took a deep breath, before blowing a steady stream of fire over the arrangement.

When the flames disappeared, I gestured at them to wait for it to cool. Amber’s eyes were alight with excitement and wonder. She didn’t know much about what she was doing, but it seemed like she already had an idea of what to expect. Patiently, we all watched the glass cool…

And there, sitting on the evidently fireproof table, was a stained glass portrait of a black dragon with kind, golden eyes, wreathed in navy blue flames. It should have been lopsided. There should have been obvious flaws in the material, but…it was perfect.

Carefully, I picked up Amber’s creation, and let out a long whistle. “Amber…I think we’ve just discovered your special talent.”

“What makes you say that?” Amber asked, confused.

I pointed at her flank, and gave her a wide smile. She turned her head, and gasped in excitement. There, as real as the sun in the sky, was her cutie-mark: six triangular shapes, all of them a different color of the rainbow, arranged in a circle, with the tips pointed outwards.

Amber Heart had finally found her special talent.

And I couldn’t be more proud.

11) Broken Hearted

Chapter 11:

Broken Hearted

Nothing really major happened over the next few years. Amber’s craft continued to improve, Scorch’s garden flourished, and Pine Falls hadn’t been attacked in ages. I’m actually pretty surprised that we’ve gone this long without any serious trouble.  My chainmail vest now sat in a chest gathering dust, along with my knuckledusters. That old straw hat of mine denied physics and survived the abuse it had been put through over the years, and still had a place of honor on my head.

Amber’s stained glass sold like wildfire. Everypony in town wanted a scene from their life captured in glass, so they could hang it in their homes, and the unicorn was practically giving them away. She even started to enhance them with her magic, giving them new qualities. She could make them unbreakable, turn them into a lantern, and all sorts of things.

On a fun little side note, I had learned to play the piano. I mean, I had the stretchy arms and opposable fingers. And of course, being me, there was one song that I just HAD to learn, so I could bug the rest of my family with it.

“Daaaaad,” Amber whined jokingly from her newly constructed workroom. “You’ve been playing the same song for an hour now! Give it a rest!”

In answer, I just hit the keys of the cheap little piano even harder, a wild smile on my face. Amber rolled her eyes, but laughed anyways. The song had grown on her after a while.

The talented artist was currently in the middle of a fairly important piece. It was sort of her big project, and had been eating up most of her time ever since she started it. It was her sort of tribute to welcome back Princess Luna from her banishment on the moon, and to congratulate Celestia on getting her sister back.

Now you can see why I was surprised we weren’t in serious trouble yet. Nightmare Moon’s release, and subsequent return to the good side had happened a few months ago. Discord was due to be freed any day now, meaning I would have to set out to participate in whatever war was about to start. I’ll have to do my best to ensure that Scorch and Amber don’t follow me. If something were to happen to them because they joined me…I don’t know what I’d do.

For now though, I’ll just have to prepare for when that day comes, when I’m called on to leave.

XHXHXHXHXHXHXHX


“Well howdy, Battleclaw,” Sky chuckled as I stepped through the door to the guard house. “Haven’t seen you in a while. How’ve things been?”

I sat down across from him, and answered, “So far, so good. Still not thinking about retiring, ya old coot?”

Sky waved the thought aside with a hoof, and said in mock disbelief, “When I’m still this young and in my prime? No sirree, I’ll keep doin’ what I’m doin’.”

We chatted for a while, and caught up with each other’s lives. Sky was still in charge of the entire guard, unsurprisingly. Under his watchful eye, the guards were extremely elite, their mere presence being enough to deter would be attackers. He was defying his age with nothing more than pure, stubborn will. I mean, he was old when I first got here, but nearly 15 years later? Still the same old guy.

Eventually, he asked me, “So what brings you to this neck of the woods?”

Ain’t that the million dollar question? I sighed, and told him, “Sky…I’ve been here for fifteen years, almost. My time here has been wonderful, but…I need to move on soon.”

The old Pegasus nodded sagely, and said, “There’s a fire burnin’ in yer chest again, ain’t there?”

I could only close my eyes, and nod at that.

“What about Scorch and Amber?” It wasn’t an accusation, just a simple question.

“Amber’s just about ready to be on her own,” I quietly said. “And Scorch has a living here; I can’t ask them to come with me on some old fool’s...I don’t even know what it is.”

“Well, in that case, here,” Sky said, easing himself out of his chair. He slid a large chest out from under his desk, and started rummaging around in it, keeping its contents hidden from my sight. After a minute, he came up with a large, thick canvas backpack, and a small wrapped bundle to go with it.

“What are these?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at the equipment.

“Believe it or not,” he started, “I used to be a bit of an explorer. An adventurer, even.  Before I got hired to help this town get started, I would go around the world, just for the sake of seeing new things.”

“Oddly enough, I believe that,” I muttered.

He lifted the backpack up, and said, “This here is made out of canvas, with about a dozen magic spells backing it up. Trust me, it’d take an army to break this thing. And it can carry enough food for one if necessary.”

With a gentle shove, he thrust the backpack towards me. I caught it in my arms as he unwrapped the bundle to reveal an odd assortment of seemingly random tools. I saw a magnifying glass, both a navigational and math compass, thick scrolls of paper, a small notebook, flint and steel, all sorts of random tools.

“You ever read those Daring Do books?” Sky asked after a couple minutes of me examining the tools.

“Yeah, Scorch and Amber love ‘em.” Not to mention one of my Travels took me there. Fun times.

“Kid, if I could tell you about my own adventures, they’d put hers to shame,” he chortled. “They used to call me Everfree Skies, all because I found some old treasure there.”

That was news. Who would’ve guessed that this old coot used to be on par with somepony of Daring Do’s caliber? Pretty cool, if I have to say.

“Why are you showing me all this?” I finally asked him.

His eyes twinkled with a mischievous glint, as he said, “I’m givin’ them to ya. After all, what’s the point in havin’ a tool if ye’re never gonna use it? Something tells me that you’ll need a bit of equipment to get you started.”

“I’m not leaving for a little bit,” I stated, while he started packing the gear into the backpack.

“I know. But you will be, eventually,” he replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “Just consider this a goodbye present from an old friend.”

With that, Sky stuck out his hoof, and we shook. He gave me a sad smile, before saying, “Good luck on your travels, pardner. And don’t worry ‘bout yer girls. I’ll make sure they’re safe.”

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


It had been a couple of weeks since Sky had given me his gifts. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay him for his generosity. He was truly a great friend…

In any case, I was making sure to settle all of my debts to the ponies in town. I had helped Crimson Forge fix his workshop, had bought a few items from Cheap Skates, and now…

Silver Bars approached me, and said, “Battleclaw. I heard you were leaving town soon. I imagine your…family isn’t quite pleased to hear that.”

“I haven’t told them,” I replied curtly.

“I see…Battleclaw, I would like to request an apology from you.” His tone was stiff and formal. “I haven’t been a proper colt, and wish to make amends. As a result, I would be grateful to you if you would accompany me to Whirl and Gentle’s grave. It seems only fitting that I finally get to say my goodbyes to them as you say yours to the rest of the town.”

…Something doesn’t seem quite right. On the one hand, he seems sincere about wanting to say goodbye to the couple. After all, he didn’t exactly make a good appearance last time. Maybe this was his opportunity for redemption.

On the other? There’s a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I can’t help but think that he’s up to something. Still, there’s no evidence against him; so far he’s done nothing to make me suspicious.

So, pushing my doubts aside, I decided to trust him.

How I wish I hadn’t…

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Before I left with him, I stopped by my home to let Scorch and Amber know where I was going. Just as I opened the door, Amber came barreling out, a large, excited smile on her face. She wrapped her hooves around me in a tight hug, and shouted gleefully, “I finished it! It’s done!”

I didn’t have to think too hard to realize what it was. “You mean-?”

“YES! My Summer Sun, Winter Moon piece! I finished it!” she laughed, pulling me inside. “I just need to add the enchantments, and I’ll show it to you!”

“That’s great, Amber,” I said, giving her a peck on the forehead. “I’m so proud of you. Look, I’ll be back a bit later. I’m gonna go clear a debt with somepony, and then when I get home…we’ll have some things to talk about.”

She frowned, seeming to sense that something was wrong. Thankfully, she just nodded, and said, “Alright Daddy. I’ll see you when you get home!”

“You bet’cha,” I chuckled, giving her another hug. “Bye, Amber!”

“Bye Daddy! I love you,” she said, letting go.

“I love you too.”

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


The climb up the hill took longer than it should have. I mean, I know Silver Bars is old, but he should’ve been able to move a little faster. It seemed like he was dragging things out. That could be him just trying to prolong the inevitable, but…I dunno. It felt off to me.

By the time we had reached the top, the sun was setting below the horizon, barely leaving us enough light to see by.

“Okay, Bars,” I sighed, sitting down on a rock next to the weathered gravestone. “Say your piece, and we’ll be gone.”

The aging unicorn gave me a guilty look, and opened his mouth to say something…but was interrupted by the sound of terrified screams. Instantly, I recognized the voices.

“Amber! Scorch!” I shouted, already running back to the town. A silver aura encompassed me before I could run any further, slowing me down.

“Wait, Battleclaw!” Silver grunted, the strain of his magic quickly tiring him. “There’s…there’s something you need to know!”

…No. He wouldn’t….

Not even Silver would sink that low. He couldn’t.

The guilty look flashed across his face once more, quickly disappearing under a mask of false confidence.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Earlier….

Silver Bars was quickly running out of time. His bank was finally about to go under from all the debts he owed to ponies that had lost money because of him. Karma, he supposed, for cheating so many ponies out of their hard earned bits.  He had tried other methods of paying it off, but the years hadn’t been kind to him.

With another aggravated sigh, he pushed his accounting papers in front of him, and tried to think of some way for him to save his flank. Quite frankly, he was out of ideas.

“Or are you, Mr. Bars?” a suave, chilling voice asked him.

The banker jumped violently in his seat, surprised by the sudden intrusion of the black, disfigured pony-like figure. Its eyes glowed with a hungry, violet light, and the grin on its face sent shivers down his spine.

“No, Torrentican. I have already stated that I am not that desperate,” Silver attempted to say in a brave voice. “N-n-not that desperate.”

Torrentican raised an eyebrow at the cowering figure before him. “If that is the case, I shall offer you a deal then.”

“W-w-what do you mean?” the greedy unicorn stuttered out.

“I shall make a deal with you, Silver Bars,” he spat out in disgust. “If you are able to distract that loathsome creature, Omnius, for but five minutes, I shall pay all of your debts in full.”

“You will? But…why?” Silver asked, unsure of what he was about to do. “What do you have against that brute? He’s nothing more than a retired guard who can’t seem to think more than two steps ahead of whatever he’s about to smash.”

The Traveler of Evil sneered, and said in a deathly quiet voice, “You need not worry. That is a private matter.” His mannerism changed suddenly, now resembling that of a business man. “As a token of my trust that you will accomplish this simple task…”

A bag of silver coins clinked onto the table.

“Do we have a deal, Mr. Bars…?”

Silver Bars looked at the coins, greed glinting in his eyes. He DID still owe Battleclaw for making a mockery of him…and for thwarting his attempts to attain the money behind Amber Heart’s name.

What he didn’t realize though, was that Torrentican was the one whispering those thoughts into his head.

“Deal.”

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

I was beyond angry now. Silver…he had sold out my own family just to settle some petty score.

“YOU MONSTER!” I roared, the magic aura disappearing instantaneously. Before Silver could even react, I shot forward like a bullet, and clutched his throat in my hands. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT YOU’VE DONE?!”

He gasped for air in my grasp. With another low growl, I flung him to the side, slamming him against the side of a thick boulder. He was out like a light, leaving me to run back into town as fast as my legs could carry me.

But…I was too late.

By the time I had reached my house, it was in shambles. The front door had been completely obliterated, there were small fires dancing in the yard…

And there, impaled on a wide, wooden stake, in the middle of a smoldering pile of ashes…

“Amber!” I shouted in denial.

There was no mistaking it though. It was her body. My daughter’s body. The worst part, that I didn’t notice until much later, was the message scrawled out in blood and ashes next to her.

Let the Games Begin! I"ll see you coming from miles away, as the sun slowly sets – Torrentican, your fellow Chess Piece

I couldn't comprehend it. At all. Not even an hour ago, I had just told my daughter I would see her later this very evening. She had been healthy, vibrant, excited even. She had been alive. This morning, we had all eaten breakfast together. I hadn't even been given a chance to tell her everything. All of the important things that I had wanted to talk about...now they would fall on dead ears...

My heart didn't just break. It shattered. It burned. It...she died. My daughter was gone. She had been murdered...

Wait...where's...SCORCH!

Desperately, I dashed into the house, hoping against all odds that Scorch was alright. If she had been murdered by that monster as well, it would be my fault. Torrentican was MY enemy. The only crime these two had committed against him was siding with me.

The inside of the house was even worse than the outside. Everything had been destroyed…the horror of it is too much for me to describe.

“B…Battleclaw…” a broken whisper wheezed from underneath a small layer of broken wood. I raced over, and saw Scorch pinned beneath a large beam, blood oozing from several open wounds on her back and arms.

“Scorch,” I said in a mixture of relief and anger. Carefully, I dug her out of the pile, and took stock of her injuries.

They weren’t good. Her legs stuck out at odd angles, several of the gashes on her back were far larger than I had thought. She needed to be taken to a hospital. Mechanically, I grabbed her in my arms and carried her to the nearest hospital…

I needed to ensure that at least one life could be saved that night.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

The doctors told me that Scorch just needed to rest now. She had several broken bones, vital blood veins had been severed, and there were acid marks on the spots where her wings would have been.

Sky told me that he and the rest of the guard had cleaned up the mess around my home for me. He asked me if I knew anything about who could’ve done such a thing.

And I knew exactly who had done that.

More importantly, I knew where to find him…

Let the games begin, indeed.

12) Beast Within

Chapter 12:

Beast Within


Before I left, I had one last thing to do. I needed to make sure that there was something still in one piece in my home. Not just my supplies, no…there was something far more important there that needed to survive. An hour of searching through the rubble later, and I had found it:

Amber’s last piece. Her Summer Sun and Winter Moon portrait…the one she wanted to give to Celestia and Luna. I cradled the glass to my chest, feeling rage burn inside of my very soul. For now, I’d leave it here, where there wouldn’t be anyone who could touch it.

After salvaging my backpack, armor, and knuckle dusters from the wreckage of my house, I set out from Pine Halls. I didn’t stop to let anyone know where I was going, nor did I say goodbye to Scorch. She had suffered enough because of me. After checking my compass to make sure I was heading in the right direction, I was off, murder and vengeance echoing throughout my head.

I knew that I was doing exactly what Torrentican wanted. He was forcing me to confront him, to fight him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have left that message. “Miles away” and “sun slowly sets…” It was obvious. Whatever Torrentican had in store for me was somewhere in the West.

So, I ran. I gave myself to my instincts, and mindlessly forged my path through the now sparse woods. Nothing distracted me, nothing got in my way, leaving me alone with my anger. With every step I took, all I could think about was, “He killed Amber. He killed my daughter.”

And every time that thought finished, I felt myself become stronger.

XHXHXHXHXHXXHX

Eventually, I found myself on the border of an enormous rainforest. Thick, lush plant life gathered all around a single line it seemed, as there was some invisible force keeping them from growing out any further. What really made me stop, however, wasn’t that. It was the blood red pedestal that did.

It was four feet high, and in the shape of a crucifix…and the body impaled upon it looked exactly like Amber.

Resting on the pedestal was a small statue of me in my human form, a look of great pain etched onto my face. Logic would say that this is definitely a trap. That I’m playing into Torrentican’s hand.

I grasped the statue without any hesitation…and was whisked away into a blazing red portal.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

I was in Hell.

At least, that’s what it looked like. Black stone, unholy shrieks that echoed off the cavernous room, the smell of brimstone that clogged the air…even the flames that leaked out of the cracks in the walls emphasized the darkness in the room.

And there, sitting at the edge of the room in a skull that was carved from solid, black granite, was a demonic, dragon-like figure, with sickly purple eyes, orange wings made of fire, with two sets of arms, its fingers tipped with razor sharp talons.

“TORRENTICAN! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!” I roared in anger, charging towards him. Torrentican simply smirked, and snapped his fingers. The shadows leapt from the wall, and attempted to pin me down. Shadow-Stalkers!

I shook them off of me, and started to tear at them with my claws. Every time I swung my arms, another one would disappear, only serving to fuel my rage. The Shadow-Stalkers kept coming, and coming, until I was overwhelmed. With nearly a mountain of them on top of me, I glared at Torrentican from my impromptu prison, hate in my eyes.

“Hello, Omnius,” the Traveler coolly said, reclining on his throne. “I take it you got my message?”

“I’ll kill you,” I snarled, struggling against the stalkers.

“Ah, ah, ah,” he chided, speaking to me as if I were an idiot child who needed to be taught a lesson. “It’s impolite to interrupt me when I’m talking.” He grinned at me. “I am surprised you took the bait. Now, here you are, in my castle, to claim revenge for a bastard child that isn’t even yours.”

A red haze started to fill my vision.

“Fifteen years you wasted on that child, trying to be a good daddy.” he laughed. “While you were off playing pretend, I actually did something productive. As you can see…” he gestured to the room before him. “I created my own castle, so that I may have a place to house my army. Yes, that’s right. For fifteen years, I have been creating Shadow-Stalkers, preparing myself for the war that is coming.” At my look of disbelief, he bellowed in laughter. “AND YOU STILL HAVE NO IDEA HOW IT WILL COME TO BE! Oh, that is rich!”

Fifteen years…if he had been making Shadow-Stalkers that entire time…Ye Gods. He must have had thousands by now! It explained why he hadn’t acted against me sooner. This entire time, he had been biding his strength.

“And I’m still creating more…” he said, interrupting my thoughts. “Now, to ensure that my Shadow-Stalkers are free to do what I command, there is a variable that must be accounted for...you.” He smiled wickedly at me. “Oh yes. I know that you would find some way of warning everyone of my power, or perhaps find something to simply inhibit my ability to make any more minions. But how could I stop you?”

“Amber…” I whispered.

“That’s right! The bastard child of your two friends.” He rolled his eyes in remembered ecstasy. “It was glorious. Her fear, her pain…do you want to know what her last words were, as I slowly drove my spear through her heart?”

My own heart started pumping then. All coherent thoughts were slowly being driven away, replaced with rage, anger. I was beyond angry now.

“She screamed, ‘Daddy, help me’…and your dragon tried to-”

I was FURIOUS.

[Right now, I’d suggest listening to “Cannonball – Mythos”]

I roared, and the Shadow-Stalkers piled on top of me were suddenly launched against the side of the walls, exploding into black mist. More stalkers flew at me, trying to stop me from reaching their master, but nothing seemed to faze me. Savagely, I grabbed the nearest one in my claws, and started whirling around with my arms outstretched, using it as a club to bat away any of them that tried to get near me.

Another Stalker leaped above the others to hack away at my face, but I hurled my improvised club at him, destroying both of them. Again, and again, I hacked away at the minions, beating a path to Torrentican’s throne. Finally, I ended up grabbing yet another Stalker, and hurled him through the air, parting the horde for just a moment. Before they could react, I shot forward like a bullet, crushing all of the Stalkers unfortunate enough to avoid my first attacks.

Torrentican summoned three different swords to each of his hands, leaving his upper left hand free to cast some sort of spell. Just as I jumped into the air to slam my fists on his skull, a blinding violet light flashed. I felt myself get pulled into another portal spell, and we were suddenly hundreds of feet above the field where his pedestal had teleported me to his new castle.

As I began falling, Torrentican summoned one more katana to fill his fourth hand, and he charged at me. I flailed wildly with my fists, catching as many of the blows as I could on my knuckle dusters. He still managed to tear open a few good gashes along my arms, but none of them were lethal hits.

The ground was coming up fast. If I didn’t act soon, Torrentican wouldn’t need to finish me off. An idea formed in my head, born completely out of desperation and anger. As he stabbed forward with his lower arms, I grabbed his upper arms with my own, and pulled him towards me. He was taken by surprise, allowing me to turn the tide.

With a mighty tug, I swung him around so that now he was the one closer to the ground. As he struggled in my grasp, I started kicking, the metal spikes doing little damage against his scales, but disorienting him all the same. He stabbed at me again, and I reached down to grip his wings. Just before he could stab at me again, we crashed into the ground.

The momentum launched me away from him, forcing me to land in a tight roll. As I started to get up, four blades started swishing and hacking in front of me. I narrowly avoided them again, this time letting my chainmail catch a couple of the attacks. The blows were strong enough to nearly break bones, and if I didn’t go back on the offensive soon, I would be done for.

I reached back with my fists one more time, and focused as much of my strength as I could into it. All of my rage, my anger, my hatred for Torrentican, and what he had done…all of it was set free in one, crashing sucker punch that caught the monster right in his stomach. It didn’t stop there. I kept stretching my arm, gaining more and more speed, until he collided with the side of a massive tree that sat on the border of the rainforest.

[Music Over]

His wings shattered against the tree, and he howled in pain. Torrentican pushed himself into a standing position, and spat out, “You…you fool…you think that killing me will bring your precious daughter back? That it will make everything better?!”

I slowly prowled towards him, a low growl building up in my throat. “Torrentican…you’ve gone too far. You murdered an innocent child. Not only that, but you’re raising an army to destroy this world.”

“You could say that…”

“There was one mistake you made though.” I grabbed him by the throat, and shook him until he dropped his weapons. Slamming him against the tree, I said in deathly quiet growl, “This form…it gets power from my anger. And you…you took away my daughter. You KILLED an innocent girl. And now you’re trying to start a war.”

“Trying to start one?” he laughed, looking at me with contempt. “Open your eyes, Omnius! There’s a war coming already. Nothing you can do will stop that. Face it, ‘Battleclaw’. When that war starts, I will make sure that I’m on the winning side. And do you know where you will be? You’ll be on the other side, watching your friends burn!”

His laughter became insane, and echoed hauntingly in my ears.

“WHAT WILL YOU BE THEN?! JUST A SIMPLE PAWN IN A CHESS GAME, SURROUNDED ON ALL SIDES!”

I squeezed his throat tighter in my hand, cutting off his laughter. “You’re wrong…you wanna know what I am?”

My free hand reached back one more time.

“I am one. Angry. Sunuvabitch.”

I shot my fist forward, only to collide with an empty spot on the tree. Torrentican had vanished, leaving me standing there alone in the field. His laughter echoed mockingly in his wake.

He had left before I could deal the final blow...

So be it.

XHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHX

It took me a couple of weeks to make it back to Pine Falls. Partly because I wasn’t running, and partly because I was still trying to wrap my head around everything that had happened. I had lost my daughter, been told by my immortal enemy that he’s raising an army, never learned where his base of operations is, and nearly killed him in a fit of rage. The only thing I knew for certain was that his castle was somewhere on Equestria.

“What will you do now, Traveler?” a voice suddenly asked from behind me, just before I reached the hill that overlooked the town.

Startled, I whirled around to see a beautiful woman with long, flowing blue hair, and sapphire colored eyes. Her very presence betrayed her vast wisdom and knowledge, while her body seemed to have a sort of timeless quality.

“Who are you?” I asked, readying myself for another battle.

“Peace, Traveler. You need not fear me,” she said calmly, holding a placating hand out. “It was Gaia who gave you that form, but only as a favor from me. She did not bring you to this world.”

“Wait…” I muttered in awe. “You’re…you’re another Goddess, aren’t you?”

She nodded, and gave me a little bow. “I am Nayru, Goddess of Wisdom and Time. And you are Omnius, The Eternal Traveler of Good…and my piece, in the games to come.”

“Games, games, games!” I half shouted in frustration. “What does everyone mean by that!? What’s going on!?”

Nayru sighed mournfully. “I am sorry, Omnius. I cannot say anything more. For now, there are only two things I can do for you.”

“Oh? And what would that be?” I asked, on my guard once again. For some reason, I’ve always been paranoid of Gods and gifts. I know I should be able to trust the Good ones, but…well, I trusted Silver Bars. Look what happened because of that.

The Goddess waved her hand, and said, “I can tell you that Amber no longer suffers. She rests in her world’s heaven now, and has eternal peace.” I felt a mixture of relief and sorrow in my heart. “My other gift to you…is Scorch. Her wounds have all been healed, and she will join you on your Travels through this world.”

I would’ve argued, but…well, it’s never wise to argue against a Goddess of Wisdom. Seriously. Bad idea, right there. So instead, I just bowed to her, and said, “Thank you, Nayru.”

“Now…what will you do from here?” she asked me. “Will you gather an army to defeat Torrentican’s? Will you go to the North, where the slaves are, and free them? Or will you set out to explore the world?”

Those were some pretty big thoughts…but I knew what my answer was. I looked Nayru straight in the the eye, and told her, “My lady…I don’t know. All I know is that wherever I go, I’ll always be haunted by the memory of my own failure to protect my child. That thought will always be on my mind…I’ll use that though. If I see anyone in trouble, or about to be hurt, I will make sure that they never have to suffer like I am suffering now.”

Nayru nodded in approval.

“And…there’s one more thing I need to do anyways, before I set out.”

The Goddess smiled at that, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Yeah. Thanks for the cryptic questions and whatnot. Could’ve saved me a walk and just poofed me into town, but nooooo. Oh well. Like I said, I can complain about that later.

There’s just one more ghost that needs to be dealt with.

13) Amber's Final Wish

Chapter 13:

Amber’s Final Wish

The house was dreadfully empty. A fine layer of dust coated everything, further emphasizing the feel of emptiness and sorrow that lingered in my mind. Wearily, I sat down in my favorite armchair, right in front of the dim fireplace. With a careful flick of my flint, I created a small blaze that did nothing to chase away the darkness I felt in my heart.

My daughter was dead.  There wasn’t anything that could change that.

I sighed heavily, and pulled out the last, finished project that Amber had finished, right before she died: a beautiful, flawless, detailed portrait of both Celestia and Luna. In the portrait, they were poised as if they were raising the sun and moon respectively, and the border was that of an old clock. Inscribed on the bottom were the words, “May the sun and moon remind us of better times”.

It was easily Amber’s best work. Quite possibly, it was the best stained glass art in all of Equestria. Certainly, to me, it was the most impressive work of art I had ever seen.

And I could barely stand to be in its presence. I leaned the glass against the fireplace, the light sending colorful lights all across the room. Now, an even larger image of the portrait shown against the floor in front of me, a facsimile made entirely of light.

“Amber…I’m sorry,” I choked out. My face fell into my hands, and I couldn’t hold it back anymore.

A single tear slid out of my hands, and fell onto the light image on the floor. Suddenly, something…happened...I don't even know how to describe it.

The light flashed, nearly blinding me for an instant. When I recovered, I could see there, on the floor…Amber. It was a 3D image of her as a child, made entirely out of ethereal stained glass. She sat huddled on her bed, sobbing in fear. A new figure, made of silver and chocolate colored glass, stepped into the light to comfort her…me.

“I remember this,” I whispered.

Just like that, the entire scene played out before both my mind and my eyes. Amber cried in fear, and I sat on her bed and pulled her into my arms.

“There, there,” I had soothingly said to her. “It was just a nightmare, it wasn’t real.”

Amber continued to cry her eyes out, still terrified from what she had seen. She managed to sob out, “D-daddy! I-I saw you and S-Scorch, and there were monsters, and they t-took you away from me! I was all alone, and it was d-d-dark!”

A reassuring smile slipped across my face, as I cradled her in my arms. To calm her down, I had started singing her a sort of wordless lullaby. It was more a mindless hum than anything, but it had the same effect on her all the same.

Finally, her sobs subsided into scared sniffles, and she had asked me, “Daddy, are monsters real?”

I remembered the answers that had gone through my head. I could have told her a lie, and said that there weren’t any. I could have told her that they only existed in her dreams, and were easily banished with a wish and a prayer.

Instead, I told her, “Yeah. Monsters are real. No matter where you go, there’s gonna be at least one monster hiding in the dark somewhere. But I’m gonna tell you a secret.”

My eyes looked around, as if searching for eavesdroppers, and I whispered in her ear, “Daddy’s an even scarier monster.”

“You are?” Amber had gasped in childish wonder. “Really?”

“Mmhm. But I’m a good monster. I can just…” I then jumped at her, and started tickling her stomach as I said in a playful, growly voice, “SCARE THEM ALL AWAY!”

The filly squealed in laughter, before leaping at me in retaliation, and trying to find a good place to tickle me back. To save her the trouble, I had started to pretend that she was getting me, until she got herself tuckered out. She fell limp in my arms, and sleepily whispered, “I love you Daddy…”

I fell to my knees on the floor, tears cascading out of my eyes. That was one of my most cherished memories of my time with Amber, and it had played out right in front of me. But how?

[Right now, I'd suggest listening to "I, Zero, Your Fellow Interlude - Mythos"]

In answer, the images disappeared, only to be replaced by a stained glass statue of Amber as an adult. Her image gave me a sad smile, and said, “Hi Daddy. If you’re watching this, then…well, I guess I’m dead. If you’re wondering, I finally perfected that illusion charm, and set it onto this. It’s triggered by a sad feeling, and a tear. When that happens, they’ll see their favorite memory or dream to make them feel better.”

Amber always did want her art to bring life back to others…

“I guess if your tear activated it, something really bad must have happened. I mean, you never cry. Ever. You were always too worried about others to cry.” Her glass-self chuckled a little bit. “I remember how no matter what you would be doing, if I had scraped my knee, or hurt myself trying to get my cutie-mark, you’d always stop and help me. No matter what, you’d always make sure others were okay.”

I chuckled too, remembering those times as well.

“Daddy…even when you told me that I was adopted, I knew deep down in my heart that it didn’t matter. You raised me as your daughter, and taught me everything I needed to know. Because of you, I learned things that were more important than anything school had to offer. You told me how to always be kind to others, how a simple nice word could make all the difference for somepony. You taught me that I should hate the action, not the pony.”

She paused for a moment to let her words sink in.

“Right now though…I just really want to tell you something.” Her eyes closed, and crystal tears started falling out of them. “Thank you, Daddy. Thank you for taking me in, for being an actual father. You gave me a life, and I lived it. You gave me everything I needed.”

Amber looked up at me one last time, and smiled.

“I love you Daddy. I love you so much. Thank you for everything. Please, don’t forget that.”

“I won’t,” I croaked out.

The light disappeared, leaving me huddled in the darkness by a ring of pale light on the floor. Finally, everything caught up to me.

“Amber…my daughter,” I sobbed.   “My precious, precious daughter.”

[Music over.]

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


True to her word, Nayru had definitely healed Scorch. Her wounds had all but disappeared, and though her legs were still somewhat stiff, she was able to move. I don’t know why Nayru was so insistent about the dragon accompanying me, but I wouldn’t argue. After I had gotten Scorch caught up with everything, I told her to pack a bag with whatever she wanted to salvage from our home.

In the end, she just packed a few books on plants that grow in Equestria, some seeds from her garden, the usual supplies, and a chunk of wood from the doorway. This had been her first true home, and now she was about to leave it…probably forever.

“Are you ready?” I asked her as I tightened the straps on my backpack. I now had a small walking staff slung through the loops on the end of the backpack, a worn strip of hard oak that could take a lot of abuse before even showing the slightest sign of damage. That battle with Torrentican had made me realize that I WOULD need to learn how to use a weapon of some sort with this body, and I figured I’d have to make due with a staff for now.

Scorch nodded in answer to my question, a far off look in her eyes. Her own backpack was secured tightly to her in anticipation. Quietly, she asked me, “Where are we going now?”

I motioned for her to follow me down the path that would lead us both out of town. “We’re going to Canterlot to see the princesses. Amber made that glass for them, and I’m gonna make damn sure that they get it.” I sighed heavily. “May as well make sure her last wish doesn’t go unfulfilled.”

The dragon’s face fell, but she still said, “Right…what about after that?”

“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out when it comes,” I replied. “For now…Esperanto.”

Together, the two of us started to walk along the road, about to leave Pine Falls behind…for good. Fifteen years…we had spent that entire time in that little town. Now, we were about to see Equestria in its entirety.

But first…

I spied Silver Bars walking out of the bank, an expression of fear and worry on his face. He spotted me, and paled at the rage he saw in my eyes. In a flash, I was standing next to him, baring my teeth.

“You!” I snarled. I pressed him against the wall, in front of all of the ponies who were going about their day, and shouted, “YOU MURDERED MY DAUGHTER!”

“N-n-no! I didn’t do that!” he protested, struggling in my grasp. “It-it was that Torrentican fellow! He’s the one you want!”

I slapped him across the face, and roared, “DON’T TRY AND WEASEL YOUR WAY OUT OF THIS! YOU PRACTICALLY PUT HER HEAD ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK AND TOLD HIM WHERE TO STRIKE!”

He choked and spluttered for air, his face slowly turning blue as his breath became more and more strangled.

“I oughtta kill you, right here, right now,” I growled. “All you’ve done your entire life is cheat, squander, and let greed rule your every action. You’re a coward, a liar, and a pathetic excuse for a pony. If anypony deserves to be hated, it’s you. If anypony here deserves to be DEAD it’s you...not Amber.”

His eyes started to roll into the back of his head…and then suddenly, I flung him to the floor, where he coughed at the sudden intake of air. He looked at me in confusion.

I gave him a disgusted look, and growled, “But that wouldn’t be right. Amber wouldn’t have wanted me to become a murderer over a fuckup like you.”

Before I could lose my temper again, Scorch and I ran. Sky saw me from the air above the entryway, and he gave me a farewell salute. I waved at him, but never glanced back at Pine Falls. It was my past now.

My present, and future, lay on the road ahead.

Just as we reached the top of the hill, I let out a long, piercing howl. On the waterfall that rested besides the town behind me, three graves gave me a silent farewell. The newest one, smaller and more elegant than the other two, was made of pure marble.

Here Lies Amber Heart.

Taken too early.

Artist, Optimist, and Loving Daughter.

May Celestia’s sun warm her, and may Luna’s Moon protect her.

Esperanto

Intermission: The Dreams Never End

Intermission:

The Dreams Never End

A crumpled and torn scrap of parchment lies next to the ruins of an old campfire. Small pools of water surround it, staining the edges, but leaving most of the contents clear for all to see.

I truly hope that people never stop dreaming. How else are we supposed to keep going? Dreams are what we strive to bring to life. Whether it be to start a kingdom free of tyranny, to explore the world, or to just make yourself a better person, it all starts with a single dream. When I started Traveling, it all began with a simple dream I had in the middle of the night, and escalated into something incredible. And now, here I am, sharing not only my story, but more importantly, the stories of others with you.

Dreams. How do you even begin to describe one? Do you say that it’s a system of images that your brain will provide in your head, acting on a message from your subconscious? Whenever I’ve asked a psychic, they’ll tell me that I’m seeing the future, and offer to interpret it for me. If I tell a scientist, they’ll offer to hook me up to a machine in another futile attempt to determine where dreams truly come from, and WHY they even come in the first place.

I’ll be honest. I never really cared for those things. I don’t care about predicting the future, because I’ll live out all futures eventually. I don’t need to know why dreams happen, because that’s part of the grand mystery that makes them so appealing.

And maybe that’s why everyone is as scared of dreams as they are attracted to them. They’re afraid of what they don’t know. It’s a sad fact of life, but the unknown does scare the vast majority of people. Dreams are sort of the halfway point between us, and the unknown. In them, we can see the unknown, and attempt to put a semblance of sense to it. We see things we don’t understand, and sometimes can’t even hope to comprehend. We see life, death, love, happiness, sorrow, anger, friends, enemies, family. We see our memories, and our past, present, and future.

We see everything, and nothing in our dreams. And they guide us to do the fantastic. We dream of something greater, and set out to make them come true, the odds be damned! Look at every single kingdom, or successful person you see, and ask them what started it all. No matter what they say, just remember how a single, simple dream was the first thing in their hearts.

Dreams are what started everything.  More importantly, WE are the ones who choose to give them meaning. No one else can decide that for us, no matter how hard they try.

That's what matters in the end.

Philosophical ramblings aside, Scorch and I should be reaching Canterlot by-

The rest is illegible, covered in soot and dirt.

14) Dark Tidings

Chapter 14:

Dark Tidings

Scorch was terrified.

She felt herself suspended in the air, an unwilling spectator to the scene that played out before her. All around her, the air seemed to ripple, distorting the area. To her eyes, it looked like she was in the middle of a blood red ocean, with the remains of broken buildings acting as small islands.

Below her, doing his best to run from island to island, was Omnius. Even from a distance, Scorch could tell he was tiring quickly, that his breaths were becoming labored. Blood matted down several patches of fur on his arms and legs, as he ran, swung, and leaped from island to island.

Right behind him, quickly closing the gap between itself and Omnius, was an enormous monster. There was no other word for it. Twice as large as the cruel dragon that had stolen her as a hatchling, her mind couldn’t find a way to properly comprehend what it was. All she could even discern was the hideous purple eye that burned with a sickening mixture of lust for power, and hatred.

Closer, and closer, it drew to the fleeing Werehog. Desperately, Omnius started tossing some of the islands back at it, with little effect. Nothing was slowing it down, as it opened its gaping maw to reveal several rows of jagged, black fangs. There was the telltale crackle of lightning, and a bolt of black energy, tinged with white specks, shot out at Omnius.

The beam slammed into the island he was standing on, completely annihilating it and leaving him to flounder about uselessly in midair.

The monster’s maw opened once more, this time to unleash a grating laugh that sent shivers down the dragon’s spine. Omnius winced, but his look of grim determination never once faltered. Not when the monster came closer to him. Not when its jaws slowly closed down. Not when his arms shot out in an all or nothing attempt at keeping the beast’s jaws from crushing him.

Not when the monster’s strength far outclassed even his own.

Not when Scorch screamed.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


“Hey, Scorch, calm down,” I half-shouted over the sound of her screaming. “It’s okay, you just had a nightmare.”

We were currently one day away from our destination of Canterlot, camped out in a little spot on the mountains that surrounded the pony capitol. Miraculously, we hadn’t encountered any trouble during our trip, something that I was truly grateful for. No bandits, monsters, or slavers…this was probably the closest we had come to peace on our journey.

Of course, Scorch screaming in mortal terror was an exception.

I finally managed to get her calmed down after a few minutes. The dragon’s eyes were now opened wide, still dilated from remembered terror. She moved herself into a sitting position and took several deep breaths in an effort to calm herself.

Concerned, I set about making a pot of tea, and asked her, “Are you alright?”

Shakily, she shook her head, saying, “I…I don’t think so. That dream was too real.”

While I waited for the tea to finish cooking, Scorch told me about everything she saw in her dream. By the time she had finished recounting what she had seen, the sun had started to peek over the horizon, and the tea had cooled off enough to be served.

“Hm…so, you saw me get attacked by some kinda…” I cast about for the right word, before settling with, “Beast?”

She nodded.

I thought about what she had said for another moment, absently sipping at my mint tea while I did so. “That wasn’t a dream,” I finally said. “If anything, I think you have a minor amount of clairvoyance.”

“What?” she asked me in confusion.

“You can see the future,” I elaborated. “The fact that you can remember all of that, and tell me about every detail you saw points towards that, at least.”

Actually, I’m a minor clairvoyant myself. When I sleep, I tend to get my own visions of stuff relating to what has, and what will, happen in the future. Unfortunately, that little power doesn’t do me any good now, since I CAN’T. FREAKING. SLEEP.

I miss my naps. I really, really do.

“But…what does my dream mean?” Scorch asked, staring at her tea.

I smiled, and gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder. “It means you should relax, and drink your tea. Once I’m done cleaning up the campsite, we’ll head into Canterlot.”

“What about-”

“Don’t worry about it,” I interrupted her. “We won’t do any good worrying about what we don’t know everything about. For now, we’ll concentrate on getting this glass to Celestia and Luna. We’ll figure out what to do after that.”

She sighed once more, but took a small sip from her drink. While she finished her tea, I scratched down another entry in my journal, taking note of the fact that one of my earlier pages was missing.

Damn. Why do I always keep losing those things?

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

There it was. The city that all ponies know about.

Canterlot.

No description I can say will do it justice. The way its white marble buildings caught the sunlight from its perch on the mountains always is a true sight to behold.

Now if only the ponies living there were as nice as it looked.

After some brief heckling from the guards, Scorch and I had made it into the city, only to be glared at by disgusted rich snobs. The way they whispered amongst themselves, stealing glances at our appearance, like they thought we were too stupid to notice. Honestly, I hate it when people do that.

In an attempt to ignore all of them, I said, “Alright, first things first.”

“We go and see the princesses?”

“No,” I grinned. “They’re probably busy with all the nobles and princessly stuff. We’ll wait until tonight to bug them.”

“Oh…” Scorch frowned. “So what are we doing until then?”

My grin grew even larger, and I clapped my hands together in excitement. “Scorch, it’s been fifteen years since I’ve been able to have this delicacy. Pine Halls never sold it, and we’ve been living off of nuts, berries, and bitter as all get out tea.”

She grimaced a little at that, but nodded in agreement.

“Scorch…today, WE FEAST!”

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


The server trembled fearfully next to the counter as he struggled to listen to what we were about to order. I rolled my eyes at him, and said, “Sir, relax. We’re not gonna eat you or anything. Really now, do you treat all outsiders like this?”

He chuckled nervously, and said, “Sorry about that. Things have just been a little strange lately.”

“Ah, it’s fine,” I said, waving it off. “Now, may we order?”

“Of course!” he said, warming up to me not that he knew I wasn’t gonna try and rip out his throat or anything like that.

“Alright, ah…I’d like a triple scoop chocolate chip cone, and…” I looked over to Scorch. “What did you want?”

“I’d like the strawberry swirl sundae, please,” she quietly said, avoiding eye contact with the waiter. She still has some issues with meeting new people, I guess. Understandable.

“Good choice,” the server commented. He ducked behind the counter for a moment, before coming back up with our order. “That’ll be ten bits.”

I handed him the coins, and said, “Thank’ee kindly.”

With that, Scorch and I sat down at a table by the door to enjoy the delicious gift of the gods that is ice cream.

Scorch sniffed a bit at her sundae, still a little cautious about the frozen delicacy. The instant she had told me she had never had ice cream, I knew that that had to be our top priority when we reached Canterlot. I dug into my own ice cream, savoring each and every bit of delicious ambrosia that slid down my throat.

Yes, I do have a bit of a sweet tooth. No, I’m not sharing my ice cream with you.

“Scorch, just stop worrying and EAT!” I mumbled after I came back up for air. “It’s ice cream. That stuff is good for the soul!”

She finally tasted a small spoonful…and then started devouring it alongside me. After a minute, she winced horribly, and clutched at her head. She moaned in pain, making me laugh a little.

“Brain freeze!” I laughed, popping the last of my cone into my mouth. "Waiter! Two more please!"

Oh, fifteen years is FAR too long to go without a single scoop of ice cream. Thank the Gods that Canterlot has this stuff.

And that I've got two hundred bits that I've saved just for this occasion.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

“Totally…” I burped slightly, and pat my stomach in content. “Worth it.”

We finished paying for all of the food we had eaten (earning a “favorite customer” card in the process), and set off to get to the castle. Well, I walked, while Scorch waddled.

Thankfully, her metabolism should tear through that by the time we reach the royalty.

Somewhat shakily, I reached into my backpack and pulled out Amber’s glass. I ran a hand over it, and let out a heavy sigh. Soon, I would be willingly giving up the last memento of my daughter. Maybe that was why I did the ice cream binge. Just to give myself a few more precious moments.

Still. There’s no point in putting it off.

With that, I strolled into the gardens just outside of the castle, mentally preparing myself-

-And got surrounded by guards in the blink of an eye.

Spears were thrust towards me, as I said, "Um...We come in peace?"

Why can't I ever catch a break?

15) Massacre

Chapter 15

Massacre

There were about three things going through my mind at that exact moment:

1) Why did I let them surround me like that?

2) How, and why, did they react so fast?

3) When the hell am I gonna draw a smiley face on the moon?

As you can see, even in the middle of what could potentially escalate into something big, I still have my priorities straight.

I felt the hackles on the back of my neck rise as one of the guards stepped forward, a stoic glare on his face. He still had that same color scheme as the rest of the guards, but his helmet had a larger crest on it, making me think he was the one in charge of the small squad that had me and Scorch surrounded.

“Is there a problem, occifer?” I asked, mispronouncing the word on purpose. The guard continued to glare at me, not amused by my small attempt at humor. I raised my arms in a complacent gesture, and said, “Alright, alright, take it easy. We’re not here to cause any trouble. My friend and I just want to see the princesses, and deliver a gift to them.”

Without warning, a pair of cast iron shackles were slapped together on my wrists. I started in surprise, while the guard told me, “You are under arrest.”

“What?!” I half-shouted. “On what grounds?”

If looks could kill, this guy would’ve killed me a million times over. Just from that one sentence. In a disgusted tone filled with hatred and anger, he snarled, “For the murder of Lacy Frills, Bronze Coins, and their son, Copper Coins.”

“That’s impossible!” I protested, my mind trying to figure out what was going on. Here I was, apparently getting arrested for a crime I hadn’t even done! For that matter, why were they arresting ME?

His hoof cracked against the side of my head, and he shouted, “Don’t you dare try to deny it! We have an eyewitness account that states they were attacked by a previously unheard of monster, and that monster was still in the city!”

That…unfortunately, there’s not much I can do to argue against that. From what I’ve studied, I’m literally the only Werehog in existence on this world. There were no previous entries to say that they had been here before, and the surprise on everypony’s face (what could be seen of it underneath their prejudice) coincided with everything else.

Then again, there’s another explanation for it. The downside to that is that the guard won’t believe me if I tell him that. So, I’ll have to play dumb…or, as many people tell me, stop acting smart.

Shaddap.

“Look, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said in a controlled voice. “I just came into town this morning-”

“Didn’t you bucking hear me?” The guard interrupted. “The murder happened TODAY.”

My temper flared, and I growled, “Let me finish, featherbrains.”

His hoof shot forward again, but this time I was ready. I raised my arms, and caught his attack on the chain connecting the shackles. With a quick twist, I had flipped him onto his back, and pinned him to the ground. As the other guards started forward to subdue me, Scorch pulled me off of the guard. Apparently, they hadn’t arrested her, meaning I still had a chance to get myself out of this.

I growled at the guard again, and said, “I’ve been at an ice cream parlor all day. Ask Scorch, and ask the pony who runs it.”

Scorch nodded vigorously from my side, and explained everything to the guard. Oh sure, they were willing to listen to a dragon, but not me? Gotta love these guards and their priorities. I guess this definitely means whoever killed those ponies did it single handedly.

Finally, they agreed to schedule a supervised audience with Princess…Cadence. OH COME ON! I know she’s the only one who can see me, but Amber made this for Celestia and Luna! Why can’t I…

I took in a deep breath to calm myself down. No sense in getting angry over it. Just…see if I can ask her to at least take the glass to them.

The guards told me to wait until the next morning to speak to Cadence. In the meantime, I would be allowed to camp out in the gardens. By the way they were glaring at me, it wasn’t really an offer, so much as a demand. Well, at least it beats sleeping in a hotel.

Oh wait. No it doesn’t.

Scorch curled up on the ground next to me, while I sat down and crossed my legs. I’m not gonna be going anywhere tonight. So, my lack of sleep means that I’ll have to do something productive.

Meditating.

I’d been doing that more often than I used to in an effort to learn how to control my anger. Not only that, but it allowed me to clear my head, giving me a chance to…well, relax. It was calming. Refreshing. I could always meditate, and finish it feeling…wiser, somehow, if that makes any sense.

I closed my eyes, and opened my mind to the world around me…

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

A/N: Small warning, there will be a more bloody scene up ahead.

The moon was nowhere to be seen in the skies, and the stars themselves looked dimmer than usual.  Even the torch light from the small hamlet that sat at the foot of the mountain did little to stave off the oncoming darkness.

A perfect night for Torrentican to move on to the next stage of his plan.

His experiment with Amber’s death had been a critical success. Not only that, but he had used the opportunity to discover another mirror dimension that connected to Equestria. It bordered on the edge of Tartarus, and was completely empty…

Or, at least, it HAD been. Fifteen years had been ample time for Torrentican to fill that land to the brim with Shadow Stalkers, and slowly increase their power. His plan was coming together, all according to schedule.

His next task was to create more Blood Portals to connect the realms. The most efficient way for him to do that, however, was something he looked forward to.

Blood Portals needed two things to be properly powered: The obvious one, blood, and the…catalyst.

Fear.

Torrentican smirked as he looked at the village, his four arms eagerly clenching in anticipation. He chuckled lightly to himself, and moved towards the village, his eyes glowing with maniacal devotion to the goddess who had sent him here. Takhisis would be pleased with how he was going to ensure her rise to power.

And pleased with how he would further his own strength in the process.

“These creatures…” he whispered, slowly walking towards the unaware and sleeping village. “They have lived far too long in peace, and comfort. It’s sickening…they think that they can sing their nightmares away…”

He snapped his fingers, and sent a massive fireball into the center of the small village. An ear splitting screech followed in the fireball’s wake, disturbing the ponies from their slumber. Some of them instantly panicked, and charged outside…

Right where Torrentican was waiting for them.

Just to inspire even more fear, he snapped his fingers yet again, filling the night air with dark and foreboding music. This was the key to this plan: By taking one of the forces that ponies used to give themselves comfort, and turning it against them, it would grant him the chaos he needed to fuel his magic.

He jumped forward into the crowd, and grabbed the nearest pony, a cream colored Pegasus with green eyes. The pony struggled in his grasp, soliciting a malicious smile from the Traveler of Evil.

“What is this feeling

Of power and drive

I've never known?

I feel alive!”

He snapped the pony’s neck simply by tightening his grip, and flung the carcass at a group of fleeing children, terrifying them into running even faster than they were before.

“Where does this feeling

Of power derive,

Making me know

Why I'm alive?

“Like the night, it's a secret,

Sinister dark and unknown.

I do not know what I seek,

Yet I'll seek it alone!”

With another snap of his fingers, large obsidian stakes erupted from the ground, impaling a few of the panicked ponies. Chaos reigned supreme, and Torrentican drank in their fear, storing its power. Blood slowly dripped down onto the stakes, filling small hollows that were carved into the bottom of them.

“I have a thirst

That I cannot deprive.

Never have I felt so alive!

“There is no battle

I couldn't survive -

Feeling like this -

Feeling alive!”

In a futile effort, some of the ponies tried grouping together, each of them grasping a crude club in their mouths. Torrentican laughed at them, his arms snatching up more innocent foals, and hurling them towards the wooden stakes. Each of them were impaled brutally…but they still suffered, forced to endure unbearable agony. They cried for their parents to save them…

But Torrentican would not be stopped.

“Like the moon, an enigma,

Lost and alone in the night

Damned by some heavenly stigma,

But blazing with light!”

The tempo of the music increased, as he spun forward, his talons singing for more blood.

“It's the feeling of being alive!

Filled with evil, but truly alive!

It's the truth that cannot be denied!

It's the feeling of being

Torrentican!!”

He laughed once more, as more and more ponies fell before him. With a vicious glee, he tore open the stomach of one mare, and used her innards to strangle the children who had “heroically” rushed to avenge her. The Traveler made sure that a few of his victims survived to spread the word of his deeds.

One thing that he hated about the ponies would serve him well tonight: their inherent ability to spread rumors. If they could transform a harmless Zebra shaman into an evil enchantress, just imagine what they could do for something that was actually evil.

Now, to ensure that they would know who to blame for this…

His claws snapped once more, this time sending a bolt of lightning crashing into the largest of the small cottages that made up the village. A terrified pony with a scroll and quill cutie-mark huddled amidst the wreckage, amazingly untouched and unharmed.

Torrentican was on him in an instant, grasping the Earth Pony by the mane, and forcing him to look into his eyes.

“You…you disgust me,” The Traveler snarled, slamming the pony into the ground. “Thinking that your dear princesses will protect you from all harm. Thinking that your nightmares are simple dreams…Well. Wake up from this nightmare...”

The pony opened its mouth, but Torrentican hurled the pony into the center of the village, where he knew a few ponies still hid from him. They watched him in horror, as he leaped forward and crouched over their mayor.

“Animals trapped behind bars at the zoo

Need to run rampant and free!

Predators live on the prey they pursue!

This time the predator's me!”

The pony desperately crawled forward in a pathetic attempt to escape his fate. In response, Torrentican simply snatched the pony by the tail, and flipped him onto his back with a mighty tug.

"Lust, like a raging desire,

Fills my whole soul with its curse!

Burning with primitive fire,

Berserk and perverse!”

He stomped on the pony’s rear leg, snapping it in twain. The pony howled in pain and fear, blood seeping from underneath Torrentican’s foot.

“Tonight! I'll plunder heaven blind,

Steal from all the gods!

Tonight! I'll take from all mankind,

Conquer all the odds!

And I feel I'll live on forever,

With Takhisis herself by my side!

And I'll show the world

That tonight and forever,

The name to remember,

The name TORRENTICAN!”

He bashed the pony on the head, and hurled him into another stake, the small hollows at the bottom of each stake now overflowing with blood.

“What a feeling to be so alive!

I have never seen me so alive!

Such a feeling of evil inside -

That's the feeling

Of being

TORRENTICAN!!!”

Shadow Stalkers emerged from the darkness then, to gather the last of the blood.

And Torrentican laughed madly as the ponies screamed for mercy.

XHXHXHXHXHX

My eyes shot open, as a cold wind blew over the gardens. Something dark stirred within my heart, as I looked to the sky.

Nothing seemed wrong.

But in reality?

"...Torrentican..." I muttered.

A chilling laugh echoed in my head.

16) Soul Searching...And Stuff

Chapter 16

Soul Searching…And Stuff

Morning couldn’t get here fast enough for me. I had spent all night wondering what Torrentican had been doing, and why I had been able to sense him. Was my meditation finally paying off? Or was that just me being extremely paranoid?

In any case, once the guard arrived to escort Scorch and I to see Princess Cadence, I had already finished my journal entry for that day, gotten our bags packed, and carved the words, “Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring, Banana Phone!” into a tree.

They weren’t too happy to see that last part, but I had made sure it was hidden. You’d actually have to be right next to the tree to even see the damned thing. The guard from yesterday nodded in my direction, and said, “Her majesty, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza will see you now.”

“Good,” I replied. Gently, I shook Scorch awake, and we were off to see the Princess. The wonderful princess of Canterlot.

…Okay, I won’t make any more Wizard of Oz song jokes. I’m sorry to have put you through that.

Scorch and I followed the stocky Pegasus through the winding hallways of the castle. This might have been my paranoia acting up again, but it felt like he was making us take an unnecessarily long and complicated route just to throw us off. If he’s got any brains, he probably would do something like that. After all, in his mind, I’m still an unknown monster who just says he’s got a “gift” to give to Celestia and Luna. By directing me to Cadence, this means that not only will they save the God-Princesses some trouble, but they’ll also be coordinated with the guard, in case I end up being a troublesome Werehog.

To pass the time, I pulled a small, unfinished carving from my backpack, and absently whittled at it with the claw on my thumb (note to self, learn if there’s a proper word for that). I smiled when I saw the small trail of wood shavings that fell onto the floor behind us.

Here’s a tip for all castle owners: make sure your cleaning staff doesn’t take the day off when someone like me shows up…Also, get some better curtains for the dungeons. Really, just because we get thrown in there to be tortured/imprisoned, doesn’t mean you have to make us stare at something drab and boring all day. Sheesh!

While I carved the chunk of wood into a replica of a sonic screwdriver (not all of my carvings have to be deep!), I couldn’t help but notice that Scorch was…jumpy. I don’t mean in the usual way, but she seemed to expect something to jump out at her.

Time to start conversating with Scorch. Who knows, maybe the guard will learn something new.

“Is something on your mind?” I asked the dragon, carving out the tip of the screwdriver.

She flinched, surprised by the fact that I had chosen to say anything around the guard. The dragon glanced at him, and I motioned for her to go ahead and talk.

With a deep breath to steel her nerves, she told me, “I had another dream last night.”

“Was it the same one, or something different?” I immediately asked.

“It was…different,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “I saw myself climbing a volcano, and on the other side of it were other dragons. Not only that, but I saw even more of them flying in.”

…Ah, cripes. I think I know where this is going.

Tentatively, I asked her, “Did you, by any chance, see pools of lava, mounds of gems, or anything like that?”

“Yes, I saw all of those things,” she nodded. “I also saw…a very strange looking dragon. It was incredibly ugly.”

Well. Shit. It looks like Scorch has seen the great dragon migration. I’ll be honest. I actually didn’t want to tell her about that. A small part of me was whispering to keep her by my side, to make sure that I didn’t lose another daughter. It was selfish, and it ashamed me that it had even crossed my mind for a single moment.

It was with a heavy heart that I told her about the migration. I didn’t know too much about it, other than the fact that it was a huge dragon get-together, that there are plenty of teenage dragons…

“And nearly every dragon in Equestria shows up,” I finished somewhat lamely. “If I remember right, it’s due to happen here in about a week or so.”

Scorch was dumbstruck. Hope flashed in her eyes, and I could almost read her mind. She then asked me, “Every dragon?”

“As far as I know,” I admitted.

“Could…could my parents be there?”

And there’s the kicker.

“Well…it’s very possible,” I answered. “Unless something happened to them, they’d probably show up.”

The teenage dragon tried to think of how to respond to that. Here was an once-in-a-lifetime (for Equines at least) opportunity for her to finally reclaim what was once hers. She could find her real family. But to do that, she would have to set out on her own. Yes, I had told her how only dragons were allowed at this. If she went, she’d go by herself. I couldn’t accompany her, and she’d have to follow the course of the dragons from the ground.

I’d also like to think that maybe she was somewhat reluctant to leave me, as well. That she still wanted to adventure with me. Of course, my own conscious wanted her to go, not just to find her family, but to also stay out of Torrentican’s line of fire. Yet…I still wanted her by me. She was my daughter, just as much as Amber is…was.

Scorch shook her head, dazed from this revelation, and murmured, “I need some time to think.”

“When we reach Cadence, I’ll ask her if there’s a quiet place for you to do that,” I promised her.

The guard turned back to look at me, and snapped, “That’s PRINCESS Mi Amore Cadenza, swine.”

Did this prick really just ruin the moment? More importantly, DID HE JUST CALL ME “SWINE”?! Why I oughtta-

“Halt. We are here,” the guard stated, stopping in front of…

“DID YOU JUST TAKE US THROUGH THE CASTLE, AND BACK TO THE SAME DAMNED GARDEN!?” I shouted, now noticing my trail of shavings did end up leading back here. Son of a Qwark! Then again, that was pretty smart. Take us on a wild goose chase thing, lead us back to same garden, where they undoubtedly had some hidden security to make sure that I didn’t cause any trouble.

Which I was strongly tempted to do at the moment. Would punching a guard and calling him a nimrod be trouble?

Before I could make any stupid decisions, a kind voice called out, “Welcome…whatever-you-are.”

A soft pink Alicorn sat next to the tree I had carved my little banana phone joke on, a red and white picnic blanket set out in front of her. It even came with its own picnic!

Cautiously, I sat down on the opposite side of the blanket, all too aware of the dozens of guards that were staring at me. Even though I couldn’t see them, I knew that they could see me. It felt like they were just waiting for me to do something monster-y, and attack the princess.

Instead, I did what should be expected by now, and did the unexpected.

“Excuse me, your highness,” I said politely. “But is there some place that Scorch can go for some peace and quiet? She’s got a few things that she’d like to think about.”

“There’s a small pond just beyond those hedges,” Cadence said, pointing with her hoof towards the area in particular. “If she wants, she can wait there while we have our discussion. And some lunch.”

…Cadence is best princess.

I thanked her for her generosity, and waited for Scorch to disappear behind the hedges. Once she was gone, I gave another small bow to the princess, and said, “Thank you, your highness. You have no idea how much this means, for us to have this audience with you.”

She smiled at me, and said, “It’s nothing, and please, call me Cadence.”

“It’s an honor to meet you, ma’am,” I replied. “I’m Omnius. Most folks call me Battleclaw though.”

“Well, now that introductions are out of the way…” Cadence gestured to the large picnic that lay before us. Heaping amounts of fruit, fresh veggies, some sandwiches and chips…I think I’m in love. The princess grinned at me. “Why don’t we get lunch out of the way?”

As soon as she said, “Lunch” I stretched my arms out to scoop a few piles of sandwiches into my mouth. Note to self: PB&J, Cheese, and Egg Salad…actually taste surprisingly good all at the same time. The princess, for her part, dug into a few of the apple pies. We made a silent agreement to let me have the sandwiches, and her the pies.

I think I can live with that.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX


After we had finished eating, I bowed my head to the princess once more, and said, “Thank you, Princess Cadence. This is a truly welcome break from…well, yeah.” I cleared my throat to make up for the awkward silence, and added, “Well, uh, onto business then.”

Cadence sighed, making me think that she wanted to ask me about it, but wisely chose to say, “Yes. You said you have a gift for my aunts?”

I slung my backpack off of my shoulders, and gently removed a cloth covered bundle from it. Before I could bring myself to unwrap it, I hugged it tight to my chest. I took one last deep breath, and reluctantly gave it to Princess Cadence. Something in my heart told me that I could trust her, at least, to ensure that it reached her aunts.

“Ma’am, what you hold there is my daughter’s most beautiful piece of art,” I whispered quietly. “She poured months of effort into it, just to make sure that it would be perfect for them.”

“You have a daughter?” she asked, slightly surprised.

“Had. I had a daughter,” I corrected sadly. “Her name was Amber Heart. She was a unicorn with a lot of talent in what she did.”

This seemed to confuse Cadence even more.

A voice whispered in my head, “Tell her…tell her about Amber, and her death. She will point you in the right direction.”

Thank you, voices in my head…that sound suspiciously like a certain Goddess whose initials are “N” and “ayru”.

Still, she had a point. If I told her, it’d give her a bit more reason to trust me. At the very least, I’d be able to use this to ask for some information from her.

“Princess, my tale is not a good one,” I sighed, suddenly feeling more like the old sage I was supposed to be. “If you wish, I shall tell it to you. We will most certainly be out here until the sun sets, and the moon rises. It is not a tale I wish to tell more than once.”

Without any hesitation whatsoever, Princess Cadence nodded, and gestured for me to speak.

So, I did just that. I told her about everything that I felt I should tell her about, modifying my story to make it appear that I had amnesia.  For hours, and hours, I told her about the beautiful town of Pine Falls, about how Whirl Wing had taken me in when no one else would, how Scorch and I had met…

I nearly choked when I told her about Quartz’s attack on the town, and how it had been the aftermath that had claimed Whirl’s life. Even fifteen years from that tragic day, I still felt deep pangs of guilt and regret shoot through me. Guess I still had a ways to go before I could truly overcome that loss.

Cadence seemed to sense my distress, and said, “If it’s too much, please, don’t worry about it. I don’t need to know the whole thing.”

A mournful chuckle escaped me, as I told her, “No. If you really want to know why I’m trying so damn hard to get this glass to Celestia and Luna, I’d like to say my piece. Besides, I can see in your eyes that you want to know.”

She grinned in a mixture of chagrin and guilt, but didn’t stop me.

When I finally reached the part about Amber’s death, she could only offer me her condolences, and the reassurance that wherever she was, she was in a better place. It was a bittersweet comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.

“And that’s…that’s the story behind this single piece of glass,” I finished hoarsely. I hadn’t talked that long since the last time I had to explain my Traveling. Like I had said, the sun was well below the horizon, while the moon overlooked us. Scorch still hadn’t reappeared from her spot behind the hedges, but I got the feeling she was still there. At least, the fact that there was a Pegasus staring made me think that.

I sighed once more…and uncovered the glass. As the pale moonlight cast the glass’ image onto the field, I heard Cadence gasp quietly at the sight of it.

“Would you like to see its power at work?” I asked her, adjusting the glass so that I could sit more comfortably with it.

She nodded, and took a tentative step towards the glass. I guess that Amber must have made it so that the magic inside of it could be activated without the tear, or maybe I misunderstood what she had said in her final message to me. Why?

Because the touch of Cadence’s hoof on the light image was all it took to trigger its power. I don’t know why it did that. Maybe she had a lot on her mind, or maybe she needed some comfort for something that had happened. It was possible that there was some nagging sorrow that lingered in her heart.

Either way, Amber’s magic did its work.

Right before our eyes, there were two ponies made of the same ethereal stained glass that had shown up the last time it had been used.

Cadence and Shining Armor…

This…this was the memory of his proposal to her.

I wish I could find the words to tell you all about it. But…something that special? The forging of an unbreakable bond, tested in the fires of what is undoubtedly true love? Clichéd as that sounds, I can’t bring myself to ruin it by trying to apply words.

All I can say is that Cadence’s eyes were lit up with joy, happiness, and hope. That look on her face was enough to let me know that I had finally done something right.

That’s a miracle, ain’t it?

“Now do you see why I was so dead set on getting this to Celestia and Luna?” I quietly asked, breaking the trance. “That glass holds something more powerful than anything I’ve seen on this world. Amber enchanted this to remind all who see it to do one thing.”

“And what would that be?” Cadence asked as she took the glass in her magical grasp.

I smiled sorrowfully at her, and slowly eased myself into a standing position. “Hope.”

We were silent for a while longer, before I closed my eyes and leaned against the tree I had carved on. “I’m going to have to let my other daughter go, aren’t I?” Tears started to fall out of my eyes. “I already know that she’ll try and find her family. And who am I to stop her? She knows how to fight, how to take care of herself. Sure, she might get scared by the occasional thunderstorm, or be shy and timid, but…she can be brave when it’s called for.”

There it was. No more denying it. Scorch had grown up. And now, I had to let her go...Ye Gods and Goddesses...I wish I didn't have to. But, it wouldn't be right for me to do that.

I pushed myself off of the tree, and started walking towards the gate.

“I can’t let her pass this opportunity by. Do me a favor, and tell her to…follow her heart.” I turned around, and added, “She doesn’t need an old man like me anymore. I'd tell her goodbye myself, but I'd end up chickening out.”

The princess stared at me for a moment, before her horn glowed a soft, comforting blue color. For an instant, all of my guilt and regret was chased away, replaced by the memories of my time in Pine Falls, with Amber and Scorch. I felt…happy.

“Omnius,” she stated. “If you choose to remember the bad, at least make sure you know that there was good there as well.”

It took me a moment for my mind to remember how to tell her, “Thank you.” I cleared my throat, and then asked her, “If I may…where is the nearest town?”

“I would head northwest, to Silverton. The ponies there should be friendly enough, and you can restock on supplies there,” she answered.

I nodded, and before anything else could be said, I ran off into the night. In a matter of minutes, I had left the town and set out in the direction of Silverton. Hopefully, I could figure out what my next move would be once I got there. I looked behind me one last time, and gave the city one final salute.

Goodbye, Scorch. I thought to myself. I hope you find your family.

Intermission - The Shadow Knight

Intermission:

The Shadow Knight

“Mommy!” a small foal cried, ducking underneath a table for cover. Another fireball exploded above him, his tiny body barely protected by the wooden surface. The flames licked over the edge of the table, filling his heart with mortal terror.

An earth-rattling roar shook the very foundations of the foal’s burning home, quickly followed by another fireball that decimated the entire front half of the building. The foal screamed again, as a massive beast that seemed to be made entirely out of the darkest fires seen only in nightmares hunched over to peer inside of the burning wreckage. A maw with teeth as black as obsidian leered at the child, with several small fires flickering wildly.

A massive hand reached down to burn the child, to feel its fur and flesh burn away to nothing but ash...The child closed his eyes, and waited for the inevitable...

And was immediately met by the sound of steel colliding against stone.

Opening his eyes, the foal was shocked to see a strange, bipedal figure standing in front of him, a heavy shield between them and the monster.

The figure was completely encased in a metal suit of charcoal colored armor, with elegant gold lines tracing the edges of it. To the foal, it seemed like a darker, more alien version of the armor he had seen the royal guards up at Canterlot wear. His build vaguely reminded the child of a larger, wider version of a diamond dog, with a broad chest, and hands that gripped both a heavy roundshield, and an enormous sword that fanned out at both sides at the tip of it.

Is that one of those aliens? The child idly wondered in a haze.

With a grunt of effort, the newcomer forced the monster back with a mighty heave of his shield, and followed it with a downwards slash from his massive sword. The metal cleaved through the fire and brimstone as easily as it would have cleaved through wet clay, and the monster shrieked in pain. Before the monster could recover, the figure turned and scooped the foal up in its arms, and leaped through the smoldering remains of the wall.

During the pair’s mad dash through the town, the foal had just enough time to realize just how much damage the creature had caused; nearly half of his home, his village, had been completely devoured by the flames, leaving nothing more than the charred skeletons of once proud homes. Smoke and ash filled the air, obscuring Celestia’s sun as if it were little more than a paltry annoyance. His rescuer’s dark armor was already becoming nigh impossible to see against the thick clouds of smoke.

Once he had been safely carried away from the worst of the flames, the figure set him down, and told him in a deep, echoing voice, “Run! I shall fend off the foul beast!”

Before the foal could reply, the figure had already rushed back into the flames, his shield held before him to ward off any oncoming attacks.

Another roar shook the village’s foundations, as the monster, a Pyromancer gone rampant, charged the armored figure down.

In response, the figure raised his sword, and shouted, “For the Night’s Embrace!”

As the monster bore down on him, the Knight fully stepped into its path, and halted the monster’s charge with naught but the flat of his sword. He let out another grunt of effort as he smashed his shield into the monster’s face, cracking the stone mockery of a nose with ease. The Pyromancer fell back, his massive frame crashing into the ground. With the confidence of one who has practiced his craft for centuries on end, the Knight cleaved away at the beast’s neck, hacking apart the magic that held it together.

The monster roared in pain, band tried to unleash another blast of flames to roast the Knight.

The flames were diverted with a simple flick of the Knight’s sword.

The Pyromancer, too weak to sustain itself any longer, faded away, leaving only a pile of steaming brimstone to signify that it had even existed in the first place. Even the flames that were consuming the town died away to nothing, leaving only the Knight to stand in the aftermath.

He slung his sword and shield onto his back, and trudged through the wreckage to return to the crowd of ponies who watched him with awe, and no little amount of fear. Sensing their apprehension, the Knight slowly knelt to the ground, where the foal approached him cautiously.

“Little one,” he rumbled. “Did the creature harm you in any way?”

The foal shook his head.

Nodding, the Knight gently brushed a few ashes out of the foal’s mane, and stood to address the crowd.

“Citizens of Maretyr, you need not fear any longer. The source of your torment has been removed from this plane of existence,” he stated in a loud voice, holding his hands out in what was unmistakably a gesture of peace. “No longer shall you fear your homes being destroyed by this soulless monster. It has met its end by the steel of my blade.”

He continued on with his speech in this fashion for a long while, calming the crowd with a voice that was laced with what seemed to be genuine concern, assuring them that he meant them no harm, and only wished to offer them a small measure of protection in their troubled times. Soon, the crowd began to cheer for him, praising his bravery and selflessness.

“Sir Knight, what may we call you?” the mayor managed to shout over the noise of the crowd.

The Knight met all of their gazes, one at a time, and nodded, as if to confirm something for himself.

“You may call me...Torrentican, Knight of the Shadows. And I seek the one who caused you this pain. I aim to destroy him, to cast him back into the abyss from whence he came.”

His helmet’s eye slits glowed with a smoldering orange fire.

“I seek the one known as Warclaw. The Beast of Nightmares.”

Revisions of the Future

Beast Within

Revisions of the Future

Shink. Shink. Shink. Shink.

Mechanically, I kept bringing the whetstone sharply across the blade of the heavy iron spearhead, removing any imperfections and notches, sharpening it until it could pierce even the heaviest of armors. The way the moonlight caught on its dull grey shine gave it a wicked gleam, as if it wanted nothing more than to steal the life of whatever was unfortunate enough to be on the wrong end of it.

I grunted at the sight of it, and firmly set it into the hard oak staff, ensuring the only way it would be taken off would be if it were broken off. And even then, the barbs on the very bottom of the spearhead would help to mangle any flesh it came across.

This wasn’t a tool made for defending oneself from harm any longer.

It was a weapon, made for war.

I gently took it in my hands, and stopped to look at the dusted room around me. Lifeless, bluish-grey stone made up the floor and walls of the former forge, arguably the best one there was, back in its day. I’m sure that in the past, its furnace would have been burning a bright, searing crimson, burning with the fuel needed to melt steel and iron, while the blacksmiths would have bustled around it, pounding away at their masterpieces. Now, however, with the dust and ruin of nearly a thousand years, it had faded from its glory.

But it still served my purposes.

Sighing, I got up from the rickety old stool I had scavenged for a part of the new workshop, and grabbed the rest of the spears I had created while down in that old forge...along with the swords, the axes, the shields, and other various weapons. They had all been in an alarming state of disrepair, but it wasn’t anything an old Werehog with nothing but time on his hands couldn’t fix. I had worked by night, using the light from the furnace to guide my tools.

And now, I had enough weapons for a small army.

I hefted all of the equipment into a heavy cart, and nearly effortlessly pushed it up the stairs to the nearby armory. Once I reached the enormous oaken doors, another recent addition thanks to yours truly, I pushed them open with a quick punch, revealing a room the size of a small aircraft hangar, filled to the brim with all manner of armor, of war machines, of weapons. Most built in an age long since past and in good condition. The rest...my own personal work.

With a small sapphire, I touched certain niche on the wall, activating a series of white crystals on the side of the walls, bathing the room in their gentle glow. Everything came into a clearer light, helping me see all across to the end of the room, where the rarest weapons were kept. Everything about that side of the room seemed made only for war...

And the light also helped to reveal a small, beaten and battered photo-frame that sat on a nearby table. At the sight of it, I let out another sigh, and tapped the sapphire with a single claw.

“Music, if you please,” I whispered to it. The gem flashed briefly, as I slipped it back into a pouch I wore on my belt, as the chords of a guitar filled the otherwise silent room.

I wiped a bit of sweat from my brow as I organized each crafted piece of ironwork into its proper place, stopping only to buckle a small shortsword to my side. The plain, copper-colored hilt bounced lightly against the reinforced steel mail, a sort of comforting rhythm in this lonely Hall of the Dead. My arms stretched to the very top of the room in some cases, placing spears on hooks, swords in their sheaths that were loosely attached to the walls, and otherwise just went about the slow, numbing process of storing weapons.

It was something terrible to behold, yet breathtaking in its own right. This was a room solely dedicated to war and battle, to taking lives before their time. The weapons, the training dummies, the maps and blueprints. All of it. Even my own additions, some more modern than what this world would know, fit in amongst them. It stood for one of the only things that was truly inescapable of a sentient species: Conflict.

And here I was, ready to bring it all back at a moment’s notice.

That kind of thought drives a man to drink.

As I made my way back to the table with the photo on it, I picked up a bottle filled with amber liquid, and drained it of its contents in a single pull. The liquid burned and stung on its way down, but I took a sort of enjoyment in it. It was something to focus on, at least.

I looked long and hard at the picture, staring intently at the framed mare with topaz colored eyes, and a smile as pretty as the sunrise on her face.

“A’int no sunshine when you’re gone, little one,” I croaked, unused to speaking out loud. Dropping the bottle to the floor, I strapped a massive battleax to my back, and checked to make sure the daggers near my boots were still there, and not likely to fall anytime soon.

I closed my eyes, and forced myself to face facts. I couldn’t put it off any longer.

My fingers trembled, not with fear, but with excitement. At last, something I could deal with in the simplest way possible.

As I walked out of the room, and dimmed the lights with another tap of the sapphire, I gently tapped my claws on a nearby tapestry for luck. The threads had faded, but it was still easy to see the twin alicorns embedded onto it. The pair, one white and one dark-blue, sitting in the throne room of this very castle.

This castle, my new home.

The Ancient Ruins of the Royal Sisters. Now affectionately referred to as, “The Lair of the Beast”.

I reflected on these thoughts, and once more wondered on my title, gained by lies and slander. I remembered when I used to be one of the most valued members of a small forest community, when I was a father, when I was a guard.

And now, here I was. A Beast about to go to war.

I shook those thoughts out of my head, and growled lightly at myself. I needed to focus on surviving the night, first. Then I could think deep thoughts. Slowly, I trekked through the long hallways of the castle, making my way right to the front doors that lead to the old courtyard.

With another light push, I nearly sent the doors flying off their hinges, and gazed upon the outside world.

Out from the canyon that separated my home from the Everfree forest, another remnant of the first banishment of Nightmare Moon, the air started to shimmer, as if distorted by an immeasurable amount of power and heat. The shimmering shifted, quickly coming closer and closer, more intense, as a shapeless, dark mass of shadows crawled out of the abyss. Several tendrils extended into an almost-clawlike form, tearing at the ground for some amount of leverage.

As the monster slowly rose to its full height, small, tiny pinpricks of a foreboding green light floated in front of what would barely pass for its head, almost glaring at me. It seemed to question why I still existed, why I hadn’t turn and ran like any sane creature would at seeing this monstrosity.

As it loomed over me, I drew my sword from its sheath, and tightened a small shield on my other arm.

“You want some of this, bub?” I snarled at it, my entire body tensed up, ready to strike.

The monster silently rushed towards me, its presence overtaking everything in its path.

Feeling pure, raw anger surge throughout my entire being, I roared at the top of my lungs, letting out a wordless battlecry, challenging him for not only my life, but for the ones it had taken in its destructive embrace. Bringing my sword up, I charged at him, knowing full well I could be running right into my next death.

In other words...

I went to war.

17) Hunter and Prey

Beast Within

Chapter 17:

Hunter and Prey

Two Months Later...

I stooped down low to the ground, gently tracing my claws over what appeared to be a fresh imprint. The leaves around it, along with the snapped twigs, supported this theory, along with the relative silence of the forest around me. I couldn’t hear a single bird, nor any creature at all for that matter, despite being near the very heart of the woods.

My prey was near, then.

“Alright, bub,” I growled lightly, adjusting the straps on my pack. “Playtime’s over.”

Running down the path on all fours, I kept myself close to the ground, running at a speed that let me cover the most ground while observing my surroundings. As I ran, I had to reflect on how even this, the crucial procedure of hunting down my prey, had become all too easy. Everything, from predicting their next move, to the actual kill itself, came to me easier than almost anything else I had experienced in this form. I was addicted to the adrenaline that pumped through my system more willingly than blood, to the thought of taking down another monster that preyed on the weak.

That seemed to be the epitome of irony, though. Because that’s exactly why I was hiding in the most dangerous forest in Equestria.

Because everyone, all manner of pony, gryphon, or whatever else was out there, thought I was little more than a monster.

Yeah. Shocking, isn’t it? I didn’t even see it coming...

The heavy sound of thick breathing snapped me out of my thoughts, demanding my attention. I recognized the way the air would rush out in slow, uneven bursts, as if whatever it was had been sprinting for a full marathon. Of course, there was another type of breathing that went right along with that. The labored breathing of something that’s been charged with adrenaline. And there are only two things that happen to someone in the Everfree Forest to induce such a state.

You either have to be hunting...

Or you have to be the hunted.

I brought myself to a stop right on the edge of a wall formed by a fallen tree that had been completely covered in moss. There, right in the center of a clearing, I spotted it; an enormous mound of coarse, torn fur, with enough muscles to ward off even the most foolhardy of hunters. Sharp, bony spikes erupted from its back, around its claws, and the back of its head, adding another level of worry and intimidation to the monster. Hellish red eyes burned with a feral rage, as its gaping maw tore into the carcass of a doe, feasting upon the meat it had rightfully won.

This was my target; a Dire Bear...

Odd, that it should be this rampant, I found myself thinking as I slowly moved to a better vantage point. Dire bears are a rarity, to be sure, but they aren’t known for being as violent as this one is...

The monster paused for a moment, its muzzle still stained with crimson, its gleaming white teeth a stark contrast to the blood flowing down them. Before it could make another move, I launched my arms out, grabbing onto a low hanging tree branch that was just above the bear. Letting out a fierce roar, I pulled myself over to the monster, and slammed both of my spiked boots right into its snout.

Surprised, the bear reared back onto its hind legs, drawing itself to its massive height. I was suddenly acutely aware of just how short it made me look in comparison, as it let loose a mighty bellow that shook the leaves off of a good number of the trees around us. The very force of just the bear’s roar was enough to push me back a couple of feet, allowing it to swipe its ridiculously long claws down at me in a ferocious double-pawed attack.

Letting myself fall back to my own instincts, I tucked myself up into a tight ball, and rolled forward, avoiding the attack entirely. With the momentum still carrying me, I brought my right fist out into a leaping uppercut, catching the monster square in its ribs. Bones cracked sickeningly as they shattered beneath my strength, and the bear was forced to roll to its side, or risk facing more permanent damage. As it did though, the bear managed to catch me with a kick from its rear leg, tossing me into the air and into a nearby oak.

“Oof!” I grunted as I crashed into the tree with enough force to shake off some of its branches and nearly knock its roots out of the ground. “You’re not making this easy!” I growled to the bear as I fell to the ground.

I picked myself up just in time to see that the monster was charging at me, its head bowed low enough to bear one of the spikes on its forehead at me. There wasn’t enough time to dodge, or even try to duck under its legs. Growling all the while, I firmly planted my boots into the hard ground beneath me, and braced my hands in front of me. The very moment the bear was on me, I grabbed its jaw with one hand, and used the other to catch it straight in its neck. Roaring in fury, the bear was suddenly lifted right up into the air, and slammed into a nearby boulder, its back bending sickeningly for just a moment.

Not one to lose this opportunity, I started tearing into its belly with my claws, ripping apart fur and sinew, intent on nothing but the kill. With my own enraged roar, I lifted the monster once again, and started to pound away at the boulder with it, brutally breaking the bear’s spine with a crack that could have been heard for miles around.

It yelped in pain, but stubbornly tried to swipe at me with its claws once again. It was a tough bastard, I had to give it that much. Still, that wouldn’t change the ending results. Once it was immobile upon the ground, I leaped onto its throat, and started using my own claws to finish off the beast once and for all.

Weary from blood loss and pain, the Dire Bear finally submitted, its eyes dulling with each passing moment. I was panting heavily over its body, my own fur soaked with red hot blood. As the adrenaline of the kill worked itself out of my system, I was able to notice something...disturbing...

A dark wisp of black smoke curled out of its eyes, and vanished.

That’s it. No explosion, no cry of death. Just a simple wisp of smoke. One that looked extraordinarily similar to the way a Shadow-Stalker would disappear once “killed”.

“This can’t be good,” I told myself as I watched where the smoke had been.

A twig snapped behind me, yanking me out of my thoughts. I whirled around just in time to see a white blur shoot off into the forest, leaving a very distinct set of tracks.

“And now I’m gettin’ spooked by rabbits,” I muttered. “Great. Maybe it’ll attack me when I skin this thing.”

With that said, I shook my head, and set about the grisly task of skinning the bear of its fur and teeth. It was dark, to be sure, but I could use it to earn more bits. After all, I’ve still gotta eat. My safe-houses were to only be used in emergencies, and I didn’t want to waste them. If I ever had to go on the lamb, or bunker down, those were my only shot at outlasting whatever problem would come my way.

For now, I just had to scrape to get by.

You know, a lot of people sometimes put too much time into a disguise. Fake skin, fat suits, wigs, all of that can really be a hinderance. If you don’t know how to carry yourself with extra weight, you’ll definitely make it incredibly clear that you’re wearing a disguise. Wigs can sometimes just be cumbersome, especially if you don’t know how to style them just right. And I don’t even need to get into how people overthink accents, backstories, lies, and everything like that. It’s ridiculous.

Really, with all the advances in using a disguise, we’ve forgotten just how effective a simple cloak and slouch can do.

It wasn’t surprising when I had wandered a nearby town (I didn’t bother remembering the name; wasn’t important) and only got taken for a diamond dog with a back problem. A large one, sure, but I was able to walk around without being hindered by anypony. And the pony at the apothecary gave me a decent deal for the remains of the Dire Bear. It was enough money to purchase another month’s worth of supplies, a heavier cloak, and still leave some left over for an emergency fund.

A flurry of activity caught my eye as I started the trek out of town, causing me to stop for a moment. It was dangerous and risky, but something stood out enough for me to at least give it a look. There, nailing a poster to a wooden announcement board, was a golden-armored Earth Pony, one of Celestia’s personal guards. Not too far behind him, an entire platoon watched with a sort of anxious interest, as if they were itching to get a move on.

That worried me. What was so bad that they had to send the Royal Guard all the way out here? Curious, I pushed through the small crowd that had gathered around them, and eyed the poster warily.

Maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise to me at that point, but it was a detailed sketch of...well, myself. It was off on some of the little details, but anyone who had seen that drawing would be able to recognize me almost instantly. Underneath the picture was written, WARNING - EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. $3,000,000 REWARD. DEAD OR ALIVE.

The poster went on to cite a list of crimes I had supposedly committed. Arson. Murder. Assault. Vandalism. Destruction of Property. It didn’t go into detail, but it showed a few examples of my “handiwork” by naming some of the towns that had been burned to the ground, making sure to emphasize the fact that there were no survivors.

As for a name, it only kept referring to me as “Warclaw, the Beast”. I felt my teeth clench angrily as I tried to puzzle out what was going on. I hadn’t done anything to them. Ever since my meeting with Cadence, I had forced myself to focus on tracking down Torrentican and the rest of his blood portals. I’d been laying low, trying to avoid attention. So imagine my surprise when guards and bounty hunters start trying to bring me in.

I...I’m not proud of what I did to some of them.

But that only served to incite the rest of them even further. I had to stop fighting them, and go on the run. Every time something tried to kill me, I had to turn and run the other way. It was the only choice that let both sides walk away without the needless loss of life.

It was the only choice that reminded me I wasn’t a beast.

With all of that said, I still had to wonder on several things. Who was framing me? How had they done it? And, most importantly...why?

As I considered these thoughts, a pony stumbled over my cloak...accidentally pulling it down to reveal my face to everypony around me. Soon enough, nearly every head in that crowd was turned towards me, gasping in shock and fear at the sight of the monster on the poster.

And of course, that entire squad, some dozen ponies, were all heavily armed.

Fantastic.

18) Tactical Retreat

Beast Within

Chapter 18:

Tactical Retreat

When the last few months of your life had been nothing but fighting, and forcing your body to its very limits on a near-daily basis, you start to understand what you can or can’t take on. Everything about war, about battle, had become instinct to me at this point. I knew where the flaws in a pony’s armor was, how a gryphon could be taken down if you severed a certain tendon in their left wing, and how a zebra had to have a clear mind to use shamanistic magic. Unicorns could be distracted by a solid flick to their horn, Pegasi couldn’t rely on brute force with their fragile wings, and Earth Ponies just needed to be overpowered by either speed or strength. Even mighty dragons could be taken out if you blinded them, then exploited their softer bellies.

Everything has a weakness, something that can be exploited if one devoted themselves to figuring out what that was.

And when you’ve already got several millennia of fighting experience to back you up...there’s not really anything you can’t take on.

        So that’s why when I had been faced with almost the entire force of that town’s guard, I knew it wouldn’t even be a fair fight. I knew their tactics, their weapons’ limits and strengths. They had next to nothing on me. This wouldn’t be a battle; it’d be a slaughter.

        That’s why I ran.

        Almost instantly, I had fallen to all fours, and taken off into a nearby alleyway, narrowly avoiding a trio of well aimed spears. Had I been any slower, they might have given me a decent enough injury to worry about. I didn’t stop to think about that though; I had to keep moving. If I stayed to fight them, the only possible outcome would be pointless bloodshed. That was not what I was there to do.

        “He’s getting away! Storm Blitz, Cloud Cover, get us a visual, now!” I heard one of the ponies shout in a commanding tone. “The rest of you, with me! We’re not losing that bastard, not today!”

        The sound of two pegasi flapping their wings reached my ears, causing me to force myself to run even faster in an attempt to lose them. Judging by the sounds of that leader, probably a captain of some sort, he knew enough about this town to know where this alley would lead. I’d have to get creative if I wanted to get outta there.

        Another spear flew in front of me, missing its mark entirely, but the force of the throw caused it to sink deep into the ground, completely burying the head beneath the earth. Acting on an impulse, I threw myself at the shaft of the spear, and twisted my body around to grab onto the top of it. With my momentum and body weight pulling back on it, physics decided to take over for me from there, turning the spear into a makeshift catapult. I let my improvised escape route launch me into the air, where I shot my arm out to grab onto the rooftop of a nearby building, and pull myself onto a new path entirely.

        Creative exits. Never go into a deadly situation unless you know how to make one.

        Now that I had the higher ground against whatever ground troops were left on...well, the ground, that still left the two Pegasi that were still stubbornly chasing after me. And I was certain that the rest of the guards wouldn’t stop just because I had found a clever way to jump over them. I kept running, using my arms to pull myself across any gaps between buildings. For a while, I thought I had found a decent way to escape the guards.

        That is, until they pulled out their bows and arrows.

        How the hell does a pony use archery? Just answer me that much.

        In any case, arrows now peppered the rooftops, each one coming closer and closer to their mark. I had to give them credit; an archer that can hit a moving target that’s leaping all over the place, while they themselves have to move to keep up with it, is all but nonexistent. For them to get that close was an achievement in itself.

        Unfortunately, I was quickly running out of roof to run on. The buildings were getting lower to the ground the closer I got to the edge of the town, meaning there was less distance for the archers to have to shoot across. Once I was clear of the town, though, I’d have a decent chance of escaping them. After all, they wouldn’t chase me for too long. They still had a town to protect.

        And I think the thought of chasing off one of the most terrifying creatures in Equestria was something they could use for morale.

        The Gods know everyone will need that soon.

        It was almost too easy to escape the rest of those guards. Their priorities were straight though. Either risk their lives trying to capture a monster, or stay behind to protect a town.

        A few days had passed since that little fiasco. I’d found a few more creatures like the Dire Bear I had fought a while ago, but no real answer as to what had happened to them. Each one exhibited the same symptoms though. Aggressive behavior, extraordinarily high pain resistance, and they’d have that strange dark Shadow Stalker energy trail out of them. With how they were acting, I’d been given little choice but to kill them. It was the only way to keep them from harming anyone.

        Speaking of those little bastards, the trail had all but run cold on Torrentican. I couldn’t find any way to track down the Blood Portals, or figure out where the hell he would strike next. I did find a few of the Stalkers, but other than that, I had nothing. It was almost as if Torrie was using the Stalkers to taunt me now, telling me that he could strike from anywhere, and I’d be powerless to stop him.

        I shook my head clear of these thoughts once again, and made myself focus on my surroundings. Getting distracted in the Everfree Forest was one of the most surefire ways to kill yourself. But I’ve gone on about that enough already, haven’t I? In any case, I was getting close to my destination.

        With all of the running I’d done in the past year or so, I’d hardly had time to think about...well, everything. I needed to figure out what the “Endgame” that Torrentican mentioned was, figure out where his Blood Portals were, and to top it all off, I had to find a way to clear my name. But how had he framed me to begin with? There aren’t many Werehogs loose on Equis, last I checked. There was too much going on, too much that demanded my attention.

        What was really necessary to all of this was a base of operations. A sort of secret base where I could focus, build up a stockpile of...again, everything really, anything I could use in whatever was coming my way. It’d have to be close to a well populated town, though, to help me keep up with the latest news, yet far enough away that I could think in peace. Where it would be too obscure to be easily found, yet not entirely forgotten by legend and overly superstitious ponies. And as far as I knew, there was only one place that met all of those needs.

        Shoving aside another tangle of bushes with a swipe of my claws, I found myself staring out over an enormous chasm, with only an ancient bridge of rotting wood and rope to carry wayward travelers to the other side. And on that side was an enormous, almost decrepit castle that rose up into the sky, its crumbling towers foreboding against the light of the full moon. It looked to be the kind of castle you would only see in a nightmare, one that everyone who looked upon it would rather soon forget. The castle seemed much larger than I had imagined it, as if it were a sleeping stone goliath, waiting for a foolish treasure hunter to disturb its rest.

        The Everfree Castle, former home to the Royal Pony Sisters. Where Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony had been revealed and redeemed.

        A sanctuary for one such as myself.

        I tightened the straps of my pack a final time, and slowly made my way over the rope bridge. Once I had reached the other side, I cut at the ropes with my claws, ensuring that none would follow me by ground, diminishing any amount of potential threats by a small margin. That cut off at least one route. The night was young, however. If I was to make this my new home, I needed to ensure that all of my bases were covered.

        I had work to do.

~~~~~~~~

        Or...I thought I would have work to do.

        The very instant I had set foot inside of that massive castle...I was astounded to see that the inside had held up much better than what I had expected. The stone walls looked almost brand new, and seemed to shine with some form of inner power. Windows had been reinforced with steel bars, fresh torches lined the walls, and the tapestries somehow managed to look proud and dignified despite their years of wear.

        As I explored the castle, I found that each room was the same in that regard. Everything had been restored to its former glory, while keeping their air of age and wisdom that only a millennia of solitude could bring. There was still a fine layer of dust that covered everything, to be sure, yet...I don’t know how to describe it. No one had been here, yet the castle looked as if it had been upgraded and restored.

        How?

        Eventually, I had wandered into an immense library, where the shelves reached up to the ceiling, towering above me. For the first time in a very long while, I felt intimidated. Like an ant in a world of giants. My hand gently traced the spines of some of the books that were close by, trying to familiarize themselves to the strange setting. It had been ages since I’d been able to read a book...

        “I am glad to see you still enjoy fine literature,” a musical voice called out from behind the shelves.

        Surprised, I fell back into my instincts for a moment, baring my teeth in a feral snarl, and bringing my claws to my side, ready to strike against any who would dare to challenge me. I was claiming this territory for my own, and I would be damned if I would walk away without a fight. The very moment those thoughts raced through my mind, a gentle blue light washed over me, cooling down my otherwise heated thoughts.

        Hold on, the tiny, rational side of my mind managed to get out. She hasn’t attacked you yet. Think about this for a moment; use logic instead of instincts

        Wincing slightly, I walked to where I thought I had heard the voice before, and was once more taken by surprise. There, sitting at an immense wooden desk, with a large map set before her, was a woman with sapphire blue hair. She wore an elegant dress of a lighter shade of blue, and watched me with an almost sad expression on her face.

        “Hello again, Traveler,” she said, setting her arms on the table and lacing her fingers together.

        I blinked, unsure of what was happening. “Nayru?” I asked tentatively.

        She nodded, a small smile playing at her lips.

        “Not to sound ungrateful or anything, ma’am, but...” I paused, and gestured at the room in large. “What are you doing here?”

        “What? Is it wrong for me to have a civil chat with my friend, and Champion in the Chess Game?” she asked half-heartedly.

        “I wish it weren’t true, but...” I shrugged, as if to say it did not matter either way. “Sorry, just a little rusty at socializing. I’m too used to using my instincts and nature I guess.”

        She nodded in sympathy. “I am glad to see you still have some measure of control over it,” she commented.

        “Not as much as I used to, I’m afraid,” I reluctantly admitted. Rolling my arms in my sockets, I added, “Since I’ve been on the run, I started using my body’s natural instincts to guide me. Everything’s been simpler. Kill or be killed. Fight or run. It’s almost too easy to just rely on that now. Like a drug, almost.”

        “You’ve dealt with worse,” she promptly replied.

        I shook my head in disagreement. “Hard to remember that when I’m dealing with the here and now.”

        An awkward silence fell over the both of us after that. Really, what else could be said to that? We were both set in our thoughts, and we both knew we could argue them. To be fair, though, arguing against a Goddess of Wisdom is never a good idea. I think Nayru understood that, and didn’t wish to even give me an opportunity to let my temper get the better of me.

        For once, I was using a bit of wisdom in a conversation. Maybe I was learning.

        In an obvious attempt to change the topic, I said, “I like the Castle. Looks, erm, different.”

        “Oh yes,” she agreed. “One might say that those books seem a little too new, though, and that the walls have been enchanted recently. You might also see that they’re of various topics, and very uptodate.”

        I let that thought stew in my mind for a moment, before asking her, “Nayru...are you...I mean...what are you doing?”

        This time, she actually did smile, her eyes sparkling as she said, “I suppose the term most would call it would be, ‘cheating’. However, I’m technically only calling upon a few favors.”

        “Beg pardon?”

        She sighed, and motioned for me to sit at the opposite end of the table, a thoughtful look on her face. When I was seated, she simply pushed the map she had been studying towards me. Carefully, I began to examine it, trying to figure out what was so special about it. As far as I could tell, it was only a simple world map. One that showed all of the major locations of Equis; countries, ruling cities and landmarks, thing like that.

        After a few moments, Nayru cleared her throat to get my attention. “Perhaps I should explain. You see, I had sent you to this world fifteen years before the Chess Game’s beginning for a very specific reason. I needed you to understand the world you would be living upon. Or, at least, that was what I wished the rest of the Gods to believe.”

        A couple of gears started turning in my head as I looked between her and the map, while also comparing the mental images I had of the castle. “You’re the reason this castle is the way it is, aren’t you?”

        “Precisely,” she confirmed. “A pattern I’ve noticed of certain Gods is that they have given their own champions certain gifts. One has been gifted the power of illusions, while others have been granted incredible magic or companionship. Some are given an extraordinary body, or even blessed with new knowledge they hadn’t been given before. Do you see what I am getting at?”

        I thought about it for a moment, before answering, “When you said Gaia had been the one to give me this form, that meant you hadn’t technically given me anything. I earned my knowledge, raised a family, and started a life here.”

        “Again, correct.” She rose from her seat, and began slowly pacing about the room. “I waited for you to become part of this world, so that when I would call upon you for this...Chess Game, you would have been given the knowledge you needed. Thus, whatever gift I would give you, would have to be equal to a new body, training, or power. By also waiting more than fifteen years to give it to you, I ensured that I would not be giving you an unfair advantage over the others. Therefore...”

        “You’ve all but exploited every loophole you could have thought of to help me,” I realized. “But-”

        “Why would I do this?” she cut me off. “It’s simple.” Nayru stopped by a nearby window to stare at the starry sky outside. Without turning back to look at me, she asked, “What am I a Goddess of?”

        “Wisdom, and Law, if I remember correctly,” I said. “According to the old legends, you were gifted with nearly limitless wisdom. And with that wisdom, you gave knowledge and a sense of justice and law to life.”

        Nayru nodded at my answer, sloppy though it may have been. “And wisdom and law are what are important in this matter,” she told me. “Do you understand what is on the line for the gods that compete in this? Not just their champions, but themselves?” I shook my head, unsure of where she was going with this. “Power. Imagine; a chance to get your name known amongst a pantheon of Gods in an entire multiverse. To know that you will not be forgotten, and that all you stand for is secure. How many, do you think, would play fair in this tournament?”

        “Almost none, if I’m guessing right.”

        “Correct. And not every God in this contest are ‘good’. Some rule over greed, others chaos and torment. And if my calculations are correct...with this much power in play, it is only a matter of time before it all comes to a breaking point. Every God giving their piece power, nudging them in the right direction. Their own divine power has already begun to take root in the earth.”

        ...Ye Gods...

“And the Pieces themselves, gathering their own strength, overcoming their demons. Where do you think all of their power is going?” she added in a quiet voice.

        No. She can’t be serious.

        “All of that power and magic is being brought together in a single plane of existence,” I began to theorize, relishing in the feeling of having something I could use my mind to solve. “By doing this, the Gods have effectively created a metaphysical magnet, fueled by the power of their champions, their deeds, and how they shape Equestria and Equis as a whole. New weapons, inventions, and ideas are born each time a new Piece is brought in, right?”

        “You are on the proper track,” she cryptically answered.

        “Now, with this power, that means its bound to attract its opposite. From creation, destruction will surely come about in order to balance it out. That’s what a lot of philosophers theorize happened to Atlantis; it got too noisy, too powerful. By destroying it, they restored a balance critical to the world, ensuring its continued existence. This happened with the Cataclysm in Istar, and is also the reason the phrase ‘Evil defeats itself’ came about. A giant karmic magnet, in other words.” I paused, and looked directly at Nayru. More gears started turning, as I compared them to the rumors I had heard during my wandering. “That’s what the Endgame is, isn’t it?” I realized. “That-”

        “-which can’t be controlled will eventually fall in upon itself.” she finished for me. “The Endgame is inevitable. A destructive, cataclysmic event that will happen. All life will be lost, and only the survivors will claim what is left. And thereby, they will claim victory for their God. A broken land, mass genocide...that will be all the surviving champion will have left to call their own.” She bowed her head in sorrow, her shoulders bent as if she carried a great weight upon them. “The apocalypse, the end of the world. And the truly terrifying part is not its inevitability.”

        “You mean it gets worse?” I whispered.

        “Unfortunately. All we know is that the Endgame is, truly, unavoidable. But the worst part is that none know what it will truly be. A great battle? A storm of fire? The end of life, or the mutation of it into something far worse? No one can truly say...” she slowly told me, her voice deadly serious.

        I felt the ground start spinning beneath me, and had to grab at the arms of my chair to keep myself from falling over in shock. This...this was big. To hear that everything you’d worked for, that everything an entire planet had worked for, was all for nothing...It was a giant smack in the face. Almost instantly, my mind went to work trying to think of something, anything that could prove that grim prophecy wrong, or even find some little fact to argue against. There had to be something! Anything!

        I leaped out of my chair and began to pace, only half aware of the Goddess’ gaze as I paced about on all fours. “There’s gotta be some way to release it, or maybe prolong it. Or even fight it off, maybe think of a defense.” Desperately, I whirled around to meet her gaze with a furious glare of my own. “Nayru, you’ve revealed a lot already,” I pleaded. “Is there anything, anything at all I can do?”

        “There...is a possibility...” This time, Nayru’s expression darkened, and her brow furrowed in her own silent anger.  Turning back to the mirror, she said in a dangerous tone, “This world is home to peaceful creatures. Ones that did not choose to be a part of this game. Because of outside forces, hundreds upon thousands of them have been torn from this world too early. It is a disgusting waste of life, and one that I refuse to let happen.” She paused, allowing her words to sink in, before carefully approaching me.

        “But?”

Here, she reached over and gently placed a hand on my shoulder, and stated in a firm, confident voice, “You’re the Traveler. Finding the forgotten and the unknown is what you have made a reputation for yourself on. Apply that to the mystery of the Endgame, and you will find the answer.”

“...No pressure, then,” I dryly commented.

        This was massive. Impossible. But it all made sense. Why I had been called here so early, been able to find out about its past. I had seen its people, learned of the invasion of other Humans who were summoned in the name of their God, yet fought for their own reasons. That much power needed to be balanced out with destruction. But...again, how? What did they expect of me? How could I hope to fight off the inevitable, when everyone was already against me?

        As if reading my thoughts, Nayru’s grip tightened, and she smiled gently. “One step at a time, my friend. For now, your task is to prevent it from coming about too early. The Pieces need time to grow, so that they may be strong enough to face this challenge. You, on the other hand, know of two plans that already could signal the end. If you can stop them, you can buy everyone a little more time, and start your own defense.”

        “Wait, two?” I asked. “I just know that Torrentican’s got his blood portals. What’s the second...plan...”

        I stopped dead in my tracks, struck by a very sudden thought.

        Nayru only winked at me, and vanished in the blink of an eye.

        “...Oh, fuck me.”

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