Era of Harmony
by Gambling_man
First published
3 brothers find themselves in equestria, fate takes over from there.
Ronin , Nicholas, and Raiden Blazeheart lived together in an apartment complex in Florida. But, when the youngest of the three brothers wishes for a place to belong, the trio find themselves thrown into a world of multicolored ponies and magic. How will the three adapt to the change of scenery, and how will the new world change who they are as people?
Hilarity, Romance, and a whole lot of soul searching is to be expected as the trio live out their new lives in equestria.
This syory will contain mild descriptions of blood and violence (where needed) and slight profanity from the older siblings, although both of these won't be a part of every chapter anyway.
Takes place near the end of season 2, about a month before the wedding episode.
Chapter 1: Meet the brothers
You know, many people complain about how hard their lives are and how they wish it could be easier. I’ll admit, I used to be one of them. That is, until a certain brother of mine ended up sending us to a completely different world full of magic and dragons and all sorts of crazy stuff that would make your head spin!
But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll start from the beginning. I had just arrived home to my apartment from working at McDonalds. Yes, I know McDonalds isn’t exactly a dream job or anything, but it payed the bills. Walking up to my apartment door, I unlocked it and stepped inside. Just to be greeted by a hug from my brother Nicholas.
“Heya Raiden” Nicholas said while looking up at me “how was work today?”
I smiled and ruffled his curly hair. “It was alright, little man.” I stepped back and got a good look at what he was wearing. He had on a blue T-shirt with a skeleton head print on it. With blue jean shorts and sandels to match, I only had one question.
“Did you skip school today?” I asked with a tone of authority all the while kneeling to get on eye level with. Even though he is 12 years old to my 19, he is only a foot or two shorter than me.
“Ronin said I could.” He replied with an innocent grin on his face as he turned and pointed forwards the back room of the apartment. “He’s back there shining that sword of his.” He said with a bored expression on his face. He turned back to me and walked by me to sit down on the couch and watch the television.
“Of course he did.” I muttered as I walked towards Ronins bedroom, already thinking of a way to chew out my twin brother.
I knocked on the door. “Come in!” I heard a voice call from inside the room. I stepped in and got a good look of the room. It had weight lifting gear in its left corner, a bed in its right, and a sheath and a rack in the middle.
Ronin looked up at me. He was wearing a white tank top with blue jeans on. Both barely fit him, so it hugged his muscular frame. " Hello Raiden.” He said while placing his sword in the sheath. “Need something?”
I let out a sigh. “Yes, why did you let Nicholas stay home from school today? You know how his teachers are with kids who are absent all the time.”
He gave me a slightly shocked look. “You already know why I let him stay home” he stated.
“For the last time, Ronin, St. Patrick’s day is NOT a stay at home holiday!” I groaned as I face palmed. He simply shrugged and went back to polishing his sword. “Whatever, I going to go cook dinner, so be ready to eat in a hour or two.” I turned and walked out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ronin Perspective~~~~~~~~~~~~
I watched silently as Raiden walk out the door.He’s extra stressed today, must’ve been a rough day at work. I thought to myself. To be honest, I couldn’t remember the last time me or Raiden had had any time to relax. Providing for little Nicholas was a full time endeavor. And man, was it tiring!
It hadn’t always been this way, though. There had been a time when both of us were able to breathe easy and the welfare of Nicholas was safe in Mom and Dad’s hands. That was a year ago, before the drinking and fighting. You see, shortly after Raiden and I had moved out of the house, Dad had lost his job as a fireman. This stopped the flow of money from coming through. This angered our Mom who, in turn, resulted to drinking to hide the sorrows away. This went on for a couple of months until one day, Dad found a whole slew of empty bottles under the bed. This lead to a shouting match that people a block or two days over claimed to be able to hear. It got so bad that they actually went to blows about it, with Mom throwing a bottle at Dad. It missed him and ended up hitting Nicholas instead.
I think you can see what happened next from there. Raiden and I found out and took them to court. We were able to scratch by with a 7-5 ruling in our favor, and got custody of Nicholas. Mom and Dad ended up with jail time for child endangerment and disturbing the peace. Raiden and I pooled our reserve cash together to find a good place to live and a way to fund Nicholas’s education. And Voilà! Here we are back in the present.
Poor Nicholas, though. He was one of the most innocent kids I have ever seen. Not naive to how the world works or anything like that. Just always willing to go the extra mile for complete strangers. He had been hit the hardest by the whole situation. After getting custody of him, he was so traumatized by what happened, he didn’t speak for a month. After that, It took an extra two months to get him to go to school again.
I sighed and put my sword back in its sheath. Oh well, everything happens for a reason.I thought to myself once more as I walked towards the kitchen table
~~~~~~~~~~Nicholas’s perspective ~~~~~~~~~
An hour later
“Dinner’s ready!” I heard Raiden call out. I jumped up and hurried for the table, just to be stopped by said chef with an outstretched arm.
“Now hold on a second” He said. “Did you clean yourself up before coming to sit at my table?” Knowing full well what would happen if I tried to lie, I turned around and slowly (and slightly Grumpily) walked towards the bathroom to wash my hands. As I finished, I ended up running into Ronin at the door.
“Let me guess, he told you to wash up too?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
He groaned loudly. “Tell me about it! Man is acting like Howie mandell over a couple of bowls of chili.” Snickering at that, I walked past him towards the dinner table and sat down.
Raiden brought a decently sized bowl of chili over. “Hope ya brought your appetite, because I cooked a bunch of that stuff today.” He said with the silliest grin on his face. For some reason, cooking always seemed to make my brother happy. Even if he had a rough day, making a pot of chili or grilling hamburgers was a surefire way to set his mood straight.
I dug in quickly. It also helped he was really good at cooking too. He never used too much or too little seasoning. And he always seemed to know exactly how much of an ingredient to put into a dish. Weirdly enough, he sucks at math though, so I have no idea how he pulls it off.
Ronin finally came to the table and dug into his bowl too. " Cookings-Mmmph-great as always, bro” he said in between bites. He then looked over to me. " Keep your chin up, bud. Your dipping granddad’s necklace into the bowl.”
I gasped and quickly pulled it out. Ya see, that necklace was all I had of our granddad after he passed on. I could still remember what he had told me a couple of years ago when he gave it to me.
”That necklace is a very rare thing, Laddie. Don’t ever lose it, or else the luck it brings cannae help ya when ya need it.” Grandpa Brim said with a smile, even though he was on his deathbed. He held out a necklace, a oddly shaped crystal attached to what looked like gold.
“What do you mean luck?” I asked while holding the necklace out.
He laughed softly, then hacked a bit. “I ain’t allowed to say. All I can tell ya is that it will help ya when you a need it most.”
I smiled at the memory, and continued to eat while my brothers argued again over whether or not St. Patrick’s day was a holiday.
" Im telling ya, its a holiday worth celebrating!” Ronin said strongly, all the while slamming his fist on the table in frustration.
“And I’m telling you, its nothing more than a recognition day, like Halloween and valentines day. You don’t see people getting breaks from school for those days, do ya?”
“Pffft, they totally should.” Ronin said while crossing his arms. He then nodded towards me. “Its not like he likes school anyway. Tell Raiden what ya told me today.”
Crap. I definitely did NOT want this to come to light at the dinner table of all places. Dang it, Ronin. Why’d you have to bring this up now? I thought, quite nervous about how this was about to turn out.
“What was said today, Nick?” Raiden said questioningly, Although I could feel the lecture coming on.
“Well.....” I started. " You see, the kids and teachers there don’t understand me at all. Every time I try to play or even talk to the kids, I get isolated for being different and not having quote on quote real parents.” I did a finger quote sign at this. " And the teachers aren’t much help either. They just let it slide! Its so not fair!!” I said the last part a bit loudly, starting to get emotional quick and finding my left hand tightly clenched around the necklace that, oddly, felt warm for some reason.
“Now now.” Raiden said softly. " I know your upset, but that isn’t a reason to raise your-” I never let him finish.
“NOOO!” I yelled. " You don’t know! Neither of you know what its like to go to school and be made fun off for both of your parents being in jail. At least when it happened, both of y’all were grown up. But I was stuck with the mean kids and condescending teachers! Its not fair at all, why doesn’t anyone like me?” I couldn’t hold the smiling charade anymore, and I started to sob.
“Whoa, kiddo.” Ronin said as he pulled me into a hug. " Its alright, kid. No matter what those naysayers say or do, we WILL be here for ya.” He said with a smile. Raiden walked over and joined in
“Yeah, Ronin is right, Nikky.” Raiden said, using my kid nickname he always calls me when something’s wrong. " We aren’t going anywhere. And besides, your one of the greatest kids I’ve ever met.”
“I know-*Sniffle* I know.” I get out between sobs. “I just wish there was a place we could go where we could belong and be happy.” I half-said half-cried.
Just as I said that, My left hand started burning. “OWWW!!” I yelped as I pulled off the necklace and threw it to the ground. " It burned me!”
“What do ya mean it burned-” but again, Raiden would be interrupted by a soft hum coming from the necklace as it rose up and flashed a white light that consumed everything in sight.
-------Canterlot Castle-------
It was night in equestria, princess Luna had just finished raising the moon and princess Celestia was currently retiring to her bedchambers. It had been an extra long day, with the noble ponies wanting answers to the rumors of changeling sightings happening across the country. They had been, for most of the meeting, hotheaded and extraordinarily pushy that the princess should put this issue first before others. However, cooler minds prevailed, and the noble ponies bloodlust was temporarily sated. It would not belong until they tried again to push this issue though.
The princess walked into her bedchamber, sighing at the though. Why they seemed so fixated on these rumors is beyond me. She sighed as she took off her regalia and walked out onto her balcony, the view of her wondrous kingdom doing little to call her nerves.
She turned around to retire for the night when she suddenly was hit with a massive aura surge of magic. She had always been able to sense powerful magic being used, but this was a new kind of magic altogether, and that thought alone scared her a bit.
Last time she had felt a surge that strong, it had been with nightmare moon. But Luna was safe and had recovered a while back with the help of the elements of harmony. If not her, though. Then who? She though as she looked on a crystal clear night sky.
Author's Notes:
Well, that was an interesting turn of events at the dinner table. Can't wait to get to writing out the next parts of this! This was not how I had originally planned it ending, but decided this was better. Hopefully this was a good start for a fan fiction first. Please comment on thoughts, bets on who's gonna get with who, and constructive criticism below and I will definitely try my hardest to answer and reply to each one that I can.
For now though: love and tolerate, my fic-crazy ponies.
Chapter 2: A shy welcome for Nicholas
*******
Nicholas POV
*******
"Raiden!" I yelled as the light died down around me, only to find myself on a platform surrounded by...space?
What is this place? I thought to myself. getting a better look around, I saw stairs descending into a small temple. As I walked down them, I started getting my bearings. Although it was dark in most of the area, there was torches following the platform and the staircase.
I looked around the empty space I was in just in case I could make out something in the distance, but there was nothing but pitch black and the occasional star.
I stopped in front of the doors to the temple. They were those odd doors with the fancy symbols carved into them you only see in movies and stuff. On these, however, there was what looked like some cloaked man holding the moon in one hand and the sun in another with some kind of purple star on his chest. I reached for the door and pushed it open.
Inside was just as full as the outside, nothing except the same man with his backed turned and looking in a little pool of water.
wait.... what?
"Umm, excuse me Sir." I asked while taking a step towards him."Have you seen my brothers around here? one will look like an irish version of the Rock with hair, and the other will look like Gordon Ramsey on steroids."
The figure turned towards me and I gasped when I saw his hands. Unlike in the door picture, he had rotting skin and bone could be seen poking out of the wrists.
His lower face, the only part I could see due to the cloak, turned up into a sick grin.
A bender of magic returns to this forsaken place. He said. Only it sounded like it was coming from inside my head. Let us see if his light shines bright! With that, he outstreched his arm towards me. A warbly sound was made as a dark blob shot out of his hand at me.
"Noo!" I yelled as I raised my hand and closed my eyes, bracing for the inevitable pain.
It never hit me. I opened my eyes and saw that a red barrier surrounded me and had absorbed the blob. A bead of sweat poured down my face as I dropped my hand. The barrier disappeared and I collapsed, worn out all of a sudden.
The figure only smiled and put his hands togethor. You have much potential, spellweaver. He turned around and looked back at the pool of water.Regretfully, it is not my job to teach you. For now, you must wake up.
Wake up? I thought as I started to get drowsy. the last thing I saw before I fell asleep was that odd man point towards the star on his chest.
Seek the weilder of magic, and she will guide you.
********
"GAH!" I awoke with a start, only to hear a loud crash from somewhere to my left. I looked over to see a blanket trembling on the floor.
"S-Sorry if I scared you" I said to the pile. I only got a soft squeak in return. I looked around and noticed where i was.
It was what looked like a cottage of sorts, with all sorts of little tables and what looked like a... cage in the corner?
I looked in front of me and saw cookies and water on a mini table. Whoever this person is must've made these for me. I thought as I took a cookie and ate it. Man, those are good!
I turned back towards the shaking blanket pile."Uh, who are you?" I asked. The blanket slowly came off and when it did, my jaw hit the floor.
Of all things I was expecting to see, a little yellow horse was standing in front of me. Or would it be a pony, considering it was smaller than a horse. I then noticed it had wings. WINGS!!! ponies dont have wings!
I pulled up my own blanket in fright. This was NOT normal, and I'm not afraid to admit I was seconds off from passing out in fright.
The winged horse/pony thing must've seen I was scared or something, because she suddenly got way less timid and walked straight up to me.
"Oh you poor thing." She said. "You must be so scared."
Not trusting myself to speak, I simply nodded. Although I was still terrified, her motherly tone was helping my nerves calm down a bit.
"Your not from around here, are you?" she continued as she gave me the water. I took it quickly and drank it dry. Sitting the cup to the side, I answered her.
"I dont know..." I whispered. And I truly didn't have a clue about where I was. "Is this Destin?"
Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion at that. Oh no. She doesn't know what Destin is? I thought. that means this can't be the U.S
"I don't know if I have ever heard of a place called.... Destin." She said the last part slowly, almost as if it was a word she had never heard before. "Right now, your in ponyville."
It was my turn to be confused. What the heck is ponyville? "Where on Earth is that?" I asked, afraid of the answer.
She raised an eyebrow, but spoke even quieter. "Earth?... Umm...I've never heard of Earth before."
My hands were starting to shake. "W-whats the name of the planet we are on?" I asked, now super close to having a panic attack.
She noticed this and draped a wing around me. "The planet? I think its name is Equiis."
That's when i broke. I'm on a completely different planet than my home. I thought as i started to sob. What if I never see my brothers again?
Next thing I knew, I had both of the horse things wings draped around me in a close hug. It felt suprisingly nice and we just sat there like that while she slowly rocked me back and forth.
After a little while, she pulled her wings back and looked at me. She had this calming smile on her face. She then realized what she had just done, and jumped backwards quickly and hid from me in her mane.
"Umm...do you have a name?" I asked carefully, as to not scare the person....pony thing that had obviously been taking care of me while I was asleep.
"Its fluttershy." I barely heard her whisper. Thank goodness its so quiet in this cottage or else I would've completely missed it.
I gave her a half-smile. "Well, Im Nicholas. But you can call me Nick." With that, she finally looked at me again. I was never a big animal person at home, but man, she was adorable!
She flew over and sat next to me. I turned to face her. "Where did you find me?" I asked.
Suprisingly, she giggled at that. "Well, I didn't find you, three little adventurers did." This only confused me further.
"Adventurers?" I repeated and she nodded.
"Oh yes, three fillies that live here in ponyville. They are very... creative when it comes to their little crusades. They were on one when they found you passed out under a tree near my cottage. They came running to me claiming to have found a scaleless dragon and asked me to make sure you were ok." I laughed at that. Me! a dragon! wait till Ronin hears that one. Now that's a guy that needs to become a dragon.
"So you have been looking out for me for how long then?" I asked her. She looked up on thought for a second and then refaced me.
"For about 7 hours now." She said and I sighed in relief. 7 hours isn't so bad of a K.O time. Still, for her to drop everything she had been doing just to look after something she had never seen before touched me greatly.
I turned and pulled her into a big hug. She let out a big squeak at first but didn't pull away. After I finished hugging her I looked her in the eyes.
"Thank you, fluttershy." I told her. "That means a lot to hear that from someone."
She simply hid in her mane a bit and blushed slightly, clearly not used to getting compliments.
It was at that moment the door burst open and three more ponies ran into the cottage. However, these three were different from fluttershy. The three of them were half of her size. One had wings like hers, another had a horn. and the the last one didn't have either. Instead she had a little bow in her reddish hair.
As soon as they saw me, they all took a collective deep breath. I cringed up quickly. Being a kid myself, I figured out what was going to happen next.
2 ways to describe the question onslaught that occured: Loud and relentless.
"OMIGOSH YOUR AWAKE?"
"WHAT ARE YOU?"
"HOW'D YA GET HERE?"
"ARE YOU A FILLY OR A COLT?"
they kept it coming without giving me a chance to answer any of them until Fluttershy finally butted in and stopped them.
"Now girls, lets not crowd him. he woke up not too long ago and he's still recovering." The trio immediately stopped and hung their heads a bit.
Oddly enough, I laughed at this. "Hey, no hard feelings. I get it, I'm the newcomer to this place, and I'm geussing your the girls that found me?" They looked up excitedly.
"We sure did!" The orange one with wings said.
"You were near our clubhouse!" the pale one said.
"Whats your name?" the yellow one said.
"Well, my name is Nicholas, y'all can call me Nick" I looked at them. "You girls got names?"
The orange one spoke first. "Im Scootaloo!"
The horned one was next. " Im Sweetie Bell!"
Not to be outdone, the yellow one stood on her hindlegs and said proudly. " And A'hm Applebloom Apple!"
they said this next part togethor: "and we are...." They took a deep breath.
"THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!!"
That definitely made me go deaf for a second. But it left me with a question.
"Uh, what's a cutie mark." Which got me a gasp from the trio.
"Cutie marks represent your special talent." Sweetie Bell said matter-o-factly.
"Dont you have one?" Scootaloo asked
"No." I said. "Humans usually dont get things like that, we just choose what we are good at."
Applebloom spoke up. "Thats soooo weird. But cool at the same time!"
I found myself laughing again. I was really starting to enjoy hanging around these girls.
Fluttershy spoke up, yet still seemed to be a bit soft about it. "Why dont you girls come back in a hour or two. I need to make sure Nick is fully alright." I raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything.
The girls moaned a bit at that, but they left with a passive "Goodbye Nick!" From Applebloom.
"I can see what you meant by adventurous." I said with a smile. I turned to her. "So, what do you want to know?"
**********
2 hours later
**********
Fluttershy had asked me about just about everything with earth when it came to one subject: animals. I was right when I had saw the cage in her cottage. Turns out shes an animal enthusiast, and a BIG one at that. At the end of the conversation, however, I noticed she was staring at my teeth.
"Uh, is something wrong with my mouth?" I asked
She looked me in the face and answered. "D-D-Do you eat meat?" She slightly whimpered. She must've seen the canines.
Crap. I thought to myself. A sentient pony just asked if you eat meat. Oh well, no use lying.
"Yeah, us humans eat both fruits, veggies and meats." I said slowly, noticing the look of fear on her face returning.
She gulped audibly. "Do humans eat....ponies?"
My eyes went wide. "Definitely not! Well, a few might, but its almost unheard of when it comes to most people."
She relaxed at that but I continued. "Humans DO need meat to survive though. So what type of meat is available here?"
She paled a bit, then answered. "We dont sell meat in ponyville, but I could teach you how to fish.... if that's alright with you, that is." She said, once again hiding in her mane.
"Alright, that works. thanks." I said while streching back on the couch.
She got up and started walking towards the kitchen. "Good, now Nick, I've got to go feed the animals, will you be alright being in here alone for a bit?" I nodded in response. "Great!" She said with a smile. Then it went to a frown. "Do you remember what you were dreaming about earlier?"
A tad confused as to where this came from, I shoke my head. "Nope, I usually don't remember my dreams. Why?"
She shook her head. "Oh, nothing too crazy, just while you were asleep, you kept mumbling things. Only thing I could make out was when you said 'Raiden.' Is that the name of someone you care about?"
I nodded. "Yeah, he's one of my brothers." realization struck me like a car. "What if he got sent here too!"
She smiled at that. "That would be wonderful, then you could be reunited with him." She turned and walked into the kitchen, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I walked to the window and looked out it towards the sky. Dont worry Bros. I thought with newfound determination.Once I sort out what I'm doing here, I'm going to find you two.
Author's Notes:
Welp, Nicholas is now on ponyville, with fluttershy as his "guardian" for the time being. What of his brothers? and what of the dream he can't seem to remember? Questions to be sorted out in chapters to come, so stay tuned my fic-crazy ponies. And don't forget:
Love and tolerate!
Chapter 3: Raiden gets sunburn.
*As the title suggest, this chapter will be in Raiden's POV. just a heads up*
As the flash of light slowly faded, I found myself in some random bathtub. Great, just what today needed, a nice case of unexplained breaking and entering. I though as I pulled myself out of the tub. I wont lie, though. That was a really big bathtub. Looking around, I noticed everything had this really big and proper feel to it, as if someone rich and fancy lived here.
"Where the heck am I?" I said to no one in particular. I heard a door open behind me.
"You are in my bathroom." An almost regal feminine voice stated behind me. I froze in place and slowly turned around, expecting a very angry woman to be standing there.
What was standing there, however, was something that made my eyes go wide in a mix of surprise/slight fear. At first glance, it looked like your everyday horse. But when you start to notice the horn and wings, not to mention the flowing hair with the green/purple-ish/blue mix to it, you start to realize this might not be Kansas anymore.
"Um... did you just speak?" I asked while taking a step back. She looked at me with a stare that seemed more curious, than angry.
"Yes, I did. Is that not what two ponies conversating do?" She said, but I could swear there was a hint of sarcasm in her tone.
I streched my arms a bit and replied. " Yeah, I guess so. wait, did you say ponies?" I stopped smiling at that.
She nodded. "Indeed, in this world, we are known as ponies." She turned and walked out of the bathroom. Not to be left behind, I quickly followed to find her resting on a couch In what had to be her bedroom.
"In this world?" I questioned. Then it hit me. "Wait, this isn't earth?" She suddenly looked a bit more sad before she responded.
"No, this is not your homeworld. You now currently are on Equiss. As for the country, its name is Equestria."
I paled. I'm not even on Earth anymore?! I gulped, then realized something. "You know a lot about me, even though I'm an alien to this world." She looked straight at me with a warm smile.
"I know a lot about your kind, Human. But nothing about you personally. For now, lets just say your not the first human to live here." This surprised me greatly. Though, once again, she had this look of sadness on her face. But it vanished quickly as she continued. "You seem confused right now, would you like to know how you got to be in that bathroom?" She asked.
I nodded as I took as seat next to her. Several thoughts flowed through my head. How does she know what I am? And why does she look sad every time she mentions humans? I pushed these thoughts aside as she started.
"Before I start, I would like to introduce myself. My name is princess Celestia." With that, my eyes bugged out and I quickly kneeled in respect to her title. She simply laughed. "Now, now. There's no need for that while we are alone, human." she looked up in thought for a second. "What is your name?" she asked.
Way to go, Raiden. Break into a princess's private quarters and don't introduce yourself. REALLY smart move of you. I scolded myself. "My name is Raiden, your majesty." Although she cringed a bit at the 'majesty' part of the sentence, she continued to tell the story.
"Well, Raiden. I had just retired from doing my daily duties as a princess when I was hit with a surge of magic. It was nothing painful, but it did cause me to falter for a second. After a minute went by, I went in the bathroom to freshen up before bed, and found you passed out in the tub." She finished blushing slightly at the weirdness of the whole situation. I found myself laughing all the same.
"From what you say, it sounds like I had just partied for 3 days straight and passed out as a drunken mess in your bathroom." I got out between laughs. Celestia soon found herself laughing as well.
After the laughter died down, I looked Celestia In the eyes. "Princess, did you happen to find either a small boy or a bigger man anywhere?" She shook her head.
"No reports of any humans in the castle have been made, so they are somewhere else. I can sense 2 more of you in Equestria, though. So they are somewhere out there." She got up and motioned me to follow her as she walked out the door. " Since you will be here a while, let me give you a tour of the castle." I started walking beside her as we descended a staircase into a hallway. Every once in a while, we'd pass a guard or two. They would bow to the princess, then they would look at me with either surprise, fear, or with a threatening glare.
Celestia, picking up on my stiff movements, quickly stated. "Relax, Raiden. they will not hurt you as long as you are not a threat to me or anypony else." I relaxed at this, then asked her a question.
"What is there to eat around here?" I asked as my stomach growled. She smiled and turned down a hallway.
"Come, we can get breakfast in the dining hall." She said as 2 big doors swung open. Walking in, I was floored. The dining hall was beautiful. It had the same décor as the rest of the castle, but was way more spacious and open with a huge table lined with fancy chairs and silverware.
"Amazing!" I exclaimed as I took as seat next to Celestia. Man, if Ronin could see me now, He would be begging to switch places with me right now. If he's safe, that is. I shook the thought out of my mind as food was carted into the room by mini army of chefs. They placed down waffles, eggs, hashbrowns, cups with juice and milk by us, and fancy napkins next to our plates. "Thanks!" I said to the chefs as they left the room. I eyed the food greedily.
Celestia noticed this and smirked. "What are you waiting for, go ahead and eat to your hearts content. You are a guest, after all." I gave her a look of extreme happiness as I quickly grabbed a waffle and took a bite.
My eagerness faded instantly upon the bite. Being in a castle, I had expected top of the line food, yet the waffle was dry and thick. I quickly drank down some OJ in order to swallow it, then tried the other food as well. The eggs and the hashbrowns both had similar problems.
Celestia noticed this and stopped mid-bite to turn to me. "What's wrong?" She asked.
I looked at her, questioning whether or not to point out the food. I WAS a guest after all, and that might come off as rude. She didn't look too happy with the food either, though. I thought. I decided to tell her.
"Does this food seem a bit dry to you? Not to be offensive or anything, but it just seems rushed is all." Oddly enough, she smiled at this.
"Finally, someone else thinks so." She states rather bluntly. "I have asked my younger sister the same thing several times and she claims nothing is wrong with it EVERY time." She said the last part with quite an icy tone, something I found absolutely hilarious.
"Oh, man. don't even get me started in younger siblings, My twin brother can and WILL eat anything in front of him." I said with disgust. "I once dared him to eat a slice of pie we found sitting on a dumpster one day." Celestia's eyes widened at that.
"He didn't!?" She said, her face showing sign of extreme disgust. I leaned in and smiled.
"He did!" I yelled as I broke out laughing. She soon joined in and we found ourselves cracking up for 5 minutes straight! I stopped after a bit and looked at her, wiping a tear out of my eye. " For real, though. This food sucks. I could easily whip up something better anytime or anywhere." She looked at me with curiosity.
"Hmm... very well." She said as her horn started to glow. With a flash, I found myself in a kitchen. This one was way bigger though. Like if the one from ratatouille had been made to serve a queen, thats what it looked like. She turned towards me. "I want you to cook me a better breakfast, then. Since you believe you can do better than my staff." She wasn't angry, it seemed like she was trying to test me.
A test I shall pass easily! I thought as I cracked my knuckles. I turned towards her, giving her a nod. "Give me an hour, and I'll will have you drooling over your plate." She smiled and started walking out the door.
"Once you finish, ask the waiters to guide you back to the dining hall with the food." She said before she walked out. I turned around and looked at the staff. They looked at me with either looks of confusion or confidence.
"All right, boys and girls. Lets get to work." I said with a big grin on my face, recipes for southern-style waffles and grits popping into my head.
*********
1 hour later
*********
I won't lie, at first I struggled to get the staff to even listen to me. They were professionals, after all. And they didn't seem keen on taking advice from some random"monkey" as one staffer put it. However, after making a waffle and pretty much begging a waitress to try it, with her absolutely devouring it seconds later, we were able to get to work. The only real problem I had with them was that they tried to put hay in the waffles every time the batter was done. I get that they're ponies and all that, but there is NO way I'm eating hay. A man has his limits, after all. We almost didn't make the hour deadline because some idiot bumped the bowl holding the grits off the counter, so that had to be recooked. Thankfully, at about 58 minutes, we carted the food into the dining room.
The first thing I noticed was that there were now three ponies in the room. One was Celestia, but to her right sat a dark blue pony that was slightly smaller than her. She had a starry mane with what looked to be a moon on her rear. Now that I think about it, Celestia had some kind of sun on hers. I'll have to ask about that later. I thought. The other pony was pink with purple, pink and yellow lines in her hair. her mark looked like a crystal heary with yellow ribbon around it. I shrugged and outstretched my arms dramatically. "Hello esteemed residents of Equestria. I am your humble host/head chef, and I am proud to introduce you to a REAL breakfast!" Celestia smiled at my antics, while the blue pony faced palmed (Hoofed?) and the pink one looked on in excitement. " So, without further ado. I ask you to enjoy the food and Be. Our. Guest!" I put emphasis on those last words as the staff put the food on the table. Celestia quickly put a waffle on her plate and took a bite. Her eyes went wide as she stopped moving entirely.
The blue and pink ponies eyed her cautiously. " Is everything alright, Auntie?" the pink one asked, concern etched on her face. the blue one turned to me and glared. But before she could say anything Celestia spoke up.
"Raiden." she began. "these are the best waffles I have ever tasted!" She exclaimed as she dug into them rather... unladylike. The blue pony looked on in shock, while the pink one turned to me.
"Whatever you put in these must be amazing if she's eating it that fast." She then smiled. "I'm princess Cadence, and the grumpy one over there is princess Luna. pay her no mind, she's mad that Celestia let you change the waffle recipe." She giggled as Luna rolled her eyes.
"There was no reason to, as they were perfect as they were." She said as she took a bite of one. Her own eyes went wide, but she quickly hid it with a blank demeanor. "We suppose these will suffice." Cadence simply giggled at that, while I smirked with the mini-victory.
Probably the best I'm going to get out of her, I suppose. I thought as Celestia finished her 14th waffle. "Celestia, since I might be here for a while, I was wondering if I could work here as a chef. At least until I can find my brother." I asked.
She cleaned her face with a napkin, then answered me. "I was hoping you would say that, Raiden. And don't worry to much about your brothers. I have my best student on the lookout for anything resembling you where she lives. If she finds something, You'll be the first to know."
I sighed in relief as I sat down and took a bowl of grits. "Thank you, princess." I said as I looked at my food. Don't worry, guys. I'm going to find ya'll. Then we can figure out how to get home. I thought as I took a spoonful of food. I looked up at the 3 princesses. Celestia was arguing with Luna about whether or not the grits needed seasoning while Cadence was slowly sneaking waffles off Celestia and Lunas plates. I smiled to myself. For now, though. This isn't so bad.
Author's Notes:
With that, Raiden has became a chef in Canterlot. but what of Ronin? lets just say his chapter will have more holes in it than the other ones so far. don't forget to comment if you see something or just want to say something.
Love and tolerate, my fic-crazy ponies!
Chapter 4: Ronin gets holed up
*Thanks goes to thenodpony for giving me the name for the OC changeling that is introduced in this chapter! Also, just to state the obvious, this chapter is in Ronin's POV. Enjoy!
When the white light faded away, I found myself in the middle of some forest. Looking around, I couldn't find trace of either Raiden or Nicholas anywhere.
I cupped my hands to my mouth and yelled: "Raaaaadien! Niiiiiiiick!" However, all I got back in response was the sounds of birds chirping and bugs buzzing.
Where the hell could they be? I thought as I got a better look of my surroundings. There was multitudes of bushes and ferns along with the obvious note of trees. Yet the forest had this... depressed look to it. Like the forest knew it was scary and couldn't do anything about it.
My gaze stopped on a black and yellow colored handle poking out of a bush.
"No way!" I said as I walked over and pulled my sword out of the bush. I looked at it with glee as I decided to see if it was still sharp. I turned and slashed four times into the bush. It split four ways flawlessly.
"Hehehe, looks like all that training with grandpa Brim worked out." I chuckled as a distant memory resurfaced.
**********
10 years ago
**********
I fell on my knees drenched in sweat as the training sword I'd been holding fell beside me with an audible THUMP. Panting hard, I looked up at my grandfather as he laughed softly and held out his hand.
"Your getting better, my boy!" he exclaimed as he pulled me up and passed me my sword back. "You were able to hold your own against your wee old man for nearly 5 minutes that time! I cannae believe how much ye've grown!"
I looked at him in shock. "That was only five minutes!" I said as he nodded. I threw down the sword in frustration and sat down in the grass with my arms crossed. My grandfather smiled and came and sat next to me.
"Whats that look for, laddie?" He asked. I turned to him and huffed slightly.
"I'm never going to be as good as you, Grandpa Brim." I groaned as I looked at the training sword. "Why do you have me do this stuff anyway? It's cool and all, but I'm just no good at it."
He simply laughed and got up and beckoned me to follow him into the house. After walking into the living room he pulled an old chest out of his closet and ooened it up. Inside was a sheath decorated with yellow amd black markings. He turned around and showed me the blade inside of it.
"See this, laddie." he said as he pointed to the edge of the blade. It had an engraving on it that said Lang may yer lum reek. That is an oath to a long life. Ye shouldn't let little things like this keep ye down." He put the sword back. "Now, why don't we try again, huh?"
I looked up and smiled. "Ok, Grandpa." I ran off as he turned and looked out the window. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocketwatch with a sun emblem on it.
"Oh, how I wish ye could see how well these kids have grown, my shining sunrise." He said quietly with a tear to his eye.
**********
Present day
**********
I smiled at the memory. If he wouldn't had motivated me that day, I would have given up on blade wielding years ago.
I was torn from my thoughts as I heard a screech from deeper in the woods. What the hell? I thought as I ran towards the source of the screech. I came into a small clearing to see two of the weirdest things I have ever seen.
The first was some odd wolf, yet it seemed to be completely made out of wood. the second one was fully black coated. It had hooves, but its legs had holes in them. It also had wings with sharp edges to them. Its eyes were a full shade of yellow, and it had sharp teeth pointing out its mouth. Not to mention the weird horn sticking out of its head.
What is going on? I thought just as the wolf lunged towards the black thing.
"HEY!!!" I yelled at it. it stopped on a dime and turned to face me. The thing was waaay bigger up close. It decided to rush me immediately.
I sidestepped and slashed downwards on his neck area. with a whimper his head came clean off with a horrific SHLICK! sound. I turned torwards the weird animal thing.
"Hey, are you.....ok?" I asked slowly as it got up and looked at me, seemingly studying me as if he had never seen a human before. To be fair, I would've done the same if I was in his shoes.
"Why did you........ save me?" It asked. from its tone, I could tell it was a he. I also realized it was just a kid due to the squeaky way his voice went as he growled. "Nothing has ever cared enough to save our kind before."
I sat down next to it, placing my sword in the dirt next to me. "Your kind?" I asked. "You mean to tell me your species... whatever they are, aren't the main people around here?"
He looked up at me and shook his head. "No, for centuries, our kind has been humiliated and forced into hiding by the other sentient species in equestria. Especially ponies." He spat the last part venomously. This was starting to sound very similar to issues back home.
"Why?" I asked him. He looked up at me in suprise.
"Why do you care so much?" he responded. "Nothing cares about us changelings, ask any species that knows of us. They would have us squashed like the commen housefly." He stamped his hoof in anger. It was honestly heartbreaking to see a kid say things like that. I mean, he may not be the prettiest dude on the block, but no species should be targeted like that.
I put a hand on his shoulder. At first he tensed at the motion, then relaxed. "I care because nobody should have to grow up with such a cruel mindset. What does your kind do that's so bad anyway?"
He looked away as he responded. "Promise you won't judge me?" He asked, slight fear in his voice.
"I promise." I said with confidence. I mean, what's the worst they could do to something?
He took a deep breath and began. "Our kind has to get its nutrients from a source that no other species can get sustenance from. We feed off of emotion. Love is the strongest one for us." He looked at me, eyeing my face carefully.
I raised an eyebrow. "Is that all you do in order to eat?" he nods. "Does it kill or injure them?" He shakes his head.
I had heard enough. I stood up and faced him. "Your telling me your entire species is isolated due to how you act and feed as individuals! Without it even being lethal to those you feed off of?" I growled. He took a step back, but nodded his head.
This only angered me more. I quckly grabbed my sword and cut up several bushes standing around me. each one now a perfect X shape. The changeling looked at me with a mixed expression of awe and fear.
"Who are you?" he said. I turned to face him and smiled.
"My names Ronin. what's yours" I said as I extended my free hand.
He looked at it for a second before reaching out and shaking it. "My name is Tak. might i ask what kind of species you are?"
They definitely don't have humans here, wherever here is. I thought with a bit of sorrow leaking into my mind. But I pushed it aside as I answered my new buddy.
"My kind are called humans. we are a soecies of great intellect, but great consequence as well." he raised a brow in confusion at that. I sighed, already prepared to answer the question coming.
"By great consequence? whatever do you mean by that?" He asked.
"My kind are a survivalist species. If some of our kind hogs land or resources, we fight for it. Hell, if they don't hog it, we tend to fight for it anyway. but we aren't all bad. We have used our creative mindsets to save millions of lives through medicene and other cures. We became top of the food chain for a reason after all." I said as his jaw slowly dropped to the floor.
"Your kind sounds so powerful... but I feel a lot of anger coming from you on this topic as well." he stated as I turned from him.
"Thing is, humans cant seem to agree with each other ever. For a long time, a group of us who thought they were better than us enslaved all those who simply had a different color skin tone or religious background. Lets just say I turned my back on humanity long ago."
He nodded sadly in understanding. "Thats why you have so much anger from hearing of our woes." I nodded.
He turned quickly and started walking. "Come, Ronin. I must take you to the queen. You might just be the boost we need in order to rally my people."
I walked alongside him, suddenly intrigued. "Your queen, huh? What she like?" I noticed he got very giddy about this topic, as the walk in his step seemed way more enthusiastic.
"The queen, mother of all changelings, is the one who will lead us to victory against our pony persecutors! She is the strongest and most capable of all of us." He said with a boatload of pride in his voice.
"Sounds like one dynamite gal." I said with a smirk. He looked at me with a confused face. "Sorry, line from a movie I saw once."
He looked like he wanted to say more on the topic, but shrugged it off with a question. "Wherever your from, you obviously aren't from around here. where is your home at?" he asked me.
"Well, Its obvious this isn't earth, so I think I'm from another planet." I said as he completely stopped.
"Would you ever want to return?" he asked.
"Honestly, no. I didn't really like it to begin with, especially after I lost my grandad. So there isnt much to return to. Any remaining family I have there is dead to me anyway." He looked away at that.
"It seems we are both outsiders of our homeworlds." He said with a sigh.
"Indeed we are, Tak. Indeed we are." I said as we came upon some kind of cave. Except this one had more exits on it. And it seemed vertical than the usual downward entrance to a cave. That, and there were guards outside it that looked like more changelings.
Tak looked at the place with a mix of pride and sorrow. "Welcome to the Haven, Tak. Welcome, to one of our only remaining hives."
I looked at him with shock. His people were an endangered species by his own confession. And here he was, allowing some guy he'd met in one day straight to the final home for his people. It honestly brought a tear to my eye as I realized just how broken these guys must be to need to stoop to such levels.
"HALT!!!!" one of the guards screeched as he flew towards us, with at least 10 more close behind. "Step away from the prince immediately or die!" he said with a growl.
I simply growled back and put my hand on my sword when Tak suddenly jumped between us.
"Enough!" He yelled. "This man saved my life from a timberwolf while the guards you assigned to me deserted me on the spot, captain!" He spat in a rage. "He shall be treated as one of us and granted an audience with the queen immediately!"
The captain shrank back in fear as I looked at the boy in suprise. Prince, huh? I thought. Explains the attitude and emotion he had when he talked about his people. I stuck my tongue out at the captain as we were escorted in.
*********
12 minutes later
*********
It took a bit to get to the center of their....hive? that's what he said this was? Meh, It looks like a big old frat house to me. When we did reach the center, a changeling appeared and cleared his throat.
"Her majesty, Queen chrysalis, will now see you two." he said and left the room. I looked and got a good look at the queen.
Other than being a few heads taller than Tak and most of the others, her looks alone definitely sticked out. although she had the same black fur coat with holey legs and hooves, her hair came down almost all the way to the ground. her horn was bigger by a mile. And even the smallest parts of her body seemed more... sophisticated. She also sported a little crown on her head, although it seemed to offput the whole queen thing she had going on, making her look cuter than necessary.
She walked up to me and Tak slowly, Eyeing me up and down. I honestly felt fear right then and there, this being the first time I had felt like something, or someone rather, would actually eat me if necessary. Hell, even if she wanted to she could have me gutted and no one would ever know.
"Well, my son. what do we have here?" She said to Tak, yet here eyes never left me.
"Well, mother. This being is from another planet. And he saved my life while some of our own just happened to disappear." Tak said with a frown.
She looked extremely pissed at that. "THEY LEFT MY SON AND HEIR TO DIE OUT THERE ALONE!!!" She yelled. If there were windows, they would've broke by how loud it was. She recovered quickly from the outburst, though, and turned back to me.
"Another planet, you say?" She grinned at that. "Well, you saved my son, so by our law, that grants 1 favor of your choice." She said quite reluctantly. She obviously wasn't the type that liked to give away stuff, even if it was well deserved.
I thought about this for a minute. I could ask for a ton of things. food, weapons, this worlds currency. But then I looked at Tak and realized something. This guy was only a kid, and while we walked down here, I didnt see too many of his people in this place. These guys are in a rough spot, and honestly, I think I know how to help them.
I looked the queen in the eye. "You said that Tak was your heir, right." She nodded. "And your people have recently sucked in protecting him as well?" She nodded again, although this time she looked more bored.
"Get to the point, hairless ape" she growled.
Shrugging off the insult, I continued. "Then allow me to become your heirs bodyguard. In return for a place to stay while I serve him." She looked at Tak.
"It is your decision." She told him, though she clearly didn't like the idea.
"Mother, I trust him this man. I approve." He said with confidence. She simply rolled her eyes and turned around.
"Very well. for the time being, you shall work as Tak's personal bodyguard. Dismissed!" She ordered as Tak led me out of the room into a hallway.
"I cannot wait to teach you all about our kind! There is so much for you to learn..." He went on as my mind wandered off.
I'll start looking for you guys soon. I've just got to help a friend get out of a jam first. I thought as Tak rattled on. Heh, I could get used to this.
Author's Notes:
AHHH! super tired, but super excited ad well! With that, Ronin makes allies with the changelings! how will this affect things in the future, and will the brothers ever be reunited? also, will Chrysalis ever get around to being nice to Ronin? maybe not the last one, but the others might happen! who knows, my fic-crazy ponies (I mean, I do. But thats too bad because I dont crack under pressure. Unless its fluttershy interrogating me, but then WHO can resist her?)
Love and tolerate, y'all!
Chapter 5: Tour of ponyville, Pinkie and the Brain, and a whole lot of giggles.
*Nicholas POV*
It had been two days since I had appeared in this world. Until I believed I was ready to go into town, I had decided to bunker down at Fluttershys. She had no problem with this, even though every time I went to help around the house, she would try to stop me from doing so. I would end up doing it anyway. I mean, she was literally taking care of me. It only made since to do my part around here. In fact, that's what i found myself doing that fateful monday when i decided to man up and hit the town.
I was cleaning some of the animal bowls that Fluttershy would use to feed her animal friends when I heard multiple knocks at the door.
"I'll get it!" I called out to Fluttershy, knowing that crazy knocking could only belong to 3 girls I knew.
However, as I opened the door, there was some purple pony at the door. She was currently reading a book which was floating in front of her face.
Must be a unicorn. I thought to myself, recalling what fluttershy had taught me about the three types of ponies that lived here.
The unicorn spoke up. "Fluttershy, I need your help with something back at the library. Some squirrels have invaded and wont leave at...." She trailed off as she lowered the book and looked at me.
"Umm.... are you ok?" I asked as a look of shock mixed with a huge grin slowly came on her face.
"YOUR A HUMAN!!!" The pony yelled, causing me to fall back with suprise. I quickly got up and slammed the door in her face.
"What kind of wacko was that?" I said as Fluttershy came downstairs quickly.
"Who was at the door?" she said quietly. but before I could answer a pop sounded off in the room and the pony from outside was now next to Fluttershy.
"I cant believe I found you already! Its only been two days since I got the princess's letter to be on the lookout for a human, but I didn't expect to find you so fast!" The pony said with great enthusiasm.
Wait? the princess of this world knows I'm here? I thought, the idea of royalty having a lookout for me scared me a bit.
Thankfully, Fluttershy intervened. "Please calm down, Twilight. Your scaring Nicholas." After hearing that, Twilight looked at my shocked expression and lowered her head with her ears bent down.
Taking a deep breath, I went over to her and kneeled in front of her. "Hey, its alright." I said softly. "I can totally understand you being excited to see me. But please dont scare me like that again, Ok?" She looked up at me and smiled
"Ok. sorry about that. I just get so excited when I see something new, I just tend to lose myself a bit." She said with a bit of an embarrased blush on her face.
I chuckled at that. "Lets start over, shall we? I'm Nicholas, nice to meet you." I put out my hand
She looked at it for a second, confused. Then realization dawned on her face and she put her hoof out, shaking my hand. "I'm Twilight Sparkle." She said. She then looked at Fluttershy. "So, he's been here this whole time?" Fluttershy nodded as I spoke up.
"You might want to sit down, this will take a second to explain." I said as she took a seat on the couch, followed by Fluttershy as I stayed standing to tell my story.
************
A few hours later.
************
"So you have been staying here ever since you arrived in Equestria?" Twilight asked me as I finished.
I nodded. "Yup, I've been helping around the house to make up for Fluttershy putting a roof over my head." Fluttershy hid in her mane a bit at that.
"Well that's really sweet of you, Nicholas." Twilight said with a smile.
"Please, just call me Nick. Nicholas is such a mouthful sometimes." I said as she nodded in response. "I do have a question though. how did you know I was a human?"
Her grin got bigger at that. "Two days ago, I got a letter from the princess stating that a bipedal being known as a human had been found in her room. After spending a day with him, she learned that human had two brothers that might have appeared as well. So she told me to be on the lookout out for a smaller one and a really bulky looking one." I looked at her with a mixed face of shock and glee.
"So my brothers are here after all!" I said happily. "Since you were told to look for a bulky man, Im geussing Ronin hasn't been found. That means Raiden has been with the princess this whole time?!" I said incredulously.
She smiled. "Yup, and now that I've found you, I can send a letter to the princess informing her that one of the humans have been found! She said that she would be able to come down in a weeks time after I sent the letter once I found you." I was starting to get really giddy about all this.
"I can't wait to see Raiden again!" I cheered. Twilight cleared her throat to catch my attention.
"For the time being though, what are we going to do about you?" She asked. I looked her with a raised eyebrow.
"What about me?" I asked.
"Well, you are a child. and by our colt laws. You not only have to have a designated guardian, but you'll have to attend school as well." She said as my jaw dropped. The guardian thing was one thing, but school? Here?
"You mean I have to go to some random school who knows where?" I asked, getting a bit worried. Fluttershy shook her head.
"We have a school here for fillies and colts that I think you would like." She said.
"But who's going to look after him?" Twilight asked. Fluttershy turned to her.
"I will." She said and we both looked her with suprise.
"Really?" I said, unable to believe what she had said.
"I couldn't bear to see you get put in some random home somewhere, that is, if you dont..." She didn't get a chance to finish as I hugged her.
"Thank you." I said quietly, tears welling up in my eyes. I pulled back and wiped them as I noticed Fluttershy had some in her eyes as well.
"Aww, that's so sweet." Twilight said as she looked on. "Now that we have that decided, We will have to visit the mayor and inform her if this to have it finalized on paper." I rolled my eyes at that.
"Ugh! paperworks the worst." I groaned as the two mares giggled at that.
"I guess we could show you around town first." Twilight said. Fluttershy looked at me.
"Would you be ok with doing that?" She said in a motherly tone. I nodded.
"Yeah, lets do it!" I said as we walked out the door towards ponyville.
********
As we walked into town, I couldn't help but notice the stares I was getting from a lot of the ponies. They didn't seem scared, though, Just curious of who and what I was. Bet they would've been much more scared if it was Ronin being escorted down this street. I thought, laughing at the idea of him chasing ponies around with his sword.
"Whats so funny?" Twilight asked me as we approached what looked like a bakery.
"Nothing, just thinking about how my brother would've handled being here." I said, suddenly missing him greatly.
Fluttershy noticed this and spoke up. "Dont worry, Nick. The princess will find him. Then you can all be reunited." I looked at her and smiled.
"Speaking of funny, I should warn you. The pony your about to meet can be a bit... eccentric." Twilight said. I frowned at that. But before I could say anything, a wall of pink floof blocked my vision.
"OMYGOSHOMYGOSHIVENEVERSEENSOMEPONYLIKEYOUINTOWNBEFORE!YOUMUSTBENEW!!!!MYNAMEISPINKIEPIE!ICANTWAITTOTHROWYOUR'WELCOMETOPONYVILLEPARTY'ANDTHEN*HMPH*" She was cut off as Twilight put a hoof to her mouth.
I just looked at the pink pony with a look of pure shock. I had never heard anything speak so fast before, and I definitely understood Twilights warning now.
"Umm....my names Nick" was all I could manage to say. Twilight, who still had her hoof on pinks mouth, adressed her sternly.
"When I remove my hoof, you have got to reel it in a tad, ok? Nicholas is new here, and we don't need you scaring him, alright?" Pink let out a muffled response and nodded her head rapidly. With a roll of her eyes, Twiight removed her hoof.
Pink started again, slightly slower this time around. "Lets start over, HI! Im pinkie pie, do you want a cupcake?" She pulled a cupcake from....who knows where and handed it to me.
"Thanks?" I said as I looked at the sprinkle-covered cupcake. It couldn't hurt to try a bite, right? I took a decently sized bite.....
And immediately felt like I had been struck by lightning! MAN! That was a lot of sugar! I thought as I started jogging in place. Fluttershy looked at me with a hint of fear before turning to twilight.
"are....humans supposed to do that after getting sweets?" She asked Twilight. Twilight sat in thought for a moment before shaking her head.
"I don't think so..." but before she could finish, I cut her off.
"Hey wheres the next stopping point on this tour?" I asked quickly, jogging faster in place.
"The next place is raritys, its just up the road." Twilight said while pointing down the road. I grinned widely and took off in a sugary hurry in the direction she indicated.
"Nick, wait" Fluttershy called out, but I had already gotten out of hearing range, leaving a frustrated Twilight and a laughing pinkie pie in my wake.
******
As I was running through the town, dodging and weaving through ponies, I ended up slamming into sweetiebell. We quickly became a small pile on the ground.
"ooooooh, what hit me?" She shook her head and looked at me. "Nick?!" I gave her a smile as I got up and helped her up.
"Sorry, Bell. Pinkie Pie fed me a cupcake, and next thing I know, I'm speeding through town faster than lightning!" I said as Sweetiebelle giggled.
"Her sweets will do that when you first eat them. I'm glad to see your finally out of that cottage, though. what brings you to my sister's house?" I turned and looked at the tall tower-like structure in front of me. I turned back to Sweetiebelle.
"Twilight and Fluttershy were giving me a tour of ponyville. But then I left them in the dust back at pinks place." As I said that, her face lit up.
"I have and idea! why don't I show you my sisters house, and then show you around the rest of ponyville?" She asked.
"Sounds great to me! Hey, while we are around we could see if we could find the other girls as well." I said while her smile just got bigger.
"YEAH! we could make a crusade out of it! I guess we should start here, though." She said as we walked into the house-tower thing.
When we walked in, it was easy to tell what her sisters line of work was. From the manequins to the material all over the place, I had just stepped into a divas workshop.
"Ah, Sweetiebelle, your back. Did you get Spike for me?" A posh voice sounded out as a white pony came from upstairs. She had purple hair that coiled a bit at the front and had three diamonds for a cutie mark.
"Spike was busy doing chores at Twilights, but I brought a friend instead." Sweetiebelle said as she motioned to me. The mare looked at me, or at my clothes anyway, and gasped.
"Darling, what is it that your wearing? That shirt and pants are much too dirty for you to be walking around in." She said as she pulled out some measuring tools. "You must let me make you some new clothes immediately!"
I looked at my clothes. I HAD been wearing them for 2 days straight. And they were pretty dirty, after all. "Ok, but you do know I cant pay for the new ones, right?" I said nervously, not liking the way she was looking at me. It was like she saw me as some sort of challenge or experiment.
"Dearie, there is no cost for a friend of my sister. what did you say your name was?" She asked as she measured my legs.
"Nicholas, but most people call me Nick." I said as she measured out my waistline.
"Darling, thats such a noble name." She said as she finished with my arms. "I'll have your clothes done in a day or two at most. Where should I have them sent?"
I looked at her with suprise. It usually took waaaay longer for tailors to make clothes. "I'm living at Fluttershys since I have nowhere else to go." As I said that, Rarity gasped.
"Oh my, how dreadful!" she said dramatically as she fainted onto a couch. "Why do you have nowhere else to go?"
I shifted a bit uncomfortably. "Long story short, Im from another world. but Fluttershy said she'd look after me for now. So its fine" I said as she calmed down. Sweetiebelle just laughed at the situation.
"I think we should get going before my sister throws another one of her fits." She said as we ran out before Rarity could get her back for the quip.
"I DO NOT THROW FITS!!!!" I heard her yell from inside her house-tower thing. This made me and Sweetiebelle fall to the ground with laughter.
"What are y'all up ta?" I heard a feminine southern voice ask. I got up and came face to face with an orange pony. She had yellow hair and a cowboy hat on. She also had apples on her flank, which made a question pop into my mind.
"We were messing with rarity, miss. But can I ask you a question?" I asked.
"Well, ah don't see why not" She said. yup, defenitely southern.
"Are you related to Applebloom, by any chance?" I asked just as said pony came up behind me.
"Yup, that's mah sister Applejack!" Applebloom stated rather loudly next to me, causing me to jump in suprise.
"AH! don't do that!" I yelped, but smiling all the same. Applebloom simply laughed it off as Aj chuckled.
"So, you must be Nicholas, huh? Mah sis has been yammerin' about ya for two days straight." Aj said while side-eyeing Applebloom, who currently blushed at the call-out.
"Now, why did ya go an' tell em that for?" She said while pouting, Causing me and Sweetiebelle to burst out laughing. Soon enough, Applebloom joined in as well.
"Well, y'all seem to be havin' fun, so Ima head back to the stand. Y'all behave now." She said walking off.
"We will!" All three of us said. I turned to the girls.
"Now, where are we going to find Scoots?"
The two girls shared a smirk."We know exactly where she will be at right now." Sweetiebelle said.
********
After taking a bit of a walk, we came across an open field where Scootaloo was sitting while staring at this pegasus that was flying around. The girls were about to call out to her when I stopped them, motioning them to move quietly. Soon, we were right behind her, so I quickly jumped in front of her line of sight.
"HOWDY SCOOTS!!!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, causing Scootaloo to screech and jump back 6 feet before landing on her back. The girls burst out laughing while Scootaloo sat up.
"Gee, very funny guys." Scootaloo said, but she was smiling so I knew no harm was done. I then heard laughing from behind me.
"Hehehe, Man that was good!" the pegasus said as she landed next to me. She was a light blue, with a rainbow mane and had a rainbow ligjtning bolt coming out of a cloud. She looked me over. "What are you, anyway?"
"My names Nicholas, your friendly neighborhood human." I said while putting out my fist, hoping that I had geussed right thinking she was a tomboy.
Thankfully, I was. She smiled and fist(hoof?) bumped me back. "Im rainbow dash, fastest pegasus in equestria!" She turned to Scootaloo. "This is the guy you were saying came from another world?" Scoots nodded. "Man, that makes you like, 20 percent cooler right off the bat!" Rainbow exlaimed.
Dang, she's just like Ronin. I thought to myself. I turned to Scootaloo. "Hey, we're going over to the town hall. Wanna come with?" She looked over to Rainbow dash.
Rainbow chuckled. "Go ahead squirt, I need to take a break anyway."
"Ok, Rainbow dash!" She said as she followed us back into town as Rainbow Dash flew off.
*********
"Oh boy." I mumbled as we came up to the town hall. Standing directly in front of it was this old tan mare with Fluttershy and a VERY ticked Twilight.
"Well, we're going to go before Twilight gets us too!" Scootaloo said as Twilight started angrily trotting towards us.
"Girls wait!" I said, but as i turned around, the girls were gone. "Great." I moaned as Twilight came up to me.
"Where have you been? You should've been here exactly four minutes ago, your late!" She scolded me.
Your kidding, right? I thought as the other two ponies walked up.
"So this is young Nicholas" The tan pony said. "Nice to meet you, I'm mayor mare, And I will be handling the paperwork for your integration into our town." I smirked at the name, but stayed polite.
"Nice to meet you, ma'am. Sorry if I was SLIGHTLY tardy, but I had some friends showing me your lovely town." I said, glaring at Twilight halfway through, receiving a stuck-out tongue in response.
"Well, I'm glad you think so, dear. Let us go inside and make this official." Mayor Mare said as we walked inside.
**********
3 grueling hours later
**********
"FINALLY!!!" I moaned as we walked out. It had quite possibly been the most boring thing I had ever been through. After explaining where I came from. We had to sit through a whole speil about the responsibility of taking care of a kid. Thank goodness Fluttershy is well known for taking carebof living things, or it may have been harder to convince the mayor.
"It wasn't that bad, Nick." Twilight said. "Well, I've got to get back to the library and check on spike. So I'll see you two later." She walked off.
"Bye twilight." Fluttershy said, then turned to me. "Oh, I'm so excited to be able to take care of you, Nicholas." I simply shrugged.
"You've already been doing that and so much more, just now the FBI won't come crashing through the ceiling or anything to get me." I said with a laugh. Fluttershy just looked confused.
"Whats a....FBI?" She asked? I waved my hand.
"Ehh, earth thing. don't worry about it. Now, we should be getting back to the cottage." I said as she nodded.
"Yes, I can't wait to tell my animal friends the news and....huh?" She stopped as I poked her on the forehead and started running.
"Race ya there!" I yelled as i took off. She simply smiled and flew after me, determined to catch me or beat me to the cottage.
Author's Notes:
Well, look at that. Nicholas is now a registered resident of ponyville. What shall happen as he slowly integrates into society? How will he handle school life in equestria (keeping in mind he hasn't had good experiences with it before.) and how will his friendship with the CMC's evolve over time? only fate knows (and me, but we've been over this.) stay tuned my fic-crazy ponies. and remember:
LOVE AND TOLERATE!!!!
Chapter 6: Thieves, storytime, and cake addictions.
*Raiden POV*
It was a Wednesday morning and I was cleaning up the kitchen when a maid walked in.
"Princess Celestia would like dessert delivered to her sleeping quarters." The maid said. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Let me geuss, a big o' slice of cake for the lady." I said with a smirk as the maid giggled.
"You betcha, Sir. Except this time she wants chocolate instead of vanilla." She said between giggles.
"Alright, I'll get right on it." I said turning towards the cabinet to pull out the flour. Ever since I had started working at the castle, the princess had been using me as her own personal chef. It was quite easy to cook for her, since she didn't usually ask for anything too crazy. But there were times, like today, when her sweet tooth got the better of her. Even at 9 in the morning.
*******
After making the cake, I put it on one of those wheeled things waiters use and pushed it to her room. An easy enough task, until you get to the stairs. Whoever decided to put the royal bedroom in one of the highest towers in the castle needs to have their brains checked, because carting a food trolley up those steps is absolutely dreadful!
I finally emerged at the top and carted it towards the door. The guard's noticed my approach and looked me dead in the eyes.
"Evenin' boys." I said with a smile. "Got Celestia's morning dessert right here." patting the cover over the cake, I lifted it up a bit and showed them the chocalate cake. They saw it and immediately went to open the doors when the doors flew open, sending all three of us to the ground. I looked up as a pony dressed in all black flew by, noticing his or her eyes were completey blue. No iris's or anything. Then I saw a necklace in its hoof.
"STOP!!" I yelled, giving chase after the thief. The guards recovered as the princess walked out of her room.
"Where did the intruder go?" She asked one of them.
"The bugger took off towards the courtyard, with your chef in pursuit." The guard said gruffly. Celestia's eyes narrowed as she teleported to the courtyard in order to cut him off.
Meanwhile, I was giving chase after the intruder. Even though he was flying, he wasn't moving that fast. It was as if he had almost no energy. It was still flying though, and I was being slowed down by maids, Nobleponies, and the occasional visitor that was wandering aimlessy through the halls. I turned a corner after him just to slam into a unicorn. This one, was different than most of them I had encountered before.
Unlike most unicorns, he was well built. He was alabaster like celestia, yet he had this mix of light and dark blue hair. He also had this sheild with a purple star in the middle as his cutie mark. I noticed he had armour on that looked different than most.
"Oooh, what the heck?" He said woozily as he got up. I stood up and hurriedly replied.
"Thank goodness! you look like someone important among the guard here. There's a thief running around and he just made off with some necklace from Celestia's room. We got to hurry and catch him, who knows what that thing could do?" I said as I continued my pursuit after the thief while The unicorn started barking orders at other guards to close off exits.
I ran pass an open door to stop in my tracks as i heard a noise inside. I walked in slowly, pulling a butchers knife off my side. Ever since I had started working here, I had decided to keep it with me at all times, just from simply not trusting everyone here just yet.
"I know your in here! So you might as well come out and face me." I said as I opened a closet. Nothing. I turned around towards the bed to see the thief looking at me with his head cocked sideways, almost as if it was recognizing me. I saw its mouth form a smile, fangs popping out of its mouth, and he lunged at me. I swung up my knife in defense only for it to be knocked aside by magic as he plowed into me. We landed in the hallway and started rolling around. I delivered a right hook to get him off me and jumped to my feet. He recovered fast and we started to circl each other.
"I don't know who the hell you are, but you are not leaving with that necklace." I said with a growl, bringing my fists up in a fighting stance.
The thing laughed and removed its cloak. I gasped at what I saw. It looked like a mutated pony, with the holes in its legs and the sharp wings. Even its horn seemed unnatural. Those same blue filled eyes stared at me in a cold, emotionless way. It was honestly one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen.
"It seems you aren't like him at all."The thing said. "I can feel the disgust coming off you." I snapped out of it and charged him, focused on not letting him get away. He laughed and charged foward as well, just to be stopped by a golden glow of magic, causing me to stop and beckpedal a bit in suprise.
"That won't be necessary, Raiden. I'll take over from here." Celestia said as she walked up, flanked by some guards and that unicorn from earlier. She turned to him. "Shining Armour, take him and put him in the dungeons for now, we will interrogate him later to find out why he stole that necklace." After ripping said necklace from the thief. The guards took the thief away, the whole time it looked me in the eyes and mouthed 3 words.
Hail the queen
I simply shrugged it off as the guard marched off. So that's that unicorns name, huh? I'll have to buy him a drink in thanks later for the assist. I turned towards Celestia.
"What was that thing?" I asked as she sighed.
"Walk with me, and I tell you their story." She said as we walked down the corridor. She put the necklace away somewhere in her regalia and turned her head to me, never losing step or pace.
"What you just saw was a changeling. They are a vile species that can change their shape and feed off of the love of those around them. Our country has been dealing with them for centuries. But until now, we haven't seen or heard any reports about them in the past 30 years." I thought about my encounter with the thing, and something stuck out about it all.
"Celestia." I started. "The changeling said that I wasn't like someone. It was like he recognized me. You don't think that he has seen one of my brothers, have you?" A chill went down my spine. What if they have Nicholas?
Celestia thought about this for a moment, then smiled. "I wouldn't worry too much about what the changeling said, their kind is known to lie to their adversaries to get the better of them. As for your brothers, I just recieved a letter from my student in ponyville saying that she has found a younger human living there." I let out a relieved sigh.
"So Nicholas is being taken care of." I said with of a smile. "Glad to know he's safe, but what of Ronin?" I asked as her smile disappeared instantly.
"I have tried to reach out with my magic to see if I could sense him, but every time I feel like I have found him, the connection is severed. Its almost as if he knows I'm searching for him yet he doesn't want to be found." I frowned at that. Ronin always was headstrong. And if he got wrapped up in something, he usually didn't want to involve me or Nick on the off chance we'd get hurt. Hopefully, he stays away from these changeling things.
"By the way, whats so special about that necklace?" I asked her. She suddenly stopped walking and looked out a window. I heard her sigh softly.
"The necklace..... belonged to my late husband. He died while protecting our city from the same threat you saw back there." She said with ice laced into her voice. I immediately regretted bringing it up.
"Im sorry, princess. I had no idea." I said softly. She just shook her head and turned back to me.
"Do not be, you could not have known. Come, let us return to my bedchambers. I would at least like to try some of that cake you made." She said with a smile that seemed forced. We turned and headed back the way we came.
***********
We arrived in her room, with me carting a new cake in tow. The last one had been knocked over in the fray, and from the looks of it, her room didn't fare much better.
There was junk scattered everywhere, singe marks in several places and glass broken around a pedestal with an spot for a necklace to be hung.
"Damn, this'll take hours for the maid to clean." I said, eyes wide at the mess.
Celestia smirked. "Not necessarily, Raiden. Watch." Her horn glowed again as a light shined across the whole room. When it dimmed, everything was clean again. No marks, no junk, and the pedestal was completely spotless. My jaw hit the floor at this.
"That magic stuff is insane." I said with a chuckle as I found myself a comfy spot on a couch to sit. She took a spot by the bed and uncovered the cake tray greedily.
"So how are we splitting that cake? 50-50?" I asked just before celestia took a knife and cut a fourth of it off and gave the small part to me. I took a look at the big chunk in her plate.
"One fourths it is!" I said with a laugh as I took a sugary bite. I wasnt the biggest fan of cake, but every once in a while wasn't so bad. I looked over to see crumbs where celestia's chunk had been and a very stuffed look on her face. My eyes widened.
"Your already done?!" I said in wonder. She had to cover her mouth to keep from spitting out cake from how hard she laughed at my reaction. She swallowed the cake and grinned.
"You have much to learn about my eating habits, Young one." She said as I finished off my own slice. I stretched a bit and stood up.
"Well, your higness, I better get back to the kitchen before the head chef has my neck." I said as Celestia nodded. I bowed and left the room.
*********
I was on my way to the kitchen as I passed by princess luna. I gave a quick bow as she stopped and turned to face me.
"Pray tell, what hath occured while we were out, Raiden?" She asked me. I smiled a bit at her speaking habits but answered nonetheless.
"Oh, just a break-in/robbery with a side of cake hoarding." I said as she looked at me with an eyebrow raised before narrowing her eyes. She walked up to me, face nearly inches from mine.
"We shall be watching thy actions, Raiden. We do not trust you, and we will not have you hurt our sister in any way at all. Understood?" I nodded as she backed off.
I took a step away and smiled. "You know, luna. I think I know whats bothering you." She raised an eyebrow at this.
"What, praytell, would that be?" She asked. My smile grew wider as I slowly inched towards the door.
"Your just jealous that your sister gets free cake whenever she pleases!" I said as I dived through the door, narrowly avoiding the spell blast that hit where I was once standing. As I bolted towards the kitchen, I could hear her yell out in a rage.
"COME BACK HERE AND FACE US, YOU HAIRLESS APE!!!"
I simply closed the kitchen door behind me, crying my eyes out with laughter at her reaction. The cooks and maids in the kitchen simply looked at me in fear.
One of the chefs I had grown to have as a friend spoke up. "Raiden, are you out of your mind, teasing the princess of the night like that?!" he asked/berated me.
I laughed and patted him on the back. "Relax, Gold spoon. She'll calm down after a while. I just got to avoid her until then.
Gold spoon looked at me and shook his head. "Your dancing with the devil, friend. But for now, we have to focus on the newest order that just came in." He walked over and picked up a list with his hoof. " Lets see, Princess Cadence has ordered... oh no." He trailed off as his face dawned a look of horror/weariness.
"What is it?" I asked as I looked at the order and nearly passed out from shock. "She wants FIVE 3 three layer cakes!?! What is she doing, hosting a party or something." Gold spoon shrugged as i huffed a bit.
"Apparently, she was just proposed to in marriage, so its a celebration cake. But five of them? Oy vey!" He sighed frustrated as he picked up the ingredients. "Lets get this over with, before the princess has our hide."
I nodded. "Yeah, but once were done, Im going on break for a weeeek!" I moaned as Gold spoon snickered a bit, almost dropping the cake batter in the process.
Author's Notes:
Welp, cakes as addicting as drugs among the royals. With Raiden meeting the changelings and having a glimpse into Celestia's past, will things start to heat up around here? or will luna kill Raiden before the week is done? Find out next time, My fic-crazy ponies! and remember: Love and Tolerate!!!
Chapter 7: Greetings, training, and a bloodthirsty changeling spider.
*Ronin POV*
It's been about four days since I arrived at the "safe haven" as Tak liked to call it. After the meeting with the queen, I was given a tour of the hive, ending at Tak's room.
I wont lie, the kid's got a good spread, considering his dilemma. He has this cocoon thing in the middle of his room, along with several strewn items around. Hell, the kid has toys in the far corner of the room, although it looks like they haven't been touched in years.
As we walked in, Tak walked up to the cocoon and looked at me.
"Would you like me to have a servant make you a cocoon to sleep in as well?" He asked me. I gave him a quick shake of my head.
"No No, thats fine. I think I'd rather sleep in a bed or something." I said quickly. I was NOT sleeping like a caterpiller.
He shrugged. "You and mother are sooooo weird! She doesn't sleep in a cocoon either! Well, while we get you a bed, why don't you go to the barracks below? If you want to become my personal bodyguard, you might want to meet the lieutenants first. They know EVERYTHING about protecting the queen and her heirs to the throne!" He empathized that last part with pride.
"Aight then, see you later, kiddo." I said as I walked out. As soon as the door closed behind me, I realized something.
I don't know where the hell the barracks are.
Thankfully, a guard was walking by. "Hey, could you lead me to the barracks?" I asked him. He looked me up and down before hissing softly, but he motioned me to follow him.
**********
After a couple of minutes, we arrived at a room full of soldiers, or at least I think they were. They had weapons and armour that looked attached to them, but they honestly didn't strike me as organized fighters. The place was like a mess hall, long tables spread out in rows, with one circular table in the middle. The guard led me to the center table.
"I brought the one who the queen said needed to be trained." The guard said to three slightly bigger changelings at the table. Unlike the other soldiers here, these guys actually seemed intimidating. I sat down at the table as they each took a good look at me.
"Well, if it ain't the newbie! looks like another lamb to be slaughtered if you ask me!" A big guy to my left sneered. He had orange eyes and orange hair to match. He wore armour that looked like a mix of dark red and black. Although the red could have nothing to do with the armour design. He leaned in and studied me carefully. "What the fuck was the queen thinking, putting a half-pint like you in charge of the heirs defense unit?" I gave him a smirk of my own.
"Alright then, who was in charge of the last patrol?" I asked him. He grinned boastfully.
"Those soldiers were from my unit, and they were the best of the best!" He roared, and a table behind me followed suit. I rolled my eyes.
"Heh, no wonder they deserted him if they were trained by a jackass like you." I said as I stood up, he did the same and we were inches from each others face. "If you like," I began, gripping my sword by its handle. "I can show you exactly why I was chosen." He stared me down with a solid glare for a good minute as the whole room went silent.
He then caught me off guard me laughing. He pat me on the back hard, nearly sending me into the table. the table behind me cheered, apparently close with the big guy.
"HAHAHA, Where the hell did Tak find you, and where can we get more of ya, Cuz thats the first time any newcomer has had the balls to stand up to me!" He extended his hoof. "Names Tremor! lieutenant of the Rock-solid battalion!" He roared the last three words as the table behind me cheered again, this time even louder.
"If you two idiots are done comparing sizes, maybe we can get things done around here?" A female changeling to my right spoke up. Her eyes were silver, but her hair was an icy blue. Unlike the others, her wings looked stronger and had icicle tips.
She looked me dead in the eyes. "My name is Tundra, Lieutenant of the Cold North battalion." She pointed to a table behind her, and the mostly female group all eyed me down in return. "I am in charge of all aerial warfare, and making sure that idiot stays in line." She nodded towards Tremor, who grinned lewdly.
"Hehehe, you know you like keeping your eyes on me, doll" He said right as a icy blast hit him, freezing him solid. I looked at Tundra in shock.
She shrugged. "He'll be fine, its not the first time I've left him in the cold." She smirked as I visibly shuddered.Note: dont piss off Tundra.
The third changeling cleared his throat, causing me to finally look his way. He had green eyes, but had the basic hair color most changelings have. What made him stick out was that he had no legs. Instead, he floated at the table with a small cloud instead.
"Greetings, newcomer. My name is Monsoon. I lead the Low tide battalion, which is in charge of all conflict with magic weilders." He nods towards the table closest to us, and the changelings there either wave at me or don't notice me since they seemed far too invested in making clouds of rain assault the guys at the Rock-Solid table.
Monsoon looks back to me. "As you can tell, we are named after the element we've been blessed with. Tremor can weild magma and rocks, Tundra handles ice and wind, and I handle Water. There's also Volt, but he's not easy to... get through to." he said with a sigh. Then things got weird as the room suddenly got quiet, with everyone not moving.
I felt this odd feeling out of nowhere, it was like the static electricity in the room picked up by 100 volts. My hair was sticking up, and I looked around for the source. Monsoon sighed again and pointed up. I looked up and fell out of my chair in shock as "Volt" dropped from the ceiling.
Ok, I've seen a lot of weird crap since coming here. But this took the cake. He had fully black eyes and his teeth looked like they were covered in... blood. but that wasn't even the thinf that got me. Although he was a changeling, the thing had a spider body, with each leg crackling with electrical charge going through them. His fangs also were grown out like a spiders, and those too were drenched red. Monsoon gulped a bit before continuing.
"Newcomer, meet Volt. He is in charge of griffon and dragon combat. He is the co-lieutenant of the Rock-solid battalion and handles the... executions we have to have every once in a while." Volt looked at me with a sick grin.
"Hellllloooooo Neeeeewcooooommmer" He drew out his words, savoring each one like a dessert at a fine dining restaurant. "Hehehehehehehe, Sooooorry iiif I'm a tad messsssssy, I juuuuust finished plllllaaaaaying wiiiith thoooose 'deserters' yooooou mentioned earlier." He cackled loudly and hopped over me, scurrying out of the room. I got up and looked at Monsoon in fright.
"What the hell just happened!?" I whispered. He simply shrugged as Tremor finally thawed and turned to me.
"Alright, Newbie! lets get you to the training room!" He said as Monsoon's horn lit up teleported us to a large dirt room with weapons strewn about. He stepped out and turned to me. "I hope you weren't kidding about showing me what you got, boy. But before we start, why don't you introduce me and the others to the soon-to-be pile of bones on the floor." He grinned maliciously. I rolled my eyes.
"Names Ronin. Was a mercenary for 5 years after I lost someone important to me, now I'm protecting the queens kid." He snorted at this.
"Hell, we're all her children! Tak's special, is all." He said as he eyed my sword. "Hehe, cut anyone up with that stick?"
I narrowed my eyes and averted my gaze from his for a second. "A few too many" I got out. Monsoon spoke up.
"Hey, don't ever feel regret for doing your job. We can feel those things, as you know. You had to do what you needed to survive, nothing you you can do to change that. For now, focus on your current opponent." I looked back at Tremor, who was nearly shaking with excitement.
"HAHAHA! Lets gooooo!" He roared as he rushed me at a blinding speed, slamming into me and sending me flying across the room. I landed on the ground hard and looked up as Tremor was rushing again.
Ain't doing that twice. I thought as I sprang up and sidestepped the rushing behemoth. He turned quickly around to face me just to be met with a kick to the face from the left. He spun in the air a bit before landing with a loud OOOF. I smiled at that, but the grin left my face as he got back up fast.
"Hehe, nice one newbie. But lets see how you handle that sword." His horn lit up and a longsword appeared in the air. He grabbed it with bis hoof and rushed me, Swinging the blade hard to his right.
I drew my sword and parried the blow as I got knocked back an inch or two from the intensity of the blow. He smiled and started swinging away like a madman. I deflected hit after hit but was slowly being pressed against a wall.
*In the viewing stands by the fight*
"KICK HIS ASS, TREMOR!" Tundra screeched as Monsoon floated over to her.
"Well, your attitude changed fast." He stated as Tundra simply glared at him.
"Tremor knows not to call me out in public. When its just us though...." She grinned deeply at that while Monsoon simply coughed uncomfortably at the sentence just said.
"Yoooooou twooooo have always beeeen soooo cloose, huuuh?" Volt said as he landed behind them from above. Causing Tundra to jump a mile high and Monsoon to let out an thunder like sound in fright.
"DONT DO THAT, YOU MULTI LEGGED ASSHOLE!!" Tundra yelled as Volt just giggled like a madman. Monsoon had decided to just tune out the two ad he watched the fight progress.
*Fighting ground*
I was finally pushed against the wall by the last sword strike. Tremor laughed loudly.
"Time to break that silly stick of yours!" he roared as he swung is blade from above. In a desperate effort. I swung my blade up to meet it at top speed.
When the blades met, a loud clang burat from the room as Tremors sword shattered. Tremor, in the chaos of it all, was sent flying into a wall. Tundra quickly flew over to him as Monsoon floated over, with Volt scurrying close behind.
"How did you do that? Nothing has broken his sword before!" Monsoon asked while inspecting my blade. He showed it to Volt who gasped and took several steps back with a loud hiss.
"Keeeeeep thaaat awaaay from meeeee!" He screeched. "Thaaaaat isssss maaade from Adamantine!" Monsoon looked shocked.
"Where did you get this sword?" He asked. I gave him a confused look.
"My grandad gave it to me before he passed. Why?" He pondered this, then spoke up.
"Adamantine is a rare ore here in equestria and its surrounding countries. It hasn't been found in a mine in centuries! its also the only metal that can kill Volt here, so do be careful with it." Monsoon said as Volt scurried away from the room.
Tremor walked over and gave me another back-breaking pat. "HAHAHA, your tough as nails!" he stated as I looked at him, confused by his reaction.
"I didn't beat you though." I said as Tundra walked up to me, visibly angry.
"Honey, it takes an army to beat Tremor in hand to hand combat. Be lucky he switched to swordfighting to give you a chance." With that, she took flight and left the room. Tremor rolled his eyes.
"Don't let her get to you. She's upset you put me in a wall. But she'll get over it when I see her later tonight." He said with a wiggle of his eyebrows as I rolled my eyes and playfully punched his shoulder.
"Dude, your downright disgusting" I said with a laugh as a changeling flew into the room.
"The queen needs to see Ronin, Immediately!" It screeched and it sent a spell at me. Among contact with me, it teleported me to the throne room. I looked up and saw Chrysalis. I kneeled as she spoke up.
"I have decided to test you in order to see if your worthy of assisting us in our plans." She said all the while glaring daggers at me. "A changeling spy we sent to obtain a magical artifact has been captured by royal authority. I need you to break into Canterlot castle and retrieve the spy before they obtain highly confidential information from him."
I stood up and smiled. "Easy enough, though how much force is allowed to be used if discovered." I asked as her face contorted into a wicked grin.
"Why, the only force Necessary, LETHAL." She growled. "You will be assigned to this task with Monsoon. Under NO circumstances are you to fail me, or else!" She yelled loudly as she stood up from her throne.
I gave a quick salute and a "YES MA'AM" as I walked out the room towards the barracks.
So, I finally get to meet these pony scum. I thought, relishing in the idea of meting out some well-deserved bloodshed if need be.
Author's Notes:
With that, Ronin is off to canterlot! Will he succeed in breaking out the changeling? and what will happen if he runs into Raiden? All to be answered next time, my Fic-crazy ponies!
and remember, LOVE AND TOLERATE!!!!
*oh, and do comment on how y'all feel about the changeling lieutenants! I'd love to know which ones you love and which ones you hate
Chapter 8: First day of school and a new friend.
*Nicholas POV*
It was thursday morning, about 5 days after I had arrived. And today was going to be bad. How would I know? It only takes one word: School.
After being told I was going to go to the school here in ponyville, I had started to panic and had tried to come up with several excuses as to why I couldn't go. Sadly, you can't trick a pony into thinking your sick when she takes care of animals for a living.
As sunlight shined through the window, I pulled the covers over my head. Fluttershy had given me her guest bedroom to use, and although it was nice, the window was directly in front of the bed. So that meant I was getting a rude awakening each day.
I rolled over just as the door opened. I heard the soft sound of hooves walking towards my bed. Then I was poked in the back softly.
"Nicholas... Its time to get up." Fluttershy softly said to me. I groaned in response and didn't move an inch.
"You don't want to be late for your first day, do you?" She said slightly louder. I rolled to face her and nodded my head, then rolled back over.
She let out a sigh. "You leave me no choice, then. Angel, could you wake up Nicholas for me?"
Angel? I thought as I heard a couple of soft thumps come up the stairs and into the room. I felt pressure on the edge of the bed as whatever angel was slowly came closer. I rolled over to look at the source to be met with a flyswatter to the face.
"OWWW!" I yelled, gripping my now-red face. The bunny smirked at me and hopped off the bed.
"Come here, you!" I growled, grabbing the flyswatter. The bunny's eyes widened as it fled the room. I sighed and dropped the swatter.
"What the heck was that, Fluttershy's guard bunny or something?" I said as I looked over and saw a package by the end of the bed with a note attached. I opened the note amd read it.
Dear Nicholas,
This package contains all the clothes I have made for you so far. There should be enough clothes in there to last you two weeks. And don't worry about paying me back, I wouldn't dream of charging a friend of my sisters cor their clothes. Enjoy, Darling!
Rarity
I opened the package and gasped at the clothes inside. There were shirts, jeans, shorts, and even underwear in there, each with their own design. I smiled as I changed into a new set of clothes. My old shirt was replaced with a new t-shirt with a Diamond on its center. The jeans I put on were way more comfortable than the original ones I had. I slipped on my shoes and walked downstairs and into the kitchen.
Fluttershy was just finishing up breakfest as I came down. She looked up at me. "Oh, thank goodness your awake. I was worried you wouldn't wake up in time." She said to me.
"Sorry about that, not much of a morning person." I said as I sat down at the table. She flew over and placed a pancake or two on my plate. I took a bite and nearly cried with joy at the food. It was absolutely amazing!! I finished quickly as Fluttershy left and came back with a backpack.
"I went out and got you this while you were asleep. I thought you would like to wear it, if you don't mind that is." She finished with a slight squeak.
I smiled at her. "Of course I would! Thanks Fluttershy!" I said as I hugged her, recieveing one back at the same time.
Then a loud set of knocking at the door. I went over and opened it to be met with the girls.
"What's up?" I said as the smiled at me.
"We decided we would walk with you to school today." Sweetie belle started.
"Since yer new 'ere and all" Applebloom seconded.
"So lets go already!!" Scootaloo finished. I laughed a bit and turned to Fluttershy.
"See you later, Fluttershy." I said as I walked out the door. She waved to me.
"Goodbye Nick, enjoy your first day at school." She called as the door closed. She turned around and noticed that, for the first time, the silence in her cottage was not too enjoyable anymore. She sighed and went to clean the kitchen.
***********
"Ah can't wait to show ya to the class!" Applebloom said as we approached the school. I was honestly tempted to turn tail and go back to Fluttershys, but something told me that she wouldn't be too happy about that, so I was going to have to tough it out.
"Are you ok, Nick?" Sweetie belle asked me. Before I could answer, a mare walked up to us. Sha was this maroon-ish color with a light and slighter darker shades of pink in her mane. She had 3 flowers as her cutie mark.
"So you must be Nicholas. Its a pleasure to meet you." She said with that smile teachers wear. "My name is Cherilee, and I will be your teacher while you go here." She turned to the girls. "Hello, girls. I take it your friends with Nicholas?"
"Yup, we meet him the day he arrived in ponyville!" Scootaloo said.
"Well thats wonderful. I'm glad to see you have made some friends in such a short time. Now, let's get to class. Im sure you will love it here, Nicholas." The teacher said and walked into the school, with us in tow behind her.
When we walked in, the whole class got quiet, all eyes on me as I stood in front of them. Cherilee cleared her throat.
"Now class, today we have a new student joining us. Nicholas, why don't you introduce yourself?" She said as the crusaders took seats with the rest of the class.
I gulped and took a deep breath. "H-hello everyone. As you heard, my name is Nicholas, but please, just call me Nick." I said as a kid up front raised his hoof eagerly.
I raised an eyebrow at him. "Yes?" I asked as looked at me.
"What are you?" He asked. great, 10 seconds in and we have already started with questions. A smile came to my face though, realizing the potential fun that could be had here.
"Well, I'm called a human. and get this, I'm from another planet!" As i said this, all the kids (minus the crusaders) eyes went wide with shock. A filly with glasses near the back spoke up. She had a grey coat and silvery grey hair with a spoon with a heart in the edge of it as a cutie mark.
"What's your planet like?" She asked me. As I answered, I couldn't helo but notice the glare i was receiving from one girl. she was pink and had purple/white hair. I noticed she not only had a taira for a mark, but a matching one on her head as well.
"Its similar to this one, but way more dangerous. The people that live there are far more likely to hurt others than you ponies, and due to that, most kids can't walk to school anymore. Defenitely not with the freedom I could here." I said as several more questions came in at once. Thankfully, Cherilee stepped in.
"Now class, lets not get carried away." She turned to me. "Your seat is next to sweetie belle." She pointed to a sit down the third row. I went to sit in it as she continued. "Now, take out some paper for notes, because we are about to go into the wonderful life of Isaac Neighton!" She cheerfully exclaimed as the class groaned in unison.
I panicked slightly at that until I looked in my bookbag. It was full of paper and even had a pencil at the bottem. Thank you, Fluttershy! I thought as I took out the materials and prepared to take notes.
********
The lesson was about as fun as I had expected. So when we were dismissed to recess, I'm proud to say I was one of the first kids out the door. After waiting up for the girls, we decided to figure out what to do.
"Oooh, we should get the whole class to play freeze-tag!" Scootaloo said as Applebloom rolled her eyes.
"Freeze-tags boring! besides, no one catches ya because ya use yer scooter to cheat!" She said as Scootaloo narrowed her eyes a bit.
"It's not cheating! its called winning." She said as they started to argue. But just before they could start, they were interrupted.
"Looks like the blank flanks can't get along!" The pink pony from earlier said as her and the spoon pony walked up.
"Leave us alone, Diamond tiara!" Sweetie belle said. Diamond tiara just laughed.
So this is who the girls warned me about? I thought with a raised eyebrow. She honestly didn't seem like much of a problem. Spoiled? Defenitely, but not really a threat per say.
She noticed me looking at her funny and turned to me. "And what are you staring at? your more of a freak than they are!" She said this as the spoon girl laughed. Seems like they are buds.
I was about to retort when I noticed something odd. At the other end of the area, their was what looked like a colt sitting with his back against the wall of the school with his head down. I pushed past the two jerks and walked towards him.
"HEY!!! Are you even listening to me!? DON'T IGNORE ME WHEN IM TALKING TO YOU!" Diamond yelled after me while the crusaders were laughing at my antics.
I ignored it all as I reached the kid. He had this silvery hair and deep green eyes, almost as if they glowed. He had black fur and a horn. I noticed that he had no cutie mark. I cleared my throat.
"Are you alright?" I asked him as he looked at me, confused.
"I-I-I'm fine, just no one wanted to talk to me before you came. I arrived yesterday, and thanks to that Diamond girl, the other colts and fillies think I have some disease because my eyes glow slightly." He looked down at that.
I snorted. "Well, I think its awesome. I'm Nick, what's your name?" I asked, extending my hand. He looked at it and took it without hesitation, suprising me. He was the first pony to know what that meant right off the bat.
"My name is Cacoono" he said as he shook my hand. I sat next to him ad the trio came up to us.
"Hey, Nick. who's the new guy?" Scootaloo asked. I looked at her, slightly confused.
"His names Cacoono, bit didn't you all see him when y'all came here yesterday?" They shook their heads.
"We didn't come yesterday, because we spent the day cleaning up a mess we had made while crusading." Sweetiebelle said as the other two looked away sheepishly.
"What do you mean by.... crusading?" Cacoono asked. Their faces lit up.
"We are on a mission to get our cutie marks!" Scootaloo said. Cacoono looked at her with suprise.
"So, you all aren't going to wait for it to happen, your taking matters into your own hooves and shaping your own paths. that's so cool!" He said excitedly. Applebloom smiled.
"Well, thats ah fancy way of puttin' it." She said as she took a better look at Cacoono. "I've never seen you around ponyville before, are you new to town as well?
Cacoono nodded. "Me and my parents moved here from canterlot. It's such a nice change from that loud city." He said with a sigh.
I smiled at him. "I get the feeling, man. Before coming here, I lived in a place called Destin. It wasnt the biggest place, but it was still busy. I prefer this type of place anytime."
We continued to chat until Cherilee called us back inside to finish the school day. After that we walked home togethor, branching off as each of us went to our respective homes. Soon it was just me and Sweetiebelle.
"Ya know, school isn't so bad here." I said and Sweetiebelle grinned at me.
"Thats great to hear, Nick! I was worried at first when you told us about your other school. but then you just went through today without breaking a sweat! You even made a new friend as well." She finished as we approached Raritys house (I swear, shes just a unicorn rapunzel, with the way that house looks)
I turned to her. "Well, being able to spend the day with you and the others is what made it so bearable. Scoots is funny, Applebloom is creative, and honestly, your the easiest to talk to about stuff." I leaned in a tad. "Just don't tell the others that." She giggled at that, then turned towards the door.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Nick!" She called out eagerly, waving as I turned to leave.
"See ya, Belle." I said as I took off in a sprint towards Fluttershy's cottage, eager to tell her about my day.
**********
Sweetiebelle walked into the boutique and closed the door just as her sister walked up to her from behind.
"Well, looks like somepony enjoys their new friend." Rarity said with a knowing smirk. Sweetiebelle looked at her like she was crazy as she walked past her sister and went towards the stairs
"WHAT!! I don't like Nick like that! He's just really nice. And sweet. And smart. and...."
she continued as she walked upstairs as Rarity squealed.
"Oh, such young love. How sweet." She sighed as she went back to working on the new dress order she had gotten.
********
It had long gotten dark outside, and Fluttershy was turning off the rest of the lights in her cottage. After Nicholas had returned, he had happily told her about the school day he had, and how his worries were unfounded in school not being fun here. It made her all warm inside to see him like that. After they had ate dinner, he had went upstairs to go to bed, but not before asking Fluttershy if she could bring him a glass of water. So she made one for him and was going up the stairs to give it to him.
When she opened his door, she saw him asleep on his bed, covered up and everything. She placed the water by the bed and kissed him on the forehead.
"Goodnight, Nicholas." She whispered as she turned to leave, but stopped as he moved a bit in his sleep.
"mmmm....goodnight....mom" He said as he snored. Fluttershy smiled big at that, a tear or two of happiness going down her face as she went to her own room to sleep.
Author's Notes:
Well, that was sweet, huh? Of course, with such a nice chapter, you'd think the next one following would be nice as well, right? NOPE! Fresh warning, shit will start to hit the fan with the next chapter, So you've been warned!
Love and tolerate, My fic-crazy ponies!
Chapter 9: Reunited at last?
*Ronin POV*
I was in the room they had given me after the meeting with chrysalis yesterday. It was a decent spread, it had a simple bed in the corner, with what looked like a place to hang my sword next to it. What struck me as odd was that there was an armour stand in the middle of the room. I didn't have any armour myself, so that had to mean....
But my thoughts were interrupted as Monsoon came into the room with some ring floating next to him.
"For the mission tonight, your going to need this, since you don't have any powers." He said as he levitated the ring to me. I grabbed it and looked at it carefully. It was solid white, but had the queens crown as a symbol on the front of it.
"What's this going to do?" I asked as Monsoon was floating around the room. He stopped at the armour stand and turned to me.
"Put that ring on, and you will see." He said, grinning strongly at me. I rolled my eyes and slipped it on my right pointer finger.
Nothing.
I was about to tell him off when I noticed the ring glowing. Then, out of nowhere, green flames erupted on my body. I wanted to yell, but the flames didn't hurt, even though they were dancing on my skin. I started to notice a layer of black slowly encasing me. It went around my whole body, even up to my head. But when it got to my eyes, a visor appeared instead. When the transformation stopped, I looked into a mirror that was resting against a wall.
The ring had created a suit of armour around me. It was mostly black, but had white flames surrounding the chestplate. The knees and elbow parts had small spikes sticking out. And the helmet looked more like one a knight would wear, except the visor was made of a glass like substance that surrounded only my eyes. The visor itself was designed to look like changeling eyes, these ones being pure white. The only thing not covered was my mouth.
I turned to Monsoon with a grin. "How did you manage this?" I asked as he took in his creation.
"Well, in the fight with Tremor yesterday, you spilt some blood due to the rush attack he did. So, I took a sample and had this exo-suit made from a mix of your dna and our changeling venom." He stated as I looked at him, slack-jawed. So he had made some kind of power suit that only worked for me? Sweet!
"Damn, that's cool." I said as I flexed in the mirror. He rilled his eyes and laughed.
"Well, we should get ready to go, it should be dark out now. The perfect time dor a break-out." Monsoon said, smiling wickedly. I couldn't help but notice that I shared the same grin.
***********
*Raiden POV
***********
Well, today sucks.
I was supposed to be on break for a week so I could go see Nicholas, but apparently the changeling from the day before had told the guard it would only talk to me. So instead of taking the night train to ponyville (dumb name, btw) I was walking towards the dungeon with Shining Armour.
As we arrived at the door holding the prisoner, Shining turned to me.
"Let me do most of the talking. We have got to find out why he was stealing that necklace, and if there will be more attacks in the future." He said as I nodded. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to the damned thing.
We walked into the cell and Shining closed the door. There was a table in the middle of the room and the changeling was sitting at a stool next to it. Armour and I took a seat at the table, with the notice of how the changeling's eyes never left mine.
Shining cleared his throat. "Now, I brought Raiden. So talk!" He said as he glared at the changeling. The thing wasn't fazed though, and smiled before opening its mouth
"How long do you think you can hold me here?" It said as it leaned back and stretched, back popping while doing so.
Shining didnt let up. "We will keep you here until you answer my questions, so, why did you steal the necklace?" He huffed in anger. I honestly felt bad for the guy. Neither of us wanted to be doing this now. I had a brother to see (and another to find) and Shining had a wedding to plan. Yet here we are, playing good cop bad cop with a bug thing.
The changeling laughed loudly. "Hehehe, I shall only say one thing, and it will directed to the human here." Shinings eyes went wide as the thing smirked. "Oh yes, I know what he is, I'm connected to the hive after all, and from the chatter going on lets just say your not the only one who has a human working for royalty." He grinned as my jaw dropped.
CRASH!!!!
I jumped as a large lightning strike hit outside the castle. Shining looked up in confusion.
"hmm, thats odd." he said. "There's no storm forcasted for today." I turned bacl to the changeling.
"What do you know of my brother?" I asked him as he simply smiled and looked me in the eyes.
"Hehehehe, it doesn't matter. You'll see each other soon enough." He cackled as a guard rushed into the room.
"Captain, you need to see this. There's this changeling in the courtyard demanding to see the human." He said as he looked at me. Shinings stood up.
"What are we waiting for, lets go!" We ran towards the courtyard after locking the door. As we ran, though, the changelings words echoed through my mind
you'll see each other soon enough.
What did he mean by that? We stopped as we approached the courtyard.
There was a changeling out there, but ut was different. It was standing on its hind legs, and it had hands instead of hooves. Insteadof just plain black, its skin-like exterior had white flames around the chest and leg parts. The thing had white eyes and weirdly enough, no horn or wings.
Shining, along with several guards, approached it, unfazed by the pouring rain.
"What are you?" He asked. "And why do you want the human?" The thing took a step forward, undeterred by the guards around him.
It spoke in a dark voice. "Step out of the way, pony scum. I'm not here to draw blood. I'm here...." it reached for its head and slowly pulled it off! "For my brother."
It was a helmet, and when it took it off, Ronin was underneath.
Wait? RONIN!?
"Brother!" I yelled as I pushed through the guards and Shining to pull him into a hug. He returned it and we stayed there for a bit. I looked at him in the face, noticing his smile. "Where the hell have you been?"
The smile was gone in an instant. "I was with a species these ponies have shunned. They are called changelings, brother, and they need our help." I gave him an incredulous look.
"What? changelings are the bad guys here! One broke in and stole a necklace from the princess, for goodness sake." I said as he groaned and face-palmed.
"That changeling did that as an act of rebellion against a princess who's nothing but a lying, conniving Shit-eater." The guards surrounding us gasped and drew weapons and charged their horns.
"How dare he talk about the princess like that?" One yelled.
"He deserves to die, siding with the changelings like that!" Another called out.
This was getting out of hand, really really fast.
CRASH!!!
The storm was picking up. Didn't Shining say that no storm was supposed to happen today?
My brother shook his head. "Raiden, do you really side with these ponies?" he asked. I nodded and replied.
"These ponies have been nothing but kind and helpful since I've arrived. Yes, some of them don't trust me, but thats to be expected of when some alien drops on your doorstep. The only thing I've seen a changeling do is break their laws." I finished as some guards cheered.
He closed his eyes for a second. Am I getting through to him? I thought. after a bit, he opened them and replied.
"So, there's no way to change your mind?" he asked. I shook my head. he sighed.
"Then forgive me, Brother." He said as he kicked me in the stomach, HARD.
Now, we had sparred togethor before, but this was new. Either he had harnessed some new power while gone, or that suit was helping him, but that kick was waaay stronger than before. It sent me flying into a wall.
"Seize him!!!!" Shining yelled as his troops rushed Ronin.
Ronin laughed and drew his sword. he rushed forward just as a pegasus dive-bombed him. Using the wet ground as lubricant, he slid underneath the pony and sliced its left wing off. the guard screamed and crashed into a wall.
Several earth pony guards surrounded Ronin and drew swords and spears. He laughed and placed his helmet back on. "Lets even this out." He growled in that dark voice again and threw his sword straight up into the air, causing it to fly out of sight.
One guard swung at him with his sword, just to have Ronin duck under and deliver a nasty spinkick to the side of his face, causing the guard to slam into two others. One with a spear jabbed forward, but Ronin caught the spear by the pole part and snapped in two, using the pole part he got from it to deflect another sword and knock another pony out.
Shining ran up to me. "You need to go, I'll handle your brother." He turned as I got up.
"Please, just, don't kill him unless you absolutely have to." I said weakly as a scream let out from behind us. We turned to see Ronin holding the last guard standing by her horn.
"Please, no!" She begged, tears running down her face. Ronin tilted his head back and laughed. He looked her dead in the eye.
"Ya know, for a species blessed with magic and flying, y'all are a bunch of weak crybabies." He said as he snapped her horn off. She shrieked in pain before landing on the ground. Ronin turned towards us and did a slit throat motion towards Shining.
Shining glared at him. "Raiden, I think we're way past non-lethal force." He growled as he walked towards Ronin, horn shining. Quick as a gun. the horn shot a blast at Ronin. I closed my eyes, waiting for the scream of pain from him.
It never came...
The shot had deflected off him and hit a wall nearby. Ronin smiled and walked towards the captain.
"Is that all the fated prince-to-be can do?" He laughed as Shining rushed forward, causing him to rush as well.
CLANG!
Ronin sword met with one Shining summoned and caused them to get knocked back several feet. They recovered quickly and rushed Again.
CLANG! CRASH!
Mixed with the intense storm surrounding them, the fight almost looked like a movie. With each matching each others advances with parries and counters. Both had been scraped slightly by each others swords, after a while, both landed on the ground in a exhausted heap.
"Huff...Puff.....Not bad." Ronin said as the storm suddenly stopped. Like, it literally disappeared! No clouds were even in the sky. A flash of golden light to my left, and the princess was here.
"Celestia!" I said when she saw me. Her gaze became worried as she healed my ribs.
"What happened to you? she asked. I nodded towards the two in the center of the courtyard.
"My brother." I said shallowly as her gaze became narrow. she turned and walked out to the 2 guys just as Ronin was getting up.
"Ahhh, so your the princess who's been charming my brother." He said venomously. She didn't seem fazed and responded.
"And your the brother we couldn't find." She said as she took in the damage. there were about 12 guards lying either dead or knocked out around her. She looked up in a rage. "Why did you kill them!" She yelled out.
Ronin, suprising all of us, laughed. he kept going for a bit, while Celestia slowly got more angry. He finally stopped and looked her dead in the eyes.
"Because its what you deserve." He growled as a green flame started to surround him "Heh, looks like my ride's here. We shall meet again, princess." He said as he was engulfed. After it disappeared, there was nothing left where he was standing.
The princess turned and walked towards me as Shining recovered from his exhaustion. She stopped amd looked me in the eye.
"Raiden, as much as I hate to say this, when your brother is caught, he will have to pay for the crimes he committed here." She said as put my head into my hands.
"Ronin, what the hell have you done?" I said as a guard came running outside.
"Your majesty! The changeling prisoner has escaped!" He got out between breaths as Shining cursed under his breath.
"Damn!" he growled. "All of this was a diversion, just so the changeling could escape!" He said as Celestia shook her head.
"He would've needed help, I figured that storm wasn't natural. the question is, who made it?" She said as we slowly made our way into the castle.
*******
Ronin POV
*******
After the flames died down, I found myself in the throne room. Monsoon, Volt, Chrysalis, and some other changeling was there as well.
Monsoon floated towards me. "Well done, my friend. I saw the whole thing as I was rescuing our spy here." he nodded towards the changeling, who kneeled at my feet.
"I owe you my life, Thanatos." He said as I raised a brow in confusion.
Volt cut in. "Iiiiiiiit meeeeeaaans reeeeapeeer iiiin ouuuurr laaanguaaage." He gleefully growled. "A weeeell deserved title toooooo!"
Chrysalis walked up, flashing a fangy grin. "Now that you have proven your self, it is time." Monsoon and the others left immediately. I gave her a confused look.
"Time for what?" I asked.
She looked me in the eyes. "You have proven to be loyal to us, going as far as to draw blood for our cause. So I am giving you the choice to become a halfing. You will still retain your human form, but you will have our powers amd skills. But it is your decision." She stated as I thought about it.
If I accepted this, I would never be the same. Going to earth would be out of the picture, and I would be fully embracing this life. If I don't, I could easily still help them, but what if I come across that princess again. I could tell she was strong, and even a power suit wont help me against her. Besides, Raiden made his choice to help the ponies, so why shouldn't I have the same freedom. Mot to mention how cool it would be to have some powers.
I looked at her and kneeled. "I accept this honor, your majesty."
She looked at me and stepped closer. "You have a choice now, either become one of us the normal way through painful transformation, or change through....personal exhange of venom." She said that last part with a odd tone.
"I'd rather it not hurt, so what's the other way?" I said as she looked slightly embarrassed.
"You would have to choose a changeling female and have them bite you on the neck, then if you wish to finish it, you must use the venom coursing through you and bite her on her neck in return. It will bond you to that changeling and give you some of her powers." She finished as I stood still.
"So, to become a halfling, I have to pretty much get kinky with a changeling." I deadpanned as Chrysalis blushed slightly at the choice of words.
"Yes, but don't say it like that! Now, I shall bring several females from each battalion for you to choose from, and you can easily pick which one to bond with." She didn't notice I had slowly walked up to her, as she had turned mid-talk.
"I think I know who I wish to bond with." I said as I stopped behind her. She turned and found herself face to face with me. For a moment, she looked confused, then realization dawned on her face.
"You can't be serious!?" She yelled. "You can't bond with a queen! that's never even been heard o-MMMPH!" She was cut off as I grabbed her horn and pulled her into a kiss. It wasnt a crazy one or anything like that, but it sent the message.
For a second, she tried to pull away. But then she suprised me by pushing me onto the ground. After a second we broke apart, panting for breath. She glared at me.
"How dare you kiss me like that!" She growled deeply before kissing me again. "I am a queen and you will not treat me like thaaaat!" She yelped the last bit as I picked her up and slammed her into her throne with another kiss, this one way more passionate. I pulled back and looked into her mesmerizing green eyes.
"I will do whatever the hell I want." I growled as she slowly started to smile. "And right now, I want you to bite my fucking neck!" I roared the last part as she greedily sank her fangs into my neck. I let out a groan as I nipped hers with my own teeth. I soon felt myself get pulled into the air by magic as I was surrounded by a green glow.
"Come, we must finish your punishment in private!" She growled as she led me into her chambers and slammed the door shut.
*********
Nicholas POV
*********
I had woken up to the sound of talking downstairs, so I walked downstairs to find Twilight and Fluttershy sitting with a really big pony with wings and a horn. she was white as snow with flowing hair. I then noticed who was sitting next to her.
"RAIDEN!!" I yelled as I ran up and bear hugged my brother. He smiled down at me and ruffled my hair.
"Heya, nikky." He said, calling me that same old nickname again. It felt so good to see him. I looked up at him.
"Now we can go find Ronin!" I said happily. I then noticed the mood in the room plummet. Raiden looked at me with an upset expression.
"Little bro, we have a LOT to talk about."
Author's Notes:
Welp, there we go. The brothers are (partially) reunited at last. but with one of their own on the wrong side, what will become of their family bonds? We shall soon see, my fic-crazy ponies!
and never forget: LOVE AND TOLERATE!
Chapter 10: Call of the spellweaver
*Nicholas POV*
When I had went down those stairs to the sight of not only the princess of the kingdom, but my brother Raiden as well, I thought today was going to be amazing!
Not even close...
"WHAT!!! Ronin would never do that!" I yelled in shock as Raiden had told me what had happened last night. Raiden looked at me with a sigh as the princess was quietly conversing with twilight. Fluttershy had her wing around me in a soft embrace, calming my nerves.
"I mean, yeah, he can be stubborn sometimes." I continued, remembering all the times Ronin had argued with a stranger or teacher about menial things. "But he's not evil!" At this, princess Celestia looked towards me with a sad smile.
"It warms my heart to hear such faith in someone, but I believe I may know what would cause him to act this way." Everyone turned towards her.
"What would cause somepony to be so violent, princess?" Twilight asked her. Celestia suddenly dawned a more serious face.
"He is either under the queens control, or he has completely sided with them." She said as Twilight eyes widened. She had been sent a letter last night about the incident and had immediately came to Fluttershy's to meet up with the princess. And after learning that the other human had been able to match her brother in combat, even though he was captain of the royal gaurd, she was worried.
"But who would side with them, from what you told me, they seem to be a crude species that steals love and destroys countries." Raiden cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.
"It wasn't mind control. Nor was it an imposter. That man Shining battled was defenitely my brother." Raiden got up and walked to a window and sighed. "Looks like some things never change." He said softly. Celestia raised an eyebrow.
"He has done this before?" She asked. Raiden turned towards her and gave her a slow nod.
"Back when we were teenagers, our parents.... weren't the best of people, Dad especially. He really didn't like Ronin, said he had failed him when he started learning the art of swordfighting. You see, dad was one of those people you'd call a hippie, And he hated weapons. So when he learned his own son was learning how to do weild one, he went ballistic. He sent him to a friend of his that was meant to 'hippilize' him, as he called it." Raiden sighed and looked away from us. "But when we didn't hear from his friend, dad went to check on things, only to find his friend dead and his son gone." He finished.
Celestia's eyes were wide. Twilight honestly looked like she was terrified, and Fluttershy was pretty much using me as a shield to hide. Twilight spoke up.
"w-what happened?" She asked timidly. Ronin faced her and smiled, though it seemed hollow.
"We found him by grandpa Brims grave." When he said this, Celestia's face showed several emotions At once. First was suprise, then sadness. I raised an eyebrow at that but didn't say anything. I turned to Raiden instead.
"Your telling me he killed dad's friend?" I asked, not wanting to believe it. He clenched his fist slightly.
"There is some other things that went down as well, but yes. He did." Raiden said as time simply stopped for me.
I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it. I turned to Fluttershy.
"I'm going for a walk." I said as I walked out the house.
"Nick, wait." Raiden said, but I was gone.
********
Raiden POV
********
I sighed as the door was closed. I probably shouldn't had told that story, but it had to be said. I turned to the yellow pegasus.
"I wish to thank you for taking care of my brother. It means a lot to me." As I said this, her body became more of a ball as she hid in her mane. How cute, she's a shy one. I thought as I smiled and turned to Celestia. "Princess, what are going to do about my brother?" She looked at me and sighed.
"For now, nothing. Even with the attack yesterday, my niece wishes for the wedding plans to continue." She said as me and twilight went bug-eyed.
"Wedding plans?" Twilight asked
"Even with the attack!" I said, suprised at the boldness.
She nodded her head and smiled at Twilight. "My niece is too stubborn not to have the wedding, even though I have tried to warn her. Although the captain did have a plan to stop any assault from happening." She said as Twilight looked suprised.
"My brother is helping out with the wedding?" She said as I laughed.
"Well, yeah. He's the groom, after all!" I got out before noticing the look on Twilights face. She had this look pure shock. "You didn't know that, did you?" I said before she exploded.
"MY BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED!?" She yelled. Celestia smiled at her.
"Indeed, my little pony. He is marrying my niece, Mi Amor Cadenza, or as you know her, Cadence." Celestia said.
"Wait, she knowd Cadence?" I asked as Twilight turned to me, suddenly giddy.
"She was my babysitter when I was younger! She was the nicest babysitter I ever had. And now I'll get to call her sister!" Twilight started jumping around us yelling 'YES!' over and over. Celestia and I shared a smirk at her actions before getting back to the topic at hand.
"Celestia, What was that stuff my brother was wearing?" I asked. her eyebrows furrowed as she asnwered.
"That would be an old enhancement changeling mages used in the past, it gave beings that were not changelings some of their powers. Usually, it was reserved for those who would become..." She trailed off with a look of fear as I raised an eyebrow.
"Become what?" I asked, worry starting to take place.
"I fear your brother has been chosen my the queen to become one of them." She said as my blood went cold. Would Ronin become a changeling? Thinking about the power behind his attacks yesterday, the answer was obvious.
"Why would Ronin wish to become a changeling?" Twilight asked as she recovered from her burst of joy. Celestia simply turned from her.
"Not a changeling, a halfing. And with the raw power and skill Ronin has, he may become one of the powerful threats to the kingdom. Especially if Chrysalis has him as a part if her unit." She said the last part with ice in her tone. Something told me that those two have a history.
"Celestia, is there way to counter that power?" I asked. She turned to me and nodded, albeit hesitantly.
"For where there is darkness, there is light. In this case, we need to follow example." She said as twilight raised an eyebrow.
"You mean, like create our own enchanted armour?" Twilight asked, but Celestia shook her head.
"Its not so simple, we would first need to obtain a blood sample of an ancient species that has strong power behind their blood. Then we would have to have the magical device for the suit forged. Of course, we would also need somepony to wear it, but the strain of the armour is high, and we would need a strong-willed being to wear it." She finished as I nodded at her.
"I'll wear it." I said as they looked at me in suprise. "What? If we are going to make a suit of armour capable of battling my brother, then it should be me who wears it. After all, He's my brother." Celestia nodded at this, but Twilight frowned.
"How are we going to obtain the resources to do this? What species could we use?" She questioned as we all sat there in silence. A quiet cough pierced the silence as Fluttershy, who had been quietly listening, spoke up.
"What about dragon blood, if you don't mind me asking." She timidly said. Celestia's eyes widened with a smile forming her face.
"That would be perfect, Fluttershy!" She exlaimed as the little pegasus shrank a bit due to the attention.
"But where would we get a dragon from?" I asked as Twilight smirked.
"I know just where and who to go to." She said proudly.
*************
Nicholas POV
*************
Well, today sucks. I thought as I sat beneath an apple tree. I had walked a decent bit and decided to park it under one of the many apple trees around here so I could think. Today was such a rush of emotion! I had learned that both of my brothers were alive and kicking, which was good. but that one of them had defected to some evil queens side, which was bad. And from how they were talking about Ronin, it made me wonder just what would happen to him if he got caught. They could throw him in jail for the rest of his life! or worse....
I shook my head. No, Ronin was too tough to be caught. and even if he was, Raiden wouldn't let them kill him, right? I yawned softly. This apple tree was sooo comfy. I soon drifted off to sleep, no knowledge of the dark aura that had surrounded the tree I was sleeping under.
************
???
************
WAKE UP!! A loud, yet oddly familiar voice, called to me.
I awoke in some temple thing. Why do I feel like I have been here before? I thought as I turned towards the origin of the voice. It was a man in a cloak, and that mark on his chest...
You do not remember me because I wiped your memory. Let me fix that... he said as a purple light surrounded me.
The memories flowed back quickly. I stared at him.
"Why did you wipe my memories?" I asked. He simply laughed as he removed his hood.
He was absolutely disgusting! Although his head was a sharp bald, his face was rotted on the left side of his face, with the eye missing entirely. The right was almost too normal. Sharp blue eyes, and a smile that looked normal on a tiger hunting prey.
How do I look? not bad for a guy who was slain by your grandfather. He cackled as my eyes widened in suprised.
"Wait, you knew my grandfather? and what do you mean slain?" I asked him as he picked up two orbs, one blue and one yellow.
Sit, spellweaver. And I'll tell you my story. A chair appeared behind me, so I sat in it. The man started pacing the room, the two orbs now floating around him.
Your grandfather and I were best friends back on your planet. But due to a necklace he found one fateful day, we were brought to this one. We quickly were found by the two princesses of this land. After a while, we became close with them. Callobrim became close with Celestia, being her personal knight. And I appealed to princess luna as her right-hand sage. He looked away at that. Ah, those were the good days. Alas, it was not meant to be. For princess luna soon started harboring resentment towards her sister. Meanwhile, I had noticed that Callobrim started getting better treatment by the others in the castle. One fateful night, we broke into an argument. It got so bad that we ended up fighting. Unbeknownst to us, the sisters were fighting nearby. After a long battle, we both were exhausted. So old Brim thought it would be good to check on Celestia. When he turned his back, I fired one last shot of magic at him. My eyes widened.
"What happened?" I asked, slowly getting worried for some reason. The man sighed and had a angry look on his face.
Your grandfather somehow knew the spell was coming! he ducked under it and threw his sword straight at me. And with a sickening thud, it hit me square in the chest. He turned and left. Leaving me for dead. He looked at me and smiled. But now your here, so maybe things can go as planned after all.
I gulped and started backing up, not liking what he said at all. "You tried to kill my grandfather, so why would I even think about helping you?" I said with anger rising in my voice.
He laughed again and frowned. I see that even though your not him, you still cling to the same basic ideals and beliefs that caused nightmare moon to kill him. Its funny really, he could've let Celestia die that day to the spell I had set on the elements of harmony, but he HAD to ruin it by touching them first. I looked at him in a rage.
"What did you do?" I growled. he waved his hand as if to blow off the question.
I had cursed the elements so if someone touched them, they would be weakened. However, Callobrim knew of this, and grabbed them first, causing the spell to weaken him instead. And once that happened, Moon cut him to bits with a single spell. Of course, his spirit was returned to Earth after this, But I was forced to stay here in this forsaken place! I raised an eyebrow.
"What is this place, anyway?" I asked, but he was done with questions.
ENOUGH!!! You have stalled long enough, and since you will not listen to reason, then you must PERISH! With that, he shot several beams at me.
Remembering what I did last time, I concentrated and put up a red shield. The beams were deflected, but I was pushed almost into a wall in the process. He growled again and shot a much bigger beam at me. Knowing I couldn't block this one, I jumped out of the way and turned towards him.
THERE IS NO ESCAPE, SPELLWEAVER!!! just as he said that, I started to feel fuzzy again. His eyes went wide. NOOOO!!!! Someone is waking you up! Not now!!!! but it was too late, I had already fell into a deep sleep.
********
"WAKE UP!!!!!" was the first thing I heard as I sat up quickly, drenched in sweat. I looked over and saw Applebloom staring at me. "Dang, Nick. I thought ya nevah wake up." she said but let off a small yelp as I gave her a brisk hug.
I released her and look her in the eyes. "Thank you so much, Bloom! If you wouldn't have done that, I would've been dead meat." She gave me a confused look as there was some pink on her cheeks from the hug. I laughed a bit and smiled at her. "I geuss I should fill you in, huh?"
*********
After a bit of explaining to her, Appleblooms eyes were wide. "So, some evil feller is attacking ya in yer dreams?!" She exlaimed as I nodded. "Well, that's just terrible! How are ya gonna sleep now?" I thought about this and snapped my fingers on realization.
"Lets go to twilight, I'll bet she's got something!" Applebloom nodded as we took off towards the library. Yet in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but be worried about whats to come.
Author's Notes:
And with that, the race to build the dragon Armour begins! With the wedding day slowly approaching, and The sage's threats looming, what will become of the Blazehearts? Well, dont you worry, my fic-crazy ponies! because all shall be answered in due time. and remember: LOVE AND TOLERATE!
*Side note: The canterlot wedding scene, as you probably guessed, will not have the same ending as the show due to the presence od new characters(the humans, changeling lieutenants, and the sage.) It will still hold the basics from it though, such as the whole Chrysalis pretends to be cadence thing and all that.
Chapter 11: Family matters pt.1
*Ronin POV*
I woke up with a nasty headache. And I'm not saying the drunken kind, more like the kind that you get after going through an insane blood transfusion/Lucky night with the queen of a shapeshifting bug species. Weirdest thing of it all, I enjoyed the hell out of it.
Now dont get me wrong, it wasn't the easiest conclusion to come to. I mean, she's a whole 'nother species and all that. But honestly, I had never met a woman on earth who flip my switch like that. Her attitude, the way she carries herself, and the way she hides the fact that, in the end, she cares for her people. So end the end I was able to push past the species barrier (Not giving a damn about what others might think of me) and took the plunge. And now, I find myself in a queen sized bed wondering what happens now.
I yawnes and looked around the room. It was actually pretty normal, considering who was sleeping in it. There was a closet to the side of the room, probably filled with who knows what. cabinets and drawers lined the other wall. And in the middle, the bed.
I yawned and went to move, just to remember who was on top of me. I look at the sleeping queen with a smile. Is this what love feels like? this warm, sappy feeling I have as I stare at her? I went to nudge her awake with my right hand when I got a good look at it.
The hand was completely shelled up by some sort of exoskeleton. Deciding that I needed to see what else was new, I carefully rolled Chrysalis off me and went towards a drawer that had a full body mirror on it, and my jaw dropped at the result.
The suit I had wore before was now a part of my skin, covering the soft interior with a hard exterior. It only seemed to be one certain parts of my body, though. My right shoudler and the arm and hand connected were all black and holed, with the fingertips slightly jagged. The hand could be moved, as well as the arm, so not a problem. My left eye was glowing green, and I noticed that I now had fangs. Looking down, I had black greaves on my legs, once again with holes. I was torn away from the mirror whem i heard a yawn from behind me.
"Taking in your new looks, are we?" Chrysalis said as she walked over with a sly smile on her face. "Any questions, love?" I turned to the mirror and responded.
"A couple, like what am I capable now, drawbacks of this new power, and why you went along with it last night, to name a few." I said as Chrysalis huffed slightly.
"Your lucky your special, Ronin. Or you would be punished for questioning my actions." She said with a smirk. "You will now have enhanced senses, as well as being able to sense emotions like us, but you wont be able to feed on it. The drawback is simple, you are a part of the hive mind, so you might hear a voice or two in your head when we are near each other. As for why I allowed you to do what you did, the answer is easy. " She leaned close to my ear. "You spend your life scaring ponies and dominating, then some new guy waltz up and not only is unaffected by said dominating tactics. but also pulls some of his own in showing affection. It's QUITE the turn on, you know." She breathed as I shuddered a tad. Before she could move, I turned quickly and gave her a passionate kiss. Catching her off guard, She didn't return it for a second before tackling me to the ground.
"Exactly my point." She said as a changeling walked in. She looked up at him and snarled. "What is it? Can't you see I am busy right now?" The changeling jumped in fear at her tone before answering.
"Sorry, my queen. But we just got the report from Tak and the two lieutenants you sent with him. thwy have started their plans to learn of were the elements of harmony are located." As the changeling finished, Chrysalis's smile grew wider.
"Excellent, now leave and gather our finest units. I will be leaving dor canterlot shortly." The changeling left as I looked at her, confused.
"Leaving so soon?" I teased as she smiled at me.
"As much as I would love to stay and show you how a queen treats her consorts, I muat prepare for tje invasion, and to do that, I need to be in canterlot." She finished as I frowned.
"I still don't like it, even if your going to be pretending to be his wife to be. No one should sleep with you except me." I said with a growl, starting to feel protective of my newfound lover. This was either part of the change I went through, or I'm a protective boyfriend. (hivemate?)
She giggled, yes, giggled at that. "Your already feeling dominative over me? Choosing you was defenitely a good choice on my part. But I swear if you ruin this invasion with your lovesick attitude, I will send you to tartarus myself." She threatened as I smirked at her.
"Ok, just as long as you know if I find out you left me for some captain of the royal guard, there won't be a single thing that will stop me from finding you and ripping you to shreds." I finished as we looked into each others eyes and kissed again. She pulled back and responded to me.
"Maybe my subjects could wait an hour or two before we leave. I have pressing matters here I must attend to... Immediately." She said as she locked her door.
*********
Raiden POV.
*********
I was standing outside Twilights tree-house thing as Celestia was getting into the chariot that had arrived for her.
"Celestia, are you sure you don't need me there to help you make the armour?" I asked her as she shook her head.
"Relax, Raiden. When Luna and I create the armour, we will come back and have the blood magically transfused into it, then it will be complete. For now, I am putting you on leave from your duties as my personal chef so you can catch up with your younger brother." She finished as the chariot took off. Twilight came outside and looked to me.
"Do you know where you are going to stay?" She asked me. I simply shook my head. "Well, you can stay here. I have a spare bedroom upstairs if you want it."
I turned to her and smiled. "Thanks, Twilight. I'll take you up on that offer." I said as Nick came running up with an earth pony in tow.
"GUYS GUYS! GEUSS WHAT!!" He yelled in happiness. I smirked at him and responded.
"What, bro?" I asked as he put his left hand out, a red barrier enveloping him. Twilights jaw dropped at the sight as my eyes widened.
"Whoa!" I said as Twilight recovered from the shock.
"Whoa? WHOA? this is more than a 'Whoa' moment! If Nicholas can use magic, than so could you, Raiden!" She thought for a minute before her eyes widened in fear. "and.....so could Ronin." She said with a slight gulp.
I took a worried breath. It was bad enough the guy was already becoming this worlds samson. but adding magic to that.... It would not be pretty. The idea of me using magic however, seemed way easier on the mind.
I turned to Nick. "When did this start?" I asked him. He looked to Applebloom, who shared a worried glance with him, then he turned back to me.
"Can we go inside and talk, Raiden. It's not something I want to say in the open. Woth that, Twilight led us inside the treehouse.
**********
Ronin POV
**********
After Chrysalis and I said our "goodbye" in the bedroom. She had left for Canterlot with a small unit of 70 changelings. Meanwhile, I had been teleported to what was known as the everfree forest. As I walked through the forest, I remembered what Chrysalis had told me.
Your job is to check up on Tak, Tremor, and Tundra. They have already set up a base of operations in ponyville. This town is where the elements of harmony live at. After rendezvousing with them, you must find and capture the elements. If they refuse to give you the information we need, kill them. After all, there are six of them. Plenty to interrogate, plenty to give us answers. I smiled at that as I came to a clearing some cut bushes off to the side.
This had been where I had woken up in this world. To think that so much has happened in the two weeks since I had arrived. I shook my head. I need to focus on the task at hand. I thought as I heard something in the brush nearby.
I snuck over quietly and peered behind a tree. It was three young fillies, a colt, and.... Nicholas!?!
*********
Nicholas POV.
*********
After Applebloom and I told Twilight about my magic, she told me she would teach me how to use it properly. We left shortly after that and met up with Scoots, Belle, and Cacoono. The girls had decided to try zip lining as their cutie marks (to put it in their own words: Cutie Mark Zipeliners!!) I thought it was adorable and funny, while Cacoono looked at them (mostly Scoots) in admiration. He had told us he wasn't ablr to play with othwr kids due to his parents traveling, and he seemed very excited to due so.
So here we are, in the middle of a forest we shouldn't even be in, all because Scoots was told she couldn't do it by Diamond Tiara.
"I don't know why you let her get to you, Scoots." I said as we finally found a tree worthy of our time. Scoots looked at me with a disgusted face.
"I just hate it when she runs her mouth like that. You don't see her trying to zipline with us!" Scoots said as she started climbing the tree.
"Yeah, but aren't we as guilty if she does make us do stuff like this?" Belle said as Cacoono started looking around in suprise.
"What's up with him?" Bloom asked me. I shrugged and walked up to him and put a hand in his shoulder.
"Whats the matter, Bro?" I asked him, but he looked at me in fear, his glowing eyes seeming more... glowy than usual.
"We need to go, now!!" He said as Bloom looked at him in shock.
"Go? we jus' got here, and ya wanna leave?" She went to say more, but a shadow soon loomed over us. We turned around and Sweetiebelle screamed.
The shadow was being cast by this large guy in black armour with white flamea on it. It had this blade with it that seemed familiar.
"Who are you?!" I demanded as I took a step foward, pushing the girls behind me and Cacoono (who looked like he was torn between running and staying. couldn't blame him, this thing looked scary!)
The thing slowly raised his hands and removed his helmet, revealing his face to us. I took a good look and gasped.
It was my brother, Ronin. But he was...different. He had a glowing green eye on his left, instead of the ocean blue they are supposed to be. And some of his armour looked like it was a part of his body instead of being pure metal.
He knelt down and looked me in the eye. "Little bro...is that really you?" He asked me. That's when I couldn't hold back anymore. I ran forward and hugged him really hard. He picked me up and spun me around, laughing all the while.
"RONIN!" I yelled happily as he put me down. "I was so worried, with Raiden telling me you had became a bad guy and being a queens slave or something. But here you are! With your awesome skill, we can defeat those bug things together!" As I finished, I noticed he was eyeing Cacoono strangely, while Cacoono shriviled in his gaze.
"Oh, these are my friends. The earth pony is Applebloom" She nodded slightly at Ronin. "The unicorn is Sweetiebelle." She looked at him and smiled. "And the pegasus is Scootaloo." She proudly lifted her head. "Oh! and this unicorn is Cacoono!" Said unicorn was now completely behind me. "Don't worry, he's shy." Ronin looked at all of us for a bit before turning back to me.
"Little bro, I need you to answer me something, ok?" I nodded, eager to help. "Do you know who the elements of harmony are?" At this, the crusaders smiled.
"Oh, ya mean our sistahs?" Applebloom asked. He nodded. "They live in ponyville. Mah sister is at the barn, Sweetiebelle's is at the boutique of hers." She nodded to Scootaloo. "Rainbow isn't her sistah, but she's her idol." Scootaloo cut in.
"Yeah, Rainbow dash is the best!!! but why do you want to know where they are?" Ronin simply smiled, yet the smile seemed weirdly aggresive.
"Easy, I have a business proposition for them, and I don't think they would like for this opportunity to pass by." He said as he started walking towards town.
Even though I was happy to see him, I couldn't help but shudder at the way he said that. As we followed him, I prayed that we hadn't just made a huge mistake.
Author's Notes:
Here we go, with ronin on a warpath for the elements, will Nicholas realize his brother has changed, and will they be able to stop Ronin from whatever he is planning? Stay tuned, my fic-crazy ponies! and remember: LOVE AND TOLERATE!!
Chapter 12: Family matters pt.2
Author's Notes:
If you read the last chapter when it had its old name, I changed it. This fits the situation far better.
NOTICE: When you see this appear-MUSIC BUTTON- thats means a serious fight is going down, and I have supplied bops with lyrics that represent the bad guy or good guy's ideals. In this case, its the villian. DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the music used in this chapter, credit goes to the YouTuber and the game it comes from.
*Nicholas POV*
As we were about to walk into town, Ronin stopped. He turned to us and smiled.
"Better clean myself up, huh." He said as green flames surrounded him suddenly, causing the girls to yell out in suprise.
"He caught fire!" Scoots yelled as the fire dimmed and I gasped.
He looked liked he did before we left earth, except that his normal black/brown hair was now stark white and his left eye was still green. He wore a black jumpsuit and still beared the sword. He looked at us and smiled.
"Now that I look presentable, you kids better run along now. I have adult matters to talk with your siblings and friends with. And it wouldn't do to have y'all making it awkward for either party." He said the last part with a bit of ice in his tone. As much as I didn't want to have Ronin out of sight, I had to tell Raiden about him being here. I turned towards the girls, back to Ronin.
"Lets go, guys." I said as the girls and Cacoono looked at me in suprise. I winked at them before turning back around. "See you later, Bro." He gave a quick hug before walking towards the cakes residence. I turned to crew quickly.
"Girls, come with me. I need y'all to help me warn twilight and the others about Ronin. Cacoono, I saw how you looked at him, if you want to, you can go back home. I don't want you getting hurt. " He nodded quickly.
"Y-Yeah. See you guys later." He said as he vanished with a poof. Funny, I dont recall him being able teleport before. No matter, we had bigger things to worry about. We quickly ran towards the library, hopefully to get help quick before someone (or somepony more likely) got hurt.
***********
Ronin POV
***********
As I walked through town, I noticed that the ponies were looking at me strangely. I guess since they had seen my brothers, fear wouldn't really be on their minds. Instead, I got curious looks instead. I ignored them as I approached my destination.
I walked into the sweet shop and looked around. It was empty save a completely pink earth pony playing with a baby unicorn and pegasus. I walked up and she turned around faster than lightning. She looked at me and gasped.
"HI, IM PINKIE PIE! ARE YOU ANOTHER HUMAN!?" She happily yelled as I flinched from the sudden outburst. The foals seemed unfazed by this, however, and simply giggled.
What the hell is she on? I thought as I recovered. I cleared my throat and replied.
"Ok, Please don't yell at me like that again, aight." She nodded and quickly replied.
"Sorry, I just get soooooo excited when I see somepony new in town, or someone in your case since your a human. *Le Gasp* Do you know Nick? I bet you know Nick! You must be his brother! but Raiden came by earlier and he didn't look anything like you. but he did say to watch out for a guy with a......sword." She had started talking fast, but stopped with a whisper as she realized who I was.
So it seems my brother and that princess have these home-town heroes on the lookout for me. Good. Real good. I liked that. why? simple, it makes the fear in their eyes soooo much easier to appear. I took a step towards her as she backed up, putting the foals behind her.
"Why don't you put those foals to bed and we can continue this conversation without the presence of children." I said as her went wide. She turned and picked up the foals and, trembling the whole way, took them upstairs to their rooms. I followed her up and waited for her out the door. She came out and looked at me with fear. I leaned in a tad, an idea coming to mind.
"Relax, Pinkie Pie. I don't want to hurt you. You see, you have been terribly misinformed about what I have done. I don't want to hurt ponies." I said with an innocent smile as one slowly came to hers.
"You don't?" She said slowly as I laughed.
"Of course not, you see, I simply wanted to throw a huge party for the princess and the queen. But the Captain and my brother stopped me because they were jealous." She gasped loudly.
"They stopped a party!" She exclaimed. I sadly nodded. "Those meanies!!!" She nearly yelled. I smiled at her.
"That is why I came to the party pony herself, the ELEMENT of laughter. If anyone can help me, its you." Her grin grew impossibly wide.
"I'd LOVE to help you create this party!!! When is it?" She asked as I smiled at her.
"In a couple of days or so. Bu I must ask of you something, where are elements of harmony located? We want to use them as props for party games." I said as she started hopping around.
"PARTY GAMES!!!! that's easy, they are in the largest tower at canterlot castle." My eyes went wide. Of course they would be there, that makes this so much easier. I put a hand on her shoulder to stop her bouncing.
"Thank you, party queen. I shall come by later with better plans for the party. You've been a GREAT help." I said as I teleported away with green flames.
*********
Nicholas POV
*********
As we ran through town towards the library, we came to a stop at a weird sight in front of us.
Cacoono was standing in the middle of the street talking to a mare with icy blue hair and silver eyes. It wasn't until Sweetiebelle spoke up that I realized something wasn't right.
"Um...Nick?" She asked. I looked to her and raised an eyebrow. "Why are there holes in her legs?"
Sure enough, the mare had several holes in her legs, yet no blood was coming out. That means.....
"Crap, she's one of those monsters Raiden told me about. She's going to hurt Cacoono!" I said as I rushed forward.
"Nicholas, wait!!!" Applebloom called but I had already started running towards them. As I got closer, I could tell that the thing was cornering Cacoono. With a yell, I focused into my hand and did a throwing motion, praying it worked.
thankfully, it did. A ball of red light shot forward and sent the thing flying with a screech into a wall. Cacoono looked towards me as relief washed over his face.
"Nick!! Oh, thank goodness. That lady was trying to kill me!" He said quickly, but he wouldn't look at me all the way.
"Ok, What are you hiding?" I asked as the girls caught up. He looked at me with suprise.
"I-I....fine. Geuss I should be honest, huh?" He said as a yellow flash surrounded him. In his place was a black thing with complete yellow eyes. He shared the same hole problem as the blue lady. The girls let out a gasp at the reveal, while I simply stared him down.
"How long have you known?" Cacoono asked. I smirked and put my hands on my hips like Raiden does when he thinks he's smarter than everyone.
"Since Ronin appeared. Raiden said he was with the changelings, so when you started freaking out internally whenever he would stare at you, I realized you must've been worried he knew something. Then you teleported with ease even though your just a colt. From what Twilight says, that takes practice. And from a species born for war, that's PLENTY of practice." I finished as he looked down in shame.
"Why go tah all the trouble, though?" Applebloom said. "Why lie tah us an' everything." He looked up with a sad face.
"My mother sent me here with two others to find and kill the elements of harmony, but I honestly couldn't kill anything if I tried. I've always been better at healing magic anyway. But the other two wouldn't give up, so I've been lying to them to keep your families safe. I couldn't betray you guys after being so nice to me. I'm sorry." Cacoono finished as tears went down his face.
I suddenly felt bad for the guy. He wasn't a fighter, but was born into a war he didn't want to take part in. Scootaloo walked up to him.
"Listen dude, you may have lied to us. but in the end you did what was right. I don't know about the others, but that makes you alright in my book." She said as Cacoono hugged her suddenly. She let out a soft squeak but didn't pull away. When he finally let go she stepped back, blushing hard. I stepped forward, extending my hand.
"Lets start over then. Hello, My name is Nicholas. What's yours?" He looked at my hand, pondering for a second, then he shook it.
"My name is Tak." he said with a smile. But then, that lady appeared in front of us.
"OK, BOY!!!! I DONT CARE IF YOUR RELATED TO RONIN OR WHAT! BUT YOUR HEAD IS GOING ON A SPIKE!!!" She yelled as she rushed us. I put up my hands in defense.
CLANG!!!!!
I looked past my hands to see Ronin blocking her with his sword. He pushed hard and sent her back a couple of yards. He turned to us.
"You alright, bro?" he said as I hugged him.
"You saved us!!!" I said as I looked up at him.
"Of course, can't have an icy bitch hurting my bro and his friends. Especially not my girlfriends kid." He said as he patted Tak on the shoulder.
"Thanks, Ronin... wait, What do you mean GIRLFRIEND?" But then The lady roared.
"MY NAME IS TUNDRA STORMWEATHER!!! I WAS TOP OF THE CHARTS AT THE WONDERBOLTS ACADEMY BEFORE I BECAME A CHANGELING! I HAVE BUTCHERED COUNTLESS PONIES, GRIFFONS, AND MINOTAURS!!! AND I WILL NOT BE IGNORED!!!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. Ronin turned towards her after smiling at me.
"Why dont you sit back and watch the show, Y'all. I've got a snowmare to melt." He said as he drew his blade.
(badass fight music here:MUSIC BUTTON)
the two slowly circled each other before Tundra shot up into the air and started glowing. Out of nowhere, a blizzard hit the town, freezing over several buildings( and ponies) immediately. I put a shield over us to block the cold.
"Let us see if you can handle the cold heart of a lady." Tundra sneered at Ronin as she dive bombed him. He dodged left and swung at her wings, but she tilted right to catch an updraft from the hailstorm to avoid the blow. After circling around, she started swinging her hooves in a circular motion, causing shards of ice to be shot at Ronin. He smiled and started cutting down the ice shards. A couple grazed his knees and arms though, causing him to groan in pain.
"Aww... Am I hurting the little boy with the toy sword?" She mocked as she dive bombed again, this time covered in glacier-thick ice as a sheild. Ronin ran at her and grabbed her wings as she connected with him. Grunting loudly, he threw her into a flower stand that had been left behind by fleeing ponies. She got up quick and her horn sparked brightly out into the storm.
Three snow soldiers resembling ponies came to life from the hail that was falling. Bearing swords of their own, they attacked. The first one swinging hard in a downward motion at Ronin, who simply sidestepped it and sliced the thing in half. the second and third one teamed up strike in succesion, causing Ronin to backpedal quite a bit.
"We have to help him!" Tak yelled over the storm. I nodded and thought for a second, then Sweetiebelle spoke up.
"Nick, see if you can enchant his sword. I remember reading about that when I was at Twilights library once." She said as my eyes widened.
"Your a genius, Belle!" I yelled as I focused my magic on his sword, not noticing the intense blush she had on her face. I dropped a hole in the shield long enough to send a red orb at the sword. It connected and caused it to turn red.
Ronin looked at the blade in shock, then sliced the snowponies. They melted instantly! He looked to me and gave me a thumbs up, just before getting slammed by Tundra, causing him to slide back across the icy ground.
He recovered and glared at tundra. She frowned at him.
"WE FINISH THIS NOW!!!" She roared louder than ever as she rushed forward with an icy sword of her own. Ronin did the same, letting off his own battle cry.
*SHING!*
Both had swung past each other and were several feet past where one of their swords connected. For a second, No one moved. Then Ronin started swaying as Tundra turned around.
"I have won the day, Ape!" She said....as she fell over. Ronin recovered and walked over to her and plunged the still red-hot sword into her chest. After an unearthly screech, she melted to nothing. The hailstorm died instantly, with all frozen buildings and ponies thawing out without side effects or anything. I lowered the sheild and ran up to Ronin.
(End music of you wish)
"Ronin that was awesome!" I said as the girls and Tak caught up.
"I knew you were strong, but to vanquish that icy demon..." Tak said with wonder laced into his words.
"Your as tough as Rainbow Dash!!" Scootaloo said as Applebloom looked at her with shock.
"Scootaloo, I ain't evah see Rainbow Dash beat a snowpony before, so in mah book, he's way tougher than her." She said as I saw light glowing from the puddle that was Tundra. A blue light shined from it as it floated towards the sky.
"Thank you for freeing me from that prison." It said softly
hold up
"Did that light just speak to us?" Sweetiebelle said. Ronin shushed her and stepped forward.
"What happened to you?" He said. The light seemed to dim in response, as if it was sad.
"I had met a being like you and that child, but it was full of malice. He cursed me and my three closest friends to become darker versions of ourselves." It said as it floated higher. "Forget me, you must....save.....the others..." It faded away.
Ronin sheathed his sword and turned to us. "If the lieutenants are revolting and going after Tak and Chrysalis, we may be in big trouble." He said as we all shared a worried glance. I turned towards the direction of Canterlot.
What's going to happen to us? to this world? these were thoughts that couldn't help but plague my mind as we made our way towards the tree house, hoping Twilight was there.
Chapter 13: Family matters pt.3
*Nicholas POV"
We walked into the library to find almost no one there except Raiden, who immediately looked up from the book he was reading to greet me.
"Hey, Nick. Where did you go earlier? Twilight and the others left for the wedding already and..." He trailed off as he looked to Ronin and Tak. He shot up quickly and stomped straight up to Ronin, inches from his face.
"What the hell are you doing here?" He growled. Ronin simply smirked at him.
"We have a lot to talk about, bro." Ronin said as he motioned for all of us to sit down.
**********
Raiden POV
**********
When your fugitive brother comes waltzing into the library your currently staying at, positive emotions tend to disappear quickly. Especially when said brother is a cocky pain in the ass at times. This time, however, he had good reason to be talking to me.
"Let me get this straight." I started, barely believing what they had told me. "Your telling me that the wedding is rigged by your boss, who is also your bed buddy. But the rigged part is being doubly rigged by these lieutenants who want to off both royal families?" I finished as Ronin put his head into his hands in a tired expression. He had spent an hour or two explaining what was going on, not only had some icy changeling try to kill one of us, but had tried to kill the other kids as well. Whatever bro issues we were currently having were going to have to go on hold, because this means both our people were in danger.
"But ya said our sistahs went to the weddin' already. How are we gonna get there in time?" Applebloom said, but Raiden smiled.
"You see, you three girls are supposed to be the flower fillies there. So Twilight cast a spell in that door y'all came through. If we walk through it after saying 'canterlot' we will appear at the castle. From there we can do what we do best." I said that last part while looking at Ronin, who suddenly started grinning like a demon.
"And what would that be?" Tak said as he eyed us. Nicholas simply face-palmed.
"These two idiots are LEGENDARY at crashing parties and get togethers with their pranks." He sighed as The girls giggled at that. Tak rolled his eyes and Ronin snorted as he stood up. His eyes caught on a vial in my hand.
"What the hell is that?" He asked me as I pocketed the vial.
"It was supposed to give us an edge against you, but now we might need it against whatever is coming." I said as we walked towards the door. The girls walked straight up to it. with a smile on their face, they took a deep breath.
"CUTIE MARK WORLD SAVERS!!!!" They yelled as Ronin rolled his eyes, Nicholas laughed, and I simply stared on with a smile. After saying the word necessary to activate the spell on the door, we walked through.
*********
Canterlot castle
*********
Chrysalis sat in front a mirror, staring at the mess of a mane that irritating mare had created. And she calls herself a designer of fashion! She sneered to herself as she magically fixed her hair to what it was like before. Of course, she had to ayyle it like that idiotuc Cadenza's hair to leep suspicion from arising. Staring at the pink pony in the mirror facing her, she snarled.
"Can't believe I have to look like this! Ugh, what a queen does for conquest!" She said to herself as the door behind her opened. A butler came in quickly and shut the door behind him. After a flash of grey light, A changeling with no legs floated where the butler once was.
"Ah, Monsoon. how do things fare with the plans?" Chrysalis asked. Monsoon smiled and responded.
"No one suspects a thing, except for that purple pony, but didn't you already handle that, my queen?" he said quickly. Chrysalis turned to him and laughed.
"Of course, that pestilent unicorn is out of the picture now. Nopony could escape those crystal caves below. Now, have you heard from pur ponyville unit?" At this, Monsoon frowned.
"No, your majesty, they seem to have gone silent in the hive mind. I do feel a new presence though. Would that be our resident human?" he said as Chrysalis smiled.
"Ah yes, Ronin has became a part of the mind. You know, he took me as his hivemate." Monsoon's eyes bugged put of his head in suprise.
"He did!? Why did he choose you? N-Not that theres anything wrong with that." He stammered out quickly. Chrysalis frowned and answered.
"I honestly don't really know why he cares about me so much. That night, I fed on a love from him I had never felt directed at me before. I guess he couldn't resist his queen." She said the last part with pride. she then turned back to the mirror. "Why do you ask though, his connection has just started, so you shouldn't be able to feel it long distance." Monsoon gulped a tad.
"Well, that may be because the presence is here in the castle." He said as Chrysalis stopped in her tracks, brush in the middle of her hair.
"What is he doing here?" She asked him. Monsoon just shook his head.
"No idea, my queen. But I can sense a great deal of worry from him. Something tells me something may go wrong today, and he knows it." Monsoon said as Chrysalis mulled it over.
"Well then, go assist him in any means necessary. If he is here, then something went wrong with the ponyville unit." She ordered. Monsoon saluted and flew off. Chrysalis sighed and turned towards the window.
What could cause someone like Ronin to be afraid? She thought to herself as she looked to the pink barrier surrounded the castle. She didn't notice that Monsoon had put a necklace on as he floated out with a malicious grin on his face.
***********
Nicholas POV
***********
After we walked through the door, we found ourselves in the middle of a fancy hallway. The girls and Tak looked around in awe while both Raiden and Ronin simply started planning.
"Now, we need to find Celestia and alert her of the issue." Raiden said, but Ronin shook his head.
"We are NOT interfering with the wedding, we are here to stop the lieutenants. Dont get sidetracked." He said while getting closer to Raiden. They looked ready to fight before the doors leading outside swung open. We turned to the ponies who came running in.
"Twilight! Cadence! what happened to y'all?" Raiden said as they stopped by us.
"Raiden, I'm glad your alright. An imposter pretending to be cadence is trying to marry my brother! we need to go to the throne room and..." She trailed off as she saw Ronin. Her eyes went wide and she took a step back. "W-whats he doing here?" She asked as Cadence stepped forward to Ronin, staring him down the whole time.
"Are you the one who fought my shining last week?" She asked as Ronin smiled and shrugged.
"That unicorn that could ACTUALLY defend himself? Yeah, that was me." He said with bravado. She frowned at that, but Nicholas stepped in.
"Guys, this is no time for fighting, we have to make it to the throne room." Nick paused and looked at Twilight. "Twilight, could this mare activate the vial in Raidens pocket?" Twilights eyes lit up as she turned to Cadence.
"That's right! We're probably going to need that upgrade for Raiden. Cadence, could you use your migic on that vial?" She said as she points to a vial that Raiden pulls out of his pocket. Cadence nods, though she looks confused.
"Ok, but what does that do?" She says as she sends a small beam of pinkish light at the vial. After getting enveloped by it, the vial turns orange. Twilight turns to Raiden
"Now all you have to do is drink up!" She says as Raiden gulps.
"Oh well, down the hatch." Raiden mumbles as he drinks the thing. Ronin leans in towards me.
"What was in that?" He asked with a confused stare. I smile and turn to him.
"Dragoon blood." I say as a look of disgust appears on his face. Before he can say more, a bright white light surrounds Raiden.
"Whoa.." Ronin says, voicing everyone's emotion right now.
After the light dimmed, Raiden had on this cool armour! It looked like orange dragon scales with what looked like yellow lightning following the lines in the armour. Although he had no helmet, he had a neck guard that had an extension that surrounded the mouth as well, With a small hole on front of the mouth that looked like a mini flamethrower.
Raiden looked at himself and laughed. "This is incredible! I feel so powerful!" Cadence and Twilight looked on in shock.
"It worked! but I never thought it'd work that well." Twilight said as a loud BOOM could be heard from outside. Ronin ran to a window and looked outside.
"Hey, Cadence. you remember that shield your lover boy set up?" He said as he turned to her. she nods slightly.
"Well, a changeling named Tremor just shattered it in one punch, and he's coming straight here." He says with an edge in his voice. Cadence walks up to him.
"Who is Tremor? and why do you sound unhappy that he's coming?" She asked as Tak spoke up.
"Tremor is a behemoth of a changeling that stands taller than Celestia. He can take on anyone with ease! if he's coming, we are screw-..." He gets cut off as Tremor crashes through a window and lands in front of us. He turns and stares straight at Ronin as his face contorts with rage.
"YOOOOOOUUU!" He roars. "You are the one who killed my hivemate, and now I'm going to kill you in return." He growled as I stepped foward.
"What are the lieutenants planning? and why here of all places?" I ask him as he laughs.
"Such a young one, yet the first to approach me! You would make a fine comrade if you weren't a ponyhugger. But since you have balls to step to me, I will tell you about the plan. You won't be alive to make a difference, anyway!" He tilts his head back, laughing the whole time. He turns to the window.
"We have started our revolt on this castle with the sheilds fall. With the queen taken care of and the princess and her elements captured already, we have already won!" He says as Twilight and Ronin both get angry frowns.
"What you do with Chrysalis?" Ronin yells. Tremor turns to him and laughs.
"That would be Monsoon's department. He trapped her in the mind of that captain. As long as he stays under the spells effects, she shall NEVER be free." Noticing Twilights glare, he continues. "The princess has been put in the highest tower, and the other bearers are cacooned in the throne room." He finishes with a yawn. Raiden steps foward.
"Alright, to save the kingdom, we are going to have to split up. Twilight, Cadence, Nick and the others, I need you to go and free the elements. Without them, this'll be a MUCH harder fight." Twilight nods as they run towards the throne room. "Ronin, go save the princess." he frowns at that.
"Do I LOOK like a plumber?" He complains, but he turns and teleports away, leaving just Raiden and Tremor.
"You are a honorable soldier, fighting me alone. Dumb, but honorable." Tremor remarks. He takes a stel forward and starts to glow. A magma-like armour appears around him. "I can sense the magic coming from that armour, from you. Lets see you use it!" He roars as he rushes Raiden.
**************
Raiden POV/MUSIC BUTTON
**************
I puts up his hands to block the attack as two yellow axes formed in my hands. Tremor hit them and bounced off them with a shock. He looks at them carefully before summoning his own weapon with magic. It looks like a sword, but has a curved edge to it.
"Time you died, boy." He growls as he rushes again, swinging his blade towards me from the right. I swing one axe to block and swing foward with the other. He simply summons another sword and starts hacking away. Loud crashes and clangs ring out as our blades connect.
He jumps back and fires a large fireball at me from his mouth. I jump to the left to dodge, but he meets me there and delivers a stomach blow with his fist. I drop the axes in pain before getting hit into a wall by a second punch. He starts laughing before slowly inhaling.
Crap, he's going to breathe fire!" I thought, but soon realized I could barely get up. Then, I had an idea. I started to inhale deeply too. Tremor looked confused but kept going.
We both reached maximum oxygen capacity quickly and released it all. A red flame came from Tremor, and a white flame from me. The two fires collided sharply as they crackled against each other before sputtering out in a mutual defeat. Tremor roared and rushed me again, this time I was ready. I felt a jolt go through my hands as I swung them towards Tremor.
A massive bolt of lightning struck him, sending him against the wall, causing his eyelids to droop. I took the chance and grabbed the axes and charged towards him, swinging the axes down hard.
His eyes shot open as he blocked the blow. Yet I pushed harder, adding lighting into the axes. Although he was much bigger than me, he was faltering under the shock. I smiled at him as a look of fear appeared on his face.
"You-You bonded with dragon blood?!" He sputters out as I laugh.
"Hell yeah! Now be a good villain and die!" I roared and cut through the sword and sliced right at his neck.
*SCHLICK!* (End music if ya want.)
His head landed off to the side with a sickening thump. I put the axes on two holsters on my sides and turned towards the head as a orange light appeared, floating upwards.
"Thank you, honorable knight. My name was Tremoring Blade before all of this. I had been fatally injured in combat with changelings before a hooded man gave me a second chance to live. I didn't know, however, that I had sold my soul to tartarus to do so. The man had tricked my friends already, and needed my power. But now you have freed me from his chains. You have my thanks, boy!" it started to fade slowly. "Now go and help those girls, they will need it." It faded away as the body that was left behind turned to harmless embers.
I smiled and made my way towards the throne room, hoping that everyone was doing ok as we slowly began our fight for Canterlot.
No, fight for the World.
Author's Notes:
Here we are! forget a canterlot wedding, This is a canterlot war! Seriously though, I've seen TOO many fics keep to the show on this event. It was honestly a good show, but a horrible take over attempt by the queen. So I changed a buttload of things about that fateful day. Now we have a proper takeover! Lets see if they can survive, my fic-crazy ponies! and don't forget:
LOVE AND TOLERATE!!!
Chapter 14: Family matters pt.4
*Ronin POV*
After teleporting away, I found myself in the middle of the room at the top of the tower. As my eyed adjusted to the room's dim lighting, I couldn't help but be shocked at the sight.
I had found the princess, but in quite possibly the worst situation I had ever seen. She was cacooned in the center of the wall on the side, but had these spider webs surrounding the cacoon. Each web string had some kind of odd dew on it that looked like it was made from the same stuff as the cacoon.
"What the hell?" I said as I carefully maneuvered my way to the Celestia (That's what her name was, right?) As I made it to her, I noticed her face was contorted in some kind of rage/fearful expression.
Swiftly, I made an upwards cut through the cacoon, careful not to hurt the captive, and immediately got flattened by the falling princess. She regained consciousness quickly and looked straight down at me.
"You're Raidens...But why did you save me?" She asked as she looked straight into my eyes. I couldn't help but notice we were literally inches from each others faces, yet I couldn't tear myself from her purple eyes. I smirked and responded.
"Well, sunbutt. While you were napping, the lieutenants of chrysalis's army have been causing a revolt against both sides. It's honestly confusing me to no end." She gave me a confused look.
"Confusing? what do you mean by that? She asked as the room creaked a little, as if someone was crawling on the ceiling
"Its just, Chrysalis and Tak told me that Equines have been attacking changelings for centuries without proper reason, but with all the ponies I've seen, none of you have fit that description. Yet at the same time, changelings ARE suffering." I slowly sat up as she plopped down next to me in some sort of ponyloaf. "I want to help them so bad, but it feels like I'm not hearing the whole story." I say, noticing a sad gaze from Celestia.
"I never took you to be one with patriotism, Ronin. I had purely thought you to be a merciless killer in our lands." As she said that, I glared at her.
"I don't kill without reason!" I spat. "Those guards that day drew their blades among their captains orders to subdue and kill me. Is it really fair to judge me for your own militaries lack of ability to protect themselves from threats?" She closed her eyes in thought before answering.
"I can see where your coming from, but our country is a land of peace. We do not stand for violence or war at all." She sighed as she turned to me again. "However, I see that ignoring those things will only make us weaker. But let me ask you, how would you go about training those who don't have the art of war?" She finished as I thought carefully. An idea sparked in my mind.
"I would set up a military training base in each populated area, a place where one can train those soldiers in special ways such as covert ops or explosive warfare." I said as she nodded to show she was listening. "Since your kind have three types of ponies, you would need at least nine camps, three for each species type. You would also be wise to have other species among those ranks, like having dragons train with pegasi, minotaurs train with earth ponies, and changelings with unicorns. If these species could learn from one another, your country and your world would benefit better from it." I finished as her eyes were wide from the information as she digested it all.
"I have never thought of that before. but how would we even start something like that?" She asked me as I stood up.
"Its easy, just make a petition and have a officer in each camp that can specialize in each area." I said as she stood up as well, looking towards me with a smile. "For now, though, lets go kick some ass." She chuckled at this before we heard a maniacal laugh from above us. We looked up and barely had time to jump (or in Celestia's case, teleport) out of the way of the falling Arachnid.
"Weeeeeeelll weeeeeelll, if it isn't our little puppet! Fiiiiiinally starting to realizzzzzze you've beeeeen had?" Volt choked out false sadness. My eyes narrowed with rage.
"What do you mean, Volt?! How have I been tricked?" I asked as Celestia appeared next to me in golden armour and a helmet with her symbol on it. Volt laughed again.
"HEHEHE, Itssss sooo sad. The knight wiiiith a buuuuurning passion to prooootect those he cares about, beeeing told a soooob story byyy a little boy." He scurried straight up to me, suddenly talking way more normal and in a way deeper tone as his eyes started glowing red. "You've been lied to, boy! Changelings may have fought ponies, but ponies didn't bring their fall, they did that to themselves!!" He cackled as I started to shake with rage. Celestia took a step forward and summoned a mace with her magic.
"Your kind are truly monsters, lying to a lost being like that!" She said in a deep tone as Volt cackled again, though this time he seemed more angry.
"MY KIND?! I am not a changeling, princess scum. I am a Antiarachnid! We were powerful beings that went to war with the griffons of the west, yet I found refuge pretending to be a changeling stuck in this form." He said as my eyes widened.
"Wait, that means your not one of the lieutenants?" I asked as he smiled.
"Oh, I'm a big boy alright! but unlike the other three, I didn't need that fools mind control to do bad things, I feed on Equines for FUN!!!!!!" He roared as I drew my blade.
"So, your telling me that not only have I been lied to by the two changelings I trusted the most, but I also have been targeting the wrong species as well!!!" I yelled at him. Oddly enough, he stopped cackling and looked at me with regret.
"You know, out of all the lieutenants, I was the one that pittied you the most. You were new in this world, and didn't need to be a part of this. but that's how fate works, I suppose." He started crackling with lightning. "Now, let me cure you of your pain and heartache with the sweet embrace of DEATH!" he roared as an electric wave shot towards me.
(Battle music:MUSIC BUTTON)
Celestia teleported next to me and put up a sheild around us, nullifying the shockwave. Volt frowned as his legs extended at us, one piercing the sheild and slamming me into a wall, a second one latched onto me and sent lightning through my body.
"AGGGGHH!!!" I yelled as my head titled back in agony. I heard a swift chop as Celestia had cut off the arm. With a screech, Volt fell backwards and crashed through the wall, falling out the tower. Celestia looked to me, worry in her eyes.
"Ronin, can you stand?" She asked me as I slowly made my way to my feet. The armour I wore slowly fading. I looked at it in shock.
"Why is my armour disappearing?" I asked as she looked at it, but before she could reply, a loud laugh came from outside. We ran to the hole in the wall to see volt flying around the tower with wings on his back. Celestia turned to me.
"Get on." She said, motioning her backside. I hesitantly got on as we took off after the maniac. He saw us coming and started shooting bolts at us. I patted her back as I stood up. feeling her magic support me.
"Keep flying, I'll deflect the bolts!" I yelled over the sounds of thunder as Bolts started coming my way. I spun by blade around in an almost windmill motion as the shots were sent into the ground or nearby towers. Celestia finally caught up as Volt turned around and sent an extended leg at me. Celestia horn glowed as she chunked me onto the leg. But instead of falling, my feet stuck to the leg.
"Go!" She ordered. I gave a 2 finger salute and ran down the leg at Volt, who shot some black gunk at me, I ducked underneath it, hearing it splat nearby, and went for his other legs.
"W-wait PLEASE NOT THAT SWORD!!" he screamed, but I ignored it as I made it to his body and started cutting limbs, each one producing a loud yell from Volt. I quickly spun around and plunged my sword into his back and drug it down his backside, eliciting a loud scream of pain from him. He looked to me in a mix of rage/glee.
"You may kill me, but I'm taking that princess with me!" He roared as one last leg shot out and shot through celestia wings, shredding them. She let out a scream before plummeting faster than Volt.
"Shit! Celestia!!" I yelled as I jumped off Volt and dove towards her. As I neared her I noticed her horn was black. That gunk from before! I said as the ground ground was quickly approaching. I noticed Celestia looking at me with fear.
That's when I felt this odd feeling in my gut. It was that feeling you get when you feel like you must do something. I took a deep breath and focused my body, not noticing the black aura surrounding my back. Celestia did though, and let off a gasp.
FWOOM! (end music if ya want.)
Black wings with icy blue edges protruded from my back. I felt a rush of energy leave me as they slowed our descent to a safe speed as we landed in the courtyard. We landed in a two person/pony pile on the ground. For a minute, neither of us moved, until I started laughing. Soon Celestia joined in and we just were cracking up until Volts dead corpse landed not even ten feet from us. We looked at the corpse, reminded of what we needed to do.
Celestia got off me as I stood up, testing my wings. They were cool looking, and seemed to work. I turned to her motioned to Volts body.
"What hell was that!" I yelled. She looked him in disgust before answering.
"He was an Antiarachnid, a species similar to changelings in form change, but only to amplify their spider bodies to kill prey. I would have never thought one was still alive after all these years." She said as she saw I had no armour on anymore, just the black jeans and shoes I had wore when I had arrived. "Let me fix you up a bit." She said as her horned glowed. A golden light surrounded me as I felt a tickling sensation. I looked down and gasped.
I now had a silver chestplate on with dark blue on its edges, the visor I used to wear now replaced with a Spartan like helmet that was the same style as the plate. My jeans were now adorned with light blue shards that almost looked like ice. I noticed the chestplate had Celestia's mark on it. I gave her a smirk.
"You already branding me as your personal soldier?" I asked with a wink as her face became red. she recovered quickly and walked by, bumping me with her flank.
"Careful now, Ronin. Never give the enemy any ideas." She said with a purr as she walked towards the castle. Unable to tell if she was joking or not, I simply shrugged and followed her in.
**********
Raiden POV
**********
After handling Tremor, I had been running through the castle towards the throne room when I heard a loud crash outside the castle. I turned on a dime and went to the source of the sound to see Celestia and Ronin walking into the castle, except Ronin was wearing armour with Celestia's mark on it. then I sae the wings and my jaw dropped. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"What happened to you?" I asked as he smiled at me.
"Welp, saved the princess. Then we killed a super spider. Now I'm her husband!" He said, earning a whack to the back of his head by Celestia's hoof.
"I said nothing of the sort, Ronin!" She growled, yet I saw a slight blush on her face. I saw her wings were torn and gulped a bit.
"Are you going to be ok?" I asked her, motioning the wings. She looked at them and smiled before her horn glowed. The wings slowly came back together as if they were being sowned.
"I'll live. but we need to get to the throne room, its time for all of this to come to and end." Celestia said as we nodded and ran towards the throne room, ready to take on anything that stood before us.
Author's Notes:
Well, we are slowly aporoaching the conclusion of this story Arc. However, the story itself is FAR from over. With Celestias aid, can the brothers fight their way to the throne room to assist Nicholas and the others? Find out next time, my fic-crazy ponies! and remember: LOVE AND TOLERATE!!!!
Chapter 15: From the brink of despair...
*Nicholas POV*
We ran into the throne room to find it completely trashed. There was wedding decorations everywhere and a bunch of cacoons lining the walls. At the center of the room was a changeling that seemed to be balancing on a cloud. To the things left, there is a big cloud just sitting there.
Twilight ran up to him immediately.
"What have you done with my brother and friends?" She demands. The guy chuckles and motions the cloud to his left to disappear. As it vanishes, Everyone lets put a gasp.
All of twilights friends, a unicorn dressed fancy (probably Twilights brother) and a tall changeling appear. That must be Chrysalis. I thought to myself. I noticed that all of their eyes were completely black, as if their souls were completely missing.
Cadence stepped towards him, shaking with rage. "Who are you, and what have you done to them?" The thing smiles at her, rubbing the necklace around his neck.
"Well, My changeling name is Monsoon. But when this necklace finally finishes feeding on the souls of your friends, I shall become what I once was LOOONG ago!" He tilts his head back and cackles madly as Twilights face pales.
"T-their souls?" She asks as he nods.
"Oh yes. you see, to bring back a vessel from Tartarus, one must give up nine souls. Eight must be magic filled, and one must have raw dark power. I have the magic vessels here, I'm just waiting for the dark one to arrive." He finishes as I step forward, motioning for the crusaders and Tak to sneak around to the cacoons and start freeing ponies.
"Who's the dark one?" I ask him. He stares at me for a moment before sighing.
"You haven't put it together, have you? There are only two possible candidates for that title. One that has fallen to darkness and one blessed with its power." As he finishes, Twilight starts to ponder what he said, before freezing up in realization.
"That would mean you'd either need nightmare moon or..." She doesn't finish as a loud crash happens outside the castle. Monsoon turns to the window and sighs.
"It seems Volt had the unlucky pull of fighting Ronin, or he wouldn't have died so fast." A smile forms on his face. "But now all the pieces are falling into place." He says as it all hits me.
Ronin's the ninth vessel! I think as Cadence charges her horn, clearly had enough of Monsoon.
"Enough! How dare you attack on MY wedding day!" She yells as she sends a beam at Monsoon. The beam, however, gets sucked into the necklace he's wearing. He simply laughs.
"Is that all you can do?" He says as the doors behind us open and Raiden, Ronin, and Celestia barge in, the middle one with new wings. Ronin looks at Monsoon and takes several steps towards him.
"Ronin NOOO!!!" I yell, but its too late. A black energy comes out of the necklace and hits Ronin, circling his body. He falls to his knees and lets out a yell of pain as his eyes start to go black. Several yells from the other's that are soulless can be heard as Twilight and Cadence runs up to them. Every black eyed person except Ronin collapses.
Monsoon laughs. "Now, the process can be complete!" His body becomes mist as it flies into the darkness surrounding Ronin. Ronin lets out a louder yell as we all get pushed back a bit ny the raw power in the room.
"Hurry, we must stop the ritual before he comes back!" Celestia yells over all the noise. Without question, Raiden runs up to the black ball surrounding Ronin and starts to hack at it with his axes. Yet it doesn't even leave a scratch. He takes a step back and frowns.
"What do we do now?" He says, turning to Celestia. "That's MY brother in there!" They proceed to argue about what to do, but are interrupted by a loud laugh as the black ball disappears, leaving behind....the guy from my dreams.
He looks up at us and laughs. "Hello Equestria!!! Dadiolus is back!!!!!" He spins around happily, before turning to face Celestia. "You may have to others back." He sneers with a snap of his fingers as the others get their normal eyes back, each one slowly recovering from the ordeal.
Raiden looks at Dadiolus with rage. "What the hell did you do to my brother?" He growls as Dadiolus laughs before answering.
"Oh, Ronin's soul is lost forever. I didnt even try to salvage it!" He says as he lets out a cackle. "I'd be worried about you lot a taaad more than him. At least he won't be in everlasting pain forever!" He yells as he sends a bolt of black lightning at us. I quickly throw up a sheild to block it, but as soon as it hits, I'm put to one knee. Celestia takes a step forward as she looks at me.
"Little one, go help your friends save those innocent ponies, let Raiden and I stop this fiend." She commands. I nod and run over to the crusaders and Tak, who are struggling to get some ponies free from the goop.
***********
Raiden POV
***********
I find myself facing down the man who has been the source of all crap in the first place. Celestai stands beside me, ready to fight for her home. Dadiolus looks at us with a bored smile.
"Let us see if you are strong enough to defy destiny!" He growls as I rush him, axes in hand. He ducks underneath a leftward swing by me and teleports behind Celestia, hitting her with a beam of magic that putsbher in a wall. She recovers and lets loose a beam if her own, except when he goes to teleport out of way this time, my axe is there waiting for him. I cut straight through his shoulder and sever his left arm from his body.
He yells out and jumps away, patching up the hole in his body with a spell, then pulls a scythe out with his remaining hand. He charges forward and clashes with me halfway, the recoil sending us both back several feet. As he rushes forward again, he is hit by a green beam from the side, sending him to the ground. I look over and see Chrysalis standing there, though she is being supported by Tak.
"Why are you helping?" I ask as she walks over to me. Celestia teleports over and gives her a raised eyebrow as she answers.
"Two reasons. One, this fiend has taken the body of my recent consort and I would like it back as soon as possible. Second, I need to ask him something." She growls as she steps towards Dadiolus. "Where the hell are my children at?! I cannot sense any of them at all!" She yells at him.
Dadiolus smiles at her. "Oh, to charge up this amulet I had to sever your link to the hive mind, which in turn caused all of your children to go into shock." Chrysalis's eyes widen as he starts to laugh. "I think you have realized what has happened, yes?"
She is now shaking with rage. "You killed ALL of them!!!!" she yells out. Tak gasps and Celestia dawns a look of hatred on her face as Dadiolus laughs.
"Yes, it was truly the best option, after all. See now no one has to worry abou-GAAH!!" Dadiolus is cut off as Chrysalis rears back and impales him with her horn.
Deciding to finish the job, I run forward. "Chrysalis, duck!" I yell, throwing my axe. She teleports out of the way as the axe cuts his head straight off. The body is immediately covered in darkness as the body faded to dust. A loud peircing yell is heard as a black light shines out od the darkness.
You may have defeated me, but your brother Ronin shall never be the same again! It yells before being hit by a beam from Celestia. the shadows dissapate and Ronin is left in their wake, though something is wrong.
"Brother?" I call out as he gets up. Chrysalis takes a step towards him.
"Ronin, are you.." She doesnt get to finish her sentence as he draws his blade and points it at her. his eyes are still black, and a frown is on his face.
"What do you care if I'm alright, Queenie?" Ronin growls, his voice gravely and garbled. "You lied to me about the war, and you lied to me about the ponies. Hell! what we had was probably a lie as well." He says that last part as a tear goes fown his left eye.
"What happened to him?" I ask Celestia, barely believing my eyes. She turns to me with a sorrow filled expression.
"That monster of a man took all the love out of your brother to use his body, and now only pain and anger remain in him." She says as Nicholas walked over. He stopped at what she said and ran straight to me.
"Raiden, Ronin will be ok, right?" He asked, but before I could answer, Chrysalis been knocked backwards by a kick from Ronin. She looked at him with a mix if anger and sorrow.
"Yes! I admit that I had originally planned to use you, Ronin. But as the days went by, I found myself enjoying your company. I had seen the way Tak got around you, so lifelike and full of energy, that I slowly realized that I loved you. SO DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO TELL ME THAT I DON'T LOVE YOU, YOU IDIOT!!" She screeched out the last part, tears starting to stream from her eyes. Ronin's face went dark with emotionless rage.
"Enough!!! its time I ended the pain this pain for good! NO ONE WILL HURT ME AGAIN!!!" he roared as he charged Chrysalis, ready to eviscerate her upon reach. She charged her horn and charged forward.
"Chrysalis, Wait!" Nicholas yelled as a flash of green light blinded everyone for a second. When it dimmed, Ronin was being hugged by chrysalis, who had teleported herself into his arms, forcing him to drop the blade.
"I don't care what you do to me after, but your going to listen to me!" She yelled at him, still hugging him. He stopped moving, letteing her say her piece. "Today, I have lost almost everything. Most of my people are dead, and no doubt the hive was destroyed by Monsoon after we left, since all of the unborn changelings are gone as well. But I WILL NOT LOSE YOU AS WELL!!!!" The next part came out as a low whisper. "Please Ronin, come back to me..." She lost all composure and started cyring right there. Ronin sat there, unmoving.
"Damn it!" I growl, tears in my eyes. I feel a wing on my back. I turn to see Celestia smiling.
"Look closely, Raiden." She said, nodding towards the two. I look and see Ronins arms slowly go around Chrysalis in a hug. She stops crying immediately and looks at his face. His eyes slowly start to go back to normal as he smiles at Chrysalis.
"Heh, guess you got tired of that Maleficent routine, huh?" He smirks as Chrysalis, who although doesn't know who maleficent is, does know he's pulling her leg, Immediately teleports put of his grasp and reappears a couple of feet away from him.
"Ronin, you asshole!" She yells as she tackles him with, kissing him passionately. Tak lets out a cheer as he runs up and tackles his mother. Ronin gets up and walks right up to us.
I pull him into a big hug. "Welcome back brother!" I tell him, close to tears myself. He hugs me back hard and turns to Celestia. To my, and her suprise, he kneels.
"Your majesty, I have wronged not only you but everyone else in this country as well. I will take any punishment necessary." Celestia looks at him with a smirk.
"Well, since your begging to be punished, then I have one job for you." She says as Ronin looks up. "You must work off your debt to us helping our military grow. We were heavily unprepared for this attack, and with your help, I think we can keep this from happening again." Ronin looks up happily.
"Celestia...thank you." He says as he pulls her into a hug. Although suprised, she doesn't pull away.
A throat being cleared behind them causes them to seperate. I turn to see Cadence and Shining standing there, the latter eyeing Ronin. Cadence smiles weakly at Celestia.
"Aunty, I think it would be best if we postponed the wedding for a week, just so we could get everything fixed and set up." She says as Celestia nods in agreement. Shining walks up to Ronin and stares at him. The two gaze at each other for what seems like hours, neither blinking. Then Ronin puts put his hand.
"Your that unicorn that almost kicked my butt a couple of weeks ago, right? nice to finally meet ya." Shining looks at the hand, before smiling and taking it.
"Likewise, but I overheard Celestia talking to you about our military. does that mean you'll be assisting us in our training?" He says as Celestia butts in.
"More like he will be a part of it altogethor, For he shall be our second captain of the guard." All of us go wide-eyed at this, especially Ronin.
"What!!!! Where the hell will I be living at?" He asks, but Celestia puts a hoof up.
"We shall speak of this later, for now. let us celebrate the victory." She said as a pinkie pie, who like her friends had fully recovered from the soul spell, overheard her and started corraling people out towards the courtyard. I rolled my eyes and followed, sure that the pony was planning some sort of party to celebrate.
Author's Notes:
With that, Dadiolus has been defeated! In the next chapter, expect a whole lot partying, for that's what pinkie does best!
*Note: If ya noticed, the title and descpription have changed on this fic. I have decided NOT to do a book format for this. This story is far from over, though, and if I need to do a sequel, I shall.
Stay awesome, my fic-crazy ponies! and remember: LOVE AND TOLERATE!!!!